I just finished a re-read of Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells to coincide with the AppleTV show being released they work well for quite a few bingo squares with 5E Jerk with a Heart of Gold, and 1E Now a Major Motion Picture being the most prominent. I’m now working through the Amra Thetys series starting with The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble’s Braids by Michael McClung. I read the first book for a past bingo and really enjoyed it, so now I’m finishing the series. They work for the2A Independent Author bingo square for sure
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
For details on the c/Books bingo challenge that just restarted for the year, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and its Recommendation Post. Links are also present in our community sidebar.
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In the middle of The Flux by Ferrett Steinmetz. Liking it better than The Flex, but I wish it had more worldbuilding. Like, what exactly happened to Europe?
My friend just gave me her copy of The Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami, so I’m starting that now.
Just finished Mapping the Interior, which was a quick to read novella, highly recommend.
Close to halfway through Sword of the Lictor, book three of the new sun series. Really enjoying the weirdness of the setting. Tons of interesting characters and locations, the main plot moves kind of slowly while the main character gets side tracked or waylaid and those are some of the best parts, especially since they all become meaningful as it goes on.
Realized by the end of the first book that it’s clearly a major influence for the Troika! tabletop role playing game, which made some of the more archaic terminology more familiar. Finally fully understand what an Alzabo is.
Oo, I just finished reading the 4th book in that series for this year’s book bingo. It was a blast and a half, and dense but so rich. I’d love to hear what you think when you finish that one. Are you reading Citadel of the Autarch as well, or are you reading the series in between other books? I wrote a spoiler-free review on bookwyrm here. Anyone else read this series?
Yeah, I’m reading Citadel next, checked out a two book volume from the library so I’m ready to go. Just got to ::: spoiler minor spoilers, opinion of Severian where he’s at the lake in the mountains and was a huge jerk upon arrival, got dosed with mushrooms, and is being taken to some castle. Maybe he’s just in a bad place after losing little Severian and being incredibly exhausted, but it’s becoming more apparent how disconnected he is from the average person on Urth :::
I started Kushiel’s Avatar by Jacqueline Carey over the weekend. I’m excited to read what happens in this arc of the story.
I’m also reading All Systems Red by Martha Wells via audiobook for the first time because of the show. I’m really enjoying both the books and the show.
I know a show is never going to be true to the book. There will always be changes because some things that work well in text won’t work in visual media and vice versa. I have been super happy with the show so far.
I only read the first Kushiel’s book but I really enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on more. How do you find the series holds up as it goes along?
I think it holds up pretty well. I actually enjoyed the second book more than the first because the MC is a little bit older and really grows throughout the story. The third one also has a time gap between books and I’m enjoying it a lot too. I love the political intrigue!
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Currently reading The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow. Not sure how I feel about it yet. The positivity and inclusiveness were nice at first, but it’s being laid on so thick that it’s starting to feel uncomfortable. Like fan service in an anime.
It’s really good at making you feel like peace and progress are fragile while fascism feels iron-clad.
Just finished Pax Romana. Not much that was brand new to me in it, but it reinforced my views on ‘barbarian’ polities relations with the Empire as dynamic and active, rather than passive and reactive.
Started a reading kick, finished 3 books so far, started a 4th.
Furiously Happy - Just a delight. Funniest book you’ll read about mental illness.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furiously_Happy
Bullet Train - Bought it because of the movie, only found out after the fact that it’s the 2nd book in a series.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_Train_(novel)
Leslie F*cking Jones - Amazing read about her life and the inside baseball of stand up.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/leslie-jones-has-put-in-the-work/
Started - The Book of Elsewhere - So far, the hardest nut to crack. A prose sequel to the BRZRKR comics, but those are so dynamic and visual, it’s hard to capture in words.
I am just finishing up on Sandersons Tress of the Emerald Sea, it is pretty good, usual Sanderson affair and that is never bad!
I also just started reading the English translation of the Angentinian comic The Eternaut. I just finished the TV series which was a random choice not knowing anything about it and I really enjoyed it although it was somewhat unsatisfying in terms of not really answering any questions regarding what is actually going on. So I decided to read the original material to find out!
How are your Deathlands books going?
I haven’t replied to your current thread because Deathlands is all I’ve been listening to recently so didn’t just want to keep writing the same things but I am still loving it. I just don’t want to pick anything else up at the moment. I’m currently on book 88 and it still has me coming back for more :D
You don’t write the same thing, you change the number of book you are on every week! 😀
Looking forward to you crossing 100! Keep us updated!
