Study Buddies discussion

Hi everyone! This February we're reading The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Post everything on this thread. Instead of separating out spoilers and no spoilers, they all go here--from Feb 1-8 No Spoilers! Give folks a chance to read the book. Then starting Feb 9 you may post spoilers freely, and readers beware, ok?

Your discussion leader is Gisela!

Have fun!

I read this book last Summer so I won't be reading it again with you. It is a wonderful book!

Just wanted to let all of you know that although it starts slow...keep reading! It gets very intense after awhile and then the story sucks you in and you can't wait to find out what is going to happen.

MB, you can still respond, and get your point for reading the book, during the contest period--this is the only retro point I'm allowing! That and for reading The Goose Girl.

For those of you who are interested, there is a dictionary of the people, places, and things in CoC. It also has a pronunciation guide. This is the link:

http://www.dendarii.com/dict-chalion....

So I've started this book and I'm having a little trouble getting into it. I'm hoping it kind of picks up soon. But it's quite well written.

The beginning is slow, I know, but keep at it. It gets better.

Gisela wrote: "The beginning is slow, I know, but keep at it. It gets better."

Thanks. I will. The Name of the Wind was also slow at first, but I LOVED that book. So I have hope.

Name of the wind? Haven't heard of it, by your comment I'm assuming it's really good. So I'll add it to my to read shelf.

Gisela wrote: "Name of the wind? Haven't heard of it, by your comment I'm assuming it's really good. So I'll add it to my to read shelf.

"
It is my favorite book so far this year. It's hefty (720 pages in paperback) but just a really wonderful and well written book.

And you can friend Patrick Rothfuss on GoodReads. *And* the sequel comes out this year!!

Okay. I stuck it out and read the book. Hmm. I didn't love it. I liked it though. I just felt a little bogged down by the religious stuff. Also, I think after having read The Name of the Wind, I was sort of taxed out for that sort of detailed period fantasy.

I bet if I read it again I'd like it more. The book is quite well written, so I appreciated that about it.

Sorry you didn't love the book, but still I'm glad you don't feel you lost your time.

Oh Definitely not. I really do think if I was more in the mood for that kind of story, I would have liked it better. I probably will try it again sometime in the future. : )

Well, if you have time and the inclination, the sequel is really good too. Paladin of Souls won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award and the Locust Poll Award.

Hope everyone started reading! Today we officially start The Curse of Chalion

and remember you get points for reading our monthly selection.

Happy reading everyone!

Well I was going to read The Goose Girl first (since I just got it and Chalion from the library) but I guess I need to read the Curse of Chalion now LOL

I liked them both, hope you do too!

Thank you as soon as the little ones get to sleep I will be starting them, I may start both today who knows LOL

At first I didn't like the Curse of Chalion. It just seemed strange and not at all what I was expecting. I thought "...is this some strange medieval Spain history novel with fantasy thrown in??? I don't think I'll like this!" But since I had zipped through all of LMB's Miles Vorkosigan science fiction series and LOVED those books, I already knew LMB was a smashingly good author. So I forced myself to keep going with this book. Then a few chapters in it got really exciting and I couldn't wait to find out what would happen and whether characters would survive or not. Cazaril is a stealth hero. You kind of start out thinking "Ooogh" but WOW! does he grow on you. Plus, the ending is really sweet. The other two books in this series are very good as well.

Those of you who like this book, you should definitely read the next two books.

Also, FYI: Lois McMaster has 3 stunningly good series going. They are VERY different from each other, but all very very good. She is a superb author!

There is the Miles Vorkosigan series which is the longest running and what she is primarily famous for. It is science fiction. It has a really great romance in the later books! Miles is a wonderful, complicated but admirable character. He is about as 3-dimensional as a fictional character can get, I think.

There is this Chalion series. Which is Fantasy and based in a alternate Europe, I'd guess. Kind of medieval/Renaissance in feel.

Then there is the Sharing Knife series. It is also Fantasy but very different than the Chalion series. It also has a very strong romance running through it. LMB is really good in her portrayal of strong men and strong women. (This is unusual and hard to do, unfortunately). The Sharing Knife series has a setting that is an alternative frontier America/Canada I think.

Lois McMaster Bujold's website (that Gisela linked to above) has lots of information and is very "friendly". I like author websites and always go looking for them because they have a ton of information and usually give you "a feel" for the personality of the author as a real person and what they are like. This knowledge deepens my enjoyment and understanding of their books. (I save them to My Favorites and check them periodically.) LMB has a good one--I recommend it.

Anyway, hope you all are enjoying "The Curse of Chalion"! It is a challenging read, but I think well worth it! Enjoy!

For those of you interested, the sequels to The Curse of Chalion are:
Paladin of Souls and The Hallowed Hunt.

oh you are so great know I now that when I finish this one I will have something more in the series to read hahaha (ummm not sure if this is helping my addiction :(

I think it's more of a condition! Hahaha I have it too!

nice to know im not alone hahah

Maybe we should create a support group for Chronic Bookitis!

yes me and Kristen where talking about that but we decided that it would probably just make us worse. We would be talking about our problems with books then we would here new books from other people and think man I really need that one hahaha

You misunderstood me, the support is for our to-reads list! Why would anyone want to be cured?

Now see that group could be a little to successful don't ya think hahahaha don't ask me I don't think I will ever be cured if there is such a thing

hahaha, well I don't care if I'm never cured!

I have to say I dont either

I could use some support to knock off my to-read list and try to only add minimal books while doing so! That's a great idea! I sometimes get out of the mood to read for a day, or just am too busy writing discussion board posts all day *coughs*.

*cough, cough cough* did you say that you get out of the mood to read for a whole day? is that even legal

Well it usually involves busyness or a need to go out or move around. What I should do is whip out my MP3 player and listen to Dresdan while I clean.

hmm I am really going to have to look into this whole audio thing, I wonder can you down load audio from the Library audio book to your comp?

I know there is something our library offers where I can download audiobooks to my comp if I go through their website, but it freezes after two weeks and I don't know that I would get through an audiobook on my comp that fast.

can you download from you comp to you Ipod?

To my MP3 player, yeah. I'm too cheap to buy an IPod.

so try to down load the ones that you get form the library to it then you can listen to it in less than 2 weeks

oh that's so smart! So read the book and listen on and off... that makes sense.

yes I have only read a little of the curse of chalion but I have to say if I had someone reading it to me while I read it would probably help me understand some of it more, but I am really enjoying the book its just taking me longer to read because I have to go slow to understand what is going on

Yes, there's a lot going on in CoC, but it will start making sense as you go along.

as I said it seams really good its just going to take a little longer to read, I've only made it to chapter 3 so far

You have a long way to go my friend!

yes I know I'm just wondering if I will get it done by Sunday lol and the goose girl also I'm a little behind.

I'm also going to try to read this book before the contest ends.. not sure how well that will work out. I'll have to read half Friday and half Saturday most likely. If I have time I'll start it tomorrow night.

I think that Goose Girl is the easier to read of the two.

Goose Girl looks easier that is why I started with CoC hopefully they will both get done so I can talk about them here lol

Just keep in mind that spoilers might be posted after Sunday.

I read Goose Girl and really loved it. It's YA so it's definitely easier to read. Yeah, I'm going to keep that in mind, I don't want the book spoiled for me.

I don't mind spoiler but thank you for letting me know

I finished Curse of Chalion last night and really enjoyed it. Yes, the characters were a bit confusing, but the plot was great and I love when there is a decent ending, although you could tell that it may be the start of a series.