Caught up to side stories in Side Jobs by Jim Butcher. It’s a short stories collection in Dresden Files universe. Only 1 short story and 1 novella remaining in the book. Short story is after next the book and the novella is after the book after that.
Now reading The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King. I have this book in my library for over 15 years. Bought it a long time ago just by looking at King’s name, but then assumed it must be a part of a series (at that time all fantasy I had read were part of series), so left it for later and then forgot. Someone mentioned the book somewhat recently, and I looked it up again and found out it’s a standalone book, so finally reading it now.
It’s written in very different style from King’s usual work, like a tale told orally. It’s also a medieval fantasy, with kings, magic and dragons. Also, not as long, less than 400 pages. I am about halfway done, and enjoying the book. Should finish it soon-ish.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
There’s a Midyear Bingo check-in post, do take a look. Even if you haven’t started this year’s Book Bingo, you can still join, as there are still 6 months remaining!
For details, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and it’s Recommendation Post . Links are also present in our community sidebar.
I failed at finishing Quicksilver by Neil Stephenson. I really like a lot of his other works (Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, D.O.D.O., et al), but this one in particular I found too cumbersome to get through. It seems the main story/plot revolves around the fact that the author was learning about historical trivia and then tied all of these into the vicinity of a main character. To me, that’s not really much of a foundation for a story unless it is combined with character arcs and developments, for example the way Forrest Gump does it is perfect - there’s an actual story there that stands well on its own, it just happens to tie in with historical events.
So instead I picked up Dungeon Crawler Carl on audible after someone mentioned it here on Lemmy. Loving it so far.
Yeah, never could get into the baroque cycle von Stephenson. And he wrote at least 2 of my favourite books, Snow Crash and cryptonomicon. Reamde is also very good. But Quicksilver is just not as interesting as the premise suggests.
Just finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King. Really interesting regarding the Kennedy assassination and time travel
Yeah, the book is pretty highly recommended. It comes up often when asking for recommendation from King’s books.
Decided on what are you going to start yet?
my favorite king book! highly recommend.
I love this book, have read it a few times already and was considering it again recently!
Devolution by Max Brooks I loved his other works and I saw this one in a book store. I grabbed the audio book from Libby I’m enjoying it so far
This book genuinely scared me. I was pleasantly surprised 😲.
Your comment is scaring me. Now I am wondering if I should actually read it.
It was a very fun read though!
Well, I scare easily, but it still seems like worth a try.
I have only read his Zombie survival guide. I think. There are so many of these things out, it’s possible I read something else.
The synopsis seems interesting though, so will check it out.
Currently reading One Dark Window, the first book in the Shepherd King series by Rachel Gillig. It’s fun and interesting, with a good magic system. The romance aspect is a little obvious and over-done at times, though.
I really liked Eyes of the Dragon when I read it 30 years ago. It was fun and different from his other works. It was maybe the second fantasy book I ever read, so the new type of world was eye opening to me at the time. Not sure how I’d like it now, but I really enjoyed it then.
I read as always several books at once.
One of them is Babel by R. F. Kuang. I was blown away at first, but after the first third of the book I’m not as as enthusiastic anymore. Everything to do with languages and translation is awesome, the characters are well defined but a bit one-dimensional so far, but I think the plot is nothing to write home about and has some „young adult“ vibes to me. It’s still good though, and I’m far from finished yet.
Another one is „the notebook a history of thinking on paper“ I just got it today, but it looks very promising.
Yup, I also got strong YA vibes from Babel. Got some other vibes too, but those are spoilers ;)
The Notebook sounds pretty interesting. Do share your review when you are done with it.
Will do! Its pretty interesting so far.
Started City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. It’s pretty good so far, although I’m not sure if the world building is quite my taste.
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Finished There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm. I started it with only a very cursory knowledge of SCP, and I think you could absolutely read this with none at all, as a standalone.
Bingo squares: Independent Author; Easy, Breazy, Read-zie; Now a Major Motion Picture (youtube miniseries); It’s About Time; Mashup; Institutional; (alt) Pseudonymous Work (hard); (alt) A Change in Perspective
Going to dive deeper in SCP wiki? Or that’s it for now.
Oh, nah, I’m good for now. I only have so much reading time!
You can solve the problem by removing “only” from your sentence. “I have so much reading time!”
The Eyes of the Dragon is my favorite King story. There is a brief moment at the end which implies a tangential connection to other works.
