Books

Recently finished book 4 in Dungeon Crawler Carl series and yea. That was an ending I wasnt expecting and am excited to get to the next book.

Also got through Scream with Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism (1968-1980) by Eleanor Johnson. Had some interesting ideas on the horror genre and relations to what was going on at the time. Like the ERA and the Roe decisons. Was a really nice change of pace from all the scifi/fantasy i have been reading lately.

Just started Cult Following: The Extreme Sects That Capture Our Imaginations—and Take Over Our Lives by JW Ocker. Not far but feels like it will be interesting.

Just finished:

• Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky

• The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

Currently reading:

• The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes

• The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang

Just finished: The Perks of Being a Wallflower. First time read for me, it was great! I really wish I’d read it as a teen.

Finishing up: 1984. I read it ~15 years ago, can’t believe how much I forgot.

Up next: Starship Troopers. It’s a book I own but haven’t read. I love the movie and typically hate reading a book I’ve already watched the movie version of, however I hear it’s worth the read and am curious how it’s written.

I’ve been reading the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas - currently on book #4, Queen of Shadows. Recommended to me by my wife.

Overall I’m liking the series, much better than the ACOTAR series (also by Sarah J. Maas) that I read only two books of before deciding I wasn’t into the spiciness that my wife enjoys.

I think the protagonists are pretty well written and fun to read as (mostly), but find the antagonists to be somewhat shallow. I’ve found the endings of each book to not feel as rewarding as I want and sometimes I feel like there are major exposition dumps towards the endings to explain everything quickly before wrapping up and setting up the next adventure.

I compare a lot of fantasy to Sanderson’s Cosmere so maybe I’m being unfair or biased.. but I like the series well enough so no major complaints.

I finished 1Q84 Book 3 yesterday. The journey is finally over and I’m glad to have had some closure to the story. I found some aspects of the storytelling were a bit repetitive at times, but I’m still a fan of Murakami’s dreamlike storytelling nonetheless.

I found a copy of Dungeon Crawler Carl’s Doomsday Scenario at the library, so that’s next on the reading list this week.

I have about a half hour left on The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. It’s delightfully queer, but it could be gayer…

Just got caught up with the Dungeon Crawler Carl series and desperately awaiting book 8. I'm not a fan of LitRPG but hot damn it hits different.

Meanwhile I'm working my way through the Sun Eater series. Super morose and way *too full of self-reflection but it's definitely grabbed my attention. and kept me wanting more.

Just finished Andy Weir's Artemis. Enjoyed it a lot. It felt a bit like Heinlein's writing style, but better in the characters (although I haven't reread any Heinlein in a while, so that may be inaccurate). Ended too soon for me, but then again it had to end where it did for that story line.

Slogging away at the long non-fiction "The Plot to Kill King" -William Pepper. I say slogging because I only give myself about 15-30 min for reading time each night and it's a hefty book, appendices and all.

I’m listening to Harrow the Ninth. I read a few years ago but I’ve forgotten quite a bit. It’s also fun to take in in audio form. I think there’s a lot I missed in the reading of it.

I’m reading Mossflower because I decided to rectify the fact I hadn’t read the Redwall books in middle school like everyone else (I was a snob).

Just finished book 2 of the Star Wars Legends series “Jedi Academy”. It’s about Luke trying to start a new Jedi order after the Thrawn trilogy.

So I’ve got a short story collection to read this week. It’s called 50 short science fiction stories, and is actually specifically about “short shorts” they “define” them as stories that took up a full magazine page with a picture.

After, it’ll be book 3 of the Jedi Academy series.

I'm reading Perfume, by Patrick Süskind. I started reading it because apparently it was one of Kurt Cobain's favorite books

Just started 'The Gravedigger's Almanac' by Oliver Potzch [translated by Lisa Reinhardt]

Serial killer in 1890's Vienna being tracked by a gravedigger/amateur scientist.

Also, if you like Seanan McGuire, try Tanith Lee. "Red As Blood" is a short story collection where the princesses are evil, and 'Night's Master' has an Arabian Nights style demon as the hero.

