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]
St Mary's #11... Up to Ch. 20... Loved the Vikings, enjoyed the Leon episode, but I just finished Ch. 19 and want to scream!!!! WTF??? Why did he make this choice? Who is.... ???? I am diving right back!
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I should probably get on this now, actually, before 2023 gets overbooked...
When did we want to schedule the first Heartstrikers book?...
I feel like we could schedules books / series for the 8th, 15th, and 23rd...
There's already a bunch of stuff for the 1st, and I have something for Jan 30th already...
We need to schedule Heartstrikers, October Daye, and I was thinking maybe Empire of Silence with Choko & Brian, as well, since we all bought it and need to make time for it at some point...
I know we plan to mention these over in the BR Invite thread, but since we're the core of the BR so far, I wanted some input before moving over there...
Laundry Files, we can play a bit more by ear, since we're planning to read it in here... I figure, if I wait on Heartstrikers, I might also forget... I've been known to do that occasionally, with TBR ideas over in the Mystery Book Club...
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This left me, in some ways, just wanting to get it over with, to get to the next entry which will be new to me, and/or less fresh... I think St. Mary's feels best when you don't know what's going to happen... my first read-throgh of the first 9-10 books was fabulous... my first BR re-read was kind of sad... my co-readers kinda lost their love of the series as it progressed, which didn't help... so we all kinda started nitpicking...
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Another fun short around Christmas time... Mathew is adorable crushing on Mikey and Markham 's story was pretty awful... I feel for ..."
These new characters make me wonder how much forethought/planning Jodi Taylor actually does... or if these shorts are written later and seeded back a bit?... from the blurbs, I think these new characters become important soon, in the main series...
I finished St. Mary's #11! Wow! So much stuff happened, but the tying off of a major thread and the big reveal were absolutely amazing!!!!!!!!! I know it's not even close to a perfect book, but for those two reasons I gave it 5 stars! Everything else was very nice as well, the whole Minos culture and even the bulls, but those two, and the biohazard issue in the last several minutes were worth every star!!! I absolutely love this series and I hope Iain and I are not the only ones... The last couple of books were brand new to me, so I have been extra enthusiastic about them. I am jumping into the 11.5 story, The Ordeal of the Haunted Room, which sounds very October -y, despite it being written for her regular Christmas story... Only a little bit in it, and our three Christmas musketeers, P+M+Max are just as always, clumsy and hilarious:))) I love St. Mary's!
Iain, as far as our BR's are concerned, I trust you completely with choosing the right times... I will be there! And completely agree on Empire of Silence. I am finding that with the more obscure series, where not many people are joining, I prefer the whole series threads instead of separate threads for separate books... What do you guys think?
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I'm a fan of series threads... book threads make more sense when alot of people are around, and alot of comments are being made...
Exactly! Great minds and all:)))
Just got caught up on all the Vagabond in the past few weeks--sorry I disappear so much folks, still not adjusting to work well this year...re: book sales--@Julian I'm totally there with you... I always walk out with a pile when I go to B&N... I have to stop myself from going there every Tuesday when the new books come out... and I also spent waaay too much on the Audible sales recently... @Choko, "book hoarder" is very apt! I subscribe to that too. Also, @Julian--I also want to read Illusion of Thieves--I love Carol Berg's work and that's the one series I haven't read yet, and missed the informal BR this past year...
On that note, I finally finished stage 3 of my bookshelves... will have to upload pictures soon. They look awesome--aaand the books that I staged on them still didn't even let me crack open even one of my storage boxes. >.< So I still need to build more shelves.
@Choko, re: Plain Bad Heroines--I think you would like it Choko! It was very interesting, and good for spooky season. The opening was a bit jarring--I'm not used to a story starting with the death of folks who feel like main characters--but the weaving between timelines of a turn-of-century girls' boarding school and a modern film crew were very well done. The audiobook was really good, but apparently it didn't include any of the footnotes.
