Dragonsteel Picks: What We Are Reading This Summer

Team Dragonsteel loves books. We love talking about what we are reading, with every lunch break, visit to the water cooler, or convention appearance punctuated by conversations about beloved authors and brand-new books. While we are as eager as you are for every book Brandon writes, we do, in fact, read books by other authors. School is almost out and summer is knocking down the door—here’s what we’re reading this month.

Brandon Sanderson

Brandon has been enjoying Andy Serkis’s narrations of The Lord of the Rings, Jade City by Fonda Lee, and a reread of Red Rising by Pierce Brown.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Brandon is giving the J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature this year at Pembroke, which brought him back to Middle-earth. He highly recommends the audiobooks read by Andy Serkis, whose narrations of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion are excellent. If you haven’t revisited Middle-earth in a while, Serkis’s recordings are a great way to enjoy this fantasy classic. The whole series is full of moments of friendship and sacrifice in a darkening world. If anything can change the world, fantasy stories about bravery, duty, and loyalty can.

The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee

He also just read Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga, a magic-infused crime series set in a jade-fuelled fantasy megacity. The series starts with Jade City, a Godfather-for-fantasy-readers tale of clan loyalty, succession, and the brutal cost of power in a world where magical jade is both birthright and weapon. If you’ve already enjoyed these or other books by Lee, consider The Last Contract of Isako, a cyberpunk, sci-fi samurai story and Fonda Lee’s latest release. I’m working my way through Jade City right now, with Isako’s story sitting near the top of my TBR.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

For Brandon’s final pick this month, he is rereading Red Rising, “now that [he’s] hanging out with  Pierce Brown.” Red Rising is Pierce Brown’s sci-fi dystopian series, starting with the eponymous Red Rising. The book follows Darrow, a lowRed miner in a colony on Mars. His people, and the other colored-coded castes, are slaves to the Golds, whose empire stretches its grasp across the solar system. Darrow is the spark that ignites rebellion, and becomes a leader for the oppressed who go to war for their freedom. Originally released in 2015, Red Rising is beloved for a reason, and is followed by two direct sequels and an entire sequel tetralogy exploring the cost of war, class struggle, and identity. Pierce Brown’s space opera is slick and stylish, drawing on inspirations such as Greek mythology, the Roman Empire, and classic tales of rebellion and revenge like Dune and The Count of Monte Cristo. If you haven’t read it yet, definitely check this one out. Hail Reaper!

Emily Sanderson

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

This 2022 novel was Van Pelt’s debut, and is well beloved around the office. For a while, one of our editors brought her giant, crocheted octopus, called Marcellus, to Dragonsteel HQ. Emily definitely recommends this story about friendship and family: “The novel’s voice being a giant Pacific octopus sounds weird, but [Shelby Van Pelt] made him sympathetic despite his alienness.”
There is even a Netflix movie adaptation coming soon, starring Sally Field and Lewis Pullman as the aquarium staff and Alfred Molina voicing Marcellus, the octopod narrator.

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

Montgomery is well beloved for Anne of Green Gables, and The Blue Castle, though written for an adult audience, brings a lot of the same charm and personality that made us all fall in love with Anne. The story follows Valancy Stirling, an unmarried twenty-nine-year-old woman (*gasp!*) who is diagnosed with a fatal heart condition. With only a year to live, she is spurred to action and leaves her judgmental family before spending her last year in service of others and in pursuit of true love.

The Motor Maid by A.M. and C.N. Williamson

This motor travel romance is the oldest recommendation on our list today, originally released over 110 years ago. The authors lived through the growing motorsport era, which lent an attitude and expertise to the story that Emily loved. The story follows Lys as she travels for a new job as a “lady’s companion,” but her employer passes away before she arrives. Stranded and down on her luck, she relies on her grit and creativity as she makes her way home, finding adventure and romance along the way.

