What did you just read?

TJT · Apr 20, 2020

I read Brightblade last night.

It was entertaining but Jack is a total pussy. Drug dealer who had no problem banging hookers until he got tossed in jail but couldn't bring himself to bang a will-o-wisp that could become corporeal and shapeshift into whatever your heart desires.

Kovaks · Apr 20, 2020

Blitz said:
Ah fuck - Forgot I had this sitting on the Kindle. Think it's gonna be my next book. Maybe Alas, Babylon afterwards? Good excuse (not that it's needed) to ramp up gun spending!

Alas, Babylon is great

Blitz · Apr 20, 2020

Void said:
All four Murderbot books are free to download at Tor.com, one per day, starting today. If you've never read them, might want to give them a shot. I really enjoyed them, and they aren't very long either if you aren't sure if you'll like it or not. It's basically a sci-fi tale of a security/military robot that somehow gains sentience, and realizes that it has to hide the fact that it is aware so that it can spend most of its time watching anime and TV shows. And it hates talking to people, because it is a terrible actor and constantly fears that it is giving itself away.

Like I said, I really enjoyed them, and look forward to the new one, which is why they are pushing the first four for free.

Download All 4 Murderbot Books For Free (Before Network Effect Arrives!) - Reactor

Murderbot’s first novel arrives on May 5th. But before that happens, Tor.com Publishing and the Tor.com Ebook Club are giving away ALL FOUR PREVIOUS AND OFTEN TIMES AWARD-WINNING NOVELLAS! Martha Wells’ series chronicles the life of a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module...

www.tor.com

Ah fuck yeah. Been wanting to burn through these. I think from random Kindle Daily Deals I have a couple already, but wouldn't really justify spending the money they were asking for short novellas.

Warrik · Apr 21, 2020

I've been reading (for the first time) Sandman. I bought all the volumes of Absolute Sandman. Its crazy good.

TJT · Apr 24, 2020

Dungeon Lord is some good stuff. Fun reading litrpg where the main character is an IT guy.

Story goes that the forces of the Light in a fantasy world are fanatic zealots. In an effort to get an edge on Evil they attempt to summon an otherworldly warmage to bolster their forces. They get a nerdy military software engineer who revolutionizes magic by applying completely alien schools of thought like programming to sorcery.

This leads to the Light becoming quite strong and then the evil side summons their champion from another world. Who is kind of similar but has to take up the role of Dungeon Lord.

Ukerric · Apr 25, 2020

TJT said:
Dungeon Lord is some good stuff. Fun reading litrpg where the main character is an IT guy.

Story goes that the forces of the Light in a fantasy world are fanatic zealots. In an effort to get an edge on Evil they attempt to summon an otherworldly warmage to bolster their forces. They get a nerdy military software engineer who revolutionizes magic by applying completely alien schools of thought like programming to sorcery.

This leads to the Light becoming quite strong and then the evil side summons their champion from another world. Who is kind of similar but has to take up the role of Dungeon Lord.

Spoilage alert: you do not get all of this until, what, the third book?

This is basically the story of a wager between a computer repairman-cum-MMORPG gamer that makes a deal with an Evil God's head minion. Evil minion says they need help, he fits the bill, and tells him that he'll be working for the forces of evil, since "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely". Guy says "no way", Evil Minion laughs evilly and replies "Game on!".

This is also the first book in the "dungeon core" genre that has actual Dungeon Keeper Imps, complete with dancing to claim areas and all.

PS: Need book 5, the cliffhanger at the end of book 4 promises sooooo much. Given the average interval between all four books, we should be getting it soon, right?

TJT · Apr 26, 2020

Ukerric said:
Spoilage alert: you do not get all of this until, what, the third book?

This is basically the story of a wager between a computer repairman-cum-MMORPG gamer that makes a deal with an Evil God's head minion. Evil minion says they need help, he fits the bill, and tells him that he'll be working for the forces of evil, since "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely". Guy says "no way", Evil Minion laughs evilly and replies "Game on!".

This is also the first book in the "dungeon core" genre that has actual Dungeon Keeper Imps, complete with dancing to claim areas and all.

PS: Need book 5, the cliffhanger at the end of book 4 promises sooooo much. Given the average interval between all four books, we should be getting it soon, right?

