Here's some thoughts on things I've finished and felt like I wanted to capture for my future reference.
⭐: actively disliked this
⭐⭐: meh
⭐⭐⭐: enjoyable but not notable
⭐⭐⭐⭐: really great; would recommend
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: utterly brilliant!
Books read this year
13
Games played this year
9
🎮 Planet of Lana
Finished: 19th June 2025
Person's village is suddenly captured by robots, they meet a cat creature, they work together to get everyone back. I liked the art and the story, but otherwise this felt pretty unremarkable. It's very much a "keep holding the left stick to go right whilst moving past pretty scenes" game, interspersed with very light puzzles. Only a couple of them felt novel, and there were a lot of times where you were having to do the same actions in between the walking, such as many times asking your companion to jump up a ledge and drop down a rope before you could proceed. I think there's a second game coming out next year. I wouldn't be put off playing it, but I'd hope for a bit more.
🎮 Little Kitty, Big City
Finished: 9th June 2025
In contrast to my previous review, this was another "put it on to amuse the kid" (look there's been a lot of days off nursery and rainy days recently, ok!) game, but it had also been on my Play Later list for ages. And I looooved it. Right from the opening sequence, you're a cat. Who's in a Japanese city. Complete with Yamanote Line train. And custom stylised manhole covers. And authentic sounds. And stuff to collect all over the map. And you can buy gacha from machines that give you different cat hats. And you go on a not-quite-untitled-goose-game or goat simular level set of quests with whimsy and naughtiness. Whimsical animal chaos is up there with my favourite game genres. It's basically a big mishmash of things that I like, and is very cute with it.
The only reason I'm marking down points is because the key mechanic (climbing) is extremely clunky. If the running and climbing had been more fluid, it would have felt much more polished and satisfying. And the other thing was not having a proper jingle when going in the konbini. Missed opportunity. Aside from those, stellar concept.
📖 Snowglobe 2 by Soyoung Park
Finished: 7th June 2025
Following on from the first book, this dives straight into a light crime mystery, which initially felt a bit at odds with the rest of the tone for me. Despite the seriousness, it also isn't the main focus in itself, and most of the focus is on the twists and turns of a feud. There's similar themes to the first book, some higher levels of fantasy and quirkiness than other more gritty bits, but it's all good fun and plays out in an overall satisfying way. The character development didn't feel as strong in this one and a few people got a bit sidelined, but I did really enjoy the additional content in the world.
🎮 LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Finished: 3rd June 2025
What. a. bloody. slog. I'm pretty sure a LEGO game was the first I ever fully 100%ed, got all the achievements on. I played a load of the original LEGO Star Wars ones amongst many others, and I've always found them fun and satisfying... to a point. Every single game that I remember went on just a little bit too long somehow, and this is no exception. The Skywalker Saga covers three trilogies, so right off the bat you're playing 5 or 6 levels per film. As with LEGO games in general you shouldn't expect to complete the level the first time around though, as collectables are locked off until you can do it in "free play" with other characters, plus each level has a number of additional mystery challenges. After going through all the levels, I decided to focus on the open world aspect. There are a ridiculous number of characters to unlock, plus kyber crystals to collect (about 1200). I... nearly made it. I got all of the blocks and characters that didn't involve the stupid space "driving through hoops in no pattern against the clock" challenges, because it's no fun waiting for a clock to run down because you've missed a gate and can't restart. I actually felt relief when I thought the game had bugged me out of being able to finish a mission that'd mean completion wasn't possible... but no, I fixed it. Once I'd exhausted everything out of sheer compulsive collection habits, I realised I had zero appetite for doing the levels again and mopping up, so I stopped. This was another game that I only started in the first place because of putting it on to amuse my kid, who then lost interest and left me suckered in. Maybe we'll come back to it at some point, but for now I'm just relieved to be free from my own obligations!
