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404GoonNotFound posted:So I finally picked up The Rook yesterday, and I gotta say it hooked me a lot more easily than Greywalker (which I put down and still haven't returned to sometime around... I dunno, just after the dinner date with the auctioneer guy?). The series [Dayz] has a problem where the books start to feel like filler and the characters don't progress as people.
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Mar 22, 2013 07:07
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I think October Daye is a decent choice for people that enjoyed Dresden, and actually didn't feel that there was that much filler. There's a ton of foreshadowing though, so if you're the type that dislikes portents in your writing I can see where that argument could come from. The characters absolutely do progress as people as the series goes on, though.
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Mar 22, 2013 08:55
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404GoonNotFound posted:So I finally picked up The Rook yesterday, and I gotta say it hooked me a lot more easily than Greywalker The Greywalker books are a slow burn but they pay off well in the end. The Rook moves much faster and is much much better. I've recently finished Magic Ex Libris Book 1: Libriomancer by Jim Hines and would like to add my voice to the "this is awesome" chorus.
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Mar 22, 2013 12:12
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pseudonordic posted:I've recently finished Magic Ex Libris Book 1: Libriomancer by Jim Hines and would like to add my voice to the "this is awesome" chorus. I loved the book, but it has one major fault: it handles relationships/sex worse than Dresden ever has.
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Mar 22, 2013 16:04
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ConfusedUs posted:I loved the book, but it has one major fault: it handles relationships/sex worse than Dresden ever has. You're just jealous that you don't have a tree nymph whose literal nature makes her fulfill your every whim. 
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Mar 22, 2013 19:17
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pseudonordic posted:You're just jealous that you don't have a tree nymph whose literal nature makes her fulfill your every whim. Aren't we all?
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Mar 23, 2013 01:34
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why oh WHY posted:Aren't we all? Maybe you, but I have my own tree nymph. 
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Mar 23, 2013 02:30
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Raygereio posted:Secondly the "What do you think about them gays"-interlude. I'm not completely against a writer preaching (I think it can be done well), but this was just awkward. Did people complain about the various Harry/Thomas gay jokes and was this Butcher's attempt at apologizing? To be honest it didn't strike me as a talk about gays so much as about free will, which is one of the biggest themes of the Dresden universe (and probably THE theme for Cold Days). If you're outright discussing said theme, it makes sense it gets played up a bit. Gay men were mostly a jumping off point for that discussion based on the location for the meeting and homosexuality being one of the more common sources of people saying "you can't exercise your free will because it disgusts me". The free will thing keeps constantly popping up prominently whenever Harry is talking to the senior fae in the book really; this was just Titania's turn.
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Mar 23, 2013 07:59
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ConfusedUs posted:She's not as bad as Dresden, but is still slightly on the awkward side of center. She's a lot more confident and has far fewer autistic tendencies. Yeah I'm glad I pushed past book 2 of Greywalker because that was an incredible bore. After that each book got markedly more engaging.
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Mar 23, 2013 08:09
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Cold Days stuff.MadDogMike posted:To be honest it didn't strike me as a talk about gays so much as about free will, which is one of the biggest themes of the Dresden universe (and probably THE theme for Cold Days). If you're outright discussing said theme, it makes sense it gets played up a bit. Gay men were mostly a jumping off point for that discussion based on the location for the meeting and homosexuality being one of the more common sources of people saying "you can't exercise your free will because it disgusts me". The free will thing keeps constantly popping up prominently whenever Harry is talking to the senior fae in the book really; this was just Titania's turn.
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Mar 23, 2013 11:58
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pseudonordic posted:You're just jealous that you don't have a tree nymph whose literal nature makes her fulfill your every whim. It's been a while since I read this, so I may not be remembering everything, but as far as I can remember , he at least tries to portray the fact that she was created this way to be somewhat sick - and tries makes her growing a personality independent of other people a plot point. It seemed to focus more on the fact her personality was so amorphous that she didn't really even have an identity outside of whatever would please whoever she was with and how this was a bad thing instead of her being some super sexy male fantasy perfect girlfriend.
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Mar 23, 2013 13:08
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As Harry explained it many times, the star in the pentagram represents the five elements bound and controlled by human knowledge, represented by the circle. So what would the pentagon in the center of the pentagram represent?
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Mar 23, 2013 14:21
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Wolpertinger posted:It's been a while since I read this, so I may not be remembering everything, but as far as I can remember , he at least tries to portray the fact that she was created this way to be somewhat sick - and tries makes her growing a personality independent of other people a plot point. It seemed to focus more on the fact her personality was so amorphous that she didn't really even have an identity outside of whatever would please whoever she was with and how this was a bad thing instead of her being some super sexy male fantasy perfect girlfriend. Is that what happens? Because I stopped reading it after it was revealed about 50 pages in that she's this sex nymph and will only be happy if she has sex with the protagonist. Like, really???
