Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion
Archive [Retired Book Clubs]
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RETIRED THREAD: Vagabond Treehouse Book Club
Netherwings was more fun to read than Wexler's the Thousand Names. lol Great adventure story for kids. It's not billed as the first book of a series, but it's written like one. That may depend on how it does as an Audible Original audiobook/etc.
Started Nightfall. The series (except last book) is on KU Read & Listen. *crossed fingers* It may be a good fit for the Mystery Club. Ralph Lister is the narrator. So, two good points already.
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Conditional Formatting... keeping a Master List that's queried into a half dozen categorized lists, so it's easier to update and adjust as series move from Incomplete to Complete/Abandoned/Finished/Up-To-Date... etc etc etc...
The original was such a hassle... it's still kinda unwieldy, tracking several hundred series, at this point...
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I read 2 of the Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain books, and the prequel I Did NOT Give That Spider Superhuman Intelligence! off Hoopla late last year, because of you...
Netherwings is more like MG, but readable like fables. I'm very amused by Nightfall. Mostly because I didn't read the blurb again. I read it when I first looked at the book and borrowed it on KU. That was months ago. lol
So, I was surprised when the setup goes from Jack Nightingale's case to save a girl from jumping, quits to become a detective, finds out he's adopted and the biological father lets him know via DVD recording that Jack's soul was sold to a devil and Jack will die on his 33rd birthday. Haha
I'm entertained.
What are we reading in January? I have Cradle series on my TBR list starting Jan 1. What else is on the agenda? I’m so pumped for the new competition.
We haven't planned anything. I'm cleaning up my FBR tracker thread now and look at my audiobooks to see what I want to line up. Gotta check the Buddy Read Invite thread and planned BR's to see if I want to join any of those.
Also, I plan to make a new thread for Vagabond on January 1st! Probably after midnight. Fresh thread for 2022. =D
Iain, I may start a new thread for LitRPG so I can update the heading post. Heh
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Too late for fun recommendations?... I thought of another pretty big one:
The Chronicles of St. Mary's... the blurbs proclaim the cast to be disaster magnets, and it's true... it follows a bunch of historians, in a vague British future, that have access to time travel/machines and "experience history in contemporary time"... they go back and watch history unfold, and inevitably cause havoc...
They're all great madcap adventures, with loosely adhered to rules... author is a total Pantser (just making it up as she goes along), but it works for the most part...
You should definitely check it out, since it isn't even on your TBR... and about a dozen of the short stories are available for free on the Audible Plus catalog, so you don't have to pay to read the in-between stuff, really...
Best to start with Just One Damned Thing After Another, before reading the prequel novella The Very First Damned Thing
I'm sad that System Apocalypse is coming to an end. Tao Wong started two series that take place within SA world, but they're co-authored and suspect on content. lol My fav work by Tao Wong is System Apocalypse. I'm not as invested in his other series. There's one about a healer called Brad that is stands (to me) as the worst writing Tao Wong can crank out. Light on plot, character depth, and the writing is just not as well done.
Woo! I think this may be the first (for this year) Discovery Weekly (Spotify) playlist with a true international mix of music & genres. Off the bat (not counting like Canadian/etc): Korean, Chinese, German, Middle Eastern, Non-English European, etcI need to dig into South American music. Though, it's a bit tough because I'm not a huge fan of the popular music that's on the Top Hits lists.
@Soo which genre in particular are you interested? I could send you a few recommendations on south american music probably
I listen to everything. I had fun listening to more of the traditional Latin (South American) music. I feel like the top hits on Spotify focus more on club mix. I enjoy club mixes but more to dance, than listen to. It's not as fun to just listen? Most mixes follow trends and are not the most interesting music layered. My default is rock/ballads. I love great instrumentals. Hm, should be cool South American guitar?
Back when I was a kid, I played orchestral soundtrack vinyl records as my moody/strong emotion listening phases. Now, I still have the records but no record player. Need to get one at some point. Plus, digital orchestral recordings don't always have the same "epic" vibe due to loss during the digitization.
You could always recommend a few of your favs, Julian! That could be a fun jump off point.
I'm currently sitting at 701 book count. You think I can make it to 711? Heheheh
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I hit 250... about what I expected, given my average of about 20 books per month, this year...
My reading has been way down... altho my talking about reading has been about normal :D
I get less reading done at work... I struggle with things I want to read, half the time, when I finish what I was in the middle of already...