📖 Snowglobe by Soyoung Park
Finished: 27th May 2025
At work we have a book exchange, and on finishing Nimona at lunch I decided to flick through and grab something to tide me over on the train ride home. Snowglobe stood out as an interesting dystopian concept: the planet is totally screwed, everyone lives in -50°, apart from the 'lucky' actors and directors who live in Snowglobe. There, they enjoy what we'd consider normal temperatures and a generally luxurious lifestyle, apart from the fact that to live there they have to make or star in the reality shows that the rest of the world watch obsessively. The plot does get rather fantastical in parts, so it's definitely not entirely a gritty take on climate and societal themes, and I think some people like it less for the silly bits. However for me it was fun, was pretty well paced, had decent characters, and kept my interest.
On finishing I saw that it was part of a duology, and as luck would have it the second book was released two days after I finished this one. I immediately ordered it and am looking forward to wrapping everything up.
📖 Nimona by ND Stevenson
Finished: 22nd May 2025
A lend from a colleague that I flew through in a train ride and lunch break. I'd already seen the Netflix adaptation so was familiar with the concepts, and the source is the same but also different in terms of sone of the plot specifics. A fun little read.
📖 Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
Finished: 21st May 2025
Another book that I can't remember why I added it to my list, but I didn't know anything about it beyond the blurb on the back. Be warned, this is a book which is basically entirely about an abusive relationship, in which one party happens to be non-human. The guy was a complete dick, and the book contains numerous scenes of emotional and physical sexual abuse and coercive control. Because of that, whilst I read it at a decent pace and was invested, I also wouldn't say that I fully enjoyed it.
📖 Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara
Finished: 5th May 2025
I was fortunate to get this book from work, and even more so as it was part of an event where the author held a session to speak to us about applying the concepts. As I've mentioned before, I usually struggle to prioritise non-fiction, but I was going away to a conference and shockingly realised I didn't have anything else lined up, so it was a good push to pick this up. I'm glad I did, as I do really enjoy stories about restaurants, stories about people doing things differently to the norm, and practical takeaways that I can apply to work. The book itself is a mix of personal memoir, history of the restaurant, and business advice book. Because of that, it never fully leans into any genre. For the latter, I felt it could have done with a clear summary of the takeaways, and overall once you got the idea there is a bit of repetition to hit home the points. So an enjoyable and easy read, and one that has left a lasting impression and inspiration, but I'm now back to the sci-fi 😉
🎮 Astro Bot
Finished: 1st May 2025
I have no idea when I actually put this game down, so the date is somewhat arbitrary, but this is such a great game. It was first introduced as a father/kid amusement - something for my husband to play that wasn't entirely mindless and boring - and the two of them happily played through the levels together, with the kid developing increasingly impressive levels of coordination. At some point however, due to unsupervision the main save got overwritten, and we needed to start again. At that point I stepped in to play through. It was quickly apparent how well designed, how much care and thought had gone in, but most importantly how utterly perfect it was for both both adults and kids. Some levels (the colour/shape ones and speed runs) are genuinely hard. Some of the puzzle pieces aren't obvious at all and you really have to search. So there's a ton of replayability as well as it being at a good level for a small child to get their head around how to do it. I enjoyed it so much that I secretly spent some evenings making progress on my own. It was such an obsession for a while (for both of us), that it ended up being the theme of the kid's third birthday cake.
📖 He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan
Finished: 27th April 2025
Going in with the 5 for this one. I finished it in a very late night binge when I was staying away, and despite really needing to go to sleep at that point, I stayed up even later looking up real information around the people the book was inspired by. I love the characters, I wasn't happy about a couple of deaths, but that was just in keeping with the way the first book had started out. Everything wrapped up neatly and for me it was a very satisfying arc. This series will definitely be a recommendation, and a potential reread in the future.
