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For what it's worth a more appropriate address would be 85 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP, United Kingdom
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Jul 5, 2015 11:38
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I don't get why you'd want to hang out with David Cameron but whatever works I guess... I'm enjoying the second Verus book way more than the first one. Seems to be another theme it shares with Dresden...
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Jul 5, 2015 17:53
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ookiimarukochan posted:For what it's worth a more appropriate address would be 85 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP, United Kingdom Going from the last time I was in London and google maps, is that MI6?
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Jul 6, 2015 00:38
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Ika posted:Going from the last time I was in London and google maps, is that MI6? It appears to be the apartments directly adjoining MI-6... so basically, yeah.
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Jul 6, 2015 18:17
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That reminded me to search for the building whose roof was completely covered in satellite dishes just before vauxhall station: 1 Wyvil Rd, London SW8 2SU, UK Officially a broadcaster ... yeah...
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Jul 6, 2015 18:47
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That'd be the London division of the FSB. They rent it to Mossad on weekends.
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Jul 6, 2015 18:59
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ookiimarukochan posted:The Annihilation Score is out - and it gives closure to a bunch of long-open plot threads. Charlie - or Mo, the POV character - is considerably nicer to a number of roman-a-clef'd Tories than I'd be (though we only really interact with not-Theresa-May) and rather less friendly to the Met than Ben Aaronovich (It's also a bit irritating that the UK editor didn't remove various bits explaining UK cultural things for the foreign audience, but that could just be me) Finally managed to read this. Overall I liked it. Stross sortof has a problem in that he clearly didn't plan for the Laundry series to take off like it has, he wasn't planning this many sequels, and his characters have, in RPG terms, leveled up too many times, especially after the end of the last book. So he has to either change the sort of series he's writing, or switch out the main characters, or reset them, or all three. Last book started that process (setting up a few new potential long-term characters), and this one's another step; it has a remarkably different tone from the others, it's got a different protagonist, and it apparently resets Mo's power level somehow. Given all that I thought this one was pretty entertaining even missing a lot of the British politics jabs. There were some decently comic bits and it did a really good job of chronicling the breakdown in Bob and Mo's relationship in a believable way while also incorporating the fantasy elements. I don't think it really could have competed with the end of Rhesus Chart, this one was doing something different.
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Jul 7, 2015 04:13
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Why no book this year in April/May, isnt that the schedule Butcher has kept for the past few years?
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Jul 7, 2015 06:50
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LolitaSama posted:Why no book this year in April/May, isnt that the schedule Butcher has kept for the past few years? He's starting a new series and that's debuting in September.
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Jul 7, 2015 07:08
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I really, really, really liked Small Favor. Partially because the Knights vs. the Denarians is one of my favorite plots in the series so far. Making the coins be Judas's 30 pieces of silver was kind of brilliant (at least, I think this is the first time the connection was made). Based on that, and the noose around Nicodemus's neck, I'm assuming he is even more connected to Judas? Eh, whatever. [spoiler]His "death" was incredible. I'm assuming Summer's Gruff wizard badass will come back at some point? Scary bastard. Also, I need more Kincaid. Guy's amazing, though given he's a "hellhound" or whatever, I'm assuming he'll be in the role of villain at some point. Oh, and this is the first mention of Uriel, right, or did I miss something earlier? And he was responsible for the silver hand thing (whatever that was) saving Dresden? So he's, what, an actual archangel who has taken an interest in Harry? I'd like to say more about it, because it was fantastic, but I started Turn Coat, and I found myself suddenly 20% in because it hooked the hell out of me. The skinwalker is creepy as hell, and most of my "Dresden thoughts" are wrapped up in that.
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Jul 8, 2015 18:30
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Dresden asking for the donut was my favorite part of Small Favor, and in fact probably top 3 in the entire series.
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Jul 8, 2015 18:55
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ConfusedUs posted:Dresden asking for the donut was my favorite part of Small Favor, and in fact probably top 3 in the entire series. Yeah, that was a brilliant way out of it, and perfectly fitting.
