Vagabond Treehouse (2023) [Beware of Chicken 3 - December 4th] Showing 5,101-5,150 of 5,829

[Saar The Book owl]

It was my first purchase when buying my Kindle last year. I'm going to look for the other book. Is it audio or not? Because I'm not an audio - fan.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Saar The Book owl wrote: "I think I understand most of it as LitRPG is all new to me. I've got one on my Kindle: Cinnamon Bun, for awhile now, but haven't read it yet. You guys, certainly know more of it tha..."

We know enough to ease people into the genre...

Threadbare is a fun/cute one... and Wandeing Inn (if you can ignore how daunting the page count is), is generally a toe dipper, that focuses on the epic fantasyness, more than RPG mechanics, most of the time...

Some, like System Apocalypse, have you literally working through menus buying skills and stuff...

I really like the Wandering Inn system, where all leveling happens while resting/sleeping... like Elder Scrolls games, basically...

[Saar The Book owl]

I wanted to add Threadbare to my TBR - pile, but I've already added it. Not sure when, though. I really like The Wandering Inn, but I don't know why I paused it. I think due to the page count and life getting busier, but I'm finishing the first volume before the end of the year.

Is System Apocalypse a more difficult LitRPG?

I used to play Elder Scrolls, but that was years ago...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Saar The Book owl wrote: "I wanted to add Threadbare to my TBR - pile, but I've already added it. Not sure when, though. I really like The Wandering Inn, but I don't know why I paused it. I think due to the page count and l..."

The plotting of System Apocalypse is split into trilogies...

The first trilogy is pretty easy... Earth gets turned into a dungeon world with scary monsters (common for the genre)... MC is in a dangerous location and gets a unique class/skills... uses it to advance... grows determined to figure out the system and take it down and save Earth somehow...

Sometime during the 2nd trilogy, he gets whisked away to another planet, and there's a 5 year time jump...

From there on, the series gets alot more galactic, as the MC and his friends progress through and try to take down the System from the inside...

Some people have been pretty unhappy with the ending... I'm still around book 9-10 of 12, I think...

[Saar The Book owl]

It seems to get more complicated as the series continues.

[Tonari no Emily]

Okay but I started Dungeon Crawler Carl and im loving it so far. its surprisingly brutal, but also very funny. Several literal lol moments for me

[Nirkatze]

I love that we've gone on a LitRPG bent here... definitely want to jump in... just gotta clear first week of BRs first...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

September seems to be a month for LitRPGs... if we continue the Vagabond trend... and Wind Runner is coming on the 19th... aren't you guys planning to finally read The Wandering Inn: Book 9 - Tears of Liscor... or did you read it when I wasn't paying attention?

[Nirkatze]

Emily & I are going to check in with each other in November for #9. I have a note in my tracker to bug her about it.

[Tonari no Emily]

Finished Dungeon Crawler. Really liked it and I want to go into the next one immediately, but Ill restrain myself. Reminded me a bit of The Running Man mixed with The Hunger Games and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Tonari no Emily wrote: "Finished Dungeon Crawler. Really liked it and I want to go into the next one immediately, but Ill restrain myself. Reminded me a bit of The Running Man mixed with The Hunger Games and ..."

the blurb definitely screams Running Man

[Tonari no Emily]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Scatter was good, but romance was definitely the focus…"


I read Scatter and really liked it. Very fun sapphic superhero romance. Reminded me a lot of Orlando People

[Tonari no Emily]

And am also about 80% done with BOC 2. Im so glad we randomly threw these in :D

[Choko]

To keep up with the trend, I started Oh , great! I was Reincarnated as a Farmer ... I guess the series is called Unorthodox Farming #1 and so far has 2 books...

Iain, I agree, it starts kind of complicated, but it is interesting. I am up to Ch. 11 and find it funny and a bit annoying at how much energy and time he spends just so not to work! I understand he hates farming, but damn, he could have learned and achieved quite a bit while trying to dodge it... .

