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Darkrenown posted: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. Everyone posted: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. Yup, 9 is Obsidian Butterfly. I am deeply, intensely curious about 10 (Narcissus in Chains) but one book at a time. My current philosophy on reading Anita Blake: if I love 10 and onwards, great! More for me! If I hate them, alrighty then, I still got 8-9 amazing books out of the experience, easily some of the best urban fantasy I've ever read as it really delves into the horror angle and being near-helpless in the face of horrible powers. Also it just gave me the worldbuilding tidbit that in this world, if you're convicted for using magic to kill, you get the death penalty ASAP even in a state like California. As in, if you get convicted you'll be dead within 2-3 months which is insane considering the American justice system. It makes gory sense but also jesus. And then it throws in the extra detail that in some other countries they still burn witches at the stake (illegal in the US, they only burn the body after it's dead) and that's why Anita doesn't want to travel much. Wow! I love and hate this! Why don't more books do away with the masquerade and have fun/horrifying details like this?
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Aug 31, 2020 14:50
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I really enjoy her necromancy and I wish there was more of that and less group sex. I remember in one of the early books there was some other necromancer making abominations out of multiple corpses and Anita eventually tears him to shreds with a pack of zombies. She should have solved more of her problems like that, IMO. On the subject, if you haven't read it yet I recommend trying the Kate Daniels series next. It's a bit different from many of the big Urban Fantasy settings because the world has been partially destroyed by magic and now everyone knows about it and the various monsters, and Kate herself is refreshingly brutal in dealing with threats that arise. It does veer a bit into paranormal romance later on, but far, far less than Anita does.
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Aug 31, 2020 15:21
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Darkrenown posted:On the subject, if you haven't read it yet I recommend trying the Kate Daniels series next. It's a bit different from many of the big Urban Fantasy settings because the world has been partially destroyed by magic and now everyone knows about it and the various monsters, and Kate herself is refreshingly brutal in dealing with threats that arise. It does veer a bit into paranormal romance later on, but far, far less than Anita does. I'll second that recommendation. The paranormal romance stuff is kinda always there, but it's somewhat decently written and endearing- I always tended to skip ahead whenever they felt the need to do the once-a-book gratuitous sex scene, though, because even decent writing can't save that. But the setting is just.. Cool, for lack of a more eloquent term. Magic has come back into the world, but it comes in waves, almost like the tides, and so society is sort of built around trying to withstand that while also using technology during the off-periods that will fail when the magic returns. Definitely worth a try.
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Aug 31, 2020 18:12
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Everyone posted: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. As someone who bounced off Anita Blake, what was the (spoilered) relevant thing that made you do this?
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Aug 31, 2020 22:40
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Beachcomber posted:As someone who bounced off Anita Blake, what was the (spoilered) relevant thing that made you do this? Pretty much the wall-to-wall sex, usually group sex. Really the whole harem thing. Harems are gross when it's a guy with a bunch of women and they're still gross when it's a woman with a bunch of guys. @ Strix: Honestly if you like that you might want to check out the Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood was based on that series) books.
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Sep 1, 2020 03:42
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Beachcomber posted:As someone who bounced off Anita Blake, what was the (spoilered) relevant thing that made you do this? Without looking it up, she gets turned into a succubus. I have no idea how this happens or how the plot evolves, but I'm eager to see it since I've heard so much about it. In the meantime I will continue to post about the actually plot stuff in these books so we don't get into more massive derails about sex.
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Sep 1, 2020 04:46
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re: Kate Daniels I have read at least three books and really enjoyed it, but I burnt out on them hard because occasionally the authors write some things that send me into rage fits. (i.e. one of the side characters choosing to side with the equivalent of the KKK and only getting "redeemed" in a side book that I wasn't interested in reading and HRMMMMMMMMMMMMMM) e: if I remembered this wrong, tell me, it's been years and I only vaguely remember being mad
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Sep 1, 2020 04:50
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I ended up liking the first Kate Daniels. Expect the werelion guy is super creepy and I think they are gonna hook up.  Other than that, really liking the world, would have liked it to go a bit more into magic and stuff, could have used a "Bob and Harry talk shop" equivalent, or just do the Sanderson thing where magic is explained like it's a dnd handbook. Avalerion fucked around with this message at 12:07 on Sep 1, 2020 |
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Sep 1, 2020 12:00
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Avalerion posted:I ended up liking the first Kate Daniels. Expect the werelion guy is super creepy and I think they are gonna hook up. Werelion guy: Is going to hook up with Kate, sorry. I think they handle the character development so it's a good romance, but if you don't like him you don't like him.
