Looking forward to 2019: plans, challenges?

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Lowell wrote: "I crashed and burned the two times I tried to start on Malazan. I found the first bit of Gardens of the Moon to be incomprehensibly boring.

*shrug* I may just be done with "epic fant..."

haha! Yeah, we'll see! If it doesn't work out for me, I'll likely try to even out my author genders finally.

[Beth]

Lowell wrote: "I crashed and burned the two times I tried to start on Malazan. I found the first bit of Gardens of the Moon to be incomprehensibly boring."

Brief side trip off topic: same for me, Lowell. Some years after I got 100 pages into Gardens of the Moon and gave up, I decided to give it another try. Several people recommended starting with the second book instead. Encouragingly, I'm about the 2/3 way through Deadhouse Gates now and will definitely finish it. I would recommend this tack to others, too, as counter-intuitive as it might seem. However, I can also completely understand a reader not wanting to turn back to a series after the canonical beginning failed for them.

I'm hoping to catch up with Allison for Gardens next month. We'll see how it goes from there. I'll have a leg up having already finished the second book, at least. :D

[Soo]

Allison, there's no shortage of epic fantasy series we can throw your way. =D Bwahahahah

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Soo wrote: "Allison, there's no shortage of epic fantasy series we can throw your way. =D Bwahahahah"

Haha! I was going to say maybe that'd be 2020's challenge, but I feel like I said I had a challenge already for 2020...

[Trike]

For 2020 we should all read past classics which have stood the test of time.

The Hindsight Chalkenge.

[Ine]

hmhmhm Im actually waiting for my copy of Gardens of the Moon..... why'd you guys think it wasnt good? Or was it a general feeling of not-good-ness?

I really hope Ill like this series, Im soooo in the mood for some sprawling story to immerse myself in like asoiaf. (Ive given up on the winds of winter tbh, if it ever comes out I dont want to read it anymore, Ive watched GOT in the meantime and will just confuse what happened in the books and what in the series)

[CBRetriever]

Ine wrote: "hmhmhm Im actually waiting for my copy of Gardens of the Moon..... why'd you guys think it wasnt good? Or was it a general feeling of not-good-ness?

I really hope Ill like this series, Im soooo i..."

I really liked it myself

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*]

Ine wrote: "hmhmhm Im actually waiting for my copy of Gardens of the Moon..... why'd you guys think it wasnt good? Or was it a general feeling of not-good-ness?

I really hope Ill like this series, Im soooo i..."

It's...huge and f'ing complicated. The cast, the scope - it's all huge. There's a lot to take in and there are weird things happening.

I loved it but it was a struggle.

[Bobby]

Ine wrote: "hmhmhm Im actually waiting for my copy of Gardens of the Moon..... why'd you guys think it wasnt good? Or was it a general feeling of not-good-ness?

I really hope Ill like this series, Im soooo i..."
Gardens of the Moon throws you into the middle of the story, and it just gives you a ton of information that you have no frame of reference for. A lot of people get bored or frustrated. If you can stick it out, there's a point about 60% into the book where things start to come together and it just gets really good. If you like being immersed in a sprawling world, Malazan makes ASOIAF look like a children's story.....and it's finished, with multiple spinoffs, so if you like it there is tons of material there.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*]

I agree. Martian basically put a fantasy facade on a real historic event. Erikson...went IN on his world building. But it makes it more work than ASoIaF.

ASoIaF was difficult (for me) due to the sheer porny violence of it all...but the characters /worldbuilding, etc all were a breeze.

Erikson drops you off in the middle of everywhere with not even a warning and lets you figure it out. And when you finally do, it's glorious but damn you're footsore.

[Gabi]

Looking at my finances for the last months I fear I have a practical goal for 2019: setting a monthly max, and when the money is gone I have to wait till next month ^^'

[Anna]

Gabi, do you have any unlimited subscription services in Germany? I'm still not sure if they're a good idea or not, for me that is, but since you say your library isn't very good when it comes to English SFF. I just told Allison that I've read (and listened to) over twice as many pages in November than the other 'good' reading months this year, and about three times as much as I read on average. That's because I was trialing an unlimited subscription service, and wanted to make the most of it :D I can definitely say it would've been excellent value for money had I paid for it this month, but obviously a free month was extra nice.

[Wen]

Oh, my, Gabi, I should do this too, setting up a limit, ah, this is so hard(in general).

[Gabi]

Anna wrote: "Gabi, do you have any unlimited subscription services in Germany? I'm still not sure if they're a good idea or not, for me that is, but since you say your library isn't very good when it comes to E..."

I know of the kindle unlimited, but so far nearly nothing I was interested in had the sign, so I guess it would not pay off for the €10 per month.
I can get one ebook per month free with the kindle library, but here as well the selection is very limited. So far I only found Slaughterhouse 5 and Rendezvous with Rama.

[Anna]

I was thinking of something like https://www.storytel.com/ which is Nordic (it's started in other countries recently, but not Germany yet). The only one I could find searching in English is https://www.skoobe.de/ which looks like it's mostly books in German? Maybe there are others, surely there are lots of English ebook readers in Germany? It looks like https://www.playster.com/ is available in Germany, but I haven't tried it myself, so I don't know if it's something to recommend.

[Anna]

Oh! https://www.bookbeat.de/, which is what I was trialing this month, has a German site! Their SFF selection isn't amazing, but I can definitely recommend the free trial! :D I got a code for a 30 day free trial instead of the usual two weeks, so maybe search and see if one is available for you, too.

[Gabi]

Anna wrote: "Oh! https://www.bookbeat.de/, which is what I was trialing this month, has a German site! Their SFF selection isn't amazing, but I can definitely recommend the free trial! :D I got a code for a 30 ..."

Thank you for the link, you're such a treasure, Anna! I went through the first 300 books in English SFF and found only 2 of interest for me. I fear as an abo that's not for me. But one of them is Semiosis, so I will go for the free trial next year for this. : D

[Anna]

Yeah I couldn't find much to interest me on BookBeat either, but for free it was totally worth it.