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

Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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Book 12 of 25 for the year complete - Vicious (Villains, #1)

Really enjoyed it and already 1/3 through the second (and seemingly final) book in this little series. I read the Shades of Magic series from VE Schwab a year or two ago, and really dug it, so I was pretty excited when I saw she had these lined up. I had thought a third book was coming and had been waiting but noticed that she intends this to be done with two books. I guess that means even if a third book comes along things must all come to a fairly tidy closing point after the second book.

As for this first book, Vicious, it's kind a dark and gritty superhero sort of thing except not in the large scale that's normally expected. Purposely being vague but it largely is that there's people with powers, with it only being rumored in general knowledge, and one person with powers is going around killing others. I really don't want to say a whole lot more beyond that basic premise as there's a good bit of built up until it becomes apparent where things are going but all of it is engaging and very entertaining. Chapters are all quite short and perspectives and timelines are jumped around freely so it's constantly moving.

Give it a shot if you like superhero stuff but want something that's real lowkey and doesn't really shy away from the world being full of people that are less than shiny.
 
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Gevin

Watch Madoka
Nov 16, 2018
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Finished Fool's Errand tonight. In general I liked it but the first half felt like it dragged for too long, even though I understand the setup was necessary. Looking forwards to how the trilogy continues since a few conflicts have been hinted at. Also wondering if the previous trilogy will have a few more connections to this one.

Spoilers for the 2 persons here that have read it besides me Poor baby Nighteyes :notlikethisblob: :cryingwhyblob:

 

Milena

Lost in VR
Jan 4, 2019
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I finished the Hero of Ages last night and I loved this as well.

Endings can be tricky, but I've yet to be disappointed by Sanderson. This one is certainly bittersweet, but it brings everything together and pretty much every character had time to shine.
But I really can't empathize with Spook.

I've also finished listening to the first book in The Saxon Tales by Bernard Cornwell (I've read the first 8 books around 2 years ago). Jonathan Keeble is a great narrator, I'm appreciating the story even more. Unfortunately he didn't narrate the entire series :confounded-face:


Anyway, I've also started the Dragons of Dorcastle after finishing Mistborn:

I loved Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series, I hope this series turns out great as well :cat-pizza-blob:
 
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BlueOdin

Dec 3, 2018
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Finished The Remains of the Day. Was a nice read.

Probably gonna start Hard-Boiled Wonderland later today. My third Murakami. Read Kafka and Tazaki. Both were okay-ish but also sort of eh for me so I hope this will let me finally understand the Murakami fans I know.
 
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Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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Vengeful (Villains, #2)

This is the follow up to Vicious that I posted about above. A rather good second half that continues naturally where the last book left off. I could see how she did leave it open for a third book if she does decide to make it a trilogy but I know for now she's stated that she will be leaving it a duology. Not much can be said about the plot without spoiling everything about the first book, though. I did realize while reading it that these two books would be pretty great to see as movies and could see that happening. They don't have a ton of characters and the powers used typically could be done without having to spend a ton on flashy special effects. The pacing of everything would also lend itself well.

That was book 13 of my 25. So now I just need to decide what to read next.
 
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Pranooy

Pranooy

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Sep 8, 2018
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Finally finished Heir of Novron (The Riyria Revelations #5-6) which contains book #5 Wintertide and book #6 Percepliquis, thereby ending THE RIYRIA REVELATIONS.

The books wrapped up pretty nicely giving answers to all the big overarching mysteries in the series (like why the Church is a big bitch) and had a pretty wholesome ending (makes sense given the tone of the whole series being light-hearted adult fantasy). The whole heir of novron thing was a huge surprise which threw me off when it was revealed at the end.
Overall Riyria Revelations had some great characters, nice mysteries and is a light-hearted adult fantasy (which i really need after reading a ton of dark stuff like First Law and Broken Empire). Highly recommended for anyone looking for a good non-dark adult fantasy.
 

