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I just finished Unbound, and I liked it a lot. I admit, though, even though it was a really good read, that the biggest thing it did was actually get me really interested in what's going to happen in Book 4. The fallout and consequences of the book are practically more interesting than the book itself, it's a shame it ended so quickly instead of having more time to wrap up. I admit, I never actually suspected the series would go in that direction, and I hope that book 4 focuses fully on the fallout of magic being revealed to the world, and definitely goes into what happens in regards to that letter from his brother, instead of pulling out some new monster or focusing on the Ghost Army. I know that he was pushing the whole idea of freedom of speech and all that for writing, but libriomancers are scary, and the idea that anyone could pull a nuclear bomb, or a super-virus from the worst sci-fi hell, or god knows what else out of a book makes me sort of sympathize with the whole reactionary backlash from governments proposing restrictions on what sort of horrible doomsday weapon you write into your fiction. Honestly, it'd kind of suck - every time anyone writes a book they have to consider that they could be creating the next nuclear bomb if their book becomes a bestseller. Wolpertinger fucked around with this message at 10:16 on Jan 17, 2015 |
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Jan 17, 2015 10:13
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ConfusedUs posted:I also agree with the person who, several pages back, said the book ended quite abruptly. I feel like it needed another chapter or two to address the fallout. I guess there's an extra chapter that only a uk bookstore got that wraps things up a little better? I agree though, it definitely feels unfinished. Anyone else read Firefight? Turns out love is really the answer 
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Jan 17, 2015 20:34
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docbeard posted:I can just about see the thought process that was behind the scene. Titania was trying to make a point about emotional reactions overriding logic, to explain why she was about thirty seconds away from going gently caress YOU HARRY DRESDEN DIE DIE DIE because of Harry's involvement in her daughter's death, even though he was making complete sense and it was in her best interests to help him, and even though Aurora had to be stopped for the sake of the world. Honestly I thought the Titania scene in Cold Days was actually getting at one of the core themes that keeps popping up in the series, free will. Harry basically stated he'd protect free will even for people he doesn't necessarily agree with (and homosexual sex, particularly the loveless "bad" kind at the park, isn't a bad example to bring up for a "things people want to control the free will of others to stop" discussion). You can (fairly) argue it wasn't executed well, but I don't think it was gratuitous; homosexuality is a subject a lot of people today would very much like to take away people's choices about. Sounding Harry out about it is a reasonable proxy for finding out his attitude towards an enemy that strips free will away from its victims.
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Jan 18, 2015 09:41
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If the focus had been on casual sex then fine, but it wasn't. Homosexuality itself is not a matter of free will and Harry's argument was framed very poorly, as if gay people have something to apologise for in the first place but he tolerates it because he is such a great guy.
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Jan 18, 2015 13:51
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OptimusWang posted:I guess there's an extra chapter that only a uk bookstore got that wraps things up a little better? I agree though, it definitely feels unfinished. It doesn't wrap things up its just a short story about a thing that happens on their way back to London.
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Jan 18, 2015 14:19
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Found a pretty strong urban fantasy debut, David B. Coe's Spell Blind, where people who inherit the ability to use magic succumb to a sort of creeping madness, the strength of their magic waxes and wanes with the moon, and for the 3 nights when the moon is full enough they go completely insane. Obviously, having monthly psychotic breaks is not good for your mental health, so most magicians who don't completely surpress their magic entirely 24/7 with certain drugs, which is apparently the norm for the vast majority of them, usually end up going permanently insane by their late 40s. Anyway, the main character was a cop for many years, secretly using magic to help his investigations despite the risks, but eventually his increasingly powerful monthly episodes became too difficult to conceal and he was fired for what everyone had assumed to be drug or alcohol abuse, so he took the stereotypical route and became a private investigator. He ends up getting pulled in by his old partner, who was the only one who he ever told about the whole 'magic' thing, to an old serial killing case he worked on when he was a cop, a guy who burns out his victims eyes, and had left traces of magic on all of his victims corpses, and who was never caught and continues to kill every month, and ended up killing the daughter of a powerful politician. It's sort of interesting how he dealt with the whole 'magic is a secret' thing. Instead of it being a true secret, most people are aware, vaguely that it exists, but very few people actually admit to having it, because it's inexoriably tied to the stigma of serious mental illness, and because most magic isn't exactly flashy or even visible, a lot of the people who do admit it are brushed off as a loon who thinks he has magic powers. Also, the main character isn't a massive goon like Dresden, which is a nice plus. I don't think he ogles a woman in the entire book. Wolpertinger fucked around with this message at 21:11 on Jan 18, 2015 |
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Jan 18, 2015 21:01
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Wolpertinger posted:Found a pretty strong urban fantasy debut, David B. Coe's Spell Blind, where people who inherit the ability to use magic succumb to a sort of creeping madness, the strength of their magic waxes and wanes with the moon, and for the 3 nights when the moon is full enough they go completely insane. Obviously, having monthly psychotic breaks is not good for your mental health, so most magicians who don't completely surpress their magic entirely 24/7 with certain drugs, which is apparently the norm for the vast majority of them, usually end up going permanently insane by their late 40s.
