Archive for the ‘read along’ Category
Hi everyone! welcome to part 2 of our Hat Full of Sky read along! if you’re just joining us, it’s not too late to get involved, click here for the reading schedule.
We’re halfway through the book, and is it just me, or is the book suddenly going really, really fast? I pick it up, planning to read just a chapter, and suddenly I’m four chapters in! Now that Pratchett has fully introduced Tiffany and her um, smaller friends, he can really ramp up the story-ness of what’s happening.
this week’s questions were provided by Susan over at Dab of Darkness, and here we go!
1) Awf’ly Wee Billy, the gonnagle, comes up with a plan, the PLN. First, do you like the basic idea? Second, what was your favorite part of the execution of the PLN?
2) Miss Level has a philosophy of ‘storing it in other people’. How do you like this philosophy and do you know any witchy people in life who might be secretly following it?
3) We finally get to meet some other witchlings, such as Petulia and Annagramma. What do you make of Tiffany’s first meeting with them?
4) The Hiver has finally found Tiffany and Miss Level has finally met the Feegle. How do you think Tiffany will fair against the Hiver and how much damage do you think will be done (either by the Hiver or the Feegle)?
my answers and spoilers aplenty, after the jump!
Has this been the most amazing read along or what? 10 weeks, over 30 bloggers, 6 organizers, 1300+ pages of delicious bookness, incredibleness all around! And people, all that brilliance? ALL YOU. Before I get even more maudlin, I should get right to it.
This week’s read along questions were provided by Lynn over at Lynn’s Book Blog, and make sure to give a shout out to our other wonderful organizers, Dark Cargo, My Awful Reviews, and @ohthatashley from SF Signal.
I’m out of town this weekend, and may not be available to collect links on Saturday. Leave your link in the comments, and click on everyone else’s links in the comments. When I get back into town next week I’ll update the link list. Viva la family vacation!
Because this is the last post, with all the mega spoilers, all the questions, answers, and snarky images are after the jump. If you see any weird grammatical errors it’s because I’m trying to write in present tense but this post is actually happening in the future and I’ve already written it.
ready to talk spoilers? let’s go!
* Finally edited on 5/29 to add everyone’s links. I’ll visit everyone as soon as I have time later this week.
Lynn’s Book Blog
Coffee Cookies and Chili Peppers
Dark Cargo
Tethyan Books
Kaitharshayr’s Musings
All I Am – A Redhead
Hugo Endurance Project
Nashville Bookworm
Beware of the Froggies
Rose’s thingamajig
Genkinahito’s Blog
Scruffy Fiction
Books without Any Pictures
Real Books 4 Ever
Travels Through Iest
Paperless Reading
Central Neural Pathway Station
Booky Pony
- In: read along | Scott Lynch
- 32 Comments
As the end of the book gets closer and closer, the plot lines get more confusing and intertwined. Will Captain Drakasha’s fellow pirate captains betray her? How will Locke and Jean finish out the Requin game? Will they get back to the Archon in time for the poison’s antidote? Will Jean opt to stay with the beautiful Erzi? and who are all these incompetent assassins that keep getting snagged on a certain someone’s stilettos everytime they touch land in Tal Verrar?
So many questions, but the ones we’re most interested in right now are those supplied by nrlymrtl from Dark Cargo. Be sure to give her a shout out along with our other read along co-hosts, Lynn’s Book Blog, My Awful Reviews, and @ohthatashley from SF Signal. This week’s reading section was Chapter 11 thru end of chapter 13, and wow was a lot happening! The Parlor Passage (creepy!), trust issues up the wazoo (gulp), and generally learning how to be a pirate. good stuff.
On twitter? use #lynchmob. And on to nrlymrtl’s great questions!
1) I was much relieved when Jean and Locke made up, which started with Locke’s gesture of a cup full of honesty with Cpt. Drakasha. Do you think that was hard for Locke? Or was he using this bit of honesty like any other weapon in his arsenal to get what he wants in the end?
2) The Parlor Passage: We still don’t know Locke’s true name, but whatever was in that mist does. What do you think it is?
