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2014 Book Ones Reading Challenge
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DrNefario
Posted 2014-01-09 2:06 PM (#5982)
Subject: 2014 Book Ones Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		For discussion of the Book of Ones reading challenge, to read 12 series openers and review 6 of them.
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DrEvilO
Posted 2014-02-01 3:24 PM (#6299 - in reply to #5982)
Subject: Re: 2014 Book Ones Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: CA		Sounds great! I am wondering it 'Ender's Game' would qualify as a series? It is listed here as a Saga.

Aside from that here is my tentative list:

1. Boneshaker
2. Dune
3. Feed
4. Foundation
5. A Game of Thrones
6. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
7. Hyperion
8. Ilium
9. Leviathan Wakes
10. Old Man's War
11. Ringworld
12. Shards of Honor

If you could drop one of these in favor of Ender's Game which one do you think it would be?
Cheers,
O.
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2014-02-01 5:25 PM (#6303 - in reply to #5982)
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'Ender' is certainly a series. I haven't read Feed or Leviathan Wakes but of the other 12, I reckon "Boneshaker" is the weakest.
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DrNefario
Posted 2014-02-02 5:43 AM (#6309 - in reply to #5982)
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Location: UK		Is Ilium part of a series? I hadn't realised that. It's the only one I haven't read in that list.

My thinking on what counts as a series is that knowledge of he previous book is important for reading the next book. It doesn't matter if the first book was originally a stand-alone which has had sequels bolted on later. I guess that would technically mean you could count The Hobbit as book one of The Lord of the Rings, if you wanted. I don't think that's unreasonable. The kind of thing I wanted to exclude was something like Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias trilogy, where the books are really unrelated and can be read in any order.

So, yes, Ender's Game would be fine.

There are quite a few that I didn't love in your list - Boneshaker, Feed, Leviathan Wakes, Old Man's War - but for the most part they are easy to read, they just felt a bit unsatisfying to me when I reached the end, and all of them have plenty of fans, so what do I know? I don't know which one I'd choose to leave out.

Edited by DrNefario 2014-02-02 5:45 AM
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DrEvilO
Posted 2014-02-02 9:48 AM (#6311 - in reply to #5982)
Subject: Re: 2014 Book Ones Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: CA		That is an interesting thought about the Hobbit being a book in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy...

Well, I've since replaced Boneshaker with Ender's Game on the advice of justifiedsinner, and I've finished Leviathan Wakes and am on to Caliban's War just now. I've been generally delighted in regards to the improvements CW makes over LW. In your opinion would your same observations here apply to the subsequent books in each of the Feed and Old Man's War series?
Cheers,
O.
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DrNefario
Posted 2014-02-02 10:41 AM (#6313 - in reply to #5982)
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Location: UK		I haven't read any of the follow-ups of the books I mentioned except for Feed. I read Deadline only because it was a Hugo nominee and I was voting. It annoyed me a bit less than the first one, but I think it's generally regarded as inferior. The third one was also a Hugo nominee, and that was no longer enough to make me read it.
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DrEvilO
Posted 2014-02-02 11:59 AM (#6314 - in reply to #5982)
Subject: Re: 2014 Book Ones Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: CA		Interestingly I was looking at Feed as a result of its recurrent nominations as well, and in a similar vein despite the series having been recurringly nominated the reviews of Old Man's War are somewhat disparaging. Nothing wrong with having a few spots left to fill..
Cheers,
O.
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DrEvilO
Posted 2014-02-10 11:51 PM (#6435 - in reply to #5982)
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Location: CA		@drnefario

You may be interested in my recent review of Boneshaker (I had already bought a copy). Anyways I have to concur with your assessment of the general weakness of the novel.

https://worldswithoutend.com/novel.asp?id=1707#reviews

Cheers,
O.
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DrEvilO
Posted 2014-02-16 5:30 AM (#6476 - in reply to #5982)
Subject: Re: 2014 Book Ones Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: CA		Sadly I am onto another somewhat disappointing read that happened to start a series: Doomsday Book. Actually, this may not be that bad afterall. I just can't believe it received so many accolades. Although to be fair 1992 was well before my time. Maybe things were different in the SF world back then? The plot is very conservative but apparently the body count eventually spirals out of control. More to come in my review.

Cheers,
O.
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DrEvilO
Posted 2014-02-19 12:31 AM (#6506 - in reply to #5982)
Subject: Re: 2014 Book Ones Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: CA		If I were to start The Vorkosigan Saga using the recommended internal chronology and applying Falling Free instead of Shards of Honor to the challenge would that be alright? Although Falling Free was not published first (it is the fourth book in the publication order), technically it starts the series overall plot. Thanks for your thoughts.

Here is the author discussing:

https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/293438-the-vorkosigan-saga-read...

Cheers,
O.

