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Logan 5 posted:You don't even need the PC app, you can just read straight from your browser! The magic of the ~*cloud*~ Go reread the denarian/lash books.
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May 24, 2014 20:01
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Mars4523 posted:you need to know how to fight already. I'm pretty sure the relevant fighting style isn't something you can really practice in this case. I mean, nic's reaction to the sword chopping his sword in half is pretty much every swordfighter's reaction. If the only thing that can block a lightsaber is a lightsaber, and you don't have a lightsaber, there isn't much 'parry in four' is going to do for you other than get your sword chopped off. Anias fucked around with this message at 09:06 on May 28, 2014 |
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May 28, 2014 09:01
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Thyrork posted:Dont think i'd stop reading, but i'd sure as hell be annoyed at it too. Its just so... tacky to do something like that. What? She deserves an exit or a transformation of role. She's not the protagonist and she's outlived her plot archetype by several books. It's not the end of the world if she gets to run off to join the valkyries or what have you.
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Jun 2, 2014 12:43
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I'm just looking forward to harry's next quiet interaction with marcone.
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Jun 3, 2014 14:12
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I really want to read the Leandsidhe's Godmother Files.
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Jun 14, 2014 04:11
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I'm pretty sure from molly's pov being fey is a happily ever after.
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Jun 14, 2014 19:00
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The winter fae end up logical and ordered precisely because they are trying to maintain their identity in spite of the burden Winter places on them. One is a result of the other. So they are both primal and logical, because if they did not cling to logic like the vulcan/jedi, they'd be lost to whims of their base desires yada yada. Reciting multiplication tables to tell their mantles to shut up and sit down works, so all of the winter fae can recite multiplication tables. Intuitively this and the duality of the fae must mean that Summer is somehow the slow -erosion- of compassion, and the summer fae run around trying desperately to 'care' because the burden of Summer wears away at them in the same fashion. What we see and label as summer characteristics might just be what they've found works on their mantles. Hallmark greetings and false cheer, we're all going to die anyways. This neatly explains why aurora and lily were taken in by nemesis-lady, as it gives a lever to move the summer fae against their own interests. Explaining the futility of it all, etc. Essentially Summer are the Utwig. 
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Jun 30, 2014 07:22
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docbeard posted:
Release dresden case 20 as the 19th release date book, then release dresden case 19 as the 20th with ~time travel~ and watch a million nerds lose their minds.
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Jul 19, 2014 04:18
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LoG posted:In the last month and a half or so I've binge listened to all of the audio books and just got to Ghost Story. I absolutely love the series but I just can't get into John Glover, it's just not right. I'm so used to James Marsters mannerisms, inflections and accents that Glover's voice is pretty much irritating. I'm almost tempted to skip the it, read the wiki page about the book and start Cold Days. Would this be a bad idea? This is a bad plan. Go to a library and place a hold on Ghost Story if you can't stand the dude's voice.
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Aug 13, 2014 03:21
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Khizan posted:Doubtful. Harry would be completely incapable of actually using a facility like that; he'd hex a water jet to death in minutes just by being in the same room as it. Now I really want to read that short story.
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Aug 17, 2014 04:43
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The books are called the Dresden files. You'll note Laura and Marcone don't get killed by dresden like the cackling necromancers/black court/random goons do. That's because they understand "Harry is dangerous" and thus don't push his buttons. I mean, there's thousands of pages of people being cackling bad guys, who get Dresdened. Then there's these two characters that are 'bad by exposition' because Harry is constantly reminding himself that they're evil even when they do everything they can to avoid giving him an excuse. Go read Even Hand if you want more insight into outside-of-harry's-line-of-sight Marcone. He's a consumate businessman, he does what he has to do to take care of what he cares about and the devil take the rest. That means treating Dresden well because Irritating Dresden has been shown to be Unwise.
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Aug 26, 2014 17:36
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Mr.48 posted:I was looking at that too and am not sure if its worth getting. Connolly is the only one there that I recognize, and given that I'm already invested in the Dresden Files, Laundry Files, Rivers of London and London Falling series, I really dont know if I should be spending any more time reading even more urban fantasy series unless it something exceptionally good. I bought it for 3$ because I read too fast anyways and had already read two of the bonus books so didn't mind missing out on them. Trip report: The Heretic: Gun Description Porn. Dubious Catholic Mysticism. Interesting and unexplained Cabalist Ritual Magic. A few action sequences, and lots of Problem Solving By Sniper Rifle. Crimson Night: Our Heroine is Actually a Demon, guess her Sin. Lust. Sigh. More Abrahamic Mythology, Nephilim and Seraphim and Demons. Choppy vocabulary makes the heroine feel young in ways that exposition contradicts. Interesting twists, conceits, less interesting execution. I haven't gotten into the rest of it yet.
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Aug 30, 2014 22:02
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The Winter Long comes out today for those who like October Daye.
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Sep 2, 2014 09:09
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Fighting nemesis has the potential to involve anyone at all as an antagonist. It's an interesting conceit.
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Sep 15, 2014 07:52
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SystemLogoff posted:So, I started Urban Shaman on recommendation from a friend. It gets samey, but it was ok. I hope you like car metaphors though, there are a lot of those.
