Books Read 2025

[Ziggy]

Similar to the Games Beaten thread, but instead for books that you have read.

I have no idea how popular (or unpopular) this thread will be, but let's give it a go!

[Ziggy]

1. The Outfit (A Parker Novel), by Richard Stark

I didn't start The Outfit in 2025, but finished it, so that's where I'll count it. Richard Stark is a pseudonym of the author Donald Edwin Westlake. He wrote the novel The Hunter, featuring the character Parker. He went out to write 24 novels featuring the Parker character. The Outfit is book 3 in the series. I learned of the series from one of my favorite movies, Payback. In the opening credits, it's stated that the movie is an adaptation of the book The Hunter. Being one of my favorite movies, I finally got around to reading The Hunter in 2022. Then I went on to read the second Parker book, The Man with the Getaway Face. And now I've finally finished the third book, The Outfit.

I'm a little apprehensive to summarize the plot of The Outfit. There's a chain of events set in motion in The Hunter that are played out through the first three novels. So talking about The Outfit will spoil three books, basically. So SPOILER warning. I'm assuming there's decent continuity through the entire series, but the first three books can really be viewed as one big story arc broken up into three parts. Anyway, The Hunter involves Parker settling a score, which causes him to get in hot water with "the outfit" which is an organized crime syndicate. The Man with the Getaway Face then involves Parker dealing with the fallout of crossing the outfit. All of this leading up to the third novel, The Outfit. It becomes clear to Parker that he has to do something to get The Outfit off his back once and for all.

The Parker series has been criticized for the main character being a bad guy. And I don't mean in a "good guy, bad guy" kind of way. Parker is not a good human being, by any standard. He does have some standards, but they don't stem from a moral code, rather, him being a successful professional criminal. He is not out to do any good in this world. He looks out for himself, and that's about it. So in reading these novels, you are just following a thug around and he does bad things. I can understand that complaint. Of course, my introduction to the character was from the movie Payback, which Hollywoodafied the character a little, and I can't help but picture that character in my head when reading the books.

At any rate, if I read any more from this series, I will review just that one book. I just felt like it was kind of necessary to briefly summarize the series first.

[Ack]

Yeah the Parker series is also known for becoming more formulaic robbery and heist novels over time. You've read what are generally considered the most interesting of the books, though if you enjoy them, there's no reason not to continue.

If you haven't seen it, I recommend checking out the movie Point Blank with Lee Marvin. It's another adaptation of the original novel. There is also a comic book adaptation. Personally, I like the Parker character because he's a bad guy. It makes him stand out when compared to a long list of noir antiheroes or everymen caught up in a bad situation.

[Ziggy]

That's actually good to know that they become more focused on robberies and heists. The parts in the first three novels regarding the planning and execution of "a job" were very fun to read. I wouldn't mind more of that.

I like the writing style, I will definitely read more of the series. The books are pretty fast paced, they never seem to have parts that are drawn out or boring in any way. And they're not very long, either. I've been reading digital ebook versions, but I think they've all been around 250 pages, so you can really blow through them fast.

I have been aware of Point Blank, but haven't seen it yet. I definitely would like to. I've also been aware of the graphic novel version. I see that you can buy the complete collection. I'd have to check out a sample, first.

[marurun]

Are we speaking strictly of words-only books, or are we including also graphic novels and the like?

[Ziggy]

I was wondering the same thing. I was planning on including graphic novels for my own list. Maybe not a single comic issue though.

I was kinda thinking about listing fiction, non-fiction and graphic novels as separate lists but still have the combine total. This is what I'm thinking of doing for myself, but you're free to maintain a single list if you would rather do that.

[MrPopo]

I think they all would fit in this thread. How you want to organize your personal list is up to you.

[SamuraiMegas]

I actually had a discussion with some friends about this topic on new years- do comics count as books?
The consensus we reached was long-run series, graphic novels and mature titles definitely count as books. I was kind of surprised it was so unanimous, the only caveat that was added was single comics basically counted as the adult equivalent of reading a Dr Seuss book. that isn't a bad thing, they're just short. Even the women there who thought comics were more of a men's hobby counted them as books interestingly.

