[Mentalist]

Finished "Drawing of the Three".

Will be moving onto "The Waste Lands"

[QuickTidal]

Finished DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL....um...I don't understand the praise.

This book is like listening in on your 9 year old brother and his friends giving a 13 hour play by play of their video games while also interjecting their 9 year old opinions on what is cool and funny.

Might be easier to keep track of all the dungeons, bugs, weapons, random players, coloured dots, boxes, potions, spells, goblins, training guilds, levels, staircases, floors, etc if they weren't noted every few paragraphs, on every page, FOREVER.

Like I'm a fan of LitRPG, THE CRADLE series is awesome...(as an example)

But this series is not for me.


Bonus annoyance: Also, finding out that for story reasons Carl stays in a pair of heart-adorned white boxer shorts for the entire series...will never not irk me as a reader. Just no. I got the initial deadpool-equse joke of him being in them when the world first ends and stuck in them for book 1....sure?...but the fact that he remains in them for multiple books is utterly insane.

What are you all smoking?

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 09 March 2026 - 03:54 PM

[worry]

I took a break from The Way of Kings after the second major section, which was about 450 pgs in.

I read all of the mainline Walking Dead comics, which I hadn't ever finished before. Then I played the four mainline Telltale TWD games, which I also hadn't finished before. And then I read the three Clementine graphic novels from Tillie Walden, which follow on from the games (sorta). The main series is mostly good -- I didn't really like the show overall, but the comics are solid. The games are mostly good, if you don't mind janky controls. The Lee/Clementine relationship is the best thing in all of TWD media. And then the Clementine books are also pretty good -- they kinda break away from the games in a way that I'm sure some folks wouldn't be happy with, but I was glad to follow Clementine somewhere new.

Now I'm getting back into TWoK. I'll try not to take any more breaks, but so far -- as much as it pains me to say it -- I mostly agree with Maark. I won't start spouting arcane UK gibberish about it, but he's right. This book is gigantic and tedious. Fortunately I have a very high tolerance for tedium, and I do wanna know where it's going. Mostly to confirm that it is going somewhere, but also with some optimism that Brando Sando is intentional with all of this, like he usually is. My favorite thing so far is that this fantasy world has lurnips and curnips instead of turnips.

[amphibian]

QuickTidal, on 09 March 2026 - 03:51 PM, said:

Finished DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL....um...I don't understand the praise.

This book is like listening in on your 9 year old brother and his friends giving a 13 hour play by play of their video games while also interjecting their 9 year old opinions on what is cool and funny.

Might be easier to keep track of all the dungeons, bugs, weapons, random players, coloured dots, boxes, potions, spells, goblins, training guilds, levels, staircases, floors, etc if they weren't noted every few paragraphs, on every page, FOREVER.

Like I'm a fan of LitRPG, THE CRADLE series is awesome...(as an example)

But this series is not for me.


Bonus annoyance: Also, finding out that for story reasons Carl stays in a pair of heart-adorned white boxer shorts for the entire series...will never not irk me as a reader. Just no. I got the initial deadpool-equse joke of him being in them when the world first ends and stuck in them for book 1....sure?...but the fact that he remains in them for multiple books is utterly insane.

What are you all smoking?

There is a false 4th wall break in that Carl complains of being in the shorts very early on and the audience, being perverse in general nature, mandates that he stays in them to constantly push his buttons - and he must because that's the rules of the game he has to play in order to live.

And it's also a sign of what kind of person Carl is (someone who likes a cheesy underwear situation for mundane life), then it plays into the rules of being a character in a book series in which a fun differentiating characteristic is handy to have early on and then it also becomes an easily identifiable characteristic for an actual real Earth person to see, read, understand, and cosplay. There's a breakage of the actual 4th wall here and the author's solution is to just turn it into something more meaningful than a joke.

So there's recursive levels to it and it's ok if this series isn't for you.

I have been someone who wears colorful underwear for a decade plus now. No superheroes or comic book stuff, but there's cool patterns etc and that gives me joy in a quiet way when I need to look at times very office formal in a "no extra stuff" way. I formed a bit of a connection to Carl over the silly underwear, understood why he would want out, tool meaning from his being forced to, then the attachment built to them being constant presences.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Opted for a reread for my trains to and from London.