I’ve been struggling lately to get through books for a few months. This week was a breakthrough in that struggle, I needed some distraction and was able to get the focus I needed.
I finally finished We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson and A Prayer For The Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers just as last week. I’m gonna start reading Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees which should be fairly quick and if I can; optimistically move onto Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman.
These all help progress my Bingo sheet.
Yeah, finished the book, it was pretty interesting.
Glad you are back to reading!
I’ve been meaning to read Side Jobs - does it finally explain the sasquatch? Gotta do something while I’m waiting for the next book!
I’m currently doing a re-listen to Name of the Wind and catching a lot of references I missed on the first read and first listen.
The Bigfoot bit is explained in 3 stories in the collection Brief Cases or the separate Working for Bigfoot collection that just features them.
Ah, okay, thanks! I love reading them, but James Marsters is phenomenal on the audio books, so maybe I’ll check that collection out as well.
There is no Sasquatch in any of the Dresden Files novel or short story yet. So, don’t know.
Dresden met a Sasquatch named Strength of a River in His Shoulders between Fool Moon and Grave Peril to help him with something. He only exists in short stories until Peace Talks.
Ah okay. Will look forward to reading about him.
A few weeks back I decided to reread Lord of the Rings.
About 90% of the way finished with that, but stopped when I realized I wanted to do a reread of Stormlight Archives for a refresher (particularly on Way of Kings and Rhythm of War) since I have now read all sorts of fun Cosmere stuff like Sunlit Man, Warbreaker, Mistborn 2, and Elantris since I picked them up.
Just wrapped on Way of Kings and am progressing much slower into Words of Radiance.
Just finished the first mistborn arc. I can see why people had mixed feelings about it. The final empire is excellent, but it feels a little like it was intended to be standalone, then he got a little stuck in book 2. But he brings it back around and the full story works, and the slow part in the second book does pay off.
Started into Wax and Wayne, and it’s cool to see how the utilization of the same powers evolved in the time between.
Since you have just finished Arc 1 and started Arc 2, how much would I miss if I start Arc 2 but only recall main plot points from Arc 1 without all the details and characters?
I wouldn’t worry too much about it. It’s well into the future, and the world is very different from the first arc. I’m not that deep, but I can say pretty confidently that I don’t think you’ll need to know anything from the first set to immerse yourself in the second. There are places named for characters, and religions are connected to players in the first story, but they’re all historical figures at this point (potentially minus some timeless figures from the bigger Cosmere, though that’s just guessing from my other reading of his Cosmere novels).
Yeah, I know it’s well into the future, but it’s still a sequel so was thinking if I should read the original trilogy again. I have read them twice, so they should be a pretty quick read, but I may also get bored because of that, I have become less patient when it comes to books now.
Well, I won’t be starting it this week, so just finish the books and let me know if I am safe. I may still decide to re-read them first, but at least then I would be doing it because I want to, not because I have to. Makes a big difference.
I read Era 2 Mistborn after I did my first read through of the Stormlight Archives and I don’t think you’ll have missed much. That was a good 2-3 month break.
You will want to have read Mistborn Secret History after the Bands of Morning as well.
I have had a 4-5 years break. 😀
I have decided to re-read the series though.
I’m on the lost metal (7) and everything I’ve seen is flavor. Descendants of characters in the first arc, mythology around characters in the first arc, some involvement of ones who aren’t impacted by time the same way, etc. You won’t be missing plot points if it’s not fresh.
I also read secret history after 6, and I honestly couldn’t tell you the “minor spoilers” of the second arc he says it has. (Maybe an awareness of one character you’re already aware of if you’ve read Stormlight or secret projects.) I’d personally say you’re safe reading it without the second arc, and the different perspective on some key points in the first arc were pretty impactful.
I have decided to re-read Mistborn series. As predicted, once I found that I don’t have to read the first arc again, I realised I want to read it. So, will start up on it soon.
For whatever reason I’ve seen people say they don’t consider The Lost Metal a critical part of the second arc (maybe because it happens or was written a few years later?). I would disagree wholeheartedly and think it makes the series. It’s what finally pulls the second era to a comparable level to the first era for me.
It’s part of 2nd era for me. That’s the reason I delayed reading the 2nd era so much, wanted it to completely finish before jumping into it.
I loved the first arc, it was my first Sanderson books but agree the second book is a little slower. I want to revisit the second arc as I haven’t read the newest book and wasn’t paying full attention for the first 2 books really. I think the latest book is release soon if it remember correctly so I may wait for that and then do all the books through from the beginning of the second arc.
