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Lex Talionis
Feb 6, 2011
I think the two Endymion books are okay and people who finish Fall of Hyperion still really liking the world shouldn't feel they must be avoided at all costs, just dial your expectations down. Endymion catches a lot of abuse because Hyperion was so fantastic that the dropoff from great to good (Fall of Hyperion) and then to okay (Endymion books) makes them much more disappointing. But I wouldn't call them bad. If anyone is confused, Dan Simmons has helpfully provided a great example of a truly horrible book by writing Olympos, completely ruining the otherwise quite good Ilium by association.

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FastestGunAlive
Apr 7, 2010

Dancing palm tree.

Drakyn posted:

Well now, don't just tease us like that. Please, go for it!

I'm going to keep this as vague as possible to avoid spoilers, please advise if there is something that rates spoiler tags.

The Silver Spike, from the Black Company Chronicles, starts with the main character, Tully, being interrupted from what is strongly hinted to be sex with two underage girls (sisters also) by his cousin Smeds. Neither of these characters were in previous books. Neither of them is in or related to the Black Company. They gather up two more random peasants to go treasure hunting At the Dominator's burial site. They manage to outwit a powerful immortal guardian by throwing sticks at it, inadvertently unleashing a terrible evil. That right there tells you all you need to know about this book but I'll keep going.

The evil ends up possessing/reincarnating/whatever The Limper, who is as uninteresting and one dimensional a villian in his third/fourth/whatever reappearance as he was every other time. He's also a giant wicker man now, who rampages numerous towns. He's obviously afraid and vulnerable to fire but no one figures that out for a while. The Black Company (those who didn't go south) join forces with old enemies to defeat him, or do they? Yep, he comes back and there is a big showdown at some city. Also the Black Company suffers from reverse stormtrooper effect; Silent, the White Rose, and everyone's favorite angsty Raven act incredibly out of character, weak, and stupid. They're outwitted/overpowered several times by Smeds et all for example.

In the end they manage to stuff the bad guy into a magic pot (seriously) but still have trouble containing it. Silent decides the best way to handle this is to jump on it from a ledge and he is burned to death. Raven thinks if he can recover the artifact that started all this trouble he will win Darling's love. Instead it possesses him, as expected, and they are forced to kill him. Loveable Smeds goes home with plenty of gold, to live happily ever after, despite the fact that is indirectly responsible for hundreds if not thousands of deaths and directly, hands-on responsible for maybe a dozen more.

I'm sure I forgot quite a bit or made some mistakes but its been 2 or 3 months since I read this and I have no desire to go back and reread it. Like I said in my previous post, read the Black Company, its a great book that is different from a lot of other fantasy. You might even enjoy the 2nd and 3rd books in the series (I didn't). There's a slight chance you'll enjoy some of them beyond that (they have their moments). But the Silver Spike is one of the worst books I've ever read and can be skipped.

fritz
Jul 26, 2003

mllaneza posted:

The last of the Instrumentalities series is done,

I just checked and it's scheduled too! http://www.locusmag.com/Resources/ForthcomingBooks.html
:toot:


Walh Hara posted:

Lately I've been wondering wether the Braided Path trilogy (by Chris Wooding) is actually good or if I simply think so becaus it was one of the very first fantasy series I read back when I was 15 and knew little about books. Is there anyone else who read them? What I remember of the plot makes me assume it was actually pretty good, but I've never seen it mentioned here before so who knows.

I read those books maybe 5 years ago, and they were generally solid fantasy.

House Louse posted:

That's interesting, as in "interesting times". Someone with a backlist the size of that, who can't sell a book that looks rather easy to sell. I'm not quite sure what to make of it, but it's interesting the target is so low - he's figuring a print run of 200 copies. It's nice that the reward tiers are named after aspects of the novel, too.

I've found LWE's last few books (the tipjar Ethshar ones) to be way, way under par, but like gently caress I'm not going to kick in for a physical copy, I've been reading his books since the 1980s.

