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I think that's the series before this one, which I couldn't find as an audiobook (I have very limited time when I could read a traditional book atm).

He's not done a great job with the romance or female characters in this book, which is quite common with sci fi and fantasy authors sadly, but I thought the world was intriguing enough to keep going. I feel I've mostly figured out the mysteries in the setting now so I'm sort of lagging as it meanders to it's conclusion. The prose isn't bad but he really takes his time with stuff.

Fyi Humble Bundle is running a deal where you can get all? of the diskword books by Terry Pratchett for like 16 bucks.

I had to figure out how to set up a Kobo account, but seemed worth it.

Now to figure the reading order…

Gave the Dungeon Crawler Carl books a try but haven't really clicked with it. I'm not sure if its just a rough start but I'm finding myself struggling to get into it.

 LunarSol wrote:
Gave the Dungeon Crawler Carl books a try but haven't really clicked with it. I'm not sure if its just a rough start but I'm finding myself struggling to get into it.

I’ve got friends who rave about it (in a good way) but I haven’t got around to picking them up.

On my radar though.

 Nevelon wrote:
Fyi Humble Bundle is running a deal where you can get all? of the diskword books by Terry Pratchett for like 16 bucks.

I got so excited as I'd love to have all the Discworld books. I was then bitterly disappointed to find out the bundle's not available in my area.

Continuing reading my Dredd Mega Collection in volume order.

Finished the Democracy and Dark Judges stuff. Ploughed through the Psi Files (with mixed results. Anderson great. Others…they have the odd moment).

Now onto Devlin Waugh. The Homosexual Brit-Cit Vampire Exorcist. Body of Schwarzenegger, face and mannerisms of Terry Thomas. Every bit as bonkers and brilliant as that suggests.

I'm dipping my toes into the LitRPG genre with Mimic and Me, a story about an adventurer that bonds with a mimic, basically a medieval fantasy version of Venom and Eddie Brock.

I'm not entirely sure about the genre, although I have heard people love it. It's a bit too much of a 4th wall-break for me.

Litrpg has come a long way in the last handful of years.
I recall a lot of the early stuff was very much things like skyrim with the serial filed off or super heavy number crunch that you could tell was someones homebrew that couldn't actually function as a working system
Now granted, a lot of it is still numbers go up, but you see a lot more that use whatever system they use to support the story instead of being the story itself

This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno

A couple moves into a new apartment and strange things start happening. Turns out the previous tenant, an elderly Hispanic woman placed a curse on the new occupants before her eviction. The girlfriend is killed in a botched mugging and the boyfriend leaves town. The curse follows the boyfriend.

A decent exploration of grief in the first 3rd with some haunted house type vibes, and then it devolves into cosmic/demonic horror.

This novel was pretty well hyped by some of my favorite reviewers, and I also found it to be a fun read.

About 1/3rd into Rekt by Alex Gonzalez

A horror novel billed as

A disturbing examination of toxic masculinity and the darkest pits of the Internet, about a young man’s algorithmic descent into depravity in a future that’s nearly here.

A grieving young man is sent a link to a gore/shock site that has a video of his girlfriend’s fatal car crash, enthralled by the site he digs deeper into the dark web and finds footage of other deaths, including the deaths of people still alive in the real world. Depravity ensues(or so I’m told, haven’t gotten too far yet).

Medalist (manga) - Helped me to understand the rules and scoring for figure skating more than reading a wiki would.
Reread a couple of Chronicles of Narnia books for the first time in ages, and I still love the archaic slang.

Finished up Stinger which was a perfectly acceptable and somewhat dated paperback creature feature.

Moving onto some Non-Fiction, America, America about the influence of Latin America on the United States. This is a thick book and part of a book club effort by my family.

Finally getting around to reading Twelve Months Jim Butcher's latest Dresden Files novel. It's been so long since I read one of his books, I'd forgotten half the people involved.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Finally getting around to reading Twelve Months Jim Butcher's latest Dresden Files novel. It's been so long since I read one of his books, I'd forgotten half the people involved.

