|
Everything wraps up but I didn't enjoy it. The book is missing the usual fun, fizzy narration that made it engaging in the first place, and the faceless man suddenly has a particular passion that has never been hinted at before that I recall. TBH I was never chuffed at his reveal and I don't think the original description of him gelled with who we eventually got.
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2018 20:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 14:17 |
|
|
That's really disappointing. I finished the last book just yesterday and the way they ended it left a really bad taste in my mouth and I was kinda hoping we'd at least get a satisfying end to the whole deal. the Faceless Man reveal was pretty poorly done.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2018 20:34
|
|
|
This is the problem with big over arching story lines. Dresden is a prime example, and the faceless man another. Aaronovich has great stories, but when he tries to jam the whole thing together to make a coherent big story, it's not as good. Dresden has lost my interest because I don't care about the "big" story. It's just not interesting the way his individual casebooks were. I was hoping Aaronovich would do a better job wrapping up than he had the last couple of big books, but sound like he didn't. Hopefully, new books without the weight of pushing the faceless man will be better.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2018 20:57
|
|
|
Bhodi posted:I think someone mentioned it on here (?) but I got the first two professor croft books by Brad Magnarella and they're uh, pretty bad. The dude is a complete idiot who blunders into terrible situations and seems to have a death wish and only survives due to plot armor and protagonist handwaving. It was me who mentioned this. I was told that it does get better, but I'll admit that I picked up the Craig Schaefer books (Daniel Faust/Harmony Black), and I've not looked back. I've polished off 12 of those since the start of October.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2018 00:18
|
|
|
Just finished Lies Sleeping, I agree with the general consensus that it wasnt his best work, not BAD but not as good as some. I thought the end was pretty abrupt and left a lot of loose ends dangling as well. I suppose we might find out what happens with them in the next book after all.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2018 16:08
|
|
|
Just wanted to say, thanks for the recommendation of the Alex Verus series! Just finished Hidden, it's definitely a series I can't put down.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2018 16:50
|
|
|
gerg_861 posted:It was me who mentioned this. I was told that it does get better, but I'll admit that I picked up the Craig Schaefer books (Daniel Faust/Harmony Black), and I've not looked back. I've polished off 12 of those since the start of October. I just started on the 2nd Faust book and was surprised to see Harmony Black pop up. At what point should I hit pause on the Faust books and start on hers? Is there a timeline or something to reference?
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2018 19:10
|
|
|
OptimusWang posted:I just started on the 2nd Faust book and was surprised to see Harmony Black pop up. At what point should I hit pause on the Faust books and start on hers? Is there a timeline or something to reference? http://craig-schaefer-v2.squarespace.com/reading-order/ How's the Wisdom's Grave finale?
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2018 19:17
|
|
|
Junkenstein posted:http://craig-schaefer-v2.squarespace.com/reading-order/ I enjoyed it. A few great twists, the narrative framework structure of Carolyn's story paid off pretty well, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they spin this off into the overall Faust/Harmony story because Schaefer really just changed up a lot of in-universe stuff. It was one of those books where I read the whole thing in like a day and a half.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2018 19:35
|
|
|
OptimusWang posted:I just started on the 2nd Faust book and was surprised to see Harmony Black pop up. At what point should I hit pause on the Faust books and start on hers? Is there a timeline or something to reference? Read through at least book 5 of Faust before starting on Harmony Black. I think Schaefer has a reading order on his website.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2018 22:39
|
|
|
OptimusWang posted:I just started on the 2nd Faust book and was surprised to see Harmony Black pop up. At what point should I hit pause on the Faust books and start on hers? Is there a timeline or something to reference? The Harmony Black books are pretty terrible. The Red Knight one has some interesting bits, but they are almost entirely drowned out by the terrible characters. Not much of importance to the main storyline happens in any of the books, except for a reveal at the end of the last one and while that is a fairly big deal it's also basically a standalone fact that's not related to the previous books at all. As a note, the books did so badly that his publisher canceled them as a series, so odds are that any important overall plot details from the Harmony Black books are going to have to be reintroduced in a future book anyways. Entirely skippable imo.
|
|
#
?
