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Benny the Snake posted:I prefer print books to e-books and I'd much rather buy from another retailer than Amazon, personally. What's wrong with Amazon? They frequently have the best prices, especially on hardbacks. Then again, I'm spoiled by having Prime. Getting things in 2 days with no additional shipping costs is amazing.
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Feb 9, 2015 21:15
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Okay, so I've started Rivers of London, but I have a lot going on that's keeping me busy at the moment so I've only been able to read it in fits and starts; might have to start it fresh when I have more time after the weekend. All that being said, I've enjoyed it a lot so far, and I'll tell you one thing I've appreciated about it in particular; there's very little bullshitting around, especially on the, "Magic? Preposterous! I'm going to spend the entire book convinced you're having me on, slowly come around in the third act, then spend the rest of the series keeping it secret from my friends and family!" front that you sometimes see. It's refreshing.
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Feb 9, 2015 23:42
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jivjov posted:What's wrong with Amazon? They frequently have the best prices, especially on hardbacks. I can't speak for Benny, but I ceased buying books from Amazon because I got tired of returning the same book two or more times, trying to get a copy that wasn't beat to poo poo. And I'm not talking about books I bought from some schmuck on the Marketplace, I'm talking about new releases sold by Amazon. Once you factor in the cost of my time spent having to pack and ship books back to them, it's cheaper for me to go to Books a Million, join their club thingy for $25, and just buy all my books there. This probably means I'll stop renewing my Prime membership, too...
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Feb 10, 2015 00:29
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:As a dissenting voice, I couldn't even make it through 20% of the first book, everything felt really disjointed, the main character's 'voice' was irritating and the writing as a whole sounded incredibly amateur. I'm kind of the minority in the thread though. The first book wasn't amazing or anything but I feel like the series as a whole is enjoyable enough to be worth giving it a book or two. After all, this is the Dresden Files thread, which nearly nobody would read entirely off of the quality of the first book, and I liked Long Way Down more than Storm Front.
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Feb 10, 2015 00:34
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Ornamented Death posted:I can't speak for Benny, but I ceased buying books from Amazon because I got tired of returning the same book two or more times, trying to get a copy that wasn't beat to poo poo. And I'm not talking about books I bought from some schmuck on the Marketplace, I'm talking about new releases sold by Amazon. Once you factor in the cost of my time spent having to pack and ship books back to them, it's cheaper for me to go to Books a Million, join their club thingy for $25, and just buy all my books there. Weird; I have never had any major shipping damage from Amazon. Hardcover dust jackets occasionally have bent corners, but that's the exception rather than the rule. It's probably the delivery people manhandling your stuff rather than anything Amazon themselves are doing.
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Feb 10, 2015 00:40
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jivjov posted:Weird; I have never had any major shipping damage from Amazon. Hardcover dust jackets occasionally have bent corners, but that's the exception rather than the rule. It's probably the delivery people manhandling your stuff rather than anything Amazon themselves are doing. It's really not. Amazon puts books in boxes that are 50% or more too big and includes absolutely no kind of padding material to keep thing things from sliding around. The best was when I requested a replacement because the dust jacket was torn up and they sent me a copy with no dust jacket.
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Feb 10, 2015 00:45
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Weird, over here they send single books in cardboard envelope like things and multiple books include wadded up paper as padding. I still try to avoid them because I prefer buying from companies that pay taxes in my country.
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Feb 10, 2015 00:57
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Wolpertinger posted:The first book wasn't amazing or anything but I feel like the series as a whole is enjoyable enough to be worth giving it a book or two. After all, this is the Dresden Files thread, which nearly nobody would read entirely off of the quality of the first book, and I liked Long Way Down more than Storm Front.
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Feb 10, 2015 01:21
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Fried Chicken posted:Smart I had figured that there was someone in the higher echelons who was a true believer but your theory is on point. I'm interested in seeing where Butcher takes it.
