Honestly just reading ramblings, ngl.
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TLDR; TBH I seriously need a book club to talk books with. If any of y'all got a discord book club... I'll probably chat forever and spam y'all, but if you need another person, I throw myself on your consideration. Since I don't, let me get this off my chest, community.
So like a lot of people my life has been one big roller coaster the past two years, and atm I find myself somehow uninterested with all my past fixation/hobbies... AND YET... without the time or energy to dedicate to (1) find new MUs for those that have shut down but also (2) without the availability to dependably play on the ones I still have characters on. So I've dusted off my kindle, was convinced by my far left roomie to download StoryGraph as an alternative to goodreads (I really like it), and started rereading some old favorites.
First off, Ilona Andrews. ILONA ANDREWS. Caught up on all the Hidden Legacy books and reread all the Kate Daniels books.
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HIDDEN LEGACIES WOULD MAKE SUCH A GOOD GAME/MU* SETTING. Like. You have the Houses for all your politicking and all the super fun powers and levels and weird nonsense, and it's modern day and who doesn't want to have magical feng shui powers (Harmonizers need to be explored more, darn it) and magic mech. Sadly I feel it would devolve into a power upping contest or a L&L marriage-match session but man I would love to play in that setting and part of me wants to make info pages for this game I 100% would not run or create but it could be great.
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Kate Daniels. Also would make a great setting, between the Pack, the People, the Mercs, the random scions, the fun of the Shifts... but also can I just say I really, really want whatever novella must exist about Christopher and John Hopkins hospital because I read that last novel and spent days looking for a short story that apparently doesn't exist. Yet. YET. IT HAS TO AT SOME POINT RIGHT?!?!
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Hugh & Elara are amazing and I want Book 2 like, this weekend. Sadly not happening.
And Los Bujold! Miles Vorkosigan is an amazing series, but can I say - Five Gods world = best?
- Curse of Chalion was so good. I loved Caz. But Paladin of Souls and Ista's thorniness will forever make her #goals. I'm not gonna lie, at least one of my chars was probably subtly influenced by her (justified) snark and scorn. The other books were...okay I guess. The mythology was simple but fun.
- I hope to find/start the Penric books. Has anyone read them? Opinions?
Not a favorite, but I also found The Others series by Anne Bishop, rec'd by a friend.
- The main character wasn't my favorite. I'm not a super-fan of the innocent ingenue types unless they're spooky-horroriffic. We all have our types, okay?!
- The world slaps, though. What can I say, I love me some good world. And the idea that all the wild things in the woods were just like, "Nope, no farther hoomins" and enjoy a good side of long pork was pretty entertaining. But also, can you imagine the characters you could make in a story like that? The freed blood prophets, the wild things in the woods, the elementals, the people with baby powers, the vampires-- it all sounds really fun, though more for a campaign setting than a MU*, imo.
Anyway, that's all I've done in... uh... two weeks. No one count what that comes out to. But StoryGraph is now also recommending I read Unclean Spirits by MLN Hanover, Urban Shaman by CE Murphy, and Rook by JC Andrijeski, along with some stuff I've already read but haven't rated, like Mercy Thompson or Nalini Singh stuff. I also plan on reading Vicious by VE Schwab from my to-read pile. Anyone read any of these to tell me if they're good? (Vicious I know is). Or have other recs for me?! LMK-- through private chat, even, if you don't want the world to know you got ten books deep into the Psy-Changeling world, I totally understand.
If you've gotten this far, my god you're a trooper. Or someone who likes reading a mental trainwreck happening before you. But thank you!
XOXO
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@cirim13 Hidden Legacy would make a very fun setting for a tabletop game, but I suspect it would be a TRAINWRECK in a MU*. Mind you, it would be an entertaining trainwreck, and I would absolutely play there.
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Reading a description of the setting for Hidden Legacy, it sounds a bit like the D&D Birthright campaign setting only set in modern times.
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@pyrephox Oh I absolutely agree with you, but again....I do love the setting and little details so much I would totally play it for the six months it managed to stay on the rails.
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So, just for disclosure, I'm a librarian IRL. And while I've not got a Discord Book Club in my pocket (our only Discord server is for teen use), what I do have is a Facebook Group that's a bookclub that chats twice a month for people to share what they've been reading with as much/or as little info about their opinions as they like. Open to ANYONE really, but direct invitation to @cirim13 since the magic words "book club" were mentioned. Night Owls Book Group - We chat at 9pm Eastern on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month. It's an aspect of the job, I'm always all for talking about books & sharing recommendations of my own.
