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Kchama
Jul 25, 2007
Ahh okay, gotcha. Thanks for the swift replies. And yeah you can spoilertext that for other people. I already knew due to random research.

I just thought it happened earlier on, for some reason. My sense of the chronology of the books must be pretty warped.

EDIT: Oh, I totally missed the spoiler they meant. I thought the one being mentioned was the vampires all dying.

Kchama fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Aug 12, 2019

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Zore
Sep 21, 2010
willfully illiterate, aggressively miserable sourpuss whose sole raison d’etre is to put other people down for liking the wrong things
I do think its a shame Butcher's dumb steampunk airship book didn't do well because it was fun and you could tell he had a blast writing it.

Also he was doing his best work when he was doing both Alera and Dresden, it seemed to help with burnout by splitting his attention across two very different settings and kinds of novel.

Kchama
Jul 25, 2007

Zore posted:

I do think its a shame Butcher's dumb steampunk airship book didn't do well because it was fun and you could tell he had a blast writing it.

Also he was doing his best work when he was doing both Alera and Dresden, it seemed to help with burnout by splitting his attention across two very different settings and kinds of novel.

Embarrassing confession, for a long time I thought Alera and Alex Verus were the same thing so whenever you guys talked about that series and it was all about fate powers and not Pokemon I was deeply confused.

ConfusedUs
Feb 24, 2004

Bees?
You want fucking bees?
Here you go!
ROLL INITIATIVE!!





Butcher really set the foundations for a series of better writers, to the point that most successful entries in the genre post-Dresden can be vaguely described as "Kind of like Dresden (and probably set in London.)"

But pre-Dresden urban fantasy is kind of fascinating to read because it is decidedly not "Kind of like Dresden".

Declare has already been mentioned, but my favorite proto-urban fantasy work remains The Haunted Mesa by Louis L'Amore. It's not urban (takes place in the deserts of the American southwest), but it flirts with some of the thematic elements that Dresden later cements as fundamental parts of the genre while clearly being its own thing.

It's got a few genuinely spooky scenes, and while the main character absolutely is a Hyper-Competent Manly Man of the West (it's L'Amore, what else do you expect?), he's also in completely over his head in a relatable way. It's a fun little book.

Gnoman
Feb 12, 2014

Come, all you fair and tender maids
Who flourish in your pri-ime
Beware, take care, keep your garden fair
Let Gnoman steal your thy-y-me
Le-et Gnoman steal your thyme




Zore posted:

I do think its a shame Butcher's dumb steampunk airship book didn't do well because it was fun and you could tell he had a blast writing it.

Also he was doing his best work when he was doing both Alera and Dresden, it seemed to help with burnout by splitting his attention across two very different settings and kinds of novel.

The next Cinder Spires book is, according to the website, scheduled for after Peace Talks.

docbeard
Jul 19, 2011

I'll add my voice to recommending Declare, and honestly Tim Powers in general. Last Call by him is also very good. They're not exactly what this thread usually talks about when it talks about urban fantasy (though Last Call is pretty close), but absolutely well worth your time.

I'm also extremely fond of Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay, though, again, that's only "urban fantasy" in the broader sense that it's a fantasy novel set in the modern world, as opposed to being a noir story with vampires, or, like Dresden, a superhero story with vampires.

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound

Kchama posted:

Embarrassing confession, for a long time I thought Alera and Alex Verus were the same thing so whenever you guys talked about that series and it was all about fate powers and not Pokemon I was deeply confused.

Alex Verus is interesting because the series kinda doubles down on Butcher's virtues and sins, both. The pacing is non-stop -- everyone I recommend the books to tears through them in a few days -- but there's definite savior mechanics and some real body horror elements at points plus Verus is explicitly a less sympathetic, darker character than Dresden.

Despite that it seems like people who don't like Dresden still often like Verus. I think it might be because Verus makes fewer apologies. Butcher tries to pretend that Harry is still A Good Person despite everything. Verus knows he isn't a good person, he's just trying to change that.



edit:

Yah, Last Call and Haunted Mesa are both great. I first read the Haunted Mesa when I was a kid and it stuck with me for years, I re-read it a few years ago and if anything it's better now than it was then. Holds up.

Slanderer
May 6, 2007
Declare is absolutely excellent, especially if you know *just* enough of the historical details to know how weird Kim Philby's life was but not enough for the extremely shoddy house of cards to collapse.

