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I tried getting into Alex Verus again, but it's not gripping me at all. I think the problem is that Alex has about as much personality as a plain boiled potato. Does the series improve at all? I've only read the first book.
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Sep 12, 2018 10:20
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General Emergency posted:I tried getting into Alex Verus again, but it's not gripping me at all. I think the problem is that Alex has about as much personality as a plain boiled potato. Does the series improve at all? I've only read the first book. Yeah. Mostly because the supporting cast gets better as it grows and gives something for Alex to play off of.
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Sep 12, 2018 11:15
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General Emergency posted:I tried getting into Alex Verus again, but it's not gripping me at all. I think the problem is that Alex has about as much personality as a plain boiled potato. Does the series improve at all? I've only read the first book. Having been in your situation earlier this year I think I can say definitively that it does not get better in the first three books and the online summaries of 4 and 5 didn't give me any hope either so that's where I stopped. Verus lovers; Butcher wrote Dead Beat as an entry point for new readers to skip past his earlier writing, is there anything like that for Verus? I feel like you're talking about an entirely different series sometimes when I read your posts.
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Sep 12, 2018 15:44
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My first exposure to Alex Verus was the audiobooks, which inject some personality right off the bat. Maybe it doesn't help that the first book starts with some degree of set-up and the later books launch a bit more quickly. I actually like Alex, but the books definitely get better as the cast grows. And the end of the book where he just dunks on Onyx after being the underdog for the entire thing felt pretty good. LLSix posted:Having been in your situation earlier this year I think I can say definitively that it does not get better in the first three books and the online summaries of 4 and 5 didn't give me any hope either so that's where I stopped. It depends. Why don't you like Verus? There's something of a jump in quality between book 1 and 2, and book 3 is the point at which the cast grows significantly.
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Sep 12, 2018 15:53
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I think that the Verus books get better, but not qualifiedly different as they go on; the book where Verus fights punk kids is a notable step up in quality and tone. But if you don’t like the first one, you’re probably not going to like the rest, because it’s really just better iteration on the same theme. Starting with book 3, the Dresden filed books got both better and underwent a serious genre and foundational shift, but the Verus books don’t really do anything like that.
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Sep 12, 2018 16:24
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Old Kentucky Shark posted:I think that the Verus books get better, but not qualifiedly different as they go on; the book where Verus fights punk kids is a notable step up in quality and tone. But if you don’t like the first one, you’re probably not going to like the rest, because it’s really just better iteration on the same theme. That's one thing I really like about Verus, actually. The Dresden books start out noir (good, innovative at the time) and shift to basically Dresden Files RPG novelizations, which gets a little annoying because after a certain point there's no problem Dresden can't solve with a power-up. Verus doesn't -- they stay basically the same kind of magic caper/heist story with each book (there's a slight shift over time towards more 'fantasy political thriller" but it's very gradual).
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Sep 12, 2018 16:30
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I'm about 4 chapters into the 3rd Verus book and I feel like Anne is probably a vampire. Between the history lesson we got about magical creatures, the end of his interaction with Anne at his front door, and the type of magic she does it's kind of a lot of foreshadowing for the first few chapters of a book.
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Sep 19, 2018 19:36
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Inspector 34 posted:I'm about 4 chapters into the 3rd Verus book and I feel like Anne is probably a vampire. Between the history lesson we got about magical creatures, the end of his interaction with Anne at his front door, and the type of magic she does it's kind of a lot of foreshadowing for the first few chapters of a book. You're adorable.
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Sep 19, 2018 20:36
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Been listening to the first Rivers of London book during my commute. It's really good. Lots of attention to detail and the characters are mostly likeable aside from the viewpoint character's regrettable obsession with females. The reader in the audiobook version sounds British to my decidedly not British ear which is pretty cool. It does make it hard to understand sometimes though.
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Sep 19, 2018 22:09
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Inspector 34 posted:I'm about 4 chapters into the 3rd Verus book and I feel like Anne is probably a vampire. Between the history lesson we got about magical creatures, the end of his interaction with Anne at his front door, and the type of magic she does it's kind of a lot of foreshadowing for the first few chapters of a book. That book owns. You're definitely on to something
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Sep 20, 2018 02:31
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The worst thing about Verus was not getting to see the conversation between Caldera and Sagash. The scene that happened in was pretty loving great tho.
