Reading Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski. Book 2 of The Witcher series.

What about all of you? What have you all been reading or listening to lately?

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I just finished He Who Fights With Monsters 9 today and still enjoying it a lot.

Having a brief break with Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds which is a rare non fiction forray that has been dictated by life as it is currently.

Just finished Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky, book four of his Children of Time series. Magnificent, truly. Best one yet.

Now I'm finishing H.N. Turteltaub's Over the Wine Dark Sea, that I put down to read CoS. It's also magnificent so far. I really appreciate how Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast gave me an ancient seafaring primer that this book is really living up to.

Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinnaman

I’m taking my time because I know I would just blow through the series and be sad when it’s over. I understand why the Dungeon Crawler Carl series has gotten so popular.

Finished Dungeon Crawler Carl book 2 (Carl’s Doomsday Scenario) last week. Started Roadside Picnic but found the translation unreadable. Might be an audiobook choice if at all.

Currently reading Woken Furies by Richard Morgan. It is book 3 of the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy (Altered Carbon). The cyberpunk techno laden prose is a bit difficult to follow, so I started to whisper sync it (read book and listen to audiobook simultaneously) once I hit chapter 5. As the previous two Kovacs books, it is an excellent stylistic example of the cyberpunk genre, although it tends to not get nearly as political and dystopic as the genre usually does. Maybe book 3 bucks the trend.

Once done I will either finish the Eisenhorn trilogy (Warhammer 40k) or continue reading Book 4 of Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. Had to drop it after binging the first three in one go.

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. I'm making my way through the Discworld in release order, excepting Guards, Guards! since I read it first. So far, the reputation of the series that you can feasibly start anywhere rings pretty true!

Finished The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp. Last week I complained it was overlong; turns out it was just a slump in the pacing, as I enjoyed the last 25-ish% much better. I have some minor quibbles with some of the explanations at the end, but overall, I liked it.

Read/finished Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis. This was short and zipped along quickly. I didn't love the MC's personality, but the cat-and-mouse aspect was great, so I'll probably end up putting the next one on my TBR.

Currently ambling my way through The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. Each chapter is a little story about an older woman and her granddaughter, who are living on a Finnish island. If you like the Moomin books, you'll probably vibe with this as well.

I Shall Wear Midnight, as I get closer to the end of this Discworld readthru.

Don't sleep on Discworld, and don't sleep on the Tiffany Aching "young adult" series. imho, "young adult" was probably thrust on Sir Terry for marketing or whatever, or he wanted to get more younger people to read the novels, but whatever the reason, apparently some people avoid the Aching novels, and that's a loss for them. :)

Wyrd Sisters is a good one, but my only problem with Discworld is that almost ALL of them are really good ones. :) I'm glad you're going in publication order, even if there's no real wrong way to read them. :) IMHO, that is the best way, even if you bounce around the disc a bit, I think they are more logical to consume as he wrote them since he evolved things as he went along. :)

Finished up Purity by Jonathan Franzen. Took a little longer to get through than I'd thought, either because I had other things on my mind, or because I reread the confusing parts. There are some complicated strands of plot, told out of chronological order, but I think it eventually fits together sensibly. I'd recommend this one and might take a chance on one of Franzen's other books.

SO recommended the Throne of Glass series and that I start with the prequel, I've been sitting on the third short story of the book for a while now.

Other than that, I'm in the middle of 3 different light novels:

The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash v13

Mushoku Tensei v16

Seirei Gensouki v27

Judge my choice of light novels, or my inability to finish one before starting another, it's fine, I'm just as bad when it comes to watching TV shows. I cannot binge watch to save my life.

Sword of Destiny is such a good one, those early Witcher short stories have more punch than the novels honestly. I'm listening to the audiobook of Piranesi again because nothing else scratches that weird quiet itch, plus catching up on a couple of audio drama podcasts on my commute.

The Witches have been my favourite of the books so far. I'm also going through in release order.

Finishing up Vagabond by Tim Curry, and nearly done with The Silverblood Promise by James Logan.

I'm about halfway through the second book of 'He Who Fights With Monsters'. I'm enjoying the series so far.

