Still Reading The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson. His fourth and final standalone Cosmere “secret project” novel.

About halfway through, not much more to add.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?


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  • MicrowaveCat@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    I’m on the last fifty pages of Ursala Le Guin’s The Dispossessed. Absolutely loving it. I’ve been on a scifi kick since reading Dune for the first time in January and this might be my favorite one yet.

  • SpaceScotsman@startrek.website
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    19 days ago

    I just finished Hail Mary Project which I started last week - really enjoyed it. It scratched a perfect itch for some optimistic sci-fi.

  • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    I enjoyed Sunlit Man. It was cool how planetary dynamics played such an important role in the plot.

    Last week I started The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, but it was fucking terrible. I only made it maybe 50 or so pages in before I put it down. The writing was so bad. How many times can he write, " “Aaargh” said Logen," or " “Ooof” said Glotka?" I swear those are actual quotes from the book that are both used multiple times in a very short stretch of the book. Then I could absolutely predict exactly what would happen with the characters, which I confirmed by reading spoilers after I put the book down. The story might end up being very good, but the writing is so bad.

    I then started The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb. It is the exact opposite of The Blade Itself, and I’m really enjoying it so far.

  • Trinsec@piefed.social
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    19 days ago

    Currently reading Keverjongen (original title: Beetle Boy) by M.G. Leonard. I find it enjoyable so far and am curious how the story’ll end so that’s a good sign.

      • Auth@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        Ok I finished it. 5/10 kind of boring. It was more of a story about a person dealing with the collapse of society than it was sci survival. The Triffids barely played a role I think they were mentioned only a handful of times and presented very little threat each time. The characters were smart and most of he people were reasonable. So there wasnt to much conflict. Still it was a short book and i enjoyed reading it.

  • zout@fedia.io
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    17 days ago

    I put “furiously happy” by Jenny Lawson aside for a while. It is a good book, just not for a read in one go. It’s also short stories, so I’ll get back to it later. Started “Rama 2” by Gentry Lee (it says Arthur C Clarke, but my guess is he only lended his name). About 20% through so far. It’s okay, nothing special so far. Also still listening to “the eye of the Bedlam bride”, about 2/3 through. That one is still good!

  • DashboTreeFrog@discuss.online
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    19 days ago

    Just started Isles of the Emberdark. Just realized that outside of manga I’ve been reading nothing but Sanderson novels for a good bit

    • dresden@discuss.onlineOPM
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      19 days ago

      I haven’t read the short story this is based on, is it completely stand alone or based on some other novels?

      • DashboTreeFrog@discuss.online
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        19 days ago

        It can stand alone I think, but it also is pretty deep in his expanded universe. I’ve only just gotten into act 2 and there’s stuff that ties into other stories, some of which I haven’t read, and I’m still enjoying it. Definitely no worries about missing the short story though as he sprinkles it in as flash backs in act 1 of the story.

  • theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    19 days ago

    I have hit a mile stone, I’m just coming to the end of book 100 of Deathlands. A character that left around 50 books ago has returned in this one and I have been waiting for his return!

    I’ve been thinking about it and that is about 650 hours or so of Deathlands in the last year and a half and I’m still enjoying it a lot! I think after this one however I may slip a couple of other books in.

    The Sunlit Man is the last book I need to read out if his 4 “secret” books, still on the to do list :D

      • theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        19 days ago

        Haha thanks although I’m kind of pissed off having finished that hundredth book after posting this.

        The character I wanted to return ended up not doing so at the end of the book but not only that they killed off another person who could have possibly joined up with their band of people. It has happened quite a few times now and after so many books it would be nice if they added in another companion but instead the authors seem to be too scared to add any additional characters to to regular roster which is quite frankly frustrating as fuck.

        They always kill off potential additions in the most pathetic manner and after so many hours it would be a nice addition to just change things up slightly, I don’t want a constant rotation of characters but a breath of fresh air would be nice!

