RETIRED THREAD: Vagabond Treehouse Book Club Showing 1,251-1,300 of 2,932

[Brian]

Thanks Soo

[Soo]

In the last Audible sale, I already have most of the fun books. So it was down to a bunch of, should I try it?

I was happy to pick up The Trouble with Peace #2 because I was planning on getting it when I got to that book. Yay Sales!

Got Weaveworld. That one has been in my TBR forever. Though, the downside for reading Clive Barker is that he has a great way of writing disturbing & yet somehow boring horror stories. LOL I will have equal moments of woah what the heck is going on and this part is slow as dirt.

[Soo]

I need to get caught up on GR posts. lol I am behind! But no regrets because I'm back to hiking! WOO!

The Superhuman series by Evan Currie is available at my library. Just finished the first book & it's good, cheesy superhero fun. All of them are around 200 pages. So, quick & fun to read when you want a change of pace.

[Narilka]

Are we reading Forging Hephaestus here or in another thread?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Narilka wrote: "Are we reading Forging Hephaestus here or in another thread?"

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Narilka]

Thanks Iain.

[Soo]

Last Hunter series

I finished it today. The last two books were short.

Thoughts:(view spoiler)[

- Overall, I thought it was a weird thought experiment to mash together mythology & religions. Most religion & myths have dramatic action. The idea to do this is cool but the execution was rough.

- If the story was told in more active sequences and did not repeat certain tidbits over and over again, I would have enjoyed it more. The story was odd in how it would switch from Tell Mode to Show Mode.

- The ending should have been a great battle and it was more of a whimper? lol

- I put the series under the UF umbrella because it's more or less in present time but it fits better in fantasy. =)
(hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Planning to finish up soon... I agree it's interesting...

[Soo]

Audible's Spring Forward Sale has The Left-Handed Booksellers of London. Planning to get that and at least one other book for the 2-for-1 credit. =)

Happy to get the audiobook on sale because I listened to it as a library loan and it was great!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I read the 4th Last Hunter book and took a break after... Solomon might be beyond disbelief at this point, in the face of all the revelations... but I kinda just shook my head at all the Edena stuff... altho I shouldn’t have been surprised, I guess, considering the object they were after mentioned Jericho in the name...

[Soo]

It is the oddest mashup of myths & religions. lol It kinda hurts my brain when I think about it. hahahhah

But there's not enough of a unique twist to all of it.

[Soo]

Audible Spring Forward Sale

I got:


The narration for Sword of Kaigen still makes me cringe but it may be doable in faster speed. At least, that's what I'm hoping for. lol

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Soo wrote: "It is the oddest mashup of myths & religions. lol It kinda hurts my brain when I think about it. hahahhah

But there's not enough of a unique twist to all of it."

It just feels like odd mashup things are revealed, and then the plot moves on after 5 minutes/pages... (view spoiler)[Mount Olympus, Tartarus, Hades, Eden, angels, titans, Gaia slugs, etc etc etc... (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I’m kinda frustrated with the last Last Hunter book so far... (view spoiler)[the higher power message is growing by the page... and I didn’t feel like he gave the outcast nephilim a chance before wholesale slaughtering them... and I didn’t see anything that screamed evil... (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Holy crap did that conclusion get corny... not too mention it passed so fast, considering the scope... it kinda lost any of the gravitas it was trying to create... I found myself wanting to laugh, half the time...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Soo wrote: "Audible Spring Forward Sale

I got:
..."

I picked up the Left-handed Bookseller... it's been on my radar for most of the past year... the other half credit went to Gunnie Rose #1... hopefully I like this series more than Sookie Stackhouse... the setting sounds like a really cool alt-America... and it doesn't SOUND like it's focused on romance... neither do the tags... so I'm hoping it's pretty plot-solid/heavy... we'll see...

[Soo]

I like the shows/movies that are made from Harris stories but I can't stand her writing. It's bad. lol Hope you like it!

[Soo]

Last Hunter:

Evil is the fact that they wanted to kill off all humans or just use them as cattle to eat/etc. Not all of them but some of them. The mythos mashup for the series was subpar in execution all around. Could have been cool.

[Soo]

Inflame #5 for Completionist Chronicles is coming out 3/30. I'll probably be predictable and do a re-read of the series. =)

This time around, the audio releases on the same day as ebook.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Not off to a great start, romantically... 5 pages in, and the MC is in a relationship with a dude whose defining characteristic so far, is waiting for the MC to stop being jailbait before hooking up... sounds like an older dude...

[Soo]

Gunnie Rose has terrible taste? lol

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I've been chomping through Laundry Files books lately, with very small gaps in between... nearly done with book 6 now, and have been clicking around his website...

I see you're done with book 9... did you know there's only 1 full-length book left in the Laundry Files?

Escape from Puroland is a 90 page novella filling in some Bob details from book 7, I think... then there's another needed novella... then the final Bob book...

Looks like the spinoff series will be going for awhile tho, with book 2 in the pipeline and work started on book 3 already...

