Vagabond Treehouse ~ [Fall 2025: World of Chains #1-3 (Wayward Bard) | The Perfect Run 1-3 (alternating)] Showing 1,101-1,150 of 2,531

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Narilka wrote: "I started Heretical Fishing: A Cozy Guide to Annoying the Cults, Outsmarting the Fish, and Alienating Oneself. Ch 4 has a nice call out to DCC and Cradle :)"

Definitely some callouts...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Soo wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "Roverpowered

Lookie what Audible showed me..."

I have the ebook. Gotta get audio.

Iain!

I'm listening to Path of Ascension 3 and most of it is the most ..."

Probably why it was so easy to abandon for awhile... easy to listen to when I'm in the right mood to half listen, tho... I dunno what to say, really... I see all the problems with the books and continue anyway...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Starting Constituent Service... 3rd District is a new Scalzi Audible Original series, right?... not some shared author universe I've never heard of?... it's hard to search, because it just pulls up alot of US government districts in google

I can tell I'm gonna like the 63yrs of service employee that fomented revolution while using saved up PTO vacation time :D

[Narilka]

Yes, it's new. A novella. It's entertaining.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

45m/33% in, and wish this was a full length book...

Feels like a cross between Andrea Vernon and the Corporation for UltraHuman Protection & Chasing the Moon

[Narilka]

I've not read either of those but agree, wish it was a full book. And narrated by Wil Wheaton ;)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Yea... Wheaton narrates all his male POV stories...

Amber Benson does his occasional female POV stories...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Finally loaded up my few straggling iTunes library audiobooks for the month on to my ipod... so much work, moving my USB charger 5 feet to PC to connect and transfer ;)

When I generally have plenty of audiobooks on Audible/Hoopla/Chirp/etc to listen to as well...

[Narilka]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Yea... Wheaton narrates all his male POV stories...

Amber Benson does his occasional female POV stories..."

I know :) Mostly I just equate Wheaton with Scalzi since I don't listen to many of his famale POVs. Actually I think this is my first one.

[Brian]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Yea... Wheaton narrates all his male POV stories...

Amber Benson does his occasional female POV stories..."

I miss the old narrator that Scalzi had. To me Wheaton sounds so whiney. Have to read Scalzi's books on print if Will is narrator. I wish I could let it go. LOL

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Looking on Audible, pretty much the only series to use other narrators is Old Man's War, his first, with William Dufris & Tavia Gilbert... and the Audible Original Dispatcher series with Zachary Quinto...

Only 2 I know for sure use Amber Benson are Head On duology, which has 2 versions since the MC is ambiguously gendered, and Constituent Service...

[Brian]

Dufris was the one I enjoyed the most

[Soo]

Dufris was great! So sad he passed away.

[Soo]

Need to check off 54 books to hit my GR goal. 🧐🤗😆

It would be faster if I wasn't interested in 30-40+ hour long audiobooks or 1-2k pg LNs. 😆😆😆

My cheat is adding comix! Found a new series on KU called Drops of God. I love how manga & anime can take a topic and make it super interesting. Drops of God is about wine. Opening pages has a vivid & evocative descriptions on how to pour wine & flavor notes.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

My one month war with a single mouse I saw in my kitchen has finally come to a close... I think it scampered off for a few weeks, then I heard it chewing last week, and set some new traps in better locations, and smelled victory when I got home from work a few minutes ago... clearly caught days ago... disposed of and cleaned up... hopefully it was the only one... I've only had a mouse problem once before around 5 years ago... that time I had no plan/traps and just got "lucky" one day and caught it with my bare hand / a hand towel... not a fond memory... but it resolved the issue... that mouse was probably fat and slow from all the candy/chocolate I used to have stashed all over the house... this one had more slim pickings...

[Soo]

Rodent victory! Congrats!

Enjoy cleaning stuff and being rat-free. =D

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Hey Soo... working on 2025 stuff some more, and I was reminded of the fact that Steven Brust has released 2 Vlad Taltos books in the past 2 years while you've been MIA... Tsalmoth & Lyorn... lost his narrator tho, and they only finally got audio with a new narrator a few months ago after Lyorn came out... not sure how good the new narrator is, but you can always eye-read... with these out, there's only 2 books left to go in the series, I think... Chreotha & The Final Contract (starting to feel like he might finish in his lifetime, after releasing 2 books so fast)...

