Fantasy Book Club discussion

Hello! I only read 7 books last month, spent too long marking SATs! So I’m playing catch up.

I’m listening to Red Seas under Red Skies - last month’s group read. I’m reading Fly by Night with another group and then Straight Razor Cure (Low Town).

Your turn.

Just started Witchmark

Helen wrote: "Hello! I only read 7 books last month, spent too long marking SATs! So I’m playing catch up.

I’m listening to Red Seas under Red Skies - last month’s group read. I’m reading Fly by Night with ano..."

Only 7? Gurl I only read 1 book last month, wish I had time for 7 XD.

I'm continuing my Song of Ice and Fire re-read and am nearly done with A Storm of Swords and will be on to A Feast for Crows very soon. A lot of people say Feast is their least favorite, but I like it a lot, I enjoy the new POV character additions, especially Cersei.

Haha, I agree, only 7! That is nuts, I am jealous of your reading ability. :P

I'll be finishing up Children of Time which has been fantastic so far, and confirms I need to get back on track with the author's fantasy world Shadows of the Apt.

But after that, I am about to start a buddy read with my brother of the Red Rising series starting with Red Rising

With so much going on at my job and life in general, I'm lucky if I get 4 read.

Tnkw01 wrote: "With so much going on at my job and life in general, I'm lucky if I get 4 read."

It's why I listen to so many audiobooks. I rarely get time to sit & read any more.

I have just started The Ember Blade which is good so far. It has all the usual elements but some intriguing characters.

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

I'm in the same boat. Not enough time in the day to hold a hard-cover and focus. Audio is how I got through 50+ books last year. I'm not on that pace this year but I love it. I'm reading Red Seas and Read Skies also, but should be caught up to the monthly read in a bout a week.

I stuggle with audio books because I can't focus and do something else at the same time. I also can't lay and do nothing while listening to one so it's kind of a lose/lose for me haha.

I half way agree Katie. I can't lay and just listen either, but that's why I do Audiobooks...Most of my time is spent using my hands (Computer, driving, etc). Audiobooks allow me to do these and enjoy a good book. I drive back and forth to my office 20 minutes one way, I get a lot of "reading" in that time. It's got to be so bad that I hardly turn the radio on anymore, LOL. I agree that it does take some practice on focusing on two things at once.

Funny you should mention the radio, Dwayne. The battery in my phone died & I found out that the USB ports on the car charger did too, so I was stuck listening to the radio last week on the way home. DJs & commercials are so annoying! Still, it was good luck since we're going on vacation soon, a 10 hour drive. I've replaced both the car charger & the phone battery just in time.

I'm the same as Dwayne. I can't lie around, either. I seem to always be doing something, but it's often a fairly mindless task. My commute is twice as long as his. I have a lot of mowing, weeding, & other stuff to do around the farm.

Listening to audiobooks is definitely a learned skill, but it takes surprisingly little time to learn. I started out with rereads, books I knew & wanted to reread, but couldn't really justify the time to sit & read, so if I missed a few words here or there, it wasn't a big deal. If I really wanted to hear them, it just taught me how to back up a bit quickly. There's also how & when to pause. It helps to have the right equipment. I have a bluetooth headset that keeps the wires out of the way. There's nothing more annoying than having a weed catch wires & tear the ear buds out.

I have an Android phone with Smart Audiobook Player. It allows me to playback at speeds ranging from .5x to 2.5x. I found that real time (1.0x) is often too slow & my mind wanders, especially with slow narrators. 1.5x is usually just right, but I might drop to 1.3x with a fast narrator &/or complicated material or go up to 1.7x or even faster with a slow narrator.

It's so much better now than years ago. It's light years beyond trying to deal with cassettes from the library in the car while driving. I was always getting the wrong side up or finding out the last person hadn't rewound properly. Worse was hitting a dirty spot & having the tape player suddenly eat the tape. Now I just download files & there's a much better selection. My libraries have about 10,000 books each rather than a hundred or so.

I walk a lot -- typically about 2 hours/day -- but that's my prime podcast listening time (and I'm still falling increasingly far behind).

I have auditory issues and can't concentrate on books in audio form like those in print.

Also, walking time is plotting my own stories time.

I guess I was comparing to earlier in the year. I left my job at Christmas and had a tonne of time for reading so 12-16 a month. Since I began getting more supply teacher days, it dropped. Marking SATs, it’s all on screen, left me avoiding screens including my kindle so it dropped further last month. I generally read 70-110 over the year. Again school holidays help here. Plus I audio-ed my commute, 2 hours a day.

I’m currently struggling to concentrate on reading, my books just aren’t gripping enough.

I listen as I fall asleep but the library app isn’t user friendly. The time bar is for the whole book rather than chapters.

Also, why have I never thought of wireless ‘phones!?!

A Crown of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi

Finished The Calculating Stars and started Spinning Silver.