Nov 18, 2018 05:42
|
|
|
Schaefer is going to self-publish the rest of the Harmony Black books for what it's worth (which is not much because they are mediocre at best).
|
|
#
?
Nov 18, 2018 05:45
|
|
|
It's a shame imho, I prefer HB to Faust in a lot of ways. I guess there is not a huge demand for relatively non sexual female protagonists in this genre.
|
|
#
?
Nov 18, 2018 10:11
|
|
|
Yeah, I really did enjoy the Harmony books. I'm glad he's going to publish the rest at least.
|
|
#
?
Nov 18, 2018 10:17
|
|
|
Schaefer's also mentioned that the publisher seriously hosed with the Harmony books, they had him mess with the characters and tone, and they didn't come out at all like he wanted them. Like the romance subplot wasn't in his original book, they made him write the sheriff dude in because they didn't think anyone would buy it if Harmony didn't have a love interest, and he was only allowed to write the guy out after he showed them how much everyone hated that angle in the first two books. He said the self-pubbed ones are going to be more the tone and feel he was going for, so it'll be interesting to see how different they are. Finished the last Wisdom's Grave and that was good. Fun ride with crazy amounts of payoff, and the setting got shaken up a lot. Going to be interesting to see how it gets addressed in the next Faust book because a lot of poo poo got broke (or fixed).
|
|
#
?
Nov 18, 2018 13:19
|
|
|
The current Audible sale has book 1 of Rivers of London and Alex Verus for five dollars. If you don't have them and you've been thinking about it, go get'em.
|
|
#
?
Nov 18, 2018 15:55
|
|
|
I agree that Lies Sleeping suffered from previous plot bloat. There were a lot of things to unpack and wrap up. Some things deserved a lot more time, some a lot less. There were also just too many subplots with not enough context. Lots of things from outside the main books crept in especially about Abagail and even having reread the whole main series over the last month, I was lost. I do really like the concept behind who the Faceless Man turned out to be and it does make a lot of sense. The execution isn’t the best but I like the character behind it. He’s a rich, entitled, unapologetically racist and classist rear end in a top hat. The whole Little Crocodiles concept is a bunch of entitled, rich boys playing with learning magic as part of their sheltered experience. Martin takes it a step further because he also grew up reading fantasy books and uses magic as childhood wish fulfillment. He cares about nothing except his power fantasy. His bent towards fantasy stories and lack of touch with reality has foreshadowing with the elvish demon traps several books ago and the first real encounter with him was him trying to capture the jazz vampires with his chimera’s and fairies. The obscure fantasy collection and some of the more detailed characteristics were in the last book but they do make sense in context. He was always a bit twisted and out of touch with reality. Magic just amplified all of it. He just came off more with it in the early books because no one had a clue what the gently caress he was up to. As more of his plan has come into focus, the shitshow is revealed. With Skygarden, he didn’t have a loving clue how it actually worked, that’s why he was destroying it. And as each of his quests for power is interrupted (jazz vampires, Skygarden, the ledger, the bell, walbrook) he becomes less prepared and more unhinged. Saltpowered fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Nov 21, 2018 |
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2018 21:13
|
|
|
I imagine the Faceless Man looking and sounding exactly like Jacob Rees-Mogg, who's really the worst of them all.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2018 21:54
|
|
|
Lawlicaust posted:I agree that Lies Sleeping suffered from previous plot bloat. There were a lot of things to unpack and wrap up. Some things deserved a lot more time, some a lot less. There were also just too many subplots with not enough context. Lots of things from outside the main books crept in especially about Abagail and even having reread the whole main series over the last month, I was lost. Yeah, I really liked it overall. It's not the best book in the series but it's not bad. The ending was a little bit of a flop landing but that's kinda the thing with police procedurals: once you catch the badguy it always turns out they were just a guy.. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 23:47 on Nov 22, 2018 |
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2018 23:54
|
|
|
  I gave away my copy of Rivers of London so getting a signed one to replace it is nice. I also told him I really like what he does with magic and technology and his reply was "You're gonna love whats coming next." 
