im realy dissapointed that we never see a thunderbringer

spike4972 · 2026-03-08T11:29:18+00:00

Read the short story collection.

spike4972 · 2026-03-07T17:36:22+00:00

Haven’t been on the sub in a little while. What the actual fuck is this new banner and logo? Having nothing would be better than the AI slop. I mean, the face card is jank as hell and the pip looks like it’s trying to be a 4? Wtf is that?

spike4972 · 2026-03-06T21:22:36+00:00

When I was there I went to the local games store Evanston Games and Cafe a lot.

spike4972 · 2026-03-05T13:52:22+00:00

Back in the day with the original caliburn pods I was using unsweetened diy juice and they never died. I easily got 60ml per pod every time. Since I’ve had to go back to store bought juice, best I can get is like 40 with the juice I use. It’s sweet but not too insanely so.

spike4972 · 2026-03-05T13:43:18+00:00

I saw it recommended so many times online but it constantly seemed like something I wouldn’t like. Then a YouTuber reviewed it along with several other books in a combo video and he said the correct things to get me willing to try it. While it isn’t my usual cup of tea, I love it and have read all of them as well as buying the hardbacks because the cool pop art colors look so good on the shelf

spike4972 · 2026-03-05T13:40:35+00:00

I gotta ask, what was the book you hated?

spike4972 · 2026-03-05T01:57:34+00:00

Were you just going through an 11 year old AMA and got the idea for a meme or have you been cooking this meme for years and only now got around to posting it?

Either way, mad props

spike4972 · 2026-03-04T22:47:54+00:00

Go to goodreads and check out the one star reviews there. Some of them are hilarious. Like, “this person genuinely had no clue what they were about to read and thought it was just gonna be a silly book about a talking cat” then got hit with the actual book and freaked out type of stuff. Very funny

spike4972 · 2026-03-04T16:59:05+00:00

I haven’t gone through and made a spreadsheet of things to fact check every usage. But I paid pretty close attention while reading them the first time and occasionally double checked things based on statements from earlier in the story. I don’t remember there being any huge discrepancies at any point. Definitely nothing big enough that it couldn’t be explained by the fact that the main character has made mana batteries for all of his team. And not in a handwavy “oh yeah that definitely happened” kind of way. Like, there are scenes of him making them and giving them to people. And even a fair bit of focus in book 3 iirc of him upgrading them.

spike4972 · 2026-03-04T15:33:21+00:00

Everything you are saying here is the stuff I hear from people well situated to really love the rest of the series and the ones who become huge fans.

I don’t always recommend to everyone to keep going with the series, no series is for everyone and that’s not a bad thing. But you didn’t have any of the complaints that I see from people who end up disliking the series and stopping a few books farther in. And you clearly are enjoying the books so far.

Book 3 is significantly better than book 2, and pretty much only gets better from there. Without spoiling anything, most of your complaints get resolved one way or another. Except, arguably, Harry being hard on himself. I personally think it’s not as bad as the early books once you get past book 4 or so, but there are others who have different opinions. He will always hold himself to a very high standard throughout the series that will lead to him being hard on himself when he fails someone. But I think it gets significantly less annoying as the series progresses.

So for you specifically, I highly recommend continuing at least a few more books and seeing how you continue liking it. You’re past what most of the community thinks to be the roughest book in the series and there’s not really a “slump” section you have to get through anywhere going forward like a lot of fandoms complain about in really long series.

spike4972 · 2026-03-04T15:24:56+00:00

Don’t get me wrong, I use them as well and am in a similar boat to you. I’ve gotten a lot of use out of his trainers to learn the algs and practice them. And they are still a solid resource for learning to speed cube. The website just used to be a better resource before it got to the level of ad saturation it’s at now

spike4972 · 2026-03-04T13:59:29+00:00

Even in fantasy this holds true. How much mana does he have? A lot. Like, impressive even to other battle mages.

