I recently read "The Night Circus" and absolutely loved it.
It's a great book, my wife loved it as well.
I recently read "The Night Circus" and absolutely loved it.
It's a great book, my wife loved it as well. I gather her next book, The Starless Sea is much more divisive.
I've been reading the fantasy series Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It's eight books long and I'm in the fourth one. It's doing something right since I'm on the fourth book, but I'm not over the moon with it like I was with his last scifi book I read, Dogs of War.
It's central conceit is that there are multiple peoples whose characteristics and behaviour are closely related to a given insect family like spider, ant, moth etc. While this gives it pretty unique flair, I have a hard time buying into it wholly.
I've been reading the fantasy series Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It's eight books long and I'm in the fourth one. It's doing something right since I'm on the fourth book, but I'm not over the moon with it like I was with his last scifi book I read, Dogs of War.
I'm reading Shards of Earth by the same author and having a fine old time. Not at all what I expected after reading Children of Time, but good swashbuckling fun with an intriguing SF backdrop.
I've been reading the fantasy series Shadows of the Apt by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It's eight books long and I'm in the fourth one. It's doing something right since I'm on the fourth book, but I'm not over the moon with it like I was with his last scifi book I read, Dogs of War.
There are ten books in the main series, not eight. Plus three more novels and four short story collections set in the same world.
ruhk and I don't agree on much. When it comes to The Terraformers...
we still don't agree
JK
I am only about 30 pages into it so far and I am impressed. It is going to be a quick read.
Don't let that fool you as it has complex concepts. I am just impressed with how they have explained them with ease so far whether from crumbs left in relationship banter or more direct explanations.
The fact that you can clearly get the tone for the conflict in the first dozen pages or so is a crackin start.
I think Lyorn is being released both digitally and in print on the same week. Everything I've seen online is showing a single release date of April 9th.
I know he announced the book over a year ago. There was some chatter about it at the time. Mainly around the cover art.
Robear wrote:New Vlad Taltos novel, "Lyorn", is out on Kindle. Probably regular release too.
I've yet to see the reasoning behind it but Brust has been VERY slow on releasing his work digitally. I think Lyorn has been out for hardcover for almost a year now. I think it will be another year, if ever, it gets released to audio. He's done this pattern on like his last 4-5 books.
I checked, and Lyorn came out in various editions a few days ago. The book before that came out on April 25th, 2023. Maybe that's the confusion?
Vey possible that i took the cover announcement as a release announcement
Just finished Annalee Newitz The Terraformers and was blown away- it’s a “big ideas” solarpunk story set 60k years in the future in a universe where most people are grown like plants rather than born, most animal life above the level of (but also including) earthworms have been uplifted, and all sentient life whether it’s animal, human, or machine is granted personhood. The story spans a millennia and follows 3 characters engineered to finish terraforming a planet for a corporation which intends to turn it into a tourist trap, and who each decide to fight in their own way to make the planet a home for everyone.
My library app actually had it available and I am now five chapters in. Thanks!
Finished The Midnight Library yesterday. A fun, fast read with a lot of heart and a wholesome theme. A woman gets to live alternate reality versions of herself and see what life could have been had she made different decisions. I saw the general ending coming a mile away, but it still entertained me.
Started the next Murderbot series book. I think I am on #4 now, which is really saying something, because I usually bail on a series after the first.
I caught up with the Weirkey series of books by Sarah Lin. There are 7 so far and they are Progressive Fantasy books. I enjoyed them.
Finished The Midnight Library yesterday. A fun, fast read with a lot of heart and a wholesome theme. A woman gets to live alternate reality versions of herself and see what life could have been had she made different decisions. I saw the general ending coming a mile away, but it still entertained me.
I really enjoyed the Midnight Library as well. I'm currently reading another Matt Haig book, The Humans. It too is a quick and easy read, with lots of fairly obvious humour about the idiosyncrasies of being human, but it's made me chuckle on numerous occasions. It's quite a touching love story too.
Yahtzee's 3rd book in the Jacques McKeown series recently released. It was a quick and fun read
Lyorn was a good Vlad Taltos read with some fun references that I won't spoil. However, there's a setup in the plot for a situation that is not resolved at the end, but nor is it a cliffhanger. Kinda confused.
However, all the trademark snark and many of the favorite characters and tropes abound, so if you've gotten this far in the series, don't miss it. 
