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Wheat Loaf posted:Did Sanderson say he was going to go in an urban fantasy direction with the next (or a future) instalment of Mistborn? I think I've read that. Assuming its not changed, It was planned to be a modern setting with a SWAT team that has allomantic powers. They'd get into fights with what you'd expect them to be deployed against. I... really like the sound of it and hope it will still be a thing. E: Started reading Rivers of London before getting distracted by Sanderson, pleasantly surprised by this first book so far. I've heard it keeps being good/gets better? Thyrork fucked around with this message at 12:58 on Oct 10, 2015 |
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Oct 10, 2015 12:55
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I'm just a little way into The Rhesus Chart but I've not really been enjoying it as much as the previous ones. I'm not sure why. The style isn't appreciably different or anything. I'm sure I'll get into it as I go along, but that normally happens with the first book in a series, not the fifth one. 
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Oct 10, 2015 13:35
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jivjov posted:Read a bit more of Aeronaut..and I picked up on something that annoys me greatly. Butcher can't decide if he wants to use "Fleet" or "the Fleet". In one passage, someone talks about "the types of maps used by the Fleet", in another someone says that "they left Fleet for a reason" or somesuch. Its just the way nautical types use the words Fleet and Squadron. "The Fleet" is used to refer to the physical ships, "Fleet" means the people in charge of said ships. Sailors are weird. You meet up with "The 7th Fleet". But you meet up with Captain so-and-so at "Fleet" HQ. Hell a perfect example is how we refer to particular buildings in Pearl Harbor. "Going over to Squadron" meant that you were going to the one building where all the commodores for all the submarine squadrons had their offices. Same with "Going to Fleet" meaning going across the street to the big admiralty compound.
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Oct 10, 2015 14:18
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So the fleet is on fleek
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Oct 10, 2015 15:45
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I spent half the book thinking Journeyman was the guy's title/rank, and then the second half thinking it was probably his name but not being entirely sure. Much worse then spires or habbles.
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Oct 11, 2015 10:37
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Pretty sure it's a nickname.
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Oct 11, 2015 14:32
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Yet another Alera callback in Aeronaut. Rowl pulls the same trick with the other group of cats that Fidelias did with the Marat. demanding to speak with the leader, getting mouthed off to, knocking out the mouther, and repeating the request to the other guard I'm not sure how I feel about it...it was a cute joke once, lazy twice.
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Oct 12, 2015 02:34
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jivjov posted:Yet another Alera callback in Aeronaut. Rowl pulls the same trick with the other group of cats that Fidelias did with the Marat. demanding to speak with the leader, getting mouthed off to, knocking out the mouther, and repeating the request to the other guard Not every reader reads every series. Dresden has done it too, IIRC
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Oct 12, 2015 02:50
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Anyone notice that despite grim being described wearing a hat in every scene his outfit is described he does not have one on the cover.
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Oct 12, 2015 03:38
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Clinton1011 posted:Anyone notice that despite grim being described wearing a hat in every scene his outfit is described he does not have one on the cover. As McGrath corrected me on twitter, it's in his right hand.
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Oct 12, 2015 03:53
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Clinton1011 posted:Anyone notice that despite grim being described wearing a hat in every scene his outfit is described he does not have one on the cover. I didn't notice that. I think it might be a reverse Dresden meta joke. Dresden covers always have a hat, yet he never wears hats. So Grimm, always having a hat, doesn't have it on his head on the cover.
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Oct 12, 2015 04:12
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Rygar201 posted:Not every reader reads every series. Dresden has done it too, IIRC Besides, dude's written twenty-some books. I'd be more surprised if he didn't repeat himself occasionally.
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Oct 12, 2015 05:09
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I think the problem I'm having with The Rhesus Chart so far is I don't really like the bits where Stross switches to third-person and leaves Bob to one side. I like Bob and Bob's perspective; sure, such interludes are never long, and it's something Stross has done before, but previously it's always felt more like something that Bob is relating second-hand, rather than just a, "Meanwhile, miles away..." thing. I think it breaks it up.
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Oct 12, 2015 13:24
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docbeard posted:Besides, dude's written twenty-some books. I'd be more surprised if he didn't repeat himself occasionally. I'm probably just overly sensitive to it because I finished an Alera read-through and jumped straight into Cinder Spires.
