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Poopy Palpy posted:In the TV show he used a drumstick for a wand and it was... kind of the dumbest looking thing ever? You just can't look like anything but a massive tool while waving a wand around. I kind of liked the hockey stick staff, though. It's also a pretty recurring thing in the books that he gets all his toys taken away constantly. IIRC by Skin Game all he has is his (third?) staff and the pendant as far as 'poo poo to help me do magic' goes.
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Jul 1, 2014 16:26
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Fried Chicken posted:Latest laundry book is out, I blew through it already. Pretty good, I'd say a step up from Apocalypse Codex, much tighter. The funny thing is, both Bob and Harry indulge in Male Gaze, but Bob acknowledges (and lampshades) it.
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Jul 1, 2014 17:03
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How do the Laundry Files books improve, by the way? I got to the second book and I hated the stupid James Bond/Bond Girl plot so much that it kinda put me off from reading more. I really enjoyed the first one but the second was way too self-indulgent and slow-paced for me.
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Jul 1, 2014 18:45
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ImpAtom posted:How do the Laundry Files books improve, by the way? I got to the second book and I hated the stupid James Bond/Bond Girl plot so much that it kinda put me off from reading more. I really enjoyed the first one but the second was way too self-indulgent and slow-paced for me. The second book is the only one with that particular conceit. I've found that people love it or hate it. I've found the books to consistently improve over time.
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Jul 1, 2014 18:49
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ConfusedUs posted:The second book is the only one with that particular conceit. I've found that people love it or hate it. Cool, I'll give the later ones a shot then. I wasn't sure if it was a case of "if you don't like the second book, don't bother because it keeps doing stuff like that."
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Jul 1, 2014 18:54
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ImpAtom posted:Cool, I'll give the later ones a shot then. I wasn't sure if it was a case of "if you don't like the second book, don't bother because it keeps doing stuff like that." Yeah, it took me a while to move on to the third one because I didn't really like the second. Each of the first few take cues from classic spy novels, and #2 was Bond, which didn't work so well in my opinion. But it does mean that each novel has a pretty different feel, and I liked #3 and #4 way better than #2.
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Jul 1, 2014 19:13
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NinjaDebugger posted:I'm not sure Harry is capable of soul gaze anymore. A friend noticed he met peoples' eyes fairly often during Skin Game and not a single soul gaze the whole time. A soul gaze comes from prolonged eye contact, if memory serves. In fact, I remember him stating specifically in Skin Game that he broke off eye contact with someone scary because it would've been a real inopportune time for a soul gaze. Can't remember who, though.
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Jul 1, 2014 20:32
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ImpAtom posted:Cool, I'll give the later ones a shot then. I wasn't sure if it was a case of "if you don't like the second book, don't bother because it keeps doing stuff like that." It does kind of do that (depending on what you mean by "stuff like that"), just in different ways. The Apocalypse Codex literally has 60s newspaper cartoon spy Modesty Blaise (albeit renamed) as the secondary protagonist. The narrative geas of the Jennifer Morgue felt much more Terry Pratchett than Ian Fleming to me personally though, and later books do not descend into wackiness in the same way, so if it was specifically the James Bond thing you didn't like, as opposed to the idea of the story being a pastiche, you might like the later books more. All the books keep their pretty cringey 90s style Bastard Operator From Hell humor as a common element. I haven't read the Rhesus Chart and The Jennifer Morgue was what sold me on the series after feeling The Atrocity Archive was kind of meh, though, so I couldn't give more advice than that. My favourite Charles Stross novel was definitely Halting State. I remember thinking back when I read it that the bemused but determined police officer protagonist scratched the itch I had for something like a Murphy short story in the Dresdenverse (that said the similarities basically end at "Muggle, lady, cop, spunky", so I don't want to oversell that aspect). The story revolves around cybercrime, and because it has MMORPG and VR alternative reality games as themes the book uses Second-Person Narration like the narrator is your Dungeon Master, which takes a bit of getting used to, but I really enjoyed the story and the near-future Edinburgh setting. Edit: phone post turned Murphy to Murray, oops Reveilled fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Jul 1, 2014 |
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Jul 1, 2014 20:59
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Reveilled posted:It does kind of do that (depending on what you mean by "stuff like that"), just in different ways. The Apocalypse Codex literally has 60s newspaper cartoon spy Modesty Blaise (albeit renamed) as the secondary protagonist. The narrative geas of the Jennifer Morgue felt much more Terry Pratchett than Ian Fleming to me personally though, and later books do not descend into wackiness in the same way, so if it was specifically the James Bond thing you didn't like, as opposed to the idea of the story being a pastiche, you might like the later books more. All the books keep their pretty cringey 90s style Bastard Operator From Hell humor as a common element. Halting State is by far my favorite Stross book, too. Do we have a Stross thread around here? It's nothing at all like the Dresden Files so there's not a ton to say in this thread, but it's amazing and I want to talk about it.
