Beyond Reality discussion

Please let us know what books you are reading or listening to this month, October 2025. Which ones do you recommend? And which ones don’t you recommend? Any “on the fence” reads this month? Enquiring minds want to know!

All genres welcome here!

I started Shroud with another group last month and did not complete it. I had lots going on and kept having to stop reading and then sometimes start over. Then (view spoiler)[ a person who was reading it told me that it was mostly about rapacious corporations (hide spoiler)] so I decided I didn't need to read about that right now. Maybe I might try again by the end of the month

Re Raven Tower, I read it when it was pretty new, and I really don't remember much about it.

The Wastelands with you guys. Looking forward to it

In other groups I am going to be reading:
What Stalks the Deep which is Kingfisher, so I expect to really love it
Murder by Memory which I know little about, but I have read good things by this author before
Esperance, which has sucked me right in. I really liked this author's Braking Day, so it figures
Some old SFF:
The Computer Connection, which I started a few days ago and am liking so far - but need to get back to before I forget. It's pretty jumbled. On purpose. Some of the characters are a hoot, and the worldbuilding, which seems to be an outgrowth of the last 60's early 70's social scene, is also a hoot
Tower of Glass - sometimes I like Robert Silverberg and sometimes not, so we shall see
How to Survive a Fairy Bargain book 2 of a series and the first book was really good

Some of Black Company by Glen Cook (finish book 6 and read 7, 8, and 9) (yeah right I'm gonna struggle through all of that)

Then I have some series I want to continue etc Lisa Edmonds Alice Worth series (quick! before I forget!!) and Jennifer Estep's Bigtime series, which I have had hanging around for years

Ta Da!

Started my month with a couple short story collections. A Way to Be Happy & Other Worlds: Stories. Neither of which l really liked, though both were very well written and wrote good short stories. I always think short stories are their own art form, lots of authors write them but most don't really do it well.

New York 2140 was really good, I liked the world building a lot. Maybe helps that I love New York, such a great city. I also like the finance and history and environmental parts to the story.

Bad Land wasn't great at all. Kinda tired of weird messed up families that somehow end up all right even though they do weird stuff that no normal person would do.

I'm on a mystery, The Frozen River, right now, then I have A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking lined up to start next while I wait not-so-patiently for my library loans for the group reads to come in. I've also got The Waste Lands on hand for the group series read.

I'm reading A Hat Full of Sky with my daughter. My son is too busy for me to read to him at bedtime these days (sniff).

1) Penric and the Bandit by Lois McMaster Bujold. 5*. This is like book 12 of the novella series and I love the series and I love Bujold always (almost, there's one early standalone fantasy I was not too crazy about)
2) The Computer Connection by Alfred Bester 4*, much better than I expected. It's got weird worldbuilding that is apparently a skewed forecast of the future from the social milieu of the late '60s/early 70's and ending up now or a bit later. Try it if you like strange but funny and engaging.
3) Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg. 2* Boring. Didn't like the characters. Race relations with androids v people. I have to live through today's dreary politics, I don't want to read about dreary future politics. Glad it's over. I often like Silverberg, but not this one.

Halfway through Black Company 6. It's next and also Esperance which I am also about halfway through. It's really good so far.

Finished By Way of Deception. A book about the Mossad. Interesting and well done

Started something new
Through Struggle, the Stars

Week 1: The Artist of Blackberry Grange by Paulette Kennedy

This is a buddy read with three friends--the ones I read Broken Country with last month. This is a new book, and the premise seems a good start for kicking off October.

Week 2: Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

This one had so much praise last year; comparable to The Blacktongue Thief and The Daughters' War. I'm looking forward to this Black Death road trip through Hell. lol

Week 3: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

"This chilling historical novel is set in the nascent days of the state of Montana, following a Blackfeet Indian named Good Stab as he haunts the fields of the Blackfeet Nation looking for justice."

My gut feeling is that this is my favorite read for October!

Week 4 and Week 5:

This will depend on mood and time constraints. These are books I own and will likely pull from:

Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery
Equal Rites
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text
Dracula
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Welcome to Lovecraft
Weaveworld
The Reformatory

Started and finished Flybot
I enjoyed it. A bit of mystery, a bit of thriller.

Now I need something spooky to get into the mood for Halloween.
Now I just need to figure out what that is going to be.

I chose Play Nice
About 25% and I've been sucked in. I have a feeling it will be a fast read.

And after that, I'm planning on Withered Hill
The premise is interesting. here's hoping it is good.

I'm also planning on getting into A Night in the Lonesome October.
I've always failed trying to read this 1 chapter a day for the entire month so I am not going to bother this year. Plan on starting it the last week of the month. Its short and fun. :)

Temps are falling, rain is in the forecast. I love October. :)

Finished Play Nice
That was good. I'm going to have to look into this author more.

Next up, Withered Hill

Finished Withered Hill

Not really what I was hoping for.
It jumps around a lot in time. Usually that doesn't bother me, but in this case it was a bit jarring and I feel caused issues with pacing. It would get interesting and then dull and maybe a bit repetitive.

Also, apparently Folk Horror = lots of sex

Honestly it didn't really even feel like horror, but I don't have a good alternative category. There are fantastical elements, but Fantasy just doesn't seem quite right.

Overall, I think the concept had potential, but the execution was poor.

And, over the course of about 2 weeks we went straight from late summer to early winter. We were hitting the 70s not long ago. This morning is was just above freezing when I left home.

Two Seanan McGuire reads for me recently. Silver and Lead is her most recent Toby Daye book, and I just love any chance to revisit her world and characters.

Then I decided that it was probably time for me to check out the only one of her series that I haven't read any yet, her InCryptid books, so I picked up the first one Discount Armageddon from the library. Good fun, as I expected!

