Bornite Reads

Bloodlines - Karen Traviss

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force book 2

Re-read: Jul 2025

I love this book for Boba Fett stepping back into the scene. In case you couldn't tell from the cover Fett is back! Although he's a crusty old man now, basically on death's door. Wanting to make amends with his estranged daughter Ailyn, he goes looking for her on Mandalore. She's not there but pairs up with a Mando'a named Mirta Gev to find her.

The hits in the book don't stop coming honestly. Fett and Han team up to assassinate Thracken Sal-Solo, which I mean the guy was walking into that one. Jacen and Admiral Cha Niathal conspire to get the secret police - the Galactic Alliance Guard - formed. Honestly GAG as the acronym for the secret police is a serve, gotta hand it to Traviss for that one. My boy, Gilad Pellaeon, quitting on the spot when he finds out about Jacen and GAG. Gotta hand it Pellaeon, he really puts his money where his mouth is. He said "secret police? I do not think so!" And when he was overruled, he said "aight I'ma head out effective immediately." Then there's Jacen killing Fett's daughter by torturing her with the Force. Just imagine the Pretty Woman "big mistake, huge!" gif here. That surely won't come back to bite you in the ass Jacen!

The series moves along quite nicely. Shit is going to get so much more fucked up though. It's so good.

Betrayal - Aaron Allston

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force book 1

Re-read: Jul 2025

Ooooh boy. Now we're into it. Legacy of the Force is one of my favourite Star Wars EU series. There's a lot going on in this series: Sith mysteries, political disagreements, rebellion, space fascism, secret police, Jedi rifts, Alema's back and not for her disability cheque, and so many people dying.

But it all starts here in Betrayal. What betrayal you might ask? Well obviously our most obvious of light-sided Jedi: Jacen Solo. There was a heavy amount of sarcasm in that sentence. Jacen has been out here doing the most morally grey shit for years, so yeah he finally plunges right off the fence he was sitting on. This all goes down because of internal tension in the Galactic Alliance. Some members seeing the Alliance as bad as the old Empire. Remarkable similarities to the whole C.I.S. versus the Old Republic situation. Corellia is the ring leader of this whole movement against the Alliance and that's where shit gets a little crazy. Please remember the Solos are Corellian and so is Wedge Antilles. Wedge is preemptively detained by the GA for that fact - the fascism really jumps out immediately. Han and Leia are stuck between the GA and Corellia; Luke and Mara are stuck between the GA and the Jedi Order. Especially as things get worse.

But let's not forget the horrifying Anakin Solo droid that is built to control Centerpoint station that Ben Skywalker has to talk out of believing its actually his cousin. And especially let's not forget Jacen being seduced by Lumiya to the dark side of the Force right in front of another Jedi whom he promptly kills (RIP Nelani, you deserved better). Like dude didn't even try. To be fair he thinks he's following the Will of the Force. Maybe just the will of the dark side. It's a very "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" situation, but Jacen is putting in the over time to get that road built!

The Swarm War - Troy Denning

Star Wars: The Dark Nest Trilogy book 3

Re-read: Jun 2025

Okay first of all I have no idea why they chose this cover art of Luke looking so Sithy. I dont' remember him using force lighting on the Killiks. I think it might be about him purging himself of doubts so he can confront Lomi Plo properly, so he has to face the dark in himself. That's my guess - I'm not spending more time on it haha. The conclusion to the Dark Nest is here. As the title informs you we are now in the midst of the Swarm War, between the Killiks and the Galactic Alliance and the Chiss Ascendancy. The Chiss are not fucking around and have designed bioweapons to use against the Killiks. Which luckily is prevented, but it's about to be war crimes central over here. Which is nice that we have newly minted Grand Master Luke Skywalker on the case. I really like the endgame confrontation between Luke and Lomi Plo and Raynar Thul. Lomi gets got, of course, the fate of all dark Jedi, but Raynar only loses an arm and Luke takes him away from the Killiks to become human again, if possible. It's a badass fight! Leia also has her own badass fight against Alema - again. They really can't get enough of fighting each other. But Leia pulls a Han versus Boba Fett and feeds her to local wildlife, which is gross but Leia is out to win, so bye bye for now Alema (spoilers for next series!).

After the force users are removed from the Killiks they become peaceful again and it is agreed they can live only on planets that have a disease (or nano-machines? I can't remember.) of sorts that will keep their population in check and docile. Not sure how I feel about this as the right thing to do, but all things considered, this is the compromise so we don't have to witness a genocide.

