Vagabond Treehouse (2023) [Beware of Chicken 3 - December 4th] Showing 3,801-3,850 of 5,829

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

If this book deserves a theory, I have/have had a single one for the book, in general... (view spoiler)[that maybe Naomi has a talent, maybe she doesn't, but maybe she's doing something to produce dementia/alzheimer symptoms in her uncle... and he just THINKS it's all the amulet/curse, because it's been causing similar effects for years... (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I'm not sure what it means, but Audible says it's having a sale for Premium Plus members only... not sure if that's people like me on the annual 24 credit subscription, or anyone getting credits... audible has changed their subscription model so much... there's even a subscription for 1 credit every OTHER month, now...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

And the first 2 Golden Clipper / Ishmael books are on Audible Plus until December 20th, apparently:

Quarter Share
Half Share

They sound like sci-fi slice-of-life... that really is the author's whole schtick... makes his reviews love-it or hate-it...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Finished Wizard Butler and jumped right to Quarter Share, to make sure I get to both by the deadline...

Wizard Butler resolved itself with very little fanfare... it made sense, but I kinda expected more fireworks... still enjoyed it/loved it...

I feel like just about any other series, would have ended with (view spoiler)[the Butler starting to hear the Pixies/Faeries, as a sign he was gaining magical talent, mostly so that the amulet he put on when the wizard went into cardiac arrest, would start working on him, and suck him into the Faustian Bargain that almost killed the wizard and the wizard's friend, before the butler put on the amulet and left it to starve to death... (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I feel like there has to be some real conflict in the Golden Clipper / Trader's Tales / Ishmael Wang series, at some point... the blurbs sound like conflict... MC goes from no options to lowest man on the spaceship totem pole, and slowly grows up to full share crewman, then goes to school and becomes an officer in military, right up to captain and ship owner, after 6 books... then there's 2 other side series and a new Ishmael series?... 13 books total, so far... next Wizard Butler and 8th Ishmael book are what the author is currently working on...

[Nirkatze]

Golden Clipper sounds like fun too--I like those military SF level-up stories, and with slice of life too... definitely going to keep an eye out for that author...

Though that reminds me I only made it two books into Poor Man's Fight. :) Still wanna read the rest.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

SHAME!!!

I read the first 3... then waited a month or 2 and read the last 2 out... Choko & maybe Emily got ahead of me there, for awhile, as a result, as they never stopped... Brian too?...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Check out this short story LOL: Nuts About You

[Choko]

Yep! Emily, Brian and I just spead through The Poor Man's War! It was a very good series!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Nirkatze wrote: "Golden Clipper sounds like fun too--I like those military SF level-up stories, and with slice of life too... definitely going to keep an eye out for that author...

Though that reminds me I only ma..."

Level Up is right... Ishmael kinda reminds me of Lindon... "I'm not going to learn 1 spaceship department / career track, I'm going to learn them all"... child of a professor, big on studying, and figures it'll ensure he can always find a job and keep earning money fast... probably also great for officer-track, to know everything (that's me talking, now)... also, a 20th century shareholder's wet dream... all about that cross-training, so they can hire less people :D

[Nirkatze]

Just peeked at the GR Blurb for Quarter Share--Ishamael's middle name is Horatio! That makes the...fourth? series I've noted with Horatio Hornblower naming nods...

I'm just not as fast on audio as all y'all speed demons--1.5x is the max I've managed, especially since I do most of it while still working on the computer...

[Nirkatze]

Jumping back into St. Mary's finally. Trying to gobble down the shorts before #12. Reading the toilet paper one, and I love how Turk the horse looks at Dr. Bairstow like he's gonna bite him, and Bairstow just says "Don't even think about it. I sign your feed orders." And Turk backs down. Not even the horse will cross Dr. Bairstow!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

50% of the plot of Quarter Share is coffee making... the other half is like a story tailor-made for people that play World of Warcraft for the Auction House :D

[Choko]

Wizard's Butler, up to Ch. 3... Does it say horrible things about me, that I actually kind of like Naomi??? Also, that given the pay, I would have taken the job straight away?

[Choko]

Nirkatze, Dr. B is what truly gives St. Mary's heart! I would fall in line for him too:)))

[Brian]

Starting Wizards Butler today

[Nirkatze]

Timelord Iain wrote: "50% of the plot of Quarter Share is coffee making... the other half is like a story tailor-made for people that play World of Warcraft for the Auction House :D"

Goodness, how did he know that's 50% of what I do on WoW.... the other 50% being pet battles and collection...

