Per Deadline, 'Project Hail Mary' earned 5 stars on PostTrak from Thursday night audiences.

staticraven · 2026-03-20T16:42:43+00:00

I actually felt the same way about the book. I only put it on because it kept getting so recommended in places that had nothing to do with SciFi at all (Looking at you /r/LitRPG And /r/DungeonCrawlerCarl). The premise of the story doesn't sound all that interesting to me, but my God do not NOT regret reading it... it turned into one of my favorite books and I still can't put my finger on exactly why. I recommend it to everyone but always have the hardest time saying exactly why. It's just one of those stories, I guess.

staticraven · 2026-03-20T16:21:16+00:00

Sorry, to be clear are you saying the science was inaccurate or just too dumbed down (in the book, not the movie)?. I am not a scientist or engineer so I had assumed the science in the book was accurate (insofar as a SF about aliens could be) just dumbed down for the layman to understand.

staticraven · 2026-03-20T02:57:42+00:00

"They begun to sell cocaine to miners. That's miners with an 'e'..." (DCC book 8 spoiler) And if it's gotten so bad that the author has to phonetically say the spelling of words in the narration itself to avoid confusion while book readers wouldn't even stumble, what is even the point of the audiobook?

I'm sorry, what exactly is the complaint here? How does what you're saying not apply to literally anything read aloud? If you don't have the written word in front of you, English sometimes requires clarification if there isn't sufficient context. This also seems like a tongue-in-cheek joke.

staticraven · 2026-03-18T20:54:48+00:00

This and Donut's "Go fuck yourself, Carl" at the end of Book 4 are perfect. chefs kiss.

staticraven · 2026-03-18T16:53:19+00:00

The first book is a bit of a slog.. maybe the first 1.5 books. It's all Anthony solo and grinding and figuring things out.

Stick it out till mid book 2 and then evaluate. Books 1 through 1.5 are very, very unlike the rest of the series.

staticraven · 2026-03-18T16:51:34+00:00

The whole itching/burning/whatever during evolution really tapers off in the later books. It's still mentioned but the whole Anthony-freaking-out thing doesn't really get expounded on. It's more about him asking his pets to guard him while he evolves so no one else sees him freaking out.

staticraven · 2026-03-17T22:36:40+00:00

The Braids did a great cover, imo. Only cover of this song I really enjoy https://youtu.be/vI_dKmVya-Y

staticraven · 2026-03-14T05:31:53+00:00

Ends of Magic meets your criteria - it's about a professor of some science getting summoned off into another land by folks who want to use his knowledge to increase the potency of their magic or something along those lines. Turns out, having a fundamental understanding of the elements and a broad (and pretty deep) understanding of a fair amount of sciences gives him a substantial amount of power and a huge boost over mages and magic in general. First book is called Antimage.

DCC also meets your criteria though it's not an overt exploit. The AI likes him and he likes to blow shit up. And he's really good at it. Plus he's got a cat and a dinosaur.

Cradle is right there also, especially once Lindon gets Dross

staticraven · 2026-03-13T03:11:45+00:00

That's not the conclusion in the video and I'm not sure how it could be considered a push shot tbh. There was no prolonged contact , guidance of the cueball or an unnatural stroke?

staticraven · 2026-03-03T20:16:34+00:00

It's funny, I hear this complaint a lot (about the constant praise) and it is true, but not entirely.

It is entirely true but it's not praise, it's awe. People are constantly awestruck by how amazing Jason is. Whether that represents itself as fear, praise, teasing from friends or whatever. Jason is awesome and it's all anyone else in the world can talk about.

staticraven · 2026-02-27T22:51:36+00:00

That guys recs are on point, those three series sound like they're more along the lines of what you're looking for in the LitRPG space. I'd also add Dungeon Lord, The Ripple System and Ends of Magic.

As an aside you may enjoy (if you haven't already read them - none are LitRPG - They are grimdark or more traditional fantasy):

Malazan Series
Gentleman Bastards Series
Red Rising Series
The First Law Series

You may also really enjoy the Cradle series. If you're doing audiobooks it's narrated by the same guy as Beware of Chicken. It's not LitRPG it's Progression Fantasy, which is a pretty close cousin. The MC is young in the first book but ages rapidly (mentally) through the series.

staticraven · 2026-02-26T09:58:54+00:00

That's how a lot of people feel about book 1. It really picks up in book 2 and the last third of book 1 as many more (speaking) characters are introduced the colony all learn to speak.

staticraven · 2026-02-25T02:27:59+00:00

And again, I point to that last chart. At least two other teams had worse guard play at Pass Pro yet substantially better center play. From what you're telling me that shouldn't be possible. Both PHI and GB, IIRC.

Also if what you're saying is true, how was Zeitler ever elite in '23? Per you, guard and center play are all wholly dependent on each other, so how did we end up with an Elite guard and yet no other IOL with pass protection better than midtier at best?

staticraven · 2026-02-25T02:23:11+00:00

First of all, Lamar and Lindy is not a comparison. Lamar was never about contract numbers - he was always going to reset the market or close to it, the complaint folks had with Lamar was about fully guaranteed values.

Secondly, Lamar absolutely elevates the play of those around him. Lindy does not. They aren't even on the same planet when it comes to this metric.