Catching up on posting here from my last couple of months of reading, still sticking with the Kindle Unlimited books, mostly LitRPG:
The Titan Series and the follow-up Tower series (15 books)
I had read the start of the Titan series a while back and re-read it recently along with the books published in the Tower series so far. I am not really sure why the author broke it into two series as it is very much just a continuation of the same story with the same characters. Overall it is a good and long series if you like overpowered main characters and a bit of hand-wavey explanations that you shouldn't think about too much. A diverse cast of characters, personal development and some empire building. Kind of young-adulty where even though the characters are adults they don't really get into adult topics. If you are looking for some above-average popcorn LitRPG, give it a shot.
Chrysalis (5 books)
This is a fun one where it is LitRPG but the character is reincarnated as an ant. I know, I thought the premise sounded dumb and I skipped over these for a while, but I gave them a shot and they are actually done pretty well and because of the perspective have some nice differences from typical LitRPG books. Good world building, good humor, and unusual types of side characters. Give them a try, they are the best of the series I have read lately.
The Grand Game (6 books)
A good series with typical LitRPG tropes although a bit different as the character starts out in a dungeon and has to survive and escape, and the way the worlds are setup and travel restrictions between them puts different constraints than a typical open-world story. Common LitRPG overpowered MC that is just somehow magically better than everyone else, but still a nice read. I don't know why wolf-theme stuff is so common with fantasy authors, but this is another series where they get wolf powers over time.
Lucky's Marines (9 book omnibus)
Taking a break from LitRPG I was looking for some sci-fi and I like space-based squad type military series so I tried this one out. It is ok. I read the first three books and then was ready for something different but will probably get back to it someday. There aren't many likeable characters and the nihilism of it kind of wore thin after three books in a row. There is some humor, typical military squad tropes, the MC is basically an asshole, but if you are looking for some space military sci-fi I've read worse.
Battle Mage Farmer (7 books)
I had read the first couple books a while back, and decided to re-read and catch up on this series since there are a decent number of books out now. This is another Seth Ring series and it is another overpowered main character who somehow is just better than everyone else, but in this one he is trying to retire and be a farmer. Of course they get pulled back into issues and the story goes from there. Overall a good read, although can be frustrating at times because it sets up urgent potentially world-ending emergencies but then the MC just decides to go make cheese for two days. Common Seth Ring (and many other self-published authors) problems of the MC goes from super smart and capable to dumb or forgetful depending on the need of the plot. If you like LitRPG you probably have already heard of these, and if not, give them a chance.
Guardian of Aster Fall (7 books)
I am reading these now and I am about finished with the second book. Another LitRPG but in this case the main character is from the fantasy world and trying to unlock their class and grow. It is ok, decent plotting and cast of characters. The author badly needs an editor, it is slow and the books could cut at least 30% of them and not lose much. And the author never met an analogy they didn't like, I swear there is at least one analogy to describe something every two paragraphs and it is distracting without adding anything. The main character is supposed to be a typical 18 year old kid from a remote village but somehow becomes an expert fighter who can beat people with decades of experience and an enchanter who creates more complicated things than master craftspeople, and also has amazing willpower to overcome anything. Typical Mary Sue problems found with these types of books on Kindle Unlimited. I am not sure I will push on to the third book, might poke around to find something else.
The Titan Series and the follow-up Tower series (15 books)
After reading many of your reviews I am certain that we have eerily similar tastes, so I'm trying to white-knuckle through the first half of the first book here. Does he, as an author, ever outgrow this manner of action depiction: "He fired the arbalest. It put a hole straight through the wolf!"
I feel drowned in declarative sentences and exclamation points and am now just paging through without reading any time he starts to describe combat. I'm totally happy with popcorn power fantasy stuff, just needing to know if he ever gets a bit more capable at writing a mildly engrossing fight in a series that looks like it's going to have a lot of fighting.
Thinking about the "writing of fighting" more, in fantasy series things always fall apart as soon as fighting is less about mechanics and more about the characters' "willpower" and mentally pushing through barriers. This is tidily exemplified in Cradle, which started out with tremendously entertaining combat descriptions but by the last couple of books was just ho-hum since everything was about mental struggles and inconceivable forces. Does the Titan series fall into this trap as well?
