So What Have you Read Lately? And other favorite books!

[TheAuldGrump]

Arise, ye slumbering thread!

 

I've been reading Beware of Chicken, by Casualfarmer....

 

Which has been a whole lot better than I had expected.

 

Read the two books that have been published on Amazon, then chewed through what is on Royal Road.

 

My favorite character is not one of the main characters - the Lord Magistrate is of that odd sort of Lawful Evil that is functionally identical to Lawful Good, the only difference is in motivation.

 

Cowardly, but his cowardice results in his standing stoicly in the midst of danger. (Inside, he is screaming.)

 

Takes care of his subjects - they are where taxes come from.

 

Is over qualified for his position - and quite happy with that, he's lazy (sort of), it is so much easier to take care of and run a small domain.

 

Does not abuse the women among his people - a sure route to rebellion, and odds are that they won't enjoy rope play like he and his wife....

 

The net result is his people thinking the world of him - which strokes his rather large ego.

 

He is paranoid, so has been very helpul and polite to the cultivator that has taken residence in his district - so the cultivator has been polite and helpful in turn, which has made the Magistrate more paranoid, so he is more helpful and polite....

 

Definitely light fare, but rather good.

 

The Auld Grump - the Lord Magistrate's son has been building a reputation as an amazingly astute investigator... for much the same reasons. (He is also cursed with always being in th right place at the right time. Every. Damned. Time.)

[TheAuldGrump]

Read the third book of the Neural Wraith series by K. D. Robertson.

Second or third generation cyberpunk technology - it has a well structured setting, which actually has me thinking about running a cyberpunk game, probably using GUMSHOE.

 

Incredibly intrusive cybertechnology. Most people have implants connecting to the digital domain. Rather than have big glaring lights, the web tells you that there are big glaring lights. When you are at a concert the web adjusts your view so you are directly in front of the performance, no matter which way the band is actually looking.

 

The Police Department is in the process of being replaced with androids - with the PoV character as the liason between the androids and the people of the city.

 

The primary setting is a city built on one of six artificial islands - largely owned, maintained, and cotrolled by corporate interests.

 

One of those big corporations is heading for a huge disaster, again, planning on bricking the older implants of people that do not buy a premium upgrade. A tactic that they used before, leading to riots, tens of thousands of deaths and the near bankruptcy of the company itself.

 

A disaster in the third book of the series is the result of a DoS attack, locking thousands out of the digital domain that serves as their perceptive reality.

 

My ONLY complaint is with the fairly low key harem aspect. Fortunately, not a central concept in the series, about one or two scenes in each book. (I am a prudish old Grump.)

 

I would give it 8.5 of 10 stars as RPG inspiration, maybe give it a try, if the minor harem element isn't a turnoff. One of the most gameable cyberpunk series that I have read.

 

The Auld Grump