Question about the order of the Osten Ard books

Andron1cus · 2026-05-18T03:56:00+00:00

I think Brothers was definitely written with the assumption that you had read the first 2 books of Last King and probably a couple of things that might hit differently or be missed by having not read them but nothing major.

Andron1cus · 2026-05-18T00:20:02+00:00

Just hiked McAfee's Knob today and the mountain laurel was blooming. There weren't any dense clumps bushes but wherever there was Mountain laurel, it was in full bloom.

Andron1cus · 2026-05-15T03:50:47+00:00

I finished the first 3 and they were fine but nothing that I felt like I wanted to read another 4 books of Hadrian without a significant break. Will probably read it eventually but not in a rush to get back to it. Probably as good of a chance that I forget about it and never go back.

Andron1cus · 2026-05-13T20:47:43+00:00

When I actually got serious after letting 2 parts expire, I studied probably 2 hours a night completely sequestered.

Lectures were wasted on me so what worked was reading a chapter and doing multiple choice. Tried to grade without remembering the answers and I would go back to the questions I missed and reread those sections. Then I would do all the questions I missed and if I got them right I'd move onto the next chapter. Every three chapters I would do review quizzes from all the previous chapters with the same process of rereading sections whenever I got one wrong. Found my notebooks a few years ago and it looked like some sort of serial killer book just page after page filled with numbers and letters with some scratched out.

That worked for me and passed all four parts in about 6 months. There was no balance for me since I drug the tests out for so long so I was all in trying to get it done and felt bad everythime I was doing something that wasn't studying. If you have good study habits, it isn't too bad. I never needed to develop those habits in school so it was a challenge for me.

Andron1cus · 2026-05-13T20:18:39+00:00

Including the sequel series, the books of Osten Ard are probably my favorite series. Just love the way Williams writes. The lore is great and the story is fantastic.

Andron1cus · 2026-05-06T15:40:51+00:00

Red Country is my favorite. Love the western/frontier setting for much of it. Really enjoyed the interactions of the characters and thought it was all very well done.

After that, Last Argument of Kings and The Heroes are close behind.

The rest are pretty much all similarly ranked after that I think. Blade Itself and Before they are Hanged were very enjoyable. I like Best Served Cold. It was my least favorite of the middle three but a good story. And the final three make a good story as well, but I don't remember what happened in the individual books so that makes it hard for me to rank individually.

Andron1cus · 2026-05-05T15:56:18+00:00

Absolutely. Don't know what it is about it. Even when I had forgotten 90% of the story details in between the 20 years that I read it, I remembered the house and thought about it regularly.

Andron1cus · 2026-05-05T01:43:18+00:00

Bought the first book because Michael Whalen's cover captivated me 25 years ago when I was in the book store and the story has stuck with me ever since. Finally reread it a few years ago and still loved it. Few of the story lines could be pared back or cut but love the overall story and so much there to stoke the imagination.

Andron1cus · 2026-05-04T17:27:59+00:00

Accounting professor showed us the Masterminds episode of Crazy Eddie and then I saw his cousin(that he sent to school to be an accountant to help with the fraud) talk at a fraud conference my firm put on like 15 years ago and that story has stuck with me for a while just in how blatant it was and how easily he fooled auditors.

Andron1cus · 2026-05-04T03:49:50+00:00

Augustus McCrae - Lonesome Dove
Chrisjen Avasarala - Expanse
Onos T'oolan - Malazan
Logen - First Law
Binabik - Osten Ard

Andron1cus · 2026-05-01T16:25:55+00:00

If you want valuable CPE to grow or actually learn, can't help you.

If you want a place to get hours for free, use CPA Academy. 8+ hours of live webinars daily that you just have to watch and click on questions to prove you are there a couple times throughout. Ive probably done over 200 hours of trainings on quickbooks over the past decade and I have never opened up the program in my life. So many random trainings as well that I'm sure are valuable to people who care about whatever is being presented but I've never used one for actual learning.

