Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for Calculated Risks by Seanan McGuire starting on June 5, 2025.


Happy reading!

Series order, schedule, & links:
1. Discount Armageddon Verity #1 (Jun 5) [link]
2. Midnight Blue-Light Special Verity #2 (Jul 5) [link]
3. Half-Off Ragnarok (Aug 5) Alex #1 [link]
4. Pocket Apocalypse (Sept 5) Alex #2 [link]
5. Chaos Choreography (Oct 5) Verity #3 [link]
6. Magic for Nothing (Nov 5) Antimony #1 [link]
7. Tricks for Free (Dec 5) Antimony #2 [link]
1. Sparrow Hill Road (Jan 5) Ghost Roads Rose #1 [link]
2. The Girl in the Green Silk Gown (Feb 5) Ghost Roads Rose #2 [link]
8. That Ain’t Witchcraft (Mar 5) Antimony #3 [link]
3. Angel of the Overpass (Apr 5) Ghost Roads Rose #3 [link]
9. Imaginary Numbers (May 5) Sarah #1 [link]
10. Calculated Risks (Jun 5) Sarah #2
11. Spelunking Through Hell (Jul 5) Alice #1 [link]
12. Backpacking Through Bedlam (Aug 5) Alice #2 [link]
13. Aftermarket Afterlife (Sept 5) Mary #1 [link]
14. Installment Immortality (Oct 5) Mary #2 [link]
15. Butterfly Effects Sarah #3 (Expected March 2026)

Audio: All are Audible Only
Eye: Not on Hoopla, Open Library, or KU

No shorts after #6, at this time.

Doing my re-read... been so long since my last re-read... I only have vague memories of this one...

So far, it's pretty tragic... about 25% in...

Timelord Iain wrote: "Doing my re-read... been so long since my last re-read... I only have vague memories of this one...

So far, it's pretty tragic... about 25% in..."

Tragic? Awesome.....I think this one is 3 or 4 on the list so it'll be soon. I have a busy weekend which sucks for me but a decent amount of travel so I can listen in chunks so that means some listening time :)

Especially on re-read, this feels like when the series firmly became UF instead of Paranormal Romance... The guarantee of HEA romance is fading...

(view spoiler)[Sarah messed with Artie's head so much that there's no HEA here... Hopefully that changes with the 2026 book...

Alice gets her HEA, but they've also been separated for like 60+ years and need to reconnect off page to truly HEA...

And then there's the divisive Mary Dunlavy book(s)... 1) there's no ghost romance in book 1... I haven't read book 2... But also, there's (view spoiler)[two big character deaths... (view spoiler)[Artie's mom, if I recall correctly... And Dominic, which really pissed people off, since it ends Verity's HEA... Both by the Covenant... (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

Be very careful of the nested spoilers... I keep going deeper with the tags, when I first talk about spoilers for this book, then for the next couple books (all the ones I've read excluding this year's book)...

I totally inhaled this yesterday and today, didn't even stop to comment. I'm with Ann-Marie--the "tragic" translated to "awesome" in my opinion... one of my favorite tropes, though found more often in time travel... (view spoiler)[Like, when someone is traveling trying to get back to their time, ala Sliders, and gets back, to discover that changes they've made have erased the romance they had... and they have to start over from scratch... Happened in Eureka, and at least one other TV series I watched around the same time but can't remember now...

So this was some very good pain. But I would have liked Artie to do more than just sulk for most of the book. I was glad to get to know James and Mark a bit more--and some really interesting insights both into Cuckoos and the Price family! Blood of Kaios! I'm bummed we didn't get to see Sarah make that reveal to the family.

The world was really cool, with the giant insects--definitely had Children of Time flashbacks there. Greg was adorable... and while I'm concerned about what he's going to do now that he's on our world, I'm also curious to find out.

As for HEAs--I'm more optimistic about Sarah & Artie's chances after the ending line--though a bit pissed we didn't get a proper denouement and that the post-book novella is about the Comic-Con adventures instead of a proper epilogue. BUT. I am mourning Sarah's relationship with Annie. Seems like she might've been able to recreate Artie--that whole memory thing totally gave me Argosi vibes--and that leaves Annie as the person with the longest relationship and no memory. Even if she's willing to get to know her again, that's a big loss. I'd like that to be probed more. (hide spoiler)]

I assume we'll find out more about (view spoiler)[Greg in Sarah's new book next year...

So far, there hasn't been much time to find out, in the intervening books...

Alice's 2 books primarily take place in other dimensions, and then Seanan made the choice to take advantage of timey-wimey dimension hopping, to fix the timeline and jump from the mid 2010s to 2022 in the 2nd half of Backpacking Through Bedlam... a non-covid alternate timeline too, since it was easier than trying to deal with the ramifications of covid in the InCryptid world... then the Mary Dunlavy books are hectic with aftermath, and doesn't spend much time with Sarah either... altho, I think Installment Immortality featires Elsie and Artie in it as prominant side characters, so maybe more Sarah?... haven't read it yet... (hide spoiler)]

That makes sense--I didn't think about how the upcoming POVs would most likely be away from the main family... I'm glad we have another Sarah one to look forward to.

I read this and I enjoyed it but it was not my favorite. This one was more serious than some of the prior books even with the Aislin mice! I read Iain's nested spoilers so now I am not super excited for the next book but that is firmly my fault lol

So many friends abandoned the series during/after reading last year's Mary Dunlavy book, Aftermarket Afterlife...

Timelord Iain wrote: "So many friends abandoned the series during/after reading last year's Mary Dunlavy book, Aftermarket Afterlife..."

Oh I misunderstood, I thought that your spoilers happened in the next book, not Mary's first book! Looking forward to Alice's books again :)

The only part of the comment about Alice's book was the time that's passed and relationships don't just rekindle after refinding one another... but they're on the road to an HEA again by the end of their duology...

I was spoiled on one of the major upsetting spoilers after book 1, doing book research, so I'm not too upset about it. Kinda looking forward to it, actually... I wasn't overly fond of the original setup.