Books (General)

[alpine drum]

||my read is that he was successfully brainwashed (in a non scifi sense) ||

[wide hearth]

||Whereas my default read, especially for that last line, is sarcasm ||

I'm stalling. Time for FoB.

[mild lance]

Livesuit ||my read was that he knows there’s nothing he can do since he’s already in a Livesuit and he’s accepting his fate||

MoG + Livesuit ||keep in mind the humans in MoG were on a colony planet with no contact with or even knowledge of the rest of the human race. I think the humans here have been fighting the Carryx long before MoG. I also have a theory that the humans are the unseen enemy of the Carryx in MoG||

[snow vessel]

Sinners ||I do personally tend to pitch it more as horror-action or something when recommending it to others||

[junior dew]

The Last Graduate 3 || I really love these books ||

I want to make progress on games but I also want to binge this series 😭

[forest sierra]

Why is Andor up with the movies

Without it Frankenstein would've been the easy luck for me but now things are weird

[forest sierra]

Tiamat's Wrath 33 ||Aight who else is gonna suddenly die unceremoniously outta nowhere||

[cloud socket]

because it's the whole season, not just an episode

[ivory cypress]

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250405333/thelanguageofliars/

so i have never heard of this book, out today

but DAMN if the blurb doesn't have me salivating already

kate elliott and martha wells are both gushing about this 😩 okay okay okay

[wraith lynx]

This looks sick omg

[light drum]

KPop Demonhunters was great and all, but if it wins somthing inside me will die a little

WoT Way of the spear wining shortform also woukd make me die a little cause its gone, but it be a happy little death

I thonk amoung the YA Sunrise on the reaping has an easy win
And find it cool we have two Ursla Le Guin related works this year for awards

[snow vessel]

Of the ones I've seen, Sinners would easily be my pick

[wise haven]

My award winners predictions:

Best Novel: Shroud by Tchaikovsky (although Raven Scholar has most and best ratings?)

Best Novella: The River Has Roots by El-Mohtar

Best Series: Chronicles of Osreth by Addison

Best Dramatic Presentation, LF: Mickey 17 or Sinners

Best Dramatic Presentation, SF: Murderbot

Best Game: Hollow Knight

Lodestar for Best YA Book: Oathbound or They Bloom at Night

thoughts?

[long sorrel]

best game is almost guaranteed to be E33

For the rest I'mnot sure, last year Tainted Cup won, dunno if it'll be the same again

[light drum]

E33 sweep, somehow its wining all the awards for the Hugos

[wise haven]

I somehow looked over that one as an option 💀

[jovial tide]

I read Sunrise on the Reaping recently || and found it pretty disappointing. I definitely get what it was going for with all the strong parallels, and there were some good things, but it ended up feeling overly like a reference-laden retread of previous ideas without enough of its own merits to stand on. It wasn't bad, but not up to the standard of some of the others in the series I felt. ||

[ivory cypress]

much as i love silksong, in no way do i expect it to win

best series is a real toss-up, it really depends on like, the kinds of people who vote in the hugos, who tend to skew older and not as with it

[snow vessel]

Are the hugo awards the ones that had a ton of controversy the last two or three years?

[ivory cypress]

oh more than five :P but yes

regardless, the hugos still are the big big awards for this

i've read 3 of the 6 finalists for best novel, and i realized i have a fourth one on my ebook shelf, and that just leaves Okorafor's Death of the Author and Tchaikovsky's Shroud for me to look at

[light drum]

I still have to read Shroud and Tainted Cup

[snow vessel]

I've read so little of these

[ivory cypress]

that's me most years

i'm usually lucky if i've read one or two of them

being that i've read so many and feeling very tuned in this year, feels like i might as well!

i'm going to have to skip some categories to be fair - like i MIGHT get to the novellas and short stories and all before voting ends but i just can't see myself making my way through all the YA and related works entries 😭

[wise haven]

I was also disappointed by it, it feels like the weakest hunger games book out

[wise haven]

I would love for Okorafor to win, but I dont think Death of the Author was as well received as other books nominated

[somber timber]

That’s why I was really surprised when RJB got nominated, let alone when he won last year. Like I love the book but my taste and the Hugos run differently for the most part

[jovial tide]

Yeah, I read Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (and reread the first book) right before it, and thought that was a much stronger prequel.

[somber timber]

Like I think broken earth trilogy and redshirts were the only other winners that I read

On my own

[wise haven]

BoSaS is the strongest of the prequels for sure, although I didnt like the adaptation much at all

[somber timber]

Like normally I’ll have read one if Scalzi or Jemisin get a nom but other than that…

[light drum]

I find it intresting at least in my opinion there's a lot more standout middle grade books that id reread than YA books

[jovial tide]

I liked the film, but I watched it before reading the book, which could affect the experience.

[wise haven]

I didn't like the weird low-shot angles

[ivory cypress]

they give packets of ebooks and the materials necessary for voting (at least they have in past years), so i might hold out

[jovial tide]

Ah yeah, fair enough

[wise haven]

you better stop making me want to vote, gonna spend all my money 😂

should I? 😭

[ivory cypress]

if you think it's important enough to you!

[snow vessel]

I read all the Hunger Games books before watching their respective movies, except for SOTR (which I plan to read after the movie)

[ivory cypress]

money is tight these days, don't get swept away if you have reasons to not

[snow vessel]

Its been over a year since I bought it... going to commit to the experience at this point

[wise haven]

(I actually have surprise extra money because my vacation starting tomorrow just got cheaper by 500 quid)

[snow vessel]

Does anyone know how to access "paused" and "up next" books on storygraph in the laptop browser?

[wise haven]

Yes, go to the homepage (click the books in the upper lefthand corner), click on current reads, and then they should pop up under the current reads

[wise haven]

The "up next" books will be with your tbr list

[junior smelt]

Yeah that is how I'd call it too

[snow vessel]

Ahhh ty ty

[brazen pilot]

finally got around to finishing the lathe of heaven

honestly, i don't have many thoughts. i think le guin is often a kind of writer where everything is said clearly and cohesively (even if the thing that is being said is inherently vague) and it doesn't feel like there's anything i have to add besides reciting back what the book was.

but it was very good, i definitely like what the final chapter ended up being

[rugged tartan]

I gotta get back to that...

Maybe this weekend I''ll restart it and ifnish it in one sitting like I did the first two Earthsea books

[wide hearth]

MoG + Livesuit ||I really struggle with the idea that humans have been fighting them for a long time before MoG, because of some intangible way the Carryx behave, like it's the first time they've met humans (other than through pre-conquest half-minds). But maybe I'm anthropomorphizing and that's the trick.||

[rugged tartan]

MoG + Livesuit ||My interpretation has always leaned closer to "MoG humans aren't quite recognizably human despite their lineage and culture", though depending on certain details I forget (There's no way the Livesuit soldiers are the only ones the Carryx are battling on the front lines, right?), I could see the issue being that Livesuits change them so much that its more the other way around||

[wide hearth]

FoB 2 ||I love to hate the swarm. Also further to above, I note the humans are referred to as Humans of Anjiin, which feels meaningful. They could know that the humans of Anjiin are biologically related to the unseen enemy, but also not why that's useful. Like they have a blind spot that means they don't generalise across species if the species has disjoint organisational structures. An inverse racism footgun.||

[wide hearth]

MoG + Livesuit ||Ok now I've seen post-Livesuit comments from the authors implying it's intentional, I'm leaning more towards "Livesuit happens waaaay earlier, the Sovran and regulator-librarian know exactly what humans are, and in MoG the Humans of Anjiin are being manipulated to betray the enemy without realising".||

[sleek jungle]

same tags ||The thing is, we have no idea how much time passed from the beginning of Livesuit to the end. For all we know, with all the time dilation of whatever method of FTL humans use Anjiin could've experienced a thousand years ||

[untold leaf]

And I thought being in 77th place was bad... 😔

[wide hearth]

Livesuit ||If we trust Kirin's understanding of the communication networks, it's a few decades before Mina sends her message, and a few more decades for "maybe her grandchildren" to receive a reply, isn't it?||

I've never wanted to react to a reaction so strongly

[snow vessel]

I'm scared to finish this book, I think I'm too emotionally invested in it

[forest sierra]

Done with Tiamat's Wrath

I am eating GOOD

[long sorrel]

What book is it

[snow vessel]

Prince Lestat

[long sorrel]

Aah

[snow vessel]

The themes and arc of the book have really connected with me

I'm getting a lot out of it and I dont think I'm ready to finish it

[junior dew]

What did we tell ya

[long sorrel]

Best arc

[junior dew]

By far

I still really hope it gets adapted one day

[long sorrel]

FoB 4 ||everyone hating on Dafyd is delicious||

[forest sierra]

Hopefully under Apple

They'll also need more budget than before

[north scaffold]

Captive's War all ||Relistened to Livesuit just to get a reminder of how ass Brane Slip drive actually is compared to Asymmetric Space. It's no wonder the humans are losing when they have such a struggle keeping events in sync, while the Carryx can launch 3 plot threads in different star systems and have the characters meet up after with essentially similar amounts of subjective time having passed for all of them.||

[light drum]

||Oh I didn't catch on to that but ya it seems the Carryx dont have to deal with time dilation and it makes sense that they sre technologically far superior cause the humans have only been a part of the desthless enemy for about ~8000 iirc||

[wraith lynx]

AA 21 ||pause. Regal. Your drunk ass absolutely obliterated this assassination and you are sitting here being snippy with Fitz about it? Chat i hope this pompous asshole gets humbled in the next book :3||

[brazen pilot]

Did you finish the chapter

[wraith lynx]

I did!

[brazen pilot]

AA 21 ||Thoughts on the Nosy situation||

[wraith lynx]

||I actually gasped!! I am so happy he ended up being okay||

||incredible twist||

[ivory cypress]

ah man.... the struggle between having started books I like and want to read.... vs the one book that's catnip and I REALLY want to read

sorry to all the other very deserving books on my list but Lynn flewelling's seven book Nightrunner series is kicking all your asses

[wide hearth]

Faith of Beasts 7 ||Huh, what happened to being self-sufficient. How come Dafyd gets a security detail now? Although i do appreciate the irony of the timing||

[wraith lynx]

AA 22 ||I. I should have seen it coming. The entire book told me "hey. Regal is getting crazy ideas of taking over" and so when it finally happens im still thrown for a loop 😭 at first I only wanted to punch him in his mouth but he has blood on his hands so yeah he can die its fine||

||also lol get mogged cob||

[velvet umbra]

I’ll go 2 weeks without any of my holds coming in on Libby and then get like 3 books at once that I wont be able to read before the deadline 😭

[tight kindle]

This is a regular problem for people in this channel, it seems

That's why I like my ereader.
I can stick it on there and turn on airplane mode and leave it on until I'm done reading

[ivory cypress]

well i just suspend my hold

and stay at the top of the list until i want to read it

[forest sierra]

Leviathan Falls 15%
||The Dreamer||

https://tenor.com/view/joe-biden-what-gif-3784745843284049350

[true falcon]

New comic day haul!

