Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

Silver Swords


Captain: Yanique
Ann-Marie
Choko
Diana
Felina
Saar
Soo
Virginie

Yay! Hello team :)

Woo, team! =D

Hi all!

Hello!

Hello, team :D

Hi team

Welcome Silver Swords!!!

What will be your first book to start with in 2025?

I’m behind on my buddy reads so I’m doing Age of Death first with the hopes I can catch up to where everybody is in the Michael Sullivan reads through.

Felina wrote: "I’m behind on my buddy reads so I’m doing Age of Death first with the hopes I can catch up to where everybody is in the Michael Sullivan reads through."

Yay!

All hail catching up to things… I caught up on He Who Fights With Monsters and Books of Babel in November/December and will try to catch up on more things if the BR schedule doesn’t lure me to overbooking like last year…

I'm currently on my READING RAMPAGE to meet my GR Reading goal for this year. XD

I'll make it!

Not sure if I can squeeze in the two BRs I had planned to join in December while I'm on my rampage. So, re-read of Iron Widow & Beware of Chicken 4 may happen in 2025.

I need to update GR with a ton of books, not sure if i will do that or not honestly. My first planned book for 2025 is starting the Dark Tower series.

I was trying to catch up with IA this month but it didn’t happen. I’ll try to catch up in January.

Diana Stormblessed wrote: "I was trying to catch up with IA this month but it didn’t happen. I’ll try to catch up in January."

I am nearly through them all, I think I have the Kinsmen books left but I am not really in a hurry for those so I may call it done, TBD :)

Ann-Marie wrote: "I need to update GR with a ton of books, not sure if i will do that or not honestly. My first planned book for 2025 is starting the Dark Tower series."

You gotta update everything... I did like 450 reviews in December...

Ann-Marie wrote: "Diana Stormblessed wrote: "I was trying to catch up with IA this month but it didn’t happen. I’ll try to catch up in January."

I am nearly through them all, I think I have the Kinsmen books left b..."

Kinsmen are the least important by a long margin... I read them for completion, as the only things I'd never read yet... and it was hardly worth it...

Ann-Marie wrote: "Diana Stormblessed wrote: "I was trying to catch up with IA this month but it didn’t happen. I’ll try to catch up in January."

I am nearly through them all, I think I have the Kinsmen books left b..."

Those are the ones I’m actually just going to sit out. I wasn’t a fan the first time I read them. I remember them being short but I’m still not motivated to do a reread 😅

Timelord Iain wrote: "Ann-Marie wrote: "I need to update GR with a ton of books, not sure if i will do that or not honestly. My first planned book for 2025 is starting the Dark Tower series."

You gotta update everythin..."

So I woke up this morning feeling like I got hit by a truck so I will not be going out tonight. If I can stay awake I'll update some books lol

Truck-kun, NOOOO!!!

:D

I've finished my last book for this year. Off to fill myself with some delicious food! (and secretly look at my bookcase to find my first book for 2025)

I ended up finishing Age of Death before 2025 because it was so good. So I think my first book is 2025 is either The Gunslinger or Age of Empyre cause that cliff hanger got me 😖

I'm thinking starting tomorrow with The Rogue and Sound the Gong. Two in one 😁. Maybe grab some graphic novel too, but will have to go to work in between 😕

What do I do about Wind and Truth? I have maybe 4 hours left in it. I don’t think I’ll finish it tonight but I don’t want it to give me an unfair advantage next year. Should I just take the hit and not include it? Only include a few pages of it for this year?

I am only at 300 pages in Oathbringer after my two months slump so I am thinking of counting that one for next year. I would either remove the BR bonus or not count pages I have read in 2024, or both... I mean I could start from beginning to be completely fair too but I don't want to read 1000 pages and not count them... That wouldn't be a good motivation to get out of the slump for sure...

You can carry things into the new year. As long as you aren’t excessive like getting 15 books to basically finished then waiting until Jan 1 to finish them all.

Come on, now, Diana... that isn't an unfair advantage ;)

I'll earn 2000 points again next year, Nirkatze will earn 2500-3000, and Soo will probably earn 5000... it'll all even out in the end...

Plenty of people are carrying books over, altho maybe not as luckily as that chonker at 95% complete and still 4hrs remaining...

Wind and Truth might as well be 15 books lol. 1330 pages 🥴 I’m audiobooking it but I think I have the equivalent of like 150 pages left.

Meanwhile, tomorrow, I'm gonna listen to an audiobook that's 12hrs and listed as 600 pages... when your 1334 pager is 63hrs

Yeah, sometimes I have no idea how they gauge those audiobook lengths. Kramer does read VERY slowly so there’s that.

I get so irked about Kramer being the one that narrates a bunch of stories I wanna read, but won't do audio because I don't like his narration. Once in a while, it's ok, but mostly it's a no for me. Which is weird cause I don't really have a "don't listen to this narrator list".

Ok. I have a list and it's only Kramer on it. XD

I'm getting in a few novellas to round up the year.

For some reason, my GR Challenge Tracker & Year in Books don't match up for total of books read this year.