[Soo]

Oooo I have the audios and ebooks for the latest 2. Anyone BRing the series?

It would be amazing to read the wrap up for Taltos. 💖 Always a cool experience for series I grew up reading.

Almost done reading Beloved Imperial Consort. Rather good translation of a Chinese LN. Pretty sure I'm gonna recommend to people who enjoy historical romances. Both FL and ML are interesting. Just needs a bit of patience with less well known terms that the translator made footnotes for.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I'm slow as molasses doing a re-read with Tammie, Niki, and Chris I think, who are first timers... the same BR started years ago... it fell apart, and now we just do 1-2 a year, whenever Niki pops in and says she's ready to do the next one... we did Teckla over the summer... the one that leads to Vlad leaving the main city and running around the world for awhile...

Hyper-chronological order... so they read Tsalmoth already, but I need to go back and re-start/finish it, now that the audio came out, since I sucked at making time for ebook reading last year...

[Soo]

Dang, I had high hopes that Beloved Imperial Consort was fully translated. Nope! Turns out only about 1/4th done. The auto-internet translated version is highly filtered by Chinese censorship and translation is so awkward that it reads like disjointed wood.

It's too bad! I was going to recommend it to those who enjoy Chinese historical romances. The female lead Yao is a modern day corporate shark. She gets caught up by the protective spell that was in the original's charm. That woman died with a broken heart and simple desires to be loved by the prince & keep her children safe. All of them were killed in harem intrigues.

Initially, Yao throws a mental fit when she finds herself in historical setting and the original's wishes. If Yao doesn't manage to fulfill the original's wishes, she won't be able to have a chance for her soul to reincarnate back in her own world.

The prince that will become emperor is the cold, smart type with little attachment to physical drives. Basically, sex is cool but whatever because he's never been in love.

LoL Then he falls in with Yao, has to get some help to figure out that he's fallen in love and it's a battle between these two loggerheads.

Both of them are very smart, but their perspectives are very different.

Yao is a modern day, strong female that believes relationships should be monogamous, etc. How is that gonna be possible with a royal prince that will become the next emperor? No way, right? So, she set herself to be emotionally detached as possible, alluring as a talented charmer and hug the prince's golden thigh as a favored concubine. XD

Meanwhile, the prince quickly accepted the fact he fell in love with Yao and realized via different situations that he only had strong emotional & physical reactions to Yao cause he's in love with her. So, he just ASSUMES Yao will fall in line and love him as much as he loves her.

Nope!

Between the many characters, a wide range of political + harem intrigues and the main couple knocking heads about love, it's a lively, hilariously sassy romance in a rich historical setting.

Part of a good romance is seeing the relationship developments and having a range of dangerous to sweet to steamy moments. There's a nice blend of that in Beloved Imperial Consort.

I was really looking forward to seeing how the Prince and Yao would overcome status restrictions of the time and elevate Yao from favored concubine to main consort/wife.

I also wanted to know what the next kid was gonna be. It would have been great if 2nd child was a girl that looked like Yao. First kid was a boy that looked like the prince to a T.

I got invested in the story and then had to give up cause the auto-translated version sucked to read.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I dunno how much of this is GR upending their email/notification system, and how much is just people being busy, but I definitely miss more frequent Buddy Read comments as people are reading... at least same day comments...

So many BR comments these days tend to be "I read this last week or longer ago, and forgot to comment"...

I'm as guilty as the next person sometimes, altho not much lately... main thread I keep forgetting to visit is the Ilona Andrews one, which stopped appearing in my notifications for awhile, until I fixed the settings...

[Narilka]

Timelord Iain wrote: "I dunno how much of this is GR upending their email/notification system, and how much is just people being busy, but I definitely miss more frequent Buddy Read comments as people are reading... at ..."