[velvet umbra]

like 2/3rds of my holds are suspensions at that point

it's just annoying that I've been waiting on one of these for like 3 months and it comes through when I already have a full slate

[long sorrel]

FoB part 2 beginning ||The editor of these texts is Uuya Tomos which is whom Dafyd brought to the meeting about the embryos and such...? I didn't pay enough attention to this person I feel||

Ah right. I remember who they are

||I reckon by the end Dafyd is going to have quite a tragic end. Unless the Swarm does some magic, but I doubt it||

||I can otherwise see him talking himself into all of these moral loopholes and becoming the actual villain in charge of whatever empire when the Carryx are no more, but I don't think we're going this way. He's too smart for his own good, which means he's very good at tricking people, including himself||

FoB 10 ||It has occurred to me that there's a non-zero chance that Jessyn is on Earth, assuming humans had abandoned it quite a while ago, altho I don't think that fits... ||

Hmmm ||I can't imagine that the Carryx don't know that their enemy are humans and so is Jessyn? Unless... all they see is some advanced version of the Livesuits...||

||Which like, that's why they're "deathless" ofc, but I still don't think the Carryx don't know, they're just being extremely pragmatic about a separate strain of humans imo||

[long sorrel]

Fob 11, hehehe ||Kings don’t have friends, they have subjects.||

||The Swarm going through heartbreak stages is really funny in some morbid way||

[ivory cypress]

fob 11 ||they're so messyyyyyyyyyy||

[long sorrel]

... FoB 12 ||....... Corval???? Is that possible?||

||the missing leg matches Kirin, and it wouldn't be the first time someone uses some old friend's name as their own... but this is probably a stretch... This dude being Corval tho? Might not be such a stretch hmmmmmm||

||I don't recall if he got any injuries during Livesuit tbh, but I think missing a leg is likely not that odd||

Hmmmmm I need to sleep not to have my brain hyperengaged

[brazen pilot]

Starting Death of the Author

so this is just ||"How it feels to constantly be hit with microaggressions"||

[alpine drum]

||he was transferred out of Kirins squad and we never heard from him again||

[long sorrel]

I know that bit

My q is ||if we know if he suffers any injury before that||

[alpine drum]

||not a missing leg at least, the leg injury was Kirin||

Finished FoB yesterday
FoB all ||I guess i was wrong about Rickars tummy ache being a fake out. I liked his death scene though. I felt like Dafyds plot sort of floundered before the Lothark stuff happened and Campars plot felt like a less interesting echo of Jessyns plot. The swarm and Jessyn were the highlights of the book for me. I definitely foresee Dafyd becoming more evil as he internalizes the Carryx mindset. My too-early theory is that the swarm turns on Dafyd because of this, although idk what would happen afterwards||

I think my next book will be rereading Assassin's Apprentice, probably will try to do that series then maybe reread Liveship

[long sorrel]

Mhm

[iron pond]

Oooooh. Just checked out an ebook copy of Overgrowth by Mira Grant from my library

[long sorrel]

I think mine will be the Raven Scholar

[iron pond]

Gotta finish Starter Villain first though, since that one is due back sooner

[long sorrel]

Huh, this looks interesting

[alpine drum]

I have been following Cosmics read through but can't remember any of the events she is referencing

[long sorrel]

Mhm, maybe we converge on book 2

Royal Assassin is due some time soon

I might still do Broken Earth 2 first tho... hmmm

[velvet umbra]

messages you get from your scheming eunuch friend

[long sorrel]

Well no point thinking about it till it's time for it

[long sorrel]

That's baaaaad

[alpine drum]

Assassin's Apprentice 1 ||man, Hobb really likes describing characters hands. Fitz, his grandfather, Jason, Verity, and Burrich all get hand descriptions in this chapter. Is it a coincidence Regal doesn't? Almost certainly yes but makes you think||

[brazen pilot]

||hands are at eye level for a 6 year old||

[snow vessel]

Finished Gideon the ninth again

[alpine drum]

||oh so you are just going to accept that theres a guy named Jason?||

[brazen pilot]

Buddy I've seen much worse

[snow vessel]

Next... either Children of Dune, Harrow the Ninth (reread), or Prince Lestat & The Realms of Atlantis. And I might pick up the iliad on audio

[velvet umbra]

not saying you should but Harrow reread probably goes insane

[snow vessel]

I've already picked up on so much more rereading Gideon, I can't wait to see how Harrow goes

I'm definitely going to get to all three, its just a question of order

[alpine drum]

I suggest reading the 2nd one before the 3rd one but after the 1st one 👍

[snow vessel]

Sorry, the three books I presented as options for my next book, not the three books in the series

[velvet umbra]

I finished Nona and while I did get a lot of stuff on my own||man it was crazy how much lore and like actually crazy scifi stuff is going on under the hood once I was able to actually read like plain english explanations connecting all the dots||

[snow vessel]

I'm reading locked tomb/dune/PL concurrently, but I'm not really doing a set order of alternation

[snow vessel]

Nona is the one where I'm like... I might need another reread just to fully process that book, before putting it in context with the rest of the series

[velvet umbra]

||yeah it's different from Harrow in that it's less in your face "I have no idea what's happening" like you can follow the progression of most scenes||

[snow vessel]

Nona ||just dumped a whole ton of information in the ending that I dont think I caught all of||

||like I know what was going on in theory but not all of it sunk in||

[velvet umbra]

||also a lot of it is figuring out who a character is really and listening to the audiobook helped with that cause voices||

[velvet umbra]

||there's a lot of moving pieces and it happens really fast||

[snow vessel]

Nona ||the thing that throws me off the most is the whole introduction of the tower and demons and all in the middle of the ending||

[velvet umbra]

the way idek for sure what this is about 😭

[snow vessel]

Nona ||the tower in the river and the demon-things in the ninth that they... fought(?) on the way to the tomb||

[velvet umbra]

oh

[snow vessel]

Honestly Nona doesnt stand out to me as my fav book in the series so far but it does have a lot of my favourite parts of the series

[velvet umbra]

||isn't that like the stuff that they dealt with in Harrow when they were in the River in the ship or something||

[snow vessel]

||I thought that was different||

||but I am definitely not confident enough in my understanding right now to say that for sure ||

[velvet umbra]

yeah same and I already should be going to bed so I need to resist the impulse to look it up

[snow vessel]

I'll get back to you once I've reread Nona & Harrow

[light drum]

||Ya Nona's ending is really confusing, I really hope we get more Nona cause shes so freaking adorable||

[snow vessel]

Locked tomb all ||I know the books so far have stuck to the pov-of-the-title-character-only format but I hope book 4 gives us some of each of them||

||Nona is great and also I don't know how we wrap everything up without Gideon & Harrow povs||

[mild lance]

Locked Tomb all ||we haven't kept to that fully, like there were some Gideon POVs in HtN (technically most of the book is Gideon POV actually), and there were some Harrow POVs in the NtN dream sequences I think? Anyway I hope we get some Gideon and Harrow POVs in AtN, and since Alecto is Nona we could reasonably see some of her personality bleed through imo||

[snow vessel]

True

Locked tomb ||more frequent, ig, unless harrow/gideon are constantly hanging around alecto||

[sleek jungle]

quantum thief 1 ||that's a start. Doing more googling than usual for the first chapter of the book||

[wide hearth]

Fob 12 ||Got to be Corval. Also have I been mispronouncing Jessyn and Jellit in my head this whole time and they're actually "y" sounds not "dj". That's going to take some adjusting if so||

FoB 12 ||I also think the earlier "I could wander off and die alone and they probably wouldn't even chase after me" bit was masterful storytelling setup. Being abducted would have stretched credulity without it imo||

[snow vessel]

Aaaaaagh I have three next reads that I'm equally drawn to

[forest sierra]

Leviathan Falls general ||is Tanaka the first comically evil regular POV in Expanse||

||Even at her worst I don't remember Clarissa being so cartoonishly extra||

[long sorrel]

||didn't Marco have some PoV?||

[forest sierra]

Only bits and pieces

[long sorrel]

Yeah it wasnt like the one you're refering to

[minor sleet]

https://www.tumblr.com/thesparrow1996/684195986559713280/its-funny-how-quickly-you-get-desensitized-to

it’s funny how quickly you get desensitized to comic book nonsense like mister sinister is an insane name for a fictional character it’s so goofy but when i read his name i’m like this is not a laughing matter. we’re talking about cyclops’ traumatic secret laser beam eyeball orphanage surgery backstory. stop laughing.

-# #xmen #e.txt

Tumblr · May 14, 2022, 3:48 AM

[junior dew]

Last Graduate 6 || “I know perfectly well the only sensible thing to do when self-doubt creeps into your own head is to repress it with great violence” ||

These books are too fun

[analog geode]

Words to live by

[junior dew]

Last graduate 6 || Lmfaoooo her name topped the list because of all the Sanskrit incantation and she got a special medal and everything and she’s SO ANNOYED ||

Have I mentioned that I LOVE these books

Like how the hell are THESE some of my favorite reads this year so far

But they are

[analog geode]

There’s a reason Naomi Novik is one of my favorite authors

[junior dew]

Oh really? My gf enjoyed these so much she read temeraire after this and she didn’t enjoy those nearly as much I think

[analog geode]

I adore Temeraire, but it’s very different from Scholomance

[junior dew]

Gotcha. I’ll have to get her full thoughts again. Been a while

[analog geode]

It’s straight up Napoleonic historical fiction, but with dragons

[junior dew]

Gotcha haha. I think I get Temeraire mixed up with Lady Trent a bunch

[junior dew]

Like ik my gf really enjoyed these when she read them and she has amazing taste, but she had never been like overtly “hey, you gotta read these stat”. So I hadn’t prioritized these

[analog geode]

It actually began as Aubrey-Maturin fanfic lol

[junior dew]

Idk who/what that is lol

[analog geode]

It’s an extremely popular Napoleonic era historical fiction series

[junior dew]

Ahhh huh, don’t think I’ve ever explored anything along those lines

Will add that to my TBR as well

Wait a second

These covers look familiar

Have you recommended Aubrey & Maturin before on here?

[analog geode]

Someone probably has

I keep bouncing off the first book

[junior dew]

Gotcha. Yeah it might be these

[analog geode]

Its incredibly dense

[junior dew]

Oh yeah I think that checks out

Also when I was raving about A Deadly Education to my gf, she was jokingly like “oh so the 17s recommends it and you finally start it, I know where I stand” 😭

Also she thought she remembered me in the past saying I didn’t like it when I tried to read the physical book before, but I just was too distractable/had other books I was excited about so I think I only ever got a page or so in.

