Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion
This topic is about
The Sealed Citadel
Book Clubs!
>
Cycle of the Scour #1-3 (October 2023)
So I went to his FB and this was in the post he wrote in December when The 13th God was released:This is the second-to-last book in the series. I am working on the last one as we speak, meaning it should be out sometime in the second half of 2023. That will be an exciting but very strange day for me, as I've been writing these characters for a good fifteen years now. I'm not sure I'm ready to let them go yet!
So one more in the Cycle of Galand....
And in the post from February 2022 when The Last Tomb was released, he referred to this as the latest in this series and stated further:
After this, there will be one more book in this series to wrap it up.
So I guess we could do Cycle of Galand:July - 1-3
August 4-6
September 7-8
Scour:
October - 1-3
Or if there is an announcement for book 9 in Galand for October we could swap the 3 Scour books for the last few in Galand? I don't know,
I'm game for slowing down... lessee... I asked on the GR page for The 13th God if it was the last book in the series. We'll see if anyone answers.According to the author's facebook, 13th God was published last December, and the 3rd book of the Scour was March before that. So it looks like he does a little more than a book a year... though his website hasn't been updated for a decade so no luck there...
Nirkatze wrote: "I'm game for slowing down... lessee... I asked on the GR page for The 13th God if it was the last book in the series. We'll see if anyone answers.According to the author's faceboo..."
I agree his web site is lame! I don't get it, if I were an author my web site would be up to date and user friendly for sure.
Mod
Heh, my update was long past yours Ann-Marie and I didn't notice until now. I'm down for the schedule change! Gives me time to catch up proper...
Sweet so I am done for this month! But I have a mini book hangover from In the Lives of Puppets so I need something easy and light which works out because I doubt any of the remaining books in this series can be considered either lol
LOL good luck with your book hangover... I'd be very interested to hear what you find to tide you over. ^^
Nirkatze wrote: "LOL good luck with your book hangover... I'd be very interested to hear what you find to tide you over. ^^"I have chosen poorly.....
I am listening to Yellowface and I think that R.F. Kuang is just not for me. The best thing I can say about this book is it is going fast lol I was also not a fan of Babel: An Arcane History and now I am afraid to read The Poppy War series.
Here is the thing though, I have been picking my favorite book each month for a bracket challenge and I have THREE possibilities this month! Tress of the Emerald Sea
Sharp Ends
In the Lives of Puppets
The trials and tribulations of a book nerd.....
Mod
I have chosen poorly.....
I am listening to Yellowface..."
Poppy War when downhill for me, from near the end of the 1st book, I think... I never read the 3rd...
Babel was definitely a bit of a chore for me, but I read it for the experience and the Buddy Read... I haven't even looked at Yellowface, I think it got some news coverage tho...
Timelord Iain wrote: "Ann-Marie wrote: "Nirkatze wrote: "LOL good luck with your book hangover... I'd be very interested to hear what you find to tide you over. ^^"I have chosen poorly.....
I am listening to [book:Ye..."
I picked it up because I needed a book that starts with Y for 2 book challenges lol I am hate listening though, 2 hours & 11 minutes left....
Thank goodness for listening at least--it makes the reading a passive rather than active experience, which I find thus makes it easier to bully through books I'm not jiving with.Darn, if I'd known the above information, I'd've recommended the Sanderson Special Project for the month which is also a Y book! I LOVED Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. Though if you didn't back the kickstarter you might not be able to get hands on it yet...
Nirkatze wrote: "Thank goodness for listening at least--it makes the reading a passive rather than active experience, which I find thus makes it easier to bully through books I'm not jiving with.Darn, if I'd know..."
I found out there is a new season of Project Runway and it is an ALL-STARS cast so I am watching that then will go to Mistborn I think lol
Mod
All 3 are available at my library just waiting until I am ready.
Mod
Timelord Iain wrote: "Started Wound of the World today, and FINALLY... after 1.5 books, the Raxa/Dante plots seem to be merging..."Couldn't agree more!
So update on my book hangover, I almost finished Yellowface and had to take a break so I picked up This is How You Lose the Time War and OMG I loved this book so much! I am considering DNFing Yellowface honestly, I absolutely hate all of the characters but I cannot recommend Time War enough <3
I love Time War! It's such a great book--both the concept and execution. And the epistolary novel is rather rare these days. One of these days I'm going to propose a series BR for Gladstone's The Craft Sequence:...
