LunaticDruid - Looking to get booked again - 2026

Happy new year everyone!

It's been a while since I posted here, but I've been sneaking in from time to time to look for a bad joke or two (and maybe steal a sip of PGGB that someone has left unattended).

I have been in a reading slump for the last couple of years. In fact I only managed to finish 6 books in 2025. Then again, 3 of them I finished in December! Hopefully this will mean my lathargic brain is finally ready to mount the rocking chair again and carry me all the way to Kindlemanjaro.

My first read of the year is Jingo by Terry Pratchett. This is the 21st book in the Discworld series and the 4th book in the City Watch sub series.



I'm about 8% into the book and are already enjoying it immensley. Let's hope that bodes well for the rest of the reading year. Let 2026 be the year of the curious squid!

Oh, and I finally know where "Clam before the storm" came from! That gave me a chuckle.

Happy new year, and happy new thread!

Happy new year to you! I hope it brings you many excellent books.

>1 LunaticDruid: Happy New Year and Happy New Thread. Starting the year off with Terry Pratchett seems like an excellent idea.

>1 LunaticDruid: Happy New Year and happy new thread!

>1 LunaticDruid: Happy new year and happy new thread! I hope you have a good reading year.

Happy New Year! Happy New Thread! I wish you a great reading year.

Happy New Thread. Wishing you a good year’s reading.

Thank you all for the warm welcome!

It's been a while since I was active in the pub, so I though it might be a good idea to reintroduce myself.

My name is Trond. I live in the southern part of Norway on the outskirts of Kristiansand (the home of Captain Sabretooth). I am at the age where I need to start to look out for the midlife crisis.

I read primarily fantasy, historical fiction and some sci-fi, but I wish to branch out to other genres with time. Some crime maybe? Or steampunk?

Despite my username, I am neither a Druid nor a Lunatic. I needed a username and was reading a series by Stephen R. Lawhead at the time where druids played a larger part (The Celtic Crusade if I remember correctly) and "The Lunatics" by The Specials was playing on my Spotify ("The lunatics has taken over the asylum..."). I simply melded them together.

On the Druid part. I do feel a connection to nature. The smell of the earth when the winter looses it's hold in the spring. The sound of the water gently trickeling in a nearby stream. The sight of a beautiful flower with butterflies and bumblebees surronding it. There is nothing like it. I also like to grow some flowers, herbs and vegetables in the garden (with mixed results). I do not dabble in human sacrifice.

On the Lunatic part. I have always been more of a cautious type. Always doing my best to avoid what might become painful or uncomfortable. But CautiousDruid or MellowDruid just doesn't got the same ring to it.

Today' I've been running around The Green Dragon and placed a shining star on all of the new 2026 reading threads. Not sure if I will muster enough courage to post on them, but I will read them in search of inspiration and books to add to my ever growing wishlist.

>10 LunaticDruid: ThoughtfulDruid? LOL I'm very happy to see you posting, and I am looking forward to seeing your reviews this year.

Happy New Year and new thread :)

Happy New Year and Thread!

Happy New Year!

>10 LunaticDruid: Thank you for the introduction.

>11 clamairy: Yeah, I really need to put some thought behind it if I feel the need to change (I don't want to fudge up something!).

>12 Narilka: >13 hfglen: >14 catzteach: Thank you very much!

>15 Karlstar: Glad you liked it!

I'm now about halfway through Jingo and am enjoying it quite a bit. Just today it had me laugh out loud twice! I really should start taking notes and writing down quotes while I'm reading.

One of the things that I recently discovered was the "Booktube" sphere on Youtube. For some reason the algorithm had hidden this from me. I found it just at the time I started to read more in December. A couple of them have spoken about keeping a reading journal where you reflect on what you just read, or a place to write down your favorite passages or quotes from the book etc. I've had trouble concentrating on what I've been reading the last couple of years; this might just be part of the solution. It forces me to slow down a bit while reading, getting in the right headspace, and might improve my overall reading experience.

>1 LunaticDruid: among my first top ten pratchett havent reread it since he passed and I reread everthing need to do that again

>17 cindydavid4: When I finish the Discworld series I will most definitely add them as books to be reread. Since it's my first time reading the series I read them in publication order, but I think on a reread, I will select a subseries (like Discworld: City Watch) to reread.

There was a sale on at Outland (Norwegian hobby shop) so I picked up a couple of books on offer:


(Please send me a message if the picture doesn't show up. Testing using a private Discord channel to store uploaded pictures to put in posts).

