Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

YEAH BILL. Ghandi didn't just take a "little break" in the middle of his hunger strike to go to McD's for some chicken nugs did he?

Scott wrote: "Bill wrote: "Monthly Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 30."

There's 31 days in March, slacker."

Should have the last Witcher book done by eod tomorrow to make 31 for the month. Going to have to keep the sandman issues in reserve to bump up my numbers each month. :)

Margret wrote: "YEAH BILL. Ghandi didn't just take a "little break" in the middle of his hunger strike to go to McD's for some chicken nugs did he?"

At least he could have ate them if he wanted to. I'm gluten intolerant.

Finished the Witcher series. I don't know how to express what is unique about this series but it manages to have an original voice while still playing with a lot of common fantasy tropes. Really ended up enjoying it after not loving the first and considering ditching it. Glad I didn't.

Finished books 6-8 in the Iron Druid series to bring that up to date. Thought the last book was out later this year but saw he has a book of short stories out in July so maybe mixed them up.

Moved the Alex Verus and Dominion of the Fallen series out of my up to date section as they both had releases early this month. Will probably wait a bit to see if my library picks up the audiobooks.

Added two new series Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Abhorsen by Garth Nix.

Added yet another series Shattered Sigil by Courtney Schafer.

Monthly Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 22
Finished series: 1 (Earthsea)
Brought up to date: 1 (Iron Druid)
Series progressed: 5 (Wheel of Time, Sandman, Saga, Memoirs of Lady Trent, Abhorsen)
New series started: 3 (Saga, Abhorsen, Shattered Sigil)
Abandoned: 0
Total series completion: 33.25% (135 for 406)

Pretty much done with this month so thought I would add this. Should get the last Earthsea book done to add 1 to the finished column. My books completed is inflated a bit with 10 graphic novels.

Although I added 3 new series I have already progressed two of them so pretty happy with my overall progress this month. Also managed to sneak 3 standalones in for other challenges.

Edit: finished Earthsea and updated stats accordingly

That's awesome

Great job. Although you smoked me in books read towards the challenge, as usual, I can take heart that I'm completing three series this month and at 10, 6 and 4 books and an average page count close to 800/book it's a pretty massive bulk off my TBR for this challenge.

You can go back to your usual thrashing of me next month. :)

Bill wrote: "Monthly Totals:
Books read towards challenge: 21
Finished series: 0
Brought up to date: 1 (Iron Druid)
Series progressed: 5 (Wheel of Time, Sandman, Saga, Memoirs of Lady Trent, Abhorsen)
New serie..."

Yes - great progress! I'm currently also inflating my stats with short stories. How did you find all of Iron Druid compared to the first book? I haven't asked since book 4. Also, I think stand alones should count somehow. Like, maybe add them to Series Started AND Series Completed lol.

Scott wrote: "Great job. Although you smoked me in books read towards the challenge, as usual, I can take heart that I'm completing three series this month and at 10, 6 and 4 books and an average page count clos..."

My page count was probably super low considering all the graphic novels and short stories I did. I think you thrash me most months.

Niki they are pretty much all just ok. The 7th book was my favorite so far. I don't really care for the overall plot of the books and I absolutely detest the dog. I don't know he thinks it is such great humor to have the dog ask for sausages 12 times every book but he does.

Haha yeah, the dog is definitely trying too hard. I thought it was a cute addition to the story until I read Dresden. Now I think it's just a ripoff. Did you know the dog has his own twitter account?

Makes me hate the dog even more.

Good job as usual Bill!

Dang Niki, looking good in your new profile pic!

Margret wrote: "Dang Niki, looking good in your new profile pic!"

Stunning.

Wow, thanks! It's amazing what a professional photographer can do haha.

Amazing progress Bill. As usual I'm in awe how you are racing through these series.

Thanks Tammie and Angela.

Great photo Niki.

Thanks Bill

Finished the Earthsea series. After originally finishing A Wizard of Earthsea which I liked but didn't understand why it was considered a classic I ended up loving the rest of the series. I'm glad I read them a bit out of order and left Tales of Earthsea for last because it really wound everything up nicely by filling in a lot of the gaps in the series.

Started They Mostly Come Out At Night which I thought was standalone but turns out not to be. Two books out so far and both around 200 pages so will hopefully be moving it to up to date quickly.