Unrelated: I maintain that Storm Front is great as a classic detective novel in a weird setting that fleshes out the world just enough for the plot. I think it seems worse when you are looking back and trying to force it into the urban fantasy genre (I don't think Dresden was fully urban fantasy until book 3!), and taking into account all of the setting and character details that were changed later on. I think the series would have been way cooler if it leaned into the detective genre instead of making Harry an increasingly-superpowered urban fantasy demigod that the author has to go great lengths to neuter every book in order for the plot to have any conflict whatsoever

EDIT

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Despite that it seems like people who don't like Dresden still often like Verus. I think it might be because Verus makes fewer apologies. Butcher tries to pretend that Harry is still A Good Person despite everything. Verus knows he isn't a good person, he's just trying to change that.

The problem is that Butcher goes to great lengths to explain to the reader how nothing bad that happens is actually Harry's fault, which makes Harry's constant complaints of "am i a bad guy!?" feel increasingly hollow and dumb.

Slanderer fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Aug 12, 2019

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound

Slanderer posted:

I think the series would have been way cooler if it leaned into the detective genre instead of making Harry an increasingly-superpowered urban fantasy demigod that the author has to go great lengths to neuter every book in order for the plot to have any conflict whatsoever

Yeah, this is something that both the Verus and Peter Grant series both figured out and resolved in different ways -- Verus by keeping his powers narrowly limited (and destroying any magic items that he started to lean on too frequently), and Peter Grant by explicitly making him a police officer and following the police procedural structure.

Zore
Sep 21, 2010
willfully illiterate, aggressively miserable sourpuss whose sole raison d’etre is to put other people down for liking the wrong things

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Yeah, this is something that both the Verus and Peter Grant series both figured out and resolved in different ways -- Verus by keeping his powers narrowly limited (and destroying any magic items that he started to lean on too frequently), and Peter Grant by explicitly making him a police officer and following the police procedural structure.

Verus comes out of the box with a ridiculous powerset that he acts like an idiot to neuter most of the time though.

Like we've seen him do things with Pathwalking that should negate about 90% of the conflict of any given book but he's just lazy/doesn't take easy precautions incredibly often.


It is also insanely stupid that no one seems to respect his powers or abilities at all except for the designated big bad guy and that he murders people who underestimate him constantly.

Zore fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Aug 12, 2019

Exmond
May 31, 2007

Writing is fun!

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

I mean if you want urban fantasy pre-Butcher that was unambigously better-written in every way then you want Tim Power's Declare



Oh man, everyone should read War For the Oaks (1987) by Emma Bull. You can kind of see how Dresden borrows from it a bit.

Slanderer
May 6, 2007

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Yeah, this is something that both the Verus and Peter Grant series both figured out and resolved in different ways -- Verus by keeping his powers narrowly limited (and destroying any magic items that he started to lean on too frequently), and Peter Grant by explicitly making him a police officer and following the police procedural structure.

With Verus, while it's funny to see Jacka explicitly trying to "balance" things every so often, I'm totally fine with the results--characters change, their situations change, nothing lasts forever. Verus's capabilities are mostly known to the reader, even as they change, so it never feels like he's cheating (Brandon Sanderson did a long lecture on magic in fiction that touched on this, which I recommend watching). Hopefully in the next book the guy who sells him magic force fields and construct destroying doodads will go out of business, because it is kinda dumb how he has an infinite supply of extremely handy one-shots but no one else has ever used one

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound

Zore posted:

Verus comes out of the box with a ridiculous powerset that he acts like an idiot to neuter most of the time though.

Like we've seen him do things with Pathwalking that should negate about 90% of the conflict of any given book but he's just lazy/doesn't take easy precautions incredibly often.


It is also insanely stupid that no one seems to respect his powers or abilities at all except for the designated big bad guy and that he murders people who underestimate him constantly.