Agreed. I'm glad you're chatting with me over on the Oathbringer thread, even if I'm a bit cranky about the book :) I'm hoping that the 5 book's release will have a lively conversation for those that didn't want to reread the series ahead of time. I also think we'll have a good discussion for BOC 4 in Dec :D

It is one of those times of year when people tend to get busy with family and holiday activities. I bet things liven up again in January. I'm sure GRs changing their notifications didn't help either.

Speaking of current reads... I'm enjoying Heretical Fishing: A Cozy Guide to Annoying the Cults, Outsmarting the Fish, and Alienating Oneself immensely. Thanks for the rec! It does fill in for BOC while waiting. Sargent Snips is absolutely adorable :) And pretty funny that Fischer is fairly clueless about the actual impact he's having on those around him.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I'll definitely comment...

I hope Nirkatze has time to comment again, if/when helping her mom move settles down...

Glad to hear you're liking Heretical Fishing...

Like I said, I felt like a break between 1 & 2 would have allowed me to like #2 more, but I enjoyed it in general, and it was nice to see the stakes increase a little towards the end of book 2 with Operation Sticky Fingers... and all the animals are adorable...

My next round of adorable is gonna be Roverpowered probably... and I Ran Away to Evil... curious to see a LitRPG cozy romance in action...

[Tonari no Emily]

Timelord Iain wrote: "45m/33% in, and wish this was a full length book...

Feels like a cross between Andrea Vernon and the Corporation for UltraHuman Protection & Chasing the Moon"

Yes! I was definitely reminded of Andrea Vernon while reading. Loved those and Scalzi's novella

[Tonari no Emily]

Brian wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "Yea... Wheaton narrates all his male POV stories...

Amber Benson does his occasional female POV stories..."

I miss the old narrator that Scalzi had. To me Wheaton sounds so ..."
Wheaton is definitely not my favorite lol
But I can still power through

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Exactly... I can power through 99% of narrators, which is good when you're primarily a listener... it's the ones with annoying ticks, or that Constance Verity #3 with all the phlegm that get to me...

[Narilka]

I'm 50% through Heretical Fishing. (view spoiler)[The otter is also adorable :) I'm guessing that Snips and Claws are going to bring the lobster to Fischer for awakening. Won't that be funny when the cult guy finds out, if I'm guessing correctly.

I'm also wondering how many people in the village Fischer will end up start on the path to cultivation. At least he figured out that his food does the trick. It could be a bad time for the folks in the capital that are trying to keep it all well controlled lol (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

RAFO ;)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Audible updated their website today, with the annoying Audible Original version of book pages that does book colors and a big book image at the top and rearranges all the book blurb/info around... and now the Whispersync pricing and Kindle edition links are gone... you need to check every book on Amazon to figure out if there's a discount for buying/checking out the ebook first... making every purchase take longer, basically...

[Tonari no Emily]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Exactly... I can power through 99% of narrators, which is good when you're primarily a listener... it's the ones with annoying ticks, or that Constance Verity #3 with all the phlegm that get to me..."

Maybe they'll rerecord it... I still havent gotten around to that one.

[Tonari no Emily]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Audible updated their website today, with the annoying Audible Original version of book pages that does book colors and a big book image at the top and rearranges all the book blurb/info around... ..."

Well that's supremely annoying! I ended up not renewing my KU because I'm cutting back my book budget extensively..

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Kinda inevitable, I'm sure... baby costs and limited reading time in the future... less reading also equals easier to make do with library options...

[Tonari no Emily]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Kinda inevitable, I'm sure... baby costs and limited reading time in the future... less reading also equals easier to make do with library options..."

Yeah thats what ive been going for. Just need to make sure to put in holds early. Im still on the 24 credits/year plan though because its the cheapest per credit.

[Soo]

Ugh, I just went to check Audible. That's super annoying! I figured that would happen at some point. A lot of authors that pub on both don't like the whispersync option. They get less money from that.

