Community Book club - What are you reading and what have you read recently

[Li Kao]

'Malpertuis' by Jean Ray
'The Perseid & Other Stories' by Robert Charles Wilson
'The Dying Earth 1' by Jack Vance

And since yesterday 'Time & The Gods' by Lord Dunsany. Fuck you, Reading OCD, this is my middle finger, just for you.

Not sure about the next book.
Dune
Leviathan's Wake
Men at Arms
American Gods
Sword & Deviltry

 

[Cacher]

In August I started reading Garden of the Moon and posted a post here. Dropped it a few days later due to whatever reason I forgot.

Community - Book club - What are you reading and what have you read recently

Glad to be here too mate. I hear you started Miniature painting. Nice. me? nah ... but Li Kao made a thread for it :) check it out: https://metacouncil.com/threads/this-is-a-miniature-painting-thread.2393/

metacouncil.com

Well, time for redemption! I finally finished the first chapter choo choo! Great fun, great read. There is beautifully written text here. Placed stickers and made notes on my book to mark down my thoughts. I have a good feeling about this time!

 

[ZKenir]

new black library bundle with both warhammer fantasy and 40k and age of sigmar

Humble Book Bundle: Stories from the Worlds of Warhammer 2022 by Black Library

We’ve teamed up with Black Library for our newest bundle. Get Warhammer books like Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work & Dawn of Fire: Avenging Son. Plus, pay what you want & support charity!

www.humblebundle.com

---------------------------------------------------------------

Well, time for redemption! I finally finished the first chapter choo choo! Great fun, great read. There is beautifully written text here. Placed stickers and made notes on my book to mark down my thoughts. I have a good feeling about this time!

edit: misread chapter as book lmao, anyway have fun

Spoiler

Blind is my favourite hound

 

[Stevey]

Currently reading Angels Of Caliban.
Love the HH so much

 

[ZKenir]

40k bundle alert!

Humble Book Bundle: Tales of the Space Marine Chapters 2022 by Black Library

We’ve teamed up with Black Library for a bundle of Warhammer 40,000 novels and fiction. Pay what you want & support charity!

www.humblebundle.com

 

[dummmyy]

I finished The Alchemist by Coehlo this past week and have been blasting through Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I'm a little disappointed in this one, but i'll roll through it and see how it ends up...The Alchemist was beautiful, insightful, incredibly well written (and translated). I've been going through some tough times lately; loss, aimlessness, and just overall being morose, but this book really made me look introspective. I've been meaning to read this book about 15 years and now in my early thirties I could not have read it in a better time.

 

[Stevey]

Still plugging away at the Horus Heresy, on book 40/54 now - Corax

 

[ZKenir]

I laughed in Saturnine when Dorn simply told Fulgrim
"You’re holding a gate for no one. You’re just an idiot standing on a wall."

 

[lashman]

BookWyrm: Social Reading and Reviewing

joinbookwyrm.com

might come in handy

 

[Li Kao]

BookWyrm: Social Reading and Reviewing

joinbookwyrm.com

might come in handy

Yeah, I never liked goodreads UI !

 

[lashman]

Yeah, I never liked goodreads UI !

well, there you go then

 

[NarohDethan]

I'll order myself a Kindle and try to read more.

 

[dummmyy]

I'll order myself a Kindle and try to read more.

my brother in christ you have an ipad

 

[Mivey]

I'll order myself a Kindle and try to read more.

I personally use Kobo eReaders. Don't like to buy any Amazon devices.

my brother in christ you have an ipad

reading text on eInk is far superior to anything else. Also murder for your eyes if you do it over long time at night on LCD or OLED

 

[NarohDethan]

Yeah iPads aren’t good for long reading stretches

 

[OSatan]

Done with the Wheel of Time series, one after another, the world and characters are interesting enough and Jordan's writing is comfy enough that it never felt tiresome.

Overall I enjoyed them.

 

[dummmyy]

Done with the Wheel of Time series, one after another, the world and characters are interesting enough and Jordan's writing is comfy enough that it never felt tiresome.

Overall I enjoyed them.

Wow, that's a fukin' huge undertaking. Curious, how long did it take you? I have the first 3 books of the series, but i haven't cracked them yet!