As always, I am enjoying the cat and love the random ghost:) I kind of feel bad for the chickens though:((( Let's see what he does with the wolves and the troll...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Choko wrote: "To keep up with the trend, I started Oh , great! I was Reincarnated as a Farmer ... I guess the series is called Unorthodox Farming #1 and so far has 2 books...

Iain, I agree, it starts kind of ..."

Things definitely escalate... so much happens, for a first book... I look forward to returning for book 2, when I find time...

I was looking at the monthly deals on Audible, and there's a fair bit of decent stuff on there for $7-8, but nothing I need...

14 is on there, some Dragonlance books, Sullivan's Rise & Fall trilogy, Lawrence's Books of the Ancestor, Unsouled, Arc of the Scythe, a bunch of Sarah J. Maas books for people that care...

[Narilka]

Tonari no Emily wrote: "Finished Dungeon Crawler. Really liked it and I want to go into the next one immediately, but Ill restrain myself. Reminded me a bit of The Running Man mixed with The Hunger Games and ..."

Cool. I'm adding it to my wishlist.

[Choko]

Yeah, I finished Unorthodox Farming #1 ... Definitely a different vibe than BOC, but still enjoyable. A bit more serious and a lot more stuff brought over from our world. In the beginning it bugged me that he was refusing to do any farming, but I started to understand him better as the story went on. After all, not everyone is made to be a farmer. And I am glad that he actually thinks about his family in our world. Often in these books that is kind of glossed over.

I love the old schooler and the mayor and his family. The Lady Region is one scary mo-fo! I think he is going to have a whole lot of issues with her in the future...

The last battle was great, and his expectations of the ending made me laugh:)))

So, I started Unorthodox Farming #2... ... I know, I am behind on everything, but these are hitting the spot right now, so I am listening to my moods...

Up to Ch. 18... He is so over his head!!! So many people to be responsible for, this would have me buckling under the pressure for sure...

[Nirkatze]

I picked up the Scythe books on the monthly sale, and Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons, because it looked cute...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Trying to catch up on Buddy Reads... just living with the captchas, instead of doing in small chunks, since it takes forever for the captchas cooldown to wear off... so I'm doing LOTS of image captchas...

I HATE image captchas... they're so subjective... click the motorcycle... does the rider count as part of the motorcycle?... there's one pixel in this square of ladder/stair... so much ambiguity... even with the ones where each square is a separate image, is there a motorcycle or stoplight far in the background?... and on and on...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

So much for catching up on reviews today...

I did about 80-90, and edited in missing read dates on everything that had a blank read date on my bookshelf... so about 100... and all of a sudden my reviews fail to post with a Review Failed error... google results say I'm probably being blocked as spam, and to wait 24hrs and try again or contact support...

I'm still behind on ~120 reviews from September/October/November/December 2022, and 125 reviews from June/July/August of this year...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

When I went to take a screenshot to contact support with, I realized the reviews SAY they failed, but actually seem to succeed... so it's just a confusing thing I can work around.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Well... I could MOSTLY work around it... I was able to do all my 2022 read dating and shelving, but unable to add/edit any reviews... so, 2022 is done, after many hours of work... I'm all caught up through June 1st, 2023 now... closest I've been to caught up since like February/March 2022... just need to go back and record the dozen or so reviews I have something to say about, all saved in a notepad document for now, once I'm out of Goodreads time out (few re-reads I was harsh on the first time around, and new series 1st entries, I really liked, like the Wizard Butler & Poor Man's Fight books)...

I'll do 2023 later, since I probably have more to say about more recent books...

[Narilka]

Still a nice job even with the work around. I'm horribly behind on reviews too, though not as bad since I don't have your volume lol

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Volume is the problem... and the Goodreads spam protections are so strict, for anyone that reads even half as much as I do... doesn't take me long to get behind by double digits... and much past that, and you start having to do CAPTCHAs... keep going, and it adds in images in 16 pieces, then 16 separate images, then the ones where you have to keep clicking until you have 16 images without the thing you're supposed to click on... the more you do, the more likely you are to disagree with the definition of the thing you're searching for, or it ignores 2 pixels that crossed tiles... I so desperately want to give feedback on whoever designs the CAPTCHAs...

