It’s been a while since the last one. My brain has turned ‘no post schedule’ into ‘never’ at this point, probably a combination of not reading quite as much and growing interests in other things too. I like how long I’ve been at this thing though, so I’m going to try to stick to a better post schedule like I did when I first started to make sure I don’t lose it altogether. I’ll be posting afternoons on Thursday and Friday as regularly as possible. I’m going to leave the days off the title though. It was making it feel tedious.

Also, I have some first impressions on the final book in the last book haul, ‘Red Rising.’ So far it feels quite familiar in many ways, hitting a lot of the same beats as other dystopian fiction. The protagonist is a badass many years older in spirit than body, living a harsh life on a sweltering planet Mars under a brutal dictatorship. He is a Red, and has a dark family history of civil resistance against the other colors, or castes, all controlled from above by The Society (no literally). His wife Eo pushes him toward revolution for the sake of their future children. He rejects the call … at first. Somehow it all comes out rather charming and original despite the apparent formula, and it makes me think something more is incoming. I hope so anyway. I think I’ll check back in when I get to the end.

Thank you for reading!

Benjamin Hawley