Milestone post

 

Despite my lack of posting here, my reading continues apace.  The tempo of my real life job seems to be moderating so my intention is to start posting here again.

So here's part 1 of my reading list.  These are the books I finished in 2025 after my last review post.  Since I finished these, they're all at least a 3-ish rating.  Some are much better than that.

My 2026 list will be in a separate post 

2025 

• • Tenure 2 – Pardoe 
  • Warrior’s Grit (Steelforged 4) - Tress 
  • Grog VII – Krpoun 
  • Quest Academy: Legions – Nordon 
  • Violent Graduation – Hindmarsh 
  • Kaiju Combat university – Michaels 
  • Beware of Chicken 5 – Casualfarmer 
  • System Universe 8 – Sunrisecv 
  • Lost Bloodline 1 – Tress 
  • Settle (Magic Eater 3) - Oswald 
  • Growth (Magic Eater 2) - Oswald 
  • Steelforged 3 – Tress 
  • Dusk Scion – Freed 
  • Oaths – Clarke 
  • Gathering strength (Monstergirls in space 5) - Tress 
  • Academy of Outcasts – Correia 
  • Princely Mistakes (Aether 11) - Schinhofen 
  • Defiant foes (MG in space 4) Tress 
  • Cultivation nerd – Holymouse 
  • Stone Breaker – King 
  • The Long chain (Casebook 3) - Willis 
  • Predestination (last life 9) - Osadchuk 
  • Heretical Fishing 4 –Jobson 
  • Case book 2 – Willis 
  • Casebook 1 – Willis 
  • Soul of the warrior (child soldier) - Kyfe 
  • Unbound 11 – Gonnella 
  • Death Genesis 2 – Searcy 
  • Death Genesis 1 - Searcy 
  • Mark of the Fool 10 – Clarke 
  • Victor of Tucson 8 – Plum Parrot 
  • Victor of Tucson 7  - Plum Parrot 
  • Unintended cultivator 6 – Dontigney 
  • Death’s Ecliptic – Peak 
  • Iron Tyrant 3 – Ring 
  • Skill Thief – Kamikaze Potato 
  • Grimwald 1 – Aury 
  • EngineMasters 1 – harris-Reid 
  • Path of the Slayer 1 – Mythos 
  • Path of Ascension 9 – C. Mantis 
  • Manipulation (Magic Eater 1) - Oswald 
  • Ultimate level 1 – ultimate boundaries – Wilson 
  • How I built a magical empire – Zubov 
  • Star Blade – Chaney 
  • Steelforged 2 – Tress 
  • Rise of the living forge 3 – Actus 
  • Turncoat’s truth – Krabin/Arand 
  • Ultimate  level 1 – Wilson 
  • Primordial Threat – Rothman 
  • Aether 10 – Schinhoven 
  • Iron Tyran 2 - Ring 
  • Ultimate level 1 (book 6) - Wilson 
  • Ultimate level 1 (book 5) - Wilson 
  • Ultimate level 1 (book 4) - Wilson 
  • Ultimate level 1 (book 3) - Wilson 
  • Ultimate level 1 (book 2) - Wilson 
  • Ultimate level 1 (book 1) - Wilson 

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Review: Wild Era

Title: Wild Era: A LitRPG Progression Epic

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0F3HK8892/

Author: David North

Rating: 2.9/5

Comments: Another one that I finished but regret it.  Mr North has a tendency to have his protagonist operating in an effective vacuum and do a lot of navel gazing. Unlike his Guardian of Aster's Fall (this series is set in the same universe) the protagonist has very few connections or really anything to humanize him.  He is entirely self contained and fully realized as a person, so there's no real character development to be done.

BORING

Bedroom Activities: None

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FTB/Explicit/None – Fade to black bedroom activities vs “Onscreen” vs No activities

Review: Death's Ecliptic

Title: Death's Ecliptic (Cygni Corps Book 1)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0F2G3R9P2/

Author: Tony Peak

Rating: 3.5

Comments: This is one I picked up from a Facebook ad.  It's not bad, it's not great.  The bad stuff that happens seems to be excessively bad with limited justification for it.  Other than that, the story is decent, but it definitely leans hard into the "everything is a shade of grey" trope. 

This is straight sci-fi, no litrpg or gamelit trappings.

Bedroom Activities: FTB

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FTB/Explicit/None – Fade to black bedroom activities vs “Onscreen” vs No activities

Review: Skill Thief

Title: Skill Thief: A LitRPG Adventure (Soul Canvas Book 1)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DKZCVGX4/

Author: KamikazePotato

Rating: 2.9/5

Comments: I really enjoyed Outcast in Another World, so I was pretty optimistic when I saw the Tater-man had a new series. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it even half as much as the other series.  I can't honestly think of anything in the story I actually liked, everything was either neutral or negative.

It was a struggle to finish, and I'm sorry I did it.  I won't be reading book 2.

Bedroom Activities: FTB

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FTB/Explicit/None – Fade to black bedroom activities vs “Onscreen” vs No activities

Reading Activity roundup

My reading continues apace, but not a lot of new series that I have tried that I thought were exceptional, but I'll be adding some reviews for them regardless.

Existing series that I have read recently:

Victor of Tucson 7 and 8 - Plum Parrot has continued to deliver a strong story.  It's really remarkable the quality hasn't wavered.

Unintended Cultivator 6 - Still good.  Some foreshadowing.

Iron Tyrant 3 - A rare instance of the 3rd book being better than the other two.

Path of Ascension 9 (I think) - Powered through because I'm already 8 books into it.  The end was excellent though.

Ultimate level 1 book 8 - Lots of things have changed since the early books. I'm not sure where this one is going, but I will be reading book 9