What book(s) are you reading?

[Lonewulfeus]

Read the 3rd book in David Lagercrantz’ continuation of Stieg Larsson’s millenium series.  Enjoyed this book more than his first two books though turning Lisbeth into an action hero is still weird as shit.  Maybe I’m not remembering Stieg’s final millenium books as well as I thought though.  And Blomkvist is even more of a Gary Stu than before, something I didn’t think could be possible 

[benjipwns]

[Great Rumbler]

Getting close to the end of A People's History of the United States, now I want a good book on the Soviet Union. Bonus points if it's translated from the original Russian.

[Great Rumbler]

Thanks, I'll check those out!

[Madrun Badrun]

if you want a liberal account from people who agree with the idea that Russians are human beings / aren't brain poisoned by Orwell

And if we want an account where Russians are not human beings?

[jakefromstatefarm]

rex wade’s book is probably the best one on just the revolution itself

i read mawdsley’s on the civil war but dont remember SHIT. i think its supposed to be authoritative though

[shosta]

[jakefromstatefarm]

And if we want an account where Russians are not human beings?

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/131488/the-russian-revolution-by-richard-pipes/

[Bebpo]

The Way of Kings: Stormlight Archives Book 1 by Brandon Sanderson


Well, did a 4 hour marathon last night and finished this 1,000 page book up. Been running on 3 hours sleep because of that and looking up stuff afterwards. Going to pass out soon, but time to write about it!

It was good, not great imo. I've been reading Sanderson's Cosmere universe stuff in release order and this is like book 6 of 11 (and then there's a short story collection & a 3 volume graphic novel series). His other stuff is like half this length and I felt like less stuff happened in this book than the other ones I've read.

For being the first book of a large scope fantasy epic (10 books total, 2 arcs of 5 books with book #4 out this fall and book #5 planned for fall 2023 ending the first arc), the scope feels pretty small. There's only really 3 viewpoints and coming from GRRM's ASOIAF with a dozen viewpoints it feels kinda restricted, especially because I don't feel the extra time spent with these characters really developed them and progressed their storylines more than a character would in a GRRM book. For everyone involved it's still basically the intro chapter of introducing the characters, introducing the world lore and world building and then ending after the intro chapter. If this was a TV show, this would be a 2 hour premiere movie or maybe 4 eps max.

Then again, ASOIAF didn't need a ton of world building early on since it was a fairly realistic medieval england warfare world. Stormlight is a sci-fi fantasy world that's very diverged from our reality so there's more to explain and set up.

That being said, the world isn't that interesting so far and the characters aren't as good as some of Sanderson's previous characters in his earlier books. There's a lot of combat (maybe too much) and the best character point of view is essentially a clone of Stannis (which I mean I'm all for since Stannis is awesome). 50+ year old stoic integrity military commander with zero people skills and even also a brother of a dead king!

At the end of the day, the book was fine and when things finally started coming together in the last couple hundred pages it was satisfying. That said I really hope book #2 is much better and story-focused since all the setup was done here (and so.many.flashbacks).

Fwiw, I've only read two large scope epic series in my life. ASOIAF and The Dark Tower. So I'm totally comparing this to both of those and it's not as good in book #1. Also Sanderson's stuff is a bit too pg-13 happy, as this was his big fantasy epic start I was expecting it to go a lot darker by the end of the book to setup the story, but things never happened as bad as I expected coming from GRRM or even King.


--
But yeah, since there's not gonna be an arc conclusion until 2023 I'm in no rush to jump into the next one and will take my time. Not sure what I'll read next. I want to finish Stephen King's "On Writing" which I started on a flight last fall. But after that need something new that's not King or Sanderson. I want to read some great classics. I never read Fantasy novels until like 8 years ago when Game of Thrones TV started so I have a lot to catch up on, mostly read sci-fi and horror my whole life.