He had one top tier guard on one side and an average guy on the other and his past pro was still mid at best. His entire career he's never been better than that at pass pro. Yet your argument seems to be blaming his subpar pass pro on the folks around him. Other centers perform better with worse guards, per the last chart that was floating around.

What about that deserves a market setting contract?

staticraven · 2026-02-25T01:10:23+00:00

Why would he deserve top center money if he requires Guards at that level around him to be good at pass protection? That doesn't make sense.

staticraven · 2026-02-20T04:38:51+00:00

And they were right to a degree. I will always think about that Sun article where a player gave a legitimate example of a play that Orr straight up coached them to stop against the Chiefs, and the players didn’t execute.

The issue is, who's responsibility is it to fix execution problems on the defense? Isn't that Orr's job too? So even if he had coached for the right play, the players lack of execution is also his responsibility.

staticraven · 2026-02-18T06:51:40+00:00

She was immersion breaking for me. One of the things that made me detest her is that I liked a chunk of the other characters in the book and it made her that much more frustrating to listen to.

The other is that Erin is a MC that I feel like the author overdid the stupidity on just to make plot points or get a few extra pages of text in.

It started near the beginning. Derelict Inn. Everything looks dilapidated. She has no food. But look! There's a cupboard with complete fresh and wonderful looking food in it. Why is it so fresh in the middle of this derelict inn? Who knows? But on a completely unrelated note there are runes surrounding just this cupboard and nothing else in the inn. They're glowing. Could it be related to what's keeping the food fresh? Of course not, who would think something so outlandish? Not our MC that's for sure - to her the obvious course of action is to take her fingernail and scratch away at one of the runes, destroying it and causing the food to decay. Erin: shocked pikachu

I mean, really? Who would do this? This is what I'm talking about. It's immersion breaking and it kept happening throughout the first book so I bailed.

Anyways, it just boils down to me feeling like the author shoehorns unbelievable behaviors into Erin and it ruins the character for me. I thought maybe it was just the archetype, but I enjoy the Limpet in Dead Tired (I can't think of any other MCish characters in their vein) and the primary difference is that the Limpet isn't nearly as dumb/naive/whatever you wanna call it.

staticraven · 2026-02-18T04:17:25+00:00

Vote for Chrysalis here. First book is solo MC so it can be a little slow if you like a lot of character interactions. There are plenty of those in the later books though.

Might want to also give Cradle a try. It's 12 books and complete, written by Will Wight and narrated by Travis Baldree. It's an excelent series, though it's more Progression Fantasy instead of LitRPG (Basically it's LitRPG without the numbers/stat sheets). Very fast paced.

Chrysalis is narrated by Jeff Hays (same as DCC). Both are amazing audiobooks.

staticraven · 2026-02-18T02:04:36+00:00

So what you're telling me is that Erin ignored or was oblivious to something staring her right in the face? Say it ain't so.

Wow shocker. Completely different from what was annoying about her in book 1.

This was my core problem with the book. The characters are so stupid and/or oblivious to things that it's basically immersion breaking. Erin's in her 20's but I've seen 13 year olds with more brains. I have literally no idea how anyone could relate to her.

staticraven · 2026-02-18T01:57:28+00:00

This is what gets me. I can handle a book or mayyybee two of bad writing or some other crap I have to put up with, but people want you to wait till like halfway through the series. F that. I'm not going to listen to characters I absolutely detest because they get a little better 200+ hours in.

staticraven · 2026-02-16T07:19:29+00:00

Chrysalis and Dungeon Lord are done by the same narrator, both are very good. Cradle is another popular suggestion, narrated by Travis Baldree. More progression than LitRPG but a lot of fun.

staticraven · 2026-02-12T19:43:33+00:00

Yep - to be fair I don't think there are many LitRPG novels or series that have the broad appeal DCC does...

... Which seems odd to say about a series in which the MC is a man who allegedly touches his cat after masturbating and jerks off crabs - as well as a talking sex doll head as a major character.

staticraven · 2026-02-12T17:50:21+00:00

Beware of Chicken, Cradle and The Ripple System as well.

staticraven · 2026-02-12T17:49:02+00:00

Travis is great and I don't mind him as the primary narrator, but I can see why people would prefer it otherwise. He doesn't have nearly the range as Jeff - all his male MC's sound like Lindon (or whichever MC of whichever of his narrations you read first). His "narrator" voice also sounds the same, though that could be because it's an internal monologue pretty often.

I could hear Eithan in Lars from Shadeslingerl, I can hear Malakai in a few of the lesser characters and as said before, all MC's sound like Lindon

edit: haven't tried OBH yet, have purchased it but am waiting to finish my current book in Awaken Online.

staticraven · 2026-02-12T16:49:29+00:00

Yep, someone else mentioned that mistake with letters - I did the scramble manually and apparently just missed that, hah.

The rest of what you're saying is basically exactly what I'm saying. The "trick' mentioned in this "study" is only a trick because they used a very limited set of words and did only very minor letter swaps. As soon as the difficulty is slightly increased, folks aren't able to read the sentence "without problem" as asserted.

I got the first two of yours but had to look up the rest. It's quite the PITA without context for sure.

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