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Hieronymous Alloy posted:It doesn't, Imho, except as a matter of personal taste. I't's not something I have an opinion on, one way or another. I do find the moralizing monologues in Dresden about bullies or whatever more and more grating, though.
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Apr 19, 2018 18:30
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Wizchine posted:I't's not something I have an opinion on, one way or another. I do find the moralizing monologues in Dresden about bullies or whatever more and more grating, though. I'm now imagining a cross-over where Verus is constantly noping out of the scene as soon as he sees another monologue coming. 
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Apr 19, 2018 18:45
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hatelull posted:I remember that conversation, with the "older dude" but is it confirmed later that he really was the guy? He had the conversation about being an archtitect "before he retired" right? No, you're thinking of Daniel. He's the guy. But yeah, the former architect is probably Lucifer. He, along with the other angels, helped God build creation according to many interpretations.
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Apr 19, 2018 19:19
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Blasphemeral posted:But yeah, the former architect is probably Lucifer. He, along with the other angels, helped God build creation according to many interpretations. It's totally not Urban Fantasy, but if you want to read an interesting take on Creation (capital C), the kind that deals with the relationships between the angels before the Fall, you should read To Reign In Hell by Stephen Brust. You should probably read it anyway, even if you don't. It's fantastic. It's not preachy, either, if you're worried about that. While Brust is best known for his Vlad Taltos books (which are urban fantasy-adjacent), which linguistically speaking aren't anything to write home about, the dude is a fantastic wordsmith. Some of the wordplay in To Reign In Hell is sublime.
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Apr 19, 2018 19:29
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ConfusedUs posted:It's totally not Urban Fantasy, but if you want to read an interesting take on Creation (capital C), the kind that deals with the relationships between the angels before the Fall, you should read To Reign In Hell by Stephen Brust. I’ll second that. Reign in Hell is an incredible book.
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Apr 20, 2018 06:16
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ConfusedUs posted:While Brust is best known for his Vlad Taltos books (which are urban fantasy-adjacent), which linguistically speaking aren't anything to write home about, the dude is a fantastic wordsmith.
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Apr 20, 2018 17:21
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Yeah. I love his Dumas-esque styling in that series. Especially the long, flowery insults that sound like compliments until the very end when they twist around.
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Apr 20, 2018 17:26
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This is going to sound like a loaded question, but did the Sandman Slim stuff suffer from a weird drop in quality? I recently finished Killing Pretty (number 7?!) and while it was standard Kadrey full of his "gently caress this city I'm edgy" descriptions of LA it at least moved at a reasonable pace and I was engaged in the story (although, he wasted an opportunity to keep Vincent around). I took a side turn and knocked out the latest Faust book before returning to 8 in Kadrey's series and maybe it's just because I jumped from Faust back to this but everything just seems MORE obnoxious and I'm starting to hate all the characters. I just got to the point where he just discovered that the evil organization is making Angel speed out of hellion fecal matter, but it just seems like the author is taking the piss and actively wants to abuse his readers. Yeah, I know it's hard to bang on this book when I literally just finished one where the overarching evil plot was mind controlling cockroaches that burrow into your brain but hell at least that had styyyle. I apparently have two more of these godawful books left after I finish this one and I know I'm going to end up hatereading them. edit: It's likely that these books never suffered a drop in quality but rather were never that great to begin with, but still I'm REALLY hating book 8.
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Apr 24, 2018 23:04
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hatelull posted:This is going to sound like a loaded question, but did the Sandman Slim stuff suffer from a weird drop in quality? I recently finished Killing Pretty (number 7?!) and while it was standard Kadrey full of his "gently caress this city I'm edgy" descriptions of LA it at least moved at a reasonable pace and I was engaged in the story (although, he wasted an opportunity to keep Vincent around). I took a side turn and knocked out the latest Faust book before returning to 8 in Kadrey's series and maybe it's just because I jumped from Faust back to this but everything just seems MORE obnoxious and I'm starting to hate all the characters. I just got to the point where he just discovered that the evil organization is making Angel speed out of hellion fecal matter, but it just seems like the author is taking the piss and actively wants to abuse his readers. Yeah, I know it's hard to bang on this book when I literally just finished one where the overarching evil plot was mind controlling cockroaches that burrow into your brain but hell at least that had styyyle. I have to be in a very specific mood to read Sandman Slim. I can't imagine ever being in a mood where I would read all of them. They're hilariously over the top and edgy to the point of parody. I don't think I've made it past book three or four.
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Apr 24, 2018 23:09
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I keep buying the Sandman Slim novels, but I haven't read any past the conclusion of the first major arc (so book six or so?). I think ConfusedUs pretty well covers why.
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Apr 25, 2018 00:56
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I find them fun, but I don't read them in a block or anything. The big overarching plot has been laid to rest and some of Slim's toys have been taken away bye Room of Thirteen Doors and bye, too, black blade (iirc), so I think Kadrey did a decent job of re-scaling the series somewhat in the last couple of books (having him work for The Auger instead of a cosmic power).
