u/Never_Dave_1

Found this on the cover of a local magazine, so I'm not sure if it's even a real car. But, it looks cool, so I'm hoping it's not AI.

Forgot to post this on the 1st. Whoops.

1, 2, 3. Book 2, 3 and 4 of Vigil Bound. Now, I just have to wait for book 5. Unfortunately(?) his newer book series, Discount Dan's Backroom Bargains is getting more and more popular.

4. Book 29 (for real this time!) of Backyard Starship.

5, 6. Really fun meta Isekai where the writer of a popular LitRPG series gets burned out and kills off his main character. The morning after he finishes writing the end of the series, he wakes up in his supposedly fictional world, as the character he had killed off. Sort of. I love Johnathan McClain's narration. Now, I have to wait for book 3!

7. Another prequel series for Backyard Starship. I had read the other prequel series, Peacemaker Wars, as it was being released, but held off on this one for some reason. Now that events from this one are showing up in the main series, I figured I'd have to dive in. After a bit of a wonky time travel, a guy from 1982 gets sent back 300 some odd years, and ~100 light years away. Now he's faced with a crumbling galactic empire, and sets out to put things in order. Humans, am I right?

I read a lot of sci-fi this month.

1. Book 18 of Omega Force. New bad guys trying to fill the void created by Jason's son beating the old bad guys in the last Terran Scout Fleet book. Some pretty cool, and some pretty terrifying new tech is employed. Some pretty significant deaths, and a major(ish) character gets their backstory finally fleshed out.

2. The newest entry in The Murderbot Diaries. Some real character development for SecUnit, and his new friend/coworker. Greedy corporation gets a small measure of what it has coming to it. If you've enjoyed any of the series, this is more of the same great stuff.

3. This book made me wish there was the audiobook equivalent of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Just so bad, in so many ways, but so easily mockable. Maybe if you have a book club that reads bad books, this will be fun to tear apart. Will not continue with this series.

4. Book 1 of Stellar Heritage. Love the characters, the worldbuilding, and the overall plot, (I'm a sucker for a "citizens find alien starship, and proceed to upset the government" story.) but the crazy amount of continuity errors kept pulling me out of it.

5. Book 2 of Stellar Heritage. Much better than book 1, but still quite a few continuity issues. We get a glimpse into a couple different alien civilizations. The political stuff seems a bit off, but I'm no poli-sci expert.

6. Book 3 of Stellar Heritage. Here, some of the characters seem to completely go off the rails, and act contrary to how they've been set up. Somehow, this works to their advantage. But, hey, a lot fewer continuity flaws.

7. The 4th and final book of Stellar Heritage. I only finished this series, as I was low on credits, and this came as all 4 for a single credit. Some of the plot inconsistencies from the first 2 books are addressed, but poorly. I was saddened to learn that the author died shortly after book 2 was released, as I thought that with the experience of writing and publishing this series, he could improve and the writing could live up to the story he was telling.

8. I read the physical book around the time it came out, and it's one of my favorites from Christopher Moore. This narrator ruins that. He is incredibly inconsistent in his tone and characterizations. His accents are awful, and again, inconsistent. Why does the Greek character sound more Canadian than the Canadian? Unless, of course, someone mentions his Canadianness, and then he's Bob & Doug McKenzie.

9. Book 1 of Vigil Bound. I really enjoyed Discount Dan by this author, so I wanted to try some of his earlier stuff. This one was "free" with Audible Plus, so I gave it a shot. LitRPG Isekai with all the usual accoutrement. Almost rage-quit at one point, when it was listing the exchange rate for turning one stat into another, and it just kept going, and going, and going... I was screaming at my car stereo, "AND SO ON!" as each increment was identical. Glad I pulled through, even though the mystery the MC was trying to solve was staring him straight in the face almost the entire book. Not sure if his apparent ignorance was supposed to be unreliable narrator, or he's just that stupid. Either way, I enjoyed it, and have already started book 2.

A really good month.

1. Another new series from JN Chaney. Not sure how he does it, even with all the co-writers. This one is OK. I'll check out book 2 if there is one.
2. Felt like a discount version of Dungeon Crawler Carl at first, but managed to differentiate itself enough by the end to convince me to continue the series.
3. I really thought that guy was dead. I still kinda wish he was. A villain "redemption" arc I could do without, but hey, I'll take any new Dresden.
4. Book 28 of my current favorite sci-fi series.
5. Book 2 of Discount Dan. Really fun story that keeps getting deeper, and more interesting.
6. Book 8 of Dungeon Crawler Carl. Somehow this book is even gorier than the last one. Worst thing is, now I don't know how long I have to wait for book 9...
7. Book 6 of Convergence. I love this series, and I'm glad we got a new book. Just hope it doesn't take so long for the next one.
8. Finally. I've loved the movie since it came out, but never read the book. It's fun, and the movie pretty much follows the book almost exactly, and the changes they did make made total sense.
9. Book 3 of Discount Dan. Why is this book making me feel feelings? It's a dumb story about a guy and his blue rubber dog/mimic. I shouldn't be tearing up at a speech by Winnie The Pooh, after mercy killing Oz The Great and Powerful, and fighting a Steamboat Willie hydra.

1.Jim is back, and weaker than ever! No, wait. Stronger? Nah. Certainly broken, but what else is new? Puma check!

2.FOR!

3.THE!

4.COLONY!!

5.Can't wait for book 8!

6.My least favorite JN Chaney book in quite a while. Feels like it was written by a teenager in the early 2000s, who watched too many bad sitcoms. It literally starts with that cliche "record scratch" moment where the protagonist asks, "I bet you're wondering how I got here."