What Are You Reading, Part 2

[Ookla the Newt she/her]

I'm currently rereading the Beyonders trilogy (yes I knowwwww its for a much younger age group than my age) and am being reminded of exactly how much I love that trilogy.

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

I just finished Calamity yesterday. I quite liked the ending, it isn't Sanderson without a plot twist, but it certainly isn't a HoA.

I also am a few pages into The Eye of the World now.

[Through The Living Ash he/him]

6 hours ago, Ookla the Tachyon said:

I just finished Calamity yesterday. I quite liked the ending, it isn't Sanderson without a plot twist, but it certainly isn't a HoA.

I also am a few pages into The Eye of the World now.

The first few pages are the best pages. 

Edited December 2, 2025 by Ookla the Incorrigible

[Schizoposting]

I just finished The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. The basic premise of the book is that a human envoy is trying to convince an alien offshoot of humanity to join a confederation. But this is complicated by their unique biology: the aliens are "ambisexual" hermaphrodites who adopt sexual characteristics only once a month to reproduce. For the envoy to convince them to join his pan-human confederation, he has to overcome his prejudices and understand the aliens.

Now, personally I preferred A Wizard of Earthsea (also written by Le Guin, and which I liked a lot) over The Left Hand of Darkness; I think this is because the former had a much more linear narrative than the latter, which is written in a very postmodern non-linear way. Also, I think that Le Guin's new age Taoism works a lot better in fantasy than in science fiction. As for the content the content of the book, I agree with a lot of the criticism, that for instance, the ambisexuals were presented in a masculine, rather than androgynous manner (partly, because they are referred to with masculine pronouns, presumably because "they" wasn't used as a gender neutral pronoun back then, the way it is used now). Overall, while it was very revolutionary for its time (it was published in 1969), and is a classic work of new wave science fiction, looking back from today, one kind of does wonder what all the fuss is about.

[ThroughTheLivingIlliterate He/Him]

The Idiot by Fyodr Dostoevsky

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

So I've been travelling a lot recently, which means more time spent listening to audiobooks. I finished Project Hail Mary, The Eye of the World, and Shadows in Flight.

Project Hail Mary

Really liked this one, it is good hard sci-fi with a well-developed protagonist.

Spoiler

The only thing I don't understand is why they didn't consider the fact that the Tau Ceti system might simply not have had any CO2-rich planets before launching the Hail Mary. It would've been a massive waste if that were the case.

I also think they should've developed a backup plan, like hitting Venus with the world's entire nuclear arsenal to slow down its orbit enough to crash it into the sun. I don't have the physics to calculate if that would actually be enough force, but they could've considered it.

The Eye of the World

This one was... alright. It felt really slow, and kind of like the Black Prism in some ways, expect there were no Moraine POVs to explain the magic system, so I feel a lot more in the dark as to what's happening.

Spoiler

I really expected Mat and Perrin to do something at the end, but they were just kind of there, which felt a little disappointing.

I also don't understand why Rand is a problem, since saidin was tainted only because of the Dark One, and the Dark One is now gone, so there shouldn't be a taint anymore, at least that's what I think.

Also it feels way too easy for the Dark One to be dead already, I'm thinking that the power is like a Shard and it'll get a new Vessel. One of the main cast, perhaps?

I shall be continuing to read the rest of WoT though, as the lore feels really deep and I want to know more. Also what'll happen to the characters going forward.

Shadows in Flight

I have been stretching the Shadow Saga for almost a year now I think. I read all except Shadow of the Hegemon as audiobooks. It is... interesting, though I mostly keep reading/listening to these books because I want a resolution, and I want to see what goes on in the Last Shadow, since Children of the Mind didn't feel resolved enough.

Spoiler

I'm up to the part where the crew found the Formic ship and the rat things, and Carlotta is telling 'em about the cylinders.