And then I go home and watch TV, or fiddle with idle games... but also lose a bunch of listening time listening to nothing (no TV, no music, just silence, and way too much time watching an idle game play itself, with a bit of my optimization of settings)... sometimes I don't know where the days go...
But I don't want to force it, either, so I just go with it... I'm sure I'll have another 500 book year, eventually...
I am going to hit 190 this year and thats a record for me. I wish I could get 250 or 500! You both are reading savages!!! lol. 2022 I am planing for my average of 130 to 150 but am secretly wishing for 200.
@SooOkay here's a some songs + artist that are all from South America (that are not modern day top hits) for you to check out:
La Gota Fría - Carlos Vives
Lambada - Kaoma
Caballo Viejo - Simon Diaz
Lluvia - Eddie Santiago
Madre Tierra - Chayanne
Llorarás - Oscar De León
Manantial De Corazón- Yordano
Keep in mind that Latin music overall is extremely varied however and there's tons of stuff out there including Caribbean music as well. That and this post made me want to go back and start using Spotify again since pandora is no good for sharing music lol.
Also I can't even begin to fathom reading +200 books in a single year let alone any number over 365! This year has been one of my most prolific and I think I could realistically hit around 100 if I start reading at the beginning of the year and not at the end of the summertime depending on book length.
Julian, thanks! Music in all countries are varied. For exposure, I like to listen to rock/ballad. But I'd probably be happier with classic traditional music, emotional/dancable songs, etc. Since I don't know the language, it's all about the feel of the music vs knowing exactly what the lyrics are saying. Spotify has been my radio due to the wide range of music I can play. I did a music spree in the fall to re-calculate Spotify algorithms. I wanted Spotify to recommend a range of styles & countries vs just my default music.
Definitely don't listen to enough jazz or classical. Even though I love that too!
Hahah! Someone posted on a review I wrote asking: how do I dislike a book review
lol
Iain, don't force it dude. That's how you burn yourself out. Book burnout sucks. I've done that a few times. Reading should be fun. =)
Yay, Brian! Congrats on what you read this year and I'm sure you'll hit 200 at some point. Audiobooks are good for that. hehehe
I think I'll get to 707. It'll be my secret agent number. lol
Julian, do you dance? Most of those songs sound like dance songs. I've heard half of them before. =) Salsa/Kizomba/Bachata would be my guess. All dances I tried learning, but still a goofy beginner. Mostly cause I dance other stuff more. lol
I liked these songs:
La Gota Fría - Carlos Vives
Lambada - Kaoma
Madre Tierra - Chayanne
Caballo Viejo - Simon Diaz: Fun guitar, but vocals were not my thing.
I do haha! A lot of Latin music involves dancing. I sent you a list of salsa, merengue, batchata (and lambada I think is technically also a style, that one's actually Brazilian)Caballo Viejo is probably the oldest song out of all the ones I listed and is about as traditional as you will get from my home country.
Yup, Lambada is supposed to be another sexy dance. lol Only seen it in movies. Haha! I was trying to learn Zouk for a while, but it was hard to learn how to follow it. Different movements and some are counterintuitive. Plus, newbie leads didn't lead so much act out moves & some of the styling for Zouk is terrible for body parts if you force it. Lots of neck/head rolls and stuff. Still, I'll try it again some day.
My friend laughs at me when she leads me in salsa. Parts of it, I'm ok. Then I lose the pattern and become two left feet.
Feel free to rec more music. I'll try 'em out.
I've never heard of Zouk before, do you have any songs in this style?I'll get a full Spotify playlist with all kinds of music made for you if you want. You should share some of your personal favorites as well!
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gra...
Most expensive Netflix movie ever... with a fair number of big names...
Ryan Gosling as Court Gentry
Billy Bob Thornton as Donald Fitzroy
Chris Evans as a character I don't recognize (wonder if it's a Hightower replacement?)
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And adding series page links wasn't bad either...
Opening all the series links and checking for new releases (x600), is like updating my ratings/reviews/etc, all over again... I decided to add a column for when the last release was for all my series, to make it easier to tell which authors are actively publishing, and which are slumping or focusing on other works...
If I get this done, tho, I can make an accurate list of 2021 books I missed and 2022 books I want to read, tho...
