Austin Smith > Recent Status Updates

This may be an annual read for me. Easily top 10 favorite books of all time.

Slow progress on my third series read.

Always forward, always down.

First time through this series, never read or watched it. Was implored by my niece to read it, so here goes.

Very technical language makes it easy to lose track of while listening, but so far I’m enjoying this as much as the first entry. We must protect our spider brethren.

Starting off 2025 with a bang.

Pleasantly surprised, really enjoying this. Very comforting in a way that I feel like is set up to betray me later.

This is my first Mark Lawrence novel and I have to say he has one of the finest marriages of prose and plotting. It’s typical that one is sacrificed for the other, but I am enjoying his writing immensely.

So it begins.

And just like that I’m out of early content. Now we wait for the 6th.

Did I sin by starting the prerelease chapters? Will I come to regret this?

Oh ye gods of fate help me to finish this book before the end of the month. Only so many days left to unite them.

Rest in peace Rhythm of War, you’re getting cut from the reread.

Third time around, always better than I remember. Easily my favorite and most comforting series.

Getting close to the point of no return.

Time for another reread to prepare for book 5. He’s just as good as I remember.

We’re in it now boys. Definitely a different beast than Expanse, and it took longer for the characters to fit in my head, but the book knows what you really need to know when you need to know it. The aliens are absolute and irresistible and I do not have the slightest clue where this series is headed. Loving it.

I cannot wait to start this. Feels so great hearing Jefferson Mays return to narrate the next book by my favorite sci-fi author(s). I’m going in with zero expectations outside of the characters James SA Corey is known for.