Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for Beware of Chicken 4 by CasualFarmer starting on December 24, 2024.


Happy Reading!

HAHAHHAAH! Doesn't look majestic enough! XD

This'll be a nice romp for the end of the year.

There aren't enough Kung-fu Chicken gifs

These will have to do...

Not sure if this is official, or just fan-art, but pretty majestic... then went down a rabbithole of pretty chicken pictures...

Had to do a search to find this thread. Now "clicked" to be notified. XD

This will be a good cozy read for Xmas.

Ahh, just the push I needed to finish my current audio :D

OOOO... this came out today... samesies on finishing my current read tonight at work: The Machine Crusade... past halfway...

Forgot we gave this book it's own thread, this year, for a second, and commented in the Vagabond thread last night...

10% in: interesting story format, jumping ahead a bit then filling in the gap from tournament town to Fa Ram...

30% in: horny spirit beast queen bee being horny, as usual... (view spoiler)[Master's Magnificent Cock (Bi Dee)... (hide spoiler)]

50%-60% in: finally, all the backstory we ever wanted about the regional spirit... reminds me a bit of Wistram Days, where there's a whole novella in the middle of the book...

Chapter The Battle: (view spoiler)[bouncing back and forth between Grandpa's Demon Battle and Wife's Childbirth is kinda hilarious to me...

And then the next chapter is called hard won victory...

I know births can be dangerous in a pre-industrial world, but I feel like cultivation solves that... (hide spoiler)]

Epilogue: WOO (view spoiler)[excited to see Grandpa finally show up in Fa Ram... gonna be interesting... philosophy clash, but I think he'll appreciate what Jin Rou is doing, in the end... (hide spoiler)]

I started. Not far in yet but boy have I missed these characters :)

I'm about 25% in and loving it :) Through ch 18 (view spoiler)[It's so nice how Jin asked the mayor for help and now the mayor understands his mis-made assumptions hah

Also pretty funny how they psyched out the Azure Jade reps as they made their way to the farm thinking the carved squash were demons at first lol Plus their accident mixing up Meimei and Sho Lan as his wife /facepalm

Meimei has really grown as a healer and surgeon. Talk about a nice benefit as a cultivator. That was a lot of bone shards they fished out of that poor kid's knee. (hide spoiler)]

Read this yesterday and really enjoyed it! Was it just me, or was there totally a random call out to the Wandering Inn in there? (view spoiler)[It's really cozy seeing how everyone is coming along--I feel like it's been a bit since they've all just gotten to hang around the farm and grow, with the tournament and the post-kidnapping... Having holiday seasons on the farm was so nice and cozy, from Halloween to Christmas... I've been enjoying hearing the external descriptions of things (like the pumpkins) and trying to figure out what they are, much like with the animals' names... And the moment with the Azure Jade reps was pretty funny!

In fact, all of the reactions have been amusing throughout. I especially loved Bi' Dee chatting with the memory spirit in the stone... "I won't be emperor." "OK! Let's get star---what?"

I also noticed the juxtaposition of battlefield and birth--not the first time I've seen such juxtaposition--I think A Day of Fallen Night did it better, this was a bit ham-handed... and I think undermined by how easy it was for Meilin. I'm glad it was that easy for the character... but I also feel like it kind of trivialized the experience.

Ditto on excited to see Grandpa finally reach the farm!! How long until the next one? (hide spoiler)]

Timelord Iain wrote: "50%-60% in: finally, all the backstory we ever wanted about the regional spirit... reminds me a bit of Wistram Days, where there's a whole novella in the middle of the book..."

Funny enough, these chapters have me stalled out. Hopefully it's just a mood thing.

Understandable... I almost stalled out myself, having flashbacks to Wistram Days in Wandering Inn... the story needed to come out at some point tho, for the Earth spirit's character development, and to ensure history doesn't repeat itself...

Apparently I'm just not a huge fan of flashbacks any more. I can't stand them in Stormlight lol They were working for me here in the first half of the book because I liked that the flashback of the character we received was immediately applicable to the character in the present day. I think I'm not connecting with this one because the earth spirit, while important, hasn't been a POV I'm attached to and I really wasn't wondering about its history. Humans tear up the earth all the time, it's not a surprise it was harmed at some point. I'll push through eventually.

I’ll say it played out differently than expected, and is also relevant to the demon war and grandpa plotlines…

I got through it. Well, mostly. 4 minutes left on the final chapter for this section. (view spoiler)[I think I subconsciously knew it would be a tragedy and just didn't want that kind of feeling around the holidays. So... I guess this is a new path for Big D if he's interested in pursuing it. If anyone can rebuild the great formations properly it will be him. (hide spoiler)]

Narilka wrote: "I got through it. Well, mostly. 4 minutes left on the final chapter for this section. [spoilers removed]"

Ugh, I know how you feel--one of the reasons I'm not a fan of prequels in general... if you know how it ends, and it ends (view spoiler)[unhappily, or with someone dead... no offense to Sanderson, but the Journey is somewhat overshadowed by the Destination... (hide spoiler)]

Nirkatze wrote: "Ugh, I know how you feel--one of the reasons I'm not a fan of prequels in ..."

Yeah. Journey AND destination are important. It's been my main problem with Stormlight actually. The destinations are amazing, the man knows how to write exciting endings, but the journey to get there isn't always that interesting and could use serious editing.

