What did you just read?

Ukerric · Oct 1, 2020

TJT said:
He Who Fights With Monsters is getting very regular updates now. Which is awesome. That said I dislike how the family reunion is being handled.

You had various inklings about family problems, but not much. Now that we're Earth-side, the chickens come to roost. If anything, it kinds of explain why he's basically "FU YOU" most of the time.

I'm someone who kind of takes pride in that I do not hold grudges or anything but even I have limits.

Do you Thanoscopter, dude?

(that one made me laugh. A lot)
But not everyone in Jason's family is worthless.

Emi turned her gaze to the boy up against the wall.
“Thanks Emi,” he said miserably.
“Grow some balls, Hunter,” she told him. “Your name literally means someone who kills things.”
Jason withdrew his senses from Shade with a chuckle.
“She hasn’t changed,” he said happily.
“She seems quite intelligent for her age,” Shade said. “I believe I recognised some behavioural traits, there.”
“Yeah, she’s smart like her Mum.”

TJT · Oct 2, 2020

Same series

Reunion complete.

I'd still tell them all to fuck off but I am interested in how they take the, "you're wizards everybody!" induction. I am almost positive the other Outworlder is Farrah since we know it's a female now. But how Farrah got to come back from the dead when the Reaper hates that shit is beyond me.

Now that the author has established Jason's issues with his family he really can't just let him shrug off the Amy thing because it's now inconvenient. But I think that is the way it will have to go because otherwise it drives a wedge into the other stuff going on.

Ukerric · Oct 2, 2020

TJT said:
Same series

Dunno how he'll use it, but

The Hulk comment in the context made me immediately think

Randin · Oct 3, 2020

The Burning White by Brent Weeks, book five in the Lightbringer series. I liked this series. I've said before that when it comes to fantasy, I'm a sucker for a good magic system--it's one of the reasons I rate Sanderson so highly--and this is one of the more Sanderson-esque magic systems I've found outside of his books, with magic users being able to transform light into physical matter. The story's fairly sprawling, and so it's difficult to sum up--it starts off a little Harry Potter, poor orphan boy finds he has magic, gets to go to magic school, and all that. But it does outgrow that after the first couple books and ends up both more war-focused and more philosophical by the end. Worth picking up.

TJT · Oct 4, 2020

Ukerric said:
Space zombies!

Not sure I'll be continuing it though. The first book was really long for what it is and I don't like the underlying premise.

Unless there is some glimmer here that dying doesn't or shouldn't normally lead to deprivation tank eternity then this is a really grimdark story of which there is no escape. Not very enjoyable.

Ukerric · Oct 4, 2020

TJT said:
Not sure I'll be continuing it though. The first book was really long for what it is and I don't like the underlying premise.

Unless there is some glimmer here that dying doesn't or shouldn't normally lead to deprivation tank eternity then this is a really grimdark story of which there is no escape. Not very enjoyable.

It takes some time before this is adressed, but it is. I misspoke when I talked about Space Zombies... it's more of a Space Ghosts' story, with the attendant ghost implications.

"Consider who seems to be returning"

Ukerric · Oct 4, 2020

I've been recently on a roll on the "I waaaaaant to go to space, dammit" wagon. Because SpaceX, of course.

So, a few recent re-reads. Can't find my old copy of that old Heinlein classic

Have Space Suit—Will Travel

Kip from midwest Centerville USA works the summer befor…

www.goodreads.com

so instead, I did a re-read of two books:
- Steven Gould's Exo. In which a youngster with the power to teleport turn herself into a one-woman Space operation. Turns out space is a lot easier if you can teleport to orbit for free.

Exo (Jumper, #4)

Cent can teleport. So can her parents, but they are the…

www.goodreads.com

(the rest of the series is also very good, but I never re-read any of it. Also, don't make a mistake and pick the novelization of the movie, which is shit and totally unrelated to the original novels, just like the Youtube adaptation of Cent's story)

- John Varley's Red Thunder. In which a bunch of youngsters with a brain-damaged genius friend decide to build their own spaceship because said genius says the first American expedition to Mars might have problems with their rocket design. And so, 4 American kids and a washed-up astronaut decide to be the first on Mars. And troll the competing Chinese expedition as well.

Red Thunder (Thunder and Lightning, #1)

Seven suburban misfits are constructing a spaceship out…

www.goodreads.com

(in this case, the rest of the series is pretty meh in comparison to the first book)

Randin · Oct 13, 2020

A History of the Samurai by Jonathan Lopez-Vera. After beating Ghost of Tsushima, I was in the mood for something Japanese. In spite of the name, this ended up not so much being a samurai history, but rather a general history of Japan that just focused on the thousand or so years in which the samurai existed. But since I didn't know much about Japanese history, that actually worked out fine for me. And it actually turned out to be a good intro to the subject, giving you a good broad-strokes overview that lets you get a sense for the shape of Japanese history without getting bogged down in the fine details that won't mean much to a newbie on the subject.

My only real complaint with the book (or rather the English translation, as I believe the book was originally published in Spanish) is that they really should've sprung for a proofreader to do a final pass before sending it off to the printer. It's not a grammatical mess by any means, but noticeably more errors managed to slip through the cracks than you should expect of a traditionally published book.

Ukerric · Oct 14, 2020

Finished The War Throughout the Dungeon, the sequel to The City and the Dungeon.

And it was mildly disappointing. Mind you, it remains heads above 90% of litrpg on Amazon. But it's still a case of "why did we wait 3 years for this?"

The author keeps the setting and works out the setting in a very logical manner, but:

1) Botches romantic subplots (plural).

