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I realise that Larry Correia is a bit of a piece of a work these days with all that Sad Puppies stuff and associating with men like Vox Day, but is his Monster Hunters series any good? I was reading the back cover in the bookshop and it looked like something I might enjoy (I've never really looked before because it had a Baen logo on the spine, and I associate Baen with military SF which I'm a bit take it or leave it on these days).
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Jul 27, 2016 03:05
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Wheat Loaf posted:I realise that Larry Correia is a bit of a piece of a work these days with all that Sad Puppies stuff and associating with men like Vox Day, but is his Monster Hunters series any good? I was reading the back cover in the bookshop and it looked like something I might enjoy (I've never really looked before because it had a Baen logo on the spine, and I associate Baen with military SF which I'm a bit take it or leave it on these days). Monster Hunters International was okay. I had a glance at the next one, but learning how much of a piece of work he is kinda turned me off of his writing.
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Jul 27, 2016 03:11
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Eh, I didn't hate them but it's dependent on how well you can put up with a mild-mannered accountant who just happens to be an award-winning sharpshooter who can kill a werewolf with his bare hands and wins the heart of the hot chick from her handsome talented boyfriend and who is also fated to either save or destroy the world. The action pieces are exciting, the characterization and dialogue are a little weak, and the white trash elves are pretty cool. You can check out sample chapters free online at Baen.com to see if it is your cup of tea.
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Jul 27, 2016 03:12
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Wheat Loaf posted:I realise that Larry Correia is a bit of a piece of a work these days with all that Sad Puppies stuff and associating with men like Vox Day, but is his Monster Hunters series any good? I was reading the back cover in the bookshop and it looked like something I might enjoy (I've never really looked before because it had a Baen logo on the spine, and I associate Baen with military SF which I'm a bit take it or leave it on these days). The guy who narrates the audio book does a pretty good job if you'd rather listen. There's a lot of gun porn, and it definitely leans heavily to the right politically but if you can get over that it's pretty decent.
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Jul 27, 2016 03:32
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wheatpuppy posted:Eh, I didn't hate them but it's dependent on how well you can put up with a mild-mannered accountant who just happens to be an award-winning sharpshooter who can kill a werewolf with his bare hands and wins the heart of the hot chick from her handsome talented boyfriend and who is also fated to either save or destroy the world. The action pieces are exciting, the characterization and dialogue are a little weak, and the white trash elves are pretty cool. It should be noted that before selling enough books to become a full-time writer, Correia was an accountant  .If you're really interested, the Kindle version of the first book is free.
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Jul 27, 2016 03:40
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Wheat Loaf posted:I realise that Larry Correia is a bit of a piece of a work these days with all that Sad Puppies stuff and associating with men like Vox Day, but is his Monster Hunters series any good? I was reading the back cover in the bookshop and it looked like something I might enjoy (I've never really looked before because it had a Baen logo on the spine, and I associate Baen with military SF which I'm a bit take it or leave it on these days). It's about rugged individualist conservative action heroes who don't need any stinking government and will monologue about it at every loving possible opportunity...except they're fully funded by government grants and make their entire living off of tax money. And Correia shows every sign of being blissfully unaware of the contadiction he, himself wrote. Also, there's lots of hot steamy sex, if you're the kind of person who jacks off to elaborate descriptions of guns. And I say this as someone who owns and likes guns. Even for me, that poo poo is absurd.
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Jul 27, 2016 04:12
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I read one of those Monster Hunter books out of sequence because I like the urban fantasy genre and it seemed up my alley. It kinda sucked. Everything Stonecutter Joe said above is true, though the one I read also included an EVIL villain that was as dumb and thinly realized as a cardboard silhouette target - fitting actually. Read the Sandman Slim stuff from Richard Kadrey instead, if you haven't already.
