I at least made some progress on the reading list for this year.

In no particular order, I’ve gone through:

Monster Hunter International: Urban (except not really) fantasy that’s almost on the military end of things. Not badly written, but didn’t hook me. Worth a look if you’re into high-gunfire stories.

In my case, it’s going onto the reference shelf for decently written firefights and action scenes.

The Crown Conspiracy: Straight fantasy. The characters felt interchangeable, the quest felt underwhelming, the world felt small. One of those “I’ll pull myself through it” books, but definitely not something I’d recommend.

Altered Carbon: well of course given the current hype I’d take a look. I’ve read the criticism that it was obviously written to be turned into a movie/series, and I can’t say I disagree. Still worth the read. From a writer’s perspective, there’s not much to learn from it: it’s a well-written (but not amazingly so) novel, built around very good ideas that I don’t see myself stealing.

As to right now: I’m going through The Prince, by Machiavelli. That’s worth a Just My Opinion post. I’ll also go through Sun Tzu’s The Art of War later this year. Beyond that, we’ll see.