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Archive [Retired Book Clubs]
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RETIRED THREAD: Vagabond Treehouse Book Club
Iain and Soo, you know me pretty well by now, do you think I might enjoy Joe Ledger?
Mod
There's a fair bit of Trigger Warning stuff, but the good guys win in the end...
By this, I mean people being psychologically tortured to work for bad guys, underage prostitution... just messed up shit, to give the reader a close-up idea of why these assholes need dealt with, if it wasn't obvious already...
Where I'm at right now, the team has been dealing with some on-the-job PTSD from the events of the previous couple books...
I can't recommend the books enough... they've been one of my bingiest series during my slow slump...
Choko wrote: "Iain and Soo, you know me pretty well by now, do you think I might enjoy Joe Ledger?"Part of what makes Joe Ledger a lot of fun are the twists that Maberry takes with covert operations, some military styled actions, politics and portrayal of religion based perspectives.
Strong point are the characters. There's TONS of action. The series is basically a thriller-action on paranormal/preternatural/mad scientist/evil world conqueror steriods.
I would say 60-70% of the stories are grim but it doesn't get me down because I know somehow the good guys will (mostly) win.
Choko, I haven't read any crime/thriller centered stories with you so I'm not sure if you would enjoy Joe Ledger. If you're interested, you should borrow the book/audio from your library and see if that catches your interest. Then you can dive into the rest of the series.
Terraway - Soul Reaping/CleansingThe label Omen for the soul taking is doesn't really fit the role or the characters. Omen has more of a negative meaning than one of warning. Though, I guess warning can be a good one for what the Omens do?
Soul Cleansing is in many religions, stories & practices. The idea of the soul being the power or life force is common in many stories/religions. Some would say that life sacrificed at birth (all of the life that the person/animal could have had) or the vitality of a person at young adult being the high point of life strength or extreme emotion of a person/animal making the power of the kill/sacrifice strongest. There's also sex/etc.
Pure/Cleansing: There's all kinds -
- Bathing to clean body = Clean spirit
- Smoke/Incense of special herbs
- Drinking Tea/Potion
- Virgin = Untouched/Special
- Prayer/Meditation
- Confession of Sins
- Death of life to give life.
- Fire to burn curse/life and create ashes to form new life/growth.
There are so many that I can't write them all down.
The style that's used in this story isn't based on one particular aspect of religion/pagan/folklore. Besides, the ideas about a fae world living in parallel to our world is just another aspect of multi-dimensions/etc.
Timelord Iain wrote: "Soo wrote: "Don't ruin the fun, Iain! lolIt is amazing and insane the things that people can discover & create. I can totally see splicing of animal genes into people to create stronger/etc."
ad..."
Oh lordy, I'm in for it now aren't I :)
Choko wrote: "Iain and Soo, you know me pretty well by now, do you think I might enjoy Joe Ledger?"If you decide to pick up the first Joe Ledger book I'll probably still be reading it for most of June. My audio speed has slowed waaaay down now that I'm working from home. I'm 4ish hours in to a 14+ hour book and like it so far. I also happen to like scifi thrillers though!
Iain adding the spoiler tags was pretty funny. =D hahah
Well now I am really interested... I will see if I have any time to start that series too(*_*)
Mod
So far, book 10 hasn’t matched the blurb at all, except for 1-2 minot character comments... what it has had, tho, has been a ton of great callbacks to previous books, enemies, and scenes...
I’m might jump back into Ledger. I’m only on book 2
Joe Ledger #1I can't believe the guy's name is Bunny LOL!! Loving how much humor there is in this.
Yah! Bunny! =D The nicknames fit the guys.
Mod
It's funny... i comment so often on the dark notes of each book, but when a book opts to skip some of the dark stuff that appears often, the stakes don't feel as high (which is kinda counter-intuitive, given the actual stakes of this book)
That ending, tho... (view spoiler)
And this book had so many dangling plot threads for the sequel series... (view spoiler)
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Not sure when the next book will be out. I'm going to guess late 2020 or mid 2021. Ya know, I actually don't remember enough about Deep Silence and with you on how it needed more fleshing out on certain parts because it felt like an odd void to not get more details on those events.