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Sep 20, 2018 04:23
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LLSix posted:Been listening to the first Rivers of London book during my commute. It's really good. Lots of attention to detail and the characters are mostly likeable aside from the viewpoint character's regrettable obsession with females. I love the voice that narrator gave to Nightingale.
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Sep 20, 2018 11:18
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I've been pretty desperate for some urban fantasy, having read most of the series suggested on here. So...I tried Demon Moon by Brad Magnarella (Professor Croft, book 1). Mistake. The book wasn't horrible, but it was the biggest Dresden Files ripoff in the universe. It had fake latin spells, magic not working with technology, a wizard council. I hope that Brad sends Jim Butcher a percentage of each royalty check. I might have actually been able to enjoy it if I hadn't read Butcher, but as things are, it was too distracting.
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Sep 25, 2018 22:16
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gerg_861 posted:I've been pretty desperate for some urban fantasy, having read most of the series suggested on here. So...I tried Demon Moon by Brad Magnarella (Professor Croft, book 1). Mistake. The book wasn't horrible, but it was the biggest Dresden Files ripoff in the universe. It had fake latin spells, magic not working with technology, a wizard council. I hope that Brad sends Jim Butcher a percentage of each royalty check. I might have actually been able to enjoy it if I hadn't read Butcher, but as things are, it was too distracting. Arrgh, I'm trying to remember the literal dresden files clones. Like the cover was 100% trying to trick you it was a dresden files book. I think the protagonist's name was butcher, had a similar look of trenchcoat + wizard.
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Sep 25, 2018 23:23
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My favorite "recommending Dresden Files" story is when the person I was talking to about it was super-confused because their brain connected "Dresden Files" and "Rockford Files" together.
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Sep 26, 2018 11:24
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Rockford Files is better but much more difficult to carry around with you, because I'm not sure if you can stream it.
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Sep 26, 2018 11:52
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Wheat Loaf posted:Rockford Files is better but much more difficult to carry around with you, because I'm not sure if you can stream it. Turns out it's on Amazon for streaming, but you have to buy it like everything else.
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Sep 26, 2018 13:46
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Fair enough, I haven't got the Amazon streaming thing.
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Sep 26, 2018 14:13
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gerg_861 posted:I've been pretty desperate for some urban fantasy, having read most of the series suggested on here. So...I tried Demon Moon by Brad Magnarella (Professor Croft, book 1). Mistake. The book wasn't horrible, but it was the biggest Dresden Files ripoff in the universe. It had fake latin spells, magic not working with technology, a wizard council. I hope that Brad sends Jim Butcher a percentage of each royalty check. I might have actually been able to enjoy it if I hadn't read Butcher, but as things are, it was too distracting. The series starts off as a mediocre Dresden rip-off, but the quality starts to jump up with the third book and the fourth one introduces some plot twists that make the previous books seem better in retrospect. You might want to try jumping ahead.
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Sep 26, 2018 14:15
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Dunno if it has already been recced here but Poison City by Paul Crilley is pretty good. The plot is nothing new but I found the Durban setting and South African mythology a nice change of pace
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Sep 26, 2018 14:20
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Sloth Life posted:Dunno if it has already been recced here but Poison City by Paul Crilley is pretty good. The plot is nothing new but I found the Durban setting and South African mythology a nice change of pace I was "sold!" but no kindle version? ?!?!
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Sep 26, 2018 14:34
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I was "sold!" but no kindle version? ?!?! Weird, looks like none of his stuff is on the Kindle. https://www.amazon.com/Paul-Crilley/e/B00JPGDUJI/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
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Sep 26, 2018 14:58
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His stuff is on UK Amazon, first book is .99 second is full price
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Sep 26, 2018 17:08
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Come on JB where is the drat book  .
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Sep 27, 2018 04:50
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Saturday is the 3 year anniversary of the last time Butcher published a book
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Sep 27, 2018 09:21
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I’ve been divorced, been single, met someone, and gotten remarried in the time since Skin Game came out. Man, that’s depressing.
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Sep 27, 2018 09:55
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Hasn't Butcher gone through the same thing in the same time period? Or is that the joke?
