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Iacen posted:He doesn't brew his beer, he just waves his hand over a bathtub with water once in a while. Eat of my steak sandwiches...
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May 9, 2015 17:30
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I'd kill for one of those steak sandwiches right now.
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May 9, 2015 18:38
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I finished Blood Rites, and it wasn't my favorite Dresden novel. It seemed a little too amused with the porn shoot setting (staying one step above *teehee boobies*) and seemed to lose the breakneck pace the series had been keeping up in each book so far. Almost like it gave Dresden too much room to breath, if that makes sense. Also, I've been doing a good job thus far ignoring the similarities to another series about a wizard, but it got to be too much here to let go. "So our main character, Harry, is a wizard, whose mom was killed by a pale villain, but in her death cast a spell that is damaging the villain to this day. Riiiiiight." That being said, the raid on Mavra's lair was amazing ("Kincaid! Bolshevik Muppet!"), and some genuinely fun moments, and as forced as it could have felt, I love the Thomas revelation (because I love Thomas). Also, he has a dog now. Which is great, because dogs are great. Going to take a short break now to read the new Star Wars book, but I fully intend to come back after that. edit: Oh, also, I can't wait for the series to get back to Kincaid and whatever the hell is up with him. thrawn527 fucked around with this message at 21:35 on May 9, 2015 |
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May 9, 2015 21:31
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Emy posted:I don't plan to read Iron Druid, please spoil me. Hammered posted:A fit-looking African man was standing in front of Trippie Hippie and laughing at me. “Wow. You’re even more paranoid than the last time I saw you.”
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May 10, 2015 01:19
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thrawn527 posted:I finished Blood Rites, and it wasn't my favorite Dresden novel. It seemed a little too amused with the porn shoot setting (staying one step above *teehee boobies*) and seemed to lose the breakneck pace the series had been keeping up in each book so far. Almost like it gave Dresden too much room to breath, if that makes sense. Also, I've been doing a good job thus far ignoring the similarities to another series about a wizard, but it got to be too much here to let go. "So our main character, Harry, is a wizard, whose mom was killed by a pale villain, but in her death cast a spell that is damaging the villain to this day. Riiiiiight." Blood Rites suffers a lot for being one of the worst books in the series but having so many important things happen in it that it isn't really skippable. The core plot is just bad. Like straight-up bad. The murder mystery is really poorly done, the porn studio stuff is Butcher at his worst, and it drags down the really strong parts of the book. The Black Court stuff is more interesting and the Thomas stuff is critically important (if not my favorite plotline) so it hurts that it's caught in the middle of otherwise one of the weakest of the books.
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May 10, 2015 01:23
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ImpAtom posted:Blood Rites suffers a lot for being one of the worst books in the series but having so many important things happen in it that it isn't really skippable. The core plot is just bad. Like straight-up bad. The murder mystery is really poorly done, the porn studio stuff is Butcher at his worst, and it drags down the really strong parts of the book. The Black Court stuff is more interesting and the Thomas stuff is critically important (if not my favorite plotline) so it hurts that it's caught in the middle of otherwise one of the weakest of the books. Yeah, I agree with all of that. And if I had to hazard a guess, the Kincaid stuff is going to be important. "Random theory that will probably sound silly to all of you who have read the books" time: Kincaid will be the big bad for one book in the future, and the "poo poo got real" moment will be him killing Ebenezer, not only establishing him as powerful and bad, but removing a relative safety level for Dresden. Or they'll all be best friends. I don't know.
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May 10, 2015 02:29
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thrawn527 posted:Yeah, I agree with all of that. And if I had to hazard a guess, the Kincaid stuff is going to be important. "Random theory that will probably sound silly to all of you who have read the books" time: Kincaid will be the big bad for one book in the future, and the "poo poo got real" moment will be him killing Ebenezer, not only establishing him as powerful and bad, but removing a relative safety level for Dresden.  A decent theory 
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May 10, 2015 02:59
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bobthenameless posted:
Haha he's going to be so disappointed to learn that Kincaid is a big teddy bear because of Ivy
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May 11, 2015 00:37
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OptimusWang posted:Haha he's going to be so disappointed to learn that Kincaid is a big teddy bear because of Ivy Literally my favorite character development in the series. in Death Masks they make a big deal out of him just being a mercenary and by the time Smal Favor rolls around he's gotten extra protective of her
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May 11, 2015 01:39
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Double posting because I'm just wondering; isn't part of Merlins legend that he let himself be locked in the cave? Because I just started rereading Skin Game and the Beitish thing that talks to Harry at the start seems to be there willingly and I could totally see A Wizard loving everything up so badly by existing that he feels like he deserves to be locked away from everyone forever, particularly The Most Wizard
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May 11, 2015 05:17
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Literally The Worst posted:Double posting because I'm just wondering; isn't part of Merlins legend that he let himself be locked in the cave? Because I just started rereading Skin Game and the Beitish thing that talks to Harry at the start seems to be there willingly and I could totally see A Wizard loving everything up so badly by existing that he feels like he deserves to be locked away from everyone forever, particularly The Most Wizard That's a common theory, yes.