Velius
Feb 27, 2001
There's also a new Garret, P.I. Book coming out tomorrow. The last one, Gilded Latten Bones ended up being a pretty dramatic departure from the fairly repetitive priors, with Garret pretty much sitting around (with odd and excessive chamber pot usage) while getting a cast of pretty much every minor character mentioned ever to solve the mystery. It felt very much like a send off, so I'm curious as to what Cook is going to do with the series now. I don't have high expectations, but I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

andrew smash
Jun 26, 2006

smooth soul
In line with simmons chat, i just re-read ilium (not really sure why, it's not that great) and realized I missed an eyerollingly bad callback to hyperion the first time I read it. The moravec society is kind of cool, but that's about as far as it goes. The post-literate human society on earth is so clearly a retread of the eloi from the time machine that I was wondering if he even realized he was doing it until the point where he has a character explain to another that precise reference.

Simmons just isn't that strong a writer and hyperion was definitely his high point.

andrew smash fucked around with this message at 12:30 on Jul 1, 2013

robotox
Nov 8, 2008

Mechanized
Organism
Designed
Only for
Killing
I'm looking for something that I guess would best be described as cyberpunky, which I know was discussed a little in the last page, though I have some caveats/additions.

Basically, my job is incredibly reactionary so I have time to read occasionally. I'm looking for something light-ish, by which I mean anything short of the hyper-dense, philosophical tomes that some people put out. They're fine, but I don't want to have to reread the last handful of pages when I have to read in short bursts. It doesn't need to be some piece of OH MY GOD NONSTOP ACTION novel, but a little escapist.

I say I'm looking for cyberpunk because I tend to have a fondness for the noir vibe and I have a preference for near-to-mid-future stuff that's based on Earth, or at least not extremely space opera stuff. One way that I'd describe what I'm looking for is urban fantasy with tech instead of magic. Also, I like transhumanism/cyborgs/genetic engineering stuff, some AI stuff, etc. Not a big fan of aliens and spaceships.

I just finished reading the Petrovitch Trilogy by Simon Morden and it fit what I'm looking for really well. I read Altered Carbon and liked it and have read the notable stuff from the '80s and '90s as far as original cyberpunk stuff goes. Again, I'm reticent to strictly say cyberpunk so much as cyberpunk influenced, perhaps.

KingAsmo
Mar 18, 2009

robotox posted:

I'm looking for something that I guess would best be described as cyberpunky, which I know was discussed a little in the last page, though I have some caveats/additions.

Basically, my job is incredibly reactionary so I have time to read occasionally. I'm looking for something light-ish, by which I mean anything short of the hyper-dense, philosophical tomes that some people put out. They're fine, but I don't want to have to reread the last handful of pages when I have to read in short bursts. It doesn't need to be some piece of OH MY GOD NONSTOP ACTION novel, but a little escapist.

I say I'm looking for cyberpunk because I tend to have a fondness for the noir vibe and I have a preference for near-to-mid-future stuff that's based on Earth, or at least not extremely space opera stuff. One way that I'd describe what I'm looking for is urban fantasy with tech instead of magic. Also, I like transhumanism/cyborgs/genetic engineering stuff, some AI stuff, etc. Not a big fan of aliens and spaceships.

I just finished reading the Petrovitch Trilogy by Simon Morden and it fit what I'm looking for really well. I read Altered Carbon and liked it and have read the notable stuff from the '80s and '90s as far as original cyberpunk stuff goes. Again, I'm reticent to strictly say cyberpunk so much as cyberpunk influenced, perhaps.

You could try Diamond Age, its based on earth and it has a lot of the future-urban-noir feeling that you like. Has a lot of cyberpunk elements, also deals heavily with nano-technology and robots.

omg chael crash
Jul 8, 2012

Macys paid for this. Noodle Boy and Bonby are bad at video games and even worse friends.


Has anyone read the newer Halo books? I understand that they fall under the black cloud of "video game fiction", but I really enjoyed Fall of Reach and a few others.

specklebang
Jun 7, 2013

Discount Philosopher and Cat Whisperer

robotox posted:

I'm looking for something that I guess would best be described as cyberpunky, which I know was discussed a little in the last page, though I have some caveats/additions.