Wizchine fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Jul 27, 2016 |
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Jul 27, 2016 04:25
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Wheat Loaf posted:I realise that Larry Correia is a bit of a piece of a work these days with all that Sad Puppies stuff and associating with men like Vox Day, but is his Monster Hunters series any good? I was reading the back cover in the bookshop and it looked like something I might enjoy (I've never really looked before because it had a Baen logo on the spine, and I associate Baen with military SF which I'm a bit take it or leave it on these days). I found the Monster hunter series unreadably terrible on every level, and I ejected pretty much immediately after the elite spec-ops team showed up wearing Sluggy Freelance badges. They are dipshit gunporn fanwank to an astonishingly masturbatory level. His Grimnoir series is pretty decent modern fantasy, though, and the audiobooks are narrated extremely well by Bronson "Cousin Balki" Pinchot, of all people.
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Jul 27, 2016 09:12
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Wizchine posted:I read one of those Monster Hunter books out of sequence because I like the urban fantasy genre and it seemed up my alley. It kinda sucked. Everything Stonecutter Joe said above is true, though the one I read also included an EVIL villain that was as dumb and thinly realized as a cardboard silhouette target - fitting actually. Read the Sandman Slim stuff from Richard Kadrey instead, if you haven't already. Richard Kadrey's stuff is okay filler to read in general. The Everything Box was pretty good just as a stand-alone thing.
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Jul 27, 2016 12:14
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Wade Wilson posted:Richard Kadrey's stuff is okay filler to read in general. I've actually been rereading sandman slim and was reminded it's a really fun series even if it's incredibly cliche. It also reads better back to back when you can easily remember what terrible things have happen to him.
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Jul 27, 2016 13:20
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Hi All - longtime goon and occasional visitor to this thread. I've read pretty much everything on the recommendation list (except for the Iron Druid), and then I ran into a bad run of garbage UF that made me say "I can write better than that." So to put my money where my mouth is, I've written a book. I'm looking to send out some digital advance review copies, and am happy to send one to any goon that messages me (please include an e-mail address that I can send the file to). Meet Julian Adler, twenty-something, married, and London's one-and-only Dreamwalker. Striding through the Dreamscape, he battles the worst monsters that a sleeping metropolis can imagine, but flinging fire and swinging steel he makes them burn and bleed. Slaying imaginary monsters doesn't pay very well though, so Julian spends his days at an ordinary office job. Ordinary that is, until a beautiful witch walks through his office door and tries to put a spell on him. When the spell goes wrong, an eldritch horror is unleashed into the real world, bodies start to pile up, and Julian's magic is the only thing that might be able to send it, shrieking, back into oblivion. Can Julian find a way to lure the demon back to the Dreamscape, or will it drag his family, his city, and the entire world into a nightmare that never ends? 
gerg_861 fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Jul 27, 2016 |
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Jul 27, 2016 21:49
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Digital? fake edit: yes, two, right there on the cover
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Jul 27, 2016 22:07
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I'm interested in your book (jbelton@gmail.com), but man all I can think of looking at that image is
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Jul 28, 2016 01:20
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I'm interested but don't have platinum, unfortunately.
Aerdan fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Jul 28, 2016 |
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Jul 28, 2016 02:02
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So I'm exactly 25% of the way through Ghost Story right now and it's kind of... Bad? Just really tedious and with nothing much happening. Feels kind of phoned in, almost like it's by a different author. Really hope it's not representative of future books. I've really enjoyed every book from #4 up to now. Hoping it gets better, cause I'm finding myself zoning out at the moment. The one thing I'm looking forward to is the resolution. Wondering how that's going to pan out, without mentioning any spoilers.
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Jul 29, 2016 08:12
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Mr Scumbag posted:So I'm exactly 25% of the way through Ghost Story right now and it's kind of... Bad? Just really tedious and with nothing much happening. Feels kind of phoned in, almost like it's by a different author. Really hope it's not representative of future books. Ghost Story, for me, held up much better on a second reading, after I had read Cold Days. I get the feeling that it is intentionally a slower-paced book - it's meant to be a breather between Changes and Cold Days, as well as the first half and second half of the series as a whole. Almost everything that was set up in Grave Peril is resolved in Changes, and Cold Days sets the pieces for the second half of the series, so we're given an interlude with a smaller-scale villain and a more personal, reflective narrative.