Choko, I feel like every time I open up my notifications nowadays it's you liking my reviews. *^^* Thank you!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Nirkatze wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "50% of the plot of Quarter Share is coffee making... the other half is like a story tailor-made for people that play World of Warcraft for the Auction House :D"

Goodness, how..."

The book is about a young kid joining a spaceship that makes money transporting goods between planets... and the crew are allowed to side hustle their own sales, if it's within their weight allotment... so there's lots of talk of buying low on one planet and selling high on another...

[Nirkatze]

Timelord Iain wrote: "The book is about a young kid joining a spaceship that makes money transporting goods between planets... and the crew are allowed to side hustle their own sales, if it's within their weight allotment..."

That sounds very soothing...

In Chapter 2 of St. Mary's 12--Another Time, Another Place

I couldn't find any comments on #12--did folks not comment much or am I missing everything? Comments seems to go from the shorts straight into Catastrophe.

Enjoying the new security nemesis. Hoping that Hyssop will end up being an ally rather than just another entry in the long line of new hire villains.

Also, with a pang, enjoying the callbacks to Max's time in the 1300s... good feels there--and an interesting theory on how time travel could possibly be affecting the travelers.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I think there were some comments... but I personally was kinda depressed by the book for the whole middle chunk, so probably didn't say much... I loved #13 alot more...

[Choko]

There are bound to be side effects to that much time travel! I think they start showing up here quite a bit... I am actually surprised it hasn't been more of an issue with more of the characters...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Nirkatze wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "The book is about a young kid joining a spaceship that makes money transporting goods between planets... and the crew are allowed to side hustle their own sales, if it's withi..."

Found results with this search (couple false positives)

https://www.goodreads.com/group/comme...

[Nirkatze]

Choko wrote: "There are bound to be side effects to that much time travel! I think they start showing up here quite a bit... I am actually surprised it hasn't been more of an issue with more of the characters..."

True! Unless we count Ronan's end a book or two ago... though that could have been the chip... or left ambiguous as to which... gruesome...

Timelord Iain wrote: "Nirkatze wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "The book is about a young kid joining a spaceship that makes money transporting goods between planets... and the crew are allowed to side hustle their own sal..."

TY! I just didn't go back far enough... nothing for me to respond to until ch.8 though...

Chapter 4--I love how when Max goes to hug Matthew, she's like "How did he get so sticky?" I swear that's a child special magic skill.

Up to Chapter 9... lots of changes... (view spoiler)[RIP Dr. Bairstow... but until we see a body I'm not sure if I'll believe it. Maybe his car hit a Time Police pod and they took him away... (hide spoiler)]

Enjoying the tension with the new people--and the question: are they? aren't they? Evil or just ignorant? mmm....

[Choko]

That is the question, isn't it... This is a very fun read!;)

[Nirkatze]

Choko wrote: "That is the question, isn't it... This is a very fun read!;)"

And it's STILL the question! I'm up to St. Mary's #12, chapter 15, (view spoiler)[thank goodness they got Clark back... now I'm edge of seat--how are they going to find Prentice without going back, just the 2 1/2 of them? Or persuade asshat? (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 16--ok, Treadwell, your logic sucks... (view spoiler)[You can't make decisions about someone's life--leaving them in the past--based on what someone else THINKS they are going to say. Wow. Yeah, he's getting the evil card... not idiot Halstrom level, but almost as bad.

Still, not the first time Max has had to steal a pod and go rescuing... (hide spoiler)]

And I swear when Sands says--"You have to answer one question though" that he was going to say "Knock Knock."

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I can't tell if the Audible Appreciation sale is targeted at users specifically, or the same for everyone...

There's no page for recommendations, this time around... but the first couple shown to me, on the $5 page, are:

Nothing Girl by Jodi Taylor (start of the non-St.Mary's trilogy I keep mentioning)... a Gail Carriger book I don't own through Audible... a Royal Spyness book (bought a few through audible)... a Children of Titan book (bought a few for cheap with KU but didn't love them), Adrian Tchaikovsky, Jerry Merritt (picked up a book on the last sale), Anne Perry, Larry Correia, Megan Whalen Turner... then it devolves into randomness... that's still alot of books that seem nominally targeted at me, on the first page...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Middlegame is on sale... you guys should get it, if the price is right... Seanan McGuire standalone I really want you guys to read... then we can read the 2nd standalone in the same universe I haven't read yet... there's a planned sequel for Middlegame, but it stands on it's own merits, and the sequel is still 5-10 years away...

