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Generation V also wins for having the female lead character be a kitsune, and also allowing her to consistently be as or more awesome than the lead dude. Not a lot of male lead urban fantasy does that.
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Jul 21, 2015 11:53
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Mars4523 posted:Generation V also wins for having the female lead character be a kitsune, and also allowing her to consistently be as or more awesome than the lead dude. Not a lot of male lead urban fantasy does that. I rolled my eyes at her at first, but she grew on me by not being stereotypical hot babe lusting after the main character or being a damsel in distress (she's the one who saves his rear end instead).
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Jul 21, 2015 12:05
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Jim took a much-needed break from the con circuit and writing Peace Talks to do something amazing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPoCQgGp4Cw The motherfucker actually rode up on a white horse and everything.
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Jul 21, 2015 16:07
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Azuth0667 posted:The worst part about the Alex Verus series is that the magic system other than what the main characters use is poorly defined. Someone's a fire mage so they can basically sling fire all over the place with no limits which makes it feel really shallow. That sort of seems to be the point. Magic users are absurdly powerful and have no real set defined limits which is why they're extremely terrifying in practice. The same thing applies to Alex whose entire gimmick is he has divination and uses it to its most absurd extreme. It works with the setting because the characters involved basically act like they have godlike power. It's more like a series about demigods than mages. Wolpertinger posted:It always seems weird that people are so opposed to the idea of vampires having a personality other than mindless cannibal, but a character struggling against turning into a monster is more interesting than just bam instant one dimensional sociopath. My major complaint here is that unless it is a "never feeds on anyone ever' vampire, I can't sympathize with someone who has murdered people to extend their own life. No amount of angst and sadness can escape that fact. The alternate problem is that if they can just resist their urge to feed than they're boring as hell because it devalues the actual curse. It's very hard for a series to really manage to hit the sweet spot for me where I can sympathize with someone who uncontrollably murders. Captain Capacitor posted:Jim took a much-needed break from the con circuit and writing Peace Talks to do something amazing. That is the most Jim Butcher of things.
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Jul 21, 2015 16:22
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That is goony as gently caress.
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Jul 21, 2015 16:40
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Wolpertinger posted:I rolled my eyes at her at first, but she grew on me by not being stereotypical hot babe lusting after the main character or being a damsel in distress (she's the one who saves his rear end instead).
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Jul 21, 2015 16:44
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Kellanved posted:That is goony as gently caress. Jim Butcher is goony as gently caress so it makes sense.
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Jul 21, 2015 16:56
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Wait, so he got divorced, started working out, and proposed to a cosplayer at a ren fair? i think Butcher just became a Deep Nerd
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Jul 21, 2015 17:12
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Put the helmet back on!!!
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Jul 21, 2015 18:51
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Slanderer posted:... started working out ... Something doesn't quite fit here. 
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Jul 21, 2015 19:11
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Barbe Rouge posted:Badly written? Maybe if your reference point is actual literature. Then 99% of fantasy & SF will be badly written. But if it's Dresden, then Generation V is either equal or better than. Wolpertinger posted:I know that everyone has different tastes and all, but people do get a bit snobbish in the Dresden Files thread of all places, which is hardly high literature. Most urban fantasy's gunna be a little trashy and pulpy and cliche and that's the fun of it. No, I'm keeping the level steady. It's badly written, very much so, by the standards of urban fantasy. edit: It's Dresden book one and two level bad writing, for comparison. Maybe it will follow the same level of improvement, too. torgeaux fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Jul 21, 2015 |
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Jul 21, 2015 20:15
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So, the books I got when I was on holiday were: Foxglove Summer, The Rook, The Atrocity Archive (I literally just bought it in Chapters then went into the coffee shop, got into the Wi-Fi and came into this thread to see everybody giving it a bit of stick ) and Half-Resurrection Blues. I'm about two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through The Children of Hurin (so far he's gone about being an rear end in a top hat to everyone and then shags his sister - it's basically the plot of Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy in reverse) but after I'm finished it, I think I'll read the Aaronovitch one first, since it's what I've been waiting for longest. Of the others, The Rook seems to get the most favourable attention, the Stross seems is divisive at best and Half-Resurrection Blues is an unknown quantity. I'll probably leave The Rook till last.
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Jul 21, 2015 21:26
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Half-Resurrection Blues is okay. Strong voice, somewhat simplistic story. Author is hardcore into your silly American internet social justice circlejerk and it spills into the book a bit, but I mostly found it amusing.
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Jul 21, 2015 22:11
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Most of the Stross-related poo poo that cropped up recently is aimed at his latest book in that series, Atrocity Archives is good.
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Jul 21, 2015 22:15
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I still haven't read through Annihilation Score but yeah, Atrocity Archives is good. Also the vampires in that book own because vampires don't exist.
