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Anias posted:October Daye by Seanan McGuire. The series picks up at An Artificial Night, so if you're the type to make a snap judgement you might want to start there. I like October Daye books. Lot less action then dresden files but its still good. Its like the dresden files, you have to read 2 novels to really get a feel. Edit: The nightside books are uhh.. okay? The first novel is not the greatest. The audiobook narrator is amazing though Exmond fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Apr 1, 2015 |
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Apr 1, 2015 15:55
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Benny the Snake posted:It's probably the wrong thread to ask but I'm curious about something. I get why iron is considered poisonous against fairies (nature/industry dichotomy going on). By that logic, shouldn't the undead be weak against salt since it's used not only as a perservative but also as a sacrament/purifying agent? Salt is portrayed as being effective against a lot of supernatural stuff in a few fantasy stories I've read; appropriately for the thread, I believe it nullifies Furies in Codex Alera, though it's been a while since I read that series. Remember Lot's wife.  Running water is another one. Vampires can't cross it in a lot of stories, and in Dresden it cancels magic (I recall one scene where Nicodemus keeps Harry from using his spells when he's captive by hanging him from a water pipe by his wrists).
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Apr 1, 2015 15:56
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Anias posted:The Chronicles of Elantra - This is fantasy police procedural. Still, it shares a fair bit of overlap with urban fantasy, as they both draw from the hardboiled/noir fiction genre. This is one of the most frustrating series I've ever read. The setting and characters are interesting, but the pacing is so glacial that it makes Wheel of Time look speedy. It's a pretty common fault with Sagara's writing, since it carries over into her other series (the Sun Sword, in particular). Some other fun rides in the UF genre: My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland. There's four books in the series, and it's a fun read. Dark Currents: Agent of Hel by Jacqueline Carey (of Kushiel's Dart fame). Trilogy, but better written than most and the heroine actually breaks up with one of the love interests. Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard. Not technically UF but related--magic, supernatural stuff (with a distinct Lovecraft tinge), and some alt-history along with very dry humor. Major fault of this one is Random House's prices are loving insane. There are some short stories and I think a novella with the character around if you want to get a taste before taking the $12 plunge. The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams is the first in an ongoing series. Ugh I read way too much UF.
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Apr 1, 2015 15:59
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Wheat Loaf posted:Salt is portrayed as being effective against a lot of supernatural stuff in a few fantasy stories I've read; appropriately for the thread, I believe it nullifies Furies in Codex Alera, though it's been a while since I read that series. It's a really big thing in Supernatural for the first few seasons (until they graduate to demons).
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Apr 1, 2015 16:09
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I haven't actually watched Supernatural. Seems like there's a lot of it to get into; I've seen SG-1, which had a similar number of seasons, but I saw it from start to finish after it was done. There seems to be no telling how long Supernatural might go on, from what I can see. I'm watching True Blood at the moment, and I thought I might try Lost Girl after that. Maybe I'll get round to Supernatural eventually.
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Apr 1, 2015 16:39
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Tolan posted:The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams is the first in an ongoing series. Has anyone here read the third Bobby Dollar book? How is it compared to the first two? I quite liked the first book, but thought the second one was boring, repetitive and had an unsatisfying ending. I don't mind torture scenes as such, but a book should have something other than torture scenes in it too...
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Apr 1, 2015 16:42
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Wheat Loaf posted:I haven't actually watched Supernatural. Seems like there's a lot of it to get into; I've seen SG-1, which had a similar number of seasons, but I saw it from start to finish after it was done. There seems to be no telling how long Supernatural might go on, from what I can see. I'm watching True Blood at the moment, and I thought I might try Lost Girl after that. Maybe I'll get round to Supernatural eventually. It finished after season 5
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Apr 1, 2015 17:09
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So I've heard.
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Apr 1, 2015 17:11
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Another vote for the Johannes Cabal books. I stumbled upon the second one more or less by accident, and had to get the rest of the series in short order.
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Apr 1, 2015 17:50
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Apoffys posted:Has anyone here read the third Bobby Dollar book? How is it compared to the first two? I quite liked the first book, but thought the second one was boring, repetitive and had an unsatisfying ending. I don't mind torture scenes as such, but a book should have something other than torture scenes in it too... It's better than the second one but not as good as the first. It's also the last in the series so I dunno, you could ride it out. I really hated the second one, I guess I could see what he was going for but it wasn't enjoyable to read at all.
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Apr 1, 2015 18:21
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Tolan posted:This is one of the most frustrating series I've ever read. The setting and characters are interesting, but the pacing is so glacial that it makes Wheel of Time look speedy. It's a pretty common fault with Sagara's writing, since it carries over into her other series (the Sun Sword, in particular). The pacing inside book is comparable to dresden. Each book is it's own case, with repercussions, and the pacing within them varies but I never thought it was slow. If this is what you're talking about I disagree. If you're talking about the metaplot, remember she's not skipping ahead years in between books the way butcher is with dresden. Still: At the start of the series she's a private on report, at the current break in the series (book 10) she's an acknowledged If you're talking about character birthdays, or bureaucratic promotions, those are on timescales that fit the dresden model better. I think they're worth reading but I like a lot of michelle's stuff.
