Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion
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   I know this is incredibly localised and probably no good to anyone on this site but if anyone here is from (or likely to visit) Croydon in South London, check out the Forces Support charity shop at the end of the High Street/Surrey street market. They have three big boxes of fantasy books for sale on the first floor at £1 each. A bargain!
      I know this is incredibly localised and probably no good to anyone on this site but if anyone here is from (or likely to visit) Croydon in South London, check out the Forces Support charity shop at the end of the High Street/Surrey street market. They have three big boxes of fantasy books for sale on the first floor at £1 each. A bargain! I made a small dent in their pile, but the fact that I'm going home to Yorkshire on public transport made me stop from going totally mad.
 Something that shouldn't bother me, and yet it really burns my biscuits: the fact that you can't sort your Amazon wish list by "items with price drop." Used to be able to do that until a year or two ago when they removed that function. I don't want to scroll through an endless wish list of books every morning, I just want to see if any of them went on sale.
      Something that shouldn't bother me, and yet it really burns my biscuits: the fact that you can't sort your Amazon wish list by "items with price drop." Used to be able to do that until a year or two ago when they removed that function. I don't want to scroll through an endless wish list of books every morning, I just want to see if any of them went on sale.
    
        
      Andrew wrote: "Something that shouldn't bother me, and yet it really burns my biscuits: the fact that you can't sort your Amazon wish list by "items with price drop." Used to be able to do that until a year or tw..."
I go to my wish list and expand it so all books are visible. I think hit control+f for the find bar. I type in dropped. If the count is the same I close it out. If it's different I just nit next to see what's new. I don't necessarily buy just because there's a price break. Books often will go from $14 to $9 or something like that and I'm willing to wait for them to drop further.
  
  
  I go to my wish list and expand it so all books are visible. I think hit control+f for the find bar. I type in dropped. If the count is the same I close it out. If it's different I just nit next to see what's new. I don't necessarily buy just because there's a price break. Books often will go from $14 to $9 or something like that and I'm willing to wait for them to drop further.
        
      I have them all added to a cart on a second account. When the price changes they have a little notification "about your order" every time you go in lol.
    
  
  
   Andrew wrote: "Something that shouldn't bother me, and yet it really burns my biscuits: the fact that you can't sort your Amazon wish list by "items with price drop." Used to be able to do that until a year or tw..."
      Andrew wrote: "Something that shouldn't bother me, and yet it really burns my biscuits: the fact that you can't sort your Amazon wish list by "items with price drop." Used to be able to do that until a year or tw..."I can sort by price, can you do that on your account? They had taken the sorting options away for a while but finally added the sort by price option back, at least it's there on mine.
 All good suggestions, everyone! Yes, I can sort by price, but that doesn't fully help since some books I just want to wait for the initial drop to $10, while others I will only buy if they hit a really low price like $2.
      All good suggestions, everyone! Yes, I can sort by price, but that doesn't fully help since some books I just want to wait for the initial drop to $10, while others I will only buy if they hit a really low price like $2.I think I will start utilizing Scott's method, which is a 99% solution. It doesn't help if one book price drops at the same time that a previously dropped price goes back up, but that is a very rare occurrence.
 Congrats on your team Virginie unfortunately it aint coming home for our team but at least we did decent this time around :) :) :)
      Congrats on your team Virginie unfortunately it aint coming home for our team but at least we did decent this time around :) :) :)
     I was supporting Croatia too, just because I wanted a brand new country to win it.
      I was supporting Croatia too, just because I wanted a brand new country to win it.Congrats, France. Will you keep up the trend and get knocked out of the group stage in Qatar? Lol 😝.
 Congratulations, France!
      Congratulations, France!Barry wrote: "Will you keep up the trend and get knocked out of the group stage in Qatar? Lol 😝."
Haha, I was actually betting with my family if Germany would make it beyond the group stage. I won ;p
As a result our neighborhood has never been that quiet during a worldcup ;)
 Just thought I'd give y'all a heads up that the Kindle version of The Poppy War is on sale today for $2.99, or at least it is in America. I know that's been a popular book in this group.
      Just thought I'd give y'all a heads up that the Kindle version of The Poppy War is on sale today for $2.99, or at least it is in America. I know that's been a popular book in this group.
     Ok so I'm gonna talk about LGBTQ stuff here and I want to preface that I hold no malice against anyone who is LGBTQ and if I do offend someone then I deeply apologise as my intent isn't to be homophobic or express hatred but to show what I've seen as a lover of film so if I do offend I am very sorry for doing so and will delete this post immediately
      Ok so I'm gonna talk about LGBTQ stuff here and I want to preface that I hold no malice against anyone who is LGBTQ and if I do offend someone then I deeply apologise as my intent isn't to be homophobic or express hatred but to show what I've seen as a lover of film so if I do offend I am very sorry for doing so and will delete this post immediatelyAnyway recently I've been waching a few short and student films with LGBT themes to see what they have to offer and I've noticed with a lot of them they tend to have similar themes such as
- Falling in love with friend and professing love towards them and the friend doing the same or just saying no
- Coming out stories
- Battle against homophobia (It is also surprises me that the majority of the people who are homophobic are teens I'm not saying it doesn't happen but for this generation who tend to be liberal and more accepting it's a bit unlikely at least to me)
Now there is nothing wrong with these themes but I feel like there needs to be some variation as I think there are more stories LGBTQ can offer especially with character and they don't have to be romances and I think books (well non romance books) have got that having LGBT characters in different settings and situations.
I understand write what you know and all that but to me telling stories is about giving a new perspective towards something and I think it would be cool to learn about it.
Again I'm sorry if I come off as ignorant or hateful which wasn't my intention I just wanted tell you guys what I see and would love to hear from any LGBTQ people on there thoughts on this or if you guys have anything else to add
Sorry if my text feels broken lately I feel like my spoken and written language has been decreasing but yeah
        
