Reading Roundup: The 22nd week of 2025
After a blissful holiday, I dove into thrillers, a political comedy, and the enchanting "The Incandescent."
So it's been a while, because I had a holiday. The holiday was amazing: sea, sun, sand, swimming, good food, unusual alcohol, strange animals and plenty of history and a cruise in the twilight. No work, not even a thought of it, for a week. Bliss.
I finished a series of thrillers and a polititical comedy, reread a bunch of Robert sawyer, and plowed my way for a second time through a 30 hour fanfiction (which took me 13 days of the last 21). I also got to enjoy the new Emily Tesh novel, highly recommended. Beware the Dan Rix books are listed in reverse date order so, if you do intend reading the series, descriptions of later books may spoil things from earlier ones below. You can always jump by heading to avoid the block-quoted descriptions and thoughts from me.
5 stars to The Incandescent, by Emily Tesh
Book Description:
"Naomi Novik's Scholomance series meets Plain Bad Heroines in this sapphic dark academia fantasy by instant national and international bestselling author Emily Tesh, winner of the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. "Look at you, eating magic like you're one of us." Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school's boundaries from demonic incursions. Walden is good at her job―no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from―is herself."
My Thoughts:
" I was utterly enchanted by this work. I couldn't put it down. I never went to a boarding school, but I did work at one for a decade and it's so vividly authentic. of course I don't do magic, either, but that part of the story was electrifying. It's one of those books where I'm going to have to reread for nuance, because I blazed through for fun, and that's the highest qualification I can give a book. Really hoping we see more of these characters in the future. "
This Book: has 432 pages, a community rating of 4.14 and was first published in 2025.
4 stars to Time's Beginning (God's Loophole, #4), by Dan Rix
Book Description:
" A rip in spacetime grows at a terrifying speed, and humanity can do nothing to stop it. In five and a half months, it will swallow earth. The two telekinetic teenagers who might have halted the hole’s spread are gone, cut out of the universe; Gabriel and Raedyn face eternity in a nuclear fallout shelter drifting in limbo—endless curving hallways, abandoned lounges, swimming pools still as glass. But when their crew begins vanishing one by one, they realize they’re not alone in their private hell. At night, an invisible creature hunts them. Something’s getting into their food, shadows skitter behind corners, footsteps creak in empty rooms. In the morning, they find claw marks burned into the walls . . . and the leftover body parts. Now, facing her worst nightmare yet, Raedyn must outwit a demon before it wrests away the last of her soul—and devours them all. Racing a ticking clock, Gabriel must exploit the ultimate loophole in bubble logic . . . before they and all existence collapse into oblivion."
My Thoughts:
" A great ending, even if the reality of the science has largely fallen by the wayside, I can't quite determine how self-consistent everything is but I enjoyed the storytelling nonetheless. Very glad to have found Dan carried on with these after reading the first book way back in 2014."
This Book: has a community rating of 3.96 and was first published in 2015.
4 stars to Heaven’s Enigma (God’s Loophole, #3), by Dan Rix
Book Description:
"An invisible creature prowls the streets of Palo Alto, ripping people’s organs to shreds from the inside out. Atop the caved-in rubble of an abandoned tech startup, construction continues day and night on a massive, 126-foot superconducting dome—humanity’s last-ditch effort to plug a growing hole in the universe by isolating it in a quantum bubble. Deep underground in the Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker, telekinetics Gabe Rockwell and Raedyn Summers prepare for their part—descending through an unspeakable limbo believed to be the realm of hell to mend the fabric of spacetime. But Raedyn, still traumatized by her recent imprisonment in a bubble universe, now seesaws between a lover she knew to be dead and the boy who rescued her. Gabe, for his part, is beginning to question the details of their escape. For one thing, he can’t find any doors leading out of Cheyenne Mountain . . . or into it, for that matter. The walls form a sphere. The halls circle endlessly. And at night, beneath the constant drone of machinery, the mountain groans like the hull of a ship under immense pressure. When their connection to the rest of the world suddenly goes dead—speakers hissing static, data streams silent, screens black—his worst fear is realized. They never escaped. "
My Thoughts:
" I dug straight in after book 2, and although the science is a bit weirder and out there now the new characters were interesting and built in neatly."
This Book: has 302 pages, a community rating of 4.09 and was first published in 2014.
3 stars to Eternity’s End (God’s Loophole, #2), by Dan Rix
Book Description:
" Trapped inside a bubble universe the size of a broom closet, eighteen-year-old Raedyn Summers is running out of air and water. At the former site of a defunct tech startup in Palo Alto, the earth underneath an abandoned warehouse is decaying at an alarming rate. Scientists are saying it’s a rip in the fabric of the universe. They’re saying it’s spreading. Back at home, an inexplicable voicemail sent from outside the boundaries of space-time launches Gabriel Rockwell on a desperate quest to rescue the girl he loves from a death sentence in limbo. Fleeing both the FBI and the U.S. military, Gabe steels himself for a daring, one-shot attempt at “creating” Raedyn back into existence. There’s a hitch, though: the animals he practices on are all coming back screwed up, like they’re missing something essential. But when Raedyn’s tiny universe—population of one—begins collapsing in on itself with her still inside it, Gabe must make a choice: let her slip into oblivion, or play God and create her again—this time without a soul. "
My Thoughts:
" I had to reread the first book to catch up here but enjoyed this late into the night on my vacation."
This Book: has a community rating of 3.80 and was first published in 2014.
Things not on Goodreads or reread
A Taste of Magic by WokFriedIce
I reread this over a 13 day period, which is crazy. I sort of enjoyed it, harry does come across very unlike a Harry from almost any other fanfic I have ever read. I can't say I found any one aspect of it particularly appealing (far too much whooping, far too little interpersonal conflict, very low drama), but something about it compelled me on.
Circulus Absurdus, by Guy Portman
Guy's latest novella is about a political upheaval in the UK (a la Queen and I, Your Country Needs You). Greatly entertaining if you are the audience, I had a fair few chuckles.
God's Loophole (God's Loophole #1) - by Dan Rix
I had to reread this to finish the series. it held up well enough from what I'd remembered. Dan's no Blake Crouch or David Walton, but his writing is easy going and was the perfect thing for my holiday.
Hominids, Humans and Hybrids - the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, by Robert J. Sawyer
I reread this about this time last year as it happens but was in the zone for it. It's a chilling inditement on our handling of the planet and never gets old, even if on reflection the lead lady was a bit of a whiner.
Mindscan, by Robert J. sawyer
Also reread this on the way home from the airport, because I couldn't remember how it ended. One of the earliest fictionalised examples of the Star Trek transporter effect writ large, namely, what happens to the other you?
Frameshift, by Robert J. sawyer
Finally for this week of rereads, the first sawyer I ever read. I still love it, even if it has its flaws. I don't think it's dated terribly badly as a story, but can't vouch for the accuracy of the genetics in it of course.