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Sep 25, 2014 09:37
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Elisabeth Bear is a Hugo Winner, and has a lot of very good short fiction to her name. Vicki Peterson rings a bell for signs of the zodiac but I can't remember if I liked it or not. The others I don't know anything about, but you could do a lot worse than Butcher + Bear + maybe decent Peterson.
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Oct 16, 2014 01:10
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I would be super happy if harry just said "Molly is awesome" and let her decide what she wants/needs. She's come a long way from teenager in danger.
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Nov 5, 2014 19:00
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mastajake posted:I don't want Murphy and Harry to be in ~a relationship~ but she's a great partner for him. I'd hate to see her dead. Some of the best moments are her, Harry, and Marcone/Michael/Kincaid/Thomas working together with their differing outlooks and goals. I want murphy to quit harry, and go off stage left to do something, anything, for herself. The vacation with kincaid was kinda this, but then it didn't work out so we could have more pointless tension.
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Nov 19, 2014 04:26
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Benny the Snake posted:The Charles de Lint collection is available for free. I haven't heard of him, but according to the article, he's one of the best Urban Fantasy writers out there. What's the Goonsensus? He's considered a classic. I don't know what's in the collection so I can't comment specifically but he has written -alot- of stuff, some of which was good, and some of which was well written but I didn't want to read, if that makes sense?
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Jan 24, 2015 18:00
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Khizan posted:The only female authors I can think of who are writing non-romance urban fantasy are Alex Hughes and Seanan McGuire, and McGuire's within sight of the romance border. Michelle Sagara's Cast is more Fantasy Police Procedural (it's set in it's own world, it follows the same police officer on the beat style) and has a distinct disdain for romance. Go check it out.
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Feb 1, 2015 16:58
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Wade Wilson posted:Okay yeah, the actual sign that makes Quill start screaming says "It's everyone that ever lived in London". Jersey is the first hell you go to. Then you die, and wake up in Jersey.
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Feb 5, 2015 18:28
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RosaParksOfDip posted:I hope that guy is never described as wearing a scarf. I hope that guy is described as bald. Mars4523 posted:Oh hey, white male brown haired guy aged 20-45. How original. Oh hey a book I should read. Thanks for the laugh.
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Mar 5, 2015 14:05
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YA=Yes Angst
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Mar 6, 2015 03:48
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Skippy McPants posted:
Humor lets us talk about horrific things in a way that playing them straight does not.
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Mar 12, 2015 16:49
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Wade Wilson posted:I, for one, am wondering about the mythical fallout to come from Beverly essentially invading a faerie plane with a with the equivalent of a nuclear bomb in the form of solid iron locomotive to rescue Peter. October Daye by Seanan McGuire. The series picks up at An Artificial Night, so if you're the type to make a snap judgement you might want to start there. The Chronicles of Elantra - This is fantasy police procedural. Still, it shares a fair bit of overlap with urban fantasy, as they both draw from the hardboiled/noir fiction genre.
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Mar 30, 2015 22:27
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Che Delilas posted:
I don't agree. I think that the brain is very fond of familiar patterns, and having it throw up 'it was like x with X' as a patterned response to the vastness of divinity speaks quite clearly. It evokes both that vastness and the humanity inherent in the realization that there are larger things which our brain, rightly or wrongly, shies away from. It might be interesting to see butcher acknowledge that somewhere, although I don't know that harry is actually the right character to do so. It's more a molly, murphy, or malone observing harry comment.
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Mar 31, 2015 22:01
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Tolan posted:This is one of the most frustrating series I've ever read. The setting and characters are interesting, but the pacing is so glacial that it makes Wheel of Time look speedy. It's a pretty common fault with Sagara's writing, since it carries over into her other series (the Sun Sword, in particular). The pacing inside book is comparable to dresden. Each book is it's own case, with repercussions, and the pacing within them varies but I never thought it was slow. If this is what you're talking about I disagree. If you're talking about the metaplot, remember she's not skipping ahead years in between books the way butcher is with dresden. Still: At the start of the series she's a private on report, at the current break in the series (book 10) she's an acknowledged If you're talking about character birthdays, or bureaucratic promotions, those are on timescales that fit the dresden model better. I think they're worth reading but I like a lot of michelle's stuff.
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Apr 1, 2015 19:06
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Oh I'm not denying the protagonist is special, but harry is a wizard. That's one of the central tropes. My comment was more about her situation, which in book 1 is 'rookie essentially on probation' and her timeline with her job is appropriate for the time period that's gone by since book 1. A lot of Big Things Happen, it's just that we don't see their repercussions sometimes because we don't have the benefit of 'a year passes, here's a summary chapter of what that means'.
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Apr 1, 2015 22:38
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Tolan posted:Well, that's my point. If it's going to take 20 years for the repercussions to show up and we're doing ~10 books a year... Sure. I think you're selling the series short by implying that the metaplot is slow. It's mostly just Kaylin has had all this poo poo happen to her in less than a year and it takes longer than that for people to adjust to these things. If the spacing between cases was larger, it would be more natural for kaylin's internal identification to adjust, and for the various people around her to have convinced her she actually did deserve x y z reward. I think the slowness of some things to show up (promotions being the obvious one, self-understanding being the other) is more realistic given the timeline. We do see some repercussions, just not the 20 year adjusted view that dresden gets.
