Fantasy Book Club discussion

25/26 completed

A- The Spider's War by Daniel Abraham - finished
B- A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan - finished
C- Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey - finished
D- The Dark Tower, Volume 1: The Gunslinger Born by Peter David - finished
E- Dancer's Lament by Ian C. Esslemont - finished
F- Lion of Senet by Jennifer Fallon - finished
G- Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone - finished
H- The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins - finished
I- The Gates of Rome by Conn Iggulden - finished
J- Fated by Benedict Jacka. - finished
K- The Walking Dead, Compendium 3 by Robert Kirkman Before the Fall by Francis Knight - finished
L- Arrow's Flight by Mercedes Lackey - finished
M- The Falcon Throne by Karen Miller - finished
N- Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik - finished
O- Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor - finished
P- The Builders by Daniel Polansky - finished
Q- Pledged to the Dead by Seabury Quinn - finished
R- The Path of Anger by Antoine Rouaud - finished
S- Firefight by Brandon Sanderson - finished
T- Bilbo's Last Song by J.R.R. Tolkien - finished
U- Shield and Crocus by Michael R. Underwood - finished
V- The Last Castle by Jack Vance - finished
W- The Mad Apprentice by Django Wexler - finished
X- The Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin
Y- Sword of the Rightful King by Jane Yolen - finished
Z- Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny - finished

And what was it like?

Leviathan Wakes was good. I watched the first 4 episodes of the Expanse show before starting so it was interesting seeing the differences. Really enjoyed the worldbuilding and character development. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Good to know.

Added in my currently reading.

You might be winning!

A little misleading I only finished one so far just started too many books now.

Lol. I'm still on book one, page 400+ mind.

I am mostly making a lot of progress on audiobooks because I have been painting at my parents and it helps to pass the time. Been making very little progress on my kindle books.

Moved The Fifth Season over to the sub-genre challenge. Going to be reading more J authors this year but not sure about Science Fantasy.

You sound like Brenda, mine are counting for both challenges wherever possible.

Makes sense but I wanted to make them more challenging for me.

Finished The Path of Anger it was alright. Had an entertaining story but lacked world-building. The characters lacked depth and I was never really fully engaged with any of them. Magic system was also pretty weak.

You're doing really well on your challenge, Bill. I wasn't organized enough to start at the beginning of the year, but maybe I can start in April:)

Thanks Justine. I feel like the beginning is the easy part and it is going to be harder when I get to those uncommon letters. I haven't read anything specifically for this yet. I think you will be fly right through it even starting in April since you read such a high volume of books.

Nice going! This is making me want to start one. Yeah, I'm interested to see what you end up with for some of the tougher letters

Jump in. Then I can cheat off you for the tough letters.

Haha, think I shall

Just finished The Builders in audio and loved it. I didn't know anything about it going in so didn't realize it was about animals. It ended up being a great revenge story. Really enjoyed the characters and pace of the story.

Replaced The Martian with The Mad Apprentice for W so it would be fantasy. It was a really quick fun book.

Bill wrote: "Just finished The Builders in audio and loved it. I didn't know anything about it going in so didn't realize it was about animals. It ended up being a great revenge story. Really en..."

I liked it too.

Finished Dancer's Lament by far my favorite book of the year so far. I am seriously contemplating doing an entire Malazan reread now with all of Erikson and Esslemont.

Bill wrote: "Finished Dancer's Lament by far my favorite book of the year so far. I am seriously contemplating doing an entire Malazan reread now with all of Erikson and Esslemont."

dude... I had the exact same feeling. I almost started Night of Knives last night, but then I was thinking I wanted to read the whole thing through, mixing in the ICE books with the Erikson ones.

Think I might just do Return of the Crimson Gaurd and then do a full mixed reading when the current trilogies wrap up.

You should try the Korbal and Broach novellas.

Bill wrote: "Think I might just do Return of the Crimson Gaurd and then do a full mixed reading when the current trilogies wrap up.

You should try the Korbal and Broach novellas."

yeah that's probably a good idea. it was really awesome being back in the Malazan world. Think I will get on those novellas... and maybe do the other ICE books. And then, like you said, do an entire reread with the current trilogies are done (hopefully it doesn't take forever)

How was deathless?

It was good but I only got about 10% through it. Need to pick it up again at some point.

Looking good.

Thanks. Progress has slowed lately. Going to need to start scheduling a few reads to keep things moving. About to start my 3rd straight E authored book.

I've have this issue as well Bill, but with the letter S. Too many authors starting with S that I seem to be reading.

You are doing fantastic with the challenge. You have done over twice as many as me.

Working on my 5th S at the moment.

Thanks, would like to replace my C, D and O if possible because I don't really feel like they fit the challenge.

Replaced the third Walking Dead compendium with Before the Fall which is urban fantasy. Thought it fit the challenge better.

I'm on my 71st book of the year, still haven't made 26 letters though!

This month's book would give you Z

Helen wrote: "This month's book would give you Z"

Already read it a few times. Was thinking of going with book 2 or one of his standalones.

Think I am around 60 books but a lot have been sequels.

Lol. I'll finish this in 2018!

Finished The Falcon Throne by Karen Miller for M. I really liked the scope of the story but didn't like that there were 3 time jumps totaling 16 years and Miller gave summaries of what happened at times.

Finished Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik for N. Got 17 letters down but took me over a month since the 16th.

The book itself went away from the setting of the first book and there was a lot of traveling by boat so was a little disappointed by that. Overall it had some pretty good action and the new setting was interesting.

I keep forgetting to check mine

18 down. Finished Sword of the Rightful King a YA tale of King Arthur. Book was ok. It was a quick read and put a nice spin on the whole sword in the stone story. Feel good taking down Y. It was a tough letter finding something for.

19 done. Finished Shield and Crocus by Michael R. Underwood. The premise is cool and the worldbuilding was good. The character dialogue and battle scenes came off as kind of cheesy to me. Gave it 2 stars.

Finished letter T for my 20th with Bilbo's Last Song by J.R.R. Tolkien. This is a super cheat as it is a short poem with a bunch of pictures but saw it at my library and had to check it out.

More than 32 pages wasn't part of the rules, LOL. Well done wish I had found it, although I loved my T book.

Scott wrote: "More than 32 pages wasn't part of the rules, LOL. Well done wish I had found it, although I loved my T book."

If I have time I will read some of the other non-lotr Tolkien stuff to ease my conscience.

Bill wrote: "Scott wrote: "More than 32 pages wasn't part of the rules, LOL. Well done wish I had found it, although I loved my T book."

If I have time I will read some of the other non-lotr Tolkien stuff to e..."

I've read all of it and it's all good stuff. I would worries your conscience. A couple layups helps this challenge along.

I'm so glad I'm almost done, X was the worst letter for me

I am really looking forward to my X pick even though it isn't fantasy. I really love the other Chinese classics I have read so hoping this one follows that trend.

As moderator it has come to my notice that....

Joking. As long as the surname had the letter it works for me. One of mine was only a few pages :)

Lol. Thank you supreme overlord.

This challenge is a lot tougher than I thought it would be.

Ha! I knew it would be tough as I've done it before. One took me a few years, the second I charged through. The third is as complete as this, mainly as I'm doing it with just titles.