What Are You Reading, Part 2

[Mags she/they]

wrap up of what I've read recently?

Cruel Magic: A Victorian Faerie Tale, by E. B. Wheeler

2/5 - I actually bought this from a local author at an arts fair last summer. You can tell it's maybe a little less professional, it felt very first-drafty and has several issues with the pacing and prose. I didn't hate it, though and the characters were very charming. There was a Van Helsing style character who I'm 90% was implied to be LDS which was really cool for me, I loved him.

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

5/5 - Yes. I'd technically already written HG fanfiction before reading or seeing the movies, I'm obsessed.

Spin the dawn, by Elizabeth Lim

3/5 - the epitome of something that has a cool premise but explores it in the shallowest, most straight forward way. The ML was hot but he had no reason to fall in love with the FL.  Also, some technical writing mistakes that bothered me. I'll probably finish the duology anyway because I'm curious and have no self-respect.

Shadow and Bone, by Leigh Bardugo

2.5/5 - I'm begging Leigh Bardugo to give her characters personalities (especially The Darkling, my man had so much little cryptid guy potential).

The Cruel Prince, by Holly Black

2/5 - It ignited a deep and indescribable rage inside me. I wanted to throw this book against the wall, and then burn it, and punch the MC in the face. 
It was fine, though.

Edited November 18, 2024 by J. Magi

[aneonfoxtribute]

I finished ReZero arc 6! I am now caught up to where the anime will be at the end of next season!

[Zurvanight he/him]

I started reading the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series by Tad Williams today after finishing his Shadowmarch series last night. I plan to read the sequel series The Last King of Osten Ard as well.

So far Simon is annoying but I guess most children at that age are haha.

[The cheeseman Don't you dare go Hollow!]

8 hours ago, Zurvanight said:

I started reading the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series by Tad Williams today after finishing his Shadowmarch series last night. I plan to read the sequel series The Last King of Osten Ard as well.

So far Simon is annoying but I guess most children at that age are haha.

Spoiler

He gets better, iirc. It's been a minute since I read the series.

 

[Through The Living Glass She/They]

After years of meaning to read this book (y'all know how it is), I finally started Children of Blood and Bone my Tomi Adeyemi!

It's kind of slow right now, but I am only fifty pages in.

I've heard only good things, so . . . 

[Briar King]

Finished GGK's Sarantium 2 today. Ended strong! So good. I wanna go straight to Last Light of the Sun but I've been successfully able to put it off to see if I can get into Michelle West's The Hidden City 1st.

[Treamayne]

Tales of Annwn by Shawn Speakman (Book 1 - The Dark Thorn) Urban Fantasy - Alternate Earth

Spoiler

The Fae are real, but when Christianity came to the Isles, they were pushed off of our world by the Templars to exist only in the summer lands (Annwn) and 8 Knights use Arthurian Relics to guard the portals between the 2 worlds - to protect both worlds from each other. - Book 1: A Scion of Henry II was sent through before the portals were guarded and stopped and he has risen to Power in Annwn. Somehow finding a way to prevent aging, he has now raised an army of Knights and half-breeds and he intends to pursue the Fourth Crusade and conquer Annwn and the Vatican (and eventually the rest of our world)

It's pretty good - and doesn't quite reach great because of a plot hole that really bothers me. It's good enough I have finished the first book and moved into the novella and short stories in the Twilight Dragon anthology.

[The Stormfather He/Him]

Rereading Warrior Cats Arc 3 for the 200th time.

Quote

Not even that much of an exaggeration.

 

[Treamayne]

Finally working on Night Angel: Nemesis. I look forward to seeing what others think. I'm almost done with "Day Two," and . . . not quite sure how I feel about this new trilogy yet. Something about it bothers me a bit, but I can't quite put my finger on what it is yet. 

[+Slowswift]

The Southern Reach Trilogy is delightfully creepy. I just finished book two (I got a copy with all three bound together under the name Area X) and loved it. I'm hoping book three holds up and gives a satisfying end to the series. Give it a shot if you like trippy sci-fi and don't mind swearing. 

[Mags she/they]

I finally finished the Dungeon Meshi manga. It's not very long, but I started it last summer and completely forgot to finish it until now. I quite liked the ending, it was a bit strange but I think that was rather the point. I'll probably watch the 2nd season of the anime when it comes out.

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

God-Emperor of Dune is a deeply intellectual book.

I thought Dune was okay. I liked it an average amount, though it was not an average book. It simply strayed from the norm in ways I found canceled each other out. I actively disliked Dune: Messiah. The things that Dune did averagely or badly, it did worse, and it did not do other things better.

I first saw the change in Children of Dune. I found the first part of the book boring, though it was helped by having quite a bit of interesting tension and more int. After that first part, the tension didn't fade, but the worldbuilding and characters grew even more interesting. I found it thought provoking, but, as with the previous books, I didn't really like the plot.

God-Emperor of Dune carried through everything that Children did right, but it had an interesting plot, the most interesting and compelling character I've ever read (the primary character that first appeared in Messiah, to not give spoilers), one of the most interesting characters I've ever read (other major viewpoint that was introduced all the way back in the first book), and some of the most intriguing thought experiments I've ever seen. Legitimate 10/10, I will 100% be reading it again, and thinking about it until I do.