Mod
Finished Styxx yesterday, which is like 1000 pages, and one reviewer says it contains more rapes than every other book they've ever read, combined... the book is like 700 pages of rape... from uncles, nobles, Greek & Atlantean gods... the list goes on and on... I liked it more the first time I read it years ago, when it was a revelation how wrongly villified the main character was (seemed like a villain prior to this book)... it's a very controversial book, honestly, for how much is retcons another character from a previous book (bipolar)...
Anyway... finished that and a bunch of other stuff, and doing Wound of the World now, then I'm pretty free soon... just need to do Dragonback & In Death & an anthology that comes after the Styxx book...
I'm planning to squeeze The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn at some point...
Timelord Iain wrote: "I've been all over the place recently... books I love seem to fly by, then longer books I feel I need to read feel like they take forever, even if it's only 2 days...Finished [book:Styxx|15767586..."
That sounds absolutely horrible. Not like I am looking to start a series that long but if I were this would not be up for this like ever.
Mod
Also, the books are generally shorter... it's just characters like Acheron & Styxx that get 700 page backstories, back in 10,000 BC, before jumping to present day to tell their romance or finish out their romance...
I read a bunch of these a decade ago, and me, Choko, and a few other tagged along with Shaitarn earlier this year for a fast paced Buddy Read, to burn through the 25 or so she got at a library sale... mostly for the mythology... the romance is thin & eyerolly & repetitive half the time...
Nirkatze wrote: "I love Time War! It's such a great book--both the concept and execution. And the epistolary novel is rather rare these days. One of these days I'm going to propose a series BR for Gladstone's "I would be up for this, I loved Time War and would give more by him a chance. He wrote Red's side of things and I thought that was wonderful.
Timelord Iain wrote: "The books usually do it in smaller doses... all the men have horrible backstories... women do too, sometimes, but not quite to the same extent, I don't think...Also, the books are generally short..."
I have read A LOT of romance and a book with 700 pages of rape is most definitely not that lol
Mod
Just broken, angry/loner men waiting to find that woman that will magically heal them in 2 paragraphs, and get on to the sexytimes and saving the world...
The general premise of the series is men that were done wrong in life, and died seeking vengeance, and were brought back to life by Artemis, to get revenge and then serve as vampy-protectors against the evil vampires that exist because of a curse by Apollo... then it throws on every other mythology/pantheon, makes up Atlantis, and some more complicated Cthonians and Primal Forces that fathered the lesser pantheons... oodles and oodles of apocalypses waiting to happen... like... Apollo is evil but if he dies, so does the Sun...
If I am in the mood for dark I generally go to K.A. Merikan, they have a paranormal series that is also an MC club (Kings of Hell) that was pretty good (their Guns n' Boys was one of the first dark series I ever read but that is a mafia series) or re-visit The Foxhole court series by Nora Sakavic, not paranormal but so very good <3 I rarely find myself in the mood for dark though.
Mod
It's led to struggles with Jonathan Maberry... both recent Joe Ledger / Rogue International and his newer Kagan the Damned series...
Mod
:D
I know that’s so far away, but looking into it, Gladstone just started publishing a finale trilogy called Craft Wars… 1st book came out this year, 2nd is slated for next year… assuming a stable release schedule, I’d expect the finale in 2025, and we can read all 9…
Ann-Marie wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "I've been all over the place recently... books I love seem to fly by, then longer books I feel I need to read feel like they take forever, even if it's only 2 days...Finishe..."
Yeah, I was just thinking... wow, a book Iain talks about that I am NOT adding to my TBR...
re: Craft Sequence--Sweet!!! I would love a BR of this!! I'm going to put a note in my tracker to check in with y'all... in a year... But then the question becomes--to read them in chronological or publication order...Though we've still been talking about doing an Old Man's War read, a Sylvain Neuvel History series read, and a Hugo Awards read (though they STILL haven't announced them yet) and have been... too overbooked to make these happen yet...