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Apr 1, 2015 19:06
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Anias posted:If you're talking about the metaplot, remember she's not skipping ahead years in between books the way butcher is with dresden. How much time has the Dresden series covered so far? I fairly sure I remember that in one of the later books Harry mentions that he's known Billy and his pack for about 10 years or so, so quite a long time. How old are all the characters meant to be?
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Apr 1, 2015 20:00
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Wheat Loaf posted:How much time has the Dresden series covered so far? I fairly sure I remember that in one of the later books Harry mentions that he's known Billy and his pack for about 10 years or so, so quite a long time. How old are all the characters meant to be? The events in the books are each about a year apart. The earlier ones were slightly closer together than the later ones. Basically, slightly less time than they actually take to be published.
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Apr 1, 2015 20:09
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Huh. I thought the more recent ones (those published since Changes) all happened closer together than those preceding it. Does this mean that, if all goes according to Butcher's plan, the entire series will cover about 20 years?
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Apr 1, 2015 20:15
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Anias posted:The pacing inside book is comparable to dresden. Each book is it's own case, with repercussions, and the pacing within them varies but I never thought it was slow. If this is what you're talking about I disagree. I like the way that she writes, and I like the worldbuilding, I just feel that the pacing of the metaplot is very slow. Yes, within each book something happens and is resolved (generally; I think there's a pair later in the series that was originally one book but split due to length), but overarching things--like the romance(s), and the Big Bad--seem to get shelved for books before coming back and generally not making much progress when they do. If the view is that the metaplot is the personal growth of the heroine, then yeah, it's a bit more conventionally paced, but in terms of Big Things Happening, it's slow slow slow. There's what, like three? four? major plot events in 10 books and maybe one of them has had any impact on anything outside of the protagonist. I think the pacing on the first couple was spot on, and then it just seemed to slow to a crawl. It's picked up a bit again in the latest one, but that's a good 6-7 books of slog. And it's a bit disingenous to say she's just a private at the start and much more as of the last book, since it's pretty clear from early on that she's a Special Snowflake and gets treated as such by drat near every other major character. So they're not bad books, per se, but they aren't going to advance things quickly, and that's something someone should know if they're going to commit to it. It's a 10 book series and she's nowhere close to resolving the problem brought up in book 1.
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Apr 1, 2015 20:39
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Scorchy posted:It's better than the second one but not as good as the first. It's also the last in the series so I dunno, you could ride it out. I really hated the second one, I guess I could see what he was going for but it wasn't enjoyable to read at all. Is it really the last one? If so, then I was really disappointed by the ending. Felt like there should've been at least one or two more books.
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Apr 1, 2015 22:04
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Oh I'm not denying the protagonist is special, but harry is a wizard. That's one of the central tropes. My comment was more about her situation, which in book 1 is 'rookie essentially on probation' and her timeline with her job is appropriate for the time period that's gone by since book 1. A lot of Big Things Happen, it's just that we don't see their repercussions sometimes because we don't have the benefit of 'a year passes, here's a summary chapter of what that means'.
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Apr 1, 2015 22:38
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Anias posted:Oh I'm not denying the protagonist is special, but harry is a wizard. That's one of the central tropes. My comment was more about her situation, which in book 1 is 'rookie essentially on probation' and her timeline with her job is appropriate for the time period that's gone by since book 1. Well, that's my point. If it's going to take 20 years for the repercussions to show up and we're doing ~10 books a year...
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Apr 2, 2015 00:12
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Tolan posted:Well, that's my point. If it's going to take 20 years for the repercussions to show up and we're doing ~10 books a year... Sure. I think you're selling the series short by implying that the metaplot is slow. It's mostly just Kaylin has had all this poo poo happen to her in less than a year and it takes longer than that for people to adjust to these things. If the spacing between cases was larger, it would be more natural for kaylin's internal identification to adjust, and for the various people around her to have convinced her she actually did deserve x y z reward. I think the slowness of some things to show up (promotions being the obvious one, self-understanding being the other) is more realistic given the timeline. We do see some repercussions, just not the 20 year adjusted view that dresden gets.
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Apr 2, 2015 01:03
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My "salt against undead" thought was just something running in my head. Maybe I'll use it. Something I never got was why running water is anti-magic or anti-uncanny (vampires can't cross it, etc). Someone please explain?
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Apr 2, 2015 07:09
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There's a couple theories for that. In a lot of cultures, running water symbolises mobility, passing on - exactly what undead don't want to do. Another one is simply based on survival: going through water makes predators lose your scent.
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Apr 2, 2015 07:21
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anilEhilated posted:There's a couple theories for that. In a lot of cultures, running water symbolises mobility, passing on - exactly what undead don't want to do. Another one is simply based on survival: going through water makes predators lose your scent.
