Vagabond Treehouse (2023) [Beware of Chicken 3 - December 4th] Showing 2,601-2,650 of 5,829

[Choko]

Just finished TTAA #14 ... (view spoiler)[ I actually really liked this one, despite feeling kind of sad for his musical dreams not really coming true... Still, in a way, he stayed connected with his music even in his last life. Interesting how the author tends to rely on what he knows, real estate in this case, and how we got to see Rebecca in the making:)

I liked that Aiden was a good person, who just wanted to make it through life in his own way and didn't aim to be a big rich dude, although that happened eventually for him. He also thought things out, didn't just throw himself at things willy nilly... And I loved that he felt really uncomfortable hooking up with girls and women, despite looking their age, since he wasn't... I think it took The Machine to wake him up to his new life in his girlfriend's bed, or he would have never made that step...

However, I am a bit confused about what is happening in the Control Room and once again, the rules are changing... This is confusing. Not that I can't keep up with it, but just the world seems more iffy, if we are going to be changing the rules in this manner...

Same goes for the Rock and Roll Heaven short story. There was something like St. Peter, judging his life???? That is totally out of what we know as the rules up to date. Weird. It felt more like the author just wanted to write something about a Rock and Roll Heaven:) It was enjoyable:) (hide spoiler)]

[Tonari no Emily]

Ditto on Soo! She's definitely missed, and hope all is well.

I'm not even looking at the sale this time...

[Tonari no Emily]

TTAA #14 through Ch28 (view spoiler)[ Okay so far Aiden has died by Taxi twice... Does he even realize this? I would be terrified of them by now haha

Interesting that it's the Machine that decided to change his reset point... Will this hold true for everyone? That's gotta be disorienting. (hide spoiler)]

I'm actually really liking this one so far... I'm trying to buy a house right now so all the real estate jargon is actually somewhat familiar to me now.. I know a month ago it would go straight over my head hahah

[Choko]

I enjoyed it as well:) It is weird, I would have never picked this series up on my own, but since Soo decided to read it, and since the first 11-12 books were free on Audible, I decided to try it out and it really is something I have come to look forward to. The one thing that the series has done for me, I almost believe the premise at this point. Don't get me wrong, I don't Believe it Believe it, just it has gotten a space in my brain where I am thinking about what I might want to do if I find myself in those situations, and it feels plausible, so it has definitely put a mark on my thinking:)))

[Tonari no Emily]

Choko wrote: "I enjoyed it as well:) It is weird, I would have never picked this series up on my own, but since Soo decided to read it, and since the first 11-12 books were free on Audible, I decided to try it o..."

Right?? I feel the exact same way. It's definitely an interesting concept and a fun thought experiment. For not even being one of my favorite series to read (It's just enjoyable enough) it certainly takes up a lot of head space :)

[Choko]

Exactly! It's nothing exceptional at all. But it still makes you want to read the next book...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I'm glad you guys are liking it, but also glad I didn't join or try to catch up... that's 14 BRs I avoided :D

My Quantum of Nightmares book is bonkers... I thought I was going crazy a few chapters ago, but have now been vindicated a bit, with confirmation that (view spoiler)[the characters from the first book are playing a D&D campaign that mirrors the story of the nanny and superhero kids... but that still leaves me very confused about whether these kids are real or not, since Gameboy also wanted to go save these kids in the real world, a few chapters ago, before getting distracted by the 90 minute travel time to Blackpool... (hide spoiler)]

[Choko]

I actually plan on starting The Laundry Files after we read Marla Mason, Iain. Maybe you want to join me for your re-read and my first time?:) After Marla that is!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

sounds good

[Julian]

Anyone here read children of time? I was looking for something to read after finishing up the expanse and found this book.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Yea... a bunch of us, longtimers, have... it's a great unique book... there's a sequel, too... Children of Ruin...

[Nirkatze]

I'm just starting TTAA--and I agree on everything y'all are saying. It's a nice little comfort read.

I think I picked up the Laundry Files on y'all's recommendations on a previous sale. Am interested!

And I totally have the two Children books Julian, and want to read them! I keep finding new things I want to read.... I'd totally BR with you. :) Just gotta figure out where to squeeze them in!

[Nirkatze]

Choko wrote: "I just finished the Amber Spyglass. This is so difficult for me to express, but I actually liked the story and the thematic material, while I felt PP wrote it poorly... Does that make sense? He cho..."

