How we doing folks? Read many books this year? What's been your favourite so far?

Hello again!

Hispania Obscura, the urban fantasy story set in modern Madrid and Spain is finally here. Book is in Spanish for now only, but if you know someone who you think can enjoy it, please share. There's also an free short story in the link and the publisher allows for the first two chapters of the book to be read as preview.

https://linktr.ee/jrcruciani

The electronic versions in the different online stores are also coming soon.

Thanks!

Synopsis:

Francisco Ayala used to be a respected journalist, the kind who made politicians and businessmen tremble with his investigations. Now he writes about UFOs and ghosts for a conspiracy theory blog, trying to pay off his debts as his credibility fades away.

A chance encounter will change his life forever, dragging him into a hidden world beneath the surface of historical Spain. With the Iberian Peninsula as the backdrop of a conspiracy, Ayala must navigate between the visible and the invisible as he tries to uncover who is attempting to disrupt the delicate balance of power that has been preserved for centuries.

Can Ayala solve the mystery before the past returns to claim what rightfully belongs to it?

I just finished Advocate, book 3 of Daniel M. Ford's The Warden series. I've been really enjoying this world. The first two books ended on cliffhangers, and the year wait between entries was killing me. Book 3 ended with a nice wrap up of one arc and a setup for another, both building up the bones of a larger story that's been looming ominously.

The problem is, it looks like Tor has dropped the series. The Warden and Necrobane were available in hardcover, but Advocate only got a TPB release. I can't find anything concrete about book 4, and according to a friend of a friend (and taken with the appropriate grain of salt) sales weren't good enough on the first book (?!?) to warrant re-upping the series.

I'm bummed. I found out about Ford's first series, Paladin, through word of mouth. I thought it was okay - a little tropey in places, but once he found his pace it was entertaining enough. Then he did some detective stuff that I had no interest in, but when I heard that he was doing another fantasy series, and that it got picked up by Tor, my interest was piqued. The result so far has been a marked improvement from Paladin, and one of the few things to poke through my deep depression these past few years. And now it's all in limbo.

Maybe I'm overreacting. I'm not going to pretend the know the machinations of the publishing world, and maybe someone else is going to pick up the series. It's just frustrating to find something nice and get it yanked away.

Anyway, rant over. I enjoyed my time with this series regardless of its future. If anyone else has read it (or has heard any news about continuation), I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I've read "The Way of Kings" and I really didn't enjoy it. Before I discovered that I didn't like it, I bought Dawnshard while it was on sale. I'm too cheap to not read a book I've bought so I am planning on reading it.

What lore or spoilers should I know to catch me up from tWoK to DS?

Oh my goodness. I love the spritely innocence of Sylphrena. Being an honor spren, cousin to wind spren, i cant help but find myself absolutely delighted by her mischievousness.

I'm reading Stormlight 5 now and this scene had me absolutely cracking up. I can't believe Brandon wrote this. It is so very Syl. 🤣😂😜💜💜💜

Syl’s eyes went wide, and she let out a soft “Ooooo …”
“New style,” the woman behind the counter said. “Based on an old ko-takama.” To their confused looks, she continued, “Female warrior clothing, very old, from our more savage times. That didn’t use the uniform coat, of course—and those had a higher waist, and sometimes a bow. I might have a picture somewhere …”
She trailed off as Syl’s clothing fuzzed and she was immediately wearing something similar. Syl rose up a little, her skirt—which was longer than the one she had worn in the past—rippling faintly. Thin, pleated, with the fitted jacket above. She continued to wear her hair loose, though she was one of the only ones in the room to do so.
“Nice,” Kaladin said. “It suits you.”
Syl grinned.
“I’d suggest,” the woman said, “a nice pair of leggings or trousers under the ko-takama for a Windrunner—or whatever you are—so that …”
“What?” Syl said innocently.
“When you’re flying,” the woman said. “So that, you know …”
Syl cocked her head, then gasped. “Oh! Or everyone will see my chull.”
“Your … chull?” the woman asked.
Syl leaned forward conspiratorially across the counter. “I could never figure out why these humans were so shy about the spot between their legs! Strange to my uncultured spren mind. Then I figured it out! Must be something pretty ugly down there, for everyone to be so afraid to show it! The ugliest thing I know of is a chull head. So when I made this body, I put one there.”
The woman stared at Syl, and seemed to be trying very hard not to look.
“… Chull head,” the woman finally said.
“Chull head,” Syl replied.
“Down … there.”
“Down there.”
Syl held the woman’s eyes with an unblinking stare, before adding, “I feed it grass sometimes.”
The woman released a shockspren and made a sound not unlike one Kaladin had heard from men being strangled.

Bwahahahaahh! 😂😂😂😂

Your "To Be Read" list, that is. Tell us what's near the top or share the whole thing if you like. I'm nosy and like seeing what books people are excited about.

I really enjoy the idea of world building of high fantasy: A completely foreign place, not tied to anything like earth. I also like that the norms of current social structure can be completely turned on its head.

But what I struggle with is: a lot of popular high fantasy turns into an epic, super high stakes tale of how the world almost ended. I think that is something I've either seen too much of, or something that just takes away from other potential interesting stories that could come out of a different world.

So instead, I am looking for books where the protagonist explores/adventures through the foreign world discovering people and places within it. But there the challenges or conflicts the characters go through are personal and more relatable.

Does anyone share similar frustrations? Does anyone have any suggestions for books that I might enjoy?

Edit: Thanks everyone for your suggestions! Anyone that still comes across this tread, please feel free to add more, and hopefully it’s useful for others as well.

We’ve written a detective story and I’m wondering if anybody likes it. It’s kind of a detective story that “tells itself”.

https://www.loomers.world/derek/

You’re detective Derek Maker and you have to extract a confession by interrogating the suspects of an art heist.