📖 She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
Finished: 31st March 2025
I'd picked this up on the back of a review from someone (thank you whoever it was although I can't remember!). It's historical fantasy, following Zhu as the main character, and covers their journey from starving peasant girl through to... you'll have to find out. The book is drenched in gender identity, sexuality, and queer romance themes, as well as a ton of general identity, morality, and other big topics. Both Zhu and the other big character (who I won't name as it's not immediately apparent) are so well written and have so many arcs and development points. The ending was also not apparent for me. I got to the point where I knew I needed to get the follow-on book but avoided anything as I genuinely wasn't sure how it was all going to end. Some trigger warnings: there's brutality in varying forms, and a lot of other heavy themes right from the start. But it's well worth a read and is one of my favourites from the year so far.
🎮 Cocoon
Finished: 27th February 2025
Another Annapurna game, another novel little puzzler. This is another 'no dialogue, no instructions' game, and it's well done with that. The concept is interesting, where you're jumping around between spheres you can carry, but which are equally worlds to jump into (similar but different to playing with size in Maquette). There's a vague story/premise, but for me didn't add much. The puzzles were at a pretty basic level most of the way through, but there were a couple before the end that I did have to think through a bit more rather than it feeling pretty on rails. Overall a nice light little game.
📖 The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Finished: 26th February 2025
I've been absolutely terrible with updating this recently, so I will admit that I have no idea about the day I finished this book, and also I'm only semi confident on the rating. Oops.
This was a Christmas present, and so I didn't know anything about it beyond the back cover blurb. It follows two main characters; one is a time traveller, the other is their handler in the modern era. One of the elements I really liked is that the time travelling person is based on an actual person in history, there's a photo of him and scarce details, but the author has taken his situation and coloured in the missing areas. Despite being a work of fiction, it somehow added a lot for me. Overall it was an easy an enjoyable read, but I would say that I saw a big reveal coming a mile off, and the oft-hinted at (not a spoiler) "things don't stay rosy" point was incredibly anti-climactic and felt like a very weak reason, and some of the worldbuilding of the present day could have been stronger. But I liked it, and it was an interesting concept.
🎮 A Plague Tale: Requiem
Finished: 18th February 2025
This review is complicated and is going to have to be a bit spoiler-ful, so for anyone else reading this please bear that in mind.
I've had this in my play later list for absolutely ages. I think it may actually have switched over from the first game (APT: Innocence) at some point, but that said it wasn't until chapter 2 or so that I realised there was a previous game. I just thought the explanations were slow in coming 🙄
I'd originally been attracted because something about the art made me think this was a Dishonored spin-off (which it very much isn't), and then later put off because I thought it was a Dishonored rip off (which it also isn't).
Despite that, and not being gripped by it for a while, this ended up as a really moving, weirdly captivating story that left me actually emotional. It was extra surprising considering I didn't enjoy the voice acting for Amicia at all, but I actually came to care for the central characters a lot. However, I'm actually glad I hadn't played the first game, because I would be even more pissed at how it all ends up.
This is not a happy game. It's bleak as hell, in both the story and the vast numbers of dead bodies and all round disgustingness. It gives hope, then takes it away, then repeats, and part way through I considered stopping just because I could see where it was all going and didn't want that.
This is also the hardest game I've ever played on story mode. I switched over at one point after getting frustrated with a set piece that restarted with a cut scene, and yet I died a lot. I'm not generally a fan of stealth games and forced fleeing-from-stressful-things sequences and slow walking times, and there's plenty of all. So gameplay wise I didn't absolutely love it, story wise I respected but didn't enjoy the ending, but it was a powerful game that will really stay with me. And at some point if I want to torture myself I may get the first one. I settled on 3.5, but it was between that and 4.
📖 Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer
Finished: 16th February 2025
This was lent to me by a colleague, and was a fun but fluffy read. Coming off the back of Artemis, it actually reminded me of a similar kind of writing style with wise-cracking, snipey banter and spelled out explanations. It was a very easy read, had some nicely thought out rules for the world, and the premise was interesting. That said, on getting to the end I wasn't grabbed to read more in the series. It's the kind of thing I may pick up again for a long plane journey in the future.
