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I finished book 4 of Super Powereds by Drew Hayes. I really liked the series. Like enough that I ordered physical copies of the books. Superhero college is a solid setting and I thought all of the characters were great.
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Jul 28, 2022 10:41
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They really did a great job of selling why some of these powers are extremely powerful.
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Jul 28, 2022 11:01
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Hayes is pretty awesome. The side novel Corpies about Roy and his brother's dad is pretty good too.
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Jul 29, 2022 00:12
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8one6 posted:I finished book 4 of Super Powereds by Drew Hayes. I really liked the series. Like enough that I ordered physical copies of the books. Superhero college is a solid setting and I thought all of the characters were great. Agreed. If you haven't read it, Forging Hephaestus is similar good but much tighter paced story, and the sequel Bones of the Past is pretty similar to Super Powereds.
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Jul 29, 2022 05:29
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8one6 posted:I finished book 4 of Super Powereds by Drew Hayes. I really liked the series. Like enough that I ordered physical copies of the books. Superhero college is a solid setting and I thought all of the characters were great. Drew Hayes rocks. I love pretty much all of his works. Super Powereds was so much fun. I especially liked the Super Hero Spy school. The character developments were great too. Drew managed to transform annoying one note characters into the emotional centers of the cast. Seriously, Nick and Alice are so well written! And the reveal that (Last book spoiler) Mary was heavily reading everyone's minds during the experimental treatment and was already considering them her best friends long before she formally met them and went through the whole school just to be able to support them. really hit me quite hard. I was listening to the audiobook read by Kyle McCarley (9S in Nier Automata) and he managed to give all of those dozens and dozens of characters so distinct voices, that you could differentiate them by that alone. The last book is over 60 hours long and I still went through that within a few days. Super Powereds may be one of my alltime favorite book series. But I never managed to convince anyone to read that one, because it sounds super dorky and to much YA.
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Jul 31, 2022 22:14
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What is this ana mardoll lockheed martin stuff about, anybody know? Ive read the name once or twice but dont have any context. Edit: nm, found it in the other thread Eason the Fifth fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Aug 1, 2022 |
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Jul 31, 2022 23:58
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Speaking of Drew Hayes, book 5 of npcs hit audible. The series is a lot of fun and doesn't get mentioned as much as his superhero stuff
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Aug 4, 2022 05:18
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NPCs/Spells, Swords Stealth is great. I liked the 5th book though I don't remember how it ended. The metaplot stuff in the real world is pretty sweet too.
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Aug 4, 2022 20:43
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Is the series still going? How many more volumes does it feel it's gonna get?
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Aug 4, 2022 20:49
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I love Drew Hayes' The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, The Vampire Accountant series, I've reread it a few times, just a good enjoyable read.
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Aug 4, 2022 21:11
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Megazver posted:Is the series still going? How many more volumes does it feel it's gonna get? Definitely still going. I dont keep up with Drew at all but narratively theres no end in sight.
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Aug 6, 2022 23:58
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platero posted:I love Drew Hayes' The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, The Vampire Accountant series, I've reread it a few times, just a good enjoyable read. This series is great.
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Aug 7, 2022 18:00
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Halfway through a new progfantasy that just came out, Titan Hoppers, it's Iron Prince crossed with Skyward. Solid so far.
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Aug 7, 2022 22:04
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I liked Titan Hoppers fine, but after finishing it I think the only thing I really remember is that the author thinks “corps” is spelled “core” and it drove me nuts.
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Aug 7, 2022 22:40
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Silynt posted:I liked Titan Hoppers fine, but after finishing it I think the only thing I really remember is that the author thinks “corps” is spelled “core” and it drove me nuts. Oh god I couldnt handle that I dont think.
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Aug 8, 2022 02:22
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Silynt posted:I liked Titan Hoppers fine, but after finishing it I think the only thing I really remember is that the author thinks “corps” is spelled “core” and it drove me nuts. Oof
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Aug 8, 2022 02:28
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Silynt posted:I liked Titan Hoppers fine, but after finishing it I think the only thing I really remember is that the author thinks “corps” is spelled “core” and it drove me nuts. Counterpoint: it should be spelled core. Supporting argument: it would make armymens and marines angry.