Mod
Ya know, I actually don't remember enough about Deep Silence and with you on how i..."
Deep Silence: Great idea book... reminded me of some of the scarier Doctor Who episodes (from the 2005+ revival), that drew on real life things, or believable things... (view spoiler)
Actual plot discussion: (view spoiler)
Probably forgot some stuff, but hopefully that jogs your memory...
Junie: I don't think Maberry knows what he's going to do with that. I'm not even sure how that relationship is going because it seems like Maberry changes his mind about J&J relationship a few times in Deep Silence and Rage and the spin off zombie series where Joe plays a side role.
I'm gonna rant a bit guys and doing it here because the series I just gave up on is a UF/PNR/WTH Jump the Shark. HahaBlood Destiny series by Connie Suttle
I've gotten back into reading a book in print while I listen to a different one in audio. This will probably stick for a while until I get back into hiking regularly. So, I'm not sorry to have spent the last week reading this series but it does make me wonder about the publishing industry and how a series can be released with so many freakin' errors.
I got into the series because it was recommended in another group. Bonus because I had the first book downloaded as a freebie on Kindle.
What drew me into the series were these elements:
- MC: Lissa is in her late 50's. She had a traumatic childhood but a happy life later on as an average person. The story starts off with her getting drunk for the first time because her husband had just died. Two asshole vampires made a bet on how long it would take for her to "turn" into a vampire.
- Interesting take on vampires & werewolves.
- Totally a slow burn romance & there was lots of character development (though not necessarily growth) in the first couple of books.
Pros:
- Great characters were introduced & setup. I really liked Lissa for sure.
- Interesting twists on vampires, werewolves, other.
- Decent attempts on establishing trauma, impact on characters, denial, acceptance, growth, etc.
- Entertaining situations even if they were full of loop holes.
- I ended up being glad that all of the sex scenes were fade to black because they would probably have been super disappointing if the author wrote them out vs hinting.
Cons:
- Editing Errors, Misspelled Words, etc
- Author isn't good with multiple POVs and ended up making the series with a ton of characters.
- Author was also stuck on trauma being a big focus for most events & that made most mini-arcs into the same old base situation with different characters + Lissa.
- Story consistency. Most of it was okay until later in the series. Author's not good with too many secondary characters. Now throw in time travel, philosophy, mythologies, a new religion. Story details start to fall to pieces.
- Lissa ends up as a mega powerful Mary Sue type character but her default of wanting to "please/help/care" for people made her not a mega awful bitch. More like a God with clipped wings.
- There's a string of soulmate that I enjoyed a lot at the beginning but it becomes an excuse for why Lissa is okay falling in love with men that boss her around, don't listen, etc.
- Mild growth in character at first and when new abilities are thrown into the story, but no real change in how Lissa deals with making decisions.
By book #9, I was fed up with the negatives of the series and wanted to just read the #10 and let it go. Then I checked the series list on GR and realized that 2 books were added to the series later.
#10 was great because it focused on some of the kids and there was less of the insane POV changes & etc. It focused on the kids and tied up a few plot lines that were developed in earlier books. It basically had the elements of the series that I enjoyed (including the flaws).
I thought if I read the sample for #11, that would give me a good idea of what the book would be like. Nope! I only read a few pages. It was a good intro with humor and interactions between two characters. I figured I would take the plunge and see where it went. Totally wanted more adventures with the kiddos. =P
I got crap. I paid money for crappy plot, bad writing and so many plot holes that it may as well be a mesh screen.