Basically, my job is incredibly reactionary so I have time to read occasionally. I'm looking for something light-ish, by which I mean anything short of the hyper-dense, philosophical tomes that some people put out. They're fine, but I don't want to have to reread the last handful of pages when I have to read in short bursts. It doesn't need to be some piece of OH MY GOD NONSTOP ACTION novel, but a little escapist.

I say I'm looking for cyberpunk because I tend to have a fondness for the noir vibe and I have a preference for near-to-mid-future stuff that's based on Earth, or at least not extremely space opera stuff. One way that I'd describe what I'm looking for is urban fantasy with tech instead of magic. Also, I like transhumanism/cyborgs/genetic engineering stuff, some AI stuff, etc. Not a big fan of aliens and spaceships.

I just finished reading the Petrovitch Trilogy by Simon Morden and it fit what I'm looking for really well. I read Altered Carbon and liked it and have read the notable stuff from the '80s and '90s as far as original cyberpunk stuff goes. Again, I'm reticent to strictly say cyberpunk so much as cyberpunk influenced, perhaps.

The Continuing Time novels by Daniel K. Moran http://www.amazon.com/Emerald-Eyes-Tale-Continuing-Time/dp/1576466388/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372702530&sr=8-1&keywords=emerald+eyes

Gideon's Fall, a one hit wonder. http://www.amazon.com/Gideons-Fall-...deons+fall+eric

The Bridge series http://www.amazon.com/The-Bridge-Ch...s=amoral+bridge

I own, read and enjoyed all these lesser known Cyberpunk books.

You might also check out the writings of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Di_Filippo#Novels they're probably more Biopunk than Cyberpunk. He has one collexction of short stories Strange Trades that is my favorite.http://www.amazon.com/Strange-Trades-ebook/dp/B00CME43KK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372703112&sr=8-1&keywords=strange+trades+paul


I also liked the:Petrovich books. The fourth one was recently released. http://www.amazon.com/Curve-Earth-Simon-Morden/dp/031622006X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372702910&sr=1-3

Kalenn Istarion
Nov 2, 2012

Maybe Senpai will finally notice me now that I've dropped :fivebux: on this snazzy av

Great Gray Shrike posted:


Edit:


I found the first book really astoundingly well-done on the whole, and really enjoyed it a lot. That said, the sequel was much, much worse, almost to the point of going back and wrecking the first book. I am not optimistic about further books in the series, based on the direction the second book was going. I'd suggest reading the first book and stopping there.

So, I actually started out thinking that - something like 'oh gently caress he's gone and made it mundane', but I keep going back to the point about the fallible narrator. I'm hoping that the next book can bring it back and will give it a shot whenever he gets around to publishing it. I also find the world itself intriguing so would probably put up with some stupid fluff now that I'm invested.

Piell
Sep 3, 2006

Grey Worm's Ken doll-like groin throbbed with the anticipatory pleasure that only a slightly warm and moist piece of lemoncake could offer


Young Orc

Kalenn Istarion posted:

So, I actually started out thinking that - something like 'oh gently caress he's gone and made it mundane', but I keep going back to the point about the fallible narrator. I'm hoping that the next book can bring it back and will give it a shot whenever he gets around to publishing it. I also find the world itself intriguing so would probably put up with some stupid fluff now that I'm invested.

He skipped sweet pirate adventurers so he had more space for the sex elf and manmothers, as well as gooning out over Denna. gently caress Rothfuss.

Play
Apr 25, 2006

Strong stroll for a mangy stray

Piell posted:

He skipped sweet pirate adventurers so he had more space for the sex elf and manmothers, as well as gooning out over Denna. gently caress Rothfuss.

Yeah the living amongst the ninjas and getting super honored and also getting laid all the time was pretty painful. And was the basis of a large portion of the book. Another thing that was disappointing, besides lack of pirate adventures, was lack of progress in the plot, again in favor of increased sex elves and sex ninjas. It was pretty apparent that Rothfuss was putting titilating things in there and trying to live through his main character, which is shameful.

