Very busy couple of weeks, so didn’t actually read anything.
Still on Streams of Silver by R. A. Salvatore, 2nd novel in Icewind Dale series, which is a subseries of Forgotten Realms series (D&D world).
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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Reading the Patternmaster books by Octavia E. Butler. Weird but interesting. Definitely not hitting like the Xenogenesis books did but still seem good so far.
Also re-reading the Expanse books because I just read The Mercy of Gods by James SA Corey and it made my love of the expanse series resurface.
Finished the fifth book in the “dungeon crawler Carl” series, and decide to step away from that for a while. The fifth book was a lot longer than the previous four, and this doesn’t work out for me (I know, just weeks ago I complained about the novella format of most murderbot books:)). After that read through “midnight black” by Mark Greaney, which was nice, but not the best in the gray man series imo. Now about a third through John Scalzi’s “the collapsing empire”. So far a nice book, but I liked most books in the “old man’s war” series better.
Not Till We Are Lost
Latest book in the bobiverse.
Great book!
Listening to the Salvation sequence by Peter F Hamilton.
And reading, A most elegant equation by David Stipp.
I just finished reading The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey (authors of the Expanse series). Overall I really liked it and am excited for this series! I feel like the characters haven’t hooked me as much as the characters from the Expanse series, but I’m going to give them more time to develop.
I am now reading The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. This one has surprised me how much I’ve enjoyed it so far. I have read his Founders trilogy and Divine Cities books and found them hit or miss.
Felt exactly the same about the Mercy of Gods.
Can’t believe I never got around to it on the first go-round, but Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity.”
Just started Holly by Stephen King. I have no idea what’s happening. I got it as a gift for Christmas and left the book cover at home so no summary.
I just finished Shades of grey by Jasper Fforde. What a weird fascist dystopian future. It took a long time to get interesting and only the last 15% got me to actually want to know more. I don’t think I will read the rest of the trilogy.
I have started reading ‘The Master and Margarita’. I am only a couple of chapters in and its pretty wild already.
It’s been a long time, but I once read a paperback copy I found. I remember enjoying it.
Just finished The Will of the Many by James Islington. Fantastic book. Gonna be champing at the bit until the next one releases in November.
Next up will be The Fifth Age, but I haven’t cracked it open yet. I will later tonight.
Reading (listening to) War of the Noobs, and honestly it’s getting a bit stale. It didn’t hook or make me really laugh like earlier books on the series.
Recently finished This Inevitable Ruin, and DCC is always a good time.
Listening to Project Hail Mary. I’ve been utterly absorbed by the story and the scientific concepts being pushed around.
I never took physics and didn’t take much math for my job but am jealous of people who have a natural, stronger affinity for those subjects
Shout out to my boy Rocky
I never could get this one checked out at the library.
Speaking Bones - Book 4 of the Dandelion Dynasty by Ken Liu. This is probably one of the best fantasy I’ve read. The setting is based off of ancient China. It’s similar to Game of Thrones in the sense that there’s a lot of world building, there’s no main character, no one is safe from death and the fantasy is lightly applied.
It introduces interesting ideas like storing electricity in objects made with glass, intestines and gold, then utilizing it in warfare. Also logic gates implemented with just basic materials like wood and ropes. Basic AI (non-ML). Etc.
I’m quite confident anyone who enjoys programming will enjoy this series.
How dark is it? One of my issue with Game of Thrones is that it was too dark / depressing and things just kept getting worse and worse.
It’s quite mild compared to game of thrones. The ‘dark’ parts are not personalized, but description of things happening at a population level.
Wow I’m going to go read this now. I’ve been in between bigger reads, doing shorter stories, and doom scrolling, but definitely looking for something to escape for a bit!
Yeah I’d definitely recommend it. Loved that when there’s a fantasy-based beast, people investigate how it works from a basic science perspective, then derive a new weapon that play crucial role in combat.
Also loved that alliances shift and change. The story likes to lull you into complacency before pouring cold water over you.
Just started The Orb of Cairado by Katherine Addison, as a palate cleanser. I expect it’ll be cozy.
Finished Fever House by Ken Rosson. This started very fast-paced, but (imo) got bogged down by (interesting) flashbacks. I enjoyed it, but would have liked it to be shorter, somehow. Not sure I’ll read the sequel, since this one swerved into a sub-genre I don’t usually go for.
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. About halfway through, really enjoying it. The audiobook narrator is great.
I loved her Devabad trilogy, waiting for her to complete Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi before getting it.
