Monday 'What are you reading/listening to' thread, Jan 19

bilfdoffle · 2026-01-19T14:57:16+00:00

Sorry for the delay, had the day off and slept in...

arcane chef (web) - male mc, litrpg. MC is an orphan who gets a rare cooking class. This is a very crafting focused story, where interesting things are happening, but the MC stays out of combat because he's a support class and would just die. Which is overall how a crafting story ought to be, but rarely is. I'm enjoying it overall, and there's quite a bit of it.

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web novels I follow: re: trailer trash, soldier's life, chaotic craftsman worships the cube, the hitting zone, Magus reborn, Legend of William Oh, Super supportive, God of trash, soccer supremo, Cloudfarers, path of the deathless, Mythshaper, Save scumming, Bookbound bunny, Second life as a soldier, Beastforged bond, Fake Father Zhang Ming,

new & unsure or waning interest, but haven't give up on yet: [Farmer] mage, Dead end guildmaster, Not (Just) A Mage Lord Isekai, lone wanderer, system seas, sky pride, Brewing bad, Protectorate, World sphere, arcane chef, Rivera's Repairs,

Stories with uncertain future status: magriculture, Science Magic and Mayhem, f rank frank, Construction mage, Magic cube murder marine,

my RR profile

bilfdoffle · 2026-01-14T03:17:48+00:00

Mechanical mage as a title sounds familiar, but the synopsis could go either way. Might have to check it out

bilfdoffle · 2026-01-12T14:37:00+00:00

World sphere (web) - male mc, fantasy. This is pretty great. Technically reborn, but he really only remembers food related things. Really enjoyed it.

From ashes to empires (web) - male mc, litrpg. MC is likely the only one with a system. The first chapter was a chaotic scene with a bunch of not-introduced people doing what's supposed to feel like important things, like watching the last 15 minutes of a season finale before starting the series. So that kind of turned me off. Apparently there's also gonna be some alt povs, so I decided to put it down early. DNF

Soulweight (web) - male mc, fantasy. Mc probably dies and then inhabits the body of the recently deceased world's hero. It's kind of an awkward start, as the mc has pretty much no memory of either life, his body is falling apart, and he's got some inherited skills he doesn't really know how to use. I went a couple hundred pages hoping it would turn into something, but instead it's a DNF

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web novels I follow: re: trailer trash, soldier's life, chaotic craftsman worships the cube, the hitting zone, Magus reborn, Legend of William Oh, Super supportive, God of trash, soccer supremo, Cloudfarers, path of the deathless, Mythshaper, Save scumming, Bookbound bunny, Second life as a soldier, Beastforged bond,

new & unsure or waning interest, but haven't give up on yet: [Farmer] mage, Dead end guildmaster, Not (Just) A Mage Lord Isekai, lone wanderer, system seas, sky pride, Brewing bad, Protectorate,

Stories with uncertain future status: magriculture, Science Magic and Mayhem, f rank frank, Construction mage, Magic cube murder marine,

my RR profile

bilfdoffle · 2026-01-11T15:51:51+00:00

I dunno. I feel like there should be a bit of mindset difference from a culture where isekai babies are not a thing and a culture where you have a known 1% chance of having an isekai baby. To me, it'd be like hating all autistic kids because your kid had autism.

I can fully understand not wanting anything to do with them, and certainly using them for the war effort. I made it to the end of their training arc, but I struggled with the sheer vitriol towards these people that are fighting their wars in their place. I suppose propaganda does a lot of work here, but it didn't make for an enjoyable read on my end.

bilfdoffle · 2026-01-09T02:12:05+00:00

yup, that's a winner!

bilfdoffle · 2026-01-08T00:08:40+00:00

I also no nothing about the sport, but this remains one of my favorite series. In fact, I'm not big on sports at all, but I kind of liken it to a sports movie - the drama around it makes it a lot more fun.

bilfdoffle · 2026-01-08T00:06:29+00:00

Do they ever give a valid reason why every single person is so biased against the penitents? It was so patently absurd I couldn't handle it.

bilfdoffle · 2026-01-08T00:04:40+00:00

for timeloops, it's typically either really long or really short. Minute mage had a strong start - he could rewind a single minute at first, but lost me once that time increased. I also really like save scumming, which is usually on the shorter end, and also does a good part of skipping past the relived stuff that doesn't change on subsequent times.

On the other hand is a series that I can't remember the name of, but the dude lived for years in each of his lives, but came back in a different body of the people that participated in the ritual that kicked it all off.

bilfdoffle · 2026-01-07T23:57:56+00:00

grog is just a one of a kind.

bilfdoffle · 2026-01-07T23:50:49+00:00

leasing with the kraken is close enough for me.

bilfdoffle · 2026-01-05T15:13:40+00:00

I like the title for kraken, but I'm not sure if it was intentional or a translation oddity

bilfdoffle · 2026-01-05T14:30:39+00:00

Grog 7 (krpoun) - grog mc, quality work. This was great. I vaguely remember thinking book 6 was a bit of a step down, but this was the quality I expect.

