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General Battuta posted:I worked on item descriptions and the Grimoire fiction companion. The script was already locked down by the time I joined the company. Ah, well then the reviewer's being lovely as those were the more amusing / interesting parts. Whoever was responsible for dinklebot's terrible lines (and lovely voice direction) should be slapped with a wet noodle though Even if you tell me they were ironically bad they're still bad 
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Sep 15, 2015 05:58
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General Battuta posted:I thought the same at first but in the back half of the book I came around to a lot of them, since I started to understand exactly what had happened to them. The protagonist in particular is about eight times more interesting than her lovely early scenes suggest. It's been a few months since i read it but i remember being a bit confused as to why the cop was ever involved in the plot in the first place, it seems like nothing he did was anything the main character actually needed done by someone else, and since his involvement was entirely orchestrated by her i was a little lost. I also read the book in the middle of the night in one sitting though so my memory of it may be a bit fuzzy.
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Sep 15, 2015 06:31
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Should I read the Dark Tower series?
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Sep 15, 2015 06:57
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Kampfy Von Wafflehaus posted:Should I read the Dark Tower series? you're going to get differing opinions here but here's mine: 1 and 4 are good. Helpfully, 1 and 4 are basically functional as stand-alone novels. You can skip the rest because they range from middling (2,3) to insane (5-7).
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Sep 15, 2015 07:01
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Here's a contrary one: 1-3 are good to varying degrees. 4-7 aren't worth bothering with.
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Sep 15, 2015 08:08
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The definitive answer is no.
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Sep 15, 2015 10:07
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The real definitive answer is yes. But stop if you start to hate it at any time after book 4.
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Sep 15, 2015 11:58
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Probably the biggest problem with the Dark Tower series is that King went from writing it whenever he had an idea of what to do next (1-4) to writing it because he was afraid of dying before finishing (5-7.) So the quality understandably takes a pretty big dip for those last three.
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Sep 15, 2015 12:16
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Victorkm posted:The real definitive answer is yes. But stop if you start to hate it at any time after book 4. If you read four books of seven in a up-til-then well put together world, then you are invested. Safer to just never start. They aren't life-changing, any of them.
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Sep 15, 2015 12:20
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I'd imagine the last three books aren't so bad if read straight through as a standard fantasy series. A lot of the disappointment at the time was because all of that 'Dark Tower Related' stuff turned out to be nonsense.
Junkenstein fucked around with this message at 12:53 on Sep 15, 2015 |
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Sep 15, 2015 12:49
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Finished up The City Stained Red by Sam Sykes. Pretty decent. I didn't finish the original trilogy he did because I just couldn't get into the mood to really finish it up, but this one is actually pretty good so far. Memorable characters, lots of questions, random "What in the gently caress?" moments, and at least one rear end in a top hat goat. I'd give it 3.5 to 4 stars outta 5. Definitely worth grabbing if you have some extra cash to throw at a kindle book.
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Sep 15, 2015 13:29
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I started reading The Traitor Baru Cormorant and couldn't stop. What an incredible ride- I haven't read a story this compelling in a long, long time. General Battuta I hope you have a long and prolific writing career so I can read a lot more of your fiction.
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Sep 15, 2015 13:37
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Jesus, Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb is depressing. This along with Aurora, man, I'm going to need some reeeeally happy stories soon. What's something in fantasy that's optimistic and feel-good, along the lines of The Goblin Emperor?
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Sep 15, 2015 14:31
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I read the first Dark Tower book and I really liked it. You can totally just leave it at that as long as you can accept that there is a mystery there that goes unanswered. I personally quite like that and feel it improves the feeling of the book as a whole, makes this whole dream-like Western quest all the better.
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Sep 15, 2015 14:48
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Polikarpov posted:I started reading The Traitor Baru Cormorant and couldn't stop. What an incredible ride- I haven't read a story this compelling in a long, long time. Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. Hedrigall have you read any Diana Wynne Jones?
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Sep 15, 2015 15:26
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Hedrigall posted:Jesus, Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb is depressing. This along with Aurora, man, I'm going to need some reeeeally happy stories soon. What's something in fantasy that's optimistic and feel-good, along the lines of The Goblin Emperor? Anything by Diana Wynne Jones, the Johannes Cabal series isn't necessarily happy but is definitely hilarious and fun, Patricia McKillip's fantasy tends to be light and have happy endings.