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Mar 23, 2013 14:30
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Wachepti posted:Is that what happens? Because I stopped reading it after it was revealed about 50 pages in that she's this sex nymph and will only be happy if she has sex with the protagonist. Like, really??? Yes. Go back and re-read. It's a good story but as ConfusedUs said, the relationship/sex parts need a lot of work.
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Mar 23, 2013 14:37
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Dietrich posted:As Harry explained it many times, the star in the pentagram represents the five elements bound and controlled by human knowledge, represented by the circle. So what would the pentagon in the center of the pentagram represent? The union of all these elements?
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Mar 23, 2013 14:43
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So doing a reread of Cold Days and when Harry goes to talk to Mother Winter, Mother Summer says that she lost her cane Could this be a reference to the blackstaff? They mention multiple times that immortals experience time very differently from mortals, so theoretically a thousand years would be nothing to the fae.
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Mar 23, 2013 17:13
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r0ff13c0p73r posted:So doing a reread of Cold Days and when Harry goes to talk to Mother Winter, Mother Summer says that she lost her cane Could this be a reference to the blackstaff? There's a quote from Jim on the official forums that rules it out.
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Mar 23, 2013 18:38
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r0ff13c0p73r posted:So doing a reread of Cold Days and when Harry goes to talk to Mother Winter, Mother Summer says that she lost her cane Could this be a reference to the blackstaff? Do we know what it is?
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Mar 23, 2013 22:47
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Thalamas posted:Do we know what it is? It's Mister. It's always Mister.
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Mar 23, 2013 22:55
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Finally something that makes a little sense around here...
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Mar 23, 2013 23:01
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No loving way it's Mister. It's obviously TootToot...Geez don't you guys know anything.
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Mar 24, 2013 00:31
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It's (the) Merlin's Staff. White wood, smooth and uncarved. Sheesh.
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Mar 24, 2013 01:12
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So I just finished The Rook and... wow. I mean, it was loving great, but this has to be the weirdest book to discuss with friends. But on the bright side, it's impossible for anyone listening to actually be spoiled due to how loving strange it all sounds. "Hey, where are you?" "After the meat cube, not quite to the duck." "Oh, cool." It's almost like O'Malley got the situations and powers out of a book of mad libs, and yet it works. Anyway, I assume the sequel's going to be called The Bishop? 404GoonNotFound fucked around with this message at 04:07 on Mar 24, 2013 |
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Mar 24, 2013 04:05
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404GoonNotFound posted:"Hey, where are you?" I know exactly which parts you're talking about. 
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Mar 24, 2013 04:09
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404GoonNotFound posted:Anyway, I assume the sequel's going to be called The Bishop? Not necessarily. Daniel O'Malley posted:Quite a few people have asked which chess piece the next book will be named after, but I am not convinced that I will go with that recurring motif. For one thing, it’s already been done, and for another, it sort of limits one to six titles. (And since the Checquy doesn’t use ‘King’ and ‘Queen’, it’s a bit tenuous anyway.)
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Mar 24, 2013 05:19
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After months of one of my friends needling me to read it, I finally picked up 'Storm Front' three weeks ago. I finished Cold Days last night. It sucks not being able to mainline the next book immediately. Waiting is the worst.
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Mar 24, 2013 05:24
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cptn_dr posted:After months of one of my friends needling me to read it, I finally picked up 'Storm Front' three weeks ago. Well there's still Side Jobs and the other shorts (Even Hand, Curses, the Bigfoot trilogy) if you stuck to only the main series. It's not much, but it'll help a little.
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Mar 24, 2013 05:29
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cptn_dr posted:After months of one of my friends needling me to read it, I finally picked up 'Storm Front' three weeks ago. Could be worse. a few years ago we had people doing the same thing in the thread, but they had to stop at the end of Changes.
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Mar 24, 2013 06:19
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Stroth posted:Could be worse. a few years ago we had people doing the same thing in the thread, but they had to stop at the end of Changes. That was *the worst*. I did that and just wanted to die when I couldn't get resolution.
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Mar 24, 2013 08:19
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I just finished Wolf in Shadow, by John Lambshead. Definitely best new urban fantasy this year. It is far as I know only available as a Baen E-ARC.
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Mar 24, 2013 22:06
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Just started Rook, since I got to about 90% of the way through the first Greywalker and relised I hadn't given a gently caress about the story since about the half way mark (if it gets better, I'll slog through to the good bits). Rook is pretty enjoyable so far.
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Mar 25, 2013 02:29
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AlphaDog posted:Just started Rook, since I got to about 90% of the way through the first Greywalker and relised I hadn't given a gently caress about the story since about the half way mark (if it gets better, I'll slog through to the good bits). I'm halfway through book 2 of grey walker and I'm about to just shut it down. I'll probably pick up The Rook if I do as it seems to be getting good feedback
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Mar 25, 2013 02:39
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Yeah, Greywalker wasn't bad exactly, it just didn't grip me at all. The setup and concept is pretty cool, but the execution is only average, the story is all over the place, and the one really cool bit the necromantic organ didn't seem that actually scary/interesting in the end. I guess it was nice to see modern vampires that are similar to the old Dracula type vampires, but they kind of wore thin really fast.
