What are you reading at the moment?

I'm currently reading Alpha Company book 3 of the Alpha World series though I had to put it down for a few days (Can anyone say Triggered, much? Don't worry still LOVE the series to bits). I also just started The Wizard. Dungeon core book one and Tales of the Red Panda: The pyramid of peril.

The last ones not GameLit/LitRPG or anything just pulp fiction super heroes and a REALLY good read XD

 

I am currently reading G Akella's latest Realm of Arkon book The Mists of Erantia. The first couple books in the series were really great and I have liked most of the series up to now pretty well.

 

So, going to have to wait a bit for the translators to catch up on Shura's Wrath. About a hundred chapters to go at a chapter a day... Oh, well, it will give me something to look forward to. I am happy to report that after Mars Gravity got the whole "all Japanese must be humiliated and then killed" section out of his system, the book returned to its normal self. It's not the best example of its genre, to be frank. You name a cliche and it will be in there, from OP MC to teenage harems. But every now and again there is a clever bit where the author shows he is aware of those cliches and even makes fun of himself for using them so often, which is why I've continued to push through. After all, complaining about that is like complaining about Conan or Tarzan being too OP or having too many women fall in love with them.

I started with Praise The Orc and while I've just begun, I have to pay my respect to the author for a strong beginning. Dramatic and forceful enough to make me want more. Not quite the Iron Code of Druss the Slayer, but pretty good nonetheless.

“I am an orc, a warrior.
A warrior doesn’t forsake faith.
A warrior doesn’t persecute the weak.
A warrior doesn’t attack unarmed people.
A warrior doesn’t yield to injustice.
A warrior doesn’t shame the gods.
A warrior pays back any favors or vengeance.
A warrior protects the powerless.
I swear to the gods, I will abide by these laws as a warrior.”

 

I heard that, and I don't know what forum I was on but one person said something and then everyone agreed with them that it was bad. I am even thinking of not reading the last one because it sounds like a train wreck and I should just enjoy the series as I know it now. What do you think?

 

You should probably read the final book to finish the series, I think, even knowing that the ending is a disappointment. It is pretty sad when your entire series gets ratings above 4 stars, and the final book earns less than 3.5. Currently 3.4, and that's with over 40% giving 5 stars...so that says a large portion of readers are not satisfied with the effort.

Here is my review posted on Amazon. I gave 3 stars.
On the scale of Iron Druid novels, Scourged is nearer the bottom than the top...which still is a decent pile to be in. I would put it above Trapped and Shattered. I thought Hexed and Tricked and Hunted were the best of the nine.

As the novels have proceeded, the author has continued to dump on Atticus and tear him down. Yes, he has flaws, but really no worse than many others in the novels. And if Atticus made no errors in judgement (like ignoring Jesus's advice), there wouldn't really be much of a series/stories to tell.

Scourged has its high points and is worth the read to finish the series.

Granuaile proved herself once again to be the shallow and narcissistic individual she grew into being, but seems to get kudos from the author. Drawing an equivalence, for example, between what Flidais set Perun up for in Besieged, to what Atticus and Brigid arranged in Scourged, is not even close. But it is in Granuaile's eyes--and she doesn't even recognize pertinent aspects of her own counsel doled out to Flidais. At least she remained true to form.

Owen is still entertaining, even if a side story in this last installment, and I would've valued reading his reaction to the fallout that befalls his one-time apprentice, the hero of the series. He and Atticus even had a wager, but that, and the commitment that encompasses it, is dropped by Owen, so that potential last crossing of paths never occurs--at least not within the pages of the novel. I thought the near instant and depth/intricate communication between Owen and Slowmo in such a short span--like with words and names of things, with supposedly only images and emotions, was out of line with what had been established, but worked well enough for the story—the author had run out of novels and it was his effort to spur recognition and growth in the ancient druid. So Owen can now make plans to globe trot to new places with his sloth and the Tasmanian devils' healing can wait, which seemed out of character.

I will say Perun's absence made the tale a little less fun for me (he was my favorite of the gods in the series), but at least Coyote played a part. Oberon is himself. Although given time (probably for the tons of readers who enjoy his character and interaction with Atticus), he's pretty much sidelined, and not part of the main plot. While those scenes are entertaining, the author had run out of novels to wrap things up, and Oberon's part felt inserted in many respects, rather than an integral part of the story.

I will say the one fae that went with Owen to negotiate (and played a small part in Ragnarok's main battle), Coriander, was fun, and entertaining, for the parts he played.