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Apr 2, 2015 01:03
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Exmond posted:Technically isn't dresden water magic now? h2o is h2o.
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Apr 2, 2015 19:50
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It's more of a home game of dungeons and dragons journal than a dresden ripoff.
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Apr 3, 2015 14:30
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darth cookie posted:I don't know about dungeons and dragons but he's definitely a fan of Ico. If you played D&D anytime in the last 20 years, his entire suite of effects are immediately recognizable even if the names have been changed minimally. It's fun to read but it's not new material by any stretch.
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Apr 3, 2015 16:26
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Sad Puppy or w/e is awful, just let it go at that and don't breed more angry thought germs. In the grand scheme of things, talking about them is pointless and distracts from the reformable issues at hand.Peel posted:He's not going to win though, for better or worse. There's a big backlash against the puppy slates and he's going up against Ann 'won nearly every SF award with her debut novel' Leckie, a fandom favourite if there ever was one. This is the larger part of the problem and the reason that the SP stuff worked to the extent it did. The Hugo no longer reflects a majority of the SFF readership, which has grown beyond the worldcon demographic. It should move to a non-convention ballot, establish a different funding source, and a better nomination path. Without those changes it's going to continue to be manipulated. That the particular people manipulating it this year are shitbags isn't nearly as important as the scope and vulnerability to vote attack issues which will be abused going forward. It's time to reform the Hugo, and that means detaching it from worldcon, or Retire it. SFF isn't a niche of convention goers.
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Apr 7, 2015 20:06
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Mars4523 posted:Perhaps (although we're talking about Fool Moon which is very early). That said, I feel like we're drifting back towards "Harry is always Right" territory again. Like how in Ghost Story we touched on how Harry's choices hosed everybody else over in a massive way, but now it kind of feels like that's been papered over a bit. If Harry needs to confront the consequences of those actions, I fear that he (and the reader) will view that blowback in terms of how it affects him rather than how it affects his friends and loved ones. No I'm pretty sure the reason I don't like murphy is that she makes no goddamn sense. Harry is still Wrong, but murphy is just impossible to suspend my disbelief about any more.
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Apr 16, 2015 03:51
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Rothfuss turned in a nice tribute to Pratchett in the most recent suvudu. Here's his blog (the first google hit for it) http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2015/04/suvudu-cage-match-felurian-vs-death/
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Apr 16, 2015 18:40
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Only if you can do a servicable steve blum impression.
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Apr 17, 2015 07:10
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Norns posted:My nostalgia brain remembers these being a really fun read. I was a stupid tween at the time though. They're not awful but they are dated at this point and it's anthony (and anthony -is- awful). If you want to read magic is accepted as a real thing there's better books, although they tend to post-apocolyptica in the most recent set. The Kate Daniels stuff goes there, for example, as do the Charlie Madigan books. There's a few others in that vein, although I can't remember the name offhand. One of the premises of the KD books is that magic<---->technology is a spectrum that varies with regards to time and the various central tenets, such as the Conservation of Mass, Energy, and Momentum behave differently depending on where you are (in time). Given that travel through time generates friction against that spectrum, when you eventually reach peak technology or peak magic you have a rebound/wave-motion effect as the spectrum normalizes, and then you start moving towards one of the poles again...We hit peak technology and during the first magic wave the planes fell out of the sky. The worldbuilding is interesting, but the story is mostly "Kate is a badass" which you may or may not enjoy depending on your taste in badassery.
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May 13, 2015 23:18
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Khizan posted:There's only a few cities with enough personality and renown to pull off an urban fantasy, imo. LA, NY, Vegas, Chicago, London. SF and Boston, maybe. There's a bunch of similar cities you can pull off. It just depends on tone. Atlanta if you want the southern hospitality, New Orleans Mardis Gras and Voodoo, Cairo for Mummies (even if it's a bad fit per the locals it'd still work). London has been popular recently but not overly so.
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May 14, 2015 07:31
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General Emergency posted:Wasn't the armor in changes conquistador style complete with tights and silly shoes? It varied a few times iirc but yes at one point I seem to recall that.
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May 18, 2015 09:10
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 13:17 |
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The prologue to the Eye of the World is hugely important to introducing tropes and structure we take for granted. New readers who pick up The Eye of the World as their first foray into epic fantasy are provided a sense of scale and given an example of exactly how powerful Aes Sedai are. Think about how afraid everyone is through the first book of male channelers. Without that first scene with Ishmael and Lews Therin you'd have little to relate that to. After Lews Therin, quite madly, splits the earth down to the mantle and builds his own personal volcano, the fear is justified. Equally important, the book -begins- with an ending, but not The Ending, which sets one of the major themes of the series. This is not just the story of the end of the world, that already happened, is happening, will happen again. It's well done. Say what you like about the later books, Eye of the World is great, and part of what makes it great is the Prologue.
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May 22, 2015 19:01
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