Home » Forum » Story Discussion and Feedback

Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

What are you currently reading?

GmFoGmD 🚫

Other forums I am a part of (admittedly not writing or story sites) have something like this so I figured it'd be worth trying here.

If you're currently WIP reading something that you think is cool or interesting, talk about it here for others to see - it may pique their interest :)

I'll start:

Currently I'm reading Nanites by Mary Kay. It is perhaps a little too in-depth with the every day detail but otherwise I'm invested at about 60% done and I'm looking forward to see where the story goes.

Replies: Finn Sinclair garymrssn rustyken LonelyDad jimq2 ystokes GmFoGmD Switch Blayde madnige whisperclaw Finbar_Saunders TheDarkKnight

Finn Sinclair 🚫

@GmFoGmD

I'm about halfway through Bruce Springsteen's autobiography, "Born to Run." Damn, this man can write sentences that spin off the page like a twister; he is a master of poetic prose. He is also a good storyteller, but if you've listened to his music, you already know that fact.

garymrssn 🚫

@GmFoGmD

I just finished the last chapter of book 1 of Zues and Io by Harry Carton. I book marked chapter 1 of book 2 and will start on it in the morning. This is my second reading of this Sci/Fi thriller. Harry Carton is a good story teller and action and pacing are just like I like em. I'll keep it on my read again list.

https://storiesonline.net/s/71644/zeus-and-io-books-1-and-2

rustyken 🚫

@GmFoGmD

I just finished reading the Family Law series for the at least the 4th. Great series as is the April series.

Replies: GmFoGmD

GmFoGmD 🚫

@rustyken

Who's the author for these series? I'm not having much luck searching the titles.

Replies: Tocayo

Tocayo 🚫

@GmFoGmD

Mackey Chandler- it's over on the river KU. I found them very good as well, and read the recent release last week

LonelyDad 🚫

@GmFoGmD

I have just basically rereading some of the stories I've saved to my own system.

I haven't really found any stories currently being posted that attracted my attention.

In defense of our new authors I am at the age where it is more comforting to reread stories I have enjoyed and saved rather than follow new stories - not putting down the new authors it's just that at 72 I am more comfortble reading complete stories I have saved than do the wait for the next instalment of a new story.

Replies: GmFoGmD

GmFoGmD 🚫

@LonelyDad

I won't pick something up until it's 100% finished either, but that's just because I've been burned before lol

jimq2 🚫

@GmFoGmD

I'm currently in the process of rereading everything from: Jody Daniel, cmsix, and oyster50. Each on a separate device.

Replies: GmFoGmD

GmFoGmD 🚫

@jimq2

Oyster50 stuff looks great (not that others dont), what would you recommend to start with?

Replies: MarissaHorne LonelyDad helmut_meukel

MarissaHorne 🚫

@GmFoGmD

With the Smart Girls, start with Cindy, then Christina and Nikki. After those three, read Community and sequels. As other people get introduced, read their stories.

Outside that universe, pick around. I like Road Rash.

LonelyDad 🚫

@GmFoGmD

You can start anywhere - There a set of Oyster 50's stories ]The Smart Girls|that need to be read in sequence since they built in one another.

helmut_meukel 🚫

@GmFoGmD

Oyster50's Smart Girls stories are quite interwoven.

For my own use I compiled an "Events and Timeline Correlations" text file with book and chapter reference to key events (in most cases less than one line).

Because of its spoiler content I won't post it here, but it may be used as reference if you get lost in the stories.
If anyone wants a copy, mail me and I'll send it to your SOL mail account.

This list is still a WIP, it covers the main story-arc, but lacks details for the sideline stories and the second story-arc around 3Sigma West. I have to reread the six 3Sigma West stories to add timeline and key event references.

HM.

ystokes 🚫

@GmFoGmD

I have been rereading a bunch of Fantasy lover's stories.

Replies: GmFoGmD

GmFoGmD 🚫

@ystokes

Some of their work looks great. I'll try some in the future. Thanks.

GmFoGmD 🚫

@GmFoGmD

So I finished Nanites by Mary Kay a few days ago and left a comment of my thoughts on the story.

Did anyone else here read it and enjoy it? I had some criticisms around its length but generally it was a great story.

I'm wondering if anyone knows anything about a sequel. There were rumblings of it mentioned in the story's comments but there's not been anything tangible that I can source.

Switch Blayde 🚫

@GmFoGmD

"Doing it All Over" by Al Steiner. I'm only on Chapter 3, but I like it so far.

It's a really long story so I'll wait and see if I get bored with it. Too often a long story starts strong and then gets boring.

Replies: GmFoGmD John Demille

GmFoGmD 🚫

@Switch Blayde

"Doing it All Over" by Al Steiner - this seems to be one of the SOL greats. I'll have to give it a go.

Do let me know if you "DNF" it for any reason :)

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@GmFoGmD

Do let me know if you "DNF" it for any reason :)

I finished it.

I must have read it before or at least started it. I didn't remember the story, but when I read certain scenes I remembered them. But toward the end, I didn't recall any scene.

I recommend it.

Replies: GmFoGmD

GmFoGmD 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Excellent, thank you! I'll add it to the list.

John Demille 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Too often a long story starts strong and then gets boring.