      I didn’t see anything offensive. It’s ok to want to use a different perspective. One thing I really respected about A Darker Shade of Magic series was that there was really no addressing of sexual orientation, it was that the characters involved didn’t put labels on their sexuality, they at points were with women or men, and it wasn’t a big deal.
    
  
  
   I might have to give it a read
      I might have to give it a read But yeah I’m glad some books are giving lgbt and other minorities some slack and doing something different with them but yeah it’s something I’ve noticed a lot especially when you see people who say they don’t like diversity being shoved down there throat and “forced” diversity
But yeah that’s a rant for another time 😂😂😂😂
        
      Well too bad, they need a software upgrade then. What I find is there’s often a “forced” diversity character. If you want diversity, add them into the story with no explanations. Contrived things just because bother me.
    
  
  
  
        
      I'm an idiot... one of my coworkers was talking about wanting/needing a forklift license, at work last night, and the conversation led to me trying to show how some OTHER idiots used to use the pallet jacks like skateboards / kick scooters, and failed at it... I stubbed my toe doing it wrong, and gave up and hobbled away... took my socks off at home to find a nice bruise on my big toe...
    
  
  
   Oh man stub toes are the worst I assume you’ve unleashed a few f bombs as it happened
      Oh man stub toes are the worst I assume you’ve unleashed a few f bombs as it happened @lena I don’t know about separate fiction but speculative o would say that this looks at exploring ideas that we don’t know or aren’t sure of yet so it’s asking a question of what if? Or what would happen? So the fiction speculates these themes and this is projected by science fiction and fantasy
Also horror has also been considered speculative fiction which makes sense as t looks at the existence of unusual beings like ghosts and monsters
I hope that makes sense I feel like I’ve rambled a bit there
 I think it’s an academic definition of those three genres since I did a report on science fiction and it only popped up in books and research notes so yeah I guess it is pro saic (I definitely did not search that word up)😂😂😂😂
      I think it’s an academic definition of those three genres since I did a report on science fiction and it only popped up in books and research notes so yeah I guess it is pro saic (I definitely did not search that word up)😂😂😂😂
    
        
      Yea... this one hurt since the toe went under the pallet jack, and slammed the knuckle-y area connecting the toe to my foot... pain subsided in 10-20 minutes and I forgot about it until I got home and started feeling/looking at it again...
At least someone got something positive out of it :)
  
  
  At least someone got something positive out of it :)
        
      Speculative fiction is the umbrella which sci-fi, fantasy, urban fantasy, etc are all under. It's the broader category. Fantasy horror falls within that. 
Some people consider horror within that as well, but my stance is that horror is its own category outside of spec fic (with some crossovers and exceptions obvs, like lovecraft).
  
