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)]
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I like Beware of Chicken 1-2-3, I did Daily Grind 1-2-3-4... and now I'm doing Path of Ascension 2 or 3, I forget, it's an omnibus... I think 3, actually... read 1-2 earlier in the summer...
I was at work this morning, and got really annoyed at the romantic angst rearing up in Honor Harrington 7, and I wasn't in the mood to jump over to Kushiel, which has it's own forbidden love plotlines or Dragonbone Chair or Explorer or Animorphs... so I went rogue, again...
Timelord Iain wrote: "In my usual self-sabotaging way, my reading is doing great this month... 3 weeks in, and sitting around 700 pages/day... but I keep going off on my own and reading LitRPGs/Cultivation stories...I..."
Eh, if going rogue keeps you reading, I say go for it :D
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I just stare at my spreadsheet and all the future torture I'm subjecting myself to...
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Go rogue! That's totally me! Roguing all over the place. Also, latest Audible sale:
Ha! If I wasn't a long time member & sales pouncer, I would like this sale a lot. LoL
Gonna browse it in depth later.
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Ya got the Butcher Jr books? The reviews make me not want to read those. Or I don't want to spend money to read them. I'm putting my foot down and not getting into Warhammer. heheheh
This will save me lots of money.
The update to Vagabond Treehouse title made me chuckle.
Oh man, Audible app now plays previews for "next read" when the book finished. Gotta find out to turn that crap off. lol
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Altho worldhopping is much more of a thing in this series... and there's many more tiers...
Tiers are much more numeric than named, since there are so many... multiples of 5 are breakpoints that are harder and take double the growth to break through (100x essence vs 10x)... you get defining skills/talents/traits at tier 1/3/25/50 (75/100/etc)...
Much of the first 300 chapters so probably a dozen books of which 7 have audio, are about the climb from 1-25, and doing it in 200 years or less, to be known as an Ascender... doing the Path of Ascension, without falling off the path for missing a tier deadline is an accomplishment that only happened once or twice every 10k-50k years, until recently... now the MC's kingdom is about to set off a war for doing it twice in only a few thousand years, and it's only going to get worse when the MCs become the 3rd set to do it in only another few dozen/hundred years after the 2nd pair... and that's before you add in the MC's OP skill and another side character's skill, that are going to ruin the whole power dynamic between the Empire the MC lives in, and the adjacent galaxies of democracies and tribes...
The series clearly continues past tier 25, despite the name, but according to the wiki there hasn't been time to tier up past tier 25, probably because of the war plot... if/when the MCs reach tier 45-50, they're expected to do alot to improve the realm before ascending to the next tier of realms that go from 1-100 instead of just 1-50 (and stay tier 51 afaik)... this feels similar to the Cradle ending of becoming Abidan... also, similarly, people past tier 40ish have to buy into the power structure of the Empire, or are forced to rank up and ascend to the next tier... there's only 1 tier 50, and a very structured amount of tier 45-49 in the realm...
The early audiobooks follow a pretty neat structure of training/grinding books and action/goal-oriented books for prestige/honor/loot rewards from higher tier observers... but things are proving different for me in book 4-5, as the training becomes end of book montages, where years pass quick, as we already know how the MCs can game the system and grind 3x faster at this point, all day every day... and they've adjusted to their management team/trainers... now, I think, it's gonna focus more on the action-y books, altho some people are mad they split the upcoming Dungeon Planet storyline into multiple books instead of releasing one longer audiobook... also the plot is getting a bit bogged down in side plotlines (which is fine in books like Wandering Inn where it was relatively established from the get go, but here it's crept in over time as more power players are introduced... the series also has a side book already, 3.5, which re-explored the events of book 3 from another POV of friendly characters)...
Sometimes, time passes so fast, it's crazy to be reminded that book 1, page 1, started with the MC as an 8 year old orphan, after his parents died to a wild rift of monsters rampaging through his town/planet, iirc... now he's 40+, and participating in year long mock wars and tournaments for prizes, and starting to build a fake persona to hide his real identity for when he wants downtime, etc etc etc...
The series also has skill gems as dungeon rewards and "cracked gems" that have rare twists on normal skill gems, that play a large part in the story, and are more of a LitRPG element...
