Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion
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Beware of Chicken 3
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Vagabond Treehouse (2023) [Beware of Chicken 3 - December 4th]
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I'm not avoiding dark story elements, but I am definitely more into stories with gutsy MC's, a dash of goofy or intelligent humor and solid warm bonds of family/frie..."
I know the real reason you're back... Goodreads Choice Award nominees were announced around midnight ;)
...
We've definitely been doing alot of cozy reads in the special thread, lately, after Spooktober ended... me and Emily are trying to read Son of the Poison Rose this week... that's all the dark I need, for awhile...
Ya mean the Fake GR awards where only 1 or 2 seem to be legit nominations/wins? 😆😆😆Upside of writing on phone, super easy to add emojis! LoL
I was able to borrow a few of next in series reads via library. Also put hold for Anita Blake book cause I don't wanna pay for emotional counseling that goes nowhere. 🤪 I read that the last 2 books were 1 cut in half. Made many readers of the series angry. Duh
I have a few LitRPGs, Joe Ledger, a Scalzi and Audible + lined up to read next. Super hoping Cradle will end well and the Completionist books are back on track for story consistency and plot progression.
I want to finish Joe Ledger but just can't right now. The series took a dark turn and my psyche isn't up for it yet. Perhaps next year.We all enjoyed the Cradle ending on our BR earlier this year. I hope you like it too Soo.
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Upside of writing on phone, super easy to add emojis! LoL
I was able to borrow a few of next in series reads vi..."
Nirkatze recently got a New Orleans library card from their website... you need to email the librarians on-staff, as an out-of-stater, but it's $50/yr, and you get like 50 Hoopla credits per month (no joke)... Felina signed up as well, I think...
If/when you get heavily into reading again, and think you can use that amount of credits...
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We liked Starter Villain, too (assuming that's what you meant by Scalzi)...
Soo! So great to "see" you again! Dittoing all the well wishes... though I can't imagine replying to our posts is conducive to your healing...Still, I always appreciate your recommendations! I
@Narilka--hugs to you too! I'm glad we went with cozy reads this month...
I'm totally in for BOC 3--@Iain--did we ever make a decision about what schedule to choose for next year? I'm down for most of the ideas... maybe not Noobtown yet, gotta wait for those sales to keep coming around, but keeping up with Vigor Mortis etc, or weaving in some Dungeon Crawler Carl (will get to it by end of year).
Dittoing everyone on Waybound--it was a lot of fun, was not at all disappointed. And I think it had my favorite set of Bloopers.Have been hearing Joe Ledger around. Someday in the future, when y'all do a series read, I'll jump in.
New Orleans has been awesome--they have a really nice selection on Libby and though it's only 20 borrows a month on hoopla, not 50, that's still 5x my local library.
Their search page:
https://neworleans.polarislibrary.com...
How to get a library card:
https://nolalibrary.org/new-to-the-li...
The one downside is--the more of us FBR folks that get their library cards, the more we'll have to wait in line for books behind each other, lol. Though--they're also pretty good about picking up more licenses frequently when there's more demand. I often get notices to that effect for the books I'm waitlisted for.
Phone typing with 2 thumbs is less rigorous on the main ligament that everyone abuses. It's the one at the base of your thumb and connecting to wrist area, forearm bone. Prime zone for abuse & zoned for carpal tunnel, etc. My local library has a borrow limit like regular library loans. Physical books are up to 20. Digital loans are 10. There's no limit on amount of books to borrow per month. Just 10 total loans out at a time.
I'm not a fan of Libby. I wish the old Overdrive was kept in the loop. It gave the user more flexibility on use. I just found out that I can't rate the book I read for my library and there are no user ratings on Libby.
BUT I will say thanks for the fact that I have a decent library to borrow from. =D
Glad to hear everyone enjoyed the wrap up for Cradle! Cradle is the only series that Wight has written well. Be cautious of reading his other books. I'll try anything via sales & KU, but I haven't had a great experience reading is other series.
KU Membership Discounts I did a quick search to see if I wanted to extend my KU while I remember to do it. The tech website one has been flagged by Amazon as a bot/etc and people lost their account. So, be careful of what Discount Links you use for getting memberships. New or extended. I should research it a bit more around Xmas and get one cause my current membership ends in May 2024.
Dang. Just read about (view spoiler) Like getting other writer's work banned, threatening lawsuits, etc. All of which is too bad. I already decided to remove him as a fav LitRPG writer based on how he ended SA. That ending was lame. Reading the other negative news makes me less willing to spend money on his work.
Ugh, I hate it when I hear stuff like that about authors... or actors... it feels like it taints all their work...
Yup. Most of my LitRPG must read authors have been moved to the "Let's wait and see how books turn out." I am hoping the choppy publishing will smooth out and I can gleefully dive into their work without precautions. Cause there is hope for growth and cool stories. 🤗Negative hijinks that involve throwing over inflated ego moves are lame and I don't want to support that. I think this may be the 3rd such author I've put on the meh don't support with my money list.
It's always a shame when that happens.
