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Arbitrary

Tranny Chaser
29,587
81,966
It's worth it imo, Perkins is a solid character

Alright 7.5

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smash or pass. I'm leaning pass?
 

slippery

<Bronze Donator>
7,910
7,732
Alright 7.5

View attachment 410485

smash or pass. I'm leaning pass?
It's a lot of familiar people in voice crew, and relatively short. Skippy makes comments about it a few times in later books, but I don't recall much about it. Gut says it's probably skipable, but it's not a bad listen. Reviews on audible for it are all over the place lol
 
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Arbitrary

Tranny Chaser
29,587
81,966
It's a lot of familiar people in voice crew, and relatively short. Skippy makes comments about it a few times in later books, but I don't recall much about it. Gut says it's probably skipable, but it's not a bad listen.

I'm 2/3rds of the way through book seven (Renegades) and it's the first one I'd move to the "don't like" category. The mission is too impossible and it takes a lot of pages to get to them actually starting to tackle it. I just find the whole story really dull compared to book six.
 

slippery

<Bronze Donator>
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I'm 2/3rds of the way through book seven (Renegades) and it's the first one I'd move to the "don't like" category. The mission is too impossible and it takes a lot of pages to get to them actually starting to tackle it. I just find the whole story really dull compared to book six.
IMO he gets a little off the rails and there are a few books in the middle of the series that are more on the mediocre side. They do get better again later though
 
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slippery

<Bronze Donator>
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Next book in Expeditionary Force is out in like 3 weeks, and there is also a new series coming from him in August with RC Bray still narrating it that looks interesting.



My name is Kazimir Wolfe, people call me "Kaz", except they don’t. I never use my real name, it’s too dangerous, for me and for anyone I meet.

I’m on the run from the law, who think I killed my aunt, and from whoever did kill her, because they want to finish the job. So, I move around a lot; working construction or whatever job I can find. It’s a lonely life. I don’t let anyone get close...people who get close to me end up dead. Why?

I’m a wizard. The world’s only wizard, as far as I know. I don’t have a wand or a sword, and I don’t ride a dragon. I carry a Glock, and drive around in a beat-up RV with a talking dog.

Yeah. The talking dog was a surprise to me, too. Duke is inhabited by the spirit of a 3,000-year-old wizard from Babylon, and he’s a good dog, but he is still a dog, and that’s a problem. Like, he still thinks squirrels are his mortal enemy. And that I don’t feed him enough. How did the spirit of a wizard reach across millennia, to our time? I don’t know.

The truth is, I’m not much of a wizard, because there’s not much magic in the world for me to work with. But there used to be magic. And magic is coming back, as our world converges with the Nether.

Unless I can stop it.
 

Slaanesh69

Millie's Staff Member
6,133
18,079
I have been remiss in reading these last several months, but I landed on this during my Covid stint and it is getting surprisingly good:

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Also, my fav author is releasing a book on the 24th and I am pumped - Edit - it was posted above and my friend lied to me about the release date so I just bought it.

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Asshat wormie

2023 Asshat Award Winner
<Gold Donor>
16,820
30,968
I have been remiss in reading these last several months, but I landed on this during my Covid stint and it is getting surprisingly good:

View attachment 412969

Also, my fav author is releasing a book on the 24th and I am pumped - Edit - it was posted above and my friend lied to me about the release date so I just bought it.

View attachment 412970
The Mistborn books are some of the best shit in the genre.
 
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Animosity

Silver Baronet of the Realm
7,149
6,049
Looking for rec's on some good fantasy stuff to read? LOTR/D&D/EQ-esque. Read a bunch of Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance stuff as a teen. Been in the mood to read some again. Audiobook would be nice but not required.
 

Asshat wormie

2023 Asshat Award Winner
<Gold Donor>
16,820
30,968
Looking for rec's on some good fantasy stuff to read? LOTR/D&D/EQ-esque. Read a bunch of Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance stuff as a teen. Been in the mood to read some again. Audiobook would be nice but not required.
LOTR is quiet different from D&D and EQ imo. There is much more magic in the latter. If you want fantasy shit, my favorite has to be Malazan books, The Black Company, Robin Hobb's books (skip the The Rain Wild Chronicles imo), all of Raymond Feist's Midkemia books (though the last trilogy was kind of shit) and the Mistborn books. There is much more but this is a start. I enjoy new massive worlds so I like long book series. If you want one off books, I highly suggest Neil Gaiman; start with Neverwhere and The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
 
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Animosity

Silver Baronet of the Realm
7,149
6,049
LOTR is quiet different from D&D and EQ imo. There is much more magic in the latter. If you want fantasy shit, my favorite has to be Malazan books, The Black Company, Robin Hobb's books (skip the The Rain Wild Chronicles imo), all of Raymond Feist's Midkemia books (though the last trilogy was kind of shit) and the Mistborn books. There is much more but this is a start. I enjoy new massive worlds so I like long book series. If you want one off books, I highly suggest Neil Gaiman; start with Neverwhere and The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
Thanks for the suggestions! Ya LOTR is very different, just giving examples of what I like. Gaiman I am a huge fan of. Slowly working my way through his stuff.
 

