What are you reading? — Page 34

I recently finished listening to the first 3.5 (three novels and a novella) of the Expeditionary Force series by Craig Alanson. I noticed somewhere that its genre was listed as “space opera”, which supposedly also includes Star Wars. But here’s the thing: The Star Wars films are space opera; the books are not. The last two Star Wars books I’ve tried to read, Darth Plagueis and Battlefront: Twilight Company, are sci-fi drivel with boring plots and uninteresting characters. It’s starting to sour my interest in Star Wars books. I just hope The Last Jedi novelization is good because I’ve already preordered it.

I stopped listening to Twilight Company at about Chapter 7 because I just didn’t feel interested, and now I’m listening to Chaos Seeds Book 1: The Land: Founding, which is a “LitRPG”, or a novel about a character who is literally trapped in an MMORPG game world complete with stats, EXP points, and respawn on death. People apparently compare it to Ready Player One in some fashion, and since I’m really liking this story so far it’s made me question my haste in giving up on that book, but for now I’m still telling myself that it’s okay to not like things.

I’m reading the ‘what are you reading’ thread on ot.com.

I’m really reading it! Mostly to find out how long that joke hasn’t been made.

Nothing for the last 10 pages. I’m getting bored.

chyron8472 said:

now I’m listening to Chaos Seeds Book 1: The Land: Founding, which is a “LitRPG”, or a novel about a character who is literally trapped in an MMORPG game world complete with stats, EXP points, and respawn on death.

Finished book 1, then went on to and finished book 2—The Land: Forging. I love the narrator, Nick Podehl.

I also like the story, except for a few issues: First, a number of people point out that the main character, Richter, doesn’t seem to be overly bothered by having been transported to a new world. That’s kind of a minor niggle for me, though, and admittedly, the second book does suggest he wasn’t happy with his life on Earth because he refuses to talk much about it.

Second, there are too many pop culture references, and several are overused or obvious.

Third, the main character is supposed to be in his mid twenties and the Book 1 prologue takes place on Earth in the year 2037… but his pop culture references are our pop culture references. He references Ghostbusters, Labyrinth, and the meme “KHAAAAN!” just to name a few off the top of my head; and he more than once says “hashtag[insert meme]”. When deciding what skills to level, he thinks about mobilization being important for winning wars, and cites orbital flight being a factor in the West winning World War III. He should be too young for Gen-X and Millenial references, and he doesn’t seem affected by what to him are more modern current events, so the pop culture references are as mildly head-scratching as much as they are overused.

Aside from that, it’s a good series. I know I said someone compared it to Ready Player One, but that book was about using pop culture references to help win the game and so are somewhat integral to the plot. This isn’t like that. The nostalgic references are there, but the plot doesn’t hinge on them and other characters are confused or ignore when they happen.

The Land:Founding – 8.5/10
The Land:Forging – 7.8/10

Currently reading Fire and Fury

Infinite Jest.

ChainsawAsh said:

Original or revised?

Which do you recommend? I’ve only read the revised.

ChainsawAsh said:

Same here, unfortunately. I’m going to reread the series one of these days and I intend to hunt down the original before that happens, though.

I’ve heard that it completely contradicts many of the major plot developments that come later. I’d like to read it also but more just out of curiosity. It’s the original version of the Stand that I’m interested in.