(And I can stop procrastinating on the Competition Sheet modifications...)
OOO Gray Man! Not sure about Ryan Gosling being Court though. lol I mean, they need someone that can look blank, perform action scenes & be awkward in social situations. hahahaYou know. Kinda like Jim Caviezel from Person of Interest, but obliviously younger.
OH yeah, I got another weird friend request. Some person from UK with the message, to be honest I'm lonley. *eyeroll* Delete
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lol Yay! It was a missed and kicked into the zone of never.
Julian, be back later. Will look for a good Brazilian Zouk vid. That will have Zouk music, cause Zouk vid. Heh
I don't have any "this is only Zouk" music labeled in my mind. It's more like, I hear the song and know because of beats that you can dance Zouk/etc to it.
LoL So, here's to holey memory, but I did take a beginner Lambada lesson with Alisson & Audrey several years ago. Like 5+ years now. HehI haven't dug deep into Brazilian Zouk vids. So, I'm not as familiar with the dance instructors/performers.
My first workshop were taught by Alison Sandi & Audrey Isautier. They were traveling instructors from Austraila.
Vid of their performance at a Latin Dance comp:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVih9...
I believe Audrey has retired from comps to take over the family business.
Here's 2 vids of Alison with other dance partners:
with Christina) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5CiW...
with Vanessa) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3uWv...
I prefer social dance vids to show instructors, but I bet most of those are on Facebook. Social dance vids are more likely to show how well dancers dance vs choreographed performances. At least, in my opinion. It's easier to make choreography look ok to amazing.
Interesting, it has a distinct rhythm to it! Definitely looks like it would be a lot of fun to dance to, especially after you learn it. Also on a completely unrelated topic, does anyone here read litRPG? I just discovered it last night while searching for new books to read and am curious what it's like.
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Also on a completely unrelated topic, does anyone here read..."
Oh boy, have you come to the right place, lol...
Soo is a big fan, and I've dabbled, and Narilka has read some as well... we recently got her to read Threadbare, a really fun/cute one...
Stuff and Nonsense: about a sentient teddybear golem...
Main ones I've read are:
Threadbare, and the connected NPC series: Small Medium: Big Trouble
Another NPC series by Drew Hayes: NPCs
System Apocalypse has more sci-fi elements: Life in the North
Alot use MMORPGs: Catharsis, Dragon Seed, Ritualist, Forever Fantasy Online
And then there's the Cultivation route: Unsouled
I think those are the main ones I've continued past the first book with... mix of real world turned RPG, MMOs, game mechanics, tabletop game mechanics, etc...
Common theme seems to be the MC getting access to rare classes /skills that make them OP compared to regular players...
There's going to be a buddy read for Cradle and the Wandering Inn in 2022. You should join those BR's. Though, be warned that the Wandering Inn is massive and has crazier plot threads than Malazan. It starts off slow and gains momentum with each volume.I recommend getting the audiobook for the Wandering Inn Vol1. That's how I was able to get into the series. Andrea Parsneau is a great narrator. After listening to Vol1, I read the other volumes on the website. I like the series enough to buy the audiobook as they are released and joined the author's Patreon for early access.
If you have Audible, I've seen Wandering Inn Vol1 go on sale at least once a year. If you don't want to spend money, just read from the website.
Current LitRPG Rec List - I just updated that to reflect what I read this year. I have another list for comics and translated Asian webnovels.
Woo! Found some goodies in the GR Anticipated Books for 2022:Book of Night by Holly Black
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
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I'm going to be joining in the BR for Cradle I think!Having never read a litRPG before, what exactly makes it like a game? Last night when reading up on it I originally thought it was like a visual novel with varying paths to choose but looks like that is a wrong assumption.
I've played my fair share of various MMOs in the past (actually I'm scared to look at the time played in one of them lol) so I'm curious how they can make an MMO into a book.
As for wandering inn if the plot points are as interesting as Malazan then that's a pro in my mind! Malazan is a personal favorite of mine.
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Having never read a litRPG before, what exactly makes it like a game? Last night when reading up on it I originally thought it was like a visu..."
The characters generally literally have classes, levels, and skills... in some LitRPGs the MCs understand the system and/or have a status screen... in others they're playing blind, trying to figure out how the system works or what their skills do through trial and error...