I would hope so.

I do need to criticize that Huego Huesco is unbelievable awful at consistency. He's good when it matters but everything else is a shot in the dark. ESPECIALLY timeframes.

I really like how minimal the litrpg stuff in the series is. It's just plain excellent. The EXP and skill selection shit is nearly an afterthought.

Sarphan is a good enemy. His motivations before Mindbrood were complex and interesting. It's even more interesting now that he is still adhering exactly to those same principles just with, as we saw with Ilena, the Mindbrood instincts are quite base and simplistic and will overcome any of its inherited intelligence if it needs to. Since Mindbroods are insatiably hungry how does Sarphan and his bros survive? The endless hunger was even a talking point by Ed and others.

How did mindbroods even reach adulthood in the Wetlands? It said that their enemies were the spiders so I guess they can infect spiders? But since spiderlings would just loleat all the mindbrood larvae and Ed infested the entire region with them for their practical spying uses. Really not sure how Mindbrood inherited even Sarphan's Dungeon Lord skills and the ability to use his special weapon either. Hopefully they get into that. Since Mindbroods are just magical beasts basically they have no alignment to evil or light. Neutral nature gods all about survival of the fittest huh?

Ed back on Earth with magic is going to be awesome. Since he can still use his powers somehow want to bet that he just founds a dungeon in the sewer of NYC or wherever he lives? Ryan is going to have some hardcore PTSD.

I am hoping the stupid spiders can just smell mindbroods or whatever. They seemed to have some inherent way to detect them.

The timeframes thing

Ed has been in Ivalis for Years. Human world he's been missing for months (timespeeds whatever) and Ryan says all trace of Edward Wright is gone. Nobody even remembers him. Except now the police do and wonder where he's been. Along with Gabriel Knight and Ryan so this only applied selectively and when convenient.
The Endeavor has been going on for a century and multiple characters comment on how St Claire, Sarphan, Everbleed, Tillman etc are all the Old Guard. The Nightmare Factory has been on contest since then. But when Ed is in the factory they find invoices laying around from only 10 years ago.
Never really indicates how long has gone between any of the books. But I guess Ed has been in Ivalis for 5-7 years or so. Ryan for about 1 year as they had a year to prepare for the Endeavor. Which doesn't happen every year.

Ukerric · Apr 26, 2020

TJT said:
I do need to criticize that Huego Huesco is unbelievable awful at consistency. He's good when it matters but everything else is a shot in the dark. ESPECIALLY timeframes.

To be honest, being consistent when your story goes is extremely hard. As the ad on YouTube for Masterclass goes, Neil Gaiman explains it all: "The art of the second draft is to make it seem it was your plan all along."

And when you realize the kickass story you want to write flies in the face of a few details you wrote a book or two before, then either you bend the story, or... you bend them.

(not to excuse Huesca, but if you've ever tried writing a series, it is terrifyingly easy to slam into a wall of your own making)

So, very, very few authors manage to do that well. It's one of the points that probably will separate good/passable authors from great/grandmaster ones.

...
Ed back on Earth with magic is going to be awesome. Since he can still use his powers somehow want to bet that he just founds a dungeon in the sewer of NYC or wherever he lives?
...

Best - humorous - case? His favourite imp pops, and he goes "uhhh? what you doing here?"

velk · Apr 28, 2020

Slow update this time - blame COVID for lack of public transport reading time.

Books:
------------
Orconomics - Zachary Pike
Biting satire of RPG style economies that basically revolve around adventurers killing stuff to get loot, and what happens when you start to run out of things to kill and the finance industry is staring down the barrel of a GFC style crisis.

This started off quite funny, but takes a seriously grim and cynical turn.

I thought it was pretty good and will read sequel.

The Lost Puzzler - Eyal Kless
Sci-fi post apocalyptic setting - people scavenging stuff from high tech ruins with the help of cyborgs and various strange mutations. This follows a member of the historians guild who is trying to track down what happened to a skilled puzzler ( one of the mutations that allows people to interact with the locks on the doors etc in the ruins ).

This was interesting, although perhaps trying a bit too hard for clever. Will probably read sequels eventually.