LeapingGnome wrote:The Titan Series and the follow-up Tower series (15 books)
After reading many of your reviews I am certain that we have eerily similar tastes, so I'm trying to white-knuckle through the first half of the first book here. Does he, as an author, ever outgrow this manner of action depiction: "He fired the arbalest. It put a hole straight through the wolf!"
I feel drowned in declarative sentences and exclamation points and am now just paging through without reading any time he starts to describe combat. I'm totally happy with popcorn power fantasy stuff, just needing to know if he ever gets a bit more capable at writing a mildly engrossing fight in a series that looks like it's going to have a lot of fighting.
Hmm, I agree with you. He does improve as a writer as the series goes on but fight scenes are definitely not one of Seth Ring's strong points. It is better but never great. I don't understand why more authors don't take lessons from how good fight scenes are done and incorporate them. Just go read some Abercrombie please!
I also agree with you about it being less satisfying when it just becomes about hand-wavy mystical 'willpower' stuff that somehow this person has so much more than everyone else. The last couple of books of Cradle were not up to the standards of the earlier ones. There is definitely some of that in Titan, and in his other series Battle Mage Farmer. When Titan transitions to a new setting after book 10, but the same characters, it is a bit of a reset and the power levels catch up a bit. Just have to not think about it too much and plow on to enjoy the rest.
I've also caught the LitRPG bug - part of the fun for me is not only watching the characters grow, but also the author grow as a writer. Keep the recommendations coming, I'm still catching up with all the highly-rated series on Unlimited.
So I keep buying books from our local bookstore to support them. (love that lil shop and already support amazon enough with all other types of purchases)
But more and more I am feeling that I would read more if I bought ebooks. (the proof is how much I read on the web already)
Is there a service or way to get an ebook version of a physical book I have already bought?
No not really that I know of, legally at least. You could take the attitude you already paid for it once and you are just format-shifting it so you are ok with downloading it from alternative sources, but that is up to your own morals...
Thanks, on the fence on that one.
I am okay with the morals on that. But I also haven't done anything like that in almost 20 years. So I am not all that motivated to start
It's not 'owning', but you could try your local library. I think most at this point off ebooks.
Lol. I guess I could buy it, read it and return it to amazon...
I think I will try our library. IIRC they have a service like kindle unlimited that is free and accessible by library card.
Yes most libraries have Overdrive these days and if you have a Kindle it is very easy to get them loaded since it often just goes through Amazon. I am not sure if you have a Kobo or Nook or something though.
So I keep buying books from our local bookstore to support them. (love that lil shop and already support amazon enough with all other types of purchases)
But more and more I am feeling that I would read more if I bought ebooks. (the proof is how much I read on the web already)
Is there a service or way to get an ebook version of a physical book I have already bought?
There should be a way to browse books in a bookstore and then use a kiosk to buy and download the book right there. Its really unfortunate that Kindle is so tied into amazons infrastructure.
There should be a way to browse books in a bookstore and then use a kiosk to buy and download the book right there.
There is, but you won't like it. If you take your Kindle device to the bookstore with you, you can find a book, then leave the bookstore and download it right then on your Kindle. (Or wait until you have WiFi.) Same thing with Nook or other ebook readers with stores.
Yeah, I want to give the bookstore my money.
The issue there is that the bookstore will have to charge you *more* for the infrastructure, I suspect.
It's the eternal problem with Amazon, in that they are demonstrably evil, but provide a far superior service to bricks and mortar shops. They only have books 1 and 4 of the series you want to read. They'll grudgingly order a book in, but charge you a lot more for it.
Your idea has a lot of merit to me (I'm in the UK so I'll use Waterstones as an example) - you talk to the shop and ask advice, and they use the email thing to your kindle to send the book you buy from them in .mobi kindle format or something. Unless Amazon's ToS prohibit commercial usage in that way, perhaps.
I always get the impression that the publishing industry just refuses to modernise. Brandon Sanderson has concepts he's failed to get his publishers to do, which is bundling books with other stuff - merch like bookmarks, T shirts or stickers, along with an audiobook credit and e-book to make it worth going into the shop, but the publishers just won't do it. When the 5th Stormlight book comes out, I'm planning on getting it from his shop where he'll probably sell with with a bunch of other stuff (I prefer the US versions of the hardbacks).
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