this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2026
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One of the rare weeks where I got to read quite a bit.

Read Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. A contemporary sci-fi thriller. It's my first Blake Crouch book and I knew nothing while going on. A quick and very enjoyable read. Recommended for thriller fans, if they don't mind sci-fi.

After that, read The Magician's Guild by Trudi Canavan. It's a first book in The Black Magician trilogy, though it does have a prequel book and a sequel trilogy after that, but I don't know if they the follows same characters or if they are different stories, just in the same universe.

The whole book takes place in one city, and stakes are very personal instead of some world saving quest. It was also a quick and very easy to read book.

Finally, started the most read / mentioned book of these weekly threads, Dungeon Crawler Carl. The book is hilarious, it gave me some of that Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy feel in the start, but it's a very different book.

It is very much a litRPG (have we finalised on litRPG now? what happened to Progression Fantasy? It was at least a better name than litRPG, or is there some difference between the two?), and one issue with the genre is there is rarely any feel of real danger (with some exceptions). This seems to be going the same way, but again, I am still in the start of the first book of eight book series, so anything can change. This isn't a negative though, this is kind of why I like these books, sometimes you just want to read about good guy getting the win, without worrying about if they will win, but it is something to note if you are new to the genre.

Enjoying it enough that I have already ordered the next books, not sure if I'll actually read them back to back, but I am definitely going to continue with the series.

What about all of you, what have you been reading or listening to lately?


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[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Regarding Blake Crouch, I'm a fan, I've read a number of his books and enjoyed them. My wife summed up his sci-fi stories so perfectly that's it's comical to read them and see it. I'll throw spoiler tags around it, as it's a general theme.

THIS IS THE SPOILERA man is trying to get to his wife but science gets in the way.

I've also forgotten to respond to the prompt. So I'm listening to DCC, about 80% through book four. It's fun. I have my gripes with it, lots of DXM, but it's fine. It's fun.

Reading The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie, which is the fifth book in The First Law series. I'll throw a spoiler up here too, but I just finished a chapter that was really something else.

THIS IS THE SPOILER.The chapter was from several different viewpoints of random characters on both sides of a battle, beginning moments before the battle, and following a character until their death at the hands of the next character whose perspective we'd then read on from. There were five or six character changes, and going from the death being described from the viewpoint of the dying, and picking immediately up with the viewpoint of the one meting out the death, was a really neat wY to progress the story.

I am hot and cold on Joe Abercrombie, but I have learned to just keep reading, because he does some great things in his stories.

[–] dresden@discuss.online 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Not reading your spoilers, but have saved the comment, will check it out after reading a few more of Black Crouch's books.

I have read first 4 (the trilogy and Best Served Cold) books in The First Law series, my issue with Abercrombie is how grimdark his writing is. I want more joy in my books. He writes pretty well though.

[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

There is no joy at all. Book four, I almost considered hanging it up, but I think the way he wrapped things up was satisfying -- dark, but a great ending to the story.

And yeah, I want to see characters prevail too, and I guess I'll keep reading because maybe one of them will!