Brandon Forsyth > Recent Status Updates

Commercial and compulsively readable yet still exquisitely literary IYKYK

PRK is so damn good, I think he’s making a play for my “top 5 alive” list.

Erika Styler’s GOOD NEIGHBORS is the first genuinely great story in this bunch. Yes, I’m aware it is January 6 and I’m reading an advent calendar.

The poem “Not Even” is automatically in my top three poems of the year. Wow!

TOBERMORY by Saki makes a claim for one of my favourite short stories ever!

Absolutely loving this. Franck and Abraham aren’t rushing the ending and it’s that beautiful mix of human and science that make this the best sci-fi series of the last decade. I’ll be sad when I’m done this.

Guest editor Alberto Manguel is bringing a delightfully surreal touch to this year’s stories. The H&O team continue to impress!

If you had told me in January that I’d actually finish this book this year I don’t think I would have believed you.

I’m reading this as single issues, and I am really impressed so far. This book is from the same writer as the upcoming THE BATMAN movie, and I am now even more excited for that film than I already was. In some ways this does feel like a sequel to the movie though, so minor spoiler warnings should be provided.

Loving every second of this. Thanks Mr. Cornwell.

I feel like there’s a great retelling here from a Mordor orc’s perspective. You grow up in a land devoid of natural resources, poisoned and extracted by your merciless ruler, your culture is all about domination and strength, and then you’re conscripted into a cause that tells you you’re going to get a better world from those who took it all away from you? Who among us has no sympathy for an orc?

Marius spent 4% of his poverty-line income on rent. 4%!!!!!!

Really enjoying this!

Really enjoying this! The perspective shifts are great, and it’s sassy as hell, with some well-aimed shots at the gothic tradition. A really fun postmodern mystery.

They sure wrote novels differently back in the day - after sitting through 50 pages of Victor Hugo’s thoughts on the battle of Waterloo I’m wondering if any modern novelist could get away with this and be published. Break out your Franzen jokes!

I'm honestly trying to savour this the second time around but I just can't stop flying through this!

I think I should have had lower expectations, but the story is starting to turn and I’m beginning to truly enjoy it.

Re-reading in anticipation of my interview with Casey McQuiston next week! How is this my life???

The Battle of Helm's Deep is over...

Oh man I am LOVING this.

I haven’t read this since I was 13. I am just as enthralled now as I was then.

Elizabeth Crane’s TRAINING MODULE is one of the best pieces of writing I’ve read in 2019: angry, urgent, and with a wonderfully inventive device at its core.

Quite a few of Lovecraft’s stories have actually aged fairly well, but THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP is not one of them. While it does have a great ending, a casual misogyny and racism suffuses the whole piece.

THE DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE is an interesting attempt to link the mysteries of mathematics with Mr. Lovecraft’s interdimensional horrors, THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH has a great descent-into-madness ending but is spoiled by its vaguely Nazi overtones, and AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS is a great adventure story that is probably Lovecraft’s most readable work.

The section on China and Russia is great. The ways in which traditional wealth signifiers (particularly horses) are absorbed and remixed by different cultures is fascinating.

The image of an Occupy Wall Street protestor in a $250 Gucci baseball hat will stay with me for a while.

As I get deeper into this book, I’m more and more impressed by Greenfield’s willingness to go wherever the story of wealth takes her: from work camps in Dubai to fishing tankers in Iceland, this is a work of journalism that isn’t afraid to get its hands dirty.