What did you just read?

Kovaks said:

Finished prince of thorns now working through king of thorns, great voice on the reader, second one is a little weirder than the first but I'm liking the series so far. I'm a sucker for this setting. This series reads a lot like the current grimdark d&d campaigns I am running right now so I can steal from those too.

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His first two series in that setting are really good. His newest series in a new world is so even better though.

Man0warr said:

His first two series in that setting are really good. His newest series in a new world is so even better though.

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Thanks, almost done with the 3rd book ammd will check out the others I also really like the guy who reads them.

I just finished the 3rd light novel of No Game No Life. That completed the 12 anime story arc that's already been released. Just started the 4th book now. I love me some translated Japanese light novels.

slippery said:

I feel like I've really been craving something in the vein of Peter F Hamilton's Commonwealth stuff and I just can't find it

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If you haven't read The Expanse series, that's the closest thing. There's also David Weber's Honorverse, which loses gas a few books in like everything else David Weber. And Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series, which isn't as serial as Commonwealth or the Expanse but has a couple hugo-winners in the series. Also Miles Vorkosigan was Tyrion looong before Tyrion.

As a side note, Peter F. Hamilton announced that he was in talks to produce a show based on the Commonwealth. That was a comicon panel or something a couple years ago but nothing's come of it since.

I stumbled upon this book when doing research recently. Amazon product ASIN 0195069056 . Heres the wiki that explains it better. Albion's Seed - Wikipedia

It's really good, for anyone interested in the culture and society of America. It pretty well explains what I've long thought about how the"Melting pot" is a myth and American culture is/has been essentially four regional cultures brought over from England starting with the Puritans. How these cultures have persisted and are responsible for the success and character of America.

Whidon said:

I stumbled upon this book when doing research recently. Amazon product ASIN 0195069056 . Heres the wiki that explains it better. Albion's Seed - Wikipedia

It's really good, for anyone interested in the culture and society of America. It pretty well explains what I've long thought about how the"Melting pot" is a myth and American culture is/has been essentially four regional cultures brought over from England starting with the Puritans. How these cultures have persisted and are responsible for the success and character of America.

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Yep. We are Oliver Cromwell's inheritors and his final victory.

I finished the Hornblower series this week. Superb Georgian, Regency, and Victorian era military fiction series.

I read them in order of publication. The first book had me hooked by the end of the first chapter, the rest of the series rushed by over the week.

I can't recommend the audiobooks enough.

Here's a recording of the first book (by publication date), available for free, on youtube. Everything is available in audiobook form on audible, except for the last book. You can find it in CD format if you want, but it's out of print and the prices suck.

I ended up reading the last one in ebook format.

Wrath said:

I feel like I'm missing something with Name of the Wind because everyone raves about it. I listened to the audio book on a drive and got to where the kid is an orphan in the city and I just wasn't really feeling it. Does it get better or maybe is it better to read it?

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If you aren't into it by the time you read the words "You may have heard of me." Then yeah, it's not for you.

The older I get the worse this book has aged. The romance subplot that was once mysterious and engrossing when I read it as a teenager is now cloying. It makes me hate both the female lead and Kvothe.

Beta orbiter. Emotional tampon. Not surprising given the relationship is the idealized version of an actual beta orbiter and emotional tampon situation Patrick languished in for years.

The more Fantasy that I've read, the more I've seen that Patrick's magic system wasn't unique or original. And his highly praised prose is above average, but falls short of others with less acclaim.

It's cheap how quickly Kvothe masters nearly everything he sets his mind to. If he struggles, it's only because he's learning so much at the same time (you understand). Kvothe is a Gary Stu.

The most brilliant minds that have ever lived required hard ass work, every single day, from a very young age to achieve what Kvothe does seemingly without effort. His easy grasp of everything is more unbelievable than the magical world he lives in. Okay, sure, I'll grant any character one or two or three exceptional talents. Four if the series drags on for a dozen books and we watch the character struggle, fail, and grow.

But seriously, Kvothe is perfect at everything - even things that should take him thousands of hours to achieve mastery in. It all feels unearned.

I can't help but feel that the Name of the Wind only became popular because of the SJW push it received before we knew what SJW's were.

The final nail in the coffin is how blatant his political ideology is once you know what to look for. #SoWoke #SJWBeforeItWasHip

SJW's, Communists, Women, etc. Once you know how they think (emotionally), how they "feel" (what triggers them), and what they want, it's all so... predictable.

The Cradle (5 Books, several more planned) series and the Elder Empire (2 x 2 Books, more planned) series by Will Wight were both very good. Disliked his first trilogy 'The Travelers Gate', the writing was so rough I did not finish it, but his later books are significantly more polished and I enjoy the settings.

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. Book was... mediocre? It had plenty of potential, but the attempt to be 'hipster-chic' fell incredibly flat. While I liked the idea that magic, nature, and technology have to work together, the female characters were lifeless and everyone who was not one of the two protagonists was an insufferable cunt.

I'm reading the last of the Witcher Saga books (Lady of the Lake) and I just finished the chapter about the Battle of Brenna.

Holy shit, probably the most amazing battle sequence I have ever read in a book.

Five or six books into the Richard Sharpe series (the army equivalent of the Hornblower series).

The books are plotted in typical pulp fiction style and they're decent enough. I'm rather bored with the series, but the Historical Notes at the end of each story have me hooked.

It's so much fun to get a brief glimpse at an old forgotten battle from a grunts eye-view, told in pulp fiction style. I've made a game out of trying to guess which of the big events were "enhanced" to make the story better and which events were toned down because what really happened was too fucking crazy / strange to believe.

3.5/5 for story.

6/5 for historical hard-on.

Himeo said:

Five or six books into the Richard Sharpe series (the army equivalent of the Hornblower series).

The books are plotted in typical pulp fiction style and they're decent enough. I'm rather bored with the series, but the Historical Notes at the end of each story have me hooked.

It's so much fun to get a brief glimpse at an old forgotten battle from a grunts eye-view, told in pulp fiction style. I've made a game out of trying to guess which of the big events were "enhanced" to make the story better and which events were toned down because what really happened was too fucking crazy / strange to believe.

3.5/5 for story.

6/5 for historical hard-on.

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Oh man I've read like 12 of those books. I love them!

The first 3 (chronologically, not in written-order) are some of my favorites. Definitely had a sort of blackpowder Indiana Jones vibe.