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message 5501:
by
Nirkatze
(new)
Dec 10, 2023 03:37PM
I am probably the only person left on the planet who is actively avoiding getting a smartphone. I do have an ipod, but I pretty much only use it for audiobooks and music... I have a million GR tabs open on my computer though, regular browser.
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I use the browser on my laptop mostly and on my phone I also use the desktop version in the browser, unless I'm just having a quick look at something, then I'll use the app.
I use the app to check random things but I post from my laptop, it is just too much of a hassle to try to post on the app and it sucks you can't see spoilers.
Thanks guys. Guess I just need to suck it up and use my laptop more. Problem is the family has kind of stolen it for themselves so it’s so hard to get a hold of. I might just steal my son’s old forgotten Chromebook. This is how desperate I am to be part of chats again lol
>.< Goodreads needs to hire someone to do their app properly, stinkers...
Diana Stormblessed wrote: "Thanks guys. Guess I just need to suck it up and use my laptop more. Problem is the family has kind of stolen it for themselves so it’s so hard to get a hold of. I might just steal my son’s old for..."Why not use browser to log in on smartphone or tablet?
Yeah, we only have one family computer and my husband and son do gaming so it’s impossible to time on that. If I don’t do it on my phone, it wouldn’t happen.
Soo- I mainly use browser on my smartphone, but it still doesn’t have the full capabilities that a pc browser has. Like I can’t respond to comments, which is annoying.
Yikes, that is really annoying... both @Diana & @Felina...
Diana Stormblessed wrote: "Soo- I mainly use browser on my smartphone, but it still doesn’t have the full capabilities that a pc browser has. Like I can’t respond to comments, which is annoying."Desktop mode on smartphone & you will have full capabilities as a browser on PC.
I've been using Brave browser on mobiles for years now. Very easy to use. Simple interface to pick Desktop Mode as default for browser in settings or to turn on via browser menu.
Yes if I'm not at work with it in the background on my work desktop I like a lot of people have said use the desktop version on my phone browser. Apart from needing to occasionally zoom in so that I can click a link accurately I find it no more inconvenient to use it on my phone that on my computer. I uninstalled the app in about 2017 since it never did half the things I needed it to and considering I only joined Goodreads at the end of 2016 it didn't last long :-) .
Yeah I use the app for quick book look ups too. For any type of discussion I use the browser version on Chrome on btoh laptop and mobile.
Soo wrote: "Diana Stormblessed wrote: "Soo- I mainly use browser on my smartphone, but it still doesn’t have the full capabilities that a pc browser has. Like I can’t respond to comments, which is annoying."..."
I use desktop on smartphone and don't have full pc capabilities. Maybe it's the type of phone? But I tried off chrome and safari and nope.
Diana Stormblessed wrote: "Soo wrote: "Diana Stormblessed wrote: "Soo- I mainly use browser on my smartphone, but it still doesn’t have the full capabilities that a pc browser has. Like I can’t respond to comments, which is ..."Give Brave, Opera or Firefox browser apps a try.
Chrome should work fine.
I've been logging in with browser Desktop mode for years on mobile/tablet and haven't had a problem.
I'll download Brave. Never heard of it before but I'll give it a shot. I have firefox but it often crashes on me so i stopped using it. Maybe I'll use it just for goodreads purposes.
Mod
On PC, I like Firefox and Opera. I've been using Brave on mobile for years. 5-6 years now.
I use Duck Duck Go too, and it works fine on my phone.
I use firefox on my phone and the Goodreads web page loads the desktop version on that fine with the same capabilities as if I were on my PC
On Firefox now. Yay! Looks like desktop version actually lets me respond to comments. We have a winner!
Mod
Timelord Iain wrote: "Grats... I didn't realize you literally couldn't comment... gotta love incompatibilities..."I could comment but not reply directly to other’s comments or click on spoilers. Was very frustrating. Sorry I took up so much space on the chat with this but thanks all for the suggestions of work arounds!
Soo wrote: "Yay for a fix! 😄"Ditto this! Huzzah for crowdsourced troubleshooting!
Lookie! First Contact: Eclipsed Evolution: Phase 1 by Kim Harrison. Audiobook is a little over 5hrs. Guessing print page count will be around 200. It will be different to read a SciFi by Kim Harrison.
Ooh I didn't even know this was in the works!
Ooh! I love reading SF incursions by non-SF authors! Actually, I just love SF in general.