St. Mary's--I'm running behind but still moving forward! I got through the Christmas Past short this weekend, and it was very moving! (view spoiler)
Got sucked into Wandering Inn: Rains of Liscor but will return to St. Mary's again soon...
Interested in all those BRs for next year--Heartseekers, October Daye, and the space one... also agree with @Iain's ideas of when do series thread v. single book threads...
And @Iain what is this about going "Full Nirkatze"? I didn't realize I had a reputation for word research lol. Firkle sounds fun.
Also a bit early for this, but come November I want to try to read as many of the Goodreads Choice Awards books as possible before the final votes. Anyone in? I figure that'll be a good book club thread to try. Nice to chat with other folks and get ideas--read this one, don't read this one, etc.
Choko wrote: "Just finished St. Mary's #10.6... Why is nothing Ever Simple...Another fun short around Christmas time... Mathew is adorable crushing on Mikey and Markham 's story was pretty awful... I feel for ..."
Right? I feel like the sniper folks will probably become a focus in the coming books..
The lady and the butler reminded me a bit of Lady Reinhart xD
I do like how we keep learning about our characters though. And I'm happy a lot of them seem to be in a good place now with a family at St. Mary's. Hope Jodi Taylor doesnt cause us too much heartbreak in the books to come 3
@ Nirkatze, I can certainly try to! Not sure how successful I'll be but sounds fun! I remember you mentioning that earlier this year..
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I'll catch up on posting in BR Invite/etc later today / tomorrow morning...
Tonari no Emily wrote: "@ Nirkatze, I can certainly try to! Not sure how successful I'll be but sounds fun! I remember you mentioning that earlier this year.."Whoo whoo! That was one of the things that got me looking for a book group. :) And I like being an informed voter, even for something as skewed as the GR choice awards... it's really not fair when you pit a book with over 200,000 reads against a book with barely 4,000. It doesn't matter how good the book is, the mass of readers wins... I also feel like book 5 or 6 of a series should never be on the list... or there should be a separate "best in recurring series" option--because how are we supposed to read and find out? But I am excited to talk to people about it!
@Iain--there's several series I've been wanting to read, but I also just like jumping in on everyone elses BRs too...
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Whoo whoo! That was one of the thing..."
That's the challenge... signing up for a reasonable amount of Buddy Reads, given available time, and leaving some room for personal/random reads, so you're not locked down to a schedule all the time...
Back in 2018, when the competition first started, there were nearly 60 participants, and the old Master Buddy Reading List was bloated with Buddy Reads... I was able to do a new Buddy Read every day for several months... but it was kind of a non-stop marathon with little room to breath... upside was tons of bonus points, and getting to read with a large chunk of the group...
I like our little reading clubs, because they tend to be made of up the people with the most time to read, so we can read a ton of books together, but also like to mix it up and/or not make the new group members feel excluded... Nirkatze/Emily/Julian actually seem like the people that have best acclimated to the group in the last couple years (especially as participation/activity level has dwindled otherwise)
I really miss Soo though, and I really hope she is doing well!!!
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I do too Choko! Hope she just needed to ghost Goodreads for a while and will come back..And yeah I definitely need a balance of group reads and to leave myself room to randomly pick up a book for a mood read and the like.. And to also finish some series I've put down for whatever reason... I've started probably way more this year than I have finished.
Agreed about Soo. Hope she comes back after having a long enough break.
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I recently found out Mammay started a new series this summer, as an Audible Original, The Weight of Command... started it a few minutes ago as a change of pace in my reading... story throws you in fast, and it's basically the premise of Designated Survivor, but in space... all of a sudden a junior leader finds themselves in charge and vastly underprepared...
We did. I will check that new one also then...
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I'm a bit further in now... dunno what's going on, but I'm leaning sabotage/espionage, from what I know so far... and the MC's willingness to take good advice is giving me Goblin Emperor vibes...
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We talk alot of books, whether we read them together or don't...
