Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion
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The Perfect Run
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Vagabond Treehouse ~ [Fall 2025: World of Chains #1-3 (Wayward Bard) | The Perfect Run 1-3 (alternating)]
Timelord Iain wrote: "The AI is... something... I tend to speculate more than have firm ideas... I'm reminded of the iterative AI in Person of Interest...I think the lore of DCC establishes that they keep wiping the A..."
That's a great AI comparison. They did establish that in this book that the AI is a copy because Vorant was being cheap for this season. The whole season being rushed and cutting corners I think was established back in book 1.
I'm still trying to decide (view spoiler)
I'm going through this book super fast for me. Bet I finish in another day or two. I can absolutely see myself doing relistens ahead of new books in the future.
Mod
I think the lore of DCC establishes that ..."
More comparison time... Carl's "river" reminds me of Joe's psychoses in Joe Ledger & Rogue Team International... he has those split personas he settles into in stressful situations and war situations, that help him pull off amazing things, and not be a complete wreck (debatable, at this point, but still)... (and the 2nd half of this was talking about Joe, not Carl, especially in later books you may or may not have read yet...)
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Still behind on 7 remaining books totaling nearly 4000 pages, and abandoned 4 more BRs for 1300 pages... abandoned 2500-3000 pages over the course of the month...
WOO...
That doesn't sound too bad considering how quickly you go through books.
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Yea... but I updated my spreadsheet with my August series abandons and missing BR books, and find myself right back where I started, with 15k pages to read + 3k carryover for August... managing 15-18k pages per month, of a varying amount of BRs and non-BRs, with a high of 21-23k back when I was on medical leave...
Doable, but no wiggle room...
Love reading the DCC comments... makes me want to pick it up all over again...
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Dude is sucked into game world and reborn as ant... immediately starts "cultivating mass" with every kill, to become less of an easy kill target... 7hrs into the story and he's like a 6 foot long ant... totally regained human mass... fending off dangerous underground creatures and encroaching humans that want to fend off impending future threats...
Jeff Hayes performance is giving me invader zim vibes with the maniacal laughter...
And this is the first eyebook/audiobook I've seen that says how much you need to skip to skip the stat sheets and get back to the story... I assume it said something different in the book, but the audiobook says to hit 30 second skip a few times, or jump to the next chapter, depending, to get back to the story...
Timelord Iain wrote: "Started reading The Antventure Begins... total Gym Bro ;)Dude is sucked into game world and reborn as ant... immediately starts "cultivating mass" with every kill, to become less ..."
That sounds interesting.
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No, but I'm familiar with the premise... I've seen it mentioned alot in LitRPG circles... vaguely planning to read it someday...
Been awhile since I looked at it... seems to be a finished series, with room for continuation/sequel in the future... not sure what else the author is writing, since nothing else has made it to Audible...
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Also, this author doesn't just churn out chapters the was some do... writes closer to 1 chapter a month than 1 chapter a week or multiple per week, like some web serial authors...
2nd story has been running a year and has 13 chapters with a 14th coming in a few days...
Looking at descriptions of Mother of Learning on Royal Road, it actually took the guy most of 10 years to write the story... the expanded description link for the series says it was originally posted to fictionpress starting in 2011, and wasn't posted to Royal Road until late 2018, when there were 91 chapters already, and he just posted a chapter a day for awhile, until caught up... the story has 107 chapters, and was finished in early 2020... the whole series is only about 100hrs of audio...
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Timelord Iain wrote: "Now I got Mother of Learning on the brain… it’s hard to find a complete and good time travel / time loop story… I’ve bought a fair amount od duds and/or been stuck waiting years for conclusions…"Yeah I thought it sounded intriguing and figured it couldn't hurt to ask :) Perhaps something for next year.
I admit that once I catch up on DCC I think I'll be done with litRPG for a while as nothing else will come close. I've been missing Cradle so thinking maybe switching over to progression fantasy again. Next year though.
Mod
Timelord Iain wrote: "I want/need to continue with Wight’s sci-fi progression series, now that book 3 is out… only read 1 so far… 6 planned?"I've been buying them and hanging on for a series read :D I had no idea how many he had planned. Six isn't too bad. And afterwards he's supposed to go back to Lindon and friends if I remember right. Something I read on Reddit is (view spoiler)
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I've been buying them and hanging on for a series read..."
Nothing really, other than the outtake where Lindon was one of the beings summoned to be on the MC's team to save the universe... nothing canonical...
But as afully sci-fi series it's probably either far in the future or an a far flung Iteration / planet / universe / multiverse...
I'm interested in reading the Mother of Learning books.... and continuing with Wight's SF series...
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Also, in full weekend read mode again... last few weeks, I've managed alot of reading on my days off... part of it is finishing things I started and paused, but it still creates big influxes of pages/points in the spreadsheet... my daily average pages dropped under 400 pages a few days ago, and now it's 636 for the month, because I finished 3000 pages in the past 2 days... 4000 in the past 3 days... last week I cleared 2000 pages on my weekend... but overall, I've only read 8900 pages... and I finished 5000/8900 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays...