Wandering Inn has a lot of moving parts, characters, and things going on... but introduces you to them slowly... initially through Erin Solstice and Ryoka Griffin, and slowly but surely through more and more characters (Earther, and born inhabitants of the world the Earthers are now stuck in)...
I'd say Wandering Inn is easier to get into than Malazan... but has similar epic payoffs after awhile?... for the same reason Earthers tend to do so well in LitRPGs sometimes... we understand video games :D
Wandering Inn explores a variety of characters/POVs, good and bad... the characters I like and kinda hate has changed across volumes, and I think I've still read less than half of the series (the later volumes get bigger and bigger)...
Having more people to talk about Wandering Inn with, should be great... I already talk with Soo about it alot... but if you guys continue with the webnovel, you'll get ahead of me, since I suck at making time for print reading vs audiobooks...
Where can you find the Wandering Inn? I don't see it available on my local library's overdrive and didn't find anything in Amazon either.
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Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/The-Wandering-...
Audible: https://www.audible.com/series/The-Wa...
Not sure libraries have Wandering Inn... mine don't
Pirateaba doesn't really expect people to buy the ebook tho... it only exists to facilitate the audiobooks... you can read the ebook online at: https://wanderinginn.com/table-of-con...
And you can make your own ebook using WebToEpub:
Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/de...
Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fire...
I taught people how to use the extension a few years ago: https://www.goodreads.com/comment/sho...
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Hmm I'll look around and see if I can't find the audiobook version somewhere if that's the preferred way to experience this story. If I have no luck there though then having the entire story already online makes it easy to read. When are we going to start the BR for book 1?
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We've been playing it pretty fast and loose with scheduling, until New Years'... but I think the plan is to start sometime in January...
We'll get gung-ho with scheduling in the coming days, as 2022 starts...
I highly recommend the Threadbare books, also on audio. Tim Gerard Reynolds is spectacular.
LitRPG is a story that has game mechanics as part of the story. Most of them are like MMORPG and some are like shooters, but rarely. A handful of strategy for building town/guild/etc. Couple dungeon building and various "evil character" as the main protagonist. The Wandering Inn is a web serial novel.
Bonus for Reading Website:
- Free & 1st Updated with Changes (Changes Rarely Happen)
- Author Notes at End of Chapter (later show as 1st comment)
- You can see the fanart.
- Later, you'll see art paid for the series.
- Some music have been made.
- There's a WI game somewhere. Game developer asks for a donation.
- There's a spin off comic based on one of the small island character. That character is not in the main series, but may be introduced later? I'm not sure. I have not bought the comics. Plan to do it at some point. Waiting until there's more. Currently at 2 volumes.
Iain gave you all the links you need for WI in his post. =)
Great job, Iain!
As far as I know, Audible is the only place you can buy the audiobooks. The audiobooks are great! However, I don't like to wait and read up to the current release, Vol8. There's pros & cons to listening and reading. I do both.
If you don't like the white font on black of the website, you can buy the ebooks on Amazon. As far as I know, the ebooks are the last to be updated with any changes/edits.
Malazan: I read the main series. Mostly by audiobook. I grew to enjoy it between books 2-6. But I didn't care for the way it ended. I don't mind epic battles, but I'm not a fan of the obtuse writing style Erikson chooses to write with for 90% of the series. His style changed slightly for the last three books. The most obvious changes were in #9-10. Up to #7, I thought Malazan had a chance to become a series I can love and re-read and dig into all the extra books. Sadly, that didn't pan out for me. So, yah, Malazan has some great points, but it didn't meet the potential I thought it was going to be.
Wandering Inn: It is NOT written by an experienced writer like Erikson. Pirateaba grows as a writer as s/he writes the webseries. She's written thousands of pages. There are flaws in the writing and some of the story progression, but all of the details and characters build up a fun world. A world full of boring, dashing, amazing and horrible people of various species and creatures. It can be silly, a creeptastic nightmare, gut wrenching stabs and epic yawn for the less well crafted characters. However, I enjoy the ups and downs of reading WI and I'm mostly cool with how engaged Pirateaba is with the readers. Erikson may be engaged with readers outside of the series as a person/etc, but he does not try to engage the readers within the writing. Well, for books 1-8.
Fantasy Buddy Reads
Books mentioned in this topic
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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)
At some point, in my Incomplete Series sheet, I implemented conditional formatting that highlights duplicates... talk about smart... found out when I made a duplicate :D