3) There was an interesting section of the book that started about where Locke assisted Drakasha in selling the Red Messenger; he put on the persona of Leocanto Kosta and used the alias Tavras Callas and then Drakasha was still thinking of him as Ravelle….. Did using all those various aliases in such a short amount of time have your mind spinning a little? Do you think Lynch did this on purpose to give the reader a sense of Locke’s mind?
4) That was a sweet little kiss between Cpt. Zamira and Cpt. Jaffrim at the end of the Captains’ Council. Do you think they have some history, or is it just innocent flirting that’s been going on for some time?
5) Jean and Ezri. Cue dove-cooing and little winged hearts with sparkles. Do you think Jean will stay with the Poison Orchid or that Ezri will leave her ship to pal around with Jean and Locke?
6) What is Utgar up to? What are his motivations?
7) So last week we hashed over that Merrain killed some of Stragos’s guards on Windward Rock. But when Jean and Locke visit him, he doesn’t mention it. What is up with that?
8) This week’s section left us where the book began – Jean pointing a crossbow at Locke’s throat. Do you think Jean knows who sent these crossbowers? Is he on their side? Is it a clever ploy to get him and Locke out of this predicament? Did you find it excruciatingly hard to stop here?
other wonderful conversations:
Real Books 4 Ever
Kaitharshayr’s Musings
Akki’s Arcanumn
Dark Cargo
Genkinahito’s Blog
All I Am – A Redhead
Travels Through Iest
Paperless Reading
Just Book Reading
Coffee Cookies and Chili Peppers
Tethyan Books
Lynn’s Book Blog
Hugo Endurance Project
Booky Pony
Beware of the Froggies
NEW!
Books Without Any Pictures
The Bente Way
Nashville Bookworm
- In: read along | Scott Lynch
- 34 Comments
artwork by Windfreak
We’ve finally go some nice weather, so that means it’s time to read a story about pirates, right? If this weather holds I’ll be chilling in my garden all weekend doing the (Totoro) happy dance for my sprouting seeds.
it’s the midpoint of our Red Seas Under Red Skies read along, and if you can believe the plot is even more complicated than before. More than one reader has mentioned the similarities between Red Seas and Lies. I can’t argue with much of that, but right about now is the point where this novel goes off on it’s own direction to do it’s own dastardly dance. and I am loving every minute of it. This week’s questions were provided by Ashley who blogs over at SF Signal and tweets at @ohthatashley. Shout outs to my read along co-hosts as well, Dark Cargo, Lynn’s Book Blog and My Awful Reviews!
1. Locke and Jean’s ability to find themselves at the center of a serious mess seems unparalleled. At this point, do you think that Stragos will get the return he expects on his investment in them?
2. Merrain’s activities after our boys leave Windward Rock are interesting. What do you think her plans are?
3. Does anyone know why having cats aboard the ship is so important?
4. The word “mutiny” creates a lot of mental pictures. Were you surprised? Why or why not?
5. Ah, the Poison Orchid. So many surprises there, not the least of which were the captain’s children. Did you find the young children a natural part of the story?
6. Jean is developing more and more as a character as we get further in to the book. Ezri makes the comment to him that “Out here, the past is a currency, Jerome. Sometimes it’s the only one we have.” I think several interesting possibilities are coming into play regarding Jean and Ezri. What about you?
7. As we close down this week’s reading, the Thorn of Camorr is back! I love it, even with all the conflict. Several things from their Camorri background have come back up. Do you think we will see more Camorri characters?
Let’s go visit all the other interesting conversations!
All I Am – a Redhead
Genkinahito’s Blog
Lynn’s Book Blog
Paperless Reading
Kaitharshayr’s Musings
Akki’s Arcanum
The Sleepless Reader
Dark Cargo
I want Life In Every Word
Scruffy Fiction
Coffee Cookies and Chili Peppers
Books Without Any Pictures
Tethyan Books
Real Books 4 Ever
My Awful Reviews
Beware of the Froggies
Central Neural Pathway Station
NEW!
