What are you reading in 2025?

[prabe]

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.

I can see that. LitRPG just seems like enough of a category error to me that I'm completely uninterested.

 

[cbwjm]

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 think they have the benefit of being light easy reading. I was reading one called rogue dungeon and quite enjoyed it, it's set in an advanced MMO so if you've played WoW or another MMO some of the tropes will resonate.

 

[jhallum]

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.

Limiting DCC to LitRPG is probably not wise. It doesn't obsess about levels and levelling and all of the RPG trappings as much as other offerings in the genre. After racing through book 7, I would call it a clever and funny but crass and brutal post-apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy blend wth some interesting observations about present day politics. The LitRPG elements are there, but trapped in the game world, and not in other elements of the story.

 

[Pedantic]

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 love the mechanically minded character stuff, but I can't stand the isekai/VR/reincarnation/recent gamified apocalypse/etc. angle. The "person from our world" everyman frame narrative is thankfully starting to die off and was pretty vestigial in most cases, but it's a real struggle to push through and it's always the first thing you have to deal with.

 

[Voadam]

I really enjoyed Dungeon Crawler Carl it is fun. The subway one the puzzle aspect did not really grab me but the series as a whole works and has development over time and things get more powerful and the plot keeps pace to get more epic over time. I enjoy a bunch of the humor and it is really engaging to have most chapters end with a twist.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Was also scrolling down to say one of the players in my D&D game has been super hyping Dungeon Crawler Carl. Guess I'll need to buy v1 at some point, if only so we can talk about something else lol...

 

[Autumnal]

First book finished in March: Memories of Ice by Steven Erickson, Malazan Book of the Fallen #3. Well, wow. Multiple volume’ worth of plotlines converge in an epic, dramatic, tragic climax, and a bunch of people get unexpected conclusions (not all of the “and they blew up” sort, either). On to book #4 after some shorter reading to recharge with.

Y’know, I never liked Gygax’s preference for a humanocentric game world. But now sometime I’d like to try it with the sort of atmosphere Erickson builds, with humanity entirely outclassed by earlier species and having room to flourish because most of them are dead, or undead and unable to reproduce, or stuck in magical confinements that keep them mostly out of humanity’s way. Until, of course, someone or something starts undoing the constraints…

 

[Alzrius]

For the first time in one of these threads, I'm going to post about a book I'm not reading:

I recently came across a mention of an old Irish text known as An Banshenchas ("The Lore of Women"), but I can't seem to find a contemporary English translation anywhere.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

First book finished in March: Memories of Ice by Steven Erickson, Malazan Book of the Fallen #3. Well, wow. Multiple volume’ worth of plotlines converge in an epic, dramatic, tragic climax, and a bunch of people get unexpected conclusions (not all of the “and they blew up” sort, either). On to book #4 after some shorter reading to recharge with.

How the Malazan Book of the Fallen series connects and weaves so many threads together impressed the heck out of me. It struggled a little bit towards the end, but still managed to thread the needle.

Y’know, I never liked Gygax’s preference for a humanocentric game world. But now sometime I’d like to try it with the sort of atmosphere Erickson builds, with humanity entirely outclassed by earlier species and having room to flourish because most of them are dead, or undead and unable to reproduce, or stuck in magical confinements that keep them mostly out of humanity’s way. Until, of course, someone or something starts undoing the constraints…

The elder peoples of its world all mostly in decline or trapped away, were very well-written. The T'lan Imass were so darn cool.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I finished reading Lisa Mason's Arachne. A great and oftentimes forgotten entry in cyberpunk fiction, with protagonists far different from the norm (a young lawyer and a misanthropic robot). A bit of Gibson, a bit of legal drama, a dash of Pynchon-style absurdity.

I also finished Nalo Hopkinson's Clap Back. I keep thinking about how it ends with a question, yet feels resolved.

Now I'm re-reading William Gibson's Neuromancer. I thought I had re-read it more recently, but it's been at least ten years since the last time.