schmavery's 3 favorite reads in 2025

> "He's written a quine," she murmurs

While it took a few chapters to get going and at first I wasn't sure, when I got to this line I knew I was reading the right book.

But that was FAR from the biggest reveal in this book that is practically constructed out of galaxy brained twists.

There are quite a a few narrative discontinuities, which can be pretty disorienting. I imagine that's the intended effect but it definitely made it a trickier read.

Part of me hoped it would spend more time developing the magic system itself rather than escalating to blow my mind several times. If anyone has recommendations for "Magic as a programming language" books, please share because I'm a big nerd.

All is forgiven though, after I managed to hold on through the rest of that insane rollercoaster ride.

A new one for the favorites list!

This book ended up being way better than I hoped. I've been disappointed a few times in my search for a certain brand of horror sci-fi, but this nailed it. It ended up being more technical/sci-fi than I thought it would be, given the crime/thriller FBI angle.

But wow, lots to dig into here. By the end, I wasn't following 100%, but that's basically a positive in this genre. It's somehow firmly grounded while also having a couple mindblowing twists. It's gory and dark but with a depth (that I miss from some Blake Crouch scifi thrillers)

It has such an iconic and distinct, somehow very visual, branding that it has the potential to be a great movie or mini series. Lets blow some crime-thriller-lovers' minds

I think this is a good wakeup call in a similar way to Abundance, but focuses in more closely on fewer topics and does a more convincing job going into the details.

The universal basic income section was more compelling than the 15-hour work week for me -- and in some places they almost seemed to step on each others' toes. There was a big point made that UBI wouldn't decrease working hours, which then kind of got in the way of the logic behind the 15-hour work week. Maybe the loose differentiation between "profitable work" and "important but not profitable work" is muddling it a little.

I was surprised at how convincing the section on open borders was. It addressed all the common sources of pushback, while making a pretty good argument for the moral and economic importance of addressing the problem. It felt pretty realistic too, pointing out that even if we added tons of pretty stringent requirements for immigration to make it feel less risky, we could still come out ahead as long as we're increasing the number of people.

There were some bits that didn't really land for me, and the title didn't feel totally relevant, but overall I think it was a great book.