The Book Count 2025

[Greg]

January

Days of Shattered Faith by Adrain Tchaikovsky Jan 3, 2025 (Book 3 of a series) Rating A
An Unintended Voyage by Marshall Ryan Maresca (Book 4 of a series) Rating B
The Assassins of Consequence by Marshall Ryan Maresca Jan 12, 2025 (Book 4 of a series) Rating B

February

So many Joe Ledger novels

March
More Maresca novellas. I think I'm all caught up.
Sons of Darkness by Gourav Mohanty March 16, 2025 (Book 1 of a series) Rating B+
Scorpio by Marko Kloos March 18, 2025 (Book 1 of a series) Rating B
Firewater Blues by Caimh McDonnell March 21, 2025 (Book 6 of a series) Rating A
Family Jewels by Caimh McDonnell March 24, 2025 (Book 7 of a series) Rating B+
The Rogue Retrieval by Dan Koboldt (Book 1 of a series) Rating C
Fortunate Son by Caimh McDonnell March 24, 2025 (Book 8 of a series) Rating B+
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston Mar 30, 2025 Rating B+
Blade of Dream by Daniel Abraham Mar 28, 2025 (Book 2 of a series) Rating B+

April
Deccie Must Die by Caimh McDonnell April 7th, 2025 (Book 2 of a series) Rating B+
Rage by Jonathan Maberry April, 10, 2025 (Book 1 of a series) Rating B
The Big Empty by Robert Crais April 11, 2025 (Book 20 of a series) Rating B+
The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson April 12, 2025 Rating B+
The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson April 16, 2025 (Some part of a series) Rating B
Deep Silence by Jonathan Maberry April 23, 2025 (Book 10 of a series) Rating B
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore April 30, 2025 Rating B

May
All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker May 4, 2025 Rating B+
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe May 18, 2025
Relight My Fire by C.K. McDonnell May 21, 2025 (Book 4 of a series) Rating B
Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde May 25, 2025 (Book 2 of a series) Rating B+
Midnight Black by Matt Greaney May 29, 2025 (Book ? of a series) Rating B+

June

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett June 8, 2025 (Book 2 of a series) Rating A-
We Don't Know Ourselves by Fintan O'Toole June 15, 2025 Rating A
Never Flinch by Stephen King June 19, 2025 Rating B+
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley June 24, 2025 Rating B

July

Bone Silence by Alastair Reynolds July 2, 2025 (Book 3 of a series) Rating B
Fever Beach by Carl Hiassen July 5, 2025 Rating B
When the Moon Hits your Eye by John Scalzi July 7, 2025 Rating B-
Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay July 9, 2025 Rating A
Bee Speaker by Adrian Tchaikovsky July 15, 2025 (Book 3 of a series) Rating B+
Fahrenheit-182 by Mark Hoppus July 16, 2025 Rating B+
Relentless by Jonathan Maberry July 20, 2025 (Book 2 of a series) Rating B
The Children of Eve by John Connelly July 27, 2025 (Book 20 of a series) Rating B-
The Infinity Gate M. R. Carey July 31, 2025 (Book 1 of a series) Ratings A-

August

Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland Aug 4, 2025 (Book 1 of a series) Rating C+
The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei Aug 8, 2025 Rating B+
Pneric's Progress by Lois McMaster Bujold Aug 10, 2025 (Collection of Novellas) Rating B+
Smoke and Ashes by Amitav Ghosh Aug 20, 2025 Rating A
Echo of World's by M. R. Carey Aug 25, 2025 (Book 2 of a series) Rating B
The Pale House Devil by Richard Kadrey Aug 31, 2025 Rating B+

September
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo Sept 5, 2025 Rating B+
Penric's Travels by Lois McMaster Bujold Sept 9, 2025 (Part of a series) Rating B+
The Director by Daniel Kehlman Sept 18, 2025 Rating B+
Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA by Tim Weiner Sept 24, 2025 Rating B+

October
Imperial Twilight by Stephen R. Platt Oct 6, 2025 Rating B+

[Greg]

Days of Shattered Faith by Adrain Tchaikovsky

I love this series. Such good grimdark.  A new city. New gods. The main hero from the previous book only makes a casual appearance, but an important one. It's another political war for a different country. Weird magic. Strange gods. All so well done. I want a new one of these books every week.

[Greg]

An Unintended Voyage by Marshall Ryan Maresca

I thought I would dip back into the Maradine saga. This book takes one of the constables off to a different land where she is enslaved and has to pay off her debt before she can return to Maradine. She butts heads with everyone because she wants to promote law and order in a land that really doesn't have that concept. Just good solid hero centric fantasy.