(view spoiler)[I doubt this means there's going to be any sort of "happily ever after" for the Laundryverse... sounds like Eldritch gods controlling chunks of Earth might be the new norm?... I haven't even reached that eventuality yet, but can't imagine things are going to magically improve, from what little I've read about coming events so far... (hide spoiler)]

Here's a link to where I saw Stross talk about it: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Actually... comment 80 by Stross on there has me questioning the accuracy of my previous post... it's kinda hard to follow comment discussions on his blog, since he doesn't link to what he's responding to... but I found this...

(view spoiler)[ 80:

At that time I was working on the idea of two last Laundry novels.

The planned story arc was: continuity ops vs. the new management (continuity ops fail), then: Bob et al fight the New Management to a stalemate (fade to black).

"Continuity Ops v. the New Management" was going to be the Senior Auditor's story, very much in the mode of Koestler's "Darkness at Noon", i.e. his death-cell confessional after failure. (Hint: go look up Operation Valkyrie.)

I had second thoughts over such a non-happy-fun story in the current climate.

Then COVID19 wrecked my original plan for how continuity ops would stop CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN progressing to its logical end state.

And now I'm taking time out for a re-think. (hide spoiler)]

I don't think that first book has been written, and he says he's rethinking the conclusion to the series... but it seems clear how/why the conclusion allows a spinoff series, without it being a tragedy (as I saw some describe the likely outcome of this series in another thread)...

[Soo]

If he sticks to how he writes the series, I'm going to bet that a lot of BAD & TERRIBLE things are going to happen with a slice of light to keep it from being complete doom and gloom.

I read the first book of this other series by him. My library has a bunch of his books and it was a crazy, noir ride with nutty droid sex, complex politics & stuff. Did a great job of creating a unique setting and making my brain stretch to imagine all of the stuff that happened. Had a noir, pulp fiction vibe to the whole thing. Kinda like what you would get with Takeshi Kovacs story but with no humans. That one was dark too with a varied style of humor and interesting thought experiements.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Soo wrote: "If he sticks to how he writes the series, I'm going to bet that a lot of BAD & TERRIBLE things are going to happen with a slice of light to keep it from being complete doom and gloom.

I read the ..."

Yea... the 6th book was pretty dark and messy... with the Amber Hall Theatre Incident...

It feels like half of each book is capitalized terms at this point... Incidents and Operations and Codes and the like...

[Soo]

My library had #1-3 of the Daniel Blackland series by Greg van Eekhout. I really enjoyed them! There's a mild YA vibe because you get to know Daniel as a young kid to teen. Books 2 & 3 take place 10 years after #1 and part of the focus is on a teen Sam. The world is really fun. A place where magic is real and a big part of the world/life. That bit where you are what you eat? Yeah, just think about how that works for magic and people.

Daniel & his crew are thieves & stuff. So there's a fun heist vibe, some humor and interesting plot.

I recommend reading #2 and 3 close together because that's a full story arc cut in half.

Hopefully, the author will write more DB books. I'd totally read them.

[Brian]

Started book 1 today.

[Soo]

Yay! Let me know what you think. =)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Finally put some more effort into An Easy Death, the Charlaine Harris/Gunnie Rose book... and I gotta say, the title is accurate...

That love interest I complained about?... Died like 5 pages later, with Rose's whole mercenary crew... then Gunnie takes a job from some Grigorii... halfway through the book, the annoying one dies... tons of kidnappings and hijinks... there's really only 2 long-term characters left at the moment, outside of side characters that haven't gotten much page time... I think this is the REAL romantic pairing... eventually...

[Soo]

LoL - So, cheesy but fun popcorn?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Basically... I'll probably read all 3 current books, eventually...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

In my ever-dwindling reading (I'm actually not worrying too much about how my reading is dropping... it'll rise again in the future, I'm sure...), I've been on a small Alex Bledsoe kick...

After reading An Easy Death (Gunnie Rose #1, Hoopla) and Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven (HM #1), I jumped over to Audible Plus and read Wake of the Bloody Angel (Eddie LaCrosse #4) and The Hum and the Shiver (Tufa #1)...

Gunnie Rose was enjoyable enough that I'll be reading the 2nd one on Hoopla and waiting to see if they get book 3 soon... it only came out in February, and it usually takes Hoopla 1-2 months to add new titles...

Harley Merlin turned out OK as well... reminded me of Burn crossed with Hogwarts and maybe something else... La Femme Nikita?... just the compound dynamics of the show...

Eddie LaCrosse #4 was a nice pirate story shake-up... and I jumped into Tufa early, before finishing the Eddie LaCrosse series... Tufa's a really weird one... Soo wrote a good summary... for much of the story I couldn't decide on the feel of it... I felt some of the southern contemporaries I'd read, like Winston Brothers... but also UF/PNR stories like the Pride stories with the Smith family from Tennessee... probably since the story plays with both types of characters...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Today, I finally started Orphan X, a book/series I see most of you have read already... it reminds me of a mix of Jason Bourne and Dexter / Barry (the trying to have a normal life aspects)...

[Narilka]

You have reminded me I need to get back to Joe Ledger soon.