I've been enjoying the books, obviously, as I binge them, despite any flaws...
This is my rambly write up for you guys / Soo... don't think I spoiled too much, for anyone relatively savvy to the Cultivation genre, like I think we are at this point...
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I'm putting my foot down and not getting into Warhammer. heheheh
This will sa..."
I haven't gotten an Audible update in awhile... my iPod is end of life, and Audible updates require next iOS version I can't get at this point, so I'm stuck at my current version... which is fine with me... at least I got the newer 0.05x speed controls with the +/-...
The Audible reviews for Jr seem fine, and I'm interested in them as a possible Jim Butcher replacement author, since Butcher Sr. can't write a book more than once every 3-5 years anymore, it seems...
I definitely buy more discount books than I should... you've missed all the sales enabling me, Nirkatze, and Ann-Marie have been up to this year... so much so, I started a Book Club to try and clear some of the backlog in 2025...
Warhammer is another thing I thought I'd never get into... Elizabeth got us started back in March with Xenos, which led to Malleus and Hereticus... and then Ravenor1052311] & Ravenor Rogue... back to The Magos... now Pariah & Penitent...
Next, me and Choko (the 2 that stuck with it past Eisenhorn (Nirkatze) and some Ravenor (Elizabeth disappears every summer)) are looking to read The Emperor's Gift which is loosely connected to all the Inquisition books we read before, then fall down the Horus Heresy rabbihole (that's gonna take awhile)... Caiphas Cain & Gaunt's Ghosts and other stuff is a consideration for much later, but I can start collecting, I guess... I seem to have decided all of a sudden, anyway...
Weird GR Hijinx: I went to look on my GR profile and there were updates on 2 books I read before as "read again". Makes me wonder if my account was hacked? The posts were made between ones I wrote in Vagabond & Wandering Inn threads. --Weird--
I had to go into the reviews for the books & delete the 2nd read (with no dates).
Rambling a bit about this Chinese Light Novel: Back to Qiqi Farming to Raise Children
I must be missing my younger reading days where I just picked up random books and read them. Like I had gotten a bunch of books that used to be my family's so-n-so's or yard sales, etc. As a kid, my access to books were limited. That makes you way less picky and more open to reading whatever.
Anyways, lots of books out there that combines that slice of life aspect into the story about farming, mining, hunting, etc. The way writers can write semi-factual stuff about herbs, old technology, politics, etc can make a story really come to life.
That's the element I enjoyed the most in the LN. It's a work of fiction with a lot of real tidbits threaded into the story. I'd have to dive back into Chinese history & politics to get a clearer picture of the said elements, but what was written was cool because it made a different kind of story come to life in my head.
Examples:
- Nothing new in governments/leaders/etc making radical changes and oppression to force new conditions & rules on people. Many of those things happened in Chinese contemporary history to force people to change beliefs, traditions, social levels, etc.
- The story was based on a man born in a poor farming family & he worked hard to overcome difficulties within family, work, etc to be successful & lead a happy life with his family. 2nd chance life twist for that bit of hoodoo magic.
- Lots of interesting stuff for farming, hunting, honoring traditions that have been outlawed, the odd mix of modern tech with older manual tools, changes in status about education (higher education was extremely limited for a period of time), the ways exposure to foreign business made for rapid changes, etc.
- Near the beginning, there was a lot of writing about the way to hunt wild genseng. There's a bunch of rules like you do a ritual offering to the mountain/spirit/etc, what kind of things you can eat, how you act as you look for wild genseng, etc. I like that kind of immersion into stories.
Good fun.
Soo wrote: "Weird GR Hijinx: I went to look on my GR profile and there were updates on 2 books I read before as "read again". Makes me wonder if my account was hacked? The posts were made between ones I wrote ..."I saw another friend today mention that she also had an old status update repost on her feed like it just happened. A commenter to that mentioned they have seen it the last couple months so it could be a random GR glitch. Couldn't hurt to change your password if you're concerned at all.
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Oh, figures. More GR glitches. Happy to know that Iain is in the know of these things. =D
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🤣🤣🤣I looked at GRs Top 60 books from last 5 years list and I feel that I'm getting farther away from what contemporary readers like.
