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John’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at John’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
John Wiswell’s Followers (1,081)
961 books
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25 friends
6,040 books
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268 friends
1,926 books
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328 friends
5,545 books
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341 friends
1,051 books
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85 friends
1,155 books
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104 friends
1,057 books
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32 friends
566 books
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3,077 friends
More friends…
John Wiswell
Goodreads Author
Born
in The United States
Website
Genre
Member Since
June 2007
Terry Pratchett
I'm so grateful that Terry Pratchett spent so many years creating incomparable fiction for us. Fantasy would not be the same without him.
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Someone You Can Build a Nest In
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published
2024
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25 editions
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Wearing the Lion
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published
2025
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2 editions
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Open House on Haunted Hill
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published
2020
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2 editions
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D.I.Y
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published
2022
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The Three O’Clock Dragon
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published
2023
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I'll Miss Myself
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published
2024
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Phantom View
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published
2025
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2 editions
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Questa storia non è la storia
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published
2021
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The Dragon Has Some Complaints
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expected publication
2026
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4 editions
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Reactor Magazine Short Fiction July/Aug 2024
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John’s Recent Updates
"Thank you to NetGalley and Bindery Books/Ezeekat Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Of Monsters and Mainframes was a surprise 5 star read for me in 2025. I had no idea Truelove had a new book coming out so I was so excited to be app"
Read more of this review »
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John Wiswell
rated a book it was amazing
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| An inventive and incisive use of Science Fiction to strike at the heart of culture. Here an organization has tried to clone and raise versions of the Founding Fathers--Washington, Jefferson, Addams, and Franklin--all in such secret conditions that th ...more | |
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John Wiswell
started reading
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John Wiswell
is currently reading
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John Wiswell
and
2 other people
liked
Carlie St. George's review
of
The Iron Garden Sutra (The Cosmic Wheel, #1):
"Meditative space horror with traumatized monks, forest ships, AI (the fun SF kind, not the nonsense we have), and queer romance. All excellent. I wouldn’t necessarily characterize this as a murder mystery, exactly? But I was all in on the fascinating"
Read more of this review »
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John Wiswell
rated a book it was amazing
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| Isaac Fellman has done it again, adding a book to the SFF canon that nobody else would have thought up. Here we have a trans journalist discovering that his parents--the couple who took him in and helped him discover himself--were way more than just ...more | |
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"In a future so distant it feels like the past, a trans journalist, Griffon Keming, writes about the parents who adopted him as a teenager. They took him away from an abusive home, paid for his transition, and tried to love him and raise him as well a"
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"Set in the far future, this book tells the story of a quirky, deeply loveable couple who get caught up in a revolution. It’s framed as something put together by their adopted son, Griffon, as an adult—a compilation of his father’s journals and his ow"
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John Wiswell
is currently reading
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John Wiswell
started reading
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“No young woman of means has gone through her entire life without at least once surveying her opportunities and wishing for a dragon instead.”
― Someone You Can Build a Nest In
― Someone You Can Build a Nest In
“All Shesheshen could do for Homily was be patient with her, and make space for her, and eventually, one day behind her back, eat her mother.”
― Someone You Can Build a Nest In
― Someone You Can Build a Nest In
Polls
3rd Quarter 2025 - Fantasy #3
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (480 pp)
The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott (448 pp)
The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan (545 pp)
The Devils by Joe Abercrombie (565 pp)
Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell (384 pp)
The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold (384 pp)
Topics Mentioning This Author
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horror Aficionados : Pseudopod for your short horror fiction needs! | 138 | 290 | Jul 15, 2019 10:53AM | |
| Horror Aficionados : Pseudopod | 508 | 1104 | Jul 15, 2019 10:58AM | |
Reading with Style:
SU 21 Completed Tasks
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853 | 75 | Aug 31, 2021 09:01PM | |
| Sci-fi and Heroic...: What have you been Reading this October? | 57 | 65 | Nov 01, 2021 09:49AM | |
| Play Book Tag: 2022 Hugo Awards | 16 | 29 | Sep 10, 2022 07:34PM | |
| SciFi and Fantasy...: D.I.Y by John Wiswell - March Short Story | 17 | 47 | Apr 01, 2023 07:10AM |
“A friend came to visit James Joyce one day and found the great man sprawled across his writing desk in a posture of utter despair.
James, what’s wrong?' the friend asked. 'Is it the work?'
Joyce indicated assent without even raising his head to look at his friend. Of course it was the work; isn’t it always?
How many words did you get today?' the friend pursued.
Joyce (still in despair, still sprawled facedown on his desk): 'Seven.'
Seven? But James… that’s good, at least for you.'
Yes,' Joyce said, finally looking up. 'I suppose it is… but I don’t know what order they go in!”
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James, what’s wrong?' the friend asked. 'Is it the work?'
Joyce indicated assent without even raising his head to look at his friend. Of course it was the work; isn’t it always?
How many words did you get today?' the friend pursued.
Joyce (still in despair, still sprawled facedown on his desk): 'Seven.'
Seven? But James… that’s good, at least for you.'
Yes,' Joyce said, finally looking up. 'I suppose it is… but I don’t know what order they go in!”
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“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.”
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“A fanatic is a man who, when he's lost sight of his purpose, redoubles his effort.”
― Harvest of Stars
― Harvest of Stars
“[O]ne of the mixed blessings of being twenty and twenty-one and even twenty-three is the conviction that nothing like this, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, has ever happened before.”
― Slouching Towards Bethlehem
― Slouching Towards Bethlehem
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This group is to discuss AWESOME books!!!
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Comments (showing 1-8)
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John wrote: "Ella wrote: "Thanks for the friend request, John! Have you read any Dunsany?"Pleased to meet you, Ella! I only started reading him in 2013, when I was challenged to ape his style. I failed terrib..."
So true! Though apparently his unusual prose style caused him worry - he wrote once,
"For years no style seemed to me natural but that of the Bible and I feared that I never would become a writer when I saw that other people did not use it."
Ella wrote: "Thanks for the friend request, John! Have you read any Dunsany?"Pleased to meet you, Ella! I only started reading him in 2013, when I was challenged to ape his style. I failed terribly, though I wrote a preposterous thing in result. He's one of Fantasy's truly unique authors.
Thanks for the friend request, John! Have you read any Dunsany?
Ken wrote: "Hi John. Good evening, I hope the weekend is well. Thanks for accepting me on your friends list. I look forward to doing some back reading on your many book reviews and come across some gems that I..."Happy to meet you, Ken. Thanks for the earnest explanation of why you wanted to be friends in the invitation. It's rare someone explains like that. I ought to be reading more non-superhero comics this summer - Demo looks particularly appealing.
Joe wrote: "Hi john, Thanks for accepting, What is the one book you would recommend to me?Joe."
We do seem to have fairly similar tastes, looking at our two book feeds. You're reading one of my all-time favorite novels right now. Comparing the lists, I'd next recommend Huxley's Brave New World. It's a wild vision of the future pregnant with social commentary.
Hi john, Thanks for accepting, What is the one book you would recommend to me?Joe.
My dear friend,How have you been?
I would be very honoured if you could be so kind as to read my story and see it you like it?
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/5...
hugs,
shakira
http://justmeshakirack.blogspot.com
Pleased to meet you, Ella! I only started reading him in 2013, when I was challenged to ape his style. I ..."
As someone just starting to get publications under my belt, I completely sympathize with his fear. He was unique in ways that would probably get a lot of any marketplace to shut him out. Many of our greats were like that!