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That'd be great KellHound, I know I really loved your Grave Peril pictures, especially the one with Harry and Michael dressed for the Masquerade. Actually I was curious if you're allowed to give him anything at signings, like art you've done, or if that's frowned on/not allowed. I'm going to get to meet him at Phoenix Comicon on June 5th.  I'm really excited!
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May 23, 2014 05:05
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Pretty sure Harry has had several fights where he was stark naked, including Cold Days when he was going all Wolverine at the end. So I don't know if Hannah ditching her clothes so they didn't light on fire during her trial was really all that big of a deal. She put them back on. I'm happy with this book. Harry actually got to reconnect to the people he loves, and there was a fun caper story in it. Murphy, Michael, Maggie, Molly, Mouse (why is everyone named M___) all got some hug-time and they needed it. The overarching series plot is good stuff but I like the single-episode books more, in general. And I was tired of Faeries so it was a good break from them. I am still annoyed that the Fomor are a big question mark after all this time. We got another teaser, in the party stuff, but as someone running a Dresden RPG game I want to know the basic motivations for a common enemy unit and we got nothing on them yet. It's weird.
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May 29, 2014 09:46
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Video from Jim's Q&A over in Scottsdale tonight. I was the one who asked about apprentices a little ways in. This was really fun, Jim is hilarious in person (and also a lot shorter than I imagined somehow.) I'm super happy I won't have to stand in lines for signings at Phoenix Comicon. Did anyone else go tonight or plan to go see him Saturday? Not a ton of new information, but one thing mentioned I didn't know about, a coming-soon short story about Molly's first job as the Winter Lady, guest starring Ramirez. e: Oh! I almost forgot. He wants to do a YA spinoff with Maggie and Mouse! I don't think that was a promise, but it's something he sounded excited about.
mistaya fucked around with this message at 08:38 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 07:00
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Fried Chicken posted:Thank you for this, but what was the question he was answering at the very start, before talking about the landlady? The video cuts in midway through his response Question was "Will we ever find out who took the videotape of the Loup Garou back in Fool Moon?"
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Jun 7, 2014 04:51
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So tonight at Phoenix Comicon there was a "Drink With the Authors" sort of bar-and-mingle, and I mostly followed Jim Butcher around for a couple hours and talked to him a bunch. (He's seriously the coolest guy.) Just for you guys, here's the last conversation we had: Me: "Hey, can you settle an argument on the internet for me?" Jim: "I'll sure try!" Me: "There's quite a few people on one side saying that Murphy has basically always been the action hero side character, and she's not really useful outside of the action scenes. (I think they're wrong.) They think Murphy needs a power-up of some kind like a Sword of the Cross, or if not that something else to stay relevant. What do you think?" Jim: "It's sword and sorcery, and Murphy's a sword. She doesn't need a powerup, she is the powerup. You don't give the party's sword magic, you give them a bigger sword!" Then we made some jokes about rocket launchers. So there you have it, goons. Murphy is the party Fighter. 
mistaya fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Jun 8, 2014 |
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Jun 8, 2014 06:32
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SystemLogoff posted:He does not look as goony with the haircut though. I'm just going to point out that he only cut his hair (well shaved his head actually) so he could properly Larp a necromancer for a big event. Jim Butcher is basically the most successful goon. He's more goony than most of us will ever be.
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Jun 13, 2014 21:23
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Ghoul Goblin is pretty neat, although a little depressing. Harry doesn't really win that one so much as survive it. I'm going to wait for War Cry to have an omnibus before I pick it up too, but I really really want to see more Warden stuff. How many issues of that were planned?
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Jul 3, 2014 06:30
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Isn't 'Mirror, Mirror' supposed to be after 'Peace Talks'? I'm really excited for Peace Talks because I love the White Council and Warden stuff and it's been way too long since we had a good straight up wizard book, (plus getting more canonical Fomor stuff will really help with GM'ing my RPG) but Alternate Universe Harry Dresden is going to be plain old fun, I think.
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Jul 19, 2014 05:27
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Picked up the first Alex Verus book based on the constant recommendations here. Finished it in one sitting. I really liked it! Going to read the rest of these. It reminds me of earlier Dresden in all the good ways, where the lead is basically in way over his head and has to play the few cards he has very carefully if he wants to survive. Mostly I just love the way he describes the future-sight power.
