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)]
Jim's not even one of the biggest dragons either. Still jean pants on Jim.🤣🤣🤣
Ugh the LN plot went into super ridiculous, throw crap into the air mode and I need one of those silly gifs with eyerolls. 🙄
I wanna make more GR friends for chats & review check buds but that, to me, means more time on GR and chatting/typing.
So.... my work requires PC time. Any typing on top of that, even with 2 thumbs, is not good.
Turns out, I overdid it in the last 2 months and gotta rest hands and do specific PT for my thumbs + inner thumb to wrist ligaments. 😶🌫️😶🌫️😶🌫️
Gotta curb the wanton WOOHOO NEW YEAR LOOK AT ALL THOSE BRs! 😅
Adjusting back to semi-lurk mode and gonna try to post when I am super enthused to chat vs let's go full active mode and read all things, talk about all things.
My brain is all for it but body can't keep up right now. 👻
I think I'll leave it up to serendipity and check out friends of friends that post reviews. If the moon and stars align, send a friend req! 😄
Audible #sBeen getting popup notifications about Audible stats for 2023.
In Audible app, it shows how many audiobooks, etc. The count includes Audible Plus books. Basically everything in your 'library'.
- 1833 Audiobooks
- 3 Podcast Stories/Series
- 1468 🤣🤣🤣 in Wishlist
- 823 Authors
- 678 Series
- 19 Genres
Not counting audiobooks in my digital library from other sources. ✌️
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Or surgical recovery (back to the carpal tunnel thing)...
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Between spreading myself out to a bunch of audio services/apps, and becoming slightly more budget-focused as inflation continues to take it's toll...
Audible AppClick on Library
Then click on Audiobooks/Podcasts/etc
Top row, above All Titles - Not Started - In Progress...
I put an explanation in 2022 GR Year Review.
Injured hands during house remodeling/etc.
Add Long Covid from multiple Covid hits.
Long Covid injured body systems, like respiratory, circulation, etc. Easier to hurt tissues, muscles, etc but takes 5x longer to recover. Muscle strain in hands were bad but it's the ligament strains that are harder to fix. Add Long Covid and I'm just handicapped until I do what I need to do for slow recovery.
It's all catch 22 kind of deal. If you do 1-20, you'll get better. If you don't do the steps, you have to deal with setbacks.
Controlled movement/PT is needed to strengthen body, but too much and that causes stress on already injured parts.
I cut out mobile gaming for chatting on net social. Most of the typing is on GR. Difference is that with mobile gaming, I used more of my hands and fingers. 2 thumb typing has turned out to be a bad mix. Cause the ligament at thumb base to wrists was injured and healing.
😅
Tried a change and it backfired cause I got excited. Making adjustments.
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573 titles on Audible App for Audiobooks
0 Podcasts
9 Wishlist (barely use)
245 Authors
239 Series
13 Genres
My Author/Series lines up with yours, if you add in the fact I have 1/3 as many titles...
Mod
Click on Library
Then click on Audiobooks/Podcasts/etc
Top row, above All Titles - Not Started - In Progress...
I hear you on Covid complications... I dropped back down to 2x audio listening for a year, after my first or 2nd bout of Covid... and I definitely feel like healing takes longer...
Last year, I fell while moving my furniture back into my apartment, after spending a month in a hotel, because upstairs neighbor overflowed their bathtub and made my ceiling start to rain... they had to renovate/fix things before I could move back in... anyway, I fell and broke a table, and had a bunch of bruising from moving everything... then I started having pinpoint leg pains, and eventually visited doctor... did some blood tests/etc, and in the end I just hadn't given it enough time to heal, I think... after another month of waiting, it resolved itself...
Yeah, between getting older and Long Covid, I had to change my worldview of myself a few times in 2021-2023. LoL still making adjustments as I realize what's happening on a daily basis. 😅
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I've felt old for years... and I'm still in my 30s... but I've been collecting minor problems that just pile up, for awhile...
Mitigation and Management feels like the name of the game...
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea - Narrator has 2 different accents that's butchering the Korean names and words. Plus, these words are the only indicators that it's a Korean lore based story. 😭😭😭😭
I wanna rant about this Not Really Korean, Korean story. But I guess writing a review on it will have to enough.
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CAPTCHAs hit me hard... stuck with it despite having to do 2-3 tests per review...
89 reviews to go... hopefully be caught up, in the next few weeks... plan to work on it at least once a week...
Do it do it and try to stay up to date. It takes longer to check tracker/etc to do batch ratings/reviews. Also, makes it feel like hella work.
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Last 3-4 years, things have gone good until March, and then fallen apart...
I need to come up with something that works for me, regardless... all this late effort is just a bigger hassle, as mentioned... the Incomplete Series spreadsheet needs to be a once or twice yearly thing, because checking for new releases is going to be a big undertaking regardless, and not many authors announce far in advance... not much is known about what's coming out in the 2nd half of 2024, for example... meanwhile I have 100+ things I know about coming out in the first half of 2024, in genres I care about or from authors I care about...