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Aug 8, 2022 02:47
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Finally picked up Beware Of Chicken and was immediately hooked. Finished it yesterday I guess and now started book 3 of The Ripple System which came out by surprise the other day. Its ok so far but hasnt pulled me in like the first 2.
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Aug 10, 2022 14:15
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I read Soul Relic and it's very solid progression fantasy. I liked it more than Titan Hoppers I think, it had some classic fantasy adventuring slash wikipedia stuff in addition to the standard progfantasy training montages. I started book five of Spells, Swords, and Stealth (aka the NPC's series), called Noble Roots, but I'm not sure I can continue. There's something very by-the-numbers and belaboring the point in how Drew Hayes writes, and I've read enough of his stuff now that it's starting to really grate. Cicero fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Aug 18, 2022 |
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Aug 18, 2022 17:51
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Cicero posted:I started book five of Spells, Swords, and Stealth (aka the NPC's series), called Noble Roots, but I'm not sure I can continue. There's something very by-the-numbers and belaboring the point in how Drew Hayes writes, and I've read enough of his stuff now that it's starting to really grate. I got to 4 before I felt the same, but yeah.
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Aug 19, 2022 03:38
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I'll amend my review of Ripple System 3 it ended up pretty fun. Some really neat fights and a fun possible and likely reference to this site dominates a good portion of the book.
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Aug 19, 2022 19:42
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Victorkm posted:I'll amend my review of Ripple System 3 it ended up pretty fun. Some really neat fights and a fun possible and likely reference to this site dominates a good portion of the book. I asked, and it's 100% a goon guild reference.
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Aug 19, 2022 21:42
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Haystack posted:I asked, and it's 100% a goon guild reference. It seemed like it but glad someone confirmed.
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Aug 22, 2022 16:52
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I just re-read Bloodlines and Reaper. After that, the start of Dreadgod seems to introduce a lot of plotholes. Specifically: The whole theme of Reaper is that the team sticks together and advances together. Dreadgod, which starts the next day has them immediately split up. Even Lindon and Yerin go off to fight against different dreadgods on their own.. Nevermind that in Bloodlines the entire team fights against 1 (suppressed) dreadgod together and every single one of them is badly wounded just to annoy the Titan. It can't even be called a draw since the Titan wasn't meaningfully hurt, just tired. It could have easily finished them all off. The only reason Orthos didn't die is the dream technique that was used to make the titan forget it even held the turtle. We're expected to believe that Lindon and Yerin suddenly can solo stronger opponents? I'm 15% of the way through Reaper and I don't even know where the rest of the team is, except Mercy who's been not exactly kidnapped by her mom according to Pride. None of them have had any screen time yet. Lindon also seems to be making some extremely questionable decisions, after telling himself he shouldn't do exactly what he's doing. e.g. Early on he decides that he's not going to use any of the Labyrinth's stored power until he knows what it's for and how to replenish. Less than 24 hours later, he's suddenly using it to rescue random citizens of random Monarchs. The same Monarchs who refused to help him or Yerin save Sacred Valley from the Wandering Titan. He knows, and tells us, that he needs to be preparing to fight the dreadgods and the Monarchs, a fight where he'll be both outnumbered by and weaker than his opponents, and he's spending vital, irreplaceable resources to help strangers? Yes this is an objectively moral thing to do, and he's a good person for doing, but there's no in-text explanation for his sudden reversal. It's not even clear that what he's using them on is helping, evacuating cities after the danger has passed into a place that is very close to another dreadgod (the Wandering Titan) and has fewer resources, isn't clearly beneficial. Lindon even observes that he's not really helping all that much by doing this. Cradle is still one of the better cultivation stories, but I'm starting to think I'll be happier when it's over and the author starts a new series. It seems like the longer a story runs, the harder it gets to keep it internally consistent, and this one is 6 years old now.
