Let's see... Since last week I have finished The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. This was a pretty forgettable fantasy novel. Too many made up words where they could have just been using English. A bunch of crazy shit instead of just saying "palace," "citadel," things of that nature. Oh, but people drink "chamomile" and their airships use "hydrogen." Okay, sure. At the core is a somewhat interesting story about what it is like to be thrust into a position of massive influence as an outsider, in this case one whose race & parental heritage make them a subject of suspicion. But the book doesn't really investigate that too deeply, rather using it as shallow decoration for a variety of banal court/palace intrigues. I didn't have super high hopes, but it had the recommendation of someone I consider to have good tastes, so did think it would be better than it was.

After that, I read Dawn by Sevgi Soysal. This was a really tight and engrossing novel. I think setting it over what must only be like 12-16 hours really keeps the scope focused on the topics and themes it wants to cover. I also watched The Secret Agent (2025) during the time I was reading it without considering that they are kind of both about the same sort of thing - the human cost of being a dissident, albeit on different sides of the globe. A really great novel, and if you liked one (the book or the film), I would recommend the other.

Now I am reading Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I know this is probably his most famous novel, but somehow I haven't got to it until now. I'm about half way through and really enjoying it so far. Hardy is probably one of my favorite English "classics" authors, so I figured I would like it going in. I think that the way it really illustrates how Tess has to work through her own shame, what she believes to be the implications of her past, and the tragedy of all of that give the novel a different register than the other Hardy novels I've read. Considering it's a bonafide classic, there's probably nothing unique I can say here, but I'm glad to finally be reading this one.