Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

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See ya'll for the BR in a few weeks. =)

yep(•‿•)

Looking forward to it!

Another thing I need to start soon...

It's also on my read soon list. =D Wee~

I'm going to be a little late for this one.

Think Ill try this one

Starting today. =D

Tried to start this morning, narration was a bit soft, so I'm saving for at home, in between other books, will finish Tuesday-Thursday, if not done by then

Yeah. The story isn't grabbing me and that's a bit of a disappointment because the story elements should snag my interest. This one may not be the right book to jump to after reading Shorefall. lol

Well, I also finished a crime novel but I don't think I'm fan of the author's style.

Soo wrote: "Yeah. The story isn't grabbing me and that's a bit of a disappointment because the story elements should snag my interest. This one may not be the right book to jump to after reading Shorefall. lol..."

I switched over to Pendergast 4... Pendergast & Joe Ledger are the 2 series I'm enjoying the most, recently... each Pendergast book feels so different... I'm reading Still Life With Crows, right now... and Joe Ledger is just crazy non-stop action... I just did Code Zero (I worry the world of Joe Ledger is falling apart, with all these crazy threats being mildly successful until the last minute)...

EDIT: You know, I was just thinking this morning, how Pendergast's oddities remind me of the Winchesters on Supernatural, when they roll into town impersonating lawmen...

You're not the only one to think that about Joe's world. lol
Glad you're having fun with those! Charlie Parker series by John Connelly and Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn are good. For Mitch Rapp, just read up to #14. Sadly, the author died and the new guy hired to finish the series doesn't keep up the characteristics well.

Soo wrote: "You're not the only one to think that about Joe's world. lol
Glad you're having fun with those! Charlie Parker series by John Connelly and Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn are good. For Mitch Rapp,..."

I read the first Charlie Parker book a few weeks ago... it was a wild ride that went all over the place... I plan to continue, but I think I'm juggling too many mystery series right now...

Mitch Rapp is another thriller series I'm reading... I re-read the first 3 books (did ebooks years ago now), and read the 4th one earlier this month... plan to continue with Memorial Day soon... I saw your comments on the new guy, so I'll probably stop when the author died...

Also got Hercule Poirot and the Anne Perry mysteries on rotation...

I think I need to add some new genres to my rotation... I was doing mysteries for awhile and am drowning in them now (didn't even count my monthlies with Tammie... got Shetland Island, Lady Sherlock, and some standalone KUs going...)

If you run into any good KU's, send them my way. It's nice to not have to go hunting on there. lol

My current genre rotation:
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Post-Apocalyptic/Horror, UF, Crime/Mystery/Thriller, Wuxia/Cultivation, LitRPG, Random (Classic/Historical/Non-Fic)

I jumped from the two BR books I should be reading to Zoe's Tale and it's fits my current mode. Sarcastic, new SF issues & well paced. I'll come back into this BR later tonight. =)

Timelord Iain wrote: "Soo wrote: "Yeah. The story isn't grabbing me and that's a bit of a disappointment because the story elements should snag my interest. This one may not be the right book to jump to after reading Sh..."

How are the Pendergast books on audio?

The Pendergast audios are great! That's the way I gobbled the series.

Brian wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "Soo wrote: "Yeah. The story isn't grabbing me and that's a bit of a disappointment because the story elements should snag my interest. This one may not be the right book to ju..."

I didn't think much of the first 2, but I've really liked books 3-4... Books 1-2 are more ensemble, with Pendergast playing a side role... book 3 is when he starts to take center stage (altho we still get to see plenty of him through side character eyes)... book 4 is also when the series gains a persistant narrator in Rene Auberjonois (Odo from Deep Space Nine)

EDIT: Turns out, I need to pay more attention to my narrators... I knew Rene takes over narration at some point, but there's actually 2 versions of books 4-7, one narrated by Rene & the other by Scott Brick... and I'm listening to the Brick version... makes sense, since in my head Rene has a softer voice (from what I remember of DS9)

EDIT EDIT: Closer inspection shows that the Auberjonois 4-7s are Abridged, and that's why there are 2 versions... I guess they started doing Unabridged with Auberjonois for books 8-18 (Auberjonois passed away last year, and Jefferson Mays took over with the newest book, this year)

Soo wrote: "If you run into any good KU's, send them my way. It's nice to not have to go hunting on there. lol

My current genre rotation:
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Post-Apocalyptic/Horror, UF, Crime/Mystery/Thriller,..."

