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thistlechaserFor some people (me included) LJ has been down for more than a week now (connection times out). Some people in the US can still reach it. Unfortunately DW's importer isn't able to, it's sitting at trying to log in to LJ. Hopefully at some point it will succeed. My last import here is a year old...
Books #72-78 for 2026
A Parade of Horribles (Dungeon Crawler Carl #8) by Matt Dinniman. Immediately after my first listen, I started again. I thought my expectations must have been too high, because otherwise how could I have disliked a DCC book so much?
Nope. I liked it even less the second time. I downright hated it. It was about 24 hours to listen to the audiobook, and 22 of those hours were just a pointless filler episode.
The "humor" was so much worse this time too. If I ever hear the word splooge again...
After listening to books 1-7 over and over (starting over as soon as I finished the series) this book made me not want to listen to those earlier books ever again.
---
Beneath the Dragoneye Moons series, books 2-7, by Selkie Myth.
Adventures in the Argo, Ranger's Dawn, Beyond the Wall, Moonveiled Journeys, Immortal Moments, Return to Remus
I really should have stopped after each book and reviewed it, but I couldn't stop reading this series. Even with all of its flaws, for some reason the story hooked me so hard.
The flaws are many. The editing in the early books is unacceptable. The author loves puns and italicizes them so you can't miss them (which makes them even less funny). Most character names are stupid because the country the story is set in is fantasy-Ancient Rome.
How did this story hook me so hard? I can't even explain it. The main character (Elaine) starts as a pre-teen girl and by book 7 she hit 20. She's had so many adventures and has grown so much!
While this is LitRPG, it has none of the usual issues with that genre. Women don't exist just for the main character to have sex with, the main character isn't the strongest person in the world, etc.
Even when it seems like Elaine is getting too much, somehow the author makes it okay. For example, in book 7 she got a pet, an animal that has never been seen in this world before, one most people don't even know the name of it, one of the most powerful animals in our mythology. But the creature as so many flaws and shortcomings that it works. In other LitRPG books, it would be a mega-powerful creature.
Another example is that Elaine is now immortal (in a world of mostly mortal humans). That could so easily be seen as overpowered for the world, but there are enough flaws, shortcomings, and other issues with it that it feels fairly handled.
Every step of the way feels like Elaine has earned her powers. That's so incredibly rare in LitRPG books!
There are 10 more books out (and these aren't short books!) and the series is still ongoing. I'm happily going to continue with it.
-----
Edit: Well that's one difference between DW and LJ:
"Adding this tag would exceed your maximum of 1000 tags. You will not be able to add new tags until you delete 1310 existing tags."
Guess I'll have to come up with a whole new tagging system.
Books #72-78 for 2026
A Parade of Horribles (Dungeon Crawler Carl #8) by Matt Dinniman. Immediately after my first listen, I started again. I thought my expectations must have been too high, because otherwise how could I have disliked a DCC book so much?
Nope. I liked it even less the second time. I downright hated it. It was about 24 hours to listen to the audiobook, and 22 of those hours were just a pointless filler episode.
The "humor" was so much worse this time too. If I ever hear the word splooge again...
After listening to books 1-7 over and over (starting over as soon as I finished the series) this book made me not want to listen to those earlier books ever again.
---
Beneath the Dragoneye Moons series, books 2-7, by Selkie Myth.
Adventures in the Argo, Ranger's Dawn, Beyond the Wall, Moonveiled Journeys, Immortal Moments, Return to Remus
I really should have stopped after each book and reviewed it, but I couldn't stop reading this series. Even with all of its flaws, for some reason the story hooked me so hard.
The flaws are many. The editing in the early books is unacceptable. The author loves puns and italicizes them so you can't miss them (which makes them even less funny). Most character names are stupid because the country the story is set in is fantasy-Ancient Rome.
How did this story hook me so hard? I can't even explain it. The main character (Elaine) starts as a pre-teen girl and by book 7 she hit 20. She's had so many adventures and has grown so much!
While this is LitRPG, it has none of the usual issues with that genre. Women don't exist just for the main character to have sex with, the main character isn't the strongest person in the world, etc.
Even when it seems like Elaine is getting too much, somehow the author makes it okay. For example, in book 7 she got a pet, an animal that has never been seen in this world before, one most people don't even know the name of it, one of the most powerful animals in our mythology. But the creature as so many flaws and shortcomings that it works. In other LitRPG books, it would be a mega-powerful creature.
Another example is that Elaine is now immortal (in a world of mostly mortal humans). That could so easily be seen as overpowered for the world, but there are enough flaws, shortcomings, and other issues with it that it feels fairly handled.
Every step of the way feels like Elaine has earned her powers. That's so incredibly rare in LitRPG books!
There are 10 more books out (and these aren't short books!) and the series is still ongoing. I'm happily going to continue with it.
-----
Edit: Well that's one difference between DW and LJ:
"Adding this tag would exceed your maximum of 1000 tags. You will not be able to add new tags until you delete 1310 existing tags."
Guess I'll have to come up with a whole new tagging system.