[Choko]

I hate those!!! But great job on doing so much, Iain!!!

I finished the second Unorthodox Farming #2 . Liked it better than the first. It was much more introspective and felt like it had more substance. I wonder who is going to end up as his wife eventually, the mayor's daughter or the foul-mouthed trapper. For now, he is playing the field and even has a Sex-Dungeon:))))

I loved the revelations about the world, his familiar, and his own choice for a path, although, that one was kind of obvious. I also loved that he finally got to do some actual farming!!! I was also fascinated by the compulsion some of the Dwarfs have to kill humans. It was funny, but kind of sad as well. I am like Arnold, I want all the races to get along like in some of the old Fantasy books...

[Tonari no Emily]

And just when I thought I was doing good with the buddy reads, I go and get Covid again. 2023 is not my year 🙃

[Nirkatze]

Tonari no Emily wrote: "And just when I thought I was doing good with the buddy reads, I go and get Covid again. 2023 is not my year 🙃"

Oh no Emily! I hope the symptoms clear up quickly!

[Nirkatze]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Volume is the problem... and the Goodreads spam protections are so strict, for anyone that reads even half as much as I do... doesn't take me long to get behind by double digits... and much past th..."

I didn't even realize GR had captchas, but now this makes sense... mega kudos to you Iain, for the dedication to reviewing! And getting so much done!

I've noticed that captchas are usually in threes. Except for the ones that keep replenishing when you click them, there's almost always three images. And I swear, they like it if you click the ambiguous ones, because those are very human...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

The Audible sale for September has dropped... Audible Exclusives sales... audiobooks only sold by Audible... so there's a wide variety, and lots on offer...

I picked up:

Galaxy Outlaws: The Complete Black Ocean Mobius Missions (16 novellas and a bunch of short stories, 85hrs audio) -- did alot of review checking, and trusted Soo's 3 star stamp of approval...
Differently Morphous
Orconomics
And Noobtown 4-5, since I picked up Noobtown 1 on sale last month...

There's a ton of decent stuff on there that I already have... a bunch of Gray Man thrillers, The Brotherhood of the Wheel, The Weight of Command, Orlando People, some Drew Hayes, Stuff and Nonsense, The Last Sun, Paradox Bound, some Cradle, Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash, Wolfsong...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Was able to do my late reviews for 2022... even that few edits trigger the CAPTCHAs again, near the end... I'll leave catching up on 2023 for next week/month...

In the meantime, along the way I got a chance to click some authors and check for new books on the horizon...

As a Michael Mammay fan, I was reminded of Generation Ship in November...

And, as a super new Sangu Mandanna fan, following The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches last year, I found A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping, due out next April...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Tonari no Emily wrote: "And just when I thought I was doing good with the buddy reads, I go and get Covid again. 2023 is not my year 🙃"

BOO!!!

I was about to ask if you wanted to Buddy Read Sleep No More in here...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Started Sleep No More... this is going to be a rough one... might be my lowest rated one in awhile... and I'm only in chapter 1... depends how the story plays out...

(view spoiler)[I'm not the biggest fan of dramatic irony (when the reader knows more than the characters)... and that's inevitable in amnesia and mind manipulation stories... it's what ruined The Drafter for me...

From the get go here, we're thrust into a very different Faerie... Sylvester sounds evil / uncaring, from that throwaway line already... probably because Titania & Eira are in charge, with their pureblood ways...

Changelings have it terribly... Toby's existence has been explained (in a world where August is still around, and Amandine & Simon's marriage didn't collapse)...

The only ray of sunshine, is the random thoughts that keep breaking through Titania's illusion of a Perfect Fairie... lawn grass, the idea that scared changelings are a sign of trouble in faerie, etc...

BUT... from everything I've heard, Titania's vision keeps reasserting itself throughout the story, and we're going to have to deal with brainwashed Toby alot... so, we'll see...

