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RETIRED THREAD: Vagabond Treehouse Book Club
message 1151:
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Soo
(new)
Jan 23, 2021 07:08PM
I should. Not sure why I'm resistant. It's in the Netflix TBW. (To Be Watched) LOL Sounds kinda stalker/sinister-y. hahahah
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The Last Hunter: Descent - Ch22-ishThis part is kind of bland or what's happening. Also, I have ??? about what's going on. Waiting for more pieces to fall into place.
Finished! The middle part was definitely weird but I liked the way things wrapped up. Good intro & setup for the series. I was totally thrown by the Norse mythology that showed up! Curious to see how it will pan out. =D
Mod
Most of the early setup didn’t feel very relevant to the rest of the story... which reminded me of the (view spoiler)
The Girl with Ghost Eyes - Good, Chinese ghost exorist story. You guys should check it out. The story went on sale a few times on Audible.I'll come back and chat about Descent #1.
Soo wrote: "Finished! The middle part was definitely weird but I liked the way things wrapped up. Good intro & setup for the series. I was totally thrown by the Norse mythology that showed up! Curious to see h..."I'm starting today hopefully. My wife got her second Covid shot yesterday and she is sick as hell. So I am on Dad and husband duty this morning haha.
Brian, I hear lots of rest, some Tyenlol and mild exercise is the way to go. Hope she recovers soon! I'm going to be a turtle and shelter in place until Fall. I'm hoping that there will be more information available about the vaccine & reactions. With my luck, I'll have a crappy reaction to the vaccine but come out of it with an immune boost. I'm ok with that. I think many countries will make the COVID19 vaccine mandatory. Maybe even a test showing COVID19 negative result before entering, etc.
I want to travel in 2022! So, hopefully, things will settle down to an easier to plan future. =)
The Last Hunter: Descent Thoughts:Intro: I thought the intro was a good setup for Solomon's personality and his relationship with family, etc.
Middle: It was weird. lol We can talk about that more when Brian gets there.
Last Bits: Hand wavy but interesting tidbits on the Norse mythology influences to the story & solid "Coming Soon" for book 2.
Audible as a 2 for 1 Credit Sale! I will report if I get stuff. =D
Also, I went on my first jaunt to a park in months! It was great!
Except families were out without masks and running around. Avoiding people pretty much determined how I went on my walk. Hhaha
Audible Time to Save SaleI got these two:
- The Librarians and The Lost Lamp #1 - Looks to be a good popcorn read. I did enjoy the TV show. =)
- Blood Oath #1 - Great UF series! I've already read them all but it'll be nice to have the audios.
These were on the sale but I decided to buy the Kindle + Audio. With the Kindle purchase discount, the audios are $1.99. Ebooks + Audio total was around $15. Not cheaper but I wanted the books too.
Clockwork Boys #1 + The Wonder Engine #2
**Thinking About Buying**
- Priest of Bones #1
- The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
This sale is for a week. So I have time to ponder the choices or wait for them to go on sale again, etc.
LOTS of goodies in the Time Travel, Mystery & Thrillers, SF & Fantasy. I already have them, so good sale for others. =)
Ok finished The Last Hunter # 1. Not really sure how to rate this. I found the Prologue interesting and the beginning chapters had me intrigued. Then the Middle happened and I lost all interest. The story went a whole new direction than I anticipated. The end was salvageable and I will continue mostly because I already paid for the other books. Lol. Strange story but an interesting idea. I do like the Norse mythology nexus and hope the future stories from this one.
Soo wrote: "The Last Hunter: Descent Thoughts:Intro: I thought the intro was a good setup for Solomon's personality and his relationship with family, etc.
Middle: It was weird. lol We can ta..."
I really like Blood Oath and that series. Was a hidden gem.
Mod
VINDICATION... I tried to avoid going into detail and ruining the experience for you guys, but basically felt the same way... the shortness of the book kinda rushed the middle... but at the same time, I'm not sure I'd have muddled through if it was a longer book...
The middle totally detracted from the story. It went from easy to understand characters and intriguing ideas about what will happen. Then BAM! Have some weird brainwashing sequence of hunting, etc. Except the way it was described was only interesting in the harsh conditions. Then it was BORING!lol Author needed to flesh out stuff like changes in thinking, feeling, reactions, etc to make it work and that didn't really happen.
The tail end salvaged it enough to keep going.
I think I was better prepped for this story because I figured it would be a mix of cool and What the heck is going on? lol
How do you guys want to handle reading the rest? I figured we would throw it between other reads.