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HEY... the more the merrier... I've been trying to get these guys' to try Laundry Files for months... me and Soo read them a year or 2 ago, and loved them (well I loved them, Soo is always a bit more critical, but she's read them all and follows new releases)...
The series start a bit dry, but the second entry is immediately fun, in my opinion, and the series slowly evolves into something more on the scale of Joe Ledger (a little less dark and more fun tho) (view spoiler)... maybe a better comparison would be Clines' Threshold series...
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This was a very easy read... but at the same time, it's kinda like Planetside, in that it's hard to imagine a sequel that would put the MC in a similar situation, outside of a crazy coincidence...
@Iain strikes again! Added three more books to my TBR between your posts here and on the Buddy Read Invite thread. :)Will try to join for What If at the end of the month. Would like to read Weight of Command but am out of Audible Credits... put on wishlist.
On other notes, I'm so happy I found y'all here in FBR and that Soo got me to come over to Vagabond (miss Soo...)--I haven't quite found the BR/non-BR book balance yet (I'm at the point where I'm not really interested in reading something if there's no BR for it) but I'm loving finally having people to talk to about books! Hugs all around!
@Nyssa--Who's there?
Hugs all around as well:))) And yes, I want to share with you guys every book I read, or it just isn't as much fun...
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Overall, glad I re-read it... and maybe it prepares me for the Amber series next year... I did some google searches on obscurer references among the main cast of characters, and just Zelazny in general, and he sounds like he writes similar to Douglas Adams, but the plots make a bit more sense from one scene to the next, instead of just being mini-episodes/events that happen in a row?...
I need to re-read A Night in the Lonesome October too... It has been quite a while... I like Zelazny's style, but he does use a ton of obscure references...
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I need to try his other stuff, too... maybe after the Amber series...
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My HDD was getting full... if there'd been nothing worth deleting, I'd have need to transfer to an external HDD, probably...
I have two of those full of audio books, but I haven't had the time to put them in order, so they are a complete mess... But it is so daunting and time consuming to deal with that, I constantly put it off....
Hear hear... I have a google spreadsheet where I keep track of all of my books, audio, digital, physical... whether I've read them or not, are they loaned out etc... and it is daunting to keep it up to date.I remember trying to read the Amber books about a decade or more ago and not having momentum to keep going, so I'd like to try with the BR. But I also love one of his proteges--Jane Lindskold. She co-wrote a book or two with Zelazny also. Has anyone else read her stuff?
No, but if she is anything like him, I would totally be interested in reading her stuff...
St. Mary's #11: finished ch13! these books really are like short stories thrown together (view spoiler)
Yeah, I was doubting him for a bit as well, but I think everyone involved had some doubts, including Leon himself...The Viking ark was pretty awesome though, don't you think?:)
Choko wrote: "No, but if she is anything like him, I would totally be interested in reading her stuff..."I wasn't gripped by Amber on my first try, but I love Lindskold--I think the book that really sold me on her was Child of a Rainless Year. I read it a long while ago, I think when I was in high school, during a time when I had a hard time connecting to any character if it was too old (I stopped reading the Outlander books because she was 9 years older than me at the time and I just couldn't imagine it lol). But I loved this book, and I felt like I'd made some kind of psychological breakthrough in understanding. I don't remember hardly anything about the book, but the feeling I get when I remember it is all warm and fuzzy.
Picking back up with St. Mary's--I'm going through The Long and Short of It (collection of short stories). I've already listened to most of them--just trying to get to the one or two that aren't separate shorts--but the little introductions to each piece are pretty hilarious in true Jodi Taylor style. Ex: (view spoiler)
My favorite short so far is Roman Holiday--and she apparently wrote it longhand in one sitting because she couldn't figure out how to lock her daughter's front door (and thus could not leave until her daughter came back home). LOL
Okay! St. Mary's around ch 26 or so when (view spoiler)I'm a bit further now ch 29 (view spoiler)
Choko, the Vikings bit was pretty great though I agree xD
Ah I found the story I was fishing for: A Perfect Storm. Chapter 9 in the audiobook.Lots of funny moments. A few favorites:
(view spoiler)
Starting on #8 now, we'll see how caught up I can get...