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Sep 27, 2018 12:56
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RosaParksOfDip posted:Hasn't Butcher gone through the same thing in the same time period? Or is that the joke? Maybe.... he's Butcher?!
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Sep 27, 2018 13:04
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420 Gank Mid posted:Saturday is the 3 year anniversary of the last time Butcher published a book Maybe it's made more noticeable because he was so productive before he ran into this brick wall. He had a new novel out every year (sometimes more than one a year, when he was writing Codex Alera) for nearly 15 years straight, so he was very prolific for a very long time. Sort of like how 100 years ago, Edgar Rice Burroughs could hack out about a dozen new Tarzans and a handful of Barsoom novels in a fortnight. 
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Sep 27, 2018 13:55
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Yeah, three years between books isn't exactly crazy, but in this genre when they were churned out regularly before, it sticks out. It's like if Craig Schaeffer went 9 months with releasing anything.
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Sep 27, 2018 21:46
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To be fair that's kind of an unfair analogy; I'm still convinced that Schaefer is a computer.
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Sep 29, 2018 17:17
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Speaking of Schaefer, he put out two books of that cross-over trilogy this year and the final one is out in December. Like all of his stuff, it’s fast-paced, easily readable, and interesting but not amazing. It feels a lot like a comic book crossover without the illustrations. Especially with the loving multiverse stuff. All of his other books are tied together. Important background plot that has been going nowhere for his other books is resolved. Seeing Faust from an outside perspective that isn’t Harmony’s is interesting. Schaefer’s stuff is pretty pulpy but I always appreciate that a few things about his writing: 1) His characters are damaged people with realistic (but exaggerated) flaws. Nessa is not a morally grey character. She’s selfish, power-hungry, and evil. 2) His antagonists are competent and frequently out maneuver his protagonists. The antagonists are also flawed and their flaws often end up bringing them down. 3) He doesn’t appear to be going to a happy ending but he also doesn’t make things miserably dark either. Nessa and Mari are going to go out in a blaze of glory that will shake poo poo up... but they are still going out. Their story will never end happy. Similarly, Faust’s best outcome is an eternity in his own part of hell. There’s no redemption for him, only not being obliterated by the Enemy. He also seemed to be having some second thoughts about siding with hell in the last Faust book so who knows how bad poo poo could end for him if he rebels. Edit: Apparently Schaefer has already turned in the manuscript for the last book in the trilogy and is hoping to have it edited and out by Halloween. And after that he is doing a pseudo-reboot of Harmony Black with a leaner plot after Wisdom’s Grave wraps a bunch of poo poo up. Saltpowered fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Sep 30, 2018 |
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Sep 30, 2018 04:57
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Halfway through the latest Schaeffer myself. Digging the road trip chase setup. Hopefully this experience will help with his proposed third person take on Harmony Black as well, cos those last couple were pretty dire. Edit: wait, last book by Halloween?! Seriously? That's loving mental. Junkenstein fucked around with this message at 13:36 on Sep 30, 2018 |
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Sep 30, 2018 13:34
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Schaeffer is a freaking machine, I love it. His books are pulpy fun and he churns them out but they remain engaging (for me, anyway. I really enjoy Harmony Black). I also appreciate his more nuanced take on women that many other authors don't approach even in longer works.
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Sep 30, 2018 17:18
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What's the name of the first book in his crossover series? I missed it somehow!
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Sep 30, 2018 17:23
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ConfusedUs posted:What's the name of the first book in his crossover series? I missed it somehow! https://www.amazon.com/Sworn-Night-Wisdoms-Grave-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B078S7SK9T
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Sep 30, 2018 18:25
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Thank you!
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Oct 1, 2018 03:13
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Okay, that was a really fun crossover book.
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Oct 1, 2018 20:42
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Moved on to Moon Over Soho, the second Rivers of London book. I'm about 3/5ths of the way through it and its still good. There's way more, mostly plot irrelevant, sex than I was expecting. All the stuff with Luke the Lark is suitably creepy. Although Grant looks like an idiot trying to come up with technobabble to explain it when Nightingale just talks openly about magic and demons a few minutes later.
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Oct 1, 2018 21:08
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LLSix posted:Grant looks like an idiot [while] Nightingale That's the whole series though
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Oct 1, 2018 21:13
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