Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

Loriidae, how is that series? A good historical fiction?

Soo wrote: "There's a good amount of crossover between Ledger, Dead of Night and Rot & Ruin.

I think Ledger based stories are the best by Maberry. Followed by the Rot & Ruin series that has Joe playing a par..."

I agree on the popularity thing... I accepted it a couple times... the Lincoln Lawyer self-referencing kinda felt OK... but when the Bosch show was mentioned in the newest Bosch book, that was kinda crazy... at least Lincoln Lawyer is a movie, and Ripped From the Headlines movies happen... it's a lot rarer for real people to get TV shows (I think it's happened a couple times with medical examiners and the like)...

There are lines thrown in the very first Harry book and in the Renee book. It's crass vs funny or whatever. That's how I felt when I was listening to the stories but I shrugged it off because I wanted to see where the stories would go.

Holy crap... (view spoiler)[if there was ever one moment that I felt spelled the beginning of the end of the DMS, it's this dock scene where Top & Bunny get Dreamwalked & start mowing down civilians...

If this is all Harcourt Bolton Sr, rigging a Doomsday scenario to take down the DMS & become relevant again, with the new President... it's messed up, and seems like it's going to have lasting consequences, even if he is taken down by the end of the book...

Even tho this book had to manufacture a couple extra botched missions for this plot, it's hard to argue that the DMS has had a chain of messy missions since Ledger joined the team (because the missions keep growing in scope & overlap?)...

The villains in the Ledger series definitely feel like they never go away... anyone that survives doesn't slink away; they regroup, team up, and do something crazier... (hide spoiler)]

Soo wrote: "There are lines thrown in the very first Harry book and in the Renee book. It's crass vs funny or whatever. That's how I felt when I was listening to the stories but I shrugged it off because I wan..."

I forget them old ones, then... I just know Mickey Haller talks about Matthew McConaughey playing him in the movie... and now Bosch talks about Titus Welliver, I think... which is weird, if I remember correctly, since Welliver has taken over audio for the series, since the show started...

Ledger: YUP YUP YUP!!!

Agree x 10. That's part of the fun. lol

Also, lately, I feel like every Ledger book, around 80% if not sooner, leaves me wondering how much more Echo Team can be beaten down... they tend to spend most of each book playing catch-up and failing to stop things... the short stories are where you get to see quick victories...

Kill Switch seems to be like that even more (view spoiler)[since Ledger has lost use of his split personalities, that usually make him best of the best... it seems like they block The Dreamer from taking control of Ledger, but Ledger also loses use of them in the process... (hide spoiler)]

Yeah, well, I never bought into Joe having multiple personalities. It's more like those are his characteristics amped up the max. But it was cool because it makes them more real & having issues that are very much an obstacle.

Soo wrote: "Yeah, well, I never bought into Joe having multiple personalities. It's more like those are his characteristics amped up the max. But it was cool because it makes them more real & having issues tha..."

Yea, I always took it as how he internalized his trauma, and channeled it... but this book makes it feel more absolute... or maybe I'm just misinterpreting those scenes... this has very much been a book about being out of sorts...

Most of the facts have come out now, and Church was just talking about Ghost's growling episodes throughout the book, and how Ledger has been acting...

Wouldn't it be awesome to get more on Church? His backstory has got to be epic! But I like it being mostly a mystery because I don't think Maberry can make it as awesome as we imagine it to be.

It's like when you don't think you can do something because someone reliable told you that you can't do it. It's hard to make yourself do something consciously when you're used to do it without thinking. Joe is a great guy and pretty smart but he definitely relies 100% on his instincts & subconscious processing.

Soo wrote: "Wouldn't it be awesome to get more on Church? His backstory has got to be epic! But I like it being mostly a mystery because I don't think Maberry can make it as awesome as we imagine it to be.

I..."

Right... I asked similar a bit ago... I mean... there are so many tantalizing hints... (view spoiler)[Nicodemus's knowledge of him... all the code names... the fact he seems to be Violin's father... the way he (or one of his counterparts in another dimension) saw Ledger in his death visions (similar to Banshee)... his agelessness...