  
  Some people consider horror within that as well, but my stance is that horror is its own category outside of spec fic (with some crossovers and exceptions obvs, like lovecraft).
 I was skimming over my shelves and I discovered something depressing. I have had only 1 new 5 star read in the last 3-4 months. I read a lot but I am slightly worried about being able to continue to find really fulfilling books.
      I was skimming over my shelves and I discovered something depressing. I have had only 1 new 5 star read in the last 3-4 months. I read a lot but I am slightly worried about being able to continue to find really fulfilling books.
     That’s a slump. Make a shelf out of your best, or all, of your five stars and GR will make recommendations based on that shelf. That helpful program is initially why I joined GR.
      That’s a slump. Make a shelf out of your best, or all, of your five stars and GR will make recommendations based on that shelf. That helpful program is initially why I joined GR.
     Thanks and since you are here, what do you think of;
      Thanks and since you are here, what do you think of;The Grey Bastards
The Blade Itself
Just One Damned Thing After Another
The Emperor's Blades
Red Sister
The Shadow of What Was Lost :)))))?
and what else do you think is a must read?
(Abusing your help sorry) :)))))
 I have read First Law and Unhewn throne. while count first law as one of my favorite, Unhewn I found to be okay. a little too long books for my liking.
      I have read First Law and Unhewn throne. while count first law as one of my favorite, Unhewn I found to be okay. a little too long books for my liking. Grey Bastards I have been seeing on my home page a lot lately. and everyone seems to be praising it.
the other three came highly recommended from different friends. I will try to get to them sometime in future.
looks like am not much of a help here. ;):P
 Manju wrote: "I have read First Law and Unhewn throne. while count first law as one of my favorite, Unhewn I found to be okay. a little too long books for my liking.
      Manju wrote: "I have read First Law and Unhewn throne. while count first law as one of my favorite, Unhewn I found to be okay. a little too long books for my liking. Grey Bastards I have been seeing on my home..."
This is more than enough. Really:) Better than reading 100 comments that doesn't actually tell much whether I should read the book.
Do you have other recommendations which you think are must-read?
 yes. but you can take a break after the trilogy as the stand alone though set in the same world has different set of characters as secondary cast in stand alone.
      yes. but you can take a break after the trilogy as the stand alone though set in the same world has different set of characters as secondary cast in stand alone.
     I have read
      I have read- The Blade Itself: a must-read IMO. The audiobook is especially good. I only read the trilogy so far, but the standalones are def in my TBR.
- Red Sister was OK. A good read but not my Mark Lawrence favorite. Most people are praising it like crazy though, I'm the odd one here.
- The Shadow of What Was Lost is a great read! It is, however, very complex. I'd say to wait until the third book is out before giving it a try in order not to forget too much of the many, many plotlines. We're doing a BR at the end of 2018/beginning 2019 of the entire series.
A must-read IMO is The Whitefire Crossing. It is refreshing in that there's no swordsfight, no knights and such. Instead, you have plenty of sorcery (with an interesting magic system) and mountain climbing :D
 Manju wrote: "yes. but you can take a break after the trilogy as the stand alone though set in the same world has different set of characters as secondary cast in stand alone."
      Manju wrote: "yes. but you can take a break after the trilogy as the stand alone though set in the same world has different set of characters as secondary cast in stand alone."So there is 1 trilogy and the rest is stand alone? when I checked as series it directly gave 10 books which is published until 7.
        
      I loved the First Law trilogy... the standalones were more of the same with lesser known characters, and I found them to be a mixed bag that burned me out by the end... St. Mary's is a series I loved on first readthrough, but has been a bit more mixed on re-read... I liked Emperor's Blade the most out of the Unhewn trilogy, and liked Skullsworn more than others did... I liked the last half of Red Sister and the first half of Grey Sister, but the other halves dragged my rating down... haven't read the others...
    
  
  
   Beste wrote: "Manju wrote: "yes. but you can take a break after the trilogy as the stand alone though set in the same world has different set of characters as secondary cast in stand alone."
      Beste wrote: "Manju wrote: "yes. but you can take a break after the trilogy as the stand alone though set in the same world has different set of characters as secondary cast in stand alone."So there is 1 trilo..."
the blade itself, Before they are hanged, and the argument of Kings are part of the trilogy following same cast and events.
Best Served Cold, Heroes, and Red Country, can be read as stand alone as they have only few characters from the First Law trilogy in them.
Sharp Ends, I have not read but have heard that it's a collection of short stories featuring characters from all these six books.
 Yes, there's a trilogy, then 3 standalones taking place after. Book 7 is a collection of short stories taking place at various moments. Book 8 to 10 are yet to be published, and will be a second trilogy in this world.
      Yes, there's a trilogy, then 3 standalones taking place after. Book 7 is a collection of short stories taking place at various moments. Book 8 to 10 are yet to be published, and will be a second trilogy in this world.EDIT: Manju beat me to it, and with a much better explanation xD
        
      Most people can use my shelves to find recommendations... just pick a genre shelf and add my 5-star-rating shelf to see which books I highly rated in the genre... view multiple shelves is near the bottom and adda a + next to shelves to see books on 2-3 shelves...
    
  
  
   Virginie wrote: "I have read
      Virginie wrote: "I have read- The Blade Itself: a must-read IMO. The audiobook is especially good. I only read the trilogy so far, but the standalones are def in my TBR.
- Red Sister ..."
Climbing yyayyyyy ! I have to read it! Lol.
Seriously listening you and ordering it.
The Blade Itself and The Shadow of What Was Lost are must-reads too. ok. Duly noted! :)
I've been coming across The Red Knight,The Thousand Names and The Way of Shadows too. Have you read them?
Promise this is the last I ask.
 Nope, haven't read them. I had very polarized feedback on The Red Knight so I'm a bit hesitant to read it. The other two are on my TBR ^_^
      Nope, haven't read them. I had very polarized feedback on The Red Knight so I'm a bit hesitant to read it. The other two are on my TBR ^_^Several persons told me that Weeks' Lightbringer series is much better than Night Angel though.
Beste wrote: "Promise this is the last I ask."
Oh no, ask away if you've got other books on your mind :D
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