Mod
I read the prequal short story in that series and it was okay but I didn't love it
Mod
I have a problem with dramatic irony (I also have a problem with the term dramatic irony... I only know what it means thanks to google/dictionary... when the reader knows more than the main character, causing ironic situations... so I'm not 100% sure I'm using it right, half the time)...
ANYWAY... I wanted to read Drafter because timey-wimey... but because of the way the timey-wimey stuff works in Drafter, the MC is constantly losing small/medium chunks of her memory... which wouldn't be too bad, except she's being taken advantage of by a dirty handler, that is feeding her false memories, I think, she gets framed for crimes, and loses half her memories multiple times throughout the story, before figuring out some sort of solution to the annoyance... the middle chunk around 50-75% was the most painful part, from what I remember...
EDIT: doublechecked, and 2 books and 3 short stories were written, but the finale never got written... probably because the 2nd book barely got read by anyone... 2500 ratings, 33% as many as Drafter...
Honestly, her new Hollows books aren't doing TOO much better than Drafter did, ratings/review-wise, but new Hollows books probably inspires people to try the series from the beginning, and earns her money that way...
Ilona Andrews and other authors have talked, in the past, about the dangers of a long-running series... each one inevitably earns less readers than the previous entry, since people fall off at some point, and not many people jump into a series in the middle... starting new series is a better way to get new readers, which is important to career longevity...
I can see that and I think Hollows should have stopped after the origional series. It was th perfect ending. If she rebooted, it should have been about the girls, or Quen or Ivy. I loved Rachel bu her story was complete. I would have loved a spinoff about Trent and his time as an evil drug lord, THAT would have been fun! I think Jodi Taylor is doing it right, the Time police is technically a spin off but can absolutely be read without reading St Marys so it will bring in new readers.
Nalini Singh got a bit off course with her Psy/ Changeling world. She fell into the same trap as the Hollows which is a shame becasue the books are great.
With authors I love, I will absolutely read anything they write but i think for many casual readers, an insanely long series is intimidating. My dad for example, reads a book a day, huge reader, but will often stop after book 3 unless theyre already released and he can order them all at once. By the time the next one in a series comes out in a year or two he's forgotten what happened.
Mod
I agree... I didn't love the Hollows series, but it was a good enough send-off... I don't even know how/why it was reupped, but I know there's been 5 continuation books now...
I've abandoned alot of series at their original end/jump-off point...
I loved Psy-Changeling, but struggled with Trinity... I think I just love shapeshifters more than other character types, and I read that series in my more romance-heavy days...
I enjoyed Chicagoland Vampires, but never continued with the spinoff about the kids...
I think the Demonica series did way too many novellas in the 1001 Dark Nights anthology...
Black Jewels revived when it shouldn't have...
Fever stuck around long past it's welcome, for most people (made all the worse by the icky romance between a centuries old Fae kidnapper and a pre-teen/teen)...
I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch...
And also, I totally get your dad and forgetting... I forget details in like a month, after reading 50 other books... I probably do alot more re-reads than your dad tho, to refresh and continue :D
I definitely prefer series over standalones, and even tend to focus more on series than trilogies/etc...
I haven't read Psy-Changling, but have thought of picking it up. Definitely one of those who are intimidated by long series though. I like to have an "out," without feeling like I have to commit to the whole thing, especially when I hear that the tone/quality shifts along the line. I see once the Trinity series starts around book 16 or so the readership dies off, would you say it stays consistent up until then? Or are really only the first few books worth it? Are they fairly standalone, or a connected narrative?
Mod
They're connected... the first main story arc ends are book 12... books 13-15 are transitional pieces...
The opening of the series is a world with 3 main groups: human, Changeling/shifter, and Psy/people with mental powers... Psy have ruled the world pretty strongly for the past 100 years, thanks to conditioning to remove emotion, because of a tendency to mental breaks/violence, but the conditioning is breaking/damaging the Psynet, and might have been a partial mistake in the first place...
The series starts there, explores the strengthening powers of the Human Alliance and Psy-Changeling pacts, and what happens when the 2-3 races start working together again, and the secrets the Psy/Council are hiding/covering up...
The first 12-15 books build towards (view spoiler)
The series mostly takes place in California to start, with the Leopard Changeling pack... some of the weakest entries in the early series, to me are book 6-8, which focus on some non-Changeling romances between human and Psy and Psy/Psy-adjacent... then the series focuses on the Wolf Changeling pack allied with the leopards for awhile, leading up to the end of the first story arc... there's also 2 anthologies of stories about mostly other members of the wolf and leopard packs: Wild Invitation & Wild Embrace
Pretty much all but the newest 3-4 Trinity books are available for free on Audible Plus or Hoopla, too...