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Oct 12, 2015 13:57
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Wheat Loaf posted:I think the problem I'm having with The Rhesus Chart so far is I don't really like the bits where Stross switches to third-person and leaves Bob to one side. I like Bob and Bob's perspective; sure, such interludes are never long, and it's something Stross has done before, but previously it's always felt more like something that Bob is relating second-hand, rather than just a, "Meanwhile, miles away..." thing. I think it breaks it up. I was fine with that, but what got me was the sudden break in tension when Bob storms the bank...and finds out that Mhari had gotten the vampires signed up with the Laundry in the meantime. It's like the book started over from scratch at that point.
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Oct 12, 2015 23:31
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I hope you don't mind if I avoid that spoiler for now - I want to say that the chapter where all the vampires are figuring out their weaknesses was very entertaining but if I'm honest I'd much rather it had been in another book which was about them while Bob was carrying on with his own adventures. I think I'd enjoy Stross doing a vampire pastiche novel, either in his own style or aping somebody else like he did in the first three books. I'm sure it'll pick up, though. That's the chapter I've just finished.
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Oct 12, 2015 23:51
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Wheat Loaf posted:I hope you don't mind if I avoid that spoiler for now - I want to say that the chapter where all the vampires are figuring out their weaknesses was very entertaining but if I'm honest I'd much rather it had been in another book which was about them while Bob was carrying on with his own adventures. I think I'd enjoy Stross doing a vampire pastiche novel, either in his own style or aping somebody else like he did in the first three books. Not at all, since it's clear from where you are that my spoiler is yet to come.
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Oct 13, 2015 00:09
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I guess it's sort of like how in The Rook (which I otherwise enjoyed a whole lot), Myfanwy's letters to herself are a fun way of filling out the backstory for the setting, but you'll occasionally stop and think, "This isn't a letter; it's a flashback!" (if you get what I mean) and it takes you out of it a bit.
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Oct 13, 2015 01:20
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Finished the Aeronaut's Windlass and liked it well enough, far less steampunk than I feared it would be (and reasonable explanations for the steampunk tropes and gimmicks used) and even the cat thing wasn't bad. However, he runs into the same problem all books set in a (faux) Regency era with wooden ships (or their flying crystal-powered equivalent): They have to compare to Patrick O'Brian and Jane Austen for me and there aren't many writers who can favorably. Still, good enough to continue reading the series.
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Oct 13, 2015 06:40
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Decius posted:Finished the Aeronaut's Windlass and liked it well enough, far less steampunk than I feared it would be (and reasonable explanations for the steampunk tropes and gimmicks used) and even the cat thing wasn't bad. However, he runs into the same problem all books set in a (faux) Regency era with wooden ships (or their flying crystal-powered equivalent): They have to compare to Patrick O'Brian and Jane Austen for me and there aren't many writers who can favorably. Still, good enough to continue reading the series. Serious question and not being a dick here, who else compares to them? Because I would like to read those books.
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Oct 13, 2015 15:38
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So, I've been keeping tabs on the thread and noting down series recommendations here and there. So far I've checked from the OP: Alex Verus - I really liked it, still have one book to go. Daniel Faust - Not bad, first two books are quite short (~280 pages) and I read that it gets better after book 3, so I'll keep reading. Rivers of London - Ehh... Liked the first one, 2 and 3 were... alright I guess? Felix Castor - Read the first one. Boring. The Rook was loving fantastic and I can't wait for the next one to come out. Laundry Files - Couldn't make it past the first book. Not my cup of tea. So, all that introduction text is so I can ask you guys for recommendations. So far I have these on my list: Series: Pax Arcana - Elliot James Garett P.I. - Glen Cook Daniel Blackland - Greg Van Eekhout Single books: The Unnoticeables - Robert Brockway Any of those I should be getting right now? Any to avoid? Cheers. Decius posted:Finished the Aeronaut's Windlass and liked it well enough, far less steampunk than I feared it would be (and reasonable explanations for the steampunk tropes and gimmicks used) and even the cat thing wasn't bad. However, he runs into the same problem all books set in a (faux) Regency era with wooden ships (or their flying crystal-powered equivalent): They have to compare to Patrick O'Brian and Jane Austen for me and there aren't many writers who can favorably. Still, good enough to continue reading the series. I liked it well enough but yeah, after reading some O'Brian (and hell, even the first couple Temeraire books), the ship combat fell on its face, which was sad since they had been building up for a big skirmish for quite a bit of the book, or at least it certainly felt like it. Edmond Dantes fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Oct 15, 2015 |
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Oct 15, 2015 20:04
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I would avoid the books by Simon Green. He has interesting world building but he's incredibly repetitive and has no idea how to end stories.