Flips

Overwhelmingly Positive
May 12, 2019
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Started The First Law trilogy a couple of days ago and now I'm about 20% done with the first book. As with most books, it took some chapters time to get into it. But so far I've been enjoying it. I don't have a favorite POV yet but I think Glokta might become my favorite. I'd continue reading now that I'm home from work but I gotta catch up with GoT lol
Finished the first book and I quite enjoyed it. Even though not a lot happened and it felt more like a build-up for the following books. That's not to say that it was boring, though.

Already bought the second book. Also, Glotka :heroblob:

And I finished another book which is (probably) just interesting for the fellow Germans here:
Herr Sonneborn geht nach Brüssel - Abenteuer im Europaparlament



Just a quick run-down: a German satirist founded a own party some years ago and managed to win a seat in the last EP elections (they won 2-3 seats today). And in the book he talks about the experiences he made during his time in the EP. He writes really well and it's genuinely funny to read. I even had to actually laugh out loud while reading. But at the same time it's also a bit disheartening to see how politics work sometimes.

I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who is at least a bit interested in politics (and can understand German).

Spoilers for the 2 persons here that have read it besides me Poor baby Nighteyes :notlikethisblob::cryingwhyblob:
:cryblob:
 
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Dandy

Bad at Games.
Apr 17, 2019
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Trying to finish up One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence. It's supposed to be very Stranger Things-ish, taking place in the 80s and featuring a D&D group of nerds, with paranormal shit happening... But for whatever reason I find it really hard to get into. It's quite short too, so really, I should just power through it.
 

Milena

Lost in VR
Jan 4, 2019
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Just started to read Hyperion. Heard some great things about it.
I loved Hyperion and the entire Hyperion Cantos, hope you'll love it as well!


As for myself, I finished listening to the second book of the Saxon Tales, The Pale Horseman:

The first time I've read the series up to book 8, I thought that the story continued to improve with each new book. The second time around, I think I preferred the first book to the second, but this was still great. Anyway, I know that great things are coming for Uthred and I'm actually looking forward to listening to them again :coffee-blob:
 
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Gevin

Watch Madoka
Nov 16, 2018
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I finished Golden Fool last night



Feel like my thoughts are starting to get repetitive so just gonna say that if you like fantasy, read her books.
 
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Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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The Alloy of Law (Mistborn, #4)

With that completed I'm at 14 of 25 for my goal this year.

Book 4 of Mistborn, though it takes 300 years after the prior trilogy so it's a fairly separate story. Though the events from the first trilogy still impacted the world and come up. I don't really remember a ton from that first trilogy as I read it like six years ago but I do see some of the references.

That said I was a bit slow getting into the book because it really has a fairly strong wild west feel to it this time around. But once I got going I was enjoying the characters well enough and plowed through the last 2/3 in two or three days. And on the fifth book, despite the afterword saying it wasn't a trilogy, it appears maybe he changed his mind because I see a character's perspective back from this book. And it definitely set up the ending to have more story.

Not much else really to say. If you like Sanderson and you liked Mistborn there's no real good reason to skip these later books (like I have done up to this point). I will say the first book felt fairly lighthearted and more like a side adventure but with where the story is going I'm expecting the scope to expand much like the first trilogy did as you dig deeper in.
 
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Dandy

Bad at Games.
Apr 17, 2019
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I finished Golden Fool last night



Feel like my thoughts are starting to get repetitive so just gonna say that if you like fantasy, read her books.
I've only read the first Elderling trilogy, which I enjoyed, but I keep putting off Liveship Traders. I know I'll like it, but it's a commitment to get through a chunky trilogy like that.
 
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Eferis

MetaMember
Nov 12, 2018
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So, fantasy is not really my genre when it comes to books (other than Tolkien) but after talking to a more informed friend about GoT and how the TV show went to shit after the original literary source ended and they had to start writing their own (pretty pointless) script, I got curious and bought the first volume of A Song of Ice and Fire. I'm about 100 pages in (so at the very early stages of the saga) but it looks pretty good so far. I think I know what I'll be reading all summer.
 
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Stevey

Gromlintroid
Dec 8, 2018
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Just started Fallen Angels which is a sort of sequel to Descent Of Angels, good stuff.

 
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Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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Shadows of Self (Mistborn, #5)

And now I've completed book 15 of 25 for the reading challenge. It says I'm five books ahead of goal. I'm thinking of getting back into crosswords and slowing down my reading pace by doing the daily crossword first before I read in a day. But probably will finish the end of this trilogy in the sixth book before I slow down my reading pace much since now I want to see how things end.

I know this will easily be a matter of personal taste, but while I enjoyed the Mistborn trilogy, at this point across both trilogies I like this latter trilogy more. There is definite potential I won't like where they go with things in this third book and I'll dig into it more tomorrow to get a feel for how it takes off from this book I just finished.

Always tough to really talk about later books in a series because I don't want to give any sort of spoiler.
 

Milena

Lost in VR
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Anyway, I've also started the Dragons of Dorcastle after finishing Mistborn:

I loved Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series, I hope this series turns out great as well :cat-pizza-blob:
So I finished the first book of The Pillars of Reality series. It's ok. Both protagonists are young and I guess that the author wanted to emphasize just how different their worlds are, but some dialogues between them are a bit on the cringy-side. They're both fine when not interacting with one another, though. So I guess they'll grow in the next few books and they'll be able to communicate like normal human beings.
The overall story is intriguing and has potential, though, so I've already started the second book in the series :coffee-blob:
 

BlueOdin

Dec 3, 2018
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About a third through Hardboiled Wonderland and am enjoying it so far. Making slow progress since I only read two chapters a night before sleeping but I'm much more drawn in than I was at Kafka or Tazaki.
 

Flips

Overwhelmingly Positive
May 12, 2019
207
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Finished Before They Are Hanged (The First Law #2) a couple of days ago.


I gotta say that this trilogy is well on the way to becoming one of my favorite fantasy book series. There's a lot more stuff happening compared to the first book and I really have a hard time to put the book away because I just want to see what happens next (and I always want to read more Glotka chapters). Too bad there's just one book left in the trilogy.

So I decided to start with Nemesis Games (The Expanse #5).


Well, after reading four books, I already know what to expect and this one is no exception. Just read the first 100 pages so far and I actually enjoy it. But I keep thinking about the final The First Law book lol
I've only read the first Elderling trilogy, which I enjoyed, but I keep putting off Liveship Traders. I know I'll like it, but it's a commitment to get through a chunky trilogy like that.
I'd skip the Liveship Traders for now and just start with the Tawny Man trilogy and then the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. So you just have six more books to go through instead of 13 :D I still have to read the other 7 Elderling books (as well as the novella and the short stories) :surrenderblob:
 

Gevin

Watch Madoka
Nov 16, 2018
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I disagree with that, there are a lot of references to Liveship Traders in Tawny Man (including the main conflict in Book 2) and I can't imagine reading them without that knowledge
 
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Flips

Overwhelmingly Positive
May 12, 2019
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I disagree with that, there are a lot of references to Liveship Traders in Tawny Man (including the main conflict in Book 2) and I can't imagine reading them without that knowledge
So you're telling me I have to read Liveship Traders and then reread Tawny Man and Fitz and the Fool? :surrenderblob:
 
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Gevin

Watch Madoka
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So you're telling me I have to read Liveship Traders and then reread Tawny Man and Fitz and the Fool? :surrenderblob:
Yes lol, for example remember the woman that shows up and knows the Fool and they talk a lot? All of that is explained on Liveship Traders
 
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Flips

Overwhelmingly Positive
May 12, 2019
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Yes lol, for example remember the woman that shows up and knows the Fool and they talk a lot? All of that is explained on Liveship Traders
God damn it. I played myself :cryingwhyblob:

Alright, Dandy , forget everything I said in my previous post. Don't skip the other books lol
 
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BlueOdin

Dec 3, 2018
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Finished Before They Are Hanged (The First Law #2) a couple of days ago.