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Jan 18, 2015 21:25
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Yeah that totally isn't something I've seen before, no sir, no way.
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Jan 18, 2015 21:45
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Mars4523 posted:I'm just going off of a blog post by the author here, but is it just a coincidence that Justis (which is a dumb name) is a private investigator who is brought in by a female police detective with whom he is familiar with to investigate crimes involving magic, begins a relationship with a beautiful reporter, and also has a spirit that provides him with information? All of those people have such a completely different personality and relationship and role in the plot that it doesn't really resemble Storm Front when you've actually read it, without going into extremely broad strokes like that. For one, the female police detective and him are best friends and in fact former partners on the police force, with no stupid secrets kept between them causing drama (he shares 100% of what's going on with her throughout the entire book), and no romance involved between them. She's also considerably more competent, reasonable, and important to the plot than Murphy ever was in the early Dresden books. It's definitely in the Dresden files vein of noir-ish urban fantasy (which is why I posted it here) but I've read way more derivative UF than this. (The first Alex Verus, for one) Wolpertinger fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Jan 18, 2015 |
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Jan 18, 2015 22:06
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Wolpertinger posted:Found a pretty strong urban fantasy debut, David B. Coe's Spell Blind, where people who inherit the ability to use magic succumb to a sort of creeping madness, the strength of their magic waxes and wanes with the moon, and for the 3 nights when the moon is full enough they go completely insane. Obviously, having monthly psychotic breaks is not good for your mental health, so most magicians who don't completely surpress their magic entirely 24/7 with certain drugs, which is apparently the norm for the vast majority of them, usually end up going permanently insane by their late 40s. Reminds me a lot of the Magic or Madness urban fantasy trilogy by Justine Larbalestier. If you are born with magic, you either use it regularly and die by the time you're in your 30s, or you refrain from using it and go batshit insane.
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Jan 19, 2015 01:18
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Dienes posted:Reminds me a lot of the Magic or Madness urban fantasy trilogy by Justine Larbalestier. If you are born with magic, you either use it regularly and die by the time you're in your 30s, or you refrain from using it and go batshit insane. I think I read that a few years ago. Don't remember much about it, though.
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Jan 19, 2015 01:55
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Are Coe's other series good? I've checked him out on goodreads and all 3 of them (Tobyn, Forelands and the third one) sound like generic fantasy.
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Jan 19, 2015 02:35
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Dienes posted:Reminds me a lot of the Magic or Madness urban fantasy trilogy by Justine Larbalestier. If you are born with magic, you either use it regularly and die by the time you're in your 30s, or you refrain from using it and go batshit insane.
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Jan 19, 2015 02:58
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Barbe Rouge posted:Are Coe's other series good? I've checked him out on goodreads and all 3 of them (Tobyn, Forelands and the third one) sound like generic fantasy. I think I tried the Lon Tobyn and the Blood of the Southlands series ages ago, and Lon Tobyn was boring and bog standard as it sounds, but I think I recall liking Blood of the Southlands. It was quite some time ago, and I don't remember it being anything spectacular, but it was pretty good. I never got around to reading Forelands.
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Jan 19, 2015 04:40
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Wolpertinger posted:I know that he was pushing the whole idea of freedom of speech and all that for writing, but libriomancers are scary, and the idea that anyone could pull a nuclear bomb, or a super-virus from the worst sci-fi hell, or god knows what else out of a book makes me sort of sympathize with the whole reactionary backlash from governments proposing restrictions on what sort of horrible doomsday weapon you write into your fiction. Honestly, it'd kind of suck - every time anyone writes a book they have to consider that they could be creating the next nuclear bomb if their book becomes a bestseller. You only need someone pulling out a Von Neumann machine/Grey Goo and the universe is hosed. Yeah, Gutenberg/Isaac? locking your D&D books might be annoying, but some poo poo has to be controlled/restricted.
