Antelligent Design by RinoZ
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Evolution! Who doesn't appreciate a total colony transformation now and then? More intelligence? More industry? Endless care to support your colony, at any cost?

What could go wrong?

Nothing! It's perfection! Especially when endless monster hordes are on their way. And hey, even the humans are appreciating the family! Ant-supremacy!

Fun stuff, seriously.

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Upping the Ante by RinoZ
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can't believe how much fun I'm having following the family. Or rather, the colony. Sure, it's more Ants and Friends, or pets, or idiot human worshipers, but it's all great fun. Dungeon delving. Eating. Mutating. PROTECTING THE COLONY.

It actually makes neat sense the way it's set up. Human reborn as an ant actually prefers it this way. And with what we learn, I GET IT.

After all this, I'm wondering if it might not be a bit better to want to be an ant. It's fairly antastic.

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The Antventure Begins by RinoZ
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

All the points for all out running with the ant theme. Born again as a lowly ant? Time to skill and level up as an ant? Mutate? PROTECT YOUR COLONY? Why not?

If you're going to stop being a human and be a monster, may as well roll with it. It works well in politics, why not LitRPGs?

Upgrade those bad optics. Get those feelers out. Hob nob with the nobblins. Own a gorilla pet.

Ok, maybe the last one isn't something politicians do. But you know who has gorillas as pets? Mobsters. So monsters, mobsters, it's all SO damn close, isn't it?

But we all agree that those damn centipedes are going DOWN.



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Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of those novels that are near perfect in every way, hitting its high points and whole purpose effortlessly, and yet gets perfectly creepy that probably says more about my own hang ups than the real purpose of this novel.

It's kinda like SK's IT in that regard.

And yet, aside from that ONE LITTLE DETAIL, or rather, ending plot device, I love the whole book. Perhaps despite it.

What do you give a man who has been alive for thousands of years, is THE bona fide oldest man in the universe? When you have THAT much time, what is worth continuing for?

Love. Of course.

As a SF, it's a wonderful riff on a Thousand and One Nights. A tribute to respect and family and devotion and sex. It's a real harem novel. And a philosophical treatise on par with Thus Spake Zarathustra. And a delicious homesteading novel. And a truly interesting time-travel novel. And it's even a great little riff on J. D. Salinger's crazy brilliant family dynamics.

It's also a great war novel.

And it's also a truly fantastic and detailed primer on genetics and the determination of traits and the specific dangers of inbreeding and longevity research.

But mostly it's about love. Happiness. Sadness. But really it's about learning what makes live worth living.

Heinlein wrote a true magnum opus here. Full stop.

And it's horrible to say that and have to preface it with... but damn it's so creepy there.... lol

Nuts.

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Magic and Bullets by Larry Correia
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Very fun. There's nothing like a true underdog who scraps hard (with cobbled magic) running an almost illicit school of magic with nothing more than guts and spite while trying to pay rent to mobsters squeezing him on squatted, abandoned property.

And trying to survive with all those unwanted student mages while being set up to fail as idiot adventurers under extortion and brigands ready to cut them should they make any mistakes.

Very fun. Classic, even. Fantasy on a lower scale. Really low. Bottom-feeder low.

And yet, it's also full of promise because our hero just won't give up.



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Academy of Outcasts by Larry Correia
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I know this is billed in some circles as a LitRPG, but no. I really think it belongs firmly in the YA fantasy category with some, but not a lot of crossover, of dark academia.

In reality, it's elemental realms complete with asshole mages, slavery by other names, and a bunch of power-jealous peeps that turn everything rather lawless and wild-westy.

It ALSO happens to be a full-buildup of a crafty mage who, while being magically weak, happens to fight really dirty. Mostly just to survive. And because of that, tends to win despite horrible odds.


But later? A very enjoyable fantasy including new, also poor, friends, a hunger to learn and survive in the big city, and some other dirty tricks that may--or may not--help them survive the books to come.

I loved it.

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Vainglory 3: A LitRPG Adventure by Plum Parrot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The wild west LitRPG moves on to the big city, or rather, a whole other world. Wolfing it up, speaking words of power, and generally getting attacked everywhere they go.

Fun stuff. I'm always pretty pleased with the stories and characters of Plum Parrot. Good enough that I generally pick up anything by them and almost always have a good time. And this is no different.

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