Edited by DrEvilO 2014-02-19 12:35 AM
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DrNefario
Posted 2014-02-19 3:32 AM (#6508 - in reply to #5982)
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Location: UK		I'm not that sure I'd count Falling Free as part of the series at all. It.kind of stands apart as a bit of prehistory, but the Vorkosigan series was one of the ones I had in mind when I mentioned alternative starting points, and I guess it is a valid choice. I was aiming for chronological order when I first read them, but I wasn't always able to get hold of the book I wanted and I don't think I read Falling Free until quite late on.
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2014-02-19 11:00 AM (#6515 - in reply to #5982)
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LMB discusses the order in which to read the series here:

http://www.dendarii.com/reading_order.html

As she says, most readers recommend reading 'Falling Free' later. She suggests before 'Diplomatic Immunity' which revisits the quaddies. This would place it after 'A Civil Campaign' and the short story 'Winterfair Gifts'. This is the order I have chosen to read them in.
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DrNefario
Posted 2014-02-19 12:18 PM (#6517 - in reply to #5982)
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Location: UK		I tend to feel that the order they were written in can never be wrong, but then all I really had to go on when I read them was the chronology in the back of the books, so I went with that. Or tried to. I was mainly reliant on my library at the time, and had to fill in some gaps later.
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DrEvilO
Posted 2014-02-19 3:57 PM (#6518 - in reply to #5982)
Subject: Re: 2014 Book Ones Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: CA		Personally I would favour reading based on internal chronology over subplot, after all if you read through them all you are eventually going to encounter that as a matter of course. Personally I would also agree with using internal chronology as a starting point for a series (even if the book was released later in the cycle) and our challenge, but might disagree with using a recommended subplot (although in our case the recommended subplot also happens to be the first book in the series). Just my 2 pennies.

Cheers,
O.
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DrEvilO
Posted 2014-02-20 7:29 PM (#6524 - in reply to #5982)
Subject: Re: 2014 Book Ones Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: CA		Well I just finished Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, and I can say it made improvements to my early impressions above, you can find my full review here:

https://worldswithoutend.com/novel.asp?id=52#reviews

Cheers,
O.
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DrNefario
Posted 2014-06-23 10:28 AM (#7986 - in reply to #5982)
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Location: UK		I finished this challenge yesterday, with The Stormcaller by Tom Lloyd, which was neither brilliant nor terrible, but a bit uneven and very much a book one.

This is my first completed challenge, and it looks like I am the first to finish, which is kind of appropriate since I set it up.

There are plenty more book ones on my reading list, but it' since to have a completed challenge under my belt.
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spoltz
Posted 2014-09-02 2:31 PM (#8413 - in reply to #5982)
Subject: Re: 2014 Book Ones Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		Hi all! I've joined this and a few other challenges after reviewing my reading list. I've already read 7 firsts, and will be reading another 5 by end of year.
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ManyMoons
Posted 2014-11-25 7:01 PM (#8929 - in reply to #5982)
Subject: Re: 2014 Book Ones Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: suburb of Minneapolis, MN		I am happy to report that I FINISHED THIS CHALLENGE!!! Wasn't sure if I would make it before the end of the year given the 3 doorstops I read in recent months. Anyway, thanks for the challenge. I will be completing some of these series later one (ok..one I did finish). I have way too many other challenges that aren't getting done, so I'm glad I could finish this one!

Edited by ManyMoons 2014-11-25 7:02 PM
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DrNefario
Posted 2014-11-26 7:23 AM (#8930 - in reply to #5982)
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Location: UK		Nice work.

I think I'm probably approaching twice the required number of books for this one by now. I don't seem to have much of a problem starting series. It's finishing them that I struggle with.
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Rhondak101
Posted 2014-11-26 8:27 AM (#8931 - in reply to #5982)
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Location: SC, USA		That brings up an interesting question for everyone: How many of the series that you started in The Book of Ones do you plan on continuing?
I am at No - 3, Already did -1, Maybe - 2, Yes - 6.
Was everyone else this successful in finding new series?
Rhonda
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spoltz
Posted 2014-11-26 9:52 AM (#8932 - in reply to #8931)
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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		My plans for reading the rest of the series:
No - 2
Already did - 4 (this means read at least the next book, if not all)
Yes - by year end - 1 (in this case, the first sequel, not the whole series)
Yes - at some point in the future 3
Maybe - 2
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2014-11-26 10:04 AM (#8933 - in reply to #5982)
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I'm currently at 11/12 for this challenge, so I should finish. Some of the series are still ongoing and if they go on too long I usually lose interest. I've finished 3 trilogies and intend to finish a fourth. I have one tetralogy that I intend to complete. Of the others one is a definite no, the rest are maybes.
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daxxh
Posted 2014-11-26 11:28 AM (#8934 - in reply to #8933)
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Location: Great Lakes, USA		Already did - 6 (and am waiting for the next book for a couple of these)
Yes - 3
Maybe - 2
No - 1

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DrNefario
Posted 2014-11-26 2:01 PM (#8935 - in reply to #5982)
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Location: UK		Finished the whole series already - 1
Don't intend to continue - 3.5*
Will definitely continue - 5
Will probably continue - 2.5

* The 0.5 is for the Young Wizards. I'm not all that bothered about continuing the series, but I already own all nine volumes.
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DrEvilO
Posted 2014-12-01 8:28 PM (#8957 - in reply to #5982)
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Location: CA		Here is my prognosis for each of the series I started this year:
Ancillary Justice - Already have the second book! Let me read you now!
Southern Reach Trilogy - "ditto"
Doomsday Book - Happy to end it on book one.
Foundation - Curious introduction to the series, a lot of hype, will make it back to book 2 but not rushing (did I mention I also read Hyperion, so yeah...)
Game of Thrones - Duh, I'm already on book #3!!
Hyperion - Withdrawal is a bitch, dammit what am I going to top this with?
Leviathan Wakes - I hear it get better as you go so I'm on book#3 now.
Neuromancer - I'm not into it, maybe if someone forces me to, otherwise. meh
Nexus - Why not it just came out, at least I'll have something to talk about
Perdido Street Station - Not into it, I'm just not into it
Rendezvous With Rama - Possibly the only interesting book about cylinders, I'm into what happens next
Ringworld - Possibly the most interesting book about rings, of course I need to find out what happens next.
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