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I confess I'm disappointed the case-file UK covers are no longer made for the new books, hardback reprints with those covers would entice me to buy, but otherwise I guess I'll stick to having everything up to Changes in paperback, Changes itself in hardback, and the rest in e-book. I feel the new Harry-in-a-hat covers these days look a bit too Young Adult for my tastes.
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Jul 31, 2014 02:17
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I've got paperbacks through Changes and the weird, quatro format Side Jobs paperback before switching to hardbacks. I'm happy with how my Dresden shelf looks. I might buy hardback omnibusses though.
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Jul 31, 2014 14:43
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ConfusedUs posted:What Should I Read After Dresden? Having just read the Laundry Files series (meaning I've now read all of the above) I'd probably rate the current Urban Fantasy as Laundry Files // Dresden Files The Watch Series (that Russian author, starting with Night Watch) Rivers of London The Rook The Rook was good, but until it's followed up by a couple more it could just be a flash in the pan. I'd actually rank the Laundry stuff right up there with Dresden though. It's real test will be the next couple of books though. I've heard rumours they will have different narrators. A couple of short stories from Mo and Alex would be fine, but two main series books? The Mo book will be absolutely horrifying though, given what we know about the... weapon... that will be used. Pendent posted:Continuing the spoilers for the last Laundry Files book I'm pretty sure that Angleton is now inside Bob. Like Bob said, TEAPOT will happen over his dead body. In fact, it already has. Things from outside our universe might not have to follow linear time when being summoned into our timespace. I think that post-Rhesus Angleton was pulled into Bob, but let Bob himself come along for the ride too. While real Angleton was around the kiddy gloves were on, but once he died Bob was freed up, he came into his full power. I don't mean Angleton's mind or memories are there. They are gone. His soul, the hungry ghost, however has become part of Bob. He IS now Angleton. I probably have it all wrong though, given I've only read the series once, and all in quick succession over the past week or two at that. Masonity fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Aug 2, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2014 19:58
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Just to give another view on The Rook, I thought it was amateur-hour babby's-first-novel NaNoWriMo bullshit. I thought it was written terribly, not actually edited at all, and everything else about it was pretty bad too. It's like that kindle favourite 'the many lives of tao' in that I wasn't sure the book I was reading was the same one people recommended. I am enjoying the felix castor books, and the Alex Verus books are decent too, in the spirit of positivity  .
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Aug 2, 2014 22:06
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awesmoe posted:Just to give another view on The Rook, I thought it was amateur-hour babby's-first-novel NaNoWriMo bullshit. I thought it was written terribly, not actually edited at all, and everything else about it was pretty bad too. It's like that kindle favourite 'the many lives of tao' in that I wasn't sure the book I was reading was the same one people recommended. Did you check? There are actually like three different novels with that title. It is definitely a first novel but I thought it was at least as good as, say, the first Dresden book. If nothing else, it's got a female protagonist who's self-directed and not just chasing a man.
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Aug 2, 2014 22:27
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docbeard posted:On one hand, they could have been killed unceremoniously offscreen, or we could have them come back with a serious grudge against Harry at a suitably dramatic moment.
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Aug 2, 2014 22:29
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I thought it was at least as good as, say, the first Dresden book. You're not inspiring confidence with that statement 
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Aug 2, 2014 22:37
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I liked The Rook, and upon reflection there are several "my first novel" issues with it. The worst one to me (kind of general spoilers for the whole book I guess) was that apparently Myfanwy's eye for character quality is right on the dot and anyone she ended up "liking immediately" turned out to be entirely trustworthy. Also, I half-wished her assistant turned out to be evil or at least not quite so utterly dedicated to Myfanwy. Only half because she ended up playing off of Myfanwy in a really fun way, but she doesn't quite seem to be her own real person. The overall mystery was a little too obvious to me as well. I tend to be very dumb at figuring out mysteries but I spent a good third or more of the book kind of yelling at Myfanwy for not seeing this one. (ending/bad guy spoilers) Like the second old Myfanwy mentioned that she'd always been too scared to change a single thing about her domicile it was obvious to me that it was bugged to high heaven and whatsisface who had it last was absolutely involved in all the bad stuff. That said, it was a fun read, the dialogue was amusing, and some of the twists weren't quite so obvious and added some cool flavor to the book. The situations the characters end up in are pretty creative and the way that the main character and her former self are two completely separate people that feel real is very well done. I think it is WAY better than Storm Front and Fool Moon and probably on the same level as the third Dresden book. Like the third DF book, it lays down a lot of threads that have the potential to be very interesting in future books.
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Aug 3, 2014 00:31
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Since there is probably some overlap in readers, I figure I'll ask here--The Magician's Land is coming out this tuesday, and that series hasn't had a thread here for a long time. If there's any interest, I'll create a thread about it. Honestly, my expectations for the book aren't super high, but I'm just hoping Lev Grossman can put a decent end on that series.