Memory's Legion by James S. A. Corey is a collection of eight short stories and novellas in The Expanse series. I have watched the TV series but have not yet read the books. Not too sure when it is best to read these shorter stories but will probably wait until I have read the main series.

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. I have yet to read anything by Abercrombie, but I've heard a lot of praise for his work. Looking forward to checking out the first book in his First Law trilogy.

Night Angel: Nemesis by Brent Weeks. The Night Angel was one of the first fantasy series I read after rediscovering my enjoyment of reading back in 2007/2008. I read the original trilogy before I joined Librarything and remember liking it a lot even though the ending fell a bit flat. I had totally missed that book one in the Kylar Chronicles had released. I do believe I need to reread the original trilogy before reading this book.

>18 LunaticDruid: Oh I love the different series From Discworld the science of Discwoldwas really interesting because it discuss How the physics would be different on this world versus the sphere of the Earth I also the artwork and there are a couple of volumes of those Oh just extraordinary

>19 cindydavid4: I need to check those out after finishing the series. One of the things I love about Pratchett is his ability to explain visuals in a manner that is very easy to visualize. I remember the first time a sunrise was described as light flowing like thick golden syrup over the land. I also see there are a couple of short story collections to collect.



I finished Jingo in Terry Pratchetts Discworld: City Watch sub series. This was a great book to start off the year!

Description from google (does contain minor spoilers):

Jingo, the 21st Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, starts with the sudden surfacing of the island of Leshp in the Circle Sea, sparking a territorial dispute between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch and leading to an attempted assassination of a Klatchian Prince in Ankh-Morpork, which rapidly escalates to war, catching Commander Sam Vimes and the City Watch in the middle of a patriotic fervor and political chaos.

Favorite parts of the book:

1. The whole intro with Solid Jackson and "Greasy Arif". It is both hilarious and sets the tone for the rest of the book. "They had to stop and come back, with mutual cries of ‘A kidnapper as well, eh?’, to get the right sons."

2. When Sargeant Colon talks about how a tiny book saved his great-grandfather from an arrow in a scrap against Pseudopolis. "Shame about the other seventeen arrows, really."

3. Every part in Al-Khali while Nobbs is undercover as Beti

4.How Pratchett used the dis-organizer to convey the horror of war that occured in the other timeline. That was really effective and made me bump up the rating half a star.

Now to something completely different. My next read will be City of Dragons by Robin Hobb. This is the third book in the Rain Wild Chronicles and book twelve in the Realm of the Elderlings series.

he is great at studying the humans and pick up somrthing in common . then hell make us laugh and laugh coz its all so true.and finally shows us the part of us that tries to make life better

>20 LunaticDruid: hehehe Nobby Nobbs as Beti still makes me laugh thinking about it :)

2026 has gotten off to a great start. Just finished City of Dragons by Robin Hobb. Being the second to last book in the Rain Wild Chronicles arc this feels very much like a setup book, but that feels just right. We're jumping between several POVs throughout the book, and you just feel the need to keep turning the pages.

Favorite parts:

1. Heeby crashing down on the animal Thymera and Tats are hunting

2. Sintara finally getting frustrated enough to get her act together and make her first flight

3. Hest getting beat up. Let's be honest, he deserves it!

Next up is Morning Star by Pierce Brown, book three in the Red Rising Saga. While I wasn't the biggest fan of the first book (Red Rising), I felt book two (Golden Son) were a big improvement. I saw a panel he was in at Dragonsteel 2025 on youtube where he basically says that he needed to write the first book that way to get the interest of the publisher. Once that one was a hit, he could write the type of story he wanted to write, which was space opera.

>23 LunaticDruid: Re: Red Rising

Makes sense as at the time everybody was looking for the next Hunger Games.

February was a bit slower for me, but I finally finished Morning Star by Pierce Brown. This was the third book in the Red Rising Saga and the end of the first trilogy in the series. While the plot and story are decent, I struggled to connect with the characters and frankly, I think the book was a bit too gruesome and gritty for my taste. I am undecided if I will continue the series.

What I liked:

The section of the book where Darrow and crew travel to the Rim to secure the alliance of the Moon Lords and following that the battle against Roque was great. (Darrows betrayal of Romulus mid battle was unexpected and added a new layer of intrigue that I liked).

What I disliked:

A lot of the time the violence was taken a bit too far for my taste. There are a lot of gruesome injuries, dismemberments, beheadings and a surprising number of tongues that are getting cut/ripped out. I often felt it was put there to add to the shock value, but I feel it would’ve had a greater effect if this was used more sparingly.

