Finished Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman, book 2 of Dungeon Crawler Carl.
spoiler for book 2
I thought Bea will show up in the second book, though it looks like she is actually dead now. Carl has a point if she was still alive some show will have found her by now.
It looks like they are going to do something in future books and split up Carl and Donut. Not a fan of this in most books, so let’s see how it goes.
Started Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski. Book 2 of The Witcher series. This is the second short story collection, after which comes the 5 book novel series. I read the series quite a while ago, but never finished all the novels, so re-reading the earlier books to finally complete the series.
What about all of you? What have you all been reading or listening to lately?
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Just started The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Never read it before, really like it so far
How I envy you, to read it for the first time. Enjoy!
I just finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I loved it. Fantastic. The sense of exploration worked nicely, the past/present split storytelling worked well to drive the plot, and I absolutely adored the chance friendship that developed.
I’m still in the middle of A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan. I’m enjoying it, reading a chapter or two each day.
I’ve also started Soul Music by Terry Pratchett. I’m hit or miss on Pratchett, so I’m happy to be enjoying this one.
I’ve read a couple of Andrzej Sapkowski’s books, but it’s been a bit. I should maybe request the next one from the library.
Out of curiosity, have you seen the Project Hail Mary film? I read The Martian long before I saw the movie. Loved both, but I think having many years between helped me not compare them too much.
This time around I’ve seen Hail Mary, and am wondering what the experience might be like to read the book after.
No, not yet. I wanted to read the book before seeing the movie. It’ll be a bit; there’s a queue for the hold at my local library.
Shift
It’s the 2nd novel in the Silo series and I tried reading it a couple years ago now and couldn’t get in to it but now (after catching up on the TV show) I’m listening to the audiobook and really enjoying it.
Malka Older’s delightful Investigations of Mossa and Plieti.
The Mimicking of Known Successes
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles
The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses
It’s a Holmsian cozy murder mystery sci fi sapphic romance set on Jupiter after the earth becomes uninhabitable.
Great read, very fun, good autistic rep.
“Blood Of Victory” by Alan Furst. Not my favorite Furst novel, but the one I decided to reread. I’m sticking with it because he is fantastic at creating an atmosphere. Every hotel, nightclub, and train car seems authentic.
It’s set in 1939. Britain is holding on by a thread, and the Nazis are enjoying life in Paris. A Russian writer has resident alien status in France, and is being recruited by various governments to act as an agent. “Oh, you met her? She’d recruit God.”
I hit a wall on finding the energy for getting into a new book and went back to a comfort series: The Morningstar Strain by Z. A. Recht. First book is The Plague of the Dead, which is one of the first zombie apocalypse novels I ever read. It’s like slipping on a well broken-in slipper. It has been so long since I originally read it, but the plot and characters are still compelling.
Currently reading Buried Mage, book 4 of the Fledgeling God series by Michael Taggart. It is a slightly cracky a heavily gay modern setting fantasy progression series. The magic is explored in interesting enough ways to be fun, the characters are a little one dimensional sometimes, but the whole thing is a lot of fun. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and is just there for a good time, so it never feels to desperate or reaching.
I would give it a solid 80% rating, but I am very picky, I am currently listening to the series for the 3rd time so it is good enough to get repeated listenings.
I’m nearly a third of the way through Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. It’s surprisingly easier to read than I expected, and he doesn’t go off on heavily religious tangents like Dostoevsky does. There’s this nice flow between characters, and you get to see things from quite a range of perspectives. I also like how nuanced the characters feel.
It’s probably going to take me a while to get through this one, and I don’t mind that at all. It’s very charming.
Finished Martha Wells’ “The Death of the Necromancer”. It was okay. Honestly, it dragged a bit.
I’m loving “Over the Wine Dark Sea” by H.N. Turteltaub. 40% through it, buuuut, I’m taking a break because
Finally reading “Children of Strife” by Adrian Tchaikovsky! Book 4 of his I don’t actually know what this series is called. Is it Children of Time, named after Book 1? Anyways, I didn’t care much for Book 3, but I’m into this so far, gonna fly through it fast
I wouldn’t blink if you said “Children of Time series” to me in a conversation.
I really enjoyed the series. I do think Children of Time itself was the best of the lot, but I think I enjoyed Book 3 more than you did. “We’re going on an adventure!” made me laugh.
Someone on here made a video game that makes me think of the starship from the book. Dead Reckoning I think?
Husband and I just started listening to the sixth Bobbiverse book which was recently released on Audible. I really enjoy the narrator, Ray Porter, and the series itself is quite entertaining.
I made like no progress over the last week reading. Had a few days off work and just ended up playing some video games so I am still in the middle of Morning Star, book 3 in the Red Rising trilogy and Between Two Fires.
Morning Star is getting really interesting so I hope to finish it by weeks end.
I read the trilogy last week. So good. Setting aside the seriee until the last book comes. I think Morning Star is a good stopping point.
Finished “Practical Magic”. Easy, fun read. I have the sequel book in my queue. I’ve heard the sequel movie doesn’t follow the books, so it will be interesting to compare.
Started Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir the other day after I finished The Martian by him. I am currently on a hard sci-fi run, and I am really enjoying his books so far.
Does someone have similar recommendations by any chance?
The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey. Great books and I enjoyed the show as well.
Highly recommend The Expanse. The two writers of the novels were behind the show. They made some changes, but they might have actually improved things. But the books are fantastic. If you get a bit put off by the ‘magic’ in the first book… give it some time, there’s arguably science there. And the rest of it is pretty much on the harder science side of things (i.e. no warp drive, no transporter, stuff like that)
I already have it on my wishlist, really looking forward to it as well since I enjoyed the show. Thank you!
In my opinion Andy Weir isn’t that hard sci-fi, which is ok because I don’t like hard sci-fi that much. Most people here seem to agree that the Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor is similar in tone and maybe even settings.
Plus one for the Bob, fun series, and good science, but with a casual tone for sure.
Thank you for your recommendations! What would you consider hard sci-fi?
For me hard sci-fi are writers like Adrian Tchaikovsky or Ken MacLeod. Lot’s of people love the “Children of time” series by Tchaikovsky, but when reading the first book it was too much world building too little story for me. On the other hand, I did like his book “Service Model”.
With a touch of humor - the Bobiverse series.
With a barrel of misery, but also a can’t miss and some of the best sci-fi characters ever put to page, The Expanse series.
I got Bobiverse recommended from another person as well. Will definitely look into that! Thank you!
The Expanse is already on my list, really looking forward to it!
Hey! I just finished that book. It’s fantastic. Project Hail Mary has a lot of the feel of what I enjoyed in The Martian while still having its own vibe. It had that “gotta read one more chapter” page-turner quality that I don’t always get from books these days.
You’re in for a treat. I love Andy Weir’s writing.
Picked up Stephen King’s Duma Key in a Little Free Library and am enjoying that so far (3/4 of the way through it).
The amount of people that sleep on King’s astounding storytelling because they assume it’s all horror is pretty sad.
Finished Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt by Ben Reeves. A story of death living in a dingy flat in the modern world. Some really interesting concepts, and some amazing characters. I’m super glad to have read it.
