Reading When Moon Hits the Eye by John Scalzi.
I am still in the start, but the premise is hilarious. Looking forward to how everything unfolds.
What about all of you, what have you been reading or listening to lately?
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Just finished The Terror, by Dan Simmons. Although it took me a while to finish it, I really found it very good. I learned so many things on the Nord pole and on ships, royal navy of 19th century, great discovery, Inuit culture and religion… This book is really great from a documentation point of view, it’s very rare for such a fictional piece of work. I think this is what give its special taste to this novel and adds a lot of realism.
Now, following one of the comments of this post, I just started reading There Is No Antimemetics Division, by qntm. And by the way I discovered all this universe of web serials which may be of interest to me too.
Currently reading Dark Lord Davi (its a lot of fun if you are into the litrpg space, Dark and very funny) and Mistress of Dragons (picked it up in a bundle, not sure if I would recommend it but I keep pressing through) .
Edit: the book is called… How to become a dark lord and die trying. It the first book in the Dark Lord Davi series.
The Lone Wanderer,
It’s a litrpg with an extremely fleshed out world and magic system.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/95097/b5-stubbing-july-21st-the-lone-wanderer-a-world-hopping
There’s a link to it’s royal road.
Blurb:
"An accidental clone. Talent no one saw coming. Infinite worlds to explore.
Percy was born with little hope of standing out-just another face in a world ruled by bloodlines and class.
Starting with the lowest Red core and mocked as a waste, Percy was always overlooked by his peers and scorned by the powerful. But when his bloodline awakens with the power to send clones across worlds, he seizes the chance to shatter expectations.
Exploring strange realms teeming with danger, Percy returns with priceless treasures: divine techniques, obscure knowledge, and even the seed of a second mana core stolen from an advanced civilization. But the road to the apex is riddled with peril. The elixirs he needs to advance? He’ll have to master alchemy to brew them himself. The Great Houses, scheming titans, and invading gods?
They’ll do anything to crush him before he can prove that even a so-called waste can reach the stars.
What to expect:
-Weak to strong male MC
-Daily releases
-Fast paced with frequent powerups
-Fantasy setting with magic and a system
-Isekai elements (Percy often possesses random bodies on distant worlds)
-Western cultivation elements (Cleansing mana core to extend lifespan)
-Morally grey MC (Willing to break a few rules but not a scumbag)
-Alchemy
-Runecrafting"
There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm, as an audiobook. Highly recommended, in any format you like.
Just finished that myself. Great book.
I’m probably about a third of the way into the fourth Dresden Files book now, Summer Knight.
I enjoy the premise a lot but the second and third books were a bit, ehhhhh, so I am hoping it picks up a bit more now that it is established.
I don’t think it helps that I am not super keen on the reader of these. He isn’t bad by any means compared to some I have heard but the recording picks up a lot of mouth sounds in between which i find a bit off putting and he keeps pronouncing random words from time to time which shouldn’t really annoy me but inevitably does.
My absolute pet hate is how so many readers on audiobooks seem to be unable to pronounce the word “wind” as in “he is going to wind her up” properly. So many pronounce it like wind in “the wind blows” and it is just the most basic thing that shouldn’t annoy me but inevitably pisses me off massively.
Buuuuut anyway, book four, has started off strong enough to get me reinterested so here is hoping!
I finished that series, but by the end I was pretty fed up with the formula, and the tone. I love contemporary occult fantasy though, and that kept me going.
I feel like I may be going exactly the same way as you. I’m around half way through book 4 at this point and I’m already kind of feeling a bit bored of the same issues. It doesn’t help that thus far the characters range from bearable - Dresden who really is boring as fuck, I don’t dislike him but don’t particularly like him either. All the way to oh would you fuck off - Murphy, that bitch is just fucking annoying and any scene with her in I am hoping she just fucking dies already…
Have you read any of the Laundry Files? That series has similarities of genre but with more likable characters and an interesting magic system
I haven’t but it is on my list of things to try out as it sounds really interesting.
I’m absolutely entranced by Robin Hobb. After reading the Farseer trilogy I just started the Liveship Traders trilogy and I’m already fully committed.
In between I tried one of her works as Megan Lindholm: Wizard of the Pigeons. A dive into the mind of a homeless person in Seattle. Somehow it’s categorized as “urban fantasy” but I don’t see it in the fantasy genre at all. Unless you’d count Kafka as fantasy. Not the best comparison but the only one I can think of right now.
Goodness, I just finished one of her books. Fools Assassin. Somehow I had missed it when it came out about a decade ago.
Enjoy the live ship books!
Thanks, I am. Almost living in it rn.
Fool’s Assassin sounds like elements taken from the Farseer trilogy. I think I read somewhere she returned to that later. Still as good?
