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Syphilicious! posted:What was the twist? Locke was actually the reincarnation of a super evil mage and is one of the most important people in the setting and his reincarnation caused the great plague and yada yada and he was not, as was the interesting part of the series, a conman way over his head.
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Mar 1, 2022 21:22
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It's been a minute since I read it but I'm pretty sure the final implication is that Locke is linked to whatever weird rear end magic system Lynch used in that series. For the BROAD part of the books, he and his crew were common and hated the mage caste for fairly straightforward obvious reasons. I want to say the end of three hinted that he was probably born of that class and so he's got that dormant power thing going for him.
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Mar 1, 2022 22:21
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ImpAtom posted:Locke was actually the reincarnation of a super evil mage and is one of the most important people in the setting and his reincarnation caused the great plague and yada yada and he was not, as was the interesting part of the series, a conman way over his head. Huh, I thought the Locke books were incredibly boring, and this twist makes them more interesting to me
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Mar 1, 2022 23:00
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Currently re-reading The Holmes-Dracula File by Fred Saberhagen. It's not precisely urban fantasy but it's pretty cool, nonetheless.
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Mar 2, 2022 00:19
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hatelull posted:It's been a minute since I read it but I'm pretty sure the final implication is that Locke is linked to whatever weird rear end magic system Lynch used in that series. For the BROAD part of the books, he and his crew were common and hated the mage caste for fairly straightforward obvious reasons. I want to say the end of three hinted that he was probably born of that class and so he's got that dormant power thing going for him. God I loving hate how obsessed modern fantasy writing is with magic systems. Just give me compelling characters I don't care how many spell slots they have.
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Mar 3, 2022 15:17
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I think we haven't had a fourth book because he wrote himself into a corner with that reveal and made Locke a less interesting protagonist
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Mar 3, 2022 16:27
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Halfway through the new Incryptid book, and I am enjoying it.
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Mar 3, 2022 16:54
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secular woods sex posted:Halfway through the new Incryptid book, and I am enjoying it. I enjoyed it. Conversely, I bought the new laundry files book for $11 not realizing it’s only 86 pages long. Definitely don’t recommend picking that up.
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Mar 3, 2022 21:35
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Lumbermouth posted:God I loving hate how obsessed modern fantasy writing is with magic systems. Just give me compelling characters I don't care how many spell slots they have. That's another thing I liked about the Coramonde series - despite the fact that three of the main characters in the series were wizards/sorcerers, the books really don't get all that much into the detail of how magic works.
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Mar 3, 2022 22:51
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Rivers of London is pretty much my ideal level of magic system detail. Almost every detail is directly relevant to the plot. The POV character maybe references 3-5 very specific spells that are generally very plot relevant. The more powerful non-POV character always have their spells described as long or complex or just noted by effects. There some details of how part of the system works when it’s a major plot point but otherwise it’s mostly probably ‘quantum mechanics or some such poo poo.’ The series does a good job of approaching really everything with an essential only level of detail. If it doesn’t make for a better story or isn’t require to understand the story, it happens offscreen. More authors should really take this approach. Nobody likes to reads 73 page manual on a custom magic system.
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Mar 4, 2022 05:08
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Lawlicaust posted:Rivers of London is pretty much my ideal level of magic system detail. Almost every detail is directly relevant to the plot. The POV character maybe references 3-5 very specific spells that are generally very plot relevant. The more powerful non-POV character always have their spells described as long or complex or just noted by effects. There some details of how part of the system works when it’s a major plot point but otherwise it’s mostly probably ‘quantum mechanics or some such poo poo.’ I very much agree with this. To the extent that we learn the "magic system" we learn it as Peter, our main viewpoint character, figures it out.
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Mar 4, 2022 13:59
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Lumbermouth posted:God I loving hate how obsessed modern fantasy writing is with magic systems. Just give me compelling characters I don't care how many spell slots they have. I actually like this about Lynch's series. There's presumably a system, but you don't really know about it. None of the main characters were magicians, had next to no idea how magic worked, and magicians were crazy people with insane power. Not that excited for book 4 though I'll read it if it ever comes out.
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Mar 5, 2022 21:20
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secular woods sex posted:Halfway through the new Incryptid book, and I am enjoying it. God drat. I didn't realize this was already out. Very excited to read this one. I have been wanting a Grandma Alice story ever since she showed up in book 3(? - the one with Verity on the Not Dancing With The Stars show).