I really like the way you put your feelings Choko. I just finished. I remember reading this series as a young adult, and having very conflicted feelings over this third book too. I don't actually think I've reread it since then. I remember feeling like I had been lured into this world of fantasy and wonder with The Golden Compass--then bludgeoned over the head with philosophy in the third book. So I agree--I like the ideas, but the delivery is definitely clumsy.

[Julian]

@Nirkatze I just started reading it about an hour or two ago! Only read the first chapter so far

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Vagabond BRs this week/end: Marla Mason #4, Constance Verity #3

Other BRs: Ghostwater, Mystery Thread BR

[Choko]

Nirkatze, right?! It has beautiful ideas, just poorly executed... And I do want to read the follow up trilogy, The Book of Dust, once he publishes the third book. Maybe he will do better once he has a set of older audience...

Julian, I will read it with you:)

[Tonari no Emily]

Really liked Children of Time! I'd read Children of Ruin with y'all.

Also I would check out Laundry Files with everyone too :)

[Julian]

So far in children of time I'm getting the feeling that this is a story about a world where humans have mostly killed themselves and spiders/insects have somehow managed to evolve due to some virus that was meant to evolve monkeys.

I would not want to live in a world where spiders are evolving like this lol.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

You got the gist… it’s a wild ride…

The author has degrees in zoology and psychology…

[Choko]

Children of Time, Part 1, which was like 2-3 short chapters, done. I love the writing stile. It is simple, but not stiff and has a sense of lightness, despite the subject being heavier.. And yes, arachnids!!!!! I kringle just thinking about them! The Doctor will sure be surprised, if and when she wakes up...

[Choko]

Up to 3.9, I think, it's called "First Contact.... (view spoiler)[ First, the Doctor is bet shit crazy! And her and her AI seem to have forgotten that the monkeys they were planning on experimenting with, exploded and never made it to the planet.

Second, obviously the " Pro Only Humans" faction won , and in doing so doomed humanity as a whole... Having destroyed the Earth, now humans are like, wait, those ancient folks that were for science and advancement were working on tera forming other planets. Let's hope they succeeded and go find those planets - they are our only hope...

Now that the Doctor+AI are insane, they are not letting the Ark ship on the planet, but themselves are not understanding what is going on on the surface, where ants and spiders are the biggest predators, and intelligent on top of that! The two species are fighting with each other in a real war, using science and weapons! WTF?!??! So f@#$ed up , scary and cool at the same time!!!

And now, a group of Earth humans finally landed on the planet and that First Contact is gruesome!!!

I really hope the Doctor manages to wake up all the way and take some control of the situation... (hide spoiler)]

[Tonari no Emily]

Julian wrote: "So far in children of time I'm getting the feeling that this is a story about a world where humans have mostly killed themselves and spiders/insects have somehow managed to evolve due to some virus..."

Definitely an arachnophobe's worst nightmare 😂

[Choko]

Children in Time... About 15% left... We, living creatures, just can't stop killing ourselves and each other, can we? What is wrong with us?!?!

[Choko]

Children in Time ... Finished! I absolutely loved it! I am very much into science, and particularly organic chemistry and biology, and the way this whole Science Fiction world is build heavily on the Science, just talks straight to my soul:))! The progressive development of the (view spoiler)[ spiders, was absolutely brilliantly written, with just the right jumps in time for it to take place. Loved everything about those spiders, and was totally rooting the insects and not the people! And I hate, HATE insects!!! Not on principle, just when in my home or my person's vicinity!

Portia, in all of her incarnations, was awesome. I liked Bianca too, since she was more daring and innovative, but Portia, with her bravery despite her preference for tradition and security, was whom I felt kinship with... I liked the two main human characters too, but they were not representative of the rest of the humans with them.

The Doctor had a much better ending than I thought she would. I am glad for that.

The regression of the human society, juxtaposed to the uplifted progress of the insects, was awesomely done! So many great observations on what is intelligence, what is faith, why faith, the battle between the inborn instinct and the restrain that culture and societal mores put on the more destructive ones, is there hope for natural evolution into not destroying one another and our world, or is science the answer... So many questions that I myself constantly run through my own head, it felt almost psychic from the author... (hide spoiler)]

Julian, I am so happy you got me to read this with you! Let me know if you plan on reading the next book in the series...

[Choko]

Iain, I started Marla Mason# 4...

I don't trust her brother! He is going to get her into something dangerous and I am sure, screw her over at the end. I just finished Ch. 3 (view spoiler)[ Bee arrived and I love how every sorcerer is paying Marla this month by teaching him, Bee, some magic. And he seems to be doing really good.