Challenge: 249
Year in Books: 245

My goal is 247. So getting it to be 247 in Year in Books. XD

There are some great novellas on Audible +! Happy to see they're good and not, OMG why am I listening to this? lol

Woo! It's the end of 2024~ ~

Soo wrote: "I get so irked about Kramer being the one that narrates a bunch of stories I wanna read, but won't do audio because I don't like his narration. Once in a while, it's ok, but mostly it's a no for me..."

Newly completed books appear after a delay.

Soo wrote: "I get so irked about Kramer being the one that narrates a bunch of stories I wanna read, but won't do audio because I don't like his narration. Once in a while, it's ok, but mostly it's a no for me..."

I’m not a fan of his narration but it’s better if you speed it up a lot. But yeah, I don’t see him winning a ton of awards. His narrations are very dry.

Soo's hated Kramer for a long time... no changing that now :D

I like Kramer...

I mean, he's fine. I wouldn't search him out but I'm not bothered by him.

I think Will Wheaton is the only one I actively avoid. Him and whatever trash bag reads the Dragonlance twins trilogy forcing me to eye read them which takes forever.

Wil Wheaton is another divisive narrator, and not one of my faves...

I like Wil Wheaton. He puts emotion into his narration. In general, I think he only works on stuff he enjoys reading. That shows in his narration.

Kramer is mostly a miss for me because he kills all the joy of the story and makes it dumber, meaner, dryer, crappier, sadder, etc than the story is.

There's only been a few books where he was actually interested in the story and narrated well. I never know when that's gonna be, so I just avoid it now because that's money down the drain if he's not in the 'mood' to be an active narrator.

The last straw for me was Wheel of Time. Normally, I like Kate Reading. I cannot stand Reading and Kramer's narration for the Wheel of Time. It is SO obvious that they don't like the story and that comes across in the way they inflect, emote, etc. If I went by their narration, I would never finish the Eye of the World.

I don't remember how many audiobooks I forced myself to listen to for the Wheel of Time before I got fed up and quit. XD

Those two made me NOT want to listen to the series at all. I was making up excuses to do other things. A red flag for me.

That's one of the series I grew up reading via library and eventually started to collect in hardbacks. I dropped the series when Jordan became sick and book releases were sparse. Later Sanderson was hired to complete the series and I was happy to hear the series will be finished, but I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy the narrative voice change. Cause there's a change with each writer. Heck, there are changes with the same writer.

So now I just avoid any books narrated by Kramer or Reading + Kramer. As a duo, I went into a reading slump multiple times. Lesson learned. No more duo for me. XD

On a positive note: Happy 2025!

My only experience with Kramer + Reading was a Cosmere book (don't remember which one), and I did not enjoy the experience AT ALL. I might give Kramer another try eventually if he narrates something I really want to listen to, but Cosmere books will be eyereads only.
I liked Will Wheaton's narration of the Kaiju Preservation Society and Starter Villain. Can see why some people don't like it though, he's very enthusiastic and over the top.

Hold up, I listened to Kaiju Preservation and didn’t realize that was Wil Wheaton and I wasn’t bothered by it. I guess I don’t hate Wil Wheaton anymore. Cool.

Still hate the guy who narrated the Twins trilogy though.

WHOA WHOA WHOA...

Don't be too hasty... you can still hate Wil Wheaton's narration... maybe Kaiju Preservation Society was an outlier he was perfectly suited for...

;)

Felina wrote: "Hold up, I listened to Kaiju Preservation and didn’t realize that was Wil Wheaton and I wasn’t bothered by it. I guess I don’t hate Wil Wheaton anymore. Cool.

Still hate the guy who narrated the ..."

I don’t hate Wil Wheaton’s narrations. I mean, I don’t love him but I don’t hate him. I hated Ready Player One just cuz I didn’t like the book, but that wasn’t his fault.

Finally! Another person who hated Ready Player One!

Okay Timelord, I’ll gold onto my hate.

I'm another 3 star rater... my review says, it started off good, but the premise wore thin before long...

It has insta-love. I detest insta-love.

I dunno... I think I just didn't like it's version of Gamelit...

It's probably just another case of mainstream appeal doesn't hit the same for us "real" readers that don't just read and enjoy the popular tiktok stuff...

Diana Stormblessed wrote: "What do I do about Wind and Truth? I have maybe 4 hours left in it. I don’t think I’ll finish it tonight but I don’t want it to give me an unfair advantage next year. Should I just take the hit and..."

Don't feel bad. I have 8 hours left in Oathbringer and will be carrying it over for the Jaghuts. With so many at various points in this series at the end of 2024, there's going to be several cases like us.

Felina wrote: "Finally! Another person who hated Ready Player One!

Okay Timelord, I’ll gold onto my hate."

I wasn't a fan at all. I thought it overly relied on nostalgia to move the plot. I barely remember the actual plot though. It didn't leave a lasting impression, except how many times I rolled my eyes at it.

Felina wrote: "It has insta-love. I detest insta-love."

Same. Instalove is the fastest way to get a low review from me.