Still reading Starsight by Brandon Sanderson, second book of Skyward (Cytoverse) series. About half done. It’s interesting to get more details about the world.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening?
The Murderbot Diaries. Quite enjoyable series about a security bot that hacked himself and really only wants to watch tv shows.
He’s good at killing too.
I’m also reading The Way of Kings, which I started back in like July. I’m in more of a podcast phase at the moment, I’ve finished one book so far this year as opposed to the 20 or so I’d read by this point last year 🤷♂️
That explains why I haven’t seen you around. 😀
Happens to me sometimes too, The Better Part of Valor that I was finished couple of weeks ago, took me couple of months, I think. And it was only 300 or so pages. The Way of Kings on the other hand is a pretty meatier book, which I have to re-read soon to get ready for the upcoming fifth book!
What podcasts are you listening to these days? I used to listen to a few during commute, but now that I (luckily) work from home, haven’t listened to one in a long time.
Thinking about it, I’m reading the exact same stuff I was about 6 months ago, just later in each series. The Way of Kings, Dresden Files, Incryptid, In Death and Alex Verus. Maybe I just need a change of scenery.
For podcasts it’s The Weekly Planet - comic book-related media news, Knowledge Fight - basically Infowars fact checking, My Dad Wrote a Porno - a guy reads his dad’s erotica to a couple of friends and it’s impossibly funny, The C Team - a weekly D&D game from a few years back, The Duke and Duchess book club - the reason I started Stormlight Archive, and Dead Meat - horror movie reviews & discussion.
It’s all to fill downtime at work, I just got sick of powering through 2-3 audiobooks a fortnight and struggle to get immersed in video games when I’m not relaxing at home.
Sorry for butting in but I thought I’d hop on the podcast recommendation diversion because I’m also always looking for recommendations.
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This Sounds Serious is good if you like true crime, but it’s a comedic parody of the tropes of true crime with solid story telling.
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Hello From the Magic Tavern is an interesting take on an interview-style podcast.
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Risky or Not is a short form podcast about food science and if sometimes odd practices actually put you at risk
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Wind of Change is an interesting look at if the Scorpions were intended to bring down communism
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And if you’re a political junky in the US, Strict Scrutiny and Prosecuting Donald Trump are interesting updates from legal experts on the Supreme Court and the Trump cases.
I haven’t listened to any legal podcasts since the uh… change of host on Opening Arguments a couple of years ago, and I’ve been avoiding US politics as much as possible for my own sanity because I’m on the opposite side of the world & I’ve been bombarded with it daily since about 2015, but this Strict Scrutiny sounds interesting.
Currently listening to the Cradle series on a friend’s recommendation. Enjoying the progression fantasy, but the way problems have been resolved has been pretty irritating multiple times.
This is probably my favorite fantasy book series, so I’m super curious what resolutions you’ve found annoying.
I’ll say I find the first book a bit of a slog, but that’s mostly because I can’t stand the secondhand embarrassment of Lindon’s behavior.
Once Aethan shows up, it’s a straight shot to the top for me.
I just dislike that Lindon makes so many rash decisions that are just deus ex machinad. It is one of my peeves of conflict resolution in stories especially when it is as heavy handed as it is here. I am generally enjoying the world building and most of the progression and character interactions though.
They also try and portray Linden as a peculiarity but he hasn’t really done anything warranting that yet other than us being told such.
Currently on blackflame so it clearly hasn’t deterred me yet.
Interesting. I generally cannot stand deus ex machina, so I’m surprised to not really be able to think of heavy examples of it for Lindon. He certainly gets out of tricky situations, but maybe to me it felt like they were either foreshadowed or somebody like Aethan gets him out of it?
I’m planning another reread soon; I’ll have to pay special attention to see why it didn’t register for me in this particular story.
I bought a set of six H.G. Wells books late last year, just finished The Time Machine and started The Island of Dr. Moreau last night.
How are you liking them? I read them a long time ago, when I was pretty young, I wonder how they hold up now. Have been specially thinking about reading The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds.
I enjoyed The Time Machine, but the copy I got also had 10 short stories after it, which were mixed.
Dr. Moreau has started well after the first 50ish pages.
The main reason I bought them is because I’ve always been a bit sci-fi fan, but never read the guy who invented the genre!
If you’re reading genre-creators, don’t forget Jules Verne. Some epic stories in his canon. Actually, I can think of one epic cannon story in his canon.
Reading Words of Radiance by B. Sandy and listening to Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien, narrated by Sir Christopher Lee. Man does Tolkien convey a good deal of sorrow in the misfortunes of Men during the First Age.
