What have you read/watched/played/created/listened to this year?
this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2025
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Just finished Project Hail Mary the other day. Really enjoyed it, one of my favs this year.
Others I enjoyed were:
-The Way by Cary Groner. Reminiscent of King’s The Stand but more accessible.
-Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon. Sci-fi based on a distant planet with an old lady narrator. Refreshing change of pace from teen narrators. Really enjoyed it.
-The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber. A first (well not quite first) contact story from the perspective of a missionary sent to evangelize the aliens. A bit heavy on the narrator’s inner thoughts, but very creative. Should make you reflect on your priorities and whether God and his Promises make sense outside of earth’s context.
-The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach. Another one that I found to be a nice change of pace from my usual sci-fi thrillers. Beautiful writing. Worldbuilds an entire galactic universe by weaving together short stories about various citizens.
-All the Water in the World. Dystopian climate sci-fi following the child of a museum scientist on her journey away from the flooded rooftops of NYC. Narrator driven and contemplative story about finding and protecting our humanity in a broken world.
There is a list of books that I wish I could forget and read again for the first time, Project Hail Mary is one of them. I loved that book so much that I talked my father in law into reading it and he loved it. I’m probably going to reread it once before the movie comes out. I’m so excited for the movie because I love the book and I’ve been a fan of Ryan Gosling since his Young Hercules days.
It really was excellent. I was so happy with the final decision he made. I’m excited for the movie too! I thought they did a great adaption with The Martian so I’m hopeful.
It doesn’t share the thriller level intensity of Project Hail Mary, but the type of scientific speculation reminded me of Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. Slower paced but a great read if you haven’t read it.
Thanks! That’s a book I’ve never heard of, I’ll definitely check it out.
I haven't gotten around to reading anything of King's yet. In what way is the Stand not accessible?
I haven’t read a lot of King either but I read The Stand in honor of the pandemic. I also typically like ‘on the road’ adventure stories so I thought it was a good bet. It’s a long book. It has a lot of characters and puts a lot of time into developing each of them so the whole thing feels very meandering at times (though not quite tedious in my opinion).