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Mar 9, 2022 03:09
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Finally got around to reading the last book in the Alex Verus series and the ending was sappy and ridiculous and honestly I'm a little relieved.
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Mar 23, 2022 23:24
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Amongst Our Weapons isn't officially out til tomorrow but Waterstones have been selling them since at least today - I think I enjoyed it more than the last couple of Rivers of London books. The "new metaplot" may not have been advanced, but things definitely happened. Also I appreciated the Alien series gag, even if it was a bit too obvious.
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Apr 6, 2022 22:50
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ookiimarukochan posted:Amongst Our Weapons isn't officially out til tomorrow but Waterstones have been selling them since at least today - I think I enjoyed it more than the last couple of Rivers of London books. The "new metaplot" may not have been advanced, but things definitely happened. Also I appreciated the Alien series gag, even if it was a bit too obvious. Well, shoot. It isn't out in the US until the 12th. Hopefully it will involve a cameo from the German Magi.
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Apr 7, 2022 04:45
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Ninurta posted:Well, shoot. It isn't out in the US until the 12th. Hopefully it will involve a cameo from the German Magi. The Germans were okay but I just want more Abigail Kamara.
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Apr 7, 2022 22:42
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I need the Germans to meet Abigail. Have Peter in the background unimpressed by most things. Nightingale smug at how good Abigail is and the Germans just blown away. It would be a great scene.
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Apr 8, 2022 01:40
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Artonos posted:I need the Germans to meet Abigail. Have Peter in the background unimpressed by most things. Nightingale smug at how good Abigail is and the Germans just blown away. It would be a great scene. I did like that when Germans describe "Nightingale's new apprentice" who is certainly Abigail as being utterly terrifying.
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Apr 8, 2022 01:43
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i feel like im the only person who reads those books because i like the character of peter grant
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Apr 8, 2022 03:18
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I'm with you there. I feel like I have no idea what's going on in that series anymore when people talk about it because I haven't read anything other than the main books. I know it's dumb but generally I don't read side stories much.
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Apr 8, 2022 03:23
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Like many UF protagonists Peter is the weakest part of his own series but everyone around him is so much more interesting and better written that he aggravates me more that he is wasting screentime.
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Apr 8, 2022 04:48
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awesmoe posted:i feel like im the only person who reads those books because i like the character of peter grant Not precisely. I like the character of Peter Grant as well. If I didn't like the character I wouldn't have read as far into the series as I have. That said, there are characters that I like more than Peter (or who are at least more engaging/interesting to me). Abigail Kamara is one. Sahra "Muslim Ninja!" Guleed is another.
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Apr 8, 2022 04:50
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He’s a pretty good viewpoint character, all the better for his tinge of unreliability and blind spots.
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Apr 8, 2022 05:59
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Craig Schaefer wrote an interesting blog post last week in which she comes out as trans (she's keeping the Craig Schaefer pen name) and discusses the hard time she's had during the pandemic. Also apologises for the new Faust book taking so long. It's been, what, two years? In which time she's still released three or four books.
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Apr 8, 2022 10:49
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ImpAtom posted:Like many UF protagonists Peter is the weakest part of his own series but everyone around him is so much more interesting and better written that he aggravates me more that he is wasting screentime. Completely disagree. Peter is the heart of the series for me. Abigail is interesting, but not a likeable protagonist for me. She's lazily written, there are a million, "teachers are so scared of her glare!" I like the depth of the side characters, Kumar and Gulleed, and the dude in the rural case of the missing girls. But, Peter is definitely the strongest narrative character.
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Apr 8, 2022 12:54
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Yeah I do like a lot of the side characters but they're exactly that, side characters. I'm not particularly interested in experiencing the narrative from their POV. I had the same issue with The Laundry Files.
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Apr 8, 2022 13:16
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Junkenstein posted:Craig Schaefer wrote an interesting blog post last week in which she comes out as trans (she's keeping the Craig Schaefer pen name) and discusses the hard time she's had during the pandemic. 
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Apr 9, 2022 19:04
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Insert name here posted:Was talking to some friends about this the other day and told them that we really should have seen this coming when Faust got into a loving, healthy, and wholesome relationship with a succubus. One of my friends made a comment about how well written his trans character in the hungry dreaming was, makes sense now.