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Jul 29, 2016 12:26
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MildShow posted:Ghost Story, for me, held up much better on a second reading, after I had read Cold Days. I get the feeling that it is intentionally a slower-paced book - it's meant to be a breather between Changes and Cold Days, as well as the first half and second half of the series as a whole. Almost everything that was set up in Grave Peril is resolved in Changes, and Cold Days sets the pieces for the second half of the series, so we're given an interlude with a smaller-scale villain and a more personal, reflective narrative. Pretty good reasons, actually. I think a lot of my frustration comes from being close to finishing the existing books and the prospect of having to wait for more. I kind of want to get as much action/revelations/plot advancement as I can before I have to start waiting 1-2 years for each book. That, and the fact that so much changed (ba-dum-tish) in the last book. I was hoping for a little more stability from this one, but if it's essentially the halfway mark of the saga it makes sense for it to be the way it is. I'm a little further now and things have coalesced a little and it's starting to make a little more sense. Sometimes Butcher's plodding writing style and over-exposition really grates me, though, and the start of Ghost Story has an awful lot of that.
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Jul 29, 2016 16:04
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Ornamented Death posted:It should be noted that before selling enough books to become a full-time writer, Correia was an accountant To be honest, it's starting to sound like the sort of thing my dad would prefer, since he is also a right-wing accountant.
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Jul 29, 2016 17:12
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Late to the party and no plat, but if you could send a copy to REMOVED I'd be happy. GET INTO DA CHOPPA fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Aug 1, 2016 |
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Jul 31, 2016 22:42
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I've been slowly making my way through the recommended series in the OP as audiobooks while I walk the dog. I enjoyed Rivers of London and I just finished the most recent Alex Verus book. Verus was an enjoyable listen, albeit each book felt quite 1-track and any meta links between the books sure felt like they would pop up 1 book, payoff the next and then disappear entirely (rip air elemental and that merc that captured the spider). I suppose it's a bit unfair for me to compare it to Dresden as much but the OP seems to set it up as the most direct comparison. Also regarding the most recent book, Burned, man was that final 1/3rd a rollercoaster of anticipated payoffs and wet farts. I expected the artifact to be some sort of ticking time bomb and wiping out most of the light council or something after I heard whispers in this thread that it was 'Changes'-level stuff but ultimately it was something completely different geez. Maybe I was falsely anticipating a Sanderson-avalanche. Still, I'm eager to see what the new dynamic looks like and if we'll finally get to see Verus and Ann get together, or get together with Rachel, or get together with that white council dude who's name I'm forgetting right now. I think I liked Rivers of London better as a world but Alex Verus was a more straightforward listen to accompany my dog walks. Sorry about the rambling stream of consciousness thoughts I've been working my way through a book a month for the past year. I suppose The Rook is next? I don't suppose there's something a bit more fun and filled with a bit more action you guys thing I should switch to next beyond the OP suggestions? Mr Scumbag posted:So I'm exactly 25% of the way through Ghost Story right now and it's kind of... Bad? Just really tedious and with nothing much happening. Feels kind of phoned in, almost like it's by a different author. Really hope it's not representative of future books. A lot of people feel this way so don't feel too guilty. Like MildShow mentioned, Ghost Story is much more palatable if you consider it to be the 'interlude' of a 3-book arc starting from Changes and ending with Cold Days.
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Aug 1, 2016 04:58
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For Alex Verus, Jacka clearly had to remove/weaken some things from the after the first book, to make him far less powerful. The tame Air Elemental was one of them, and not even the most overpowered one.
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Aug 1, 2016 12:56
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Xtanstic posted:Sorry about the rambling stream of consciousness thoughts I've been working my way through a book a month for the past year. I suppose The Rook is next? I don't suppose there's something a bit more fun and filled with a bit more action you guys thing I should switch to next beyond the OP suggestions? I think The Rook would actually fit there - not all action, certainly, but it is great fun.
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Aug 1, 2016 13:08
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I started listening to Library at Mount Char and I'm about halfway through and still have no clue what's going on.
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Aug 1, 2016 13:36
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Daric posted:I started listening to Library at Mount Char and I'm about halfway through and still have no clue what's going on. Don't worry, that's entirely normal.