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Jul 8, 2015 19:01
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Finally managed to read this. Overall I liked it. Stross sortof has a problem in that he clearly didn't plan for the Laundry series to take off like it has, he wasn't planning this many sequels, and his characters have, in RPG terms, leveled up too many times, especially after the end of the last book. So he has to either change the sort of series he's writing, or switch out the main characters, or reset them, or all three. Last book started that process (setting up a few new potential long-term characters), and this one's another step; it has a remarkably different tone from the others, it's got a different protagonist, and it apparently resets Mo's power level somehow. I think the Laundry Files are well written, it's just that they suffer from rather flat characterization. Then again, I've only finished the third book, so I can't really say for sure.
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Jul 8, 2015 20:25
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thrawn527 posted:I'm assuming Summer's Gruff wizard badass will come back at some point? Scary bastard. Also, I need more Kincaid. Guy's amazing, though given he's a "hellhound" or whatever, I'm assuming he'll be in the role of villain at some point. Language please. Heckhound.
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Jul 8, 2015 21:17
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I'm on holiday at the moment, and I was in a bookshop earlier and thought I'd try something new, but didn't have any ideas (lots of middle books, anyway - not many first entries in any series). Didn't have access to Internet at the time either, or I could've just looked at the first post (I did look for O'Malley since I'm really interested in that one, but I didn't see it) in this very thread! Anyway, can anyone tell me about Simon R. Green's Secret Histories books? I saw that and thought it looked like it might be interesting, but I thought I'd see if anyone knew about it. (I got The Children of Hurin - it's the only one I've not read other than The Unfinished Tales.)
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Jul 8, 2015 23:29
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Finally managed to read this. Overall I liked it. Stross sortof has a problem in that he clearly didn't plan for the Laundry series to take off like it has, he wasn't planning this many sequels, and his characters have, in RPG terms, leveled up too many times, especially after the end of the last book. So he has to either change the sort of series he's writing, or switch out the main characters, or reset them, or all three. Last book started that process (setting up a few new potential long-term characters), and this one's another step; it has a remarkably different tone from the others, it's got a different protagonist, and it apparently resets Mo's power level somehow. Yeah, I agree. I also really liked not having to follow Bob for a change, I was so tired of him. Mo was pretty great this book, and I'm sad we don't get another book to follow her some more.
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Jul 9, 2015 01:29
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Annihilation Score: I thought the book was pretty good. I didn't really care for Mo before reading this book, but after getting to see things from her viewpoint and dealing with her as more than just a flavor character in Bob's story, I actually started to actively dislike her!
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Jul 9, 2015 07:06
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Wheat Loaf posted:I'm on holiday at the moment, and I was in a bookshop earlier and thought I'd try something new, but didn't have any ideas (lots of middle books, anyway - not many first entries in any series). Didn't have access to Internet at the time either, or I could've just looked at the first post (I did look for O'Malley since I'm really interested in that one, but I didn't see it) in this very thread! I would characterize all of Simon R. Greene's series as fun to read, but lacking in substance. I like the worlds he creates and most of the characters are initially interesting, however there is a lack of growth as the series progress and the plot lines are definitely recycled between series and books. He is a little too fond of throwing the rules out the window to create interesting situations, which leaves the world feeling groundless.
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Jul 9, 2015 11:49
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asur posted:I would characterize all of Simon R. Greene's series as fun to read, but lacking in substance. I like the worlds he creates and most of the characters are initially interesting, however there is a lack of growth as the series progress and the plot lines are definitely recycled between series and books. He is a little too fond of throwing the rules out the window to create interesting situations, which leaves the world feeling groundless.
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Jul 9, 2015 11:50
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anilEhilated posted:He also loves to copy/paste character descriptions. This was nigh-unbearable in his Nightside series. Assuming his other books are similar, I hope that Wheat Loaf isn't bothered by seeing the same character description bits used, not only repeatedly within the series, but several times within the same book.
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Jul 9, 2015 12:09
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Just finished reading Seth Skorkowsky's second book in his demon-hunting Valducan series, Hounacier after last year's Damoren, about demon hunters with almost-sentient weapons that feed on demons. Demons in this case being the whole plethora of supernatural monsters that can both possess humans and twist their bodies into a monstrous form, and mark them for later possession (think werewolf bite) if their first body dies, with the aforementioned weapons being the only thing to actually kill a demon for good so it can't just hop bodies. I really enjoyed the first one a yearish ago, and the second book is just as solid. He's got an intriguing world with some interesting and creepy monsters, and writes well enough that i'd easily consider it one of the better UF series i've read (I read so much bad UF trying to find good ones). He seems to be doing a somewhat novel thing with the series too in that it looks like each book will focus on a different main character and their weapon, and the blurb for book 3 looks like it'll continue the trend.