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Aug 23, 2022 00:23
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Alright, so it took me almost 2 years to get to it, but get to it I did:Leng posted:Alert, alert, Will Wight just gave a pretty glowing recommendation for Iron Prince, which in his words is apparently Lindon x Ender's Game. So Cradle meets Ender's Game is an accurate summation of the premise but the book itself is not executed nearly as well as either of the comps. Lots and lots of repetitious scenes and exposition that could have been condensed. I found myself skimming a lot of the descriptions. Also a lot of the moments when Rei's secret comes out. Okay, S-ranked growth on assignment never happens, it's super shocking, wow, everybody no matter who they are is so shocked why am I still reading this over and over again? navyjack posted:It was...ok. It is pretty by the numbers. Underprivileged kid M. Night Skymall posted:I felt like the hatred of his classmates was even harder to understand than the teacher. A litrpg take on ender's game is pretty much what I thought of it also, though with 100% less nude child wrestling. I've definitely read worse litrpg stuff, but cradle is better. MadHat posted:Antagonist motivation is a definite weakness, there were several sort of answers thrown around but it is never feels clear. Which is kind of odd since motivations for the core protagonist and friends is fairly focused. This bothered me a lot. So many people hate Reidon. Why? It's not explained—or, there are attempted explanations, but none of them are really that substantial, especially when Reidon overcomes their objections in fairly short order. It takes a lot of energy to hate somebody, realistically you'd just ignore them. nessin posted:Iron Prince where the entire world makes no sense from scratch and permeates every single moment of the book Also this. Reidon's whole thing is he's super committed and will do anything it takes to put in all the hard work etc etc etc and he's a genius. Okay, fine. But the other reason he's actually this awesome is because he's gifted with the magical alien tech thing that is spec'd for unlimited potential on the premise that he normally wouldn't test in to get one, but the AI running the whole system needs a guinea pig. Which...okay, plausible, but also incredibly stupid. If the specs are that easy to understand and they're just straight up sci-fi versions of ye olde D&D stats and you've been running your system for hundreds of years, I'm sorry, but people are gonna figure out 5 years into the program (max), about whether there is a dump stat or a main stat, especially when you can literally look up other people's rankings and specs when you have sufficient security clearance. Why wouldn't everybody be going for high-growth spec CADs? And yeah, okay, I get that they're allocated, but why wouldn't you just load up growth as high as you could? How are those baselines even determined? Randomly? Apparently not, I'd say it's pretty clear that it's at the discretion of the MIND, in which case...if the priority is to learn faster why would you only be trying this experiment so late in the overall end game? Still, despite my gripes, it's fun enough that I finished the book and also went on to read the early, rough draft release chapters over on r/Warformed and will probably read the rest of the series. I don't think I'll be lining up to do so in a hurry though. That's more than I can say for Arcane Ascension that was a huge "NOPE" after I bounced off the sample chapters for Sufficiently Advanced Magic.
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Aug 23, 2022 02:33
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LLSix posted:I just re-read Bloodlines and Reaper. After that, the start of Dreadgod seems to introduce a lot of plotholes. Specifically: I think Dreadgod fits with the idea of wanting to advance together. When they say they will advance together it’s not that they need to never leave each other’s side and have to do everything as a group, that’s far too literal. One of the overall plot elements of Dreadgod is that Lindon makes sure everyone has quick paths to advancement so that they can be on par with him and not need to be left behind again. It seems a direct continuation of where we left off in Bloodlines. Also neither Lindon or Yerin go to 1vs1 Dreadgods as far as I recall. team overhead smash fucked around with this message at 07:27 on Aug 23, 2022 |
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Aug 23, 2022 07:25
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Leng posted:Why wouldn't everybody be going for high-growth spec CADs? And yeah, okay, I get that they're allocated, but why wouldn't you just load up growth as high as you could? How are those baselines even determined? Randomly? Apparently not, I'd say it's pretty clear that it's at the discretion of the MIND, in which case...if the priority is to learn faster why would you only be trying this experiment so late in the overall end game? yeah it was a braindead sorta fun read but the idea that it takes a super ai + military command all this time to be like "maybe we should make the numbers go up faster" is...well, its the sort of strategic decision you'd expect from people who send their best fighters into the NFL
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Aug 23, 2022 07:33
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LLSix posted:I just re-read Bloodlines and Reaper. After that, the start of Dreadgod seems to introduce a lot of plotholes. Specifically: They split up to fight Dreadgod minions, sure, but that's quite a different thing than what you're describing here.
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Aug 23, 2022 08:38
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Leng posted:Alert, alert, Will Wight just gave a pretty glowing recommendation for Iron Prince, which in his words is apparently Lindon x Ender's Game.
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Aug 23, 2022 09:39
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Authors tend to scratch each other's backs a lot. Gotta take those recs with a grain of salt, they're not gonna be like, "book X is like book Y except the dialogue is stilted and the prose kinda sucks."