 

[aneonfoxtribute]

4 hours ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren said:

The Eye of the World

This one was... alright. It felt really slow, and kind of like the Black Prism in some ways, expect there were no Moraine POVs to explain the magic system, so I feel a lot more in the dark as to what's happening.

  Reveal hidden contents

I really expected Mat and Perrin to do something at the end, but they were just kind of there, which felt a little disappointing.

I also don't understand why Rand is a problem, since saidin was tainted only because of the Dark One, and the Dark One is now gone, so there shouldn't be a taint anymore, at least that's what I think.

Also it feels way too easy for the Dark One to be dead already, I'm thinking that the power is like a Shard and it'll get a new Vessel. One of the main cast, perhaps?

I shall be continuing to read the rest of WoT though, as the lore feels really deep and I want to know more. Also what'll happen to the characters going forward.

Spoiler

It's only book one. Mat and Perrin will be given stuff to do eventually, don't worry.

It's not that simple. The taint doesn't go away because the Dark One does. The taint is inherently attached to Saidin, a consequence that won't leave just because the person who caused it is gone.

 

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

10 hours ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

  Hide contents

It's only book one. Mat and Perrin will be given stuff to do eventually, don't worry.

It's not that simple. The taint doesn't go away because the Dark One does. The taint is inherently attached to Saidin, a consequence that won't leave just because the person who caused it is gone.

 

Spoiler

Ah

That makes sense.

 

[Treamayne]

On 1/3/2026 at 5:55 PM, Theory said:

Armada by Ernest Cline (of Ready Player 1) is a sci-fi book about this guy who basically plays this videogame (I believe it was VR) about fighting aliens in flying vehicles (ship? Planes? Jets?)

@Theory I felt that Armada was:

Spoiler

Underwhelming, at best. 
Not nearly as bad as Ready Player Two (which is a whole different discussion), but also not close to the quality of Ready Player One either. 

It's basically a poorly re-skinned version of The Last Starfighter (classic 80s Sci Fi) - so maybe the comparison knocked down my impression of the book (the movie is a favorite; but then, anything with Robert Preston is generally going to be good). 

For Lightbringer fans - recently found these:

• Ending Article - Shawarma Extra postlude
  • The Real Ending (not really)

Edited January 7 by Treamayne
Links

[Schizoposting]

I recently finished Lord Foul's Bane, and The War of the Flowers by Stephen R. Donaldson and Tad Williams respectively.

The former, while by no means terrible, wasn't particularly interesting IMO—the prose felt rather unwieldly, the lore/worldbuilding was pretty confusing, and Thomas Covenant wasn't that interesting of a character. I guess the reason why it is so well received, is because it was genuinely innovative for its time (it was published in 1977), compared to, say, The Sword of Shannara.

I am still at least going to read the first trilogy of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, simply because of how influential it was on the fantasy genre as a whole; The Wheel of Time, was obviously heavily influenced by it, and the Ryshadium are also an obvious homage to the Ranyhyn.

The later I liked a lot; The War of the Flowers is a standalone epic/portal fantasy, that has some very interesting worldbuilding, and premise, whilst avoiding a lot of the bloat that tends to come with epic fantasy (although it does get a bit slow about 3/4 the way through, before the climax). Tad Williams generally has some issues with his plotting, but it seems like the standalone nature of this work allowed for a much tighter plot. 

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

On 1/5/2026 at 3:28 PM, Treamayne said:

• The Real Ending (not really)

That was... definitely something  

[Treamayne]

23 minutes ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren said:

That was... definitely something  

Guessing you also did not heed the warning.. . . 

Edited January 8 by Treamayne
SPAG

[Eluvianii he/him]

Had to hurry since the anime adaptation started already, but I just finished You and I Are Polar Opposites. I absolutely did not think I'd be this distressed to finish it. Genuinely can't stand the thought that I don't get to see these characters anymore. Well I mean, there's the anime, but I mean new situations. The last chapter did imply that there would be a sequel, I think. Really hope that goes through.