I don't know much about Tammie's list of standalone, but agreed to try most of them... this list is on page 2 or 3 of the Mystery Club...

We did Follow You Home, and had a fun time guessing what was going on... we read The Perfect Roommate and had less fun guessing...

Soo, like Iain said, we have been reading some KU mystery/thrillers in the mystery book club. I've been squeezing them in now and then between my other reads. You are welcome to join us.

I'm about to start this book tonight. From the comments so far, it doesn't sound very promising?

Tammie wrote: "Soo, like Iain said, we have been reading some KU mystery/thrillers in the mystery book club. I've been squeezing them in now and then between my other reads. You are welcome to join us.

I'm about..."

I don't have much of an opinion... when I said the narration was soft, I meant I couldn't hear it over the forklift noises or refrigeration fans at work, nothing about the story itself...

Soo's the only one that made any progress, yet...

I think all I read was the prologue, so the story hasn't really started yet... the prologue kinda reminded me of the Acheron mythos of the Dark Hunter series...

Intro is ok. Basic training/test scenario to setup the characters & world. Not sure why but it wasn't holding my attention. I went to look at reviews and it looks like it'll be worth reading until events pick up.

I'm spending most of Pendergast 4 worried about Corrie's chances of survival, given how the cop Shaugnessy faired in book 3... being Pendergast's assistant is dangerous...

Zoe's Tale ended up being a great coming of age story. =D

It was awesome! Diving back into Master of Sorrows & it's getting more interesting. I'm about halfway now.

The weird crap we do for BRs. Did you guys all read this? It's at the beginning of the book.

Excerpt from The Book of Terra

Lost to Himself,
He shall lead those that feign to be lost.
Unknown to Himself, the blind shall seek Him and call His name.
For the honour of His naming,
the Herald shall plead mercy and receive it.
And these are the words of her prophecy:

Descended of the Gods yet sired by Man.
Seven seek to lead Him. Seven dread His hand.
Bonded by the Ageless, the Ancient breaks His path.
The Crippled King guides Him. The world fears His wrath.

Son of Seven Fathers. Child of None.
Master of Sorrows. The Incarnate One.
Bladesinger. Magpie. Phoenix. King.
Bloodlord. Ring-snake. End of All Things.

Woe unto those that awaken Him, for great shall be their destruction.
Woe unto those that follow Him, for great shall be their sacrifice.
Woe unto those that contest Him, for by His hand they shall be broken.
And when the Silent Gods awake then weep, children, for the end is nigh.

‘Son of Seven Fathers’, excerpt from The Book of Terra

1) I think it's a terrible poem. lol
2) Interesting foreshadowing.

Well that first part was horrible! (view spoiler)[The way they killed those people. (hide spoiler)]

Yup. Brutal start. This is another kind of story that doesn't pull it's punches. I think I would enjoy this one more if I read it vs reading it. My response to it is different between the reading/listening.

Also, I'm passed 60% now and questioning what the heck is going on. Based on the book blurb and what is happening in the story itself.

Finished & here are my thoughts:

I had to skim the book in order to make the audio have more context. I liked the broad scope of the overall plot and that the author was not afraid of making blunt scenes. The way the story is written, it doesn't make as much sense when I was listening because there isn't enough concrete imagery/action. (view spoiler)[

- Cool ideas, poor execution.
- Some of the "fated" path details were great but none of the key concepts for the story holds up well under scrutiny.
- All of the characters were two dimensional. No depth.
- Suspension of belief was never established to hold within the story perimeters and that bugged me from the get go. I read the book blurb and then went to skim the book because I thought I was missing a vital piece of info somewhere. Well, I missed a couple of little details but nothing big.
- I didn't like the names. They're all weird and a several are similar enough to be confusing. This happened while reading the book.
- Overall, the book was a stark, YA story with little development.
- Sodar was THOUSANDS of years old. All those years of experience, magic, etc.
- Annev is raised in the one place that would kill him & he wants to become the "status" of the type that go around and kill people that are like him.
(hide spoiler)]

I'd try another book by the author but I'd wait until it's something that's not set in this series.