Thinking about reading Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic next. I think I maaay have read it as a kid, but I also think I only played some of the Discworld games and read Good Omens in terms of Pratchett's stuff. Always kinda associated him with Douglas Adams and I read all the Douglas Adam's books, so I might've read some Discworld. Maybe. But I'm always up for good satire/comedy, so that seems like it'd be a fun pick up.

Otherwise, I saw a thread last night on Dan Simmon's Hyperion and looked it up and apparently it's a pretty famous and well regarded sci-fi fantasy book. So maybe I'll read that.

Also feel like maybe I should read Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time?

I've never read Ender's Game because Orson Scott Card always seemed like a shitty person so I avoided his stuff. But people seem to think real highly of that as a sci-fi book.

Although both of those are starts of series and I kind of just want to read standalone books while I'm reading through all this Cosmere stuff. Any recommendations? The types of books I like besides Stephen King/Sanderson/GRRM are stuff like Neil Gaiman, Douglas Adam, I liked Ready Player One.

Things I'm not into anymore/right now is high-brow lit stuff like Pychon and Vonnegut, non-fiction. I just want my horror/fantasy/sci-fi videogame junk food fiction books. The more interesting lore and stuff the better.

[Clockwork5]

I just finished The Way of Kings about a month ago. I thought it started and ended super strong. I really dug Kaladin’s arc and legit got excited about his level-up towards the end of the book. I think the spren and stormlight aspects of the world are pretty well thought out too. I will say, I found it to drag a bit (and by a bit I mean 200-300 pages) in the middle, but I’m looking forward to continuing on.

I’m now listening to The Stand audiobook (I guess we both are doing this Sanderson-King thing). It’s really good. The timeline is kinda strange... Written in the 70’s, takes place in the 90’s, feels like the 70’s... but I can forgive that. It is kinda hard to keep track of all of these characters coming and going in the audio format, but damn if the narrator hasn’t nailed the gritty, horror show scenes so far.

[Tasty]

Making my way through my friend's book Overshadowed. 😊

[Bebpo]

I just finished The Way of Kings about a month ago. I thought it started and ended super strong. I really dug Kaladin’s arc and legit got excited about his level-up towards the end of the book. I think the spren and stormlight aspects of the world are pretty well thought out too. I will say, I found it to drag a bit (and by a bit I mean 200-300 pages) in the middle, but I’m looking forward to continuing on.

I’m now listening to The Stand audiobook (I guess we both are doing this Sanderson-King thing). It’s really good. The timeline is kinda strange... Written in the 70’s, takes place in the 90’s, feels like the 70’s... but I can forgive that. It is kinda hard to keep track of all of these characters coming and going in the audio format, but damn if the narrator hasn’t nailed the gritty, horror show scenes so far.

I like Kaladin but I feel he's a bit too been there, done that Sanderson protagonist. Also his arc took foreeeever to get where it was going. So much time in flashbacks too.

Also this book is a little funky because every other Cosmere Sanderson book I've read has had main hero characters by the end fully in control of their magic powers,

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Wheras even in the end Kaladin can just barely use his. The only character in control of their powers like a Sanderson hero is Szeth who honestly is a little boring without any freedom of action on his own the whole time and being super OP, I can see why he only got the occasional chapter and I hope in book 2 he starts actually doing something.

[close]

I liked Dalinar a lot more. Just seemed more interesting and more fun.

I agree the end was strong and I thought the first few chapters were fantastic, but once it changed over to Shallan about 3 chapters in the pace just came to a stop and it was a long crawl that didn't really speed up that much until the last 100 pages or so. The book also introduced so many different mysteries with the surgebindng, spren, shadesmar, soulcrafting, etc..etc... without really answering even a single thing by the end of book 1. I've read other books like Dark Tower #1: The Gunslinger that are also kind of intro chapters to the story, but Gunslinger is like 200 pages. Sanderson's full complete books from start to finish typically are about 500-600 pages which introduce a world, mysteries, characters, magic and tell a full story and resolve most of it by the end. This book was so long at 1,000 pages and it just felt like a lot less content. I feel the same book could've been told in about 1/2 the page count.

