Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, and all this love in the air let’s play a game.

Here’s how it works-

Depending on interest, we can have one person per day featured. Based on their “love bio” and what they’re looking for in a book/ author/ series, people can make recommendations for them just for fun :)

*note: no real dates will be set up. This is for books, not people. Because human contact= no thank you


example

Margret:

31 years old, Canadian female
likes: dogs, music, hiking, plaid shirts, torture scenes
dislikes: close talkers, monkeys dressed as humans, romance novels

searching for: a unique author who makes me feel strong complex emotions for characters and the situations they're going through


Sign up below if interested. You don’t have to make up your “love bio” just yet

Feb 1st- Chris
Feb 2nd- C.P.
Feb 3rd- J.J.
Feb 4th- Niki
Feb 5th- Hailee
Feb 6th- Ahdam
Feb 7th- Arkadeb
Feb 8th- Jenna
Feb 9th- Sha?
Feb 10th- Diana
Feb 11th- Rob
Feb 12th- Carrie?
Feb 13th- Jess
Feb 14th- Scott
Feb 15th- iDiffer

I don't want to sign up but I know this will be very interesting to read if anyone signs up for it. I can't wait. lol

I'm interested

I'm interested too.

Ah hell, why not, I'm curious. sign me up.

Adorable!! I love it. Sign me up. :)

This sounds fun. I'm in

Count me in as well

Margret wrote: "With Valentine’s Day around the corner, and all this love in the air let’s play a game.

Here’s how it works-

Depending on interest, we can have one person per day featured. Based on their “love..."

So we are going to have to do a 'love bio'? You did say "you don't have to make up your love bio just yet."

I think she's going to hit us up one a day for ours. Don't want to ruin the suspense and dish it all now. :)

Ah so you know what's going on and how it gonna work? You Mods and the behind-the=scenes group discussions. lol ; p

Haha actually, no. I'm just guessing. :)

Will we be picking from our recs on our day and then have to read it? That should count for challenge points, I'd think

Heh, this should be fun. Sign me up.

You will need to have your Love Bio done and posted on your day. So if you’re on February 5th you don’t have to have it ready until then.

@Chris- I think that would be fine to use your matchmaker books for your challenge points. It’s all in the name of fun and participation

So you're going to set up days for all of us? And be ready for that date? What's your system of finding out who's compatible, our love bio? The size of our feet? Touching your elbow to your nose? lmao just messin with ya.

Hahaha yes! I'm in, of course.

Yes I’ll assign dates, so just be ready for your day :D

So you’ll post on your day, and we will all bombard you with possible matches. If you find something you wanna Read then you can discuss it here, and review your book

I was inspired somewhat by my library doing “blind date with a book” where they wrap books in red wrapping paper and you pick one based on a very vague description printed on the front. This is much different of course but still Valentine’s Day themed

Ooooooooh this looks interesting. And promising. There are so many books I don't know about.

I'm already thinking of my love bio and already I'm gonna be super specific about stuff oh man this is gonna be fun

So I have to go to a conference today, I’ll make a list tonight just going by chronological order, but if you see this Chris we can start today if you’re ready. If not we can start tomorrow going by order of RSVP :)

You can be as vague or specific as you’d like but your bio should include a little bit about yourself, your likes, dislikes, and then what you’re looking for in a “mate” (book). Then after that’s posted, people please give recommendations with links if possible and why you think your book/series/author would be a good match for them :)

Chris:

50 years old, American (Southern/Texan) male
likes: reading, sports, music, LivePD, grimdark fantasy
dislikes: crowds, loud noises, stupid people, and praying mantises

searching for: a new approach to badassery through storytelling, strong female a must but may or may not be lead character. Would love to recapture the magic from the first time I watched Pulp Fiction or Tombstone.

I want to play!

Chris wrote: "Chris:

50 years old, American (Southern/Texan) male
likes: reading, music, LivePD, grimdark fantasy
dislikes: crowds, loud noises, stupid people, and praying mantises

searching for: a new approa..."

Chris, would you share your date with me? :) :) hahhhahhahhaaa!

Seriously I'm looking forward to the recommendations that will come to this bio.

Oh I’ll have to think for a while on that, but wanted to say how much I love the movie Tombstone

Margret wrote: "Oh I’ll have to think for a while on that, but wanted to say how much I love the movie Tombstone"

Val Kilmer at his finest (though he did just fine in Top Secret and Willow too!)

I'm in for this game :)

Rob wrote: "Margret wrote: "Oh I’ll have to think for a while on that, but wanted to say how much I love the movie Tombstone"

Val Kilmer at his finest (though he did just fine in Top Secret and Willow too!)

..."

I loved WIllow. I used to watch it over and over as a kid.

Diana Stormblessed wrote: "Rob wrote: "Margret wrote: "Oh I’ll have to think for a while on that, but wanted to say how much I love the movie Tombstone"

Val Kilmer at his finest (though he did just fine in Top Secret and Wi..."

Ditto. I think it's time for a home screening. Lots of great lines, but some of the sword play makes me cringe now.

The line "Gentlemen *pause a beat* Meet lunk" Is in my brain.

Beste wrote: "Chris, would you share your date with me? :) :) hahhhahhahhaaa!..."

Kinky. lol..

But sure, we can buddy read it I guess.

I like Val Kilmer in the movie 'Real Genius' 'Heat' 'The Saint' and 'The Doors'

Oh this sounds interesting.

J.J. wrote: "I like Val Kilmer in the movie 'Real Genius' 'Heat' 'The Saint' and 'The Doors'"

All excellent flicks. The Iceman rocks I guess. Though he is certainly not my reading match.

