Introduction & Welcome Thread

[Dara]

We're very impressive people, Paul. It's not just Rob. :-)

[Paul]

Hello Mark and Hello Dara
You are very impressive people, who provide superb welcomes and perform the role of hosts very well.
I wouldn't be surprised to find a link to a buffet attached! That is how well you perform your role.
Lovely to meet you all.

[Laurel]

Hi All, I'm Laurel and I've joined cos I saw you were reading Firefight. But a lot of your past and upcoming reads look like things I have either already enjoyed or would really like so hopefully I'll fit right in ;)

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Hi Laurel, welcome. Yeah we started off with just random books (and we still do that), but we also seem to be reading a lot of series now, and tend to schedule reads for their release dates.

So since we did Steelheart in 2013, we are doing Firefight now, and I'm sure we'll do Calamity when that is out as well.

[Alexa]

Hello Laurel! Welcome to our little corner of the world, if you like to read fantasy then you'll surely fit right in :D

[Laurel]

Thanks guys!

I've got The Emperor's Blades and Promise of Blood on my kindle so I'll join you guys for those series as well once I catch up!

[Sky]

Great! We are reading book 2 of emperor's blades starting on the 13th, so now would be a great time to read book one :)

[Laurel]

Yeah, I'm gonna try and catch up!

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

We do a bit of Sci-Fi too..but we are pretty heavily skewed towards fantasy. Probably my fault as those are what my tendencies seem to be as well.

[Laurel]

I'm very much the same Rob, although I do like a bit of Sci-fi every now and then and any recommendations are always welcome ;) I started reading the first book of James Corey's Expanse series which you all seem to be following but life things happened and I didn't get more than a couple of chapters in. I'll have a peek at any non-spoilerish threads for it and see what you guys all thought.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

I really loved the expanse books. I'm not sure about non spoiler threads, but I try very hard to keep all my reviews spoiler free, even with sequels (ie no spoilers of book 1 in my review of book 2).

I have reviews of all 4 novels, that should hopefully sum up my feelings of those: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

[Kat]

Hello Laurel *offers a cookie*

[Laurel]

oooh cookies! Thanks Kat :)

[Justine]

Hello….I'm Justine. I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, but I'm always looking for something new of course. I haven't been in a group before so this is a new experience for me. I tend to be more of a reader rather than a commenter actually - any review I post on Goodreads rarely exceeds two sentences and is mostly to remind myself what I liked or disliked about a particular book. My most recent reads were City of Stairs, Golden Son, The Goblin Emperor, and Wool. I'm currently reading Shift.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Welcome Justine! Our group is probably a bit different from most out there. We're pretty small, so you won't be an anonymous person if decide to participate in the group discussions.

We did City of Stairs as a group last year, and even got Mr. Bennett to come and answer a few questions. It was a lot of fun.

Wool was one of my favorites of 2013. I don't think Shift or Dust are quite as good, but they are still enjoyable, and did a nice job of answering the questions I had at the end of Wool.

We have a bunch of upcoming reads scheduled, so checkout the bookshelf and see if any of them strike your fancy.

If not, there is always the Suggest A book thread and you can see if there is interest in reading something on your TBR later this year.

And if nothing else, our What Else Are You Reading thread is always pretty active to share what you're reading on your own.

[Scott]

Welcome welcome!

[Kat]

Hi Justine :)

[Justine]

Thanks Rob, and hi Scott and Kat! I had already checked out the bookshelf and saw that some of the upcoming books matched my own upcoming to-reads (it wasn't totally random you see :) ) You looked like quite a welcoming group too. :)

[Sky]

Welcome! Who has the cookie jar?

[Laurel]

sorry I've got it (they're so yummy!) - welcome Justine, have a cookie ;)

[Dara]

I have pizza if you'd prefer that, Justine.

[Mark]

Hi Justine and to all the newbies I have missed.

[Justine]

I like pizza and cookies actually, so thanks! :)

[Kat]

*claims back the cookie jar*

[Caitlin]

Hello, I just joined. My name's Caitlin and I tend to read a lot of fantasy and graphic novels but will probably add some sci-fi in there too. A couple of the books on the group's bookshelf were ones I already have on my to-read list so I'm looking forward to reading and talking about them. :)

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Welcome Caitlin. Glad you found us. Which books that we're planning to read grabbed your interest?

[Scott]

Welcome to the jungle... er, wait, I mean the group!

[Caitlin]

Rob wrote: "Welcome Caitlin. Glad you found us. Which books that we're planning to read grabbed your interest?"

Thanks! I've been meaning to read Gardens of the Moon for awhile and I'm a huge Abercrombie fan so I'm very excited for Half the World.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Cool. Malazan is a great series, but a lot of work. Best to read it with a group I think.

[Caitlin]

Rob wrote: "Cool. Malazan is a great series, but a lot of work. Best to read it with a group I think."

That's what I've heard. It's honestly what's kept me from getting to it until now. I haven't done a whole lot of buddy reads or discussion reads so this should be fun.

[Caitlin]

Scott wrote: "Welcome to the jungle... er, wait, I mean the group!"

Thanks! :P

[Mark]

Welcome Caitlin

[Laurel]

Welcome Caitlin!

[Justine]

Welcome! :)

[Kat]

Hello Caitlin!

[Juliana]

Hi there. I'm Juliana...actually I'm Justine's sister. I've joined the group because I have read alot of the books you have posted. Also, I'm going to do the BoF read...reread, as it is my favorite series. Looking forward to revisiting it!

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Hi Juliana. Welcome!

[Justine]

Hi Juliana! :)

[Justine]

Juliana wrote: "Hi there. I'm Juliana...actually I'm Justine's sister. I've joined the group because I have read alot of the books you have posted. Also, I'm going to do the BoF read...reread, as it is my favor..."

You need to update your photo…your current one doesn't show the family resemblance. :)

[Kat]

Welcome Juliana :)

[Mark]

hello and welcome Juliana

[Scott]

Hola!

[Laurel]

Hi!

[Robyn]

Hello! Just joined, after following a trail of breadcrumbs from Sword & Laser. I'm Robyn, and I'm a book-aholic. I've got too many things on my TBR, and I'm hoping that this group will help me knock a few off. (That being said, I'll probably just find more things I want to read.)

Ready to jump in with The Autumn Republic - just need to finish reading The Emperor's Blades (which I see was a past read of the group's).

[Scott]

Welcome Robyn!

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Hi Robyn, welcome. Yeah, this group will only add to your list most likely, or at the very least encourage you to read more stuff when it comes out, as that's become a large part of our reading it seems.

Don't be shy about jumping in on the Emperor's Blades discussion if you're so inclined too.

[Robyn]

Thank you! I have a bad habit of starting series and then not finishing them (even when I like them!) so I think that this group will certainly help with that. I'll look up the old discussion for The Emperor's Blades - I'm really enjoying this one, more than I thought I would.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Yeah, it was a pleasant surprise for me last year. I largely got it because Simon Vance does the narration.

I can't wait for my copy of the sequel to arrive.

[Geoff]

Rob wrote: "Yeah, it was a pleasant surprise for me last year. I largely got it because Simon Vance does the narration.

I can't wait for my copy of the sequel to arrive."

Still waiting for that, eh?

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Yup. And a few others. The downside of review copies when they aren't digital..