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Sep 1, 2020 16:05
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The characteristics that make Werelion guy a lovely character are explicitly what make him who and what he is. He's not a nice or pleasant person and he suits Kate, who is also not a nice or pleasant person. (I dont like him either tbh.)
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Sep 1, 2020 16:27
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Eh, he mellows out a bit. Especially after Kate put him in his place I like the slow reveal of Kate's family over the course of the books and how hosed up the whole family is.
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Sep 1, 2020 19:37
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Darkrenown posted:I really enjoy her necromancy and I wish there was more of that and less group sex. I remember in one of the early books there was some other necromancer making abominations out of multiple corpses and Anita eventually tears him to shreds with a pack of zombies. She should have solved more of her problems like that, IMO. Obsidian Butterfly was the point that I started applying the Hamilton Process: Each time she puts out a new Anita Blake book, I pick it up in the bookstore, open to a random page, and check for a pointless supernatural sex scene. If I find one, I put it back on the shelf. So far I haven't bought one of her books since.
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Sep 2, 2020 01:46
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Liquid Communism posted:Obsidian Butterfly was the point that I started applying the Hamilton Process: The closest thing I can compare Hamilton too is J. D. Robb, the pseudonym Nora Roberts uses when she writes the "In Death" books. I read several of them and kind of liked them. They're set in the 2050s or so in New York City. Eve Dallas is a tough, cynical, world-weary cop involved in solving future crimes. The books are neat little procedural with smarts and even some decent action. And if that was it, they'd have been fine. Except. Except for Roark. Roark is the super-competent Fabio-handsome computer savvy billionaire who is Eve's love interest. And they show their love. A lot. So in this pretty cool future crime detective procedural there's Roark, this weird-rear end Fabio-creature who's just been awkwardly grafted on to this series. After one bit where I completely forgot why the two where going someplace because the double-digit page sex scene kind of drove it out of my head, I dropped the series.
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Sep 2, 2020 02:32
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Everyone posted:The closest thing I can compare Hamilton too is J. D. Robb, the pseudonym Nora Roberts uses when she writes the "In Death" books. I read several of them and kind of liked them. They're set in the 2050s or so in New York City. Eve Dallas is a tough, cynical, world-weary cop involved in solving future crimes. The books are neat little procedural with smarts and even some decent action. And if that was it, they'd have been fine. Except. I've told this story on the forums before, but I don't know if it was this thread. I participate in a hobby which sometimes involves overnight trips, and my friends and I carpool to the gigs to save on gas. One of the people I often carpool with is a retired history teacher, in his 60s. I invite you to picture the following: On a five hour road trip, retired teacher and his wife in the front seat of the truck, me in the back. They decide to listen to an audiobook, I don't share their taste in reading material so I put on my headphones but it's not entirely successful at drowning out an Eve Dallas book, so I get a taste of it. And then the sex scene comes. Ten minutes of it. In awkward silence. Rocketing south down I-45.
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Sep 2, 2020 03:09
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Lemniscate Blue posted:I've told this story on the forums before, but I don't know if it was this thread. Um... wow. Yeah.... that sounds about right. And the worst part is that that's just one sex scene. There's probably at least three or four more like it in the book. That seem to go on for-loving-ever. I don't know. I guess the authors know their audience. My thing is that sex should be... spicy. As in used as a spice. And much like you wouldn't make chili with half the contents of it consisting of habanero peppers (two pounds of ground meat, two pounds of H-peppers), you don't want a book to have that much sex in it because eventually the sex is... boring. I mean, eventually there's just so many ways you can describe Shaft P going into Slot V (or whatever configuration based on the participants' sexual orientation) before it becomes repetitive and... dull. For all that Harry Dresden thinks about sex and gazes malely, he's apparently only had it four or five times during the now 17 book series. I very much consider this to be a good thing. I like the series, but Butcher's "love scenes" approach Tom Clancy levels of non-good. Everyone fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Sep 2, 2020 |
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Sep 2, 2020 07:13
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I missed it yesterday, but the first two chapers of Battle Ground are up. https://www.tor.com/2020/09/01/read-the-first-two-chapters-from-battle-ground-jim-butchers-new-dresden-files-book/ It seems good so far. I did laugh at how Dresden won't soulgaze the woman he loves, but he keeps soulgazing monsters.