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Mar 25, 2013 03:53
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AlphaDog posted:Yeah, Greywalker wasn't bad exactly, it just didn't grip me at all. The setup and concept is pretty cool, but the execution is only average, the story is all over the place, and the one really cool bit the necromantic organ didn't seem that actually scary/interesting in the end. I guess it was nice to see modern vampires that are similar to the old Dracula type vampires, but they kind of wore thin really fast. I felt the first Greywalker book was a decent first book. A slow burn, yes, but there was obvious care put into it. Sadly, the second Greywalker book was an even slower burn than the first. It tied together really well at the end, but it was too much of a mystery the whole time. The answers were never obvious and didn't come together until the very, very end. pseudonordic says that Greywalker series really picks up after the first few books, and I trust his judgement. I'll pick up the third book eventually. On a related note, the first Twenty Palaces series suffers from the same "too much mystery" problem at first. It's action packed and bloody as hell, but we, the reader, have no loving clue what's going on for far too long.
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Mar 25, 2013 04:05
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That's what I liked about Dresden and like about Rook - There's a mystery, but it seems to be going places. It's bizarre as hell at times, but they plot moves along and you gradually find out more. I checked my Kindle, and I'm 85% of the way through Greywalker and I still don't really get what's happening on a "tying it together" level. Also, the protagonist's lack of understanding of everything is pretty annoying. At least Dresden is already a wizard and can give the reader some idea of what's going on.
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Mar 25, 2013 04:14
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AlphaDog posted:Yeah, Greywalker wasn't bad exactly, it just didn't grip me at all. The setup and concept is pretty cool, but the execution is only average, the story is all over the place, and the one really cool bit the necromantic organ didn't seem that actually scary/interesting in the end. I guess it was nice to see modern vampires that are similar to the old Dracula type vampires, but they kind of wore thin really fast. Books 1-3 are basic "learning the powers" stories that build on each other. 4 and 5 are essentially one storyline but do reference the first three here and there. 6 is decent. I'll get to 7 after I finish my current reads.  20 Palaces reads better as a whole if you read the prequel first. I guess I just have more patience or lower standards for my entertainment fiction reading.....  Edit: My wife reading over my shoulder said I should "make AlphaDog a beta for talking poo poo about [my] books" 
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Mar 25, 2013 04:16
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I don't think it's about standards, and I don't think it's a bad book, it's just clearly not really my thing. I didn't think I'd like Dresden, either. It took until nearly the end of Storm Front before I'd decided to keep reading, and I nearly quit halfway through Fool Moon and again at the start of Grave Peril when it didn't seem to be getting much better. I'm not actually a big fan of modern fantasy, and I think most of it is completely awful. I didn't put Greywalker down after the first 50 pages, so it kept my interest better than most modern vampire/ghost/witch books. And like I said, there are some really cool ideas in it. The main concept is pretty interesting and entertaining, and I guess I was hoping it'd be explained faster, because I do want to know more about the Grey and how it all works.
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Mar 25, 2013 04:26
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pseudonordic posted:
Agreed. It's a great series, but by reading the prequel first, you'll lose out a little bit of the tension in the first book. The alternative is being completely lost, so take your pick.
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Mar 25, 2013 04:32
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ConfusedUs posted:Agreed. See, I hadn't seen that advice awhile ago when I picked them up, and without that the series just never caught on for me. I agree with that someone previously said- they focused SO MUCH on how mysterious everything was, and how much had happened that the reader didn't know about, that it made it really hard to connect to. I read them all eventually, but I never really loved them. The Rook, on the other hand, I maintain is fantastic and I can't wait for a new one to come out. It's still a drat big world with a lot left to explore in subsequent books, but it doesn't.. I dunno, focus on it so much, I guess? Or dwell on it.
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Mar 25, 2013 04:55
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OmniBeer posted:The Rook, on the other hand, I maintain is fantastic and I can't wait for a new one to come out. It's still a drat big world with a lot left to explore in subsequent books, but it doesn't.. I dunno, focus on it so much, I guess? Or dwell on it. Yeah, the whole aspect of Myfawny having to hide her amnesia and having tons of contingency planning really means that the book take for granted that you just know there's people out there who can communicate with shrubbery by blinking, or who can fly at exactly 14 kilometers per hour, or who secrete various types of marmalade*. It doesn't take the time for people to stop & have "as you know" conversations (apart from the letters, of course), and is so much better for it. *And yes, that's only mildly less weird than actual powers in the book.
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Mar 25, 2013 05:22
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