|
Speaking of that. Just finished listening to Stiletto. I looooved The Rook but didn't enjoy Stiletto as much. Probably because after I finished the first book, I was ready to hear about Myfanwy kick rear end and really didn't care about Odette's situation.  It was still good but not as amazing as it could of been. I want more everyday Chequy manifestation stories too.
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2017 03:26
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 23:42 |
|
|
Dienes posted:Normally I HATE lazy infodumps, but I really liked the Myfanwy's papers, too. It wasn't really for post-amnesia Myfanwy's benefit. They were for the lonesome, solitary pre-amnesia Myfanwy. They were snarky and sweet and funny and really sad. Oh yeah they were such a great combination of snark, humor and depressing inevitability 
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2017 23:56
|
|
|
Inspector 34 posted:Sounds more like a love rectangle. A love hexagon
|
|
#
¿
Feb 23, 2017 02:46
|
|
|
For the sequel, I want more POV from Myfawny engaging in inter-departmental passive aggressive grudge matches with Bishop Atariwalla. (I have no idea how to spell his name and my google-fu failed to find a character list )
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2017 05:26
|
|
|
Just finished listening to The Hanging Tree. I liked it and it has some issues but then I've felt the same way about the entire series. It's an enjoyable listen while walking the dog. Someone remind me, why is Mr. Punch important to the story again? The rest of the books have kinda merged together in my head.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2017 01:55
|
|
|
ConfusedUs posted:I just finished my first re-read of the entire Rivers of London series, including a read of The Hanging Tree for the first time. Yeah I agree I finished The Hanging Tree last month and I didn't hate it like the thread seemed to. Felt like a solid entry into the series and I liked the meta-plot moving forward.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2017 21:46
|
|
|
I have to wait a month for the audiobook to come out
|
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2017 02:19
|
|
|
Slanderer posted:A new Rivers of London short story has just been released for free as an audiobook. Thanks for the heads up!
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2017 05:43
|
|
|
The Rook is great. Stiletto is okay. Alex Verus + Rivers of London I enjoyed. Alex Verus feels the most 'Dresden-like'. Rivers of London tends to be a slower burn.
|
|
#
¿
May 10, 2017 02:15
|
|
|
ConfusedUs posted:Well I have been wanting to make an entirely new thread for like a year, but haven't. Peace Treaty is just around the corner... right?
|
|
#
¿
May 10, 2017 21:20
|
|
|
I finally finished the latest Alex Verus book and liked it a lot besides a couple annoyances, but they're pretty minor and basically just me being an impatient baby: 1- re: Mordin I expected more poo poo to happen, but I guess just like with Harry + Winter Mantle, nothing really happens until oh poo poo a ton of stuff happens at the end. I guess I wanted more 'hey lets strong arm Verus into doing things with us' but I guess the payoff was good 2- re: Anne I can't be the only one wanting Verus and her to hurry up and gently caress already right??? aurgh I guess now we're setting up for a tragic sacrifice and death somewhere down the line and unconsummated love. Or love saves Anne. Although the series has been pretty good at avoiding cliches so maybe we'll see the plot thread resolved satisfactorily. 3- re: Drakh Based on the conversation from a few pages ago, and how the convos in the book + end fight sequence goes, the book sure seems to hint heavily that Drakh's a diviner (Arachne's conversation, Rachel accusing Verus of being the favorite). I kinda assumed that when Drakh was gone for 10 years, he was busy powering up / honing his powers or something, which also is a reason why his flavour of divination seems different than Alex's. 4- Dumb Luna question: What do you think is the extent of Luna and Veri's physical relationship is at? She seems to have gotten a good enough control on her powers that she can touch people... Aurgh now I need a new series to walk the dog to. Rook, Rivers of London, Verus and Libriomancer are done. I guess it's a toss up between Daniel Faust, Harmony Black or Laundry Files? I notice you've downgraded Laundry Files down a tier since the last OP.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 12, 2017 23:52
|
|
|
Yeah now that you mention it I remember that Verus callout. There was a brief period where the 3 main characters seemed to be normal-ish with their playdates and board games but I guess things have pretty much been on the back burner in terms of low level character interactions to add flavour.Khizan posted:If Dresden Files and Rivers of London are the top shelf liquors of urban fantasy, Faust would be Bud Light and Harmony Black would be hand sanitizer. Hieronymous Alloy posted:When the Laundry Files is good, it's very good, but it kinda has the Zelazny Problem: Stross is a good writer but he's always pushing his own boundaries, so every new book is a new experiment in a slightly different sub-genre each time, and inevitably some of those experiments fail pretty badly. Alright thanks for the rec, I'll definitely check out Laundry Files first. Also, what exactly is Drakh's endgoal so far? Being big bossman of all Mages seems quite pedestrian and more of a Mordin type thing. He seems to be moving his pieces, gaining ressources and is readying for a total war with the White Council though.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2017 03:44
|
|
|
I liked Vehela (I can never spell names from Audiobooks) calling Verus as being 'sentimental but ruthless'. He's a dummy, but at least he will pull no punches and murder his way out of his problem. 
