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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Just finished The Terror, by Dan Simmons. Although it took me a while to finish it, I really found it very good. I learned so many things on the Nord pole and on ships, royal navy of 19th century, great discovery, Inuit culture and religion… This book is really great from a documentation point of view, it’s very rare for such a fictional piece of work. I think this is what give its special taste to this novel and adds a lot of realism.
Now, following one of the comments of this post, I just started reading There Is No Antimemetics Division, by qntm. And by the way I discovered all this universe of web serials which may be of interest to me too.
There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm, as an audiobook. Highly recommended, in any format you like.
The Lone Wanderer,
It’s a litrpg with an extremely fleshed out world and magic system.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/95097/b5-stubbing-july-21st-the-lone-wanderer-a-world-hopping
There’s a link to it’s royal road.
Blurb:
"An accidental clone. Talent no one saw coming. Infinite worlds to explore.
Percy was born with little hope of standing out-just another face in a world ruled by bloodlines and class.
Starting with the lowest Red core and mocked as a waste, Percy was always overlooked by his peers and scorned by the powerful. But when his bloodline awakens with the power to send clones across worlds, he seizes the chance to shatter expectations.
Exploring strange realms teeming with danger, Percy returns with priceless treasures: divine techniques, obscure knowledge, and even the seed of a second mana core stolen from an advanced civilization. But the road to the apex is riddled with peril. The elixirs he needs to advance? He’ll have to master alchemy to brew them himself. The Great Houses, scheming titans, and invading gods?
They’ll do anything to crush him before he can prove that even a so-called waste can reach the stars.
What to expect:
-Weak to strong male MC
-Daily releases
-Fast paced with frequent powerups
-Fantasy setting with magic and a system
-Isekai elements (Percy often possesses random bodies on distant worlds)
-Western cultivation elements (Cleansing mana core to extend lifespan)
-Morally grey MC (Willing to break a few rules but not a scumbag)
-Alchemy
-Runecrafting"
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
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.
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!
Currently reading Dark Lord Davi (its a lot of fun if you are into the litrpg space, Dark and very funny) and Mistress of Dragons (picked it up in a bundle, not sure if I would recommend it but I keep pressing through) .
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
I really enjoyed When Moon Hits the Eye! Very silly and entertaining overall
Just started The Body in the Backyard by Mark Waddell. Queer cost mystery. Pretty good so far
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.
Been cackling while reading David Mitchell’s “Unruly” recently. Recommend to anyone who gets a kick out of irreverent history.
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.
Measure of a Hero. One of the many classic Battletech books I snatched up.
