What are you reading?

remydat

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So we have a thread for movies and TV shows but thought I would start one for books. Seems people don't read as much anymore but I tend to read even more than I watch TV so here are some of the books and series I have read recently mainly on Kindle. This will mostly be sci fi and fantasy as that is generally what I read these days.

Starting off here are my favorite authors right now who I have yet to read a bad book from them.

https://jaykristoff.com/books/

Lotus War Trilogy - This is a fusion of the steam punk genre set in a Chinese/Japanese fantasy world.

Illuminae Files Trilogy - This serious is set in space and the interesting thing about it is the narrative is in the style of a collection of newspaper articles, video surveillance, and interviews that try to piece together what happened on a mining colony and space ship.

Nevernight Chronicles Trilogy - Fantasy world setting about a church of Assassins with religious/mythological undertones.

Aurora Cylce - Another book set in space that follows young cadets on a mission gone awry.
 

remydat

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https://www.willwight.com/books.html

Cradle - 7 book series with more to come set in a world of Asian martial artists. While it focuses on the world of Cradle, there are thousands of iterations (ie other worlds or planets) out there and martial artists that have transcended their world form an inter-stellar Court that battles the forces of Chaos to prevent these iterations from being destroyed. Story focuses on a young man whose soul is incapable of learning martial arts as he embarks on a journey to become a martial artist despite his limitations.

Traveler's Gate Trilogy - Another story about martial arts but with more of a European bent. This world focuses on Travelers ie individuals capable of traversing pocket worlds filled with mystical weapons, armor, and beasts that battle for control of their world. These pocket worlds are the remnants of worlds destroyed by their original inhabitants.

Elder Empire - A series of 4 books thus far about various warring Guilds. The books are actually a single narrative told from the perspective of opposing Guilds vying to select the next Emperor. So Of Shadow and Sea tells the story from perspective of the Assassin's Guild and Of Sea and Shadow tells the story from the perspective of the Navigator's Guild. Likewise, Of Darkness and Dawn continues the story from perspective of the Assassin's Guild and Of Dawn and Darkness continues the story from the perspective of the Navigator's Guild.
 

remydat

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Other than those, I have also read within the last year the following book series.

Fatemarked Series (5 books completed) - David Estes

Benjamin Ashwood Series (5 Books Completed ) - AC Cobble

Sylvan Chronicles (3 Books ongoing) RK Lander

King's Dark Tidings Series (4 books ongoing) Kel Kade

Tales of the Otori (4 books completed) Lian Hearn - Best Samurai book series in the past decade or so.

Tales of Shikanoko (4 books completed) Lian Hearn - Prequel to Tales of the Otori.
 

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I'm currently reading "Treason in Tudor England" by one of my favorite authors Lacey Baldwin Smith. He was a professor at Northwestern that wrote the preeminent treatise on Henry VIII that I ever read and I have read over 20. When he was still teaching we used to communicate occasionally and share observations on Medieval life.

I'm a Medieval history expert focusing on the period from 1399 to 1603 (Plantagenet thru Tudor dynasties), with a minor interest in the Mongol dynasties spanning from 1206 to 1353

So, if anyone has any recommendations on these, let me know
 

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A thread was made about this but it wasn't pinned so it got buried.

Anyways, currently reading Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor. It's about the battle at Stalingrad between the Soviets and Germany in WW2, and it's more broadly about the German invasion of Russia.

Crazy to read the descriptions about how nasty the fighting was, what a terrible time in human history.
 

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I'm currently reading "Treason in Tudor England" by one of my favorite authors Lacey Baldwin Smith. He was a professor at Northwestern that wrote the preeminent treatise on Henry VIII that I ever read and I have read over 20. When he was still teaching we used to communicate occasionally and share observations on Medieval life.

I'm a Medieval history expert focusing on the period from 1399 to 1603 (Plantagenet thru Tudor dynasties), with a minor interest in the Mongol dynasties spanning from 1206 to 1353

So, if anyone has any recommendations on these, let me know
Don't make me get medieval on your ass.
 

ytsejam

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Other than those, I have also read within the last year the following book series.