Chris wrote: "Chris:

50 years old, American (Southern/Texan) male
likes: reading, sports, music, LivePD, grimdark fantasy
dislikes: crowds, loud noises, stupid people, and praying mantises

searching for: a ne..."

I don't have a perfect match for you... but here are a few recs anyway. :)

Caliban's War Bobbi and Avrasarala are the shit. There are so many moments of profound depth of character through out this series and they somehow all manage to find their own brand of badass. But perhaps you've read these already?
Not a Drop to Drink this might be robbing the cradle a bit (;P) but I think the main character shares a lot of your dislikes lol. I was sold with the first line.

Wow, Niki. I'm liking my prospects so far :)

Caliban's has been on my Read Immediately shelf (if I actually had one called that) since it was first released, and one thing or another has always derailed my intention to start it.

But that Not a Drop to Drink looks wicked. It might even end up being the next thing to derail my starting of Caliban's ;)

Chris wrote: "Chris:

50 years old, American (Southern/Texan) male
likes: reading, sports, music, LivePD, grimdark fantasy
dislikes: crowds, loud noises, stupid people, and praying mantises

searching for: a ne..."

Got a couple of Grim dark fantasies for you with badass women.

1. The Woven Ring by M.D. Presley. It’s set in a fantasy world equivalent of the American civil war. The story follows a woman’s pre and post war story.

2. The Heresy Within by Rob J. Hayes. This one has a badass female sword master as one of the 3 povs. It also features a rather unpleasant badass criminal who is part of one the other povs crew.

Both have guns and are partially set in frontier like settings so that might scratch your tombstone itch.

Cool, thanks Bill.

I see that I picked up Woven Ring awhile back when the Kindlebook was offered for free.

And Heresy is one I've been seriously looking at lately. Got a free ebook of that one too back when I helped fund the Kickstarter for Evil is a Matter of Perspective.

Good recs from you both so far and I can see that my decision is going to be difficult lol

Nice! Well, I'll add to Expanse the prequel called The Churn. It's not going to feel like a real date, more like emailing someone you're really interested in to test the waters. ;) does that mean you've already read leviathan wakes?

I'm oddly pleased at the potential for a derailed schedule lol. NaDtD really worked for me, but you'll likely find it comparably tame to some of the grittier adult grimdark.

Hope you get more good recs! Bills look good...

Yes, I've read Leviathan Wakes. Twice.

I'll probably try The Churn too regardless. Could help get me back on track with the Expanse, to test the waters so to speak

Haha well at least I was in track with something you liked well enough to start twice. For the record, I would've also put Red Sister in the lineup had I not known you'd already tried that one. :)

Hehe, as I was typing my love bio I thought it sounded like Red Sister

Question ***raises hand** what's grimdark mean?

Diana Stormblessed wrote: "Question ***raises hand** what's grimdark mean?"

Per Wikipedia: "Grimdark is a subgenre or a way to describe the tone, style or setting of speculative fiction that is particularly dystopian, amoral or violent. The word was inspired by the tagline of the tabletop strategy game Warhammer 40,000: "In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war."[1]

Also: "Several attempts to define "grimdark" have been made:

Adam Roberts described it as fiction "where nobody is honourable and Might is Right", and as "the standard way of referring to fantasies that turn their backs on the more uplifting, Pre-Raphaelite visions of idealized medievaliana, and instead stress how nasty, brutish, short and, er, dark life back then 'really' was". But he noted that grimdark has little to do with re-imagining an actual historic reality and more with conveying the sense that our own world is a "cynical, disillusioned, ultraviolent place".[1]

Genevieve Valentine called grimdark a "shorthand for a subgenre of fantasy fiction that claims to trade on the psychology of those sword-toting heroes, and the dark realism behind all those kingdom politics".[2]

In the view of Jared Shurin, grimdark fantasy has three key components: a grim and dark tone, a sense of realism (for example, monarchs are useless and heroes are flawed), and the agency of the protagonists: whereas in high fantasy everything is predestined and the tension revolves around how the heroes defeat the Dark Lord, grimdark is "fantasy protestantism": characters have to choose between good and evil, and are "just as lost as we are".[3]

Liz Bourke considered grimdark's defining characteristic to be "a retreat into the valorisation of darkness for darkness's sake, into a kind of nihilism that portrays right action ... as either impossible or futile". This, according to her, has the effect of absolving the protagonists as well as the reader from moral responsibility.[4]


Basically, if you like happy-ish endings, this ain't it. If you like feeling safe in the knowledge that your favorite characters will survive to the end, look elsewhere.

Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

The Stand by Stephen King

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Veronica wrote: "Diana Stormblessed wrote: "Question ***raises hand** what's grimdark mean?"

Per Wikipedia: "Grimdark is a subgenre or a way to describe the tone, style or setting of speculative fiction that is p..."

Sounds like my kind of genre. Will be paying attention to the suggestions.

Well Chris you’re currently reading my match for you, so does that mean I win?

No guns but “woman” from Tower Lord is possibly my most favorite villain of all time. Really there’s tons of great female characters in that book

Tower Lord is way better than Blood Song, just my opinion.

Margret wrote: "Well Chris you’re currently reading my match for you, so does that mean I win?

No guns but “woman” from Tower Lord is possibly my most favorite villain of all time. Really there’s tons of great fe..."

Sure would make it easy on me too, without having to pick another lol

Im in!


Course, i dont know what i want...

J.J. I 100% agree, I can’t believe all these ridiculous folks who thought Tower Lord wasn’t as good. It’s miles ahead

Margret, I read some of them reviews and others talking about it in group discussions that Blood Song is better than Tower Lord. I was like whaaaaaat? Are we reading the same book? lol Like you said, it's miles ahead.