The author wrote several spin off series that branch from Blood Destiny. In order for you to really understand #11, you had to read a bunch of other series that the author had written. You can understand what is happening in the book but there's little depth to several of the key characters because their stories are told in the other books. Not only that but the writer decided to change POVs between 8+ characters and show different parts of the same moment or event. The book is only 300 pages and half of it was repetition. AND it involved tons of time travel and events that impact the time line. There goes story consistency. *eye roll*
SO MUCH POTENTIAL WASTED!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh
Ambitious concepts that were completely wasted in this crappy series.
Potential:
- Amazing multi-partnered relationships of various races/species/etc.
- Cool character developments on how to deal with pain/trauma & either break from it or grow stronger.
- Philosophy strands on long lives, religion, fate, what is a God, etc.
- Lots of cool paranormal/preternatural/mythological creature beings.
- Fun time travel, dimensional jumps, etc.
- Ups & downs of building a civilization.
Lissa ends up having more than 17 "fated" partners. She's old fashioned and tries to spend time with just one of them per night. Except for the twins that end up getting her used to being with both of them. After 20 years of being with multiple partners, I don't think a character would be shy around the partners. Especially since none of them care about nudity, etc. Unless it's Lissa being naked and someone that is NOT one of them looking lustfully at Lissa. *eye roll*
Man, I super liked Lissa for most of the series and a lot of the secondary characters too. The idea of the non-gendered race that basically become vampires was pretty cool. A lot of cool ideas. But the bigger the world & character list grew, the writing suffered on multiple levels. It's just too bad.
I bought a different series bundle because I thought it would be fun to read when I bought #11. After suffering my to the end of #11, I'm SUPER ticked that I bought the other series. Total waste of money. Blah
Mod
From what I understand, he can do whatever he wants between series, because they're actually multiverses?... there's that part in Kill Switch or Extinction Machine, where (view spoiler)
Junie: she's never really been a pivotal in-book character, beyond the first book she was in (view spoiler)... she's just kinda there to tug on Joe's heart-strings when Bad Guys are doing Bad Things... or to run Freetech to show the good the DMS does...
(view spoiler)... Maberry seems to like to be vague and mysterious...
Yeah, June hasn't had a prime role in most of the books except as a touch stone for Joe. I don't think the dimensional aspect is a big part of the changes because we're going with the idea that this is along the one we know and the other moments were blips into the "unknown".
Mod
I knew, if I continued, I still had 10-20 years and dozens of books to suffer through... considering the plans for the YA series and eventual needs to tie everything together...
Fantasy Lover, Night Pleasures, Acheron, The Guardian, Styxx, Dragonbane, Infinity, Deadmen Walking
I read Infinity. I think it was a library loan. Yeah, I'm not sure if I can handle 30 books of degenerating crap.
I'm not sure how you or the others read so many of the In Death series. The writing for that is not as good as what I would expect from Roberts. Remember how I told you I tried to listen to the audio? The female character comes across as dumb and makes lots of odd choices. Super cheesy.
I'm doing a BR for Elric by Moorcock & I actually want to read that one but I'm finding it hard to find time to focus on just that book.
Plus, Waking Fire audio is not sticking to my brain well because the story sounds like a report vs a story. I think I have to read the book for that one too. I figure I'll give myself another day or two of reading whatever I want and focus on getting those two done.
Upside, totally digging my re-read of Dresden Files! That's been great and I need to haul butt a little bit to make sure I'm done with them before the new books release. =)
I still have never read Dresden, but I have never been able to catch a BR for that series to do it...It sucks when you start a series, you like it and then it keeps on going forever while deteriorating... I am sorry, Soo... I noticed you are having a bit of a hit and miss time of it lately... I was reading like a maniac for the last several months, but I am going through a tad of a slump right now and am fighting to stay out of it as much as possible... Glad you are enjoying Dresden files (•‿•)
Choko, #16 & 17 of Dresden Files are getting published this year. Peace Talks #16 is coming out on 7/14. If you wanted, I bet you can read #1-15 before the latest comes out. LoL
We can always talk about Dresden Files in this thread. Iain already did his re-read of the series. I'm on #10 now.