I read like 7 books on the list and didn't like 2.
🤣🤣🤣
Gimme my classics, poorly translated Chinese/Korean/Japanese light novels, mythology, hardcore SiFi, action packed thrillers, snarky but warm romances, well drawn comics, mysteries and stuff.
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I have read exactly 1 on that list lol You're in good company :)
I started The Eye of the Bedlam Bride today. Will be making my posts about it in the old BR thread. I've missed Carl and Donut. I checked out the author's patreon and it looks like he's still writing book 7 so I'm guessing audio sometime next year.
Matt Dinniman is on a book tour and he was near my area for book signings. If I wasn't in hibernation mode for health reasons, I would have gone out to get a book signed, etc. Dang, I should push up DCC on my TBR! I have a huge TBR that I neglected for like 2 years now. Bwahaha
This Inevitable Ruin #7 coming out on Oct 1st. I think I'll do a DCC spree. Re-read 1-4 and gallop the rest.
@Iain, I just finished Daily Grind #1 and it's like Office Space with LitRPG light elements. Probably fun for someone, but it was snoresville for me. Passive tell style kept making me want to tune out. I liked the concepts & some of the story mechanics, but those parts are very slim within the overall narrative. Tell format only works if the reader is willing to go along with it. My brain was like, this is not interesting enough to ignore plot holes. XD
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That's a big spoilerfest of volumes 2-4... not really trying to get you to continue, just give an idea of the things I like from later on...
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Your summary for the series is probably cooler than listening to the books. 😆Vague descriptions, awkward fighting, weird people dynamics and 95% tell vs show. I read some reviews for the later books and the relationship stuff will go more meh. 🤷♀️ The friendships & interests come off as fake. Too bad about boss lady and guard.
For the longest time I thought This Inevitable Ruin was "This Inevitable Run"--partially caused by the running Carl on the cover... thought it'd be a constantly running dungeon or something...Hey @Iain, have you been fairy godparenting my spreadsheet and putting in page numbers for me? If so, all the hugs & thanks!
Also enjoying y'all's book talks & descriptions...
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Timelord Iain wrote: "I helped by getting someone else to do it for you :D"Hah! Niraktze, I caught you up to beginning of September. I highlighted my entries in yellow to indicate the changes I made in case anyone wanted to check my work ;)
In other news... just checked Ilona Andrews's blog and they have started writing KD Wilimgton 3. Yay!!
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The Path of Ascension: 👍👍A hybrid cultivation-progression story with light mechanics laid out for most of the book. I'm about halfway and decided to get the bundle for #1-3.5 books.
Enjoying the general growth of the MC, Matt. Starts off with him at 13 years old and out of luck with skills that can't be easily used as a startup. Setting details are spilled out as the story progresses. At least, the info dumps aren't super lengthy. More like add ons to embellish.
Narration by JS Arquin: New to me. Don't believe I've heard this guy before. Solid narration that makes the story fun and you can (mostly) distinguish between characters.
Writing is a bit rough and there are awkward phrases, but there are fun concepts, steady plot progression and likeable characters.
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A hybrid cultivation-progression story with light mechanics laid out for most of the book. I'm about halfway and decided to get the bundle for #1-3.5 book..."
Yay... that's definitely one I've been pushing on, lately... read through to the start of Tier 10, before pausing... Tier 10-11 is a large chunk of the story spread across multiple books, (view spoiler)... I think it's book 6-8 and 8 isn't out on audio/ebook yet...
So I checked out the "78 Top Horror Novels" article and... I've read 3 with 1 more on my wish list. All were T Kingfisher books lol
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I think I'm actually gonna do decent at this, if only because of Spooktober last year and this year... looking good, right from the top...
Mexican Gothic is on my TBR, only read that other SMG book with the gods in it last Decemberish...
Hidden Pictures was a 5 star read for me last year...
Not sure if I'll ever get to any of these Stephen King books on the list, but the ones I'm reading this year and Dark Tower mean it's promising...
Reading Southern Book Club's Guide to Vampire Slaying and How to Sell a Haunted House this month... read Final GIrl Support Group last year...
Read all 4 T. Kingfisher, obviously...