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Jan 19, 2015 07:45
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Wolpertinger posted:I just finished Unbound, and I liked it a lot. I admit, though, even though it was a really good read, that the biggest thing it did was actually get me really interested in what's going to happen in Book 4. The fallout and consequences of the book are practically more interesting than the book itself, it's a shame it ended so quickly instead of having more time to wrap up. I admit, I never actually suspected the series would go in that direction, and I hope that book 4 focuses fully on the fallout of magic being revealed to the world, and definitely goes into what happens in regards to that letter from his brother, instead of pulling out some new monster or focusing on the Ghost Army. I agree with pretty much all of this. Also, the more I think about it, the more I realize just how deftly this book handles many of the major complaints about the series. Primarily that Libriomancers are overpowered as gently caress. People--this thread included--spent quite a bit of time bitching about how Isaac could have just used this thing or that to solve his issues. The locked book thing never felt like the end solution--even with the increased power and role of the Porters in publishing, there's always going to be some item or combination of items that could do...anything. Something's going to slip through the cracks. No one can run all the permutations of every combination of fictional items in every book ever written to check for unintentional synergies. So yeah. The power of a Libriomancer is literally off the charts. All it takes is a little creativity. This book doesn't just negate that concern. It acknowledges it and turns it into a major plot point of the series, one that is undoubtedly going to drive the narrative for some time. The weakness becomes a strength--that's good writing. Unbound is seriously good stuff. I read all three of the big UF books that came out earlier this month, and Unbound is easily my favorite of the three. Foxglove Summer was good! Firefight was fun! But Unbound was good, fun, and intriguing.
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Jan 19, 2015 08:36
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Well, there is the fact that it requires a Libriomancer's personal pool of magic to pull something through, and the more powerful the object the bigger the drain is on the Libriomancer. Some things, lock or not, literally cannot be pulled out of the pages without destroying the person attempting it. Isaac suffers a few injuries throughout the series by pushing the boundaries of what can be pulled through, too (though he cheats and uses some "heal all injuries" items to fix the damage later). Except in this last book Isaac suffers through the consequences of some of his bigger grabs. Burned eyes and whatnot.
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Jan 19, 2015 12:57
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That, and the fact that all the stuff a Libriomancer pulls out actually produces its intended effect via magic spells. You can't pull out a tricorder and use it to reverse engineer Federation tech, because its just an inert replica if you strip away the magic. Which means every threat is susceptible to a sufficiently powerful 'rod of dispelling', or whatever techniques for manipulating spells are available to Gutenberg and the other non-libriomantic mages.
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Jan 19, 2015 18:09
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Mygna posted:That, and the fact that all the stuff a Libriomancer pulls out actually produces its intended effect via magic spells. You can't pull out a tricorder and use it to reverse engineer Federation tech, because its just an inert replica if you strip away the magic. Which means every threat is susceptible to a sufficiently powerful 'rod of dispelling', or whatever techniques for manipulating spells are available to Gutenberg and the other non-libriomantic mages. Which is something Ponce De Leon uses to pretty great effect, as a more traditional sorcerer/magician in the Libriomancer world.
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Jan 19, 2015 18:38
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Mygna posted:That, and the fact that all the stuff a Libriomancer pulls out actually produces its intended effect via magic spells. You can't pull out a tricorder and use it to reverse engineer Federation tech, because its just an inert replica if you strip away the magic. Which means every threat is susceptible to a sufficiently powerful 'rod of dispelling', or whatever techniques for manipulating spells are available to Gutenberg and the other non-libriomantic mages. It seems like stuff like grey goo and superviruses wouldn't be too difficult to bring through, however - it's the fact that they make more of themselves once they exist that makes them dangerous. Pretty much like the whole vampire virus business, or Lena's acorn. The whole cost of libriomancy seems to be spent on pulling out the initial item, and items that grow or replicate or change seem to be a bit of a loophole.
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Jan 19, 2015 18:39
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Yes, and the end of Unbound also shows how you can mix and match items to get a greater effect from the lot than any of them individually.
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Jan 19, 2015 19:15
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Cicero posted:Also a similar idea in Brent Weeks' Lightbringer series. If it's anywhere as good as the Lightbringer series, I may have to check it out.
