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coyo7e posted:Eventually I'll just have to get off my lazy rear end and write some $2.99 pulp urban fantasy about living in rural northern california or something, I suppose. Chupacabras eating weed growers and meth dealers? Yes, please! Well, but that's not exactly... urban.
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Mar 2, 2016 07:00
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Kesper North posted:Well, but that's not exactly... urban.  (Although Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge was excellent!)Also, you've probably never visited Arcata if you think Nor Cal is not urban. There's a lot of podunk stuff in the hills however, 2/3 of CA is actually "northern" (which always bugged me, because I grew up there and would just as soon nuke everything from San Fran and southward, for pretending to be in the same state as I grew up in  )Perhaps I ought to write some gritty urban fantasy set in the State of Jefferson 
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Mar 2, 2016 07:03
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coyo7e posted:Is there any urban fantasy outside of Iron Druid, where the setting is not "whatever big-city setting the author knows well and/or gets their rocks off, going into insane detail about?" I'd really enjoy more urban fantasy that's more.. Rural I guess? I'm getting kind of tired about reading about London/Vegas/LA/Miami/etc. I mean you cannot throw a nickel in a library without hitting a novel set in fantasy London, for instance.. And Vegas comes in right on its heels.
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Mar 2, 2016 07:08
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Mars4523 posted:The Pax Arcana series is mostly set in small towns, although the third book makes a detour to New York City at the halfway point.
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Mar 2, 2016 07:17
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Darth Walrus posted:Urban fantasy is basically any story with straight-up fantasy elements (as opposed to the more ambiguous magical realism) set in the modern world, usually a fairly big-name city. I'd say there's more of a cookie-cutter element that helps define what urban fantasy is. Like, an UF book will share, very closely, the beats and plot of something like Dresden or whatever, no? I don't think it's so much that it has to take place in a 'city', especially since a lot of times the environment is so minimally detailed aside from the base of operations and action setpieces.
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Mar 2, 2016 07:22
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The Matthew Swift novels by Kate Griffin are pretty great urban fantasy. Not read the follow up series yet though. First book is A Madness of Angels.
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Mar 2, 2016 07:22
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Anyone here read Paul Cornell's London Falling? http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15779584-london-falling The blurb sounds interesting, Also, http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/874977.Bone_Song Bone Song and its sequel are pretty interesting. I enjoyed them well enough and thought the setting was pretty unique.
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Mar 2, 2016 07:27
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Drifter posted:Anyone here read Paul Cornell's London Falling? It's really good but the feel I got from it was that it's also incredibly British (it's called London Falling for a reason). Football fandom ties directly into the main plotline, for example. Since you dig the blurb, definitely check it out. The tone is more serious than the Laundry Files but the thematic approach is kinda similar, the supernatural interfering with systems of government authority. This becomes even more explicit in the second book, which I also enjoyed but not as much.
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Mar 2, 2016 07:34
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coyo7e posted:Rad thanks, it's added to my wishlist! There's a series that's by Glenn Bullion (I can't recall the name of it offhand) but it's got the vampire/witch/immortal dude/weird poo poo that urban fantasy has but not the WE ONLY TAKE PLACE IN LARGE EASILY UNDERSTOOD METROPOLITAN AREAS that most have. They aren't fantastic, but they are pretty good. I liked Caitlyn in the Faust series because while she was introduced as a sex object, she quickly went to "Holy gently caress this bitch is terrifying" levels of scary within a few chapters and pretty much stayed there. I really enjoy her interactions with Daniel because while they do have sex (hey, couples in love have sex, it happens), it's not the mainstay point of her character. She's actually a pretty badass demon who doesn't bat her eyes at people to solve the issues, nor is she rape bait (which, as a succubus, that's all to easy to write). She's written as a somewhat outsider who's slowly figuring out humanity and if she can be a part of it. Also, Schaefer really doesn't lob her in as a catch all "SAVE THE LEAD". She does get involved in the plots of the books, but no less than his 2 dads or the blood witch. Most of the time, the books are written where Daniel basically has to save his own rear end, and he's not exactly the most amazing magician around. You might dig the Harmony Black series he does as well. I'd catch up on the first 3 Faust books before you read it so you aren't spoiling anything, but it's a pretty good book. The second one is coming out in April I think. SPI Files is pretty decent. It's got a ton of fluff to it, but the ideas all seem to tie together fairly well. The mostly take place in New York City, so if you are looking for an interesting read it's worth it, but if you are looking at something that is only set in rural america, not really helpful. The Emergent Earth series by Michael Langlois is pretty good. Mostly rural settings, interesting backstory, creepy as hell bad guys.
