Still plugging away at The Wandering Inn webserial...now on book 8.
this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025
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I finished all the Super Powereds related stuff that’s out. The main series and one spin off that may get a sequel in the future. There’s also a potential follow up that happens 20-ish years later.
Fun books in general with a little patience needed for areas where it really could have been tightened up. But I would feel comfortable recommending it to someone. Overall probably high B or low A tier.
Now I’m on to Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell. It’s had pretty good reviews and is quite cozy.
Started the second Mistborn book by Sanderson. The first one was good and the second is still holding my interest. I think the plot and lore he's created is top notch but his prose and overall writing style is rather meh. I'm about to start taking a shot of Bourbon for everytime a character rolls their eyes or signs in conversation.
I've long adored Social Origins Of Dictatorship And Democracy, so I'm thinking of picking up some of Barrington Moore Jr's other work - ideally,
Injustice: The Social Bases of Obedience and Revolt
and/or
Authority and Inequality under Capitalism and Socialism: USA, USSR, and China.
I'm currently reading Men at Arms (Terry Pratchett), and it's delightful!
I'm roughly 1/3 of the way through all of the Discworld books.
Recently started the second book in the Bobiverse series. Really enjoyed the first one, but I did have to try a couple times to get into it. Once I did though, I couldn't put it down. The audiobook is narrated by Ray Porter who also does Project Hail Mary. Great narrarator.
Neuromancer by William Gibson. Slowly realising how many cyberpunk books cribbed his homework.
It's crazy to me how much this book is the root of the cyberpunk tree. So much of the terminology is identical across the genre. Great book!
Unzipping Gender: Sex, Cross-Dressing and Culture, by Charlotte Suthrell.
Finished Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir, a little over a week ago, and finally dove into Wind and Truth, Brandon Sanderson. I'd been putting this off since I have a problem with finishing a series, or chunk of one in this case.
While I still love The Stormlight Archive, I think I've come to realize that Sanderson doesn't write believable enough dialogue for me. It comes across as flat and somewhat childish. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Only just finished River of Blue Fire, Tad Williams, and will likely finish book three and four of the quartet for my active audiobook.
What are your thoughts on Project Hail Mary? My wife's sister recommended it so my wife started it but she wasn't vibing with it.
I really enjoyed Project Hail Mary, but I can see how it's not for everyone. There's a lot of math and science talk which I enjoyed, but could feel textbooky for some. It's a fairly quick read so I'd recommend trying a few more chapters to see if it clicks, and moving on if not. Different strokes and whatnot!
Ah fair, my SIL is an engineer so I'm not surprised by that. My wife and I are both in the biology fields so we aren't affraid of science talk. Maybe the math makes the audiobook harder to digest and a physical copy would be better to try.
Finished The Dead Zone, now reading project hail Mary by Andy weir. Excellent book!
Hail Mary is amazing.
I think its better than The Martian and im only 100 pages in!
I finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson this week. Great read! Stephenson is a very long-winded and meandering author but I love it every time.
I just got a copy of House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski because I was inspired by mushroommonk (I don't know how to tag users) here in the comments. Super excited to finally crack this one open.
I am also about to start in on Ursula Le Guin but I dont know if I should start with The Left Hand of Darkness or The Word for World is Forest.
Heretical Fishing 4
I’m currently reading "Los pazos de Ulloa" by Emilia Pardo Bazán. It’s a literary work that critiques 19th-century Spanish society. Pardo Bazán was heavily influenced by naturalism [1] , a literary movement that was very popular in France, with Zola as its main representative. The book is a classic and a cornerstone of Spanish literature.
[1] Naturalism
Started the first book of the Culture series, Consider Phlebas, only through the first three chapters, however I'm enjoying it so far -- especially compared to the writing of Red Rising (which was my last sci-fi read, at DNF atm).
I'm sorry you didnt like red rising but I also totally get it. I had a lot of fun with them as I usually read more austere sf like Greg Egan, Alastair Reynolds, and Banks. So on that note; enjoy! The culture series is amazing and unique, and some of the best literature I've ever read. The Player of Games and Use of Weapons are at the top of my all-time favorites list.
Glad to hear that, I heard lots of great things about the series that led me to coming across it, so far I'm pretty hooked! I've come those authors too, still need to check out their works, any recommendations for where to start with Egan and Reynolds?
I'll probably attempt Red Rising, as I often do finish books tbh, however I found I just gradually lost interest with it, to the point the non-fiction I was reading in parallel was more engrossing. Thinking about why, after starting Culture novel... I found the main character a bit annoying, the technology being almost over-explained (more tell than show) --especially compared to Consider Phlebas so far, and something about the pacing being a bit off. I'll definitely try to get back to it, though I'll give it some space first.
Happy to recommend!
For Reynolds, if you want to try a standalone novel I would say House of Suns is a great place to start. Very fun read. If you want to get in to the meat and potatoes of his writing instead, I'd say just go ahead and jump right in with Revelation Space, which is the first full installment of the series by the same name.
As for Greg Egan, I started with Diaspora and after reading four or five others I think that was a lucky start. He's basically the farthest point on the hard side of the soft-hard sf spectrum, and if you find Diaspora to be not quite to your liking, you almost certainly won't like his other works as they are even more whacky. The other startinf point that could be good is Permutation City which is SLIGHTLY more grounded in the modern day and not as far-reaching in some ways. Still, it's a crazy book because he doesn't know how to not write crazy books. He always has resources on his website to help parse some of the more mathematical concepts so perusing that can help, or make things worse lol.