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Jul 9, 2015 15:31
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I started reading Paul Cornell's London Falling based on the OP recommendations. I'm hardly into it but I'm really enjoying it now that I've gotten into the actual plot of it. The Horror elements are very pronounced in a way that feels bracing after the tongue-in-cheek nature of Dresden Files.
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Jul 9, 2015 15:36
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Somberbrero posted:I started reading Paul Cornell's London Falling based on the OP recommendations. I'm hardly into it but I'm really enjoying it now that I've gotten into the actual plot of it. The Horror elements are very pronounced in a way that feels bracing after the tongue-in-cheek nature of Dresden Files. Yeah, the first 3 or 4 chapters are this awful mismash of shifting PoVs, but once it gets rolling, it's good.
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Jul 9, 2015 15:46
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ConfusedUs posted:Yeah, the first 3 or 4 chapters are this awful mismash of shifting PoVs, but once it gets rolling, it's good. I will say that I don't particularly care for the audio version. The narrator has this tendency to pause between sentences just long enough for me to start to wonder if my phone has turned off.
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Jul 9, 2015 16:03
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I finished the 3 books of the Generation V series by M.L. Brennan. It's seriously good. The main character Fortitude is, as the title implies, a millennial, a college graduate with a degree in film theory, a vegetarian, and a (reluctant, sort of) vampire, and the series follows him as he adapts to the supernatural world he's been avoiding, his true nature, and his service as a troubleshooter for his powerful family. Fort's friend/partner/prospective love interest Suzume is ten kinds of awesome and badass, as is her extended family, and the supernatural setting itself is pretty interesting. And there are a few serial threads that will play out in future books (the next one comes out in August) that are promising.
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Jul 10, 2015 05:49
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Mars4523 posted:I finished the 3 books of the Generation V series by M.L. Brennan. It's seriously good. The main character Fortitude is, as the title implies, a millennial, a college graduate with a degree in film theory, a vegetarian, and a (reluctant, sort of) vampire, and the series follows him as he adapts to the supernatural world he's been avoiding, his true nature, and his service as a troubleshooter for his powerful family. Fort's friend/partner/prospective love interest Suzume is ten kinds of awesome and badass, as is her extended family, and the supernatural setting itself is pretty interesting. And there are a few serial threads that will play out in future books (the next one comes out in August) that are promising. Yeah, that's a fun series.
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Jul 10, 2015 06:58
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Khizan posted:Annihilation Score: I thought the book was pretty good. I didn't really care for Mo before reading this book, but after getting to see things from her viewpoint and dealing with her as more than just a flavor character in Bob's story, I actually started to actively dislike her! I also think that it could have used at least one more editing pass. In one scene Mo doesn't want to have to explain the enigma of Officer Friendly to a group of politicians, and then in the very next scene she has no idea who Officer Friendly is. *Yeah, she didn't sleep with Officer Friendly,** but as far as I'm concerned going out on dates and having a heavy make-out session in the back seat of a limo counts as cheating. ** Sounds like the name of a kids TV show host who is later discovered to have been a pedophile.
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Jul 10, 2015 19:42
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g0del posted:Agreed. Minor spoilers for Annihilation Score: Towards the end of the book, Mo feels betrayed by someone she trusted, and she compares it to how she would feel if Bob had cheated on her. Despite the fact that she's been actively cheating* on Bob! That kind of hypocrisy might be typical for a lot of people, but those are the kind of people that I don't really like very much. I haven't read the new book yet, but didn't Bob leave her because of the violin in the previous one?
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Jul 11, 2015 14:58
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Barbe Rouge posted:I haven't read the new book yet, but didn't Bob leave her because of the violin in the previous one?