Overall, there's action and some antics, and decent storytelling, but not enough to pull it from the bottom third of the series.

It was truly like Hearne's heart wasn't in it. The confrontation with Loki was 'meh' after all that buildup, and with Jörmungandr? While it 'makes sense' is anti-climactic. The Greeks did basically nothing, and the same with the Norse. What says it the most? The final book to wrap up everything and deal with Ragnarok, is only 276 pages, and that's with a lot of side story.

The way he ended this series soured me on migrating over to his epic fantasy series. I haven't started it yet, and won't. He lost a fan, who bought his books, listened to his audiobooks, and shared word of it with many avid reader friends. All that said, again, if you've enjoyed the long story arc, you probably should get to the end. Maybe wait fir it to be on sale, at the library or the like. You've waited two years, what's another six months?

If you do read it, I'll be interested in your thoughts and having a discussion.

 

Thank you for sharing that, nice review. I will check it out, but will wait for a sale and put it on my birthday list when I read it I will reply and we can chat about it.

 

So, I had a long flight so had a chance to hit some of the big names to, er, finally educate myself on what LitRPG is all about. Yes, very late, I know. >_<

Honest thoughts:

Read the first book of The Land -- it's... better than I thought. I mean, the prose wasn't as bad as what I was led to believe. The style wasn't bad, just jarringly inconsistent, and the famous fox line near the beginning was borderline offensive. The pacing of information was really not bad at all, which is something speculative fiction writers often struggle with. It was overall... okay, I guess. I couldn't empathize in the slightest with the MC, though. Not that I hate him. I just didn't feel anything. Some mildly interesting ideas, although my attention wandered quite a bit in the second part when he's trying to rescue all the other races, since it seemed rather predictable, so I skimmed a lot of that. Not sure if I'm picking up the next. I've heard it gets better?

Sicora Online Book 1: The Sorting -- This one is probably nearly unheard of. Like I've said before, I don't know why I picked up Book 0 earlier in the first place. I liked the cover, I liked the sample, and was pissed off by the bad thoughtless reviews, so I read the whole thing. I was not disappointed. This one was in the same style, told from a different viewpoint, and, like the prologue book, was well-written and nuanced. Since the viewpoint character is female, it's somehow refreshingly full of what I'd call feminine sensibilities. Meanings in dialogues are more suggested than direct, and the prose meanders despite the story being quite short and structured, but flows beautifully and gives it an overall aloof literary quality, which is extremely rare in pop fiction. I suspect this won't sit very well with the general LitRPG reader, since the action never feels urgent or adrenaline-pumping. It's not even what I'd call fun to read. More of a mood-and-tone kind of story, the whole thing is permeated with an overarching sense of sadness and pending tragedy. So overall it's a weird and unique mix of things that you wouldn't think could go together: moral questions regarding clones, an online rogue-like game, a dorm the players competing against each other all live in and their in-game and out-of-the-game interactions, and a somber, pensive mood. If I had to nitpick I'd say that the premise of breeding blind clones isn't that believable, since they would be far more useful sighted. The cheeky skill-level-up texts also seem a bit out of place given the tone of the story, but these are just very minor points. All in all, a beautiful, memorable experience, and by the end of this book, I found that I was starting to like the group of characters quite a bit. It kinda stays with you.

Survival Quest: Book 1 of The Way of the Shaman -- Now this one I liked! This was the kind of LitRPG I was looking for, the kind of story I imagined LitRPGs were like when I first heard of the genre. I liked how it was crafted, in a 'I-see-what-you-did-there' kind of way, like the whole setup with how you cannot attack other players in prison, with full demonstrations on how that works, and how the MC actually gets to the point where he needs to make that decision. There are a few nice moral points in the story. Yes, right choices, easy-to-swallow choices, but the dilemmas seem real, the despair seems real. The author manages to make the MC OP without being OP. I like how much he thinks through his numbers and how much time is given to reflection and planning. I also enjoyed the slow pace. Throughout the whole thing, when you think about it, he kinda fights only rats, but somehow that manages to be interesting throughout. I like also how Mahan speculates quite a bit, and often wrongly, and the truth is revealed later, and he goes "Oh, that's how it works". And the double-interpretation for the quest at the end is brilliant. Again, I see what you did there, and you did it brilliantly. A surprisingly rich sense of game lore as well. But all that said, perhaps the thing I enjoyed the most was that communist feel. Gah. I lived in China for a year. I know what it feels like, and I freakin' love it. Not that I want to live in such a country, but the whole thing perfectly captures that mood: the strange part-complying part-rebelling relationship with authority, the weaseling around the system, the overall respect for the system, the struggle, the lack of privacy and personal freedom and how you deal with that. Oh my. It's a real bummer the rest of the series isn't on KU, but I'm really considering unsubscribing from KU for a few months and buying all of it. [Yes, I've done too much research and the big 'twist' has already been spoiled for me, but I don't mind]