[Narilka]

I picked up a copy of The Queen's Weapons today. I can't resist a new Black Jewels book :)

[Brian]

I love Orphan X series.

[Soo]

Narilka wrote: "I picked up a copy of The Queen's Weapons today. I can't resist a new Black Jewels book :)"

Let me know how that goes. The last one has me reluctant to jump in fast. It veered too much from what the characters are plot wise.

Orphan X is fun. He's super awkward, what does it mean to be a regular person guy. =)

[Narilka]

Soo wrote: "Narilka wrote: "I picked up a copy of The Queen's Weapons today. I can't resist a new Black Jewels book :)"

Let me know how that goes. The last one has me reluctant to jump in fast..."

Will do. I'll post about it here. I'm planning to work it into my April rotation.

[Narilka]

Audible is having a series sale starting from $5. Some it's just the first book, some it's whole or part of the series. I need to go back through it when I have more time.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Joe Ledger talk got me going on Laundry Files #7... fills a similar niche for me, until next book release...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

The ending of the Tufa book made me laugh... tied up loose ends with a splat...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

OMG!!!... The Nightmare Stacks is hilarious... I didn't think Stross had another The Jennifer Morgue-esque book in him... especially considering how far down the rabbithole the series has gone, with Code Nightmare Rainbow scenarios... but if Jennifer Morgue was a James Bond story, this is more Inspector Gadget or Mr. Bean... a comedy of errors that's going to accidentally work out...

I mean, there's this whole doomsday plot in the background, but I'm not nearly as worried about it as the last couple books, considering how much the invasion of Earth seems to be relying on humans being hardwired to obey their Queen, lol...

I just got to the Meet The Parents scene (@Soo)

[Soo]

Audible Sale: There's some good stuff on there! I'm a big Belcher fan and some of his books are on there. I plan to take a better look. Will post what I get.

Tufa: Right? It takes a while to settling into the story voice, but once it clicks, it's good!

Nightmare Stacks: Hah~ It's dry humor galore in that book. Absurd & zany is the rule of thumb. =)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

After a bunch of work even finding the sale (thanks reddit)... I picked up

Nightwise, RS Belcher:

Pilot X, Tom Merritt:

Rewinder, Brett Battles:

So basically, a non-Graphic Audio RS Belcher series I haven't read, and some time-travelly books...

The sale looks really nice for people who haven't read as much as me (and Soo)... seems like most/all of Joe Ledger is on there...

Audible knows how to make it's money, too... increasing the price from $5-$7 over the first 3 books in a series...

While I was there, I also saw a reddit PSA from a power-reader like Soo who had their ability to return titles revoked, after 1000+ purchases and maybe a couple hundred returns?... sounds like they cancelled their subscription, and have become averse to spending money on new authors anymore...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Closer to the end of Nightmare Stacks... and I'm surprised I never noticed before, how great a color-coded emergency scenario system is, for sliding under the radar on unprotected phone lines...

I also shouldn't be surprised how off-the-rails the bureaucracy response is proving... it seems like the main cause of most catastrophes in this series... making every bad problem worse...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Home stretch on Nightmare Stacks: oh shit... (view spoiler)[this is like a textbook perfect example of everything that can go wrong, going wrong...

I mean, I've been pretty complacent about Scorpion Stare, considering it's been a relatively known quantity since the first short story...

And this is only like the 5th/15th thing to go wrong with the Alfar Incursion... you'd think things would be on increased diligence/alert after the previous book, but it doesn't seem like it... (hide spoiler)]

At some point recently, I realized I could kinda compare this book to the Fred the Vampire Accountant series... from the right angle, lol...

[Soo]

You guys need to get the Acts of Caine series. I can't see if the whole thing is on sale because I already own the audiobooks. It's one of my fav series.

This sale is great because even $6-7 per book is cheaper than a credit. So, totally worth it for series or authors that you can trust to enjoy. I'm figuring out what I'm getting. Will post once I make my selection.

Also, I think most of the Murderbot books are on sale too. Which is great for those that do not have the audiobooks. =)

ETA: Get Belcher's Brotherhood of the Wheel series. Another fav. I love the mix of myths, etc that Belcher mashes up with the mundane in his stories.

[Soo]

Audible Series Sale:

I got a bunch of stuff that was on my TBR. Some of them are series I haven't finished. 34 books for $200ish. The price is cheaper than paperbacks or about the same. =)

- Got the rest of the books for Dean Koontz's Frankenstein series. I had #1-3.

- Earthseed Duology by Octavia Butler

- Cartel Trilogy by Don Winslow

- Left Hand of God series by Paul Hoffman (Hope this is good/entertaining.)

- Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman

- Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo

- Foreigner Sequence Series by C.J. Cherryh

- Jack Campbell Series:
Pillars of Reality
Lost Stars
Genesis Fleet

- Stone Sky #3 by N.K. Jemisin (Completes the Broken Earth Trilogy)

[Brian]

Nice Soo!!! Let me know if you wanna BR a few of those.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I think I like the Tufa series more than Eddie Lacrosse... more unique... not liking this 3rd one as much tho... lots of bad tidings for the Tufa county in this one... high stakes...