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Aug 1, 2016 14:10
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Decius posted:For Alex Verus, Jacka clearly had to remove/weaken some things from the after the first book, to make him far less powerful. The tame Air Elemental was one of them, and not even the most overpowered one. Yeah for sure. When he got rid of it I understood why he was doing it. I can't remember the other things that got eventually written out, can you remind me? I think that was one thing that I really enjoyed from Book 1 was that Verus was a fully formed active individual and there has been no upwards power growth when in fact the opposite occurred. Beyond armor and more friends I suppose. Wheat Loaf posted:I think The Rook would actually fit there - not all action, certainly, but it is great fun. Excellent!
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Aug 1, 2016 16:08
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Daric posted:I started listening to Library at Mount Char and I'm about halfway through and still have no clue what's going on. Keep going, it all comes together beautifully. Or doesn't. I'm still not sure. I think the book broke my brain a little.
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Aug 1, 2016 16:53
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Xtanstic posted:A lot of people feel this way so don't feel too guilty. Thanks for saying so. I've just hit 80% and in the past few chapters it seems like the book has actually gotten going now, so it's much easier to stay interested than it was. That having been said, and even knowing where the book stands in it's part of the series, I can't find it in my heart to excuse the first two thirds, and as a result, the overall book. Even reading the majority knowing that didn't help. It's just completely directionless and as a result has very little impact, which is one of the strengths of the other books. Much of it doesn't need to exist at all, as far as I can tell. It feels to me like it's a pure distillation of all of Butcher's worst traits as a writer. There are chapters that don't advance the story more than ten minutes at a time without getting bogged down in exposition and retreading of things that have already been touched on in the same book. I mentioned earlier in the thread that I sometimes get irritated with the story in the other novels getting sidetracked and bogged down in favour of extended introspection or monologues that tend to repeat the same sentiment over pages, and Ghost Story takes that to a whole new level. Amusingly, I read that Ghost Story was delayed four months, which I found interesting, considering the overall lack of consequence of the (at least) the first two thirds of the book. It makes me wonder if Butcher was as disinterested in writing this book as many of the readers ended up being reading it. It would explain so much. Maybe he was burned out. I dunno. I know I've done a lot of complaining about Ghost Story in this thread, but it's only because I find it so jarring after such a strong series that I'm thoroughly enjoying. It seems so obviously padded out. I still have 20% of the book to go, and I'm sure it will be the best part (mostly because it HAS to culminate into something at this point. It also looks like the ending will be more or less what I thought it would be) but I can't express how disappointed and annoyed I am at the sharp drop in quality. It won't be enough to make me stop reading the rest, by a long shot, but I'm mostly confused it was released in the state it is. Someone tell me that Cold Days is awesome. Please?
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Aug 1, 2016 18:50
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Mr Scumbag posted:Someone tell me that Cold Days is awesome. Please? It is
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Aug 1, 2016 18:55
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Mr Scumbag posted:Someone tell me that Cold Days is awesome. Please? Cold Days is follow-up/payoff people were expecting Ghost Story to be. Plus a little bit of "Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn!" to mix things up.
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Aug 1, 2016 18:59
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Ghost Story never stood out to me in a bad way and I enjoyed it. 
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Aug 1, 2016 19:15
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Ghost Story is decidedly mid-tier Dresden. It's better than Storm Front and Grave Peril for sure. It's on par with or better than Blood Rites and White Night. But it comes in the middle of the strongest part of the series, which makes it look so much worse by comparison.
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Aug 1, 2016 19:32
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StonecutterJoe posted:Keep going, it all comes together beautifully. Or doesn't. I'm still not sure. I think the book broke my brain a little.
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Aug 1, 2016 19:33
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I suspect that people following the series before Ghost Story was released will have a somewhat more negative view of it. It's a perfectly serviceable Dresden book - ConfusedUs hit the nail on the head, really. My own issues with it have very little to do with than the content itself. To put it in context, it was the first Dresden book to see a significant delay from the one-a-year schedule everyone was used to. Jim repeatedly said the primary reason for the delay was that he had to think of new and original ways for Harry to get out of situations. However, that's not the book we got. To be clear, I don't think Jim was lying about that, rather I think he discovered the hard way that he's not as good a writer as he believed he was. A similar thing happened with Skin Game where a lot of the publicity surrounding the book (if not Jim himself - I can't remember) made comparisons to Ocean's 11, which, after reading the book, are just absurd. It's a heist story, sure, but that's where any similarities to Ocean's 11 begin and end.