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Sep 15, 2015 16:26
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Hedrigall posted:Jesus, Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb is depressing. This along with Aurora, man, I'm going to need some reeeeally happy stories soon. What's something in fantasy that's optimistic and feel-good, along the lines of The Goblin Emperor? Rachel Aaron's Legend of Eli Monpress series is a quick read, mostly pretty upbeat, and the ending is optimistic and  as hell.
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Sep 15, 2015 16:32
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Hedrigall posted:Jesus, Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb is depressing. This along with Aurora, man, I'm going to need some reeeeally happy stories soon. What's something in fantasy that's optimistic and feel-good, along the lines of The Goblin Emperor?
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Sep 15, 2015 16:37
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Hedrigall posted:Jesus, Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb is depressing. There's a happy ending. Eventually.
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Sep 15, 2015 16:51
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anilEhilated posted:Bridge of Birds. Single best thing this forum introduced me to. I've been hawking Harm's Way by Colin Greenland as the next Bridge of Birds but so far nobody seems to have taken me up on the recommendation
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Sep 15, 2015 17:37
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I've been hawking Harm's Way by Colin Greenland as the next Bridge of Birds but so far nobody seems to have taken me up on the recommendation
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Sep 15, 2015 18:00
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andrew smash posted:It's been a few months since i read it but i remember being a bit confused as to why the cop was ever involved in the plot in the first place, it seems like nothing he did was anything the main character actually needed done by someone else, and since his involvement was entirely orchestrated by her i was a little lost. I also read the book in the middle of the night in one sitting though so my memory of it may be a bit fuzzy.
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Sep 15, 2015 18:09
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Junkenstein posted:I'd imagine the last three books aren't so bad if read straight through as a standard fantasy series. A lot of the disappointment at the time was because all of that 'Dark Tower Related' stuff turned out to be nonsense. As someone who did in fact read it straight through after it was done, they really are that bad. I'm with andrew smash; 1 & 4 are worth reading, 2/3 maybe if the weird high fantasy/wild west mash up is really doing it for you and you're happy with not getting a conclusion to the main plot. The back three are just dull and uninspiring. Fangz posted:There's a happy ending. Eventually. If you manage to make it all the way to Fool's Fate, I think like the entire final sixth of that book is 100% happy ending porn.
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Sep 15, 2015 18:10
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My copy of The Traitor Baru Cormorant was not in the mail today! 
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Sep 15, 2015 18:10
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I've been hawking Harm's Way by Colin Greenland as the next Bridge of Birds but so far nobody seems to have taken me up on the recommendation Colin's books have some wonderfully crappy covers. My clothing is so tight you can see my birthmark through it.  Kiss me, space Fabio Angel...  HELLO I AM THE NINETIES! 
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Sep 15, 2015 18:15
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Autonomous Monster posted:If you manage to make it all the way to Fool's Fate, I think like the entire final sixth of that book is 100% happy ending porn. And then the new series happens.
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Sep 15, 2015 18:16
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Ornamented Death posted:And then the new series happens. Oh, there's like four decades between the end of the one and the start of the other.  Half the characters FF puts a bow on are dead of old age by the time FA gets up to speed.It doesn't invalidate the old happy ending, it just... places Fitz into a new and entirely separate story of misery, because he is some sort of cosmic piņata. ...anyway, since we're on the subject... what was that whole demon-head-spider-baby-thing plotline about in the Dark Tower? I've forgotten.
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Sep 15, 2015 18:29
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I have been ordered to say this by my publicist, I am sorry: if you like BARU please drop a review and rating on Amazon! For some stupid algorithmic reason the first couple reviews matter a lot to the book's future. Why she wants me to give this information to Something Awful I don't know EDIT: I feel like I should clarify: this was a joke, my publicist did not say 'go get ratings from Something Awful', every author gets a talk about how it's important to get Amazon ratings but nobody sent me to any specific place. Also holy poo poo Declare is good, thank you to everyone who recommended it. Is Anubis Gates half as strong? General Battuta fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Sep 21, 2015 |
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Sep 15, 2015 18:36
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Kampfy Von Wafflehaus posted:Should I read the Dark Tower series? I liked all of them although they do get pretty weird / abstract. They were written over about 30 years and have a literal self-insert at one point but there's some interesting stuff in them as a meta-commentary on fiction and Stephen King's thoughts of himself as a writer. Try them, read them til they suck 
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Sep 15, 2015 18:39
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General Battuta posted:Also holy poo poo Declare is good, thank you to everyone who recommended it. Is Anubis Gates half as strong?