That's true, but it happens less and less with each book in the series, and early on it's reasonably explicable as due to his relative lack of experience.

seaborgium
Aug 1, 2002

"Nothing a shitload of bleach won't fix"




Slanderer posted:

With Verus, while it's funny to see Jacka explicitly trying to "balance" things every so often, I'm totally fine with the results--characters change, their situations change, nothing lasts forever. Verus's capabilities are mostly known to the reader, even as they change, so it never feels like he's cheating (Brandon Sanderson did a long lecture on magic in fiction that touched on this, which I recommend watching). Hopefully in the next book the guy who sells him magic force fields and construct destroying doodads will go out of business, because it is kinda dumb how he has an infinite supply of extremely handy one-shots but no one else has ever used one

With Verus at least he can explain why a lot of other people don't use them. They don't need them, really. Everybody but Diviners can do all the stuff those doodads are for, or are capable of handling it some other way using their regular magic. Add in the fact that good diviners generally run like gently caress away from everyone and live in the woods like hermits, there's really no reason we'd see other people using them a lot.

Even the stuff he does get, it's mostly just delaying tactics or to handle an issue he runs into a lot that he doesn't have the magic for.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
I wonder how many tables and d20s does a Sanderson lesson on how to write magic contain.

Kea
Oct 5, 2007
From what I remember of the Anita Blake series I thought the first ... 3 or so? Were ok and then they went real downhill real fast. Dresden isnt high art or anything, its fun pulpy action and that is pretty much what I am looking for. Preferably with a minimum of sex, some is fine but not like, most urban fantasy levels.

Avalerion
Oct 19, 2012

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Despite that it seems like people who don't like Dresden still often like Verus. I think it might be because Verus makes fewer apologies. Butcher tries to pretend that Harry is still A Good Person despite everything. Verus knows he isn't a good person, he's just trying to change that.

This kind of hits on why Dresden is still my favorite, the other urban fantasy leans into this "everything sucks and we are all monsters doing bad things in a hopeless word", Dresden just kind of comes off as more hopeful and positive about it all in the end.

NerdyMcNerdNerd
Aug 3, 2004
I read two or three Anita Blake books and they were very ??????

I don't expect fire from a first novel but there was a fair share of anti-climax and the pacing was weird. And a lot of the characters were somewhat shallow. Having read Anita Blake before I read Magic Bites, Anita Blake reads like a rough draft of that.

Still better than Iron Druid tho.

Also Verus has had magic items used against him once or twice and seen other Mages using them, most noticeably, his former master. It's just that most of them really don't need to. Why use force-walls when you can bring a force mage with you? Why bring a construct spike when you can just make a searing hot beam of fire and shear it in two?

And beyond that, part of it is the sheer arrogance of mages and the way they think, which is something brought up often enough.

In... book seven? One of the mage is noted as using a defensive focus, for instance. The force walls have been used by people other than Alex and Drakh. Sagash's apprentice had anti-construct swords. Mages employ effects similar to his one-shots with their actual magic all the time.

I don't mind because the one-shots he uses ( like Dresden's devices ) have a clearly defined thing that they do and they have to be used in clever ways that reinforce the trickster archetype Alex slots into. If they were just some Yu-Gi-Oh bullshit it would get seriously annoying.

Avalerion posted:

This kind of hits on why Dresden is still my favorite, the other urban fantasy leans into this "everything sucks and we are all monsters doing bad things in a hopeless word", Dresden just kind of comes off as more hopeful and positive about it all in the end.

This is also why I like Dresden and wish the morals were more basic at a Superman or Star Wars level. It's best when it's a struggle against human nature and doing good in the face of evil and really bad when it's like Thomas and the skin walker.

NerdyMcNerdNerd fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Aug 12, 2019

Some Pinko Commie
Jun 9, 2009

CNC! Easy as 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣!
At least Iron Druid followed through on Atticus losing almost everything he cares about at the end of the series.

I mean, the last book ends with hints of a way for him to rebuild but I like to think the world keeps making GBS threads on him and the Morrigan's shade loses interest in him, and he ends up banished to the Christian Hell.

Kchama
Jul 25, 2007

Avalerion posted:

This kind of hits on why Dresden is still my favorite, the other urban fantasy leans into this "everything sucks and we are all monsters doing bad things in a hopeless word", Dresden just kind of comes off as more hopeful and positive about it all in the end.

This isn't directly in response to this but it just reminded me of another frustration with the first few books: The supernatural world doesn't feel like it really connects to the regular world. Almost all of the supernatural exists in another world most of the time and those that exist in the human world keep such a good cover that the public on the whole doesn't know they exist. This is made clear by the people Dresden sneers at and feels superior to, who bring him stuff that is obviously not actually supernatural, which he scorns. People don't know what a wizard does, which if people had any awareness of the supernatural happening, then they'd easily be able to connect 'is a wizard' with 'like wizards in story' instead of wondering if he's a stage magician constantly.