Serials
-----------
Skyclad - A man in black
Lit-rpg of sorts, woman gets pulled into one of the most dangerous areas in a fantasy-rpg world while naked in the bath. She's saved by a technicality of environmental damage and ownership, gaining a bunch of experience and skills - all of which only work while naked.

I was a bit dubious about this one, figuring it was probably a cheesy sex-comedy, but it's actually played remarkably straight ( she doesn't even encounter other people until 80% into the story, and a lot of the story isn't about her anyway ).

This one is finished, although there is a sequel I will probably wait for it to be finished before reading it, because the author writes sloooooooowly.

Ward - Wildbow
I've mentioned this one before, but it's just finishing up now so I figured I'd give my final thoughts. It's a post-apocalypse story about the challenges of rebuilding society seen through the eyes of a badly damaged group of amateur super heroes lead by the hero formerly known as 'Glory Girl'. ( She was one of the characters in Worm that was called out for the equivalent of police brutality and ended up suffering a horrifying fate due to her complicated relationship with her adopted sister ).

I thought that while this one had it's moments, overall it was not as good as Worm, the previous superhero work by the same author. This one was too depressing for me, with all the heroes efforts just barely managing to push back the unrelenting tide of awfulness a little bit, for a small amount of time. Your mileage may vary depending on your appreciation for that kind of thing.

Threadbare - Andrew Seipel
The most unusual entry in the lit-rpg genre I have run across - the protagonist is a teddy bear that's been animated as a golem by a reclusive golemist who is trying to work out how to make greater golems ( his efforts are hampered by not understanding what greater golems actually *are* ).

This starts off as kind of a heartwarming kid-friendly tale of a teddy bear and his young girl, until it suddenly takes a 'Made in Abyss' turn and leaves you going 'what the actual fuck?!'.

This story is funny, inventive, heartwarming, occasionally horrifying, occasionally absolutely hilarious ( had me laughing out loud like an idiot a few times ). The characters are fun and entertaining ( I'm particularly fond of the Madeline's character arc ), the editing is professional level, and the plot is involved and twisty - there's a lot more going on that there seems to be.

It's a finished story that's the equivalent of three or so regular books. Highly recommend, two thumbs up.

Ukerric · Apr 29, 2020

Threadbare makes me think about the recently posted recommendation list on Reddit:

Having read a lot of those, I have to agree with the picks. There's still a lot to read in there, but if anyone is looking into a dive into LitRPG, this is it.

Ritley · Apr 29, 2020

Ukerric said:
Threadbare makes me think about the recently posted recommendation list on Reddit:

Having read a lot of those, I have to agree with the picks. There's still a lot to read in there, but if anyone is looking into a dive into LitRPG, this is it.

I was just about to say I wouldn’t trust that list because ascend online is pretty garbage, but after looking I realize I was mistaking that for awaken online (which is garbage). Might have to give that a try now since it’s so highly voted. Not sure why Cradle is even there though since I wouldn’t consider that litrpg at all, but it is really good.

velk · Apr 29, 2020

Ritley said:
I was just about to say I wouldn’t trust that list because ascend online is pretty garbage, but after looking I realize I was mistaking that for awaken online (which is garbage). Might have to give that a try now since it’s so highly voted. Not sure why Cradle is even there though since I wouldn’t consider that litrpg at all, but it is really good.

Oh lol, I just realised I had made the same mistake. Yeah Cradle doesn't really fit, and neither does Mother of Learning, but I guess they are both good enough to have cross genre appeal.

TJT · May 1, 2020

Got caught up on Expeditionary Force and after the 12 or so books of it I may be done after the last one. While I generally enjoy Joe and Skippy's space adventures in the last 4 books he's done absolutely nothing to advance the greater plot of the series. IE, Elder Mystery, Humanity gaining some degree of security in the galaxy, and so on.

The last 10 pages of book 9 did more for the greater plot than the previous 4 books, 5 if you include the Mavericks offshoot.

Ukerric · May 1, 2020

TJT said:
Got caught up on Expeditionary Force and after the 12 or so books of it I may be done after the last one. While I generally enjoy Joe and Skippy's space adventures in the last 4 books he's done absolutely nothing to advance the greater plot of the series. IE, Elder Mystery, Humanity gaining some degree of security in the galaxy, and so on.

The last 10 pages of book 9 did more for the greater plot than the previous 4 books, 5 if you include the Mavericks offshoot.

