SF/F Kindle Unlimited Trench: Low Prices, Lower Standards

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platero: Sep 11, 2001; spooky, but polite, a-hole; Pillbug

I recently read Dominion of Blades, and I enjoyed the drat thing. I'll give Stratus Online a shot next.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2018 18:53

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 10:54

platero: Sep 11, 2001; spooky, but polite, a-hole; Pillbug

Party Plane Jones posted:

I'm currently deep into the Loralynn Kennakris series and I gotta say, aside from Alarm of War it definitely has some of the grimmer background/story to the universe. The vastness of the universe giving rise to a thriving slave trade (with all that that entails) means the main character has a background you don't see that often.

Nothing quite compared to Daniel Arenson's Earthrise series though, which while admittedly schlock is also definitely on the sci-fi horror side of writing.
(if you want the absolute horror side of fantasy/sci-fi writing, look no further than The Sojourns of Rebirth's Bloodfire. That is positively the grimmest loving book I've read recently, it ain't light reading)

I do suggest the Echoes of Imara series, it's distinctly written at a higher quality than most of the dreck on KU. Still unfinished though.

Perilous Waif is definitely the author's most, uh, PG work. His other stuff is straight up porn.

Agreed. The author writes neat magical systems, but also has some Gor-level opinions.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2018 15:57

platero: Sep 11, 2001; spooky, but polite, a-hole; Pillbug

Victorkm posted:

Just finished book 4 of Dungeon Crawler Carl. Jesus christ was it good. Best of the series so far IMO. The Special Event near the end was one of the funniest things I had read in the series so far.

My favorite part was the AI's new fetish

Carl: *escapes from fish monster's mouth*
AI: I think I felt it jump a little

# ¿ Jul 7, 2021 22:08

platero: Sep 11, 2001; spooky, but polite, a-hole; Pillbug

Darkrenown posted:

I started reading Thousand Li #1 last night, but I got bored pretty quickly. Does it get better?

I recently read the oddly named Something (Full Murderhobo). I can't say it was exactly good, but it passed the time and the reason for the title was kinda interesting to me: All new mages get shoved in a portal which scans their magic type and sends them off to get trained. The protagonist has a rare magic type and ends up in a tutorial area where the previous learner mage somehow died and the scaling difficulty to encourage quick completion has been running unchecked for 100s of years. This means instead of killing 5 Rams to progress he is facing thousands of murder-rams which he has to grind for decades - and that's just the first area. By the end he is both insane and insanely "overleveled".

Murderhobo hit a sweet spot for me in terms of being over the top weird. Definitely not a great book, but I enjoyed it and will read it if more come out in that series.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2021 16:12

platero: Sep 11, 2001; spooky, but polite, a-hole; Pillbug

Silynt posted:

I recently read the Menocht Loop and liked it enough to continue reading the rest of the story online. Time loop story about a necromancer (technically not, but that�s for the story to explain). Give it a shot.

I read and enjoyed that, I'm looking forward to more when they are available on Kindle.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2021 19:38

platero: Sep 11, 2001; spooky, but polite, a-hole; Pillbug

Victorkm posted:

I thought the previews of what was coming next for the MCs were promising as well in "Anything." And the full reveal of what The Bard was doing in the frame story was cool too.

The bard's big adventure caught me off guard and I liked it.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2022 16:34

platero: Sep 11, 2001; spooky, but polite, a-hole; Pillbug

With all the love the Cradle series gets here and other places, I'm going to have to try to read them again. I read the first one, maybe the second, but it just didn't click for me.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2022 20:02

platero: Sep 11, 2001; spooky, but polite, a-hole; Pillbug

I read Beware of Chicken this week based on chat in this thread, and two big thumbs up from me on it.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2022 18:35

platero: Sep 11, 2001; spooky, but polite, a-hole; Pillbug

I love Drew Hayes' The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, The Vampire Accountant series, I've reread it a few times, just a good enjoyable read.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2022 21:11

platero: Sep 11, 2001; spooky, but polite, a-hole; Pillbug

Cicero posted:

Menocht Loop book 4 is out. I like the series quite a bit. Book 2 was meh, but 1 and 3 were good.

I really liked book 4, I was disappointed when it finished because I want more.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2022 16:41

platero: Sep 11, 2001; spooky, but polite, a-hole; Pillbug

I grabbed them because they were free, and upon downloading, it looks like I didn't even finish the first one and just gave up like 3/4 through. I read some real trash on KU, so this must have been pretty bad.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2022 21:08

platero: Sep 11, 2001; spooky, but polite, a-hole; Pillbug

tokenbrownguy posted:

I feel that. Despite liking DCC I couldn't get into Kaiju. Bailed when the MC had to watch his sister? partner? start using again as part of the torture porn. Definitely not my poo poo.

Actually, I didn't mind either of those things. For me, the progression elements and overall metaplot didn't really end up going anywhere. They're just... adventurers who happen to be doing their thing in a gamey world. No gimmick. I'd have preferred if it veered harder into slice of life or crazy game mechanic territory, but it never really commits to either.

I only ever consume this thread's material when it's been packaged for audiobook / ebook. Are all web serials... insanely verbose by convention? For context the Super Powereds 4 audiobook was 60 hours long.

I've been reading/skimming the I Shall Seal The Heavens series on KU, and oh boy could it be cut by about 60% and not lose anything.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2022 20:32

platero: Sep 11, 2001; spooky, but polite, a-hole; Pillbug

Silynt posted:

I�ve spent my time traveling over the past few days binging the first 3 books in The Frith Chronicles and it�s been surprisingly fun. I would say they are some of the best non-Cradle profession fantasy I�ve read on the platform. Some of the characters are a little thin but the prose is competent, which is better than most KU poo poo can manage. And not a stat box in sight!

I really like that same author's Nexus Games series, so i'll have to check out the frith chronicles.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2022 02:02

platero: Sep 11, 2001; spooky, but polite, a-hole; Pillbug

Cicero posted:

That was the funniest part of the book but otherwise dunno if it was really the highlight. That would be throwing the Elder who just looks like a little kid off a cliff.

That sounds pretty funny, maybe I should give that another shot.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2023 17:00

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 10:54

platero: Sep 11, 2001; spooky, but polite, a-hole; Pillbug

Because I don't want to hurt the indie KU people I give a 5star if the book is at least decent, and don't leave a rating at all if I don't like it so I don't trash their numbers.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2023 23:35

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > SF/F Kindle Unlimited Trench: Low Prices, Lower Standards