Let's recap the year. If we squint, it's kind of a review episode ^^

Type: [General] | Book: N/A | Writer: N/A

Charles Dickens. One of the biggest names in literature. A novel considered by many to be a masterpiece. So naturally, I had to find out whether Great Expectations was actually great… or just a very long book about a guy learning some expensive life lessons.

In this episode of Paperback Friends, I dive into Dickens’ classic coming-of-age story about Pip, ambition, social status, love, regret, and the dangers of forgetting where you came from.

We discuss Dickens’ incredible character work, his unmistakable writing style, the strange experience of reading a novel that can be both brilliant and painfully slow, and why appreciating greatness does not always mean enjoying every moment of it.

It's a novel that it feels like a guy like me should have read. Now, I have.

Type: Review | Book: Great Expectations | Writer: Charles Dickens

An AI security unit with a hacked governor module, a group of scientists in danger, and a machine that would rather watch TV than save humanity.

Sounds like the beginning of a typical sci-fi story… except Murderbot is probably the least interested hero you’ll ever meet.

In this episode of Paperback Friends, I dive into Martha Wells’ All Systems Red, the first novella in The Murderbot Diaries. We discuss what makes Murderbot such an interesting character, how Wells handles artificial intelligence, and why sometimes a story doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel to be great.

This series has me excited, you can expect much more from it as the podcast chugs along.

Type: Review | Book: All Systems Red | Writer: Martha Wells

I wanted to say thanks for 2025, and talk about some goals for 2026.

Shorter than last time...

Thanks for your time, really. It means the world to me =)

/Sam.

Some good points here, but I still need to tighten up, and I promise that this is one of the key focus points for 2026, and I hope that in some of the coming episodes we will see way more signs of that.

For now, an okay episode, but I can do way better, and you deserve better. Let's get better =)

Type: Review | Book: Queen of Fire | Writer: Anthony Ryan

A bit sloppy on my end, but I feel as if I get a lot better results with more scripted stuff. Sadly, I was a bit distracted at the time of recording this.

2026 is going to start pretty rough, but at least I have you guys!

Type: Review | Book: Dragonfruit | Writer: Makiia Lucier

Filler, unhinged? You’ve heard it before, welcome to another episode of Paperback Friends with your host Sam Ögren.

Type: [General] | Book: N/A | Writer: N/A

Was my pronunciation extra off this week? Seems like I heard way more mistakes than usual. Simple 101 episode, pretty interesting topic, but I don't know how interesting it was to listen to ^^

We have been pushing a lot of reviews, and with audio books in the mix as well; we are not about to slow down!

Type: Writing 101 | Book: N/A | Writer: N/A

God, I love it when I stumble over something I really, really love. This book was such a treat for me. It had pretty much all I want from a novel like this.

This novel was also a perfect return to our normal audio settings. I hated that messed with the quality (the audio quality, I still suck as much as usual ^^) of my other episodes. It feels great to be back, and swinging.

Can very much recommend this one too! Excellent novel!

Type: Review | Book: The Hustler | Writer: Walter Tevis

At the time of recording I still had not fixed the audio issues, but this was not from a lack of trying. It took me quite a few hours to fix. I finally sorted out the issues before recording the next episode: 64.

I'm really sorry about this, but things like this happen. I still think I made this sound okay given the circumstance. I hope you can bare with me for this episode before we are back to my normal crappy self.

Thanks for your understanding =)

As for the episode, this was a nice review to make as it marks the end of the Wayfarer series. We'll do a series review at some point pretty soon, but for now, you'll have to settle with this!

Type: Review | Book: The Galaxy, and the Ground Within | Writer: Becky Chambers