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Mar 2, 2016 08:15
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My waifu is a badass demon
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Mar 2, 2016 08:17
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EdBlackadder posted:The Matthew Swift novels by Kate Griffin are pretty great urban fantasy. Not read the follow up series yet though. I'm a big fan of both the Swift series and the followup Magicals Anonymous series. To be fair, Magicals Anonymous are still Swift books, just with him moved to supporting character/occasional explosive Deus Ex Machina, which is really where he's best placed as of the end of The Neon Court.
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Mar 2, 2016 10:45
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Drifter posted:Anyone here read Paul Cornell's London Falling?
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Mar 2, 2016 11:53
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coyo7e posted:I wish I could get a copy of The Traitor Baru Cormorant, but I'm broke as gently caress right now and it's just too expensive for the ebook version. If/when the price drops below 8 or 9 bucks I can justify it however, unless it shows up at my local library I'm afraid I won't be able to read it for a while, since I wouldn't dream of :files: on a goon author. If you have an Android phone, sign up for Google Rewards, get credit to the Play store (including ebooks) for answering super brief surveys and helping validate Google's location detection stuff. I paid full price for Baru Cormorant specifically because it was a goon author, but also because I had $20 something in credit. sourdough fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Mar 2, 2016 |
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Mar 2, 2016 13:18
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anilEhilated posted:It's really good and so is its sequel, one rather baffling namedrop aside. As far as namedrops go, it went kind of beyond it, beyond a cameo even. I was iffy on it at first but as it kept developing I became okay with it. Maybe I just haven't been overdosed on Neil Gaiman yet.
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Mar 2, 2016 18:05
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Boing posted:
Yeah, I loved it, and you're in for a couple of real treats cuz Polansky only gets better in the two sequels.
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Mar 2, 2016 22:11
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coyo7e posted:Is there any urban fantasy outside of Iron Druid, where the setting is not "whatever big-city setting the author knows well and/or gets their rocks off, going into insane detail about?" Here's a suggestion from out of left field: Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas books? I'd say they qualify as 'urban fantasy', and most of them take place in/around Pico Mundo, California. The first book even got a movie treatment, and somehow still turned out pretty alright.
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Mar 2, 2016 23:18
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coyo7e posted:Is there any urban fantasy outside of Iron Druid, where the setting is not "whatever big-city setting the author knows well and/or gets their rocks off, going into insane detail about?" Midnight series, by Charlaine Harris, set in a tiny town
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Mar 2, 2016 23:32
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WarLocke posted:Here's a suggestion from out of left field: Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas books? I'd say they qualify as 'urban fantasy', and most of them take place in/around Pico Mundo, California. I'll admit I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. There were deviations, but thematically it was consistent with the book. I find Odd Thomas... well, odd. Koontz does things that would normally bother the hell out of me to see in other books, but somehow I kept reading them. And I'm still not sure what I think about how he ended the series. I'd say try out the first couple of books and see if you like them.
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Mar 2, 2016 23:50
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flosofl posted:And I'm still not sure what I think about how he ended the series. That was really the only way it could have ended. I don't think I got through a single one of those books without tearing up at some point. Fully smooth and blue, indeed. 
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Mar 3, 2016 00:01
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I liked the Odd Thomas books. They were quaint and full of conservative values, but Koontz never beat you over the head with that and ultimately just told a nice story. On the flip side, his fascination with Odd kept him from finishing the Moonlight Bay trilogy, so...