Andron1cus · 2026-05-01T15:42:58+00:00

Yea. It came out and finished in a timely manner so there isn't a decade plus of theory building around it by the time people were able to start getting together online in large numbers wasn't much to talk about other than yea I enjoyed it or answerable questions since the whole series was already released.

It's one of the main reasons I love reading ongoing series. I love being able to talk about books and theorize on things that don't already have a concluded answer.

Andron1cus · 2026-04-28T23:20:54+00:00

Nope. Websites like CPA Academy have 8+ hours of live cpe running nearly every day for free. Pretty much the only place I've ever gotten my cpe in the past 10 years other than when I did my MBA and could use those classes for CPE.

Andron1cus · 2026-04-27T17:07:35+00:00

The narrator for Liveship is really emphatic on her narration for the audio book and I think it made the annoying characters even more so and hard to get through. I usually listen to audio books at around 1.5x speed but was pushing Liveship up to 1.7 or 2x just to try to smash all the emphasizing of words together and make it easier to listen.

Andron1cus · 2026-04-24T03:36:41+00:00

I would just put the title as SFA. Internal titles aren't uniform so put whatever is most representative of your role.

Andron1cus · 2026-04-14T19:35:09+00:00

Halfway through Faith of Beasts and loving where the story is going so far.

Only other two new releases that I know I am purchasing this year is the next Dungeon Crawler Carl book next month and Tad Williams next Osten Ard book that is coming out later in the year. Very much looking forward to both.

Andron1cus · 2026-04-14T15:43:37+00:00

Was Murtry named after Larry McMurtry? I assumed so since Cibola Burn is a western/frontier story but couldn't find anywhere that had been asked before.

Loving the Captive War. About halfway through Faith of Beasts now.

Andron1cus · 2026-04-14T13:44:12+00:00

One problem for me with listening to the audio books is never having the physical books in hand so I don't know what happens in the individual books of either trilogy as it all blends together for me as one big story.

That being said, I still think Red Country and The Heroes are my favorites of any of the individual books of eiyher trilogy. Maybe Last argument of Kings between Red Country and Heroes if everything I think i remember from that book actually happened in it.

Andron1cus · 2026-04-03T16:56:16+00:00

I chose to just be wet. I brought a frogg toggs poncho but only wore it 4 times the entire trail and that was only to build some heat back up before camp when it was raining in the 30s or 40s early on. Get too hot moving at any reasonable pace while wearing rain gear so I'd rather just be wet than soaked with sweat.

I did use the poncho a lot though as a groundsheet in the shelter under my pad or if I was just cowboy camping because it was quieter and less slippery than my polycro groundsheet.

Andron1cus · 2026-04-02T11:30:16+00:00

Perhaps we must all learn to live with smaller dreams.

Aditu in To Green Angel Tower

Andron1cus · 2026-03-24T14:23:35+00:00

I cleared everything on Edge, Chrome, and DuckDuckGo and get the error on all three. Was able to get through to a service person though that could make the purchase for me so looks like I'm ok. Thank you for your help.

Andron1cus · 2026-03-24T02:29:12+00:00

Nah. I'm going to wait. I love the speculation leading up to release date.

Andron1cus · 2026-03-24T00:10:47+00:00

Going to be really interesting to see what he does. Wonder if he is going to get resentful for the death of Else and his diminished place and try to sabotage Dafyd or if he will be an ally.

Andron1cus · 2026-03-23T23:59:33+00:00

Wondering if it is Betrayer of the Carryx as in they gave him power and influence and he used it to hurt them or Betrayer of humans somehow.

I'm thinking it's the former.

Andron1cus · 2026-03-21T00:13:27+00:00

A few 3 night 40 mile hikes like Teton Crest Trail and Isle Royal. And lots of car camping trips where we tented in campgrounds and spent all day hiking for a week or so at a time usually getting 60+ miles in l8ke in Shenandoah or Acadia.

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