Forgot to mention these two, which I read before starting Cradle.

All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells (15)
This one kept showing up as highly recommended, both for writing and for the audiobook performance. I'd have to say it was another underwhelming adventure - I have not had great luck with scifi this year. Is it bad? Hmm, kind of? Its definitely not great though. A Scifi Pinocchio story about an android ("security robot") who wants to become a real boy. Goes on an adventure, discovers himself in the process, etc. etc. Honestly I couldn't tell you why this gets so much praise. Its a generic setting with a generic premise, a reused plot, and mediocre writing. Oh, and the Audiobook performance was passable but nothing to write home about - the only reason I even brought it up is because it also receives high praise for reasons I fail to see.

The Awakened Kingdom by N K Jemisin (16)
Jemisin is an interesting writer. She can do impressive thing with prose/voice that surpasses many authors. This book was written from the POV of a newly born god growing up into a god in her own right. Its a novella set in a larger series, which I haven't read. On its own, its executed well but ultimately not something I'd recommend. There's enough talent, and an interesting enough world, to maybe suggest checking one of her The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms books, but I'd pass this particular one as an entrypoint to the greater series.

DNF: Beyond Redemption by Michael Fletcher. Got about 60% through it.
I'm having a bad run here. Another mediocre book. Overly grimdark setting that disappears into its own naval. The setting is a world where clinical insanity leads to magical powers, where the stronger the magician the crazier they are. Eventually their own delusions kill them. The characters are plain paper copies of tropes. The worn-out Veteran gone criminal, the heroic 20-something who sleeps with all bar wenches, the dramatic goth assassin/thief. This merry band of protagonists goes on some misadventures, the classic "one last score" for the Veteran trope, that goes predictably awry.

The bad guys are a group of generically evil scientists and egomaniacs abusing the "perception is reality" delusion to create a god.

The vast majority of the book is spent naval gazing. Page after page discussing meaning in a meaningful world, rehashing characters inner thoughts with their inner selves (sometimes physically manifested, but its still just inner selves), usually circling around their own insanity and how to save themselves.

I found the book tiring and depressing, with too much repetition for me to want to finish it.

Cradle series by Will Wight
Ghostwater (11)
Underlord (12)
Uncrowned (13)
Wintersteel (14)

Made it through book 8, and I think I'll probably stop here until the series is finished. It continues to be cheap entertainment. The dialogue is consistently funny, the fights are fun to watch, and the power progression is fun. You're not going to stretch your literary horizons with this series, but as the first 8 books are free on audible, its absolutely worth it.

For posterity:
Q: So it's worth mentioning, in all of this that modern neurscience presumes that the gods do not exist, in your Second Apocalypse saga, the gods are real and sometimes do speak.  Can you provide an overview of how the gods function in a fictional universe where you put so much thought into the inner works of consciousness and philosophy?

A: Yeah, I mean, this is kind of embarrassingly simple ultimately.  The gods are the "Drive," the "heuristic module," the "sub-personal processes" that are constantly underwriting, sometimes undermining, to sometimes making possible, the workspace of conscious, which is the world, which is physical reality in my book.  The whole series is itself analogy, or allegory, for this ancient anthropomorization of the universe and the cosmos only as projected given a modern understanding of the way in which cognition works.  System two, which is reality, system one, which is all the sub-personal processes that are constantly impinging upon System two, with deliberative reality (our conscious experience) and we can crib a term from Lawrence, System Zero, which lies outside of that Inside/Outside.

You're making a very strong argument for me to read Stone Dance of the Chameleon. Sounds very interesting.

Yeah Legend is a fantastic read. I read it within the last few years and was very impressed. Like you said, for a small book it packs a punch. I particularly liked the various aspects of grieving/death that it discusses throughout - what a book!

The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen (2)
It was OK. An interesting magic system wrapped around a less imaginitive cast society with some quasi interesting worldbuilding, wrapped around generic fantasy. I was given the sequel as a gift, but since the books are relatively short I thought I'd just read both. The writing was good, its just that the story is just terribly generic. I still plan on reading the sequel, but I dont expect it to be redeemable enough to upgrade this  series from "pretty good but miss-able" to "must read".

Its called "Fantasy of Manners" and/or "Slice of Life", which are 'sub-genres' or classifications of fantasy wherein little happens - the focus being on the characters/relationships rather than anything actually happening.

I loved JS/MN despite missing much of it in a car ride while it was playing (it put me to sleep). The parts I was awake for were great though, but therein lies the rub lol. In my estimation the JSMN would have been improved by removing half of it. If was was reading a physical copy, I probably would have been skipped 10's of pages at once looking for plot.

I haven't read Piranesi, but it seems that's just Clarke's writing style. As such, I'll probably skip it.

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (1)

Brilliant. This book is as fun to read as it is confusing. There's a myriad of timelines, past and present, a narrator who is mad and terribly unreliable. Shifts in POV writing - First, Second, Third, maybe others but I lack the ability to identify them. Tremendous fun, horribly opaque, and a bizarre ending that holds true to form. Tamysn Muir is for me one of the most satisfying authors I've read recently. Though, that's probably a shame for her because I apparently enjoy commercially unsuccessful things with limited mass appeal.

The Locked Tomb series is a resounding must read. I can't wait for more from Muir.