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Aug 3, 2014 00:31
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Honestly, I liked Laundry 1, thought Laundry 2 was so-so, and found Laundry 3 pretty unreadable. Given the progression, I'm not really that interested in Laundry 4.
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Aug 3, 2014 00:32
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I'll second the Felix Castor books, scratches that itch pretty well.
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Aug 3, 2014 00:42
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Tunicate posted:Honestly, I liked Laundry 1, thought Laundry 2 was so-so, and found Laundry 3 pretty unreadable. Given the progression, I'm not really that interested in Laundry 4. Laundry 3 (the Fuller Memorandum) certainly failed to make much of an impression on me, given that for the life of me I can't even remember what it was about. The Apocalypse Codex was a good bit better, I though, but I'm a sucker for characters like
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Aug 3, 2014 01:27
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I enjoyed Fuller Memorandum after getting bored with Jennifer Morgue twice and then finally finishing it. Probably going to start Felix Castor once I finish with what I'm reading.
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Aug 4, 2014 00:42
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Felix castor is pretty decent. I also just finished the first alex versa book, and enjoed it (I always want to call him alex versus). His magical abilities are pretty cool and original.
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Aug 4, 2014 22:21
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Just a reminder that the next Sandman Slim book, The Getaway God, comes out at the end of this month  .And the third Bobby Dollar book, Sleeping Late on Judgement Day, comes out the following week. Let's see how much Williams can torture his character this time!
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Aug 5, 2014 03:49
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Tunicate posted:Honestly, I liked Laundry 1, thought Laundry 2 was so-so, and found Laundry 3 pretty unreadable. Given the progression, I'm not really that interested in Laundry 4. I liked Laundry 1 and found Laundry 2 to basically be one of the worst things I've ever read. Laundry 3 was a step up merely by not being Laundry 2.
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Aug 5, 2014 03:52
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I read Iron Druid 1 this last weekend, it's a fun pulpy substitution for Dresden
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Aug 5, 2014 06:40
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Just finished the last Iron Druid book after binging through the series. The lolcats part in book 3(?) made me cringe, but it wasn't so bad it put me off my pulpy urban fantasy fix. The latest book felt a lot better than the older ones, though.
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Aug 5, 2014 13:11
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GET INTO DA CHOPPA posted:Just finished the last Iron Druid book after binging through the series. The lolcats part in book 3(?) made me cringe, but it wasn't so bad it put me off my pulpy urban fantasy fix. The latest book felt a lot better than the older ones, though. Yeah reading this thread made me think that the entire series of books is just constant lolcat, when in fact is it literally a single sentence in one of the books that is used by Atticus as a joke. But such is the sperg of goons I guess.
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Aug 5, 2014 15:59
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Dravs posted:Yeah reading this thread made me think that the entire series of books is just constant lolcat, when in fact is it literally a single sentence in one of the books that is used by Atticus as a joke. But such is the sperg of goons I guess. It's just a particularly dumb joke at a time when the series as a whole is on a downward slide. That's all.
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Aug 5, 2014 16:01
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Oberon is also the worst sidekick character ever and Atticus is the most boring aspect of the world he lives in. But, you know, don't let little things like actual complaints of stupid internet humor throughout the books count. The latest book was the best so far, but I still rolled my eyes at the Game of Thrones references.
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Aug 5, 2014 16:19
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I don't know about that. Oberon has given me quite a few laughs, but he also seems very forced at times.
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Aug 5, 2014 18:38
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Get one of the audiobooks on Audible and it will utterly ruin Oberon for you.
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Aug 5, 2014 20:05
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It came up earlier in the thread, so I have to say: man, The Magician's Land is goddamn excellent. Easy 10/10, good at every single portion of the book, makes excellent use of the material from the previous books and retroactively elevates both of them. I can't recommend it highly enough.
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Aug 6, 2014 07:10
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Einander posted:It came up earlier in the thread, so I have to say: man, The Magician's Land is goddamn excellent. Easy 10/10, good at every single portion of the book, makes excellent use of the material from the previous books and retroactively elevates both of them. I can't recommend it highly enough. Better than the first two books you say? That's promising! I enjoyed the first two, but there were definitely some issues.
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Aug 6, 2014 08:23
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Einander posted:It came up earlier in the thread, so I have to say: man, The Magician's Land is goddamn excellent. Easy 10/10, good at every single portion of the book, makes excellent use of the material from the previous books and retroactively elevates both of them. I can't recommend it highly enough. I found the first quite good but the second was sort of a letdown. This is good news!