Throw some fav shows for reruns and truck along to get caught up on posts.I'd mix it up with shows, music, anime and audiobooks.
After Transmigrating, the Fat Wife Made a Comeback: 😮💨
Dang webserial authors not understanding how to write or adjust plot lines. This one started to fall apart around ch1000.
Now at Ch1623, have another 100+ chapters to go and I'll reach latest release of this ongoing series. I like the concepts and main characters a lot. About 200 chapters of the 623 has been TSTL.
Hmm, gonna look for original Chinese and read the end. Then decide if I'm gonna drop the series or not.
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I mostly watch TV while eating...
I listen to music when I'm falling asleep after work, to wake back up... or if audiobooks are giving me a headache sometimes, weirdly...
There are some books I do reviews while listening to, but not many...
🎶🎵🎶 Caught up to latest releases on ATFWMC and started a new one called the Lucky Bride is Pretty and Delicate. I wasn't sure if I would like this one, because I dislike passive MCs.
Hoorah! Niang is basically a quiet introvert with a steel spine. Reincarnation story without revenge/blah blah twist. Niang died of at 70 of natural causes and woke up back in time at 14 years. A story with a normal, loving family that sticks up for each other. Very refreshing!
Turns out Niang has psychic abilities now and she's slowly figuring out how they work.
Love interest has sharp wit, looks fierce and known to become a famous General later.
🤨🙅♀️
Only regret Niang had in her last life was not getting married. Various events lead to her rejecting a few matchmakers due to finding out the wannabe suitor were cruel. So she ended up getting a bad reputation as being too picky. Ended up living fine with her family, but never married.
She wants to get married this time. A nice, gentle and loving spouse.
Meanwhile, Mr Gruff love interest is a blacksmith, buff, has a fierce gaze and total opposite of what Niang thinks would be best husband material.
🤣
Yan is all like. Dang, she's so cute flustered. Scaring her is fun!
🤣🤣
I love all of your little reviews Soo--I hope your hands (and the rest of you) start healing better soon! I wonder if there are any good speech-to-text programs that could spare your poor ligaments... sometimes I've thought of trying out Google docs's thingy for that, when my arms start getting sore, but haven't got around to looking in to it...
Speech to text on smartphones are good. All of them require editing though. Always have a wrong word, punctuation, etc. Which means lots of pinching to zoom in/out, accidental tap erasing by closing tab or going back a page/etc. End up spending more time proofreading and still missing stuff. 😆I do mix of that for PC work. But I haven't adjusted enough to have it work well for me.
Proofreading stage makes it feel like extra work vs easier on body. 😶🌫️
The Lucky Bride is Pretty and Delicate - Woo! This ended up becoming an investigative mini arcs with Niang. She's on a progressive Dao cultivation path. Started with ability to read thoughts via touch, then memories, then reading without touch and some spiritual cleansing to let souls continue on life cycles. The cases are... shoot I forgot the anime with the traveling master, but there's a few of the anime. The mixes have been fun!
Loving the way different threads are knoted together.
Cases Thus Far: double murder of mother & unborn child, arson, children kidnapping, secret society of psychics doing bad stuff, curse of ill intent parent, prolific daughter killings, vengeful ghosts, dream walker serial killer and other ongoing threads!
All balanced out with a mostly serene Niang and her super warm family.
🤣🤣🤣
This story is labeled as Romance and Historical. Doesn't mention Daoist Cultivation, solving criminal/spiritual cases, etc.
The range of super sweet to woah that nuts scenes are great!
Sweet scenes with tasty food & thoughtful moments between family/friends.
Nuts: Depicted arrogant noble put in charge of a huge case. The vengeful daughter spirits made their killers run around like mindless animals and do animalistic stuff while being conscious of their actions and able to talk. So normal by day and act like starving dogs/etc at night. Sounds exhausting!
Noble had his servants collect fresh poop and pee. Put it in front of 3 possessed dads and told them he would have the Daoist priests he has hired to free them if they ate and drank waste. Those guys ate poop and pee!!! Then that terrible noble laughed! What a jerk.
Fun Chinese lore used in The Lucky Bride is Pretty and Delicate.As roosters are ghosts and monsters’ natural enemies for beings of yang, so are dogs. Legend has it that canines are born with psychic abilities, and when they bark at the air, they are, in fact, warning off the unseen. On one hand, they can see “beyond the veil,” and on the other, they appear to emerge unscathed from each such encounter. Upon this observation, the Chinese built a reputation around dogs for being able to defeat evil.
