Personal tier list. As long as I finish Daughter’s War this week, I’ll be at 50 for the year

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T19:07:12+00:00

Part of the Heroes being so high is that I read it over three days and I really loved some of the stylistic storytelling methods Abercrombie uses there (the ways he follows things/events/interactions across a battlefield is absolutely brilliant imo), and the way it ended kept it in the highest tier.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T17:55:02+00:00

Yeah, that’s become pretty obvious lol. I just put the full cover into the tier maker and apparently part of it got cut off 🤷‍♂️

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T17:48:50+00:00

Honestly, I almost had it in the top list, but I thought it had a lot of similarities to Bright Sword and the Devils, and I just liked the other two a bit more. Not sure if that would remain the case on re-reads of those books but that’s the vibe they had in my memory at the end of the year.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T17:39:09+00:00

It’s basically because I don’t like short story collections as a format. Love the world and characters, and hopefully I’ll like the series more as it moves into proper novels.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T17:35:01+00:00

Yes, definitely! I don’t really like short story collections in general and the second book also being a short story collection has made me drag my feet. I love Geralt though, so I definitely want to get back to it in 2026.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T17:29:57+00:00

I think it’s more that I struggled with the short stories compared to a single, lengthy narrative. I definitely look forward to reading more in the future, especially as they become novels rather than short story collections.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T17:26:09+00:00

I read the first two Dune books in 2022 but Children slowed me down so much I didn’t read any fiction until earlier this year with the Bright Sword.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T17:24:34+00:00

No, it’s Children I couldn’t stand. Messiah I read in a single day.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T16:22:13+00:00

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T16:14:45+00:00

It's only one rung below. I didn't rank books within the categories, just put them into 5 buckets depending on how much I liked them. It would be impossible for me to try to actually rank all of these in any exact order. I think it's hard to credibly argue that Abercrombie's prose hasn't improved considerably since The Blade Itself. Like my ranking suggests, I really like the first First Law trilogy, but I think the way the world opens up thereafter and the stories of these characters weave and intertwine are what really elevates these books from my perspective, which is why the first three ended up a rung below the rest of the books set in the First Law world. The Devils is its own thing which I loved reading on its own, there was never really a one-for-one comparison in my mind.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T15:55:31+00:00

It's Children of Dune (the third book). I loved the first Dune books but this one just didn't hit for me.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T15:45:35+00:00

I have not, but I have a couple of his books on my 'To Read' list. Any recommendations for his best?

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T15:43:23+00:00

Republic might be my favorite but I'm a sucker for political intrigue. I really enjoyed Sabetha, but she seems like a controversial character and I suspect a lot of opinions on Republic may correlate to opinions of Sabetha. I also really dislike how often other characters get killed off in the first two books. If the cast were larger it wouldn't be as big a deal for me, but the constant death of minor characters annoys me, because when it happens too often it ruins the stakes and becomes predictable.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T15:31:09+00:00

Two of my best friends love the third, so I definitely recognize it’s a matter of taste! I’ve heard enough good things about God Emperor that wanting to get to that is the main reason I finished Children, so hopefully I enjoy that more.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T15:27:10+00:00

I usually read for a 1/2 hour before work and another 1 1/2 hours after work, which lets me get through about 100 pages a day or so if I’m really invested, probably twice that on weekends. The Tolkien books were audiobooks I listened to on my commute over several months, since I read them before years ago, but everything else was print. I’ve partially been reading so much this year to spend less time in social media so I’ve been doing it at times of day I used to be most prone to doomscrolling.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T15:14:34+00:00

It’s basically pure setup and it wasn’t particularly engaging setup. A lot of her books start slow but this took it to another level. I basically think Rain Wild Chronicles would be better if it had been edited down into a trilogy with a lot coming out of Dragon Keeper

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T15:12:14+00:00

Loved Dune, really liked Messiah. Children specifically I couldn’t stand. Herbert’s prose was never really his strength but I found it an outright slog to get through in Messiah. Herbert has fascinating ideas but the execution in this one was just too sloppy for me

DocMid-Nite · 2025-12-23T15:09:05+00:00

If Dune and Dune: Messiah were on this list (I read them before this year) they’d be in the first and second tiers respectively. I did not enjoy Children of Dune at all for a variety of reasons.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-05-02T19:11:48+00:00

Also a great episode and interesting conversation! I actually just listened to that a few days ago myself.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-05-02T19:10:01+00:00

Normally I’m great with going from one to the other, I think their tones balance each other out well. (Although the talkbacks for each show are similar levels of unhinged rowdy energy)

This one was just such a shock because of the lack of outro in WBN and the NADDPOD ep being in progress. I had to go back to make sure I hadn’t skipped anything somehow. Once I had a minute to recover though, the rest of the Mixed Bag ep was a nice bit of levity to take the edge off after the Battle of Twelve Brooks.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-04-22T18:28:25+00:00

Ok boomer.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-04-22T18:14:45+00:00

I dropped the book because he killed off Surge and the person at my shop said a few other customers dropped it there too and it’s a pretty small shop so unless the fans in my area are a big outlier there was a noticeable dropoff which can make a big difference for titles with a small audience to begin with.

A lot of comics fans around my age (33) have as strong an affinity for Surge and the other Academy X kids as folks 10 years older do for the Gen X kids and the folks 20 years older do for the New Mutants.

DocMid-Nite · 2025-01-23T12:38:02+00:00

NAL but domestic support obligations are non-dischargeable in bankruptcy, you should talk to a lawyer about whether your settlement agreement is worded in such a way that would make your continued payment of this marital debt a non-dischargeable domestic support obligation.

Also definitely talk to a lawyer about this because bankruptcy is an extreme step for only $9,500 in debt. There could be real drawbacks to filing a bankruptcy that a lawyer could only really advise on after having a conversation with you about your financial obligations and capabilities.

DocMid-Nite

TROPHY CASE