I am currently listening to The Wheel of Time on audible and then i might start the Malazan books.

The Remains of the Day, it's truly a spectacular book and it's an absolute blast to read through. After I'll probably go read Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed which isn't a story or anything but still constitutes as a book I would reckon.

Dzzt Wrote: On RoyalRoad I'm checking out two novels I haven't read before.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/40182/only-villains-do-that

and

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/32659/wildcards-the-dread-captain

I've only just barely started the second one, but the first had a lot of potential.

How funny to see you here, I was about to comment that I'm currently reading Bear Station.

Finished 'Black wind, White lotus' not too long ago and I might reread it so I can pick up on details I missed earlier in the story. Currently reading 'The Undying Emperor' which im enjoying a lot! Afterwards I'm gonna read 'The Devil, The Witch, and The Wicked World of Delirith'. I'm doing a lot more reading than working on my own story unfortunately. 

I read a wikipeadia article about the attempted gene-splicing of rare duck breeds

2022 Jan 28-30:

Vilhelm Moberg, Memories of youth, 1937. (Reading)

2022 Jan 29-30:

Satoshi Watanabe, Knowing and guessing, 1969. (Rereading)

Keith Holyoak & Paul Thagard, Mental leaps, 1995. (Rereading)

2022 Jan 30-Feb 2:

Nonfiction.

Keith Holyoak & Paul Thagard, Mental leaps, 1995. (Still Rereading)



Fiction.

Herman Wouk, A hole in texas, 2004.

Herman Wouk, The lawgiver, 2012.

Herman Wouk, Inside, outside, 1985.

(Which means I've now read most of his novels as well.)

Up next:

Fiction.

George Zebrowski's stuff that I hadn't read.

James Gunn's stuff that I hadn't read.

Nonfiction.

Paul Thagard's stuff that I hadn't read. (Most of it)

2022 Feb 3 - Feb 7:

Fiction:

Frederik Pohl & Cyril Kornbluth, Gladiator-at-law, 1955.

Frederik Pohl & Cyril Kornbluth, Wolfbane, 1959.

Peter Phillips, Manna, 1949. (This was fun! Shows you can write a story about anything!)

Gene Wolfe, Straw, 1975.

Roger Zelazny, Creatures of light and darkness, 1969.

Nonfiction:

Charles Spearman, Creative mind, 1930.

Robert Sternberg, Love is a story, 1998.

Charles Spearman, Psychology down the ages, Vol. 1, 1937.

Charles Spearman, Psychology down the ages, Vol. 2, 1937.

2022 Jan. 10:

Nonfiction:

Dan Ariely, Predictably irrational, 2008. (Rereading)

Fiction:

John Gwynne, Malice, 2012.

I  just finished the Renegades trilogy by Marissa Meyer. It's a superhero YA series with an enemies to lovers romance and solid super power design. I  appreciated that the author included a solid mix of old-school hit super powers and brand new creative ones. Both the main leads have unique powers that they utilize in effective ways to solve conflicts/problems in the story. 

One of my favorite parts was the imagery in the third book. They had this ruined building that was so vividly described. It's a big action scene, and I  think the author delivered on a solid conclusion. Sometimes a series can fall a bit flat near the end, but I left feeling satisfied. Would definitely recommend this if you enjoy anything else in the superhero genre - for example Super Powereds by Drew Hayes which I loved as well. 

If anyone on this platform can recommend some other books in the "superhero" genre that feature a unique twist then I'd appreciate it 

B. Wrote: I  just finished the Renegades trilogy by Marissa Meyer. It's a superhero YA series with an enemies to lovers romance and solid super power design. I  appreciated that the author included a solid mix of old-school hit super powers and brand new creative ones. Both the main leads have unique powers that they utilize in effective ways to solve conflicts/problems in the story. 

One of my favorite parts was the imagery in the third book. They had this ruined building that was so vividly described. It's a big action scene, and I  think the author delivered on a solid conclusion. Sometimes a series can fall a bit flat near the end, but I left feeling satisfied. Would definitely recommend this if you enjoy anything else in the superhero genre - for example Super Powereds by Drew Hayes which I loved as well. 

If anyone on this platform can recommend some other books in the "superhero" genre that feature a unique twist then I'd appreciate it

I'll have to check this out.

Also, while Royal Road fiction and not established published books like your comment seems to imply, Heroes of the Collective and Gadgeteer: The Crisis Nemeses have pretty unique twists to them. They're more in the vein of foundational/premise twists on the superhero genre and worldbuilding as opposed to the "X characters die in a Red Wedding in Book 3" surprise, but they're still really good and you should check them out.

There's also a website called superhero-fiction which updates new superhero novels that are published. Unfortunately, it isn't a superhero-centric version of Royal Road that I was hoping to find while scouring the Internet, but it's something. I should really check it out more myself.

TienSwitch Wrote:

B. Wrote: I  just finished the Renegades trilogy by Marissa Meyer. It's a superhero YA series with an enemies to lovers romance and solid super power design. I  appreciated that the author included a solid mix of old-school hit super powers and brand new creative ones. Both the main leads have unique powers that they utilize in effective ways to solve conflicts/problems in the story. 

One of my favorite parts was the imagery in the third book. They had this ruined building that was so vividly described. It's a big action scene, and I  think the author delivered on a solid conclusion. Sometimes a series can fall a bit flat near the end, but I left feeling satisfied. Would definitely recommend this if you enjoy anything else in the superhero genre - for example Super Powereds by Drew Hayes which I loved as well. 