I gotta say that this trilogy is well on the way to becoming one of my favorite fantasy book series. There's a lot more stuff happening compared to the first book and I really have a hard time to put the book away because I just want to see what happens next (and I always want to read more Glotka chapters). Too bad there's just one book left in the trilogy.
Last Argument of Kings is even better

I wanted to scream at someone to let everything I just read out and the anger that it was over.
 

Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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Book 16 of 25 complete - The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn, #6)

So, joke's on me. Turns out he decided to make this a quadrology. I suppose I could have looked it up going into it but I went into it thinking that the three books after the first trilogy were more like an anthology telling different stories in the years after the original trilogy. Then the afterward of the fourth book says something akin to "This isn't a new trilogy. I have plans for two more trilogies but this isn't any of that! So then the 5th book keeps the story going and I figure he must have just changed his mind and made this the second of three trilogies in this series. I go into the 6th book fairly jazzed at seeing how it all comes together. And then it still doesn't tie up everything (though it does seem to finish most of the ongoing conflicts) with a note with the name of the 7th and final book to finish up this story.

Argh.

Anyway, really enjoyed the three books more than the original trilogy for the most part. It did seem a bit too convenient when it introduced new characters and ideas, but ultimately I liked these characters more and felt there was more interesting development. Anyhow, now I have to wait until 2020 or 2021 for the final book because he got himself wrapped up in yet another new series in the meantime.

Haven't decided what to read next but I got some ideas. I'll know by tomorrow morning for my commute.
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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Already tried on ERA, no answer, so with limited expectations, I am looking for a little help. No disrespect, I just have weird tastes.

Several weeks ago I stumbled upon an ‘horror’ book, but now can’t for the life of me remember its title in order to check its reviews.
What I can remember is that it was an horror book, or more probably a weird fiction book, situated in a dilapidated town where every house had its ghosts. Where maybe the living lived with their ghosts. Looked pretty moody.
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
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Already tried on ERA, no answer, so with limited expectations, I am looking for a little help. No disrespect, I just have weird tastes.

Several weeks ago I stumbled upon an ‘horror’ book, but now can’t for the life of me remember its title in order to check its reviews.
What I can remember is that it was an horror book, or more probably a weird fiction book, situated in a dilapidated town where every house had its ghosts. Where maybe the living lived with their ghosts. Looked pretty moody.
No clue, but my random Google fu has turned up this here:
 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
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No clue, but my random Google fu has turned up this here:
Nope, but thanks for trying. I will check the reviews on this one.
For fuck's sake, I won't let it be known there is a more stubborn idiot than me. I looked at every fucking Locus new books posts since January 2019 and here it is.



For reference, here is Locus description :
Fantasy novel, the author’s first novel, about a decaying Southern town where every resident is haunted by a ghost.
• Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s site has this description with excerpt.
• The Publishers Weekly review concludes, “Hicks’s surreal, often grim vision is not without hope, even if it must come in the bloody wake of tragedy. Fans of the macabre will be enthralled.”

I can't even begin to understand what is fantasy in it, but ok.

-

Swine Hill was full of the dead. Their ghosts were thickest near the abandoned downtown, where so many of the town’s hopes had died generation by generation. They lingered in the places that mattered to them, and people avoided those streets, locked those doors, stopped going into those rooms . . . They could hurt you. Worse, they could change you.

Jane is haunted. Since she was a child, she has carried a ghost girl that feeds on the secrets and fears of everyone around her, whispering to Jane what they are thinking and feeling, even when she doesn’t want to know. Henry, Jane’s brother, is ridden by a genius ghost that forces him to build strange and dangerous machines. Their mother is possessed by a lonely spirit that burns anyone she touches. In Swine Hill, a place of defeat and depletion, there are more dead than living.