Dan Wells

Werewolf: The Apocalypse — The Book of Hungry Names by Kyle Marquis

Hunter: The Reckoning — The Beast of Glenkildove by William Brown

Vampire: The Masquerade — Night Road by Kyle Marquis

These books are interactive novels set in the World of Darkness, a modern urban fantasy landscape with ancient vampire clans, packs of werewolves, and monster hunters standing between them and the defenseless people of the world. Interactive novels are like choose-your-own-adventure books, but the computer tracks your choices, stats, achievements, and more. Dan has been pitching them for a while, enjoying both the interactive element and the monstrous, macabre vibes characteristic of the tabletop game Vampire: The Masquerade. He is impressed by the word counts, with The Book Of Hungry Names boasting over 1.6 million.

Night Road in particular appeals to me, with the reader taking on the role of a vampire courier and wrestling with the thirst for blood on a deadly road trip through the American southwest.

Matt Hatch

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

Matt started this off-the-wall LitRPG over the Christmas holidays, and he has already caught up with the series. And while weird and wacky certainly describe the world and characters of Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman’s LitRPG has become the biggest name in the genre because of the characters as much as the eccentricity. Carl and Donut and their many misadventures tell a vulnerable story about making the best of a miserable situation. Book 8 in the series comes out next month, promising more intergalactic corporate warfare, dungeon crawling action, and the trademark Matt Dinniman irreverence that has helped make Dungeon Crawler Carl a standout not only as a LitRPG, but as pioneering fiction in general.

Another huge part of the series’s success is the audiobooks, narrated by Jeff Hays. Jeff’s voice and production talents bring the twisted reality of the dungeon to life in a vivid and surreal way. The voice of the dungeon AI is cemented in my memory, with the obnoxious sounds of “New Achievement!” triggering the same reaction in me that I know they do for Carl.

While you wait for A Parade of Horribles, consider Operation Bounce House, Dinniman’s 2026 science fiction novel about farmers resisting an army of mechs piloted by bored gamers on Earth. I’ve been listening to this one for about a week, and the trademark Dinniman cheek is all here, overlaying a story about survival, family, and fighting giant killer robots piloted by the worst of Xbox Live.

Check out our articles on Matt Dinniman and the wide world of LitRPGs for more reading like this.

Adam Horne

The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

Like Brandon, Adam has also been rereading The Lord of the Rings. While he can’t convince his son to let him read The Hobbit with bedtime story flair, he’s loved the Andy Serkis recordings as well—imagine storytime ending with “Dad, you don’t have to do the voices.” (I can still remember my dad reading off the names of the dwarves arriving at Bag End, delighting a much younger me with each new cast member.)

Adam used to skip the Tom Bombadil sections, but Serkis has helped him turn a new leaf with the jolly bard’s sense of rhythm and melody making the odd fellow a little more bearable. Maybe Adam can take a few notes from Serkis’s performance and his son will warm up to Middle-earth. Not all who wander are lost, and not all kids know what they’re missing out on.

Kristy Gilbert

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

This is a fantasy romance novel whose characters cross time to be together. I haven’t read this one yet, but I’m really excited to read it with my wife. Tayan, my co-author here on the Cognitive Realm, also just finished this one, and gave it a glowing recommendation.

“Lady knights are having a moment in fantasy right now, and I’m completely here for it (also loved The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig). The Everlasting manages to feel fresh within that wave while hitting something warm and nostalgic—kind of cozy, even—for me.”

The Score by C. Thi Nguyen

Kristy’s other pick this month is The Score by C. Thi Nguyen, a nonfiction title about the psychology of scoring, metrics, and the way games and societal measures affect our choices and attitudes. The question at the heart of the book is “What game do you want to play?” Fans of Brandon’s work, especially The Stormlight Archive, will enjoy Nguyen’s philosophies of finding beauty in processes and the idea of the journey being as important as the destination.

Conclusion

There you go! We’ve got our bags packed for London, and these are some of the books that made the cut. While we’re there, we’re sure to hear about some of your favorite books, and books from some of our favorite authors are releasing as soon as this week. Keep your eyes out for the next round of Dragonsteel Picks coming soon.