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2017 05:18
|
|
|
jivjov posted:Jim hates writing short stories. Thinks they're a LOT harder than novels, due to the space compression. This just made me realize that I want a fully mouse pov story now
|
|
#
¿
Jul 1, 2017 01:38
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Googling mage names from the Alex Verus leads to some stupefyingly geeky results Oh my god if you find a complete character list somewhere you have to link me. After listening to them on Audible, I tried googling without knowing how to spell their names and couldn't get anything. Also, I just finished listening to Laundry Files 1 and 1.5 which was combined on Audible. I'm pretty underwhelmed? If this is supposed to be 'the best of the rest', I might have to put the genre on break for a bit. Maybe it's because it pales to The Rook while having a similar gimmick, or maybe because I don't care at all about Cthulu mythos? I found the info dumps incredibly boring and the characters were incredibly boring. Is this a symptom of the first book being serviceable but the rest of the series picks up or are the rest of the books more of the same?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 16, 2017 14:24
|
|
|
Coca Koala posted:The first and second Laundry Files books are funny romps through this mashup of cthulu and IT. Around the third book, they start getting a bit darker. If you're not interested in the cthulu portion of them, then you can probably safely stop, because that's where the series is going (at least as far as I can tell, halfway through the Rhesus Chart). If what turned you off was the weird humorous aspects of the book and how it seems like Bob is too smart for his own good and just kind of coasting along, that will stop after like the second book. Hmm. Now that you put it that way, I think it's more the latter than the former. I'll go read some other stuff then give the series another shot.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 17, 2017 23:21
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:Double-posting! Ahh finally I'll learn how Molly got her place
|
|
#
¿
Aug 22, 2017 04:15
|
|
|
Zore posted:Also The Aeronaut's Windlass. 22 novels in 17 years really isn't ridiculously slow. What was the thread consensus for that book by the way? Flawed, but if you can look past the weaknesses, a decent genre romp? I gave up on Alera after the first book.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 23, 2017 04:33
|
|
|
Decius posted:The answer is always Idris Elba. Even for Kate Daniels and Myfanwy Thomas. Ellie Kemper for Thomas
|
|
#
¿
Aug 31, 2017 20:29
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:Jim confirmed that Ivy/the Archive is receiving digital information (in addition to physical information), but that she isn't built for it. We'll see the effects of this in a later book. Do you think it will involve weird fetish porn and another shoehorned Dresden morality blurb on people's sexuality?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 3, 2017 01:29
|
|
|
Mr Scumbag posted:Really digging the Daniel Faust series so far. Finished book 1 and am about 30% through book 2. Feels like something between Dresden and Sandman Slim which I am totally okay with. How's book 2? I listened to the first book and was pretty unimpressed. It felt like it was pretty average UF but it might just be that I need a break from the genre.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2017 03:55
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:For heist-focused urban fantasy I'd recommend the Alex Verus books by Benedict Jacka over Faust. I read the first couple Faust books and couldn't keep going -- they just felt hacky, for lack of a better word. I couldn't really get past the "super special succubus girlfriend" thing, and the Vegas setting was done much better by Tim Powers in Last Call. Yeah I enjoyed Verus. I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought the succubus girlfriend was laaaame. Seems like I just can't stomach UF a tier below the top grade. I couldn't get into The Laundry Files either. So far I've been listening to Cinder Spires on audiobook and it's not bad. Certainly better than Alera at least.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 22, 2017 01:47
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:The other top tier UF is the Rivers of London series. Also The Rook series even though Stiletto was a letdown. Basically I'm running on fumes for things to listen to while walking my dog. 