Yes, it continues the Farseer storyline many years later. I really enjoyed it. It starts a little slowly (one of those where setting the stage takes a significant part of the book), but it brings back some beloved old characters and shows the progress of time. Very worthwhile IMO. I love Robin Hobb’s writing!
Yeah so do I.
The Farseer trilogy books seemed to be a bit more standalone, the Liveship Traders almost one book: I just started the 2nd book and the end of the 1st was hardly more than a chapter ending.
Have you also read some of her earlier Megan Lindholm stuff?
You’re so lucky. Liveship Traders is a real adjustment from the Fitz books. Enjoy them, great stories ahead.
Thanks.
Thing is I’d never even heard of that author until someone mentioned her in one of these posts here. I wonder how many more gems in ugly last century fantasy covers there are…
Still working on The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem. Finally getting into the meat of it! The author is good at getting across the dusty feel of the planet without spending paragraphs on it; I feel like that’s an underappreciated skill.
Huh, I haven’t read that one yet and I’m a huge Lem fan.
Have you read Eden? That’s always been my favorite. It explores the question of how alien aliens would really be if we encountered them. Something that most sci-fi conveniently either glosses over completely or uses earth-like comparisons like reptiloid, etc.
Also the automated factory that produces nothing… 😚👌
I have not! This is my first Lem. I’ll take a look at it; thanks for the rec!
Halfway through Dungeon Crawler Carl book 4, loving it.
After this it’s Star Wars The Crystal Star. I’m really looking forward the next series, these standalone ones have been a little meh lately, but could just be the authors.
I’m on book 3!
I read through 7, and switched to audio for the new book. The production quality is great, but I think I do better with books.
I feel I would miss too much if listening, as that would be a parallel thing I would do while choresing or working. I don’t think I could just sit there and listen to a book, I skip dialogue in games if the speech is too slow already, and like listening to music or nature while reading already.
The fourth branch: how state government can save our union, by NY Rep. Daniel Squadron. I’m a political novice but it seems to me to be a pretty good argument that US state and local government is an underappreciated (by the left) powerful tool for enacting change.
“Why I am not a Buddhist” by Evan Thompson. I am half way through it. It did have some good points, but as is often the case with modern academic philosophy, it started to become word salad.
Regardless, it did provide me with great deal of inside when come to modern Buddhism, and Buddhism superiority believers. How the author tried to conceptualise the mind/self to the reader, was where the word salad started for me.
Personally, I find it easier to think of a being as a flame. Fire isn’t a state of matter you can weight, it’s a process, or rather its many a processes, that make the present you.
Reading You Weren’t Meant To Be Human by Andrew Joseph White for the podcast. Not far in but so far so good. Also still reading Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin.
I fucking loved The Dispossessed. Probably the deepest emotional impact any scifi novel ever left on me, and not because of the embedded love story. Something about creating a
communistanarcho-syndicalist society on a different planet with adverse conditions just rubs me the right way.
Just finishing Angel Down by Daniel Kraus—it’s really good. Reminds me of Cormac McCarthy, with fantasy/magical realism elements thrown in.
Never heard of it, but Cormac and fantasy have my attention, definitely will check this.
Just finish Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, and I’m about a third of the way through James by Percival Everett.
Both are so good!
I really enjoyed James, and when I talked about it with my friends who also read, they said it was the weakest Percival Everett book. It just made me more excited to read some of his other stuff.
Audio book: the new dungeon crawler Carl book
Paper book: on my 3rd attempt of House of Leaves. This is not an adhd friendly book
Finished the 4th book of the Children Of Time series, but I think I will have to relisten to it at don’t point. My mind wandered too much in some parts
House of Leaves, I gave it a go back when I was 17, and there’s parts that are gripping, but most is … I dunno, maybe felt like he was trying way too hard. But it certainly is quite the story and quite the book, physically. Do you have a physical copy or ereader? I’m curious to see how it’s presented in a digital format.
A hardcover physical version
Can’t imagine a digital version working too well, as the page layout is so important to the book
Currently reading the Red Rising saga, I’m at book 5, titled “Dark Ages”.
Highly recommended.
I have a young family friend that wants to read those. obviously you like them enough to read to book five, but do you think the content is appropriate for a younger reader?
I’m the wrong person to ask regarding age appropriate content. My father deemed it appropriate to let me hack people with a chainsaw in Grand Theft Auto Vice City at age 4 and so I’ve never been limited in the media I consume.
The first book is considered YA though, from the second book onwards it’s getting a more series tone. There is violence, mentions of drugs here and there, power struggles, politics, mentions of rape and more wicked stuff.
I hope this will be enough information to make a decision.
I am a poor judge of this as well, but that was very helpful!
