Do you even abandon books? Read the first chapter or two and nope right out? If so, what makes you drop a book?
I recently abandoned three books in a row, each for different reasons.
The first one was a non-fiction book about how fucked we are, given climate change and the political situations in the world today. Most days, I probably agree with that sentiment … but I still like for these books to have some glimmer of hope, to have suggestions on ways we can mitigate how fucked we are even if we can’t prevent the fuckedness.
So, I gave up on that one and moved onto another non-fiction book, this one about how the history that we’re taught might not be accurate. Things like the idea of “men as hunters, women as gatherers”. This would be up my alley … but I just wasn’t feeling it after the first book.
After that, I decided to dive into fiction and pulled up an old urban fantasy that’s been on my ereader for awhile. I read the first chapter, and it felt a little, hmm, racist or classist at best … but I thought “maybe that’s just the character, and the story is about them learning, I’ll give it a bit more time”. Yeah, no. I noped out a couple chapters later.
However, I moved onto the second Murderbot book by Martha Wells, and I have the third lined up after I finish To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, a Native American twist on dragon fantasy (in Canada, I’d say First Nations but apparently that’s not a thing in the US where the author is from). I’m pretty sure I won’t be abandoning any of those.
Writing update
I’m plotting book 4 of The Lyra Cycle, where Grim hopefully gets him home back. If you’re looking for more of Grim the cat, The hangman comes to Tyche is still running over on Armchair Alien.
I might have to write the new shiny idea before I actually get down to writing book 4.
Books for your TBR shelf
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Happy reading!
— CR
Where to find my books
If you’d like to read any of my sci-fi or urban fantasy books, you can find them at your favourite online retailers. Or you can buy them direct from me on the Armchair Alien store (and get special offers and discounts).
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