I finished Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman last week. It’s the first book of Dungeon Crawler Carl series.
I mentioned the week before that the litRPG doesn’t have high stakes, since you know nothing is going to happen to your character and it’s just going to get stronger and stronger, but I failed to realise that this happens when you don’t care about any side characters. Which is not to say that something happens (or doesn’t happen) to side characters, but that the side characters are well written that you care about them.
Started The Novice by Trudi Canavan. The second book in The Black Magician trilogy.
The first book was completely focused on one place and one task, this book expands the world, and different characters are doing completely different things so it’s interesting to see how things will develop. I am still in the start though, and while the book feels as quick to read as the first one, it has quite a bit of bullying in it (at least in the start, where I am), and I am not a fan of reading that, so the progress is going pretty slow. Going to stick with it though, cause it feels like the kind of book where our protagonist is going to become super powerful, with somewhat “good” ending.
What about all of you? What have you all been reading or listening to lately?
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I stepped away from my regular queer literary fiction and romance since a couple sci-fi books came through my holds. I think I’m back on the saddle after a summer of being unable to get deep into books.
I quickly listened to All Systems Red for book club and I’m in the middle of Project Hail Mary. I’m enjoying them both. Next on the list is Martyr!
Re reading some discworld novels.
Finished Golden Son by Pierce Brown. Book 2 in the Red Rising series. Really enjoyed this one. Picks up the action and intrigue super quick. Overall like a 9/10 for me
Also about halfway through Amber and Ashes by Margaret Weis. Its a D&D book in Krynn which Weis wrote a number of books for. Its ok. Kind of what i expect from these types of books.
Really enjoyed the Red Rising series until book 4. Had to take a break after that book it just wasn’t as interesting as the others since they start following other characters from their point of view. I had become used to hearing the story from Darrow’s POV.
Seeing your comments on these threads about Red Rising, is making me reconsider trying to start it again after dnf
Finished Recursion by Blake Crouch based on someone else’s recommendation in one of these threads a few weeks back. Wasn’t bad at all.
Finished Pretenders to the Throne of God by Adrian Tchaikovsky, book 4 of the Tyrant Philosophers series. SO good. Maybe the best one yet.
Now reading Hidden Empire by Kevin J Anderson, book 1 of his “Saga of the Seven Suns” series. I’ve never read any of his books before; it’s not bad, but Anderson is no Tchaikovsky. Feels almost Asimov-ish so far, but I’m only 1/4 through it.
If you liked recursion, which IMO was fun but a little easy to poke holes in you should consider ted chiang (IMO The best short SciFi story writer)
I started reading Towers of Midnight by Brandon Sanderson, book 13 of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time. Feels good to get back to this series after some months. The end is in sight. Sanderson is doing a great job moving things along and resolving plot threads that have been hanging for 10 books or so.
I’m working on John of John by Douglas Stuart. It’s a lot more literary than the last few books I’ve read, but it’s good. There’s a lot of conflict between the father and son characters and it’s interesting.
Katabasis by RF Kuang. Listening not reading. Its dark academia fantasy and the first time I’ve been introduced to any of her novels. Its a decent listen so far. I might try out the Poppy Wars since I heard those are great
I too just finished dungeon crawler Carl book 1. I almost gave up on it quick - it started off juvenile and a bad “video game to book” translation. But it grew on me - I’m more than halfway through book 2 now and it keeps getting better. I think it might be worthy of the hype! ;)
I stopped at the first book. I’m really glad other people like it, but the time spent on all the item descriptions really weighed it down for me. I hope it keeps getting better for you!
The item descriptions were one of the things that I found so funny. If you didn’t like them, I can see you not enjoying the book as much.
I think that they were funny, but there were so many that it was too much and I started to feel like they were a slog. By this series’ popularity, I know I’m in the minority, and I’m glad that it works for all y’all.
I think its meant to be listened to rather than read. So i can imagine it being not a great read honestly.
Currently reading Dungeon Crawler Carl: The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook. Finished listening to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Started listening to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Life, the Universe, and Everything.
The radio play for hhgtg is highly worth while as well.
The Institute by Stephen King, been a while since i read a King novel
I really enjoyed that book. It wasn’t as horror-y as his other stuff and had good character interactions.
Currently listening through basically everything by “Robin Hobb”. Started with the Farseer Trilogy, currently closing the Liveship Traders. It’s playing in a light fantasy realm.
The Farseer Trilogy was rather depressing, but had something dark and alluring about it. Liveship Traders is okay. Helps to pass the time, but doesn’t really capture me.
I loved the Farseer trilogy, but yeah, it was depressing. I actually liked that, though. It is hard to find stories that don’t have happy endings.
Just started the first book of Greg Bear’s short stories. Have loved Greg’s books since I read Eon as a teenager.
Humble Bundle currently have a stack of Greg’s books on sale
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/greg-bear-birthday-bundle-open-road-media-books
Thanks for reminding me to complete my purchase for this bundle!
I just started Red Rising by Pierce Brown.
I just finished sky full of elephants, and I really didn’t enjoy it. I thought the premise was so good, but everything about the execution left me cold. I didn’t feel like the author wrote interesting characters to remember. I don’t feel like the world building made any sense. I don’t feel like the themes were deep at all, and the language/sex/drug content means that surely it’s not for kids. A huge bummer.
Still working through Want submitted by Anonymous Curated by Gillian Anderson
I am not a big nonfiction reader but love this book so much! I read a few submissions a night and it’s just delightful.