Edited November 12, 2024 by The Unknown Order

[Elegy he/him]

I've read some of classics of gothic literature for the "spooky season". I'm now reading "The Picture of Dorian Gray". A few chapters in and it's a bit hard for me to really care for what happens next story-wise (a problem that Frankenstein or Dracula, for instance, never had), but at the same time, it's well-written enough to still be a very entertaining read. Especially the dialogue really shows the influence that Oscar Wilde's writing style had on Brandon's writing of Lightsong and Hoid! Pure distilled snark.

[BenKenobi7333 He/Him/Mandalorian]

Finished reading Elantris.

Halfway though a reread of Oathbringer. I missed a lot the first time I read it so I’m reading it once again.

[Mags she/they]

Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli

2.5/5 - "Maybe the real manic pixie dream girl was actually the lessons we learned along the way."

I'm too nitpicky to like this book

-The themes lacked necessary nuance and boiled the conflict down to an immature black-and-white depiction of the actual topic. Non-conformity = good, conformity = bad. Leo was wrong to tell Stargirl that she should conform to the schools silly social norms, but he wasn't wrong to tell her that crossing boundaries and invading privacy is bad. Even if her intentions are innocent, you need permission to take pictures of people, and you need an invitation to private family gatherings. People don't get mad at you for crossing boundaries because they 'just don't understand you,' they get mad because you crossed a line.

-It felt outdated when it comes to the general discussion of the topic. I know it's 20 years old, but I guess that means it didn't age well.

-Stargirl is not that weird. Even though that's the point of the book. Wearing bright clothes and bringing a ukulele to school is normal I see it every week.

Okay I'm done.

Edited November 18, 2024 by J. Magi

[Use the Falchion]

Rereading parts of Cradle again and again as I spin my wheels on actively starting a new book. Fortunately, the Cradle anthology book, Threshold, releases for Kickstarter backers on Thursday. 

Cradle has been my comfort food series this year, in a way that no other series other than the ones Sanderson writes, have been. I highly highly HIGHLY recommend them. After Wind and Truth, of course! 

[Eluvianii he/him]

Read the first volume of Tearmoon Empire on a whim and got hooked. I haven't read any other stories in the genre of MC going back in time after dying to fix everything, but I suspect this is not the way they usually go.

I swear, this story knows how to do exactly one thing and one thing only, but I don't get tired of that thing. The protagonist will come up with a plan to change a certain aspect of the future she comes from, she'll fail miserably, but her failure will actually accomplish what she was trying to do, a lot better than she was trying, a critical success. And she won't even realize it.

It's so dumb and kind of adorable and actually pretty cozy, this is something I could end up binging. We'll see.

[Mags she/they]

I finally finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss after procrastinating the last hundred pages for about a month. It was fantastic and amazing and everything I had hoped.

Now I can start Wind and Truth 

[Wittles he/him]

4 hours ago, Magi said:

I finally finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss after procrastinating the last hundred pages for about a month. It was fantastic and amazing and everything I had hoped.

Now I can start Wind and Truth 

I love The Name of the Wind dearly, I'm glad you liked it!

I started Wind and Truth last night and I already love it so much

[Briar King]

Almost done with Hidden City. This has been a hell of a slog to get through and I for sure will not be reading the next book immediately afterwards like I normally do.

Speaking of slogs I'm only on pg 220 something of SLA 5 after almost a month now. This could very well be my last SLA. I shudder every time I get to a headcase boy #1 or a headcase gal #who the hell knows now.. chapter/section. I just don't get how they are liked by people but to each their own.

 

[𝖂𝖍𝖎𝖗𝖙𝖊]

Over the last month, I binge read most of the cosmere again. I read WaT twice. I'm currently looking for something else to read. I would love some suggestions!

[Treamayne]

2 hours ago, WhiteHairedDrifter said:

Over the last month, I binge read most of the cosmere again. I read WaT twice. I'm currently looking for something else to read. I would love some suggestions!

There's a thread for that. Everything on the list was suggested by Sharders here, organized by (rough) genre over two posts. New recommendations added at the end of the thread are updated to these two posts:

1. First post - guidance and summary
2. Speculative Fiction
3. Other Genres and MG/YA (and other content-warning-absent material)

Hope that helps. 

For my part, I would suggest:

Spoiler

• Fantasy - Codex Alrea, Seven Kennings, Lightbringer
• Urban Fantasy - Dresden Files, Iron Druid Chronicles, Monster Hunter Int'l
• Sci-Fan - Dungeon Crawler Carl, Red Rising
• Sci-Fi - Robots/Foundation series (Asimov), The Martian/Project Hail Mary (Weir)

Synopses of all of these should be in that link. 

 

Edited January 6, 2025 by Treamayne
SPAG

[Briar King]

Oh my I finally finished Hidden City.. that was a slog for 600 pgs and then a fairly descent final 100 pgs. As I said prior I'm in NO hurry to crack the next one open.

So I decided I might want to reread Alloy 1-3 so I can finish 4 at the same time I'm reading the sludge that is SLA 5 and before I know it I've gotten over 100 pgs done of Alloy. Such a difference in enjoyment.....

[Briar King]

I am already well into Shadows of Self reread and I haven’t even finished 1 whole pg of W&T since I’ve started this reread. Yeah I have no drive for SLA…these books should be the sauce and they have become anything but that. 

[Kasimir he/him]

Currently on Are You An Echo? - it's aimed at children but I've found myself really enjoying Kaneko Misuzu's poetry, and there are places that remind me of Mary Oliver, almost.

One of the times I wish I actually had the time to learn Japanese so I could appreciate the original works...