Same here. I spent a fair amount of my reading time on Google, trying to figure out who everyone was.

I'm currently about 2/3 of the way through Stephen King's The Stand. I started it during a mini-flu epidemic at my school, which made the first section a little scarier. I've kind of bogged down in the middle, with all the local post-apocalypse political stuff. I hope it picks up again soon.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Finally getting around to reading Twelve Months Jim Butcher's latest Dresden Files novel. It's been so long since I read one of his books, I'd forgotten half the people involved.

Funny, I just started reading Peace Talks. I have that and one more Dresden File to read before I get to the new one. I’ve heard it was good.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 JoshInJapan wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Finally getting around to reading Twelve Months Jim Butcher's latest Dresden Files novel. It's been so long since I read one of his books, I'd forgotten half the people involved.

Same here. I spent a fair amount of my reading time on Google, trying to figure out who everyone was.

I'm currently about 2/3 of the way through Stephen King's The Stand. I started it during a mini-flu epidemic at my school, which made the first section a little scarier. I've kind of bogged down in the middle, with all the local post-apocalypse political stuff. I hope it picks up again soon.

Unfortunately, the Stand is one of the books where I find King whiffed the hardest on the ending. I might say it’s worth the read if you’re enjoying the characters and their journeys, but if you’re not…

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 JoshInJapan wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Finally getting around to reading Twelve Months Jim Butcher's latest Dresden Files novel. It's been so long since I read one of his books, I'd forgotten half the people involved.

Same here. I spent a fair amount of my reading time on Google, trying to figure out who everyone was.

I'm currently about 2/3 of the way through Stephen King's The Stand. I started it during a mini-flu epidemic at my school, which made the first section a little scarier. I've kind of bogged down in the middle, with all the local post-apocalypse political stuff. I hope it picks up again soon.

Unfortunately, the Stand is one of the books where I find King whiffed the hardest on the ending. I might say it’s worth the read if you’re enjoying the characters and their journeys, but if you’re not…

To date, only two books have defeated me: The Bridges of Madison County and Memoirs of a Geisha. I tapped out of both within 50 pages or so. The Stand isn't quite at that level.

Slowly making my way through the Eisenhorn Omnibus, I'm enjoying it so far (My exposure to the lore side of 40K is fairly minimal), but the print is so small! I can only tackle about a chapter at a time because it wears out my eyes, so it's going to take me a while to get through it.

I'm just finishing the second of the Thursday Murder Club novels by Richard Osman. If you're not familiar with them, gang of pensioners in a care home investigate old un-solved murders as something to talk about and keep their minds sharp - then there is a murder at the home... I'm enjoying them very much so far; very well written and, for murder mysteries, remarkably charming and cozy reads.

Crispy78 wrote:
I'm just finishing the second of the Thursday Murder Club novels by Richard Osman. If you're not familiar with them, gang of pensioners in a care home investigate old un-solved murders as something to talk about and keep their minds sharp - then there is a murder at the home... I'm enjoying them very much so far; very well written and, for murder mysteries, remarkably charming and cozy reads.

the Netflix movie of the same name (I think based off the first book) prompted the wife and I to make an excursion to the local book store and pick up the first book. As the wife still has it in her possession, I am still only in the "i hope it's as good/better than the movie" stage of the mind game

Struggling with the Dredd Mega Collection, as now I’m on the Wally Squad stuff (plain clothes Judges for non Squaxx De Thargo)

They’re not bad as such. I just struggle with Dirty Frank and the Simping Detective. For me, they take the concept (the citizens are mad, so Wally Squad tend to be loopy and eccentric) too far.

Currently reading "Everything I learned I learned in a Chinese Restaurant" by Curtis Chin.

About 90% done of Old Soul by Susan Barker.

