Oops, sorry about that. Didn’t know why I thought he was a she.
What are you reading in 2026?
- Thread starter Alzrius
- Start date
Ralif Redhammer
Legend
I loved We Sold Our Souls.
Voadam
Legend
Horrostor was fantastic. A friend of mine used that as a basis for a scenario in our X-Filesish d20 Modern game and it was amazing.
trappedslider
Legend
currently reading
www.goodreads.com
The Shadow (The Shadow, #1)
Even time cannot stop the Shadow. Only two people know…
That's the one I bounced off of hard enough to stop reading Hendrix. Different people will have different tastes and preferences, and I'm genuinely glad you enjoyed it.
Voadam
Legend
I tend to have different books scattered around my house and on different devices so I can read little snippets in downtime no matter where I am or what I've got with me. Most of it is currently gaming books, which for me are generally good for relatively short reading periods. I read a ton of sometimes very depressing or heavy stuff for work and I find in reaction my recreational reading habits turning more towards this type of stuff I can ad hoc dip into for my downtime and not novels where I have to dedicate regular time to it. TV series are generally filling the role of sustained plot stuff for me.
On my phone and on kindle I am reading Horror on the Orient Express Call of Cthulhu mega adventure. I am on the second of five epub files for it. The first CoC adventure I have sat down to read cover to cover.
On my little kindle fire I am reading a PDF of the 3.0 Monsters Handbook by Fantasy Flight Games. I don't really care about the CR customization system it has but the general monster discussions and type specific prestige classes and such are fun. This is from back during the early draft SRD days so it still has discussion of beholders and mind flayers and such in an OGL book.
On my big screen Ipad I am reading the 3.0 Portals & Planes by Fantasy Flight Games. Sort of a generic 3e Planescape/Manual of the Planes. Some little bits are interesting, but so far I rate it just OK.
On my computer I am reading the Girl Genius series of graphic novels from Studio Foglio, It is a fun fantasy steampunk mad scientist adventure romp series. A little repetitive in the characterizations and humor setup style, but overall still fun. I have finished volume 19 and looking forward to 20. I got volumes 1-20 in a bundle of holding sale but I see there have been three more put out since then. After I finish 20 I am not sure if I will buy the individual new ones or move on to other comics I have gotten collections of.
My neighbor lent me a box of mostly 90s crossover batman comics and I have read a couple dozen, but currently I have started his little 1960s batman book for kids The Cheetah Caper (tiny pages, every other one a full black and white illustration, a couple hundred pages long). It is very wildly Adam West era, batman's first line is something like "What's the matter chum, you look as bashful as a cannibal who just ate his best friend" and it has things from the show like the folding Shakespeare bust head to access the grandfather clock entrance to the batcave.
In my downstairs I have a 3.0 Encyclopedia of Demons & Devils Volume I from Fast Forward Entertainment that I am about half way through. It is both fantastic and terrible. Some interesting taking of real world mythology demons and turning them into 3.0 D&D, sort of the way Gygax did with things like Geryon and Dispater and all the devils from Dante's inferno and turned them into devils for D&D. Super varied in the different authors' writing and some of the mechanics are abysmal. Plus weird choices like portraying Hindu Ganesh as a Demon, and weird for D&D, portraying him as a 2 HD demon lord.
Upstairs I have the 2024 version of the 5e Monster Manual that I am about half way through, quicker to resolve stronger monster mechanics than 14 5e MM, weird organization choices (blue dragon is alphabetically under B for blue, blue slaad is alphabetically under S for slaad), no descriptive entry for certain big categories like demons or dragons in general, decent but short monster descriptions, I like most of the art.
In my desk drawer in my office at work I have a 2e Ravenloft module Dark of the Moon that I occasionally crack open during my lunch break. A bit more heavy handed on the railroading to force the specific plot and horror effects from cold and lycanthropy than I like, but cursed Russian winter can be a decent Ravenloft story base, with stuff like vengeful witch sisters as the PCs' allies. Will see what they have for a climax.
On my phone and on kindle I am reading Horror on the Orient Express Call of Cthulhu mega adventure. I am on the second of five epub files for it. The first CoC adventure I have sat down to read cover to cover.
On my little kindle fire I am reading a PDF of the 3.0 Monsters Handbook by Fantasy Flight Games. I don't really care about the CR customization system it has but the general monster discussions and type specific prestige classes and such are fun. This is from back during the early draft SRD days so it still has discussion of beholders and mind flayers and such in an OGL book.
On my big screen Ipad I am reading the 3.0 Portals & Planes by Fantasy Flight Games. Sort of a generic 3e Planescape/Manual of the Planes. Some little bits are interesting, but so far I rate it just OK.
On my computer I am reading the Girl Genius series of graphic novels from Studio Foglio, It is a fun fantasy steampunk mad scientist adventure romp series. A little repetitive in the characterizations and humor setup style, but overall still fun. I have finished volume 19 and looking forward to 20. I got volumes 1-20 in a bundle of holding sale but I see there have been three more put out since then. After I finish 20 I am not sure if I will buy the individual new ones or move on to other comics I have gotten collections of.
My neighbor lent me a box of mostly 90s crossover batman comics and I have read a couple dozen, but currently I have started his little 1960s batman book for kids The Cheetah Caper (tiny pages, every other one a full black and white illustration, a couple hundred pages long). It is very wildly Adam West era, batman's first line is something like "What's the matter chum, you look as bashful as a cannibal who just ate his best friend" and it has things from the show like the folding Shakespeare bust head to access the grandfather clock entrance to the batcave.