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Apr 2, 2015 07:26
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anilEhilated posted:I tried to read one of those and couldn't even finish it. I mean, say what you will for Green, most of his books have either entertaining stupidity or a sufficient pace for you not to think about it. The one Deathstalker book I tried was just bloated; then again, I suppose audiobooks have to go through another layer of editing. Sometimes I got the feeling Deathstalker is his only series, but I may be biased because it's the first series of novels I liked so much I started reading them on English just because I couldn't wait for the last parts to come out. Then again, I'm a weirdo who liked the ending of the Dark Tower, so take this with a grain of salt.
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Apr 2, 2015 08:39
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Benny the Snake posted:Okay, so why anti-magic, then, or izzat solely Jimmy-boy's shtick? It's been a while, how did he justify it? I could be way off-base here, but I think the way it works in Dresden is that using magic involves harnessing the natural energy flowing around the user (this is why ley lines are important - there's a lot of energy flowing along them). I think running water saps that energy by taking it along with it. Again, I could be completely pulling this out of my rear end - it's probably explained in the RPG books.
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Apr 2, 2015 11:39
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MildShow posted:I could be way off-base here, but I think the way it works in Dresden is that using magic involves harnessing the natural energy flowing around the user (this is why ley lines are important - there's a lot of energy flowing along them). I think running water saps that energy by taking it along with it. Again, I could be completely pulling this out of my rear end - it's probably explained in the RPG books. I can't wait to see a water-magic specialist and Dresden's reaction.
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Apr 2, 2015 15:26
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Has anyone read Christopher Farnsworth's "Nathaniel Cade" series? I went in expecting some Twilight meets Dresden poo poo but it's more along the lines of The Rook though not as good.
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Apr 2, 2015 15:47
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Blasphemeral posted:No, you're right. The flowing water takes the magical energies away with it. Technically isn't dresden water magic now? Fire + Ice == water
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Apr 2, 2015 17:40
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Exmond posted:Technically isn't dresden water magic now? Fire + Ice == water 
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Apr 2, 2015 18:32
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Exmond posted:Technically isn't dresden water magic now? h2o is h2o.
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Apr 2, 2015 19:50
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Exmond posted:Technically isn't dresden water magic now? Fire + Ice == water Anias posted:h2o is h2o. Welp i feel preeeetty dumb right now. What i meant to say is that can't Dresden summon water now by combining fire + ice? Or can he just summon water with his ice powers..
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Apr 2, 2015 20:39
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MeLKoR posted:Has anyone read Christopher Farnsworth's "Nathaniel Cade" series? I went in expecting some Twilight meets Dresden poo poo but it's more along the lines of The Rook though not as good. I liked the first two. They're nothing special but I do check every now and again to see if the third one has been announced.
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Apr 2, 2015 21:48
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Exmond posted:Welp i feel preeeetty dumb right now. What i meant to say is that can't Dresden summon water now by combining fire + ice? Or can he just summon water with his ice powers.. Nah, I feel like it's probably more of a conceptual thing. Practice in fire magic and practice in ice magic wouldn't mean you can all of a sudden to water magic.
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Apr 2, 2015 22:29
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 Dresden really let himself go.
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Apr 2, 2015 23:22
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since when does he wear a hat
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Apr 2, 2015 23:55
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Vateke posted:Nah, I feel like it's probably more of a conceptual thing. Practice in fire magic and practice in ice magic wouldn't mean you can all of a sudden to water magic. JRPGs taught me ice magic is a mix of water and wind, and fire can be mixed with wind to get thunder. So I guess fire and water would get you thunder storms made of hot steam?
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Apr 3, 2015 00:04
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sirtommygunn posted:since when does he wear a hat
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Apr 3, 2015 00:30
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Libluini posted:JRPGs taught me ice magic is a mix of water and wind, and fire can be mixed with wind to get thunder. So I guess fire and water would get you thunder storms made of hot steam? That sounds more like spell combinations in Magica, whereas compared to me thinking of elemental magic as they are in the Pokemon series...
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Apr 3, 2015 01:18
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Libluini posted:JRPGs taught me ice magic is a mix of water and wind, and fire can be mixed with wind to get thunder. So I guess fire and water would get you thunder storms made of hot steam? Grandia 1 had a quirky magic system, huh? 
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Apr 3, 2015 01:32
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M_Gargantua posted:Please tell me this is a real story? I want to read it. Its part of the plot from a Rick and Morty episode
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Apr 3, 2015 01:33
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Blasphemeral posted:No, you're right. The flowing water takes the magical energies away with it. Ramirez is water specialized. Its mainly entropy stuff going by the description - like his shield breaks up and scatters things rather than blocking absorbing or deflecting. Edit: Dresden is fire and flame at the start, he ends up sidelining wing for more force over time, and gets schooled in ice after taking up the mantle McCoy is earth and force Ramirez is water, earth, and presumably pretty proficient with fire as a warden Morgan was earth and fire Elaine we aren't told but appears to be wind and fire from what we've seen, plus it would match what Dresden got taught under Justin Molly was illusions and fire Part of it is Butcher moved away from hard and fast rules and schools of magic, and part is Dresden is gaining deeper understanding and seeing his early take on rules and schools was inaccurate; (which is part justification of Butcher letting it go, part plot development) Fried Chicken fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Apr 3, 2015 |
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Apr 3, 2015 01:35
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