Fatemarked Series (5 books completed) - David Estes

Benjamin Ashwood Series (5 Books Completed ) - AC Cobble

Sylvan Chronicles (3 Books ongoing) RK Lander

King's Dark Tidings Series (4 books ongoing) Kel Kade

Tales of the Otori (4 books completed) Lian Hearn - Best Samurai book series in the past decade or so.

Tales of Shikanoko (4 books completed) Lian Hearn - Prequel to Tales of the Otori.

I listened to the Otori series years back. I could have done without the supernatural aspect and the narration was horrible. It was also kind of bullshit how the oracle told everything that was going to happen halfway through the series.
Tried to get back into it more recently and just couldn't handle the horrible narrators.
 

remydat

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A thread was made about this but it wasn't pinned so it got buried.

Anyways, currently reading Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor. It's about the battle at Stalingrad between the Soviets and Germany in WW2, and it's more broadly about the German invasion of Russia.

Crazy to read the descriptions about how nasty the fighting was, what a terrible time in human history.

Read that in college for a course on WWII. Ended up going to Volgograd just to see Pavlov's House.
 

remydat

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I listened to the Otori series years back. I could have done without the supernatural aspect and the narration was horrible. It was also kind of bullshit how the oracle told everything that was going to happen halfway through the series.
Tried to get back into it more recently and just couldn't handle the horrible narrators.

Yeah I am not a fan of audio books. Too slow for me. I like to ignore all the tedious descriptions what people are wearing or what buildings look like and mainly focus on the main elements of the plot. Helps me read a lot faster.

I liked the supernatural stuff as I like Japanese folklore and mythology so that didnt bother me much. You probably wouldnt like the Tales of Shikanoko then as the prequel focuses even more heavily on Japanese mythlogy with animal spirits, demons and tengu.
 

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Just started reading this actual physical copy of a book


I’ll also bounce around different chapters of this



I just finished listening to this today at work


And will be moving on to this on Monday

 

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I have been looking for some good humorous fantasy series other than the well know authors like Pratchett, Asprin, C. Moore and Adams. I have read almost all of these authors books already.
These are what I have found this year.

Drew Hayes is not bad and I enjoyed his NPC series and Fred the Vampire Accountant series.
Robert Bevins Critical Failures series was ok but has VERY crude humor.
Nicholas Eames Kings of the Wyld was a great read with a more subtle humor laced in.
 

Briggs is GOAT

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Also got D-Day, Normandy, Crete, and World War II all on tap, all by Antony Beevor.

I used to read a lot when I was a kid, but I got away from that for a long time. Now I'm getting back into it. There's much knowledge to be gained from books, and enjoyment as well.
 

remydat

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Oh nice. How did you like it?

Overall, I enjoyed the historical aspect of it but in general found Russia to be racist especially once you got outside the big cities. Not in an overly aggressive way so didn't completely ruin the experience.
 

Briggs is GOAT

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Overall, I enjoyed the historical aspect of it but in general found Russia to be racist especially once you got outside the big cities. Not in an overly aggressive way so didn't completely ruin the experience.
I see. I'm not really surprised to hear about the racism. Many countries in Europe just don't like people who aren't from the nation.

Wouldn't be surprised if some Russian people outside the big cities have never seen a black person before. Like my dad actually remembers the first time he saw a black person (he's from Greece) when he was a kid because it was a very surprising thing.
 

remydat

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Yeah generally speaking haven't had much of a problem with it when traveling.
 

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I'm currently reading "Treason in Tudor England" by one of my favorite authors Lacey Baldwin Smith. He was a professor at Northwestern that wrote the preeminent treatise on Henry VIII that I ever read and I have read over 20. When he was still teaching we used to communicate occasionally and share observations on Medieval life.

I'm a Medieval history expert focusing on the period from 1399 to 1603 (Plantagenet thru Tudor dynasties), with a minor interest in the Mongol dynasties spanning from 1206 to 1353

So, if anyone has any recommendations on these, let me know
You ever heard of game of thrones?
 

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