I just finished Fool's Assassin and will be reading Lock In and Head On this month. Since I am going on vacation this month I will have a bit more time to read so I might get time to move onto The Mists of Avalon.

Next up: Revenant Gun, which might or might not turn out to be the last of the 2019 Hugo-nominated novels I read prior to the voting deadline.

Religions of India in Practice by Donald S. Lopez Jr.

Limited Wish

I'm about halfway through, it's good.

After finishing Royal Assassin I read Even Tree Nymphs Get the Blues. It was a cute, little romantic tale. Now on to All Systems Red.

All Systems Red was great. Best sci-fi short I've read in years. Also finished The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent. It was a funny, fun ride. Love them both. Now I'm on to Age of Legend.

Changeling by William Ritter

Finished Revenant Gun (which was great) and decided to go for something old school (but also great): The Knight of the Swords by Michael Moorcock.

Just a note halfway through Age of Legend and it is amazing. I believe I'll start The Priory of the Orange Tree next since it appears to be a massive book.

Finished Royal Assassin and like Tnkw, I will start Priory next as I doubt I'll finish it in time anyway.

Read Age of Myth and Age of Swords and now onto Age of War

Finished Age of Legend yesterday. Really good, but that cliffhanger. D: Gonna have to get on that Kickstarter so I can get the next book soon.

Now I'm reading Recursion.

Elise wrote: "Finished Age of Legend yesterday. Really good, but that cliffhanger. D: Gonna have to get on that Kickstarter so I can get the next book soon.

Now I'm reading [book:Recursion|4204..."

OMG! Elise you are so right. What a cliffhanger. This was a great book.

Priory is long. And I’m still on last month’s book. I seem to be in the middle of five considering I like one at a time.

So Priory started off great and I thought "man, another good fantasy" then...boring is the best way I can describe it and the characters, I really can't relate to them and I find them annoying or at the least stand-offish. Maybe it's because I just finished some really great books and this one is not up to those standards but I'm going to continue to read to see if it gets better. Oh, and one last thing, (view spoiler)[ where's the dragon? (hide spoiler)]

I'm not even 100 pages into Priory yet but I'm just finding it a bit hard to follow with all the characters introduced so far. Too many names... So much to remember.

Katie wrote: "I'm not even 100 pages into Priory yet but I'm just finding it a bit hard to follow with all the characters introduced so far. Too many names... So much to remember."

Me, I'm almost 150 in. I really don't want to do a DNF, but it's going to have to get considerable better. Your right. There are way too many characters introduced way too fast.

I'm putting Priory on hold and now doing Assassin's Quest.

I finished The Knight of the Swords and so, naturally, am starting The Queen of the Swords.

I managed to finish Priory but for real it was a slog. I don't understand all the praise, and the finale was not worth the effort.

It felt like a 3-5 book story squished into 1, giving you no time to grow to care about the world, characters or plot.

Beautiful cover art though.

I just finished Golden Son which was amazing (dat ending) so good that I am moving straight on to book 3.

@ Aaron. Ok, I guess I'm going to have to put the Red Rising Saga on my TBR list. As far as Priory. I'll come back to it and give it another chance but it's not one of the better reads I've done lately.

And The King of the Swords, the last of Moorcock's first Corum trilogy, has been started. I love these books!

Reading The Demon Cycle series by Peter V. Brett, on book 2. I’m really enjoying it so far.

Joseph wrote: "And The King of the Swords, the last of Moorcock's first Corum trilogy, has been started. I love these books!"

I need to read more Moorcock (no pun intended). The little bit I've read from him was very good.

So many good books: Golden Son, Hobb, Brett.

I noticed some reviews weren’t so impressed with priory.

Helen wrote: "So many good books: Golden Son, Hobb, Brett.

I noticed some reviews weren’t so impressed with priory."

So I'm a third of the way through Assassin's Quest and I'm loving it. Hobb is such a good author. I even liked the Soldier Son trilogy which was her lowest rated one. It's really going to be hard to finish Priory after reading these really good books.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Decided it was finally time to read John M. Ford's The Scholars of Night, which has been sitting on my shelf for an embarrassingly long time.

The Unicorn in the Barn by Jacqueline K. Ogburn

I loved the Corum books when I them years ago as well as Elric of Melnibone. I really liked the way he linked the ideas in each series.
Have to say that I quite liked Priory when I read it. It was quite satisfying being able to read an entire story in a single book
I have just finished Time of Dread by John Gwynn. I find these slow to get me involved as the points of view change very quickly. Once I’ve got involved with the characters, the story really rushes along though. Looking forward to reading the next one.

I’ve got Time if Blood from the library. I’m determined to finish the other books first though.

Somewhither by John C. Wright

Finished The Scholars of Night (which was great, and it's a darned shame that John M. Ford's books will likely never be reprinted) and started The Devil in a Forest by Gene Wolfe.