Reading The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson. His fourth and final standalone Cosmere “secret project” novel.
I am about 1/4th through, and it’s interesting to see how connected this is with Cosmere, unlike the first 3 books. I think this book should be read after you have read at least 1 book of The Stormlight Archive. Looking forward to seeing if we learn anything else in it.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
For details on the c/Books bingo challenge that just restarted for the year, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and its Recommendation Post. Links are also present in our community sidebar.
You must log in or register to comment.
20% through Schilds Ladder from Greg Egan now. It’s like Gregs other works, it’s good.
I finished the Classic of Tea, but am still struggling through The Legend of Darkness. As my backup brain-resting book I’ve now got The Thirty-Six Strategems on the side. It’s an interesting new edition that has all the strategems and classic commentary examples but also adds more modern ones from around the world and from spheres other than the military. It is, as so many of my books in this vein are, trilingual: the original text and commentary are in Classical Chinese, modern vernacular Chinese, and English. The examples are bilingual vernacular Chinse and English.
Just finished Trust, by Hernan Diaz. I read it without looking up at summaries or so before and at first I was a bit disappointed by the first part (and even asked myself if it would not be a dnf). But when I discovered there was 4 parts in this book, progressively revealing the facts, I told myself “what a great piece of literature it is”. This is just a real performance for the author to write in 4 different style as if the part were written by different people with the key markers of each type of writing.
Just started The Whisperer, by Donato Carrisi.
I just finished Wounds by Nathan Ballingrud, a collection of short stories about hell. Holy fuck, Skullpocket is one of the best short stories I’ve ever read. I starts kinda silly and then… damn.
Most of the way through Tilt by Emma Patee. A story about a woman who’s nine months pregnant in Portland when the Big One hits the Cascadia Subduction Zone (Massive Earthquake.) It’s a fast, easy, insanely emotional read. Not a favorite, but I’m hooked.
I just finished Alien III by William Gibson.
It is a script for the third movie but was not used. It was later turned into a novel.
I listen to an audio book version and I am pretty sure it is was the movie script not the novel.
Currently reading Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger II꧇ Down to Earth. This is a somewhat autobiographical trilogy, though mixed in with a lot of spiritualism, conspiracism, and some philosophy. I am mainly reading it due to my interest in discordianism. If you want to read part of it to check it out I would suggest reading down to earth, as it is far more readable than Cosmic Trigger I꧇ Final Secrets of the Illuminati.
I picked up Project Hail Mary from the library this week. Only just started but I’m enjoying it so far.
Great read. Have fun !
I just started Polostan (2024) by Neal Stephenson. I saw an interview where he said he’s been sitting on the idea for a new trilogy for years and finally sat down to start it with this book.
How is it? It is on my to buy eventually list but I haven’t even read Termination Shock yet.
I’m only 60 pages in now but good so far. If you like his writing, he’s still got it.
Next on my list!
More than 900 pages into Infinite Jest but i m not sure i like it… Started The Confederacy of Dunces on the side, really funny so far !
Currently reading Consider Phlebus. Read the entire series years ago but thought it was worth re-read. Just as good as my first time!
Excession and Player of Games are my two favourite Culture novels.
I liked these the best. They are also among the more accessible books in the series.
Seconding these, The Player of Games is my favorite book and I love to see it called out.
I hate books. I hate books. I hate books. I hate pages. I hate bookmarking. I hate covers. I hate words. I hate passages. I hate authors. I hate reading. I hate left-to-right. I hate shelving them. I hate conversations. I hate twists. I hate mysteries. I hate waking up. I hate my job. I hate being alive.
I decided to start reading John Dies at the End, it’s been pretty funny.
This Book is Full of Spiders isn’t AS good, but still funny if you like that kind of thing.
Funny, I kind of remember Spiders better than the first one. I think they just really creeped me out. :p
I fibbed a little. I’m actually reading the fourth one right now. I do really like the short story it opens with, though.
Having recently finished Stormlight, I am very curious to read the Sunlit Man now!
I just finished Assassin of Reality by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko (book 2 of Vita Nostra). It honestly kind of felt like an afterthought to capitalize on the popularity of the first book. I didn’t feel like it added much and preferred the open endedness of the first book.
Now I’ve started Wool by Hugh Howey, the first of the books the Silo show is based on. Too early to give my thoughts but the first few chapters were very closely followed in the show.
Hm, interesting. I wasn’t sure I’d like it at first, but I jammed through Vita Nostra, and didn’t realize there were already published sequels until a few days ago, when I immediately moved them to the top of my TBR pile. I’ll try to lower my expectations to be more in line with reality–thanks for the heads-up!
I just finished Stephen Baxter’s World Engines: Destroyer and while it was OK, I have the uncomfortable feeling that I’m discovering unsavory things about Baxter. There are commonalities in his main characters that are… unattractive? One main character, fine. But when the main character is basically the same character in different settings and with different names; and when the story literally contains “and then, everyone clapped”… well, I don’t know. The writing is better than I could do, and I’m interested to see where it goes, but I don’t know if I can enjoy the libertarian fantasy overtones. I’m torn.
I’m a couple chapters into A. Tchaikovsky’s Shroud, and have great expectations. I know I like Tchaikovsky’s world building and writing, and this looks so far like another novel (innovative?) premise from a great author.
Yeah, Stephen Baxter is somewhat sus. I liked his collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke, and I really liked reading his books when I was a kid who couldn’t really understand the politics. He has some really interesting concepts (Manifold: Time fucking BLEW MY MIND when I was like 12), but yeah, he has some very libertarian politics that lead to some, uh, interesting plot points.
Whew, it’s not just me. I’m always cautious about assuming things about authors.
I’m currently reading Star Wars Allegiance
It’s my goal to read all of the Legends or Expanded Universe books in Star Wars, I’m currently over a third done, there’s about 120 books and this is around #44 iirc.
I alternate between a Star Wars and another book when done, my current “other book” is Asimovs universe, I’ve read the Foundation Series and am onto the Robots saga and the fourth Robots and Empire
I finally made it to book 2 of Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives.
