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I blazed through the new Sandman Slim as well. Since the topic seems to be of interest in this thread, Slim begins a relationship with a non binary character. (And yes, I had to reread sentences because I kept getting confused with whom "they" was referring to, especially in scenes with multiple characters.)
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Aug 27, 2020 21:46
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ConfusedUs posted:If you liked Iron Druid, you'll probably like the rest of his stuff. Yeah. I mean, I read them all because I'm a sucker for sunk-cost fallacy and seeing poo poo through to the end, but it definitely got kinda...I don't know the word, but I quit being entertained as much. I liked Owen a lot more than Atticus. That being said, it did have some neat ideas and concepts behind it. It scratches the itch if you just really want some modern/urban fantasy, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it "Good." At best, it's ok.
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Aug 27, 2020 22:05
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Wizchine posted:I blazed through the new Sandman Slim as well. Since the topic seems to be of interest in this thread, Slim begins a relationship with a non binary character. (And yes, I had to reread sentences because I kept getting confused with whom "they" was referring to, especially in scenes with multiple characters.) That kinda freaked me out, it being that I'm named James, and my spouse is a non binary person with a twin peaks tattoo. At least similarities end there.
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Aug 27, 2020 22:23
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Wizchine posted:I blazed through the new Sandman Slim as well. Since the topic seems to be of interest in this thread, Slim begins a relationship with a non binary character. (And yes, I had to reread sentences because I kept getting confused with whom "they" was referring to, especially in scenes with multiple characters.) I quit Sandman Slim after the third book. At least I think it was the third. It leaned a little too hard into male power fantasy for my tastes. I usually love self-serious, over-the-top, so-bad-it's-good stuff, but Slim just lost me. It felt like it was trying a just little too hard. I've heard nothing but good about the last two books though. Maybe it just had a mid-series slump, and I need to pick it back up?
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Aug 27, 2020 22:27
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ConfusedUs posted:I quit Sandman Slim after the third book. At least I think it was the third. It leaned a little too hard into male power fantasy for my tastes. I usually love self-serious, over-the-top, so-bad-it's-good stuff, but Slim just lost me. It felt like it was trying a just little too hard. Same. Never got thru book 3.
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Aug 27, 2020 22:57
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ConfusedUs posted:I quit Sandman Slim after the third book. At least I think it was the third. It leaned a little too hard into male power fantasy for my tastes. I usually love self-serious, over-the-top, so-bad-it's-good stuff, but Slim just lost me. It felt like it was trying a just little too hard. I never really quit the series so much as at some point I just kind of forgot that it existed. I might need to go back and pick up where I left off. Just as soon as I can remember where that was.
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Aug 27, 2020 23:14
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Silly Newbie posted:That kinda freaked me out, it being that I'm named James, and my spouse is a non binary person with a twin peaks tattoo. At least similarities end there. As far as *you* know, you mean.  
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Aug 27, 2020 23:19
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biracial bear for uncut posted:As far as *you* know, you mean. I was trying to figure out if the eleven years I spent with my ex counted as hell... Early Sandman Slim can get a little edgelordy for itself, but it settles out rapidly. The middle books are about exploring the cosmology, and the later stuff has so far been more of that, and a bunch of "what does the ultraviolent man's man savior of the world do after the world gets saved, and no longer needs his particular skills?", which has been fun. I could see wanting to check out after the first couple books, though. Edit- the_steve posted:I liked Owen a lot more than Atticus. The talking dog is my favorite overall character. I'm not sure what that opinion says about me or the series. I agree with you on why I finished reading it though. Silly Newbie fucked around with this message at 00:28 on Aug 28, 2020 |
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Aug 28, 2020 00:20
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ConfusedUs posted:I quit Sandman Slim after the third book. At least I think it was the third. It leaned a little too hard into male power fantasy for my tastes. I usually love self-serious, over-the-top, so-bad-it's-good stuff, but Slim just lost me. It felt like it was trying a just little too hard. Book 3 is loving terrible, but Kadrey reverses course pretty quick.
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Aug 28, 2020 00:32
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Ornamented Death posted:Book 3 is loving terrible, but Kadrey reverses course pretty quick. This. I quit at book 3 too, but enough people gushed about the rest of the series to get me to pick it up again and I'm really glad I did.