Like... is he a body swapping former baddie like Nicodemus, on his own redemption journey?... or a vampish super that now wears gloves to hide that his hands actually healed from frostburn, and that special surgery is a cover story to explain the full functionality in them? etc etc etc... (hide spoiler)]

Soo wrote: "Wouldn't it be awesome to get more on Church? His backstory has got to be epic! But I like it being mostly a mystery because I don't think Maberry can make it as awesome as we imagine it to be.

I..."

There are passcodes and ID numbers I forget when asked... but give me a keypad and I can type them...

Church is not like any of the characters we have been exposed to within the series. That much I think is true. The rest? Guesses.

(view spoiler)[The gloves are definitely to show that he's fine vs not scarred, etc.

Sometimes I wonder if Church is like an Angel but he has a daughter. So, could he be like Lucifer? LoL Fallen angel? Though, if you go strictly by the bible, angels did hook up with humans and the demi-gods were created from those unions. So maybe Church is a half-angel/human?

I forget her name but you know the badass black woman in the series? I always picture Whoopie Goldberg with loads of attitude for that character. (hide spoiler)]

Soo wrote: "Church is not like any of the characters we have been exposed to within the series. That much I think is true. The rest? Guesses.

The gloves are definitely to show that he's fine vs not scarred, ..."

Aunt Sally is literally described as angry Whoopi Goldberg in Kill Switch... she was a total badass in #7...

Church: (view spoiler)[Nicodemus reminds me of Nicodemus from Dresden Files, and I can totally see as a Fallen Angel...

Angel-Human hybrids are generally Nephalem like Sandman Slim or the characters in the Diablo games... you could definitely draw parallels to the vampire children...

Angels + vampires and blood drinking are an aspect of Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter series...

And the possibility of him being a Fallen Angel fits into how people say his codename choices are ironic... Church, Deacon, St. Germaine...

That doesn't even touch on the fact that MindReader is a play on omniscience...

This is what comes up when I searched St. Germaine on Google... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germain...

St. Germaine being what Lilith calls Church... Lilith being another religious reference... (hide spoiler)]

Aunt Sally! Yeah, she's awesome. I mean, she's like a cactus so don't touch but she's great!

This makes me want to re-read the Ledger series. lol

I just spent 5 minutes looking at Maberry books and thinking about re-reading Ledger series. LOL

Soo wrote: "Aunt Sally! Yeah, she's awesome. I mean, she's like a cactus so don't touch but she's great!

This makes me want to re-read the Ledger series. lol"

#7 is the one where (view spoiler)[assassins are sent to take out Aunt Sally, and she kills 3 and resists the 4th before help arrives and rushes her to the hospital... the one where electronics are taken over by software developed by a DARPA genius on the orders/manipulations of the burned vestiges of the King of Plagues, and his doctor's messed up daughter, Boy... (hide spoiler)]

I love Harry Bolt... he's like the comic relief... something the series needs, sometimes... kinda reminds me of when they tried to replace Paul Walker in the 7th Fast & Furious movie, with Mr. X's protege... altho Ryan Reynolds in the Hobbs & Shaw movie was great comic relief, too (if a bit more competent at his job)

Yup. I remember. =)

Audible lists: Anyone else check out the lists on Audible? I thought they were funny mix of great to terrible books. lol

The ones that had me scratching my head, well, mentally were the editor picks that were also a mix of great & terrible.

Anyone want to BR these with me? I haven't read #7-8 of the Penric series yet.

- The Orphans of Raspay
- The Physicians of Vilnoc

I have the ebooks and will be reading the print vs audio. =)
We don't have to do them right away but they would be fun to do between longer books.

Any interest in reading the new Suzanne Collins hunger games book? No rush but might be something fun to get to.

Brian wrote: "Any interest in reading the new Suzanne Collins hunger games book? No rush but might be something fun to get to."
I think it would be fun

Brian, people are setting up a BR for that book in the Buddy Read Invite thread. Personally, I'll wait to read it. It's probably okay but I think her writing is solid YA and not up to the hype.

