Hot Take Books

About Hot Take Books

🔥 We read Hot Books and give you Hotter Takes. 🔥 Welcome to the show where two friends—Rich and Ryan—dive into the best (and occasionally worst) of sci-fi and fantasy, one book at a time. Every title gets two episodes: a spoiler-free FastTake for the curious and a spoiler-filled deep dive for the chaos lovers. We skip the plot overviews and go straight for the good stuff: World Building & Lore, Characters, and Story—served with unfiltered opinions, spicy takes, and way too much banter. If you like book talk, laughs, passion, and the occasional nerdy meltdown, you're in the right place

Publisher

Hot Take Books by Rich and Ryan

Category

arts

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

28 Jun 2025

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

54 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   12 Oct 2026

   Carl's Doomsday Scenario: Octopi With Twelve Arms

   Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman | Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 2 | LitRPG Is a sitcom ever the best show of all time? Rich doesn't think so. He still says this is the Office of books. Book two picks up the second book one ends, and the politics inside and outside the dungeon start creeping in. Rich likes how much commentary Dinniman sneaks in without ever getting pretentious about it. Ryan loved reading it but isn't sure he liked it as much as book one. His theory is that somebody took one long book and cut it in two. He also has a warning for anyone who has never touched a video game. Rich backs him up after trying to explain constitution at home. The first 15 minutes are spoiler-free, so you can try it before the spoilers hit. Worldbuilding/Lore: 7Characters: Rich 7 / Ryan 8Storyline: 7Overall: 7.2 out of 10 (Rich 7.0 / Ryan 7.3)Verdict: Buy Book: Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman Series: Dungeon Crawler Carl, Book 2 Score: Worldbuilding/Lore 7 / Characters Rich 7, Ryan 8 / Storyline 7 — Overall 7.2 out of 10 (Rich 7.0 / Ryan 7.3) Verdict: Buy [00:00] — Cold open: Big Dow or Big Cat, and a behind-the-curtain double header [00:55] — Intro + socials plug (Instagram, TikTok, Gmail), indie author partnerships, and a maybe-Discord [02:04] — Episode framing: first 10–15 minutes spoiler-free [02:23] — The boys were good not being Dungeon Crawler Carl people. Now they're obsessed [03:55] — "Sometimes I start a sentence and I don't know where it's going" [04:26] — Red Rising vs DCC: our cult is better than your cult [05:23] — Rich's thesis: this is the Office of books [06:14] — Ryan's spoiler-free vibe check: did book one and two used to be one book? [08:18] — You should read this book if… comedy with commentary that isn't pretentious [10:16] — You shouldn't read this book if… Ryan's warning for non-gamers, plus explaining constitution and DPS at home [12:52] — Carl the tank, and a party shake-up [~14:06] — 🚨 Spoiler warning — spoilers start ("Bee wee weo") [14:29] — Worldbuilding & Lore (7): shows inside the show, Carl beating the system like Baldur's Gate 3, the over city as an open-world MMO [18:40] — Breadcrumbs: the courts, the veto, the celestial box, and who the Syndicate really is [20:49] — Ryan's official prediction: the Primals return and the system remakes Carl. Eight-foot octopi with twelve arms (unofficially) [24:05] — Characters (Rich 7 / Ryan 8): compensated anarchist, Donut the childhood actress [27:00] — Carl's backstory nuggets, Grimaldi's circus, and his soft spot for NPCs [28:18] — Donut knows Bea isn't coming back [29:52] — Katia: doppelganger, potential tank, and score-dragger [32:13] — Mordecai steals the show, and does he really want to leave the dungeon? [36:03] — Story (7): picks up on the stairs, the circus story vs the town story, side quests, and Odette as the epilogue [38:11] — Brute-forcing the Mrs. Quill quest, and Fallout vs Baldur's Gate 3 [41:23] — Why Red Rising still wins: knowing what matters right now [43:52] — One-star reviews: the 45-year-old man who hates his wife, girth-and-length equality, and "not a gamer, extremely boring" [50:15] — "If you don't like fun, you probably won't like this book" [51:02] — Wrap-up: Ryan thoroughly loved it TikTok: @hottakebks Instagram: @hottakebooks

2. 