        So I have started “The Eyre Affair” which is the first book in a series I think is called Thursday after Next. A few hours in and it is interesting so far!

  • JaymesRS@piefed.world
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    19 days ago

    My TBR list grew 3 sizes in the last month with books that came out or were on heavy discounts by authors I adore and read all their stuff right away.

    I started with John Scalzi’s When the Moon Hits Your Eye.

    • dresden@discuss.onlineOPM
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      19 days ago

      Heh. I am trying to buy less and read more, it’s not like I buy too much, but it’s more than what I read. I have about 100+ (not going to say how much + is that) to-read book at home at this point (collected over years). I don’t think that number will ever reach 0, but I want it to go down for a while, let’s how it goes.

  • misericordiae@literature.cafe
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    18 days ago

    Working on No One Will Come Back for Us by Premee Mohamed, since I started it in May.

    __

    Finished:

    Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (science fantasy mystery) | bingo: number, different continent, LGBTQIA+, award HM, game, steppin’ up HM, late to the party HM, jerk HM

    Necromancer heirs (and their cavaliers) from each of nine houses are invited to take part in a challenge: those that succeed will become the Emperor’s new elite.

    I liked this more than I thought I would when I started, and I’ll probably read the sequels at some point. With that said, although I found the plot reasonably solid, the setup is kinda YA, and what little is mentioned about the wider situation/world building goes almost entirely unexplained. (Also: if you ever see it described as “lesbian necromancers in space”, there’s only, like, 5 seconds of space.)

    Liar Game, Volume 1 by Shinobu Kaitani (thriller-ish seinen manga) | bingo: different continent HM, minority author, adaptation, orange, game

    An unrealistically naive college student is forced to participate a mysterious game, which threatens to leave her in massive debt if she loses. To avoid this, she decides to enlist the help of a conman.

    I enjoyed the drama adaptation of this back in the day, and this was pretty much 1-to-1 with my memory of the first episode, just more manga-y.

    A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny (non-scary horror) | bingo: creature HM. game

    Jack the Ripper’s dog companion describes each day of October, as they–along with a variety of other Victorian horror characters and their familiars–prepare for a Halloween ritual.

    This was fine, but it never super grabbed me. Might be fun to read a chapter a day leading up to Halloween.

    • dresden@discuss.onlineOPM
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      14 days ago

      A Night in the Lonesome October is on my wishlist. The idea sounds interesting.

      lesbian necromancers in space

      I would like some Necromancers in space. Or just some well written book from Necromancers point of view. Something not in litRPG.

      No One Will Come Back for Us

      Hope someone comes back for us.

      • misericordiae@literature.cafe
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        14 days ago

        I would like some Necromancers in space. Or just some well written book from Necromancers point of view. Something not in litRPG.

        The second book in the series, Harrow the Ninth, is from the PoV of a necromancer, although from my understanding it’s also written half in 2nd person and non-linearly for a large portion. (Very much a “don’t start here” situation. The first book has a decent amount of skeletons, bone constructs, stealing life essence, death, etc, though, just from an external PoV.)

        There’s also the Johannes Cabal series by Jonathan L. Howard, which has been sitting on my list for a while. I haven’t read it yet, but I did enjoy the other book I read by that author, so it might be worth a look?

        • dresden@discuss.onlineOPM
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          13 days ago

          Johannes Cabal

          Interesting, will check it out.

          Don’t care about skeletons etc. Just think a story about Necromancer doing the Necromancing and stuff can be interesting.

  • TheFerventLion@sh.itjust.works
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    18 days ago

    I just finished The Golem and the Jinni, Helene Wecker, which was such a nice and interesting book. The story was slow and well paced without feeling slow, and was clever in the use of seemingly bit characters weaving their way back into the plot. It was refreshing to have most of the conflicts and plot points be solved by expanded knowledge, rather than violence.

    Next I’m going to read The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, Stephen Graham Jones, which has good reviews.