[analog geode]

Tell her we’re stealing you

[junior dew]

Lmfaooooooo

(I’ll note I had also recently asked her point blank what she’d recommend/if there is anything she has read recently that I need to check out. I can’t remember if this was before or after I started Deadly Education. It’s possible that I asked before I started and she may have mentioned it then, which led to my starting it. Though I think Deadly Education I saw people here talking about it and I was like huh, my gf really liked those but didn’t really say much else about them. And then circumstances right before FoB required that I grab a short read so I was just combing through Libby and it happened to be available to borrow on audiobook)

[solid locust]

Jesus Christ, i‘ve finished 5 books this year

How do you do that

[long sorrel]

prepares to flex

I've read a couple more than 5 that's all

[junior dew]

Damn, 30k pages!?

Just how fast of a reader are you

[analog geode]

I’ve got you beat by 7 pages

[junior dew]

And how much time do y’all spend reading each day

How do you have time for literally anything else

[analog geode]

I’m on vacation right now, I’ve been going through 3-4 books a day

[hollow hedge]

who needs to do something else?

[junior dew]

Like how many pages are you all able to read per hour?

[analog geode]

100ish?

[long sorrel]

Yes, but also yes I do spend a lot of time reading, that said I reckon you mostly do audio? I think that's slower than reading even if you're doing 2x

[analog geode]

Depends if I’ve read the book before

[long sorrel]

about a 100, depends on the book though

[junior dew]

glances off in the distance in “so many hobbies and interests crowding my brain at all times”

[old bone]

5?

I have finished 1

[analog geode]

I’ve almost completely dropped video games tbh

[old bone]

Dropped 6 😔

[junior dew]

That’s fair. I’m usually around 2x speed. Sometimes up to maybe 2.25x or down to 1.7x depending on the narrator and density of the book

Saint of Bright Doors was a particularly slow ebook read for me. Idk how many hours but I swear my pace must have dropped to around 30 pages per hour there

[analog geode]

I can’t stand anything over 1x

[long sorrel]

I am pretty sure I still read faster than audio on 2x

[long sorrel]

I've not, but you can see i've been reading shorter books, based on page count vs books between you and me

I think a lot of books have a lot of fluff that gets read very fast?

Or well, not fluff, but like, it doesn't take any effort to digest

so I just fly through those sections

[solid locust]

Well two of them (actually 3 out of 6 i forgot one) were for school and only like 250 pages each, and then i read oathbringer and arcanum unbounded and a popular science book in between so i dont get burned out

[long sorrel]

You should read at whatever pace you want anyway

(unless school mandated stuff where you don't get much choice)

[old bone]

I dropped The Lost World, GoTM, and a couple of other fantasy

Nothing working at all

[solid locust]

Most of my time reading is on trains

Thankfully i spend a lot of time on trains

[old bone]

Might reread L&L in some days just to have smth that works

[solid locust]

I am still not as fast at reading english than reading german though

[long sorrel]

Maybe your current mood doesn't match what you're used to and you're going to the wrong books?

[old bone]

I have tried to vary

[solid locust]

I normally go 1 fantasy 1 other

But my reading pace is much slower

[old bone]

Lost world is a classic. I was doing 2 nonfictions and a introspective read

Only the last one's working but its one I read like a couple of pages or so every day

[solid locust]

I know the lost world

I‘ve read it

[old bone]

Arthur Conan Doyle one

[solid locust]

Yeah

[old bone]

there seem to be like a dozen of books named that so clarifying

[solid locust]

One of my first english books, my parents had it lying around

[old bone]

I wish I had read it 10 years ago

The prose is very much what I usually enjoy

[solid locust]

Back then my english pace was really slow and my german pace was fast, now both are pretty middling

I read 120 pages per hour in german

[old bone]

English is my fastest reading pace

Hindi and Nepali is like 10x slower probably now cuz I don't read books in those languages nowadays like I used to

Even text on TV nowadays feel difficult to read for the two

[solid locust]

Do you speak it in everyday life much

[old bone]

one in public and one with Family

Hopefully L&L would get me back on track

[junior dew]

Yeah when I was reading the expanse I think I was doing audio + ebook and was at 3x speed

[long sorrel]

I read equally fast in english and spanish

[junior dew]

I think it definitely depends on the book for me. I feel like I was around 50-60 pages an hour reading physical books/ebooks? Though I feel like I’ve gotten slower lately

Probably still faster than audiobooks though I would presume generally

[solid locust]

I am slower with ebooks because i tend to lose where i was

[long sorrel]

I'm reading FoB slower because I'm savouring every word

[junior dew]

That was me with Saint of bright doors haha

[snow vessel]

I might pick up John Polidori's The Vampyre between reads

[wraith lynx]

Starting Royal Assassin today!

[long sorrel]

ooh!

Passing me once again

[old bone]

Noice

[jovial tide]

I only listen at 1x speed, and my reading speed is often not much faster. :p Partly because when I'm invested in a book I like to make it essentially an audiobook in my head, but also because I am partly reading for professional development purposes, so I am by and large paying quite close and detailed attention. I'm up to 26 books so far this year, which is good for me.

[ivory cypress]

wow your books are very short, I'm only a couple thousand pages behind you but WAY fewer books

[long sorrel]

yeah

probably averaging 250 pages or so

[forest sierra]

Leviathan Falls feels a bit weirdly structured

Persepolis and Tiamat felt like acts 1 and 2 of a trilogy but Leviathan Falls has a bit of that episodic feel of the first four books

Doesn't have quite the endgame vibes I expected it to have

[wide hearth]

FoB part 2 ||So I assumed Campar was the carrier of the swarm infodump, and that was the annihilating blue not-light etc. But he's still around. I thought it was supposed to kill the host? Or has the message packet created a second swarm, and it's just Campar-as-human who's died? Or have I got it completely wrong? I'm confused||

FoB part 3 start ||Ok I'm maybe a bit slow here, but Tomos's story is going to be a mythologised retelling of Dafyd's story right?||

[long sorrel]

Maaan, I wanna continue reading, however, given today is Sant Jordi, as per my catalan roots, I'm going out with my mom to get a book and a rose

So tonight 😌

[wide hearth]

Where are you up to?

[long sorrel]

Starting 13

so I haven't clickd your last reactions

[wide hearth]

Ok don't

[long sorrel]

yeah I won't lol

but you're making me want moooore

[wide hearth]

It is a lot of fun

[ripe tide]

I was thinking of saying happy St Jordi to you.

[long sorrel]

Well

Feliç dia de Sant Jordi

[ripe tide]

Since the uni chat from back home reminded me it was today.

[long sorrel]

mhm

I knew you'd know haha

I've not read what I bought last year today

[ripe tide]

Mood

[low hill]

Read two more Tchaikovsky books this week. Suprise! He continues to be really good...

[light drum]

Agreed!

[little dock]

Dragonflight midway through part 3 ||woah, I thought teleporting was an interesting power for dragons, but now it’s time travel too? That’s crazy! No wonder this book spurred a whole generation of dragon rider books||=

[minor sleet]

Pern!

https://tenor.com/view/dragon-riding-sunset-goodbye-bye-gif-8183690934840620416

[little dock]

Yeah, I’ve been meaning to get to it sometime since it’s a classic, and I found a cheap used copy the other week so I’ve slowly been making my way through.

[minor sleet]

It’s quite something, isn’t it

[quaint tendon]

Man operation bounce house was really good

[minor sleet]

You can see how she got a Hugo for it, but also it’s aged quite strangely in some parts

[brazen pilot]

Hmm

Not blown away by Death of the Author so far

There are aspects of it that I really like, but if a story is gonna be about a story, and constantly keep telling me how amazing and special and important that story is

Then it sort of falls apart if I do not like that story-within-a-story at all

The regular parts of it are better but that aspect of it is honestly kind of making the regular parts worse for me

[ivory cypress]

i just went to look it up properly and i forgot, i've heard of this before

just hadn't gotten to it yet

[little dock]

Didn’t realize it’s a Hugo winner, that’s cool! Yeah, Dragonflight general ||F’lar is…not great. But I also, so far, don’t think she’s trying to say that he is. It doesn’t really call him out, but I also don’t think you’re supposed to think he’s super great.||

[minor sleet]

Technically it’s not but functionally

[snow vessel]

Waiting for my next read to be moved to my library, I dont know how long it'll take

I feel like the day after I start a book it'll come in

[uncut shoal]

Yeah some bits of Dragonflight have not aged well at all

Also, they still haven't fixed the name of Ruatha hold

Dragonflight general ||The dragons basically roofie-ing their riders into having sex is........certainly a choice||

[brazen pilot]

Dragonflight ||The psychic sex connection was one thing, the way the characters acted around that was another, much worse, thing||

[wide hearth]

FoB 24 ||Vaudai is best slug||

[little dock]

What needs to be fixed?

[uncut shoal]

The first few chapters call it Ruath Hold. Then it gets changed to Ruatha Hold and that's the name on the maps

[little dock]

Oh that’s throughout the whole book, not just the beginning. The sequence I just read used both and I’m over halfway through.

I honestly thought Ruatha was the name of the region and Ruath Hold was the hold name or that they’re interchangeable. Idk, but she uses both quite a bit

[uncut shoal]

It eventually gets settled at Ruatha

Oh it might be inconsistent throughout the first book. But after that it's only called Ruatha

[little dock]

Oh interesting. Weird that after all these years they haven’t fixed that for the one book. Should be easy.

[uncut shoal]

You'd think lol

Which is why I was making mild fun of it

[little dock]

I mean, my copy is from 81, but I know there’s many newer ones

[reef pasture]

I’m reading Babel rn, blind read through. Babel ch 19 ||this is such a well written book I took a pause right before the chapter where Robin killed his dad and started writing an essay about all the themes. The book is so dense, so well written. I’m really loving it all, the academia vibes are so real||

[uncut shoal]

There're other mistakes like that which still haven't been fixed even after probably a billion printings heh

[little dock]

Maybe reword that intro bc that definitely has spoilers?

[reef pasture]

I’m confused, what bit?

Ah I see now

[uncut shoal]

I don't get it either

[reef pasture]

Malliw was saying I mentioned no spoilers, implying the message had no spoilers, while I meant I had no spoilers for the book before reading

[uncut shoal]

Also, McCaffrey sometimes loses track of what she's talking about from one end of a conversation to the other lol. An example from Dragonsdawn with no real spoilers
|| “There was talk that it could be a stray that the Rukbat sun attracted.”||

||Kenjo shook his head. “That has been ruled out.” He typed out another sequence and the diagram on the screen shifted to another projection. In a few seconds, equations overlaid the system diagram. “Look at the odds against that.” He pointed to the blinking nine-figure probability. “It would have to be a cometary-type orbit, right into the system. But it’s not.” His long, bony fingers reset the screen. “I can’t find a harmonic with the other planets. Ah, Captain Keroon registers the opinion that it might have been captured by Rukbat about ten of its cycles ago.”||

||“No, I think Xi Chi Yuen ruled that out. He computed it to be just after aphelion right now,” Sallah said. “What did he say? Ah . . .” She tried to remember.||

[little dock]

Yeah sorry, I could’ve been more clear. Just wasn’t sure what you meant with that phrase originally

[ancient bay]

Lmao

[ancient bay]

IT IS INVARIABLY, UNDENIABLY, UNQUESTIONABLY PEAK FICTION (ReZero Arc 7)

[snow vessel]

Started children of dune

[old bone]

Enjoy

[minor sleet]

The first weird one!