I’m looking forward to the third arc more I think although I’m sure that is a while off yet!
I personally really like the trilogy still. I just see why I got a couple “push through and make sure you get to Wax and Wayne”. I still teared up at the ending lol.
I know book 5 of the Stormlight Archive is coming in December. I’m definitely excited for that. I have no clue about more Mistborn stuff other than that the third arc is about the Ghostbloods, who appear in the Stormlight books.
Ah yeh, you are right it is the stormlight archive book that is coming the beginning of next month, not more Mistborn. I’m still looking forward to that though!
I finished the short stories in my copy of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Some of them haven’t aged that well but overall I found most of them enjoyable.
I read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. This book was absolutely amazing. If you want a short, atmospheric fantasy I highly recommend. I think this is a book I’ll return to routinely.
Now I’m reading Educated by Tara Westover. It’s a memoir about her growing up in a survivalist family in rural Idaho. She was not enrolled in school and didn’t even have a birth certificate for many years. I’m not very far in yet but it is fascinating and very easy to read.
I have Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell for many years, but haven’t gotten around to actually reading it. Have you read that one?
Educated sounds interesting, I have some interest in survivalism, but that sounds like an extreme example.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was alao very good! I really wish she wrote more but I’ve read she struggles with chronic illness so it’s hard to get more books out.
For Educated, while the survivalism is very present, the book is more exploring the impact it has had on the author’s upbringing and on her siblings.
I am at the end of The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson. It’s an overflow from Halloween season reads. I kinda hate it but I’ll finish it.
I finished off Mr Mercedes which was good but probably not high up there in terms of Kings books for me. I think Eyes of a Dragon was his attempted at writing a YA novel for his kids if I remember rightly. I enjoyed it but again not one of my favourite King books.
As always I’ve done a couple of Deathlands books this week and still enjoying it greatly.
I also read Flux by Jeremy Robinson which is the third book in the Infinite series. It was another really good book and another one that really reminded me of Koontz and the way he writes. The end of it ties in really nicely with The Others which was the second book and adds some further back story into the universe and that story that I wasn’t expecting throughout the story which was a nice surprise.
I have the fourth book ready to go and may start on that after a couple more Deathlands books :D
On the side I have spent a few hours editing Underwood and Flinch (by Mike Bennett) podcast releases I have the files for into a cohesive audio book with none of the podcast preamble and shit talking. I’ve listened to it a couple of times already and editing it has tempted me back for another listen which I may so sometime soon. If you’d like a modern day vampire story I strongly recommend checking it out!
I may have asked this before, but what are your favourite King books?
I really like the Dark Tower series, the world and how it is built, the concept etc but the last couple of books are quite frankly mid at best. They aren’t bad but I find the end kind of unsatisfying.
I really like the majority of his work but my favourites in no particular order would probably be -
The Talisman
Needful Things
Desperation
The Regulators
Black House
Cell
11/22/63
The Green Mile
I think xD I didn’t want to make the list too long but honestly it is hard to pick for me.
I once started The Gunslinger, but couldn’t get into it. May give it a try again.
Heh, thanks for the list. It can be difficult if you like the author / genre, so thanks for doing it anyway! I have The Talisman in my backlog for many years, should give it a read. Have heard of 11/22/63 and The Green Mile but all other names are new, will take a look at them.
No worries, I’ll look forward to hopefully hearing your thoughts on some of them in future weekly threads :D
Currently on Book 7 of the Malazan series by Steven Erikson, “Reaper’s Gale”. Started book 1 back in June, still working my way through them. The whole series improved tremendously after Book 3 finished, it’s been a heck of a ride so far.
3 to go. How do you like it? I started with book one last month then got side tracked by some of Stephen King’s books. I don’t think I’m mentally ready for a 10 books journey yet
So many conflicting feelings.
- Book 1 was okay, not too bad, I was curious where it’d go
- Hated book 2, it was way too dark and I saw the ending coming from a third of the way in
- Book 3 was also WAY too dark, an absolute downer
- Book 4 had an amazing character arc over the first third, the rest was pretty okay
- Loved book 5. Absolutely a masterpiece
- Seriously enjoyed book 6
- Book 7 is very good so far!
They’re all SO long, too
Damn, now I’m curious
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
Probably my fifth go around with this book. First time listening to it on audiobook.