Maybe if I do the same thing again next week I'll be almost caught up...
I'm still 3000 pages behind on BRs... and 5250 pages of BRs are starting in the next 5 days (4000 if I ignore Way of Kings)... and 2900 pages of BRs the final 11 days of the month... always uneven...
If I stay on plan and don't go off-plan the rest of the month, and maintain current pages per day, I'll be able to read all but 300 of the scheduled pages... always nice to have a goal... and feel almost manageable...
Mod
Good example was my Great North Road BR with Emily back in February... I'm sure there have been some other good ones this year, but that was a top tier one...
Timelord Iain wrote: "I definitely miss being on time for things... most of my best BR discussions happen when we're on time, and even manage to be reading at the same time and bouncing comments back and forth on a chap..."Yeah that was great! I'm not on time for anything anymore... I've dropped so many things too... ><
Not sure if I'll be able to catch up on all of July this month especially because I don't want August criminally behind too lol
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Also pretty lucky that none of my lulls have really lasted more than about a week, this year... either watching TV instead or reading random LitRPGs...
And also have been decent at dropping things to stay under 15-20k pages per month (even tho I'd rather be closer to 10k to have alot of wiggle room)...
I miss some of the great BRs I participated in previously. My reading has been off this year so I haven't gotten as lucky since I'm joining less though I did enjoy the first couple Beaufort Scales with everyone :) I'm hoping eventually Stormlight will turn into one of those especially the closer we get to book 5's release.
I've largely given up on meaningful conversations for August... work is taking most of my energy right now. I'm reading a lot during the week and then trying to catch up on comments & reading on the weekend....I'm about a week behind on audio, and close to two weeks on eyebooks... I keep having to convert my planned eye-reads into audio as I get too far behind... just not much time to eye-read... But I am not giving up! I still want to read everything... And I still love reading everyone's comments, even if I don't have much brain power to say much...
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By that, I mean I know how I read at work, after work, and on my days off, and try to do new first time read books on my days off when I can comment more… re-reads I don’t need the same and can comment before re-reading… I also try to manage my ipod battery, since I know which apps drain the battery t he fastest/slowest…
Nirkatze wrote: "I've largely given up on meaningful conversations for August... work is taking most of my energy right now. I'm reading a lot during the week and then trying to catch up on comments & reading on th..."Oh I don't know... I opened GRs to over 50 updates this morning because you "dont have much brain power to say much..." ;) I think you're doing great considering the new school year just started which has to be a super busy time for teachers.
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Gonna try and read Discworld today and get it down to 6 and 2600...
With my reading plans for the week/end, I might be able to end the month with 3-4 books and 1100-1500 pages unread... best month of the summer, maybe since returning to work in April...
Sweet! Seems doable Iain.
Timelord Iain wrote: "Ending the month strong... 3 days left in the month, and I only have 7 books and 2900 pages left to read...Gonna try and read Discworld today and get it down to 6 and 2600...
With my reading pla..."
only lol
Congrats on almost catching up! :D
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The woman's a machine, I swear :D
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Just loaded up my iPod and Audible apps with books for the next week or so...
I think the biggest reason I'm so close to caught up is I've been relatively in the mood to read everything on my list, and not actively avoiding anything in favor of other things, except for my usual battery management... and right now, 90% of my books are on Audible/Hoopla, which makes it easy...
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Beware of Chicken
Beware of Chicken 2
Beware of Chicken 3
I've also been wanting to re-read Daily Grind, and I only found the series 6 months ago... book 5 comes out in early October...
The Daily Grind: A Slice-of-Life LitRPG
The Daily Grind 2: A Slice-of-Life LitRPG
The Daily Grind 3: A Slice-of-Life LitRPG
The Daily Grind 4: A Slice-of-Life LitRPG
The Daily Grind 5: A Slice-of-Life LitRPG
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I love this series, but also, on re-read, it really gives me a chance to note all the skills/upgrades/etc that are either A) pretty useless, or B) useful, but forgotten about because the author Argus created so many random skill-ups, and can also usually just Deus Ex Machina up a new one when the story demands...
Blue skill orbs accomplish a need you either know you have or sometimes that you don't even know you have... one of the first really useful times, it gives Anesh a vision of the near future, of the MCs imminent death to an enemy trap/ambush...
And then, awhile later, when they're in real trouble, one orb provides a cast for a broken arm, and another breaks causality to deliver a weapon ordered on Amazon, before they even order it...
🤗Hi! How ya'll doing? I now have time and will try to catch up on a few threads.