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Jul 11, 2015 17:44
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g0del posted:Agreed. Minor spoilers for Annihilation Score: Towards the end of the book, Mo feels betrayed by someone she trusted, and she compares it to how she would feel if Bob had cheated on her. Despite the fact that she's been actively cheating* on Bob! That kind of hypocrisy might be typical for a lot of people, but those are the kind of people that I don't really like very much. quote:I also think that it could have used at least one more editing pass. In one scene Mo doesn't want to have to explain the enigma of Officer Friendly to a group of politicians, and then in the very next scene she has no idea who Officer Friendly is. quote:*Yeah, she didn't sleep with Officer Friendly,** but as far as I'm concerned going out on dates and having a heavy make-out session in the back seat of a limo counts as cheating. If you want to criticize Mo for her behavior and outlook towards Bob, there is plenty in this book to go from. Withholding information about his medical condition from him for years? All internal dialogue comparing him to an object instead of as a person? When thinking about him always in context of what he could do for her instead of thinking of him as her partner? All valid and in keeping with how her character is written. Getting hyped about actions while they were separated is a stretch. Particularly when when it turns out it was a Honeypot trap
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Jul 11, 2015 18:24
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Fried Chicken posted:They were separated. It's funny how I didn't really pick up on a lot of this while reading it -- Mo's personal problems were just taking center stage . I'm not 100% clear on how separated they were in Bob's view. He had moved out but only for safety reasons and clearly on some level still thought the marriage was worth saving. I think all of these things are legitimate critiques of Mo's character, only partially alleviated by the extreme stress she's been under.
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Jul 11, 2015 20:12
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Fried Chicken posted:Again, they were separated. Bob had to move out because her violin wanted to eat him. I never got the impression that they formally separated in a 'this isn't working out, maybe we should think about divorce/see other people' way. It felt very much like a 'we don't want to split up but it is no longer safe for us to live together' separation, both from Bob's viewpoint in Rhesus Chart and Mo's perspective in Annihilation Score. More like a medical quarantine than a real separation. That's why Mo being so quick to jump on the 'Make out with Officer Friendly in the limo' train made me dislike her so much; they separated on the basis of "your violin wants to eat my soul" and she jumped from there to justifying going out on dates with other men without ever talking about it to Bob. It is not too much of a stretch to get hyped about that. Also, I missed that medical condition part you're talking about, when was that?
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Jul 11, 2015 21:24
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Khizan posted:
It isn't a spoiler, it pops up in one of the stock background info dumps. It is a real quick one-liner that Mo mentions Bob has been immune to K-syndrome since the events of The Fuller Memorandum. But the risk of K-syndrome has been a big, character defining fear of Bob in Apocalypse Codex and Rhesus Chart. So Mo knows he's terrified of it, knows he is safe from it, and just never mentioned it to him. Per Stross it's a minor retcon and wasn't meant to be read as a note on the two of them and their relationship, which it's clear it wasn't meant as (it's 1 line in an infodump). But now that it's out there, it either changes the context of the past 2 books (and Bob's character, that he is insanely paranoid after the threat is long past and this has held back his growth in the Laundry) or changes their relationship (if you were waiting for the oncologist to call back with the biopsy results and it turns out your partner knew, how would you feel?) The rest I'll comment on when not phone posting
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Jul 11, 2015 22:48
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Fried Chicken posted:They were separated. Or she's a hypocrite who gets upset at the idea of her husband doing the very things that she's been doing. Which is a very common trait, but not an admirable one.
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Jul 12, 2015 06:43
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I wasn't very impressed with The Annihilation Score, and I usually love the Laundry series. First, it was so very incredibly obvious that Jim was working for the bad guys/was a plant (what his motivation was in the end never gets quite clear). There are 6 (7 with Lector) people that are more than a background sketch in the book, of which only 3 could be hiding bad intentions - and since we just had a bad guy in the upper echelons of the Laundry only 2 are left, and Ramona/The Deep Ones was pretty much a non-starter in this regard, since they were set up as not-the-usual-bad-guy-fish-monsters a few books back, although the idea that the Deep Ones want to end the threat by simply removing the problem - humans - would have been an interesting one. For the 10 minutes it would take this apparent super-superpower to remove humanity. Mo (and Bob in the book before) not noticing that there are superheros running around - publicly - for at least six months. That's something that would make huge waves in media and even bigger ones in the Laundry. But no, apparently it's complete news to Mo. The "middle aged women are invisible"-thing was incredibly clumsy and reeked of "I've read that interesting article about it some time ago, time to make it a statement!". And then she even develops a superpower that's just