Play fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Jul 2, 2013

Sulphagnist
Oct 10, 2006

WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED

Heads up that there's a new Humble ebook Bundle available, including Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold and Spin by Robert Charles Wilson.

andrew smash
Jun 26, 2006

smooth soul
I just finished house of Suns. I think it's by far the best of Reynolds' novels. It's a bit softer than the revelation space series, which is okay. My one complaint is that purslane and campion often sound like the same person, although given that they are clones I guess that's intentional. Anyway it can get a bit unclear when the viewpoint changes from one to the other.

andrew smash
Jun 26, 2006

smooth soul
gently caress quote's not edit.

I also really enjoyed the fact that the lines are basically a love letter to the Qeng Ho.

Blog Free or Die
Apr 30, 2005

FOR THE MOTHERLAND

Antti posted:

Heads up that there's a new Humble ebook Bundle available, including Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold and Spin by Robert Charles Wilson.

Also if you haven't read The Last Unicorn, get that poo poo. It's great.

Haerc
Jan 2, 2011

andrew smash posted:

I just finished house of Suns. I think it's by far the best of Reynolds' novels. It's a bit softer than the revelation space series, which is okay. My one complaint is that purslane and campion often sound like the same person, although given that they are clones I guess that's intentional. Anyway it can get a bit unclear when the viewpoint changes from one to the other.

Anyone know of books similar to House of Suns? I really enjoyed it as well.

Malalol
Apr 4, 2007

I spent $1,000 on my computer but I'm too "poor" to take my dog or any of my animals to the vet for vet care. My neglect caused 1 of my birds to die prematurely! My dog pisses everywhere! I don't care! I'm a piece of shit! Don't believe me? Check my post history in Pet Island!
Completely new to scifi and this thread, but I havent seen GRRM mentioned (so I have no idea if hes considered bad here) but Im in love with his short stories. Used to think that scifi was boring (too cold, metal-like, foreign) but holy crap, the world he makes is awesome. And I'm running out of stories to read from him. I started off with dreamsongs 1 and 2 and got familar with the various planets and races mentioned through out then moved on to some other novellas and books. Very cool critters in Tuf Voyaging and the whole history on how he came across the ship. Random religions and cultures like the steel angels.

I just love the fact that theres such an in depth world that I got to know over the course of several shorter pieces.. are there any other things like this? I'm trying to read some anthologies right now (songs of the dying earth) and the writing style is very noticeably different that its just not as fun either. Anything else like this? I dont necessarily want a series...where you follow a set of characters around for a while..but a collection of smaller stories set in the same universe?

Hedrigall
Mar 27, 2008

by vyelkin
Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter is meant to be amazing, simultaneously a short story collection and a chronological encyclopaedia of an entire universe's history. I want to read it soon.

Galactic North by Alastair Reynolds is his Rev Space shorts collected, but they work better once you've read at least the first novel. The universe told in the stories is creepy and gothic, one of the best examples of dark sf.

I really enjoyed The Draco Tavern by Larry Niven. A standalone universe not connected to Ringworld. The book is a bunch of stories about the only bar on earth that caters to aliens. Lots of humour and fun alien cultures.

Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Jul 4, 2013

andrew smash
Jun 26, 2006

smooth soul

Haerc posted:

Anyone know of books similar to House of Suns? I really enjoyed it as well.

As I mentioned, A Deepness in the Sky is kind of similar. The Qeng Ho are what the lines might have been like in their first circuit or so.

Neurosis
Jun 10, 2003
Fallen Rib

Hedrigall posted:

Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter is meant to be amazing, simultaneously a short story collection and a chronological encyclopaedia of an entire universe's history. I want to read it soon.

Vacuum Diagrams IS really good. I tried to read a couple of Baxter's novels and couldn't really get into them, but the short stories worked much better. It feels like the fact short stories are less about characters works in Baxter's favour. The pacing - which I have found interminable in his books - is also improved.