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Aug 6, 2014 14:16
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Einander posted:It came up earlier in the thread, so I have to say: man, The Magician's Land is goddamn excellent. Easy 10/10, good at every single portion of the book, makes excellent use of the material from the previous books and retroactively elevates both of them. I can't recommend it highly enough. I'm halfway through it and the plot has basically gone nowhere for most of it. Also I'm pretty sure I saw "lulz", "for the win", and "i heart ____" so far. Goddamnit, he didn't learn.
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Aug 6, 2014 14:18
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So I don't know if any of you like jewelry, but I was at SDCC the other weekend and    It was a display for Badali Jewelry, which I hadn't heard of before but they've got some neat stuff from books that I know are of interest to the thread. It was also where Jim Butcher did his autographs! Sorry my phone's camera is so horrible
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Aug 6, 2014 17:53
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The tv show's bracelet was better IMO. 
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Aug 6, 2014 18:27
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Jesus Christ, $200 for loving Sterling Silver?
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Aug 6, 2014 18:37
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Wade Wilson posted:Jesus Christ, $200 for loving Sterling Silver? Welcome to comicon, where nerds paid good money to go somewhere to buy stuff they could have ordered on the internet for 1/4th the price.
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Aug 6, 2014 23:44
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Dietrich posted:Welcome to comicon, where nerds paid good money to go somewhere to buy stuff they could have ordered on the internet for 1/4th the price. It's the same price online
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Aug 6, 2014 23:48
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Rose Spirit posted:So I don't know if any of you like jewelry, but I was at SDCC the other weekend and More like Thomas' pentacle necklace. I mean come on, its all pristine and not even bent, warped, or scarred in any way. Also its missing a pentagram shaped ruby held in place with super glue.
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Aug 7, 2014 07:03
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Logan 5 posted:Also its missing a pentagram shaped ruby held in place with super glue. Pentagon shaped. Not something you want to gently caress up if you're a wizard...
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Aug 7, 2014 10:56
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Logan 5 posted:More like Thomas' pentacle necklace. I mean come on, its all pristine and not even bent, warped, or scarred in any way. Not any more. When Dresden got it back in Cold Days he remarks about how Mab apparently had it fixed.
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Aug 7, 2014 14:15
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So, I've been wanting for decent fantasy books to read (alas, I've run out of Abercrombie and can't get ahold of "Half a King") and I stumbled into the indie published Daniel Faust series by Craig Schaefer. It's more or less Dresden Files with a coat of paint on top. The funny thing is, Daniel is an ambiguously criminal, amoral sorcerer for hire who is alarmingly disinterested in the professional exploits of his murderous Demon Prince's enforcer of a succubus girlfriend (and not to mention her boss), and he's still less obnoxious than Harry's first person narration can be at times. This is thanks to fewer forced and unfunny pop cultural references and much less of that gratuitous Male Gaze. That's right. The urban fantasy series where the most prominent female character is an actual personification of illicit sex and lust has less graphic Male Gaze than The Dresden Files. Plus the protagonist's surrogate dads are a happily-partnered gay couple. And the protagonist's ex/friend/occasional partner in crime is bisexual (although she jokes that he turned her off men). I wouldn't call the Daniel Faust series better (it has its flaws and is good but not great, but then it's only two books deep) but I am saying that I appreciated the lack of a graphic description of the breasts and nipples belonging to the resident punky minor teenaged girl.
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Aug 8, 2014 02:02
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Mars4523 posted:So, I've been wanting for decent fantasy books to read (alas, I've run out of Abercrombie and can't get ahold of "Half a King") and I stumbled into the indie published Daniel Faust series by Craig Schaefer. It's more or less Dresden Files with a coat of paint on top. The funny thing is, Daniel is an ambiguously criminal, amoral sorcerer for hire who is alarmingly disinterested in the professional exploits of his murderous Demon Prince's enforcer of a succubus girlfriend (and not to mention her boss), and he's still less obnoxious than Harry's first person narration can be at times. This is thanks to fewer forced and unfunny pop cultural references and much less of that gratuitous Male Gaze. Oh for sure bro
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Aug 8, 2014 23:06
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Stiletto: A Novel by Daniel O'Malleyquote:When secret organizations are forced to merge after years of enmity and bloodshed, only one person has the fearsome powers---and the bureaucratic finesse---to get the job done. Facing her greatest challenge yet, Rook Myfanwy Thomas must broker a deal between two bitter adversaries: Apparently this comes out in February.
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Aug 9, 2014 03:33
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Ornamented Death posted:Stiletto: A Novel by Daniel O'Malley This is a really good example of what I was saying. If the writing style of that blurb annoys you, do not read this book.
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Aug 9, 2014 03:41
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awesmoe posted:This is a really good example of what I was saying. If the writing style of that blurb annoys you, do not read this book. You're crazy. The Rook was awesome.
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Aug 9, 2014 04:28
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