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Apr 9, 2022 19:13
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I don't particularly care for Abigail as a POV character because I generally don't care for child POV characters. The occasional short story is okay, but I don't think I even made it all the way through her POV book before I dipped for something more interesting.
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Apr 10, 2022 05:20
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xsf421 posted:One of my friends made a comment about how well written his trans character in the hungry dreaming was, makes sense now. I was also thinking about how Nessa (Wisdom's grave) is drugged and forced to suppress her true self for years before realising her life was a lie, going through a transformation, and running off to be gay and do crimes. Then she hunts down and kills god.
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Apr 10, 2022 15:42
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The narrator for the Audible Rivers of London books is extremely good. I really enjoyed the most recent one. Good plot and the birthing scene was handled really well, I'd been kind of dreading it. Also the foxes really make me laugh
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Apr 10, 2022 21:51
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After reading the latest Schaefer, October Daye, and Rivers books, I think I’m just done with the Dresden series. Peace Talks was kind of a hate read for me and I don’t think any more books will be better. The genre has evolved so much since Butcher wrote the first Dresden novel and he just sticks out like a sore thumb. I relate it to my group of friends who grew up in the Deep South. We were all pretty rough as kids and grew up around some pretty sexist/racist/bigoted ideals. Many of us left our home towns, expanded our world view, and changed as people. Several of us recently got together with a friend that never left the town and it just got really awkward several times in the evening because he still held all the beliefs he did when we were teenagers. Several slurs thrown out, uncomfortable confrontations about gay and trans people, and lots of awkwardly avoided topics. Butcher has shown little to no growth as a author and is actively awful in a lot of ways. gently caress, even Sanderson has had more growth related to sexuality and accepting and representing other groups than Butcher ever has or will.
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Apr 11, 2022 01:55
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Finished the new Rivers of London book. It's more of the same; if you like the previous books in the series and want more of that, this is that.
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Apr 11, 2022 03:01
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Finished the new Rivers of London book. It's more of the same; if you like the previous books in the series and want more of that, this is that. Is it more of Broken Homes, or more of False Value. Because I bounced off False Value quite hard, felt like the *magic* was gone.
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Apr 11, 2022 17:49
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Sloth Life posted:Is it more of Broken Homes, or more of False Value. Because I bounced off False Value quite hard, felt like the *magic* was gone. More like a return to form. More of the same in a mostly good way, no huge surprises. The Waterstones Edition short was a nice little four part Nightingale flashback.
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Apr 11, 2022 19:12
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Thanks, I'll check it out
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Apr 11, 2022 20:16
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Okay, I pretty much just need to stay the hell out of this thread until maybe Thursday afternoon, which is when I figure I'll be finished with the book. Meanwhile, it's not exactly full-on urban fantasy but I've been re-reading Christopher Farnsworth's Nathaniel Cade series and yeah, still really good.
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Apr 12, 2022 01:20
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So, I recently finished up both Amongst Our Enemies (Rivers of London) and Suicide Kings (Eric Carter.) I found both enjoyable, but felt that the latter did a good job of expanding it's universe, showing off more hosed up Mage politics, and generally just having a bit more fun. I'm looking forward to the next books in both series, as well as the next Daniel Faust when it's released.
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Apr 29, 2022 07:09
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I just finished Peace Talks the other day and am maybe 100 pages into Battle Ground. They seem kinda bad. Like some of the fun popcorn paperback stuff is present, but the bad is really distracting. There's so much repetition. Dresden compared the same phenomena to the movie The Blob twice in the spam of 20 pages. Karrin and Harry repeat the same conversation about being worried but letting her fight like five times. Ebenezer and Harry's confrontations also feel repetitive. Same with the warden guy. And of course the sexual appraisal stuff is nonstop. Including about Molly's younger sister? All gross. Anyway, there is so much repetition that I kinda don't think this actually had to be two books. Arguably worse, the emotional arcs are a complete mess. Ebeneezer flies into a rage and kills Harry while trying to kill Harry's brother and girlfriend. And their next conversation he's all chuckling about he's going to do what he thinks is best for Harry. And Harry is cool with it? gently caress off you insane abusive rear end in a top hat. Why in the world does the text think I will be cool with this guy?
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Apr 29, 2022 20:18
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