Reading When Moon Hits the Eye by John Scalzi.
I am still in the start, but the premise is hilarious. Looking forward to how everything unfolds.
What about all of you, what have you been reading or listening to lately?
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There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm, as an audiobook. Highly recommended, in any format you like.
Just finished that myself. Great book.
Still working on The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem. Finally getting into the meat of it! The author is good at getting across the dusty feel of the planet without spending paragraphs on it; I feel like that’s an underappreciated skill.
Huh, I haven’t read that one yet and I’m a huge Lem fan.
Have you read Eden? That’s always been my favorite. It explores the question of how alien aliens would really be if we encountered them. Something that most sci-fi conveniently either glosses over completely or uses earth-like comparisons like reptiloid, etc.
Also the automated factory that produces nothing… 😚👌
I have not! This is my first Lem. I’ll take a look at it; thanks for the rec!
I’m probably about a third of the way into the fourth Dresden Files book now, Summer Knight.
I enjoy the premise a lot but the second and third books were a bit, ehhhhh, so I am hoping it picks up a bit more now that it is established.
I don’t think it helps that I am not super keen on the reader of these. He isn’t bad by any means compared to some I have heard but the recording picks up a lot of mouth sounds in between which i find a bit off putting and he keeps pronouncing random words from time to time which shouldn’t really annoy me but inevitably does.
My absolute pet hate is how so many readers on audiobooks seem to be unable to pronounce the word “wind” as in “he is going to wind her up” properly. So many pronounce it like wind in “the wind blows” and it is just the most basic thing that shouldn’t annoy me but inevitably pisses me off massively.
Buuuuut anyway, book four, has started off strong enough to get me reinterested so here is hoping!
I finished that series, but by the end I was pretty fed up with the formula, and the tone. I love contemporary occult fantasy though, and that kept me going.
I feel like I may be going exactly the same way as you. I’m around half way through book 4 at this point and I’m already kind of feeling a bit bored of the same issues. It doesn’t help that thus far the characters range from bearable - Dresden who really is boring as fuck, I don’t dislike him but don’t particularly like him either. All the way to oh would you fuck off - Murphy, that bitch is just fucking annoying and any scene with her in I am hoping she just fucking dies already…
Have you read any of the Laundry Files? That series has similarities of genre but with more likable characters and an interesting magic system
I haven’t but it is on my list of things to try out as it sounds really interesting.
Halfway through Dungeon Crawler Carl book 4, loving it.
After this it’s Star Wars The Crystal Star. I’m really looking forward the next series, these standalone ones have been a little meh lately, but could just be the authors.
I’m on book 3!
I read through 7, and switched to audio for the new book. The production quality is great, but I think I do better with books.
I feel I would miss too much if listening, as that would be a parallel thing I would do while choresing or working. I don’t think I could just sit there and listen to a book, I skip dialogue in games if the speech is too slow already, and like listening to music or nature while reading already.
I’m absolutely entranced by Robin Hobb. After reading the Farseer trilogy I just started the Liveship Traders trilogy and I’m already fully committed.
In between I tried one of her works as Megan Lindholm: Wizard of the Pigeons. A dive into the mind of a homeless person in Seattle. Somehow it’s categorized as “urban fantasy” but I don’t see it in the fantasy genre at all. Unless you’d count Kafka as fantasy. Not the best comparison but the only one I can think of right now.
Goodness, I just finished one of her books. Fools Assassin. Somehow I had missed it when it came out about a decade ago.
Enjoy the live ship books!
Thanks, I am. Almost living in it rn.
Fool’s Assassin sounds like elements taken from the Farseer trilogy. I think I read somewhere she returned to that later. Still as good?
Yes, it continues the Farseer storyline many years later. I really enjoyed it. It starts a little slowly (one of those where setting the stage takes a significant part of the book), but it brings back some beloved old characters and shows the progress of time. Very worthwhile IMO. I love Robin Hobb’s writing!
Yeah so do I.
The Farseer trilogy books seemed to be a bit more standalone, the Liveship Traders almost one book: I just started the 2nd book and the end of the 1st was hardly more than a chapter ending.
Have you also read some of her earlier Megan Lindholm stuff?
I don’t think so. None of the titles on https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/megan-lindholm/ look familiar.
OK, thanks for checking it out.
I might return to that other alias after I read all her Robin Hobb stuff.
Happy reading! I love the Robin Hobb books, I’ll have to look up her Megan Lindholm stuff once I’m done with my current reading list.
- I have a three-part list. Part 1 is what I currently have checked out from the library. Part 2 is what’s on hold or sequels of stuff I’m currently reading. Part 3 is a list on my computer of stuff that would flood my holds list if I added it all right now :)
You’re so lucky. Liveship Traders is a real adjustment from the Fitz books. Enjoy them, great stories ahead.
Thanks.
Thing is I’d never even heard of that author until someone mentioned her in one of these posts here. I wonder how many more gems in ugly last century fantasy covers there are…
Currently reading the Red Rising saga, I’m at book 5, titled “Dark Ages”.
Highly recommended.
I have a young family friend that wants to read those. obviously you like them enough to read to book five, but do you think the content is appropriate for a younger reader?
