I’ll start first: (bear in mind I usually listen to audiobooks)
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir |A guy finds himself stranded in space aboard an international space vessel where he has to remember who he is.
- The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater |A true story about how hanging with the wrong crowd can have life-altering consequences
- The Animorphs series by KJ Applegate |Young adult series in which a group of kids find an alien, get the powers to morph shape into animals, as well as uncover an alien takeover conspiracy (Plus, detailed depictions of how grotesque those transformations are!)
- Saga by Brian K. Vaughn & Fiona Staples (Comic, ongoing) |Following the story of Hazel, a baby born from an ex-soldier and an enemy combatant, Saga shows how gowing up and raising a kid in a wartorn universe can have highs and lows.
Edit: added pipes for better separation
I’m currently listening to For We Are Many, the 2nd book in the Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor. I’d previously read them all, but the newest is currently only an audible exclusive, so I downloaded a copy and listened to it and loved it and am now listening to the rest of the series. Basic plot: a modern guy gets a service to freeze his brain upon death. He then does and is awoken and turned into a self replicating space probe and Earth goes into nuclear war and the probe tries to help where it can and explores. It’s a really good and fun read.
I’m also re-working my way through the Anne Rice Vampire series. Haven’t read them in a couple decades and wanted to get re-acquainted. currently on book 4. it’s crazy what you retain and what gets dropped after many years.
I’ve found some of the random $1 for a 9 e-book set books that Amazon offers haven’t been bad.
You mentioned Animorphs and thats one that I’ve got to give a re-read at some point. I get partway through another read through every couple of years. I’d love it if Katherine Applegate could re-work the series as an adult series. It’s so good.
Starter Villain by John Scalzi was also a great read earlier this year. Absolutely love Scalzi. Basic Plot: Poor guy inherits his Uncles evil villain organization and tries to navigate his way through the shenanigans that ensue.
Oh hey,glad you posted. I was wondering whether I wanted to get the newest book in Bobiverse because the original trilogy felt a good “end” to the story, the fourth I was “eh” on, not terrible but not amazing imo.
Also been eying Starter Villain.
Audiobooks are how I survive at work.
Currently listening to the new book and it’s really good. Highly recommended. Less “stuck” in one place
haha, I love that I could help!
I’m typically listening to podcasts all day, myself to keep my sanity. I might add audiobooks to the rotation now though.
For the Bobiverse, I didn’t know it was originally a trilogy and book 4 was already out when I started, so I went in with a completely different lens. Overall I liked the 4th. For me though, once I get invested in a series, I’m generally happy to keep getting more unless it goes off the rails (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter being an example of one I really liked that went sideways). Overall though, I liked book 4 myself, it felt like a decent continuation of the story and felt like a bridge that was needed to continue the universe into the future.
Starter Villain wasn’t my favorite Scalzi, but I definitely liked it and it felt like a fresh concept and like most Scalzi, it’s enjoyable from start to finish. IIRC I read it in no more than 2 settings.
If you haven’t Read Kaiju Preservation Society, I would wholeheartedly recommend it. It’s not amazing literature, but, god damn was it a fun ride! It felt a bit like Redshirts, if you liked that one.
Look up Theft of Fire by Devon Ericson.
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
She is a master of language. I love her style.
Ayyy, I was given this as a gift about a year ago:))
Cool book I’d say. Also, nice to see an approach to an anarchist society, even if it’s fictional.
One of my favorites! She is just so incredible with making you think about concepts.
The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy
How is it? I preordered but haven’t had a chance to read it yet.
I love their book club and wanted to support them and picked up a few of their books
Shattered by Lisa Morgan.
The “Semiosis” series. Just finished the second part, the third was published a few weeks ago.
Watership Down. Way better than I thought 🙂.
I’ll take “Books that made me sob like a baby” for $500, Alex.
The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles. My first time reading an ancient classic, and it’s much less scary than I thought. In fact I’m quite enjoying it, and might read The Iliad (Homer’s other epic poem) next. The humanness of the characters (well, the human ones!) is very relatable, even though it’s 2700 years old. I don’t know why I expected it to be crusty and boring. Maybe I assumed it’d be like the Bible.
The intro explains a lot of stuff about the original Greek poem and how it was written in dactylic hexameterwhich bards back then used to be able to improvise in, which is amazing to me. Reminds me of 8 Mile or something. 😅
If you read a modern bible translation from the perspective of christian mythology just as we treat Greek mythology a lot of the stories are actually fantastic reads
interesting… it’s been a while since I’ve tried (as a kid in the 80s probably). Can you recommend a translation (and book/story)?
A lot of the Old Testament this. Any translation that uses more readable language is nice. The King James version etc get too much credit for sounding religiousy.
Genesis through Deuteronomy or so are what a lot of Protestant churches at least focus on. The New Testament is Jesus’ life and then a bunch of letters to various early churches about how the Religion should work.
A lot of “the rest” are the kind of fables they’re talking about. Ruth, Esther, Job, Samuel, etc. The ones named after people/mythological figures, depending on your point of view/beliefs.
cool, thanks!
I’ve been liking Mr. Einstein’s Secretary by Matthew Reilly so far. It’s far from his usual high octane thrillers (my guilty pleasures) and is written very well.
The First Law series.
Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John D. Clark. It’s a surprisingly fun read.
Babel, by R. F. Kuang
By the way, there are also book communities here on Lemmy. Check out
Just finished that about a month ago and it was excellent start to finish!
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“Children of God” by Mary Doria Russell: Second and final part of a sci-fi series about a Jesuit mission to an alien culture that goes wrong. Like the first part, it’s an emotional rollercoaster with a great cast of characters that you really grow attached to (and who often meet tragic ends). The author also created a really interesting alien society made up of two separate species. Oh, and the title might sound like it’s a preachy religious book, but it’s very much not. Would never have expected it, but this is now one of my favorite sci-fi series.
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“Memories of Ice” by Steven Erikson: Third book of the “Malazan Book of the Fallen” fantasy series. All three books I’ve read so far were enjoyable stories, but also very complex and not easy to read for sure. I love how the author creates a fantasy world where stone-age cultures play a pretty big role and where pre-history in many ways shapes the current world of the book. Also, quite a good cast of characters, which I didn’t necessarily expect given that it’s “epic fantasy”.
I’m just finishing the Crippled God now! Definitely a difficult series but so infinitely rewarding (and heart breaking.)
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I’ve been going through the Messenger Series by J.N. Chaney. It’s trash sci-fi, more than a little contrived in spots, and you really don’t want to go digging into, well anything about it, too hard. That said, it’s what I’ve been in the mood for, for the last little while and it’s often quite funny. Basic plot of the series is that an idiot finds an ancient jaeger, left behind by a long dead race, and must now face off against that race’s mortal enemy to save all life in the galaxy.
Learned on Lemmy a couple of weeks ago that Neal Stephenson has a new book out, and I’m still a sucker for them. Polostan is (so far) historical fiction and very readable. The Stephenson-esque infodumps seem to mostly concern the game of Polo and interwar Communism, with healthy dashes of 1930s physics and ranching.
Fellow sucker here. Will be sure to check it out.
Project Hail Mary was much more of an emotional ride than I was expecting.
🎶 Jazzhands 🎶
It was such a a fantastic read. I don’t like Sci-fi at all, but somehow Andy Weir makes it all so believable.