I've kinda been doing a re-read of the series, the past 6 months, since the Dark Hunter re-read started going downhill, as a chance to read something better, and maybe eventually get back to her other romance series, Guild Hunter, at some point, with it's crazy vampire/angel plotlines...
Cool cool, thanks for answering my questions Iain with such detail. Okay, so 12 books is still a big chunk of my annual reading (I can't remember the last time I read 12 books in a series that wasn't manga) but it's certainly more attainable in my mind than 24. ^_^
The premise certainly sounds interesting, which it why it's still definitely on my TBR. Not highest priority, but like, solidly occupying a corner of my backlog brain. (As opposed to all those new releases that get hyped and I add to the TBR only to forget about as they get buried.)
Well, whenever I pick up and start binging all those changling, psychic, romantic, council intrigue, Psynet stories, I'll be sure to chat about it here. :)
Mod
Psy/ changeling was amazing right up until trinity. I also agree with Iain that the least enjoyable books are the ones with the humans. 7 and 8 were a bit crap honestly. There's some books with the psy that I adored (like Caleb's book) but I think that's because he was just an awesome character. Book 4 wasn't great either, due to an very unlikable heroine. Overall the series is great, but there are a few duds. I also really Enjoyed Chicagoland Vampires, didn't even know there was a spinoff! I don't even think I finished that series, I should probably re-visit it at some point.
Mod
It's a shame the Trinity books don't hold me, since they still hit alot of MCs that you SHOULD care about, as long time fans...
Bowen Knight
Silver Mercant
etc
I assume, someday, there'll be a romance with that researcher that was cryofrozen for 100 years, too... (view spoiler)
Timelord Iain wrote: "I agree... I don't think I liked book 4 until my 2nd or 3rd read, for exactly those reasons... annoying books are easier on re-read... It's a shame the Trinity books don't hold me, since they sti..."
Oh yeah I remember her! I'd forgotten she existed until now.
Mod
Silver Mercant was the 2nd book in the Trinity series, I think... I read that one forever ago... Bowen was the last one I read, actually, and I really didn't connect with it... it was the 3rd or 4th one, I think, and set in an Undersea rig location, when he was dying from brain implant complications (that brain implant that blocks Psy manipulation)... I can't remember how he survived... probably pack bond magic replenishing his drained brain energy, similar to how it functions as a PsyNet replacement...
I don't even remember much about these ones honestly although the undersea element rings a very vague bell. They must not have been that great if I can't remember!
Tossing in Patricia Brigg's Mercy Thompson books as another example of a continuing series...Technically Dresden & Seanan McGuire's works would fall under those too...
Though I think there is a big difference between people writing an epic series with an endgame--architect writers?--and people who are discovery writers, where each new book takes them off in who knows what direction until they write it. I think Patricia Briggs has said she's a discovery writer, and while she has ideas of points and what is going on in the world, she's never entirely sure what is going to happen in a book until she's done writing it.
With the Mercy Thompson books, I actually love the 'episode of the week' style of the narrative, I adore Mercy and co and would honestly read a dozen books just about her and her life with her friends and the pack. No big bad to bad, no evil wrong to right, just fun and characters I love.
Charlie wrote: "With the Mercy Thompson books, I actually love the 'episode of the week' style of the narrative, I adore Mercy and co and would honestly read a dozen books just about her and her life with her frie..."Me too! I'm currently doing a reread of those along with the Alpha and Omega ones in chronological order, and it's been so fun.
Mod
*goes to check which audiobooks for Mercy I have*😆
Happy holidays everyone!!! I can't believe I've been here for 11 months because it really does feel like I've known you guys for much longer! 💖Thank you all for making buddy reading so much fun and for being so welcoming and friendly. I truly always love coming here and chatting with everyone. I can't wait for all the books we'll be reading next year! I told myself I wouldn't sign up for as many super early but here I am already planning for my summer. I feel like a full-fledged member of FBR now!!🤣Hope everyone has been having a nice and relaxing weekend and I also hope that you'll all get to eat lots of yummy food!!!
Happy Holidays indeed!! Super dittoing Mei--it's hard to believe this rounds out my 2nd full year in FBR... so glad I found this community... my quality of life has increased so much having awesome people to read with. Really looking forward to the next year!
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