A few years ago Faleena Hopkins tried to copyright the work "cocky" and was just killed for that attempt. Like how can you copyright a word like that as a romance author? There were so many anthologies, books and series started with "cocky" in the title after that lol
That's nuts! LoL cocky is used a lot in romance and plenty in general. Not sure what people are thinking when they try to own a word or phrase that's used in the regular.
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That's honestly the real double-edged sword of social media / etc, in general... it allows a deeper / more direct connection between authors & fans... but also, if the author has some shady views, and doesn't know how to keep their mouth shut, it shoots them in the foot (good in the long run, rather than not learning until decades later like the Marion Zimmer Bradley stuff, etc etc etc)...
Timelord Iain wrote: "Lots of spurious lawsuits out there... I think I heard about the cocky one... or something similar...That's honestly the real double-edged sword of social media / etc, in general... it allows a d..."
Exactly! When I read exclusively romance I mostly M/M romance and a niche publisher pulled some really shady shit and I added several authors to my "Hell No, Never Again" file when they either defended the publisher or even worse were rude to readers who spoke up to criticize the company for non-payment of royalties. And of course there is "She Who Must Not Be Named" who can seriously eff off all the way. I am so sad I bought the books, audios and movies of HP but she will never see another dime from me which i realize to a billionaire that doesn't matter but it is the principle lol
LoL totally forgot about Rowlings. Yeah, I put her on the, borrow from library list. Only have 3 on the don't buy or read list. Gotta say TW is on that list cause his work is never going to be generic popular enough to be included in most public libraries like Rowlings.
Orson Scott Card was one of the first authors to make the Sad List for me... I think I was in middle school when I read all the Ender books, high school when some of my friends started coming out as gay and I realized that was something that existed (another reason I'm so glad there's so much more LGBT representation in books nowadays) and college when I realized he was a big opponent of gay marriage....
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We're barely 10-15 years out, from people saying "that's gay" all the time, to disparage things they don't like...
5-10 years or 10-15 again from "that's retarded"...
About 5 years from the removal of "autistic screeching and REEEE" as an acceptable meme format...
Etc etc etc...
And I'm sorry, if even typing/mentioning those once common phrases was too offensive... mentioning taboo words/phrases can be hard without actually saying them... there was a Linus Tech Tips clip from their WAN show, I think, a few months ago (pre-controversy), where Linus confused what Hard R meant (he thought retarded and said he used to use it all the time, but it's actually the N word ending in ER instead of just A)
Anyway... tangent within a tangent...
I personally despise the negative twist with the phrase "that's gay". It was one that I'd speak up against. I actually have less response to other slang terms or slurs. Mostly cause the terms were already in place. Whereas "that's gay" became a thing during my life.
In books, I find it irritating for writers use 'oriental' in reference to people. That's a crappy Westernized slur that I commonly echoed until I learned that oriental is a descriptor for things, not people. So it was a double racial slur when used back in the day and probably mistaken as an okay descriptor later.
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Seemed liked a good fictional corollary to this discussion...
Boo! I thought I'd love System Collapse and I ended up thinking it was a stale extention to the series. Lammme
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Timelord Iain wrote: "I hear it's heavy on robot PTSD... reviews from people that haven't read previous entries in awhile haven't been great..."REDACTED
My takeaway so far, 4 chapters in so far....
I had a negative response to the 'redacted'. Ya know it's for a reason but meh. I didn't realize it was a section right after Network until I started. Realized it and that was fine, but it felt awkward and weird to go back after the last book, Fugitive Telemetry. Audible has the books listed per publication dates, so I assumed it was next in chronological line. Bad on me for not reading the blurb or reviews, but I don't feel like I should have to for a series I love.
My biggest gripe is that it lacked the normal for Murderbot growth I've come to expect.
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This isn't the book that went backwards... Fugitive Telemetry is... Fugitive Telemetry took place right after the initial 4 novellas, before the 5th longer book with ART, which is actually the one that ended on a mini-cliffhanger, with ART and M-Bot headed off to the planet (to rescue people/data, I think), after the existential issues of creating MBot 2.0 and 3.0 drones and then being kidnapped as 1.0 Sec Unit...
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Hmm, then maybe it's just a weaker story than the others. Usually, I enjoy the way Wells would make a lot happen with layered meanings. But I felt that was missing. There also wasn't the range of mental/verbal dialogue or actions that are key aspects of Mbot & gang.
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Does anyone remember off hand how many books are planned for Murderbot? Perhaps it's time to wait for the series to finish after this one. The first 4 were a nice arc, 6 is relatively self contained, while 5 was definitely the start of another arc. I can also see if you were reading them as they published how frustrating it would be to get #6 after that ending in #5.
Soo wrote: "I had a negative response to the 'redacted'. Ya know it's for a reason but meh. I didn't realize it was a section right after Network until I started. Realized it and that was fine, but it felt awk..."I think MB did grow further in this book. I enjoyed it quite a lot but I just read the series for the first time and read it in chronological not publication order so maybe that made the difference for me?