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May 11, 2015 13:27
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Literally The Worst posted:Double posting because I'm just wondering; isn't part of Merlins legend that he let himself be locked in the cave? Because I just started rereading Skin Game and the Beitish thing that talks to Harry at the start seems to be there willingly and I could totally see A Wizard loving everything up so badly by existing that he feels like he deserves to be locked away from everyone forever, particularly The Most Wizard The thing isn't British though. Harry's mind interpreted the way it spoke into his mind as "sounding British". Maybe because it spoke in a condescending manner or something, who knows. Raygereio fucked around with this message at 13:30 on May 11, 2015 |
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May 11, 2015 13:27
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Every villain with with an ounce of class or manners is british'ish. It's just how these things go.
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May 11, 2015 15:43
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ImpAtom posted:Blood Rites suffers a lot for being one of the worst books in the series but having so many important things happen in it that it isn't really skippable. The core plot is just bad. Like straight-up bad. The murder mystery is really poorly done, the porn studio stuff is Butcher at his worst, and it drags down the really strong parts of the book. The Black Court stuff is more interesting and the Thomas stuff is critically important (if not my favorite plotline) so it hurts that it's caught in the middle of otherwise one of the weakest of the books. And mouse! That's important too!
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May 11, 2015 15:47
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Xtanstic posted:And mouse! That's important too! Oh poo poo, Blood Rites introduced Mouse too. And the Blackstaff stuff. And Harry's burned hand. And continued the Lashel plotline. Yeah, that is an absurdly important book. Maybe that is why the core plotline is so bad because Butcher was so busy with all the other poo poo.
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May 11, 2015 16:13
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It's good he got all that stuff rolling in Blood Rites, since Dead Beat comes right after and it would be shame if one of Butcher's most brisk and enjoyable yarns was bogged down by bunch of expositional asides.
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May 11, 2015 16:41
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ImpAtom posted:Oh poo poo, Blood Rites introduced Mouse too. And the Blackstaff stuff. And Harry's burned hand. And continued the Lashel plotline.
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May 11, 2015 16:59
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The Dresden Files: Charity Is Not Going To Be Pleased
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May 11, 2015 17:14
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Literally The Worst posted:The Dresden Files: Charity Is Not Going To Be Pleased The only thing Harry actually fears is pissing her off.
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May 11, 2015 17:20
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Literally The Worst posted:Double posting because I'm just wondering; isn't part of Merlins legend that he let himself be locked in the cave?
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May 11, 2015 18:39
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The most annoying thing about blood rites to me was that the bear belt buckle was never mentioned again.
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May 11, 2015 18:46
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The Fool posted:The most annoying thing about blood rites to me was that the bear belt buckle was never mentioned again. Butcher has addressed this, saying it was a mistake. He needs Dresden to be able to take an rear end kicking without fans wondering why he didn't use his belt buckle
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May 11, 2015 18:51
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Rygar201 posted:Butcher has addressed this, saying it was a mistake. He needs Dresden to be able to take an rear end kicking without fans wondering why he didn't use his belt buckle I get that, it just annoyed me that it was never mentioned again. Not even in a "the side effects were too severe kind of way" which is the direction he seems to be taking with the winter knight powers
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May 11, 2015 18:56
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Raygereio posted:It's a pretty popular theory that it's Merlin. Other theory I've heard is that it's Arthur; he WAS supposedly carried off to an island to eventually return when he was needed most. Or maybe both of them are hanging out there together. Or maybe Merlin actually IS Arthur, a wizard king could have some very interesting stories from it (did he come up with the Laws to keep people from getting involved with power because of tragic personal experience beyond just being an advisor?). If Arthur is around it would definitely be an interesting as hell way for Amoracchius to get a wielder considering he carried it before apparently...
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May 11, 2015 21:09
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The whole (Winter) Knight power does seems to have been toned down a lot. I got the distinct impression from the earlier books that becoming a Knight (for either faction) basically boosted you to Captain America levels physically as well as any augmentation in magical powers. The whole Your bodys limiters are turned off. It's all hysterical strength and ignoring pain seemed lame as hell when it was explained explicitly.
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May 11, 2015 22:29
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Deptfordx posted:The whole (Winter) Knight power does seems to have been toned down a lot. Ironically the peak of human limits is literally captain america's powerset 
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May 11, 2015 22:34
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Deptfordx posted:The whole (Winter) Knight power does seems to have been toned down a lot. The Winter and Summer mantles are pretty explicitly more than that- Harry just refuses to embrace the vast majority of the power offered, because of what he thinks it would do to his psyche/sense of self.
