Currently listening to We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor, really good SciFi where you can get caught up in the story.
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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Loved this series, I read Project Hail Mary around the same time which is a good one.
+1 for Legion. I just finished it but I'm a bit bummed that my local library system doesn't have any of the sequels, but I can't not read them so I'll be heading to a local bookshop to see if I can grab them all there this weekend.
I'm reading Discworld for the first time! I'm reading in published order, and currently about to start Small Gods.
I envy you, getting to read all of them for the first time. Small Gods is great. My favourites are the City Watch and Moist series, which generally comes later.
I think the Tiffany Aching quadrilogy is also great, a bit apart in the discoworld, sweeter and less irreverent.
I've been flying through the Dark Profit Saga. I went into it knowing nothing other than the title of book 1, Orconomics. I thought the gimmick would get old but it turns out it isn't relying on the gimmick at all, it's just a good book. The end in particular is very strong, and really successfully elevates the story.
I'm almost done with book 2, Son of a Lich. It takes the strong ending of the first one and builds on it. It's been great the whole way through. I'm almost reluctant to finish it because book 3 isn't out in audiobook form yet.
Overall, it builds an interesting world with good satire, surprisingly interesting lore, fun characters, and a compelling story. It reminds me a lot of Terry Pratchett, and I would definitely recommend it to any fans of Discworld.
What did you think the gimmick was...? Going off the title I can only imagine something to do with poking fun at orcs being bad at economics...?
The gimmick that becomes apparent at the beginning of the first book is that it takes place in a world that mirrors a role-playing game, but without actually being one. For example, there's a heroes guild which regulates quests and the distribution of loot, heroes earn points on their hero license for killing enemies, and when they get enough points they go up a rank. It' not actually experience points and character levels, but it's representative of those concepts.
That seems like something that could get very old very quickly, but it doesn't lean so heavily on that premise that it ever wears out it's welcome. While it does use that premise to poke fun at the foibles of role-playing games, it also builds the world out and uses the elements of that concept to tell a serious story that also satirizes capitalism and the financial sector (they have a loot driven economy, and despite diminishing returns on quests, they continue to repackage and sell stakes in the plunder that is due to come in, driving up a speculation bubble with inflated guesses about the value of the loot that will be recovered).
I was expecting that premise to get old, but it really just fades into the background as the story goes on. It's always there, and it is important to the plot, but the game-like elements aren't actually the focus of the story.
Currently and for a looong loooong time, I am waiting for Doors of Stone. I think its just a few more.... decades.
From The Kingkiller Chronicle? If so, oof, yeah that's been...A wait, for sure. I take it you've been occasionally rereading the first two books?
Occasionally? I think Ive read them about 10 times now. When I was going to uni I read it every day for a few years. Every single time I found a few more details.
Me too! I haven’t read the second one because I don’t want to invest too much in a series that doesn’t go anywhere (yet?). But as soon as number 3 comes out, I’ll read all of them.
Currently reading The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow.
Not bad so far, but not the most exciting either. It has some cool ideas and some edutainment on green new deal and modern monetary theory though 😅
Right now I'm reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I enjoy the author's irreverence and like The Martian it's a pretty fun, compelling read.
Just finished book 10/10 in Tchaikovsky's "Shadows of the Apt" series. I highly recommend it.
For me it was an interesting blend of the political/military games of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and the intersection of magic and technology in Sanderson's Cosmere.
Tchaikovsky's most well known for Children of Time but although I like the third book in that series a lot the first two were a little meh for me. I liked the concepts and world building but the perspectives of octopi and spiders was kind of a drag for me. Somehow I liked the raven stuff though.
I would also recommend Tchaikovsky's The Final Architecture series if you're into the sci-fi more than the fantasy aspects.
Currently reading the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, and have been for a while at this point. It does a lot of stuff, even for its page count, but I really like the way the authors write their world and their magic. It truly feels like a completely different world that on a pretty fundamental level works in a different way, something which I feel like few fantasy series accomplish. Wonderful stuff.
I don't keep track of stuff that's currently getting written, but I'm curious about Jeff Vandermeer's next book in the Southern Reach trilogy,
Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds which is the 2nd part of the series. Absolutely top-notch hard sci-fi space opera. After reading Revelation Space Mr. Reynolds already caught my attention and rocketed himself into my personal pantheon of the greats alongside Stanislaw Lem, Strugatsky brothers, Robert Sheckley, Harry Harrison, Larry Niven etc.
I really like the overall world building of the Revelation Space universe. I'm currently reading Machine Vendetta which came out recently and is in somewhat of a prequel series for Revelation Space. Some of the Demarchist communities described in the Glitter Band are really wacky.
The various factions, planets, concepts, etc. are all great. It's a great universe for short stories and there are some good anthologies.
However... I think I actually enjoyed Reynolds' Revenger series a lot more in terms of the individual characters and their stories. If someone forced me to pick out only three books from Reynolds for you to read, it would be the three books in the Revenger trilogy.
I'd also recommend another series from him which starts with Blue Remembered Earth.
I am reading "The Ballad of songbirds and snakes". It is not great, but OK. Hunger Games is probably only one YA dystopia I appreciate.
My brain doesn't sit still so...
Online:
- rereading the Worm web serial by Wildbow
- reading Ward, also by Wildbow
- reading A Practical Guide to Evil (I think we're on book 7?) with my wife
Offline:
- Wyrd Sister's from Terry Pratchett's disc world
- City Song by Oliver Blakemore
- Games Wizards play by Diane Duane
Each one takes turns in the forefront of my thoughts, a space they share with games and TV/movies, but I'm going through all of them slowly.
Oh yeah, and also just ...too many webcomics.
Currently listening to the forgotten trilogy. Im on book 2 and its really good so far. If you like litrpgs i just listened to he who fights with monsters. The author gets pretty repetitive on story notes past book 4 or 5 but i do like the world they built. After this trilogy, im probably going to listen to sbowcrash.
Litrpgs? Is that similar to a choose your own adventure sort of book?
Nah, its more like video games put into a book form. Or like an rpg game with stats and usually magic used as a plot device or world building.
Recently finished everything in Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere, now waiting for December for the next Stormlight Archives book.