RETIRED THREAD: Vagabond Treehouse Book Club Showing 1,101-1,150 of 2,932

[Soo]

Yup! =)

[Narilka]

Joe Ledger 4, Ch 54 (view spoiler)[So vampires. I can't decided if they're supposed to be "natural" or a science experiment gone haywire. It sort of seems that Nicodemus is the originator as well as 800+ years old. And it doesn't seem everyone has the same extremely long life or if Nicodemus is something else entirely. Still a lot of the book to go. Hope more details come out.

Vox survives the experiment long enough to join the story in the present day. Wonder if the vampirism actually cures his cancer though or just buys him extra time.

I'm enjoying the assassins of Arclight. Of course Church is/was involved with their leader lol

I'm mad at Mr. Maberry. He keeps beating up Ghost :(:( (hide spoiler)]

[Soo]

Pretty sure the whole crew + Ghost get beat up. Sometimes, it's a miracle that Joe gets back up!

Arclight is cool. =D

V: (view spoiler)[It's a bit hazy on the whole deal about the vamps. Other than they're evil bastards that kidnap women to use for breeding/etc.

Nicodemus is one of the creepiest bad guys ever! (hide spoiler)]

[Brian]

Soo..how is the DeathStalker series ??

[Soo]

I like it a lot. If you enjoy Star Wars, you'll like Deathstalker. Should be able to get the books from the library. =)

[Brian]

Brian wrote: "Soo..how is the DeathStalker series ??"

Great thanks! I will def check it out

[Brian]

I picked up Covenants (book 1) and 2,3 from ThriftBooks.com. Heard good things but need to find some time to read them this year. Soo or Iain have you heard of it??

[Soo]

It's in my TBR and it looks good but only available in paperback. Currently limiting my physical book buys to new releases of series I love.

Tempted though! Maybe I'll get it later this year?

[Brian]

Ok...lemme know. I can always send to you after I read them too.

[Soo]

OH book mail buddies would be fun. =D

You're all the way in the other side of the states. =) LoL

Will have to see if I was ever in that part of WA or drove by it.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I'm always surprised when a book is out of circulation... I'm pretty sure every book in circulation since ebooks started are always going to be available, since they take up so little space to store and sell to download... but here we are... and the book is only from the early 2000s, too...

[Soo]

The next book in System Apocalypse comes out soon! I still get excited about these even though the quality of the writing/editing/plot has gone a bit wonky in the last few books. I think it's a case of the author spreading himself too thin & not having enough time to write. He's writing several series, making anthology collections, pretty sure he started his own indie publishing company, etc.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Soo wrote: "The next book in System Apocalypse comes out soon! I still get excited about these even though the quality of the writing/editing/plot has gone a bit wonky in the last few books. I think it's a cas..."

Kinda feels like he made a mistake with the big time jump... I still need to red book 8 and the anthology... might be even further behind... not sure if there's more books between me and the newest audiobook...

[Soo]

What big time jump? There's only the few years that John spent on the dying planet. I thought it was the right choice because it would have been a non-stop fighting spree to cover that bit.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I haven’t continued past book 7, yet... but the time jump and offscreen off-planet stuff changed the tone and feel of the plot a bit... it’s just a pivot point... even if the time jump was the right decision, it’s still an easy thing to blame...

[Soo]

The Last Hunter: Collected Edition - Picked this up on Audible. 33+hrs for complete series. The author is hit & miss for me. I've enjoyed his contemporary SF/UF books and disliked the space opera/time travel stuff.

This series looks to be action oriented. So, it should be good popcorn. =D

+ RC Bray is the narrator. So it'll be good listening.

If you haven't read any books by this author, I highly recommend XOM-B. That was a great book! Turned into a fav. I thought it was going to be the usual zombie stuff and it wasn't. Cool story & positive.

Brian totally picked up on me adding the 1st book to my TBR. lol =D

[Brian]

I bought it. Also, I just finished Sandman Slim book 2. What a hidden gem of a series that is. I didn't like it as much as book 1 but I am excited for the rest of the series. Thanks for the recommendation Soo and Iain.