Well, I've been feeling this way since, probably before the halfway point of the series, but now that I'm finished this is officially my favorite romance story. I utterly adore every character, the themes the story touches on, the exploration on each character's insecurities, the dynamic between each couple, the outright refusal to rely on unnecessary drama or misunderstandings to pad things out.

That's a new-ish trend I've noticed in recent stories actually. Sometimes you'll see a misunderstanding, or some lack of communication pop up between two characters, something that by all accounts should be resolved pretty fast with a single conversation. And then, the unthinkable, it IS resolved within a single conversation. I swear, older anime made entire story arcs out of stuff like that. So glad that's a thing of the past.

Anyway, it was simply beautiful, and I'm glad I get to watch it once more for the next three months, to cope with the fact that it's over.

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

I started reading the 3-Body problem last night and am very much into and probably would be finished if I wasn't constrained by sleep. It's good but kind of weird.

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

28 minutes ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

I started reading the 3-Body problem last night and am very much into and probably would be finished if I wasn't constrained by sleep. It's good but kind of weird.

The characters are bad, but everything else is good. 

What exactly do you mean by weird?

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

1 hour ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren said:

The characters are bad, but everything else is good. 

What exactly do you mean by weird?

If you haven't continued yet, I think the characters get better in the next one, though I haven't worked up the mental power to read the third yet

I would agree on weird though. I've read literal villain characters who I disagreed with less than the conclusions the books come to

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

34 minutes ago, The Unknown Medallion said:

If you haven't continued yet, I think the characters get better in the next one, though I haven't worked up the mental power to read the third yet

I would agree on weird though. I've read literal villain characters who I disagreed with less than the conclusions the books come to

I've read all three. The last one's my favourite.

Who are you talking about?

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

44 minutes ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren said:

Who are you talking about?

It's been a while, but the main character of DF was a huge step up as far as I recall, and there were a couple others I think

[Schizoposting]

I finally finished The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson. I didn't particularly like the first book (Lord Foul's Bane), but I think that the second and third book were markedly better. The main issue with the series, is how unlikable Thomas Covenant is as a character; it's not that he's an anti-hero who does morally reprehensible things—there're plenty of immoral or otherwise villainous characters that I still find to be entertaining to follow—it's his endless self-pitying and loathing that makes him tedious. It's like Kaladin's depression sequences, but a thousand times worse.

It's for this reason that the second book (The Illearth War) is my favorite of the three; it introduced a secondary POV character (Hile Troy) who was much more likable and interesting than Thomas Covenant. In addition, Donaldson toned down some of Covenants most aggravating qualities. This is also the case for the third and final book (The Power that Preserves), but I liked it slightly less than The Illearth War, mainly for plot reasons.

Overall, I appreciate what Donaldson was trying to do with the series with his character study of Thomas Covenant—especially considering the state of the fantasy genre at the time—but I feel like the enjoyability of the series suffers because of Covenant's character. Certainly, the point of art isn't to be necessarily enjoyable, but I still think that the series could have been potentially better written to avoid this whilst still conveying the same themes and ideas.

I know that I'm repeating myself here, but I think that a lot of genre-defining "classics" lose their luster when read in the present, because what was revolutionary when it was written, has long since become trite. This, in my opinion, is the case with The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever which was arguably the first true epic fantasy to go beyond The Lord of the Rings.

 

[Dunkum he/him]

24 minutes ago, Schizoposting said:

I finally finished The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson. I didn't particularly like the first book (Lord Foul's Bane), but I think that the second and third book were markedly better. The main issue with the series, is how unlikable Thomas Covenant is as a character; it's not that he's an anti-hero who does morally reprehensible things—there're plenty of immoral or otherwise villainous characters that I still find to be entertaining to follow—it's his endless self-pitying and loathing that makes him tedious. It's like Kaladin's depression sequences, but a thousand times worse.

