Vagabond Treehouse ~ [Fall 2025: World of Chains #1-3 (Wayward Bard) | The Perfect Run 1-3 (alternating)] Showing 2,251-2,300 of 2,531

[Narilka]

I haven't read any of those. The only one that had me interested was Dark Lord Davi, though I didn't realize there was time travel. The timing on the BR ended up not working for me and I kind of forgot about it.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Davi is an Earth girl that's spent 1000+ years stuck looping in a fantasy world, being told she's the Chosen One, rallying the kingdom, being captured by the Dark Lord and his lieutenants, then tortured/murdered in umpteen different ways...

The prologue of book 1 opens with Davi snapping and giving up, and deciding "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" and deciding to use all her knowledge to try and become the Dark Lord herself, instead...

There's a bunch of deaths/loops at the start, ironing out how to make inroads with goblins and start her Dark Lord path, but then the looping kind of fades away, because it would mean restarting and trying over again... she basically only dies/loops one more time the rest of the duology... altho alot of implications crop up near the end of book 2, once you/she finally finds out what's been going on all along...

[Nirkatze]

You left off St. Mary's for time travel...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

St Mary's just experienced historical events in contemporary time ;)

[Nirkatze]

LOL Good retort!

Though Markham would disagree.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Well Markham is a time traveler (spoilers)... Since he's one of those artifacts removed at the end of normal historical lifetime...

[Nirkatze]

I just remember on the first Markham short he subverts Max's traditional opening line with "don't listen to what those people tell you, it's bloody time travel"

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

That too, but we also learn he's secretly like a dead English prince from the 1800s that was smuggled to the future like they did with that one local bartender that came from Maxwell's son's time being tossed through time by the villain of the series I think?... That one that Maxwell's husband smuggled with his secret time machine from the future future?...

The series is so bonkers to try and recall around Muggles that have no idea what we're talking about :D

[Nirkatze]

Shhhhhh! Some people haven't read it yet!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

@Narilka: I noticed the removal of comments on banner articles a few months ago... more censoring/content removal... so many fewer ways to interact with devs...

This Hit New Books banner is basically the new release banner from 6 months ago, reconfigured...

[RachelG.]

Heretical Fishing 4 is being released at the end of August. I'm pretty excited for this one and it has been a tough wait. Anyone else want to read it possibly early September?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Me... excited to see what comes next, with the first trilogy/continent over...

[Narilka]

Hey Iain, when was the last time you posted some reviews? I think you may be due.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

You mean Goodreads reviews... I keep thinking about that... I've been doing terribly, between my usual issues and losing my PC for a month... any time I go to catch up, I write more of my 10 day Reader's Digest reviews in my other group that I use to write my official reviews, and I've done that through May 31st I think... I haven't done a GR review since posting my February reviews...

For a second I thought you were talking about my Vagabond LitRPG solo reviews, and those have dried up this past week or 2 since I've done so many solo reads and youtube breaks this month, that I'm a bit behind on Buddy Reads...

And signed up for so many late requests... we/re like 4 days from the end of the month, and I have 6400 pages and 192hrs of audio left on the spreadsheet to read... When I started the month I forgot a few BRs, and thought I only had like 38 this month... here I am towards the end with a fixed list and some extras and I have 56... and I went off and read 15 solo reads, especially at the start of the month when I was tired of being a week ahead on everything...

[Narilka]

So... excuses instead of reviews? ;) Yeah, I did mean "official" book reviews on GRs since you'd asked us to remind you periodically throughout the year this year to go write them.

I used to be good about writing reviews. Now I'm not. I get it. It's not a big deal!

[Narilka]

Now that I wrapped up Isles of the Emberdark, I'll be starting Mother of Learning 3 either tomorrow or Monday.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Nirkatze read #1 right?... what about #2?

I'll join as soon as I can...

[Nirkatze]

I'll fit #2 in when I get a chance...