[snow vessel]

I feel like its been a little weird since book 1

[long sorrel]

FoB 13 ||stuff's happening, what a wild chapter. Why is the prose so good? ||

[snow vessel]

I'm going away for the weekend and only taking one book

[long sorrel]

Uh oh

[snow vessel]

I've realised I maybe don't need to take a whole stack of books for trips where I will not be reading more than one of them

Unlike some of you I don't read fast enough for that xD

[long sorrel]

I only take one book!
-# In print.

The one that lugs around 20 books (and reads most I guess) is Vecna

[uncut shoal]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormlight_Archive/comments/1su863p/i_have_a_question_for_the_community/ohyz872/ Good grief. Someone asked people their reading speed, I answered honestly, and people are accusing me of lying and bragging

(Sorry just venting because it's seriously ridiculous)

[long sorrel]

Lol

[unborn furnace]

Sup guys, quick question

I'm between starting reading these 4 books:

1. El Ojo del Mundo (Wheel of time 1)
2. Dungeon Crawler Carl
3. The Will of the Many
4. Assassin's Apprentice

[uncut shoal]

Wheel of Time or Assassin's Apprentice just because they're done

But Will of the Many and Dungeon Crawler Carl are probably going to be better than the other two once they get completed

[forest sierra]

I'm quite worried about Leviathan Falls

[unborn furnace]

Alright

[forest sierra]

I'm like 75% in but ||it still doesn't feel quite like a finale yet||

[uncut shoal]

I suppose accusing people of lying and bragging on the internet is the internet

It's still dumb

[old bone]

Assassin's Apprentice is part of my fav trilogy of all time so I would recommend it. But its very slow and more character focused

Will of Many is very plot focused whose sequel isn't well liked from what I have seen

[uncut shoal]

And my post history should so that I'm honest about things

[old bone]

Wheel of Time is a big commitment

[uncut shoal]

So I'm a bit sissy over it because Jesus chrst

[old bone]

Dungeon Crawler Carl is a short and fun read, but its ongoing and is 5-6 books in at this point?

[uncut shoal]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/960059012668334151/1497218511490125954/image.png?ex=69ecb8e6&is=69eb6766&hm=f58212c8543221f7868d47424d940b38209f31afc845172ab325b8cb50325bfc&what the heck, right.

[buoyant sedge]

Okay so the problem is expecting rational discourse on reddit

[unborn furnace]

What's the plot of Wheel of Time?

[old bone]

Reminds me of that time people on twitter were sharing reading speed + comprehension sorta calculation thingy and mine came out to he 800 and instead of blaming the test, I was blamed 😔

My speed is no way close to that but not my fault that's what came in it :kek:

[unborn furnace]

And the bad thing about the WOT series, is that the editions in spanish are really hard to get

[uncut shoal]

Jfc

[old bone]

The Dragon reborn shall battle the Dark One, either ending up to be the protector or instead be the destroyer of it

[unborn furnace]

Ohhhhh

[buoyant sedge]

In short, the chosen one must try to stay sane under the pressure of gathering the forces of Light to defeat Satan and the forces of the Dark

[unborn furnace]

Riiiiight

[uncut shoal]

I'm pretty sure Bean reads as fast or faster than me, and Ravi definitely did

[old bone]

It's there on twitter so sadly not a joke 😔

[unborn furnace]

Sounds sick

(can we swear here on the Server?)

[old bone]

I know people who finish 200 books a year. And I know a 27 year old who has watched 8760 movies

So I don't find anything impossible

[uncut shoal]

Low grade swears. Like pg13

[unborn furnace]

Tom Cruise watches a movie a day

[old bone]

Cosmere specific

you can say Storms

[buoyant sedge]

Save or destroy?
No. The dragon reborn will do both.

Let tears flow, O ye people of the world.
Weep for your salvation.

And that's the beauty of it

[unborn furnace]

Sounds cool

[old bone]

True

Mb

[unborn furnace]

Lord Ruler I may even start the series

[old bone]

It's 14 books

so all the best

Lol

oh nvm

[unborn furnace]

ALMOST 55 DOLLARS

[old bone]

I saw it as 54000 and was thinking

[unborn furnace]

THAT'S THE PRICE OF THE SPLATOON RAIDERS

DUDE

[long sorrel]

Wild, I just saw these books yesterday in Spanish at the book store

[old bone]

Does it have gold plated pages and meteorites

🤦‍♂️

[unborn furnace]

Make the Argentinian Pesos convertion to dollars

And we don't have book taxes here

[old bone]

Does the Spanish edition have as banger of starting as English one does

[unborn furnace]

There

I erased my house direction

39.53 bucks in USA

The only cheap media here are comic books

Grant Morrison's Batman run 1st book by 20 bucks

[low hill]

Only 10...

[unborn furnace]

Where should I start reading Joe Abercrombie?

[alpine drum]

The Blade Itself

Book 1 in the First Law trilogy

[long sorrel]

My bad my bad

[junior dew]

Assassin’s apprentice is my vote but I haven’t read wheel of time.

IMO WoTM is highly overrated

[unborn furnace]

Title in Spanish?

FINALLY A CHEAP BOOK

THANK YOU @alpine drum YOU ARE A TIPAZO

Tipazo means really great guy in spanish

[long sorrel]

Here it means you're very attractive, body wise

Just to finish inflating his ego Ig

[wraith lynx]

Eldest + Royal Assassin prolouge ||If I had a nickle for every time a teen Mc entered the second book in the series having troubles with seizures, id have two nickles 🥴||

This series is so eragon core but like because of the vibes, its a lot more eloquent

[long sorrel]

In what way?

[wraith lynx]

I think (IC + Assassin's apprentice) ||Its the setting, honeslty. Like the Duchies remind me a lot of Alagaesia but without the dwarves and elves and spells 😂 which I mind a lot less than I thought I would, I like that the magic is subtler here, it fits that way. Plus Fitz reminds me of a more.... balanced Murtagh. Like hes not as intense, which also isnt a bad thing btw! Again it fits with the whole vibe of the book more~ plus Plus I think my mind defaulted to eragon comparisons because I havent read a traditional fantasy like this since TCP, but tcp was a lot... weirder in terms of setting (in a good way)||

[long sorrel]

Ngl, you just said its basically not like it

Whatever works for each person though

[small bloom]

A BG3 prequel book about Astarion was just announced, written by T. Kingfisher
https://www.instagram.com/p/DXhTT0sGXNu

[alpine drum]

That is designed to clinically target several people on this server...

[ivory cypress]

ahahaha

[long sorrel]

Uhm

[long sorrel]

Why did you attack us like this? Really rude

[ivory cypress]

omg and they got Neil to do the audiobook

that's incredible

[long sorrel]

Oh my god

I don't do audio books but

I assume is pretty short, I could potential read along?

[velvet umbra]

I got the email and was like “several people need to be checked on to see if they passed out”

[long sorrel]

I'm fine, thanks

[ivory cypress]

haha

[long sorrel]

I mean, I only just found out

But I'm fine

Idk who else does it overlap here with besides Grey and I?

[analog geode]

Me

[long sorrel]

And I'm not even sure if Grey is a huge Astarion fan, though i can guess

[ivory cypress]

I was the first one banging the drum about astarion on this server 😤

[long sorrel]

I guessed correctly

[unborn furnace]

So I think I'll read The Blade Itself

Looks good

And I love fantasy

[analog geode]

You like fantasy?!

[forest sierra]

This vexes me

[long sorrel]

Ill read this eventually... one day

[old bone]

Strange

[long sorrel]

So far I've only read The Devils by Abercrombie which does also exist in Spanish btw

[old bone]

It's just a super mainstream book I assumed you to have read already with how much you read

[long sorrel]

Me?

[old bone]

Ye

[long sorrel]

There's a lot of "classics" I've not read

[alpine drum]

Ah yes, el diablos by jose abercrombie

[long sorrel]

I've not read the Spanish copy

[alpine drum]

Still crazy that they have never done a full collectors edition of the Expanse

[velvet umbra]

El diablos is the abridged version

Only one devil

[long sorrel]

Yep

You get one single devil and Alex

[unborn furnace]

I love it

[forest sierra]

They're doing it

Books 4-6 are getting the same treatment of Orbit's take on 1-3

https://www.vxinstagram.com/p/DXcCoRBFvLl/

@[email protected]

❤️ 0   💬 0

vxinstagram · Apr 24, 2026, 6:12 PM

I do dislike how inconsistent the covers are

Leviathan Falls 80%
||Took three quarters of the book for it to finally feel like a finale||

Still doubt I'll end up liking it anywhere near as the last two

[velvet umbra]

I think the Expanse is just doomed to never have consistent cover/spine design lol

[forest sierra]

At least these covers look like they might have something to do with the story

[long sorrel]

I love em 👀

[unique turret]

I don’t need them, but I sure want them

[spiral jungle]

yeah I will be getting em

I think they look cool

[unique turret]

I have the Leviathan Wakes special edition signed by the authors, idk if I can get all the others also signed lol

[long sorrel]

I do have the 1st 3

I will get the next 3

[forest sierra]

I don't have any physically but if I had to I'd get 2, 1 or 7

In that order

[long sorrel]

Well i just want the fancy ones

They look good

[junior smelt]

Is this real or a joke?

Okay seems not a joke

[wide hearth]

FoB 29 ||Ha, oh dear, I was so very wrong earlier about the spy's payload. The Sovran's reaction is delightfully ambivalent and inscrutable, of course. Still feels ambiguous whether she knows what's going on with humans and the enemy.||

[ivory cypress]

I'm trying to fathom how or why that would be fake 😅

[junior smelt]

Lol this was me with the books I read. Always pinging similarities to different book I read for a certain aspects even if it does not share a lot, even majority of other aspects

[junior smelt]

[potent linden]

Oof, yeah, I've had this happen before (though not to the extent that it made the rest of the book bad)

[solid locust]

130 pages per hours doesn‘t really sound unrealistic imo

Like at all

I know it‘s simpler prose, but i had a similar reading speed in the last harry potter books in german

And i am normally not a fast reader

[analog geode]

Casually reading a new book, I average 100-110 pages

On a reread, I’m way faster

[low hill]

Given I appear to be writing in that genre again, I'd like to read some more contemporary/urban fantasy this year - so hit me with your recommendations.

I've already read all of Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus novels, and am part way through Inheritance of Magic. I'm also working through the Dresden Files, and I've read all of Rivers of London except for the most recent. I've also started Summoner's Circle by S.T. Gibson.