[Narilka]

What a treat! Ilona Andrews just announced a Kate Daniels novella is expected to release in January *squeeeee*

Magic Tides

:D

[Choko]

Yay to both! I will definitely read them:)

[Choko]

Just finished The Wizard's Butler... Surprisingly, I enjoyed it as well... It was such a relaxing, chill read, that I am intrigued to find out what else the author has come up with. Iain, you are doing Quarter Share. Is it as pleasant?

I enjoyed, what you call the "slice of life" feel to it. I would actually like to see more of these characters. The old lady was my favorite! And once again, I know Naomi was "evil", but I kind of felt sorry for her and liked her... Weird, hm?

There were so many details of the daily life of him as a butler, that it is surprising that it was as engaging as it turned out to be. I also was constantly hoping we would meet the (view spoiler)[ pixies and faeries, but I guess his being so non-magical made that impossible. It did work in everyone's favor at the end though:)) (hide spoiler)]

What should I start reading now? There are so many things, I am kind of stumped...

[Nirkatze]

Timelord Iain wrote: "I can't tell if the Audible Appreciation sale is targeted at users specifically, or the same for everyone...

There's no page for recommendations, this time around... but the first couple shown to ..."

I noticed the same thing--when I just went through the sale as a whole, without jumping into the specific categories, all the SF/F books were on top... then it degraded and the last several pages held very little of interest.

I would have picked up Middlegame but Hoopla has it. :)

@Choko--Have you started Lightbringer book 2 yet? I'm going to start as soon as I'm done with Ocean's Echo...

[Brian]

Finished Wizard’s Butler. Overall I enjoyed it. Author writes good characters that I cared about but plot was a bit thin for my tastes. I would def read more by the author.

[Nirkatze]

Finished St. Mary's #12! I loved it! I liked that (view spoiler)[the new folks seemed bad but were really OK--and thank goodness for the bit at the end where the New Head Dude explained that he would never have really abandoned Clark & Prentice... (hide spoiler)] I liked the tension and head butting at the beginning--any excuse to have a riled Max is always a pleasure--and seeing the bounty hunters--excuse me, recovery agents--again was fun. Things more or less panned out as I was expecting.

Just devoured 12.5 too, Toast of Time, and it was OK. Fun, but not going on my list of favorite shorts by any means. Also... I'm not sure if it was confusing or clarifying. It took me until about halfway through to realize that this actually was still post book 12, and not one of Max & Markham's cases during book 12... I guess I'd thought with how things ended, that the whole misunderstandings would've been cleaned up and that St. Mary's would've gotten back to normal, to prepare for the new threat. But it seems not.

Going to jump in to #13 next!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Choko wrote: "Just finished The Wizard's Butler... Surprisingly, I enjoyed it as well... It was such a relaxing, chill read, that I am intrigued to find out what else the author has come up with. Iain, you are d..."

I finished Quarter Share about 30hrs ago... and yes, it was pretty much as pleasant... kinda like Becky Chambers space series, but even less drama, lol...

I thought (view spoiler)[the amulet might unlock some latent magical power, at the end, so he can see pixies and faeries, but becomes susceptible to the amulet... cliffhanger... but it never happened... (hide spoiler)]

I read online that Wizard's Cat follows the same characters... author just needs to get in headspace to finish the book... medical issues been slowing him down, but he recently got a clean bill of health / proof of false positive in the past...

You can read it on Audible Plus for the next 6 days, along with Half Share... I plan to read Half share before then...

[Choko]

That is good to know, Iain. It gives me an author who can be read when I am overly stressed and can't concentrate on something more hefty...

Nirkatze, the last three books of St. Mary's have been my favorite of the series! I found them full of everything I love and yes, when Max gets riled up, a ton of fun ensues :))) scheming and vengeful Max is a force of nature, whether she is right or not. And Markham in any form is just adorable!!! You just know when they are thrown together disaster and hilarity follow:)

Also, great idea about Lightbringer#2!

[Nirkatze]

Choko wrote: "vengeful Max is a force of nature, whether she is right or not. And Markham in any form is just adorable!!!..."

The "Max is a force of nature" definitely brings me back to @Iain's comments about Max as the Avatar of History. I'm looking forward to see how that theory plays out in #13, as I remember one of Iain's comments saying that there's even more strong evidence for it... XD

Edit: St. Mary's #13 Chapter 8--Full Title spoken and debated!