[Narilka]

Mother of Learning: ARC 3 CH 1 (view spoiler)[Best recap ever. It was like a couple sentences :D

It did get me thinking... that Zorian was formed from within the time loop and is technically a copy of the "real" Zorian outside of the loop, making his exit very tricky and an ethical quagmire. I'm glad they started to talk through that here too. (hide spoiler)]

Ch 2 (view spoiler)[And now I'm wondering if Zack is also a copy. He doesn't remember the early days, though that could just be because he's been in here for decades and human memory not being perfect. I would have thought that he'd at least remember entering and maybe his first iteration more clearly, being such a unique experience it would stand out more. And then there's the part that Zorian remembers a classmate and he doesn't. Something weird is going on. Well, weirder than just a time loop they can't exit lol

The two of them in this collaborating is pretty awesome. (hide spoiler)]

I am already loving where this is going.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

As I always do when I need a break from my regularly scheduled reading, I jump into a new LitRPG... today/now, I just started The Bee-ginning: A Dungeon-Core LitRPG, the new audio series releasing from the Terminator LitRPG I finished not long ago...

I've liked the sentient bees I've seen in a number of other LitRPGs/Cultivation series, lately, so kinda excited to try this one where they're a bigger focus...

Looks like the MC is an orphaned beekeeper that doesn't realize he raised a special glowy worker bee in his apiary, but he did, and when the local warlord's son destroys his village to build a dungeon, the worker bee saves the MC and steals the dungeon ownership out from under him, as a nascent dungeon core... and the story starts from there...

When I bought the book, I saw book 2 came out recently (I knew it was coming), and book 3 is also up for release in another month or two... checking Royal Road, there's another 150 chapters waiting to be converted into books, and book 1 is 50-60 chapters... so there should be enough content for 2-3 more books, already... so I'm expecting to see those in the next year or so, and maybe the story will be finished on Royal Road by then...

I'll be starting Mother Of Learning next probably, so I should be into it sometime tonight at work...

[RachelG.]

I'm curious to see what you think of The Bee-ginning.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I'm optimistic... positive reviews, good track record with the author in the past... I know what I'm getting into... cozy vibes, starting from scratch, probably an over-the-top villain that's dealt with rather easily when the time comes, lots of fun in the meantime...

MC just started communicating with his worker bee dungeon core conduit... whose been following him around for a decade unbeknownst to the MC (MC thought he was, but hard to tell with bees)... now the MC knows the bee was talking at him all along, he just couldn't interpret his movements/bee dancing as language before becoming Dungeon "Queen"... worker bee keeps using bee lingo, and MC hasn't corrected yet... lots of communication to clear up at some point... seems like MC is living in a kingdom of propaganda about Tower Lords / Gods, and his becoming one is gonna throw a wrench in that...

There's also something called The Hunger plaguing the world...

[Narilka]

I have to say the latest litRPG authors you all have been trying out are super creative. I hope you enjoy it.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Looking at the chapters of the book, the bee puns are ripe, as indicated by the title of the book...

Later on, there are also other PoBees (you read that right... they don't say POV)...

The dungeon management aspects remind me of Cat Core

[Narilka]

Mother of Learning: ARC 3 half way through ch 6 and (view spoiler)[I'm very irritated I had to stop at that spot! OMG!! Someone is finally doing something to that Lich with the name I'm not going to attempt to spell! More exclamation marks!!!

Also, Zwim is a bad ass. I like him a lot more now, even with his truly terrible suggestion to Zorian lol Him tutoring Zach was seriously funny. (hide spoiler)]

Mother of Learning: ARC 3 is brought to you by the letter Z hahaha At least I make myself laugh :) the author has a thing for naming his characters with Z names and it just struck me as funny :D

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Narilka wrote: "I have to say the latest litRPG authors you all have been trying out are super creative. I hope you enjoy it."

That's my favorite aspect of the genre...

My early explorations had too many dystopian and nefarious tendencies, like Catharsis with it's sketchy CEO and gaming helmet mind control murder...

I think I've always enjoyed the ones with cozy aspects more, like Stuff and Nonsense and Wandering Inn...

[Narilka]

I hear you. I'm over the dystopia trend for now too. I have plans to pick up the Dead Tired series at some point based on how you all loved it. Probably some others.