When new arrivals begin scoring precious jobs at the last factory in town, both the living and the dead are furious. This insult on the end of a long economic decline sparks a conflagration. Buffeted by rage on all sides, Jane must find a way to save her haunted family and escape the town before it kills them.
 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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I started a book which started the whole world stop reading :disapproval-blob:




Clive Barker's Book of Blood 6
Finally finished my reading of the series. It's kind of a milestone as it represents several things. I started the books shortly before my father passing away, and always came back to it to kind of feel something. I mean it would be too long to delves on it, but I believe in how some horror writer whose name I forgot said that it's damaged people who read him.
That and having reading OCD it's one of the only book series I could read for years. Short enough to not be dropped because I'm not in a good OCD day or because of whatever whims.
But it's finished now, I'm a little scared about how the next book will go. Will I finish it or drop it ?

As for the book, it was pretty good, great even, in parts. Not the best Book of Blood but at the same time there wasn't any spectacular stinker. Which is cool, because as great as Barker is, when he misses, oh boy.


And as I was fired up I also read



Clive Barker's The Hellbound Heart
A little too much on the gruesome side. But to be fair, maybe it's not what annoys me, maybe the heavy toll the book takes doesn't come from the gore, it's a Barker book, you know what you are signing up for after all, but the overall lack of a good-hearted protag. Like, there are two nice people, but they are paper thin in this carnival of far more developed evil.
And the ending turns into grand guignol, over the top, never ending series of shock scenes that overstay its welcome.
Still, it's Barker and the man has earned his title of master of horror, and overall it's very good. The Cenobytes steal the show when they appear, monster design and mood are on point, and in all their ugliness, the "bad" people give us some pretty great glances at their broken hearts.

Still need to read Nightbreed, but I could use a lighter read now :sweaty-blob:
 
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Milena

Lost in VR
Jan 4, 2019
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Haven't updated things in a while :sorryblob:

So I finished The Lords of The North (book 3 of The Saxon Tales by Bernard Cornwell) and Sword Song (book 4 of The Saxon Tales):


Unfortunately these were the last 2 that I could find narrated by Jonathan Keebles.
I've almost finished The Burning Land (book 5 of The Saxon Tales), this one is narrated by Stephen Perring, who is pretty good on its own, but coming directly after Jonathan Keebles was a bit jarring and took some getting used to.



Anyway, Uthred's story is still awesome.

I also finished book 2 of The Pillars of Reality series by Jack Campbell, The Hidden Masters of Marandur:

I preferred this to the first book. The interactions between the two main characters were still kinda awkard, but they're finally starting to resemble some normal human beings. Anyway, the overall story is still interesting enough and I want to know where it leads.
 
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BlueOdin

Dec 3, 2018
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Finished Hardboiled Wonderland a while ago. Really liked it. Never knew there should be more content in fiction dealing with nail clipping.

Currently reading Best Served Cold from Abercrombie. Finally came around to reading it. Love it.
 
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Pranooy

Pranooy

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Sep 8, 2018
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Been a while; a slow 2 months for me. Caught up with almost 600 chapters of the manga "Kingdom" which is really insanely good. The series is kinda unknown outside Japan since no licensing outside Japan.

Finished first two Witcher short stories books.



and currently reading Hyperion, which i started a few weeks back. Finished the stories of 3 characters. It is really dark & mysterious and i love it so far. I don't know why i waited this long to read this one.




Finished Best Served Cold. Overall I really liked it but I think I still prefer Last Argument of Kings.
Same for me. I prefer the any book of the original trilogy over the first law world books. After the 4 (or 5) interesting and different main characters in the trilogy, we got Monza who is a bit eh. The cast and the revenge really carried the book. So it isn't bad, but it doesn't come close to the trilogy.
 
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Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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Finally began a new book, as you can see it’s the one that piqued my interest earlier.