Now I'm on a murder mystery, How to Seal Your Own Fate (sequel to How to Solve Your Own Murder, which I quite enjoyed). I've got The Waste Lands lined up to read next.

I have read a whole bunch of books I didn't like: You've Changed, The Crooked Maid, Sugaring Off, The Polished Hoe, 419, & The Tiger Claw.

But I did also read The Cure for Drowning that I really liked. Historical fiction with a queer, non-binary focus. Thought it was done really well.

First half of October:
Some Golden Harbor by David Drake, 7.5/10. Another space adventure in the RCN/Lt. Leary series. I had trouble in this book keeping the various factions straight, which made it slightly less enjoyable. But Leary, Mundy, Hogg, and Tovera are always fun characters, regardless of the situations & characters that surround them.
Esrahaddon by Michael J. Sullivan, 10/10. Wow! A powerful climax to The Rise and Fall series, an insightful portrayal of the main character, Esrahaddon, and a wealth of detail added to the world, gods, & peoples of Elan.
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie, 7/10. My comments are in the topic thread for this BotM.
I started Shroud, our other October BotM, but I haven’t gotten very far & I think I need something else for airports & airplanes (I’m traveling the next couple weeks), so I’m probably going to start something else & save Shroud for a bit.

Finished Through Struggle, The Stars.
Hmmm this is a tough one. I feel the author was overly ambitious and the pacing felt off. Not sure if I plan to pick up the second book

Started book 3 of the Dark Tower
The Waste Lands

Bit of a dump update

I went through the entire Shivers Collection

Most were ok. The only one which stood out to me was The Blanks

I then went through Scalzi's Dispatcher Series. They were good, though not my favorite of his.

Taking a break to listen to the first episode of Critical Role's new 4th Campaign. Then I'll start on my reread of A Night in the Lonesome October.

Something of Myself by Rudyard Kipling

The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, Vol. 1 by Grrr and the series, up to the current release of volume 5 over the last two months.

Some rather good treatment of the tropes, if a bit silly in places.

After I finished The Waste Lands (comments on the spoiler thread), I raced through Light from Uncommon Stars, which was a beautiful book. Next up (finally) is Shroud!

Finished The Waste Lands. I was frustrated with it while I was reading it because, once again, I wanted him to just GET ON with it, but afterwards, I was very satisfied. 4 stars

I found Penny Candy in a box I was searching through for Goodwill donation. I love Jean Kerr, who was Erma Bombeck before Erma Bombeck was. The most famous of Kerr's is Please Don't Eat the Daisies, which was made into a movie with Doris Day, but my favorite is The Snake Has All the Lines. I found out later that she wrote one of my favorite late night movies ever, Mary, Mary, starring Debbie Reynolds.

Here are the movie links
Mary, Mary https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057293/...
Please Don't Eat the Daisies https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054188/...

I also read Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America. It was OK, but stylistically not for me. It read like a civil war diary or something. Worth reading, though, and not too post-apostolic.

I cannot really recommend How to Survive a Fairy Bargain (Fairies and Familiars, #2). I'm not sure why I didn't like it as much as the first, except maybe both of these books read like a bunch of short stories strung together. That's why I stopped reading Xanth years ago. After about the 15th one, I got tired of Piers Anthony's strung-together-shorts style

I also read What Stalks the Deep (Sworn Soldier, #3). It was OK. This series is my least favorite of anything T. Kingfisher has ever written. Still worth it, though.

I finally finished Bleak Seasons (The Chronicles of the Black Company, #6). Definitely did not like this one, but everybody ways that #8 and #9 much better, so I'm hoping. I am probably halfway through #7, She is the Darkness and it is better.

Now I am playing hooky. I read Asunder, which was pretty good, but, well, I don't want to say why it wasn't really good. And now I am reading Lock In by John Scalzi. So far, it's reminding me of The Caves of Steel with really really scary covid thrown in, I also tried Toto, but gave up because it was too busy or something. I don't know how else to describe it.

Hey, you asked.

I loved Lock In and loved the sequel Head On even more. Scalzi is a favorite!

Shel wrote: "I loved Lock In and loved the sequel Head On even more. Scalzi is a favorite!"

Good to know. I cannot find the kindle I was using and so have been reading some other stuff. But I just dumped them on my second kindle so I could continue.

did you ever read Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome which I guess is supposed to be read before Lock In? I skipped it. I often skip books before "Book 1" of a series, particularly if they were written later.

Not yet, but I would like to read it at some point! I wouldn't say it's "supposed to be read" but it's a prequel, as far as I know.

I didn’t read much while I was traveling, but I did read The Other by Thomas Tryon, 5/10, a fast read, with more than one twist, yet somehow still kind of predictable.

I read most of Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky on the way home & finished it after I got home, 7.75/10, comments in our topic thread for this BotM.

I started The Black Loch by Peter May for a change of pace.

Kathi wrote: "I didn’t read much while I was traveling, but I did read The Other by Thomas Tryon, 5/10, a fast read, with more than one twist, yet somehow still kind of predictable...."

I think the reason The Other may seem predictable is--it's so old. 1971. I remember I thought it was good, though.

Kateblue wrote: "I think the reason The Other may seem predictable is--it's so old. 1971. I remember I thought it was good, though."

True enough. I think it was pretty groundbreaking at the time.

I finished The Black Loch by Peter May, 8/10. The author once again makes life on the Isle of Lewis come alive, grim as it sometimes is. The mystery at the heart of this story appears to be no mystery at all, but of course, things are more complicated than they appear. Beached whales and fish farming play more important roles than one might expect, and the main characters’ pasts hang heavily over the present. Moody and satisfying.