Sounds good. I can wait.

Let me know if your looking to read anything else. All I have planned for right now are the BRs for The Waking Fire & Age of Swords.

My books have been up and down. Children of God #2 was great! There was a bit that pissed me off because I didn't think it fit the story but the rest was the complex, emotional rollercoaster ride that I expected it to be.

The 3rd book in the settlement strategy LitRPG series I was reading turned out to be crap. The author has no clue on how to develop characters. He just has cool ideas and how to introduce characters and that's it.

Followed by Soundless - Which I suffered for 3 (1.5) hrs of illogical & boring story. The cover is great. Cool martial arts, female MC. Premise was okay and execution was horrible.

A whole village of people are imprisoned on the top of a mountain. They have to mine a quota of metal to get food. They don't get money or goods. Just food. All of this happens via zipline basket via pulley system. There's even an explanation about how the rope can only hold up to 30 kilos or the strain would break the rope.

That's not all, on top of that:
- Most of the people are deaf & they use sign language to talk. There's a LOT of talking for a group that just signs.
- Cast system in village with the elite spying on the workers/miners.
- Miners are going blind.
- Anyone that goes blind, becomes a beggar status because they can't work. Cause blind people can't figure out how to function right? So, they become beggars and the beggars only get moldy leftover half a bun to eat.
- Suddenly, Fei wakes up one day and she can hear! It takes her one day to figure out how to adjust to hearing and no one notices...
- Quota for mining is not met and the overseers cut down food in half. Whatever food they were getting was not enough to feed whole village. They're all like starving. Even the elites.
- No explanation of why there's a captured village on a mountain.
- No explanation for why people are deaf and now going blind.
- SOLUTION is for Fei to climb down the mountain with her sweetheart and figure out a way to get help/food/etc. They're all starving. She is an artist and not athletic. The point is that she can hear and thus help climb down and avoid rock falls. Like, she's suppose to tell the deaf non-boyfriend that rocks are falling. Because he's ALWAYS going to be looking at her while they're climbing the crumbling mountainside. Right? Right. Guess what? He fell off during one of the rock-valance.

That's when I stopped listening. Hahahahhahah

So, I figured I'd try Spellmonger. It has mixed reviews and there's sex magic. Hahaha! John Lee is the narrator. I just want to hear what terrible sex is written for the story and narrated by Lee. Reviews say that it's all very much fanboy nonsense. Apparently, MC starts out ok and devolves into a terrible Gary Stu. Lee is pretty good storyteller but not one I would choose for a sex loaded story. I will be a terrible person and snicker at these parts. Well, if I get that far.

I figure if I have to have 3rd strike on a book, it may as well be one that I already know is probably bad. LoL

My fellow Audible junkies, the 2-for-1 Member sale selections have changed and there were some good picks in there. Just make sure if you have Kindle Unlimited, that it's not already available to Read & Listen for free. There's a handful of those. Plus a couple that were cheaper to borrow the ebook on KU and buy the audio for $1.99.

I snagged a few batches & will report on 'em as I get to them. =D

Thank you, Soo(+_+)

Thanks Soo!

I wanted to make sure I enjoyed the trilogy before I recommend it. =D

Finished the Singular Menace trilogy by John Sanford & Michele Cook. It was fun! Sort of like mixing the movies Hackers & XXX into a bag and having a bastard child. LOL

Uncaged is the first book.

I was able to get the series from my library.

I liked the ending so much that I gave it 4 stars. I would LOVE a series based on Shay but that probably won't happen. lol

Now I'm looking for kickass young protag thrillers. Hm, I don't think that's new considering all the books we like to read about kids training and growing up to do epic things. lol

@Soo - I started Patient Zero. So far this is looking good :D I'm doing the audio with Ray Porter's narration. Can never go wrong with him!

Yah! Glad you're enjoying it! It was better than I thought it would be and I grew to really love the characters in the series.

Apparently paranormal thrillers are working for me during the pandemic LOL Both in books and movies!