Rough Lobster
May 27, 2009

Don't be such a squid, bro

Malalol posted:

Completely new to scifi and this thread, but I havent seen GRRM mentioned (so I have no idea if hes considered bad here) but Im in love with his short stories. Used to think that scifi was boring (too cold, metal-like, foreign) but holy crap, the world he makes is awesome. And I'm running out of stories to read from him. I started off with dreamsongs 1 and 2 and got familar with the various planets and races mentioned through out then moved on to some other novellas and books. Very cool critters in Tuf Voyaging and the whole history on how he came across the ship. Random religions and cultures like the steel angels.

I just love the fact that theres such an in depth world that I got to know over the course of several shorter pieces.. are there any other things like this? I'm trying to read some anthologies right now (songs of the dying earth) and the writing style is very noticeably different that its just not as fun either. Anything else like this? I dont necessarily want a series...where you follow a set of characters around for a while..but a collection of smaller stories set in the same universe?

I've never read GRRM, but I'm gonna throw out this suggestion. Burning Chrome is a collection of short stories by William Gibson, and they're all set in the same universe with different characters. Also get Neuromancer which is a novel set in the same universe that uses a few characters and things from the Burning Chrome stories. Burning Chrome helps introduce a lot of the key ideas and background flavor that makes Neuromancer more fun to read, there's a lot of 'world building' there. Both books are really good in their own ways, and Neuromancer's considered one of the more important SF books to come out during the 80's.

Junkenstein
Oct 22, 2003

Haerc posted:

Anyone know of books similar to House of Suns? I really enjoyed it as well.

There's obviously Thousandth Night, if you didn't read that before House of Suns.

Drunk Driver Dad
Feb 18, 2005
I'm almost done reading The Void Trilogy by Hamilton which is part of the Commonwealth Saga. I actually really enjoyed it despite the weird sex stuff here and there. I really enjoyed the epic feel and scope of the story(Well, 2 main stories, Pandora's Star, then the Void) that had plenty of characters that, to me anyway, I found pretty interesting. I'm not sure if I can come up with any other reason I liked it, other than it had a grand story with a decent bit of mystery along with plenty of interesting characters. The reason I said so, is I'm trying to figure out what to start next, and I have trouble picking out sci-fi as I'm a bit picky for some reason. I also actually prefer multiple books, the longer the series the better, assuming length doesn't ruin it. I suppose you could say I really enjoy investing myself in a good series. Also, I generally like when there's interesting technology and such, even if it's a bit silly. Doesn't have to be straight up hard sci-fi.

I actually already have all the Vorkosigen books and the series Altered Carbon is based on. I know Vorkosigen is highly recommended and from what I can tell it has a little of everything. I'd normally say spaceship battles and such is a requirement, but really I think it's just conflict in general I enjoy. Commonwealth had a decent bit of it, but it could still stretch in places without any space battles and it held my interest pretty well. I know Altered Carbon is a sort of detective novel, and people compare it to Expanse, which I generally liked pretty well. I intend to eventually read both of these, but which should I start first? Also, when it comes to Vorkosigen, should I start with the first Miles book, or begin with the ones about his mom or whatever it is?

edit: I apologize for the disjointed post, I've literally been up all night reading. Sorry if it's barely comprehensible, I'll try to clean it up a bit once I rest. I mostly just wanted opinion on those two series I mentioned that I already have.

Drunk Driver Dad fucked around with this message at 13:39 on Jul 4, 2013

Medoken
Jul 2, 2006

I AM A FAGET FOR BOB SAGET
I've been binging through a bunch of classic sci-fi lately. I've finished:

Starship Troopers
The Forever War
The Stars My Destination
Childhood's End
Old Man's War
I am Legend


Now I'm on Stranger in a Strange Land, which I have to say is a much better novel by Heinlein than Starship Troopers was. The characters are far more interesting/developed, and the story is very well plotted so far. I enjoyed Troopers for its didactic qualities, discussion of philosophy, and recall of Plato. However, it didn't truly hold up as a novel with any depth to its characters.

So far Mike is such an interesting and alien observer that I'm pleased by the amount of insight Heinlein has into his point of view. The other characters all have their own interesting quirks, and feel human to different degrees, even if Heinlein suffers from the same problem as so many other sci-fi writers when it comes to constructing his female characters. They are all beautiful caregivers, idealized versions of 'womanhood.' Heinlein overcomes this particular flaw by at least giving his female characters agency, though it all seems to be tied into the masculine realm. Overall, it's far less objectionable for its gender politics than other entries in the genre. I'm looking forward to finishing it soon.

