Books

The author is a good writer and has great character moments. Someone else mentioned it picking up at book 5, I would say earlier around the middle of book 3. And honestly they aren’t bad from the first book, the author was just new and so it is just immature writing, cliche heavy, etc… but the story’s are good. And if you are an audio book person, the reader is actor James Marsters, and he does a really good job.

He also has another completed series that is fun called Furies of Calderon that grew out of a bet about what makes a good story, that pitted good writing vs novel idea.

The Dresden Files are good and captivating and easy to read. I just read 12 of them in a row. It takes some time but the story really hits a stride in book 5ish, though they're short and finish quickly. The magic becomes interesting, the world feels real and the monsters dangerous but familiar, there's some faith and family aspects that are quaint and Harry is a character who is fun to ride along with and watch do his thing, recommended but I can understand that it might not be everyone's cup of tea also.

Chrysalis by RinoZ is fantastic. Isekai but the MC is reincarnated as a giant ant.

Grimnoir trilogy by Larry Correia. Alternate history where humanity begins developing individual magical talents in the 1800s. Takes place late 1930s.

Murderbot diaries. Has live action adaptation in progress on some streaming service. Main character is an artificial biological/machine construct. It is not, in fact, a murderous machine. Unless you threaten its humans.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. Murder mystery in with an eldritch horror twist. I've enjoyed this book and the sequel more than anything else I've read in the past few years.