 

[Li Kao]

Trying to finish Men at Arms after pausing it for weeks. I can't hate it, Pratchett's characters are as good as ever, but talk about minuscule plot and glacial pacing.

 

[OSatan]

Wow, that's a fukin' huge undertaking. Curious, how long did it take you? I have the first 3 books of the series, but i haven't cracked them yet!

Started January 7~9th and finished June 23th.
Only small breakes in between but more because of life than the reading.

 

[OSatan]

Done with the Wayfarer series by Becky Chambers, Way to positive and hopeful for me but that what good books they are, full of interesting concepts and characters.
I read that this was originally called the Galactic Commons universe and that makes more sense really it is really not a series.
They read A LOT like The Culture novels but never felt like a copy.

Overall I had a blast with them.

 

[Li Kao]

Eh, maybe it's the sign I need to change things a bit, read something else, but...

Herbert West Reanimator by HP Lovecraft
Was shit ?
Not horrible, but there is definitely the sense, after so much Lovecraft it's understandable, of already read. The original publication in a fanzine doesn't help, with some quick retelling of past events at the start of each chapters. And for a story with six chapters that takes its time to settle things, the end feels super rushed.
More annoyingly, it feels like the anti-Lovecraft. I have the faint memory of reading about him championing dread and not shock, and there is evidently his famous brand of cosmic anguish. None of that here, pretty much the opposite, it's clearly in the shock and grotesque territory.

Outside of Cthulhu and the Dreamland, Lovecraft is clearly hit or miss, which is maybe normal as those stories were written early while he was honing his skills. But no, this story needed more meat on its bone to be something more than run of the mill. The core is good, but Lovecraft fumbles its development and execution.

 

[Li Kao]

Yeah, that's it. I need to change my reading diet.

The Lurking Fear by HP Lovecraft
Please sthap. The prose is flowery as shit, the racism (more like classism, I would argue) is in full force, nothing makes much sense. Oh and another gratuitous, gory scene. This really feels like some beta Lovecraft. Which, I guess it is as it's an early text, but eh, not convinced it's interesting to read except to see how the man's writing style evolved in time.

I'm more than a little terrified about what to read now. The few books that really interest me are door-stoppers and I have the attention span of a goldfish these days.
eg. Dune, The Expanse, The Great and Secret Show etc.

 

[spiel]

Read The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne. It's by Jonathan Stroud who also wrote the Bartimaeus books and Lockwood & Co series. To be honest, this new book doesn't hit the same highs of his previous series. It feels like an extended prologue to introduce the cast and setting. But I do like the main characters and would love to see more of their hijinks in a sequel

 

[Li Kao]

I started something that is not Lovecraft ! I started a big chonky book, even. My sane reasoning, for once, was that avoiding starting big books for fear of dropping them was super not constructive. Let's read, and drop if need be !

The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker (13% in two days, could be worse)
Is really good enough for now, no drop risk. Not always incredible, but solid. My big issue would be that, as it's a chonky book, it still feels like the author is setting things up. I suppose the big players are here, but I wouldn't bet on Barker to not add quite a lot of lesser ones, still. The scope is big.
Without spoiling too much or at all, I would say it start off as your typical 'there is a world behind the world' occult stuff, reminiscent of Lovecraft's Dreamland, really good, then enters a period quite similar to a generic Barker short, not bad but weird. Then Book 2 starts and enters sorta creepy teen stuff.
I have no idea where Barker is going.

 

[Stevey]

Still reading the Horus Heresy.
On Shattered Legions, which is an anthology centred around the Iron Hands (Book 43)

 

[Stevey]

Only 2 chapters in, but really good

 

[NarohDethan]

I'll make it a new year resolution to read at least 10 books.

 

[Hektor]

A friend gave me a copy of the Deathkorps of Krieg novel for christmas, first time im actually reading anything warhammer, when most of my lore knowledge came exclusively through Videogames and 1D4Chan thus far.

I'll make it a new year resolution to read at least 10 books.

I wouldnt get too hung up on numbers there, some can be read in a day and then you have others that can need an entire year.
I simply put for myself a goal to read at least 5 pages of a book each day (mostly non-fiction tho).

Then i have moments where a book sucks me in so much, i read it entirely over a few days, and some interesting-but--insanely-dry books that i slowly finish over a month or two.

