Reading Roundup: July 2026

July was a slower book month. I’ve had a great time reading PKD, but because I am really trying to pay attention to them to do a closer reading, they are taking me longer to get through, despite being quite short books. The DDC books have been getting longer and longer, which jammed me up in the audiobook department, until I decided to give up on them.

3 books – 2 audio and 1 ebook, one swift DNF!

This was aprox. 313 pages and 41.5 hours (of finished books).

The Gate of the Feral Gods (Dungeon Crawler Carl #4) by Matt Dinniman ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was still mostly enjoying this series at this point, which is how I gave it 4 stars (for entertainment value), but since then my novelty goggles fell, and now I feel ashamed of my past self for giving these books such a high rating… this is what happens when I read a long series. Eventually it gets repetitive and stops being fun or interesting, and then I am left unable to ignore the flaws (how repetitive it is!) until I get irritated with it.

Dr. Bloodmoney, Or How We Got Along After the Bomb by Philip K. Dick ⭐⭐⭐⭐

My patience running out with Matt Dinniman may not have been helped by my simultaneous reading of a science-fiction master (PKD would have written the shit out of DDC and in 1/4 the words). I am a Dickhead. I love Dick.

Even for Dick, this one is weird… wackiness and memorable characters make up for its slow pacing and disinterest in plot.

The Butcher’s Masquerade (Dungeon Crawler Carl #5) by Matt Dinniman ⭐⭐

Sorry DDC fans, but this was where I snapped. This did not change my mind that books shouldn’t be longer than 500 pages; maybe if Dinniman had edited this and not added another 200 pages to the length, it might have helped? At this point in the series, I’m finding it repetitive and chaotic; there is too much going on, and it’s exhausting, and it’s never going to give me what I want.

Saying all that, I might have to read book 6 unless I can get Audible support to give me a refund (Past Alice forgot she has a poor track record with both series, and sloppily written niche genre books, overenthusiastically bought all the books).

I also tried the audiobook for I Loved You In Another Life by David Arnold, and got about 30 minutes in before I had to drop it. That was my mistake. I had failed to realise it was YA with teenage characters; it was too thick with the angst coupled with a writing style I don’t enjoy and both narrators having insane vocal fry… I was getting strong Addie La Rue vibes, not for me. Also, I had definitely got celebrated British author David Almond (Skellig, Mr Name is Mina etc) confused for David Arnold!

Marvel Unlimited: Ms Marvel (2006) and The Mighty Avengers (2007)

I finished rereading the whole Brian Reed’s Carol Danvers Ms Marvel series from 2006. This was, I think, the first series I ever read when I originally had Marvel Unlimited, and thanks to my terrible memory I had forgotten most of it, so it was like reading it again for the first time. Since I’ve had more of a voyage through the MU with Claremont’s X-Men, which often featured Carol and includes her gaining the Binary powers (and who The Brood are), and having re-read The New Avengers in the last couple of years, I had a better idea of what was going on and who the characters were, especially as half this series drops into Dark Reign with no explanation and the title of Ms Marvel is taken over by Karla Sofen (Moonstone).

I really enjoy this series because it focuses on Carol as a character and her internal, personal struggles over her own identity and what being a superhero means for her. I really like that she is a character with a lot of history in comics, even if that history is uneven and insanely traumatic (see Rogue, and infamous Avengers #200 (great reddit thread on that which reminds me I need to find Avengers Annual Vol 1 #10 for when Carol chews out the Avengers).

I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Carol, so I’m about halfway through The Mighty Avengers, which I think happens sort of in the middle of the Ms Marvel series because it’s setting up into the Secret Invasion event (and Secret Invasion leads into Dark Reign). I am enjoying that; it’s an interesting mix on this team – Ms Marvel, Powerman, The Wasp, Ares, The Sentry, Black Widow and Iron Man. It’s also written by Brian Michael Bendis, who is one of my favourites because he’s so good with characters.

Currently Reading

I just finished re-reading Ubik by Philip K Dick, which is incredible (and thanks to taking a lot of notes, I think I do understand what’s going on this time!) and have started Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, which is another PKD.

I am listening to Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast #1) on audio, which is also amazing (and felt like a warm bath for my brain after DDC), and I’ve also got really excited about it, and keep trying to talk to people about it… and nobody is interested. I also know I will be re-reading it in eBook format at some point so I can really study it and make all the notes.

Adding to TBR

I am counting July as no book buying because while I did technically succumb to a 2 for 1 Audible deal (this is how I got Titus Groan… and Jurassic Park!) I also returned 2 books (DDC 7 & 8)… so it’s fine. I’m up 1 credit, actually and have the same number of books.

I’m also reconsidering if I want to count audiobooks in my no-book-buying month challenge because really it’s eBooks I have a problem with… those I have… a lot of… in my backlog. I only have a few audiobooks I’ve not read.