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Sep 15, 2015 18:43
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General Battuta posted:I have been ordered to say this by my publicist, I am sorry: if you like BARU please drop a review and rating on Amazon! For some stupid algorithmic reason the first couple reviews matter a lot to the book's future. Why she wants me to give this information to Something Awful I don't know I liked The Anubis Gates, but liked Declare a lot more. But I have a weakness for espionage, especially when crossed with other genres. Dick Trauma posted:Colin's books have some wonderfully crappy covers. The version I had just had a bunch of spaceships on the cover, IIRC. I remember really disliking Take Back Plenty, but I couldn't tell you why at this point, it's been too long.
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Sep 15, 2015 19:05
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General Battuta posted:I have been ordered to say this by my publicist, I am sorry: if you like BARU please drop a review and rating on Amazon! For some stupid algorithmic reason the first couple reviews matter a lot to the book's future. Why she wants me to give this information to Something Awful I don't know You're also way bumped in visibility every 25 reviews, apparently. Unless they changed that.
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Sep 15, 2015 19:08
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General Battuta posted:I have been ordered to say this by my publicist, I am sorry: if you like BARU please drop a review and rating on Amazon! For some stupid algorithmic reason the first couple reviews matter a lot to the book's future. Why she wants me to give this information to Something Awful I don't know You've probably answered this already/ it has nothing to do with you, but I just tried to buy the book on Amazon and it's not out in the UK til the 24th of this month; is that something the author gets control of/ is kept in the loop about?
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Sep 15, 2015 19:32
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Kept in the loop, but no control. I couldn't even control my UK title!
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Sep 15, 2015 19:45
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Whenever the question is "does the author have power over X", it's always "nope" Amazon is probably smart enough to know I haven't bought the book through them (I don't do e-readers so I got a hardcover through another retailer, also shipping to Finland all the way from the US/UK would've cost a bunch) and leaving a review when I haven't even read the book yet is bad form anyway. The ebook probably isn't even available if I had my real address on Amazon. But I'll do one on goodreads! Sulphagnist fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Sep 15, 2015 |
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Sep 15, 2015 20:05
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drat, that's a shame! Is it still feasible to change address to get round amazon's region restrictions? I have no idea how to get my hands on a US one.
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Sep 15, 2015 20:05
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General Battuta posted:I have been ordered to say this by my publicist, I am sorry: if you like BARU please drop a review and rating on Amazon! For some stupid algorithmic reason the first couple reviews matter a lot to the book's future. Why she wants me to give this information to Something Awful I don't know The way amazon's review voting system works, people read through the reviews till they hit one that sounds like it was written by someone with a brain, then they stop. So that prioritizes early reviews. My next favorite Tim powers book after Declare is On Stranger Tides but I've been on a Caribbean pirate kick lately.
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Sep 15, 2015 20:27
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anilEhilated posted:I will now! Let me know if you like it! I loved it but my reaction may not have been typical.
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Sep 15, 2015 20:28
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The Anubis Gates is good in a puppy way, but he just crams so much stuff in there that it can be a little much. Time travel, paradoxes, wolfmen, magic, cults, poetry... His other books have the supernatural elements but they're much more focused in how they're used.
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Sep 15, 2015 20:32
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General Battuta posted:Also holy poo poo Declare is good, thank you to everyone who recommended it. Is Anubis Gates half as strong? Declare is his best work, but I'd say everything he's written is worth the read. I'd agree that the Fault Line books are closest in quality, but nothing else quite has Declare's style. I'm also a big fan of Three Days to Never, but I'd probably start with the fault line trilogy.
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Sep 15, 2015 20:36
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