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AllTerrineVehicle posted:They might be back at full strength if you just look at the numbers, but the Wardens took big casualties and difference between even a fairly experienced wizard and a veteran combat wizard is huge. Morgan alone was probably worth a dozen or more wizards by himself. Losing combat trained wizards also makes it much harder to train up new ones (see: they asked Harry loving Dresden to help educate recruits) Morgan almost took out the head Red Court vampire by himself didn't he? But asking Harry to train new warden recruits in battle magic, while it probably means they were more strained than usual isn't that much of a stretch. Dude can throw blasts of fire around like crazy. It was the fact he was teaching teenagers that really showed how hurt they were. Didn't Butcher say we're going to see more of the White Council fighting in the next few books? The Merlin seems like he'd be a terrifying individual, and it's not like the rest of the head guys are slouches.
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Apr 22, 2016 18:47
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Rygar201 posted:Well it matters in the sense that saying certain things are the case when they aren't definitively so muddled the conversation. Well, Peabody definitely was, and while not a *senior* council member he was basically the senior administrative aide. And he's the one that dropped mordite bomb during the Red Court peace talks (I don't recall if mordite is an actual Outsider or just "something" from Outside the Gates).
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Apr 22, 2016 19:08
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seaborgium posted:Morgan almost took out the head Red Court vampire by himself didn't he? But asking Harry to train new warden recruits in battle magic, while it probably means they were more strained than usual isn't that much of a stretch. Dude can throw blasts of fire around like crazy. It was the fact he was teaching teenagers that really showed how hurt they were. I mean we've seen Ebenezer and Listens-to-Wind do combat magic, I'd love to see The Merlin, Ancient Mai, and The Gatekeeper throw down.
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Apr 22, 2016 19:11
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We do not know whether Peabody was iNfected or what. I think it's premature to assume he was. Butcher has, unless I'm misremembering, that we'll see some more of the Senior Council cutting loose on screen. I want to say as soon as Peace Talks, but I'm less confident that.
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Apr 22, 2016 19:31
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Speaking of Peace Talks, has there been anything on when it might be released?
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Apr 22, 2016 20:57
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I'm listening to Ghost Story again right now, and Harry actually talks about the state of the White Council. Butters claims he's a warden while trying to rescue Forthill and claims they were weakened by the war. Harry inner monologues that it's actually probably the opposite, because while they suffered losses, they replaced them with battle hardened young wizards. So, at least in Harry's opinion, they're not in a worse place.
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Apr 22, 2016 21:20
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Russad posted:I'm listening to Ghost Story again right now, and Harry actually talks about the state of the White Council. Butters claims he's a warden while trying to rescue Forthill and claims they were weakened by the war. Harry inner monologues that it's actually probably the opposite, because while they suffered losses, they replaced them with battle hardened young wizards. So, at least in Harry's opinion, they're not in a worse place. Yeah but Harry is an idiot.
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Apr 22, 2016 21:47
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The younger wizards actually like Harry though so it might be in his favor
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Apr 22, 2016 21:49
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ConfusedUs posted:Yeah but Harry is an idiot. Harry is a living breathing example of that though. Harry was tempered by constant fighting even before he became a warden and was extremely capable for his age. The White Council hadn't been in an all-out fight for a while and had a lot of relatively inexperienced dudes for their Morgans.
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Apr 22, 2016 21:51
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seaborgium posted:Morgan almost took out the head Red Court vampire by himself didn't he? Came within 10' or maybe 10 yards of the Red King, I think. I may be mistake, but I think Luccio said that the vampires called outsiders as a counterattack and that's what kept Morgan from dealing a killing blow.
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Apr 23, 2016 07:19
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I've been away for a while, any news on the next book?
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Apr 24, 2016 01:32
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MeLKoR posted:I've been away for a while, any news on the next book? Back to the timeless void with you!
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Apr 24, 2016 02:03
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MeLKoR posted:I've been away for a while, any news on the next book? "Jim Butcher's Site posted:As of April 2016: Jim is currently writing Peace Talks (#16), so we’re still quite a ways from having a release date. We’ll announce any updates in the news blog.
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Apr 24, 2016 03:58
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Good news though: quote:
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Apr 24, 2016 05:08
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is currently in production. Issue #1 is slated for April 20th, 2016.