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Sep 2, 2020 21:52
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And I guess it's time for me to check out again, for a few weeks 
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Sep 2, 2020 22:01
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William Bear posted:I missed it yesterday, but the first two chapers of Battle Ground are up. I guess the soul isn't situated between the breasts.
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Sep 2, 2020 23:14
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William Bear posted:I missed it yesterday, but the first two chapers of Battle Ground are up. Well, to be fair, soulgaizing does not at all seem to be a pleasant experience for either side. Unless maybe one side is just horrifically more potent than the other (Harry and the Naagloshi). It's something that wizards can do by accident or by necessity but it doesn't seem to be anything they really want to do a lot. Overall it comes off as a metaphysical mutual cavity search
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Sep 3, 2020 01:25
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IF YOUR ENEMY IS AN ANCIENT VAMPIRE WHO HAS RECENTLY GAINED A PERMANENT PSYCHIC INFLUENCE OVER YOUR BEST FRIEND, YOU KILL THEM! Goddamn, I could reach through the pages and throttle her. Reading: The Good, the Bad, and the Undead, by Kim Harrison mod edit: fixed spoiler tags Somebody fucked around with this message at 14:19 on Sep 5, 2020 |
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Sep 3, 2020 08:47
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William Bear posted:I missed it yesterday, but the first two chapers of Battle Ground are up. Within a few pages of each other: quote:I looked down at her and said, “If anything happens, it will be near shore. Makes the most sense for the enemy to post their people or whatever there. Better tell everyone to be ready.” quote:“Okay. I think we’re getting close. If there’s going to be trouble, it will be between us and shore. Better let them know.”  E: Reading on, there's a lot of repetitive wording in just these two chapters. I'd definitely be asking a writer to reword some of this if I was editing it. Darkrenown fucked around with this message at 09:20 on Sep 3, 2020 |
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Sep 3, 2020 09:06
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Darkrenown posted:Akin to the double Blob reference from PT I wonder what's going on with his editing It's not like he was in any rush...
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Sep 3, 2020 09:21
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Darkrenown posted:
His new hot young cosplay wife probably isn't as good a beta reader as his old professional writer wife, that's my guess. edit: it's also possible this was just rushed generally without beta readers at all. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 12:31 on Sep 3, 2020 |
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Sep 3, 2020 09:35
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:His new hot young cosplay wife probably isn't as good a beta reader as his old professional writer wife, that's my guess. Oh. Did that happen during the Peace talks wait? His writing feels different, and worse, in both PT and what I've seen of BG. I thought it might just be from a 6 year gap and a lot of rewrites, but if his ex-wife was heavily involved in his writing it could also explain it.
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Sep 3, 2020 09:50
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Darkrenown posted:Oh. Did that happen during the Peace talks wait? His writing feels different, and worse, in both PT and what I've seen of BG. I thought it might just be from a 6 year gap and a lot of rewrites, but if his ex-wife was heavily involved in his writing it could also explain it. Turns out his ex-wife was a better writer (though that still isn't saying much). Jesus, gently caress, do we really need exposition about what the Eye of Balor is to Murphy again? I know she's blond, but she's not that loving stupid a character. Some Pinko Commie fucked around with this message at 11:00 on Sep 3, 2020 |
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Sep 3, 2020 10:47
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Beachcomber posted:IF YOUR ENEMY IS AN ANCIENT VAMPIRE WHO HAS RECENTLY GAINED A PERMANENT PSYCHIC INFLUENCE OVER YOUR BEST FRIEND, YOU KILL THEM! Oh, I hated that part, too! The entire justice system Kim Harrison thought up makes no goddamn sense. So you deal with immortal creatures by putting them into prison for multiple centuries? Fine. But then it turns out they can just use their vast psychic powers to keep controlling their crime empire from inside the prison, making the imprisonement entirely pointless. And everyone seems to know this is bullshit and is just accepting it? gently caress this. It's like the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes killed all the people with basic common sense. By the way, after that reveal I immediately stopped taking the books seriously and started to read them like comedy. Apart from that 20+ page sex scene in book 2 it worked out fine so far!
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Sep 3, 2020 13:10
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New thread title is good.
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Sep 3, 2020 14:32
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:His new hot young cosplay wife probably isn't as good a beta reader as his old professional writer wife, that's my guess. Or somebody in the publishing company feared leaks and barred beta readers. But both books do seem rushed. I wonder if something went down like (5 years pass with no writing. Publishing company: Get this thing to us in three months or we take back your advance (and new house with it) and drop you as a client).