[analog geode]

The New York Magician - Jacob Zimmeran
A series of interconnected short stories about interactions with various gods and beings in New York. It really immerses you in the culture of New York, I enjoyed it a ton

(Conflict of interest disclosure, I know the author, but I absolutely adore the book so I don’t feel guilty recommending it)

[forest sierra]

Leviathan Falls
||In the last Holden chapter||

https://tenor.com/view/smoking-asian-in-rain-smoking-in-rain-gif-17218585255855616288

[long sorrel]

Ascension 😌

[low hill]

gives you a look

[long sorrel]

hahaha, well that's certainly more effective now

[snow vessel]

Coming out of dnf'ing sotf I can't help but feel like maybe I did kinda overrate it a little I think a notable portion of my hype for wotm was about what it promised for the future books and it just didn't deliver on that in a way that felt worthwhile to me, and so all that hype...

[low hill]

-# But thank you for reminding me I should check if it's out in paperback yet.

[long sorrel]

I think I did give you one recc for Urban fantasy but it was more entertaining than good so idk 🤔

I'm trying to find the title, I forgot

[ivory cypress]

I still haven't gotten to sotf yet 😅

[long sorrel]

Same

[low hill]

Ahh, a week and a half. I'll add that to the birthday list then.

[old flint]

Carey's Felix Castor books are very good. John Constantine vibes

[long sorrel]

Ah, Widdershins @low hill But I'm not entirely sure this fits what you're looking for

[low hill]

The Devil You Know?

[long sorrel]

@tight kindle what do you think about the Adam Binder series as urban fantasy? I think it fits but I also think it's more entertaining/fun than particularly good 🤔 but it has quite a bit of everything

[low hill]

Is that the Jordan L Hawk one?

[long sorrel]

and Adam Binder is by David R. Slayton

if you wanna take a look

[low hill]

Ahh, then I'm looking for contemporary rather than historic this time around. :)

[junior dew]

Ahh sorry to hear that it didn’t live up to the hype for you

[forest sierra]

Expanse all
||All paths lead to Mass Effect 3||

[long sorrel]

Once you're done and you've processed there's Sins of Our Fathers left to read after Leviathan Falls

[low hill]

What were the two fae related ones you mentioned the other week, Usha?
Naturally, as I didn't write them down, they have completely fallen out my head.
-# I blame the trains.

[snow vessel]

Part of it mightve been my mood but it just didn't really work for me. Got about 50% in and didn't feel like it had lived up to what was promised in book 1

WOTM/SOTF vague ||I think wotm got a lot of hype from me for making a lot of big moves at the end that would be exciting to explore next book, but largely that whole aspect fell flat for me||

[long sorrel]

it was Cruel Prince, dunno how you forgot that, the other one was Emily Wilde

and I said I think what Cruel Prince does might be more what you need, but Emily Wilde you'd likely enjoy more, but it has less fae being "weird" than Cruel Prince

[ivory cypress]

ah yes, my two fae recs

[analog geode]

I love Emily Wilde

[tight kindle]

Mm
Yeah I wouldn't call it particularly good
But it's indeed very entertaining

[ivory cypress]

she's a hoot. great character

[analog geode]

I reread them a couple days ago

[ripe tide]

Theyre a lot of fun

[forest sierra]

Expanse ranking after finishing Leviathan Falls
2>7>8>4>1>9>3>6>5

[forest sierra]

Eh I'll switch 3 with 9

[forest sierra]

Anyone here have this in hardcover?

[jagged owl]

OH, you are going to be in for one heck of a ride. My first audiobooks were the Harper Hall Trilogy and that series is so formative. One of the things I love is that most of the conflict is legitimately PVE.

[jagged owl]

It's one of the things I liked in her work. You can legit see her understanding grow as the series continues.

[jagged owl]

I do enjoy that it was called out after a while.

[jagged owl]

It's rare to get to see an author legitimately show growth in understanding of humanity over the course of their career quite to the degree that Anne pulled off.
I can render second hand Dragoncon Legend and Warning from when she was alive.
Never got get in front of her scooter, she will zoom over you.
There was once a petition to raise money to buy her a electric scooter a cowcatcher.

But The Harper Hall side is definitely some of her more matured work. Menoly and Piemer were some of my very few childhood friends.

And Robinton is a parental character everyone should get to have.

McCaffery taught me proper singing breath work through Master Shonagar

She was a promising singer and an instructor shot her voice focusing on the wrong part of her voice. So she spread a love of song and music through almost all of her work.

Sorry, both Pern and Wheel of Time were my childhood and teenage special interests respectively.

I've graduated to Brandon Sanderson, Seanan McGuire, and Matt Dinniman for my hopepunk needs.

[forest sierra]

How similar is Tchaikovsky's Final Architecture to Expanse

[light drum]

Somewhat its far more a space opera than the expance. I still highly recommend it

[alpine drum]

RotE All ||i forgot fitz has that "almost killed your dad with a magic heart attack" rizz||

-# ^ rereading AA but referencing later books

AA 2 ||rip nosy||

AA 3

||[The Fool] smiled, waggled his tongue at me, and turned to hurry after the King.||
||why did he waggle his tongue? Was he struck by a vision of the future?||

[brazen pilot]

||he's just a silly lil guy||

[alpine drum]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1216483218350669954/1474430036151894140/4x.png?ex=69ecdffa&is=69eb8e7a&hm=5e7175678e447e8755331f1f00292be32f5fffba19237e16cc679e133a79f898&

[brazen pilot]

I should probably DNF Death of the Author. 1/4 in and honestly it's more negative than positive for me. I'm vaguely curious about where the plot will go, but I know every time I've felt this way about a book it wasn't worth it.

I do not like the prose, but it is easy to soak up, so it probably wouldn't take me long to just push through...

[mild lance]

Hell Bent 10 ||whew, what a chapter! Darlington is now directly speaking to Alex, and it seems he’s still somewhat himself but not entirely. And we find out that a library at Yale is a portal to Hell||

Hell Bent thoughts up to 10 ||Alex is back in a bad situation with Eitan and she doesn’t trust anyone enough to help her. Totally understandable but still really sucks for her||

[minor sleet]

I hate this crap. Just include the issue of the other comic in the trade! Don’t play coy with me, editorial

The art in this comic is amazing tho

From Batgirls v1

Imagine you’re a professional athlete but you have to live in Gotham. Do you think the team sucks as a result because everyone wants to transfer out?

[alpine drum]

Iirc its a running joke that all Gotham sports teams suck

[minor sleet]

They seem to be at the World Series in this issue

Hmm I spy only one bed for two batgirls

Yeah they’re sharing.

Suggestive ||Blondie graciously allows her gf to top sometimes||

[marble sinew]

||Poor non-blondie got demoted to bunkmate||

[spiral jungle]

I do, Why'd you ask?

[forest sierra]

Just wanted a better look

I'm meeting Abercrombie in an event next week and my fav book of his is LAOK

But my copy of it is back home half the world away

So reckoning which hardcover I should go with

[spiral jungle]

Sec

[forest sierra]

And with the jacket off?

[minor sleet]

Honestly in Gotham it’s probably a relief to only be facing risk of mesothelioma. Considering that several of the major villains love to dump toxins in the water supply

[spiral jungle]

Just black. I also have the non hardcover large size edition that I think came out at the same time?? With the textured cover.

Dust jacket, hardcover without and the idk what to call it, big textured not hardback.

Hope that helps

[forest sierra]

Yeah thanks a lot!

[minor sleet]

Batgirls #8 here’s to irony

This is why she’s my favorite ❤️

[lusty meteor]

||ADHD fiend||

[minor sleet]

He just like me for real

Except I’m not a guy dressed like a giant moth to commit crimes

Batgirls #10 ||She’s just like me for real (wants to snag the moth man) ||

|| Fun fact, Killer Moth debuted before the Mothman. KM is from 1951, while Mothman was first spotted in Point Pleasant 15 years later (1966) ||

[lusty meteor]

||secret moth man stan?||

[minor sleet]

Check out my discord bio

[ripe tide]

I read RF Kuang's newsletter about Taipei Story earlier today and I'm excited for it. Its not about an experience I had, since I grew up bilingual and while my identity in that sense is complicated enough as it is, I don't have the issue she talks about with diaspora. (Though I very much felt like an impostor in Germany, since I have the passport but don't speak the language or had even visited before earlier this month)

The bits she's talked about regarding her next fantasy book are so fascinating as well

[minor sleet]

Ok when you put it like that, it does sound like a bad idea (from the 2019 run of Batman and the Outsiders)

[low hill]

Arrived today: Wraithmarked Creative edition of A Darker Shade of Magic.
-# Spoilered the end papers of characters just in case, but probably fine.

-# Book 2 is Kickstarting at the moment.

[lusty meteor]

We all know this is an indirect at fitz haters pizza

You can just say it

[brazen pilot]

Good idea, it now is

[velvet umbra]

why would you post this

this take makes me rage like no other

[low hill]

No, I'm not raging.

[velvet umbra]

I actually can't fathom how people's brains operate this way

[alpine drum]

aaks appreciates this joke

[mild lance]

I feel like this take would make some sense if it was about second-person instead of first

[velvet umbra]

yes

because that's how words work

but like

who hears/reads "I went to the grocery store" and goes "no I didn't"

I refuse to believe that's real

how do you communicate with other human beings in like day to day life

[long sorrel]

Oh my god, I hate you (highly)

[low hill]

bows

[ripe tide]

Currently reading James, it’s brilliant. No wonder it won a Pulitzer

[mild lance]

I mean that last one is satire of this take I'm pretty sure. The people in the tweet are still dumb but not THAT dumb

[velvet umbra]

yeah but thats basically what they're saying

if you don't do that in response to a person telling you a story why would you do it with a book

[cloud socket]

It's so good! I made the mistake of going "hmmm maybe I should revisit Huckleberry Finn" only to get bogged down

[long sorrel]

Faith of Beasts 20 ||What kind of way is this to start a chapter???? The day Tonner Freis died started out unremarkably. ||

[long sorrel]

Uh....

So like, hold up... same tags. ||Did the Lothark kill Tonner because he was about to reveal their secret? Is that it?||

(That's rhetorical)

Hmmm ||So, was them fiddling with their half mind, them spying on the Dafyd-Tonner conversation||

Why is every single thing happening in this book so interesting?