I'm going to be a bit slower going through it since I don't have my normal drive to work and mostly listen while cooking/cleaning only right now. I'll come back and post thoughts as I get through chunks.

It's all good. We all have phases. I was about to change up my routine again because I fell into a less active mode for this month. Then my period hit and I was like, ok, as soon as this is over. LOL

Ya'll come read the Terraway series with me. =D

I got to know this author from a dystopian she wrote and that was part of my first audiobook batches in 2017. That one is Vemreaux trilogy.

Currently reading Terraway series and it's all on KU. First book is Taste: A Fantasy Adventure.

Interesting MC and twist on Fae, Vampires, Weres, etc. =D

Terraway #01...

Wow! Talk about some mental illness running in this family... Just finished Ch. 1 and I am very intrigued. Her mom... I get it though, I totally get it...

Terraway #01

Up to Ch 5... Wow! This is kind of like an avalanche of thoughts! The Mom's new boyfriend and his crowd are obviously not human... But I have no idea what to expect! I should have asked you what is the series all about, hahahaha! It reads really fast and it doesn't leave you a moment to think. The scene in the first chapter, that was a hallucination, right?

@Soo: I'm in the home stretch of Joe Ledger #9 right now (Dogs of War)... and holy shit... is nothing sacred?... how much world is going to be left, at this rate?...

I think I can see how the DMS is going to salvage this (view spoiler)[Mind Reader Q1 & Bug save Good Sister, and she takes control of the Havoc Protocol (hide spoiler)]... but still... I mean... (view spoiler)[the Senate building has been blown up, the White House is damaged, the commandos are destroying the hospital with Ledger's brother's family... (hide spoiler)]

This is messed up... and I thought the last couple books had torn the DMS apart... (I think I hid the important stuff from people who haven't read this series yet, if ever)...

Terraway was awesome! The series strong point are the characters. I adore them! Author likes to deal with unusual situations and does a great job of actually having the characters process & change or not. There's no skipping over the hard parts.

The relationships are beautiful in that series. I wish the author wouldn't label the series as "Reverse Harem" because that's not the case and she doesn't write in depth sex scenes. Just enough to give you an idea and it fades to black.

I read the WHOLE series and pretty much loved each book. The writing isn't the most amazing but I definitely felt like my heart was attached to all of the characters and what they went through.

You need to read more into the book before I can say anything but author did a great job of weaving certain details together that are influenced by ______. lol

Joe Ledger:
Yeah! It gets pretty crazy but the whole thing still works out. Definitely doesn't pull any punches on action or damages dished/taken.

Terraway #01...

Up to Ch 28... My dog, Mason (+_+)(+_+)(+_+)
I love her OCD! And I don't understand how Ezra is really in love with Bev, since she doesn't seem to be a very nice person...

(view spoiler)[ I like October, but her acting like a tough school teacher towards all the council members was very unrealistic... Just for a girl who can barely take being around any people, going from zero to sixty is a bit too much...

This idea about the Omens taking in the dying souls, then their dudes sucking them out of them and somehow the souls get to the Suns of the Eight worlds in order to grow the crops which feed the people, is very weird and a bit convoluted... I am not exactly clear on how it works and what does that Emerald stone have to do with any of it... I am a bit confused... I hope I can understand more by the end of the book.

The travel to those other worlds is very interesting, but are they like parallel worlds or are they just other planets?

I haven't gotten to see how this soul thing works with someone who is not a sacrifice, so I am interested in continuing... I am so tired, but I am going to try to listen to it to the end tonight. Have been watching the protests anyway... (hide spoiler)]

Terraway #1

October: (view spoiler)[Think about habit patterns. The way you act around your parents is not the way you act around your kids. We all show different parts of ourselves depending on environment, people, habit, etc.

The way she acts with her mom is one HUGE part of what cemented October's crazy.

But the way she grew up with the love of her older siblings and having to fight to be normal made it so that October is good at reading people. At least on the "warning" signals side.

You will see that October will roar to protect others and only fight to protect herself against physical attack. She's not as good with emotional/mental attacks. (hide spoiler)]

Omen/Reaping/Worlds: (view spoiler)[It's a mix of different things like fairy tales, folklore, myths and various religions. There are lots of religions that have things about restless spirits.