that. Mo in general. Falling for the hunk who is a plant, struggling with her marriage and how to bring her love life and her professional life together. Having to work with her husbands exes and bonding with them over after work wine. Caring about her clothes all the time. Cliche after cliche with nearly no subversion. At times I felt like reading Bridget Jones. Or maybe I'm just too harsh because I read Lindsey Davies do a similar setup much, much better recently and just came off Bujold's Chalion books, both who feature more interesting and better written female protagonists? Mo basically does nothing in the book. The Freudstein thing gets solved by the bad guys spilling the beans to her, not because they put up any effort into an investigation. The metro station thing is basically put on the backburner with a shrug until Jim tells her what it is, and even then she doesn't act on the information or puts 1+1 together. She and her team stumble around in the dark the whole book, lead by the leash of Jim and Lector and nudged by the SA. And she makes no real effort to get some answers. The whole Freudstein plan on the other hand relies on so many variables that all have to be just right to work in any way. I can only assume that it's deliberate by Charles Stross to resemble a bad superhero villain plot. It relies on Mo getting that SHIELD-director gig, her accepting Jim joining, her lugging Lector to where it is needed, her being put under the Home Secretary, her going to the Proms with her violin and the geas, that nobody ever has seen in action, working just right the way it is needed. Apparently Lector put the ideas into the head of the police when she was meeting with them (said Stross on his blog) - but at that time the whole plot had to be in motion for months, so it's impossible that Lector is somehow the originator of the plan for the false-flag operation. Mo having been hit with a dumb ray. She ignores all hints and clues, she trusts Jim, who is so obviously a plant, she ignores everything suspicious and disturbing and manages not to tell that things to the SA. Jim running around in a BLUE HADES tech suit by way of police contractors? Jim lying about how long he's doing the gig? Lector dreaming with her with just the musical score that has been stolen? A metro station disappearing? Freudstein obviously having the resources of a police force available? No problem, no follow up. The Mandate showing to be a danger to national security? Let him walk out of the office, basically no follow up, like looking through CCTV footage, forgotten until he appears in Downing Street. And the Mandate in general. Really? A clumsy Tony-Blair-as-supervillain? I expected more from Stross. The Geas made the least sense to me. A Deputy Superintendent (lower on the totem pole in the Home Secretary branch than Mo) compelling her because she has a letter from the minister? Even if her Laundry geas transferred with her nominal and fake transfer to a different organization, it seems odd that it works for what boils down a brigadier commanding around what is basically the director of UK-SHIELD, one rung below the minister herself. Also, "nice letter, get your supers call my supers confirming the order, than we can talk about me summoning Piss King" seemed an obvious out of the whole thing. But the whole thing was unnecessary at all, since the SA knew who the opposition was and it would have been incredible easy to set them a trap if they informed Mo and worked with her. I hope that was again Stross trying to set the whole thing up like a bad comic book. And the abrupt ending with no resolutions (two weeks later and we don't even get a mention about how the whole thing influenced her relationship with Bob?) didn't help either to make me like the book more. Same with the retcons (Bob is immune from K-syndrome since TFM). BTW, is she now exposed to K-syndrome with a superpower and no Lector protecting her? Decius fucked around with this message at 09:50 on Jul 12, 2015 |
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Jul 12, 2015 09:17
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Bob has literally never solved the mystery either.
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Jul 12, 2015 19:09
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Grimson posted:Bob has literally never solved the mystery either. He solved the mystery in the first book, didn't he? Admittedly not the best track record.
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Jul 12, 2015 19:37
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Fried Chicken posted:It isn't a spoiler, it pops up in one of the stock background info dumps. It is a real quick one-liner that Mo mentions Bob has been immune to K-syndrome since the events of The Fuller Memorandum. But the risk of K-syndrome has been a big, character defining fear of Bob in Apocalypse Codex and Rhesus Chart. So Mo knows he's terrified of it, knows he is safe from it, and just never mentioned it to him. It's actually kind a moderate one. There's a scene in Rhesus Chart where Bob and Angleton are sealing Andy's office and Bob gets a headache and thinks "hello, K syndrome." That not just worry about K syndrome, it's arguably an actual progression that Stross changed his mind about only with the latest book.
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Jul 12, 2015 20:27
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I really thought bob's k syndrome immunity came at the end of rheusus chart, when angleton died .
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Jul 13, 2015 01:46
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Grimson posted:Bob has literally never solved the mystery either. So, yeah, it's not a great record for him either. But to use a terrorism metaphor it's much less suspenseful if you valiantly stop the baddies at their safe house rather than the crowded public place full of panicky soon to be victims.
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Jul 13, 2015 01:57
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