The Final Architecture, by Tchaikovsky

As of yesterday I finished:

All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka: I thought this was really fun. I liked the book more than the Tom Cruise movie so now I'll have to see what the anime movie is like. I have to admit that the whole "it's not technically a time loop" explanation felt really over thought and it could have just been time loops. A good vacation read

Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash by Yahtzee Croshaw: Yahtzee is really good at his fundamentals. He knows how to fundamentally write a good story, produce a watchable YouTube video, and make engaging video game mechanics. His strength is in British comedy which in my opinion is usually best in written form because it allows for lengthy humorous asides. Well written with good twists and still very funny

Next up: Diaspora by Greg Egan and Will Leave the Galaxy for Good

I'm currently reading the third novella in Radicalized, a collection by Cory Doctorow. It's chilling stuff, especially this third one.

Just finished Blindsight by Peter Watts and The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler. Both are very good books that I highly recommend. Unbeknownst to me when I picked them up, they are both about consciousness.

Just started Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky and When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi. I'm liking Service Model so far. When the Moon Hits Your Eye is a bit cheesy (sorry for the pun).

I'm sludging my way through a book I picked up on a whim called The Astral Library by Kate Quinn. I like the plot enough, but the writing is pretty subpar, the narrator (character) is annoying and the narrator (audiobook) makes questionable voicing choices. The whole book so far is just a little on the nose and it feels like the writer doesn't trust the reader to understand anything.

I will probably finish it but do not really recommend at this point.

Lately I've been flying through Lois McMaster Bujold's Penric & Desdemona series, currently on Book 11, The Assassins of Thasalon. These are cozy and short, but definitely enjoyable.

I am currently finishing up the LitRPG series "He who fights with Monsters", then i'm going to switch back to Dungeon Crawler Carl to finish up the new book! Any suggestions on good books to listen or read?

On the back stretch of the Complete HP Lovecraft, it's been an exhausting two months but I feel sonewhat bouyed knowing I'm near the end, that and his writing significantly improves after Call of Cthulu.

I've been reading Michael J Sullivan's Elan series. I'm on Esrahaddon now with just Drumindor to go after that. Read the first 10 pages of Farilane and ragequit it... a jarring departure from Sullivan's usual style and a protagonist so infuriating I quit (fortunately it's pretty much a stand-alone). The rest of his books are really good though :D

Bought a new Kobo Clara BW a few weeks ago and put KOReader on it. Very happy with it - a nice upgrade over my 12 year old Kindle.

Started reading Ascendance of a Bookworm

Nobber by Oisín Fagan . After ripping through his short story book Hostages and thoroughly enjoying it, I took far too long to get around to his debut novel. So far it's intriguing, weird and uses lovely Irish-English language.

Still reading "Newtons wake" by Ken MacLeod. It's okay, sometimes a bit messy to follow. Definitely not as bad as some of the goodreads reviews make it be. It's my first book by this writer, so maybe I'll read some more after this one.

Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan

I have been continuing with "The Remaining" books.

I finished the main story arc and it was a good time. I really enjoyed it.

I then went on to the book "Sanctuary" which is a standalone story set in the same world but 6 years later following an entirely new set of characters and ideas and it was easily the best book so far! I thought it was a really great story that expanded on the concepts and universe further and I just couldn't stop listening. I was absolutely glued to it through out its entirety!

And today I finished "Abe" which was another standalone book follow one of the more minor characters from the main story arc, again in the future of that main story. This couldn't be more different from sanctuary and was a load of shit to be perfectly honest. I didnt particularly care about the character Abe to begin with but this book made no sense. It was basically a US army squad vs the cartel book where in the infected had no role to play in the book. They were mentioned twice and featured for about 3 minutes and to no consequence to the story so there seemed no point to set this story in this universe at all.

Not only that it wasn't even a great story. Basically I slogged through to the end waiting for shit to go down with infected that never happened. If you read The Remaining, skip this load of shit!