Addendum: my friend is an avid reader like me and also didnt care for Red Rising, largely due to the pacing, so don't feel bad if that isn't your cuppa tea.
Thank you for the recommendations, sweetness, it's much appreciated! More for the tbr 🥲.
Glad to know I'm not alone in my experience with Red Rising, as part of what drew me to it was all the hype from others.
Working on the new T. Kingfisher, Hemlock & Silver.
__
Read since last time:
The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy (fantasy horror, novella) | bingo: creature, minority author, short, LGBTQIA+ lead, alliterative, cover
A wanderer visits an anarchist commune that's protected by a preternatural being.
I think I'd put this in the "fine" category; not sure if I'm interested in the sequels.
The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard (space opera-ish mystery, novella) | bingo: creature, different continent, minority author, orange, short, award
A prickly detective and a sentient ship discover and investigate an unusual corpse.
Intentional Holmes and Watson vibes. Cute enough, but the mystery felt a bit secondary.
I love Kingfisher’s stuff.
I’d agree with Teamaster. I definitely enjoyed it, but it was more a book about their dynamic than an actual mystery.
Playground by Richard Powers. Really enjoyed the ride. Probably give The Overstory a try soon.
Read Rosemary's Baby for the next podcast episode. Honestly, if you've ever watched the (original) movie you almost don't need to read the book, its the most faithful adaptation I've ever seen. Almost word-for-word in a lot of places.
Having finished that, I'm now reading Lake of Darkness by Adam Roberts which, for those unfamiliar, is sci-fi with a speculative edge. I'm about 25% in and it has me hooked.
Lake of Darkness sounds like exactly what I'm looking for next, thanks!
I'm starting House of Leaves today.
I don't think I'm ready for this wild ride but only one way to find out.
Remember to share your review when done!
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Im rereading The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage. It’s about the history of the electric telegraph. It’s very interesting.
How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler is pretty good at the 45% mark.
I am listening to Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters with my daughter. We're loving this. Will definitely get the next one. We listen on the ride to/from school, and then at bedtime.
Listening to Spec Ops by R.C Bray on my own and it's alright but every single chapter is starting to feel identical/formulaic already and I'm only book 2. "Unexpected problem. Super intelligent AI solves 99% of the problem. The main character is somehow smarter than God-level AI and solves the last 1%. Robot screeches Filthy Monkeys." Rinse. Repeat.
May go back to Sandman Slim and Perdition Score is up next.
Ooh I’ve been reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief to my son in the evenings.
He loves the illustrated edition. I’m hoping he still likes the books when we shift to text only haha.
I did not know there were illustrated editions. I am gonna have to look that up now! Thanks. 😁
We started straight into the Audiobook. I never heard it before. It's good. We tried the Redwall series and Eragon but I think my daughter is still too young, too many characters.
Percy Jackson has just the one illustrated edition. Funnily enough, so does Eragon.
I reread the first three books in the Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal and have started on book 4 (The Martian Contingency), which just came out. The original books held up very well on reread but I find myself feeling more annoyed by the main protagonist than I did my previous read-through. Regardless, I am super excited to see where book 4 takes the story.
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Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Starting slow but it’s kind of intriguing.
Anathem was such a wild fucking ride. Stick with it and I promise you won't be disappointed.
Thank you I will, I have become skeptical but I’ll keep going!
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Reading "this inevitable ruin" by Matt Dinniman. I don't have much time to read at the moment, so about 1/3rd through after two weeks.
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I finished The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe by Steven Weinberg and enjoyed it. It's actually remarkable that we as a species can tell such a specific story about the beginning of the universe using science.
I'm currently reading A Century of Fiction in the New Yorker: 1925-2025 by Deborah Treisman, which is an 1100-page long short story collection. So far, I enjoyed "The Weeds" by Mary McCarthy, and "Symbols and Signs" by Vladimir Nabokov.
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I just finished The Long Walk and I really liked it. I read it a decade or more ago, but I appreciated it more this time.
I like books about death sports so it’s right up my alley. They finally released Battle Royale as a digital book so I would like to read it as well, but its length (800 pages!) is intimidating.
I also finished The Neverending Story, which I enjoyed but not as much as the much shorter first movie.
I started reading a few things.
The End of the World as We Know It is a short story collection that explores the world of Stephen King’s super-flu-ridden The Stand. I’m really liking it so far! The stories do a good job of further illustrating the world as it breaks down.
I also started a biography about one of my favorite people in vintage professional wrestling, Gorilla Monsoon. It just came out today and I’ve been looking forward to it. I’ve always been fascinated by him and no one else has written a book yet!
Just finished Kropotkins "The Conquest of Bread". Might be time for some fiction again.
I’m on The Shadow Rising (WoT #4).
The Dragon Reborn was my favorite entry so far I think. I loved Perrin and Mat’s chapters the most. Mat’s choice at the end really made me appreciate the character.
I’m very excited to see where the story goes from here!
I’m already looking forward to rereading the Eye of the World haha.
Edit: removed broken spoiler tag and content.
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