Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

This thread is open to discuss Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire



Synopsis
Ghoulies. Ghosties. Long-legged beasties. Things that go bump in the night... The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity—and humanity from them. Enter Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she'd rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and is spending a year in Manhattan while she pursues her career in professional ballroom dance. Sounds pretty simple, right? It would be, if it weren't for the talking mice, the telepathic mathematicians, the asbestos supermodels, and the trained monster-hunter sent by the Price family's old enemies, the Covenant of St. George. When a Price girl meets a Covenant boy, high stakes, high heels, and a lot of collateral damage are almost guaranteed. To complicate matters further, local cryptids are disappearing, strange lizard-men are appearing in the sewers, and someone's spreading rumors about a dragon sleeping underneath the city.

res

res

I’ll give this series a try. I may be starting the book a few days late!

that's fine, i'm not sure i'll actually start on the 1st either but i figured i would go ahead and set it up for that date

just a reminder that this starts today! and i think i might actually start it on time lol

I started yesterday. I went into this without reading the description. So I really didn’t know much. I am finding the book ok, kind of light. My opinion is probably based on comparisons to October Daye series, which I am very invested in now. Toby is sassier and I like the Scooby gang she has with her like May and Quentin and Tybalt and Luidaeg. I do find the whole ballroom dancing thing interesting, though.

Is this a favorite series, DeVann?

While I do like this series, I agree that the October Daye series is a lot better - or at least has characters that I am more interested in I guess.

I do like this series though because it covers a wider range of creatures as opposed to just being fairies and she does some really interesting things with some of them. Like in book 3 there are gorgons that have some really cool background and book 4 I think is werewolves but she definitely puts more time into the science behind the transformation than most authors.

Also different books focus on different siblings - 1, 2, and 5 are verity, 3 and 4 are ...alex? the brother. he's not my favorite lol, and books 6 and 7 are antimony - the younger sister. So I guess that could be a good thing if you aren't crazy about one of them but also can kind of be a bad thing because there isn't exactly a main 'Scooby gang' like with October and her entourage.

Also I don't want to give too much away but I just really like the way that Seanan writes relationships. Like usually I hate urban fantasy books with romance in them but I always like her pairings because the guys aren't total douchebags and actually respect the women they're with. I know that seems like such a low bar but unfortunately urban fantasy is just filled with horrible asshole boyfriends so when an author DOESN'T do that it automatically gets bumped up to 'a favorite series' lol

Soooo, tldr I guess, I wasn't as immediately taken with this series as I was with October, but it definitely grew on me by the second book and now to the point where I am wanting to reread it.

It’s good to know about the different MCs and creatures. I tried to like Verity, but she didn’t come to life for me. Character development and character driven stories are most important for me. And I totally agree that relationships in a lot of urban fantasy are annoying.

I agree here that Verity’s relationship wasn’t irritating. But I will probably try to catch up with October Daye series before continuing with this one.

I wasn’t thrilled with Seanan’s Every Heart a Doorway book either. But I did enjoy Parasite and Into the Drowning Deep and will continue with those series!

yeah i don't like verity as much as october, although i think it's because it's harder for me to relate to her personally. like toby is just an absolute mess and i'm like #same lol but verity is like idk really sporty i guess and also always talking about her clothes / shoes ...which like there's nothing wrong w/ that and i get that seanan probably just wanted to write two totally different types of women, but i still definitely like toby's whole vibe better in general.

did you finish this one already? i read chapters 1-9 yesterday, gonna try to read some more today. i really loved every heart a doorway and also into the drowning deep. parasite was like ...it was good but it was HEAVY and sometimes it was dealing with some stuff that i didn't really want to deal with lol

I'll start this one tonight!

I'm about halfway in this book and have not been as sucked in as I was with the October Daye books. I do however like the creatures. I find the concept really interesting. Verity is okay as a main character but completely different from Toby.

i got through chapter seventeen today. and i mean obviously dominic is not a Good Person at this point but he's just so unintentionally hilarious. like when he called her a witch and then said the fake lightbulbs were a 'monstrous deceit' because seriously who talks like that???

Devann wrote: "yeah i don't like verity as much as october, although i think it's because it's harder for me to relate to her personally. like toby is just an absolute mess and i'm like #same lol but verity is li..."

Yeah, I finished. I will admit to skimming after I got halfway through. The creatures were interesting. But I am more into characters instead of storylines.

I tend to like dark and heavy so I guess that’s why I liked Parasite. And probably why I did not like this book as much. Verity was a little too light for me. Like you said so into clothes and such. Toby is darker, more badass and funnier.

If there is another book for Into the Drowning Deep, I’d be into doing a buddy read!