And it's even weirder as stuff happens in the open with lots of normal people around and the only reporting we hear about it happening is for a tabloid that from the sound of it generally runs tabloidy made up stuff, and even then they sound skeptical about it.

There's something about a masquerade of sorts, where knowing about this stuff gets you killed by the White Council, which is Dresden's go-to reasoning for why he never tells anyone anything and gets them killed, that's never really elaborated on beyond 'they will kill you', though the specifics of this are distinctly in question as it's also established that there's literally no regular Council presence in Chicago aside from technically Dresden and, for a bit, Morgan. So actually enforcing it seems a bit impossible, unless the yjust use that Blackstaff thing to mind control everyone.

docbeard
Jul 19, 2011

Kchama posted:

This isn't directly in response to this but it just reminded me of another frustration with the first few books: The supernatural world doesn't feel like it really connects to the regular world. Almost all of the supernatural exists in another world most of the time and those that exist in the human world keep such a good cover that the public on the whole doesn't know they exist. This is made clear by the people Dresden sneers at and feels superior to, who bring him stuff that is obviously not actually supernatural, which he scorns. People don't know what a wizard does, which if people had any awareness of the supernatural happening, then they'd easily be able to connect 'is a wizard' with 'like wizards in story' instead of wondering if he's a stage magician constantly.

And it's even weirder as stuff happens in the open with lots of normal people around and the only reporting we hear about it happening is for a tabloid that from the sound of it generally runs tabloidy made up stuff, and even then they sound skeptical about it.

There's something about a masquerade of sorts, where knowing about this stuff gets you killed by the White Council, which is Dresden's go-to reasoning for why he never tells anyone anything and gets them killed, that's never really elaborated on beyond 'they will kill you', though the specifics of this are distinctly in question as it's also established that there's literally no regular Council presence in Chicago aside from technically Dresden and, for a bit, Morgan. So actually enforcing it seems a bit impossible, unless the yjust use that Blackstaff thing to mind control everyone.

I don't think there's a formal World-Of-Darkness-Style Masquerade (for one thing, if there were, the White Council would never have tolerated Harry advertising openly as a wizard, even if no one believed him). What there is, is a sort of unofficial consensus between the various supernatural powers to avoid involving mortal authorities in their disputes because that tends to end badly for everyone. Like, I think Harry expresses concern that the Council would sort out someone who was making too much trouble for them but I'm not honestly sure if they actually would; Harry has a lot of honestly completely irrational grudges against the Council (as well as some perfectly rational ones) early on.

The series has more taken the tack that, for the most part, humanity doesn't want to believe in the supernatural, so they find excuses not to. It's spelled out pretty clearly in, I think, Dead Beat. This, combined with the general tendency of magic to completely gently caress with most of the ways modern society records and transmits information, means there doesn't necessarily even need to be a Masquerade as such. (Whether this is how things would actually play out is another question, but the tendency of people to cling to what they believe/want to be true in the face of evidence to the contrary is not exactly unknown in the real world either.)

I do in fact share some of your frustrations with the early series (but only some; for example I don't see how you could even causally glance in the broad direction of a Dresden Files book, even one of the less good early ones, and think Harry doesn't give a poo poo when people are dying) but I think what you're seeing as Harry being completely derisive is more him being generally frustrated with his lot in life. (And also Butcher making poo poo up as he went along, especially early on.)

Out of curiosity, what books (in or out of the urban fantasy milleu) do you enjoy? This isn't meant to be a dig or anything, I just feel like we've heard a lot about what you hate and I'd like to know what you love.

Narsham
Jun 5, 2008

Kchama posted:

I'm... really not sure what
(My comment about comparing apples and oranges)

is suppose to be talking about though. I've never said anything even like 'the characters are interchangable' or something. My completes have centered on Dresden, and hell, I lamented about him being an rear end in a top hat to everyone he meets.

Kchama posted:

I don't know where you got that I like Weber and am seeking to compare Weber favorably to Butcher. I was pointing out the Weber thread because it's about how I've read the dumb-gently caress books of his and want to finally get to rant to people who aren't adoring fans.