I’m the wrong person to ask regarding age appropriate content. My father deemed it appropriate to let me hack people with a chainsaw in Grand Theft Auto Vice City at age 4 and so I’ve never been limited in the media I consume.
The first book is considered YA though, from the second book onwards it’s getting a more series tone. There is violence, mentions of drugs here and there, power struggles, politics, mentions of rape and more wicked stuff.
I hope this will be enough information to make a decision.
I am a poor judge of this as well, but that was very helpful!
“Why I am not a Buddhist” by Evan Thompson. I am half way through it. It did have some good points, but as is often the case with modern academic philosophy, it started to become word salad.
Regardless, it did provide me with great deal of inside when come to modern Buddhism, and Buddhism superiority believers. How the author tried to conceptualise the mind/self to the reader, was where the word salad started for me.
Personally, I find it easier to think of a being as a flame. Fire isn’t a state of matter you can weight, it’s a process, or rather its many a processes, that make the present you.
Just finishing Angel Down by Daniel Kraus—it’s really good. Reminds me of Cormac McCarthy, with fantasy/magical realism elements thrown in.
Never heard of it, but Cormac and fantasy have my attention, definitely will check this.
Reading You Weren’t Meant To Be Human by Andrew Joseph White for the podcast. Not far in but so far so good. Also still reading Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin.
I fucking loved The Dispossessed. Probably the deepest emotional impact any scifi novel ever left on me, and not because of the embedded love story. Something about creating a
communistanarcho-syndicalist society on a different planet with adverse conditions just rubs me the right way.
The fourth branch: how state government can save our union, by NY Rep. Daniel Squadron. I’m a political novice but it seems to me to be a pretty good argument that US state and local government is an underappreciated (by the left) powerful tool for enacting change.
Audio book: the new dungeon crawler Carl book
Paper book: on my 3rd attempt of House of Leaves. This is not an adhd friendly book
Finished the 4th book of the Children Of Time series, but I think I will have to relisten to it at don’t point. My mind wandered too much in some parts
House of Leaves, I gave it a go back when I was 17, and there’s parts that are gripping, but most is … I dunno, maybe felt like he was trying way too hard. But it certainly is quite the story and quite the book, physically. Do you have a physical copy or ereader? I’m curious to see how it’s presented in a digital format.
A hardcover physical version
Can’t imagine a digital version working too well, as the page layout is so important to the book
Just finish Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, and I’m about a third of the way through James by Percival Everett.
Both are so good!
I really enjoyed James, and when I talked about it with my friends who also read, they said it was the weakest Percival Everett book. It just made me more excited to read some of his other stuff.
Still slowly making my way through This Inevitable Ruin. 7th book in the DCC series.
Finsihed Queens at War by Allison Weir this week the last book in her series on Medieval Queens. Overall series is maybe a 7 or 7.5. I learned some stuff but at times felt more like the Queens were a back seat to what was happening.
Just started Queer Enlightenments by Anthony Delaney. Its about Queer people in 18th and earpy 19th century. Only a few chapters in but its been fun. The author/narrator has a good way of telling the stories so far and really like his voice.
Also seen it called Quuer Georgians and cannot figure out where the two different titles come from but havent tried really hard either.
I don’t understand people who’ve started DCC and aren’t eating the books like it’s the most delicious cake ever. How can you go slow? How do you have the self-control to not stay up till 3-4am reading?
Lol. By remembering how much I regret staying up that late, and by having obligations that force stopping.
Anyway, I started DCC book 1 exactly 38 days ago, and I’m currently on book 6. I don’t know how fast or slow that is, but yes, I’m very invested.
The last series I binged before that was the Bobiverse.
Ray Nayler - palaces of the crow, good so far, haven’t found a book by him that wadntat least good. Recommend " the mountain in the sea" also
Reading? Depending on mood, I’m reading one of the Halo novels, and a Forgotten Realms series (currently on Halo: Contact Harvest and Sojourn from the Drizzt series of FR novels)
Currently listening to Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers as read by Andy Serkis when driving and trying to sleep. Gotta admit, I thought I wouldn’t like this since he doesn’t really try to emulate anyone’s voices (except he somehow does a flawless SmeaGollum, who woulda thought lol) but I haven’t really noticed since every main voice is quite distinct and he does a great job on all of them. He DOES emulate some voices a bit, it’s most notable with Billy Boyd’s accent for Pippin.
Listening to the same thing at night right now. Second time through. It’s amazing. Last time I listened to it was on a several-hour drive to Yosemite and through some long hikes within Yosemite and a section of the PCT. It’s perfect for those activities.
This would honestly make a perfect road trip Playlist.
After the first 20 minutes or so of music, I just want to listen to something calm. Then just keep it going during activities that don’t require hearing or talking. My favorite headphones actually have a “sport mode” that instead of using the external mics for noise canceling, they just pipe it through, so my listening doesn’t bother anyone else, but I can still clearly hear people walking around me.
Listening to the secret council meeting in Fellowship while chilling in a hammock at the park was great.
He did a great job on that. He definitely can’t do all the different voices, but he uses what he got to treat effect. I grew up listening to the old Rob Inglis version. I loved that one, but it was very much one man’s voice.