Yeah, well. I've been reading a lot. In average, most of the books are 3 stars for me. The 4 & 5 star reads are maybe 1 out of every 5/6 books I've read. In May, I read 121 (not counting DNFs that I stopped within 20/30%) books and most of them have been good to great.
The more I read, the more chances I'll run into so-so books. To make sure I don't get book burn out, I jump genres. Making sure that I skip around on genres basically guarantees that I'll run into more badly written books than not. Plus, I'm trying to make sure 65% of my books are audio, so that also makes it tough on finding new (on sale/library) books to go with what I already have.
I depend on GR & Audible for random books to try out or reminders for books I haven't read in a while.
LOL - The more I think about how I compile my Current To Read list and what I do to stay away from reading burnout, it's completely apparent that I think and plan ALL the time! LOL
Choko wrote: "I still have never read Dresden, but I have never been able to catch a BR for that series to do it......"Choko whenever you want to start Dresden, I will read it with you. I am the same, never seem to be able to catch a buddy read.
We could try to do that starting next month, Loriidae, or really whenever you want. As Soo said, we could discuss it here, and the guys who have already read them, can spur us along with some of their thoughts◉‿◉. I would like that!
Choko wrote: "We could try to do that starting next month, Loriidae, or really whenever you want. As Soo said, we could discuss it here, and the guys who have already read them, can spur us along with some of th..."let's do that!
Deal! I will get the books and plan on it for next month ʘ‿ʘ
Im down to try a few Choko. I struggle with Urban Fantasy so maybe a BR will help.
Yay! =) So, the first couple of books are a little rough but character & plot development stuff are set from the get go with book 1. I actually did a combo of reading print & listening to the audio for most of the series when I read the them a few years ago. =)
During my re-read, I've been having a great time getting back in touch with the details that Butcher plants from the get go and new developments made with each book. I love the core characters. A lot of the way the Fae & magic work are old school with Butcher's own little twists.
Like pizza being a prime way to bribe the little fairies. lol
The Last Survivors Box Set: The Complete Post Apocalyptic SeriesHey, gang. I decided to gallop my way to the end of this boxset and give ya'll my take on it. It was one of the audio bargain buys that I got a month ago.
I can't say that I would recommend it for general reading because it's a bit of a meandering plot. The two authors had an idea that bloomed into a story that they wanted to tell. It reads like a really good brainstorming session. lol
You would enjoy this series if you like the following:
- Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian
- Emphasis on a Dark Setting/Culture/People/Action
- Multiple POVs
- None of the brutal/horrific scenes are graphic. Just enough detail to let you get an idea/image/etc.
- Interesting perspective of living after the fall of modern mankind.
- Great narration by Sean Runnette. He's one of the good ones.
The best book was the last one in the batch. It was a great way to wrap up most of the story lines that were developed within the series. A lot of active scenes from start to finish. I liked the last two books best.
This actually sounds good, Soo. I am glad you enjoyed it and will eventually get to it, since I got it at the same time as well. I read couple of post apocalyptic series and both of them left me very disturbed, but they were also quite graphic and heavy on the subject of rape, and I obviously have a very hard time dealing with that emotionally... However, you know I am always open to any non-contemporary, non-real subject matter, especially speculative or sci-fi◉‿◉...
Feel free to hit me up to chat about the series when you get around to it, Choko. =)I recommend having a fluffy, funny, popcorn type books to read at the same time. That way you don't get stuck in "Doomsville".
I read a ridiculously cute Alien kidnapping romance with kids. Who knew you could have goofy, rom-com with aliens? lol
Which one is that? I want, ney, I need a ridiculously cute rom-com with aliens and kids!!!
Mama and the Alien Warrior #1 of in a series by Honey Phillips & Bex McLynn. I read the first one and plan to read the other two later. It's good popcorn romance. lol
The books are on Kindle Unlimited. Short books around 250 pages. Let me know what you think. =)
If you want audiobook romance recommendations, I can send a few rom-coms your way too.