Next up I'm going to read book 0.5 which i believe is a prologue to the main story arc!

I recently revisited some classic novels:

The Stranger, by Albert Camus Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse

A lot of meaning flew over my head when I originally read these as a teenager.

Finished Kingdoms of Death by Christopher Ruocchio - Best book in the series by a country mile. I'm a sucker for despair and KoD has tons of it.

Currently trudging through Non-Things by Byung Chul Han. I get what it's trying to say. The delivery is horrible. It's not even a translation thing. It's the way he's presenting his ideas through example after example from other literary works. Tangent after tangent. Such and so thought this and this guy said that but I present this thing and this is because in [X99] we did this. Like whoa buddy stay on track for a second. I do want to finish it. It's only 100 something pages. It's feeling like a DNF though.

I just finished The Philosophy of the catcher in the rye - super interesting, really enjoyed it.

Reading; Red Comment, Heather Clark - biography of Sylvia Plath. Thoroughly enjoying it, though "enjoying" feels like the wrong word due to the heavy topics it goes into.

Also reading Animorphs K.A Applegate. Nostalgic read and a nice, easy one to pick up when I need something less intense. Up to the 12th book!

And a couple of poetry books on the go; Beautiful Chaos - Robert Drake (eh, it's okay), All Dogs Are Good - Courtney Peppernell (fantastic! Will definitely read more of her stuff!) and Ariel - Sylvia Plath (a re-read as I know most of them already but interesting to read with the extra insight of the biography).

Southern Man by Greg Iles, a late addendum to the Penn Cage series.

It's risky to infer an author's political leanings from their fiction, but there are exceptions. This was written and set in the 2024 election season, and is bluntly critical of Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters. No, I don't think Iles got invited to Trump's inauguration party.

Reading: Wandering witch Listening: Vampire Hunter D (dramatized)

I will probably drop the dramatized Vampire Hunter D. I don't like the narrator's voice, and it's difficult to understand.

Reading The Fall by Neal Stephenson. It's a sequel to REAMDE, which I really enjoyed reading for the second time this year—the first time being eight years ago (I think?). So far, The Fall is exploring a lot of the same concepts as the animated series Pantheon: life after death, uploaded consciousness (or intelligence), physical reality vs perceived, immortality. The series started production in 2018, and the book was published in 2019; these ideas must have been in the zeitgeist I guess.

Considering the genre of the first book (MMORPG hacker spy international criminals thriller), I'm really surprised Stephenson was able to adapt and develop these characters into a story with this kind of theme. Digging it.

A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn.

Love Among the Chickens by P.G. Wodehouse. About 3/4 of the way through and the density of clever lines has eased up to make room for plot, which is good, because I want to see how it all works out (or doesn't).

I'm reading the Incandescent by Emily Tesh. I'm enjoying it immensely. I genuinely don't know where it is going to go and am enjoying the ride.

Reading Doctor Who: Shakedown by Terrance Dicks.

Audiobook King Sorrow by Joe Hill.

Currently Chaos Vector by Megan E. O’Keefe. Great book just not a lot of time to read

This past weekend was the annual book crawl in my city, also celebrating Independent Bookstore Day. I visited 15 bookstores on Saturday and won a championship mug. I was the first grand price winner for the store I finished at, yay! It’s the 4th mug I’ve won out of 5 years participating. I bought way more books than I intended but who can say no to $2 Star Trek books? Not this lady!

The Greatest of All Plagues, by David Lay Williams.

Finished The Cadaver Client by Frank Tuttle. Fantasy PI is hired by a ghost to find his (living) wife. Fun adventure, pretty light; good palate cleanser after 1984.

Currently reading Extremity by Nicholas Binge. I'm a little unsatisfied with it, but I think it's a me-not-it kinda thing. Maybe the last 30% will change my mind.

Just about to finish The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden. It's been good! Very beautifully written and such a unique setting (post war Netherlands). I've been reading it for my book club.

I'm thinking on starting The Lies of Locke Lamora next. It's been on my TBR for a while!