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Jan 22, 2015 02:12
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The Charles de Lint collection is available for free. I haven't heard of him, but according to the article, he's one of the best Urban Fantasy writers out there. What's the Goonsensus?
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Jan 24, 2015 17:29
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Benny the Snake posted:The Charles de Lint collection is available for free. I haven't heard of him, but according to the article, he's one of the best Urban Fantasy writers out there. What's the Goonsensus? He's considered a classic. I don't know what's in the collection so I can't comment specifically but he has written -alot- of stuff, some of which was good, and some of which was well written but I didn't want to read, if that makes sense?
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Jan 24, 2015 18:00
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Benny the Snake posted:The Charles de Lint collection is available for free. I haven't heard of him, but according to the article, he's one of the best Urban Fantasy writers out there. What's the Goonsensus? He's not exactly urban fantasy in the Butcher sense, but more in the Gaiman sense.
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Jan 24, 2015 18:07
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Yeah, everything I've read of De Lint's has been fantastic, but don't go in expecting pulp detective novels with magic thrown in.
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Jan 24, 2015 18:11
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Megazver posted:He's not exactly urban fantasy in the Butcher sense, but more in the Gaiman sense.  drat it, I'm allready reading The Rook and I have Whispers Underground next. My reading list is getting bigger and bigger.
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Jan 24, 2015 18:29
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Benny the Snake posted:The Charles de Lint collection is available for free. I haven't heard of him, but according to the article, he's one of the best Urban Fantasy writers out there. What's the Goonsensus? Niice. I've been meaning to get around to de Lint for years. Thanks!
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Jan 24, 2015 18:39
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Niice. I've been meaning to get around to de Lint for years. Thanks!  I intend to get a hold of a physical copy, myself. It's not really mine unless I can actually feel the pages in my hands.
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Jan 24, 2015 18:45
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De Lint lives in my city and is a good guy. His earlier stuff is actually set in Ottawa, which I thought was really neat.
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Jan 25, 2015 15:44
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platero posted:If it's anywhere as good as the Lightbringer series, I may have to check it out. I read the Night Angel series and was disappointed by the end. The first book I liked but the ending fell flat and the following two books never recovered. Is Lightbringer better?
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Jan 25, 2015 17:15
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I didn't like the first two , but I picked up Unbound because you fuckers wont stop raving about it. The cover is loving terrible though, even by Urban Fantasy standards.
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Jan 26, 2015 01:40
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Judging a book by its coverGhetto Prince posted:I didn't like the first two , but I picked up Unbound because you fuckers wont stop raving about it. Never judge a book by its cover, unless it's got a zombie dinosaur like the one in the first post.
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Jan 26, 2015 01:57
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I just realised something about rivers of london. Spoilers for most recent book: the folly has a fairy godmother
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Jan 26, 2015 07:20
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AllTerrineVehicle posted:I just realised something about rivers of london. Spoilers for most recent book: the folly has a fairy godmother A right terrifying one, at that.
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Jan 26, 2015 07:40
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So it's nerdy as hell, but I just used the tail end of a Dresden Fan Filming shoot to propose to my girlfriend. Got a chance to participate in some "let's hold back Dresden from killing Jim" pictures, too. Soon as I have permission from the photographer I'll share the pictures and video.
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Jan 26, 2015 09:40
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Does anyone know when Unbound is getting an international release for kindle? I tried messing with various country's Amazon sites and the only one that has it is the USA. loving region locks.
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Jan 26, 2015 13:21
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Korgan posted:Does anyone know when Unbound is getting an international release for kindle? I tried messing with various country's Amazon sites and the only one that has it is the USA. loving region locks. The only site I can't find it on is the Australian one, actually. It's available in the US, UK, Canada and continental Europe, at the least.
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Jan 26, 2015 14:02
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Mygna posted:The only site I can't find it on is the Australian one, actually. It's available in the US, UK, Canada and continental Europe, at the least. Oh good, that must have changed in the last few days then. I'm Aussie, hopefully that means it'll be released here shortly. I don't want to go changing my address to a US one and buying it from the US after hearing about some people losing all their kindle books.
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Jan 26, 2015 15:42
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Still not available in the UK, far as I can tell. If there is some sneaky Amazon link that lets you buy it, please do point it out.
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Jan 26, 2015 21:28
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