Karl's Reading List

Published by Metaphorosis Publishing, 2026. Edited by B Morris Allen. Short story collections are interesting to read cover-to-cover. No matter how good the collection is, there will always be some that grab your attention more than others, particularly if the collection is from a number of authors, rather than one. Trunk is one such collection, and what makes it an even more intriguing beast is that the connective tissue between these stories (other than they fact that they all fall into the fantasy or science-fiction genres) is that, in order to be considered for inclusion, the stories must have been rejected for publication multiple times. Each story ends with a short blurb about the author, followed by the history of rejection for the story that you have just read. Almost by necessity, then, the stories in this collection are a little odd, a little 'out there', a bit different in some way to your 'standard' short story, although most of them did hold my interest to ...

Published by Orbit Books: Australia, 2018 (2017). Book 2 in 'The Licanius Trilogy.' Preceded by ' The Shadow of What Was Lost. ' Followed by 'The Light of All That Falls.' I recently read the first book in this series, and liked it enough that I ended up buying this second book in order to continue reading. I'm glad that I did, as the story picks up immediately after the end of Book 1, meaning that I'm glad that the first story was still fresh in my mind. Middle books in a trilogy often have a lot going against them, particularly when characters from Book 1 have been separated, and remain separated for much of the run time, so that they can be in the needed locations for the epic conclusion of Book 3 - The Two Towers is an example of a middle book that does this, and still does it well. An Echo of Things To Come also has this hurdle to jump, and does it well, but author James Islington has added more challenges for himself by choosing to add in plot-rel...

Published by Collins: London and Glasgow, 1954. First published 1847, originally in French. Book 3 of the 'D'Artagnon Romances.' Preceded by ' Twenty Years After. ' Followed by 'Louise de al Valliere.' This is the third of the D'Artagnon Romances by Alexandre Dumas, the first of which - The Three Musketeers - is by far the most famous, followed by the fifth and last in the series, The Man in the Iron Mask. Each book focuses more or less on the same core of individuals, with D'Artagnon being the most prominent in each entry. In this book he is by far the most important character in the book, despite the fact that some parts of the book do focus heavily on other characters altogether. One of these other characters is Raoul, the son of original Musketeer Aramis, who is also known as 'The Vicomte de Bragelonne.'  'Wait,' you might say, 'that's the title of the novel!' Yes it is! But don't get your hopes up! Raoul is a fai...

Published by Zondervan Publishing House: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1967 (1966). A non-fiction book, Fire on the Mountains tells the story of the spread of Christianity among the Wallamo people of Ethiopia, particularly during, and after World War 2. Western missionaries had been in the Wallamo region leading up to the war (with early parts of the book unpacking this season), but found themselves banned from the country by the occupying Italians, leaving only the small number of partially trained native believers behind, without even a completed bible in their language. The majority of Fire on the Mountains highlights stories of how these native believers spread the gospel, leading to a massive increase in Wallamo people accepting Jesus into their lives. Chapter 12 opens with a native believer telling the returning missionaries: "When you missionaries left, it was difficult to find a Christian in Wallamo country. Now it is difficult to find a man who is not a Christian" (page 10...

Published by Orbit Books: Australia, 2016. First published (self-published), 2014. Book 1 in the 'Licanius Trilogy.' Followed by ' An Echo of Things to Come. ' James Islington wrote The Will of the Many and The Strength of the Few , the first two books in what will be a longer series, but that has not yet had the third book published. I discovered that series last year and The Will of the Many even made it onto my first end-of-the-year Top Five Books List .  The Shadow of What Was Lost is James Islington's first novel, and the first in his first series - the Licanius Trilogy - that he wrote before beginning the Hierarchy series that I have previously discovered.  Whereas his later series is set in a Roman-inspired world with complicated magic-based machinery and even a magic-based system of government, The Shadow of What Was Lost is set in a far more 'stereotypical' fantasy world, populated with castles, princesses, chosen ones, and a 'dark lord.' O...

Published by Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC, American Fork, UT, 2023. In 2023, Brandon Sanderson published four 'secret novels' that no-one knew he had been working on. This is the last of the four I've read, having previously listened to audiobook versions of The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England and The Sunlit Man , and having read Tress and the Emerald Sea with Elise.  Like both Tress and The Sunlit Man, this novel is set in the 'Cosmere' shared-universe that Sanderson has been developing for years, with a few characters (including the narrator, Hoid) crossing over from other entries. However, unlike The Sunlit Man (and more like Tress ) the connective elements in Yumi and the Nightmare Painter are not overpowering, and casual fans of Sanderson - or even newbies - could probably pick up this book and enjoy it without needing to read a whole lot of other Cosmere books first! The story, heavily inspired by anime and manga tropes along wi...

Published as an audiobook by Librivox. Accessed via Fabuly. Narrated by Mark F Smith. Originally published 1922. I recently (the end of last year) got a new audiobook app, which (like Librivox, on which it is based) is made up of mostly public domain audiobooks, making it free to listen to. With a limited range of books to choose from, I've had to be a bit more creative in my choices (this is the app I listened to The Age of Innocence on), and, without knowing much about it, I decided to give this book a go. What a weird book! It is supposedly a biographical account of the author, Ferdynand Ossendowski, who travels from Russia, across Siberia to Mongolia, attempting to avoid the Communist takeover of the area. In his journeys he has many narrow escapes, and encounters a number of prominent (to that area and at that time) historical figures, often becoming quite close to them, regardless of whether they are friend or foe.  I say supposedly because parts of the account seem incredib...