Reading Roundup: The 28th week of 2025
Coping with a heatwave, surprise power outages, and a mixed bag of book reviews this week!
Another week and the temperature's finally dropping. We've had what feels like for ever of above 30 in the shade and restless nights.
No further along with the work stuff, either, and we spent much of Monday night without electricity for some reason.
4 stars to A Lonely Dungeon (Erryn's World, #1), by Cathfach
Book Description:
" When a new dungeon is born, it wants nothing more than to have the most vicious monsters, the most cunning traps and the most shiny of loot. There is only one problem, but it's a rather big one; it finished its first floor years ago, but it still hasn't been visited by any adventurers! In order to find someone or something to explore its floors, or perhaps just to find someone to talk to, this dungeon will have to go way off script. But it soon discovers that going off script brings problems of its own, and that adventurers are not the only thing this world is missing. A story about a dungeons journey of exploration and self discovery in a dark and devastated world. "
My Thoughts:
" Whilst I'm not a big genre fan, I enjoy some of the books. Coming at it from the core's perspective was new to me, so I enjoyed it." This Book: has 172 pages, a community rating of 4.11 and was first published in 2020.
3 stars to Extremophile, by Rick Chesler
Book Description:
" A biotech company is poised to release its highly anticipated new product, a revolutionary swimming pool cleaning system that depends on an unlikely mix of exotic microorganisms. But when the president of the company’s son dies unexpectedly in his own private pool, the company’s product launch is thrust into uncertainty. Determined to salvage his company and make a fortune in the process, CEO Dr. Harry Stone races around the world to collect hard-to-find microbes literally from the ends of the Earth in an attempt to meet the launch deadline with a secretly modified product. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, those closest to Harry search for their own way to survive under extreme conditions."
My Thoughts:
" I sort of enjoyed bits of this: there were real oddities (I know CEOs can be idiots, but this guy was insane). There was seemingly no connection between the water and the mine, they just sort of happened. And the ending left me a little dry."
This Book: has 212 pages, a community rating of 3.88 and was first published in 2022.
Things not on Goodreads or reread
- Those in Peril, by James Follett. Love a Second World war story.
- All Judgment Fled, by James White. I had thought this was the weird book about the hospital (no, not hospital station). But enjoyed the reread all the same.
- Factoring Humanity, by Robert J. sawyer. I never quite got into the Transhumanity of some of Rob's endings, but I enjoy all the science.