   27 Sept 2026

   Author Interview: Anderson W. Frost

   Indie author Anderson W. Frost joins Rich and Ryan to talk Thorns, Feathers & Bones, his latest gothic romance novella Montclair, and what's coming next in his world of giants, elves, gods, and men. In the spoiler-free first half, Anderson talks about growing up on Star Trek and Star Wars, the book that gave him the writing bug, why he chose to self-publish, and how a story that came to him in a dream became an 8-book plan: four main novels and four novellas. We also get into his take on magic systems, his hatred of exposition, and how Rich and Ryan have secured their own personal easter egg in an upcoming book. After a big spoiler warning we go fully into the books and discuss toxic relationships, vampires, and try to get some clues as to what will be included in the next Novella. Plus: we're giving away a signed copy of Thorns, Feathers & Bones on TikTok. Like the post, follow @HotTakeBooks and @AndersonWFrost, and tag a friend to enter. Want to support indie authors? Leave a review and spread the word. Keep an eye on Anderson's website for a special edition of Montclair.

3. 

   14 Sept 2026

   Demon in White: Less is

   Demon in White by Christopher Ruocchio | Sun Eater, Book 3 | Sci-Fi Everyone says get through book three and you're in. The boys got through book three. Ryan is still annoyed he had to commit to three long-ass books to find out, and Rich isn't, he fell in love with the whole series right here. The first 15 minutes are spoiler-free with the read-or-skip call, so you can sample before the spoilers hit. The boys agree on the one thing that isn't working: the fake-biography narration, where Hadrian narrates Hadrian winking at Hadrian. 🌞 Overall: 7.2 out of 10 (Rich 7.3 / Ryan 7.0) Verdict: Buy Shownotes! [00:00] — Cold open: football's back, and Rich had to beg for a Sunday recording [01:07] — Intro + episode framing (spoiler-free): book three of Sun Eater, and is it Ruocchio or Rocchio? [01:29] — The show's history with the series: Empire of Silence was an early episode, Howling Dark came this year, and the boys' relationship with book one is "controversial" [02:23] — Ryan's gripe: three long-ass books before a series gets good, and the salty TikTok comments about calling it slow [02:53] — Who this episode is for: the should-I-keep-going listener [03:33] — Objective versus subjective — Rich showed up sunburnt and fell in love with the series in this book [03:52] — Ryan spoiler-free: loves the worldbuilding, can't bring himself to care about the characters [05:09] — Two kinds of sci-fi, and the cosmic horror turn this book takes [07:06] — Hadrian has grown up, and what that does to the book-one and book-two complaints [10:40] — Socials plug + 🚨 spoiler warning — spoilers start [11:27] — Worldbuilding & Lore (8 each): what the Quiet actually are [12:07] — Ryan's knock: a mile wide and an inch deep [12:39] — Time as a flat plane, and why Hadrian dodges bullets by moving sideways through probability [14:28] — The Watchers, and what the Cielcin are really looking for [15:34] — Big Dick Bill, Earth's savior, and why the Quiet helped him [16:03] — Full Lovecraft: beings too vast to notice us [17:08] — The Emperor and the politics — Rich talks himself into a 12 and asks if they can cut it [17:25] — Ryan's complaint: the Exalted–Cielcin alliance happened off page [19:12] — Characters (Rich 7 / Ryan 6): the time jumps and development that lands between books [24:37] — Prince Alexander, and a tangent on why a seven is a good score [27:42] — Hadrian correcting Alexander's bigotry, and whether the boys were ever sold on that turn [30:41] — The kneel, the strike, and Alexander hurting his own hand [31:33] — Valka: the marriage argument, her society's view of it, and Rich going Team Celine [33:14] — Tor Gibson is back, and Ryan is 99% sure he wasn't supposed to be [34:21] — Lorian Aristides fills the Switch-shaped hole, and Rich flags him as a future turncoat [35:46] — Bassander Lin flips: the soldier becomes an acolyte of the Half-Mortal [37:04] — Story (7): the fake-biography format still isn't working [38:32] — Ryan: this is five mini books in one, and yes, we know he blew up the sun [39:54] — Hadrian narrating Hadrian winking at Hadrian — "I'm lost" [41:38] — What did work: better pacing, the assassination attempt, the Coliseum, and catching a highmatter blade on the arm from old Thousand Eyes [44:27] — Getting lost in the action, and why Pierce Brown and Sanderson do it better [46:24] — Gritty military moments and Polino telling his commander absolutely not [47:26] — A strong finish, Valka's chimera, and something close to a Sanderlanche [48:07] — Predictions: Ryan wants Hadrian embedded with the Cielcin, Rich wants more Jaddian warriors [49:29] — Rich's note for book four: stop being five genres at once. Less is more. He came up with that himself [50:34] — One-star reviews: cardboard characters, a failed Pierce Brown impression, and the reader whose two-and-a-half-year reading streak this series broke [57:08] — Who should read this book, and who absolutely should not [58:16] — Wrap-up TikTok: @hottakebks Instagram: @hottakebooks

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

4.6 / 5

7 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 16 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

19

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

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Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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