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Sep 24, 2014 16:37
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Amazon just throws a date out in the future for stuff like that, if you want to get your pre-order in you can but it's got nothing to do with an actual release date. As of last week Jim was still working on Cinder Spires book 1, it's apparently gotten a lot longer than originally planned. ("200k words and still going!" is what he said. I asked him if it was an Epic Epic Steampunk Epic and he laughed.)
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Oct 22, 2014 21:28
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Question: Since when has receiving a big power-spike in Dresden Files EVER had a positive effect on a character's life? Butters is involved now and I don't think he's going to be nearly as invincible as he may have been previously. Or as visible, because he's got a job now and it's been made pretty clear that while Dresden and the Knights cross paths now and then they have a job to do and it doesn't usually involve Dresden. Andi annoys me as a character because she's basically the last of the Alphas we see regularly and she's not useful or really part of the team. She's been used as a kidnap victim-slash-hostage multiple times. I don't think she's a very good character. I don't think I could ever hate Butters though.
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Oct 25, 2014 03:26
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Butters IS fun. And he's grown a lot over the series. (He had a lot of room to grow!) The problem is that we're told and not shown a lot of it since it's not really in Harry's field of view since he was dead. We really need a Butters and Bob short story/series of shorts like the Bigfoot trilogy to fill in some of the gap there. I feel like Butters is getting the same flak in Cold Days/Skin Game that Murphy got in Fool Moon because he wasn't completely on the 'Team Dresden' train, even though he had good reason to be wary of Winter Knight Harry.
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Oct 28, 2014 18:32
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From the Q&A at Comicon, hexing is entirely due to the wizard's power level, not their age. So a strongly magical 20 year old will short out a smart phone faster than a weak 120 year old. Molly using a cell phone freaked Harry out because it was the most visible reminder that Molly isn't human anymore that he's seen. Hexing (old school spoiled milk or more recent shorting out tech) is a physical manifestation of the contradictory nature of humanity, compared to the fixed nature of most non-humans. (Hexing is also a plot device to prevent Harry from using a cell phone because it solves too many problems too easily.) mistaya fucked around with this message at 10:56 on Nov 5, 2014 |
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Nov 5, 2014 10:54
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fordan posted:I expect we're going to see that as a major subplot in a future Molly/Harry book where he needs to come to terms with her new status and his probable "if she wasn't involved with me" misplaced guilt. Although whether Molly ends up resolving her desire for Harry or not is a toss up. Really all Molly has to do is wait. Karrin and Michael are the two big hangups that Harry has, and Molly and Harry will outlive them both by a hundred years at a minimum.
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Nov 7, 2014 04:11
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OneTwentySix posted:He's only died the one time, can't they cut him a little slack? Twice actually, if you count dying of poisoned mushrooms in Grave Peril! (He got better.)
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Nov 8, 2014 07:28
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I asked Jim about his con schedule this year and he said it's real light because he's planning on doing a lot more writing. Apparently the editing process on Aeronaut's been a lot longer than usual for him, probably because it's a whole new series. Peace Talks is being worked on though! It's kind of depressing to hear people hating on female UF authors... There IS a difference between Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy you know. Look at like, Lillith Saintcrow or DD Barant for decent female-authored UF stuff. It does have female gaze, but um, female protagonists are kinda going to have that? It's not like we don't get male gaze out the rear end from Harry and company.
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Feb 15, 2015 08:16
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The reason Alex isn't *really* threatened by much is he's willing to put on the black hat to protect himself. This has the predictable effect of making all his friends abandon him for being, well, kind of evil, and I think that is actually a lot worse for him in the long run than spending time in the hospital would be.
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Mar 9, 2015 23:03
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I think the message from the last Alex book was "Even if you have no choice, even if your back's against the wall, even if you don't get your hands bloody yourself, that doesn't make what you did okay." Because it wasn't. Alex's viewpoint is that he was justified in the things he did because they were the only way he knew to keep himself (and sometimes others) safe. The interesting thing about Alex's world is that people are in fact, willing to stop being his friend when they find out he's a murderer, instead of giving him back pats and telling him he did what he had to do or sticking around to 'keep an eye on him' while giving each other uneasy looks like happens in the Dresden Files when Harry's under suspicion.