Really good so far, I guess it’s weird lit, you could also say that it’s author horror, meaning that it adopts the genre but mixes it with a rich subtext.
No flat out horror yet but some disturbing scenes, and the tension adds up. I’m beginning to worry about what it will be like when shit hit the fan.

What I would give for this read in english to be successful. French publications are not what they once were, so many books are left untranslated.
 

teezzy

formerly 'deftones r cool'
Apr 19, 2019
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Finished my Scott Adams book over the weekend and am now working my way through Jack Schaefer's Shane. So far I'm digging the intrigue of the mysterious stranger who has wound up an exemplary farm hand at a family's ranch.

Western novels are kinda cool, they feel almost like fantasy novels with all the horses and primitive tech, unexplored terrain

No spoilers please. I have no idea where this is going
 

Mivey

MetaMember
Sep 20, 2018
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Started this during my vacation and finished it there too.
It's a really neat compilation of the most interesting (if not even all) scenarios from the website, plus a decent amount of new content just for this release. If you are not familiar with XCKD, then stop anything you are doing for the rest of the day and spent it reading xkcd.com . The author of that great web comic, Randall Munroe, started a sort of "spin-off" site, called What If, where he answered often quite absurd scenarios with as much scientific knowledge and research as available to him. It's quite amazing too.

I was amazed how well this looked in book form, whoever edited and designed this deserves a big raise.
 
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Pranooy

Pranooy

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Sep 8, 2018
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Finally finished Hyperion. Really enjoyed it, especially the Consul's and Father's tale. A really bleak and mysterious book, i would say. A must-read for any sci-fi enthusiasts. Looking forward to the sequel.



Starting the sequel to Hyperion and The three-body problem. Really excited to get into 3-body problem, since i've been hearing great things since a long time about it on reddit.
 

Dandy

Bad at Games.
Apr 17, 2019
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I read To Be Taught, If Fortunate, the new novella by Becky Chambers this weekend. It takes place in a future with no government funded space agencies because they can't justify wasting money on that when the world is so shitty, so space exploration is crowdfunded. They have 50% lightspeed travel, and astronauts are put into semi-stasis/sleep so they age slower during travel. This story is about 4 astronauts who are sent to explore exoplanets that have life on them. In order to survive the trip and the planets they will explore, they are genetically altered during transit to be adaptable to their new worlds... For example, having reflective skin on a dark ice world, absorbing and converting radiation into nutrients, and higher muscle density so they can function on world with different gravity.

Like Chambers' other sci-fi works, it is mainly about characters and relationships, and very light on action. I really enjoyed it, though the "moral" of the story is literally spelled out for you on the last few pages straight from the protagonists mouth.
 

vitormg

Junior Member
Jan 7, 2019
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I have read The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy back to back and it was such an amazing experience. First time for me.

Now I'm back at Brazilian literature. This is such a masterpiece by our famous Machado de Assis. A classic. I fkn love his style.

The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas
 

teezzy

formerly 'deftones r cool'
Apr 19, 2019
540
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Second read through. Just looking for a little motivation. This be good.

Gonna jump into a novel after this. Not sure what.

War of Art is a helpful brisk read for anyone who struggles with procrastination, especially if they happen to be creatively inclined.
 

gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
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Toronto

It being 6 years or so since I played Last Light, I've forgotten a lot of the goings on that this book uses as a jumping off point. Have around 150 pages left, and it's been a bit all over the place. A lot of the 'action' takes place away from the character's point of view, and some of the chapters don't really move the plot along (Sasha and Artyom having conversations over a series of hours/days is jarring and slows things to a crawl). Given how things just picked up again, I think we're meant to feel the same confusion that Artyom does. Hopefully this is the final entry as I don't feel the Moscow metro could sustain any further stories.

At the very least, I want to replay the Metro games and have gotten some hype for Exodus when it finally comes to PC (yeah, I said it :p )