|
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2018 15:07
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah, I really liked it overall. It's not the best book in the series but it's not bad. The ending was a little bit of a flop landing but that's kinda the thing with police procedurals: once you catch the badguy it always turns out they were just a guy.. That's always been pretty heavily foreshadowed by Nightengale's own observations, mainly to the effect that while it is easy to mythologize criminal masterminds (especially ones that use magic), but at the end of the day they're still flawed and human like the people that chase them. I liked the book quite a bit. The direction that Peter is headed in was of particular interest to me and I think that the author has done well at showing this rather than outright telling us about it. Now that the Faceless Man plotline has been more or less wrapped up, one wonders where Leslie is headed next. Fearless fucked around with this message at 07:40 on Nov 26, 2018 |
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2018 20:29
|
|
|
Yeah I definitely could have done with another editting pass and maybe another draft but it was still good better than the last two.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2018 16:34
|
|
|
Lies Sleeping was fine. In addition to Leslie, he left open who killed that Chambers fellow in America and why. I believed Corley when he said it wasn’t him. mod edit: added spoiler tags since it's a new release Somebody fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Nov 26, 2018 |
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2018 03:03
|
|
|
Drone Jett posted:Lies Sleeping was fine. In addition to Leslie, he left open who killed that Chambers fellow in America and why. I believed Corley when he said it wasn’t him. Yup, it's an onion of crime! always more layers! Oh, there is a custom short story in the Waterstones edition, as with prior releases. It's titled "Favorite Uncle" and it's a christmas story from Abigail's POV.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2018 03:22
|
|
|
Three books into Sandman Slim, drinking in the stupid fun like a basking shark in a pool of kool aid. Ya'll made this sound way dumber than it is. It isn't amazing, but it's enjoyable and the author's use of language is as colorful as a meth carnival.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2018 21:02
|
|
|
Sandman Slim is gloriously dumb. It’s the kind of dumb you put on a shelf and admire. The kind of dumb you can’t look away from. The closest thing I can compare it to is Ash vs Evil Dead. What an amazing train wreck that series was. Eventually I got tired of the books and moved on. I don’t regret reading any book in the series, but I don’t feel any urge to continue either.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2018 21:30
|
|
|
It's a hot mess. A beautiful, glorious, oddly sexy, hot mess. It's a fun read. I'm through the first three and will continue for now as soon as I have time to start the next one.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2018 22:06
|
|
|
ConfusedUs posted:Sandman Slim is gloriously dumb. It’s the kind of dumb you put on a shelf and admire. The kind of dumb you can’t look away from. I liked 1 a lot. Did not enjoy 2 very much. Never finished 3, or started any later than that.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2018 22:09
|
|
|
NerdyMcNerdNerd posted:Three books into Sandman Slim, drinking in the stupid fun like a basking shark in a pool of kool aid. It's a helluva ride.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2018 16:58
|
|
|
Finished Sandman Slim book 4 ( Devil Says Bang ) and Lies Sleeping today. Kinda disappointed Stark didn't spend more time downstairs, because that was fun. I'm looking forward to seeing how much dumber it can get. Had a great time with Lies Sleeping. Makes me want to go over the whole series again, get a sense of where it is going. I can make educated guesses about a lot of series, but I've never been able to really do that with Rivers.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2018 05:43
|
|
|
NerdyMcNerdNerd posted:Finished Sandman Slim book 4 ( Devil Says Bang ) and Lies Sleeping today. I finished lies sleeping, loved it. And now, starting over. Just finished book 1, and I really think it may have been the best one.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2018 13:27
|
|
|
Broken Homes is the best for the triple meaning of the title.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2018 13:35
|
|
|
Sloth Life posted:Everything wraps up but I didn't enjoy it. The book is missing the usual fun, fizzy narration that made it engaging in the first place, and the faceless man suddenly has a particular passion that has never been hinted at before that I recall. TBH I was never chuffed at his reveal and I don't think the original description of him gelled with who we eventually got. This. A lot of Peters sarkiness from the previous books was missing. The whole book felt like Ben Aaronovitch just wanted to tie the FM story up ASAP, and there’s other issues I have with it too. Lesley going on full on evil is one, after the hints that she was dropping clues for Peter/Nightingale; I’m still not clear why Guleed just popped up in book 5 or so as another magical user in the police; and we never got to find out what’s behind the metal door in the Folly (that Nightingsle had Peter rush back to the Folly to protect after Lesley switched sides).