Also I didn't comment on it but ||Ghatti being on the border of suicide/letting himself die is being hard to read, though it was only a page Ig||

[long sorrel]

||I knew this was going to be confirmed 1 paragraph later, so I'm glad I typed it down before that happened so that I have proof of my amazing intellect 😌 ||

Why is this prose so good, ffs

||Dafyd: throws up
Me: damn that's beautiful||

||but jokes aside I can feel his shock on a visceral level ||

[junior dew]

FoB 20 || A fun kind of way ||

[long sorrel]

Part 3 done

Whew

This book is intense in some way

22 ||I wonder if Rickar is going to die because he swapped groups for Campar||

[wind sinew]

I actually didn't like it as much (probably because I expected something different tho)

[wide hearth]

Now I've finished, FoB all ||Is it just me or is "maybe we can divide and conquer" quite a weak way to end. Don't get me wrong, I love this story, and I want to read more. I guess I want to read more right now. I think I just expected more of a cliffhanger?||

FoB all ||I don't have any solid predictions. The swarm having apparently full access to the archives seems OP. Also we've seen it influence humans with pheromones, so maybe that's how they'll try to trick a second Sovran into being. Ngl they're now one of my least favourite characters. The epigraphs that I thought were about Dafyd went a bit wonky in the middle, but the last one could be a prediction of him completing his transformation into something not-human (figuratively/socially ig)||

FoB all ||Also can we have a novella following Vaudai and Ghati as they survey dangerous alien space junk?||

[light drum]

||The end felt extremely weak like just kinda eh these big wirds with no real ability ti do it||

[wide hearth]

FoB coda ||Maybe this is supposed to hit harder. There is an interpretation here that the swarm spy was sent to Anjiin without the knowledge of the humans on that side. Or Carlon could just be lying or in the dark, of course||

Other random thoughts, FoB all ||The Carryx have some magical autosave functionality for fieldwork. Also: the Deep Lothark collective consciousness has lain hidden for millennia maintaining infosec through perfect physical firewalls. Also also: Dafyd needs to talk to them, so they use the Carryx's own language to do so. Seems odd.||

[wide hearth]

||And apparently every time Dafyd talks to them like this, he has to remind himself "don't press send"||

[sleek jungle]

FoB all ||the swarm getting full access immediately felt to easy, but I suppose it makes sense since there's only one full book left||

[wide hearth]

Another random thought, FoB all ||I'd like to think the injured pentapus wasn't actually trying to kill Campar, but either (good) protect him, identifying him as an ally species, or (bad) use him as a tool (maybe Livesuit-ify him if they're the same tech), again identifying him as an ally species... But pure speculation ig||

[sleek jungle]

FoB all ||I really hoped Campar would get conscripted in that scene so we'd have a livesuited protagonist in the last book ||

[wide hearth]

FoB all ||I mean he should have died, and the sample he took wasn't mentioned again I don't think. He also seemed to have more but milder neuropathy than Ghati despite the more massive exposure to the field effects. Maybe he has been conscripted, and we just haven't been told yet.||

[unborn furnace]

guys, travelling to NYC in 11 days, any good book stores?

besides The Strand and Barnes and Noble

[minor sleet]

https://www.iknowaguy.nyc/post/a-book-lover-s-guide-to-new-york-city-the-best-bookstores-to-visit

[rugged tartan]

Was gonna sit down to read Faith of Beasts, remembered I startedLathe of Heaven back in January and went to find that, and now I can't. And in looking for it, I've found quite a lot of other books I'm interested in, and now I can't decide what I wanna read

[lofty glen]

If you’re a big manga fan, Kinokuniya is a must visit

[unborn furnace]

The only manga I read was Berserk

[long sorrel]

Except for Faith of Beasts for which there's no doubt

[untold leaf]

I now have Artemis by Andy Weir on hold to see what his third big popular sci-fi book is like. This way, I'll actually get to read it before its inevitable film adaptation.

Seems like an interesting premise, and only a four-week-ish wait for me.

[wide hearth]

Lathe of Heaven is pretty short. You could read it while you decide what to read next.

[rugged tartan]

I would be if I knew where it was

[wide hearth]

When I lose something it's usually under my wife's left knee. Sorry, can't help you there.

[marble sinew]

Started and finished A Deadly Education, here's some musing and speculation while I hunt down Scholomance2:
||Orion is like fully the inverse of a Maleficar, making him a solid Foil to Galadriel (who is well named). As a foil doing foiley things, I think he's going to make a wrong decision without even realizing he is making a decision, and it's going to end badly for El.||

[rugged tartan]

I found it 👀

[junior dew]

Last graduate 13 || Ahh yes of course. His hardened… muscled body. Sureeeeeee ||

[long sorrel]

FoB 26 ||It just occurred to me that while the Carryx defs know that the humans are with the enemy, they might think they're like pets of the Deathless (Livesuits). I had said on book 1 that they might have captured humans specifically to understand them better, however I don't think this is their MO, but they might be trying to figure out how the "Deathless' pets" are useful. Either way my current thought is that maybe they don't know they are the same thing. I might have proposed that maybe they actually aren't if many aren't actually alive anymore... but we did see Corvall hnmmmmm ||

||"The ships increased their fall" ||

[junior dew]

Oh yeah I finished last graduate and immediately rolled into the next book 👀

[long sorrel]

Part 4 done, that was so good, damn

FoB 28 ||What is this horror movie scene, goddamn||

||I'm so tense at Campar running away from what I assume is a Livesuit||

[forest sierra]

Does anyone have a good Mercy of Gods summary post/vid

[long sorrel]

I managed to stop reading! I bet I'll finish tomorrow

[mild lance]

Looks like the Wiki summary is pretty detailed. Unfortunately you have to go to Fandom to read it

https://captives-war.fandom.com/wiki/The_Mercy_of_Gods

[light drum]

Fandom 🤮
I literally cant use it on chrome cuse if all the ads

[mild lance]

There’s a website called BreezeWiki that lets you browse Fandom without the ads.
Good time to plug Indie Wiki Buddy, a browser extension that redirects from Fandom to an indie wiki if one exists and BreezeWiki if not

[alpine drum]

Ublock origin gets ride of all the ads for me with fandom, the issue is the ui

[iron pond]

Finished Starter Villain today. Funny, clever, worth the time I spent reading it, but not as awesome as The Kaiju Preservation Society

[ivory cypress]

okay, the second half of The Score is where things are really being blown open. damn

[brazen pilot]

any insights that have been standing out to you?

[ivory cypress]

mmmm there's like... there's no one big thing that's standing out in particular, like a lot of this is putting words to ideas that i've had before, sometimes more consciously, sometimes more unconsciously; like i don't feel i needed to learn some of the life lessons he illustrates with his own past experience because the idea of choosing my own value system and not getting TOO involved in scoring systems that hinder instead of help has felt like a natural thing to me, so a lot of the first third ish of the book was me nodding and going, yep, yep, exactly, yep, oh that's a good term for it i didn't consider someone would have named this thought.

going into the stuff about the metrics of it all, now, again there's some similarity to (much more casual) conversational thoughts i've been part of in terms of identifying "what is a social construct", where we think about "gender roles" is sort of an easy gimme for saying, yeah, sure, that's a social construct, but a lot of people sort of stop there. AND a lot of people hear "social construct" and think "so you mean it's fake", like everyone kind of gets that gender roles are bs. but money is a social construct, and that's VERY real. and mental illness is a social construct. and then he JUST USED the example of the DSM as part of his long introductory explanation into the foundations of metrics and i'm just nodding vigorously and going, exactly, you get it.

he's taking a different angle and approach, a different framing, to a lot of the sort of things i've considered or talked about with other people in my life so far, so none of this is stuff i haven't thought of before, but he's tackling this all in a very cool way (you can tell he was a teacher), building up concepts one at a time until here i am nodding along with the idea that counting is part of the "problem", it's a classification activity. "but by the time you've gotten to the 1-2-3part, the real action is already over" excellent. nice. very good

i appreciated his immediately going into, "so you've gotten to this part and are like why can't we just make metrics more like games then? well i'm about to explain why that just will never work" and i was like, okay good thank you, that was in fact the natural next question, and the part where i was like, ohhh mmm okay he has Something To Say that isn't just talking about games are great (and they are! and explaining why they're so cool was still a fun read! buuuuut)

he's saying "social category" instead of "social construct" but it's the same thing and he needs to be talking about categories to make his point that modern categorization is the root of all this and i'm 🍿 ready to see where he goes in the last third of this

oh my god SEE. man me and him have been having some of the same conversations here, nice nice nice nice nice

[rugged tartan]

Stopped into a shoe store for new shoes, was immediately overwhelmed, so I left to get shoes from a thrift store (which was closed ao I have to go again tomorrow) and got these with the extra money. The year in question with the second is 1995, and in case its not visible in the picture, its got stories from Margaret Atwood, Ursula K Le Guin, Stephen King, Jane Yolen, and one other who shall remain unnamed for Reasons but whose story I will read (and a lot of others but those are the only ones I recognize)

Never read Yolen before, so I'm excited!

Its also from the library, and has notes in the back about a lawyer to call and something about a missed court date, which is something I always liked about secondhand books

[brazen pilot]

Yeah that's pretty similar to how it felt to me. I think that's partially because of just how right it is. Like it's not some radical new way of thinking about the world, it's just someone actually doing a good job of describing what we're going through right now. A lot of the individual points are familiar if you engage with current critical analysis of the world we live in, but the way it's all wrapped together is like, oh wow, metrics really are the connecting thread responsible for a lot of the larger whole.

I think I'm gonna reread it, I'm sort of between things atm + reading a webnovel, so I need a good physical thing to read to chill before bed

[ivory cypress]

yeah, it's just very smart, and satisfying

the fourth horseman is Control, full name Centralized Control 😩 okay okay okay

[uncut shoal]

I just finished Nine Tails by Jayci Lee and it's pretty good

[long sorrel]

FoB 30 ||Not Dafyd trying to explain religion to a carryx ||

||It does feel like me trying to understand religion in a way, which is kind of funny, obviously I do understand humans (in general) so it isn't this bad||

31 ||Dafyd is breaking slowly, it is hard to read and delicious at once ||

||part of me hopes he goes completely mad but sets up enough for those ... who come after (lol) ||

[long sorrel]

I had to go to the doc and I forgot ti charge my tablet, luckily the wait time was short or id have been rather annoyed at running out of battery right at the end

I can continue reading on the bus 👀

[small bloom]

Oh Usha you’ll be glad to hear I started Captive Prince this morning

[long sorrel]

Oooh

I'm curious how you'll like it reading it after Dark Rise

[minor sleet]

I’m reading a book originally written in Farsi and the translator chose to keep some phrases or words in Farsi instead. As a result I’ve been looking them up

Now I’m getting ads in Farsi. No, google. This is not helping

[light drum]

I guess you have to learn Farsi

[minor sleet]

Apparently so

[wraith lynx]

Royal Assassin 2 ||Wait. What does Regal look like? Ive been imagining a blond haired, blue eyed skinny twiggy guy but... I realize I tend to imagine antagonists with blond hair and blue eyes unless im told otherwise 😭||

[lusty meteor]

||wait what lmao||

[junior dew]

The travails of being near-sighted

-# I sure hope someone gets this

[wraith lynx]

||Fitz said he had dark eyes this chapter and I was like "oh beans, I dont think i know what Regal looks like" 😂||

[long sorrel]