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Feb 10, 2015 01:31
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Ika posted:Weird, over here they send single books in cardboard envelope like things and multiple books include wadded up paper as padding. I still try to avoid them because I prefer buying from companies that pay taxes in my country. They use those sometimes, too, but again the guys in Kentucky don't bother to make sure the book fits properly in the box so it gets beat up during transport. It floors me that I can order something from the Book Depository, which is wholly owned by Amazon, have it cross the Atlantic Ocean, and arrive in my hands is perfect condition, but the domestic Amazon operation can't get something from Kentucky to South Carolina without it suffering all kinds of damage.
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Feb 10, 2015 01:50
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Metal Loaf posted:Okay, so I've started Rivers of London, but I have a lot going on that's keeping me busy at the moment so I've only been able to read it in fits and starts; might have to start it fresh when I have more time after the weekend. The important part to remember about rivers of London is whenever he eats a fry up this is what he's eating. 
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Feb 10, 2015 01:51
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Ornamented Death posted:It's really not. Amazon puts books in boxes that are 50% or more too big and includes absolutely no kind of padding material to keep thing things from sliding around. Every book I've ordered from Amazon has come in either one of those pull-tab cardboard mailers, or in a box with a handful of those air-pack packing material thing. I dunno what to tell you, but what you're describing and what I've experienced are completely opposite.
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Feb 10, 2015 02:06
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jivjov posted:Every book I've ordered from Amazon has come in either one of those pull-tab cardboard mailers, or in a box with a handful of those air-pack packing material thing. I dunno what to tell you, but what you're describing and what I've experienced are completely opposite. Ok? I wasn't trying to cast doubt on your own experiences, I was simply sharing mine. I'm sure Amazon will not miss the few hundred dollars a year I typically spend on mass-market books, just like they don't need you in here white-knighting for their shipping department.
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Feb 10, 2015 02:15
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Mars4523 posted:And the first 20% of Storm Front was not great, to say the least. Yeah that's true, maybe I'll give it another shot at some point. Is there a 'Zombie Dinosaur' moment for the Faust series that marks when the good bits begin?
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Feb 10, 2015 02:25
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Ornamented Death posted:Ok? I wasn't trying to cast doubt on your own experiences, I was simply sharing mine. I'm sure Amazon will not miss the few hundred dollars a year I typically spend on mass-market books, just like they don't need you in here white-knighting for their shipping department. Hey man, there's no need to get all hostile on me.You represented your situation as absolute Amazon policy. Ornamented Death posted:Amazon puts books in boxes that are 50% or more too big and includes absolutely no kind of padding material to keep thing things from sliding around. Which I am pointing out is not the case at all.
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Feb 10, 2015 02:28
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Ornamented Death posted:Kentucky. Found your problem. I'm surprised SC doesn't have its own distro somewhere.
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Feb 10, 2015 02:29
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Virigoth posted:Found your problem. I'm surprised SC doesn't have its own distro somewhere. Apparently there are three of them in SC (Spartanburg, Columbia, and Charleston), but most everything I buy comes from Kentucky. Weird. jivjov posted:Hey man, there's no need to get all hostile on me.You represented your situation as absolute Amazon policy. I can't believe I need to say this, but obviously I did not mean this is how Amazon operates 100% of the time. I was specifically talking about my own experiences as the question was "why would someone not use Amazon?" and I gave my reason why. Read between the lines before jumping in to defend your corporate overlords  .
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Feb 10, 2015 02:39
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The last book in the series I read was Grave Peril. Honestly, I hated it. To me it came across as extremely misogynistic and creepy in its depiction of women (even more so than the previous 2 books, if that was even possible) and to me the ending felt very rushed and sloppily executed. It unfortunately really soured me on the series, even though I have 3 more waiting on my kindle, I'm not sure how much I want to read on. Did anyone else feel the same way?
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Feb 10, 2015 02:50
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Your compliant is not without merit. Most of us believe it's a deliberate character flaw in the titular character. Some believe it's the author's own voice. Pretty much everyone agrees it gets better, but never completely goes away. We have this discussion every ten pages or so. Just don't be a jerk about it. We're good people.
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Feb 10, 2015 02:57
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electricsugar posted:The last book in the series I read was Grave Peril. Grave peril is the book that puts nearly every piece in place for a good portion of the series. The misogyny is more a Dresden character thing than a Jim Butcher thing but it does reach pinnacle awkwardness in book 6. I'd say stick with it for another book. If you don't like Summer Knight then the series probably isn't for you. As for Grave Peril being off putting, Butcher becomes a better writer as time goes on and a good portion of the white knight syndrome that Harry has starts to dissappear around book 8-9. The opening doors for Murphy stops pretty quickly too.