Dead Silence was a try and DNF for me...
So what's that?... 6 successes and 1 failure, with 4-10 possible future reads as well, just looking at SMG & Stephen King & Grady Hendrix plans...
78 Top Horror List: I read 7 and enjoyed 5 of those 7. LOL
Have maybe 3 or 4 on TBR.
Anything by Tananarive Due is worth reading. There's a few in my TBR. The rest are probably Stephen King books I haven't read yet.
I'm mildly interested in the Shadows by Alex North and a few others that aren't in my TBR, but that's a if it goes on sale or at library picks.
Unfortunately, Hendrix is a solid no for me. I tried several of his books and I just don't like them.
In general, that list seems pretty GR hokey to me. XD
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Hendrix is popular enough that you can probably get them for free via library. So, I keep getting dead links for GR.
💩
Whole website is glitching.
I've noticed more time outs lately and a refresh usually is all that's needed.
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Today was more like complete lack of connection to the website. It wasn't the usual long load time. Webpages wouldn't load and came up as "dead" links. @Iain, get a nice mid-power laptop for $600-800. If you get one in $1500 range, that will last you for 3-5 years.
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And, it must be a regional/internet pathway issue, because I actually had to no trouble like that today, and refreshed often to comment in a bunch of BR threads...
Soo wrote: "Today was more like complete lack of connection to the website. It wasn't the usual long load time. Webpages wouldn't load and came up as "dead" links. @Iain, get a nice mid-power laptop for $600..."
Odd. I agree with Iain about it being regional. I know Verizon had a weird outage starting yesterday. Maybe it hit internet providers too?
Soo, any chance you're near the flood regions in NC/TN? If your internet traffic goes through that region you could theoretically have issues as whatever infrastructure is up tries to handle the load during the recovery. That area is very bad off right now.
I'm in northern VA. GR is the only website that I had issues with today. So, maybe regional for GR issues? @Iain, just get new parts lol. New new PC!
Cheating Men Must Die Vol 1: LOLLook at that ridiculous title! Gotta love the wacko Chinese to English translations.
I went looking for a comic similar to Goddess Creation System. That's a manhua I started a few years ago and paused to let releases pile up to read. I got in over 50 chapters by waiting 2 years. XD
Interesting enough, there's no light novel for Goddess Creation System. Though there are lots of similar trope stories. GCS has extreme conditions of meet each trial conditions or death, etc. Plus a fun sub-plot where the MC is trying to learn about the system & get free of it.
Anyways, Cheating Men Must Die also has a system, but this one has the MC entering various 'small worlds' as the doomed female character. It's her job to develop a happy ending vs the original tragic end.
1st Arc was set in an imperial harem.
2nd Arc was modern as an actress.
3rd Arc is fantasy with vampires.
Good fun! Short arcs with a snarky & smart FL.
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Iain, just do a search for Strongist Florist and you should be able to read it without WT. Translated releases are always behind original. WT is doable for free if you don't mind adapting to their release/free cycle. The little read for free coin stuff.
Doable but I dislike having my overloaded schedule impacted more for readership stats & money. 😆
I pre-ordered BOC 4 :D Did we want a dedicated thread for this or just BR it ad hock here?
🎶🎶🎶 I'm down to read BOC 4 here. 👌
It will be a fun one to read in December.
Currently halfway with The Bad Weather Friend and I love the side character, Spike. Book is on KU as Read+Listen.
Strange, quirky, funny and endearing with lots of weird. A good pick if ya want a light hearted (mis)adventure.
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)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Nathan Lowell (other topics)Nathan Lowell (other topics)
Nina Bangs (other topics)
(view spoiler)[Sigzil is the member of Bridge 4 that's a storyteller and used to be apprenticed to Hoid before Hoid ran off for awhile doing his thing...
Hoid has definitely collected an arsenal of tools over the years...
Khriss and Nazh from White Sands and Threnody and occasionally popping up like that time in the Wax & Wayne books when she dances with Wax and asks him a bunch of questions about how his Allomancy/Feruchemy twinning works, are the scientific bunch that write the Ars Arcanum someday, to map out the magic systems and share them with the universe... the appendices we have the option to read at the end of each book... (hide spoiler)]