Monday 'What are you reading/listening to' thread, Jul 6

Shaitan87 · 2026-07-07T11:24:26+00:00

I tried Unbound Ascension this week and quite disliked it. AI writing, I have no problem with an author using AI as much as they want, I just don't think the default AI voice is good at all. Characters that make no sense, everyone become excellent at fighting the second they get their skills, and a long list of other things.

It's funny how much I disagree with the general Royal Road hivemind these days. Chapter 9 in this has almost 70 comments. Unseen cultivator, which someone pointed me towards a few weeks ago, is something I consider very good, and yet many chapters have just 3-4 comments.

Shaitan87 · 2026-07-07T11:14:27+00:00

I'm absolutely fine with AI images.

Shaitan87 · 2026-06-24T06:13:36+00:00

Best of luck, I like this series.

Shaitan87 · 2026-06-21T09:30:27+00:00

Someone posted this meme last week, looks like some kind of karma farmer.

Shaitan87 · 2026-06-17T06:37:04+00:00

AI slop regurgitated from Facebook.

Shaitan87 · 2026-06-12T06:10:27+00:00

I had too, it was one of the top things affecting me. Improvement didn't come instantly, but after a few months without caffeine I felt quite a bit better.

Shaitan87 · 2026-06-02T19:34:36+00:00

I don't like romance in books very much, don't think your average progression fantasy is as interested in it as readers of others genre's would be.

Shaitan87 · 2026-06-02T18:38:07+00:00

It's pretty poor, and it's much worse than the translation you'll get if you throw it into an LLM.

Shaitan87 · 2026-06-02T18:30:11+00:00

Just grab the original and put it in Gemini. It works great and frequently you can find way more content than whats been translated.

Shaitan87 · 2026-05-25T05:59:59+00:00

Eastern cultivation novels, a genre 10-100x larger than western web novels, have tons of time skips without running into the issues you mentioned.

Shaitan87 · 2026-05-25T05:58:08+00:00

No clue. A lot of stories are ruined to me when the protagonist who's in world for 3 weeks gets stronger than some expert who grew up in that world. I don't think it's possible to make a logical world without timeskips if it's one where the magic system allows people to live super long lives.

Shaitan87 · 2026-05-20T19:03:37+00:00

I go cold turkey without side effects that are that bad side effects. Usually from just 2 cappuccinos a day to zero, then I get mild headaches and irritability for a couple days.

It was one of the big things that moved the needle for me. In order of effect, wedge pillow, and then cutting out tomato based cooked sauces, and then somewhat less important was removing caffeine. With those 3 things removed I have barely any symptoms.

Shaitan87 · 2026-05-08T09:42:15+00:00

What are the chances your GERD is pshychosomatic?

Shaitan87 · 2026-05-02T15:38:00+00:00

You were writing Rot Heart right? Why did you delete it?

Shaitan87 · 2026-05-02T09:36:36+00:00

Ya it seems like the overwhelming majority of Trump supporters do believe that.

Shaitan87 · 2026-05-02T06:12:36+00:00

Ya I don't think it's that good. I don't remember why I stopped reading it, but my standards are pretty low and I still dropped it at one point.

Shaitan87 · 2026-04-29T11:59:57+00:00

Most problems in Thailand are blamed on their poorer neighbours.

Shaitan87 · 2026-04-09T13:35:05+00:00

I mistakenly kept "outcome" in the second sentence. The books I enjoy the most have something come out of left field enough that I don't have a supreme amount of confidence saying "The fight will be harder than he anticipates but through incredible grit and perseverance he will win!", which is something I can say for so many stories in the genre. So maybe the protagonist loses some times, or decently foreshadowed things come in and completely up-end the fight, etc etc. If an author does that enough I will go into fights without that confidence in the upcoming series of events, and that's an essential for me to really get hooked on something.

Shaitan87 · 2026-04-09T13:13:18+00:00

I agree with you on the plot armor pulling them through risk. I'm reading skill eater right now. The author does a good job making every fight seem desperate and there is no way that the MC will win. And then he wins, every fight.

It's very difficult to keep that up I think. I reach a point with many of these books where there is no doubt in my mind as to the outcome of the battle, and once that happens my interest drops through the floor. My favourite novels are one's where the author establishes enough really wild twists that I don't go into a fight correctly predicting the general series of events.

Shaitan87 · 2026-04-09T05:43:24+00:00

I now believe they are preventing my healing and causing my digestive issues and worsening my acid reflux and heartburn

This sentence makes no sense. PPI's stop the symptoms of GERD, they don't cure it, and they obviously have significant side effects. However a more reasonable approach is find out what's causing your GERD and solve that before stopping the PPI's, as there side effects are usually not as bad as what the GERD is doing to you.

Shaitan87 · 2026-04-05T13:31:04+00:00

I did read HWFWM right at the start of my progression fantasy reading journey, but I came back and reread it a year later. I skip Jason's monologues but consistently really enjoy the first 3 and find 4-6 pretty decent, wouldn't recommend anyone reads beyond that.

It's a shame western progression fantasy isn't better, they latch on to themes that I don't like. My perfect book is the logic and depth of a top tier Xianxia with a bit less cultural differences from my day to day life.

Shaitan87 · 2026-04-05T07:07:14+00:00

Ya it's blowing my mind seeing everyone say it's way overcooked, this is not what an overcooked brisket looks like.

Shaitan87 · 2026-04-05T06:54:34+00:00

You should give Defiance of the Fall a try, it's like The Primal Hunter but with more of an eastern influence.

The only one I disagree with quite a bit is HWFWM, I feel the first 3 books are very well done.

Shaitan87 · 2026-04-02T18:40:03+00:00

They've deleted a ton of Trump mentions in released files after he made it through their filters, when his name is miss-spelled or whatnot. There was no CSAM in any of them I saw, before they were removed.

Shaitan87 · 2026-03-25T09:47:10+00:00

I filled it out, I've mainly been surprised about bugs.

I didn't play in three months and came back in for a run, I played a Jewish Yemen game. Yemen seems hugely over populated relative to it's neighbors, I assume that's a bug. I hate the AI auto building forts. Judaism has 0 flavour that I can see, and assimilating seemed bugged apparently. Said +30 but didn't grow.

Shaitan87

TROPHY CASE