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Feb 10, 2015 03:01
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I certainly can't say it goes away. Almost everything Dresden involving the White Court is just kinda awful. The only positive thing I can say is that it does get better when the White Court isn't involved.
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Feb 10, 2015 03:03
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Rygar201 posted:I had figured that there was someone in the higher echelons who was a true believer but your theory is on point. I'm interested in seeing where Butcher takes it. At this point I rather suspect there is no "Circle" per se, just Nemesis-infected people and a lot of recruited dupes. Assuming Dresden's correct about the role of Nemesis being just pure saboteur to get the gates open for the rest of the Outsiders, then there's no reason there has to be some clever "change the wizard world to our way of thinking" plan going on at higher levels. Nemesis is just finding whatever levers it can among people who are dissatisfied with the status quo and pulling every single one it can. It's not like the Outsiders would especially care who won in a Red Court/White Council war or the current Fomori conflicts, all they want is the enemies most likely to oppose them divided and weakened by other conflicts. Spread stories about changing the rules or getting things back to the golden days when their kind ruled the world to people and send them off to wreck things; Nemesis doesn't really CARE which side wins since even its current pawns will be in the way of any invasion eventually. There doesn't have to be any clever plan to exploit chaos being run by people in the background when the chaos itself is the goal. "Nemesis" by its very name mean "arch-enemy", so it's likely the Big Bad of the series after all.
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Feb 10, 2015 03:04
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why oh WHY posted:The opening doors for Murphy stops pretty quickly too. To be fair, Harry only does that to Murphy because he knows it pisses her off, not because she's some delicate flower who can't open her own door.
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Feb 10, 2015 03:06
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:Yeah that's true, maybe I'll give it another shot at some point. Is there a 'Zombie Dinosaur' moment for the Faust series that marks when the good bits begin? ConfusedUs posted:Your compliant is not without merit. That said, I'd check out book 4. Not only does Murphy get to do more, we also meet Elaine, who's pretty cool. ImpAtom posted:I certainly can't say it goes away. Almost everything Dresden involving the White Court is just kinda awful. The only positive thing I can say is that it does get better when the White Court isn't involved. By the way I'm 90% sure that the Black Council/Nemesis thing is a retcon. Mars4523 fucked around with this message at 03:26 on Feb 10, 2015 |
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Feb 10, 2015 03:18
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Mars4523 posted:nly does Murphy get to do more, we also meet Elaine, who's pretty cool. Do you have a title of one of the books? Googling "The Faust Series" just gives me every adaptation ever. 
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Feb 10, 2015 03:29
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SystemLogoff posted:Do you have a title of one of the books? Googling "The Faust Series" just gives me every adaptation ever.
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Feb 10, 2015 03:49
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:Yeah that's true, maybe I'll give it another shot at some point. Is there a 'Zombie Dinosaur' moment for the Faust series that marks when the good bits begin? I feel like there isn't a sudden obvious moment when it's suddenly considerably better, it's more of a noticeable improvement with each book. It's very possible that the end of book 4 is the point when the series starts majorly ramping up, as it has a rather surprising plot twist/cliffhanger, but there's no way of knowing until the next book how much things will change. He's been a fast writer so far (I think the first book was released in mid 2014) so I'm hoping book 5 will be out soon.
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Feb 10, 2015 05:00
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ConfusedUs posted:We're good people. Speak for yourself, I'm Chitinous. 
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Feb 10, 2015 06:25
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Error 404 posted:Speak for yourself, I'm Chitinous. Don't start, or it will last for a subjective eternity...
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Feb 10, 2015 06:32
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A chitinous susurrus of good people was the title of the first dresden thread.