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Oct 15, 2015 20:11
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FWIW, I tried to read "Something from the Nightside" and got rid of it before finishing the first chapter.
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Oct 15, 2015 20:17
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Edmond Dantes posted:Nightside - Simon Green In the Nightside, the Nightsidians sidled through the night. It was dark, as befitted the Nightside, for you see, in the Nightside, it is always just this side of night. (Not an actual quote, but goddamn)
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Oct 15, 2015 20:18
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So I gotta say. I gave Libriomancer two books worth of a shot and I just genuinely fuckin' hate it. A big part of it is the dryad stuff. Which is just so fuckin' bad and worse for trying to be progressive and critfailing at it. I appreciate the idea of 'sexy girlfriend archetype struggles with magical nature" but the way they handled it is awful. Trying to make the protagonist seem like the good guy because he's conflicted about it doesn't really change things. When the character involves is utterly terrified of leaving and completely dependent on the protagonist for her emotional stability, it really really loses something. Maybe the third book is better but I don't care enough to give it a shot after two books of Dominic Deegan style writing around 'morally justified sleeping with a hot woman who becomes your fantasy woman and watches Dr. Who with you." It doesn't help that the action scenes are kind of terrible. It suffers from the Green Lantern problem of having a protagonist with absurd creative power and he uses the most boring possible choices. Like in the second book he draws his electric gun every single fuckin' time which'd be great if it didn't feel like it got nosold more often than not and he doesn't vary it up. It also runs into the problem of it being so absurdly powerful that more and more counters and limitations are piled on which feels pretty arbitrary after a while. ("Oh, well, all the D&D source books are locked but the TIE-IN NOVELS are not" just makes everyone feels super-dumb. )
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Oct 15, 2015 20:18
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ImpAtom posted:So I gotta say. I gave Libriomancer two books worth of a shot and I just genuinely fuckin' hate it. For what it's worth, it's much like Dresden in terms of quality. Book one is formulaic. It has some issues, but overall is alright. It sets the scene for the series as a whole. Book two tries to do more of the same, but gets too caught up in the undesirable elements from first book without having enough new stuff to distract from it. Book three stomps on all the bullshit from the first two and ends on a Big Fuckin' Deal.
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Oct 15, 2015 20:23
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Alright, looks like Nightside is out of the list.  I tried doing a repetitive joke post and just couldn't; writing creatively in another language is a whole other ballpark apparently. 
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Oct 15, 2015 20:33
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Edmond Dantes posted:So, all that introduction text is so I can ask you guys for recommendations. So far I have these on my list: I really liked Glen Cook's "Garrett, P.I." series. It feels similar to Dresden, in the sense that the hero solves every problem by provoking the bad guys until they attack him, and then he keeps getting hit in the face until he somehow wins (usually with a lot of outside help). He doesn't have much personal power, so he has to actually be a little clever sometimes and rely on his allies rather than just setting everything on fire like Dresden does. The overall story doesn't really go anywhere as I recall though, the books are just endless episodes of "Garrett takes a case, gets beat up a lot and ends up richer/more powerful by the end". Unlike Dresden, he quite often gets paid. His other series, "The Black Company" is quite interesting too, though that's just plain fantasy and not appropriate for this thread I guess.
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Oct 15, 2015 20:44
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I ended up quite enjoying Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel José Elder. It's slow to start, and you need to be able to put up with the author grumbling about how there's too many hipsters in New York, but it's not bad for a début novel.
