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This is a Buddy Read for Fated by Benedict Jacka starting on August 15, 2023.


Happy Reading

Spot!

I'm in!

Yanique wrote: "I'm in!"

It only took about 500 BR requests, to lure Yanique in :D

Timelord Iain wrote: "Yanique wrote: "I'm in!"

It only took about 500 BR requests, to lure Yanique in :D"

What can I say, I got curious.

Hahaha! Awesome!!!

LOL

Timelord Iain wrote: "Yanique wrote: "I'm in!"

It only took about 500 BR requests, to lure Yanique in :D"

LOL excited to have you here Yanique!

I have like no time to read but I'm so tempted to read this again!

I mentioned in the setup that you might appear�� you should totally re-read�� I need someone to dig through the foreshadowing with :D

I've only read through it once so I'm sure I'll pick up on loads I missed out on the first time round.

I'm hoping to join this! I only read book 1 so far.

Iain - this is the one you keep recommending highly right?!

Niki Hawkes wrote: "Iain - this is the one you keep recommending highly right?!"

It's one of them... I mentioned it more before the series finished releasing...

British seer with a similar rocky relationship with Light Council as Dresden... reminds me of the Nicolas Cage movie where he can see possible futures...

Really good series... me, Soo, and Charlie read the new releases together from 2018-2022, I think...

Things gain momentum and start snowballing around the halfway point of the series, and become heavily serialized... 12 books total...

Is the series officially finished now?

Felina wrote: "Is the series officially finished now?"

Yea... finished with book 12 in 2022... new series, new world, starting in October: An Inheritance of Magic

Timelord Iain wrote: "Felina wrote: "Is the series officially finished now?"

Yea... finished with book 12 in 2022... new series, new world, starting in October: An Inheritance of Magic"

Nice I may join in for the read. :) I don't mind serialized if I like the formula...

Oh good, I may be in for this but I won’t start series that aren’t finished. I’ve been burned!!

@Felina it was actually pretty great reading it the first time as each book came out. but I get it's totally frustrating when an author doesn't finish the series for whatever reason.

Name of the Wind and Game of Thrones made me very leery. If I can see an author is actively popping them out, I’ll start an unfinished series.

I'm desperate for the third Patrick Rothfuss book!

How long has it been since the first? I think Rothfuss and Martin don’t know how to end their masterpieces so they just aren’t doing it. That doesn’t bode well.

It’s been like 15 years since t he first Rothfuss�� and 12 years since the last GRRM�� GRRM recently did an interview where he said it has only been 12 years, as if that’s no big deal�� the fact Butcher has only written 2-3 Dresden books in the past decade hurts me too�� I trust people, as long as they’re consistent, and/or transparent (and still writing other stuff I want to read like Sanderson and all the stuff he writes in between Stormlight Archive books, or Seanan McGuire and her umpteen series)��

Brando Sando is the only author I trust with unfinished series. He consistently produces and those productions are quality. I don’t think that dude has ever heard of writers block.

Seanan McGuire is/was a year ahead on all writing deadlines, back when less of her projects were secret�� and she was far enough ahead to write 2 October Daye books this year that needed to be edited as a pair for continuity�� without a 5 year release gap like Dresden had��

wow, she's clearly a machine!

I downloaded the kindle excerpt and I already like it so I’m in.

Just gotta wait a whole month for the BR... Me & Nirkatze have this big series binge BR this month, and technically next month, to wrap up, to clear out the schedule a bit...

The Cycle of Arawn & Galand one... 11 books in 3 months is/was the plan... it's been halfway working, so far...

No worries. I always try to read the books before the date they start cause I’m a slow reader and usually end up way behind. I likely won’t post much until the start of the read and if I do, I’ll use spoiler tags.

Felina wrote: "No worries. I always try to read the books before the date they start cause I’m a slow reader and usually end up way behind. I likely won’t post much until the start of the read and if I do, I’ll u..."

That's fine... the specific timing is most important for people in the yearly spreadsheet competition... and for smaller BRs with 2-3 people, it's usually best to start on time and just have faster readers start late... with the bigger participation ones, there can easily be more flexibility...

I usually end up getting way behind too on 90% of my reads.

I do a decent job of staying caught up on most... somehow... I start some slightly early, some on time, some a little late, and some very late... but I manage to fit pretty much every single one that I commit to into the 2-3 week window required by the competiton...