It was still enjoyable, I still finished it in a few weeks reading each night, I'm still excited about book #2, but if book #2 doesn't pick up a lot from this point I'm going to be disappointed. I honestly don't see how it couldn't pick up and be exciting from this point, but if it's another build up for major stuff to happen in book #3 I'll be a little hmmmmmmmmmm.

For instance in ASOIAF, each book builds up the story and moves it to the next one, but each book has enough arcs of their own to feel complete and satisfying. That's basically what I want out of this. The Mistborn Trilogy #1 books by Sanderson were like that too with each book being a complete story while setting up.

[Crash Dummy]

Thinking about reading Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic next. I think I maaay have read it as a kid, but I also think I only played some of the Discworld games and read Good Omens in terms of Pratchett's stuff. Always kinda associated him with Douglas Adams and I read all the Douglas Adam's books, so I might've read some Discworld. Maybe. But I'm always up for good satire/comedy, so that seems like it'd be a fun pick up.

do it, the discworld books are brilliant especially those featuring rincewind or death

[Great Rumbler]

Thinking about reading Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic next. I think I maaay have read it as a kid, but I also think I only played some of the Discworld games and read Good Omens in terms of Pratchett's stuff. Always kinda associated him with Douglas Adams and I read all the Douglas Adam's books, so I might've read some Discworld. Maybe. But I'm always up for good satire/comedy, so that seems like it'd be a fun pick up.

do it, the discworld books are brilliant especially those featuring rincewind or death

The books with the city watch are pretty great, too.

[Madrun Badrun]

Most of the way through Jurassic Park.  Pretty disappointed.  It's one of my favorite movies. 

[shosta]

Does she say "it's UNIX" in the book?

[Madrun Badrun]

Haven't got to the end - but its like that all over.  The writing is really really bad. 

[Madrun Badrun]

Ya but I find the movies a lot more forgivable.  The first movie definitely polished up a lot of parts of the book.  Also, the writing is bad in different ways - the kids are even more annoying, Ellie is overly sexualized, every five pages there is a monolog about some science things he doesn't really understand (there is literally object-oriented code written out in the book with two paragraphs explaining that code objects are much like physical objects that can be packaged up and moved around).  Malcom's chaos theory stuff is much more prominent.  The plotting is also a lot more sloppy with some pretty gaping flaws.

[chronovore]

Laundry Files book 1 was pretty good.  Basically 90's cool hacker meets X-Files meets Lovecraft meets bureaucracy parody.  Also, there is a scene that describes a mount Rushmore being carved on an alien moon in another universe only its Hilter.

Stross is a treat. Pick up Accelerando if you haven’t already. If you enjoyed the 9 Princes in Amber, check out Merchant Princes.

[Pennywise]

Started re-reading A song of ice and fire 

[Great Rumbler]

Covers a lot of similar ground as A People's History, but with pretty pictures.

[Madrun Badrun]

The new Murderbot was wonderful.  I love that series so much. 

[Madrun Badrun]

Been reading a few books cause that is all I can do with my back out

The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions  Really good.  Makes me much more worried about climate change though.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate, too literary for me.  Kinda interesting though.  I like the scifi idea of changing astronauts to match the environment but it gets a bit preachy.  Lots of lines about coming as explorers not colonists etc.  and like fuck no.  The whole point of going to space is to fill the museums with shit that people won't bitch about being returned or whatever.   

Coyote Rage  Only 10% in seems interesting: feels like 80's horror cheese mixed with native American fantasy. 

[Madrun Badrun]

I also just bought a textbook on Dinosaurs, which I'm pretty excited about. 

[Crash Dummy]

I also just bought a textbook on Dinosaurs, which I'm pretty excited about.

Coincidentally I signed up for a Coursera thing on dinosaurs while a bunch of courses are free

[shosta]

Reading Hyperion

[Great Rumbler]

Reading Hyperion

Hyperion and its sequel are good stuff.

[Madrun Badrun]

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1080659

might interest Horror fans

[Dickie Dee]

Reading Hyperion

Hyperion and its sequel are good stuff.