Again, not many characters I felt a connection to (and the only one I liked got killed off halfway through the book)

Next up is The Riddle by Alison Croggon. The second (or third book depending on source) of the Books of Pellinor series. I really enjoyed the first book in the series (The Naming) so I’m looking forward to see where the story continues.

>25 LunaticDruid: I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy that 3rd book more. I did like that series but decided not to keep going.

>26 clamairy: Well, they can't all be bangers now can they, hehe. I think I will set Red Rising Saga aside for now and put Iron Gold at the bottom of my TBR queue. It will take me some time to return to the series, but maybe it will grow on me in time. Next up on my TBR queue is The blade itself by Joe Abercrombie so that will take its place. Look at me complaining about a book being too gritty and then add “Lord Grimdark” in its place… He has been on my list for years so exited to find out if his books suit me.

To prevent “series burnout” (Thank you The Wheel of Time) I cycle through a list of 4 ongoing reads (with an added fifth option for rereads or new books in a series I have read all the released books in).



When I finish a standalone book or a series, I swap it out with a new one and the cycle continues. The section with green background means the next book in my TBR queue is added. This queue consists of books/series from my favorite authors, books that have been recommended to me or has otherwise piqued my interest.

Blue background means I will draw a random book from my “TBR” on Librarything. These books/series consist of books I own but have yet to read (a lot of these are stuff I have gotten for free or on a sale).

Red background means a random draw from my “next read tab” on my spreadsheet. This is a list of books from authors I want to check out but are not a priority in addition to bookbullets from LT. Books of Pellinor was one of those bookbullets that random chance put into my reading cycle.

>27 LunaticDruid: How did you find The Blade Itself? Generally Abercrombie's books are described as 'dark', more so than Pierce Brown, I think.

>28 Karlstar: Thank you for stopping by. I have not gotten to The blade itself yet, but will soon (After finishing Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb).

Time for a little catchup!

Since the last time I posted, I have finished 3 books.

The Riddle by Alison Croggon



This is the second published book in the Books of Pellinor series but is set as the 3rd book of Pellinor at the start of the book. This book felt like one story split in two. While the first half continued the feel of the first book (Young adult) the second part took a much darker turn.

What do I like?

- The worldbuilding. In a book with as much traveling the world building can make or break a story. Every place we visit in the book contains rich descriptions and a sense of deep history and tradition. This may be the reason I want to continue the series.

My frustrations?

- Every time the characters talk about the need for secrecy the next part of the book are them either participating in a party or a feast while not being too anonymous.

- Often the solutions to dangerous situations and creatures come too easily. There is often a great buildup to describe the situation and the level of danger only for it to fizzle out with a few lucky strikes with a sword or one simple action from an intuition.

- I am a bit confused about the whole Winterking situation. In the start of the book, he seems to do all in his powers to kill off Maerad, but when she is brought to him, he does not? I feel I am missing something here…


Twelve Months by Jim Butcher



Book 18 in The Dresden Files series. While the last book covered a giant battle against a Titan in the middle of Chicago, this book is more of an introspective book about rebuilding and healing from a great loss. I actually liked the smaller scope and themes, but it felt a bit too repetitive at times (especially some of the parts where he is dealing with his grief), but then again that was somehow explained towards the end of the book. Also, the ending was very abrupt. It was gearing up to an interesting battle, and then just ended with an unsatisfactory “splat”. Still, a lot of pieces are maneuvered into place for the next instalment.

The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett



This is the 22nd book in the Discworld series and the 6th book in Discworld: Rincewind series.

Even though I felt like this was a weaker book in the series, I still enjoyed it. It was a bit all over the place and it took me a while to find out what the theme was about. The book got better towards the end.

Favorite parts:

- The chase scene taken straight out of Mad Max.

- Every scene with Mrs. Whitlow and the Senior Wrangler.

- The origin of what I believe is Vegemite.


Up next is Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb.



This is book 13 of Realm of the Elderlings and 4th and final installment in the Rain Wild Chronicles sub-series.

I am really looking forward to this. I have greatly enjoyed this series so far and can’t wait to see (or dread) what will happen to Thymara, Sintara, Malta, Selden and the rest of of the dragonkeepers. I’m also curious to see how bad it will go for Hest.

>29 LunaticDruid: I am very curious to see what you will think of the Robin Hobb book. I have read so many of her novels and loved most of them. I don't remember why I gave City of Dragons only three stars, but that's probably the reason why I never continued with this sub-series.