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From some of the book tour questions he answered, I got the impression that he wanted to try to tie up (or at least address) tons of existing plot threads that the past couple books were able to temporarily ignore, so I'm not surprised by the delay. Hopefully peace talks isn't Butcher's "meereenese knot". The structure of the series is starting to do it a disservice now that Butcher is maintaining more long-term plot threads---each book generally spans only a few days of time, and plot wont occur offscreen, so he has to contrive a reason for Dresden to have waited so long to pick up a phone and call his drat grandfather (for instance), despite all the time he had to do so between Skin Game and Peace Talks. Slanderer fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Apr 24, 2016 |
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Apr 24, 2016 05:10
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Slanderer posted:From some of the book tour questions he answered, I got the impression that he wanted to try to tie up (or at least address) tons of existing plot threads that the past couple books were able to temporarily ignore, so I'm not surprised by the delay. Hopefully peace talks isn't Butcher's "meereenese knot". Not too many phone lines out there on Demonreach. And I doubt he had his magic rock phone. From the way its described, I don't think he would have been able to make another and couldn't really leave to make contact any other way.
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Apr 24, 2016 06:39
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Slanderer posted:From some of the book tour questions he answered, I got the impression that he wanted to try to tie up (or at least address) tons of existing plot threads that the past couple books were able to temporarily ignore, so I'm not surprised by the delay. Hopefully peace talks isn't Butcher's "meereenese knot". If plot didn't happen offscreen, we wouldn't have the Lethal Weapon style opening to Grave Peril.
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Apr 24, 2016 06:59
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Just launched into my quasi-annual re-read of Dresden. Man the first book has a very different feel than the rest. I don't know exactly how to articulate it, but I can totally feel the evolution (or de-evolution; given that I just re-read Aeronaut's Windlass) of Butcher's style
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Apr 24, 2016 12:19
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jivjov posted:Just launched into my quasi-annual re-read of Dresden. Man the first book has a very different feel than the rest. I don't know exactly how to articulate it, but I can totally feel the evolution (or de-evolution; given that I just re-read Aeronaut's Windlass) of Butcher's style It's very noticable it's his first book basically. It reads like badly written fanfiction at this point, and Butcher isn't exactly the best wordsmith on the planet even at the height of his writing. Personally I only listen to the Audio Books of the early books any more, Marsters makes the bad prose a lot more bearable.
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Apr 25, 2016 08:54
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jivjov posted:Just launched into my quasi-annual re-read of Dresden. Man the first book has a very different feel than the rest. I don't know exactly how to articulate it, but I can totally feel the evolution (or de-evolution; given that I just re-read Aeronaut's Windlass) of Butcher's style How do you have time to read anything else? Well, maybe you don't need to..
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Apr 25, 2016 10:53
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mallamp posted:How do you have time to read anything else?
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Apr 25, 2016 12:23
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The Dresden Co-Op card game just announced a stretch goal that it will likely make. When the campaign ends in mid-May backers will receive early access to a preview chapter from Peace Talks. Maybe this also means the book is further along than I thought?
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Apr 25, 2016 14:55
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Fritzler posted:The Dresden Co-Op card game just announced a stretch goal that it will likely make. When the campaign ends in mid-May backers will receive early access to a preview chapter from Peace Talks. Maybe this also means the book is further along than I thought? It's...the first chapter. I suspect he's had it written for a long time and wouldn't read anything in to how far along he is based on that.
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Apr 25, 2016 15:04
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Slanderer posted:The structure of the series is starting to do it a disservice now that Butcher is maintaining more long-term plot threads---each book generally spans only a few days of time, and plot wont occur offscreen, so he has to contrive a reason for Dresden to have waited so long to pick up a phone and call his drat grandfather (for instance), despite all the time he had to do so between Skin Game and Peace Talks. I don't think this is really as big of an issue as you make it out to be--he can totally have stuff happen off-screen and then either have Dresden summarize or, if it's actually important, do a flash-back. He's done it before. You're right though that he can't simply have a book full of flash-backs, so he'd have to pick the two or three important out-book events to flash during any given story.
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Apr 25, 2016 15:30
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mallamp posted:How do you have time to read anything else? I've always been a fast reader, doubly so with a book I'm re-reading. Storm Front took me less than 2 full days.
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Apr 25, 2016 16:44
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Dresden books are not exactly heavy reads. I think I finished Skin Game in a couple of hours. If I had a longer commute I could probably knock one out every day or two on a reread.
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Apr 25, 2016 16:48
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And I thought I read fast.
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Apr 25, 2016 17:08
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ImpAtom posted:Dresden books are not exactly heavy reads. I think I finished Skin Game in a couple of hours. If I had a longer commute I could probably knock one out every day or two on a reread. Well that depends, everything is a heavy read if you've hosed up your brain with internet and videogames (bonus pts for depression)
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Apr 25, 2016 17:57
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ImpAtom posted:Dresden books are not exactly heavy reads. I think I finished Skin Game in a couple of hours. If I had a longer commute I could probably knock one out every day or two on a reread. A couple of hours? Like...how? From some math, and a word count pulled from Reddit that could be bullshit, that's about 21 words per second. Or if you were rounding, and it were 3 hours, 14 words per second. How could you retain any knowledge if your eyes are making the briefest stop off over large chunks of text?