Finding out Dan Simmons is a total piece of shit wss 

Still check out Ilium/Olympos too tho

[Great Rumbler]

Since I finished up two book on class struggle in the US, I've decided a change of pace is in order:

[team filler]

hyperion 

[EchoRin]

Internet was in and out over the weekend so it gave me an excuse to leave the digital world and finally get to some reading.

Serving the Servant



Well I'm a massive Nirvana and Kurt Cobain fan. An incredibly important person to me. This book is told from the point of view from the band's manager who was in charge for about the final 3 and a half years of the band's existence (post-Bleach and pre-Nevermind).

It's beautifully written and gives me an even clearer picture on Kurt who this book centers around mostly. there is certainly lots of literature/documentaries out there about the band or Kurt that are also of high quality, but if you haven't read any or seen any, this book is as good of a place to start as any. Some of the things I knew about have more color to them now with Danny's account and other things were completely unknown to me. There is a section in the book after Kurt had already died when Danny and his wife and child are in a limo when they arrive in Seattle for the funeral and stuff and the limo driver tells them a story of how she had driven Kurt a few months back and how he was very kind. She then tells a story of how she told him that her 14 year old son was a fan and Kurt asked where she lived. Since it was on the way to his home he told her they could stop by her place so he could see her son so he could tell him his mom is a very good driver. In the book Danny says that the driver and he both were choked up as she came to the conclusion to her story. Obviously knowing the exact situation that had just transpired I felt a little choked up too.  :'(

Anyways. For a Nirvana fan I say this is essential reading for those wanting a clearer picture of Kurt and also want to know a little more about the music industry as well as a byproduct of who is telling this story. It was a great read.

edit: Side note for my wank-dad brethren. Danny debated massive asshole Dennis Prager apparently sometime in the early 90s and Kurt and Courtney were in the audience to support Danny lol.

[Bebpo]

Started reading Sanderson's second Mistborn series Mistborn - The Alloy of Law and it's short at 300 pages so just over halfway already. It's victorian industrial age (does that make it steampunk?) magic sherlock, which is a very fun light whimsy combination. Digging it a lot.

*edit* apparently google defines this book as a steampunk western. Works for me!

[shosta]

It no longer matters who consider themselves the masters of events.

Events no longer obey their masters.

The world as we know it is ending, my friends, no matter what happens to us. As for me, I have no request of the Shrike. I bring no final words for it or the universe.

I have returned because I must, because this is my fate. I've known what I must do since I was a child, returning alone to Siri's tomb and swearing vengeance on the Hegemony. I've known what price I must pay, both in life and in history.

But when the time comes to judge, to understand a betrayal which will spread like fame across the Web, which will end worlds, I ask you not to think of me - my name was not even writ on water as your lost poet's soul said - but to think of Old Earth dying for no reason, to think of the dolphins, their gray flesh drying and rotting in the sun, to see - as I have seen - the motile isles with no place to wander, their feeding grounds destroyed, the Equatorial Shallows scabbed with drilling platforms, the islands themselves burdened with shouting, trammeling tourists smelling of UV lotion and cannabis.

Or better yet, think of none of that. Stand as I did after throwing the switch, a murderer, a betrayer, but still proud, feet firmly planted on Hyperion's shifting sand, head held high, fist raised against the sky, crying 'A plague on both your houses!'

For you see, I remember my grandmother's dream. I remember the way it could have been.

I remember Siri.

[Bebpo]

Finished Mistborn - The Alloy of Law. Was a good short, light and fun book with gun & magic battles. Enjoyed it a lot more than Way of Kings, like a lot of the other Cosmere stuff. It's just more exciting, witty and fun. I wish I still remembered more of the finer points of the original Mistborn trilogy. Been spending some time on Wiki after finishing it to refresh.

Next Cosmere book is Stormlight 2 - Words of Radiance.

