[Macros]

going to have to pick up Slow Gods, I feel like some Claire North fuck the power

[Tiste Simeon]

Yes do it!

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Small Gods is on my Waterstones wishlist (which is essentially my birthday/Christmas list)

Just started There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Sharak. It's been recommended to me a few times - the stories of three lives all touched by the Epic of Gilgamesh.

[Chance]

Got through Out Law by Jim Butcher a kind of condensed Dresden story in novella form.

Enjoyed it but perhaps not too much substance added to the series.

[Macros]

Finished Slow God's,

Excellent as usual from North

[Tiste Simeon]

Macros, on 23 June 2026 - 11:46 AM, said:

Finished Slow God's,

Excellent as usual from North

Yes! I'm really glad you liked it.

[worry]

Quick catchup:
I read Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. With some time and distance, I've landed mostly in "I didn't like" territory with The Poppy War. Yellowface, in contrast, is contemporary fiction and something of a satire about appropriation in the literary world, and about the literary world more broadly. It's another unlikeable protagonist in first person perspective, but the overall concept makes it much more bearable because she's often the butt of the joke, and she can also be sharp and funny about her experiences. In some places though, it's a little wobbly on how self-aware the main character is -- like there's obviously a lot of self-pity and ego, but maybe there's some self-commentary that's a little more authorial POV creeping in. Anyway, still overall a good book imo.

I read The Martian and then watched the movie. Plan to do the same with Project Hail Mary soon. I don't need to say that much about this, I'm sure, as I'm super late to the game. But yeah the book is quite good, the movie is pretty good, and I look forward to PHM.

I read a book called The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn. Starts off at the end of WWI in southern England (Dorset?). The main character at first is a young girl in a family of what I guess you'd called landed gentry. Their estate is near the seaside, and a big whale corpse washes up on the beach, causing some excitment for her and various others. Eventually a couple more kids arrive on the scene, and they become prominent characters too. There's some unique people and events, but it's not as whimsical as that setup sounds, necessarily. The book is divided into parts, each one lasting a couple years with some big time jumps between, at least early on. So like by Part 2 she's a teenager with a couple younger siblings, and they're putting on plays in the whalebone theatre. Eventually it gets to WWII era, which from what I've inferred had some kind of impact on England (citation needed). In terms of my opinion -- the prose is really nice and playful, the characters are well defined, and the first half of the book is pretty great. The second half still has plenty of good qualities but the 'adult' lives of these characters wasn't quite as interesting for me.

I read Dungeon Crawler Carl book 6 -- The Eye of the Bedlam Bride. Still fun, but not my favorite gaming mechanics on this floor. Story-wise it's definitely a bridging book between the big stuff from last book to the big stuff sure to come in the next one. Not that nothing important happens, but it's definitely clean-up.

Now I'm finally starting Words of Radiance. I'm not mad at the first few chapters, so hopefully that's a good sign. I can't promise I won't pause every couple hundred pages to read something else though.

This post has been edited by worry: 23 June 2026 - 11:50 PM

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 08 June 2026 - 01:36 PM, said:

Abyss, on 03 June 2026 - 02:07 PM, said:

... so CHILDREN OF STRIFE it is! Two chapters in, loving it. Already enjoying more than CHILDREN OF MEMORY, this is more concrete without losing the wild elements from that story.

Also, GIANT MANTIS SHRIMP ASTRONAUT!!!!!!!!

follow up to note that the GIANT MANTIS SHRIMP ASTRONAUT character is now like my favoritest fictional character EVER.

Just Finished. Sticks the landing beautifully, very satisfying read (listen). Massively better than Children of Memory. Adored the cast, was engaged by the conflicts, further develops the 'CHILDREN OF' world very effectively.

Spoiler

In particular, the spinning of Kearn off into individual AIs and the way that flowed into the Spiders developing their own AIs, the refinement of the Node entity(s), and all of it in contrast with the industrialists. Also the way Kato, and by implication other uplifted Mantis Shrimp, resist incorporation into the AIs and Nodes. Also, Kato's race's history was absolutely wild, esp the way the Collective's generousity giving them their own system and ships backfired so hideously.... the classic trope there would have been for them to invade the Collective but AT acks that possibility then turns it into something even worse as they proceed to annihilate themselves, and then he turns that into Kato's personal arc... it's really very well written.

...so yah, great book.

Next up, BETWEEN TWO FIRE, Chris Bheulman.

[Abyss]

k look, i ack audiodramas are not books and i'm stretching the 'audiobooks are still reading' concept when i raise them... BUT.... people.... my people...