Awesome! Something light and fun and fluffy!!!
Quill #1- Simon Vance is the narrator & he was great.
- Writing was technically ok but the actual plot progression, character establishment/actions and setting was not done well.
- For me, this was disappointing because the story promised me a cool, steampunk adventure with a little bit of mystery. I ended up with two main characters that don't use their brains and fall into answers by accident. There's sleazy sex scenes. Wannabe "sexually free and feminist" but ends up sexist & slimy.
Basically, the story ended up doing the opposite of what it said it was. Narrative will actually tell you one thing and the characters/events will end up doing the opposite. lol
I decided to go back to authors I know & enjoy reading. I'll go back to being adventurous & trying new author/books later. =P
The Human Division #5 by John Scalzi - Good SF, I love this world setting & characters. There will be suspense, weird tech, solid characters, action and humor. Woot!
Alien Research #8 by Gini Koch - Goofy humor, mostly great characters + cute animals/aliens and light SF in urban setting.
Iain, for Dresden Files short stories, did you read them or find audios for all of them? I don't think they all have an audio?
Just finished Terraway #2... It is such a mixture of her mental illness and kind of a fun story, I definitely like it more than I expected to. The writing is actually better than the plot, and I like the characters, but (view spoiler)I also wonder if Ezra is ever going to marry her mom?
Yep, I am hooked and now I want to know what is going to happen. I am a bit pissed that they have the first and second books on audio, but not the third... WTH? I will have to use my trusty Kindle...
Yay! Glad you're enjoying Terraway. Audible has #1-8 for the series. The rest you will have to read on Kindle. I know you have Kindle Unlimited, so you can just borrow and read the books. I recommend just reading the stories. That's the way I did it.
Mason: Yup! That situation is messed up and will get resolved eventually.
Judge & family: You learn more about them and the shared past later. =)
Terraway Rulers: It makes more sense to think of them as Fae folk because that's what they are. Like each country has a distinct type of people.
The chimera hounds sounded so fierce and ugly but I ADORED the way October was able to connect with them. It's super cute.
Vampire Hottie: I love their love and can't stand it at the same time. It's really funny that the author creates such lush relationships and yet also puts all of them through hell.
Insects/Flies/Bugs: (view spoiler)
Haha! I guess you are not paranoid if they are really following you◉‿◉... I was dubious after reading the first book, but I am telling you, I totally got hooked! And yes, the author sure puts them through their paces. It is a bit more likely now to call the series reverse harem, but even still, not really... She is still (view spoiler)
Yah, the whole Reverse Harem label is dumb. While intimate scenes happen, the author doesn't get descriptive. It's mostly fade to black for the sex scenes. Lots of descriptions on their events & feelings. Very little on sex. lol
Pretty sure that disappointed a bunch of people but that doesn't bother me. I like the focus on the characters and overall plot details + events.
Same here! I much rather read well written characters and relationships, then sex scenes... I am not complaining◉‿◉
Don't get me wrong! I've read a ton of erotica for interesting characters + sex. Haha! Terraway is great because of what's happening and doesn't need a ton of sex to make it a great series. =)
I appreciate some good sex as well, but that is usually good for the first couple of books and then they get either boring or just wrong! So I am liking that we are not in either stage yet(✷‿✷) Gives me hope!
LoL - Don't worry. It takes a while. Haha and a bunch of other events happen too.
Fantasy Buddy Reads
Books mentioned in this topic
Boundary Crossed (other topics)Into the Black (other topics)
Terms of Enlistment (other topics)
The Palace Job (other topics)
The Cuckoo's Calling (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Rysa Walker (other topics)Rysa Walker (other topics)
Charlie N. Holmberg (other topics)
I am sure there are plenty of other books about soul-cleansing and such, I just never read them before, so I am new to this concept. Apparently, this is somehow loosely connected to Polynesian mysticism or such, so I really hope we get deeper with the information as we go. Thanks for recommending this one, Soo(+_+)