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Apr 25, 2018 01:04
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Sandman Slim books are pure joy, injected into the vein via the eyeballs. Much like taking other drugs via the eyeball, enjoy in moderation.
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Apr 25, 2018 02:07
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ConfusedUs posted:I have to be in a very specific mood to read Sandman Slim. I can't imagine ever being in a mood where I would read all of them. They're hilariously over the top and edgy to the point of parody. So he's the Mickey Spillane of urban fantasy?
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Apr 25, 2018 09:36
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Once Sandman Slim overpowered God and destroyed whatever in Tartarus the stakes are kind of hard to care about any more.
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Apr 25, 2018 13:02
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biracial bear for uncut posted:Once Sandman Slim overpowered God and destroyed whatever in Tartarus the stakes are kind of hard to care about any more. I like Sandman Slim, but its author is the total opposite of that alleged board they have at Marvel where they track the comparative strengths of the superpowers of all their characters. At one point in the story, an angel is so blindingly fast and powerful they can kill an army, at another you can casually shiv one and leave it in an alleyway to be kidnapped and forced into prostitution by ordinary humans.
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Apr 25, 2018 21:57
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anilEhilated posted:As further evidenced in the Paarfi books; guy knows how to hit the exactly right amount of spoofing Dumas to make it funny as opposed to obnoxiously derivative. Yeah, those are what convinced me the guy can write. They're a hilarious send-up of Dumas' verbal tics without being as annoying, which is a huge accomplishment in the same way that it's really hard for a comedian to make jokes about being boring without actually being boring in the process.
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Apr 25, 2018 22:15
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah, those are what convinced me the guy can write. They're a hilarious send-up of Dumas' verbal tics without being as annoying, which is a huge accomplishment in the same way that it's really hard for a comedian to make jokes about being boring without actually being boring in the process. Yeah, he can write. It's almost criminal that his most popular books (Vlad Taltos) are also his least interesting, in terms of prose. I love the Paarfi books, though. The grandiose style isn't for everyone, of course, but I cannot possible recommend them more to anyone who loves both Dumas and fantasy novels.
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Apr 25, 2018 22:28
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Any opinions on the rise and fall of dodo? Looks interesting but not sure if it’s worth an audible credit
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Apr 26, 2018 01:17
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Jxforema posted:Any opinions on the rise and fall of dodo? Looks interesting but not sure if it’s worth an audible credit
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Apr 27, 2018 16:55
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anilEhilated posted:No. There's the grand total of one good joke in the entire thing and the rest is hopelessly boring and unoriginal. Would I still enjoy it if I enjoy Stephenson's other novels?
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Apr 27, 2018 17:16
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Depends on which novels, I suppose. I like Snow Crash, Diamond Age and Anathem and this was dull as gently caress. Maybe it's closer to the newer ones, I can't say.
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Apr 27, 2018 17:19
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I like most of his other stuff and I enjoyed it, but the ending left me very unsatisfied with how it just stopped if I remember right. I think they were trying to make it a franchise or something?
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Apr 28, 2018 20:34
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I read an article about how it was basically an advert for an app around the time the book was published though I have no idea if the app acutally launched or not - the spectacular failure of his Mongoliad project and the way he burned all his paying customers, followed by the fuckup that was Clang has me unwilling to touch any software Neal Stephenson been near.
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Apr 28, 2018 22:27
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ookiimarukochan posted:I read an article about how it was basically an advert for an app around the time the book was published though I have no idea if the app acutally launched or not - the spectacular failure of his Mongoliad project and the way he burned all his paying customers, followed by the fuckup that was Clang has me unwilling to touch any software Neal Stephenson been near. What the gently caress ever happened with that, anyway? I remember hearing about it, seeing what a convoluted mess it looked like, and backing away. All the articles about it I can find are from 2012 at the latest.
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Apr 30, 2018 03:20
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Old Kentucky Shark posted:What the gently caress ever happened with that, anyway? I remember hearing about it, seeing what a convoluted mess it looked like, and backing away. All the articles about it I can find are from 2012 at the latest. That's because it basically ended in 2012, when they published all the stuff they had in five books (and the last few already only by "lesser" writers). It continued on as fan fiction shared world until 2014, when even fan authors stopped doing anything with it. Like most online serial publishing deals (Tad Williams' Shadowmarch, Scalzi's Human Division etc.) the idea is neat, but commercially it's far less lucrative than simply publishing a book. As work of art it's often also worse, because it is more stretched out and with more fillers than a well written book that's intended as book. But that's something one could say about the original Dicken's serials, Stephen King's Green Mile or various SF stories from the serial days in Analog & Co. Incidentally most of them were reworked and tightened up when put into book form.