[Soo]

Yay! Sandman Slim is a gritty UF. Kadrey does a nice job of twisting some fables, religion and mystic stuff into a weird jumble that works. Later other hijinx happen. =)

Let me know when you want to start on the Last Hunter. =) I'm down!

I'm currently browsing on Audible, double checking my library to see if my library has the book, etc. Probably end up buying some books today. lol

I got suckered in by this month's best of recommendations email. I wish they would separate SF and Fantasy. Those two have huge selections.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Brian wrote: "I bought it. Also, I just finished Sandman Slim book 2. What a hidden gem of a series that is. I didn't like it as much as book 1 but I am excited for the rest of the series. Thanks for the recomme..."

Sandman Slim is a series I have definite Opinions about... not always good ones...

It took me forever to get into the series, because it's pretty dark and dreary, with the MC's outlook... but I liked plenty of things about the 1st, 3rd, and last trilogy... the last trilogy has been really good... the 2nd trilogy was the roughest for me... I took a long break after the 2nd trilogy... I read the 3rd trilogy all the way up to the newest releases pretty quickly... I think we're just waiting on one final book, at this point...

[Soo]

Yeah, I think there's just one more book and Kadrey wants to move onto other stuff. Which is cool but I don't see him wrapping up all of the neat things about the story in one book. It's how it goes. Same deal with Alex Verus. No way is that going to end with a neat bow either.

[Soo]

Brian, I'm planning to read the Last Hunter piecemeal. Like, book #1, go off and read something else and come back, etc.

I can start the Last Hunter #1 tomorrow or the day after. =)

[Brian]

Soo wrote: "Brian, I'm planning to read the Last Hunter piecemeal. Like, book #1, go off and read something else and come back, etc.

I can start the Last Hunter #1 tomorrow or the day after. =)"

Ok I will as well. I'm in no rush. I can start #1 tmrw or next day as well

[Soo]

Iain, did you read Blasphemy Online Volume 1: Dragon Hack? There are 3 books out for the series now and I'm eyeing the audiobook.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Soo wrote: "Iain, did you read Blasphemy Online Volume 1: Dragon Hack? There are 3 books out for the series now and I'm eyeing the audiobook."

I delayed like you did... would like the rest to have audio release dates first, tho, at least...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Pulled the trigger on reading City of Stairs... Robert Jackston Bennett certainly seems to have a story type he likes to tell... I can see so many similarities to Foundryside...

Very interesting world tho... another world I'd love to have so much info about... I think the MC just accidentally (view spoiler)[released the judge divinity that liked to come up with rules and punishments, from the god weapon vault, when she burned it down... should be interesting... (hide spoiler)]... just another similarity to Foundryside, really...

[Soo]

I haven't read Divine Cities yet! Supposed to be good. =)

You like it? I like Foundryside but dislike an author being too obvious about story types. World & characters are different enough to make it a fresh take?

Blashemy Online: Only one audio out? I didn't check.

[Soo]

I'm going to update the book for Vagabond to the Last Hunter (bundled) book. =)

Let's make the "official start date to 1/23 but it's whenever you want to start it. It's go at our own pace BR! Woo!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Soo wrote: "I haven't read Divine Cities yet! Supposed to be good. =)

You like it? I like Foundryside but dislike an author being too obvious about story types. World & characters are different enough to mak..."

Divine Cities: quite different, I think... Foundryside has the tech and talking to Clef thing going for it... Divine Cities is setup more as a murder mystery / spy thriller... and the worldbuilding creeps in with the (view spoiler)[dead gods and their cities, now controlled by former slave nation... the slaves killed the gods and ruined the empire... (hide spoiler)]

From what I've read of the blurbs/reviews, the 3 books change POVs to each of the 2 side characters from book 1, and there are large time jumps between books... sounds a bit like the Long Price Quartet, but with changing MCs...

I'm only halfway through this first book, but I'll probably be getting to the rest of the trilogy sooner than later...

Blasphemy Online: yep, only 1 audio that I see...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I think I got to talking about the differences in plot before, to sell you on it, instead of the throughline...

The biggest similarity between Founders and Divine Cities, is both pertain to cities created by long-lost beings who might not be as long-gone as they once were... altho both seem to explore this in different ways...