It's a tossup though! Getting paid something & having more readers or getting paid a bit more and having less readers.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

if Amazon/Audible get rid of Whispersync pricing, I'll be cancelling KU... I don't get enough value from it, otherwise...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

for now, it just makes purchasing books on sale take even longer, there's already so many steps, comparing prices/availability, checking if Chirp is having a better sale on the same books, checking Hoopla/Overdrive, and now checking Amazon as well, separately...

[Narilka]

Timelord Iain wrote: "RAFO ;)"

Goddammit Iain! ;)

[Soo]

Dang, ya'll! I may read Heretical Fishing sooner just to see the spoilers! XD

[Narilka]

I got a couple more hours in today. Through Ch 60 (view spoiler)[It's a sort of comedy of assumptions lol That poor town mayor has absolutely the exact wrong idea about Fischer and the auditor and yet it's caused him to do some nice things for the town. That whole back and forth between POVs while Fischer was sharing his love of fishing and the mayor thinking he understood anything had me laughing.

It's nice that Barry saved that guy's wife. Now there's three cultivators in town. I'm expecting Fischer to awaken Maria at some point, whenever their romance takes off. At least she's the obvious love interest at the moment.

The lobster was introduced but not turned into a spirit animal. Yet. (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Soo wrote: "Dang, ya'll! I may read Heretical Fishing sooner just to see the spoilers! XD"

Not sure how much you'll like it... but it's worth it for the pet names alone ;)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Narilka wrote: "I got a couple more hours in today...."

(view spoiler)[Yea... I love how Fischer thinks the mayor has social anxiety... I definitely compare it to the governor and MC of Beware of Chicken... different but similar... (hide spoiler)]

[Narilka]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Soo wrote: "Dang, ya'll! I may read Heretical Fishing sooner just to see the spoilers! XD"

Not sure how much you'll like it... but it's worth it for the pet names alone ;)"

It's a fluffy, cozy read. I think you'll find it entertaining at a minimum :)

[Narilka]

Timelord Iain wrote: "Narilka wrote: "I got a couple more hours in today...."

[spoilers removed]"

I can see that.

[Narilka]

I made an impulse buy and picked up Nine Lives Magic Mysteries: Books 1-6 for $1 :D It's the first 6 books of the series. Looks like magical cozy mysteries with a talking cat. Not sure if this would interest anyone for a BR next year.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Did you get audio?... seems to be free on KU... or you paid $1 for the ebook?... looks like 3 book omnibuses are available on audio, and with KU whispersync, the first 3 are $3.48...

[Narilka]

The ebook omnibus of books 1-6.

[Narilka]

Heretical Fishing through Ch 74 (view spoiler)[Aww, that's so nice that Barry, Claws and Snips are planning a way to keep Fischer protected since cultivators in this world tend to be forcibly restrained. I hope we are let in on the plan before the book is finished.

Fischer and Maria's camping trip is sweet and G rated. She enjoys fishing way too much now that she's tried it lol I don't enjoy the sport myself though the author has made it entertaining. It helps that the characters get bites a few minutes after casting the line into the water.

Snips and Claws have grown powerful. I wonder if Fischer could do similar if he tried or what his power would be based on. They dealt with the prince and his cultivators well and I expect some complications. Though with Leroy back home, that should be a help. Plus I think Barry is going to awaken his wife.

Fischer has a lot of changes he's coming home to hah (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

(view spoiler)[I think plans are explained before the end of the book… and Fischer is accidentally strong from all the random professions he tries (Fishing most, then Blacksmithing/etc)… Blacksmithing tends to require alot of strength I think and fiahing maybe Dexterity… etc etc etc… I definitely enjoy reading about alot of sports/activities I don’t really have interest in doing or watching otherwise… (hide spoiler)]

[Soo]

Ut oh! Found out S2 of Diplomat is on Netflix. Which lead to finding out that there's a S2 Hellbound. Plus a new wuxia CDrama with actors I like.

🤣🤣

Now I have to add in time to watch shows between books! 🍿

[Narilka]

Heretical Fishing - through Ch 88 (view spoiler)[Fischer just called them all out on their plans to form a cult of cultivators lol I have no idea how he really noticed it all but it was still pretty funny.

How much longer until Maria realizes she's on the path to cultivation? (hide spoiler)]