Like, he obviously regrets the very impressive and bold decision to friendzone Alex

2) Misses most of the progression themes

None of the characters manage to get any headway in any class. Even Elise gets gear that entirely obsoletes her class choices and it's not even adressed

3) Tries to explain too much, instead of remaining half-mysterious like the original book

As it is, it ekes barely 4/5, when I expected it to be 5/5 "obviously". Recommended, but disappointing at the same time.

lurkingdirk · Oct 14, 2020

If you are looking for some fun, light reading that is well written and transports you to another place you should check out the series by Louise Penny about Inspector Gamache. She keeps cranking these books out like crazy, and they're incredibly diverting. I think there are 14 in the series at this point. Start from the beginning. She's a splendid writer.

TJT · Oct 15, 2020

I was not a fan of Inspector Gamache and I generally like whodunits.

John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series is my favorite whodunit. Although it barely fits the criteria. I'd also recommend Tim Dorsey for supreme luls along with a very fascinating and accurate history about Florida.

And while we're on the topic of bullshit award-winning novels. Someone is going to need to explain to me why so many award winning books of the past five years are absolutely full of overly ambiguous bullshit. It's not cleverly ambiguous if you're just leaving shit out. Which is what most of them do rather than something actually interesting.

lurkingdirk · Oct 18, 2020

TJT said:
I was not a fan of Inspector Gamache and I generally like whodunits.

You are the first person I have ever encountered who did not love those book, and I've talked to quite a few people. I'm surprised. Can you tell me what you didn't like about the books? Too much French?

TJT · Oct 19, 2020

lurkingdirk said:
You are the first person I have ever encountered who did not love those book, and I've talked to quite a few people. I'm surprised. Can you tell me what you didn't like about the books? Too much French?

I don't care about the French per se. When it comes to serial whodunits and similar I like ones that are generally absurd or comical. Travis McGee novels are fun and out there while still being mundane. Same with Tim Dorsey. I think of it as a byproduct of the books I grew up with. My parents read a lot of novels and stuff and they liked various series (Louis Lamour, JDM, Carl Hiassen, just about every mainstream series out there). So I ended up reading them too. These didn't have what I prefer when I am reading entertaining whodunits and thrillers.

Inspector Gamache just has this pretentiousness about it. Unlike Louis Lamour and other things I put in the category of "entertaining non-fantasy serial novels."

lurkingdirk · Oct 19, 2020

TJT said:
I don't care about the French per se. When it comes to serial whodunits and similar I like ones that are generally absurd or comical. Travis McGee novels are fun and out there while still being mundane. Same with Tim Dorsey. I think of it as a byproduct of the books I grew up with. My parents read a lot of novels and stuff and they liked various series (Louis Lamour, JDM, Carl Hiassen, just about every mainstream series out there). So I ended up reading them too. These didn't have what I prefer when I am reading entertaining whodunits and thrillers.

Inspector Gamache just has this pretentiousness about it. Unlike Louis Lamour and other things I put in the category of "entertaining non-fantasy serial novels."

I think I can see what you are saying. Inspector Gamache is held up so consistently as a paragon of virtue that some pretense certainly creeps in. I'm still enjoying them, however. Plus the author references things that I know from the province of Quebec, or from the city of Montreal. It's always fun to know the places being described in the books you're reading.

Furry · Oct 29, 2020

wormie said:
Yes

PS. Mistborn first

Mistborn is kinda weird. It's okay, but honestly his writing is way too formulaic and juvenile. Finished all of his stuff and was meh but I'll continue, in addition just finished the last frank herbert book. What an unusual series. I can fully recommend all the dune books. #2 is a slog, but the rest offer an interesting view of humanity. The last one fell off a bit, but upon analyzing his impending death, I found interesting things there.

Arbitrary · Oct 31, 2020

If anyone was looking for something for the season allow me to recommend Bronson Pinchot's reading of The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury.

When I read the book itself it didn't make much of an impression but I find Pinchot's reading to be delightful.

TJT · Nov 8, 2020

I brokedown and bought magic smithing patreon. Reading on Patreon is aids but this guy is like 20 chapters ahead compared to his free RR offering.

Magic Smithing is one of the best IMO. The dude wastes no time and each chapter has been a decent amount of actual plot advancement.

Randin · Nov 11, 2020

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. A fantasy story based on multiple parallel universes (our own among them), with the main character being one of the vanishingly rare kind of mages that are capable of traveling between worlds. While he officially serves as a messenger, allowing correspondence between the powers-that-be in each of the worlds, he also has a side gig smuggling trinkets between worlds. One of those trinkets turns out to be a dangerous artifact from a world that no longer exists, and hijinks ensue.

I liked the core concept behind the setting, but while I generally enjoyed the read, I don't feel like the book really did enough to build on that core concept, and the actual story was fairly boilerplate. Not an actively bad book by any stretch of the imagination, but it's pretty easy to see the places where it's falling short. I probably will still get around to reading the sequel at some point, if only to see if the author can build on what's in the first book.

Xarpolis · Nov 14, 2020

TJT said:
I brokedown and bought magic smithing patreon. Reading on Patreon is aids but this guy is like 20 chapters ahead compared to his free RR offering.

Magic Smithing is one of the best IMO. The dude wastes no time and each chapter has been a decent amount of actual plot advancement.

Is this anything like Overgeared? That's all about a Blacksmith as well.

TJT · Nov 14, 2020

Xarpolis said:
Is this anything like Overgeared? That's all about a Blacksmith as well.

There's a whole lot less of it compared to Overgeared. I guess it is similar but it is way more Western (obviously).

Overgeared is cool but the terrible translation kills me lol.

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