I do disagree that Butcher is a better author than Weber, though. I think they both are awful at what they do but had a niche in it that mad them popular. You could pretty much just replace 'Weber' with 'Butcher' and vice versa there and it'd make about as much sense.

You say Weber and Butcher are both "awful at what they do" and that you could replace one of their names with another, but you never compared them?

Your idea of having a discussion about Dresden Files seems to be to post in the thread that it's poo poo, claim you wanted to start a discussion when someone makes a snide comment about "it's that time again" and then act really offended when someone tries to have a discussion with you that involves disagreeing with you. Maybe I should have taken the hint when none of the thread regulars responded.

But here: I agree with you that Butcher does a bad job of integrating "supernatural world is real including fae and old-world deities" and "it's the regular world side by side with all this stuff" and he actually makes that problem worse over time. Nobody in Chicago noticed anything about the Wild Hunt or wondered how all those corpses ended up littering the streets? The Council doesn't have enough people to handle clean-up after the war with the Red Court starts and the hints of government involvement suggest that it's unlikely the FBI is running the cover-up operation because it'd be a total mess almost immediately. Maybe there's a band of brownies who pick up after Dresden outside of his apartment. The idea that getting mortals involved in a magic problem is the equivalent of starting a nuclear war doesn't seem to be supported by anything we've seen on the mortal end of things, so that classic "masquerade" idea doesn't fit the circumstances at all.

Kchama
Jul 25, 2007

docbeard posted:

I don't think there's a formal World-Of-Darkness-Style Masquerade (for one thing, if there were, the White Council would never have tolerated Harry advertising openly as a wizard, even if no one believed him). What there is, is a sort of unofficial consensus between the various supernatural powers to avoid involving mortal authorities in their disputes because that tends to end badly for everyone. Like, I think Harry expresses concern that the Council would sort out someone who was making too much trouble for them but I'm not honestly sure if they actually would; Harry has a lot of honestly completely irrational grudges against the Council (as well as some perfectly rational ones) early on.

The problem with this sort of this is that this is the information the books give. I know it's suppose to be a retcon so it can be more like Butcher wants it now, and that's fine, but the early books give a completely different story, and that's a problem.

docbeard posted:

The series has more taken the tack that, for the most part, humanity doesn't want to believe in the supernatural, so they find excuses not to. It's spelled out pretty clearly in, I think, Dead Beat. This, combined with the general tendency of magic to completely gently caress with most of the ways modern society records and transmits information, means there doesn't necessarily even need to be a Masquerade as such. (Whether this is how things would actually play out is another question, but the tendency of people to cling to what they believe/want to be true in the face of evidence to the contrary is not exactly unknown in the real world either.)

The idea that humanity doesn't want to believe in the supernatural is something that's frankly hard to comprehend, especially if it's suppose to be set in a modern-day more-or-less-the-same-but-for-the-hidden-supernatural setting. Especially since the one of the biggest religions in the world's beliefs are actually Literally True, and are already big believers in the supernatural.

docbeard posted:

I do in fact share some of your frustrations with the early series (but only some; for example I don't see how you could even causally glance in the broad direction of a Dresden Files book, even one of the less good early ones, and think Harry doesn't give a poo poo when people are dying) but I think what you're seeing as Harry being completely derisive is more him being generally frustrated with his lot in life. (And also Butcher making poo poo up as he went along, especially early on.)

I wasn't saying that Harry doesn't care when people dies, just that he keeps getting them killed because of his rear end in a top hat decisions. Those are two different, though admittedly similiar, things.

docbeard posted:

Out of curiosity, what books (in or out of the urban fantasy milleu) do you enjoy? This isn't meant to be a dig or anything, I just feel like we've heard a lot about what you hate and I'd like to know what you love.

I have actually said more than a couple of times that I actually love mystery stories. I like horror a lot too. As for specific books, the Decagon House Murders was a recent fave, which I learned of thanks to the thread. I actually originally read Dresden Files because a friend had been raving about it and kept mentioning it being a detective mystery, which sold me. But it was not a good detective mystery, so I was unsold.


Narsham posted:

You say Weber and Butcher are both "awful at what they do" and that you could replace one of their names with another, but you never compared them?

Your idea of having a discussion about Dresden Files seems to be to post in the thread that it's poo poo, claim you wanted to start a discussion when someone makes a snide comment about "it's that time again" and then act really offended when someone tries to have a discussion with you that involves disagreeing with you. Maybe I should have taken the hint when none of the thread regulars responded.

