2024 review: part 2, books

Alli Grant Est. 11 minutes (2259 words)
year in review books 2024
Year in review of books! 2024 edition.

I should probably rename this section to “literature” or something, since it’s usually included webcomics and … ah well. Not changing it now.

It’s probably obvious, more than most of these lists, that I’ve been on a reading slump for a while. I still enjoy a good paper book, but I don’t like storing them, I don’t like carrying them, I don’t particularly love the lighting levels required to comfortably read them, etc. My Kindle Paperwhite, a first generation, hasn’t exactly kept up with the times either – micro charging instead of USB-C, gestures, etc. Comixology was a pretty big help, but then capitalism.

Anyway, I discovered Kavita and bought a Kobo with physical buttons and a color e-ink screen. The results speak for themselves (thousands of chapters of manga, multiple novels), and I think I made up for several years worth of not reading nearly as much as I’d like. I wrote a few months ago..

On the plus side, I guess I got back into reading. I started and caught up/finished reading One Piece, Naruto, My Hero Academia (and its side series Vigilantes), Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, and a few others. Getting a new e-reader helped, which has also lead to more novels in my reading as well (admittedly there’s still more of a backlog than I want here).

In brief:

Naruto: wow it falls off hard

My Hero Academia/Vigilantes: Truly, nothing has quite understood superhero comics the same in quite some time

One Piece: it’s good. I read 1122 chapters and counting this year alone. It’s good.

Frieren: I would die for this weird elf, which would probably give her weird feelings

Dorohedoro: Chainsaw Man wishes it was this, desperately

Sand Land: Toriyama was the best to do it when it came to weird little demons and vehicles, and this sure is peak that

And while that summarizes some of it, I’d like to say more on the subject (and also do some notes to their adaptations).

First and foremost, One Piece finally sucked me in. It threatened to last year, when the end of Wano started airing in the anime, and the scenes looked neat in what I picked up by social media osmosis. I’m not sure what put me off – it wasn’t the art, it wasn’t the concept, maybe it was just having read/watched so many more disappointing large Jump properties first. I should not have let that stop me. I have read 1135 chapters of it, also known as all of it, this year alone. I cried for a boat. A lot. The basic story structure of island to island travel hits that itch I’ve had since Megaman Legends, the devil fruit system means that fights tend to be puzzles more than they do “who punches the best”, and the fact that corrupt cops are your other big faction to the pirates? Fantastic. The crew usually wins, but not always, and those victories aren’t reliably clean. It’s not perfect (Sanji’s transphobia as a big note), but I’ll be damned if the Straw Hats aren’t the most lovable bunch of misfits (even Sanji, who with this many years of content about it, sure reads like a heavily repressed egg around delightful queers like Iva). Egghead was an interesting arc to start reading weekly during, and while I’m not going to dive into Fandom like I might have when I was younger, Zoro/Sanji is a delightful ship. There’s something about the “telling extra stories through chapter cover images” aspect that … comparing One Piece to Homestuck feels … hmm. Offputting. The glances around the world, though, and Oda’s habit of never copying and pasting a panel used as flashback means that when they flash back, they do so for good reason. If you aren’t on the Straw Hat hype train, I seriously recommend it! Even the anime filler is on a different quality level than most (again, ignoring some transphobia), the live action adaptation is good somehow (perhaps casting an actual Luffy as Luffy helped?), and the color manga in English is somewhat trivial to find. I don’t care how you get into it, just give them a shot.

Naruto… sigh. I had tried to get into it before, and fell off hard around where the anime switched into Shippuden. I realize now why. Entire seasons of the anime were padding filler, and what was in the manga around those events wasn’t much better. Pre-timeskip Naruto is about the best the series gets, and it does sometimes shine through with some real gems of pages. And then sometimes what shines through is something else, like the first black character in the entire series being The Rapping Ninja or… everything. Everything. Sigh. I read all of it. I will someday subject myself to Boruto, which I hear is even worse, since it triples down on the aliens. “Aliens?” you might say, if you never finished Naruto. Unfortunately, yes, please go read (or watch) almost anything else instead.