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Mar 10, 2015 15:18
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Ambient 'White Court'-iness is more how Murphy watches Thomas leave the room then turns to Harry and says "What? He's pretty." Molly kind of gets whammied by this because Molly has super-empathy, but to most women Thomas is just, well, really sexy and willing. Thomas when he was crashing at Harry's was basically Charlie Sheen in 2.5 men. That's sleazy but it's played for laughs because it's not hurting anyone. (He COULD take away a woman's agency but he wasn't doing that at the time, that's when he was trying really hard to go 'straight'.)
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Mar 11, 2015 17:56
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ImpAtom posted:This is straight-up untrue. Among the 'comedy' things played is a religious woman who can't help but throw herself at Thomas and a woman who corners him in the place he is working and starts to undress. (She doesn't get fired for it but it's played as being that only because her manager found her attractive..) That is absolutely harmful and absolutely against their will. Like I said, Harry and Thomas literally have a conversation about how he needs to learn to control it. (In particular about the woman in the workplace because Thomas got fired for that particular thing.) Ah, it's been a while since I read the earlier books, I didn't remember the details on this. You're right.  re: The Winter Mantle Urges, they are offputting- but that is the point- but that doesn't make them fun to read about. I did like Harry's math method of distracting himself but I don't think the power/rape fantasy thing is going to go away unless he gets out from under it (which may or may not ever happen.) It's a price for power. What I'm curious about is in the future if Molly uses the mantle's urges against him, now that she technically has the ability to do so.
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Mar 12, 2015 19:50
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I've been working my way through the Kindle editions of the Rivers of London series (I really like Peter, as bumbling as he is) and I wonder why they changed Lesley's name to Leslie in the first two books but stopped doing it in book 3, which I just started. It seems weirdly inconsistent. I think the thing I like most is how every chapter is almost a little history lesson. You can tell the author knows and loves the hell out of London (and Jazz) and it's a fun perspective lens to read through.
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Mar 15, 2015 23:24
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...are bowler hats the british fedora? (I don't think so.) In actual Dresden-related news, it sounds like that potential YA series featuring Maggie Dresden at school might be a real thing that's happening now, according to the AMA on Jim's Euro-tour. There was also mention of a second spin off but not what it was.
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Apr 9, 2015 15:11
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I'm working on Foxglove Summer, which is the latest one I think. It takes Peter out of London for the first time and it's kind of a nice break because things happen more slowly out in the countryside. I am a little sad that the series seems to be outgrowing London just like Dresden outgrew Chicago eventually though.
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Apr 12, 2015 20:23
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Benny the Snake posted:I would, but I'm ADD as a motherfucker, so I'd be half-tempted to browse on the 'net. Just as a followup question to this, I've only heard of Magical Realism recently, and it sounds a lot like UF for the most part. Does anyone know what the distinction is or what makes Magical Realism a separate genre from other scifi/fantasy? I think you can set UF wherever you want to but if you aren't using something like New York or London that has it's own mythos from years of film/tv/books you need to spend a lot more time fleshing the city as a character out. It's a lot more work but it has its rewards. Honestly one of the reasons I like Peter Grant so much is we learn about the history of London through his voice, he doesn't just rely on our perceptions and memories of London. And Foxglove Summer proved he can tell that kind of story about a quaint little town of a few thousand people not just the big city everyone knows. (Foxglove Summer has a really excellent 'Hot Fuzz' style to it.) mistaya fucked around with this message at 09:06 on May 17, 2015 |
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May 17, 2015 09:02
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I just got the shipped notice for it. Read the majority on PDF already but it'll be nice to have the book.  RE: Alex Verus, I really love it because Alex's problems are more that he IS a bad wizard who was raised by a worse wizard and he's trying not to be but he doesn't always succeed and he backslides sometimes. Alex knows he's not a good guy, and tries to settle for being a neutral party but that doesn't really work out for him either. It's pretty much the only story I've ever read where self-defense doesn't justify the protagonists' violence.