Horror novel about some sort of vampiric-adjacent type woman who causes the people she preys upon to undergo drastic/horrific physical changes and makes them crazy after they encounter the entity that she serves. Told through multiple perspectives down the centuries of this woman's path of destruction. Wasn't what I expected, kind of thought it'd be a run of the mill vampire tale, but its something a bit worse. It got kind of repetitive, because of how she preys on people always plays out the same, but nearing the end and I think bad things are going to happen to some folks who are trying to stop her. Going to finish it tonight, but I think I'm going to be disturbed by the ending.

Slow burn tale with some cosmic horror elements, pretty intriguing read.

Finally pulled Brothers Karamazov off the shelf. Been sat there quietly waiting to be read for years now and now that I'm approaching my busiest time of year seems like the right time...

How far do you read a book before saying, "I usually love this author, but I just can't get into this book," and put the book back on the shelf?

I usually love John Scalzi (Redshirts is the greatest non-Star Trek, Star Trek novel ever written), but I've been struggling with The Kaiju Preservation Society for close to a month now. I'm a hundred pages in and just can't seem to go any further.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
How far do you read a book before saying, "I usually love this author, but I just can't get into this book," and put the book back on the shelf?

50 pages normally. If I'm not enjoying it I don't keep reading it. Too many other books to read for reading time to be wasted. I do try to distinguish between 'this book isn't for me' and 'this book isn't for now', as these are definitely two very different reasons for putting down a book early.

 nels1031 wrote:
About 90% done of Old Soul by Susan Barker.

Horror novel about some sort of vampiric-adjacent type woman who causes the people she preys upon to undergo drastic/horrific physical changes and makes them crazy after they encounter the entity that she serves. Told through multiple perspectives down the centuries of this woman's path of destruction. Wasn't what I expected, kind of thought it'd be a run of the mill vampire tale, but its something a bit worse. It got kind of repetitive, because of how she preys on people always plays out the same, but nearing the end and I think bad things are going to happen to some folks who are trying to stop her. Going to finish it tonight, but I think I'm going to be disturbed by the ending.

Slow burn tale with some cosmic horror elements, pretty intriguing read.

Finished it. Not sure I love it, but I respect it, if that makes sense. (a user said this on the r/horrorlit reddit page and it perfectly summed up how I felt as well)

On to Nowhere: A Novel by Allison Gunn, which one reviewer said was like a cross between Stephen King's The Outsider which was excellent for 2/3rds (King muffed the landing as usual) and Mare of Easttown an HBO crime/family drama miniseries.

So far its pretty creepy, with a strange murder, a weird forest and some table setting of the characters. Seems to take place near Roanoke VA, which is the site of a famous historic real life mass disappearance. We'll see if that plays a part.

 Nevelon wrote:

 LunarSol wrote:
Gave the Dungeon Crawler Carl books a try but haven't really clicked with it. I'm not sure if its just a rough start but I'm finding myself struggling to get into it.

I’ve got friends who rave about it (in a good way) but I haven’t got around to picking them up.

On my radar though.

The first two books are very reliant on Fast, stupid humour. The actual literary quality jumps noticeably come the 3rd book.


Speaking of Matt Dinniman, I just finished Operation Bounce House, and would recommend it for anyone who wants a "Real" Sci-Fi written post-internet age.



That said, mild age disclaimer- although we don't see anything smutty, there are a few things that get mentioned which younger- or older- readers may need explained to them, so be warned.

Not reading, but took my paperback Discworld novels up the charity shop today.

Panic not. I upgraded to fancy hardbacks, so still have a complete collection.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
How far do you read a book before saying, "I usually love this author, but I just can't get into this book," and put the book back on the shelf?

Depends on whether I have a grade dependent on reading the book or not. but usually about 50-100 pages or so.

Depends. The guy that wrote the Malus Darkblade novels Mike Lee typically uses a fairly slow start, where he sets things up. So at first, the read is heavy going as there’s not much action. But stick with it? And you get a cracking story every time.

I went back to Dragons of Autumn Twilight. So much deus ex machina! And the female characters seem to swing wildly between properly competent, and swooning damsels in distress. It’s a bit jarring.