I definitely say they should be added.

I'm going to start reading Jeanette McCurdy's I'm Glad My Mom Died soon, I grabbed it from the goodwill bins for 20 cents a while ago. Brother gave me a copy of Tommy Chong's autobiography so thats up next. Trying to actually start reading again but we'll see lol.

[Ack]

1. When Gravity Fails, by George Alec Effinger

I've been reading my way through a lot of the cyberpunk classics over the last couple of years, and this was next on my plate. It's the start of a trilogy centered around Marîd Audran, a fixer of sorts with a serious drug habit who operates out of a fictional slum called the Budayeen somewhere in the Middle East. When a friend goes missing and bodies start piling up, Audran is tasked by the local kingpin to find out what's going on.

I enjoyed this book a lot, in part because it offers a refreshing setting for the cyberpunk genre instead of the usual US/Western Europe/Japan mixture. Instead, what little we hear of those areas of the world involves societal decay and collapse, with completely new nations having taken their place. There is only one American character in the book, and he can't speak Arabic, while the only person who looks Japanese has had her body modified to appear that way for prostitution.

While drug use is a heavy theme, body modification is another, perhaps an even bigger piece of the story. Plastic surgery, gender transition, and brain-implanted education devices are all part of the norm, as are personality-shifting implants that effectively take over a person and put the self in the backseat, with some pretty terrible repercussions depending on what that personality does. At times I was reminded far more of Dr. Adder than the likes of Neuromancer, and I'm ok with that. It added a definite flavor that kept the world unique.

Do I have any criticisms? Yes, of course. The story takes a long time to properly get going; for the first hundred or so pages, I thought this was more like a series of vignettes than anything. It was only towards the middle that I realized how the beginning had set up everything. And the story takes its time with world building. Also, it was written in the 1980s, so while it's forward thinking in many respects, it's also often dated. But hey, the Soviet Union was a global player at the time of writing, so yeah, it makes sense why it comes up.

Regardless, I enjoyed the book a lot. I will likely go track down the rest of the trilogy at some point.

[MrPopo]

1. Trial of Birthright - Michael J. Ciaravella

Catalyst Games Labs has been pushing forward the Battletech timeline into the new ilClan era, and this is the first novel to focus on the ilClan and new Star League itself; previous novels set around this same time focus on the other states and how they are reacting to the sudden disappearance of two major power blocks (the Falcons and Wolves). Now, all of that probably made no sense to you. And if that's the case, this book is not for you. It assumes a major level of familiarity with the recent events in the universe and is not a good book to onboard to the universe.

Trial of Birthright starts just after the end of Hour of the Wolf and follows the formation of the new Clan-led Star League. The one sentence pitch for the book was "what if you made a Star League and nobody showed up?" The Wall is still active, shielding Terra from the rest of the universe and giving the remnants of the Wolves and Falcons time to breathe and rebuild. But for a martial culture that focused on an overriding goal of taking Terra, what do you do once you've caught the car?

The main focus character is Darren Wolf, a member of Clan Wolf who gets seconded to the new Star League Defense Force. He's tasked with dealing with the insurgency of former Republic of the Sphere troops still resisting Terra's conquest. Through him we see the birth of the SLDF as a force separate from the ilClan, and the tension is starts to create. We also get to see some perspective from Noritomo Helmer, a former Jade Falcon who was made Loremaster of the Star League. He seems to have the perspective that Alaric Ward lacks when it comes to the task of nation building. And finally, we get a couple of chapters of getting into Alaric's head. He's achieved his goal, but what do the revelations at the end of Hour of the Wolf mean to that goal?

Overall, I enjoyed how the book lays a ton of groundwork for how the setting is going to begin to proceed. I can see potential points of conflict, and it will be very interesting to see how the institutions being built thrive or fail in the coming (in-universe) years. At times there were a few slightly jarring jumps where some intervening events get skipped, but considering page count those weren't actually necessary.