You've seen me post about MIDNIGHT BURGER before. A perhaps once characterized as 'cute/cozy' podcast drama about the employees of a diner that travels through time and space. But it quickly becomes so so much more than that. The character work, the storylines, the science behind the science fiction, the set-up/payoff, even the action which they somehow make work while limited to audio only...You've seen me rave. I swear to you the praise is deserved.


Now, if you doubted me, rethink... bcs now the nice people from CRITICAL ROLL... yes, THOSE people.... the VOX MACHINA and MIGHTY NEIN people, have agreed w me, bcs they've entered into a hosting and content production deal with the MIDNIGHT BURGER people.

The fifth season of MB is just wrapping up, along w the third season of the WELCOME TO THE HORIZON spin-off parallel show (that is equally epic and glorious).... that means there is roughly 200+hrs of material out there for you to listen to AND IT'S FREE. Also on whatever podcast app you use.

People... the quality of this story is ridiculous, and - i am fairly certain of this - w Critical Roll behind them it's going to become HUGE. Do NOT cheat yourselves of getting in 'early', it's SO SO GOOD.

[QuickTidal]

Finished THE THIRTEEN GUN SALUTE by Patrick O'Brian (books13 of the Aubrey & Maturin series). It was solid, but I must say the back half of the series has not been NEARLY as compelling and readable as the first ten books...they are still very decent and a step above most historical fiction out there, but you can feel the series is getting a bit thin on ideas at this point.

I want to finally read MORNING STAR by Pierce Brown, but I feel I wanted a GOLDEN SON refresher (as I took it out as a library book and rushed through it to be able to return it on time), so I'm listening to the full cast dramatization on Hoopla, and how did I NEVER put together that Darrow would have an Irish accent? LOL Anyways, it's awesome so far.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 02 July 2026 - 03:27 PM, said:

...
Next up, BETWEEN TWO FIRE, Chris Bheulman.

I was enjoying this, but it's so very unrelentingly grim that I found i was too often just not feeling it after a few listens. I adored BLACKTONGUE THEIF and enjoyed DAUGHTERS' WAR, but the author's approach here is really quite different. He's exceptionally talented and im impressed w his ability to handle the story he's spinning, it's simply that my brain isn't in the right space for unrelenting damnation and existential angst and so i went looking for something light as a cerebral cleanser between chapters. I have some glorious books in the TRPFH but i wasn't looking to compete w FIRES, just break it up a bit. A random reddit thread gave me A TRADER'S TALES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE SOLAR CLIPPER by Nathan Lowell. The author did the earbook narration for the series and then posted the chapters as podcasts.

It's a fairly basic premise... young man must leave his home planet, gets a berth on a merchant starship and works his way up the ranks. It might fairly be called 'cozy sf', each chapter is him learning a job, dealing with another crew member, growing as a person. I Just Finished books 1 and 2, QUARTER SHARE and HALF SHARE and am halfway into bk 3 FULL SHARE before there is even anything resembling a 'crisis' or real conflict. Without spoiling, there is near zero action, no marauding space pirates, no hostile aliens, no super-harsh space-wants-to-kill-you (so far). It's simply engaging in a way that works very nicely. The writing has a fwd momentum that walks, near never runs, but never stalls or repeats or circles back either. The protag Ishmael (yes they make all the obvious Moby Dick jokes) is far from flawless or over-the-top, but he's quietly competent and relatable for the most part. I could live w a touch less of his love-life ... to be fair it would be odd for an 18-yr-old male in his situation not to have one... it's that in that area the author skips the learning curve we see in every other respect and jumps between a far more mature perspective and back to uncertain young man in a way that's less believable than virtually everything else in the series so far. I can see where some might cry 'Gary Stu' but i don't think that's fair, the character works, in story, for near everything he gets.

Am continuing w the series alongside FIRES tho i catch myself listening to TRADER'S as much if not more.

It's a fun light read and if you're looking for that it's worth a try and 'free' is very affordable.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 09 July 2026 - 04:42 PM, said:

Abyss, on 02 July 2026 - 03:27 PM, said:

...
Next up, BETWEEN TWO FIRE, Chris Bheulman.

I was enjoying this, but it's so very unrelentingly grim that I found i was too often just not feeling it after a few listens. I adored BLACKTONGUE THEIF and enjoyed DAUGHTERS' WAR, but the author's approach here is really quite different. He's exceptionally talented and im impressed w his ability to handle the story he's spinning, it's simply that my brain isn't in the right space for unrelenting damnation and existential angst ...