The Unseen Queen - Troy Denning

Star Wars: The Dark Nest trilogy book 2

Re-read: Jun 2025

This book has a lot of Galactic Alliance political intrigue that involves the Jedi. Poor Corran Horn is in the centre of that, kind of getting played if I'm being honest (I love Corran since before his Jedi days so I was annoyed about this). The cause of that is that the Dark Nest of the Killiks, the subconscious part of the hive mind, is still alive and spreading drugs and causing chaos in the galaxy at large. The Skywalkers and Solos are on the mission looking for what is going on with the Killiks and their Dark Nest. But not quick enough for the politicians so they get geared up to stop it themselves which, wouldn't you know it was the plan of the Dark Nest all along. Commence another war in the stars.

One of the things I loved about this book is the fight Leia has with the Dark Nest joiner Jedi Alema. Poor Alema has had the roughest of times since falling fully to the dark side last book. Luke cuts off her arm, Leia cuts off one of her lekku, I also think Leia gets part of one of her feet? It's bad for her. But, if I'm being honest, she kind of deserves it. Another one who deserves it is Lomi Plo who is the Dark Jedi controlling the dark nest - the unseen queen of titular fame. Luke was not prepared for her "manipulate your mind to make herself invisible" trick sadly. So she will have to keep until next book.

Oh and let's not forget Jacen torturing an old woman with the force! Really keeping those light-side credentials up to date Jacen!

The Joiner King - Troy Denning

Star Wars: Dark Nest Trilogy book 1

Re-read: Jun 2025

It's Jedi bug time you guys! The whole premise of this trilogy is that a Jedi and two dark Jedi were stranded with on a colony of insectoids called Killiks, and because they have access to force powers they become the de facto leaders of the Killik hive mind. This of course leads them to become expansionist and coming into conflict with the Chiss. The war not going well for them, Raynar Thul, the Jedi leader of the Killiks calls out to his Jedi friends to come help him. Enter our main cast of characters. When I first read this one, it had been a while since I had read the New Jedi Order books, so I had no idea who Raynar Thul was. It made the events taking place feel confusing. Honestly I can't remember if it's explained or if you need the context from NJO. Of course we can't forget the dark Jedi, who become the leaders of the Killik hive mind subconscious. I really like this whole conscious versus subconscious mind for a hive mind situation. This is something that I haven't see explored before.

Anyways the more interesting things about this book was that the Killiks can turn non-Killiks into "joiners," that is they network them into the hive mind. This even works on Jedi. This creates, understandably, a lot of problems for everyone. The second interesting thing in this book, is the increasing signalling that Jacen Solo is not right. In an incredible move he dicks down Tenal Ka so good she sends a Hapan fleet to help the Killiks and gets knocked up. It's so fun for me to see his slow slippage down the slippery slope unto Darth-hood. The third thing is that Leia FINALLY devotes herself to the Jedi, becoming an apprentice to Seba. Which like girl now you're in your 50s and you realize you can't keep up with the youngsters even though you are stronger in the force so you need to get training? Someone play the flashback to when Luke was begging her to take Jedi training seriously ages ago.

Queer As Folklore - Sacha Coward

Read: Jun 2025

This was a great read exploring how and where folklore and queerness intersect. I really enjoyed finding out those hidden - or not so hidden - corners of folklore. The sub-title is The Hidden Queer History of Myths and Monsters after all. Some of it I already knew or suspected from my own journeys along this same line of questioning. As a queer person, I always find myself looking for my people in history and myth. So it wasn't that big of a surprise to find someone had written a book about that very thing. And I really appreciated the way Coward wrote it, humorous, tongue-in-cheek. I mean one of the chapters is titled Demon Twinks! All and all I really loved it and shoutout for Coward for writing this for us.

Dayspring - Anthony Oliveira

Read: May 2025

This was such an interesting book. It's about Jesus and one of the disciples (I can't remember which one, but I did have it figured out when I was reading it), having a gay romance. It flips between very biblical prose and time period, to like a modern AU where they are teenagers in high school together. It's very strange since usually I read spec fic and histories, which are not generally outside the norms for prose and structure. And I do mean structure in the literal structure of the print on the page situation. Most pages aren't full of text at all. But that works for this and the subject matter honestly. Oliveira was great for that.

I cannot imagine the the mainline conservative christian people were at all pleased with this. I didn't - and won't - look into any of the controversy Dayspring wrought. But I imagine it was quite rage inducing exercise for them. As a queer person who was raised Catholic, the beauty and wonder of this book was not lost on me. There is something undeniably potent about it. And naturally I was reading it during Easter season, so well timed me! Actually, I had to put it down because I was overdosing on christianity from that, and came back to it afterwards. What I'll say is that this version of Jesus is a version I could get behind. It's such a different and radical depiction from what I was told and shown growing up. It made me smile. Of course this is at the bottom of it, a love story. Which is cute, but everyone I think knows what happens to Jesus in the end, so it was also sad. Bit of a celebrate the love now, because it will end type of thing. Which I think was one of the points. Not the only one, but one of them.