 

[ZKenir]

A friend gave me a copy of the Deathkorps of Krieg novel for christmas, first time im actually reading anything warhammer, when most of my lore knowledge came exclusively through Videogames and 1D4Chan thus far.

I highly suggest the Ciaphas Cain novels serie if you're interested in the medium and want to see stuff from a different point of view.
Ciaphas Cain has a "unique" personality and makes his adventures entertaining imho, more than the usual more traditional "serious" takes the protagonists in other series have (both space marines, humans or what-have-you).

In case you like something more about space marines I would suggest the Space Wolves novels (Ragnar stuff), they're very nice because they start with a human Ragnar, his initiation into the Space Wolves and his adventures before he led his Company

 

[NarohDethan]

I wouldnt get too hung up on numbers there, some can be read in a day and then you have others that can need an entire year.
I simply put for myself a goal to read at least 5 pages of a book each day (mostly non-fiction tho).

I discovered that my brains works better when I set a number on my mind. I don't plan to speedrun my reading, but working towards that goal helps.

 

[Stevey]

So good.

Got loads of non WH40K books lined up but they can wait :V

 

[NarohDethan]

I started reading and am 60% into 'hello, habits' by Fumio Sasaki and uh, it's not very good

 

[Li Kao]

Hey, I started a Warhammer 40K book, because it's all you people can read and talk about

I like the GW franchises but feel a bit mystified when it comes to imagine these worlds as more than battlefields. Like, there are several TTRPG and while I like the idea, my immediate reaction is 'why would I want to play in that universe ?' and 'I can't imagine these worlds as credible, lived in worlds'.

So with an ERA thread popping up about it with an incredible timing, I looked into it and started a book I... would have started anyways. But I got several good leads for further readings.

So yeah, Eisenhorn 1 - Xenos.
Good start, action packed. Certainly no high litt but well written. But then again, I knew Dan Abnett was good from comics. Two chapters in and I'm not hooked, because I didn't read enough of it (and there is a chance I drop it because I'm dumb). I note the colorful and potentially great supporting cast. I was expecting a badass protag, but his allies are, too.

PS. I wanted to try Eisenhorn for a long time, but I discovered several interesting books, like the 'Ciaphas Cain' series. 'Requiem Infernal' as also been insta sold to me as horror and weird.

 

[Stevey]

Nice Li Kao
Im nearly finished the Horus Heresy, got all the Siege Of Terra books lined up.

On Wolfsbane now.

 

[bobnowhere]

Hey, I started a Warhammer 40K book, because it's all you people can read and talk about

I like the GW franchises but feel a bit mystified when it comes to imagine these worlds as more than battlefields. Like, there are several TTRPG and while I like the idea, my immediate reaction is 'why would I want to play in that universe ?' and 'I can't imagine these worlds as credible, lived in worlds'.

So with an ERA thread popping up about it with an incredible timing, I looked into it and started a book I... would have started anyways. But I got several good leads for further readings.

So yeah, Eisenhorn 1 - Xenos.
Good start, action packed. Certainly no high litt but well written. But then again, I knew Dan Abnett was good from comics. Two chapters in and I'm not hooked, because I didn't read enough of it (and there is a chance I drop it because I'm dumb). I note the colorful and potentially great supporting cast. I was expecting a badass protag, but his allies are, too.

PS. I wanted to try Eisenhorn for a long time, but I discovered several interesting books, like the 'Ciaphas Cain' series. 'Requiem Infernal' as also been insta sold to me as horror and weird.

I grabbed this from the local shop free swap library a few weeks back. I did play the cut=price mass effect game years ago


Seems like it's no longer for sale

 

[Li Kao]

I grabbed this from the local shop free swap library a few weeks back. I did play the cut=price mass effect game years ago


Seems like it's no longer for sale

Are you talking about the mobile game ? Never tried it, reviews were awful and that's a bummer. The video game translation of the franchise could seriously profit from a game of the sort imho. Like I alluded to, I had serious trouble envisioning 'normal' life in this universe. War, there is only war... cool or not, it doesn't sell me the day to day of the setting.
After a couple chapters of Eisenhorn, I think I got the gist of it. Was obvious when you think about the country and time the franchise is from. It's basically a more sci-fi Judge Dredd.