It's so hard to not start new series. When I finish Assail I'll be under 20 open series for the first time in forever so my natural reaction it to start looking for new ones to start not to build on my progress. Last thing I need is to start a new one by mistake, LOL.

Yeah this one looks like it is a series of standalones set in the same world. Still counts as a series in my book.

Hehe...

"I'm doing so well! Look at me making progress on all these series".....

"Oh look, another new series at the library!"

Haha. Think you jinxed me with the name.

Really we all have wavering resolve on this one

Knocked off 2 Discworld books. Aiming to do 4 a month for the rest of the year to finish it.

Started a audio reread of book 1 of the Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy going to try to get it done this month.

Should I? Or shouldn't I? I liked Mirror Empire but DNF'ed Empire Ascendant (probably too long between the books)

It is a completely different setting than Mirror Empire and the only thing they really share is the flipping of traditional gender roles. It is a strange setting with magicians who control bugs and people have organs and other body parts changed out as needed. I did the first book a few years back but only remember the big plot points. Will let you know more once I get deeper into the series.

I will admit that I read the mirror Empire books before there was all of the exposure in real life about non-binary genders etc etc (well at least where I live)... so I found the different pronoun kind of stuff confusing, heaped on top of the whole mirror worlds thing, the confusing magic system, the strange cultures.... really the list goes on

I know what you mean I really wanted some major info dumps with Mirror Empire. Although it introduces a lot of strange elements I think it is handled better and is far less confusing.

That's good, they have the series in hoopla so I was considering it

Finished Goldenhand to complete the Abhorsen series. Really enjoyed the series from start to finish. The characters were fantastic and I really liked the magic systems.

Hmm I've got the abhorsen chronicles which has the first trilogy and I really want to start this series once I've read the other books on my currently reading unfortunately I don't see many people read this so it's nice to know someone has read it and enjoying this series can't wait to start it soon

Good job! I've read books 1-3 and enjoyed them. I really need to finish the series soon...

I loved the first 3 Abhorsen books, they were so unique. Last two less so but still enjoyable

This might be blasphemous, but I quit 100 pages into the first book... it was kind of boring me. I really, really wanted to like it. Did I stop too soon? Or were you all engaged by then?

I did it in audio so can't really relate to the page count but think I really got into it when Mogget came into the story.

I think the only thing I liked less about the last two than the first 3 was that Tim Curry wasn't the narrator. I liked how every book introduced a new element to the magic system and that all the characters had unique pieces of it.

I think it was when Mogget came in for me. But the Disreputable Dog completely stole my heart

Yeah the Disreputable Dog was amazing. I think I convinced my sister to do the series. I'm really hoping she does so we can talk about it.

Was bored today so I rearranged my list a bit. Want to keep my high priority list small and relevant to what I'm trying to finish. Moved a bunch of series to low priority that I don't own or can't get from my library.

Bill wrote: "High Priority (40 for 109)
Divine Cities - Bennett* (2 for 3)."

I'm waiting for my library to buy City of Miracles but if it works out timing wise I'll group read it with you.

That's a good idea. And wow - I didn't realize Sandman had so many volumes!

Scott wrote: "Bill wrote: "High Priority (40 for 109)
Divine Cities - Bennett* (2 for 3)."

I'm waiting for my library to buy City of Miracles but if it works out timing wise I'll group read it with you."

I'll let you know before I start it. I own it in audio but have some others to get done first.

Niki Hawkes wrote: "That's a good idea. And wow - I didn't realize Sandman had so many volumes!"

It has 10 trade volumes but wanted to have some flexibility in how I read them so counted by issues instead.

That makes sense - I stocked those at the bookstore all the time and didn't remember more than about 10 or so haha.

Finished the Bel Dame Apocrypha trilogy by Kameron Hurley. Don't really know how I feel about it yet. The world and magic system are unlike anything else I've read. Lots of action and really good characters but something is missing or just doesn't fit right but I can't really pinpoint what it is. Oh well. Time to down some cold medicine and get some sleep.

Feel like this month is going really fast. Don't think I'm going to be able to fit in everything I planned. I'm going to try to do book 11 of wot, book 15 of Discworld and volume 3 of the sandman. I really wanted to fit City of Miracles in but will need to move it to next month.

I assume you're doing WOT on audio. Every book in that series is 800+ pages. My May isn't going to be impressive either. However it's setting me up for an epic June.