book recommendations RCF book club

[dark2332]

Wait theres another Lightbrigner book coming out? I thought Weeks wrapped that series up already

I randomly picked up the first of the Rirya prequel series. Went into it with 0 context and I liked the read. Have been planning on picking up the rest of the series eventually

I havent made much progress on anything in a while but I am starting The First Binding right now. Will let you guys know what I think

No no, there’s another book in the Red Rising series coming out in a few months. Its title is “Light Bringer.”

Weeks’ Lightbringer series is complete.

Good to hear on Riyria. I had been told to go with Revelations before Chronicles, but good to know Chronicles is good in any order.

 

[jjvors]

I'm re-reading Shogun right now. Fantastic book.

I read it once, about 25 years ago. I still remember it vividly. Remarkable book.

 

[jjvors]

Perhaps my most interesting read of 2022, although not my most enjoyable, was Cixin's Three Body Problem series. (The Dark Forest and Death's End are the other two) Pretty dark, with a hopeless ending, but with vivid, realistic characters. His science usage was great, exploring the use of the laws of physics themselves as weapons, when one could change them--which the aliens in this series could do. Extremely creative use of science; however some of his political depictions of the future are unrealistic. The world uniting under a world government is not likely, even in the face of an alien threat.

He's a Chinese national but he portrays the Cultural Revolution as a brutal and evil time. I'm a little surprised he got away with that.

 

[FiveThous]

Man Called Ove - 4.5/5 started slow but the rest of the book was amazing.

Sacred Cow - 4/5 a nice intro beyond the surface of regenerative agriculture/farming

 

[MD13]

I’m reading this series right now. Started Iron Gold a few days ago.

Loved the original trilogy. Absolutely loved it. However, I was considering stopping now as it’s a been bit of an adjustment to the 2nd trilogy for me.

Your post about Dark Age is giving me the fuel I need to keep moving forward.

Now, if only you had a post about Burning White to get me to finally finish the Lightbringer Series while we’re at it.

I was like you guys. Iron gold started a bit slow and I put it down for a long time before coming back to it. You have to get through it because Dark Age is a non-stop thrill ride with twists and turns, unbelievable best-in-series set pieces and just incredible action beginning to end.

 

[Jack Brickman]

I've been listening to the Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobooks after seeing them repeatedly recommended on reddit.

They completely live up to the hype. I burned through four 13-20ish hour audiobooks in about a week and a half, and I've read the fifth and sixth book, a combined 1300ish pages, in about five days.

I don't think these books are for everyone. They basically require some familiarity with either video game RPGs or D&D tabletop style gaming, and the humor could generously be described as sophomoric. If you can watch and appreciate Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, that's about the level you're working with here. But a good chunk of the humor lands, and I've laughed out loud repeatedly while reading/listening.

The audiobooks in particular are fantastic. I'd rank them just behind The First Law as far as audio quality goes, and that's easily the best audio series I have listened to. The narrator for Dungeon Crawler Carl sounds sort of like a young Patrick Warburton, but he does a wide variety of voices for other characters. The real standout is the cat, Princess Donut, who becomes sentient and the party leader early on in the first book, and is easily the best character in the series. She's pretty consistently hilarious.

These books are total nonsense, but they're fucking fun. Highly recommended, especially if you're looking for a breezy Audible listen.

After I finish the sixth book (got less than a hundred pages left), I'm moving on to Light Bringer, the recent entry in Red Rising, which I binge read earlier this year.

 

[foucault87]

I decided to reread KKC on a whim starting about two weeks ago. I notice some new detail every reread. It's so great and so frustrating at the same time. Just waiting forever on DoS

 

[FiveThous]

I've been listening to the Dungeon Crawler Carl audiobooks after seeing them repeatedly recommended on reddit.

They completely live up to the hype. I burned through four 13-20ish hour audiobooks in about a week and a half, and I've read the fifth and sixth book, a combined 1300ish pages, in about five days.

I don't think these books are for everyone. They basically require some familiarity with either video game RPGs or D&D tabletop style gaming, and the humor could generously be described as sophomoric. If you can watch and appreciate Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, that's about the level you're working with here. But a good chunk of the humor lands, and I've laughed out loud repeatedly while reading/listening.

The audiobooks in particular are fantastic. I'd rank them just behind The First Law as far as audio quality goes, and that's easily the best audio series I have listened to. The narrator for Dungeon Crawler Carl sounds sort of like a young Patrick Warburton, but he does a wide variety of voices for other characters. The real standout is the cat, Princess Donut, who becomes sentient and the party leader early on in the first book, and is easily the best character in the series. She's pretty consistently hilarious.

These books are total nonsense, but they're fucking fun. Highly recommended, especially if you're looking for a breezy Audible listen.

After I finish the sixth book (got less than a hundred pages left), I'm moving on to Light Bringer, the recent entry in Red Rising, which I binge read earlier this year.

I’ve seen red riding a few times, is this the 4th book? I thought it was a trilogy.

 

[Jack Brickman]

I’ve seen red riding a few times, is this the 4th book? I thought it was a trilogy.

Sixth book. There is a trilogy and then I believe the current series is planned to be four books, so there’s one more on the way.

It’s all the same story, though. The second series just expands things so there are multiple POVs. The first three books are all single POV.

 

[Adam]

Not sure if it's been mentioned but Project Hail Mary is the best sci-fi book I've ever read. It's both fantastical and grounded in reality with a heck of a twist in the first third.

 

[browniebob]

Does the Red Rising series get better after book #1? Book one felt like the Hunger Games and that the author was trying way too hard to write something epic and grand.

 

[foucault87]

Does the Red Rising series get better after book #1? Book one felt like the Hunger Games and that the author was trying way too hard to write something epic and grand.

Hunger games....in space!

 

[Jack Brickman]

Does the Red Rising series get better after book #1? Book one felt like the Hunger Games and that the author was trying way too hard to write something epic and grand.

Yes. The author has even stated that the reason the first book is a Hunger Games knockoff is because that was the story he needed to write to sell the book, and once it was a hit he was free to turn it into the massive, insane space opera he envisioned from the outset.

The second and third books are awesome. The fourth one is a bit meh, but the fifth is probably the best in the entire series, although as previously mentioned, I'm only just starting the sixth.

 

[Mazer]

Not sure if it's been mentioned but Project Hail Mary is the best sci-fi book I've ever read. It's both fantastical and grounded in reality with a heck of a twist in the first third.

I read that last year and am listening through the audible right now. The book is definitely up there with my favorite sci-fi, and the audio book is fantastic.

 

[Jack Brickman]

I read that last year and am listening through the audible right now. The book is definitely up there with my favorite sci-fi, and the audio book is fantastic.

I read the book in a couple of days, but yeah the audiobook is on another level.

I'd rank it with Joe Abercrombie's The First Law series and the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman. Which means it's on the level of the best audiobooks I have listened to.

Pet Sematary by Stephen King as read by Michael C Hall is top tier too. And City of Thieves by David Benioff read by Ron Perlman. I could listen to Perlman read a phone book. Do those still exist? Fuck I'm old.