I'm also reading the Pillars of Eternity II novella that just finally came out for backers, so I'll finish that up and get back to Discworld and see if I can finish it (wasn't feeling the beginning that much). Then probably read something else or two (I'm picking up the FFXV Cancelled DLC Season #2 book next week lol), before I jump back into Stormlight.

[Bebpo]

About 2/3rds through Discworld: The Colour of Magic and it's disappointing but has glimpses of goodness. It really needs an editor and is kind of hard to follow a lot of the time. Some of the jokes land and stuff like DEATH is funny as is all the rpg/fantasy spoofing, but yeah overall it just doesn't read that well. Even before I started it I read up a bit on Discworld and the general consensus was that Colour of Magic was one of the weaker books, but you might as well start at the beginning. Will finish it out and maybe read one of the top Discworld books that people recommend for comparison. Either that or go back and replay the two PnC adventure games from my childhood that I don't remember anymore.

Started the Final Fantasy XV Cancelled DLC S2 novel. Only read about 30-50 pages in, but it reads alright and has better storytelling than FFXV managed to achieve in-game. I'm kind of glad that the novel starts with Episode Ardyn before doing the 3 DLC episodes that never got made. That way by comparison with Ep Ardyn I can see how close the novelization is to the actual DLC and get a feel for what the DLC would be like for the other 3. It's a pretty lengthy novel (not surprising for Japanese authors), so might take some time to get through.

And then tonight, because I figured you never know how long you've got left, so might as well enjoy what you want to enjoy instead of saving it for a later time, I started reading The Stormlight Archives Book #2 Words of Radiance and man, this is some good stuff. It's like night and day from book #1 which was like my least favorite Sanderson/Cosmere book so far. That was slooooow and not super interesting, but it did move the pieces around and set everyone up interestingly for book 2 and book 2 right from the start is really satisfying and exciting. All the characters are at cool places and poised for epic stuff, the mysteries are coming to the front, and the PoVs are all coming together, which is kinda unlike GRRM considering this is only the second book and you'd expect more expanding and divergence vs pulling everything together which is usually more for endgame. But I'll take it because it's making this really enjoyable off the start. Probably blow through this book before getting back to finishing Discworld.

[Great Rumbler]

About 2/3rds through Discworld: The Colour of Magic and it's disappointing but has glimpses of goodness. It really needs an editor and is kind of hard to follow a lot of the time. Some of the jokes land and stuff like DEATH is funny as is all the rpg/fantasy spoofing, but yeah overall it just doesn't read that well. Even before I started it I read up a bit on Discworld and the general consensus was that Colour of Magic was one of the weaker books, but you might as well start at the beginning. Will finish it out and maybe read one of the top Discworld books that people recommend for comparison. Either that or go back and replay the two PnC adventure games from my childhood that I don't remember anymore.

I really liked The Color of Magic at the time, but after reading through a big chunk of the later books I would definitely not put it high on my list for the series.

[Madrun Badrun]

Most of the way through The Elementals audiobook.  Really liking it. 

[shosta]

A Canticle for Leibowitz is so deeply poetic. And so funny, too. What an amazing book.

Going to read Camus' The Plague after this.

[Crash Dummy]

re-reading this since it's been a while and it's a short book broken into small chunks so easy to pick up here and there, would recommend

[Bebpo]

Been staying up until like 2-3am getting 4-5 hours of reading in a night on Stormlight Archives #2 Words of Radiance. I wouldn't even say I love the book and I have minor aggravations with it, but goddamn do you get invested and it's a page turner by midway. Probably haven't been addicted to a book like this since the 2nd/3rd Ice & Fire books. Should finish it tomorrow.

[Bebpo]

Finished Stormlight Archives #2 Words of Radiance

Was great. Works almost as a duology in that it pretty much brings to end all the stuff built up in book 1&2 by the end. Exciting, epic with some great big moments. The series feels like Song of Ice & Fire if it was a well-written jrpg with some anime moments. Which fits my tastes pretty well. Would definitely recommend the first two books even if the pacing is kinda slowww in book 1 and even 2 has pacing issues. Book 2 is much, much better than Book 1 though.