Soo wrote: "The middle totally detracted from the story. It went from easy to understand characters and intriguing ideas about what will happen. Then BAM! Have some weird brainwashing sequence of hunting, etc...."I'm good with that. I hope they get better for sure. If that was a standalone I would have quit in the muddy middle. I am doing Queen's Thief #2 cuz it became avail at my library but can try #2 when I finish with it.
Sounds good! I'm banking on what Iain+others have said about the Queen's Thief series. I hope book 2 is more of the cool stuff that tagged on in #1.
Mod
If you like the characters/etc, book 2+ are miles better than book 1... I think I rated the first Queen's Thief book 3 stars and the rest 5 stars... just became a fanboy...
Mod
Agreed, the end got interesting again... but I'm unsure on the logic that the Antarkticans won't just (view spoiler)
The story is kinda predictable. Also, bait. Bait is always necessary. Unless used as a tool for enragement.
Mod
I had vague ideas of bait... but I could also see the people going into a rage and killing without thinking about value...
I feel like the hiearchy is too strong for random violence that doesn't go in line with the master plan. The prophecy or whatever. We'll have to find out. Other news!
Spotify Audiobooks
Spotify now has audiobooks & podcasts. The podcasts have been on there for a while but I usually ignore those.
Looks like the audiobooks are narration done by other people (so different from the official productions) or the ones that are free. There's a couple of Audiobook playlists that you can follow or just search for the book you're interested in. Mostly popular books & classics. I did a quick search.
You can adjust the narration speed but the quality doesn't sound as good as Audible or other audiobook players. 2.5x sounds like like someone talking on crack. lol
1.5x sounded like the speed I usually hear for 2.55x.
There's a sleep mode option too.
It's a little cumbersome because you have to add the book playlist and then play it in order to read the book.
BUT if you have Spotify, you have other options for popular audiobooks. So, that's awesome!
I did a search for Peter Clines & currently listening to an interview on 8bit podcast with Peter & about Dead Moon. It's cool. =)
You can sign up & use Spotify for free and deal with ads. You can pay and have no ads. I actually did a trial of almost 2 years of Spotify to make sure I like the scope & app interface before deciding to pay.
I totally gobbled up the whole Tufa series by Alex Bledsoe! It was a great series. A spin on the Fae living in the Tennessee mountains around 80's+ time wise. So more or less in the present. Each book builds on the one before. Very in line with traditional, Grimm's Fairy Tales. Stories with a theme of some sort and the caustic danger of choices/magic. The audiobook/story covers are misleading. I thought they would be PNR-ish but they're not.
Whole series is on Audible Plus. =D
Eddie LaCrosse was very much of the wandering hero-knight-detective type of stories. Tufa is in modern setting and a good spin of modern Fairy Tales with a sharp bite.
Finished The Last Hunter: Pursuit . For me, this was loads better then the first book which I honestly disliked. I felt the author did a good job with character development on Sol as well as some secondary characters. The action and pacing were much better too so I feel better about moving on to book 3. RC Bray was awesome as usual.
OOO sweet! I'll throw #2 into my reading rotation. Right now, I'm having fun with the Junkyard Pirate series. It's a group of old vets that end up getting paired with symbiotic aliens & get rejuvenated to their 20's. Fighting against the aliens that have invaded Earth & mining up special materials that aliens use for their tech.
Just started Thirteenth Child and it's a cool historical fiction/fantasy where magic is a part of the world and taught to kids in school/college. The story is about F(rances) and she's a 13th child. That holds bad fortune as the #, etc but her parents don't hold to that nonsense. Neat story about the family living close to the frontier areas and how there are wild animals like wooly mammoth & dragons.
Summer of the Big Bachi has been a hit! It was a random chance audiobook I came across while looking for "mystery" books on Audible Plus. It's not a mystery as much as stuff happening and has wonderful characterization of Japanese-Americans. Hiroshima survivors, mixed generations, etc. The narrator's doing a great job. No butchered American accents on Japanese words, etc. Well, for the most part. I can't stand my American accent when I try to speak Korean. It's terrrrrrrrrrrrible.
Soo wrote: "OOO sweet! I'll throw #2 into my reading rotation. Right now, I'm having fun with the Junkyard Pirate series. It's a group of old vets that end up getting paired with symbiotic aliens & get rejuv..."
I'll add them to my growing TBR pile. Thanks Soo
I really need to add Joe Ledger to the reading pile.
The first book pops up in Audible sales a couple times a year. That's how I got hooked :)
Is the narrator good? Or are they better read than listened too??
Mod
I love Ray Porter so have done the whole series on audio so far.
Oh yeah he’s good. I’m gonna download a few. Thanks!