Mod
I mean... it's not like I'm TRYING to get people to read Dark Hunter... it's a series I abandoned awhile back, and then started a re-read with Shaitarn anyway...
The author, Sherrilyn Kenyon, seems pretty nuts... the more I dig into her life, the past 5+ years, the more insanity I find... bad divorce, ranting against the judge and corrupt judicial system, and some linked fanfic about the experience basically, that's marketed as a danger to national security, and not really available for purchase... it's left her main series hanging for awhile, since around when I quit, actually...
message 185:
by
Timelord Iain, Tech Support
(last edited Jul 25, 2023 03:17AM)
(new)
-
rated it 4 stars
Mod
It's definitely been a busy year...
re:Craft Sequence: no idea... I just read an article of Pros & Cons, and it seems like a toss-up... Chronological changes how some big reveals hit, and makes the writing quality more of a rollercoaster (since he apparently improved over time), but 100% works, and opens with one of the strongest books in the series apparently, and lets you see character motivations that are hinted at at first when reading in publication order... apparently...
The only Gladstone I've read before is the first 2 seasons of Bookburners... and that's more of an episodic ensemble thing... audiobook/play version of a TV show where different authors write different episodes... I wasn't the biggest fan since the shortness of episodes made things feel rushed most of the time...
EDIT: That being said, I definitely lean towards publication order for first readthroughs, and chronological/fancy readthroughs for future re-reads, in general...
I would probably agree on Publication for first time, and Chronological afterwards... The Craft Sequence is one of the few series which changes characters and locales each book without bothering me... I've read the first four books (publication) but not the last two--chronologically that means I've read 3, 2, 5, 1, not 4 or 6.
Mod
Also heard a bit about the big baddie, The Red King... or one of the baddies...
I don't think the Red King is the big baddie... I don't remember what/who is, but not him.. antagonist, maybe, but only in the sense of each side has its own heroes and villains.... it's been a while though.
Mod
From what I read/spoiled, it's one of the biggest shifts in understanding, when reading in chronological order vs publication, since you learn his motivations before you see him as the protagonists tend to in earlier/later books...
Yeah, I read up to that point... probably why I think of him as an antagonist rather than big bad.
Mod
(view spoiler)
Timelord Iain wrote: "Finished Wound of the World the other day... Dante's problems as an adult seem to just keep causing new problems... when he was a kid, he was generally able to solve the problems, even if they had ..."(view spoiler)
Mod
Every book, he seems to say he's close to the end, but the story keeps expanding as he tries to write it... there was an afterword in this one about that, I think... and I heard the same online regarding book 7-8...
Ok, maybe Raxa has some redeeming qualities - she has saved, placed in foster care, and is supporting 6 foundlings... That is kind of awesome, but I hated what she did at the end of the last book...
What is with literature and movies romanticizing thieves and pirates? I particularly hate the thieves! This is why I have never been a fan of heist anything... And I am so pissed (view spoiler)Up to Ch. 10 in The Silver Thief#2 ... (view spoiler)
Mod
Choko wrote: "What is with literature and movies romanticizing thieves and pirates? I particularly hate the thieves! This is why I have never been a fan of heist anything... And I am so pissed [spoilers removed]..."I am still mad about the sword!!!!!
Buuuut I do love me a good heist story, book, film or tv <3
Hahaha! See, I know I am in the minority. I think it comes from always living in cities with high crime rates and often being robbed, car robbed and stolen, and even knifed after shopping... All because someone thought it's a good way to make a living by taking what you have acquired with your hard work... It loses the romance somehow. Up to Ch 19 of The Silver Thief #2 ...
Who the heck is responsible for the start of the "gutter wars"...? (view spoiler)
Mod
It's like the fantasy of Robin Hood style criminals sticking it to The Man, and all the rich people semi-legally taking advantage of the rest of us...
I mean... you enjoyed Dragon Heist...that's a Heist story :D
Fantasy Buddy Reads
Books mentioned in this topic
The Sealed Citadel (other topics)The Last Tomb (other topics)
The Last Tomb (other topics)
Heart on Fire (other topics)
A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
K.A. Merikan (other topics)Nora Sakavic (other topics)
R.F. Kuang (other topics)
Looking forward to the next one, after I catch up on some other BRs:)