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Apr 30, 2018 06:40
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Klungar posted:Would I still enjoy it if I enjoy Stephenson's other novels? The book's primary focus is a very Neal Stephenson deep dive into how he handles time travel as a concept - how it happens, what the rules are, what problems exist, how things change when alterations are made. There are characters but I found most of them to be pretty broad strokes with only a couple exceptions. If you like it when Stephenson takes a sci-fi or existing-science concept and details the gently caress out of it like in Cryptonomicon, Anathem, or Seveneves, then it'll be your jam. The ending really is egregiously terrible, though. You get to the very last page and the ending smacks you with a hard stop like the very worst of Stephenson's bad habits in this regard, but its made worse because you realize the entire book has been essentially a prologue to the situation as it stands at the very end. They devote a couple paragraphs to that situation, and it sounds pretty crazy and cool! And then the book ends and you realize they'll probably never elaborate on any of it ever again. Basically it has some good things but if you, like me, are waiting for a new Stephenson novel to capture the quality of his Cryptonomicon/Baroque/Anathem period, this one won't do it for you.
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May 3, 2018 04:02
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So, with regard to the Shaeffer universe and the ancient story told throughout time and its characters: I don't think it's been mentioned in any of the books (Still only up to book 3 of the Harmony Black series) but it seems as though it's pretty obvious that Harmony Black will be revealed as The Paladin, right? Should be interesting, given current relationships, if so.
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May 3, 2018 06:31
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Mr Scumbag posted:So, with regard to the Shaeffer universe and the ancient story told throughout time and its characters: I think it's been stated that someone else has that title. However, it is possible to transfer titles, so my money is on that happening at some point.
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May 3, 2018 17:28
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Ornamented Death posted:I think it's been stated that someone else has that title. However, it is possible to transfer titles, so my money is on that happening at some point. The publisher cancelling the Harmony Black series might put a damper on that though. As much as I like him cranking out books like crazy, he really needs to slow down a tad and put a bit more effort into each one.
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May 3, 2018 17:45
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xsf421 posted:The publisher cancelling the Harmony Black series might put a damper on that though. As much as I like him cranking out books like crazy, he really needs to slow down a tad and put a bit more effort into each one. He had a clause in his contract that would let him keep publishing books in the Harmony Black series on his own if the publisher canceled. So no, that won't put a damper on it (for better or worse).
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May 3, 2018 18:25
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Thank god. I know I'm in the minority but I enjoy Harmony Black so much. More so than Faust, to be honest. I hope she has a long and prosperous career!
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May 3, 2018 20:29
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I like the books, too. Not as much as Faust, but I enjoy them. Schaefer promised to do three more.
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May 3, 2018 20:47
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I like Harmony's team, but not Harmony herself. She's such a straight-laced stick-in-the-mud that she makes the whole team boring by association. Or to put it another way, the rest of her team isn't interesting enough to bounce off her straight man routine. The Faust novels are really over the top in all sorts of interesting and fun ways, and I didn't hate Harmony in those because she was the contrast that made the weirdness stand out. Also I suspect that Shaeffer is just better at writing heists and grifts (Faust) than he is spycraft and politics (Harmony).
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May 3, 2018 21:22
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Also, all the talk about Alex Verus got me back to reading that series. Thirty pages into the third book he shanks a dude. Sweet.
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May 3, 2018 21:31
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I really liked the first Harmony Black, it was a good X Files esque creepy mystery. Then the next one was a good X Files esque sci-fi romp through woods with weird creature experiments and satellites, which was cool. But then the last two really doubled down on the whole conspiracy stuff and it kinda lost me.
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May 3, 2018 21:38
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Ornamented Death posted:Also, all the talk about Alex Verus got me back to reading that series. Thirty pages into the third book he shanks a dude. Sweet. I like the dream he has where he's just murdering and murdering and he suddenly looks up and sees the infinite string of bodies he's left behind
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May 3, 2018 21:46
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Ornamented Death posted:Also, all the talk about Alex Verus got me back to reading that series. Thirty pages into the third book he shanks a dude. Sweet. Me too. I'm up to Burned now, and it's the first time his moral code is put on paper: he believes in responding to force not with the bare minimum, but with equal or greater force. It's always been true, to some extent. He tried to take the high road for a while, and kept his responses low-key, but that all went out the window in Chosen. When the Nightstalkers wouldn't join him on the high road, he joined them on the low road and (metaphorically) set it on fire. He's the ultimate embodiment of "don't start a fight, but always finish it."
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May 3, 2018 22:18
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Decius posted:That's because it basically ended in 2012, when they published all the stuff they had in five books (and the last few already only by "lesser" writers). It continued on as fan fiction shared world until 2014, when even fan authors stopped doing anything with it. Also they sold the platform to some other company. If you were a subscriber, you were hosed, no matter how much time you had left. I've since pirated the books because gently caress it I paid more than their price in fees to get gently caress all but I don't trust Neal Stephenson with anything that's not a physical book that is already out and has no ties to any online poo poo.
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May 3, 2018 22:45
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Feels like Craig Shaeffer is somewhat influenced by F. Paul Wilson and The Adversary Cycle with the way he's set up this story. I'm okay with that. The Adversary Cycle was pretty cool. Kinda want to re-read it.
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May 4, 2018 00:19
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ConfusedUs posted:He's the ultimate embodiment of "don't start a fight, but always finish it." Don’t start none, won’t be none.
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May 4, 2018 01:04
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