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Feb 10, 2015 06:41
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MadDogMike posted:At this point I rather suspect there is no "Circle" per se, just Nemesis-infected people and a lot of recruited dupes. Assuming Dresden's correct about the role of Nemesis being just pure saboteur to get the gates open for the rest of the Outsiders, then there's no reason there has to be some clever "change the wizard world to our way of thinking" plan going on at higher levels. Nemesis is just finding whatever levers it can among people who are dissatisfied with the status quo and pulling every single one it can. It's not like the Outsiders would especially care who won in a Red Court/White Council war or the current Fomori conflicts, all they want is the enemies most likely to oppose them divided and weakened by other conflicts. Spread stories about changing the rules or getting things back to the golden days when their kind ruled the world to people and send them off to wreck things; Nemesis doesn't really CARE which side wins since even its current pawns will be in the way of any invasion eventually. There doesn't have to be any clever plan to exploit chaos being run by people in the background when the chaos itself is the goal. "Nemesis" by its very name mean "arch-enemy", so it's likely the Big Bad of the series after all. Well a few points First, there does appear to be a formal structure to the Circle greater than " all puppets of the same entity". They have defined contact protocols, a definite hierarchy, they run black market funding operations (which in turn necessitates a way to "launder" the funds to get resources), they infiltrate organizations through mundane ways of bribery, threats, and blackmail rather than just infection, and they have their own symbols. You don't need all that to get your hand to do something, but you do as a way to coordinate a bunch of individuals with their own agenda. Second the "Magic Unchained" philosophy is Harry's read of their symbols in Small Favor. An underlying common ideology would explain so many disparate groups linking up, such as the fomor and the ghouls. Nemesis may be pulling at any lever it can, but it needs something to get the levers in place first, and an organization with an underlying philosophy that aligns with the goal of "free the outsiders" works for that. Third they do need a way to get mortals on board with breaking the rules in a major way. Per Proven Guilty only mortal magic can call forth outsiders. Three b (since this is a weak point) the circle operates with a great deal of modern sophistication. Not to say that Nemesis couldn't understand international finance, supernatural politics, and best practices for an intelligence organization, but between being locked away for timeless aeons and "old monsters don't adapt well", and parsimony I find it suggestive that the Circle is highly independent of Nemesis just because they'd know this stuff. Yeah Nemesis would gain access to their memories and understanding but even then it would need some context. Like I said, this is a weak one, bit I'm skeptical given the themes and rest of the evidence. Fourth we get into the problem of it being Nemesis running the show and a few dupes instead of a whole organization being rolled by either a small number of infections or their tools playing them, namely the use of outsiders. Basically, if Papa Wraith or the like were infected, why would they need to call forth other outsiders instead of using their power? The fact that they are using rituals to call forth outsiders is further suggestive - if it is so easy to infect someone and then start summoning like with Wraith, why play all subtle to throw the gates open instead of infect and start summoning, and let exponential growth do its thing? Basically Nemesis needs to be really limited, or this conflict should have ended 20 years ago. To rephrase since I'm rather sleep deprived now, if Nemesis could easily spread and then summon it would have won. We know it's agents can summon, ergo the difficultly must be in spreading. This implies Nemesis is much more limited compared to any pro outsider organization - between it not being mortal and the logic of exponential growth the infected are very unlikely to be able to call up outsiders themselves, and that's a MO of the Circle so it wouldn't be a significant part of it. Fifth I agree that Nemesis has no reason to care who wins because the fight and weakening is its goal. I've made the argument that the first 12 books at least can be read as a win win situation for the sabotaging party. The thing is that also applies to the entities we know are part of the hostile organization, like the fomor and lesser vamps - it doesn't matter who wins so long as both sides are weaker for their return or coup. I think this all points to a tightly run organization doing most of the wetwork. If Nemesis were operating on a large scale like we know the Circle is and able to summon outsiders directly like we see circle members do, it begs the question why it needs to open the gates instead of just summoning itself. This suggests the organization largely isn't Nemesis infected. This begs the question "what's in it for them?" Since "Free the outsiders" as an explicit goal is unlikely to rally anyone that isn't suicidal, but "cast off your shackles and defy the laws of magic" is a good rallying cry that implicitly includes "free the outsiders" in it. Particularly when the casting off of said shackles weakens the defenses against outsiders and often involves summoning them into the world to do so. Like I said, I basically think you have a group that rabidly wants power (the Circle) and started grabbing anything they could. Which included using Outsiders. Except the Outsiders, rather than being mindless gibbering horrors from beyond space time, have their own agenda of devouring the souls of the living and unmaking reality. Nemesis got in either because they thought it would be really useful and didn't realize it had its own agenda, or because it snuck its way into getting called up because it has an agenda. Now an unknown nu!Ber of entities within and without the Circle are infected, but the rest of the Circle keeps calling up outsiders without realizing how badly this will go for them. Basically the rear end in a top hat cavemen got run out of the tribe, started throwing rocks to get revenge, and haven't clued in that some of what they picked up were hunks of plutonium. And it is about to go really bad for everyone when the hot rocks go boom
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Feb 10, 2015 07:09
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Just finished "A Plain Dealing Villain". I got way too much enjoyment out of Harmony trolling the gently caress out of Daniel earlier in the book. Also the jury's still out whether or not Caitlin is manipulating Daniel to ensure his commitment to her.