You do realize that I only said that in response to your accusations that I was comparing them, because gently caress it I might as well then. The only reason I brought up Weber was when someone asked why I read stuff I hate, and I said I was stupid and pointed out Weber as another example of me hate-reading. There was no 'Weber is better' as you for some reason got into your head, and even someone else pointed out that you were misreading me.

Kchama posted:

I wanted to give it a second try to make sure I wasn't being unfair to it. And I thought it'd be good for discussion to see if I'm just misinterpreting things.

Also I'm stupid. Peek into the Honor Harrington thread if you wanna see the depths of my stupidity.

I don't mind getting told I'm wrong, but that kind of post really irks me.

If you actually read the post, this was not complimentary to Honor Harrington or Weber. Hell, you're in the Honor Harrington thread. I am not singing it or Weber's praises and you know it.

To respond to your other accusations, think how you'd feel if you made your first post in quite a while about your complaints and someone immediately ran in to white-noise shitpost about people complaining about Dresden Files. You're more offended about me yelling about him than he is, and he even apologized and I accepted it.

Narsham posted:

But here: I agree with you that Butcher does a bad job of integrating "supernatural world is real including fae and old-world deities" and "it's the regular world side by side with all this stuff" and he actually makes that problem worse over time. Nobody in Chicago noticed anything about the Wild Hunt or wondered how all those corpses ended up littering the streets? The Council doesn't have enough people to handle clean-up after the war with the Red Court starts and the hints of government involvement suggest that it's unlikely the FBI is running the cover-up operation because it'd be a total mess almost immediately. Maybe there's a band of brownies who pick up after Dresden outside of his apartment. The idea that getting mortals involved in a magic problem is the equivalent of starting a nuclear war doesn't seem to be supported by anything we've seen on the mortal end of things, so that classic "masquerade" idea doesn't fit the circumstances at all.

This is what I'm talking about, yes.

StonecutterJoe
Mar 29, 2016

Kea posted:

From what I remember of the Anita Blake series I thought the first ... 3 or so? Were ok and then they went real downhill real fast. Dresden isnt high art or anything, its fun pulpy action and that is pretty much what I am looking for. Preferably with a minimum of sex, some is fine but not like, most urban fantasy levels.

Narcissus in Chains is where the Anita Blake series flips like a lightswitch. Up until that point it'd been urban fantasy with some sex, and after that it was sex with some urban fantasy.

Kchama
Jul 25, 2007

StonecutterJoe posted:

Narcissus in Chains is where the Anita Blake series flips like a lightswitch. Up until that point it'd been urban fantasy with some sex, and after that it was sex with some urban fantasy.

It's honestly why I couldn't stand Anita Blake.

Sloth Life
Nov 15, 2014

Built for comfort and speed!
Fallen Rib

StonecutterJoe posted:

Narcissus in Chains is where the Anita Blake series flips like a lightswitch. Up until that point it'd been urban fantasy with some sex, and after that it was sex with some urban fantasy.

Anita Blake was my first real foray into Urban Fantasy and teen girl Sloth lived for her books... Until this one. You are completely right that it was the turning point of the series.

I can see a bit of Verus DNA in the earlier stories, where small weak Anita only survived because she would always go straight to loving people up. (As opposed to just loving people, as time wore on)

Ah well.

Drone Jett
Feb 21, 2017

by Fluffdaddy
College Slice
Has this thread ever talked about The Last Hot Time by John M. Ford? I see it's out of print and never got an ebook edition.

docbeard
Jul 19, 2011

Drone Jett posted:

Has this thread ever talked about The Last Hot Time by John M. Ford? I see it's out of print and never got an ebook edition.

It comes up occasionally. READ IT READ IT READ IT.

Omi no Kami
Feb 19, 2014


Speaking of book recommendations this is unapologetic YA garbage that nobody should read, but I actually enjoyed the hell out of the Skulduggery Pleasant books. Basically a 12 year-old girl discovers that her eccentric uncle is really a violent wizard detective who spends all of his time hurting people and breaking things, and she goes "Oh my god you're the coolest person I've ever met, I want to grow up to be just like you." (Then she basically does.)

Ninurta
Sep 19, 2007
What the HELL? That's my cutting board.

