Reading Roundup: March 2026

Life updates

Another month has slid quietly through our fingers. AS the days lighten here and the sun starts to make an appearance, I find myself wondering how much reading time I'll get outdoors this year. Probably not a lot with the little one. He's newly mobile this week, all-be-it by shuffling backward on his bottom, but it's all progress.

Rereads or books off-catalogue

The Evans Boy

I'd originally finished the first of these doorstops at Christmas 2024. I'd taken days over it then, and found it utterly captivating. I wrote, then -

"I think the thing that impressed me most was that almost every chapter had a throwaway line from Rowling, embellished and enhanced, seen askew from a different point of view than the original Harry. This Harry is very different, and it's thrilling to read the first 4 years of Hogwarts as we know it through this incredibly refractory lens. It was a clever idea, making him older, giving us the platform to see familiar events unfold with a bit of extra padding around the edges. The "harry has a brother" trope is old, yet it works here. The Evans upbringing is carefully sculpted, a completely plausible backstory for Harry retrofitted, and the entire work seeped all sort of fascinating and compellingly-handled themes."

Book 2 was just as, if not more so, on-the-nose. The quidditch commentary and Gobstones games within the series are just the height of funny, yet the characterisation of Voldemort and the grittiness of the world are rendered so vividly, the moments of joy are shot through with much deep darkness. As when I finished the first one, book 3 is not yet done. Hopefully I'll be able to jump in without a reread this time; as I spent 13 days on the second one this month and 11 days on the first book. That works out at only about 56,000 words of reading per day, but given I'm still doing all the nights with the baby and full day care much of the week on top, I can't really complain. It's been an intense, wild few weeks in a version of Harry Potter I've had a great time enjoying.

realty check by Piers Anthony

I reread this as a bit of a clenzer between fanfics. I've read it before, of course, but it scratches an itch.

New reads for March

2 stars to Proof: A Novel, by J. Chad Stanley

Book Description:

Young engineers have just started their dream jobs with NASA when their world is turned upside down. A long-anticipated mission to Mars instantly becomes a race to the moon—before it’s too late. In a surprising twist of fate, the new hires end up stranded on the moon and go from supporting the mission to being the mission. With no hope of rescue and dwindling supplies, they must overcome their fears and find a way home. Just when the unlikely astronauts think getting back is their biggest challenge, they make an astonishing discovery —one that could change the world forever . Will the rookies do the impossible and find a way back? Or will unknown forces conspire to keep their discovery a secret and send them to an early grave? Proof is an irresistible tale of perseverance, ingenuity, and survival.

My Thoughts:

I felt like this would be something like Andy Weir or S.j. Morden and was gearing up for thrills and excitement. What I ended up with was something that felt very fanfic-like and rather bland. Shame.

This Book: has 407 pages, a community rating of 4.10.

3 stars to Nexus: A Science-Fiction Thriller, by Douglas E. Richards

Book Description:

Three impossible objects with the mass of neutron stars are hurtling toward Earth. Will they shatter reality as we know it? Or crush humanity to dust? Multimillion-copy bestselling authors Douglas E. Richards and Joshua T. Calvert deliver a mind-bending near-future thriller that fuses cutting-edge physics with the deepest secrets of ancient Egypt. When physicist Lukas Heuer discovers three anomalous pyramid-shaped objects in deep space, hurtling toward Earth, he knows humanity’s days are numbered. Because the objects are so massive, if he and a small group of scientists can’t unravel their purpose and origin, their gravitational pull will tear Earth to rubble—before they even get close. Half a world away, archaeologist Mira Najafi discovers a hidden passage in the Great Pyramid containing an ancient drawing of three black pyramids against a blue sky—a clue her vanished father left for her fifteen years ago, the last trace of the man she never stopped searching for. Two seemingly unrelated discoveries. One impossible convergence. As Lukas and Mira race toward the same cosmic nexus, they uncover a presence that has been watching humanity for millennia—a presence now awakening in our solar system. Because these physics-defying objects aren’t just arriving. They’re returning. What follows is a desperate mission to the edge of human a journey that will force a handful of scientists and explorers to confront the limits of physics, consciousness, and reality itself. Because the pyramids aren’t just objects. They’re keys—and the door they open may change humanity forever . . . or erase it entirely. Nexus is a high-concept, high-stakes thriller that will leave you questioning the nature of reality, and what it really means to be awake.

My Thoughts:

I despise alien stories around the pyramids or other ancient discoveries, they just don't sit well with me. So it's a testament to how much I like Doug's work that I picked this up in the first place. I enjoyed it to a degree, although it was missing a surprising number of Doug's tropes and the reverence for the US president, although not holy new, stuck in my craw given the current incumbent. That's nothing I can blame the authors for, of course. I quite liked the characters for the most part, although the relationship between Heuer and Mendoza felt thrown in my face and there were a few minor editing tweaks that made this one feel not as tight as some of Doug's others. As always, I liked the authors note at the end. So even if this particular twist on the genre didn't overly appeal, I enjoyed the story for what it was.

This Book: has 349 pages, a community rating of 4.33.

DNF

First time this year I've given a chunk of time to a book and stepped away, but I really didn't fancy carrying on with Rogue Timeline by Martin Corleyne. I was enjoying it to a point, but I found things a bit too whimsical and weird to keep my interest.

Coming up

April looks to be a pretty huge month for new reads of interest: New novels from S.L. Huang, Mike Chen, Sylvain Neuvel and Dayton Ward are tentatively on the agenda. Quite how many I'll be able to buy, beg or borrow - aside from be awake to enjoy - we'll see.