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Jul 21, 2015 22:21
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anilEhilated posted:Most of the Stross-related poo poo that cropped up recently is aimed at his latest book in that series, Atrocity Archives is good. And even then it's not that the book is terrible. It has a different pov to the rest of the series though and the pov character is pretty terrible in the book.
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Jul 21, 2015 22:55
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ImpAtom posted:My major complaint here is that unless it is a "never feeds on anyone ever' vampire, I can't sympathize with someone who has murdered people to extend their own life. No amount of angst and sadness can escape that fact. The alternate problem is that if they can just resist their urge to feed than they're boring as hell because it devalues the actual curse. It's very hard for a series to really manage to hit the sweet spot for me where I can sympathize with someone who uncontrollably murders. I dunno, I think that I'd talk myself into it pretty easily if you put me into a situation where I had to choose between killing somebody in cold blood or dying myself. I'd find myself outside some lovely meth shack out here in the sticks saying "Really now, I'd be doing the community a favor..." or surfing the sex offender registry and going "This dude's got 4 counts of fondling six-year olds, I'm pretty sure I'm more deserving of life than he is...". In a life or death situation, I think most people would find a way to justify it to themselves.
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Jul 21, 2015 23:16
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I think a lot of more modern vampire fiction has the idea that they can subsist on the blood of warm-blooded animals (usually cows) though human blood is seemingly better. I'm curious how old that is; it must be at least as old as Modern Vampire MythologyTM or so I would imagine. Like, I remember one episode of Buffy where Angel visited a slaughterhouse or a butcher's shop he was buying cow's blood from (and another episode where vampire's attack a hospital to steal the donated blood, which I thought was quite novel). I think a similar thing happened in an episode of Forever Knight, where Nick Knight is under investigation for a murder and the police find these bottles of cow's blood in his fridge (his excuse is that he uses it as paint-thickener). On the other hand, there's True Blood, where the vampires are still mostly murderous assholes when there's a source of completely synthetic blood being mass produced for them. Wheat Loaf fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Jul 21, 2015 |
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Jul 21, 2015 23:54
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anilEhilated posted:Most of the Stross-related poo poo that cropped up recently is aimed at his latest book in that series, Atrocity Archives is good. Also don't read the short story about unicorns he put up on Tor. Three words: Underage tentacle rape.
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Jul 22, 2015 00:16
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Khizan posted:I dunno, I think that I'd talk myself into it pretty easily if you put me into a situation where I had to choose between killing somebody in cold blood or dying myself. I'd find myself outside some lovely meth shack out here in the sticks saying "Really now, I'd be doing the community a favor..." or surfing the sex offender registry and going "This dude's got 4 counts of fondling six-year olds, I'm pretty sure I'm more deserving of life than he is...". I can completely understand why it happens, I just don't sympathize with it if that makes sense? Like it's interesting but I can't really feel empathy for the angst. Tunicate posted:Also don't read the short story about unicorns he put up on Tor. What? God drat it.
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Jul 22, 2015 00:35
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what is the age of consent for a tentacle?
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Jul 22, 2015 00:40
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Wheat Loaf posted:I think a lot of more modern vampire fiction has the idea that they can subsist on the blood of warm-blooded animals (usually cows) though human blood is seemingly better. I'm curious how old that is; it must be at least as old as Modern Vampire MythologyTM or so I would imagine. Interview with a Vampire has Louis drinking the blood of rats. If there's a reference earlier than that, I'm not aware of it.
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Jul 22, 2015 00:52
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torgeaux posted:No, I'm keeping the level steady. It's badly written, very much so, by the standards of urban fantasy. I know tastes are very different but I didn't see this at all. And I didn't like the first two Dresden books either, the only reason I read the third is cause everyone was saying that that's where it gets good.
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Jul 22, 2015 01:19
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Tunicate posted:Also don't read the short story about unicorns he put up on Tor.
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Jul 22, 2015 01:30
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I don't know if I could call it tentacle rape, really. If you want to use a human as a hand puppet you only have so many orifices to choose from.
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Jul 22, 2015 02:01
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Barbe Rouge posted:I know tastes are very different but I didn't see this at all. And I didn't like the first two Dresden books either, the only reason I read the third is cause everyone was saying that that's where it gets good. I know. I never get it when people don't like books I like. I hope it gets better, I'm intrigued by the setup. The annoying names don't help, though.
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Jul 22, 2015 02:08
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Generation V for the most part has better writing than Dresden, and the emotional payoff that makes The Dresden Files worth reading comes much faster. Fort is also much less going and annoying than early (up to book 4) Harry is. Plus, there are no out of nowhere spiels about how totally okay the protagonist is with the gays, guys (written by an author who has not a single male homosexual character and set, in all places, in a park with lots of gay men trolling for hookups because of course), no lovingly detailed descriptions of a teenaged sidekick's nipples, and no super sexy bisexual (mostly female) White Court Vampires who were all raped by their father and, as is explicitly described, wear flimsy diaphanous clothing with no bra into combat scenarios so the protagonist can describe in detail how being soaked in gore makes their clothes cling to their figure.