I knew Nicolette is going to be trouble. She can't help it, it is who she is, but I wish she didn't get things as crazy as she always wants to.

I like that Marla Mason doesn't eat at fancy restaurants and even doesn't own clothes to dress up for them - my kind of girl:) Also, her protections on her appointment sounds scaaaaarrrrryyyy!

The dude that met the Messenger, going through all the poisons he had at his disposal, was hilarious. Who is Boliard, and deciding to be merciful by just giving the Messenger "madness" was not comforting at all... (hide spoiler)]

[Choko]

Half way through Marla Mason#4... I actually feel for the rich dude, whom they are planning to scam... He just wants magic to be real and to be close to it. He is not a bad dude, he was born into his money, he is just naive and gullible... I don't like all of them being in on the fleecing of him...

[Choko]

Also, the Hurbomancer is soooo weird!!! M-Bot would love him though, with the mushroom obsession:)))

[Tonari no Emily]

Choko wrote: "Children in Time ... Finished! I absolutely loved it! I am very much into science, and particularly organic chemistry and biology, and the way this whole Science Fiction world is build heavily on t..."

Glad you liked that one so much! You refreshed me a bit on the story and have me excited for the next one :)

I love it when authors get you to root for "alien" over human. Speaks to my pessimistic misanthrope tendencies while also still giving me hope for non-humans xD

[Choko]

Emily! Hahaha! I couldn't have said it better! That is exactly how I feel as well:))))

[Choko]

Marla Mason #4... Well, this was one major screw up overall! And you could see something like that coming from the start, just didn't know how bad it would be. Well, it was so bad, it made me really sad at the end! I didn't expect the author to go that way, just the wrong casualty at the end... Broke my heart! Now I want to know what, if anything she could do to fix things, and I really want to jump into the next book, but I am going to wait for you, Iain... So hurry up, would you:)))))

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Don't worry... I started this one this morning, after finishing Cork #14, if you want to continue... #5 is the end of the first plot arc... #6 is kind of a (view spoiler)[Sinister 6 (hide spoiler)] plotline, if I remember correctly... and then there's a short story to read, before continuing to 7-10 (the last one I wanted to read before reading all the main books, anyway, since it existed last time I read the series, and I read it after #6)...

I actually skipped that #1.5 short story, so I'll need to toss that in, at some point, too...

I don't remember how shit hits the fan in #4, but it's kind of the norm for these books :D

[Choko]

It does... It's weird, because nothing much happened in the book as a plot, it was just a grift her brother is running, but the book gave details about her relationship with him and her closest friends. And it set it up for the next book, I guess. So I am interested to hear what you thought of it as a whole...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Choko wrote: "It does... It's weird, because nothing much happened in the book as a plot, it was just a grift her brother is running, but the book gave details about her relationship with him and her closest fri..."

I know what you mean... very character-driven, I think... since the stories involve visiting so many of the wizards introduced in the short stories, over and over...

Bradley Bowman's training and Jason Mason's vague con make up the whole story, basically... and some semi-random POV jumps to the Mycelium courier, that you know is going to collide... and Nicolette's meddling...

Still fun... and an easy read... I guess that fits Pratt's inspiration for the story?... not that I'm 100% familiar with the books/movies mentioned, but I get the idea, if they're like the Ocean's 11/12/13 movies and the like... Now You See Me 1/2... etc?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Choko wrote: "Also, the Hurbomancer is soooo weird!!! M-Bot would love him though, with the mushroom obsession:)))"

The Mycelium guy is a Fungomancer, I think... Granger is more of an Herbomancer, at the park...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Choko wrote: "Half way through Marla Mason#4... I actually feel for the rich dude, whom they are planning to scam... He just wants magic to be real and to be close to it. He is not a bad dude, he was born into h..."

definitely the most sympathetic opponent of Marla, to date...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Rondeau/Bradley: (view spoiler)[I forgot all about this... but the reason I did is a spoiler... (hide spoiler)]

Hint: (view spoiler)[we know, from book 1, that the multiverse is real, thanks to the Possible Witch... and Marla & Pratt aren't done messing with that idea, by a long shot... (hide spoiler)]

[Choko]

Now you have me really intrigued... But if that is a possibility, what would be the solution??? This is why we have to read book #5!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I'm about done with book 4, now... if the book wasn't basically over, I'd think my previous hint wasn't really a spoiler... when Marla said (view spoiler)[she was gonna bring Bradley back, and she knew people (hide spoiler)]... but I only have like 5-10 minutes left in the book...