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Jul 1, 2014 21:09
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SolTerrasa posted:Halting State is by far my favorite Stross book, too. Do we have a Stross thread around here? It's nothing at all like the Dresden Files so there's not a ton to say in this thread, but it's amazing and I want to talk about it. Now would be a great time for someone to start a Stross thread since the new Laundry Files book is out, but please put all Rhesus related content in spoilers, if only because I'm like actively reading the book right now but still have to read the reports when people report things for being spoilers. Thanks!
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Jul 1, 2014 21:12
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There was a Stross thread at one point but it evaporated due to low post count. It was clearly the OP's fault for not maintaining things properly.
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Jul 1, 2014 22:24
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I'll toss one up for Stross and probably similar guys like Watts and Bakker later. There is a name for their style falls under but the name escapes me now, watts mentions it in a talk
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Jul 1, 2014 22:27
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DangerDummy! posted:A soul gaze comes from prolonged eye contact, if memory serves. In fact, I remember him stating specifically in Skin Game that he broke off eye contact with someone scary because it would've been a real inopportune time for a soul gaze. Can't remember who, though. Man, I just realised that Harry and Murphy still haven't had a soulgaze yet and unless it's a short story we aren't seeing it (onscreen? onpage? onpage) in a book unless they have some really, really awkward encounters between Skin Game and Peace Talks. Also, potential danger zone: Harry accidentally soulgazes Maggie and that's how she finds out about Susan.
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Jul 2, 2014 00:37
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Illuyankas posted:Also, potential danger zone: Harry accidentally soulgazes Maggie and that's how she finds out about Susan. Considering the reaction of nearly everyone else Harry's shared a soulgaze with, it's more likely Maggie would be traumatized by whatever it is people have been seeing since day one.
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Jul 2, 2014 00:55
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Illuyankas posted:Man, I just realised that Harry and Murphy still haven't had a soulgaze yet What? I could've sworn they did and he saw her as some shining paragon holding a flaming sword of righteousness or something. Or am I thinking of some scene from Changes?
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Jul 2, 2014 00:58
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Ornamented Death posted:Considering the reaction of nearly everyone else Harry's shared a soulgaze with, it's more likely Maggie would be traumatized by whatever it is people have been seeing since day one. Harry hadn't killed Susan back then, pretty sure it'll continue to be a horrible life-altering trauma which tend to show up in soulgazes. MrGreenShirt posted:What? I could've sworn they did and he saw her as some shining paragon holding a flaming sword of righteousness or something. Or am I thinking of some scene from Changes? That was what she looked like through his Sight, though with tarnished armour after Blood Rites. Illuyankas fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Jul 2, 2014 |
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Jul 2, 2014 00:59
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e: whoops
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Jul 2, 2014 01:01
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I'm guessing that whatever shows up in Harry's soulgaze has something to do with He-Who-Walks-Behind or other Outsiders.
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Jul 2, 2014 01:24
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jivjov posted:I'm guessing that whatever shows up in Harry's soulgaze has something to do with He-Who-Walks-Behind or other Outsiders. You can add He Who Walks Before to that list too now.
