What are you reading in 2025?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

As expected, Don Quixote is not a zippy read and a lot of it is making fun of things that I have no context for, because I don't read Spanish literature, don't know Spanish chivalric novels and don't know much about this period of Spanish history. (He's just hooked up with Sancho Panza, so presumably most of the adventures are still to come.)

That said, this would be a great basis for a Brancalonia-style D&D tongue-in-cheek chivalric setting with Iberian and Mediterranean knights, enchanters, priests, giants, devils, etc. Fingers crossed some Spanish gamers produce something like that at some point.

 

[overgeeked]

As expected, Don Quixote is not a zippy read and a lot of it is making fun of things that I have no context for, because I don't read Spanish literature, don't know Spanish chivalric novels and don't know much about this period of Spanish history. (He's just hooked up with Sancho Panza, so presumably most of the adventures are still to come.)

A quick scroll through Wikipedia might help add some context.

Timeline of Spanish history - Wikipedia

That said, this would be a great basis for a Brancalonia-style D&D tongue-in-cheek chivalric setting with Iberian and Mediterranean knights, enchanters, priests, giants, devils, etc. Fingers crossed some Spanish gamers produce something like that at some point.

My first thoughts on seeing Brancalonia was to refit it as a Spanish setting.

I’d love to see something similar properly done for Spain.

 

[Mad_Jack]

Just acquired the second and third books and a short story collection in D.B. Jackson's Thieftaker series, so now I'm officially putting down the Jack Reacher novel I haven't been reading lately to reread the first Thieftaker book.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Random used book pile of Murray Leinster scifi for the last few days. Med Ship Man (a re-read) and Pariah Planet (both medical scifi, a subgenre I generally enjoy) were okay, albeit dry and a little slow-paced. They compare very poorly to White's Sector General in that there are no sentient aliens at all, and the puzzles are much more sociological or criminal than medical in nature.

Also Talents, Inc. which I absolutely hated, largely owing to POV character being one of the most defeatist protags I've ever read. He wins the Big Space War and gets the girl (and a planetary kingdom) in the end, but has to be dragged to the finish line and doesn't really deserve any of it. And the worst part is his superiors are even more mopey. "Oh no, we effortlessly annihilated an enemy fleet that outnumbered us ten to one, now they'll really be mad at us!" is a thing they keep harping on. Maybe you should try winning some more instead of giving up even harder? Especially since you'll be handed not one but two insurmountable technological advantages your foes can't even guess exist by midway through the book.

Not since the Retief books have I seen so much incompetent leadership in one place, but those were deliberately satirical where Talents plays it straight faced all the way through.

It's also remarkable that a book written in 1962 chooses to boldly declare that computers can't possibly plot an intercept vector for missiles that are employing (gasp!) varying acceleration. Only a unique mathematical "Talent" can possibly do such a thing, and then hand out tables for the gunners to use to accomplish such a feat. No doubt run off on a mimeograph machine while they were at it.

Gah. Bad taste in my mouth.

 

[Reynard]

I finished "Book and Dagger" and really enjoyed it. There wasn't a whole lot new there as far as the big events went, but seeing how the focus on researchers and academics shaped intelligence and espionage was very cool.

I am trying to decide between a light history book next ("Lies My Teacher Told Me") or bite the bullet and listen to Dungeon Crawler Carl. I don't actually want to read DCC, but its geek space relevance is growing and I kind of feel compelled to see what all the fuss is about.

Alternatively I found a book called Paddy Whacked, which purports to be a history of irish organized crime in America.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I am trying to decide between a light history book next ("Lies My Teacher Told Me") or bite the bullet and listen to Dungeon Crawler Carl. I don't actually want to read DCC, but its geek space relevance is growing and I kind of feel compelled to see what all the fuss is about.

Lit RPG completely baffles me, but I agree, it feels like something I need to at least flip through to understand. Probably romantasy, too, although that sounds like a little more conventional and fun for me.

 

[prabe]

Lit RPG completely baffles me, but I agree, it feels like something I need to at least flip through to understand. Probably romantasy, too, although that sounds like a little more conventional and fun for me.

I figure that if I don't see the appeal, then consuming it in whatever medium probably won't help me understand it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I figure that if I don't see the appeal, then consuming it in whatever medium probably won't help me understand it.

I have found a number of foods and musical acts that sounded unappealing to me at first were great once I tried them, so I want to at least try a chapter or two of Lit RPG at some point, just in case.

 

[TwoSix]

Lit RPG completely baffles me, but I agree, it feels like something I need to at least flip through to understand. Probably romantasy, too, although that sounds like a little more conventional and fun for me.

The nice thing about LitRPGs is that they tend to filter people out quickly.

Either you read about the main character contemplating their stats and level and think, "Yes, more please" or you're like "Nope, I'm out." Not a lot of middle ground.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The nice thing about LitRPGs is that they tend to filter people out quickly.

Either you read about the main character contemplating their stats and level and think, "Yes, more please" or you're like "Nope, I'm out." Not a lot of middle ground.

That was my suspicion.