[Soo]

*thumbs up* Sounds different enough to keep me entertained. =)

[Narilka]

I have the Divine Cities in my TBR if you wanted to buddy read later this year.

[Soo]

Narilka wrote: "I have the Divine Cities in my TBR if you wanted to buddy read later this year."

Woo! Yeah, I think we said that was the plan last year. lol
Totally down to do that later. Plan for it after Riyria series?

[Narilka]

After Riryia sounds perfect. I bought the omnibus of Divine Cities so have all 3 ready to go. Let me go look back at our Riyria plan and hash out some dates.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Ending of City of Stairs was great... my comparison to Long Price Quartet was apt...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Started Last Hunter... typical YA series start with clueless kid living normal life before craziness starts (based on blurb)

[Narilka]

So our last Riyria book is scheduled for first week of May. How about mid-May to start Divine Cities? Maybe the week of the 17th?

[Brian]

When are we starting Riyria again?

[Soo]

Divine Cities: Start in May & plan for 1 book per month?

Brian, we start Crown Conspiracy on 2/22. Have you made a Tracker thread for yourself or you could plot it out on your Team Challenge Tracker. I do both. Otherwise, you can forget stuff. I know I do. lol =)

Last Hunter: Sounds like a good start to me. =)
Will be starting #1 today. Finishing up my Safehold book.

[Brian]

LOL I know right. I try to write them down but I've lost my sheet. I am finishing up Holloway Book #2 today and will start Last Hunter today as well.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I use the spreadsheet to track... I eventually modified the BR formula, so I can just put the BR start date in the BR y/n column...

[Soo]

Brian, you may need to upgrade your sheet to a fancy one. =)

Or you can just put the date by the book title. Other ways to work it out. Drag and move is one of the handiest tools on the Google Excel. *two thunbs up*

[Brian]

You two are excel geniuses. I am a NOOOOB when it comes to excel

[Narilka]

Soo wrote: "Divine Cities: Start in May & plan for 1 book per month?"

I like that.

[Soo]

Want me to put the BR thread request in or should we do the BR here?

[Soo]

Brian wrote: "You two are excel geniuses. I am a NOOOOB when it comes to excel"

You'll learn by doing. It's pretty simple. Iain (+Virginie) are the Excel Gurus.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

spreadsheeting is great "learn by doing" thing... you can do tons of simple stuff with next to no knowledge...

once you want to do more complicated stuff, you look up how...

One of my main side projects is a spreadsheet for tracking all the book series I've started/finished/abandoned/etc...

The original version was like 5 separate spreadsheets and was a hassle to shuffle when the status of something changed...

Then I reworked the whole thing into a single Master Spreadsheet that was then QUERIED by 5 other tabs for ease of viewing... modify data on one sheet, and it populates itself onto other sheets... most of the rest is just color-coding... it's about a year out-of-date at the moment...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

EDIT: next refactoring, I'd remove the HELPER SORT column, and rework column I to where the word "book/s" was label text using the Edit -> Format Number options, so the cell's data could be read as a number instead of string of text... I've used that trick in multiple places on the competition spreadsheet, to simplify formulas and cut down on repetitious formulas...

[Soo]

I may take a mini-break and watch Live Free or Die Hard on Amazon Prime tonight. lol

Bruce Willis! Woo! Pretty sure I've seen this but I enjoy the Die Hard series. Always fun to rewatch.

[Narilka]

Soo wrote: "Want me to put the BR thread request in or should we do the BR here?"

Maybe give it its own book club thread?

[Soo]

Divine Cities: Let's decide in May. I made a note about it on my BR Tracker. We'll figure it out around May 1st. Wee~

The Last Hunter: Descent
I started & agree with Iain. Starts off with a good, YA adventure vibe. I already like the questions about Solomon's birth, etc.

End of Ch6 (Audio): Yeah! That was pretty cool info drop there. =)

Die Hard
I went to turn it on Prime and realized I watched it a few months ago. lol It was good but not worth rewatching now. I may find another show to watch. I'm supposed to draw a picture or three as a gift for a friend. Haven't done that yet. OOPS =D

[Brian]

Watch Cobra Kai Soo. It’s pretty good