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2018 20:22
|
|
|
Hemp Knight posted:we never got to find out what’s behind the metal door in the Folly (that Nightingsle had Peter rush back to the Folly to protect after Lesley switched sides). I'm pretty sure they mention that it's the Black Library, which is the Nazi magical research records they captured in Ettersburg.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2018 22:57
|
|
|
Khizan posted:I'm pretty sure they mention that it's the Black Library, which is the Nazi magical research records they captured in Ettersburg. Yeah, it was one of many casual tell don’t show moments where potentially good scenes or plot were neglected.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2018 23:27
|
|
|
Hemp Knight posted:This. Can't really agree with this. I read the first "it wasn't good" posts here before I read the book and dreaded that it might indeed be bad - but I don't see it. It feels just like the other books, same kind of narration, tone and quality. Just one part in the middle feels quite slow, but that part improves in hindsight, when Peter is back at the Folly. Can't really say that Lesley didn't make sense or that TFM's hobbies were somehow introduced out of the blue as a complaint upthread was. I enjoyed it a lot as book and as capstone of a chapter of the story.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2018 07:17
|
|
|
Decius posted:Can't really agree with this. I read the first "it wasn't good" posts here before I read the book and dreaded that it might indeed be bad - but I don't see it. It feels just like the other books, same kind of narration, tone and quality. Just one part in the middle feels quite slow, but that part improves in hindsight, when Peter is back at the Folly. Can't really say that Lesley didn't make sense or that TFM's hobbies were somehow introduced out of the blue as a complaint upthread was. I enjoyed it a lot as book and as capstone of a chapter of the story. Agreed. Peter is a bit less snarky, but he has been getting to be a better copper as the books have gone on. And leslie was never evil, just driven....implied to be face fixing, better explained with final book.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2018 13:45
|
|
|
Hemp Knight posted:I’m still not clear why Guleed just popped up in book 5 or so as another magical user in the police; Guleed was in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up as a liaison between the normal police and the Folly. She gets a lot of development in the comics which I guess a lot of novel readers are missing out on?
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2018 14:39
|
|
|
Just finished up the new Charles Stross book after forgetting I had pre-ordered it. I still miss the Bob POVs, but overall I liked it. The pacing of the first half was a bit slow but the payoff was good. I don’t feel like it advanced the main storyline all that much though. The entire plot of the book could’ve been summed up in one line from His Darkness like “Cthulhu was going to eat America but we stopped him **maniac grin**” I’m still really excited for the next installment and how he ties it all up. One line kinda caught me by surprise, I’m not sure if it had been mentioned before this book when DeeDee asks Mhari if she ever wondered what Cthulhu, the Black Pharoah, and his ilk are running from. I think it was referred to as “the Cold Ones” when the PM hijacks Mhari to deliver her message?
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2018 17:01
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 14:17 |
|
|
Ya'll think Dresden is ever gonna be finished? Assuming he manages to release Peace Talks next year, and then goes back to a one book a year schedule, that's another 10 years till the end, assuming he's still sticking with the 20-24 books thing he mentioned a few times. Not exactly the longest running book series or w/e but still, kinda wild to think I'll have been reading these wizard books for like 28 years Ha Ha Ha 
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2018 18:16
|
|