Randin

Trakanon Raider
1,932
891
Finally finished the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik--historical fantasy Napoleonic Wars with dragons. People weren't lying about how stupid the amnesia arc was. Not only because amnesia stories are inherently stupid, but also because absolutely nothing comes of it--you really get the sense that she just couldn't come up with anything to actually have happen during the Japan leg of the story, so she just slapped some amnesia in there to have a little drama. Excepting that, I really liked the series; I'd love to see her revisit the setting at some point to look at other major historical events through the lens of dragons.
 

Kovaks

Mr. Poopybutthole
2,358
3,147
Looking for rec's on some good fantasy stuff to read? LOTR/D&D/EQ-esque. Read a bunch of Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance stuff as a teen. Been in the mood to read some again. Audiobook would be nice but not required.
I always agree with a malazan recommendation, also try mark Lawrence either his prince of thorns trilogy or the red queens war trilogy.
 
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Chersk

Trakanon Raider
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1,436
Anyone do the audiobooks for the Malazan stuff? I listened to a sample and it was kind of eh
 

Ritley

Bronze Baron of the Realm
16,014
35,053
It was awhile back, but I have. The narrator switches mid series I believe. Overall it was serviceable but not all that great
 

Chersk

Trakanon Raider
1,604
1,436
Yeah I searched around and that seems to be a common theme. Skipping for now and going with Gentlemen Bastards.
 

Kovaks

Mr. Poopybutthole
2,358
3,147
Anyone do the audiobooks for the Malazan stuff? I listened to a sample and it was kind of eh
I did all of them audio last year, the narrator swap was a bit jarring at first especially since words and voices you got used to changed But both are good, not steven pacey good but still good. If you like audio books or have a commute I would recommend them.
 

Campbell1oo4

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
1,930
6,137
Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 by Christopher Clark

The first half of this history was much more engaging than the second half, though I don't think that is a problem with the author, but rather the state of the world. Reading about modern problems, such as unions, medical insurance and railroads is incredibly boring. Especially when the first half of the book is filled with aristocratic warriors, religious pilgrims and great kings. There is no poetry in the second half.

Yet I found fault with the author's voice, though that could have been a projection on my part. I got the distinct impression that the author is a modern person, who disregarded the religious views of various factions throughout German history and triumphed the leftist/socialist views of the 1920/30s.

I would recommend the first half of the book but when Bismarck shows up and the German Empire is established check out, you will just be wading through the malaise of the modern world.

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The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History by Mircea Eliade

Good book. Changed the way I look at history and I now believe that we (in modern American society) do history all wrong. That is coming from someone with a degree in history.

When a modern person is trying to find meaning in the world or a mode of being, they look back at history. To a modern person history is a timeline of figures and events, each with their own special significance.

A modern person tallies up those events and figures and gives themself an idea of how they should act in the world and what the world means to them.

But this means the person has little room to maneuver. They are constrained by history, at the forefront of which they stand.

An archaic person has no such problem as they did not recognize history as we do. History to an archaic person was a set of categories (war, harvest, death) and a cast of heroes (fire bringer, dragon slayer).

To explain the world and how they should move within it the archaic person place the event before them into a mythical category and them embodied the hero, doing as they did, and this was the model that taught them how to deal with the world.

The archaic person was not constrained by history, with its two thousand years worth of weight. They were guided by mythology.

Example; there is a war and a group of young men are sent off to fight. A modern man would see that history is a sequence of wars in which the common soldier gets chewed up and killed while the generals get all the glory. He becomes depressed and hopeless and his world becomes a dark place.

An archaic man who goes off to fight in this war has a category for it; this is the same as the conflict between good and evil (the gods and the devils) that he can now participate in. He has his model of the hero and therefore knows how to act. Even if he dies, death is simply the next step and he will be welcomed into the host of heroes anyway.

I read this near abouts when I read Julius Evola’s “Metaphysics of War” and I think they go along well together. I would also suggest one read “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Marie Remarque and “Storm of Steel” by Ernst Junger immediately after. I feel these two books about the First World War offer an amazing example of how modern and archaic man react to the same situation.
 
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Randin

Trakanon Raider
1,932
891
The Bone Ships by RJ Barker. Essentially a fantasy Master and Commander story. For all of history, ships have been built from the bones of great sea dragons, but the dragons have seemingly been hunted to extinction, and haven't been seen in generations. With nations having to increasingly recycle the ever-shrinking supply of bones to make smaller and smaller ships, the news that a new dragon has been sighted in the ocean is set to trigger large-scale war if anyone can take it down and come into a fresh supply of warship materials.

I liked this one. The author is a little too fond of making up fantasy words for perfectly mundane things, of trying to drown you in fantasy words at places, but the setting is interesting, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the rest of the trilogy goes.
 
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