Still reading The Crystal Shard by R. A. Salvatore. First book of The Icewind Dale Trilogy, and The Legend of Drizzt / Forgotten Realms series (publication order).
Book is pretty fast paced and full of action. Really enjoying it.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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I listen to A Night in the Lonesome October every October. It’s the diary of Jack the Rippers dog from October 1’st to October 31’st.
Am I the only one irked by the improper grammar on this weekly post going back months? How has it not been corrected yet? In a community full of readers.
I read Mur Lafferty’s Station Eternity and then Chaos Terminal. I enjoyed them buuuuuuttttt… Station Eternity had hints that there may have been a breadcrumb mystery to solve outside of the narrative. After reading the second book, I think it was just plot holes, or else tokens that the author thought were wrapped up that I didn’t catch. Either way, having lost what I thought was a clever puzzle to solve, I’d say both books were pulpy.
I’m currently on Children of Dune. I’ve listened to the core six a few times on audio book but figured I’d actually put the time into reading them. Its honestly pretty close to a first time experience. There was so many little things sprinkled throughout that I totally missed in audio book.
Finished Lawrence Block’s Evan Tanner series, and am now on the 2nd book of his Matthew Scudder series. The Scudder books will be a re-read for me up until about book 4 or 5. I hope to finish them all this time around.
Currently reading There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm, which involves a department of the SCP Foundation dealing with entities that delete memories, communication, etc. I don’t intend to go down the SCP rabbit hole, but I’m finding the book inventive and enjoyable so far.
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Read Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge. Short, fun, mindless Halloween action horror.
Bingo squares: Family Drama; Eazy, Breazy, Read-zie; Now a Major Motion Picture; It’s About Time; Award Winner; It’s a Holiday (hard); (alt) A Change in Perspective
I’m currently reading Five Tales by Herman Melville. I also have a Herman Melville short stories book waiting for me at my library.
Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson. It’s the Third book of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. I just started it but the second book blew my mind. I really enjoyed the first book, Gardens of the Moon but at times it came across as a bit generic fantasy perhaps aimed at a bit of a younger audience but Deadhouse Gates fully flipped that on its head. For a high fantasy series the battles of ‘the chain of dogs’ in Deadhouse Gates particularly stood out to me as some of the best depictions of historical warfare I’ve ever read. While a few battles from the entire wheel of time series stick with me I don’t think I’ll ever forget the chain of dogs. Looking forward to seeing what’s to come from book 3. Highly recommend the Malazan Book of the Fallen if you’re into high fantasy. Don’t be intimidated by the crazy wordcounts, they’re easy reading so far.
Oh man, I finished that series last year. Definitely some incredible parts, but it also drags a bit at the end. It finished with like 2000 pages of matching through a desert which was rough, but by that point you’ve read enough that you can’t stop.
Younger audience is a crazy critique though, I can’t say I ever though that.
Man, spoilers much? So much of the beauty of book four was having that click in my brain. There’s a reason Erikson doesn’t use his real name through dead house gates…
Not sure if Lemmy supports comment spoilers but that would have been the time to use them, might not be too late to prevent others from getting spoiled.
I removed that sentence from my comment, but I didn’t think it was a spoiler. How is his name relevant? I knew that ahead of time and didn’t think it spoiled anything for me.
Haha it was mostly the Crokus centred part I got that impression from, plus a few other elements like edgy Anomanded Rake. I got that impression a bit with the daru cabal plot but it is probably too harsh a criticism for most of the book.
I’m currently reading the first book of the 3 body problem series. Still trying to decide if I like it or not even though I’m almost done with it.
I’ve read the English translations of the trilogy. If you like mystery, high-concept sci-fi, and epic storytelling, the series is pretty terrific. But if your into rounded and compelling characters, especially if those characters are women, your going to have a bad time.
Kinda reminds me of classic authors like Heinlein.
Been wanting to read this, but I’m halfway through book 7 of 8 of the witcher series, and I don’t want to leave the series undone before switching to the next book. The witcher series has been great, but this book is getting slow and hard to finish.
