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The Bookish Bard

@thatbookishbard

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🧙‍♂️ The Bookish Bard
⚔️ Swords, sci-fi, Graphic novels + more
📚 ARCs • Reviews • Recommendations

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After holding the entire wheel of time. It got me to thinking. Could I hold the entire Cosmere. The answer was yes….. Just not for very long. The books toppled as soon as my wife @vgdevaneyart took this photo. 😱😱

Thankfully upon inspection there was no damage. If you attempt this, put something soft down 😂

#cosmerechallenge #brandonsanderson #cosmere by @thatbookishbard

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23 days ago

I love a new book day! 😊📚✨

This month definitely had a theme! ❤️ The Red Rising Saga released its second print run of hardcovers, so it was the perfect opportunity to pick up the rest of the series. 🚀

I’m about halfway through Red Rising and really enjoying it so far! I can’t wait to see where the story goes. ❤️📖

Have you read the series? What did you think? 👇

#redrising #piercebrown #scifibooks #bookstagram by @thatbookishbard

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14 hours ago

Picked this up today. He Who Fights With Monsters. Book 3: Hero by Shirtaloon (Travis Deverell).

It’s a cracking looking book. Really looking forward to reading it. What LitRPG are you reading or about to read?

#hewhofightswithmonsters #shirtaloon #litrpg #bookstagram by @thatbookishbard

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2 days ago

I’m excited for this one 😍

#hewhofightswithmonsters #litrpg #travisdeverell #aethonbooks #bookstagram by @thatbookishbard

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2 days ago

Awaken Online: Catharsis — Review 📚

Another book I wouldn’t have discovered if it weren’t for Bookstagram!

Originally published in 2016, this LitRPG has only recently received a traditional publishing deal with Aethon Books.

We follow Jason, an 18-year-old scholarship student who’s bullied by his wealthier classmates. When he discovers Awaken Online, an incredibly immersive VR MMO, he decides to embrace the dark side rather than play the hero for once!

Whilst it shares the LitRPG label with Dungeon Crawler Carl, it takes a more serious approach, exploring both the game and the challenges of growing up.

I really, really enjoyed this and have no hesitation recommending it!

⚠️ A little warning: This is book one of a series spanning 12+ books and several novellas. It’s a phenomenal start, and I can’t wait to continue!

⭐ 5 out of 5 stars! ⭐

#bookstagram #awakenonline #litrpg #travisbagwell #aethonbooks by @thatbookishbard

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2 days ago

I started reading this one on Kindle Unlimited and was enjoying it so much that I decided to order the hardcover. I honestly wasn’t expecting the book to be this beautiful! 😍 The cover is absolutely stunning.

I haven’t finished it yet, but based on what I’ve read so far, I’d definitely recommend it!

#gatesofthiros #lilikbuckley #beautifulbooks #bookstagram #romantasy by @thatbookishbard

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3 days ago

Renganaton Books 1 & 2 by Obake – Review

Or Bookiesodes, as Obake refers to them. (I like it!)

The Renganaton series is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to come across when I started this Bookstagram journey. Without Instagram, I’d never have connected with Obake and discovered their books. They also seem like a genuinely nice person from the conversations we’ve had, which always makes discovering an independent author’s work that little bit more special.

I’m not even 100% sure what genre to pigeonhole this series into, but if I had to pick, I’d go with sci-fi, thanks to the advanced medical technology and the mysterious power possessed by our main character.

Speaking of our main character, he’s a teenage boy named Galdor. Galdor comes from an abusive household and has been beaten nearly to death on more than one occasion by his father. However, thanks to the aforementioned medical technology, the damage can often be repaired remarkably quickly, sometimes within a day. It’s a pretty disturbing concept when you think about it: technology that can repair the physical damage but does nothing to address the trauma behind it.

Galdor also has some kind of power, although after two books, it’s still something of a mystery. It seems a bit like astral projection crossed with telekinesis, but I’m still not entirely sure how it works or what its limitations are. For most of the first two Bookiesodes, you get the impression that Galdor is the only person with this ability, but towards the end of the second book, we get hints that his father might possess it too. Naturally, this leaves me wanting to know more.

So, let’s look at the books themselves.

Bookiesode 1 – Where Do I Go from Here?

At around 150 pages, this first Bookiesode introduces us to Galdor, his family dynamic and his group of friends, whom he calls his Taba. Galdor and the Taba spend much of their free time free running across rooftops. It sounds a bit like parkour to me, although I’m sure there’s a difference!