Basically, Omens are like soul purifiers. They take all of the yuck and leave the soul free to go into the next phase. Something about that process makes it so that energy is transferred to fuel Terraway.

Terraway is a fae world to me. A mix of all of the stories we have read as kids. I love the way the author isn't afraid to show how alien/weird/cool/magical/nightmare the different types are in Terraway.

Like the type that Ezra & Mason are: The scent of babies are the ultimate delicacy for them. So it's hardwired for them to hunt babies to eat even if it's their own child. It seems like this aspect may be more of an issue for their own children because they are always around the pregnant wife/mate.

Lots of stories about creatures/beings that eat kids for power. (hide spoiler)]

Ezra & Bev: (view spoiler)[ I can't see ANYONE liking Bev. She's SUCH a monster. A big part of Ezra liking Bev has to do with him searching for another Omen so that his daughter could get a break from being the only one reaping souls.

But during the process of getting to know Bev so that he could get close to October, he ended up enjoying being with her. Why not? Bev only showed her nice side to him. Plus, Ezra believed in his daughter's visions about all of them being a happy family. (hide spoiler)]

Trailer: Ugh. The descriptions about that place creeps me the eek out! But I can believe it because I've met hoarders.

I love the dialogue in the series. The way each of the characters talk is different and how they all interact with each other. If you pay attention, October has a distinct way of talking with each person. =)

The trailer - OMG! YUCK!

I think the author has a very nice way of writing the characters, and I am enjoying getting to know them. Danny is a bit of an ass and a bully right now, but I hope he gets better. October's characterization is my favorite! Love the details of her anxiety disorders and OCD, and the interpersonal relationships with her family are waaaaay too close to my reality growing up... All of it! You have no idea how close to my family that is... We grew up with a well meaning, but very mentally ill mother, a father who worked abroad and was home for a month three or four years apart, and a hipper, schizoaffective younger brother, in an old house full of stuff... Yeah... very familiar...

I hope Mason stays as a wolf - he is perfect like that for their relationship (+_+)

About the cleansing of souls - this is a brand new concept to me. I am very interested in learning more!

Joe Ledger #1

So who else thinks that mad scientists creating a viral parasite pandemic of zombieism (is that even a word?) is a good idea? Anyone? hehehe What could possibly go wrong....

Joe definitely took the direct approach with becoming team leader for his new task force.

Joe Ledger is a world of mad scientists... zombies, (view spoiler)[vampires (hide spoiler)], (view spoiler)[clones (hide spoiler)], (view spoiler)[AI (hide spoiler)], (view spoiler)[drones (hide spoiler)], (view spoiler)[robodogs (hide spoiler)], (view spoiler)[earthquake machines (hide spoiler)], (view spoiler)[aliens (hide spoiler)]... Maberry can make anything fit in this sandbox... I just worry about what’s left standing at the end of each book... the first few feel tame, in hindsight...

Don't ruin the fun, Iain! lol

It is amazing and insane the things that people can discover & create. I can totally see splicing of animal genes into people to create stronger/etc.

Choko, soul cleansing or purifying is in lots of different religions and stories. None of the things that the author uses as ideas are new but I really like the way she spliced different concepts into this world.

Terraway is the 3rd series I've read by this author and her strength is the way she draws the characters out in their setting. I always like the characters and feel for the situation they are in.

Downside is that she does not write descriptive sex scenes so I don't know why she's trying to get her books in the erotic/etc labeled stories. Her books are good to great and deserve to be in UF/PNR/Dystopian. The intimate scenes are well done but brief. No graphic sex, violence, etc. Just enough to let the reader feel or know what's going on.

Soo wrote: "Don't ruin the fun, Iain! lol

It is amazing and insane the things that people can discover & create. I can totally see splicing of animal genes into people to create stronger/etc."

added a ton of spoiler tags for fun... easier at home on PC... some stories of animal splicing are more plausible (or horrifying) than others...