Nashville Book Worm
- In: read along | Scott Lynch
- 34 Comments
artwork by Anna-Maria Jung
avast anchor ye flea bitten filth!
umm, or something!
welcome to week two of our read along for Scott Lynch’s Red Seas Under Red Skies, the 2nd book in his Gentleman Bastard sequence. If you haven’t read this book, beware, thar be spoilers. We’re not too far in, if you’ve like to join, just leave a note in the comments, or feel free to tweet me, I’d be happy to deal you in next hand. on twitter? use hashtag #lynchmob.
this week’s reading section covered The Lady of the Glass Pylon through the end of Chapter six, and now we’re really up to our eyeballs in it! The Gents got pulled off one job and bodily tossed onto another. We learned a bit more about some of our minor characters, and just possibly got a few hints as to a bigger picture. Locke and Jean learned there’s lots more to do on a boat besides get seasick. Also, one of my most favorite lines in a book, EVER, which I believe nicely sums up the plot of the book:
“How the screaming fucking hell do you expect the two of us to raise a bloody pirate armada in a place we’ve never been and convince it to come merrily die at the hands of the navy that bent it over the table and fucked it in the ass the last time?”
For the life of me, I don’t know why that isn’t on the blurb on the back of the book. 
Every time i get to that scene I giggle uncontrollably, read that line out loud to my other half, and since these books aren’t his thing he’s like “uh huh.” I LOVE all the dialog between Locke and Jean and Caldris. Caldris ain’t such a bad guy once they get to know him, he’s seen some tough times too.
Make sure to make the rounds of all the links below to see what everyone else is saying and to thank our co-hosts, Dark Cargo, Lynn’s Book Blog , My Awful Reviewsand OhthatAshley at SFSignal. This week’s discussion starters were supplied by yours truly.
here’s the questions, with my answers below!
Now that we know a little more about Selendri and Requin, what do you think of them? I worry Locke is suddenly realizing this con might be a bit tougher than he expected.
Isn’t the Artificers’ Crescent just amazing? If you could purchase anything there, what would it be?
What did you think of Salon Corbeau and the goings on that occur there? A bit crueler than a Camorri crime boss, no?
The Archon might be a megalomaniacal military dictator, but he thinks he’s doing right by Tal Verrar: his ultimate goal seems to be to protect them. What do you think he’s so afraid of?
And who the heck is trying to kill Locke and Jean every few days? they just almost got poisoned (again!)!
Do you really think it’s possibly for a city rat like Locke to fake his way onto a Pirate ship?
all the other wonderful discussions:
Paperless Reading
Lynn’s Book blog
Genkinahito’s Blog
Scruffy Fiction
Booky Pony
Dark Cargo
My Awful Reviews
Just Book Reading
Coffee Cookies, and Chili Peppers
Akki’s Arcanum
Nashville Bookworm
Books Without Any Pictures
Tethyan Books
Travels Through Iest
Beware of the Froggies
Real Books 4 Ever
New!
All I Am – A Redhead
The Sleepless Reader
Kaitharshayr’s Musings
Neverwhere? Everywhere!
Posted on: May 2, 2012
- In: Neil Gaiman | read along
- 32 Comments
Neil Gaiman, how do I love thee? let me count the ways.
My not nerdy friends have heard of you, so we can easily discuss your books without them thinking I’m too weird.
You allowed yourself to be Simpsonized!
You wrote one of my most favorite novels, American Gods. Also, I loved Coraline, Stardust and The Graveyard Book.
you refuse to be shoe horned into any specific genre. You write what you want, when you want it, and I can’t wait to read it.
you’re friends with Tori Amos and Terry Pratchett.
And my adoration for you started with a little book called Neverwhere. One of your earlier works, and certainly not your best, it was within it’s pages that I became first hooked on other worlds, on magical realism and urban fantasy, on the worlds that existed beyond the door, on a modern and more scary version of Narnia. Poor Richard Mayhew, he never knew what hit him. She was young and in trouble, so he decided to help a young woman named Door. What was Door running from, and how can bumbling Richard possibly help her? Her world is London Below, and his is the real world. Or is it? More exists in London than Richard could possibly imagine, and he’s about to meet it head on.