We worked hard on writing the script (it’s not AI generated!) and we programmed an AI to play out the other characters.

Solving it seems pretty difficult, because so far nobody’s come close to cracking it!

Can you solve it? And do you think it’s any good?

Hi!

I'm looking for books about mages, wizards and witches in which the magic itself is a central part of the story and not just there so the MC can slam a fireball into the face of his foes.
Maybe the magic has a will of its own or the MC is trying to 'restore' it from some kind of 'disease' or something else.

And how are you liking it?

I'm working my way through Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett and it's solid so far, lots of fun, very compelling. I'm not the fastest reader but I'm already halfway done after just a few days.

Looking for recommendations for series with rebellion as a main focus. I want a MC that tells the elder council, noble assembly, ancient wizard circle, whatever high and mighty force to go to hell with their suggestions and orders. I liked the Embers of illeniel series where the MC decided to burn the whole world when he got the power to do it. I like the immortal great souls series where all authority is rightly viewed with suspicion. What else do you fine connoisseurs have for me?

Wow I'm in that book fog. Finished this arch of the story and just feel drained. While not the best book in the series in my opinion I still enjoyed it. Going to feel rough to wait 10 years (IRL time) for the next visit to main story Roshar. Hopefully the planned novellas and possibly some hints in other Cosmere works will scratch the itch.

"Skeletons of the Gods" is a dark fantasy/horror tale about the man, who always wanted to be someone better, than he was. I invite You to read: https://adeptusrpg.wordpress.com/2024/02/17/skeletons-of-the-gods-short-story/ or listen to: https://youtube.com/watch?v=nk5RprPrkiU And here is the fragment.

Thousands of years ago, in a certain kingdom in the far south, there lived a man who always wanted more than he had... wanted to be more than he was. His name has been erased from the records, but the wise people who know this story call this man "The Insatiable One." He was born into a family of servants of a nobleman. His parents trained him from an early age to take their place one day. They always told him, “Look how lucky you are! You could have been a slave on some plantation, but you are a servant in a rich man's house! Moreover, such a good man. He lets us eat the leftovers from his table and only beats us when he gets really angry. You will have a real paradise with him!” But this young man was not satisfied with the scraps from the master's table. He wanted to have everything his master had... And more. But he had no idea how to get it. Years passed, the Insatiable One's parents grew old, and he passed out of adolescence. He took his father's place and became the most trusted servant in the house. This gave him access to every nook and cranny of the large household. One day, while cleaning his master's bedroom, he came across a scroll hidden under his pillow. He immediately took it in his hands, unfolded it and began to look through it. He mastered the art of reading enough to understand the general meaning of the written words. And these were extremely significant words. The lord of the house conspired with another nobleman, an aristocrat from an ancient family, against the prince ruling the province! Insatiable One was shocked, but after a while the feeling turned into excitement. This was the opportunity he had been waiting for for so many years! He could finally rise above his miserable existence... Over the corpse of that wretched, fat pig he had to serve!

cross-posted from: https://biglemmowski.win/post/3737049

How I didn't know about this is beyond me, either way now you know too, can't wait for release!

https://reactormag.com/columns/wind-and-truth/

@[email protected]'s wife is the author of this story. I haven't gotten around to reading it yet, but I wanted to support one of our Lemmy users (or their spouse, anyway)! Let's hope this becomes a franchise like she hopes!

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5600161

Thoughts on this book?

Thoughts on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit?

I might watch The Rings of Power but I've heard mixed things on it. What do you all think of it?

Mostly though: I'm hoping that some people here can expand on what I'm reading so far.

'Cause honestly, I do like what I'm reading, I do, and that's because I genuinely like the mythological tone that the world-building takes. And Numenor as an "Atlantis" is a fine way to do things, but honestly, I doubt they'll be able to do much with it in whatever Amazon property they decide to make of it (which, I mean, is fine). I wonder if there are other shows or serials besides The Rings of Power that are coming out? Either way: I really like the beginning and how everything started with music and song.

Your thoughts?

39 titles for $18 and up. Good for another ~2 weeks. DRM'd but, uh, doesn't Calibre just have the neatest plugins?

So there is a loud party near my house and I can't sleep so I decided to see how many books I have in my house. There is this trend that says that 1.000 books make a library and I wanted to see if I have more. I am at 1.697 books and I haven't counted 14 shelves, a bookcase, some books that are just hanging around the house (You know the ones you read at the same time and the books that you may want to read next) and some books that we have in closets and boxes cause we were out of bookcases 🤣🤣

I really want to find and count the rest!

Want a great book to get someone reading again. Thornhedge is a good one to try. I think it’s a good gateway book to fantasy books as well.

What books do you think would be good? To get someone into a new genre or back into reading?

Good deal and great series. Just bought and redeemed it using Kobo, very smooth experience.

Maybe this is inappropriate, but I’ve been working on a fun story maybe someone might enjoy. It’s paranormal and a little ridiculous. It’s about an overly cocky Esper that tries to return from the afterlife. A resurrection kind of thing. Any critiques about the story would be cool. Even if it’s harsh. I’m trying to learn.

Hey everyone. My wife wrote her first book. An urban fantasy meets Scifi book about a doctor who develops telekinetic powers after an accident and then finds out magic is real.

Pre-orders are up on Amazon for both digital and physical copies. We are still working on getting it on more storefronts before launch.

No plans for the audiobook until we can get some proceeds from the book sales. Because it's her first book, we don't have the money to pay an audio book narrator.

I'd you buy it and like it please leave a positive review. Those go a long way on getting new authors off the ground.

This will be a series. My wife is already near finalizing her final draft of the second book and has started on a third. I think she has something like 7-9 books planned so far.