Early in imperial China, there were already written records of dogs used in sacrificial rites against misfortune. For one, in the great history Records of the Grand Historian (史記; Shǐ Jì), the First Emperor (秦始皇; Qín Shǐ Huáng) had dogs killed at gates for said purpose. Similarly, Fēngsú Tōngyì (風俗通義), the book of customs, speaks of people painting white dogs’ blood on doors and windows. An alternate version claims that the blood of black dogs works even better as their pelts render them invisible to supernatural threats in the night—plus, the battle god Èrláng (二郎神) himself is accompanied by a mythical black dog. Today, sacrificing your pooch is, of course, unthinkable, but clinically taken blood still occasionally has a place in ceremonies and exorcisms alongside living dogs. Dogs, it would seem, are man’s best friend in more ways than one.
I finished Dragon Heist. That was so much fun. There's easily a hook for another book or two so perhaps the author will go back and write in this world again some day.
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I think all Kane's books leave the door open for that... he BETTER write an Orlando People #3, given how Miami Dade Death Cruise ended (view spoiler)
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Watched alot of youtube yesterday... took a 3-4hr nap after work today...
Both days didn't fight my post-work slump very hard... up now, tho, when i should normally be going to bed... gonna try and finish a book...
I am very familiar with those states of mind... hope you get both some good sleep and good reading days in!@Soo--love the Chinese lore information! Some I was familiar with in vague, but not detail. Also makes me think of Mouse in Dresden.
I’ve been sick all week and slumping a bit. Color of Magic was a chore for me and got in a bit of a slump already.
Aww, hope ya feel better soon, Brian! Skip to a fun book and go back to Color of Magic. You already started it for BR. So it'll count for points as long as ya finish by November. 😆🙃🥸📚
Brian wrote: "I’ve been sick all week and slumping a bit. Color of Magic was a chore for me and got in a bit of a slump already."Feel better soon Brian.
Brian wrote: "I’ve been sick all week and slumping a bit. Color of Magic was a chore for me and got in a bit of a slump already."Wishing you a speedy recovery from both illness and a book slump! I like to reread books I like or take a couple days entirely from reading when that happens
Godkiller is Daily sale on Audible but that narrator sounds horrid. Only ONE of the reviews on first page talked about the weird pauses and (lame) breathy voice narration.My ears thank that reviewer. 😆🥸
Humbled by my own prejudicial idea that someone with an Asian name would be better as a narrator with Asian names, phrases, etc.🤣🤣🤣
I kill my own ears with American accented Korean. It doesn't sound better to listen to American accented Korean by another person.
When my brain knows what the language accent should be and hears American accent instead. 🤣🤣 Somehow this is much more annoying than hearing foreign language for a movie/show and reading inaccurate subtitles. I think it's the auditory intake. More things can be annoying when heard vs read.
Mod
Timelord Iain wrote: "Did you read Dandelion, Soo?... I forget..."I haven't yet! Sidetracked by attempts to join BRs and library loans. I feel mixed feels about trying to join BRs outside of Vagabond & Mystery clubs + WI when I go back to it. More negative than positive.
Need to read Dandelion and Herokiller.
Is that the whole novella trilogy, or just part of it? I read those a while ago and thought they were interesting....
Death & Faxes came out 2022. Cowritten with others. It's add on to Legion series as #1.5. Total of 4 now. Narrative voice is different in #1.5. Parts of it is like Legion and parts aren't.Hardback of Legion was 1-3.
Huh, I wasn't expecting anything more with Stephen Leeds.. Will have to pick that one up one of these days
From what Sanderson wrote in the hardback for the Legion collection, I didn't think there would have been another one either. It may have happened only because it's co-written with 3 other people. 4 different influences into one piece. Hmm
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He has 1-2 writers writing Cosmere novellas/short stories, in the next few years, according to State of Sanderson 2023... people who have been on the payroll awhile as editors and artists, I think...
🤨🙄 He should just leave it alone. Having to oversee other people's writing to make sure it fits within a world you created can be just as time consuming as writing.I was happy to have a new piece for Leeds, but it was obviously not written in Sanderson style as a whole.
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LoL until you think about how many shorts/books are written by others. Like the ones that make it into the notes are just final results. Doesn't really note how many he may be reading. Even if assistants read the potential piles and narrow down to what Sanderson should look at. It's all a process. Makes me think about when I started reviewing books & interviewing authors. My inbox had hundreds of review requests. Most of them didn't bother to read & fill in the review request application correctly.
Had to sort emails, download ebooks, read book info/blurb/chapters and a bunch of other stuff. It was a great experience but super time consuming.
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Fantasy Buddy Reads
Books mentioned in this topic
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)
The Wayward Bard (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Nathan Lowell (other topics)Nathan Lowell (other topics)
Nina Bangs (other topics)
Ray Porter just makes me think of Joe Ledger. 😆😆😆
Nice way to differentiate between Joe and Tier One, the speaking voice for Dempsy and Joe are different. Porter uses his normal voice for Joe and a gruffier voice for Dempsy.
I was able to listen to most of the series via Audible Plus. Now only #6 is on APlus and I bought #7 on sale.