Nirkatze, that whole shorts compilation was awesome, made even more so by the author 's explanations:))) And the superhero stuff was great! Emily, it actually gets explained, and once she understands, she knows Dr. B was right, but the hurt is real and it will be difficult to get over...
Choko wrote: "The Christmas story with Mathew was very nice and Christmasy:))) It brought all those feelings of good deeds and tugged on the heartstrings...I started St. Mary's #9... Only about 15% in, but I f..."
Ha! Turns out I'm on #9, not #8, and I found the page where y'all were talking about it yay! 66-67.
I get what you're saying about starting out with too much humor--I think the author even literally mentioned something to this effect, like putting in lots of humor is totally not to lull you readers into a sense of complacency, noooo. LOL. And Max being like "He looked at me! He looked at me!" and Petersen being like "He looks at everything with breasts under 80. Calm down."
Through Chapter 10, I think... (view spoiler)
And Unclean Unclean was also beautiful! I feel bad for the pink hamster though...
Emily, right??!!!!! That book was just difficult to read at times because of all the emotions... You understand, the characters understand, but it is very emotional and I am afraid that there will be some scar tissue left after the healing, despite all the logic... And the whole Ronan thing!!!!!!! Just too much, but ultimately awesome!Nirkatze, Dr. B is the master and I start every book dreading that something will happen to him, because I don't think he is replaceable...
Unclean, Unclean!!!! Hahaha! Favorite moments for sure:)))
re: Dr. B @Choko--doesn't make it any easier considering that like every book, he calls Max in to have a little chat about "getting ready for when I'm not here anymore."Really enjoying #9--I feel like it hasn't been since #3 in Troy that we've had such an extended stay in a specific time, and I definitely enjoy it. I'm just waiting for Max to figure out (view spoiler)
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That disjointed alternate life sequence is so hard to read, not just because it's jarring, but because it seems to showcase how flexible the rules are when time can just do anything... and then you learn the truth of it all at the end, and you feel a bit duped...
And the Ronan stuff evokes 12 Monkeys to me, almost... the Time Loop of it all...
The movie was an experience, but I loved the TV show like 10x more... it honored the movie so well, and then built on it across 4 seasons... even if the finale went for emotions over logic, I still loved it all... so much, I'll probably rewatch at some point... one of my fave time travel shows... and the cast is alot of memorable faces, too...
I haven't seen either of them, but now you make me want to watch them:)))
Choko wrote: "I just finished St. Mary's #9... An Argumentation of Historians. I couldn't put it down! Loved every second of it. The usual rollercoaster, but I actually cried when ..."Waaaa! @Emily and Choko me tooo!!! Man that was a good scene. Lots of good scenes in #9 here, (view spoiler)
@Iain--I was actually thinking the opposite sort of, separating each segment into its own short-story bit--(view spoiler)--but it does all flow together really cohesively doesn't it?
@Emily, ditto! What IS Max up to next? Of course, you know already... :) I was very surprised (view spoiler)!! Thankfully, since I'm behind, I don't have to wait for everyone to jump into the next... though I do think I will wade through the three shorts first.
Agree, this is getting 5 stars from me.
Yup the shorts won!Battersea Barricades--(view spoiler)
re: 12 Monkeys--I've seen the movie and watched the first couple episodes and liked it--but I have a bad record of watching things... Now you're making me want to go back and watch the rest...
I don't understand why St. Mary's isn't more well known and popular... It has everything that a person who likes fun, somewhat quirky stories with a bent could have. I am so glad we are reading it!!!
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Another fun short around Christmas time... Mathew is adorable crushing on Mikey and Markham 's story was pretty awful... I feel for the guy! Him and H deserve a happy ending.
The new fanatical group, which is willing to involve snipers into history, really bugged me and I hope we destroy them! However, I liked the Lady and the Butler quite a bit:) On to the next book!