Reading Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire (first book in her October Daye urban fantasy series). About halfway through the book, things are getting interesting, mainly because we are learning more of the world and how it works, still no solution to actual problem though, but I doubt we will get it before the end.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
Check Official Bingo Challenge Post and the accompanying Recommendations Post for our Bingo for 2026!
I’m reading “The Fort Bragg Cartel” by Seth Harp. It’s about Delta Force and all the hidden criminal activity that goes on at the highest levels of the military. These guys are the most elite soldiers on Earth and they are constantly raping, murdering, boozing, doing drugs and selling drugs. And how the state spends a lot of money covering up their crimes. Also they’re all racist and sexist.
It’s a great book. Very well researched. Seth Harp is a former military turned investigative journalist. So he’s the exact right person to write the book and he did a fantastic job.
I just finished reading a book called ‘La crisis latente del Darwinismo’ by Maurício Abdalla (which would be something like ‘The Latent Crisis of Darwinism’ in English). I loved this book so much. The author, who is a philosopher, explains the incompatibilities between the theory of evolution proposed by Darwin (and Neo-Darwinism) and recent scientific discoveries. He discusses alternative theories such as those suggested by Lynn Margulis or Máximo Sandín, which move away from competition as a key factor in evolution. Abdalla mentions how Darwinism was a theory molded by the ideology of its time: liberalism.
Reading Project Hail Mary. I’m not really a reader and I bought this when I was drunk with friends. Had a flight coming and figured I might as well read it. I’m enjoying it.
One of the few books (if not the only) that I managed to read in a few days, being a slow reader myself.
Very fun and moving sci-if piece. Goes even better in these uncertain and unhappy times.
It’s a fun read. Wish it had a slightly stronger plot but I get that the focus was on exploration and hard Sci-fi, I didn’t mind.
At the moment I am reading the Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. It’s really fascinating so far, quite unorthodox in many ways. The story is Bulgakovs critique of soviet society, especially the literary and theatrical scene and the censorship thereof. A faustian devil comes to Moscow and starts punishing people for their corrupt choices. This is contrasted by a secondary plot that happens during the execution of Jesus in old Jerusalem. It’s narrated in the style of Skaz, pretty funny at times, at other times there are horror elements and there is always a lot of biting sarcasm. But the wildest choice to me has to be the arrangement of the characters. There are a lot of side characters and the titular main characters don’t show up until the story has been told for ~100/300 pages and even after that they don’t even show up on most pages.
Dungeon Crawler Carl book 8, A Parade of Horribles just came out last night and I started in on it. Even with a recap at the start it’s hard to remember all the characters and what was going on with them.
Just started today. Its so gooooood! Im excited.
I can’t wait to start this. I opted to reread the rest of the series again. I’m so excited.
Yeah, all the faction wars stuff got confusing at times, lots of characters and moving pieces. I just started book 8 today. Donut is badass right out of the gate. Looks like I’m not going to get much done this week!
I usually re-read the previous books right before the new ones are about to release. I did this time, but the last time I’ve read them was 4 months ago, so, I kind of remember most of the details as the recap happens. I am on chapter 20 right now and the scenario hasn’t clicked for me yet.
I started relistening to the entire series of audiobooks for that reason. I’m a little bit into book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride, right now. The one with the pokemon/yugioh-like, T’ghee cards system. Book 7 is on deck and Book 8 is already waiting in my library.
So much happens in this story, so many parts moving both on and off the page, particularly in the later books. I really needed the refresher for a lot of stuff I only vaguely remembered or just straight up forgot about (or maybe slept through the first time?).
It’s also definitely easier to parse some of the hints/foreshadowing and string together some pieces of lore the second time around. For example, it only registered on this second pass that every third floor takes place on or inside the same volcano. I knew the 3rd, 6th and 9th were related, though I didn’t realize they were geographically related. And I didn’t realize that relation included the home of the gods (the Halls of Ascendency) on the 12th floor, the home of demons (Sheol) on the 15th floor, or the final 18th floor. The 18th floor will be the lair of Scolopendra, the giant celestial monster centipede, at the heart of this volcano. The same monster whose poison breath killed or transformed 90% of the populations on the other connected floors like Grimaldi and his circus in the Signet side plot in the Over City, and Tina, Kiwi and the other dinos in the Hunting Grounds. And Scolopendra is the final boss of the entire dungeon, which they must defeat to take back Earth. Apparently I just glazed over most of that lore the first time thinking it was set dressing, not plot relevant… cuz it kind of is set dressing but also is relevant.