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Aug 23, 2022 10:36
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Every time someone resorts to genre combinations or it's like x book + y book it's a piece of poo poo every time. When a book is actually good they have things to say about it lol.
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Aug 23, 2022 12:10
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I liked Iron Prince, I listed to it on audiobook. I'll definitely listen to the other books and want to know where the plot goes. Some of the stuff doesn't make that much sense but like was mentioned above the whole system was specifically made to satisfy the whims of an AI who controls many aspects of it so it doesn't need to be entirely logical, just consistently plausible enough.
Bhodi fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Aug 23, 2022 |
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Aug 23, 2022 16:06
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I read Iron Prince, and while it was pleasant enough I don't really plan to read any more in the series. One of the things that took me out of it was the stakes of the plot. The fact that Reidon's entire goal is to be... a really cool sports celebrity kind of deflates any sense of weight to what he's doing. It really compounds the issue where it's easy to see that Reidon's growth spec mean that he's mathematically guaranteed to be the best of the best given, like, any reasonable measure of time or effort. Sure, it's great for him that he's a battle junkie and is well-suited to take advantage of his CAD, but I just can't care much that the failure state for his struggles is that he might have to wait a year before utterly trivializing a sports tournament.
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Aug 23, 2022 17:36
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My impression in Iron Prince was that the stats on suits were at least partially dependent on the people that they were attached to at assignment, and that something like what the MC got wasn’t trivial to hand out to everyone. Granted that’s more because of the sort of questions that get raised if that’s not true than something actually supported by the text. The best it does is correctly point out that the kind of power that the MC’s suit promises in the future would indeed be loving terrifying if placed in the wrong hands. The fights I found myself starting to skim were the ones that were purely being spectated. The attempt at spectacle wasn’t nearly enough to make of for the lack of stakes and emotional core, so it became a long winded way to try to demonstrate what more advanced suits were capable of that didn’t actually seem particularly necessary. I also found the way surprise is conveyed in the story to be pretty grating. It wasn’t just the reactions to the MC’s suit that consistently veered toward shocked disbelief, it was drat near every surprised reaction in the story.
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Aug 23, 2022 18:03
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I'm about a third of the way into Dreadgod, and I'm happier now. Shortly after where I was when I stopped, it started addressing some of my concerns. I still think the ordering of events isn't the best, but at least the other characters are getting some screen time and focus now.
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Aug 23, 2022 18:37
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Haystack posted:I read Iron Prince, and while it was pleasant enough I don't really plan to read any more in the series. One of the things that took me out of it was the stakes of the plot. The fact that Reidon's entire goal is to be... a really cool sports celebrity kind of deflates any sense of weight to what he's doing. It really compounds the issue where it's easy to see that Reidon's growth spec mean that he's mathematically guaranteed to be the best of the best given, like, any reasonable measure of time or effort. Sure, it's great for him that he's a battle junkie and is well-suited to take advantage of his CAD, but I just can't care much that the failure state for his struggles is that he might have to wait a year before utterly trivializing a sports tournament. I kinda assumed that this stuff will eventually have implications beyond the not-NCAA, but also didn't really find it better than "kinda enjoyable"
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Aug 23, 2022 18:49
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This is KU - I'll take kinda enjoyable every single day of the week.
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Aug 23, 2022 18:55
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Yeah the fact that (Iron Prince) Rei has this incredible gimmick that practically guarantees success feels so stupid. I'm sure the author has some reason to eventually reveal about why not everyone is granted incredible growth potential by the AI, but right now it just feels extremely contrived.
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Aug 23, 2022 19:39
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I thought the implication was that incredible growth potential would straight up burn out anyone without the will to strive. Rei goes to extreme lengths, well beyond OCD Overacheiver Genius levels, to improve himself. He's practically a xianxia protagonist carrying ricebags on the mountain while walking with his fingers. The parts that lost me were the suspension of disbelief required for the various descriptions of wounds in this phantom call business where the fighter is both grievously injured and not. Eventually I started skimming those description bits so I wouldn't lose the thread of the plot trying to sus out how ludicrous they were.
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Aug 23, 2022 19:50
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Haven't read Iron Prince but I'm about 82% into He Who Fights with Monsters 2 and rather enjoying the series. Not sure when its supposed to go off the rails and people start disliking it.
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Aug 24, 2022 02:22
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