What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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I just read “Brightly Shining” by Ingvild H. Rishøi. I suppose its more suited to read in wintertime, but it’s such a good book.
Alcoholism is a theme, just fyi.
I discovered it via Dua Lipa’s Book Club, which imo is worth checking out.
I just started reading The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. I’ve only read the first chapter.
I’m also reading the Collected Ficions by Jorge Luis Borges. I’ve only read a few but I’m enjoying them.
bouncing back and forth between a family read of Treasure Island and Debt: The First 5000 Years.
Recently finished listening to Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. Currently working through The Hitchhiker’s Guide series.
Reading (very occasionally) The Martians by Kim Stanley Robinson (a book of short stories related to his Mars series).
I am about halfway through Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence by Judith Herman.
The Suicide Murders by Howard Engel, the first book of his Benny Cooperman series. It’s almost a parody of the private detective genre which may or may not have been the author’s intent. The cover art isn’t much, but I’ve concluded it’s an African tribal sculpture, normally posing as office artwork, but also sturdy enough to bash in the skull of a crooked psychiatrist on page 60, so I’ve scored it in the weapon on the cover category hard mode.
A Parade of Horribles - dungeon crawler carl. Also Ground State - expeditionary force.
I’ve been waiting for Faith of Beasts to come onto LibroFM since it released, but it isn’t available to buy there till July 13th. I might just… acquire… it through other means, same as any other audible exclusive.
The books I’m reading are what I’d expect from them so far. Reccomend Dungeon Crawler Carl, much less so Expeditionary Force.
Just finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I liked it in general and raced through it quite fast.
There was only one cringey moment I can remember:
spoiler
“Hold on, Ms. Stratt,” said Justice Spencer. “This is still a court of law, and you will remain for the duration of these proceedings!”
“No, I won’t,” said Stratt.
The bailiff walked forward. “Ma’am. I’ll have to restrain you if you don’t comply.”
“You and what army?” Stratt asked.
Five armed men in military fatigues entered the courtroom and took up station around her. “Because I have the U.S. Army,” she said. “And that’s a damn fine army.”
Idk it just seems a bit shoved in there.
Otherwise I liked it a lot :)
I just finished The Gathering Storm by Brandon Sanderson. Per request, I’ll leave some thoughts about it here.
While I know Jordan wrote some of this book, I personally regard it as Sanderson’s work. As such, I felt it was a huge improvement over Jordan’s writing and for me, the best book in the series since The Fires of Heaven. This confirms to me a fact that has been bouncing in my mind for a long while: I don’t think Robert Jordan is a very good writer. He certainly had an interesting story to tell in a captivating setting, which I why I continued to read this far, but his idiosyncrasies are somewhat infuriating.
… Which is why this book is so refreshing: the plot actually moves along, things actually happen, characters don’t constantly sniff derisively or adjust their clothes when annoyed, nor is the reader incessantly hammered with how oh so different the sexes are in the setting, when they act pretty much the same. On that note, the characters feel more reasonable here, and not as unlikable as is Jordan’s wont. While still arrogant and bullheaded to a fault, they feel more understandable in their actions. I think I even saw some character development typically lacking in the series.
While I will again take a break between books, I’m very optimistic about the last two books in the series. I probably won’t read the prequel, but we’ll see.
I finished the first six of The Expanse recently. Had a buddy suggest that the next three can kind of stand alone from the first six, and with the direction book six and the series went, I decided to put the rest on hold.
I had previously read the first three books in The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie, and I was craving his style a bit, so I’m on to Best Served Cold, and it’s exactly how I expected it to be. So it’s not new and exciting, but the style is very much the same as the first three, the story is interesting, and while it feels a bit like a rehashing, I’m cool with it.
Just started the audiobook for Dungeon Crawler Carl a few days ago. Love the narration. Genre is LitRPG, which I understand to mean you’re reading about someone playing a game, as I understand it. So it’s not literature, but it is fun.
I feel like the pitch meeting or whatever inspired him to write this book went like this:
Teacher/Instructor: Write what you know
Matt Dinniman: I don’t know shit. All I’m good at is, I’ve beaten NetHack over 37 times!
Teacher/Instructor: Well write about that then…
…and he did.
I’m not sure if there’s a closer game than NetHack (or Hack or Rogue) that the game part of DCC would be about. Obviously the end-of-the-world stuff is tacked on, and the achievements and loot boxes make it modern, but the core gameplay seems to be taken from NetHack. And if you’ve ever played that damned game, you know how hard it is and how rare wins actually are. But we’re not here to talk about games, so I won’t get into what it is.
LitRPG doesn’t necessarily mean you are reading about someone playing a game, although there are definitely those types of books as well. I’m my eyes it is a story that has rpg elements built into the story. MC’s gaining levels, items with stats, or even building a town that a building increases x resource per day.
Dungeon Crawler Carl is a great series. I just don’t recommend listening to it in the car with the little ones lol. If you like the DCC books there is another LitRPG book. The name escapes me at the moment but it’s about a guy that is working at an RV Park in the desert when the apocalypse comes. It’s also a very good series, I’ll see if I can’t find the name somewhere.
Thanks. I’m new to LitRPG and that was my impression. I realise Crawler Carl isn’t playing a game, it’s his reality (unless it ends up being all a dream or something), but it’s very game-like.
Then there’s Ready Player One where they’re playing a sort of real-life game (the egg hunt), but I wouldn’t call it a LitRPG.
You are thinking of BuyMort the Shopocalypse Saga and it is also great!
More litRPG would come in the form of Beware of Chicken which is actually referenced a few times later on in the series of books when he talks about the cloudy sword sect and Raul the Crabs general existence seems to be to nod to beware of chicken.
Also Solo Levelling is great too
I’m working my way through “The Children of the Jedi” by Barbara Hambly, one of the less enjoyable books actually so far, I think it’s just the author. They’ve introduced some characters and ideas as stuff you should already know. Seems like they wanted to flesh those stories out later?
After I’m reading another collection in the same theme as the last, it’s still Asimovs “wonderful worlds of science fiction”, but instead of empires this one is Spaceships.
Finished the fourth book in the ‘Children of Time’ series.
‘Children of Strife’ by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Book covers three different eras of human space exploration. Tchaikovsky writes like a cross between Terry Pratchett and Arthur C. Clarke. Whimsy and humor slamming into hard science at the speed of light.
Classic = “The Silver Metal Lover” by Tanith Lee. In the future, robots are absolutely perfect. Too perfect. Way, way too perfect.
It’s odd that it’s Tchaichovsky’s biggest work but it’s almost the only thing of his I haven’t read. It’s on the list though.
I’m between Murderbot (Martha Wells) books at the moment.
I’m listening to Theo of Golden through Libby. It’s not changing my world but it pretty wholesome.
I recent finished Dungeon Crawler Carl and I’m looking forward to starting the second in the series.
Half way through Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky. (Audiobook on Spotify)