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Aug 1, 2016 19:43
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Xtanstic posted:Yeah for sure. When he got rid of it I understood why he was doing it. I can't remember the other things that got eventually written out, can you remind me? The artefacts in general, most of all his invisibility cloak that got the severe downside of draining your life if you use it too often or too long in a retcon. Since he has no real abilities outside prediction unlike elemental mages he could rely a lot more on all of this in the first books, because I guess Jacka thought he needed some edge against the far stronger mages. Then Jacka realized how incredibly powerful his ability alone already is if taken through. However he showed pretty well that even that can be useless in certain cases in the last book.
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Aug 1, 2016 20:26
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Decius posted:The artefacts in general, most of all his invisibility cloak that got the severe downside of draining your life if you use it too often or too long in a retcon. Since he has no real abilities outside prediction unlike elemental mages he could rely a lot more on all of this in the first books, because I guess Jacka thought he needed some edge against the far stronger mages. Then Jacka realized how incredibly powerful his ability alone already is if taken through. However he showed pretty well that even that can be useless in certain cases in the last book. I thought that the nerfing of Verus' "toys" was pretty funny. I don't know if I've ever seen an author so obviously decide "oops - this is a bit broken" as Jacka did with the air elemental. She is a major force, and one of Verus' "friends" in the first few books, and then he's just like "oh well, she's gone".
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Aug 1, 2016 20:59
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It felt like Verus was actually giving something up when he broke the calling stick or whatever it was though because it had been stated from the beginning that she wouldn't remember him or come back if he lost it. The cloak was  as hell, I really liked how that particular item was retired. He actually seems to have some PTSD over that too, which he should, because, drat.RE: The Rook Audiobook, I have to give a warning that the reader is just... really hard to listen to for long stretches. Some of Thomas' letters are very long slogs in the voice she chooses to use. It doesn't help that multiple characters like to start their sentences with "ANYWAYS," all the time and it becomes as noticeable as Harry's nipple fixation. (Though, admittedly, much less offensive?) Good book, but I wish I had read it in print because the Audio isn't very fun. It's not BAD, mind you, and it feels more like the characters' faults than whoever's doing the VO. (I do appreciate her 'American' accent for a few characters, which made me laugh, and her ability to pronounce those weird Belgian names because I would have never known how to say any of those on my own.)
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Aug 1, 2016 22:48
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gerg_861 posted:I thought that the nerfing of Verus' "toys" was pretty funny. I don't know if I've ever seen an author so obviously decide "oops - this is a bit broken" as Jacka did with the air elemental. She is a major force, and one of Verus' "friends" in the first few books, and then he's just like "oh well, she's gone". The super-effective, simple-to-make potions in the first couple of Dresden books got nerfed, too, iirc (though simply by having Harry and Company forget that they ever existed).
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Aug 1, 2016 23:24
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StonecutterJoe posted:The super-effective, simple-to-make potions in the first couple of Dresden books got nerfed, too, iirc (though simply by having Harry and Company forget that they ever existed). Harry uses them in Changes and Butters uses them in Skin Game spoiled for the guy reading.
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Aug 1, 2016 23:26
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mistaya posted:It felt like Verus was actually giving something up when he broke the calling stick or whatever it was though because it had been stated from the beginning that she wouldn't remember him or come back if he lost it. Yea I actually really loved the way these got dealt with, it happened very organically in the narrative of the story and puts Verus in a position where he doesn't have his magical crutches to help him along.
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Aug 2, 2016 00:22
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The Dresden potion nerf wasn't as dramatic as the early belt(?) that instantly replenished all his energy. That would have clearly negated a lot of the difficulty of later books.
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Aug 2, 2016 01:16
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