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Jul 22, 2015 02:43
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Tunicate posted:Also don't read the short story about unicorns he put up on Tor.
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Jul 22, 2015 07:06
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Tunicate posted:Also don't read the short story about unicorns he put up on Tor. This besmirchment of my likeness without a cent of royalty will not stand
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Jul 22, 2015 09:31
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ImpAtom posted:My major complaint here is that unless it is a "never feeds on anyone ever' vampire, I can't sympathize with someone who has murdered people to extend their own life. No amount of angst and sadness can escape that fact. The alternate problem is that if they can just resist their urge to feed than they're boring as hell because it devalues the actual curse. It's very hard for a series to really manage to hit the sweet spot for me where I can sympathize with someone who uncontrollably murders. The Protagonist in GenV doesn't feed on anyone, besides his mother-vampire on occasion.
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Jul 22, 2015 16:57
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Khizan posted:I don't know if I could call it tentacle rape, really. If you want to use a human as a hand puppet you only have so many orifices to choose from. On the other hand, given that the monster in question is all about reproduction, it probably did intend tentacle rape, and it had already been heavily manipulating the girl's mind, so physical hand-puppetry was unnecessary. On the gripping hand, anilEhilated posted:I really think he does it justice in how disturbing it is. It's a good story. Also, if you happen to know any bronies, I imagine it's great for detox.
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Jul 22, 2015 18:37
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ImpAtom posted:
Whoa, what happened to his marriage?
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Jul 23, 2015 06:32
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She got mad because Jim wouldn't let her write the sex scenes in the Dresden Files any more.
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Jul 23, 2015 12:28
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In other news, I've read the first issue of the Rivers of London comic. The art is passable, if not great, the writing is decent. Gonna read the rest of it.Wade Wilson posted:She got mad because Jim wouldn't let her write the sex scenes in the Dresden Files any more. I mean... wasn't there, like, one in the entire series? Megazver fucked around with this message at 13:06 on Jul 23, 2015 |
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Jul 23, 2015 12:33
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Megazver posted:In other news, I've read the first issue of the Rivers of London comic. The art is passable, if not great, the writing is decent. Gonna read the rest of it. Three...? But that's not actually the reason, I hope. I assumed Wade Wilson was being sardonic. [Edit] The rope scene, the Table scene in Faerie, and the one in Skin Game? Did I miss any?
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Jul 23, 2015 14:11
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Werewolf murder orgy, faerie rope bondage, Luccio/Sheila heavy petting (but no loving on the pages), Stone Table sex and Murphy wet dream.
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Jul 23, 2015 14:32
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Wade Wilson posted:Werewolf murder orgy, faerie rope bondage, Luccio/Sheila heavy petting (but no loving on the pages), Stone Table sex and Murphy wet dream. Id didn't think the werewolf orgy was actually described, though? Like, it said one of them mounts another or whatever but that was it? Goddamn that was a lovely book.
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Jul 23, 2015 14:55
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Khizan posted:I don't know if I could call it tentacle rape, really. If you want to use a human as a hand puppet you only have so many orifices to choose from. quote:<Kazz> Do vampires have anuses? Cause that's why I wouldn't let this kid invade a vampire's anus in this RPG, right, I was GMing, and his character was an Anus Shade, with the power to possess and control the anuses of people and animals.. and I figured that vampires don't have anuses.
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Jul 23, 2015 16:34
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Mars4523 posted:Generation V for the most part has better writing than Dresden, and the emotional payoff that makes The Dresden Files worth reading comes much faster. Fort is also much less going and annoying than early (up to book 4) Harry is. Plus, there are no out of nowhere spiels about how totally okay the protagonist is with the gays, guys (written by an author who has not a single male homosexual character and set, in all places, in a park with lots of gay men trolling for hookups because of course), no lovingly detailed descriptions of a teenaged sidekick's nipples, and no super sexy bisexual (mostly female) White Court Vampires who were all raped by their father and, as is explicitly described, wear flimsy diaphanous clothing with no bra into combat scenarios so the protagonist can describe in detail how being soaked in gore makes their clothes cling to their figure. No, but V does have sexy prostitute assassin bodyguards (with hearts of gold), and the descriptions of (and reactions to) his ridiculously named brother. And it's not fort, it's fortitude, the character whose primary trait is resisting temptation. And yes, the main character is less annoying personally than Dresden was, you've got me there. I can't argue on the emotional payoff, as I only read 75%, per kindle.
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Jul 24, 2015 00:29
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torgeaux posted:No, but V does have sexy prostitute assassin bodyguards (with hearts of gold), and the descriptions of (and reactions to) his ridiculously named brother. And it's not fort, it's fortitude, the character whose primary trait is resisting temptation. And yes, the main character is less annoying personally than Dresden was, you've got me there. I can't argue on the emotional payoff, as I only read 75%, per kindle.
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Jul 24, 2015 02:01
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