Reading Roundup: The 15th week of 2025
This week I squeezed in only a couple of new books, plus a fun fanfiction binge before the holiday!
Another short week of officially-logged books, because I continued powering through the fanfictions I started last week. Still, a couple of new entries for anyone interested, one a five star too!
I am spending Easter weekend on holiday with other Humans, so will be unfortunately limited in how much time I will have to read from tomorrow until Monday.
3 stars to Oh F*ck! Dinosaurs!, by Dave Bruno
Book Description:
"WHO WILL SURVIVE A NIGHT OF MESOZOIC MAYHEM? Deep in the mountains, there is a House that time has abandoned to rot. Its carcass remains as nothing more than a bad memory of a horrid nightmare. Inside its labyrinthine halls stalk primeval terrors the Earth has not seen in 66 million years. Their talons sharp, their teeth sharper. Their appetites hungry. This Hell is their Home. And their Guests have arrived... A mismatched group of college graduates has stumbled upon this horrible place in hopes of a having a fun, celebratory weekend. That is, if they can get over their personal issues as well as survive a night against bloodthirsty Cretaceous Creeps. Azi Midas (he/they) is a spoiled rich brat who has recently landed themself in a host of issues thanks to their terrible decisions. He slept with his best friend's, Stella Alvarez's (she/her) boyfriend, Cameron Akagi (he/him) so that he could break up with his ex, Ellis Wheeler (she/they.) Azi will have to face all this drama while having dinosaurs biting at his heels. Bernard Armester (he/him) and Chad Buffton (he/him) used to be best friends growing up, but college life had torn them apart as one sought to become the life of the party and the other sought more solitude in familiarity. In the middle of this is Frankie Bucek (he/him), a loose cannon who's toxicity becomes dangerous when pushed to his limits. Can they survive a night of primeval terror?"
My Thoughts:
"As a splatterfest, this worked well. People get munched on by big scary monsters, and it's really cool to see how the author took a gaming campaign and stretched it into a novel. I really struggled with the pronouns: perhaps I'm a person of his generation, or I've not read enough nonbinary stuff. But moving between he or she and they without any recognisable pattern was jarring to my fingers. Not a gamechanger by any stretch, but certainly a new experience for me. There were also a few departures from the English language which made me doubletake, but I wasn't invested enough to worry about them either. Not a book to revisit, but fun at the time."
This Book: has 309 pages, a community rating of 4.33 and was first published in 2025.
5 stars to The Automatic Detective, by A. Lee Martinez
Book Description:
"Even in Empire City, a town where weird science is the hope for tomorrow, it’s hard for a robot to make his way. It’s even harder for a robot named Mack Megaton, a hulking machine designed to bring mankind to its knees. But Mack’s not interested in world domination. He’s just a bot trying to get by, trying to demonstrate that he isn’t just an automated smashing machine, and to earn his citizenship in the process. It should be as easy as crushing a tank for Mack, but some bots just can’t catch a break. When Mack’s neighbors are kidnapped, Mack sets off on a journey through the dark alleys and gleaming skyscrapers of Empire City. Along the way, he runs afoul of a talking gorilla, a brainy dame, a mutant lowlife, a little green mob boss, and the secret conspiracy at the heart of Empire’s founders---not to mention more trouble than he bargained for. What started out as one missing family becomes a battle for the future of Empire and every citizen that calls her home."
My Thoughts:
" Gripping and with enough of a twist on your typical hard-boiled detective noir to keep me interested, I found every chapter of this delightful outing a true pleasure. Our hero is gritty, a little unreliable in his math and overconfident in his abilities, yet a softy where it matters and proper dangerous where it doesn't. I need more of these in my life, please. "
This Book: has 317 pages, a community rating of 3.95 and was first published in 2008.
Things not on Goodreads or reread
Harry Potter and the Thunderstruck Muggles, by Horst Pollman
This is the third of these stories, ending Harry's time at Hogwarts and time with Voldemort both. While the ending of the dark lord arc is quite abrupt, we've gone so far away from anything Rowling wrote at this point that it's not really surprising. Sex and teen-aged angst, a bit of politics and the FBI coming into play all add interesting twists on the typical 7th year tropes.
The High Priestess, by Horst Pollman
Picking up a couple of years after the end of Harry's 7th, he's married with a daughter while his wife's empire continues to grow. An ancient menace is awakened because of the merging of the magical and muggle worlds, and of course harry is caught up in the aftermath. A cleverly told future story with characters we already know for the most part, and more of Horst's trademark sexytime too.
Presents from the Past, by Horst Pollman
This picks up just under another decade on, and Harry's daughter is starting what would've been her Hogwarts years. An interesting police action in this one with a canon character I don't actually think we meet throughout the earlier series to blame for the fuss.
Potter Professions, by Horst Pollman
Ending this trip down memory lane we have a book that opens with Harry the same age as I am now. Worrying to think that my very initial thought on reading this in 2004 was how old he'd be. I enjoyed it just as much as any of the rest, and have been greatly pleased to revisit the whole saga of these oddly-written yet moreish stories over the last week or so.