I looked for similar after reading 'Dungeon Crawler Carl' and stumbled on this.

I just wrapped up the Disaster Gays Detective Agency by Lev AC Rosen. Sadly, I was disappointed.

Finished Morning Star this week, really enjoyed it a solid 9/10 for me. Red Rising trilogy as a whole probably 8.5 or 9/10? The first book really takes forever to get going.

I am struggle bussing through Between Two Fires. It feels like it should be right up my alley, medieval France, horrorish vibes, knights, but it just isnt. I am near the end so will finish it in the next day or two but maybe my fault for sticking it out. Probably should have dropped it, but i have trouble doing that.

Rereading the Thomas Covenant series after running across a post about it.

I'm into the second trilogy now and I'm finding that the experience is different than when I was younger. I'm also experiencing it different now that I've written long form fiction.

Still loving it, just in new ways.

Finally finished "rationality from ai to zombies", I don't recommend it (repetitious, author arrogant AF). Reading ng the jellyfish problem (someone else here was reading it), its alright, I find myself a little tired of the main character.

I often feel my feelings about books are really dependent on when o come across them.

Fed Up by Daniel E. Lieberman. It's pretty depressing talking about corruption of the food industry, diet gurus fleecing people of their money, and how ineffective most diets are. It's written by an anthropologist who discusses where our diets come from and compared historically to what different cultures ate at various times. Very informative, very interesting, but pretty depressing about how shitty people are profiting from vulnerable people just wanting hope and health.

Redwall!

Did you watch Altered Carbon on Netflix? I liked the books and the series even though they diverge a lot (kinda like GOT). Some things were better in the books (they skipped the whole second book?), but a few things they did better in the series, like having the main baddie being Kovac's sister and "ressurecting" Quell.

I have some dregs left of books that McKay's didn't want to trade for in-store credit. I'm currently re-reading Dragon Tears by Dean Koontz. I started Grey Mountain by John Grisham but it seems kinda dull. I also started Arguably by Christopher Hitchens, but I don't remember if I've read it before.

Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willna' be fooled again!

I'll always love the Nac Mac Feegles :)

I did. The series diverged on some very fundamental elements, which bugged me, a lot. But, on its own, thw first season was pretty good. I never watched the second.

Thats the same author as "black tongue theif", I also didn't like between two fires, but thought black tongue theif was great (I came to it from abercrombie - first law series).

Also really liked red rising series (although ive kinda lost the plot in the later books). I starts on book two by mistake and found it better then book one.

Daft Wullie! Ye ken I said I'd tell ye when ye wuz guilty o' stupid and inna-pro-pre-ate behavior?

:)

Re-reading the Culture series by Iain M. Banks.
Managed to finish Player of Games, and Use of Weapons this week (Consider Phlebas is a skip for me). I loved this series when I first read it a few years back, I love it even more now. The entire universe is extraordinary and he clearly spent a lot of time thinking about the details to paint such rich and vivid stories. How lucky we are that he did, and how tragic for all of us that he left so soon.

I prefer it to Carl to be honest. If you want other similar stuff you should try out:

Solo Levelling

Buy Mort: The Shopocalypse Saga

Beware of Chicken

Just finished the Nord Stream Conspiracy and it was entertaining, gave a bunch of background I didn’t know about. Jumped back into the Phoenix Project, a book about DevOps, and a book I have to read in small bites because it stresses me out.

Just finished A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan and Soul Music by Terry Pratchett.

Just started Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey. I don't remember yet whether I've read it before. I definitely read Dragonsong and Dragondrums years back, but I haven't read all of the Pern books. Something made me think of them earlier this year, so I started requesting them from the library.

I'm about to start Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb. It's the conclusion to a trilogy. I'm looking forward to it. Robin Hobb is one of my favorites.

I read Watership Down because of the Redwall books. It ... was not the same vibe.

I've been reading some of the Discworld books sporadically. Soul Music most recently.

I had read The Colour of Magic a while back and recall not liking it. More recently, a friend invited me to a Hogfather watching party. I enjoyed it enough that I went ahead and read the book. That prompted me to read the other related novels.

