Adam's blog: 2025 Recap: Books & Podcasts

As the 2025 has come to an end, let’s recap on some of the books I have read this year and what podcasts did I listen to.

Books

• The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency, #2) by John Scalzi
  • The second part of the series was more focused on smaller scale of the world, but I really liked the development and further word building. Hooked for the third part.
  • Book 1 - very cool, hooked imediatelly
  • Book 2 - a lot more graphic, hope to get connection back to the original plot line
  • Book 3 - nice finish, I like how it ended
• Old Man’s War Series by John Scalzi
  • Book 1 - great word building, I hope to see more of the Perry character
  • Book 2 - a lot more graphic, hope to get connection back to the original plot line
  • Book 3 - this worked out great, I now understand book 1 and 2
  • Book 4 - well now I understand book 3 and I love it much more
  • Book 5 - happy to see that B-Team is doing its own thing
• All of Murderbot by Martha Wells
  • Loved it, would want more. However the fact that the release order of books is not chronological storywise got me confused for a few moments.
• The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi
  • Wanted more android sci-fi, did not get it, but was not dissapointed
• Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi
  • Second book about aliens communicating by smell in a row? Very predictable, but loved it nontheless
• Murder by Other Means (The Dispatcher, #2) by John Scalzi
  • Good read, but maybe better if I would read the first book first?
• The Dispatcher by John Scalzi
  • Well now I know I enjoyed the second book more without knowing the first one first. Still good
• Syndikát by Leoš Krysa
  • A Czech Sci-Fi with good narration with a toons of Czech references? Count me in! Loved the whole story except for the last quarter, which was a little weaker.
• Head-on (Lock In, #2) by John Scalzi
  • Again a little confused, loved it in the end, but maybe better if I read the first book first?
• Lock-in by John Scalzi
  • And again, I liked the second book better. Glad that I have started with it, but still enjoyable.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
  • Never read this classic before, nor seen the movie. A little more confusing story and shorter than I expected, but still very enjoyable
• A Very Scalzi Christmas by John Scalzi
  • Read this one just before Christmas, laugh out loud, definitely would reccomend

Podcasts

• Darknet Diaries
  • Discovered recently, large backlog with great content and goosebumps-producing stories
• The Layover
  • Weekly recap and behind the scenes of what happened during Jet Lag: The Game with some entertaining in-between seasons stuff
• It’s Probably (not) Aliens
  • Soo many episode when starting now, very great explanations of why Aliens were not the cause, but super-interesting history was it instead