FoB Part 6 ||This is a relatively generic type of tale, the one at the beginning of each part, the person that has to all the cogs working doesnt get to enjoy the result of it, is set apart, alone. This is Dafyd in this story I suppose.||

[analog geode]

||I read that as twinky, not twiggy||

[alpine drum]

||It was either patt 5 or 6 where I theorized its an example of the constructed myths they wrote for future generations||

[long sorrel]

I did consider that

|| but it's so generic that I think it's an old tale refurbished for the future||

FoB 33 ||Jessyn just dropped 20 bombs to Dafyd in one paragraph ||

34 ||It is honestly baffling that there are people that think they can negotiate with the carryx... ??? Like, very realistic but it's just infuriating at the same time. Even if I try to remove myself from "reader" and into the type of character Brun is... its just so dumb ||

[alpine drum]

||they correctly identified that they have leverage over the carryx due to being able to do things the carryx cannot. They don't understand how the carryx will respond to something trying to use leverage. I think its understandable from their perspective||

[long sorrel]

||I don't think they have any leverage though? Neither reason to think they have, besides how good we are at deluding ourselves that we have choices||

Anyway, I have 1.5 chapters left and a work meeting starting rn 😭

[alpine drum]

||they can do the food translatoon stuff and the telescope stuff which, based on their treatment, is not something anyone else can do. Their position of privilege implies the carryx value these abilities and if they were humanoid would be willing to concede some minor stuff to continue getting it (technically they are already conceding some stuff like by allowing humans to have human comforts like a sleep schedule)||

[small bloom]

Captive Prince 2 ||Good lord what the hell is wrong with Veretians||

[wide hearth]

||That reminds me, am I the only one that reads "visualization team" and thinks their job is to produce slidepacks?||

[long sorrel]

Okay, I finished

I have various thoughts, this was almost another 10/10 it's just slightly, barely lower than The Mercy of Gods

[ivory cypress]

same!

[royal carbon]

Oh, I need to read that

[long sorrel]

Faith of Beasts ALL ||I think this book narrative direction was slightly lacking (just to be clear these criticisms are compared to Mercy of Gods so I don't mean it's even bad, just not as good as I found MoG). I feel I read a bunch of successes put together that made up a book, without much of a beginning-middle-end type of structure. There's nothing wrong with this inherently but it was noticeable. This is also typical of middle books in trilogies tbh anyway. Second I was expecting some sort of interesting reveal towards the end for Dafyd specifically. I think there was a lot of information regarding the "the deathless enemy" which was really good and really cool, but the entire book I was like "poor Dafyd, thinking killing the Sovran is gonna do anything" so when he finally realizes I was like "yeaaah" and didn't have much impact on me, so I guess I'm a bit disappointed we didn't get much of a reveal on Dafyd's plot that was changing optics not just for Dafyd but for the reader too||

||Besides that, I loved the prose of the entire book, each section was perfect, the emotions conveyed by everything were very well and richly expressed in such a great way I have so many things about how much I loved everything that I don't even know where to start||

[long sorrel]

||I do not agree with this, they have no leverage, the humans are convenient in the way your tools are convenient and you trash them when they're not, they don't have leverage over you. You do need tools to carry on with your life but when one stops being convenient you just get a different one. I don't think the humans (besides Dafyd) are aware on such a deep level of this, but they definitely don't actually have jack for leverage. But regardless, while I understand the human psychology going behind this, I think it is mostly unfounded and just the results of the way we try to feel like we have control over things, delude ourselves, etc.
The Carryx aren't conceding, they're giving the things they consider are necessary for the tools to work, like you'd keep a knife sharp or a battery charged imo. They have millions of years of knowledge to understand most species will only work in environments that are where they usually work||

[alpine drum]

||I was trying to phrase it as the humans would. They believe they are very hard to replace because no one else can do what they do (based on the carryx pov this seems to be accurate fwiw). They misunderstand how poorly carryx look upon beings that do not follow instructions||

||the humans think that asking for the aliens to be removed from their workplace is equivilent to getting showers that work better ||

[long sorrel]

||But do they (like say Brun or the workers) actually know that no one else can do that? I think all is said is "the carryx are interested in our ability to mix proteins" or something like that.||

[This are still FoB ALL spoilers]

[alpine drum]

FoB all ||i believe that dafyd is told by his librarian as much, the fact they survived and were elevated would be further proof of their importance in their eyes. Remember they do not have any idea of the timescales thst the carryx operate under unlike Dafyd||

[long sorrel]

||yeah, they're doing it all based on a lot of assumptions||

[hollow hedge]

FoB ||I'm partial to the idea that the Carryx are trying to just figure out humanity generally, because they're aware of how the enemy uses them, and that the tasks that they've been given, while generally interesting to the carryx, might be a little more secondary than they realize||

[long sorrel]

Mhm

I did mention that at some point too yeah

||But it is pure pragmatism, "if they're useful to them maybe they're useful to us" general idea||

Well, what do I do with my life now

I guess there are other books to read

[hollow hedge]

The book to me was just a fleeting distraction while I wait for dungeon crawler carl 8, not gonna go for early access, I’d rather just get the audio when it’s available

[long sorrel]

yeah I feel 0 draw to that series

[hollow hedge]

Very fair, it’s explicitly not for everyone

[long sorrel]

I still have 4 books midway but I'm not in the mood for any of them

I know which of the 4 I'll pick back up, but not yet

So new standalone/series or continuing a series I've already started? 🤔

I'm kinda leaning towards The Saint of Bright Doors

[analog geode]

New!

[long sorrel]

Yeah, I'm decided lol

[ivory cypress]

DCC was a pleasant surprise for me, but also, it definitely has a Personality and there's no way it appeals to everyone

[hollow hedge]

it's better than I expected but it's also more or less exactly what it sounds like

[forest sierra]

Yeah I quit the audiobook less than an hour in

I found the humour indigestible

[ivory cypress]

DCC was one where i needed to push through and finish the first book before it landed

then it clicked

it was like, okay, i see you mr dinniman, you do know what you're doing here

[wide hearth]

MoG + FoB all ||I'm trying to come up with a coherent theory where we end up with: a) deathless winning a battle but losing the war specifically after being betrayed by Dafyd; b) Humans of Anjiin surviving; c) Dafyd going native and being, I dunno, regulator-librarian to swarm-as-Sovran or something, to facilitate b, and hence being both Champion and Betrayer. Based on the idea that Ekur in the MoG epigraphs is talking to humans but not Dafyd's faction, and the FoB epigraphs being a newly constructed myth explaining how Anjiin survives but Dafyd can't be a part of it. I'm not sure it completely works though. I think if it does go like this, then FoB should have ended with something more like "What if we made a second Sovran?", which is still ambiguous but a clearer foreshadowing.||

[wraith lynx]

Royal Assassin 3 ||Verity is probably my favorite side character... him and Hands 🥰||

[long sorrel]

||I do keep thinking someone needs to become part of the Carryx structure, however, the fact that a lot of it is smell/pheromone based makes it harder (but not impossible, based on the studies they were doing)||

[hollow hedge]

FoB ||have to imagine the swarm's ability to manipulate its own form plays some role here. I don't know if that would be Clae doing the work, or if it has to be Dafyd himself, whether they would "merge" or whether he'd get his own Swarm system, noting that he'd be "dead" either way||

[long sorrel]

||Oh yeah, I suppose Clae could definetely do that, kinda forgot ||

[wide hearth]

||Yeah exactly, if only they knew someone with a proven ability to manipulate with pheromones ||

[long sorrel]

mhmmm (also please stop reply pinging, thanks)

[wide hearth]

I'm sorry!

[light drum]

FoB all ||OH OH doednt the Sovreign emit specific pheromons that all the caryrax can recognize, so hypothetically she could emit those maybe if shes able to take a form of one as well?||

[hollow hedge]

FoB ||or even if she couldn't convincingly emulate one physically, she may still be able to emulate them in movement and pheremones in a way that gets the job done||

[light drum]

FoB all ||Ok that makes the ending seem more plausible||

[marble sinew]

Alright, Last Graduate done, but the nearby library with a copy of book 3 doesn't open on Mondays, so I have to wait a little before I get started on it

[forest sierra]

Since I've been on such an audiobook roll I might cover the Sanderson books I fell out of

Though he's quite niche and idk if people in this here James Corey server would care much

[hollow hedge]

I hear there are dedicated channels for that author somewhere around here

Mr. Sanderson, I mean

[forest sierra]

I'm not going to the dark web

[light drum]

Is he a comic book artist? Im seeing some sorta comic by him

[junior dew]

Oh nice! I just finished it last night! What did you think?

[marble sinew]

It was good!

[marble sinew]

Last Graduate all ||I continue to like how Orion and Galadriel are cosmic foils, maintaining The Balance; as one moves into prominence and power, the other is pulled out of it. Not because one's success directly harms the other, but because the Universe demands it.||

||I also like how El's accidentally set herself up with a customer and supplier once she's finished figuring out the Enclave Builder spell (her Alliance members' families).||

[long sorrel]

Started The Saint of Bright Doors, reached ch 3. I really am a sucker for 3rd person present prose

[junior dew]

And this is particularly good 3rd person present prose!

[minor sleet]

Wheel of Time & Realm of the Elderlings (general)

[zinc flicker]

https://www.polygon.com/bg3-baldurs-gate-3-astarion-prequel-novel-release-date/
wait what

[wraith lynx]

This is the cover!

Oh toast its in the link

[oblique zodiac]

did you play bg3?

[alpine drum]

What a humorous message

[long sorrel]

😩

Oh I forgot I was reading Saint of Bright Doors and I opened my reader and was like "Huh, this prose is really weird for Faith of Beasts"

Also, I didn't mention much but damn what a start this book has

[alpine drum]

Hmm

[long sorrel]

Aaah, explains why the prose isn't like FoB

It was Din all along

[alpine drum]

I gotta say the blurb for Bright Doors does remind me of RJB although more so the Divine Cities books than Dins Wacky Adventures

[long sorrel]

The setting is defs more like Divine Cities... vaguely

[true falcon]

Gonna read either of these

[wind sinew]

Sharp Ends ||Shev is such a character man. Javre and Whirrun are a choice pairing. I want more of those three together||

[wind sinew]

So why did you pick DCC and why will you never regret it?

[true falcon]

No I haven’t finished it even tho I was interested in it

[wind sinew]

Damnit, just saw mistborn at the bottom

[wind sinew]

I was making a joke lol

[true falcon]

Oh sorry

Either that or sweet tooth

I like reading comics because of the words in pictures by amazing artists

[unborn furnace]

Well, going to NYC in 9 days

List of books: The Eye of the World, Arcanum Unbounded, Spawn compendium 1 and 2

[cloud socket]

that should keep you occupied!