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Aug 28, 2020 13:29
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The payoff to the Iron Druid books is satisfying, how Atticus ends up, but I'm not sure it's worth reading the whole series just for that.
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Aug 28, 2020 14:15
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I liked iron druid but yea the action becomes very video gamey, there just never seems to be any stakes or tension with how powerful Atticus is.
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Aug 28, 2020 15:10
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Avalerion posted:I liked iron druid but yea the action becomes very video gamey, there just never seems to be any stakes or tension with how powerful Atticus is. That's one reason I prefer the Peter Grant series. Grant is smart and fairly capable but he's not Harry Dresden or Harry Potter or some other super-wizard. He's a guy who has to leverage the limited stuff he knows into solving whatever problem there is.
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Aug 28, 2020 16:16
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Avalerion posted:I liked iron druid but yea the action becomes very video gamey, there just never seems to be any stakes or tension with how powerful Atticus is. I liked when he got royally hosed over in the end. gently caress that guy.
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Aug 28, 2020 17:36
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Waltzing Along posted:Took a while to get through this new one. I know it is really only half a book but I thought it was garbage, nonetheless. Easily the worst in the series. The amount of stupid on display from pretty much everyone, all the time, was off the charts.
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Aug 28, 2020 17:55
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anilEhilated posted:Yeah, I think I'm officially done with Dresden after having read that. I was mostly reading out of inertia at this point anyway. I'm still in at least through Book 17. 16 was half a book and kind of a crappily edited half a book at that. Still... I can't just drop the series. I still remember the train-top fight in 5 and Sue from 7. Given the set-up for it, 17 holds the potential for same amazing crazy-rear end stuff.
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Aug 28, 2020 20:29
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Everyone posted:I'm still in at least through Book 17. 16 was half a book and kind of a crappily edited half a book at that. Still... I can't just drop the series. I still remember the train-top fight in 5 and Sue from 7. Given the set-up for it, 17 holds the potential for same amazing crazy-rear end stuff. The library exists for mitigating the risk of exactly the sort of buyers remorse you are hyping yourself up for.
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Aug 29, 2020 02:17
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anilEhilated posted:Yeah, I think I'm officially done with Dresden after having read that. I was mostly reading out of inertia at this point anyway. First Dresden I ever returned. I tried to restart it to give it another chance, lost interest a few chapters in and kicked it back. Also the Sandman Slims are a lot more tongue-in-cheek and stuff on the audioversions, very clearly not meant to be taken straight. Actor delivers it just right.
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Aug 29, 2020 05:25
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Does anyone know where I can find a recap for sandman slim? I don't feel like re-reading the whole series but I want to read the new one.
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Aug 29, 2020 06:15
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aziraphale60 posted:Does anyone know where I can find a recap for sandman slim? I don't feel like re-reading the whole series but I want to read the new one. I started writing a recap, but realized I'm too tired and had too much to drink. I'll come back at it tomorrow, though, if no one has answered. The new book is a pretty decent place to start if you don't mind reading four paragraphs of back story.
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Aug 29, 2020 06:57
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Silly Newbie posted:I started writing a recap, but realized I'm too tired and had too much to drink. I'll come back at it tomorrow, though, if no one has answered. The new book is a pretty decent place to start if you don't mind reading four paragraphs of back story. Oh cool, thanks. I decided if i couldn't find an answer I'd re-listen to hollywood dead instead of the whole thing since it was so transitional but I'd really appreciate the help 
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Aug 29, 2020 14:56
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Anias posted:The library exists for mitigating the risk of exactly the sort of buyers remorse you are hyping yourself up for. I don't think that's going to be a problem. I'll agree with the majority that PT was probably overall the worst of the DF books. Still, it met my admittedly low threshold of "good enough." The likelihood is that the hardback of both it and 17 will get donated to my local library once the the paperback versions come out. Plus, once 17 comes out and I read, I'll likely do a back-to-back reread of 16 and 17 to see if the story flows together better. Meanwhile, it's August 29. I should probably head over to Jim Butcher.com to see if the first chapter of 17 is up yet. Figure if it's not up yet, it'll probably get posted Tuesday the 1st. Edit: And... nope, not yet. So figure Tuesday.