|
|
#
¿
Dec 22, 2017 05:16
|
|
|
biracial bear for uncut posted:The Laundry Files gets a lot better in the third book. Eh Cinder is pretty average but I guess Butcher has a lot of built-in goodwill with me. I believe you guys when you say Laundry Files gets better (and bleaker) in later books but on my first read I couldn't get past the unevenness of book 1. It's probably gonna get a second chance down the line for me.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 23, 2017 01:16
|
|
|
Old Kentucky Shark posted:The other great thing about Verus is that he actually is quite the bastard, as opposed to guys like Dresden or Daniel Faust, who just like to surround themselves with the trappings of being bad guys while they have moral codes that verge on paladinhood at times. Honestly that book annoyed me because it seemed inevitable it would end up that way but whyyyy did it take so long for him to deal with the annoying little shits
|
|
#
¿
Apr 15, 2018 04:29
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:I could never get past Faust's sexy succubus girlfriend, though. This is one of the reasons I never made it past the first book. But honestly just found the entire book ho-hum.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 16, 2018 16:54
|
|
|
ConfusedUs posted:I firmly believe that Jordan was one of the most influential authors in fantasy, specifically with regards to "epic" fantasy. He laid a foundation for a new renaissance in the genre. He did it so well that he was outclassed in his own lifetime, and his most famous work was finished by someone who is his successor in the field. Does this mean Benedict Jacka is gonna finish writing The Dresden Files down the road? 
|
|
#
¿
Apr 17, 2018 02:37
|
|
|
Finally finished the new Verus. I'm so glad to see the metaplot moving along. I sure do hope they find a way to increasingly give Alex more power with regards to the council and the keepers. It's much more fun seeing him extend his 'take no poo poo' attitude to everything else. Man I didn't realize how much I missed this kind of quick fun summer read. Dresden where are you
|
|
#
¿
Jul 24, 2018 17:57
|
|
|
Ccs posted:The Magicians is urban fantasy, right? I just finished rereading it. That series is so uneven, but if you have a tolerance for the weaker parts, I enjoyed the series even if book 2 is all over the place and the weakest of them all. Its depiction of how Julia gets her magic is pretty interesting. Book 3 is a bit more mellow and doesn't reach the same highs and lows but somewhat satisfactorily closes up the series I guess. IIRC there isn't any surprise furry sex in book 3 at least.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 1, 2018 18:08
|
|
|
CainsDescendant posted:I just had a realization that the last Dresden book came out over four years ago. I haven't kept up with release news because I've accepted Peace Talks will take a while but I've been getting the hankering for some Dresden. At the earliest, Peace Talks is like mid 2019 right?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 17, 2018 18:00
|
|
|
Ghost Story only works if you can immediately complete it with Cold Days. It's weird on its own. Skin Days definitely falls on the lower echelon of Dresden books and I wouldn't mind if we hadn't just had Changes-Cold Days and a super long wait until Peace Talks.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 3, 2018 20:34
|
|
|
biracial bear for uncut posted:Moments like this really shine in the audiobooks, as well, because the Narrator loving nails every single accent shift and pronunciation. Yeah Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is awesome, even if his American accent is hilariously bad.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 4, 2018 22:08
|
|
|