My Hero Academia was a recommendation from my eldest. I should have listened sooner – the only other group to write superheroes this well in ages are Jes/Cin Wobowo. Even the Vigilantes spinoff, which grapples with the questions that the main series sweeps under the rug, does so beautifully. I caught up right as the final chapter of the main series came out, and while I hear there’s an extended epilogue coming in the final volume, I like where it went. Deku/Bakugo feels like a better written version of Naruto/Sasuke, in all respects. The school tournament arc actually makes sense as scouting for pro hero agencies! Really, it’s almost exactly the sort of generic shonen battle fluff you might expect, but higher quality. Gentle is a fantastic side character, who again, raises a lot of questions that Vigilantes dives further into. I don’t think the spinoff ending is quite as good, but I’m so excited for the Vigilantes adaptation anyway. Superhero fans who haven’t checked it out, really, do it.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End gave me feelings I’ve not had about a traditional, serious fantasy series since finishing the Lord of the Rings. Everything about it. The anime adaptation is also near flawless and one of my favorite things I’ve watched this year, which really takes away from what I’ll have to say on shows. Inspiring series, touching on what death and legacy means, while still having plenty of interesting things to say and not being particularly depressing about it.

I’m ashamed to admit it took me this long to finally get around to reading (and watching) The Expanse for real, as Ceres happens to be my favorite dwarf planet. I enjoyed it, more or less? I think the show’s better – I’ll talk about it more with that – because I can’t stop getting the vibe that one of the authors who makes up the duo that goes by James Corey doesn’t think very highly of women. There’s gritty, and then there’s “I’m going to dwell on the details of rape / fantasizing about it” for longer than necessary. The hard science fiction is nice, the visceral descriptions don’t always get across the point and sometimes hit a bit of “breasting boobily down the stairs” (or “collapsing ballsily against the seat”) instead of .. whatever they were actually going for. I’ve only read the first book so far (Leviathan Wakes) but I do intend to finish it. Maybe after the show.

On the other hand, the Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie? A delight. The tale of a ship’s AI, used to controlling hundreds of bodies as the caretakers of their crew, reduced to a single body and out for revenge. I lost so much sleep binging this series. Most non-human protaganists who closely interact with them wish they were human. Beq does not. Don’t let how brief this (or Frieren’s) sections are fool you – I just don’t think these two series need much to sell them other than “read the first chapter, but set aside like six hours for when you inevitably read the rest”.

Oh lord I just realized I haven’t talked about.. most series. Consider this a couple of hours of writing to make up for my lack of posts this year.

This Is How You Lose the Time War. Just go read it. It’s short. If you at all like weird shit, romance, mysteries, you’ll enjoy it. Just do it. The meme was right.

The Locked Tomb slapped me in the face. I know it was written by a “former Homestuck nerd” but didn’t quite realize that happened to be urbanAnchorite. Tamsyn Muir heard “kill your darlings” and didn’t think it meant passages that don’t fit, but instead “your favorite character” – don’t worry, as there are some Homestuck influences here, they’ll get better. Probably. You might not even be that mad about it. Lesbian necromancers in space. Masterful concept. I’ll sell you on it with an interaction from later in the series, paraphrased very, very loosely.

“But… What’s the internet?”

“See, if nothing else, I did create a utopia.”

Terra Ignota, as a series. I’m only 2 books in. This one is tricky. I do like the first book, I think. The second was looking like it would be the first book I dropped partway through a chapter, permanently, in years – as a warning, it takes a turn for the “nonstop rape” (and not in the way a romance novel might). Compared to Imperial Radch, where the protagonist doesn’t quite understand human gender due to.. not being one, Terra Ignota tries to imagine a future where humans have mostly stopped doing so. Except, plot twist, they haven’t! Also cars are good and changed the world for the better. Mindboggling. I don’t think I’m going to finish out the series.

Honorable mentions that I’m sure I’ll have more to say about soon: The Case Study of Vanitas (steampunk vampire AU), The Apothecary Diaries (serving girl Sherlock and eunuch Watson take turns falling for each other), Kindergarten Wars (Spy x Family but without the spying? I’m not sure that description works), The Iron Widow (Pacific Rim polyam AU, I’m so sorry for that summary, you should absolutely read this and I need to read the sequel)

Honorable mentions I’m probably not going to have more to say about: Dreadful (I Woke Up as The Dark Lord and All I Got Was This Weird Flame Robe?), Ichi the Witch (it’s aggressively Fine but isn’t going to play with gender or its concept too much it seems), Beat and Motion (please prove me wrong and have this new arc be better, but the first one is INCREDIBLE), Solo Leveling (this is shonen battle fluff but great “brain off” reading), Dorohedoro (I need to finish it but it’s got some well written Edge to it), Shojo Null (this absolutely got cancelled and an opportunity to write itself out with 5 chapters, it was okay?), Wild Strawberry (edgy with pretty art but not really living up to its premise)

OKAY. More later, or I will not be able to write anything else about anything. I have so many things that are still on my “to read” list as well, I’m excited to keep this momentum going.