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Mar 3, 2016 00:05
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EdBlackadder posted:The Matthew Swift novels by Kate Griffin are pretty great urban fantasy. Not read the follow up series yet though. Was also going to post this. I found them to be fun and interesting. I liked the way magic is derived from aspect of urban living as well. I thought it was all pretty well done.
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Mar 3, 2016 00:27
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I just got around to reading Ancillary Justice. I don't really understand the hype. It felt to me like a lot of one-named, one-gendered Lieutenants running around while a bunch of clones sometime narrowed down to one clone, who chased a bunch of clones. The overwhelming faceless blandness really got to me after a while. In addition, the protagonist's plan (which she spent twenty years working towards) of finding a supergun to kill the Grand Space Poobah seemed to make no sense, and she only realized that once someone pointed out the very obvious fact that she was trying to single-handedly assassinate a clone army ranged across almost all of known space. Fortunately right then the plot steered away from this and presented an actually intriguing problem, but it wasn't enough. Xotl fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Mar 3, 2016 |
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Mar 3, 2016 01:04
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=I have yet to read Anne Leckie's books, but you all should read the Metaplanetary series by Tony Daniel. It's really good. I also think FItzpatrick's War is a good book. Ignore the fact that one of the goodreads genre's it's under is Steampunk.  It's totally good.Also every one should be reading Nick Harkaway's Gone-Away World. Super dope. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3007704-the-gone-away-world
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Mar 3, 2016 03:59
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Drifter posted:I also think FItzpatrick's War is a good book. Ignore the fact that one of the goodreads genre's it's under is Steampunk. It's a good book that I never have seen mentioned anywhere. People should give it a look.
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Mar 3, 2016 04:54
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Has anyone read the Magic 2.0 series by Scott Meyer? It's about a programmer who does some light hacking in his spare time and stumbles across a file with what's basically the source code to all reality. Nothing too deep or involving, but definitely a lot of laughs and very enjoyable. Good brain candy. The first book is Off to Be the Wizard. I enjoyed them for what they were.
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Mar 3, 2016 05:35
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Bullio posted:Has anyone read the Magic 2.0 series by Scott Meyer? It's about a programmer who does some light hacking in his spare time and stumbles across a file with what's basically the source code to all reality. Nothing too deep or involving, but definitely a lot of laughs and very enjoyable. Good brain candy. The first book is Off to Be the Wizard. I enjoyed them for what they were. Yes, they were pretty good, though the last book was less gooder than the other two. I was utilizing Whispersync, and I can say that the audio was actually more entertaining than the text itself. They were well narrated.
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Mar 3, 2016 06:00
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All this Magic styles talk reminds me of the Dragon Knight series by Gordon DIckson. The MC swallows a shrunken encyclopedia-sized grimoire and writes magical spells in his mind on an imagined chalkboard, and you sometimes see the psuedocode spells he works. It was a really fun series when I read them in high school. No idea if it holds up...probably okay, but not great.Number Ten Cocks posted:It's a good book that I never have seen mentioned anywhere. People should give it a look. 
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Mar 3, 2016 06:38
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So based on thread recommendations, I read the Magicians series. Pretty enjoyable, even though the main protagonist is a goon. Didn't expect a twisted version of Narnia/Harry Potter. gvibes posted:Finished the first book of the "Greatcoats" series by Sebastien de Castell, Traitor's Blade. So it took the bad parts of the first book and continued with those instead of the opposite? Also, the ending of the first book was a little bit too Deus Ex Machina Oh, look suddenly 200 Great Coats appear out of nowhere and a Countess can apparently summon Saints out of nothing gvibes posted:I agree with the Traitor Baru Cormorant and Dagger and Coin recommendations. The former is good, while the last is, well, not overly objectionable. I found Dagger and Coin to get rather boring after a while. It starts out with some good premises, but the story just keeps dragging on and on. One shouldn't be surprised since the author is also the co-author of the Expanse series, which have the exact same problems. Also, the main villain is an archetypical goon. savinhill posted:Yeah, I loved it, and you're in for a couple of real treats cuz Polansky only gets better in the two sequels. He does? The first book was decent, but felt rather generic including the ending that was predictable. What makes the sequels better?