Back to BOC 4 - I finished those 4 minutes and the next chapter. (view spoiler)[hehehe! I love everyone calling Big D "your majesty" or the emperor lol Poor little rooster, he's not going to live this down. (hide spoiler)]

I tried started this, but I'm not feeling it right now.. Having a hard time paying attention and I have no idea what I just listened to the past hour... D:
Might have to come back later

Tonari no Emily wrote: "I tried started this, but I'm not feeling it right now.. Having a hard time paying attention and I have no idea what I just listened to the past hour... D:
Might have to come back later"

This is beware of chicken ;)

Nirkatze wrote: "Read this yesterday and really enjoyed it! Was it just me, or was there totally a random call out to the Wandering Inn in there?"

There definitely was a call out to Wandering Inn - I just passed it. It made me smile even though I've never read it. I love it when authors can work in references to their favorites :)

I'm glad I didn't imagine that! It totally made me smile too. Kudos to favorites and inspirations!

Timelord Iain wrote: "Tonari no Emily wrote: "I tried started this, but I'm not feeling it right now.. Having a hard time paying attention and I have no idea what I just listened to the past hour... D:
Might have to com..."

Lol thank you ;p

I read Beware of Chicken because of Wandering Inn. Pirateabe does a few callouts for some authors/series. There are a few who started writing after following Wandering Inn as a reader.

There's a pic of BoC with Wandering Inn characters. Lemme find it.



Great pic!

I started BoC4 today. It's basically 1st time audiobook but a re-read for story for me. I read a good bit of it on Royal Road.

OOO I forgot, but the different pix are added to the ebook. It's fun to see. =D

I definitely remember seeing that pic before...

All the good new releases I've read lately in LitRPG / Cultivation series makes me wish I had time for the other ones I haven't had time for yet...

Reborn as a Demonic Tree 2
Heart of the Machine

I guess those are the main ones...

I posted that pic in either Vagabond or the LitRPG thread that probably died.

This is in ebook of BOC4 and it was on RR.

that picture looks lewd... from the tangle of limbs in the middle to the water drifting off the dude on the board with Big Dee...

Hahaha! Pretty sure these were paid for by author & fans. XD

lol

Okay, not sure if you guys caught it, but I also felt "distant or removed" while listening to Vol4. I realized that it's because that's the way Travis B sounds for this recording. He did the job with all the character voices and some inflections, but he's not into storytelling the story. If that makes sense.

It was interesting to me what I remembered about the sequences here and what I had forgotten. I think it's been a few years since I read them on Royal Road.

The audiobook for Vol5 must be in the works because that part of the story has been removed from RR. I did a quick search and didn't find a correlation chart to show what's on RR to what's going into print/audio. Like it's in Ch3 on RR, but we're in Vol5 in audiobook.

Overall, this was a transitional piece with many different parts coming to rest and start again.

Baby! (view spoiler)[LOL I couldn't remember what the baby was and kept my fingers crossed that the birth would happen here. It did and then it was a boy. And as I listened to the part, I remembered reading it online. The whole, it's so wrinkly and scrunched looking, but I love him because he's mine. LOL (hide spoiler)]

Can't wait to see how baby grows up. XD

There's a total of 9 art in Vol4 ebook. Counting the cover.

I figured everyone would want to see this part: (view spoiler)[
(hide spoiler)]

Soo wrote: "Okay, not sure if you guys caught it, but I also felt "distant or removed" while listening to Vol4. I realized that it's because that's the way Travis B sounds for this recording. He did the job wi..."

I have one hour left of the audio book to go. I do somewhat agree with you Soo. This is a middle book and feels like it. As I was driving and listening to (view spoiler)[The Battle, I felt disappointed that a beautiful birth was ruined with a battle against demons that has NO impact to our characters currently. It's a side quest of a side quest. Unless it's going to come back around to affecting life at Fa Ram (which this could in a future book, I don't expect it to in the last hour) I just don't care for extraneous world building. Stormlight Archives has gone so overboard on this that I'm starting to detest it. (hide spoiler)] This is likely a 3 star for me too. I fell in love with Beware of Chicken for all the slice of life/cozy moments with Jin and his greatly extended family. This is a mostly good read but some stuff I just don't care for has brought my personal enjoyment and star rating down.

Soo wrote: "Okay, not sure if you guys caught it, but I also felt "distant or removed" while listening to Vol4. I realized that it's because that's the way Travis B sounds for this recording. He did the job wi..."

Maybe that's why I was having a hard time paying attention.. Sometimes Baldree's voice can go monotonous with the narration bits... I still rather like his character voices.

Yeah, dunno what was going on with TB but I've only heard him deaden style narration when it was a really bad story. Maybe he was sick or life happening.

I finished. I enjoyed the ending. (view spoiler)[After putting us through all those chapters with the history of the earth spirit, I liked how Jin took her in and that he showed her the history gem. I'm annoyed that, with all the build up, we did not see the earth spirit and her old companion's reunion in the gem. Why not go all the way?

I'm sure that Gramps is going to be shocked and pleased when he gets to Fa Ram in the next book. (hide spoiler)]

Good point about the reunion--I didn't even think about that at the time.

No such thing as overanalyzing! That's the fun part!

My go-to:



Pepe F-ing Silvia...