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May 11, 2015 22:35
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AllTerrineVehicle posted:Ironically the peak of human limits is literally captain america's powerset Movie Captain America who is clearly (tossing motorcycles etc) beyond that.
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May 11, 2015 22:37
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That's a problem Butcher has in general. He keeps giving Harry powerups and then having to backtrack on them when he realizes they make it really hard to write around. Little Chicago is another great example there. A lot of the miscellaneous one-shot potions and tools he pulls out would do wonders but they end up fading back to Blasting Wand, Shield Bracelet, Force Rings, Staff. (And even those keep getting lost or broken on a drat-near regular basis.) It's understandable as Harry has a absolutely absurd amount of poo poo at his disposal and needs to remain the underdog but it feels a little weird sometimes. It would be hilarious if the inevitable Evil Alt-Universe Harry Dresden is just a Harry who is a giant threat because he remembers everything he can do.
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May 11, 2015 22:38
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apostateCourier posted:The Winter and Summer mantles are pretty explicitly more than that- Harry just refuses to embrace the vast majority of the power offered, because of what he thinks it would do to his psyche/sense of self. My interpretation is that the mantle basically causes you to ruin your body because you can't feel pain and are all jacked up on faerie dust, and as your body/soul get progressively more battered and broken the mantle grants you more power until you can't do anything without using Winter power. And as you said Harry is very clearly fighting the mantle and not using the power he could
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May 11, 2015 22:40
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I'm closing in on the end of storm front. If this is the weakest book in the series, I'm so excited for the rest of them. I'm going to stick with the audiobook format since it's super enjoyable to hear James Marsters voice on my walk to work.
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May 11, 2015 23:05
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Norns posted:I'm closing in on the end of storm front. If this is the weakest book in the series, I'm so excited for the rest of them. A sound decision, I literally haven't read the print version since about 5 books back.
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May 11, 2015 23:08
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Norns posted:I'm closing in on the end of storm front. If this is the weakest book in the series, I'm so excited for the rest of them. Second-weakest. Fool moon isn't great.
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May 11, 2015 23:36
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Deptfordx posted:The whole Your bodys limiters are turned off. It's all hysterical strength and ignoring pain seemed lame as hell when it was explained explicitly. It was guessed at by Butters. Fix was doing effortless ~40 foot wire-fu sword attacks on the island and Harry was sure that he could have gone further, and after that he parried a Fairy Queen's flaming death orb with his sword. This is not the kind of poo poo that you get to do just because your body turned off its limiters. My personal guess here is that Harry's using the bare minimum of the power that the Winter Mantle grants, because he doesn't want to give in to Winter. He's not actively using the mantle, he's just using the mantle's passive benefits while he relies on being a wizard. In other words, Mab gave Harry a jetliner and he's using it as a reading light. I also think that this is what Mab wanted; she gets a Winter Knight who can fulfill all the Winter Knightly duties without having to be utterly reliant on the mantle and on all of its instincts.
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May 12, 2015 00:07
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Khizan posted:she gets a Winter Knight who can fulfill all the Winter Knightly duties without having to be utterly reliant on the mantle and on all of its instincts. which is basically the result of a standoff between Harry and mab, where he tells her to either let him do things his way, or be stick with a lumbering brute no better than slate.
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May 12, 2015 00:43
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Khizan posted:It was guessed at by Butters. Fix was doing effortless ~40 foot wire-fu sword attacks on the island and Harry was sure that he could have gone further, and after that he parried a Fairy Queen's flaming death orb with his sword. This is not the kind of poo poo that you get to do just because your body turned off its limiters. Not sure why we are spoiling Cold Days but... The fight spells it out pretty explicitly, that Harry can go more or less passive and the mantle will run the show - it was telling him when and where to attack, when and where to dodge, offering more power to do these things, but he refused to let it take over, even with all it was granting. Good thing too, because then he comes to the part where, had he been letting the mantle run the show and guide his movements, Fix would have absolutely wrecked his poo poo because he knew his own mantle and how to counter the winter mantle better. That's when Harry realizes he needs to out think Fix rather than out fight him, and goes for the nail
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May 12, 2015 00:56
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I'm sure new readers like me appreciate the tags. I do.
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May 12, 2015 01:34
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I appreciate them. But I certainly don't expect them. I know I'm treading on dangerous ground being so far behind.
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May 12, 2015 01:44
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thrawn527 posted:I appreciate them. But I certainly don't expect them. I know I'm treading on dangerous ground being so far behind. Off topic, but are you still doing those James Bond reviews over in CineD?
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May 12, 2015 01:52
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Thunderfinger posted:Off topic, but are you still doing those James Bond reviews over in CineD? Yes. But work kicked up in a crazy fashion, working two projects at once. And my free time has been filled with another pursuit. Reading these books. I did just watch Octopussy today, though. And as a preview of my thoughts...I should get back to Dresden. Seriously though, gonna try to post the next write up this week.
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May 12, 2015 02:01
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