And it's always a good idea to read Pratchett!

>30 Alexandra_book_life: Other than the last two books in The Soldier Son Trilogy, I have enjoyed every book by Robin Hobb I've read. I can see why some might bounce off of City of Dragons (Malta being kidnapped while giving birth and then fighting for her freedom was hard to read). It did feel very much like a setup book for Blood of Dragons. I looooved the drama between the birdkeepers at the end of every chapter (so popcorn worthy).

I finished Blood of Dragons a couple of days ago and had a great time reading it. The story picks up where City of Dragons ended. Most of the Dragons are still flightless and stuck on the wrong side of the river from Kelsingra. The few dragons that have made the flight over are developing rapidly. Hest has arrived in Cassarick, sent as a runner boy for the Chalsedeans who are still trying to get hold of the dragon parts Sedric promised to provide.

Overall, I liked where the story went as several story threads converge. If I have one criticism it is that the main conflict that has been building up between Chalsed and the Dragons ended a bit abruptly. It felt like there was a chapter missing towards the end. The Duke of Chalsed is ended off page.

I am nearing the end of Realm of the Elderlings series with only the Fitz and the Fool Trilogy remaining. I am curious to see how much the events from Rain Wild Chronicles will affect the rest of the series.


Up next is The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Book 1 in the First Law series. This has been on my radar for quite some time. I have lost count of how many “top 10” lists this appears on that I have seen. I have done the best I could to avoid spoilers as I prefer to go into new books blind (I don’t even read the synopsis on the back of the book in fear of spoiling anything).

I am about 100 pages in and loving it so far. The introduction to Inquisitor Glokta might be one of the best character introductions I have ever read. So far, the characters and worldbuilding are great and there is just the right amount of humor.

>32 LunaticDruid: I am glad you had such a good time with Blood of Dragons :)

>33 Alexandra_book_life: Thank you! I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. For some reason Robin Hobbs writing style seems to suit me. As mentioned above it ended a bit abruptly and I felt a bit snuffed by a couple of things that were wrapped up off page. Just a chapter or two to resolve this with me as a reader would probably bump up the score another half a star. I hope to se some of the characters make an appearance in the last Fitz and the Fool Trilogy (I need more Paragon :-D ).

>32 LunaticDruid: I will be interested to see what you think of The Blade Itself when you are finished.

>35 Karlstar: Life got busy there for a minute, but I finally finished The Blade Itself yesterday.



The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, book one of the First Law trilogy.

I learned something of myself reading The Blade Itself. When I read the Red Rising Saga, one of my issues was the use of dismemberment and gore. For some reason, this was not a problem for me in The Blade Itself despite there being some very brutal scenes. That said, I was relieved that most of the torture scenes were carried out off page. Only one scene made me really uncomfortable. (Collum West attacking his sister)

One of the biggest strengths of the book for me was the characters. There are quite a few POVs here, but all characters have so distinct voices that it is easy to keep control even when bouncing between them. How Abercrombie can create such a cast of flawed characters and make you care for each of them is just staggering.

Now, Glokta might have become one of my favorite characters in modern fantasy. I mentioned it earlier, but his introduction might be one of the best I’ve ever read. Seldom do you get such a clear picture of who a character is from one chapter. Every chapter containing Glokta was a highlight.

I struggled to understand Logen Ninefingers at first. He was always spoken of as a fearsome fighter, but I did not get the same sense when he ended up in fights. First, I wondered if this was a case of the legend growing larger than the fact. Then the second to last chapter introduced us to “Bloody Nine”, and it all made sense.

I thought I would dislike the chapters with Jezal, but for some reason I enjoyed them more the further into the book I came. Having Ardee and later Bayaz come into his life and shaking up his entire worldview was like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

The one negative thing I have heard of The Blade Itself is that it has a weak plot. I don’t necessarily agree (or care). There might not be a large overarching plot that gets tied up during this book, but there is so much happening in the background. (And I just feel that Bayaz is somehow manipulating something throughout). I will definitely continue this series.

Next up is The Crow by Alison Croggon. This is the third book of the Books of Pellinor series.

>36 LunaticDruid: I agree with what you said here: "There are quite a few POVs here, but all characters have so distinct voices that it is easy to keep control even when bouncing between them. How Abercrombie can create such a cast of flawed characters and make you care for each of them is just staggering."

He is great at that.

>36 LunaticDruid: I really enjoyed the First Law trilogy, and also Red country. The books definitely fall into the grimdark category but the humour and character development make them so much more than that.