Jeff hayes is great. I like all the stuff he narrates.
Currently reading Slow Gods by Claire North and I’m really enjoying it so far (I’m about 25% in) - its a sci-fi which tackles many currently relevant questions like end-stage capitalism, gender identity and activism. Your uncle who calls everything woke would hate it.
Adding Slow Gods to my backlog, thanks for sharing the recommendation 😊
I really enjoyed this one. Shades of The Culture novels with a dash of cosmic horror
Restarted dungeon crawler carl since book 8 just came out.
Just started book 4
Nice! First time through, or reread?
First go. Very fun read (listen)
Nice!
I just started Persepolis Rising, book 7 of The Expanse by James SA Corey after a several years long break after book 6 because I was worried about a big time jump that happens and wasn’t sure how the story would go because that’s when the TV series ended also. I also just finished the final 12 Dresden Files books since early April so it’s fun to get into Space Sci-fi after a long fantasy kick.
For me, The Expanse was another of those situations where I was drawn in by a good TV/Film adaptation only to be blown away by even better source material.
That being said, I’ll always picture Miller as Thomas Jane.
Just started the second bobiverse book by Denis Taylor. They’re a lot of fun.
I’m just finishing up listening to the first one and I’m really glad there are more
Blindsight by Peter Watts
Really interesting take on a first contact story. Highly recommend.
Blindsight is the first book in a long time that really got into my head and scared me.
This is the one book I keep thinking about when I’m having a bout of existentialism, one of the best first contact type novels I’ve read
Hell yeah! I’m still sub-100 pages but I’m really enjoying it so far!
Started reading Red Rising by Pierce Brown, so far it reads like a YA novel which I don’t like, hopefully that changes as I read further
I don’t think the style changes much as the book goes on, but I really like this series.
If the style bothers you, you might have a hard time finishing it.
The first book is about teenagers but they do age as the story goes. By book 4, the main character is around 30. However, the style of storytelling didn’t feel much different to me.
I think the YA gets easier to ignore, but it is consistent throughout the book. I had the same impression and while I made it through the first book I don’t see myself continuing the series.
Currently reading Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Book 4 in the series. Really good, but jumps around a lot. Certainly not one to read an hour a night. Really needed longer sessions to keep all the characters in my head 😁
I just finished children of memory and struggled with that book a lot because of the time jumps and confusing plot as well, seems like the next book is more of the same, the first 2 books in this series was really interesting, is the 4th book worth it
I’d say yes. It focuses on a new, uplifted animal from the same world as the spiders and fleshes out the aftermath of the original earth conflict.
I finished Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey. I found it to be an easy and pleasant read. It left me wanting to experience more of the world. Good thing there’s still a lot of Pern books for me to explore.
I’m almost done reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman. The pacing is odd and the main characters are insufferable, but I’m enjoying it immensely. I hope it’s able to stick the landing and that the rest of the trilogy will be equally good.
I’m currently listening to Of Blood and Fire by Ryan Cahill. It’s ok. It’s basically Eragon but a little bit darker. I’ve not finished it yet but currently it’s hovering at a solid 6/10 ok but nothing special. It’s a very generic fantasy, I’m interested enough to finish it and probably read some more depending on how good the ending is. I’ve heard the other books in the series get better.
I finished Esrahaddon and Drumindor to be up to date with Michael J Sullivan’s books. Esrahaddon was one of my favourites to date and returning to Riyria in Drumindor was pretty good.
The “Scottish” speech of the dwarves drove me up the wall though. It was this weird mixture of Scottish, Irish and “nobody speaks like that anywhere” and reminded me of that one time I was in a gas station in Texas when the guy behind the counter asked me if I’m from Ireland (I’m from Scotland) and when I told him that he said knew someone from Glasgow and asked me if I knew them.
Anyhoo, next up was James Herbert’s The Rats which after recommending to someone here I figured I should reread after 25 years or so. It’s done and I’m on the 2nd book, Lair. The titular rats make for a wonderful horror antagonist and Herbert expertly stokes the tension before people get eaten.
Well… did you know them?