I finally got bored enough on a plane to watch the 3 body problem TV show. Based on liking the TV show, I’m hoping I’m gonna like the book too.
No Shortcuts: Organizing for power in the new gilded age by Jane McAlevey. If you are a leadership type I suggest it. Organizing labor is important given the times we are in.
Two books:
- Bullshit jobs by David Graeber
- Crack-up capitalism by Quinn Slobodian
BS Jobs was good!
Good to hear. I just started it.
Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I’ve been on a bit of a Tchaikovsky binge lately. I read Children of Time years ago and enjoyed it, but for whatever reason, didn’t read anything else by him then. I had a copy of Made Things knocking around though, and I finally read it a few weeks ago and was so impressed I started reading him in earnest. This is the… let’s see… seventh book of his I’ve read lately.
He sort of reminds me of Michael Crichton. He’s not a particularly notable prose stylist - his writing is entirely competent and sufficient, but not in any way really remarkable. But he tells very imaginative stories very well, so he’s a satisfying read.
This one is a sort of political thriller wrapped around a mystery that plays out a bit like a science fiction update of a Lovecraftian eldritch abomination story, leavened a bit with Emily St. John Mandel style misfit spaceship crew slice of life. I’m enjoying it.
Service Model was excellent.
Iron Coffins by Herbert Werner
It’s a memoir by one of the handful of Uboat Captains who survived WWII.
I’m enjoying “The Overstory” by Richard Powers for my fiction fix.
Just got in the mail today, currently on chapter 3, “The art of receiving and giving” by Betty Martin. This one I’m going to have to read piecewise.
Finished Rhythm of War. The end hit hard, and I’m definitely impatiently waiting for Wind and Truth now.
Rhythm of War Spoilers
Right after Kaladin jumps through the battle for the tower were all super emotional, and I also really enjoyed Eshonai’s last ride with the Stormfather. I had kind of been holding out hope that she was Venli’s spren somehow, but I appreciated giving her that send off, at least.
I have used hard copies of Edgedancer and Dawnshard that should be showing up today to add to my collection, so I’ll probably start into those.
In the meantime I read book 5 of CJ Archer’s Glass Library series, The Secret of the Lost Ledgers. I think I prefer Glass and Steele over Glass Library so far, but that’s partly because magic was more secretive at the start of the arc.
edit: the novellas are itty bitty.
I wish I could experience all of Sanderson’s books again for the first time and agree Rythm of War was great! I can’t wait to get to Wind and Truth either. Being an audio book only guy though I’m going to have to wait a bit longer until I can continue that story!
Have you read Mistborn?
I’m mostly an audiobook guy, though I have both hardcover and audiobook preordered. I doubt I’ll really read the physical copies, but I recently decided to refresh my bookshelves with some of my favorites just for the sake of having them and the Stormlight Archive quickly became a favorite once I finally buckled down and just bought all the audiobooks to listen straight through.
I’ve read some of his random smaller stuff. I thought the premise of Rithmatist could have been a pretty fun VR game. I haven’t read Mistborn yet, but it’s definitely on my radar. One of my biggest things is availability, though. My binge on physical books the last couple weeks was an outlier, but I generally can’t afford to actually buy anywhere near as many books as I read. They’re mostly not as substantial as Stormlight Archive, but according to goodreads my new books this year are still comfortably in the triple digits, so I need libraries and subscription libraries to fill in most of the volume or I’d go broke pretty quickly. I definitely want to read Mistborn, but I’ll probably wait a while, because my self control on buying books can get me in trouble if I’m not careful.
The first mistborn book is a bit on the nose, it comes across as a bit of a weird mix of teen romance meets classic teen fiction rebels vs fascist empire. Probably not Sanderson’s best work as it is on the older side now, but it gets way way better after the first book (as many Sanderson series do). The Wax and Wayne mistborn books are awesome, so don’t give up after the first one!
lol if you looked at my goodreads you’d see plenty of cheap, casual reads. I like a variety of styles, as long as it’s not super stilted and I can get some flavor of the author’s personality. I’m guessing that it won’t be an issue.
I appreciate the advice that it picks up though.