I've already had to hit rewind a bunch to catch every nuance of this Altered Faerie...

The Maeve Hate is strong, too... (hide spoiler)]

[Narilka]

Tonari no Emily wrote: "And just when I thought I was doing good with the buddy reads, I go and get Covid again. 2023 is not my year 🙃"

Feel better soon Emily.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I was putting the cart before the horse before... things aren't nearly as bad as I feared... things honestly started improving with chapter 2-3, and things have been a normal level of awesome since chapter 5-6... up to chapter 13 now, nearly halfway through the story...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Chapter 18 of Sleep No More: FUCK... talk about unexpected implications... (view spoiler)[I didn't even think about how Raysel just got a redux of her worst nightmare, throughout all of this... talk about trauma that's going to need unpacked in book 19+... I hear there's a short story with the ebook I'll have to seek out, when I finish the story... the audio has a sad tendency to not include the companion shorts, 90% of the time... (hide spoiler)]

[Tonari no Emily]

Thanks guys, feeling much better today, but I lost my sense of taste/smell.. I didn't realize how much that sucks until I tried eating one of my favorite foods and it tasted like nothing and disappointment. Hoping it will come back soon!

[Tonari no Emily]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Tonari no Emily wrote: "And just when I thought I was doing good with the buddy reads, I go and get Covid again. 2023 is not my year 🙃"

BOO!!!

I was about to ask if you wanted to Buddy Read [book..."

I'll be here eventually! Gonna read a couple other BRs first

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Tonari no Emily wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "Tonari no Emily wrote: "And just when I thought I was doing good with the buddy reads, I go and get Covid again. 2023 is not my year 🙃"

BOO!!!

I was about to ask if you want..."

Sounds good... I gobbled it right up... mixed feelings, but mostly loved it... just commented on your Amandine thing being confirmed in new book, over in the Red-Rose thread...

[Nirkatze]

Tonari no Emily wrote: "Thanks guys, feeling much better today, but I lost my sense of taste/smell.. I didn't realize how much that sucks until I tried eating one of my favorite foods and it tasted like nothing and disapp..."

Gah! That is such a huge bummer! It is such a huge irony of our existence, that at the time when folks most need comfort food, the comfort abandons us.... Fingers crossed for this phase passing quickly!

[Nirkatze]

Timelord Iain wrote: "The Audible sale for September has dropped... Audible Exclusives sales... audiobooks only sold by Audible... so there's a wide variety, and lots on offer...

I picked up:

[book:Galaxy Outlaws: The..."

Always appreciate your recs, Iain...
This is probably the sale I feel the least guilty about picking up lots of books... I know they aren't available elsewhere...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Shame I’m always scraping the bottom of the barrel, once I move past all the stuff I’ve already read…

[Nirkatze]

Beware of what you call bottom of the barrel... Big D might come after you...

[Tonari no Emily]

Not sure how this one came up on my more immediate TBR, but I started The Road to Roswell today and I'm having a lot of fun with it :)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Anyone planning to join the Animorphs buddy read next year (not scheduled yet, but floated the idea 6+ months ago)... AND not planning to buy all the audiobooks/etc...

This is a link to free access to all the unofficial ebooks, sanctioned by the author/editor of the series (according to the first stickied comment)...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Animorphs/co...

[Choko]

Thanks Iain! Also adding my get well wishes for Emily!!!

[Tonari no Emily]

Timelord Iain wrote: "I was putting the cart before the horse before... things aren't nearly as bad as I feared... things honestly started improving with chapter 2-3, and things have been a normal level of awesome since..."

About halfway through.. (view spoiler)[ dealing with brainwashed Toby has been rather frustrating, but seeing her still be able to untangle Titania's spells is still pretty awesome... Very interested to see what Tybalt is up to during all this. Can definitely see why the double feature is needed. I'm hoping there won't be much overlap though.. (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Tonari no Emily wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "I was putting the cart before the horse before... things aren't nearly as bad as I feared... things honestly started improving with chapter 2-3, and things have been a normal ..."