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Aug 30, 2020 02:41
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Everyone posted:I don't think that's going to be a problem. I'll agree with the majority that PT was probably overall the worst of the DF books. Still, it met my admittedly low threshold of "good enough." The likelihood is that the hardback of both it and 17 will get donated to my local library once the the paperback versions come out. Plus, once 17 comes out and I read, I'll likely do a back-to-back reread of 16 and 17 to see if the story flows together better. It's this coming week, it was confirmed in an email.
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Aug 30, 2020 03:13
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Ornamented Death posted:It's this coming week, it was confirmed in an email. I thought so. Well, figure we're getting the first four chapters at most assuming he posts one a week for the Tuesdays preceding the 29th.
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Aug 30, 2020 10:31
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aziraphale60 posted:Oh cool, thanks. I decided if i couldn't find an answer I'd re-listen to hollywood dead instead of the whole thing since it was so transitional but I'd really appreciate the help Ok, so I keep thinking about attempting this and realizing how much is actually there, and how tough it is to do while phone posting, but here's what I think are the relevant parts before reading the next book. James Stark, aka Sandman Slim, is a half Angel (via the archangel Uriel) natural magician who spent 11 years alive in hell because his friends were dicks. He has superhuman strength and toughness, and a super inconsistent ability to scar when hurt, then be largely immune to being hurt like that again. After returning from hell in book one, he chops off an old acquaintance's head and takes over his video store. Most of the first couple books are a revenge fantasy to rival The Crow. During this, he meets God, Lucifer, meets and kills a race of not-angels called the Kissi, is briefly Lucifer, king of hell, and generally just is a fuckup. There's a lot of fairly well thought out cosmology that goes into this. He attempts to free the denizens of hell to go to heaven, but God is weak (and fractured into multiple parts) and the angels are dicks, so the gates of heaven are locked. There's a big fight against the dudes God kinda stole creation from, and a few pieces of God die. This is not presented as a bad thing. Throughout the series he works with and sometimes against a government agency dedicated to policing magic people. Which reminds me, magic is real, all kinds of non- and meta-humans (vampires, ghouls, pixies, etc) are real, magic is either learnable or innate, and the whole magical world keeps a low profile. It's basically grimdark Harry Potter. Eventually, someone finally has enough of his poo poo and kills him for real, and he goes to hell for a terminally boring book that mostly serves to bring back old characters and move along the "angels are dicks and heaven is locked" storyline. Stark has the use of a place called the Room of 13 Doors, which allow him to basically use shadows to teleport wherever he wants, and whose existence probably sounded really cool originally in the author's head, but mostly serves as a deus ex machina device. Stark gains and loses access to this power somewhat randomly through the series. Stark also has a not particularly well described knife made of black bone that can open any lock (or start any ignition), which are both incredibly rare and easy for him to find, that he loses and regains through the series. In the last few books, Stark dies, goes to hell, survives that (it's possible to die in the afterlife and go to double hell), goes to heaven, is about to get super murdered by the archangel Michael in heaven (who is an rear end in a top hat), then gets brought back by a necromancer to do dirty work for the super cabal that secretly runs the world. He does some of this dirty work, kills a bunch of people, gets double crossed, gets saved by one of his trademarked Powerful Friends, then brought back to life for real by his regular friends, in a pretty heartwarming/funny sequence where they adapt a spell used primarily to preserve meat. Stark has an old flame named Alice (see: revenge fantasy) who got murdered, went to heaven, briefly to hell a couple times, and is now an angel. He has a sometime girlfriend named Candy who is a jade (species that does spider-vampire stuff to dissolve people from the inside to eat them). Stark and Candy went on a bit of a break due to him being literally dead for a year, she moved on, and they're now ethically non-monogamous, sort of. Most of their friction stems from Stark being a sociopath who doesn't have an identity other than "guy who breaks stuff", but he's trying to get better. Other notable characters: Vidoq - old (couple centuries) French alchemist. Accidentally made himself immortal around the French revolution, deeply regrets it. Brigitte - Czech porn star/legit actress/zombie hunter. Zombie hunting career cut short by Stark removing the concept of zombies from the world entirely. Turns out they were animated because of a seal that kept an ancient big bad contained, and Stark broke it. Allegra - first regular person Stark meets early. Runs a clinic for magical people that Stark's dad used to run. On/off with Vidoq. Tends to be the voice of reason. Carlos - runs a tiki/punk bar. Regular dude whose boyfriend is an amateur witch. Saw his bar transition from dive getting rolled by Nazis for projection money to hang out for the secret magical world. Business is good, so he mostly doesn't mind the mayhem. Janet - works at a donut shop, got inadvertently saved by Stark during the zombie apocalypse because Stark told her to go home and stay there, to avoid the incoming shitstorm. Kasabian - acquaintance of Stark's who had his head removed in book one, but non-fatally. Has become friends with Stark in that way that they hang out and depend on each other, and mostly feel hate and contempt for each other. Currently is a human head that magically cannot die attached to a mechanical/cyborg hell hound body by a dude who does magical clockwork creations named Manimal Mike Sammael - literally Satan, but apologized to God and is now back to being an archangel. Briefly made Stark be Lucifer as a joke. Typing that out made me think about how ridiculous the whole thing is, and freshly amazed at the quality that resulted. This is mostly targeted as a refresher for someone about to skip to the new book, so I'm leaving a ton out. I also typed it entirely from memory on my phone, so there may be some mistakes and the formatting sucks.