Been a pretty big reading day... 2nd half of Cork book, whole Marla book, and the day isn't even over yet... doing this every day, is how I read 500 books in 2020... 300 of them in the first 4-5 months...

[Choko]

You and Soo are the masters:) But we all know speed varies depending on our moods... And all that matters at the end is the enjoyment:)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

OK, I finished now... and my hint was a hint... altho you might have been able to surmise why they're going out West, if you remembered enough from books 1/3...

But that last line about no matter the cost, is definitely important... no spoilers this time, but what cost could be so drastic that I keep calling this series 2 five book arcs, instead of 1 continuous episodic story?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Choko wrote: "You and Soo are the masters:) But we all know speed varies depending on our moods... And all that matters at the end is the enjoyment:)"

Yea... these days, I watch alot more TV, when I find something I want to watch... been watching and rewatching alot of mysteries lately...

2 seasons of Veronica Mars... 3-4 seasons of Bosch, 2 seasons of Jack Ryan, couple episodes of Reacher and that one with a stage magician and a twin brother in prison, etc...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Probably done reading for today... started watching Bosch again while eating, and now I don't want to stop...

Bosch is probably the best type of book series adaptation I've seen... it's faithful to the books, but different... there are so many books, that instead of just doing a straight adaptation (which would be rough when the books started publishing nearly 30 years ago), instead, it mashes together the plotlines of ~3 books each season, and adjust and updates them, or does some things different... keeps it fresh, and lets the plotlines intersect...

Biggest changes are to the daughter/ex-wife storyline... also lets the series accomplish some things the author has been talking about doing for over a decade, but never quite manages (reaching the point where the daughter becomes a cop... which is what happens in the sequel series that just started airing on the IMDBtv/Freebee service, after 7 seasons of Bosch on Amazon Prime)

(Amazon keeps rebranding it's ad-supported TV service... Freebee is it's 3rd name, and I only know that because I looked it up last week... I only knew of it as IMDBtv before...)

[Choko]

Now you have me wanting to try the Bosh series... I am definitely going to check it out:))

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Choko wrote: "Now you have me wanting to try the Bosh series... I am definitely going to check it out:))"

Michael Connelly writes the script on at least one episode a season, so he clearly gets a fair bit of input on the series... as a crime reporter turned author, he really likes being in shows and seeing his books turned into shows/movies... he guest starred in the poker games on Castle... I think a Bosch movie was made at some point, and referenced in the book & show... same with the Lincoln Lawyer movie being referenced in the later Mickey Haller legal thrillers... and making Titus Welliver the narrator for Bosch after the show started airing...

[Julian]

@choko wow you finished that book in like a day! I've still got quite a ways to go. I'm at the point where I'm more interested in the spiders' storyline than the humans.

I do find it interesting however that the male spiders are basically viewed as being at the bottom of the low class. The female spiders are shocked to discover that they're also capable of making significant contributions to their spider society. It's a good parallel to today's world in a sense where who knows how many geniuses out there may exist whom have simply not had the opportunity to flourish.

[Choko]

Iain, that is such great trivia! I had no idea! I used to love Castle and I actually remember that scene with the poker game and the authors! How cool!

[Choko]

Julian, I love the scientific approach the author took with the development of the spiders! It is fiction, but it is walking that very thin line of plausibility, that I was absolutely enthralled with it.

I am guessing that since many species of spiders have larger females than males, and many of them tend to eat them after copulation, the author decided to choose those types of spiders as his main characters, and is going with what is innate instinct in them as a base. From what I understand, spiders often practice cannibalism, not only female on male, and it has to do with which one is bigger and more aggressive. I also know some species of spider eat their mothers when young, if there isn't any other nutrition around... I think AT has done a great job choosing what to emphasize about the driving instincts and which ones and how much can be curbed by social laws... It is absolutely fascinating!!!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

That's why I started the Shadows of the Apt series, as well... a fantasy series with heavy insectoid themes... Tchaikovsky's first, and only recent turned into audio... few of us read the first couple books last year...

Me and Olivia didn't do a very good job pushing into the 2nd arc in books 5+ this year... we started taking multi-month breaks between books...

[Tonari no Emily]

Ack another thing to check out... I've really been liking insect-related things lately, especially as it relates to hive-mind stuff haha

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Ant-kinden have a hive mind… moths are seers… spiders play politics… wasps are trying to take over the world like Mongolians…