📖 Artemis by Andy Weir
Finished: 3rd February 2025
This is Weir's second book, but the third to me, and it's just too much. I actually really enjoyed Project Hail Mary, but this felt like just another book which reads exactly the same, which explains every detail and adds commentary even when not strictly necessary, and generally feels cut and paste with a different plot in space.
The characters are all unremarkable, a bit one dimensional, and actually pretty unlikeable (although some of that is the dialogue rather than the design). It's all bants bants bants smart ass snarky exchanges, which gets tiring. That said, I knew what I was getting into, and I wasn't surprised to be proved right about it being more of the same. It's an extremely easy read, not in the least bit mentally challenging, and easy to pick up and put down. I probably would have enjoyed it much more as a fluffy book on a plane, and I expect at some point I'll end up watching the film adaptation in that way.
📖 Blind Ambition by Patricia Walsh
Finished: 27th January 2025
First things first, this is not a 0 star book! I've decided to record my reading for completion's sake, but not to do a review. I'll soon have the pleasure of working with Patricia, was fascinated to read her story, and enjoyed this book, but it feels weird to put a score on something for someone I'll be managing. So it's my site, and I'll abstain :)
🎮 Maquette
Finished: 26th January 2025
GamePass has suckered me in again with their "leaving soon" tactic. As with Figment, this one had been sat in my list for ages, but I just hadn't prioritised it. When I saw it was leaving I again thought I'd try to get through it in the last few days (very doable), and I'm very glad I did. It's a lovely game with a very interesting mechanic revolving around sizes of objects. You interact with the 'maquette', a miniture replica of the environment you're in, and things soon get very interesting as you play around with the scale of objects and eventually yourself. The story is cute and very relatable, some of the puzzles actually need some brain power, and it's all very pretty. My main issue with it was that the placement of objects was very clunky, which was particularly frustrating in a couple of instances where I knew exactly what I wanted to do but couldn't. It's also interesting that the designers chose to tie a lot of achievements to speed running the levels. I kind of get this, but after doing the most simple level again I decided I wasn't interested in going through them all in that way. You have to skip the cutscenes and completely run past the dialogue that appears on-screen (I really like that style, floating like in Deathloop), and it all just felt like a waste to skirt though focusing only on efficiency and not delighting in the details. Overall this is lovely though, but I'd recommend you take your time and don't worry about speed.
📖 Furious Heaven (Sun chronicles 2) by Kate Elliott
Finished: 23rd January 2025
At 723 pages of pretty small text this was a massive chonk of a book. My plan to immediately follow on from the previous book worked, and everything was indeed a lot easier to follow and more familiar than before. However, as you'd expect from a book of this length, there were even more new people in the mix, new concepts to understand, and a hell of a lot of threads of the story going on to keep track of. I really enjoyed this book, by the end I loved many of the characters, and I'm fully invested. But it was a lot. I couldn't tell you everything that happened in the book. There are quite a few chapters labelled as an interlude, and whilst they're interesting and give a different perspective and change of pace, some of them probably could have been cut. Some bits were clunky, some things just weren't explained, and at one point there was an off-screen murder that I only actually clocked right at the end because it was so glossed over. Did I enjoy it all? Yes. Would it have been a bit more effective and possibly a bit easier to follow at points if it'd been edited down or split up into two? Also probably yes.
As I got towards the last quarter, I turned to the back cover where there's a picture of book 1 and book 3. I went to buy book 3, intending to carry on with my binge, again partly so I don't forget so many of the complex worldbuilding details and plot nuances. However it doesn't come out until 2026. I'll definitely plan to read it, but I'm certain that the gap in time will have an impact and I hope there's enough reminders!
