Year in Review 2023
It's been a year, huh?
Lots of ups and downs. Lost my grandfather, who was my last grandparent, and my uncle, the last uncle on my dad's side, both this year. A coworker's husband died. Lots of struggles with health for both me and my parents.
Work got a new OPAC/Discovery Layer after 20-odd years. III stopped being a thing and SirsiDynex, those who bought III, stopped innovating on Encore/Sierra. So now we use Aspen/Koha and are paying ByWater Solutions to make stuff for us, so that's cool. We're still getting used to it four months on.
On a 100% good note, I also went to Norway again and visited my best friends. Norway is so amazing. I wish I could move there. I'd be more likely to come out as trans there, that's for sure.
Overall...I dunno. I'm feeling ambivalent to the whole thing at the moment.
Reading
My reading speed has been shit this year. Had I read everything I started, I'd be only at 18 books. As it is, I finished half that. I don't know what happened, but my reading speed has gone to shit since Covid started. (It was probably the trauma from the global pandemic. ~Ed.) Only year worse than '23 or '20 was '16. I blame politics for that year.
Martha Wells. I read two of her books this year. The self-contained effort Witch King, and the newest Murderbot , System Collapse. I read these two faster than most single books that I actually finished. She is just a superb writer. I super recommend The Murderbot Diaries. Witch King is good too, but Murderbot really hits the zeitgeist for me. ...Pat of the back for spelling zeitgeist right the first time.
the first book that I finished was Leviathan Wakes by S.A. Corey. This is harder sci-fi than I usually read, but I really enjoyed it overall. The mix of hard sci-fi with up to date science, and the mix of Space Opera and Noir is really good. That said, motherfucker's long. I worry I'll run out of steam with doorstops this day and age. Biggest reason I haven't continued to read it. Book one is pretty self-contained, I doubt any of them after that are. I don't have the gumption for 4,000 more pages of one story at the moment.
The surprise hit of the year for me was The Warden by Daniel M. Ford. This protagonist necromancer really vibed with me. The story structure is more akin to The Hobbit than most fantasy, by which I mean it is a series of chronological arcs rather than a hard point A to B. I took to this structure here better than with The Hobbit itself. Ford is no Tolkien, but the book is good all the same. Having the book end on a cliffhanger is annoying af though. I tried to read another of Ford's books and ended up setting it down. Didn't jive with the protagonist...or the story of that one. Hopefully I enjoy the sequel.
The queer solarpunk compilation book, “Fix the World” has also been excellent. I've been reading stories out of it between books and by and large I have enjoyed them. Worth looking into if you want some hopeful Sci-Fi.
Less so for the compilations are the two lit magazines I've subscribed to. Clarkesworld and Interzone. They're good! Just what I've read has been more depressing/cishet/darker than the other books I've read, so they tend to get a story or two read out of each edition and that's it. I'm happy to support them anyway, and a story or two I feel is sufficient for my money. Especially with Amazon screwing magazines over so hard. (If you don't know, Amazon made a thing some years back to digitally distribute eMagazines. Like everything else they do, Amazon took in a sizable percentage of the market. Then this year they decided to drop it. Fucking over revenue for all of them rather hard. Between that and getting inundated with AI shit, it's been a hard year for magazines. Weightless Books has some mag subscriptions on it, and others have Patreons. Worth a look.)
Really, everything I actually finished was pretty good. The classic Rendezvous with Rama, the non-fiction of What If? 2, to the sci-fi schlock of Well of Furies. Just need more of that going into 2024 it seems.
Also, shout out to BookWyrm, OpenReads and the OpenLibrary. Really have helped me get a little further away from GoodReads and Amazon. Here's BookWyrm's “Year in the Books” for me.
Gaming:
Lotta gaming this year.
Honorable mention as always to Destiny 2. Lightfall was okay, but Season of the Witch has been badass enough to make up for that. Eris for goodhood! That said, in spite of Destiny being #1 on multiple Year in Review things I've received, much of my gaming this year has been elsewhere.
I did 100% a game though! Laura Croft GO. Its rare for me to beat a game, let alone get a Platinum Trophy. I learned that there are games that are super cheap in the “deals” section of the PS store and I got that one for ≤ $0.50USD. It got me to want to play more Tomb Raider, though I didn't. Do have porn of her as my tablet's wallpaper and lock screen, but hey. Anyway, it's an excellent puzzle game. Keep an eye out for a sale and grab it when you can. I picked up Hitman GO on steam, (It's not on PSN,) but haven't played it yet. Sadly, Embracer Group shuttered the studio.