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May 18, 2015 22:47
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I know everyone loves Sanderson but I really just can't get into him because it's like reading glorified Player's Handbook fluff. I got about two chapters into Way of Kings and he takes this actually interesting fight scene between a dude with gravity bending powers and a dude in magic armor and makes it completely soul-less. It's like reading an Ikea manual. Step one, tether yourself the ceiling. Step two, tether Enemy A to the ceiling. Step three, untether yourself and chop Enemy A from step 2 in half as you descend from Step one. Step four, repeat as necessary. WE GET IT BRANDON. Sorry, it's probably an unpopular opinion but while I can respect Sanderson a lot I can't make myself LIKE his books. They're better in audiobook format, though I managed to get through Mistborn series one and Elantris via audio, but trying to sit down and read them? Yuck. I play League of Legends with Jim occasionally and pester him for 'what he's working on now' hints, so here's two Peace Talks teasers: Maggie makes pancakes.  Ebenezer and Thomas talk family. 
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May 21, 2015 21:46
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Tunicate posted:The Way Of Kings is unusual only in that it starts with two prologues to skip. I uh, kinda put it down after that thinking the rest of it was going to be the same. I suppose I should pick it back up off my shelf. I actually liked the first prologue with the whole giant death bugs and swords thing, I'm usually ok with cryptic hinty prologues like that because they're fun to go read later once you know what's going on. I just really didn't like Szeth's intro chapter. The first chapter of a book is really important, I don't know how that one got messed up so badly if the rest isn't like that.
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May 22, 2015 19:34
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I think Murphy is probably going to be the last-mortal-standing when it comes to Harry's friends. She's never really needed powers to be a badass. The only thing I think might eventually come around is that when/if she's finally KIA or about to be, Odin offers her a job as a Valkyrie. Although I heard something about that already being turned down? I forget. Uriel on the other hand, I felt like the whole killing of a mortal thing might be very significant but it could have just been action-scene stuff too. It FELT significant to me, actually everything in Skin Game involving Uriel felt super significant. You don't just park an archangel on scene like that for laughs.
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May 27, 2015 20:26
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Can you PLEASE use [timg] instead of [img] tags you neanderthal? Why are you even linking them?
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May 28, 2015 03:59
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So I got to meet Paul Cornell (London Falling series) at Phoenix comicon (I didn't even know he would be there and was completely surprised to see him) and after the panels I got to talk to him a bit about books and things, (we joked about Aaronovitch, who he's friends with) he's really nice and a little shy and you would never be able to tell he writes what is definitely the closest UF series to pure horror that I've read. I'm going to read his books in his voice in my head from now on. But I want to bring the thread's attention to someone I haven't seen mentioned, M.L. Brennan- because she was the most bubbly excited person on the author panels and her Generation V novels are a really fun read (Vampires but as if they were biological predators instead of transformed humans, so they would naturally have longer lifespans than their prey etc, but they aren't immortal.) The protagonist is a very young vampire who is trying to put off growing out of his humanity as long as possible and the supporting characters are funny and memorable. I really love reluctant monsters as characters, and Fortitude is about as reluctant as it gets but it's not primarily about the physical stuff, (there is some urge-denial but it's more about his lifestyle than heat of the moment NEEDS.) The main worry he has is about the mental stuff, where he doesn't want to stop caring about people and turn cold and indifferent to suffering like his older family members. Brennan was so much fun in person that I actually picked up her book based on her spoken description without even reading the back cover and I'm really glad I did. (Aside, Sandman Slim's author was also there but he was kind of... standoffish? I didn't feel like I could just run up and say hi to him.)
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Jun 1, 2015 21:56
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Patrick Rothfuss is running a fundraiser for Fantasy nerds, and one of the shirts you can donate for is courtesy of Jim Butcher: WARNING SKIN GAME SPOILERS You know you want one. You can get it (and some other cool stuff) here.
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Jun 4, 2015 04:37
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I think Whispers Underground was the weakest book of the series, have read up through Foxglove Summer. It didn't really catch me either, and I wasn't very intrigued by the main mystery plot of the book. Broken Homes is much better, and has the best ending of any of them. Foxglove Summer is weird, it's divided in half and I liked the first half but didn't like the second half as much. Feels very Hot Fuzz-ish.