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Oct 15, 2015 20:55
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I really enjoyed A Madness of Angels, which is the first Matthew Swift book. The writing style was a breath of fresh air compared to the other UF I've been reading lately. https://www.goodreads.com/series/46662-matthew-swift
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Oct 15, 2015 21:09
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Apoffys posted:I really liked Glen Cook's "Garrett, P.I." series. It feels similar to Dresden, in the sense that the hero solves every problem by provoking the bad guys until they attack him, and then he keeps getting hit in the face until he somehow wins (usually with a lot of outside help). He doesn't have much personal power, so he has to actually be a little clever sometimes and rely on his allies rather than just setting everything on fire like Dresden does. The overall story doesn't really go anywhere as I recall though, the books are just endless episodes of "Garrett takes a case, gets beat up a lot and ends up richer/more powerful by the end". Unlike Dresden, he quite often gets paid. That being said, these books definitely aren't for everyone and are best read interspersed with something else since there is a lot of them and it's fairly easy to get burned out.
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Oct 15, 2015 23:04
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Regarding Green and the Nightside series: I agree with the general consensus, but I did quite enjoy the single-book spinoff Drinking Midnight Wine. Less repetitive (possibly due to being just the one book) and way less up its own rear end about being so-edgy. Not great but a good read. I seem to be the only person who's read it though.
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Oct 15, 2015 23:43
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Lemniscate Blue posted:Regarding Green and the Nightside series: I agree with the general consensus, but I did quite enjoy the single-book spinoff Drinking Midnight Wine. Less repetitive (possibly due to being just the one book) and way less up its own rear end about being so-edgy. Not great but a good read. Nah, I read it too, and agree with you. I think I've read just about every book he's had in print in the US except for the Ghost series. I'm starting to get weary of the Droods and the Nightside were pretty much all downhill after the war with Lilith. I like the world building, but the narrative is so by the numbers and I've been less and less into his books. I think I'm pretty much done with his stuff for a while. Of the stuff I like, I'm a fan of his Hawk and Fisher books, Drinking Midnight Wine and Shadows Fall, all early books of his. His Space Opera series (Deathstalker) was pretty fun too, and probably the most character driven and thematically dark stuff he's done. Which is why his later stuff is so disappointing. It's like he figured out how to make it all commercially successful and just gave up.
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Oct 16, 2015 01:36
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Droods: Book 1: I have invincible super armor. Oh poo poo, something got past my invincible super armor and my family wants me dead. Fortunately, I can just kill everyone with my invincible super-armor. Book 2: I have new invincible super armor. Fortunately, I can kill everyone with my invincible superarmor without getting a scratch. Oh no! Evil Elves got some invincible super armor! what a twist! Book 2: I have invincible super armor. Fortunately, I can kill everyone with my invincible superarmor without getting a scratch. Oh, and the elves didn't do poo poo with their invincible super armor.
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Oct 16, 2015 01:41
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Deathstalker was good right up until the end of the first book, which went something like "And then the Madness Maze made them all into awesometastic superheroes and they won". Shame, really; I loved the worldbuilding.
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Oct 16, 2015 01:44
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Khizan posted:Deathstalker was good right up until the end of the first book, which went something like "And then the Madness Maze made them all into awesometastic superheroes and they won". Shame, really; I loved the worldbuilding. Yeah, that bothered me, but I kept reading and started to get into their struggle against slowly losing their humanity. And I always felt the Shub and the Hadenmen were some of the best representation of how loving alien hostile machine intelligences really would be to us. That and the fact they both came from humanity.
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Oct 16, 2015 01:48
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Edmond Dantes posted:So, I've been keeping tabs on the thread and noting down series recommendations here and there. Kate griffin midnight mayor series.
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Oct 16, 2015 01:54
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London Falling is my favorite of the stuff recommended in the OP. It is reasonably scary and the stakes feel very high. I wasn't sure how necessary the second book was, but it surprised me in where it went.
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Oct 16, 2015 02:15
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The Bigfoot stories aren't going to be exclusive to the $35 hardcover, are they? I mean, as far as we know, they'll get re-re-printed in Side Jobs 2 eventually, right?
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Oct 16, 2015 02:17
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There's also a 6-7 dollar Kindle version of that book.
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Oct 16, 2015 02:20
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