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Jul 2, 2014 03:15
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Rereading Skin Game, there's been one direct (Deirdre at the Gate of Ice) and one indirect (Ascher at the Gate of Fire) reference to soul gazes and Harry's ability to participate in them so far.
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Jul 2, 2014 03:24
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He thought he was going to soulgaze Murphy in the third book when she was being attacked by the nightmare but it didn't work, because she wasn't 'there'
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Jul 2, 2014 03:26
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Dravs posted:Just finished the Codex Alera series after running out of other books. I enjoyed it quite a lot actually, was pretty satisfying. What are peoples issues with it? These were my exact thoughts on the series. I honestly like it more than Dresden.
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Jul 2, 2014 03:45
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Anyone reading the new War Cry comic? It's pretty good and issue #2 just introduced a plot twist I really didn't see coming... a Shoggoth in the basement!
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Jul 3, 2014 03:36
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Harry is going to soulgaze Murphy at the most insanely dramatic moment possible. It's been Gunned for way too long not to happen.
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Jul 3, 2014 04:50
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ImpAtom posted:Harry is going to soulgaze Murphy at the most insanely dramatic moment possible. It's been Gunned for way too long not to happen. Naw, it'll just be mid-coitus and will completely kill the mood.
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Jul 3, 2014 05:01
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jivjov posted:Anyone reading the new War Cry comic? It's pretty good and issue #2 just introduced a plot twist I really didn't see coming... a Shoggoth in the basement! Yeah but the big news is as powerful as a Shoggoth is they are just the spawn of outsiders rather than the full thing. Does that make them scions? Follow up, is "them" even the appropriate pronoun for an eternal maddening horror from a dimension outside our space and time?
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Jul 3, 2014 05:12
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Fried Chicken posted:Yeah but the big news is as powerful as a Shoggoth is they are just the spawn of outsiders rather than the full thing. Ooh, I didn't even consider the ramifications of that data point... On the topic of Dresden comics, how are Welcome to the Jungle and Ghoul Goblin? I have a copy of GG en route already, so a bit too late to warn me away from that one...but what are people's experiences with them? I haven't seen much comic chat in here before.
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Jul 3, 2014 05:55
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Ghoul Goblin is pretty neat, although a little depressing. Harry doesn't really win that one so much as survive it. I'm going to wait for War Cry to have an omnibus before I pick it up too, but I really really want to see more Warden stuff. How many issues of that were planned?
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Jul 3, 2014 06:30
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mistaya posted:Ghoul Goblin is pretty neat, although a little depressing. Harry doesn't really win that one so much as survive it. I'm going to wait for War Cry to have an omnibus before I pick it up too, but I really really want to see more Warden stuff. How many issues of that were planned? Looks like its a 5 issue series. So far its actually not been super "Warden stuff"-y. I mean, the premise is a Warden mission, Harry is leading a task force of Wardens, but once he gets to the location in question it just kinda feels like another regular Dresden story with a couple other Wardens rather than Karrin and Michael backing him up. Maybe issues 3-5 will change that a bit...
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Jul 3, 2014 08:14
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So far I've liked War Cry a fair bit more than Ghoul Goblin. But the Venatori were my Dresden RPG character de jeur and I've been waiting forever to actually see them do something. Now, in the interests of being a good-little-cultural-deconstructor I do feel oblidged to call out the lunacy of the "sexy professor chicks with guns and pencil skirts." On the other hand, I'm hoping it's set up for Ramirez to get totally shot down. And did Harry forget his black duster or just feel like wearing a brown one for this?
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Jul 3, 2014 14:39
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I think they changed it because
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Jul 3, 2014 15:42
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ZorajitZorajit posted:And did Harry forget his black duster or just feel like wearing a brown one for this? I haven't read any of these comics(?) but in the books his duster has always been brown hasn't it?