[Greg]

The Assassins of Consequence by Marshall Ryan Maresca

The ultimate battle for the Thorn of Dentonhill as the Thorn's secret identity is revealed and his main foe puts a bounty on his head and sends out assassins to kill him. Lots of action. Lots of hero stuff. This could be in the junk food books category because it reads really fast but it is a nice diversion. Since it is a fantasy novel, it doesn't quite end at the end and the next book is pimped out.

[Greg]

Sons of Darkness by Gourav Mohanty

A reimagining of the Indian classic, the Mahabharata. The names were a bit confusing at times. But there were some epic duels and a tremendous town siege. A distinctly different flavor ti this fantasy novel

[Greg]

Scorpio by Marko Kloos

Back to the war with the Lankys. This time its from the viewpoint of Alex a colonist on the Scorpii planet, overrun by the Lankys. She has been in hiding for eight years. Most of the book is about a salvage mission to get supplies for the hidden colonists. Yes, bad things happen. All very exciting. And there is a dog!

Good solid military sci-fi

[Greg]

The Rogue Retrieval by Dan Koboldt

This was poor. It starts with a bad premise and goes downhill from there. They need a stage magician to join their military adventure to a fantasy land. You are forced to accept the scenario otherwise the story doesn't work. And the book is rife with cliches especially the one where the fake magic user becomes a real magic user. Who could have seen that coming?

[Greg]

Firewater Blues by Caimh McDonnell

I love me some Caimh, especially when he writes about Gardai detective Bunny McGarry. Bunny was a minor character in some of his first books, but now he commands his own stories. These books take me right back to Dublin and a very particular type of misfit Irish character. There is a pretty good mystery in their involving an upcoming election and a missing boyfriend. But the book's charm lies in its dialogue and descriptions.

The book might be too Irish for most, but I highly recommend them

[Greg]

Fortunate Son by Caimh McDonnell

Burning through the Bunny McGarry books. Bunny heads to London to look for a missing boy at the behest of Sister Bernadette. Things go awry.

I love this series. Makes me want to get on a plane and head to Dublin.

[Greg]

Family Jewels by Caimh McDonnell

Yeah, I had read this one before and it took me about half the book before the plot finally kicked in. Still enjoyable. Part of the investigation takes them down to Limerick. But from the reading, I'm guessing the author never went to Limerick since the details are so vague. Still good. Still funny. The best interactions are between the Police Commissioner and Fintan as they constantly struggle with what to do about Bunny.

[Greg]

Blade of Dream by Daniel Abraham

For the first half of this book, I was ready to shelve it because it all seemed so tedious. Then the story found its footing and clicked into gear and became very enjoyable.

Everything takes place in the city of Kithamar. And to be honest, I can't tell you what happened in the first book in this series. But there is  a princess moving into the palace. There is a merchant soon about to be forced into an arranged marriage to save the merchant house. And there is a captain of the guard trying to track down the queen of the thieves in the city. Eventually all their stories intertwine in a good way

[Greg]

First Lie Wins

Mystery upon mystery. Evie Porter moves in with her boyfriend, Ryan Sumner. . All is good, except Evie is an alias. There is a lot to discover in this book. It moves along quickly with new secrets to uncover in every chapter. Hard to describe because every description would be a spoiler.

Good light mystery

[Greg]

Deccie Must Die by Caimh McDonnell

The Deccie for all the Bunny McGarry stories is all grown up and in trouble. He is being blackmailed and needs the MSM team to find out who is behind the threats. Still fount. But it needs more Bunny, who I guess died? Or Maybe on the run. There are a lot of books at this point and I've lost some of the threads.

[Greg]

Rage by Jonathan Maberry

More Joe Ledger, but now he is on an international team instead of the domestic one. It's still the same Joe Ledger fights bad guys but now their base is in Greece. I missed a book that brought this about.

I wasn't thrilled by this book. It had a lot of the same set pieces as earlier books, even the problem they had to solve was derivative. Plenty of action but I felt like I had read all these scenarios in previous books.

[Greg]

The Big Empty by Robert Crais

Back to my junk food. When I first started reading Crais back in the late 1980s, he was kind of a stop gap while I waited for the next Robert B. Parker Spencer novel. In the beginning, they were pretty much the same character, Elvis Cole and Spencer. But I've learned to like Cole for his own virtues and Crais has acquired his own voice.

In this case, Elvis Cole is hired by a muffin baker/influencer to find her father who went missing ten years ago. Of course, Cole finds the clues everyone else missed. Of course, Cole gets into trouble. But the book is well written and the characters are engaging. And I get to drive around Los Angeles with Cole and reminisce.

It is funny that Cole, and his Vietnam era army buddy Joe Pike are still in their late thirties as they traverse 2024.