[true falcon]

Nice! If I get a good vacation going in the summer I’m thinking of bringing invincible compendiums 1-3, mistborn, DCC, and smth else

Or sweet tooth if I love the series

[unborn furnace]

Mistborn I already have it (doing a second reading), Dungeon Crawler someone here told me that I should wait to the series to end and Invincible maybe

But Spawn is the Goat to me

[unborn furnace]

Yeah brother/sister

[true falcon]

Heard spawn fell off after 200 issues

[unborn furnace]

I only read the first book and I loved it

So I'm buying the first 2 compendiums (1-50 and 51-100)

Also thinking of buying "Man in the High Castle"

[hollow hedge]

I'm not really the type of person to wait for a series to end to want to read it, I think a series like that is more fun if you get to dwell on it for a while before the next one comes along

[low hill]

Also, if people don't buy the books while the series is on going, it might never get a chance to finish...

[somber timber]

….. what is this book? 👀

[ancient bay]

Wait hollup

I ORDERED THREE BOOKS AND ONE OF THEM CAME IN A DIFFERENT PACKAGE WHY IS THIS BOX SO BIG

[ivory cypress]

The Saint of Bright Doors!

[true falcon]

Thinking of getting to the library next week and get myself a card

[unborn furnace]

Oh and in the list of Books

Red Rising

[true falcon]

I wanna buy red rising to read it

[unborn furnace]

The bad thing about books in Argentina is that most of the fantasy is from publishers from Spain

[true falcon]

Probably my first time to a local library

[long sorrel]

It has nothing to do with Divine Cities, its just, if you are trying to say if its more similar to that or Ana and Din then it is in a setting with divine things

[somber timber]

So it’s not a moody spy novel?

Nor a murder mystery that interrogates the role of the state and how essential anti corruption efforts are?

[wind sinew]

I mean, it's not too soon to join the cult, I mean fandom now. DCC is great

[hollow hedge]

one thing I'm not sure on is how well DCC would hold up in other languages

I'm sure it's possible but there's probably some localization opportunities

[long sorrel]

Well, I've not read enough, it it's in the process of challenging some things atm

[somber timber]

Okay okay

[long sorrel]

I don't think they are those type of things

but I've read like 5 chapters maybe

I got my hair dyed today so i got to read for a bit

[wind sinew]

Ooh I understand that. The audiobooks for the English ones are probably some of the best out there. Ruined other audiobook experiences for me.

[small bloom]

Good thing I already have Prince’s Gambit because wdym it just ends there 😩

[long sorrel]

Thoughts on Captive Prince?

[junior smelt]

Yup!

It is really abstract in the best way possible

[long sorrel]

I didn't feel it was abstract tbh

Oh unless you mean like the first page, then yeah

I meant start as in, the first couple of chapters

[junior smelt]

Yes

But I would say while not abstract it does have a very different type of worldbuilding and thus it also tends to be intentionally vague here and there (in its benefit)

[zinc flicker]

It's also Kingfisher 🤤

this is my sign to start Paladins

[raw musk]

Edge of a Dream 16/JJBA part 3 all: ||So Edge is developing a Stand now? Who does he think he is, Polnareff?||

[small bloom]

I really liked it!

[long sorrel]

nice

[minor sleet]

Yeah I’ll bet she does

[minor sleet]

Reading a collection of Le Guin’s essays and the one I just finished (Space Crone) ends with “into the space ship, Granny.”

[junior dew]

Golden Enclave through first 10 minutes of chapter 13 || Going in quite fun and interesting directions. Curious to find out wth is going on with Orion ||

Golden enclave 13 prediction/theorizing ahead of any reveals || “She will bring death and destruction to all the enclaves of the world.” And there’s terrible Malia stuff involved in making them. They’re assuming human sacrifice. But what if the enclaves are sentient in some way - built off the backs of a person or family or something. And so what if El discovers this and then kills the enclaves as a mercy 🤔 And then rebuilds them the right way ||

[snow vessel]

Once I finish my current set of reads I might pick up cruel prince for a reread

[true falcon]

Gonna listen

[long sorrel]

I don't usually feel like swearing

but today one of the lines in Saint of Bright Doors did that

[long sorrel]

Sorry this is a blatant lie

I feel like swearing all the time

I mean specifically about books

Anyway, I forgot where I was at, might be 7-9 somewhere there. ||"The doctors would tell you it's cancer.... but it's my disappointment in you" ... 😠 this woman... ugh||

[raw musk]

Hope you like it

[true falcon]

Do audiobooks count as reading?

[hollow hedge]

if you want it to

[wide hearth]

In many ways

[low hill]

Whether or not it counts strictly as reading, it certainly counts for having experienced the content.

[velvet umbra]

It depends on the context in which you are asking

In terms of literally the word reading technically no but for most day to day usage sure it counts

[snow vessel]

It counts as reading but not reading

-# reading as in: consuming books, but not reading as in: the skill of using your eyes to understand written words

Imo

[somber timber]

||https://bsky.app/profile/robertjbennett.bsky.social/post/3mkogs3wvo22t||

Kojima’s review of the Tainted Cup

robert j bennett, ceo, results omega (@robertjbennett.bsky.social)

Holy crap

-# (@constihill.bsky.social)
These are gorgeous! Also, Hideo Kojima just raved about The Tainted Cup on twitter! - x.com/i/status/204...

Likes

248

Bluesky · Apr 30, 2026, 1:14 AM

General world info tagged to be safe

[ivory cypress]

awwwww

i love that

[somber timber]

I love that he’s kinda stunned

[long sorrel]

"Holy crap" sounds right

[somber timber]

He had another more forceful post earlier when he saw Kojima post the Japanese version

[wind sinew]

Finished Sharp Ends and damn it, Abercrombie managed to hit again. Such a good book

Time to go to the restaurant at the end of the universe now

[ivory cypress]

so the incandescent is VERY magic school, but it's from the pov of a teacher, which is different, but it's also SO so so like real school vibes, maybe BECAUSE it's from the pov of a teacher, and thus, closer to my age, and it's actually all stressing me out a bit

this is not so much a relaxing read :P

[royal carbon]

Is that the book I read earlier?

Yes, I would say that is not a relaxing read

[ivory cypress]

idk if it is

how much earlier

[royal carbon]

September 2025

So before I started using storygraph

[ivory cypress]

i'm not sure if it's the one you read

[royal carbon]

I am up to Turn Coat now, which is the first Dresden book somebodty bought be as a gift

Emily Tesh?

[ivory cypress]

yeah

[royal carbon]

Wow my typing is great tonight

[vital ibex]

Oh that Japanese edition Tainted Cup cover art 🔥

[somber timber]

I really thought RJB was reacting to the cover at first on his first post because I didn’t see it was Kojima lol

[wide hearth]

Squeezed Project Hail Mary in before the month end. Fantastic story, loved it. Had a few issues with pacing and how some flashbacks were handled, but probably a me issue. I haven't seen the movie.

Project Hail Mary all ||I particularly like how Weir handles the competence trope by splitting it across the bromance. And "saving two worlds by being a good science teacher" is so adorably dorky as a theme. I just think by the last disaster (especially as it became clear what the nature of the happy ending was going to be) I was exhausted?||

[minor sleet]

Check out Captain obvious over here

[minor sleet]

Wonder Woman: Dead Earth #3

This is sick as hell

[long sorrel]

damn

love that

[alpine drum]

ASOIAF All ||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YolUVSst5t0|| @viral fractal thoughts on the title of this video?

[marble sinew]

Checks out

ASOIAF all ||Of course, Lyanna was only selfish by the cultural standards, and Rhaegar was only stupid because he was wrong, but otherwise, sure.||

[alpine drum]

||well yeah but he also started a realmwide war that killed a bunch of people||

[marble sinew]

||I'd need to triple-check the timeline, but I'm pretty sure it was his father that started the war by executing the Starks.||

[viral fractal]

Asoiaf ||my take is that rhaegar was too prophecy pilled to care and Lyanna was just young, dumb and desperate||

[alpine drum]

||I am 95% sure that they went to Kings Landing after hearing of the abduction||

[snow vessel]

Once I have my libro credit for the month I'm going to start the iliad

[marble sinew]

ASOIAF ||"Abduction". Either way, the war didn't start proper until Jon Arryn revolted (per the fan wiki)||

[minor sleet]

“I myself have disobeyed the books or kids rule, having had three kids and written about twenty books, and thank God it wasn’t the other way around.” -Ursula K Le Guin’s essay “The Fisherwoman’s Daughter”

[south zinc]

Asoiaf all || Yeah it was an abduction. The fact that lyanna probably went with him willingly is beside the point||

[alpine drum]

||Arryn had a whole plan in place that involved Rhaegar establishing himself as a good replacement for his father at the Tourney but he messed it all up by naming Lyanna the queen of love and beauty because of his prophecy dream ||

[junior dew]

Alright I did it. Finished Golden Enclaves and with that the Scholomance trilogy is complete. Great series.

And with that, April reading has wrapped

10 books finished this month

Tied my record haha

[minor sleet]

Cool formatting!!!

https://tenor.com/view/sakura-sakura-blossoms-cherry-blossoms-gif-17881999

[ivory cypress]

okay, i'm feeling the incandescent more now that i'm a few chapters in

oh i forgot to post my april

[royal carbon]

Hmm, I guess I am behind on my reading as we enter the 5th month

[marble sinew]

Alright, Golden Enclaves done, but it's firmly crash-o-clock, so any thoughts will need to wait for the morning.

[oblique zodiac]

oh yeah its may and I should start reading again

[minor sleet]

I should’ve pushed it and read 3 more comics for an even 50

[old flint]

I enjoyed The Incandescent- I thought it worked pretty well

[low hill]

• April: Death Masks, Jim Butcher; The Language Construction Kit, Mark Rosenfelder; Faithbreaker, Hannah Kaner; The Silence Factory, Bridget Collins; The Black Coast, Mike Brooks; City of Lost Chances, Adrian Tchaikovsky; The Principle of Moments, Esmie Kikiemi-Pearson; Shards of Earth, Adrian Tchaikovsky; The Bookshop Below, Georgia Summers; The Book That Wouldn't Burn, Mark Lawrence.

[small bloom]

@tight kindle You were asking about Django Wexler, I really enjoyed the series and I found it very consistent in terms of quality but it wasn't anything amazing either

[wide hearth]

How does The Book That Wouldn't Burn compare to Lawrence's other book series? It sounds very different

[long sorrel]

My April is my lowest book read since Silksong

9 total

9 books, 3k pages

[low hill]

This is the first of his that I've read, so I don't know. :)

[wide hearth]

Ok, fair enough. Are you going to read the others? In the series, I mean

It's on my TBR, but it's fighting a lot of stuff

[low hill]

Probably, eventually. This one has been fine. I'm not in a rush to go out and buy them, but I'll pick them up as I go.

I think I do have the first in his other series, though, so might get around to that. Reading a lot of first book in serieses in the last month...

[wide hearth]

Too much choice. I still haven't read Hobb, so having had a scifi heavy April that's going to be my May

[light drum]

Slower month in terms of reading

[forest sierra]

Ooh lemme bring up the calendar view, didn't know about that