I mean, look at the law enforcers, the Adeptus Arbites :

 

[Stevey]

I'm still reading the Horus Heresy, like 5 or 6 books off the end, then it rebrands into The Siege Of Terra.

This arrived today

 

[Kyougar]

I have finished the Cradle Series by Will Wight

I listened to the Audiobook and Travis Baldree does an excellent job.

Cradle is a western XianXia series of 12 Books.
Synopsis of the first book:

Lindon is born a pariah in the Wei Clan of Sacred Valley due to an abnormally weak soul. He attempts to prove his worth in an inter-clan tournament.

During the tournament, an ascended being named Li Markuth descends on Sacred Valley and kills everyone. Suriel, a member of the an ascended organization of beings called the Abidan, intervenes. She turns back time and makes it as if it never occurred.

Due to Lindon’s bravery, she deigns to show him his fate. On learning that Sacred Valley will eventually be destroyed by a great beast, Lindon teams up with Yerin, disciple of the Sword Sage, to leave the valley and become strong enough to save it. She leaves him with a small marble as a token.

The Sword Sage was previously poisoned and killed by the Heaven’s Glory school. Yerin advances to Gold by absorbing the Sword Sage’s Remnant. Together, they leave Sacred Valley after fighting their way through the members of Heaven’s Glory.

The epilogue reveals that Suriel is seeking a member of the Abidan named Ozriel, who possesses the power to end worlds that have fallen victim to an incurable (and infectious) magical corruption.

I thought I was "done" with Xianxia and cultivation stories, at least the Chinese ones, after exhausting myself with several 1000 to 2000 chapter novels who, in the end do seem somewhat samey.
The Cradle series was highly recommended in the Progression fanbase So, I gave it a chance. And couldn't stop until I listened to the (recently released) last novel.

Some story spoilers:

Spoiler

the majority of the story plays on Cradle, the planet itself, but we learn more and more from the Abidans and the other Multiverses. Although the multiverse wasn't really my cup of tea, even if I am a big Space and Space opera fan.

In the end, the praise of the progression fanbase was warranted and I liked the series a lot.

I liked the Narrator (Travis Baldree so much, and started another semi-cultivation story he narrates currently: Beware of Chicken.

 

[Joe Spangle]

Hey a book club! Awesome.

Loved the Horus Heresy, went through them a couple of years ago. Need to get back into the latest releases.

Currently reading Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. Only ever read one of his books ages ago and recall it being good so am trying out some others.
Enjoying it so far. Its one of those books where not a great deal happens but the story is being set up page by page and its intriguing.

Don't get much time to read but really do love it.

 

[Joe Spangle]

oh also i recently finished 'Children of Time' by Adrian Tchaikovsky and thought it was an amazingly good sci-fi/humanity/world building story. Would highly recommend it.

Its basically set in the future where the earth has died out and humans fled to the stars and tried to terraform other worlds and something happens at this one world where the evolution of the native species takes a turn. Its a really good book.

 

[Linkark07]

oh also i recently finished 'Children of Time' by Adrian Tchaikovsky and thought it was an amazingly good sci-fi/humanity/world building story. Would highly recommend it.

Its basically set in the future where the earth has died out and humans fled to the stars and tried to terraform other worlds and something happens at this one world where the evolution of the native species takes a turn. Its a really good book.

Another one for Children of Time. What a fantastic book. Just yesterday, in my literature club, I was just commenting about how exciting were the chapters about this native species. In fact, enjoyed them more than the humans chapters.

Besides Children of Time, recently read John Romero's book. It is a great complement to Masters of Doom. Obviously Romero omitted some stuff or tried to portray them in a positive light, and it is fine. Learning more about his early life, his love for programming and how id worked back in the old days was fantastic. Also more about the internal dramas inside Ion Storm that Masters of Doom didn't portray.

Right now going to take a more light reading with Adachi and Shimamura Volume 3. Then going to read City by Clifford D. Simak.

 

[Li Kao]

I only read books in English this year, really trying to make it stick. Being dependent on translations on a market that is shrinking is really not ideal anymore.

That being said I hit my first roadblock, but I suppose it's more to do with the book than my reading comprehension or ocd.
I really enjoyed the first Dying Earth book by Jack Vance, but the second one is kicking my ass. 10-15 pages and I become sleepy as fuck.