Play
Apr 25, 2006

Strong stroll for a mangy stray
I have a huge recommendation to make: Jack Vance's Emphyrio. Without giving too much away, the story follows Ghyl Tarvoke who grows up on the world of Halma which has a somewhat strange social situation wherein any use of technology ("duping") is punished severely and is ruled over by a strange and secretive group, The Lords. Inspired by a small fragment of interstellar legend about a man named Emphyrio, Ghyl embarks on a lifelong search for truth which eventually will challengs everything he thought about Halma.

The writing in this story is classic Jack Vance, just completely beautiful, baroque but descriptive and focused. His descriptions of the social customs of Halma seen through Ghyl's eyes are absolutely fascinating, I read this book in a couple days and didn't stop to read anything else. I liked his Tales of the Dying Earth but in my opinion this was much much better, being a very cohesive whole story. I have no idea where I ran into this but it was so good that I would like to find an original hardcover somewhere. Try it out.

dennyk
Jan 2, 2005

Cheese-Buyer's Remorse
After finishing Jim Butcher's latest Dresden Files book (Cold Days) last December, I got a hankering for some more urban fantasy, so over the last six months I've read:

- All of Neil Gaiman's novels, all very good stuff.

- The first (and now only, it seems) three books of the Twenty Palaces series by Harry Connolly; pretty dark and depressing, but an interesting read. Shame the publisher dropped it.

- The first three Rivers of London books by Ben Aaronovitch; fun and very British.

- The first five Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne; Rather derivative (kind of like a Dresden-Light), but entertaining.

- The five Felix Castor books by Mike Carey; very, very good. Probably my favorite of all the series here.

- The three Alex Verus books by Benedict Jacka; also good stuff.

- The seven Mercy Thompson books by Patricia Briggs; pretty good.

- The seven Greywalker books by Kat Richardson; the first book or two were a little shaky, but the series got pretty good after that.

- The four Monster Hunter International books by Larry Correia. Unapologetic cheesy and terrible pulp, but somehow they were still fun.

- The first book of Tad Williams' new Bobby Dollar series. It's Tad Williams writing noir about angels; what more can you say?



And right now in my queue to be read I've got:

- The Watch books by Sergei Lukyanenko. Probably going to start on these next.

- The Sandman Slim books by Richard Kadrey; I've heard good things about these, but present-tense writing annoys me. Hopefully they're worth it.

- I've got some more of Patricia Briggs' novels lying around, I forget exactly what now. I think a couple are related to the Mercy Thompson books and a couple are some standalone stories.



Those won't last me very long, though. So, while I'm waiting for a bunch of these folks to finish their next installments, what else is good in the urban fantasy world (that isn't a thinly disguised romance or some teenager sparkly vampire bullshit)?

muike
Mar 16, 2011

ガチムチ セブン
How fantasy, how much magic?

I just got done reading The City and the City by Mieville, and it's pretty good. It's more of a noirish crime novel, less pulpy than Butcher and also less magical. If either of those dissuade you, you should try it out anyway! It's real fun trying to understand the relationship between the cities.

mania
Sep 9, 2004

dennyk posted:

Those won't last me very long, though. So, while I'm waiting for a bunch of these folks to finish their next installments, what else is good in the urban fantasy world (that isn't a thinly disguised romance or some teenager sparkly vampire bullshit)?

London Falling by Paul Cornell - Cop squad that deals with magic stuff.

The October Daye series by Seanan McGuire - Changeling knight for faire royalty and fights other faire creatures. Some people don't really like the first few, but I think it gets really good after that.

Blood Books by Tanya Huff - Ex-cop turned PI meets a vampire, fights supernatural creatures. If you like these, there's another series of 3 books featuring one of the side characters and the vamp.

Also if you like Huff's stuff, she's also got a couple more urban fantasy series that are more humorous in tone - Keeper Chronicles and Gale Women.