Got to 30% of the first Ascend Online and I'm still waiting for the story to start, but I've heard it gets very good, so I'll be patient.

In the meantime, I picked up Hero of Thera and am about 20% through. Pretty fast and entertaining so far.

 

Personally, I never rated Hearne's series as good as Butcher's Dresden Files in the first place. I only picked it up because on many forums it was recommended for people who enjoy urban fantasy. He's got some nice tricks: The tattoos, immortality, talking dog, etc. And Kevin Hearne himself seems like an awesome dude. But I've read the Dresden Files twice and can't wait for the next book while I lost interest in Atticus and his friends ages ago and can't be bothered to find out what happened to them next.

 

That was my reasoning for starting as well. I am really disappointed that Butcher has not continued his series.
If you are Jonesing for urban fantasy I highly recommend the Demon Accords. It is an excellent series, and there are many books. It starts off with a demon hunter who does not know that there is a whole supernatural community. He is introduced to it and the subsequent action never stops.

 

Pretty sure Butcher hasn't stopped writing the Dresden Files. Think he just took a break to do some other projects. Hopefully he'll be back soon. I'm still enjoying my exploration of wuxia and xianxia, but I'll keep your recommendation in mind, thanks!

 

I just finished that one. They did seem to level up ridiculously quickly - I would have liked to have found out if that was actually just luck, or if the dungeon was evil, and sentient, and had it in for them. There was a lot of worldbuilding, but could have used more character building, everyone was very one-dimensional, and the main character was one of those who is gently buffeted around by the winds of fate, with no driving backstory or goals other than being vaguely attracted to another character, who just sort of ends up the leader for no particular reason and never does anything daring or exceedingly clever to earn it.

 

I imagine that there might be more, but I just feel like it could have been so so much more than it was. I didn't hate it, I just hated the potential it had and didn't use. You and I have similar gripes, but he did have some backstory about why he wanted to do it.

 

Currently have a couple of books going- Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubilee (alternative history novel written in in the early 1950s- premise is the south won the Civil War), The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland, and Ritualist by Dakaota Krout.

 

I strongly recommend you don't your review made me remember why I used to enjoy that series. The problem is after that that "comunist" feel gets dispelled and is slowly replaced with a i can do whatever i want feel. the MC lucks into an insane amout of power quite quickly and then the rest of the series is him walking somewhere being given an item that he has no use for and then finding someone who is oh so in need of said item he hands it to them and there ever so grateful this essentially repeated until book 4 where i quit when he completed like 3 quests and got a unique artifact because he happend to be in the right spot.

 

Way of the Shaman is absolutely great. I haven't read the recent book 7 but only because I like to have an audiobook to listen to as well to let me "read" in the car. Hard to read at home with a 7 year old boy running around .

Ascend Online is pretty good too. They just released book 3 which is actually book 2 of the main series on ebook and audiobook. Book 2 was sort of a spin off so it's actually titled book 1.5 on some sites.

I think the Russian LitRPGs (like Ascend Online and Way of the Shaman) are sometimes a little odd to relate to in places because of the culture difference so you may run into some...how to say this nicely...politically incorrect (in the US) phrases so be forewarned. The stories themselves are just awesome.

 

I'm in the midst of "The Dungeon Con" and it's a delight so far . . . except for the editing. Oh lordy, the editing. Incorrect, missing, or wrongly placed punctuation, inconsistent spelling, wrong words (who's/whose), run on sentences, you name it. It's painful, because the story itself is good. The author really, REALLY needs to invest in a good line editor and maybe a nicer cover, because the book deserves better.

 

Shame I’m booked solid.

 

I could even do it, and it's not my job! I almost want to offer to do it for the guy.

 

I miss having free time. And sleep, boy do I ever miss sleep.

 

Oh no. Does it keep the 'sullen' my-life-is-crap tone, though? I don't know why I don't like overly happy MCs...