If anyone on this platform can recommend some other books in the "superhero" genre that feature a unique twist then I'd appreciate it

I'll have to check this out.

Also, while Royal Road fiction and not established published books like your comment seems to imply, Heroes of the Collective and Gadgeteer: The Crisis Nemeses have pretty unique twists to them. They're more in the vein of foundational/premise twists on the superhero genre and worldbuilding as opposed to the "X characters die in a Red Wedding in Book 3" surprise, but they're still really good and you should check them out.

There's also a website called superhero-fiction which updates new superhero novels that are published. Unfortunately, it isn't a superhero-centric version of Royal Road that I was hoping to find while scouring the Internet, but it's something. I should really check it out more myself.

Thanks for the recommendations and link. I appreciate it. I might look into those RR fictions next. 

2022 Jan 12:

Fiction:

John Cramer, Twistor, 1989, Morrow. Rating: 


Nonfiction:

Hans Moravec, Robot, 1999, OUP. Rating: 


Colin McGinn, Philosophical provocations, 2017, MIT. Rating:


Colin McGinn, Ethics, evil, and fiction, 1997, OUP. Rating:


Adding ratings going forward in terms of icons.

2022 Jan 14:

Fiction:
James Gunn, Gift from the stars, 2005. (Finished) Rating:

I just finished reading The Desert Sun

I am starting to read Beneath the Dragon Eye Moon

I'm currently reading one of the stories on here. One of my friends suggested I read A Journey of Black and Red by Mecanimus since it reminded them of my series that I finished a couple of years ago.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/26675/a-journey-of-black-and-red
I'm on chapter 54, and so far I'm really enjoying it. :) Though, if I'm honest, I can't read this without laughing. Ariane and her inner voice? 🤣 And for anyone using a screen reader, you probably know my other reason :P.
I'd explain what the story is about, but I'm terrible at it. It's popular on here so it's probably not needed. As for my next read, I'm not sure,maybe I'll continue the Black Ocean series by J. S. Morin. We'll see. :)

TienSwitch Wrote:

LJ Wrote: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Mass. I've never read anything by this writer. She's popular and so I decided to give this series a go because it interested me.

And my rating for this book is an emotionless cracker/10. (Yes this is how I do my ratings rather than applying numbers and this is also why I don't write real reviews on here)

It's all the trappings of a good retailing of Beauty and the Beast however, it kind of clings to that fairytale feeling of all the characters being caricatures and typical but not completely flat, like a cracker. Everything moves along in the story because they just need to move along because that's what plots do. There is a budding romance, but it's just done because romance is needed. Nothing real special about it. The male love interest is...uhhh...he's a love interest in the plainest of forms. He also happens to be a beast and a form that he can shapeshift in and out of. He also has a masquerade mask stuck on his face. So yeah... And then the story does that YA thing where the truth comes out and an explanation is given in a bulk of exposition. Somehow, the main character was supposed to figure it out how to undo the curse with little clues. It's all very cracker like.

And like a cracker, you can take a pack of them and eat right through it because I burned through this book. However, it's not because I was intrigued, it was because I can read it fast and was flavored with enough salt to keep going. Pure fluff, but not satisfying fluff. I guess I could consider this my romance heavy novel for the year. However, I might have to go back in because crackers aren't a satisfying meal.

Thank you for reading my unnecessary book review.

As for what I'm going to read next?

I have a TBR pile. I'm probably going to go with finishing up Starlight By Brandon Sanderson and jump into reading the next book in the series.

I just came on here with a Sarah J. Maas book in mind. That's one hell of a coincidence.

I never read anything from that series as I heard that the book was essentially Fifty Shades of Grey levels of romantic erotica (I have no idea, but I'm just basing it on something my friend asked me about a book of hers I bought supposedly having a sex dungeon as well as a review of the book you mentioned that I saw online). However, I recently read the first book of her Throne of Glass series (also the name of the book itself) and I really enjoyed it. No sex dungeons, but it's a fantasy story about an assassin named Celaena Sardothien who competes in a tournament to become the Champion of a tyrannical king who had earlier sentenced her to a death camp. There is a love triangle, which is fine (I don't hate them, but neither of the male suitors are really unlikeable or anything and not of it feels forced). The consensus among fans is that the first book is a bit slow as it's setting up the world and its plot (apparently, the second book, Crown of Midnight, is practically the best book in the series and an absolute page turner, but I haven't picked it up yet). I don't know where or how the rest of the story goes, but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of reading it, so it may be worth checking out. Also, apparently it's supposed to be a Cinderella allegory, though I'm not seeing it. Unless there's a Slipper of Glass somewhere down the line, I dunno.

I've read Throne of Glass, and my personal favorite is the fifth book (Empire of Storms). I don't remember what book it's in, but there's sex. It's not as detailed as the ones you find in like paranormal romance or erotica. I was suggested Court of Thorns and Roses, but I'm not sure if I'm going to read that series. One day, maybe. :)

"Dune", it is pretty great so far.

Cynical Wrote: "Dune", it is pretty great so far.

Dune is a fantastic novel. I really liked how they tell you the antagonist's (harkonen) plans right from the beginning. Then you're watching them unfold for the first hundred pages. Great novel. Did you see the movie that just released?

By the way, almost all of Frank Herbert's stuff is great. Not only Dune.

2022 Jan 17:

Peter Kivy, The corded shell, 1980, PUP. (Rereading)

Peter Kivy, Sound sentiment, 1989, TUP. (Rereading)

Rating: