Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

Scott wrote: "Between Margret, Angela, Niki and you I feel like everybody else is finishing off a series every other day and I'm standing still. Part of it is finishing one Malazan book is 4 books in another ser..."

Me too!

Bill wrote: "I'm holding off starting any new series until I finish 10 series."

That's a good idea. I might set this goal, but on a smaller scale :)

Totally going to fail at that as I really want to start The Curse of the Mistwraith with another group next month.

I'm with you on that read billboard, we can be counterproductive together!

Shit, I mean Bill not billboard. Phone.

Lol. Nice. I think I bought it like 3 years ago. Just read To Ride Hell’s Chasm late last year and it got me really excited to start this series.

Yup we're just starting another 10+ book series no biggie...sigh

Haha hopefully it's a good 10 book series. I've had it on my shelf for ages, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I really loved her work with Feist on the Daughter of the Empire series.

Yeah didn't have enough 10+ book series on my list.

Listened to books 3-5 in the Alex Verus series this week and have the 6th on hold at my library. Should be able to get it and the 7th done by April when book 8 comes out. Then will get to move it to up to date.

You've put a massive dent in your list.

Trying to. Finished 18 books so far this year for this challenge. The other 2 books were for other challenges so running at peak efficiency here. I'm sure I'll go completely off the rails at some point this year and negate all the good I've done so far. :)

18? Wow! You're off to a killer start this year. I'm lucky if I've done 10. I think I'm already headed off the rails with all the new series I've scheduled to start with the group lol.

That's fantastic progress Bill. It must be wonderful to see some series being completed.

It's funny it's been two and a half weeks since I finished a series and since then I have read two standalones and 5 books that are in the middle of series. So I haven't finished or brought anything up to date lately and am starting to get the itch to finish something. Plus the series that I really want to continue and finish are now mostly kindle books and I haven't had any time or been to tired lately to get to them.

So if I look at my list it still makes me anxious but if I look at what I've done this year I'm happy with it.

Wow, good job!

Finished book 6 and 7 of the Alex Verus series by Benedict Jacka to bring the series up to date. Next book is out in April so won't stay that way for long. Author feels the need to reintroduce every person, place, prior event and magic item every time he talks about them so that is annoying but other than that the series is very enjoyable.

Took Curse of the Mistwraith off my list. I haven't had any time recently to read ebooks so it is just bad timing. I'm going to try to get back to it this summer. Really disappointed because I was so excited to finally get to this series.

Finished book 3 of the Witcher series and started book 3 of the Temeraire series.

I feel like just as I'm getting interested in a storyline in the witcher the author jumps the story ahead through time. I don't think I've ever read a series with this kind of format before.

Bill wrote: "Finished book 3 of the Witcher series and started book 3 of the Temeraire series.

I feel like just as I'm getting interested in a storyline in the witcher the author jumps the story ahead through..."

What do you think of the series so far?

The Witcher is a strange series because the first two books are collections of short stories and even in the third book he randomly jumps forward in time. The world is pretty different as well because while it is kind of medieval it has a lot of unique monsters and you spend a lot of time out in the wild. Also while there are all the standard races they aren't the standard version from LotR. I'm liking the series overall if for nothing else that it is different.

Finished the third and fourth books in the Temeraire series. Moving on to the fourth book in The Witcher series.

Ordered The Fiends of Nightmaria today. Trying to decide if I want to reread the earlier novellas before it arrives. Leaning towards yes.

Bill wrote: "Ordered The Fiends of Nightmaria today. Trying to decide if I want to reread the earlier novellas before it arrives. Leaning towards yes."

How and where did you order it? I've only found it on Amazon for $29 in hardcover. For a 90-something page book that's steep.

That's the one I got. It has something like 25 pages of artwork and Erikson is my favorite author so I finally gave in and ordered it.

Bill wrote: "That's the one I got. It has something like 25 pages of artwork and Erikson is my favorite author so I finally gave in and ordered it."

You'll have to let us know if it's worth it. I'm not a big memorabilia guy so I'm not sure the value is there for me for that short of a work.

Will do. I'm not a big memorabilia guy either. Went back and forth on getting it but with no ebook release date info I finally said screw it and got it. Be good to move this one to the finished section.

Bill wrote: "Will do. I'm not a big memorabilia guy either. Went back and forth on getting it but with no ebook release date info I finally said screw it and got it. Be good to move this one to the finished sec..."

Is that officially the last B&KB?

I wonder if they continue after Kharkanas and PTA are done.

I know he originally signed on to do 6 novellas so it is the last of the set. Hope he does another novella series if he doesn't continue with these. Haven't heard anything about it though.

Bill wrote: "Finished the third and fourth books in the Temeraire series. Moving on to the fourth book in The Witcher series."

It seems like every book you've read lately has gone towards your unfinished series challenge – I'm impressed! Especially with the fact that you seem to be focusing on only one or two series at a time. I envy that – I feel all over the place these days. I find I just don't have the attention span to read sequels back to back haha.

Thanks. I've been getting all the books from the library in audiobook format so it all depends on availability. I've basically been going through a series until I have to put one on hold then switching to something else. I've been spending all my free time on home improvement projects but running out of those so should be able to fit more ebooks in soon then my focus will switch to other series.

Monthly Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 12
Finished series: 0
Brought up to date: 1 (Alex Verus)
Series progressed: 4 (Witcher, Temeraire, Wheel of Time, Eddie Lacrosse)
New series started: 0
Abandoned: 0
Total series completion: 36.5% (127 of 348)

You are doing fantastic Bill. Well done!

I love your dedication at being able to stick to one series to get it up to date. I'm a bit like Niki and sometimes feel like I'm all over the place.

Thanks Angela. It is taking some effort. Haven't read this way for the last 4 years or so.

Do you only read fantasy Bill or are you putting aside other genres that you enjoy while doing this challenge?

Bill wrote: "Monthly Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 10
Finished series: 0
Brought up to date: 1 (Alex Verus)
Series progressed: 3 (Witcher, Temeraire, Wheel of Time)
New series started: 0
Abandoned: 0
To..."

Good work!

Bill wrote: "Monthly Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 10
Finished series: 0
Brought up to date: 1 (Alex Verus)
Series progressed: 3 (Witcher, Temeraire, Wheel of Time)
New series started: 0
Abandoned: 0
To..."

Good job! :)

That's a good method (utilizing what you can get from the library and rotating based on availability). I'm doing something similar, but keep falling victim to the "ooooohhh shiny new book" syndrome.

Niki Hawkes wrote: "That's a good method (utilizing what you can get from the library and rotating based on availability). I'm doing something similar, but keep falling victim to the "ooooohhh shiny new book" syndrome."

Haha Niki. I wish that was my problem. I'm a victim of reading mystery series x 2 in other groups and darn it, I seem to like both mystery series that were picked this year. So trying to read one of each series per month.

Angela wrote: "Do you only read fantasy Bill or are you putting aside other genres that you enjoy while doing this challenge?"

Pretty much only fantasy the last few years. I need to start mixing in some other genres again just for variety.

Thanks Tammie and Hacen.

I just bought my first book of the year today so been avoiding shiny new books and group reads so far this year.

Haha I think I'm like you Bill.. constantly juggling my holds.

Got 6 holds right now so starting the 7th on my list. Dark Jenny 3rd book of the Eddie LaCrosse series. Haven't loved the first two books so hopefully this one is an improvement or it might be my first abandoned of the challenge.

Finished Dark Jenny and turns out that 24 hours wasn't long enough for any of my holds to come in. Picked up books 4 and 5 of the series to hopefully wrap it up in the next few days. Think the series suffers from not having a larger story that connects them.

Finished the Eddie LaCrosse series by Alex Bledsoe to get March off to a good start.

Restarting The Iron Druid Chronicles as I can't remember many details from the first two. I had these marked as low priority but my library has slim pickings right now and these were all available. Think the last book is also supposed to be released this year.

Adding in the novellas for this series otherwise I'll never be able to keep track of them.

Finished 3 novellas and the first two novels in the Iron Druid series so about to finally make some progress in the series now.

Bill the cyborg series crusher.

Bill wrote: "Finished 3 novellas and the first two novels in the Iron Druid series so about to finally make some progress in the series now."

How in the world do you read so fast?!

Scott wrote: "Bill the cyborg series crusher."

I wish then I wouldn't have to do any rereads.

Tammie wrote: "Bill wrote: "How in the world do you read so fast?!"

Audiobooks at 2x speed for most. Cuts the Iron Druid full length books down to 4 hours each. I usually walk for 2 hours at night and then listen in bed so can easily knock off one a day.