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Jul 3, 2014 17:36
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WarLocke posted:I haven't read any of these comics(?) but in the books his duster has always been brown hasn't it? No. Its been black canvass and then two seperate black leather coats gifted from Susan and Molly.
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Jul 3, 2014 17:55
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I liked the new Laundry Files. I'd say it was the best one yet. Howard is powering up at a high rate, too.
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Jul 4, 2014 20:44
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cultureulterior posted:I liked the new Laundry Files. I'd say it was the best one yet. Howard is powering up at a high rate, too. It was definitely very good but goddamn was the ending a downer. Especially his moving out. That was rough.
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Jul 4, 2014 21:15
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Pendent posted:Especially his moving out. That was rough.
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Jul 4, 2014 22:26
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Benny the Snake posted:I'm on like chapter 18 of Storm Front. I hope it gets better, because Dresden is like a wannabe Philip Marlowe in this book. But it got me thinking of something. How come Dresden hasn't figured out that a staff is a bad idea because it's really, really cumbersome and it sticks out? I mean, why not enchant a collapsible baton as a wand? It's easy to wield, portable enough to hide, and you can easily bash someone in the face if you run out of power Harry likes the staff because he can bash things loving heads in with it. I get that you could do that with a baton too, but he's a traditionalist. A lot of the stuff he fights is really horrible if it gets close to you, and a lot of his staff-fighting throughout the series involves pushing things away or having a reach advantage. I know a lot of people kind of hate the way Harry's stuck in his ways with stuff like the staff, but (spoilers because I'm responding to a dude who's still on Storm Front) think about his upbringing - Justin was pretty oldschool to begin with, and then Ebenezar is old as gently caress and very traditional. When you think about who Harry's father-figure was during his teen years, a lot of his attitudes make a lot more sense. e: aaaand there's a whole extra page of posts I missed. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 22:59 on Jul 4, 2014 |
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Jul 4, 2014 22:57
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cultureulterior posted:I liked the new Laundry Files. I'd say it was the best one yet. Howard is powering up at a high rate, too. Agreed.
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Jul 4, 2014 23:42
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cultureulterior posted:Well, according to Stross's blog, the next two won't have Bob as the protagonist, but rather Mo, and Alex Interesting. I guess that makes some sort of sense as Bob will likely be spending the foreseeable future learning to be Angleton, which probably involves stupid amounts of time reading through the memex. Good thing he has more spare time now  
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Jul 5, 2014 00:22
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Anybody else read The Severed Streets? I finished it a couple of days ago and I thought it was OK, not as good as London Falling but with some good ideas. The reveal that everyone who ever lived in London is in Hell (or at least the Smiling Man's version of Hell, or whatever it is) was quite interesting. I hope that Cornell is planning to keep up the pace of story development - the books seem much more willing to explain and define the concepts and sides involved than Dresden did in the early books. That said, swathes of it sucked. The Neil Gaiman stuff felt a bit name-droppy and masturbatory - although given the culture the books present, you'd expect to find Gaiman down there some place. I think I liked it better when he was first introduced by physical description, and I thought "ha, it's clearly Neil Gaiman". It felt like a nice little nod and it sort of ruined it when he got named, and then became a central secondary character. Sounds like he's going to be back in later books, too. Not sure how I feel about that. There is no loving point at all killing off a lead character if the previous half of your book is about an object that brings people back from the dead. It just doesn't work. As soon as Quill gets slashed up, you know that a) he'll be back by the end of the book, and b) the Costain/Ross conflict is going to fizzle out. Speaking of Ross, her whole story felt like a wasted opportunity. It's obviously going to come up again in later books, but it didn't come up enough in this one. She gave away all of her happiness and it's never really explained how that feels, nor does it seem to affect her day-to-day attitude or behaviour in any way. I'm gonna stick with the series mainly because I like the overall premise, and Quill. That bit where his wife comments that he looks like Gene Hunt was a bit wince-inducing, too. We're all aware he's Gene-lite. Drawing attention to it like that makes it less easy to swallow. (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)
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Jul 5, 2014 03:06
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