@geri did you read the rolling in the deep prequel novella? idk if i'd really want to reread it now since i just reread it last year before into the drowning deep came out but its very good

i just finished it! i agree that this first installment was definitely a bit on the light side, but honestly i enjoy a lighter book so it didn't really bother me. i think the next book gets more 'serious' because i remember other covenant agents showing up. so if anyone wants to give that a shot then we could do a BR. i just love how the women in her family keep converting every covenant agent they find lol. like it's ridiculous but it's just so good.

I've tried reading this the last couple days and have only got thru Chpt 8 so far. I have some stuff going on personally so haven't really been in the right mindset so it's tough because I want to like this book but I'm not sure if I like Verity yet or not. I'm not sure how I feel about her obsession with ballroom dancing either... It's unique, I'll give her that!

I assume Dominic is the love interest? So far he's sorta blah, especially with the holier than though attitude. He'll probably grow on me as I read more so I'm keeping an open mind.

You're totally right Devann about usual heroes in Urban Fantasies. They always start by being the biggest assholes! Though I do end up falling for them (a couple books in) so it will be nice to like a hero more from the start :P

I'm glad this is on the lighter side though I can't say there has been anything up to this point that has really drawn me in.

i feel like the ballroom dancing thing is less prevalent in the next book but when verity comes back as the protag in book 5 then it's like all about the dancing bc she enters a dance competition where people are getting murdered.

and yeah dominic is definitely one who has to grow on you. although honestly tybalt had to grow on me in the toby series as well, but at least he didn't start out genocidal so dominic does have a bit further to pull himself up lol

Finished. So this book didn’t suck me in but I did find myself enjoying it towards the end. It was kind of light on plot and development but I give it slack as it’s the first book introducing you to everyone.

I feel like Dominic’s sudden turn around in attitude was weird. No one gets deprogrammed that easily and he was pretty much raised by a cult. I guess arguments could be made that this was his first time out on his own and meeting things that contradict everything he was taught but still too fast of a turn around on his thought process.

Verity was okay a character. Did anyone else get the feel that she was meant to be a Buffy like character. You know fashion conscious but still kicking ass?

@claudia yeah i agree that dominic changed his attitude a bit too quickly, but also i don't WANT him to be a horrible douche so like ...i'll let it slide since it's something i wanted to happen anyway lol. but i guess technically he was around for several weeks where we didn't really see much of him so maybe it's a bit less sudden than it seems on the page.

i was never that into buffy so i didn't make that connection but yeah it does seem like that now that you mention it

Claudia - I think you are right about Verity being Buffy-like. I loved Buffy the tv show. But for some reason it did not work for me here. I do wonder if Seanan was inspired by Buffy. I may have to do research.

DeVann - I haven’t read Rolling in the Deep. But I will. And I will probably reread Into the Drowning Deep again this year. Now that I know Mira Grant is her pseudonym.

Have you read Feed? I think I’m going to give that series a try too!

yeah feed is really good. i usually don't like zombie stuff because it all seems so cliched and like everyone doing the exact same thing at this point, but hers is really unique and interesting.

also i'm guessing from everyone's feedback on this book that we don't want to continue with the next one right now?

i would be up for either her indexing series or velveteen series if any of you want to give something else a try though. i would say indexing is darker and probably closer to toby in feel [also only 2 books] while velveteen is ...well it's not really 'lighter' because it's definitely serious stuff at it's core, but the heroine is also a superhero who can animate stuffed toys sooooo ...maybe it's more like this one lol. and it's 3 books

I’m going to keep reading the series but probably not at a fast pace. I read the Indexing books and I agree they are darker and I liked them more than this series so far. I have not read velveteen but it sound interesting.

I’m like Claudia. I haven’t given up on Incryptid. I may try another. But I want to focus on completing October Daye.

I would be interested in Indexing. Maybe late January, like Jan 28. If that works for you. Or the second week in February, Feb 11?

either of those dates would work for me. does anyone else want to try indexing?

Hey there, I'd be interested! :) And both dates also work for me.

lol I literally just read the indexing books in November but am willing to do a re-read.

hahaha maybe we should pick the later date to add a few weeks of time between rereads for claudia ;)

Ok. February works. Nice to have you join us Akkisuitok!

Feb 11th works great for me.

ok cool, i just requested the thread

Ugh I caught the flu, probably the worst I've ever felt with the flu, so haven't read anything since Friday. I didn't give up on this one yet, just haven't had the energy to read.

Cathy M. wrote: "Ugh I caught the flu, probably the worst I've ever felt with the flu, so haven't read anything since Friday. I didn't give up on this one yet, just haven't had the energy to read."

UGH! The flu is getting around! I hope you feel better soon!