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books i read in 2025 ⟶ Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang

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“It’s much easier to tell yourself you’re a good person than it is to actually be one.”

“So many parents will try to kill everything brilliant about a girl in the name of giving her a good life, a safe life, a chance at happiness.”

“Because good people can turn desperate when the horrors are upon them—especially people whose culture of plenty has left them with no systems to cope with scarcity or cataclysm. Good people will turn monstrous when it’s down to their survival or someone else’s.”

“You know, arrogance never made a woman more attractive.' 'When I care how attractive you find me, I'll let you know.”

— It was like the first book I read by ML Wang, I became attached to the characters faster than any other book I've read this year. I usually don't care about characters in a standalone; there isn't enough time and development for me to care, but that doesn't happen here. It was such a quick read, I couldn't put the book down and I became immensely attached to both protagonists.

Arts by peng lu

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books i read in 2025 ⟶ Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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The Final Architecture #3

“This is fucked up,” Olli sent to Kit. “There is no further up to which it might be fucked,” was his considered reply.”

“Space was, as the saying went, very big.”

“Except there’s no perfection in this world, hence there must be exception made. Hence those who cannot live within their bounds are yet made use of. If railing against fate is wrong, let us do wrong. Let us do all the acts unspeakable. Break all the laws. Fight that which must be borne. Be wicked, know no grace. Refuse all walls. And so, though we be cursed, reviled, denied, so we yet serve the way that we have left behind. When comes the threat the shell cannot resist, there shall it find us, waiting.”

— This is the first trilogy I've finished by this author. He has so many books out that I don't know which one to read next, but I'll certainly continue to explore his worlds until the end of the year or early next year.

I appreciate a little humor even in serious matters, and this book was Olli's book, which as always, provided comic relief, but still has an engaging plot with a very fitting ending, and her character arc, besides Idris's, was perhaps the most satisfying.

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books i read in 2025 ⟶ Gardens Of The Moon, Deadhouse Gates and Memories Of Ice  by Steven Erikson

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Malazan Book of the Fallen Series

"In the empty eyes of this child, he’d seen the withering of his own soul. The reflection had been unblemished, with no imperfections to challenge the truth of what he saw."

"It was said each city rose on the backs of ghosts, the substance of spirits thick like layers of crushed bone; that each city forever wept beneath the streets, forever laughed, shouted, hawked wares and bartered and prayed and drew first breaths that brought life and the last breaths that announced death. Beneath the streets there were dreams, wisdom, foolishness, fears, rage, grief, lust and love and bitter hatred."

First in, last out.

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Nynaeve's moment!

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Moiraine vs Lanfear 🤩

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Windfinder

Atha'an Miere (the sea folk) #thewheeloftime

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books i read in 2025 ⟶ The Silverblood Promise by James Logan

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The Last Legacy #1

"Sometimes you owed it to yourself to do what was necessary, not what was easy."

"But the world turns and younger generations forget the lessons learned by the old … and the wolves of greed and prejudice come slinking back from the shadows."

"I suppose evil is at its most powerful when it wears a smile and smells of rose water."

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The Shields Loved the shields, great CGI.

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books i read in 2025 ⟶ Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

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"She just wanted to take one step that belonged to her, make one move that she had independently decided to make, but at every turn it felt as if her strings were being pulled by unseen hands."

“...it's the steps themselves that make a path, instead of the other way round. We are creating even as we believe we are following.”

“When you're growing up, you don't ask whether your family's good, do you? Especially if you don't know anything else. They're just your family.”

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books i read in 2025 ⟶ Livesuit by James S.A. Corey

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The first novella set in the universe of James S. A. Corey's epic Captive's War series. The first book in the series (The Mercy of Gods) was released in 2024 and was one of the best reads of the year.

“Anyone who believes in a fair fight has never been in a fight.”

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books i read in 2025 ⟶ Song of the Mysteries by Janny Wurts

Eleventh and final book in the series Wars of Light and Shadow.

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Against stillness freighted with ghosts and the bones of historic catastrophe, the chink of furtive footsteps echoed up slope towards the old citadel crowning the heights. High above, the fuzzed yellow star of a candleflame fluttered in the square of a vacated casement.

Never take the first plant or the last; not the biggest, the smallest, and never the immature shoot. Accept nothing as given without permission, and leave half untouched, needs met with honour in gratitude for the blessing of bounty received.

“Success demands what the heart knows already. You must stay the hard course. Perception confirms the forked path of your dread. No second alternative exists to be found. Act with the needful courage to break things, and forge your fate without surety. Or else abandon the effort untried.”

It was always enough, even if forever.

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This girls! #thewheeloftime

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Love this moments #thewheeloftime

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"I have seen a thousand thousand futures..."

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Christopher Ruocchio's Ashes of Man was devastating, even though I had a feeling of what was coming I wasn't prepared.

I finished reading it a while ago, read other books and now I've picked up The Dregs of Empire: A Tale of the Sun Eater, which takes place right after the events in Ashes of Man. So I'm reminded again of what happened at that point in the story and despite being very invested in Lorian Aristedes, I can't wait to get back to the main story.

“The ugliness of the world does not fade, nor are fear and grief made less by time, nor is any suffering forgotten. We are only made stronger by its blows.”

Time runs down, and leaves no man unscarred... leastways until the world is changed, and its god returns with new light.

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WOT My newest favorite wallpapers

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Anathem

I just finished reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson, and it was hard. And I don't say this as a form of criticism, but as a satisfaction of overcoming a challenge. I don't believe I understood all the philosophical and scientific discussions - Dialog - throughout the reading; on the contrary, there were some things I gave up trying to understand in order to maintain my sanity and be able to move forward. This is a book that requires attention to detail, engagement and patience.

"People have a need to feel that they are part of some sustainable project. Something that will go on without them. It creates a feeling of stability. I believe that the need for that kind of stability is as basic and as desperate as some of the other, more obvious needs."

It's a thousand pages that mix alternative history, close encounters of the third kind, utopian fantasy of futuristic science fiction, multiple religions and philosophical treatise, all highly detailed and not at all obvious. But I'm happy to have finished this challenge and to have understood, at least in part, the Narrative.

Illustration by Patrick Arrasmith

“Nothing is more important than that you see and love the beauty that is right in front of you, or else you will have no defense against the ugliness that will hem you in and come at you in so many ways.”

Diagrams by Fraa Erasmas in Calca 1: Cutting the Cake

A book that combines levels of reality, space travel, monks, tiling, math nerds and a giant icosahedron in orbit.