This again follows Sun and her companions, across an even wider amount of time and space. There's some big, headline events that fundamentally change the setting, but otherwise it's the same setting of Phene vs Chaonia. You find out a lot more about some of the companions and their family dynamics, including more about the Phene ways of life, Riders, banner soldiers, and others. Tied to what I said above though, there's still some characters that were added (new companions and Cee-Cees who I still have no idea about really; they're just dropped in kind of by name only). Big battles (so many), friendships, love and romance, betrayals and politics. Some mysteries are solved, others will hopefully be built on in the future (mild spoilers: looking forward to seeing Kas come more into play, finding out more about the Campaspe influence, Vogue Academy, and seeing what happens to Apama and TeeGee).
🎮 Figment
Finished: 13th January 2025
I'd finished Indy, had a bit of a break, and then happened to see this was leaving GamePass. It'd been on my play later list for a while, so I thought I'd give it a go in the last few days it was available. It's a kind of puzzler-not-quite-platformer with some collectable story memories that I didn't bother getting all of. I finished the main bit of the game, but even though I had a bit of time it wasn't worth mopping up the achievements or the collectables purely because it was so much of a slog to get round.
It's a bit of a clunky game in more ways than one. Maybe it's meant to be jarring, but the visual style and fart jokes seemed very at odds with the setup of "you've just been in a car accident". The lack of a map to help you remember how to get back to somewhere you needed to take something, even though there was a non-functional map on the loading screen between areas, felt like a gap. But maybe intentional. Some of the inconsistencies in being able to pick up some of one thing but not others... the puzzle mechanics requiring you to walk a lot but it being infuriatingly slow... combat being included but feeling clunky... getting all the way through the level to pick up a collectable only to have to tediously backtrack to other levels because the exit (prev boss fight) is inaccessible... again maybe all intentional? There were some ok puzzles once the complexity ramped up a bit, outside of the mechanic problems it wasn't bad, and given it was short I was happy to continue on and finish it. But all in all not very strong.
📖 Unconquerable Sun (Sun chronicles 1) by Kate Elliott
Finished: 5th January 2025
This book contains a lot of world building. It starts with some maps, which were actually helpful as a visual aid later on, but it immediately chucks you into a world of extensive back story, different planets, races, and characters, along with some quite formal and fancy pants words being thrown around the courts that made it a little bit hard to connect with. In hindsight it made me think of the Ninefox Gambit series, which I ended up loving, and to this book's credit it became a lot more understandable a lot faster. I've just finished the book, and will be starting the second one immediately, partly because I really enjoyed it all, but also partly because I'm scared of leaving it too long between reads as I know I'll start forgetting who people are or the detail of what's gone on again.
In short, this centres around Princess Sun and her Companions, who are wrapped up in some political shenanigans with the different core Houses, as well as bigger picture complications between different races/factions in the wider planetary systems. Everyone seems to have complex parent issues, there's a load of spying and assassination attempts, and lots of action. Good fun, good action, lots to like.
🎮 Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Finished: 4th January 2025
Coming off the back of Dragon Age – a game where the polish really impressed me – some clunkiness in this one made the experience a bit less than I'd hoped. The story was pretty good and I enjoyed it, as well as watching the extended cutscenes to move between the various settings. However some of the gameplay got tedious, particularly my hours lost to the terrible maps and trying to work out just how to get back to several bits in underground systems that you can't do in the same way as you first came in, or can't remember very well.
The lack of polish and contrasts I mention was in little things, like the way that potentially interesting dialogue got cut off abruptly rather than dealt with elegantly and resuming in a nice way in DA. Dialogue, that in some cases then continued to trigger annoyingly repeatedly and inelegantly even when I wasn't near the item of discussion (I was underground at that point). My husband was impressed by the animation, and whilst it was pretty good generally, I wasn't impressed by the faces... again there was a fair bit of clunkiness there. I'm mentioning these things because for such a cinematic game, they broke me out a bit.
I did like the range of the puzzles, from the bastard final "secret ending" one, through to the cogwheels, the spinny disk ones, and all the other more general ones. On the whole they weren't taxing, and could maybe have been a bit more complex and less on rails in some cases, but they were a nice extra dimension.
My final and most personal issue is about the absolutely stressful giant REDACTED sequences in the third main game area. Nononono thank you!