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Jun 10, 2015 11:50
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thrawn527 posted:I just want to point out how insufferable I've become because of this series. I tell all my friends they need to read these books, repeatedly. I tell my wife about my favorite parts, without sufficient context, I'm sure. I've...looked up fan art...and enjoyed some of it. It's okay. When I finished Ghost Story (which was the latest book at the time) I was so into it that I decided to learn how to pen and paper RPG just so I could continue having Dresden adventures while waiting for more Dresden, and currently GM a 3.5 year campaign that's still running in Traditional Games. (More people should play DFRPG. It's fun.) mistaya fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Jun 27, 2015 |
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Jun 27, 2015 17:01
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Mars4523 posted:Don't, and read M.L. Brennan's Generation V series, Stephen Blackmoore's Eric Carter series, or Elliott James' Pax Arcana series first. Alex Verus is probably the closest thing to Harry Dresden out there right now for people who are jonesing for that kind of story, so I don't think it's fair to put them off it. That said, everyone should check out Generation V it's a hell of a lot of fun.
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Jul 20, 2015 14:50
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Blasphemeral posted:Isn't that the one where the main character is an angsty, young vamp who's trying to deal with his urges and lovely family? Fort really isn't angsty though? He's worried because he doesn't want to end up like his family, who are more traditional vampires but there's actual reasons for this and he doesn't like constantly harp on it. 'Vampire urges' are so rarely an issue that it almost feels like it's missing from the series. The vampires in GenV aren't even immortal, they're just longer lived the same way most apex predators generally are longer lived than their prey animals. Vampires are actually really interesting because if you look at their evolution in film/books they mean different things to different generations. The basics are always there but vampires were much more about immortality and power than lust pre-twillight, and it's shifted back towards lust again since then (thanks Stephanie Meyer). Personally I like watching people struggle to remain who they are when faced with inner monsterhood, which is one of the reasons I like Urban Fantasy so much. Vampires/Werewolves are the most obvious versions of this but we see it with a lot of other things too.
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Jul 20, 2015 16:56
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anilEhilated posted:No, not really. The original folk stories are about forbidden seduction; Dracula (the book) is pretty drat big on Victorian morals, and that's not mentioning the various Carmillas and Geraldines and who knows what. Vampires got a brief respite because Dracula and Nosferatu showed up on movie screen which was more subject to censorship, but really vampirism is all about sexual domination. When I said 'pre-twillight' i was mostly talking about the 80s/90s not like, Stoker. Vampires have never really gone away. There's always been vampires in media, but what part of the vampire myth gets the spotlight varies a lot. Sometimes it's more about social domination and sometimes it's more sexual. It's always about power though, and a temptation/willingness to use that power. That's what's interesting about them to me.
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Jul 20, 2015 19:38
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Suzume's grandmother was a geisha who immigrated after her whole clan/pack/family was killed in WWII, so yes she set up an escort service because that was what she knew how to do, and was quite successful with it. The fun part about the kitsune is they are fox-spirits-who-can-be-women, not just shapeshifting women, so they're a lot more like trickster spirits than standard sexy girlfriends. If you liked Suzume probably determines if you liked the books at all though, she's the most stand out character in them. She co-leads with Fortitude. It's not like it's a long read, if you liked the jacket pitch you'll probably like the book. If you think vampires are stupid I doubt it'll change your mind.
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Jul 24, 2015 15:35
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Eric Carter is pretty noir too.
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Aug 12, 2015 04:04
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I liked the first Laundry Files book but I never felt compelled to pick any more up. It's still good even as a stand-alone. I keep forgetting to buy the Rook.
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Aug 14, 2015 05:25
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The prologue is kind of awful, but the first chapter is fun at least. I can probably enjoy reading about Captain Grimm in his jet-black and bloodred uniform with the skull-shaped silver buttons, if only because I'm picturing all the ether-sail ship talk stuff pretty much exactly as animated in Disney's Treasure Planet. Jury's still out on the talking cats.
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Sep 8, 2015 07:48
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