And I especially love, not just Markham, but the team of Markham and Max--or, in better names--"Pros and Cons." However, WHAT THE HELL was up with that scene near the end of book 12? (view spoiler)[Max considering hooking up with Markham and having to be talked out of it by Pennyroyal? I know Max sometimes makes destructive personal decisions, but where the hell did that come from??? I really hope that is never revisited. (hide spoiler)]

Only made it a little ways into #13 so far. In the last few books I've been noticing how the title always turns up somewhere, usually in different phrasings more than once--and by Chapter 5 I've already counted 3 uses of the word Catastrophe. :)

Seriously going to try to cram in Quarter Share before it expires on Audible. We'll see how I do! And curse you Iain, for making me seriously consider buying more credits just to get Wizard's Butler to be able to read it not too long after y'all did... (not really curse you, just fun curse you, you know I love all of your TBR bloating suggestions)

[Nirkatze]

St. Mary's #13 Chapter 9--and this was also mentioned in #12--I love the credit/praise being given to Admin assistants here--they are really the people who keep any institution running... whenever you need something done, don't even bother going to the boss--go to the admin assistant. They make the world go round!

Chapter 14--loving the historical aspects... I didn't know that the Magna Carta was the origin of "trial by a jury of peers" that is a staple of justice around the world... must've slept through that part of history class...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Brian wrote: "I’m in for Bosch and Rouge. I’m in same boat with Reacher (and Bosch sometimes). Reacher’s new books are all cookie cutter and haven’t offered me much. I’ve given up for now on Reacher even tho I l..."

Let’s make February the month of new release Mystery/Thriller BRs…

Desert Star - Feb 7 BR
Last Orphan - Feb 14 release
Burner (Gray Man) - Feb 21 release

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Thinking about duplicating the 2023 scoresheet today, as the base for 2024… just so I can start tracking all my Buddy Reads :D

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

2022… 2023… you know what I mean… XD

[Brian]

Sounds good

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

My 2023 spreadsheet is 180 Buddy Reads, including all the In Death books, all the series we've agreed to, etc...

Still need to make the Laundry Files thread...

And my sheet is missing some stuff, still, like new releases and Malazan with Brian, and the Sun Eater short stories...



That's what January looks like... some dates are placeholders for BRs that are gonna happen sometime that month (Mystery Book Club)... in later months, some dates are placeholders, just assuming the rest of a series is gonna keep getting scheduled...

EDIT: I made a list of the things I need to add later, and it's another 35-40 books... I think I'm done scheduling things for 2023 :D

All the rest of my time is for random reads... and I might end up abandoning some stuff...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Can we squeeze in The Heretic Royal & The Hungry Dreaming before New Years'?... after that, my schedule gets kinda bonkers, for awhile...

Heretic Royal doesn't come out until the 27th...

[Narilka]

I don't remember... what month are we starting the Laundry Files? LOL

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Narilka wrote: "I don't remember... what month are we starting the Laundry Files? LOL"

the original plan was January 8th, I think... since Heartstrikers was the 15th and Sun Eater was the 22nd... I think... but that was before other stuff got scheduled... and I never made the thread...

I could move it to June, if you guys wanted... let things ease down... I think Sun Eater should be done in May, and Heartstrikers as well, altho that leads into the DFZ trilogy over the summer, tentatively... same with the Time Police stuff that hasn't been scheduled yet, but presumably will be soon, with Siobhan & Charlie... 4 Time Police books starting in January, I presume, and a new St. Mary's in June...

[Nirkatze]

Well, we're definitely going into the new year with a BANG!

I hesitate to throw my oar in for any scheduling of audio, since I'm always running behind on anything, but I definitely want to read Hungry Dreaming & Heretic Royal. Y'all figure out your times and I'll trail along happily...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

We get super excited for New Year, New Books, New Competition/Sheet...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

We could do Hungry Dreaming next week... I assume everyone/Nirkatze will be done with St. Mary's by then... alot of us have BRs going on, but it's the best time to squeeze it in, I think, since Royal Heretic has to happen right before New Year, based on release date...

[Narilka]

I actually don't have anything for January lol Whatever month works best for you guys works for me ;)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I'm fine with sticking with January, if everyone else is... it's a re-read, for me, so not very stressful, despite how crazy my Buddy Read list has become for 2023, already...