Drone Jett posted:

Has this thread ever talked about The Last Hot Time by John M. Ford? I see it's out of print and never got an ebook edition.

I believe it was mentioned earlier, that's how I ended up getting a copy of it. It's a good book, however towards the end it does have some undertones of the less savory Urban Fantasy themes that even came up in Dresden Files, if briefly.

tithin
Nov 14, 2003


[Grandmaster Tactician]



I know Skin Game cops a lot of flack - some of it deservedly, but you know what? the parts were more good than bad imo.

But holy poo poo are the bad bits bad

Kchama
Jul 25, 2007

Omi no Kami posted:

Speaking of book recommendations this is unapologetic YA garbage that nobody should read, but I actually enjoyed the hell out of the Skulduggery Pleasant books. Basically a 12 year-old girl discovers that her eccentric uncle is really a violent wizard detective who spends all of his time hurting people and breaking things, and she goes "Oh my god you're the coolest person I've ever met, I want to grow up to be just like you." (Then she basically does.)

My favorite YA is still Animorphs. Like, by a long shot.

Zore
Sep 21, 2010
willfully illiterate, aggressively miserable sourpuss whose sole raison d’etre is to put other people down for liking the wrong things

Kchama posted:

My favorite YA is still Animorphs. Like, by a long shot.

Animorphs is such an insane series. I remember I started reading it when I was 7 or 8 and it just blew my mind.

Its also aggressively depressing as hell and I kind of appreciate it ends with the protagonists doing some incredibly questionable stuff as well as outright war crimes (creating the reserve corps made up of kids with disabilities, murdering a couple thousand yeerks in cold blood etc) with the ultimate ending being them going on a suicide mission because fighting a war hosed up the teenagers to the point they couldn't function in the post war society really.

Easily the most formative series of books I read when I was a kid.

mastajake
Oct 3, 2005

My blade is unBENDING!

Also K.A. Applegate’s response to people dissatisfied with the end is pretty :discourse:

Some Pinko Commie
Jun 9, 2009

CNC! Easy as 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣!

Omi no Kami posted:

Speaking of book recommendations this is unapologetic YA garbage that nobody should read, but I actually enjoyed the hell out of the Skulduggery Pleasant books. Basically a 12 year-old girl discovers that her eccentric uncle is really a violent wizard detective who spends all of his time hurting people and breaking things, and she goes "Oh my god you're the coolest person I've ever met, I want to grow up to be just like you." (Then she basically does.)

Dresden has a neice?

Kchama
Jul 25, 2007

Zore posted:

Animorphs is such an insane series. I remember I started reading it when I was 7 or 8 and it just blew my mind.

Its also aggressively depressing as hell and I kind of appreciate it ends with the protagonists doing some incredibly questionable stuff as well as outright war crimes (creating the reserve corps made up of kids with disabilities, murdering a couple thousand yeerks in cold blood etc) with the ultimate ending being them going on a suicide mission because fighting a war hosed up the teenagers to the point they couldn't function in the post war society really.

Easily the most formative series of books I read when I was a kid.

:yeah:

It probably got me into reading the most and I already loved books as a little kid. It's very intense and dark and that really interested me as a kid. Really helped formed my writing style, too.

ImpAtom
May 24, 2007

Animorphs is absolutely the book series I read at that age that stuck with me the most. It is very much a YA series but damned if it wasn't memorable as hell

NerdyMcNerdNerd
Aug 3, 2004
Ya'll making me regret the fact that I stopped reading those at around book three. I think kid me just couldn't find any more of them.

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound

NerdyMcNerdNerd posted:

Ya'll making me regret the fact that I stopped reading those at around book three. I think kid me just couldn't find any more of them.

There are a lot of children's series that I've found myself ordering full sets of, as an adult, just so I could go back and catch all the volumes that I couldn't find back in the pre-internet childhood

My wife asks "why did you order a 12 volume hardback set of the Oz books"

because I've been waiting thirty years to find out what happened in Rinkitink in Oz, dammit

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ImpAtom
May 24, 2007

Animorphs was also INSANELY violent. Like I was reading King at the same age and he was less violent. The protagonists had the ability to heal from any injury and primarily battled "walking razor blades" and cannibal bags of meat and the books took full advantage of it.

Kinda funny how much poo poo a kids book series can get away with.

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