Touché xD
I have just got books 128 - 155 so that I don’t have to stop so soon and there is also another series called “Outlanders” which is by James Axler too, set in the exact same world but following different people I believe. Either way I got 1 - 55 of that just in case I didn’t have enough Deathlands related material :D
Haha, glad to hear that.
On my third pass though of all 41 Discworld novels in the past 18-months. Yeah, turned into a fanatic. So wish I had started years ago. Catching all the jokes, references, etc. might take a dozen readings. I’m sure I’m missing many by virtue of not being British.
Too many quotes, too many favorite characters, couldn’t scratch the surface talking about them. The characters and real-world parallels make for the best fiction I’ve ever read.
If these don’t serve to whet your appetite, maybe it won’t be your jam.
From the book I’m on now:
“…but what should we do when the highborn and wealthy take to crime? Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger, how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man who breaks the law out of greed?”
Found a related one looking for the above:
“He hadn’t had much experience with the rich and powerful. Coppers didn’t, as a rule. It wasn’t that they were less prone to commit crimes, it was just that the crimes they committed tended to be so far above the normal level of criminality that they were beyond the reach of men with bad boots and rusting mail. Owning a hundred slum properties wasn’t a crime, although living in one was, almost. Being an Assassin—the Guild never actually said so, but an important qualification was being the son or daughter of a gentleman—wasn’t a crime. If you had enough money, you could hardly commit crimes at all. You just perpetrated amusing little peccadilloes.”
A favorite:
Granny Weatherwax, the greatest witch the Discworld has seen, discussing theology with a young priest:
“There’s no grays, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.”
“It’s a lot more complicated than that–”
“No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.”
“Oh, I’m sure there are worse crimes–”
“But they starts with thinking about people as things…”
Oh, hell, one more:
“I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs, a very endearing sight, I’m sure you’ll agree. And even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged onto a half submerged log.
As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters, who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature’s wonders, gentlemen. Mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that is when I first learned about evil. It is built into the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain.
If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior.”
Finished Streams of Silver by R. A. Salvatore. 2nd books in Icewind Dale Trilogy (sub series in Forgotten Realms series).
The book is a very quick and easy read. Took me about 2 and half months, but that’s mostly because of my personal life, in normal situation, I guess I would’ve finished it in a week or so, maybe even less.
Thinking about starting the Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski, I read most of it a long time ago, but didn’t finish the series, so thinking about reading it again, and completing it, but I don’t have the books, so will start something else if I don’t buy them today/tomorrow.
Witcher was one of the books I read for a past bingo and wanted to move onto the rest of the series and never felt I could. It’s on my list for this year.
Ooh, that reminds me I haven’t marked my bingo card for Streams of Silver!
Howling Dark by Christopher Ruocchio. It’s a space epic. Pretty good so far. The first book is a bit of a slog but really picks up in the later 3rd. The second book is much better so far. Still kind of a slow read though. 80 short 10ish page chapters is a slowdown factor for me. If it was 15 to 20 pages it would be paced better imo.
The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharon McCrumb.
The sheriff of a fictional rural county in East Tennessee is invited to witness the execution of a local man he arrested 20 years ago for a double murder on the Appalachian Trail. He remembers what the then sheriff told him at the trial:
There’s only two murder cases in these mountains I’m not happy with. One is the fellow you’re about to put on death row, and the other is Frankie Silver.
So he ruminates over both of these cases, wondering if justice was served, or if something was missed. The Frankie Silver case is told through Burgess Gaither, clerk of the court that tried and executed her.
I think I’ll count this for folklore (3A) bingo square. The author did significant historical research into Frankie’s case which after 200 years is probably more legend than fact. Other of McCrumb’s novels might also be good recommendations for this category, or just in general.
I have a reading book and a listening book on the go. Still working on Stormlight Archive book 5: Wind and Truth. The good guys just experienced another major setback, and the setbacks keep piling up. Makes it a bit hard to want to carry on even though you know most things will turn out in the end.
I’m also listening to Brandon Sanderson’s The Reckoners series. I’m on book 3 and been just loving the premise of “What if there are superheroes, but they’re all evil? What do the regular people do?”.
Ugh it’s so good. x x
I just read 1984 because it feels relevant (unfortunately). Overall, very interesting and obviously bleak…
I am now reading The Poppy War and am enjoying it so far.