If you’ve read Neverwhere, you know of the magic that lives in these pages.
And if you haven’t? get thee to a bookstore! and then head over to Stainless Steel Droppings, where a read along of Neverwhere will be starting in a few weeks.
Are you ready for a spring of magical realism, urban fantasy, and London Below?
- In: read along | Scott Lynch
- 29 Comments
“When you can’t cheat the game, you’d best find a way to cheat the player”
Hi Everyone, welcome to the first part of our read along of Scott Lynch’s Red Seas Under Red Skies. This is the second book in the Gentlemen Bastard series, and so far Locke and Jean are already up to their regular tricks. This week’s questions were supplied by My Awful Reviews. Please be sure to visit him and my other read-along co-hosts, Dark Cargo, Lynn’s Book Blog and OhthatAshley at SFSignal. If you are writing up a discussion post on your blog, leave your link on everyone else’s blog comments as well, so we can all visit each other.
here are this week’s discussion starters, with my answers after the jump!
1. The Sinspire. It looks like our heroes (can they really be called that?) find themselves in search of a way into an unbeatable vault. Do you think they have what it takes to make it happen?
2. Anyone want to guess how they’re going to make it happen?
3. It’s a little different this time around, with us just being focused on Locke and Jean. Is anyone else missing the rest of the Bastards as much as I am?
4. I love the section where Jean starts to build a new guild of thieves. It really shows just how well trained and tough he is. Do you think the Bastards will end up training others along the way again like Bug?
5. For those of you looking for Sabetha, we still haven’t spotted her yet. Anyone else chomping at the bit to see the love of Locke’s life?
6. It’s early on, but the Bastards are already caught up in plots that they didn’t expect. How do you think their new “employer” is going to make use of them (The Archon, that is)?
all the other great discussions:
Genkinahito’s blog
Dark Cargo
Lynn’s Book Blog
My Awful Reviews
Books Without Any Pictures
Travels Through Iest
Booky Pony
Nashville Book Worm
Paperless Reading
Scruffy Fiction
Coffee Cookies and Chili Peppers
Kaitharshayr’s Musings
Just Book Reading
Updates to the Theory of Everything
Real Books 4 Ever
The Sleepless Reader
I Want Life In Every Word
*NEW*!
All I Am – A Redhead
Central Neural Pathway Station
Tethyan Books
Even NEWER!!
Beware of the Froggies
Akki’s Arcanum
(I will be away from my computer most of Saturday morning. . . so if you are waiting for your link to show up, worry not! I will link everything up as soon as I can)
- In: read along | Scott Lynch
- 3 Comments
Hi Ya’ll,
just a quickie reminder (quiche, anyone? if you know that joke, raise your hand!) that our read along of Scott Lynch’s Red Seas Under Red Skies starts this week. Hosted by Dark Cargo, Ashley at SFSignal, My Awful Reviews, Lynn’s Book Blog and yours truly, our first discussion will be next weekend.
Get the details (reading schedule, etc) here.
AND to add to your wonderful weekend, Jennie Ivens (@Autumn2May), staff member at Fantasy Faction, went to the Lynch & Bear reading the other night in New York, where she got a recording of Scott Lynch reading from The Mad Baron’s Mechanical Attic, a prequel of sorts to The Lies of Locke Lamora.
yes, you read that right: reading. prequel. novella.
Also, infuriating guards and a very odd courtyard garden. just go click the link, watch the reading, and we’ll all start going nuts for Red Seas Under Red Skies next weekend.
And thanks to Bente from The Bente Way of Life for providing us with the great read-along graphic!
We had so much fun with our The Lies of Locke Lamora read along, is everyone ready to dive into the sequel, Red Seas Under Red Skies? A very different adventure for our remaining Gentlemen Bastards, and even when they don’t go looking for trouble, trouble finds them. you can read my not-too spoilery review here.
how to get involved, you ask?