I really liked Witch King--but I think it made a better impression on me for eye-reading rather than doing audio.
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Timelord Iain, Tech Support
(last edited Nov 23, 2023 02:06AM)
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rated it 5 stars
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It's been a divisive book... 3.74 average rating after 11k ratings is a bit low for Goodreads (most good books seem to be 4-4.25, and fanboy books can hit 4.5)
Among friends, Nirkatze, Mei, and one friend I don't recognize gave it 4 stars... the rest DNF'd that tried, basically...
Tammie DNF'd past the 14% mark at some point...
Another friend not in FBR DNF'd at 1%
Ann-Marie didn't even make it past the long list of characters to remember, in the Dramatis Personae...
Emily started, but I think was hit by her book slump and never finished?
Choko saw the writing on the wall (from me), and decided to wait for more entries in the series before starting at all...
I think I gave it 3 stars?
I'm sure part of it's struggle, is that alot of Martha Wells fans are more Murderbot fans... and it's not Murderbot Diaries...
Martha Wells wrote a bunch of fantasy books before Murderbot started... and this is a bit more in line with what I've read of those?... with a whole other layer of timeline confusingness?...
Timelord Iain wrote: "Nirkatze wrote: "I really liked Witch King--but I think it made a better impression on me for eye-reading rather than doing audio."It's been a divisive book... 3.74 average rating after 11k ratin..."
Yeah still haven't finished, but haven't officially abandoned either lol
One of my goals is to finish up all the books I have marked as currentlly reading on GR. That or officially put them on TBR or DNF shelves...
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gif stolen for reuse :D
Great gif, Narilka! Happy Thanksgiving :)
Timelord Iain wrote: "Ann-Marie didn't even make it past the long list of characters to remember, in the Dramatis Personae..."Who thought that was a good idea??? I may revisit as an ebook but I immediately checked out trying the audio.
Happy Thanksgiving! 🫓🥗🥣Yah, as a new released for Mbot, there's zip change in comparison of works already published. I would have had less of a reaction if I knew it was a throwback in time line on that aspect. Eh, nah. My take is a lot of people did not respond well to the novel length of MB. Shorter and longer formats have different writing cycle reqs, but I thought Wells did a good job. It was a good book. This latest piece looks like a already written bit that was cut out, fleshed out and published. It added a little to the series but not a stand up + shine piece on it's own.
I'd probably like Witch King, but I'm going to wait for more releases.
Was there a firm book amount for the series? Cause I had the feeling the first few were a sure thing and the trajectory changed a bit after Network.
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Happy Thanksgiving!
Just started System Collapse and I see what y'all are saying about the [redacted]. Forewarned is forearmed.
Dang, I need to pay attention to other readers on GR and add more friends. 🤔Since there are so many spammy ratings on here, it's harder to check if a story is worth trying out.
That makes sense... I usually try to look for 4-star ratings and see what people have to say... Spams of 5-star ratings are a serious warning sign for me too, especially on indie authors. Like, I want someone to acknowledge "Yeah, the writing is really indy, but if you can ignore it then..."Though I guess I could go find people who rated a few books the same way I did and "follow" them...
I do always feel better when I see how y'all rated something--even if I don't have the same taste, I definitely have a better feel for how y'all's tastes relate to my own.
Nirkatze wrote: "That makes sense... I usually try to look for 4-star ratings and see what people have to say... Spams of 5-star ratings are a serious warning sign for me too, especially on indie authors. Like, I w..."mannnn I hate the spammy 5 stars. And also the over-hyped books on BookTok. I'm not on TikTok, but sometimes they make there way over to YouTube
Nirkatze wrote: "Just started System Collapse and I see what y'all are saying about the [redacted]. Forewarned is forearmed."I was listening and I was like WTF???? Then it happened again and I was like okay, something is up with MB lol
Tonari no Emily wrote: "Nirkatze wrote: "That makes sense... I usually try to look for 4-star ratings and see what people have to say... Spams of 5-star ratings are a serious warning sign for me too, especially on indie a..."I read my first Colleen Hoover book and was like these people are CRAZY, no thank you! and I took BookTok with a grain of salt going forward.
I never liked Colleen Hoover books, and I tried because of the hype as well... Now I only trust our group:)))
Fantasy Buddy Reads
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Nora Sakavic (other topics)Jordan L. Hawk (other topics)
Jordan Castillo Price (other topics)
T.J. Klune (other topics)
Derek Alan Siddoway (other topics)
We definitely hit a bit of a LitRPG/Cultivation bent, lately, trying to maintain it...
I agree Unorthodox Farming 2 was setup for the future... the premise of memoirs seems heavily open-ended, with no real plan on how to reach the foreshadowed tidbits...
Dealing with some life stuff myself... mostly just a bunch of minor unexpected bills all at once, and struggles to get car part ordered, so living with noisy car... had some dental work today, that I thought would take like 2hrs max, and I was there 4 hours, but 2 of them was me just sitting around waiting (I swear they were working with other patients and putting me on pause)... that was a bit annoying... home now, and I can enjoy the rest of my weekend...