The long story at the start of the first chapter, had me worried about the writing style of this book for a minute...

But then the writing returned to normal...

Other than that, I kinda want the book to hurry up and get to the good stuff...

I reached the end of Part 1 while typing this... I think I'm going to treat this book like I do the Books of Babel, and read Part 2 tomorrow... Soo's thoughts/rating don't give me hope right now...

I'm still only 10% into this and it's been 2 days. I'm just having a hard time getting into it. I'm really tempted to read the spoilers and be done with it.

Tammie wrote: "I'm still only 10% into this and it's been 2 days. I'm just having a hard time getting into it. I'm really tempted to read the spoilers and be done with it."

Non-Soo people make it sound like it's worth forging on... and sometimes I feel like I need to give a book/series a chance, just cause I downloaded it... but I'm definitely questioning if/when I'll continue with this series, and that can't be a good sign...

The story picks up around 35-40%. I had a confused moment cause when I posted on here that I was 50%, I was way wrong. lol I was actually 25%. I actually got to the real 50% and was about to get mad cause I was like, there's no way the story is wrapping up in like 2 minutes! lol

I was happy when that was not the case. The review that made me want to read this book was by another author. Now that I've read the book, other recs by this author will be suspect. haha

For me, the story has to make sense within the world established by the author and this one does not. Outside of that, the author has potential. There were several cool ideas and placement of those ideas threaded in the story. I liked some of the side characters.

If two of the established "rules/quirks" were not in place, the story would make more sense and I'd put this down as a decent start to a series. Also, I feel like the author tried really hard to write grimdark and that made the story more gloomy & whiny in turns.

I started to go back and write down the parts that clashed for me and I stopped. Ya'll should be able to enjoy the story if it works for you.

Like, personally (even with Tau being kind of dumb, The Rage of Dragons makes more sense within the story established than Master of Sorrows. Both stories have unusual looking names but it was easier to process & get used to the ones in Rage of Dragons.

Mage's Blood ended up as a 1 star book after the BR discussions because I'm not a fan of copycat authors. All writers pull inspiration from a multitude of areas but it's usually slanted with a personal touch that makes it theirs. Most of the group enjoyed that book and rated it 4-5 stars.

I'm currently listening The Fire Seekers because it's on KU + RL. The blurb reads like a corny, adventure movie. The story plays out like flashy tomb raider game or movie. It's totally cheesy, packed with smart secondary characters and it has a dorky plot. Good times! The story is staying within it's framework, the writing is ok and the narrator is great.

My other books are The Black Lung Captain and The Circle of Ceridwen. A grim airship pirate story & a historical fiction. All of these stories are more fun just because they make sense within the book.

Soo wrote: "The story picks up around 35-40%. I had a confused moment cause when I posted on here that I was 50%, I was way wrong. lol I was actually 25%. I actually got to the real 50% and was about to get ma..."

Nicholas Eames?... I saw his name and thought it was familiar... saw it was the Kings of the Wyld guy...

Soo wrote: "The story picks up around 35-40%. I had a confused moment cause when I posted on here that I was 50%, I was way wrong. lol I was actually 25%. I actually got to the real 50% and was about to get ma..."

I think I over-rated Moontide, in hindsight... I do that sometimes with BRs, since I enjoy the discussions... a fair amount of Moontide reminded me of Revanche Cycle, another series heavily inspired by history...

Well, I've called it quits with this one. I need something more uplifting. Plus I have another buddy read that was supposed to start yesterday.

Tammie wrote: "Well, I've called it quits with this one. I need something more uplifting. Plus I have another buddy read that was supposed to start yesterday."

I was kinda waiting to see if you'd say that... I don't care enough to continue, if Soo called it a 3-star, and you're bowing out... low interest, and having to wait year(s) for the rest of the series, if I even cared... I'll revisit in the future (if I care to)...

Had much more fun today, reading T-Rexes & Tax Law & Year One: A Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter Collection...

Mage's Blood author butchered/copied at least 3 religions and cultures in that book. He did it so badly that it was too obvious to ignore. Going by reviews on his other books, he does it in all of his books. It's not the kind of writing I want to encourage or endorse by buying & reading.