If you participated in the Lies of Locke Lamora read along, congrats! you are already on my mailing list and don’t have to do anything, unless of course you don’t want to do this read along. If that’s the case you can a) ignore my e-mails, or b) e-mail me back and ask me to take you off the list.
If you didn’t participate in the Lies of Locke Lamora read along (srsly, you totally missed out), and you would like to participate in this one, just leave a comment on this post and I’ll add you to the list. no spam, I promise, just once weekly e-mails with that week’s discussion info.
Here’s the tentative reading schedule, and again, I’ve referred to chapter headings as the page numbers are different depending on which version you have (paperback, hardback, etc):
If you start reading right around April 20th, you’ll be all set :
Week 1 – beginning thru End of Chapter 3, discussion questions go out Thurs April 26, posts go up Sat April 28
Week 2 – Reminiscence “The Lady of the Glass Pylon” through end of Chapter 6, discussion questions go out thurs May 3, posts go up Sat May 5
Week 3 – Chapter 7 thru end of Chapter 10, discussion questions go out May 10, posts go up May 12
Week 4 – Chapter 11 thru end of chapter 13, discussion questions go out May 17, posts go up May 19
Week 5 – Chapter 14 to the end, discussion question go out May 24, posts go up May 26
Same schedule as before, you’ll get an e-mail on Thursdays with discussion starters, and posts will go up on Saturdays, after which we’ll all go crazy all weekend commenting and tweeting and generally ignoring our families and other obligations whilst being total pests on the interwebs. Sounds like fun, right?
And because I am an attention whore who can’t help but brag:
it’s funny, because he’s not scruffy.
- In: read along | Scott Lynch
- 38 Comments
* * * Edited to add * * *
now that you’ve finished the book, you want to know more about Scott Lynch, right? leave it to Bryce, of My Awful Reviews to take care of your every need! check out what Sam Sykes, Elizabeth Bear and Myke Cole are saying about everyone’s favorite firefighter.
* * *
Were these not some of the best weeks of your life, or what? false-facing, banter, brass balls and everything going horribly, horribly wrong. Glass towers, bondsmagi, mobsters, the best friends anyone could ever ask for, and of course, bloody and tear streaked revenge. This is what the best books in the world are made of.
And that’s the wonderful thing about books. the adventure is never over. All you have to do to see your friends again to is open the cover and dive in. It’s also nice to know I won’t have to climb into the damn book and take care of a certain someone, if you recall my bloodlust from last week.
The book may be over, but this isn’t goodbye. It’s “I’ll see you later, you bastard”. Watch your e-mail for information on an upcoming Read Along for Red Seas Under Red Skies.
For our final discussion posts, the questions were supplied by our newest read along team member Lynn, from Lynn’s Book Blog. Make sure to visit her and tell her how great of questions she came up with! And huge, massive thanks to all our other co-hosts, Dark Cargo, My Awful Reviews, @ohthatashley posting at SF Signal and Dark Cargo Explorer! Leave your link in the comments below, and I’ll add you to the link list. With the holiday weekend, don’t worry about posting on Saturday, I think everyone is going to be netsurfing around for the next five or six days, digesting the outcomes of one of our favorite books.
And don’t just comment here, we’ve got over twenty bloggers participating. Yes, you read that correctly: over TWENTY bloggers traveled the same road with us these past five weeks. Go give ‘em some blogger read along love!
Yeah, these guys!
Lynn’s Book Blog
Nashville Bookworm
Books Without Any Pictures
Genkinahito’s blog
Kaitharshayr’s Musings
Scruffy Fiction
Tethyan Books
Coffee Cookies and Chili Peppers
Travels Through Iest
Just Book Reading
Rose’s thingamajig
Paperless Reading
I Want Life in Every Word
Beware of the Froggies
All I am – A Redhead
Dark Cargo
The Hugo Endurance Project
My Awful Reviews
RealBooks4Ever
*** NEW discussions! ***
John Ayliff
A Blog Thinger
Booky Pony
More new discussions!
Updates to the Theory of Everything
The Bente Way of Life
Due to massive amounts of spoilers, Lynn’s questions and my answers are after the jump!
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