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Aug 30, 2020 22:50
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Man, that sounds terrible.
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Aug 30, 2020 23:16
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The_Doctor posted:Man, that sounds terrible. Any multi-book urban fantasy series would. It's a hoot, though, once you aren't looking at the series from 20,000 feet up.
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Aug 30, 2020 23:30
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Wizchine posted:Any multi-book urban fantasy series would. It really is. I left a lot out that's covered by context in the newest book. The author has (mostly) worked through his adolescent power fantasies, and the recent books have become more focused on what happens when an adolescent power fantasy has to exist in the regular world, and it's fun to watch it grow. Watching hope just barely edge out total nihilism in every book is a good time, too.
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Aug 30, 2020 23:36
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Silly Newbie posted:It really is. I left a lot out that's covered by context in the newest book. The author has (mostly) worked through his adolescent power fantasies, and the recent books have become more focused on what happens when an adolescent power fantasy has to exist in the regular world, and it's fun to watch it grow. The saving grace for Sandman Slim is that while the character looks and sounds like the kind of embarrassing poo poo I used to draw in the margins of my notebooks in junior high, the actual books are written to be, weirdly, fairly forward thinking and emotionally mature. Sandman Slim just wants to tinker on his motorcycle and watch schlocky movies with his monster girlfriend, but all these demons and poo poo keep hassling him. They’re Dad fiction for the aging Hot Topic set Old Kentucky Shark fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Aug 31, 2020 |
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Aug 31, 2020 01:28
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Old Kentucky Shark posted:The saving grace for Sandman Slim is that while the character looks and sounds like the kind of embarrassing poo poo I used to draw in the margins of my notebooks in junior high, the actual books are written to be, weirdly, fairly forward thinking and emotionally mature. Sandman Slim just wants to tinker on his motorcycle and watch schlocky movies with his monster girlfriend, but all these demons and poo poo keep hassling him. I've found, particularly in the later books, that while the character acts like Rob Leifeld and Jonen Vasquez had a collaborative effort in 1998, those behaviors only ever solve the short term problems, and breaking out of them and being better is typically how the day gets saved.
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Aug 31, 2020 01:43
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The cosmology deserves a lot of credit for keeping me interested in the series.
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Aug 31, 2020 01:54
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Silly Newbie posted:It really is. I left a lot out that's covered by context in the newest book. The author has (mostly) worked through his adolescent power fantasies, and the recent books have become more focused on what happens when an adolescent power fantasy has to exist in the regular world, and it's fun to watch it grow. I just saw this and ended up just re-listening to Hollywood Dead. I forgot how enjoyable Stark's BS is. Tbf he's generally only sociopathic to people who are constantly yelling at him and doing insane poo poo around him anyway. Whenever he's interacting with someone who isn't trying to manipulate him he's sort of just a dork. He basically tries his best to do right by the people who deserve it (and sometimes the people who don't) and constantly finds himself being the only super person around willing or able to stop some nonsense apocalypse from being caused on purpose. The series is really carried by everyone else though, but that's pretty much every urban fantasy.
