Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for Soulhome by Sarah Lin starting on February 20, 2024.


Happy Reading!

Thank you!

Projected Schedule:
1. Soulhome (Feb 20)
2. Rainhorn (Mar 20) [Link]
3. Archcrafter (Apr 20) [Link]

Freshly requested, waiting for links.
4. Chasmfall (May 29) [Link]
5. Bondsfungi (Jun 29) [Link]

On hold for now (not requested yet):
6. Bloodcrete (TBD)
7. Wakespire (TBD)

Audio: There is an omnibus on audible of 1-3. Audio only goes up to #5 (as of April 5 2024).
ebook: All are on KU.

Considering how many people are audio-bound, we may end up hiatusing after #5 and waiting for audio... looks like Baldree is fitting them into his schedule at 1/10 months or so, so it'll be a while.

The series is not finished yet--Lin has a book #8 currently on her patreon and is planning a long-running series... Best updates seem to be on her patreon, though I can't find how long a series she's planning.

I'd say that the majority of my reading is audio but not all, I'm good to either read or wait on audio if we end up continuing. I got both the Kindle and the omnibus audio, not sure which I'm going to use when we start.

We will have to wait and see! Have you read anything else by her, Elizabeth? Much of what I'm seeing online is that she usually starts slow, but her writing gets consistently better each book as she gets a better feel for the characters and story...

I may try this one which means I would get the omnibus so at least the first 3. Adding to my tracker as an asterisk, I have 3 already on the 20th because I am dumb.

I was supposed to do it for the 25th, but missed the digit. >.<

20th/25th... I'm overbooked either way... worse than I thought...

I read 17-18k pages in January, and spreadsheet says I have 20k pages planned for February...

I'm hoping to knock out some of the Feb 1st books tomorrow, to take some of the load down... fingers crossed I'll finish up my Jan books before Feb starts...

At least this is short and comfy looking.

I've started the audiobook and I'm a few chapters in. It's interesting so far, I'll add more thoughts once I get a bit farther.

This is slowly approaching on my BR list... I'm managing 1.5 to 2.5 books a day, at the moment, depending on length, while at home on Medical Leave...

But I also signed up for so many BRs, that I'm perennially about a day behind still...

These are all the BRs I'm trying to get to right now, between solidly scheduled BRs, and murkier Mystery Book Club & Vagabond BRs...

Vigor Mortis 3 -- reading now -- 26.5hrs
Tangled Webs -- reading next -- 10.25hrs
Malleus -- 10.3hrs
The Snowman -- Mystery Book Club -- 15.6hrs
Oberon & the Squirrel on the Train -- novella -- 2.9hrs
Chaos Agent -- Vagabond -- 17.6
Blood Pudding -- short story -- 0.9hrs
Haunted Devils -- short story -- 1hr
What Feasts at Night -- new release -- 5hrs
Soulhome -- THIS -- 8.6hrs
The Cabin on Souder Hill -- Mystery Book Club -- 11.1hrs

After writing all that out, I might be 2-3 days still... right now, with all my BRs until the end of the month, I think I'll have 2 days of spare time at the end...

Started...

It's a bit rough, listening to my like 5th Progression Fantasy /Cultivation story narrated by Travis Baldree... he has pretty distinct character archetype voices, and it makes me think of other characters/books...

The MC isn't feeling the most likeable... (view spoiler)[pretty self-centered, since he lost all his friends/allies 40 years ago in his first life in these Nine Realms...

Understandable...

The Nine Realms give me Norse vibes...

The different realms being the focus of each book in the series so far, based on the blurbs, is giving me Dungeon Crawler Carl vibes, where things are constantly changing...

The "game" is out to get the MC a bit, is giving me Apathy Online vibes... (hide spoiler)]

Just finished this today at work. Regarding your spoilers (view spoiler)[ Yeah the main character isn't the most likeable, but I do feel like he got better as the story went on. I wasn't aware that all of them focused on different worlds, that's pretty cool. Never read Dungeon Crawler Carl, or Apathy Online. (hide spoiler)]

My own general thoughts, nothing too spoilery. (view spoiler)[ This was an interesting concept, seeing someone come back to a world after being gone for years and having to almost relearn magic from the basics. I mean yes he already knows how it works, but having to start building power again and being able to change how it works for you feels new, at least to me. Excited to see more of the worlds as we go on. (hide spoiler)]

Apathy Online is a VRMMOLitRPG I tried years ago now (view spoiler)[where a kid tries a new VRMMO with tech for basically living in the game and slowing down time, so you only have to wake up and do real world stuff every 3 days or so... there's artificial intelligence and hijinks going on in the game, and his body gets hijacked into murdering some home invaders while he's inside the game world, and a bunch of other stuff going on... (hide spoiler)]

Dungeon Crawler Carl is a LitRPG we're BRing in the group right now... about to read #3 of 6 released so far... it's a bit of a Running Man LitRPG (the Stephen King book / Arnold Schwartenegger movie) where it's treated like a game show (view spoiler)[Earth is turned into a dungeon planet, and survivors/contestants have to go through 10-18 floors to win prizes and freedom... each floor has it's own theme/quests, and things keep ramping up, because there's an extra layer of galaxy stuff going on as well... (hide spoiler)]

Your comments made me think about how this book/series is kinda like the speedrunning community, replaying games as fast as possible... only, in this case, the enemies seem to have memory, too, and be targetting the MC?...

Almost done with Soulhome... a lot of elements kinda blended together, since it jumped in full speed, instead of easing in, like most Cultivation stories...

