Happy Wednesday everyone! Time for another WWW Wednesday, a meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words. Want to participate? Simply answer the three questions below and tag the host site! Book covers link to Goodreads.
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Currently Reading: PHASMA by Delilah S. Dawson
The first prompt of the #Hamilthon Reading Challenge is “Alexander Hamilton: Read a Book With a Name in the Title.” The choice of PHASMA checks a lot of boxes for me: it fulfills this challenge, it’s a backlist book I’ve owned for a while, and I’ve been wanting to catch up on STAR WARS new canon. I’m 100 pages or so in and I think this is going to be a middling review for me, perfectly fine if you want some STAR WARS lore, but not a spectacular read.
Recently Finished: DESCENDANT OF THE CRANE by Joan He
PHEW! This book has been much hyped on Twitter so I was nervous about the possibility of a letdown, but this was quite a good read. A Chinese-inspired court drama, DESCENDANT follows Hesina, a seventeen-year-old girl who has just ascended to the throne after her father was found dead. Hesina is convinced her father was murdered, and declares a public inquiry into his death. Her desire for answers is counterbalanced with the realization that there are those at court who would use the inquiry to further their own political agendas. Hesina is soon learning the hard lesson that just because she’s empress doesn’t mean she can override the fears and demands of her subjects.
Probable Next Read: VIGILANCE by Robert Jackson Bennett and/or ROSEWATER by Tade Thompson
I will continue onwards with the #Hamilthon Reading Challenge for the rest of the month! The next prompt is “The Reynolds Pamphlet: Read something short.” I’m fulfilling that box with the novella VIGILANCE which as been high on my list since it released earlier this year. After that I’ll jump over to ROSEWATER for the prompt “The World Was Wide Enough: Read a book set in a country (or originally written in a language) not your own.” The sequel to ROSEWATER just came out, so if I like this read I hope to jump to the next book in the eventual trilogy in the next few months.
Realms of My Mind 
I’m starting The Rosewater Insurrection next, I’m so excited!
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Glad to hear you liked Descendant of the Crane! I’m looking forward to getting to that one eventually.
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I wondered about Phasma. I’ve been enjoying some of the new star Wars canon books (chiefly Claudia Gray’s stuff) but wasn’t sure about this one… will be curious to see your final thoughts.
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Of the newer books I’ve read thus far, BLOODLINE by Claudia Gray has been my favorite (well, after THRAWN). Really looking forward to her Qui-gon/Obi-wan book next month!
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That should be good! And I liked Bloodline a LOT.
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As I recall, Phasma was a so-so read for me. I remember it being more of a play-by-play of her life and not much about her as a character. Right now I’m reading Star Wars: Queen’s Shadow and it’s probably going to be a middling one for me too. Writing’s fine, but I think it’s the lack of material to work with that’s the problem.
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You’ve hit the nail on the head with the central issue of Phasma. As for the books at large, there is an issue with just HOW MUCH they have to be tied in to licensed canon, which makes a very constraining sandbox to play in. There’s so many things they either don’t want to reveal yet or want to potentially explore in TV or film down the line, that it’s limiting the stories you can tell.
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