■ 🕑 1. Giko Book Club
│  Read a book? Post your thoughts on it! 
│  Someone read a book you read? Answer them! 
│  
│  > Find books: 
│  https://fmhy.net/readingpiracyguide
│  > Windows ereading: 
│  https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org
│  > Android ereading: 
│  https://readera.org/
│  
│  < We suggest epub / mobi over PDF when possible
│  < As this thread grows, "tree" mode may be more useful than "thread"
│   
├─■ 🕑 2. Dune
│   Earlier this month, I read Dune 1-4. 
│   I appreciate how each book goes in a different direction yet the
│   world of Dune still remains largely consistent with itself. 
│   
│   Dune #1 was probably the best but the sequels all take the concept
│   in interesting directions. I think the writing has aged pretty well. 
│   But 3 return visits to Arrakis were enough for me. 
│    
├─■ 🕑 3. Witcher
│   Book order: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witcher#Overview
│   
│   I read books 1-3 and I'm working on 4 now. The world is pretty 
│   interesting and the focus on character relations is done pretty well. 
│   
│   After I finish 4 I'm going to watch the Netflix series and start playing
│   Witcher 3 while I continue reading through the rest of the series. 
│   These books feel like they could work really well as an anime or game
│   series as I read through them. It's not world-changing literature but
│   the entertainment level is pretty solid. I liked the references to
│   fairy tales in the first 2 books of short stories. 
│   
│   I don't think Witcher is as good as Lord of the Rings but it's better
│   than Game of Thrones. Fans of Dungeons and Dragons and classic RPG games
│   could probably really appreciate Witcher, and fans of fairy tales and
│   myth as well. 
│    
├─■ 🕑 4. Remembrance of Earth's Past
│ │  Recently finished Liu Cixin's "Remembrance of Earth's Past" trilogy
│ │  ( 3 body problem / dark forest / death's end) 
│ │  at a reading pace of 1 book per day. (~500 pages per book) 
│ │  
│ │  Read it blind! Good mysteries and world building!
│ │  Hard science fiction so not a lot of fantasy. 
│ │  
│ │  Characters are a bit shallow and it could have been cut a few hundred
│ │  pages shorter at no great loss. 
│ │  But it's a fun and easy read, if depressing. 
│ │  
│ │  8.6
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 6. 
│     My biggest frustration with this series is that dimensional warping
│     wasn't further explored despite its heavy exploitation by 
│     the enemies of earth in the FIRST BOOK and hints about it were 
│     teased in the second book , and it was ultimately the end of earth
│     in the third book ... the in-universe explanation is probably that 
│     humans weren't given enough time to master the technology and it 
│     could be that exploring it further could have written the author into
│     a corner, but as far as "what ifs" go, if humans were able to master
│     dimensional warping it would have totally given them an out from 
│     the end assigned unto them. As soon as it was mentioned in the first book
│     I was waiting for it to be a force the author gave to humans and not
│     seeing them being able to realize it left me a bit underwhelmed at the end.
│      
├─■ 🕑 5. The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson
│   awesome historical fiction, really gets you into the mindset of 10th century
│   europe, main characters are a group of vikings raping and pillaging all over
│   the damned place, getting captured by muslim slavers and having to row, etcetc.
│   these people saw it as normal and you think "yeah if I lived back then all this
│   would be normal to me too!"  about halfway through, the damned christians come
│   on the scene and slowly convert everyone to more modern/familiar ways of 
│   thinking (which seem alien to the main characters and to the reader as well 
│   after getting into their mindset lol).  harald bluetooth is a major character 
│   for a few chapters.  they steal a big bell from some jihadis.
│   
│   8/10 might read again in several years.
│    
└─■ 🕑 7. 
    TOKIKO is FORCING ME against my WILL to post that i read the english
    translation of 'submission' by michel houellebecq several months ago,
    wherein a husymans scholar reacts or rather doesn't to the political
    victory of moderate islam in french society. i am currently reading
    houellebecqs first book 'extension du domain de la lutte' in order to
    learn french, i have already seen the film adaptation. extension is
    about a misanthropic programmer working for bureaucrats feeding the
    frustrations of his incel coworker. afterwards i will read 'les
    particules élémentaires' in french as well. houellebecq is like a
    human cigarette.