[Nirkatze]

That Bee book sounds like the Ant ones we're doing soon...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

The big difference being the MC is still human in Bee Dungeon... More of a beekeeper than actual bee...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Nothing is truly unique... since I started Bee Dungeon, Audible front tab of app has some recommendations for me...

Bunny Girl Evolution 1: A Monster Evolution LitRPG -- less cozy Cinnamon Bun vibes?... only 1 book/audiobook so far, but 2nd book has a GR stub...

and

Tree of Aeons -- another isekai tree reincarnation book... altho tree is less demonic in this one... 6 books out, 7th on the way...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I read the blurbs of Bee Dungeon a few times and missed the possibility that this was a Tower Defense LitROG until combat/defense/purification happened...

[Nirkatze]

ROG?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Sausage fingers on phone keyboard at work rpg

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

sillier answer:



ASUS Republic of Gamers brand / sub-brand of computer parts...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Narilka wrote: "I hear you. I'm over the dystopia trend for now too. I have plans to pick up the Dead Tired series at some point based on how you all loved it. Probably some others."

Dead Tired is great... I like Ravensdagger in general, for cozy LitRPGs...

Dead Tired is elevated by narration from Jeff Hays / Soundbooth Theatre of the Dungeon Crawler Carl books...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I started Mother of Learning, right at the end of my work shift this morning...

I doubled down on Bee Dungeon, and read The Bears and the Bees right after The Bee-ginning... now I gotta wait until September for The Art of Diploma-Bee...

Re:Mother of Learning: I definitely mentioned how weird it is having a series with multiple Z-named characters a few weeks ago...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

It's nice how I don't get nearly as many emails on the GR website, since I left every group I haven't been active in basically ever... I left Polls for Our Souls, a bunch of UF groups I never really participated in, and a few others that rebranded over the years or I was invited to... just in the 2 I moderate and Goodreads Librarian for when I have issues, now...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Thru chapter 18... This has been so good... Easily my favorite entry in the series so far... Things have just kicked into a new gear, and the first 2 books feel like setup... So many tools to solve the artifact problem going forward... But clearly Zorian and Zach are gonna have to pull off a "100% speed run" loop before running out of loops, if they hope to escape with their memories intact and a final confrontation in the "real world" where actions matter again...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

And finished... this was so good... I spoiled some stuff, forever ago, while reading 1-2 and waiting to find time to read 3-4... but some developments here truly surprised me...

We better be continuing with #4 shortly after you finish #3, Narilka, because that ending was painful... book 1 level cliffhanger... when the chapter ended and the Audible outro started, I was like "WUT?!?"... I should have expected it, but I was hoping for a more manageable pause point...

[Nirkatze]

Gah! I'm behind for the month but I've gotta find time for #2...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I make myself behind by doing unscheduled reads...

[Narilka]

I don't have any other audio BRs planned so going straight to #4 is highly probable :) I'm really glad you liked it so much. It's becoming my favorite too.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Great news

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

@Nirkatze: I'm only like 2-3 books behind today, but have like dozen Bars the next few days... That 15th/16th of the month glut...

[Nirkatze]

I think I'm about 4 audio and 4 eye reads behind, not counting book clubs right now... and I was doing so well!

[Narilka]

My reading got completely derailed this week. Personal stuff behind the spoiler.

(view spoiler)[My mother in law went to the hospital feeling weird on Tuesday and ended up having a pacemaker installed yesterday. Everything went well and she's heading home today. That's a weight off my shoulders. I haven't listened to MOL since my post on Tuesday, opting for podcasts since I was having trouble concentrating enough for books. It probably contributed to my slowness with Truthwitch this week too, which I probably should have set aside but stubbornly plowed through. I think I can go back to the MOL now. (hide spoiler)]

TGIF.

[Nirkatze]

So glad to hear that everything worked out--that sounds very stressful. I have a hard time focusing when personal stuff blows up.

[Narilka]

Thanks Nirkatze.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Much better result than I was expecting from the prespoiler preamble...

My reading definitely nosedives sometimes when work shenanigans are stressing me out...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Or my medical issues...