Too much flowery descriptions, absolutely unlikable protagonist. I should love the picaresque nature of the narrative, but even that becomes extremely boring at high dose, very random, very 'oh, so that happens'.

 

[Stevey]

Just started The Buried Dagger, the last book of the Horus Heresy, then it's onto the Horus Heresy Siege Of Terra.

Been reading this series for years now, thoroughly enjoying it.

 

[NarohDethan]

Currently reading Misery by Stephen King. What a book. It also made me laugh out loud for a good moment, I don't recall the last time that happened.

 

[Mivey]

Finished Apostles of Mercy. The third book in Lindsay Ellis Noumena series.

Really enjoyed this one. Whereas the first book was concerned primarily with first contact, and the second book with cleaning up some things left open in the first one (plus slowly, but very effectively expanding the setting), it's the third one where the series really gets to shine. The writing is very breezy, basically a screenplay (not a surprise since Ellis is a screenplay writing major), though her descriptions of the aliens, and all the various creepy stuff around them is pretty effective. That said, while I'm not exactly a fan of books with many illustrations, I do wonder if having a couple of hand-drawn illustrations of the various species would be of use here.

Finished the second half of the book on a long-haul flight, and it kept me awake and quite entertained throughout. It nailed the ending, a great nail biter. That said, I look forward to where Ellis takes this series next. Great potential here.

 

[spiel]

I recently bought a Kobo Clara and I think it's revitalising my love for reading again. Or maybe it never really left, I just traded physical English books for fanfiction and trashy chinese web novels on a laptop and bad posture.

It's much nicer than reading on a narrow phone screen, and it has Overdrive integration so I can borrow books. For a long time I kind of shied away from going down to the library because I was scared of disappointment. There's just less emotional investment with fanfiction and web novels because you can close the tab any time.

Anyway, my most recent read was The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst.

Imagine a cozy fantasy farming sim manifested into a book. It was cute, if not particularly exciting or high-stakes. It leans hard into the cottage-core aesthetic, so doesn't want to commit too much to political ramifications. That's perfectly fine. A bit of escapism and all. I would love to see the spell mechanics adapted for a video game, like a fantasy My Time At Sandrock.

I also completed The Notorious Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud.

It was another fun, exciting romp through a wild west setting. He's fond of certain character archetypes, and it's almost nostalgic reading this. I can see the ghosts of previous characters in the interactions between the titular characters. It makes me want to cry, in a good way.

 

[NarohDethan]

I recently bought a Kobo Clara and I think it's revitalising my love for reading again. Or maybe it never really left, I just traded physical English books for fanfiction and trashy chinese web novels on a laptop and bad posture.

I want one of those as well. I have a Kindle, but I really want to stop giving money to Bezos if I can help it.

 

[spiel]

I want one of those as well. I have a Kindle, but I really want to stop giving money to Bezos if I can help it.

It's my first e-ink reader so I can't comment much on the usability front. But I'm very pleased with Overdrive, epub support (I can download stuff from AO3!) and not having to use Amazon. Haven't bought a single book yet so the pains of vendor tie-in haven't been felt for now. I hope DRM removal is as easy as Reddit says.

 

[dummmyy]

Kindle

I had a kindle and used it until the wheels fell off on it.

Kobo Clara

So, i have an ipad, and i've been reading stuff on there. Do you have enough reference to compare the two?

 

[spiel]

So, i have an ipad, and i've been reading stuff on there. Do you have enough reference to compare the two?

I'll try! I don't read on a tablet, mostly my phone and laptop.

• Size: the Clara is around the size of a small paperback, so it's light and portable. But the bezels are huge so you get even less screen. I'm ok with it as I typically use a smaller font size and there's just enough text on each page.
• Display: it's comfortable reading it one-handed under sunlight, the text's pretty crisp.
• Color: if you read a lot of graphic novels and comics, tablet would be superior. I settled for the BW because from what I've seen, the color e-ink display is kind of grainy and definitely doesn't get as vibrant as LED/OLED screens.
• Responsiveness: modern phones/tablets are just much smoother unfortunately. Reading is fine, but I can feel the friction with other tasks. For example, I have to go slower when typing to make sure all the keys got registered. Or it takes 1 second for a modal to dismiss. It doesn't get in the way, but it's there.