It doesn't get boring. One of my favourites.

madnige 🚫
Updated:

@GmFoGmD

Nanites by Mary Kay

Me too - about 40% so far. Enjoyable despite a few errors, including one egregious one which doesn't affect the story but is technically wrong (a signal along a wire surrounded by just about any reasonable material will have a propagation speed only 60-70% of the quoted free-space speed of light). Still. very few people would notice this, and many more (probably most) would consider the correct value to be an error.

9/11/2026, 9:03:06 PM submitted this post (reference for those not on BST)
2026-09-12Sa23-15 Fin; about to embark on a read of Mike and the Energists
23:45 abandoned as too tedious a read
23:50 (reread) English Jim and the Baltimore Rose
2026-09-14Mo00-20 approx: Fin, yes it took longer to read something about a third the size, but I wasn't able to spend as much of the day reading; next, inspired by the first chapter (a scene in the charge of the light brigade), dead-tree George McDonald Fraser's Flashman at the Charge which also starts at Balaclava, taking the MC through the charge of the heavy brigade, the thin red line, and the charge of the light brigade - when I can dig it out of wherever I've packed of away.

Replies: GmFoGmD

GmFoGmD 🚫

@madnige

Jesus, you went from 40% to finished with Nanites in a day? Am I reading that correctly? It took me like six weeks to finish it! lol

Replies: madnige

madnige 🚫
Updated:

@GmFoGmD

Jesus, you went from 40% to finished with Nanites in a day?

Yeah, I started it after midnight and finished it before, so the whole thing in under a day, including time spent sleeping, cooking and eating, and reading the forum and news. I must admit to having skimmed about half of the sex scenes, just deep enough to be sure I wasn't missing any plot, but I do read pretty quickly - and not 'speed reading'. Hoping for a sequel, as there are a couple of ways it could develop.

ETA: What I found worst about Nanites was that it was a single chapter of >2MB, so if I stepped out of the story to do a lookup search on something (e.g., what does that named car look like? What was the previous car that was mentioned?), it could be difficult to get back to my 'you are here' point; particularly annoying as for most of the story there are obvious chapter break points. Solved by keeping a scrap text file open and occasionally copy-pasting a line of text from story to file giving something that could be searched for to get to the right region.

whisperclaw 🚫

@GmFoGmD

On here, I'm hooked on The World of Warmachines series. It's posting daily. Part 1 wasn't particularly gripping, but parts 2 and 3 have been page turners.

Dead tree/Kindle I'm reading The Hanged Man by P.N. Elrod. It's a very well written supernatural mystery set in an alternate-history Victorian era.

I've also enjoyed the hell out of the Warlock series on the Kindle. Imagine if Harry Potter started out at 18 before being thrown into witch college, and he had to "bond" with a witch to build a coven so they can reach their full power. It's very well written, with 4 books so far.

Finbar_Saunders 🚫

@GmFoGmD

I'm currently enjoying "Amantus" by QM.

Also, coincidentally of a somewhat similar setup, I'm reading Lumpy's "Innes in Charge"

I too find it difficult to find new "gems" in the feed. Tittilating as some story themes can be as part of larger tales, I'm put off by the sheer number of incest based stories likewise those with BDSM as their main theme.

Long form serials that I look for on their schedules include "A Dragon's Tale" and "Love of Money II." Both of them skirt the edges of my desire to see some sort of resolution. Of the two, I'm enjoying ADT a little more that LOM.

"Variation on a Theme" is sort of like a rambling old friend. I keep waiting for at least an explosion lol.

I want the comfort of familiarity so I regularly go to authors I have enjoyed before.
Al Steiner (ooh, I forgot about his latest two at the moment. Both great)
Todd72 and Stangstar06.

I second the enjoyment of "Nanites" by Mary K. A story that really deserves a sequel. I finished my third re-read a few weeks ago.

With all the shenanigans going on in the Whitehouse, I re-read "Evolutionist" by Ficksuck. A really nice gritty tale.

Those are on my top-of-the-head list

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫
Updated:

@Finbar_Saunders

I'm currently enjoying "Amantus" by QM.

Also, coincidentally of a somewhat similar setup, I'm reading Lumpy's "Innes in Charge"

Quite a joy having two such stories active at the same time. Despite the similar premise, the authors' different writing styles make the stories very different. I hope they run and run.

BTW, it's "Innes in Command".

AJ

Replies: Finbar_Saunders

Finbar_Saunders 🚫

@awnlee jawking

BTW, it's "Innes in Command".

FFS! of course it is!
I shall retire to my study and think about what I've done

TheDarkKnight 🚫

@GmFoGmD

Confession time. I rarely read anything here anymore. It has nothing to do with the content. It just seems like every time I log onto SOL, the imp in my brain yells, "YOU SHOULD BE WRITING SOMETHING!"

I know that reading stories by the good authors here might make me a better writer, but I just find it hard to do.

I read a lot, just not here.

Replies: GmFoGmD whisperclaw

GmFoGmD 🚫

@TheDarkKnight

Yeah, I can understand that!

On top of that I find it difficult to balance reading SOL stories over the mountain of books piling up next to my sofa :D

whisperclaw 🚫

@TheDarkKnight

Writer's Guilt is real.

Reply to topic

Home | Forum | All Threads by Date

Forum Rules |

Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

What are you currently reading?

WARNING! ADULT CONTENT...