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Feb 10, 2015 20:37
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Onean posted:How so, if you don't mind explaining? From the very loving start: She's from a ancient monster-fighting dynasty, but works as a waitress because Okay, fine, this is just what makes it cliche girly UF bullshit. You might actually enjoy cliche girly UF bullshit. I occasionally enjoy cliche bullshit aimed at my demographic. Now here's why these books are a piece of poo poo: So the first chapter is about her hunting this serial killer ghoul, yeah? He's killed and eaten fifteen girls so far, no biggie. The police evidently haven't heard about this yet, because no one cares about fifteen white girls rich enough to go clubbing disappearing in a short period of time, but she's onto it through her... waitress network? Okay, moving on. So she's staking him out by, y'know, going to random clubs night after night with her vamp bestie, staring at random dudes and hoping he'll be her cannibal serial killer. Frankly, I am surprised the death count is at mere fifteen victims. I wonder how long that list was when she embarked on her club offensive. So anyway, she first tries the hot and mysterious guy who's hot and mysterious AND SPARKS FLY BUT THINGS ARE COMPLICATED but he's not it, but then she does notice a guy leaving with a girl and that's some ghoul poo poo right there, yo. So yeah, she follows them, saves the girl, beats up the ghoul with, sigh, ballet batman skills... then tells him to leave town and he, a ghoul, ever eats someone again she'll totally hunt him down and put him down. As long as he does it in the city she lives in (airfare is tough on a waitress paycheck, okay?) and just goes to the clubs for the victims again. Ten, fifteen victims more tops and she'll end this motherfucker. Because she's Whatsherface Ballet-Batman, Protector of This City and Monsterkind, Which Is Misunderstood, As Demonstrated By This Chapter. *strikes heroic pose* That's just the first chapter's worth of bullshit. The author of this book has been been nominated for the last four Best Novel Hugos in a row. poo poo, Larry Correia is twat, but the circlejerk that Hugos have turned to almost makes me wish his troll vote brigading works. PS The mice were alright, I guess.
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Feb 10, 2015 21:31
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The books get better, and the new book is following her brother. I really enjoy that the character's arc is wrapped up and we move on to someone new. Helps things not power-explode, and bloat.
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Feb 10, 2015 21:39
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Eh, I'm good.
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Feb 10, 2015 21:42
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Megazver posted:From the very loving start: She's from a ancient monster-fighting dynasty, but works as a waitress because ... Wow, this sounds absolutely terrible  but it appears that you're posting in the wrong thread.
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Feb 10, 2015 22:35
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Blasphemeral posted:Wow, this sounds absolutely terrible Oh dear. I've left poor Onean hanging.  At least it's an excuse to post my effort post in more threads!
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Feb 10, 2015 22:42
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Blasphemeral posted:Wow, this sounds absolutely terrible Its the urban fantasy thread? Hes posting about urban fantasy. I don't see the problem here
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Feb 10, 2015 23:34
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Exmond posted:Its the urban fantasy thread? Hes posting about urban fantasy. I don't see the problem here I was answering a question a guy asked in a different thread, though. (I write long posts in Notepad.) I appreciate Blasphemeral for pointing it out!
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Feb 10, 2015 23:36
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September 29th for The Aeronaut's Windlass.
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