This one had a full-on tournament that reminded me of book 6-7 of the Cradle series...

I remember very little about the artifacts and magics used in the fights...

I'm interested in the story, but glad we were able to get a decent deal on the omnibus edition...

And agree that the MC becomes more likeable as the story progresses and he opens up a bit with allies...

I think this is only my second or third Baldree? Yup. L&L, BoC, and now this. I enjoy his narration though. ^^

Starting today. I'd heard that the MC is a bit unlikeable but people stay for the worldbuilding and the cozy... I've also heard that that author often has rough openings but her books get better as she gets a better feel for the world, characters, and audience as she goes on...

If y'all are liking it, should I put in requests for the next two, maybe 3 books? Up through the end of the audio, or up through the end of the omnibus?

At least the end of the omnibus... there's only 4 audiobooks, and 7 ebooks so far... not sure if it's more cliffhangery to stop at 3rd or 4th one...

OK, I'll put in for the next two for now--when we get to #3, we can decide what to do next.

Through Chapter 7. Enjoying the world so far, and looking at the MC's selfishness with some benevolent skepticism. (view spoiler)[Trying to think of other ulikeable/self-serving MCs, and so far have come up with Artemis Fowl (at least for the one book I read long ago), and Kennit in Liveship Traders (which is an extreme example). I don't think Theo is as... um... evil? lacking conscience? as Kennit... but the way he chooses his actions based upon how he will be perceived or what he will get out of it is similar. His goal of revenge and what happened in the prologue--giving us a Big Bad--also make me want to root for him.

I'm enjoying the cultivation/growth aspects and the peripheral characters so far as well. Especially the stone person. (hide spoiler)]

Requests for #2-3 made for March 20-April 20.

Through Chapter 27 and really enjoying this. It's a nice combination of cozy & progression, and the jaded MC makes it interesting too. (view spoiler)[I like that Theo has been opening up to his teammates--and others too, like the rock-person... he's not a sociopath or a narcissist, just doesn't have patience to solve everyone else's problems or feel the need to go out of his way to help others. He still does, with a bit of a *sigh* when it seems others aren't doing things right, but steps back again and watches afterwards... he doesn't take pleasure in other's pain or anything like that. I'm curious to see what will happen if he ever has to choose between his ambitions and saving someone/hurting someone... would he betray his team if it got him the leg up? By coming... not clean, exactly, but by revealing who he is and his goals to his core team members, that makes a betrayal less likely, I think.

I'm enjoying the tournament, and the side-pressures of the New Yorker and the demons. Very curious to see how this plays out, and I hope his teammates continue to be characters. (hide spoiler)]

Finished! Really enjoyed this. (view spoiler)[I was surprised that the New Yorker was taken out so early, but the method was very chilling...

I also liked the little post-story, the Gate event from another POV, and a bit more on the rock-people. I liked the rock people. (hide spoiler)]

I decided to save that for the next BR... wasn't sure if I should read it or not...

Timelord Iain wrote: "I decided to save that for the next BR... wasn't sure if I should read it or not..."

Not sure what you're referring to here, Iain?

The named chapter interlude between the last chapter of Soulhome & the first chapter of book 2

I didn't read the interlude either

I figured it was more likely to leave me with more questions than answers, whatever it was...

Ah, gotcha... I think it fits more with this than the next--it is a scene from this book from another person's POV. A little of a day in the life of a local.

Through Ch. 13... It's slow developing, but I am hooked. There is definitely something compelling about these types of books, that speaks to me. I used to not even want to consider anything that was LitRPG like, but it has been a revelation, since we started reading them here, and I have been hooked ever since.

I like the villagers, and I hope Theo is just too suspicious, not that they are going to take advantage of the newcomers on the world...

The school is promising, but I am very interested in finding out more about how and why people build their soul homes the way they do. This is why it was cool when the group of students and the teacher were able to visit each other's Soulhomes. You get to know a ton about the other person that way ...

Choko wrote: "Through Ch. 13... It's slow developing, but I am hooked. There is definitely something compelling about these types of books, that speaks to me. I used to not even want to consider anything that wa..."

I kind of lump them together, but there are slight differences between LitRPGs and Cultivation / Progression Fantasy...

Cultivation / Progression fantasy focuses less on levels and numbers and more on Ranks and magicy Martial Arts like you'd see in anime / asian-themed content...

Yeah, I kind of lump them all together... But you are right, this is definitely Cultivation.

I finished. (view spoiler)[ I am in for it! I didn't find the MC off-putting or hard to relate to. The dude has had a hard past, then lived forty years on Earth, obviously got older, and never let go of the dream to come back to the Nine Worlds... I even thought he was friendlier and more trusting than I would have been in his place. Age is truly a state of mind. This is why I always find our books who deal with all those hundreds and thousands of years old folks, never truly understand the weight of time on the personality... Like Atticus, I love the Druid books, but no one who has lived as long as he and gone through as much horrible stuff as he had, would act like he does, which is like a young adult:)

Here, it has been only 40 years, but the author accounted for the change in his soul, and I appreciate that. His trying to figure out why his previous soul home plan wasn't working, was a very good way to address this.

It really sucks that whatever powers pass as controllers on this World System, are obviously out to get at least Theo, if not all the folks from Earth. I wonder why? I guess we will read and find out:) (hide spoiler)]

Hah! Love your comparisons, Choko--(view spoiler)[Between Atticus and this book's MC--you're so right... Atticus is such a frat boy, he has no feel of age to him...

I also really like how his age and growth was reflected in his failed soulhome plan... and all the Gravity tricks were pretty cool... (hide spoiler)]