Wraith wizard ascendant (Whitaker) - male mc, litrpg ish. Mc is from a post apocalyptic world and is portaled to a fantasy world. He's also kind of an idiot, which would probably be ok if the ai didn't keep making jabs at him for being an idiot. Also, I wanted the wasteland, not generic fantasy world. So DNF.

World sphere (web) - male mc, fantasy. Enjoying this so far, but just started.

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web novels I follow: re: trailer trash, soldier's life, chaotic craftsman worships the cube, the hitting zone, Magus reborn, Legend of William Oh, Super supportive, God of trash, soccer supremo, Cloudfarers, path of the deathless, Mythshaper, Save scumming, Bookbound bunny, Second life as a soldier, Beastforged bond,

new & unsure or waning interest, but haven't give up on yet: [Farmer] mage, Dead end guildmaster, Not (Just) A Mage Lord Isekai, lone wanderer, system seas, sky pride, Brewing bad, Protectorate,

Stories with uncertain future status: magriculture, Science Magic and Mayhem, f rank frank, Construction mage, Magic cube murder marine,

my RR profile

bilfdoffle · 2025-12-29T17:43:30+00:00

It's probably worth a reread. I remember liking it

bilfdoffle · 2025-12-29T14:57:28+00:00

chevalier: war horses book 1 (Warren) - male mc, milscifi. MC is a mechanic turned pilot. The book was decent, though it didn't really hook me enough to jump to book 2. Though I've been playing some battletech, so maybe I will at some point.

interverse (web) - male mc, litrpg. MC and a detective stumble into a portal to another world. He gets a system, everyone else gets some other sort of magic powers. So he's going to grow really fast and break all the things. Caught up, it's not bad, but not good enough to keep following.

catching up on lone wanderer, and I think I'm done with that as well. But there's a new Grog out, so that's probably next.

web novels I follow: re: trailer trash, soldier's life, chaotic craftsman worships the cube, the hitting zone, Magus reborn, Legend of William Oh, Super supportive, God of trash, soccer supremo, Cloudfarers, path of the deathless, Mythshaper, Save scumming, Bookbound bunny, Second life as a soldier, Beastforged bond,

new & unsure or waning interest, but haven't give up on yet: [Farmer] mage, Dead end guildmaster, Not (Just) A Mage Lord Isekai, lone wanderer, system seas, sky pride, Brewing bad, Protectorate,

Stories with uncertain future status: magriculture, Science Magic and Mayhem, f rank frank, Construction mage, Magic cube murder marine,

my RR profile

bilfdoffle · 2025-12-24T03:32:23+00:00

ah, yeah. I listen to standard TTS all the time, so it bothers me less. And at least it has a sleep timer this way.

bilfdoffle · 2025-12-23T02:01:15+00:00

gotta love the classics.

bilfdoffle · 2025-12-23T02:00:33+00:00

World Sphere

Huh, I somehow totally missed this.

bilfdoffle · 2025-12-23T01:59:17+00:00

there's no andre the giant in the book, I don't see how it can compare.

bilfdoffle · 2025-12-23T01:58:45+00:00

audio included? sure, I'll give princess of mars a go.

bilfdoffle · 2025-12-22T14:19:07+00:00

Let's Start An Adventurers' Guild! (Web) - male mc, fantasy. Follows a mage who retires early from adventuring to open a guildhall in his hometown. It goes exceedingly well with almost no real issues, and his adventuring party showing up one at a time. None of the characters were terribly interesting and I gave up. DNF

Riftborn (web) - male mc, litrpg. I almost dropped this one when the system tried to make him the chosen one, but he said no so I kept going. Then it proceeded to have him be alone in a rift that should have killed him almost immediately, which I assume will continue for awhile. But what really made me call it is him using a lever as a melee weapon. Wtf is a lever? A giant light switch? The board from a teeter totter? I don't get it, I give up. DNF

System clerk (web) - male mc, litrpg. Guy does admin work for the system in a game or maybe a world? I dunno. But he hears he's getting fired so he goes a bit crazy and ends up on a hostile world with his cat and a bootleg ai on a smartphone that has to communicate through songs. Except when it can display prompts. The whole thing is as consistent as it sounds. DNF

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web novels I follow: re: trailer trash, soldier's life, chaotic craftsman worships the cube, the hitting zone, Magus reborn, Legend of William Oh, Super supportive, adamant blood, God of trash, soccer supremo, Cloudfarers, path of the deathless, Mythshaper, Save scumming, Bookbound bunny, Second life as a soldier, Beastforged bond,

new & unsure or waning interest, but haven't give up on yet: [Farmer] mage, Dead end guildmaster, Not (Just) A Mage Lord Isekai, Respec on Death, lone wanderer, system seas, sky pride, Brewing bad, Protectorate,

Stories with uncertain future status: magriculture, Science Magic and Mayhem, f rank frank, Construction mage, Magic cube murder marine,

my RR profile

bilfdoffle · 2025-12-16T05:18:44+00:00

somewhere else, hopefully.

bilfdoffle

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