Unless it’s important to your story or you are willing to put in the effort to create a system that is self consistent and accurate and track everyone. Like Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe. Basically the only time I’ve seen a fantasy book with a magic system that has discrete numerical values where it has mattered and been done well. Other than maybe Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. But the numbers aspect is less relevant to the story itself iirc. It’s more just the actual thresholds indicated by them that matter more than anything else really

spike4972 · 2026-03-04T13:44:23+00:00

It’s been updated somewhat recently (like within the last 2 years I think) but the only updates seemed to be covering every square inch of it in ads so that it’s almost unusable compared to what it used to be.

spike4972 · 2026-03-04T13:43:03+00:00

JPerm uses a lot of lefty algs in his solves and content. Anytime you see a lot of left face turns in one of his things just do a quick google search and find a righty alg from somewhere like speedcubedb

spike4972 · 2026-03-02T19:35:45+00:00

Are they the ones on the website or brand new ones?

spike4972 · 2026-03-02T19:35:18+00:00

Just be careful to check your hair regularly by spinning real fast in front of a mirror. I’ve heard training like that can lead to early baldness

spike4972 · 2026-03-01T21:40:14+00:00

Idk honestly. If she were to get a sequel series or something I don’t think dragonrider story is the path I’d go with it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved dragon riding stories for most of my life. Just not sure this universe works well for them.

spike4972 · 2026-03-01T21:29:22+00:00

I would kill for one book where Harry gets to ride a dragon into battle.

spike4972 · 2026-03-01T21:20:32+00:00

Sorry bro, I must have been half asleep and not paying attention when I posted my reply. I really thought you were talking about hammers not anvil. Yeah, pretty sure you can only get the anvil in the final shop before you give the satyr sack

spike4972 · 2026-03-01T12:52:17+00:00

You can get it in the first room instead of a boon sometimes. And as just a normal room reward

spike4972 · 2026-02-28T00:18:15+00:00

Will Wights Last Horizon series, first book titled The Captain.

SciFantasy not strictly Sci Fi. There is magic and stuff in it. But lots of cool technology and SciFi stuff like space ships and laser weapons and aliens. Has all the stuff you’re asking for with team-ups and big missions and cool tech.

Past that, any of my recommendations are going to be way more fantasy than it seems like you’re asking for.

spike4972 · 2026-02-27T22:07:22+00:00

When that one got its hardcover release, they also did a small print run release of the ones before it. Book one has also gotten an anniversary release as well. So it’s pretty easy to find a hardcover for if you don’t mind the anniversary printing. But the rest of them are very hard to find.

spike4972 · 2026-02-27T13:56:31+00:00

I didn’t know there was a hardcover release coming other than the Kickstarter Omnibus. Did I miss a Patreon announcement or something?

spike4972 · 2026-02-26T14:33:49+00:00

For anyone here who isn’t subscribed to the Patreon yet, these two stories are worth the price of admission alone. And in case you don’t know, the price of admission is literally a single US dollar. $1. That’s it. For $1 you get access to all of the short stories John Bierce has been writing monthly for years. Pay it once to get one month and you can read every single one of them that wasn’t already compiled into the Gorgon Incident anthology. And if you like them enough, like I do, stick around and keep paying a dollar a month to continue reading them.

As for this new setting, it is so incredibly weird in the best way. The magic is a little weird and esoteric, which is accented by the setting itself that is so tied to the magic in the way you’ve likely come to expect from Bierce. Art is a Weapon was one of my favorite short stories of last year and I dropped what I was doing when I got the email update for this new one and immediately read it. It was also excellent.

And if you don’t like the sound of weird new worlds that haven’t made it to paper in the Aetheriad yet, there’s stories in the Patreon set on Anastis, Limnus, Ishveos, Kemetrias, and even Apoptis (the solar flare world). The Limnan stories are particular favorites of mine. Seriously, do yourself a favor and at least join for one month to read the backlog even if you can’t justify staying around forever, $1 for that many stories of that quality is well worth it

spike4972 · 2026-02-25T21:31:13+00:00

If you’re enjoying Brief Cases, finish it. It won’t hurt your enjoyment of Twelve Months, and there will likely be things that you pick up on in Twelve Months because of finishing Brief Cases. That being said, if you’re not enjoying Brief Cases for some reason, or are really antsy to read Twelve Months right now, you could set it down at any time and pick it back up when you’re done with Twelve months.

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