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Aug 31, 2020 02:25
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aziraphale60 posted:I just saw this and ended up just re-listening to Hollywood Dead. I forgot how enjoyable Stark's BS is. Tbf he's generally only sociopathic to people who are constantly yelling at him and doing insane poo poo around him anyway. Whenever he's interacting with someone who isn't trying to manipulate him he's sort of just a dork. He basically tries his best to do right by the people who deserve it (and sometimes the people who don't) and constantly finds himself being the only super person around willing or able to stop some nonsense apocalypse from being caused on purpose. I agree, I think. Stark can conquer whatever threat is happening, but that's not the drama of the series - it's him trying to interact with regular people and maintain enough sanity to try to save the world that creates the meaningful conflict.
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Aug 31, 2020 03:57
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Anita Blake 9 thoughts as I'm over halfway through it: - My favorite thing about it so far is how Anita as a civilian has to interact with the cops in this other state. Some hate her because they think she's evil, one is flirting with her, others either respect or fear her. And watching her manage that while trying to get clues is fascinating. - Anita being genuinely burnt out by everything: fighting evil, facing horror, dealing with complicated romances, her developing powers... She keeps talking about needing a vacation after this case is done. - also she's 26 and I turned 29 last month and this makes me feel extremely old - the local vampire lord, a genuine aztec who turned the Spanish Conquistadors into vamps so she could torture them forever is A+ vampire horror - the entire mood of the book is creeping, off-kilter wrongness more than anything else in the series so far. The entire mood/theme is perfectly captured by how Edward, an extremely mercenary killer and Anita's mentor, has revealed that he might actually be in love with a single mom of two. Anita's bedrock and one of the only people who understand her has himself fallen into a twisted mirror world that is most likely going to get an innocent harmed or worse. Love continues to be presented as dangerous at best.
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Aug 31, 2020 05:54
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Reading Kim Harrison's The Hollows series. Do we ever find out why Ivy seems to have a huge crush on Rachel and already seems to have a love nest prepared for them? If so, how many books does it take? Did things really get so bad that indentured servitude made a comeback?
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Aug 31, 2020 11:01
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StrixNebulosa posted:Anita Blake 9 thoughts as I'm over halfway through it: That's Obsidian Butterfly, right? I remember it being the best for a while, and probably the last one I enjoyed before dropping the series. Reading Small Favor now, Harry again worries about having his back broken. I really wonder if the time travel speculated about earlier will both involve Harry fixing little Chicago for his past self in Proven guilty AND pushing his own ladder over in Changes. Perhaps Mirror mirror shows him what happens if he tried rescuing Maggie without Winter powers?
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Aug 31, 2020 11:19
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Beachcomber posted:Reading Kim Harrison's The Hollows series. Because The Hollows is as much of a female power fantasy as Dresden is a male one, and everyone wants to bang Rachel. She's one hot hot mess
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Aug 31, 2020 11:30
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Beachcomber posted:Reading Kim Harrison's The Hollows series. Pretty quickly - just a few books in, iirc.
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Aug 31, 2020 12:31
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Beachcomber posted:Reading Kim Harrison's The Hollows series. I've been reading The Hollows some time ago, but I keep putting it off after hitting cement-like walls in book 2 and 4 that drained all enjoyment out of the story. I think in book 2 there was this immensely long sex scene that just went on and on forever until I had to go look up plot summaries to make sure that there would be a plot happening at some point. After a while I forced myself to continue and it turned out the rest of the book wasn't too bad. Kim Harrison wrote Rachel in a way that's both absolutely infuriating and intriguing, so alternately I absolutely hate her and absolutely love her. That makes reading these books a total rollercoaster of emotions, but now I've finished the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn and will probably continue the Hollows. I mean, at least it's emotionally engaging?  Anyway, back when I started reading Kitty Norville and The Hollows, Kim Harrison's books had me rolling my eyes nearly constantly, while Carrie Vaughn immensely surprised me: Kitty may be a silly name for a werewolf, but her books were great fun to read! But as a warning: The ending of the series demolishes some great world building and if you're not a very religious person, it'll come of as incredibly dumb and silly. The rest of the books is still good, though.
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Aug 31, 2020 13:21
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StrixNebulosa posted:Anita Blake 9 thoughts as I'm over halfway through it: Obsidian Butterfly was the last Anita Blake I read all the way through. The next one is one of the only times a book made me go "Nope, I'm out." on an entire series.
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Aug 31, 2020 14:36
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