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Apr 25, 2016 18:23
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thrawn527 posted:A couple of hours? Like...how? From some math, and a word count pulled from Reddit that could be bullshit, that's about 21 words per second. Or if you were rounding, and it were 3 hours, 14 words per second. You can skip the parts where he describes the characters for the sixteenth time, that's gotta be like 100 pages off each book
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Apr 25, 2016 18:27
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thrawn527 posted:A couple of hours? Like...how? From some math, and a word count pulled from Reddit that could be bullshit, that's about 21 words per second. Or if you were rounding, and it were 3 hours, 14 words per second. I used words poorly and meant more around 4-ish. (I also glazed over the Murphy sex dream section but I don't think anyone can blame me for that!)
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Apr 25, 2016 18:33
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ImpAtom posted:I used words poorly and meant more around 4-ish. Don't begrudge us Goons our Murphy-demon sex fetishes, thanks!
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Apr 25, 2016 18:55
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thrawn527 posted:A couple of hours? Like...how? From some math, and a word count pulled from Reddit that could be bullshit, that's about 21 words per second. Or if you were rounding, and it were 3 hours, 14 words per second. You'd be surprised. I just did a quick reading speed test at staples.com (which is an excerpt from War of the Worlds) and got 1,262 words per minute (21.03 words per second, or more or less exactly your number) while answering the three questions they had after the excerpt correctly. http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/marketing/technology-research-centers/ereaders/speed-reader/
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Apr 25, 2016 19:07
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ulmont posted:You'd be surprised. I just did a quick reading speed test at staples.com (which is an excerpt from War of the Worlds) and got 1,262 words per minute (21.03 words per second, or more or less exactly your number) while answering the three questions they had after the excerpt correctly. I took it. It confirmed that I'm a slow reader. I'm kinda peeved about how it presents the readers' speed, though. It's got speeds broken out by grade-level, but speed does not equal comprehension. I regularly read technical manuals; comparing my speed to an eighth grader is... a pretty unusual and meaningless metric?
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Apr 25, 2016 19:43
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Blasphemeral posted:I took it. It confirmed that I'm a slow reader. I'm kinda peeved about how it presents the readers' speed, though. It's got speeds broken out by grade-level, but speed does not equal comprehension. I regularly read technical manuals; comparing my speed to an eighth grader is... a pretty unusual and meaningless metric? Or you read like an eight grader and have the vocabulary of an engineer? There's different metrics, it's not trying to destroy your ego, just judge the speed at which you parse text.
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Apr 25, 2016 20:14
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"You read like a child" is kind of insulting, and the results would be better presented as a percentile among adult readers
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Apr 25, 2016 20:47
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Magres posted:"You read like a child" is kind of insulting, and the results would be better presented as a percentile among adult readers That is how it displays the results, "% faster/slower than the national average". Then it let's you check where your reading speed lands on a continuum that lists the average reading speed for various groups, like "8th grade students," "average college students", "average adults", etc. Note that the average adult only had a WPM score of 50 more than an 8th grade student, and is actually 50 less than 11th grade students. High-scoring college students have a WPM 500 points higher than the average adult, apparently. Blasphemeral posted:I took it. It confirmed that I'm a slow reader. I'm kinda peeved about how it presents the readers' speed, though. It's got speeds broken out by grade-level, but speed does not equal comprehension. I regularly read technical manuals; comparing my speed to an eighth grader is... a pretty unusual and meaningless metric? Based on the fact that you have to answer questions to determine how much you actually comprehended of the material you read, I'd assume these values have a comprehension baseline baked into them.
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Apr 25, 2016 20:57
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Klungar posted:Based on the fact that you have to answer questions to determine how much you actually comprehended of the material you read, I'd assume these values have a comprehension baseline baked into them. Nope, it appears to be just a gate. That's what's insulting about it--it appears to be judging you based on things that it isn't equipped to judge you on. Magres posted:"You read like a child" is kind of insulting, and the results would be better presented as a percentile among adult readers Yeah, this is what I'm saying. I don't need validation from an anonymous and flawed test. I'm saying it could be improved in a specific way.
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Apr 25, 2016 21:13
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Who gives a poo poo? Here is something, try feeding a Dresden Files novel into a Word Processor and look at the statistic for the reading level after running a spell check on it.
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Apr 25, 2016 21:19
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Blasphemeral posted:I took it. It confirmed that I'm a slow reader. I'm kinda peeved about how it presents the readers' speed, though. It's got speeds broken out by grade-level, but speed does not equal comprehension. I regularly read technical manuals; comparing my speed to an eighth grader is... a pretty unusual and meaningless metric? Sorry that staples has insulted your personal honor, I guess
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Apr 25, 2016 22:30
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