In my downstairs I have a 3.0 Encyclopedia of Demons & Devils Volume I from Fast Forward Entertainment that I am about half way through. It is both fantastic and terrible. Some interesting taking of real world mythology demons and turning them into 3.0 D&D, sort of the way Gygax did with things like Geryon and Dispater and all the devils from Dante's inferno and turned them into devils for D&D. Super varied in the different authors' writing and some of the mechanics are abysmal. Plus weird choices like portraying Hindu Ganesh as a Demon, and weird for D&D, portraying him as a 2 HD demon lord.
Upstairs I have the 2024 version of the 5e Monster Manual that I am about half way through, quicker to resolve stronger monster mechanics than 14 5e MM, weird organization choices (blue dragon is alphabetically under B for blue, blue slaad is alphabetically under S for slaad), no descriptive entry for certain big categories like demons or dragons in general, decent but short monster descriptions, I like most of the art.
In my desk drawer in my office at work I have a 2e Ravenloft module Dark of the Moon that I occasionally crack open during my lunch break. A bit more heavy handed on the railroading to force the specific plot and horror effects from cold and lycanthropy than I like, but cursed Russian winter can be a decent Ravenloft story base, with stuff like vengeful witch sisters as the PCs' allies. Will see what they have for a climax.
Ralif Redhammer
Legend
Different tastes, indeed! Part of its resonating with me was that I used to be in bands when I was younger (though certainly none as successful as the one in the book). Parts of the characters' experiences and feelings really hit me.
Funny thing, those were really like the opposite of my experiences, being in bands when I was younger. Though the fact none of the bands I was in really got far out of the basement/garage is certainly a thing.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
I'm finishing up Making Money today and it's fantastic, Pratchett at the height of his powers. And something I didn't notice the first time around, when Pratchett was still alive, is that he gives us a clue to where Moist von Lipwig was heading next after this novel, should Pratchett have lived long enough to see it through. (He apparently was working on up to 10 Discworld novels in various states when he died. They were destroyed, per his wishes.)
At the end of Making Money, Vetinari discusses with Drumknott the need for new blood over at the tax office, and explains that the current chief tax collector is apparently something of a violent thug. It would have been interesting to see how Pratchett tackled taxation and, presumably, tax reform in the context of Discworld. Something for Discworld RPG GMs to take up, I guess.
I'm reading about six Discworld novels a year, interspersing them with other works so I don't use them up too quickly, so I should be done with this re-read of all the novels before December. After that, I'll be going through the collected supplemental works, like Nanny Ogg's Cookbook, etc., and then Rihanna Pratchett's supplemental book about witches.
At the end of Making Money, Vetinari discusses with Drumknott the need for new blood over at the tax office, and explains that the current chief tax collector is apparently something of a violent thug. It would have been interesting to see how Pratchett tackled taxation and, presumably, tax reform in the context of Discworld. Something for Discworld RPG GMs to take up, I guess.
I'm reading about six Discworld novels a year, interspersing them with other works so I don't use them up too quickly, so I should be done with this re-read of all the novels before December. After that, I'll be going through the collected supplemental works, like Nanny Ogg's Cookbook, etc., and then Rihanna Pratchett's supplemental book about witches.
Last edited:
Alzrius
The EN World kitten
I just polished off The Gate of the Feral Gods, the fourth book of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, and I'm happy about how it seems to be a return to form for the series.
Mostly.
I kind of outsmarted myself here, having picked this one up in ebook format at the same time as the previous book in the series, which means that I missed out on the "Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret" novella tidbit for this book as well. Given that I still haven't gotten the print copy (which is the only place said novella can be found) of the third book from the library, I'm starting to wonder if it's better to just give up on the novella altogether; reserving and waiting to pick up multiple books just for a few pages of original content seems like overkill.
But I digress. Dinniman seems to have restrained his inclination to indulge in the particulars of the absurd nature of the next dungeon floor. Said particulars are still to be found, of course—"restrained" is a far cry from "abandoned"—but they don't seem to dominate the story the way that they did before. There's more focus on the characters, as well as how they're making use of what they have to solve the situations they find themselves in, and I think the story is stronger for it. It helps that the various plot threads laid down before are starting to come together in satisfying ways, even as more are laid down. Plus the ending packed quite a wallop, in a very good way.
So yeah, I'm still enjoying the series, to the point where I'm eager to find out where it goes from here.
Mostly.
I kind of outsmarted myself here, having picked this one up in ebook format at the same time as the previous book in the series, which means that I missed out on the "Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret" novella tidbit for this book as well. Given that I still haven't gotten the print copy (which is the only place said novella can be found) of the third book from the library, I'm starting to wonder if it's better to just give up on the novella altogether; reserving and waiting to pick up multiple books just for a few pages of original content seems like overkill.
But I digress. Dinniman seems to have restrained his inclination to indulge in the particulars of the absurd nature of the next dungeon floor. Said particulars are still to be found, of course—"restrained" is a far cry from "abandoned"—but they don't seem to dominate the story the way that they did before. There's more focus on the characters, as well as how they're making use of what they have to solve the situations they find themselves in, and I think the story is stronger for it. It helps that the various plot threads laid down before are starting to come together in satisfying ways, even as more are laid down. Plus the ending packed quite a wallop, in a very good way.
So yeah, I'm still enjoying the series, to the point where I'm eager to find out where it goes from here.
Last edited:
Similar Threads
Recent & Upcoming Releases
-
June 18 2026 -
October 1 2026