Yeah this book is losing me. Over the course of roughly one hour of eartime for FIRES ( w 6/13 to go), i've finished/enjoyed three books of the TRADERS series and started a fourth. Am considering a DNF or jump to the end. The last sequence i read, a stunning battle between angels and devils (that's not a spoiler it's the basis of the entire book, blurb fwd) left me mostly annoyed with the characters' actions. They just keep doing dumb things of no particular consequence under the guise of being unsophisticated or overwhelmed and this is a trope i just don't enjoy, see also RED RABBIT of recent memory. 'Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances' is one of my favorite plots when done well, but when they just kind of flounder around... meh.

[QuickTidal]

QuickTidal, on 09 July 2026 - 03:43 PM, said:

I want to finally read MORNING STAR by Pierce Brown, but I feel I wanted a GOLDEN SON refresher (as I took it out as a library book and rushed through it to be able to return it on time), so I'm listening to the full cast dramatization on Hoopla, and how did I NEVER put together that Darrow would have an Irish accent? LOL Anyways, it's awesome so far.

Spoiler

The Gala is a bloodbath in the text, the Dramatized Audio makes it even more brutal.

[polishgenius]

Finished The Republic of Memory, by Mahmud El Sayed, which I mentioned to amph in the movie thread the other day.

It's good shit and I recommend it, but it is irritating that nowhere on the (online) packaging/blurb etc is it mentioned that this is the first of, at least, a duology, if not a series.

Still: good shit, political SF on a generation ship with a distinct Arabic slant (based in part on the Arab Spring). There's a very strong character-reacting-to-culture component to this, strong characters in general, and good politicing. It isn't anywhere near as mind-mending in its actual SF as the marketing bumph seems to think, but that's not on the author and it doesn't make it less of a book- it's just not that weird compared to some generation-ship SF or political epic SF.

[pat5150]

Recently read Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novella Out Law. Brings nothing new to the dance, other than the implication that wiping out the Red Court might have unleashed an ancient evil power that could impact the story arc down the line. But it's cool to see Harry, Bear, and Fitz again.

Peter F. Hamilton's The Helium Sea was a banger. The first volume was my favorite SFF read of 2024 and this one is now on pole position for 2026!

[T77]

pat5150, on 15 July 2026 - 06:52 PM, said:

Recently read Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novella Out Law. Brings nothing new to the dance, other than the implication that wiping out the Red Court might have unleashed an ancient evil power that could impact the story arc down the line. But it's cool to see Harry, Bear, and Fitz again.

Peter F. Hamilton's The Helium Sea was a banger. The first volume was my favorite SFF read of 2024 and this one is now on pole position for 2026!

I just finished Butcher's The Law novella. I thought it was mediocre. Out Law is next, as well as The Helium Sea.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Started Katherine Arden's new book, The Unicorn Hunters.

Anyone who liked her Bear and the Nightingale trilogy might want to have a look into this one - it's billed to be a bit more traditional fantasy than the wartime standalone The Warm Hands of Ghosts was

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 17 July 2026 - 10:26 AM

[QuickTidal]

TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 17 July 2026 - 10:26 AM, said:

Started Katherine Arden's new book, The Unicorn Hunters.

Anyone who liked her Bear and the Nightingale trilogy might want to have a look into this one - it's billed to be a bit more traditional fantasy than the wartime standalone The Warm Hands of Ghosts was

The blurb sounds wonderful! I might check this out. Thanks!

EDIT: I have an audible credit and the sample has me very interested, so I may grab this for my transatlantic flight to England at the end of the month!

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 17 July 2026 - 11:55 AM

[Macros]

Rereading Prachett, started Colour Of Magic yesterday evening, onto Light Fantastic tonight

[polishgenius]

The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan, a recent debut. Had a great time. It's a fantasy retelling of the legend of the Beast of Gevaudan. Bit of gay love story, bit of myth-horror adventure. Bit of Joe Abrecrombie, bit of Susannah Clarke. It's witty and heartbreaking and thrilling and irreverent you should read it. Also: manages the neat trick of feeling like an elegant story even though it's telling it via three timelines simultaneously. It's not totally free of issue- the writing of women doesn't match the writing of the main male characters. I also suspect the way it approaches religion might annoy people on both sides of the aisle, being both deeply non-reverential and fairly obviously blasphemous in some respects, and also hyper-critical of the organisation itself, and yet somehow also seeming oddly, deep-down respectful of the basis of the religion (which may or may not go another way in the obviuously-planned sequels). I'd call that good writing more than bad, but the tonal swerve might throw people. Minor thing though.


All in all it's a ridiculously good time. If you like The Devils you'll like this, and if you don't like The Devils you'll probably still like this.