Still reading Starsight by Brandon Sanderson, second book of Skyward (Cytoverse) series. About half done. It’s interesting to get more details about the world.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening?
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The Murderbot Diaries. Quite enjoyable series about a security bot that hacked himself and really only wants to watch tv shows.
He’s good at killing too.
I’m also reading The Way of Kings, which I started back in like July. I’m in more of a podcast phase at the moment, I’ve finished one book so far this year as opposed to the 20 or so I’d read by this point last year 🤷♂️
That explains why I haven’t seen you around. 😀
Happens to me sometimes too, The Better Part of Valor that I was finished couple of weeks ago, took me couple of months, I think. And it was only 300 or so pages. The Way of Kings on the other hand is a pretty meatier book, which I have to re-read soon to get ready for the upcoming fifth book!
What podcasts are you listening to these days? I used to listen to a few during commute, but now that I (luckily) work from home, haven’t listened to one in a long time.
Thinking about it, I’m reading the exact same stuff I was about 6 months ago, just later in each series. The Way of Kings, Dresden Files, Incryptid, In Death and Alex Verus. Maybe I just need a change of scenery.
For podcasts it’s The Weekly Planet - comic book-related media news, Knowledge Fight - basically Infowars fact checking, My Dad Wrote a Porno - a guy reads his dad’s erotica to a couple of friends and it’s impossibly funny, The C Team - a weekly D&D game from a few years back, The Duke and Duchess book club - the reason I started Stormlight Archive, and Dead Meat - horror movie reviews & discussion.
It’s all to fill downtime at work, I just got sick of powering through 2-3 audiobooks a fortnight and struggle to get immersed in video games when I’m not relaxing at home.
My Dad wrote a Porno is sooo good.
It really is. I got into it during book 3 and listened to most of the original run, but this is the firs time I’ve gone back for a relisten. I put it on while my gf was in the car so it’s turned into our driving radio whenever we’re together.
Maybe add a few standalone books in the mix? That always help for cleansing the palate.
Sorry for butting in but I thought I’d hop on the podcast recommendation diversion because I’m also always looking for recommendations.
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This Sounds Serious is good if you like true crime, but it’s a comedic parody of the tropes of true crime with solid story telling.
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Hello From the Magic Tavern is an interesting take on an interview-style podcast.
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Risky or Not is a short form podcast about food science and if sometimes odd practices actually put you at risk
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Wind of Change is an interesting look at if the Scorpions were intended to bring down communism
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And if you’re a political junky in the US, Strict Scrutiny and Prosecuting Donald Trump are interesting updates from legal experts on the Supreme Court and the Trump cases.
I haven’t listened to any legal podcasts since the uh… change of host on Opening Arguments a couple of years ago, and I’ve been avoiding US politics as much as possible for my own sanity because I’m on the opposite side of the world & I’ve been bombarded with it daily since about 2015, but this Strict Scrutiny sounds interesting.
Oh, I remember coming across that drama from the American Atheists side. I forgot there was a legal podcast in the mix. Oof.
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I bought a set of six H.G. Wells books late last year, just finished The Time Machine and started The Island of Dr. Moreau last night.
How are you liking them? I read them a long time ago, when I was pretty young, I wonder how they hold up now. Have been specially thinking about reading The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds.
I enjoyed The Time Machine, but the copy I got also had 10 short stories after it, which were mixed.
Dr. Moreau has started well after the first 50ish pages.
The main reason I bought them is because I’ve always been a bit sci-fi fan, but never read the guy who invented the genre!
If you’re reading genre-creators, don’t forget Jules Verne. Some epic stories in his canon. Actually, I can think of one epic cannon story in his canon.
Funny you mention him because I was looking up his books yesterday.
I’m looking at maybe getting an e-reader soon and they’re ideal for reading the classics because they’re so cheap. I looked up a collection of four Jules Verne books and they were £20 on paperback, but only 49p digitally.
Don’t spend any money on them. They’re out of copyright. You can download them for free from Project Gutenberg.
Also working on a Brandon Sanderson series, finishing The Way of Kings. First book in the Stormlight Archive series. Loving the way he turns a lot of normal things on it’s head, grass and trees that react and retract, gender role and food norms. Very interesting.
Listening my way through Serge Storms series by Tim Dorsey. Cause who doesn’t identify a little bit with a serial killer who is basically just acts like your obtrusive inner voice wish you could when confronted with the worst dregs of society. The style of writing is glib and humorous, with attention paid to funny observations.
Yeah, Stormlight Archive is great. The 5th and final book of the first part of Stormlight Archives is releasing this year. Looking forward to it!
Haven’t heard of Serge Storms, will look it up.
I hadn’t either, then I saw an obituary for Tim Dorsey, the author, mentioning he was a contemporary of Dave Barry. Did a little goodreads lookup, hit up the library and been enjoying ever since. I need to get better about using BookWyrm to look up and track stuff.
Currently listening to the Cradle series on a friend’s recommendation. Enjoying the progression fantasy, but the way problems have been resolved has been pretty irritating multiple times.
This is probably my favorite fantasy book series, so I’m super curious what resolutions you’ve found annoying.
I’ll say I find the first book a bit of a slog, but that’s mostly because I can’t stand the secondhand embarrassment of Lindon’s behavior.
Once Aethan shows up, it’s a straight shot to the top for me.
I just dislike that Lindon makes so many rash decisions that are just deus ex machinad. It is one of my peeves of conflict resolution in stories especially when it is as heavy handed as it is here. I am generally enjoying the world building and most of the progression and character interactions though.