There's also a prequel to the Twenty Palaces series called Twenty Palaces.

If you like Patricia Briggs, you might like the Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn. I've only read one of the books (not a fan of werewolves), but I remember her writing being pretty decent and I quite enjoyed the book.

Stupid_Sexy_Flander
Mar 14, 2007

Is a man not entitled to the haw of his maw?
Grimey Drawer
Correia also has a series out that's sorta... urban fantasy noirish set in the 1920s. It's a 3 book series, and fairly good.

It's called the Grimnoir Chronicles. The first book is Hard Magic.

There's also a newer series (think the 3rd book is coming out this month?) about a world where elves and gnomes and goblins and vamps and whatnot all exist (in public), and there's a special police force that handles the cases. Basically, if a vamp bites a non willing person, they catch em and put em in jail. If a person kills a vampire, they catch the rear end in a top hat who killed em and put em in jail. It's an interesting twist on the whole OH GOD WE CAN'T LET THE PUBLIC KNOW BLAH BLAH crap.

First book is called Hard Spell, by Justin Gustainis.

NinjaDebugger
Apr 22, 2008


Also, Myke Cole has a series out, two books so far, Urban/Modern Military fantasy, that starts with Shadow Ops: Control Point. I'm not sure what the title has to do with the book, I think I remember reading that it was something decided entirely by the publisher and he had no idea what it meant either. Anyway, it's much better quality than I expected, definitely a worthwhile read. I haven't grabbed the second yet, though, because I have a huge backlog.

Neurosis
Jun 10, 2003
Fallen Rib

muike posted:

How fantasy, how much magic?

I just got done reading The City and the City by Mieville, and it's pretty good. It's more of a noirish crime novel, less pulpy than Butcher and also less magical. If either of those dissuade you, you should try it out anyway! It's real fun trying to understand the relationship between the cities.

Something I've wondered about the City and the City. The idea has been done before by Jack Vance. Two cities co-existed in the same spot. Those wearing one colour could not see those of the other colour, and were shocked by the revelation when some of their number were disrobed. Mieville was aware of this story, surely? He may have commented on it, I don't like his work that much so I don't follow his interviews. I found the book kind of boring.

Megazver
Jan 13, 2006

dennyk posted:

Those won't last me very long, though. So, while I'm waiting for a bunch of these folks to finish their next installments, what else is good in the urban fantasy world (that isn't a thinly disguised romance or some teenager sparkly vampire bullshit)?

You got most of them, really. Here's a few more:

The Rook: A Novel by Daniel O'Malley. Slightly Whedonesque UF with an espionage bent. Excellent.

Dead Things by Stephen Blackmoore. Probably darker than Twenty Palaces, still quite good.

Libriomancer by Jim Hines. Less derivative of Dresden Files than Iron Druid, but more or less as fluff-y. It's alright. Speaking of the Druid, the sixth book is out.

London Falling by Paul Cornell. A British Police Procedural. Cops desperately trying to figure out how to deal with a hosed-up supernatural threat. I found the first act a little hard to get into, but once poo poo hits the fan, it's a fun ride for the rest of the book.

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone. This is set in a secondary world, but it's very much UF to my taste. A mage has a few days to solve a god's murder and try to bring him back to life. Fantastic worldbuilding.

Low Town by Daniel Polansky. Noir UF \ fantasy hybrid.

My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland. Awesome covers. Barely any romance, which is a plus for me in UF. A girl gets saved from death by a mysterious benefactor who also gets her a job at a local morgue. Then weird poo poo starts happening, not the least to her own body. The author spent a few years working as a coroner and it shows - I actually enjoyed the parts about her job a bit more than the supernatural bits.

Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig. A psychic who can see when people die, sees her own death.

A few more off-beat suggestions that aren't strictly UF:

Gun Machine by Warren Ellis. Watch the trailer if "this is by Warren Ellis" isn't recommendation enough.

The Alienist by Caleb Carr. New York, 1896. When a serial killer starts butchering boy prostitutes, Police Commissioner Roosevelt sets up a secret task force to help hunt him down with the power of alienism and forensics! (That's what they called psychology back then, in case any of you don't know.)

Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis. Wisecracking gumshoe solves crimes and travels around Imperial Rome. A really entertaining mix of mystery, humor, adventure and romance.

The Breach by Patrick Lee. Unrelenting, mindfucky thriller.

Clinton1011
Jul 11, 2007

Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:

Correia also has a series out that's sorta... urban fantasy noirish set in the 1920s. It's a 3 book series, and fairly good.

It's called the Grimnoir Chronicles. The first book is Hard Magic.


I've got to 2nd this series, I felt these were slightly better then the Monster Hunter International series he wrote. His magic system reminded me of one of Brandon Sanderson's magic systems. He sets the rules down then comes up with ways to combine different elements of the magic system to do really interesting things.

Stupid_Sexy_Flander
Mar 14, 2007

Is a man not entitled to the haw of his maw?
Grimey Drawer
It also has one of my favorite lines in a book.

"The learned gentlemen from the university have asked me if I relied on Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity or if I used the simpler rules of Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation on the evening in question when I accidentally took Sheriff Johnson’s life . poo poo. I don’t know. I just got angry and squished the fucker. But I've gotten better at running things and I promise not to do it no more."

Guy A. Person
May 23, 2003

Neurosis posted:

Something I've wondered about the City and the City. The idea has been done before by Jack Vance. Two cities co-existed in the same spot. Those wearing one colour could not see those of the other colour, and were shocked by the revelation when some of their number were disrobed. Mieville was aware of this story, surely? He may have commented on it, I don't like his work that much so I don't follow his interviews. I found the book kind of boring.

He mentions it briefly in this interview: http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/unsolving-city-interview-with-china.html

quote:

I should say, also, that with the whole idea of a divided city there are analogies in the real world, as well as precursors within fantastic fiction. C. J. Cherryh wrote a book that had a divided city like that, in some ways, as did Jack Vance. Now I didn’t know this at the time, but I’m also not getting my knickers in a twist about it. If you think what you’re trying to do is come up with a really original idea—one that absolutely no one has ever had before—you’re just kidding yourself.

I liked The City and the City a lot, I especially enjoyed it as sci-fi/fantasy where nothing actually supernatural was going on at all, it was just the bizarre customs of these two cities. I thought it blended the police drama pretty well with the setting exploration, and managed to make it intriguing well emphasizing how mundane it was to the characters at the same time.

Loving Life Partner
Apr 17, 2003
For people that have read Takeshi Kovacs, is the second book a bit of a letdown?

I'm about 85% finished or something, and some big bad thing is about to be perpetrated, but, I don't even really care all that much at this point.

I feel like the decision to center so much of the book on the mysterious Martian's was a mistake. The flavors of Earth and posthumanism and whatnot were the real draw in the first novel. Having so much hinging on the incredibly incomprehensible machines of Martians, and their singing not-rocks-not-plants and whatnot blah blah blah. It just seems so whatever. Maybe the book will bring it all together in the end, or in the third installment, but this is definitely a drop off after the awesome first book.

General Battuta
Feb 7, 2011

This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: you hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the posts from the screams.
It's not as good as Altered Carbon, no. The books are fairly episodic and self-contained; there's no real through plot.

Sulphagnist
Oct 10, 2006

WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED

Guy A. Person posted:

He mentions it briefly in this interview: http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/unsolving-city-interview-with-china.html


I liked The City and the City a lot, I especially enjoyed it as sci-fi/fantasy where nothing actually supernatural was going on at all, it was just the bizarre customs of these two cities. I thought it blended the police drama pretty well with the setting exploration, and managed to make it intriguing well emphasizing how mundane it was to the characters at the same time.

To be fair, "Jack Vance already did it" must be a pretty common stumbling block in science fiction and fantasy.

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Neurosis
Jun 10, 2003
Fallen Rib

Antti posted:

To be fair, "Jack Vance already did it" must be a pretty common stumbling block in science fiction and fantasy.

Jack Vance loving owns and everyone needs to read Tales of the Dying Earth.

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