Happens all the time on long-lived series. *cough* Wheel of Time.

What makes a long series worth it is the characters and their lives.

TJT · May 1, 2020

Ukerric said:
Happens all the time on long-lived series. *cough* Wheel of Time.

What makes a long series worth it is the characters and their lives.

For sure. And I enjoy most of these books. But if its just solving one crisis after the next and hitting back at square one over and over again I just get tired of it. Much like Silicon Valley in that regard.

Compounded by shit like in Valkyrie. One advantage just gets shit on by an overwhelmingly more terrible, but uninteresting, situation. Shit's tiring.

slippery · May 1, 2020

TJT said:
For sure. And I enjoy most of these books. But if its just solving one crisis after the next and hitting back at square one over and over again I just get tired of it. Much like Silicon Valley in that regard.

Compounded by shit like in Valkyrie. One advantage just gets shit on by an overwhelmingly more terrible, but uninteresting, situation. Shit's tiring.

I still enjoy the books, and I will continue listening to them, but I agree with you. I think Skippy's background and the stuff outside the Galaxy is a very intriguing plot space to explore that has largely been ignored.

Though based on the cliffhanger we might be about to head pretty hard in that direction. The cliffhanger was a major son of a bitch though.

TJT · May 2, 2020

The latest in the Completionist Chronicles came out.

The class/skill system in that series is unbelievable. I would kill for a game that could pull that off. Not even tabletop could do it effectively though or it would take a lot of effort. It's awesome.

You choose a number of generic basic classes. Cleric/Mage/Warrior whatever and from there it's just about any conceivable specialist or bullshit thing you can think of. However, you have to find either the right combination of skills, stats, items, or hidden trainers that will allow you to access it. From there its further specialization and refinement. This applies to tradeskills/professions too.

It's built in such a way that you have a class and any number of professions. These professions can also be specialized to synergize more with your class. Similarly there's stuff like entirely noncombat classes like Blacksmith. But you can also have Blacksmith as a profession. The major difference is that the Blacksmith is the only one that can generate entirely new schematics. Blacksmith the profession allows you to make whatever for yourself but you can't necessarily make things for other people easily.

I also want a pet coffee elemental real bad.

Ukerric · May 2, 2020

TJT said:
The latest in the Completionist Chronicles came out.

The class/skill system in that series is unbelievable. I would kill for a game that could pull that off. Not even tabletop could do it effectively though or it would take a lot of effort. It's awesome.

Some of the systems in those books are awesome.

They would need a minimum of two decades and a hundred people to balance, let alone design, but they're awesome.

TJT · May 5, 2020

Read that Tarkan Puzzler book yesterday. It was ok. I have a real hard time reading sci-fi stuff though. As much as I love sci-fi I get irritated when shit doesn't sound at least remotely plausible.

And the whole Puzzler thing is batshit.

Dynalisia · May 11, 2020

Guys, I need your help.

Recently I read The Phoenix Project because I'm stepping into a more management role in IT and I was blown away with how well practical technical teachings packaged into the shape of a novel worked for me. Looking back, this seems completely obvious, but never mind that.

Right now I'm looking for any books/series/genres that are similar to this setup. I realize that a lot of great literature is thought provoking and teaches about all kinds of topics on a more subtle level, but I'm really looking for something that has its lessons a bit more on the foreground. So the fiction itself doesn't have to be mindblowing, as long as the teachings it supports are solid.

The reason I'm asking you is that I've been looking around quite a bit and there is just so much out there that seems like it could be something, but I'm not sure. Because my time is really limited right now, I'm hesitant to just start buying books and experiment. As such, I'm looking for books of this type you would consider your absolute favorites. I'm interesting in pretty much any topics, but have a preference for academics and within that for philosophy, science and technology.

What did you just read?

Mr. Poopybutthole

Mr. Poopybutthole

Potato del Grande

Mr. Poopybutthole

Bearded Ape

Mr. Poopybutthole

Bearded Ape

Trakanon Raider

Bearded Ape

Karazhan Raider

Trakanon Raider

Mr. Poopybutthole

Bearded Ape

Mr. Poopybutthole

Mr. Poopybutthole

Bearded Ape

Mr. Poopybutthole

Lord Nagafen Raider