Legend by David Gemmell. I never get tired of this book.

[Macros]

Dammit RTB, now I want to reread it!!

[champ]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 11 March 2026 - 09:28 AM, said:

Opted for a reread for my trains to and from London.

Legend by David Gemmell. I never get tired of this book.

Macros, on 11 March 2026 - 11:13 AM, said:

Dammit RTB, now I want to reread it!!

I did a full Drenai series reread last year, absolutely fantastic books that still hold up. Legend has a special place in my heart but I really love King Beyond the Gate.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

champ, on 11 March 2026 - 11:20 AM, said:

I did a full Drenai series reread last year, absolutely fantastic books that still hold up. Legend has a special place in my heart but I really love King Beyond the Gate.

I reread Winter Warriors recently (which was my first Drenai book, and as such holds its own place in my heart) - so I didn't think I'd resist for too long

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 11 March 2026 - 02:04 PM

[QuickTidal]

Huh, most of my Gemmel experience is with his Troy series (which I adore) and the Rigante series (read two of the four)...but I don't think I ever even read all of Legend never mind any of the other books in that direct series...

[Tiste Simeon]

There are too many Drenai books. I really want to read all of them but Legend is the only one I've ever actually read. They Troy series is fantastic and so is the Rigante series. I did plan on burgling TRB for her Drenai collection but who's got time for that sort of thing?

[Macros]

Make time.

Waylander is superb, it will never hold the place in my heart that legend does, and will never be reread as much, but damn its a good read.

I think Ive said before the only Gemmell books I didnt really enjoy were the Jon Shannow novels, and the 2 Alexander the greatish novels that somehow link to them.

But Drenai?
Read them all man!

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Macros, on 11 March 2026 - 11:17 PM, said:

Make time.

Waylander is superb, it will never hold the place in my heart that legend does, and will never be reread as much, but damn its a good read.

I think Ive said before the only Gemmell books I didnt really enjoy were the Jon Shannow novels, and the 2 Alexander the greatish novels that somehow link to them.

But Drenai?
Read them all man!

Agree with all of that.

The first Alexander one was fine, the second much more meh for me.

Waylander, Legend of Deathwalker, Winter Warriors and the pair of White Wolf and Swords of Night and Day (moreso the first, but it's worth reading both) are all highlights for me (outside of Legend).

[Tiste Simeon]

I do intend on reading them! Maybe someday!

[worry]

How about next Tuesday?

[Tiste Simeon]

worry, on 12 March 2026 - 11:27 AM, said:

How about next Tuesday?

Well now you mention it...

[Cause]

I kind of forgot until today that Scott launch is supposed to be writing the thorn of emberlain. It’s been ten years. What is happening to authors? Don’t they need to eat?

lies was such a great book, I may give it a reread it. It stands alone quite well I think. Even if Thorn ever gets published I’m not sure I care anymore.

Tiste Simeon, on 11 March 2026 - 05:59 PM, said:

There are too many Drenai books. I really want to read all of them but Legend is the only one I've ever actually read. They Troy series is fantastic and so is the Rigante series. I did plan on burgling TRB for her Drenai collection but who's got time for that sort of thing?

Legend may be the only good one in my opinion.

This post has been edited by Cause: 12 March 2026 - 08:07 PM

[polishgenius]

Cause, on 12 March 2026 - 08:05 PM, said:

I kind of forgot until today that Scott launch is supposed to be writing the thorn of emberlain. It’s been ten years. What is happening to authors? Don’t they need to eat?

lies was such a great book, I may give it a reread it. It stands alone quite well I think. Even if Thorn ever gets published I’m not sure I care anymore.

I mean, Lynch has had well-documented serious mental health struggles so there's that.

In any case the book's in the editing stage, although Lynch hates that stage so that's no guarantee it'll be soon soon- but this year is plausible.


Also: his wife writes loads and is really good and pretty successful, they're probably fine.

[Tiste Simeon]

Oh I didn't know his wife writes, what's her name?

[worry]

Danielle Steel

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

worry, on 12 March 2026 - 11:51 PM, said:

Danielle Steel

Or, Dame Iron as she is called behind closed doors.