Ice Planet Barbarians - Ruby Dixon (Audiobook)

Tantor Audio, 2017, 5.9 hours

Original copyright 2015

Read by: Hollie Jackson & Mason Lloyd

Listened to: May 2025, age 47

 

Ice Planet Barbarians book 1

 

Kinda funny, simple but reasonably fun plot, graphic descriptions of plated penises, and plenty of conventional sci-fi plot holes to allow for things like breathing, eating, and inter-species relations on a different planet.  Don't expect hard sci-fi.  It was touted as erotica, but really, it was about the level of a Harlequin romance, with aliens. The initial raping-to- establish-that-some-aliens-are-bad was unnecessary. Overall, though?  Better than it had any right to be.

 

Rating: 3+

Fire Touched - Patricia Briggs (Audiobook)

Brilliance Audio, 2016, 10.1 hours

Read by: Lorelei King 

Listened to: May 2025, age 47

 

Mercy Thompson, book 9 

Good, but this series is starting to feel like it's running in place a little bit.  

Rating: 4-

The Alchemist and an Amaretto - Annette Marie (Audiobook)

Tantor Audio, 2020, 6.9 hours

Original copyright 2019

Read by: Chris Dukehart

Listened to: April 2025, age 47

 

The Guild Codex: Spellbound, book 5

 

The whole overarching series is good, but I *really* like the initial / main story.  Tory is a fun viewpoint for the insanity.  The characters don't necessarily change too much, but we get to learn a lot about why they are who they are along the way.  This instalment was a strong action/mystery story, but with some significant repercussions that look like they're going to start tying the other series in pretty quickly.

 

Rating: 5

Paladin's Grace - T. Kingfisher (Audiobook)

Tantor Audio, 2021, 12.5 hours

Original copyright 2020

Read by: Joel Richards

Listened to: April 2025, age 47

 

 Saint of Steel, book 1

 

I did not expect a straight-up romance hidden in fantasy trappings.  It was a good romance, funny, with complicated mature characters, a fun supporting cast, and just enough mystery to keep things moving, but... straight romance.  With poor communication and mistaken assumptions as main driving forces. Not a genre that I've read much in the past 20 years, and I probably won't go back too often, but it was a nice change.

 

Rating: 4

Hellbound Guilds and Other Misdirections - Annette Marie (Audiobook)

Tantor Audio, 2021, 8.2 hours

Read by: Iggy Toma

Listened to: March 2025, age 46

 

Guild Codex: Warped, book 2 

Lots of fun.  This was another police procedural / duck out of water type story, and it went very well.  I haven't found any bad books in this series or the larger megaverse.

 

Rating: 4+

Uprooted - Naomi Novic

Del Ray, 2016, 435 pages

ISBN: 978-0-8041-7905-8

Read: May 2025, age 47

 

A compelling story, it read like a fairy tale, but didn't feel like one - the characters were too strong, and the prose was immediate and compelling, not detached and 'story like'.  I liked it. 

Rating: 4

Happy Hour in Hell - Tad Williams

Daw, 2013, 446 pages

ISBN: 978-0-7564-0948-7

Read: April 2025, age 47 

Bobby Dollar, book 2

 

This book wasn't as much fun as book 1.  I think mostly it pulled our hero away from most of his supports, leaving him to carry a journey through Hell on his own, and it didn't quite work for me as well as it could have without the banter and teamwork.  It was still fine. 

 

Rating: 3