Of all the Sanderson Cosmere books I've read so far, this was probably the most epic. I still like Warbreaker the best so far, but this is up there.

[shosta]

It's been a while since I've read it and I remember enjoying it when I did but what was even the point of Post Office? All I can remember is some wacky gambling, one rape, a couple of bad marriages, and a heart in a jar.

[Oblivion]

The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis (same guy who did Moneyball and The Big Short). It's a book about the transition and political appointments made by Trump to the departments of energy, agriculture and commerce. i'm like 1/4 of the way in and it's both super interesting and super depressing/frightening.

[Crash Dummy]

It's been a while since I've read it and I remember enjoying it when I did but what was even the point of Post Office? All I can remember is some wacky gambling, one rape, a couple of bad marriages, and a heart in a jar.

i remember never wanting to read bukowski again

[Transhuman]

It's been a while since I've read it and I remember enjoying it when I did but what was even the point of Post Office? All I can remember is some wacky gambling, one rape, a couple of bad marriages, and a heart in a jar.

i remember never wanting to read bukowski again

"I considered suicide, but I felt a strange fondness for my body, my life. Scarred as they were, they were mine."

Ham on Rye is a good book, but that's the only part I particularly remember

[Tasty]

[Madrun Badrun]

Peace Talks is out tomorrow.  I read the fist 6 chapters cause they are up on his site.  Hyped.

[Bebpo]

About 2/3rds through Discworld: The Colour of Magic and it's disappointing but has glimpses of goodness. It really needs an editor and is kind of hard to follow a lot of the time. Some of the jokes land and stuff like DEATH is funny as is all the rpg/fantasy spoofing, but yeah overall it just doesn't read that well. Even before I started it I read up a bit on Discworld and the general consensus was that Colour of Magic was one of the weaker books, but you might as well start at the beginning. Will finish it out and maybe read one of the top Discworld books that people recommend for comparison. Either that or go back and replay the two PnC adventure games from my childhood that I don't remember anymore.

I really liked The Color of Magic at the time, but after reading through a big chunk of the later books I would definitely not put it high on my list for the series.

I finished Colour of Magic and didn't care for it. I just found a lot of it pretty boring. The set pieces moved from one to another quickly in a way that nothing was ever developed and nobody was interesting. It's mainly just Rincewind going "oh no!" and running from things in kind of a sequence of looney toons-esque situations one after another with Twoflower and the luggage chasing them. There were interesting bits like the mind dragons castle in the third story and the spaceship stuff in the 4th but I felt like the endings to all these stories just...end. I think I liked the intro story the best.

Since it ends on a cliffhanger, I started reading a summary of book #2 and it just didn't grab me. I don't think this series is for me at all. I was expecting something closer to Douglas Adam's Hitchiker series in humor, and this is very different. I read Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's fantasy comedy novel Mogworld some years ago and honestly it was more what I wanted out of Discworld as a fantasy series that's a parody of the fantasy genre and the humor clicked way better.

Which reminds me, I should probably read more of Yahtzee's books. I see he has like 3 or 4 other novels he did.

[Rufus]

The books centred around Death, Sam Vimes, or Nanny Ogg might be more interesting to you.

My favourite is Small Gods, which I think is a lot more more focused. It's been twenty years since I've read these (and I've only read six or so), so...

[shosta]

Finished The Plague... it was good but a bit overrated.

[team filler]

https://twitter.com/Audible_ind/status/1283327372528218113

[Madrun Badrun]

So Peace Talks wasn't the best but it reads very much like Part 1 of a 2 parter so I'll wait until Battle Ground for final judgement. 

[Bebpo]

The books centred around Death, Sam Vimes, or Nanny Ogg might be more interesting to you.

My favourite is Small Gods, which I think is a lot more more focused. It's been twenty years since I've read these (and I've only read six or so), so...

Maybe I'll check those out at some point. I like Death in the book. Was a fun character.