They also try and portray Linden as a peculiarity but he hasn’t really done anything warranting that yet other than us being told such.
Currently on blackflame so it clearly hasn’t deterred me yet.
Interesting. I generally cannot stand deus ex machina, so I’m surprised to not really be able to think of heavy examples of it for Lindon. He certainly gets out of tricky situations, but maybe to me it felt like they were either foreshadowed or somebody like Aethan gets him out of it?
I’m planning another reread soon; I’ll have to pay special attention to see why it didn’t register for me in this particular story.
I definitely feel as I have progressed through that it has either gotten better or doesnt bother me as much as he actually has a measure of power now. xD
They still make some odd decisions sometimes.
I think deus ex machina is part of the genre. Very few books, if any, in progression fantasy are able to avoid it.
Reading Words of Radiance by B. Sandy and listening to Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien, narrated by Sir Christopher Lee. Man does Tolkien convey a good deal of sorrow in the misfortunes of Men during the First Age.
Just cracked into Words of Radiance last night!
Non fiction wise, I think I’ve read enough plague history books for now so I’m reading summer of blood by Dan Jones about the peasants’ revolt.
Fiction wise, I’m just starting re-eading Glenn Cook’s black company. I’ve read the series before but was years ago and must have been wasted then because i only remember the gist and that I enjoyed them. Also grunts by Mary gentle, and notes on the culture by iain m Banks. Never read it before, fucking shame that bloke is dead.
You like to read depressing books 😀
I read the first book in Black Company series, and while I liked the story, the writing style kept me from getting fully immersed. Have the next two book ready but not feeling special urge to go back to it.
Still slowly making my way through The Year of the Locust. Not quite as enthralling as I Am Pilgrim however. I want to try and get through it in the next week so I can get started on The Grace of Kings.
Society of the spectacle by Guy Debord. Its a fucking dense read, feel like i have to annotate every paragraph
Man, even it’s wikipedia entry is dense. 😀
I just finished up The Locked Tomb trilogy on audio and now I’m reading the dead tree version of The Priory of the Orange Tree. I tried to start it on audio about a year ago but it was too dense for the short listening blocks I have these days. It’s been a while since I read any epic fantasy and I’m enjoying it a lot so far.
I’ve reached book 7 of The Wheel of Time (A Crown of Swords). I’ve enjoyed most of what I’ve read so far but definitely daunted by how much is still left (and having heard this is the start of the slog).
Yeah, but it’s only 2-3 books of slog, and then its good again 😀
Also, while it’s slog, they aren’t completely bad. There are still good stuff in it.
I’m currently listening to dragonseye (red star rising), in the Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. It’s pretty good so far, not on the level of the first six books in the series, but among my favorites of the others.
How’s the Pern series overall? I read 1 or 2 books when I was really young, your comment just reminded me of that. Only thing I remember is that there were small dragons that you sync with or something.
As I recall, I enjoyed the series as a whole. Takes a couple interesting turns in the world building that I really wasn’t expecting.
Hmm… maybe I should give it another go. Thanks!
The first six books are absolutely incredible, and the rest range from decent enough to be worth reading to good.
Thanks for the input.
I looked up my list, and I have the original trilogy but I only read the first two. Need to get the Harper Hall trilogy to complete first 6 books. I guess it’s time to complete the series.
TBH, the Harper Hall trilogy was my favorite, even more so than the original trilogy.
Space Eldritch II by various. It’s an anthology of futuristic cosmic horror stories recommended to me by this sub. So far I’m enjoying it more than Space Eldritch I, although they’re both good.
sigh you just wasted so much of my time…
I checked if Space Eldritch is available at my local store, but then I thought, there are many original Lovecraft’s stories that I haven’t read, so checked if they had his work, and they had a Hardcover “Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft”, added it to my list to order. Then went to Wikipedia to make sure the book really had the complete fiction, and noticed most of his work is available on WikiSource. So, while I still want that complete collection hardcover, it would be difficult to carry it with me, as I do with my books, so having soft copies would be helpful, so started downloading all the stories, one by one…
I wasted it in the best way, though. 😀
No doubt about that.
I finished up Kill the Farm Boy by Herne and Dawson and it was a bit of a slog. I’m looking forward to starting on something a bit more engaging so I think I’m going to pick back up with where I left off in the Murderbot series by Martha Wells.
Your description of something like The Princess Bride and Pratchett had me intrigued, but it seems like it’s not to everyone’s taste.
That’s the way I felt when I first heard about it too. And both of those had a solid plot that the authors worked witticisms into while writing. This feels like they thought of jokes and then figured out how to get the joke into the plot, and it suffers because of that. The jokes tend to be puns and groaners, which I really like and I really like the authors outside this book. This just fell flat and I don’t care about the characters or their adventure.
Sometimes things just don’t come together properly. Would be interesting to see some other work of the author.
Kevin Herne wrote the Iron Druid series that’s commonly recommended for Dresden Files fans and it’s great.
Delilah S. Dawson wrote some Star Wars stuff I’ve read (Phasma for one) and Midnight at the Houdini and I enjoyed them.
Oh, I have heard of Iron Druid series many times and it’s on my wish list, but for some reason I had it listed under Yanni Kuznia, who was apparently editor of ‘A Fantasy Medley 3’, which featured a short story from Iron Druid Chronicles.
Columbus Day (Expeditionary Force series #1), took me a bit to get into it, but I’m almost through it and can’t wait to keep going.