Continued in comments……..
#bookstagram #Obake #reganaton #indyauthors #indyreviews by @thatbookishbard

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3 days ago

So, I discovered LitRPG through Dungeon Crawler Carl… and then I joined Bookstagram.

Turns out, there’s a LOT more where that came from. And now I’ve somehow ended up ordering a LitRPG about a FISH.

Honestly, I love this genre.

What’s your favourite LitRPG series? I’ve barely scratched the surface, but Awaken Online is my favourite so far!

Bonus points if you can recommend something even weirder than a fish.

#DungeonCrawlerCarl #AwakenOnline #TheWanderingInn #hewhofightswithmonsters #bookstagram by @thatbookishbard

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5 days ago

Thanks to Rory, the author, for taking the time to send me an ARC of this book and for taking a chance on a relatively new book blogger/bookstagrammer.

MINOR SPOILERS.

Wow… What did I just read?!

I finished this book about half an hour ago and spent the next 15 minutes sitting in silence, trying to process it all.

For me, this was a book of two halves. The first is a farcical sci-fi story in which a man named Dave is abducted by aliens and ultimately sold to fifth-dimensional beings as their “pet”.

There are some truly hilarious, utterly ridiculous moments in the first half, including the most graphic poop scene I think I’ve ever read. Much of the book follows Dave as he tries to make sense of what has happened to him. Why has he been abducted? What do these beings want from him? He never quite grasps that, to them, he is simply a pet.

Dave also spends A LOT of time masturbating in the early portions of the book. Please understand that neither this nor the aforementioned poop scene is gratuitous. In fact, both help build a picture of who Dave is. And trust me, the more you get to know him, the more those details make sense.

Like all pets, Dave begins to care for his owners, who, in turn, come to care for him. Over time, the feelings on both sides develop into genuine love. Not the love between equals, perhaps, but the love of an owner for a pet, and a pet for its owner…

And this is where the moral questions begin to emerge. What right do we have to own another living creature? To us, a dog or a cat is a lesser species. But to a fifth-dimensional being capable of travelling through time and across multiple dimensions, Dave is much the same. So, is there really a difference between them owning Dave and us owning our beloved family pets?

One of the things I enjoyed most about this book was watching the person Dave could become when given all the space and time in the universe.

Rest of review in comments:

#bookstagram #davethespacepet #scifibooks #roryabforrest by @thatbookishbard

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6 days ago

Ranking the Dungeon Crawler Carl books on the HOLY SHIT scale!

I had to really think about this one… how on earth do you rank a series packed with so many insane moments?!

So, I decided to go with what I like to call the HOLY SHIT SCALE. Basically, I ranked each book by how many times it made me stop, stare into the distance and think, WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL DID I JUST READ?!

The Butcher’s Masquerade had to take the top spot for me, especially those final chapters. Absolutely unreal. No spoilers, of course!

I’ve ranked The Eye of the Bedlam Bride last, but don’t get me wrong — it’s STILL a fantastic book. Being last in this series is hardly an insult!

A massive thank you to @mattdinniman for introducing me to LitRPGs. What a wild, unhinged, utterly addictive ride this has been.

Now I need to know… what’s YOUR favourite Dungeon Crawler Carl book? And which one gave you the most HOLY SHIT moments?

#DungeonCrawlerCarl #MattDinniman #LitRPG #Bookstagram #FantasyBooks by @thatbookishbard

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7 days ago

After reading the first book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, I could only ever picture Mordecai as master Splinter. I couldn’t shake it. Even when he changed form I just picture splinter in Cosplay 😂

Who do you see in your head when you imagine the other DCC characters?

#dcc #dungeoncrawlercarl #bookstagram #tmnt by @thatbookishbard

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7 days ago

Thanks to NetGalley and The Lab Press for the advanced review copy of Super Science Vol. 1 (The Lab Portable Edition).

I’d never heard of this series before picking this up, but it’s a really interesting concept.

For five days, the sky turns amethyst and the limits on human imagination are removed. Effectively, scientific experts in their respective fields across the world start making spectacular breakthroughs. What results is shrink rays, holographic bodies, people melded with animals, and Thor-like beings whose farts will actually melt your skin off. Naturally, this leads to a huge number of supervillains appearing across the city.….

For the rest of the review, check my blog. Link in bio

#SuperScience #TheLabPress #ComicBookstagram #GraphicNovelReview #IndieComics by @thatbookishbard

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8 days ago