Plus, on the recommendation of said friend, Interesting Times. That one was kind of a miss for me. I don't care for Rincewind. Also, too much of the book felt like missed references to elements of a previous book.

Guards, Guards! might be the next one I pick up. Or maybe Thief of Time or Hogfather again.

In the pursuit of completeness, I am forcing myself through Steve Brust's Khaavren Romances. They are prequels to his Vlad Taltos series of books that are written in the style of Alexandre Dumas, and as such are often intentionally insufferably tedious to varying degrees of entertaining. I'm not hating them entirely, but the pacing is very, very slow compared to the Vlad Taltos books, which I enjoy much more. I'm up to book 13 of those, and on the third of five Khaavren Romances.

I'll be reading Niezwyciężony by Stanisław Lem. It's about a planet where abandoned robots have gone through an evolutionary process and become part of the ecosystem. It could happen to us!

Currently reading Isaac Asimov's I, Robot. It's a fun read, almost done.

One detail that surprised me is the amount of smoking in the book. It's not a lot, but kinda weird that someone would light up a cigarette in a space station.

Currently reading 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. It's big but I'm committed to get through it, only 900 pages left!

I just wrapped up Replay by Ken Grimewood. I read it back in ‘89-‘90 when it first came out in paperback and I was a young’un and it really stuck in my head. When I saw my local library had it for check out as downloaded audio, I figured I had to give it a go again almost 30 years later.
It’s a fantastic story of a 43 year old man who has a hart attack in 1988 and wakes up in his 18 year old body in early 1963. You’d think it would be a bog standard fantasy about getting it right this time or something but instead it turns out to be a lovely stirring story about loneliness and finding someone, anyone to share your time with. Really great book that hits harder now that I’m older.

I read this after playing the game. I think it was the book that coined the term necroevolution, and world-building was quite fascinating.

I began reading Darconville's cat by Alexander Theroux. Another doorstopper for this year, wish me luck.

That's a good book. Interesting premise well executed. It's been a long time since I read it though.

I had no idea there's a video game. How is it?

I've just recently finished a re-read of the entire main branches of the Robots and the Empire series. The eBooks include forewords by the author describing how the world was changing when he first started writing the characters, he was publishing before computers were invented.

Currently reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville after enjoying The City and The City. I love how thickly he lays on the descriptions of the filth and dread, the opening introduction in PSS is pages without a single redeeming feature described.

I'm working my way through Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman, and it reminds me in hugely of Otherland, Tad Williams. I haven't picked up a Gaiman book in a while, somewhat due to the controversy around him, and I'd forgotten that I do enjoy his prose. Overall, it's only fine. I keep falling asleep reading if that's any indication of interest ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

And finally finished Heretical Fishing, Haylock Jobson. Boy was that book not for me. I think I get the appeal of a permutation of the cultivator progression fantasy genre, but wow the writing really wasn't for me. Sooo dramatic all the time about the littlest things, constantly talking about how the air felt in lungs, sun on face, etc. And the relationships, while "wholesome" did not feel grounded or real. I don't the I'll be continuing the series.

It is a walking simulator with gorgeous environment and graphics. I liked the writing of the story as well, but I guess it is not everyones cup of tea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invincible_(video_game)

Finally finished Children of Time after 8 months (no time to read and feel guilty if I do). About to move on to a second book, but I am going to take a pit stop at a bad Noir detective novel that I got from a humble bundle "Quarry".

No, not at all. I didn't really enjoy Watership Down, it's in my DNF pile but I plan to get back to it.

This is my first time reading Redwall. As a youngin I read Matthias, one of the other books in the series, but I can't say that I remember it! My kids will get Redwall once I'm done.

Grisham has written some good books, but Grey Mountain isn't one of them. It's so over-the-top preachy, and its characters are so obnoxiously unlikeable that I couldn't even root for the supposed good guys.

Those books were also the first detective Scifi books as well.

I really enjoyed the Redwall series as a kid/teen. I wish I could have discovered them a year or two earlier. As it is, I remember losing interest as I got into my late teens.

I'm a little afraid to start re-reading, lol - not sure if the stories would be fun to read again as an adult.