I love the way we thrive off of each other's favs! =D Woo!I'm wrapping up the alt history/magic/frontier exploration trilogy. The 3rd one is the weakest book because there are more summaries in it but the world & main character, F(rances)/Eff, is great.
I'll throw in #2 of the Last Hunter and then I should read one of my BR books. lol
Just got Ledger #2 (Dragon Factory) on Libby. I already read book 1 I guess. Gave it 4 stars so I musta liked it.
Mod
Haha. Me too. You and Soo keep my TBR pile overflowing
My wifi is out. Stuck doing everything on mobile. It's annoying. =PRead the Last Hunter #2. It has fun new characters thrown in & decent action. Ending was fuzzy but figure that will clear up in #3.
Wifi is back for the moment. I learned that my FIOS (rented) router is over 10 years old... The one before that was 15 years old...Getting a new one that was released last year and that will help with the connection issues.
I'm looking into getting a new router & extender in the next month or so. The one thing we can't live without is wifi with working from home.
So... my wifi is basically on a weird fritz until I get the new one and set it up. No wifi early in the day and maybe get it back by noon-ish. It's super weird.
If you guys get in the mood for reading a story with dragon riders, I recommend the Dragon Jousters series by Mercedes Lackey. My library has all of the audiobooks and I'm having a good time with the books. On other news, about a week ago, I started going back out to walk/hike/climb at parks. Right now, I've made it out to two of my usual spots for the area. 2019/2020 winter, I decided I was going to go out even in cold/snow weather. Normally, I would not venture out as much during rain/snow/etc. When I did my road trip in 2018, I had to deal with a wide range of weather/temps because I went all over the US. =)
Like, I drove up to Glacier National Park and decided against doing a short hike out to a lake because there were warning notices about uncertain footing. I didn't have waterproof shoes/gaiters/etc and didn't want to deal with wet feet. So, I just explored around the park a bit, away from the snow and marked it as another park I need to re-visit. lol
So, I've been sucking it up, layering like a crazy person and heading out. My North Face winter boots have been awesome! They've kept me warm & dry. Plus, enough grip to climb/jump on most rocks/boulders.
Today was warmer weather. I decided to wear my normal hiking shoes. It wasn't terrible, but they aren't waterproof. They're the kind that's made to be cool & dry fast. My go to shoes for warmer weather. Totally soaked my feet! Ha! Happy to have tried out a few trails I haven't been on before. I have no idea how people were going around in freakin' tennis shoes and having no problems with sliding in the mud/ice/slush/snow. I have good balance and it was tough work for me to go down the slopes/trails. Going up was easy, going down was a lot of careful work.
Need to figure out an easy way to upload pix & share them. =)
Nice Soo!!! I need to get motivated and go hiking/ snow shoeing here.
I thought about buying a pair of snowshoes but I don't know jack about them. All of the ones I saw on Amazon (that seemed decent) were pricey. So, I figure I'll wait on that one. Next year, I want to go to a ski lodge & learn how to ski/snowboard, etc. =D
I'm with you on the tennis shoe thing. I think those people have never tried hiking shoes and don't know what they're missing :D I switched to waterproof hiking shoes a couple years ago and never looked back. They're my go to for hiking in any weather. Which really worked out this past year. We had so much rain that a lot of trails ended up muddy or with small streams to cross.
I have debated picking up some trail runner shoes to have a lighter pair of hiking-type shoes, not that I trail run. I think I'd brake an ankle if I tried lol
What waterproof hiking shoes do you use, Narilka? I have small feet. So my struggle is to find shoes that fit my feet and meet my reqs.
Like, a friend recommended Anhu and those are comfy, but I need a heel raiser or the back of my ankle gets rubbed raw. I have a brand that I like but I think I need to find a slightly higher heel raiser for Anhu.
My current go to hiking shoes:
- Merrell All Out Blaze (Light, good traction & dry fast if I get them wet.)
- Merrell Siren Sport/Edge (Light, good traction for hiking.)
Brooks & Salomon are great brands! Brooks are my go to running shoes. Salomon are half to a full size larger on my feet but comfy & well made.
I wear Merrell Moab 2 Waterproof for hiking. They are soooo comfortable and fit my feet perfectly. I have Brooks running shoes as my regular walking or non-hiking shoes.
I'll have to see if I can test out a pair of Moab! =)
$5 sale on Audible. Some decent choices.
OOOO thanks for the head's up! *Goes to look.*
Lots of great books on the sale! I already have a bunch of them. =DI got a nice haul:
Chaos
Airframe
Dead Watch
Agent to the Stars
Fuzzy Nation
The Orphan Master's Son
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Malice
The David Foster Wallace Reader
Fellside
Jerusalem (#1-3)
Borne
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