[Great Rumbler]

About 2/3rds through Discworld: The Colour of Magic and it's disappointing but has glimpses of goodness. It really needs an editor and is kind of hard to follow a lot of the time. Some of the jokes land and stuff like DEATH is funny as is all the rpg/fantasy spoofing, but yeah overall it just doesn't read that well. Even before I started it I read up a bit on Discworld and the general consensus was that Colour of Magic was one of the weaker books, but you might as well start at the beginning. Will finish it out and maybe read one of the top Discworld books that people recommend for comparison. Either that or go back and replay the two PnC adventure games from my childhood that I don't remember anymore.

I really liked The Color of Magic at the time, but after reading through a big chunk of the later books I would definitely not put it high on my list for the series.

I finished Colour of Magic and didn't care for it. I just found a lot of it pretty boring. The set pieces moved from one to another quickly in a way that nothing was ever developed and nobody was interesting. It's mainly just Rincewind going "oh no!" and running from things in kind of a sequence of looney toons-esque situations one after another with Twoflower and the luggage chasing them. There were interesting bits like the mind dragons castle in the third story and the spaceship stuff in the 4th but I felt like the endings to all these stories just...end. I think I liked the intro story the best.

Since it ends on a cliffhanger, I started reading a summary of book #2 and it just didn't grab me. I don't think this series is for me at all. I was expecting something closer to Douglas Adam's Hitchiker series in humor, and this is very different. I read Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's fantasy comedy novel Mogworld some years ago and honestly it was more what I wanted out of Discworld as a fantasy series that's a parody of the fantasy genre and the humor clicked way better.

Which reminds me, I should probably read more of Yahtzee's books. I see he has like 3 or 4 other novels he did.

The first two Discworld books especially are "goofy fantasy tropes" adventures without much that's deeper than that. But a lot of the later books, especially ones with the Watch, lean much more into satire and social commentary [while still being funny] and are just better written stories overall.

[curly]

The books centred around Death, Sam Vimes, or Nanny Ogg might be more interesting to you.

My favourite is Small Gods, which I think is a lot more more focused. It's been twenty years since I've read these (and I've only read six or so), so...

Second the Small Gods rec, it's much more representative of what the series is like at it's best. If you don't like that one you can probably write off the rest.

[Great Rumbler]

Also, there's a book where Death gets fired and becomes a farmer, which you should definitely read. It's called Reaper Man.

[shosta]

Dog of the South is the funniest, and perhaps even the best, novel I have ever read in my entire life. I need to read Masters of Atlantis and Gringos before the year ends.

I've finally decided to tackle Foucault's Pendulum 😬. And I've roped Chronovore (I think) into rereading it with me. Someone wish me luck.

[Transhuman]

So I finished Columbine (2009, Dave Cullen) and I'm going to be in a mood for a while.

All the mythology and media coverage was wrong, which is frustrating in itself. Eric Harris was just a textbook psychopath from a very early age, Dylan Klebold was an angry suicidal depressive, they were bullies more than bullied, and this was a long running plan they had. There was no snapping point. There was no goths vs jocks shit. They both spoke often about murder and mass murder in their journals for YEARS leading up to the event.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/june99/columbine12.htm

"A lot of the tension in the school came from the class above us," Laughlin insists. "There were people fearful of walking by a table where you knew you didn't belong, stuff like that. Certain groups certainly got preferential treatment across the board. I caught the tail end of one really horrible incident, and I know Dylan told his mother that it was the worst day of his life."

"People surrounded them in the commons and squirted ketchup packets all over them, laughing at them, calling them tacos," Brown says. "That happened while teachers watched. They couldn't fight back. They wore the ketchup all day and went home covered with it."

Does it mention that in the book? I havn't read it but a lot of Columbine enthusiasts (for lack of a better word) say the book got that completely wrong. I guess for a lot of people it's easier to just wrap it up and say "they were born psychopaths, there was nothing anyone could have done".

[Mandark]

The bullying narrative sure seemed pretty "easy" for people, given how absolutely predominant it was.