The Romanov Prophecy - Steve Berry

Re-read: May 2025

So I had read this one before, I'm kind of a sucker for Imperial Russia stuff if I'm being honest. And of course this book deals with the escape of Romanovs from the family's fate in Yekaterinburg. It's centred on the commission to bring back the tsar, and a black American lawyer who is involved in it. It's like his law firm is doing background checks for the commission if I remember correctly. Anyways he gets caught up in a conspiracy to ensure a prophecy from Rasputin doesn't come true. Anyways I think you can guess where it's all going from here.

I enjoy this book it's fun fantasy to live in a world with a different Russia, especially considering the reality. I have two sour points with this novel. Berry writes in a lot of racism, which I get in the context of the book, but just find personally distasteful. I don't think we needed the Russian equivalent of the n-word quite that much. And the second is a weird homophobic throwaway line in the first or second chapter, where the main character wonders if the guy who just got shot in front of him was HIV positive as some of the blood got on him. Like was that really necessary? I did not think so at all. But past that this was a silly and fun novel to read. Lovely escapism honestly, and that's why I like it so much.

A Traveller's History of Southeast Asia - J.M. Barwise & N.J. White

Read: May 2025

This was an interesting read. It was a nice introduction to the topic in question, but there was a lack of depth. Obviously, Barwise and White were covering a large geographic area and a long time frame so understandably there was a lack of depth. There was a large focus on the more modern and history - from the Colonial period up until the early 00's. Which is also understandable since this is a traveller's history. It's designed to contextualize the sights one will be seeing. And most relevant context in regards to the culture is more recent.

I personally learned a lot as I hadn't looked into SEA history in any kind of depth and only was picking things up from reading/studying other histories. I'm thinking largely of primary & secondary social studies as we call it in Canada. But this was a good place to dip my toes into the waters so to speak. There was a lot more I wanted to know, but as I said there was a lot to cover so there was no time to pause. I know I'll have to find specific histories written about the specific place and/or time to go into the things I found more interesting (like pre-colonial times).

As you can see by the cover image, the covered countries include: Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. I don't know why the Philippines was not included as I would solidly categorize it as SEA. But I guess in some places it's not? Which is weird to me. But oh no, I'll have to read a history book on the Philippines to find out....tragic.

The Martian - Andy Weir

Reread: May 2025

This isn't the first time I've read The Martian and it will likely not be my last. It's made it into my comfort reading, can-read-it-in-48-hours book rotation. I have two science fiction books on there and both have to do with Mars in the near future. I think I have a type.

I really love the air of optimism in the book. The near future science that makes it all feel so real, like it'll be happening while I'm still alive believable. I really like science fiction where I can see the line that would lead us from where we are in reality to the where "we" are in the fiction. Of course this line in the The Martian is really short.

And of course I love the characterization of Mark Watney and Annie Montrose (honestly she's my favourite character). Mark is so ready to figure shit out and be calm and some how sane. Weir did a fantastic job writing him. I just love Annie for the amount of times she just says "fuck" lol.

If you want a pretty funny plot summary @petrova-frequency wrote one that made me laugh here.

Bloodsucking Fiends - Christopher Moore

Read: Apr 2025

Moore really has a way with his writing. It's always fun. Well at least everything I've ever read by him. This was no exception. I was looking for more vampire books when I picked this up at the second-hand book shop. Although it sat on my "to read" shelf for ages before I actually cracked it open.

The plot is a human/vampire romance. Not incredibly ground breaking I know. But the way Moore approached with with... this irreverence, made it better than some run of the mill supernatural romance. I mean it's still heterosexual romance so like I'm not completely invested, but the way vampirism is depicted and the character work really did it for me. Okay so I'm actually pretty biased about vampire novels, sue me, I like what I like, but I still think this is a fun and good read.

Death's End - Liu Cixin

Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy book 3

Read: Apr 2025

Okay now we really have to get into. Things are about to get super weird. We're talking higher and lower dimensional space; changing the speed of light; pocket universes; time jumps measured in millions of years; alien AI robots shaped like humans. Like shit is wild here.

Like in the other books there is one main character. Which I'll give to Netflix that their show has pretty direct connections with each of the main characters of the novels. Another really direct character connections is Yun Tianming, who is the guy who has cancer and has his brain flung out into space. His character does the same shit in the show and the book, so that was fun. I've been trained at this point to expect the character plots not to line up 1:1, but this one did.