100% with you on this description. even at his best, Covenant is insufferable. its like a whole series of just Kaladin's worst most self-recriminating chapters, but without the eventual self-realization to resolve it.

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

So I finished Shadows in Flight. I'm ~250 pages into The Great Hunt and I have begun listening to the graphic audio version of the Sons of Ares graphic novels, which are prequels to Red Rising.

Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card

Spoiler

Now, the Formic workers having their own minds is something that doesn't really make sense to me. It's not just that there is no foreshadowing of it, its that it doesn't make sense why the Formic workers would evolve independence.

Formics evolved from very ant-like ancestors, except they had FTL communication instead of pheromones. Worker ants don't need to be actively suppressed by the queen so they don't rebel; they would gladly give up their lives for the colony's survival anyway. The worker Formics shouldn't need sentience at all, and it makes no sense for them to rebel against the queen, especially if Formics have haplodiploidy like real Hymonopterans. The queen should not need organelles to keep the workers in line.

I'm just really annoyed by this. 

The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan

Spoiler

I'm up to the part where Rand, Loial and Hurin return to the real world with Selene..

When they first found Selene, I was immediately like, "Darkfriend!" I still stand by that. She's trying to get Rand to channel.

Also it almost feels like Rand accomplished nothing by killing the Dark One, because he's back now and it looks like nothing has changed.

I'm sure something will have happened from it, but it isn't clear what at this point.

Sons of Ares, Volume 1  by Pierce Brown and Rik Hoskin

Spoiler

I'm up to where Bryn has escaped Arturious and Fitchner has found where she is.

Triton was really interesting.

I do wonder how Fitchner has so many low- and midColour contacts though.

 

[aneonfoxtribute]

Tomorrow I begin the final Cradle book, Waybound. The series has been peak, and I can't wait for it to conclude peak

[Schizoposting]

22 hours ago, Dunkum said:

100% with you on this description. even at his best, Covenant is insufferable. its like a whole series of just Kaladin's worst most self-recriminating chapters, but without the eventual self-realization to resolve it.

Yeah, but as I said, that's kind of the point. The whole series is basically a deconstruction of the hero's journey/chosen one trope, that was popular in fantasy at the time, like in Shannara. But you're right that it can make for a pretty frustrating read.

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

Read Ender's Game on a whim and that spiraled off into a reread of Speaker for the Dead and a first time listen of Ender's Shadow.

Rereading SftD really makes me feel stupid for not figuring out the twist earlier. I also, in the time between when I last read this book and now, have become much more proficient at Portuguese, which very much improves the experience. I've been groaning at my old pronunciations and skipping the sidebar translations this time around, and it's a cool marker of how much better I've gotten.

I'm not done with Ender's Shadow yet, but I don't think my opinion will change much. It's a good book, but not on the level of EG or SftD. I just really don’t like urchin sequences (I skim Trebon in my NotW rereads), and though I got through it this time, the books been pretty average otherwise. I was on the edge of my seat when we learned about Bean's history though.

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

3 minutes ago, The Unknown Medallion said:

Read Ender's Game on a whim and that spiraled off into a reread of Speaker for the Dead and a first time listen of Ender's Shadow.

Rereading SftD really makes me feel stupid for not figuring out the twist earlier. I also, in the time between when I last read this book and now, have become much more proficient at Portuguese, which very much improves the experience. I've been groaning at my old pronunciations and skipping the sidebar translations this time around, and it's a cool marker of how much better I've gotten.

I'm not done with Ender's Shadow yet, but I don't think my opinion will change much. It's a good book, but not on the level of EG or SftD. I just really don’t like urchin sequences (I skim Trebon in my NotW rereads), and though I got through it this time, the books been pretty average otherwise. I was on the edge of my seat when we learned about Bean's history though.

I personally liked it a touch more than Ender's Game, not because Bean was an urchin, though I found those parts interesting. I just liked Bean's personality better.