Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion
Archive [Retired Book Clubs]
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RETIRED THREAD: Vagabond Treehouse Book Club
Nightside & Deathstalker are probably Simon Green's most well known series. He does link his works.I think Nightside was one of his first works? I didn't find it so repetitive that it made me dislike the books. I did put breaks between most of the books when I read them.
OO I may need to dive into Secret Histories. John & Suzie are great! Eh, you probably didn't like the dark bent to Nightside, but I didn't mind the ending as much.
Zombie Fallout series by Mark Tufo is on Audible Plus. Some of the books. Enough to get started. Going to check it out. It's a very popular with Zombie fans but I'm going to keep expectations low and see how it goes!
Mod
I think Nightside was one of his first works? I didn't find it so repetitive that it made me dis..."
I chained them together pretty quick, and JT was pretty repetitive in his descriptions of recurring people and locations... sometimes in the same 200pg books, too...
Deathstalker was written in the 90s... Nightside was mostly in the 2000s... Secret Histories and Ghost Finders bled further into the 2010s to the near present... not sure about other series, I didn't look...
I can say that each series has it's own atmosphere & Green's unique take of weird. =D Like I dived into Ishmael Jones in the middle. There was an ARC that I was approved for and I really enjoyed it! I've gone back & read the first book. It's a low-key mystery vibe that's fun.
I listened to the short pre-story for Zombie Fallout & it was fun. Now in book #1. So far, it's good!
Mod
Book 1 opens on an alternate Earth where Britain won the Revolutionary War and rules the world basically... or US + UK at least... and has time travel... before ending up on our Earth after accidentally saving George Washington...
But so much insanity happens towards the end of book 2, that the MC is stuck in a world where Mongolia conquered the world, and it's even worse than the original UK world... and even once this is resolved, the baddie is already dead, and ruined so many other moments in history to punish the main character... so it's obviously going to be a rush job fixing everything by the end...
Seems like this is a trilogy you never finished, Soo...
Well……the beginning of Deathstalker was Intriguing and characters enjoyable. Now I’m in the muddy middle. Kind of repetitive and a lot of events that I don’t see pushing the story forward. Still enjoyable but taking a bit to get through the Clan politics and new characters. Probably setting up for future books
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I saw that in some reviews... just another thing to make me wary of reading more Simon R Green...
Deathstalker - There are slow parts but it's worth reading because all of the elements do make an impact. Towards the end of the series, a TON of stuff happens and all of those little details will have a punch. There are phrases & stuff that gets repeated but that didn't bother me as much since I made a point of taking breaks between books.
Rewinder Series - I couldn't zoom read those books. I like Brett Battles okay but the writing isn't fast moving/compelling enough to do that. If I remember right, 1st half of Survivor was slower and it's better paced towards the end.
Meanwhile, Zombie Fallout is the oddest homage to a bunch of stuff I've read. lol #2 had (view spoiler) come into the story and I'm like... why? I'm waiting to see if a bunch of other things will pop up. lol
Well that was annoying. GR's kicked me out and I had to log back in. Went through 6, yes 6!!!, captcha pages. They should really implement MFA instead. I hate those things.
Mod
I think I have adblock or some sort of Captcha blocker, because I rarely have to deal with them... most of the time it's just the Are You a Robot checkbox and done...
I get logged out about once a month or so on my phone, almost never on PC...
And when i do get captchas, they try and trick me, so I don't miss them... it's like, there's 2 pixels of a stoplight on this square, does it count... or one buried in the blurry background...
I have 4 various blockers at the moment. I had to unblock the captcha specifically because I got the error to complete captcha to log in. Blocked it again after logging in.In the past I've not needed to captcha. Hope I got unlucky today and that's not a new "feature".
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In the past I've not ne..."
It's probably like everything else... an adblocker arms race... ads beat blockers beat ads... just a case of the adblocker not being updated to defeat the new captcha tech...
Sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but that captcha/etc security measures have been in place for a while and I think it's here to stay.
I took these last night. I can say that since I've slept since doing the latest stint with astrophotography & sunrise at Shenandoah National Park. =)
Mod
Weather has been weird. Big Meadows is around 3500ft. Not the highest for the area but up there. Temps have been 60-90F here. At the park, it dropped last night from 72 to 48F. I was out in the cloud/fog/damp cold for 5 hours. lol
And those are all with your phone? You are an amazing photographer.
Yup! I'm running with my two smartphones. Samsung Galaxy S20/21 Ultras. Thanks! I have a good eye and timing. If I was taller, it would be easier for some things. lol
Everything else? I feel like I'm always learning.
Mod
I forgot all about the Work It, Baby skill/stuff... so fun/funny... I'm well into the darker ending, at this point...
I just listened to the Work It part today lol So funny :)
OMG. He got Work It skill up :D :D I have 3 hours left of the book. Hope to finish it up this weekend.
Good timing! I just listened to Stuff & Nonsense while I was out taking more astrophotography pix. =DI forgot how silly & dark the whole story was and how much it bugged him that he couldn't talk. =D It was awesome every time he leveled up. lol
Yesterday, I went out to Shenandoah National Park for a hike, sunset, all night sky shots and sunrise series. Temps were around 70F when we got to the park and dropped to 45F during the night. It was a VERY busy night at Big Meadows! Lots of people were driving in and hanging out in the fields, taking shots, etc.