The main character of this book is Cheng Xin. The only woman main character. As a character I feel kind of meh about her. Frankly I dislike her actions and motivations a lot of the time. This all feeds into my feelings that there's more than a little misogyny going on in this trilogy. I'm not claiming anything in regards to the author other than there is a pretty clear bias showing up in this work. Is it an intentional choice or is it unconscious, I can't rightly say. But the portrayal and actions of Cheng Xin show her off as weak willed and naive. In contrast to many of the men characters who pull up their pants and get shit done in the end. Another thing that hit me the wrong way was the depiction of the men in the future as "too feminine" which was directly contrasted to the men from the past (who came to the future via cryogenic hibernation) who are more decisive, masculine, and who have what it takes to continue the fight. The more I read the more eye rolling I did about this. The ending for Cheng Xin is tragic and I'm not sure if it's because the whole bigger picture story is a tragedy or if it's because she's a woman who doesn't get a choice.

Of course is this an echo of meaning lost in translation? A cultural disconnect? I honestly don't know, but I felt more than a little weird about it.

Anyways despite that I cackled when I realized that flat-earthers finally got vindication with extreme prejudice at the end of the book.

The Dark Forest - Liu Cixin

Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy book 2

Read: Apr 2025

This was such a fun book. In all honesty, it is my favourite one of the trilogy. This is where things get WEIRD. Not that there weren't weird things going on the first book, but it really ramps up in this one. Liu really just starts turning the weird dial and never stops until the books are over.

In this entry the focus is on humanity preparing for the arrival of the Trisolarans and the defence of the solar system. One of the programs rolled out as part of the UN defence program is the Wallfacers. Truly interesting concept to negate total surveillance of an enemy. The main character of The Dark Forest is Luo Ji, who is a Wallfacer, and honestly kind of shit at it. I could barely tolerate him for the better part of the book. He rises to the occasion in the end and redeems himself, but it was a rough journey getting there.

Liu takes the dark forest hypothesis and articulates it as an example of what it looks like if it moved from hypothesis to evidence backed theory. I won't lie, it is bleak. It invoked some deep feelings of hopelessness in me. Liu takes care to reinforce this in the next book as well. Belief in the dark forest hypothesis is, perhaps pragmatic, but ultimately one that I feel closes out hope. This is a story, a very good one, a scary example of the dark forest, but the dark forest remains a hypothesis and I had to remind myself of that.

The Three-Body Problem - Liu Cixin

Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy book 1

Read: Apr 2025

I had watched the Netflix TV show before I read these so that's the angle I was coming from. I was expecting a plucky group of friends and I was expecting it to be set in China and not the UK like the show. I got one of those things.

I was really surprised to find the book had one main character: Wang Miao. If you've watched the show this character is the one who invents the nanowire. Of course Wang Miao is a man in the book, in fact it really feels like most of the characters are men, with only a few women who really matter to the the plot. This is something I feel for the whole of Remembrance of Earth's Past, and I feel it gets worse in the other two books - but let's discuss it when we get there.

One of my favourite characters from the show - the rough-spoken, smoking detective - was in the book. He was just as good in the book as he was in the show. I was really glad he was there. Obviously the Netflix show made a lot of changes. It was quite interesting to see how they teased apart plot beats for different characters when in the book, especially this first one, Wang Miao does basically all the stuff the main character group does in the show. It did help everything stay tied up very neatly together.

One of the things I liked (not enjoyed mind) was the pretty pessimistic take on how people reacted to finding out there was other intelligent life out there. Inviting them to invade? Have we not seen how bad colonialism goes for the natives? Yikes. Don't get me wrong I completely get where they're coming from, especially Ye Wenjie. When society treats you like shit, it's hard to not want that society to perish. But selling out every single human and the planet as a whole it a step too far, but unfortunately I can see it happening. The nice counterpoint to this is the rallying of humanity together when eventually the world discovers the truth.

Truly still one of the best sci-fi I've ever read. The oil tanker take down scene will stay with me forever.

Heirs of the Force - Kevin J. anderson & Rebecca Moesta

Star Wars: Young Jedi Knights series

Read: Mar 2025

This was the first time reading a Young Jedi Knights book. Which is weird considering how much I was into reading Star Wars novels in the 1990s. An impulse, which admittedly, has not abated. Obviously I tore through this book in no time. Books geared for kids are like small to medium sized beverages, I will inhale them in 2 seconds flat.

Overall I enjoyed it. It was fun to see the introduction of Lowbacca, a Wookie jedi. And the kind of weird shit the twins and their friends were getting up to at the academy. Also nice to see Jacen as a normal person. I got too used to him being Darth Caedus. But young Jacen is just some teenager haha. I love the attempt at subverting typical gender characterizations with the twins. Jaina is into machines and is analytical and Jacen loves animals and talks to them via feelings. I understand what they were doing and hey, maybe with the target audience it worked great. But as an adult reading this is, it's so obvious and lacking any subtlety that it hurts.

Although having Jaina basically melt at affection from her father while Jacen couldn't care less kind of ruined it for me as well.

Guess that's why it's a kids book.