I think there's gonna be some overlap, but not much... (view spoiler)[Tybalt spends most of this book angry and frustrated and off-page... (hide spoiler)]

I definitely agree about the frustration... but it ended up not being nearly as bad as I feared...

The book is also full of throwaway lines with layers of meaning/implications we haven't known before... like the August thing we mentioned in both threads...

Honestly, sometimes I was attributing more meaning than intended, until the book sorted things out... like that bit with (view spoiler)[Li Quin's cook's sister... I was like "is this a new possible Maeve?"... but then realized it was just the hijinks of Titania's illusion keeping the sister outside the kingdom/perimeter...

The nature of Titania's illusion bubble kinda reminds me of WandaVision... (hide spoiler)]

[Tonari no Emily]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Tonari no Emily wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "I was putting the cart before the horse before... things aren't nearly as bad as I feared... things honestly started improving with chapter 2-3, and th..."

Re Li Qin (view spoiler)[ I was thinking that too... Also thought the narration sounded like Marcia... But that's just Kowal's "valley girl" accent (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Tonari no Emily wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "Tonari no Emily wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "I was putting the cart before the horse before... things aren't nearly as bad as I feared... things honestly started improving wi..."

McGuire was such a tease in this, around the 60% mark, when she said (view spoiler)[Maeve is in the area, she has to be... and we need to find her, to stop Titania...

I was like FINALLY... LET'S DO THIS!!!... then the plot got in the way, and that was backburnered... (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

@Brian: just thought to look up next year's Orphan X & Gray Man books, and Orphan X #9 made me laugh, for a second:

(view spoiler)[Once a black book government assassin known as Orphan X, Evan Smoak left the program, went deep underground, and reinvented himself as someone who will go anywhere, and risk everything to help the truly desperate who have nowhere else to turn. Since then, Evan has fought international crime syndicates and drug cartels, faced down the most powerful men in the world and even brought down a President. Struggling with an unexpected personal crisis, Evan goes back to the very basics of his mission - and this time, the truly desperate is a little girl who wants him to find her missing dog.

Not his usual mission, and not one Evan embraces with enthusiasm, but this unlikely, tiny job quickly explodes into his biggest mission yet. one that finds him battered between twisted AI technocrat billionaires, a mysterious female assassin who seems a mirror of himself, and personal stakes so gut-wrenching he can scarcely make sense of them .

Evan's mission pushes him to his limit - he must find and take down the assassin known only as the Wolf, before she succeeds in completing her mission and killing the people who can identify her - a teenaged daughter of her last target, and Evan himself. Matched skill for skill, instinct for instinct, Evan must outwit an opponent who will literally stop at nothing if he is to survive. (hide spoiler)]

And in looking up Gray Man #13, I was surprised to see both mention AI... real hot button topic, these days:

(view spoiler)[Artificial intelligence leads to shockingly real danger for the Gray Man in this latest entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

A car accident in Japan.

A drowning in Seoul.

A home invasion in Boston.

Someone is killing the world’s leading experts on robotics and artificial intelligence. Is it a tech company trying to eliminate the competition or is it something even more sinister?

After all, artificial intelligence may be the deadliest battlefield gamechanger since the creation of gunpowder. The first nation to field weapons that can act at the speed of computer commands will rule the battlefield.

It’s an irresistible lure for most, but not for the Gray Man. His quest for a quiet life has led him to Central America where he and his lover, Zoya Zakharova, have assumed new identities. With a list of enemies that includes billionaires, terrorists, and governments, they need to keep a low profile, but the world’s deadliest assassin can’t expect to hide out forever.

Eventually, they’re tracked down and offered a job by an old acquaintance of Zoya’s. He needs their help extracting a Russian scientist who is on the kill list. They reject the offer, but just being seen with him is enough to put assassins on their trail.

Now, they’re back on the run, but no matter which way they turn, it's clear that whoever's tracking them is always going to be one step ahead. Since flight’s no longer possible, fight is the only option left, and no one fights dirtier than the Gray Man. (hide spoiler)]

Both have the same mid-February release dates as last year...