So, I was at the park from Thursday 4pm and left around 6am today. =D
My new profile pic. Haha
Half Moon around 8pm
Sunset at Hazeltop Ridge Overlook
Sunrise today at Hazel Mountain Overlook
Do you get to see much wildlife on these trips? I need to make it to Shenandoah some day. That park looks beautiful.
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Narilka wrote: "Do you get to see much wildlife on these trips? I need to make it to Shenandoah some day. That park looks beautiful."Lots of baby/teen deer out. At SNP, I always see birds & deer by the road. Yesterday, I saw a fat rat running between the boulder rocks. lol 1st time I've seen a rat at the park. Otherwise, it's usually vultures, hawk, lots of smaller birds, deer, snakes, snails, butterflies, etc. I have yet to see a bear, but I've heard about sightings with pix. I want to see the dino looking turtle that lives in the mountains, the red-orange lizard, etc. Keeping an eye out for those. My experience thus far, once I've frequented a place a lot, I feel like the woods/land/critters know me? So more sightings. If there's a bunch of people + dogs around, everything runs & hides.
I'm currently having to rebuild my lungs again. It's weird how fast your body will lose strength etc. Takes a bit more work to get them stronger than to lose it. Anyways, once I have my lungs stronger, I'll be back to whistle practice. Some of the bird calls are easy and I had fun trying to whistle to them. They get kinda confused and then follow for a while to see what weird sorta familiar sound will come out from me. =D
Iain, at least ya liked the ending! =D Not a total fail.
I'm tempted to get another tall tripod for my S20U. Then I can have a little more control & leverage on shots. Though, the adjustable, short tripod is more stable from wind/etc because it's short and low to the ground.
Soo wrote: "'m currently having to rebuild my lungs again. It's weird how fast your body will lose strength etc. Takes a bit more work to get them stronger than to lose it...."No kidding! I'm still working to rebuild strength and flexibility in my foot/ankle. I can't hike yet though I've done two long-ish walks on our local greenway. It's driving me nuts :(
I use these things to help with strengthening my ankles:- Mini-trampoline
- Wobble Balance Board
- Resistance bands
Here's two vids of what I've been doing. I figured I can find just about anything on YT. lol
1) Ankle Stability: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgnMo...
2) Ankle Strengthening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HO0m...
Right now I'm more about stretches with & without resitance bands/weights and massaging. I need to make a workout area in the house. It's currently full of stuff that needs to be reorganized. I intentionally filled the space up in order to prod myself into going to the gym. Now I can't use the gym. So, I should push making the workout area in the house again. XD
TO DO list. Ahh, it never ends.
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I dunno... it kinda makes me want to potentially suffer through another trilogy by the author... reviewers tend to either love him, or agree with me about Survivor...
Battles hasn't written anything I want to read in a while. I did it mostly because he was on KU or during my Audible spree. I'm annoyed with Audible Plus because it has a bunch of the books I've bought but would have preferred to have read via plus. It's not like we're not paying for it. Oh well.
Mod
I'm annoyed with Audible Plus because it has a bunch of the books I've ..."
I mostly read him because I'll try almost anything, if there's a whiff of time travel or a multiverse...
Speaking of, I read The Shadows of London today... almost done now... half the reason I read it, is because I'm worried it might no longer exist on Audible Plus at the end of the month... I think I might be right... there was this paper/scroll next to the book cover in my library that I've never seen before, and disappeared when I started listening...
Anyway, I think you might be able to manage the story, while skipping the first book... but it'll spoil the timey-wimey conclusion of the first book...
I spent half the 2nd book wanting the present day foibles to hurry up... there's some time travel early on, then alot of the MC interacting with characters from the first book that no longer know him the same way... or that he doesn't know... but things got fun in the middle and hectic towards the end, and I really liked how things played out... which is great, since the nebulous Time Traveller People were just annoying to me for the first 80-90%...
The end gives it a (view spoiler)... I wonder how much of the bigger story being built can be resolved in 4 books?... because so far, it doesn't look like the author has gained much audience yet, and that might curtain any long series plans... hope it's good... book 3 isn't due out until January...
EDIT: If you're lost, this is the followup to And Then She Vanished, from a few weeks ago...
I'm in the last hour of Stuff and Nonsense. I see what you mean by a darker ending. Also a little reminiscent of Star Wars with the whole (view spoiler) reveal.
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The last half hour is a preview of the second book so I finished faster than expected :D I definitely need more Threadbare in my life.
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Hopefully, the more people we get to read it, the more momentum it will get :D
Gah! Audible is having a sale on every single title I clicked on so might be site wide. Oh, this could be dangerous lol
Narilka wrote: "Gah! Audible is having a sale on every single title I clicked on so might be site wide. Oh, this could be dangerous lol"Thanks!!!
There's another sale? *goes to look* LOLWe totally enable each other on the book love! =D
+ 1 Adorable
+ 1 Charisma
Threadbare is SO CUTE!!! AHHHHH
Guys, I can't find the link for the Member Sale. Can you copy & paste it here? =D
Just click on the book. Shows the “member” price in red
Space team #12, The Paternus Trilogy, The Variant Saga (Chaney), deathstalker #2, and The Squire. So far. Lol
The banner is showing up for me now. It's save up to 70% site wide.
I have bought 5 titles so far... Space Team #2 & #3, Joe Ledger #6 (used a credit, it's $17 on sale), Guild Codex #7 & #8.The sale lasts most of the week. I'll be back to it later lol
Fantasy Buddy Reads
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Other people seemed happy enough, tho... I have a feeling I'd fall into the negative camp, tho, given how many problems I had with Nightside by the end...