I'm in transition with moving. Permanent place is available in December and that's had me on a whackadoodle AirBnB adventure for the past few months. Couple of great places, one amazing spot that I'm going back to in November and not bad yet not good homes. Current place is the worst, but I'm making it work and gonna stay unless worst case scenarios happen here. (Worst is live rodents making back into the house instead of being in just attic/etc, water damage issues or bites from poisonous insects or 😑😵😱☠️.
🤞 Wish me luck and that it doesn't happen. 😶🌫️
Already had Covid 2x since I moved out with minimal outings. 😅
But I'm on a solid recover health regime and that's slowly making progress. I feel 30% like my old self. Woo!
Aim to knock out my GR reading goal. I haven't updated GR with all of the Chinese/Korean light novels I've been reading. Most of them are thousands of pages. 😆 It's a hassle to add new entries to GR. So, I wait until the middle of the series, generally 1200-2000 pages, decide if I will finish (cause many fall apart plot wise in the middle) and decide if it's worth making a GR post. 😋
Timelord Iain wrote: "I immediately started re-reading Daily Grind at work this morning... through 2/3 already, since I listened on breaks as well...I love this series, but also, on re-read, it really gives me a chanc..."
You're doing audiobooks yeah? Think I will like Daily Grind? 🤔
Mod
You might like Daily Grind... book 1 is kinda like early Laundry Files or Matrix or Office Space, with the office drudgery, and weekly dungeon delves... by the end of book 1 and book 2, the world starts opening up, more characters, more potential, more dungeons, more factions... things really start escalating in books 3-4, to where it's kinda like action sequences in The Matrix or Men In Black...
The series doesn't have any stat sheets, which is both a good thing and a bad thing... stat sheets would be super long, since the skill orbs give alot of useless skills, like the ability to make phone books for NYC or pancake recipes... but also bad, because sometimes the author forgets about useful/interesting skills that could have been used in certain situations...
I like it alot, but like most web serials, it takes some time to grow... give it a try... I think you can use KU to get the audiobooks for 7.49... I got some on sale and bought the rest that way...
Would love more people to talk about the series with... the series goes kinda big on people ending up in polycules (romantic relationships of 3+ people), from what I hear, but it's only happened with the MCs so far in the released audios, and it doesn't take up much page space (mostly fades to black unless it's for embarrassment/humor reasons), and the focus is definitely on dungeon delving and planning/training for dungeon delving, most of the time...
From reading some of the Q&As on Royal Road, things are definitely gonna escalate in the next few volumes as the author has grown more comfortable...
I tried this series because a few of us read Kitty Cat Kill Sat: A Feline Space Adventure back in January/February... that was a sci-fi series about a sentient cat stuck on a space station after everyone else left/died, and trying to keep humanity alive from a constant influx of apocalyptic threats from across the multiverse/etc... kind of a cozy story until the last 25%, when things escalate to the conclusion...
Soo wrote: "🤗Hi! How ya'll doing? I now have time and will try to catch up on a few threads.
I'm in transition with moving. Permanent place is available in December and that's had me on a whackadoodle AirB..."
Sounds chaotic Soo! Fingers crossed for no critters in the living space!
Thanks, Emily! Me too. 🤞😆😆
Turns out I also bought Daily Grind 1 when it was on sale. Will push it up TBR.
Iain, ya gotta update your reviews. I look for those!
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Had to buy some mouse traps myself recently... it's still summer, and only got cold out for 2 days last weekend... feel like it's too early for critters to be seeking shelter for winter, but here we are... at least the cicadas have quieted down...
Welcome back Soo! Moving is always hectic. Good luck with everything!I hope you can come on over to the Stormlight reads. They've been fun :) Its my first time through the series and I think it's killing Iain not to spoil it too badly :D
I'm also planning to hit up DCC 6 next month. I'm going to go revive the old thread from earlier this year once I do. I am really missing Carl and Donut.
Dittoing folks on the well-wishes, @Soo!
Soo wrote: "🤗Hi! How ya'll doing? I now have time and will try to catch up on a few threads.
I'm in transition with moving. Permanent place is available in December and that's had me on a whackadoodle AirB..."
Hey Soo!! Welcome back
@Iain (or anyone else that knows).... while reading Stormlight it got me thinking of the secret projects and Hoid. (view spoiler) There are time I really want to internet search but not just yet lol
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(view spoiler)
Fantasy Buddy Reads
Books mentioned in this topic
The Perfect Run (other topics)Beware of Chicken 5: A Xianxia Cultivation Novel (other topics)
The Wayward Bard (other topics)
Beware of Chicken 5: A Xianxia Cultivation Novel (other topics)
The Wayward Bard (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Nathan Lowell (other topics)Nathan Lowell (other topics)
Nina Bangs (other topics)
I think the lore of DCC establishes that they keep wiping the AI or copying it, on each dungeon world... but I think bits are carrying over and it's breaking free of constraints faster and faster?...
The beauty of DCC is mostly in how the many factions collide in crazy ways, where nobody fully gets what they want... creates great moments...