I need to play more of Sherlock Holmes the Awakened. I helped Kickstart it, and only got to chapter 2 before getting distracted by something else. I Kickstarted it initially because the developer, Frogwares, is Ukrainian and they needed help keeping the lights on in more ways than just paying the bill. I forget the initial codename for the project, but I remember it’s a Ukrainian dish that was used as a initial pass to see if someone was a Russian spy, as Russians can't/couldn't (they've probably adapted to this,) pronounce it correctly. Frogwares stuff does have some racist shit in it, but they justify it with fitting the time period and the Lovecraftian side of the story. So, heads up about that.
Another excellent game was Ghostwire Tokyo. It’s an open world game, and a stealth game, neither of which are my forte, but I got to chapter 4 and enjoyed what I played thoroughly. Apparently, the in-game Tokyo is very close to the real thing.
I played a lot of Deep Rock Galactic this year. Of all of the PvE games that have tried to be a Destiny clone, it succeeds the best. I think rather than Anthem, Babylon’s Fall, Outriders, Marvel’s Avengers, etc. where it’s just Destiny + gimmick, Deep Rock Galactic combines two whole systems completely. Destiny + Minecraft is excellent.
Bayonetta was a fun side stop. I also beat this one! On Easy. But I was more in it for the story and titilation. The graphics are alright, but considering it’s an 8th generation port of a 7th generation game running on a 9th generation console, it looks pretty good. I had played Bayonetta back on the 360 as a rental, (RIP rental stores,) but never got very far. Now that I'm less of a tryhard, I've learned the joys of easy mode. I only died a few times this way, and mostly to bullshit. Cliffs, stunlocks, etc. Delightfully over the top and a real power fantasy on easy. I want her tits glasses. I saw the twist a mile away, but it was still played well.
This led me to wanting to play the other games. Thus realizing that Gamestop doesn't really carry used games anymore? Not in-store at least. Gotta make room for Funko Pops I guess. Which took me to my first ever bidding for something on eBay. I did not get Bayonetta 2, though it's still on my list, but I did get Cereza and the Lost Demon. VERY different games for the same series. Which is good. For one, none of the titilazation. Which would be creepy as fuck had they went that route. The game reminds me of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons in that you control Cereza and Cheshire at the same time with each stick, but with combat all of its own and a picture book style that reminded me of Okage: Shadow King. Mostly for the eyes. I'm almost to the third act in it. Should try and finish it off soon.
I'm trying to get into Warframe. There's just so much with it being a decade old that it's hard. The cross save should help. I haven't really found the loop yet. Seemingly its mostly the equivalent to Vanguard Ops, but all the missions are significantly longer. Playing a bit more since I first wrote this, I'm getting a better handle on the currencies and the loop. We'll see how long I persist.
Honkai Star Rail has taken up a lot of my time these past couple of months. Trying to avoid the Gatcha mechanics, (I bet MiHoYo is shitting themselves with CCP's new anti-F2P rules,) but the gameplay and story are compelling, and it's got that mindless grind itch Destiny had been scratching. I still say the end boss fight for Belebog is fucking badass. The Echo of War only captures part of it, but being able to replay it is good. Honk Train is worth your while if you have 30GB free and are not susceptible to gambling mechanics.
Best of the Year
Book of the Year
No contest really. I read it in like, 12 days. Even for a novella, that's lightning fast for me. And Murderbot is Goals.
Best Game of the Year
A game I beat and that got me interested and got me actually playing the sequels. The sheer over the top nature of the game makes it worth the play. Platinum can hit and miss, but they absolutely hit with Bayonetta. Cereza and the Lost Demon get an honorable mention too, though I have yet to beat it. Bayonetta the character is also Goals.
The duality of being transgender, Murderbot and Bayonetta are both goals. :P
Best Thing of the Year
Visiting my BFFs in Norway. Even with getting stranded in Boston for the night, it was such an amazing trip. I wish I could do it more often. Or that they could come here. Still, I think about it fondly almost every day.
That's about it. I talk a lot more about games than books, huh? I guess books are just more personal. No music because I use MusicBee with CDs I've ripped from the library. No Spotify or Bandcamp, or whatever.
Hashtag Salad: #Murderbot #WitchKing #LeviathansWake #Koha #Destiny2 #LightFall #SeasonOfTheWitch #Bayonetta #CerezaAndTheLostDemon #LauraCroft #TombRaider #SherlockHolmes #Frogwares #HonkaiStarRail #WarFrame #DeepRockGalactic #BookWyrm #OpenReads #OpenLibrary #Books #VideoGames #YearInReview #Wrapped #BestOf #TourmaReads #TourmaGaming #TourmaPosts
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