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Sep 3, 2020 15:46
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Ok, seeing descriptions of wife two, I compared Butcher's wives. Jesus, is he a walking cliche. I didn't think I could have a lower opinion of how he views women.
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Sep 3, 2020 19:05
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Isn't this basically what happened to George Lucas?
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Sep 3, 2020 21:40
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George Lucas' first wife left *him*, I believe.
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Sep 3, 2020 21:50
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It feels kinda weird/gross to be speculating and posting about author's personal lives in general? Like its one thing to talk about someone talking politics or something directly related to their books, but just diving into salacious Jim Butcher divorce drama seems weird to me
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Sep 3, 2020 22:08
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Zore posted:It feels kinda weird/gross to be speculating and posting about author's personal lives in general? Maybe. There is a poster who is wading through the Anita Blake books and the character Richard’s really out of left field heel-turn happened more or less at the same time as her divorce from her husband, and Anita’s relationship with the barely-legal Nathaniel happened as LKH was having a relationship with a barely-legal member of her fan club, iirc. Not saying that Butcher’s personal life has impacted the world of the Dresden Files to that extent, but I don’t think we can consider it off limits.
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Sep 3, 2020 22:23
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/13213840@N07/29022097684 Lol.
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Sep 3, 2020 23:12
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Zore posted:It feels kinda weird/gross to be speculating and posting about author's personal lives in general? I'd suggest you don't do it, then. Me, I was curious about the term "hot cosplay wife" enough to go look, especially the contrast with his high school sweetheart first wife. Given the oft cited problematic elements of the Dresden Files, seems worth at least knowing. Elsewhere saw a comment that his idealized woman in the books is far from his then-wife and thought that's putting too much author into character. Off limits? Nah. (Speaking of author personal lives,Anne Perry was the real shocker for me to discover.) torgeaux fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Sep 3, 2020 |
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Sep 3, 2020 23:18
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torgeaux posted:I'd suggest you don't do it, then. Me, I was curious about the term "hot cosplay wife" enough to go look, especially the contrast with his high school sweetheart first wife. Given the oft cited problematic elements of the Dresden Files, seems worth at least knowing. Elsewhere saw a comment that his idealized woman in the books is far from his then-wife and thought that's putting too much author into character. I don't see it as "off-limits" so much as stuff I don't care about except in ways it affects me. On the other hands, this does make me snicker.  As somebody who watched (and really liked) Defiance, I will say that Butcher captures Datak's creepy psychotic possessiveness pretty well. I don't recall Stahma having quite that much... stuffing... in the chest area, though. And... nope. Even in that revealing dress, Jaime Murray brings home that sometimes "less is more." 
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Sep 3, 2020 23:33
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navyjack posted:Maybe. There is a poster who is wading through the Anita Blake books and the character Richard’s really out of left field heel-turn happened more or less at the same time as her divorce from her husband, and Anita’s relationship with the barely-legal Nathaniel happened as LKH was having a relationship with a barely-legal member of her fan club, iirc. Not saying that Butcher’s personal life has impacted the world of the Dresden Files to that extent, but I don’t think we can consider it off limits. god drat i love fantasy writers
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Sep 3, 2020 23:45
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I am peripherally involved in the renaissance faire circuit, and people who do ridiculously complex things with chain and scale mail are ubiquitous. I have never met any who were not 1) into BDSM, 2) polyamorous, and 3) WAY TOO WILLING to tell you about it. These two are probably just interested in it for an unusual take on cosplay, but it's definitely a thing that exists.
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Sep 3, 2020 23:54
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navyjack posted:Maybe. There is a poster who is wading through the Anita Blake books and the character Richard’s really out of left field heel-turn happened more or less at the same time as her divorce from her husband, and Anita’s relationship with the barely-legal Nathaniel happened as LKH was having a relationship with a barely-legal member of her fan club, iirc. Not saying that Butcher’s personal life has impacted the world of the Dresden Files to that extent, but I don’t think we can consider it off limits. Steven Brust wrote his divorce into the Dragaera series as well.
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Sep 4, 2020 00:03
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Happiness Commando posted:Steven Brust wrote his divorce into the Dragaera series as well. That made me really sad. Which I guess is good writing. I don't read to feel sad, though.
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Sep 4, 2020 02:20
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