I didn't mind waiting for the next Dresden until you guys pointed out how long it's been. I guess I never realized he might never finish the series and some of you have already accepted the series' demise. That's a bummer but I guess I treat book series like video games in early access. Have I gotten my money's worth already? Hell yes so I don't care if it's never finished. Mind you, I do want the series to be finished, but I hope Butcher sorts through his many things to do and churns 'em out. I'd rather wait a long time for Peace Talks and then hopefully have a semi-regular release after once he finds his stride. At the very least, if we never get a conclusion in the 10+ books he's promised us, I hope at least the big metaplot gets spoiled at cons. I just finished Lies Sleeping. Man Kobna Holdbrook-Smith knocks it out of the park every time. Maybe it's because I just listened to Percy Jackson series, but boy Rivers of London is great. Some of you complained it was a bit too meta-heavy and while granted yes, it's also exactly what I wanted? I wanted the overarching thread to move forward and that book was it. I distinctly remember the thread complaining that The Hanging Tree did too little to move the plot forward. Regardless, Aaronovitch did a good job of reminding my dumb self what happened in previous books. It sure seems that the book series is winding down. Do we know how many books are left? Also, (mild spoiler) sign me the gently caress up for short stories/spinoff in Peter's Met in 5 years with bureaucratic nonsense for weird bollocks. Kind of the promise I wanted from The Rook, but with more mundane events.. Also, what the gently caress do I read now? I want something fun and light to listen to while walking the dog. I don't mind dabbling in YF. Maybe some dumb schlocky power fantasy? Percy Jackson was okay even if twice the age of the intended audience. Read and loved: Rivers of London, Alex Verus, The Rook + Stiletto, Libromancer (eh decent). I bounced hard off of Laundry Files #1 and Daniel Faust #1. Maybe I should give LF or DF a second chance?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 26, 2018 22:15
|
|
|
BurgerQuest posted:So I had a few weeks off work and I've made my way through most of the Dresden series, enjoying it for the most part though I found myself reading through faster and faster as everything gets a bit formulaic. Then I hit book 13, Ghost Stories. A mild thread consensus (?) and my take is that Ghost Stories works as an interlude book if you consider Changes-Ghost Stores-Cold Days as a 3 part arc. Individually I find it weaker than the average books because the change of pace isn't as well executed.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 7, 2019 23:31
|
|
|
Oh boy time to start my Dresden reread. Just in time for summer.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 18, 2019 20:19
|
|
|
Scorchy posted:Yeah I just finished a run of all the Harmony Black and Revanche Cycle books (since I liked Ghosts of Gotham). They're available all on Kindle unlimited so it's a good deal. Dang I might have to give these a shot when I want a lighter read this summer
|
|
#
¿
Jun 19, 2019 19:23
|
|
|
Yay new Verus. Time to reup my Audible membership.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 25, 2019 04:25
|
|
|
tithin posted:Audiobook isn't out until 10/10 I'm confused... I see it just fine? https://www.audible.ca/pd/Fallen-Au...QCACQ5DGM3JTJ7Z
|
|
#
¿
Sep 25, 2019 04:43
|
|
|
tithin posted:I'm using Audible US and it's showing as a preorder due 10/10 The Peter Grant books used to drop in the UK before NA but it's weird that the Verus would drop in Canada 2 weeks before the US release?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 25, 2019 04:53
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 23:42 |
|
|
Lawlicaust posted:I don’t know what a satisfying conclusion to the series looks like either at this point. Richard dead? The Light Council dissolved/reformed? Levistus dead? Anne and Alex living happily ever after? I just have no concept for what a conclusion would look like for this series. Finished the new Verus and loved it. I get what ya'll mean about the pacing being quick, but I kinda don't mind it? I don't need a Sanderson avalanche but given the major plot moves being set in motion in the last few books, I don't mind the author pushing through the momentum and seeing it finished, rather than stalling and resetting like with Dresden or starting and stopping as in Rivers of London. The audiobook narrator's American accent remains not-as-funny as Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's. At the end of the series, I kinda hope Anne and Alex just gently caress off together and become withdrawn from mage society like Hellikiaon or Arachne or something.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2019 05:58
|
|