Unless it's an ebook... then I "cheat"... i read the first chapter within the time window, and then sometimes I struggle to finish :D

Been on chapter 7 of Illuminations since April, I think, and the BR was in early February... the light at the end of the tunnel is the audiobook release in September :D

On a series topic / re-reader thing, I've kinda forgotten the details of how/where Alex ended up, at the end of the series, I know it was game-changing stuff, that left me a bit excited at the idea of a sequel series someday, I think... like (view spoiler)[Harry vs Voldemort weirdness (hide spoiler)]

What is the competition?

Felina wrote: "What is the competition?"

This year's rules page: /topic/show/...

The more wordy explanation from 6 years ago, when the group started doing it: /topic/show/...

That’s interesting and very complicated. 😁

Thank you!

Felina wrote: "That’s interesting and very complicated. 😁"

It's alot less complicated than it sounds... mostly because, the second the competition actually started, and people started realizing how much math would be involved, and how much headaches it would cause to track:

1) Someone made a spreadsheet, and other spent years refining it...

2) Some of the most time-consuming parts like page counts & books without page counts (audio-only/etc), gained standardized rules to simplify a bit...

In reality, all you have to do, is input your books & their page counts and whether it's a Buddy Read or group challenge source for bonus points, and the spreadsheet does all the math, adds the teams together, and shows all sorts of fancy statistics...

(view spoiler)[

Example person page (mine, bit fancier than most, with extra data/etc):



Solo Statistics collator page:



Main Team Page, with some statistics/rankings thrown in:

(hide spoiler)]

Dang, I love a good spreadsheet.

At this point, half the reason people participate, year after year, is for the spreadsheet... it's a great tool...

My spreadsheets are alot more accurate than my ŷ������ shelves... I'm 6 weeks behind on 2023 reviews, and 7 months behind in 2022 reviews (June through December), at the moment, because I was terrible about maintaining ANYTHING for 2/3 of 2022...

I gave up on reviews many years ago. Felt like homework and made me not want to read. I let it go. I seem to only review books I hate.

Felina wrote: "I gave up on reviews many years ago. Felt like homework and made me not want to read. I let it go. I seem to only review books I hate."

I meant the whole, rate, shelf, date, etc... I write like 1-2 lines if I'm feeling it...

I'm terrible at doing daily, and read so much that I have to start saying I'm not a robot and clicking on stop lights and motorcycles, after I do 10-30 in a row, so it takes forever... makes a bad problem worse...

That’s a lot of reading!!

I'm around 250 books for the year, and 105k pages... so a bit over 400 pages per book... I've read a couple short stories as short as 5-20 pages, but it's been balanced out by some tomes as long as 1650 pages (Wandering Inn)

Wow. I read like 60 books a year. I can’t imagine.

@Iain I'm a bit fuzzy on the ending too though I remember I liked it/ found it satisfying/ thought it would be a good setup for a spin-off.

Charlie wrote: "@Iain I'm a bit fuzzy on the ending too though I remember I liked it/ found it satisfying/ thought it would be a good setup for a spin-off."

My general memories revolve around the fact (view spoiler)[Alex's powers evolved from his heavy use of artifacts, and whatever he did to deal with his Dark Mentor in the pocket dimension in the end... real Wheel of Time, Memory of Light final battle vibes, and a smidge of Kate Daniels 10 vibes, trying to convince Alex they needed to team up to deal with Dark Anne & the djinn...

But it's all hella murky, as previously stated... (hide spoiler)]

Definitely don't click that, anyone that hasn't read the ENTIRE Alex Verus series before...

Felina wrote: "Wow. I read like 60 books a year. I can’t imagine."

There are pros & cons... also depends how much is mood reading, and how much is heavily scheduled Buddy Reads... varies by year... one thing i seem to do alot of, these days, is re-reads... but I've read over 3000 different books, in the past decade... so there's alot of good books to re-read...

Yeah I have vague recollections about those things too, but nothing solid. Which is weird since the last book wasn't even that long ago.

Charlie wrote: "Yeah I have vague recollections about those things too, but nothing solid. Which is weird since the last book wasn't even that long ago."

Long Covid ;)

I definitely questioned my memory for awhile there... brain fog, and inability to draw details about certain things sometimes... took me 2-3 years to get back up to 3x audiobook listening...