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Mar 3, 2016 07:47
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Cardiac posted:So based on thread recommendations, I read the Magicians series. Little, Big by Crowley Secret History by Donna Tratt And on the slightly lighter (YA), but good side, check out Young Wizards series by Diane Duane and the Bartimaeus trilogy, by Jonathon Stroud. The Bartimaeus trilogy was a real surprise to me, and is one of my favorites of the 'harry potter era' YA genre/thing, along side Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (which is also fantastic).
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Mar 3, 2016 08:09
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Drifter posted:The Bartimaeus trilogy was a real surprise to me, and is one of my favorites of the 'harry potter era' YA genre/thing, along side Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (which is also fantastic). Wasn't actually looking for recommendations, but thanks. It is not really my favourite part of the fantasy genre, although there are some gems there. Dark Materials is pretty good in book 1 and 2, but the last book in the series was just bad. The polar bears are still the coolest part of that series. As for the whole crossover into Magic country, there is a bunch of those books starting with the classic Narnia by CS Lewis, which I thoroughly enjoyed as a kid. If you don't give a crap about Christian symbolism, they are pretty fun reads. The second book with the sailing boat is a pretty big inspiration for other authors, considering Grossman did it in the second book, Moorcock with Elric, and Donaldson as well in the first Thomas Covenant series.
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Mar 3, 2016 08:29
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Hey thread, just finished the first book of the Fuckshit series by Retard Childman, can anyone recommend anything similar?
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Mar 3, 2016 12:35
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Have you considered The Name of the Wind by Rothfuss?
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Mar 3, 2016 12:49
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chrisoya posted:Have you considered The Name of the Wind by Rothfuss? he just said he read that one though???
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Mar 3, 2016 14:09
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Any opinions on the Nexus series by Ramez Naam? It looks kind of like Lock-In which I enjoyed.
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Mar 3, 2016 15:16
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A friend of mine enjoyed it.
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Mar 3, 2016 15:17
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Just started the first book in the Farseer Trilogy because I want something with court intrigue and the like. 10% in and the author already made me like a puppy and then killed it. This is going to be rough.
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Mar 3, 2016 16:01
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Spoilers: it's bad but weirdly compelling.
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Mar 3, 2016 16:06
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bonds0097 posted:Just started the first book in the Farseer Trilogy because I want something with court intrigue and the like. 10% in and the author already made me like a puppy and then killed it. This is going to be rough. I really enjoyed the Fitz Hexalogy. Pretty unique. If you still enjoy the rest of the farseer trilogy you're reading, check out her Live Ship series. Check out Tigana by...I forget the author right now but he's really good and Tigana's really fantastic.
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Mar 3, 2016 16:10
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So I was reading on the structure of the Venetian maritime empire. While talking about its system of justice, there's a mention of a legal case by commoners against some feudal lord. One of the plaintiffs, or witnesses, was murdered by the bastard son of said feudal lord. This was just one line, but I found it fascinating. What kind of mindset leads people to murder for their family's honour? Elite violence has been a perennial problem in all human societies. Power changes people. And what of political violence? What makes people willing to kill for belief? These are fascinating topics. They're also something that Robin Hobb is completely unprepared and unwilling to explore in Assassin's Apprentice, an entire novel about feudal violence. Drifter posted:Check out Tigana by...I forget the author right now but he's really good and Tigana's really fantastic. Guy Gavriel Kay posted:Nothing had come to pass as he’d expected. There was only one single element left of his original design for the evening. One thing that might yet offer a kind of pleasure, that might redeem a little of what had gone so desperately awry. BravestOfTheLamps fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Mar 3, 2016 |
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Mar 3, 2016 16:38
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A human heart posted:Hey thread, just finished the first book of the Fuckshit series by Retard Childman, can anyone recommend anything similar? Gravitys Rainbow by James Joyce
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Mar 3, 2016 16:58
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