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404GoonNotFound posted:Wrong book. That doesn't happen until what, Proven Guilty? Bracelet melting also happens a lot later than Summer Knight. Its possible its just residual scars from his upbringing under Justin. We know he pelted things that hurt quite a bit while training Harry to use his shield, its possible he also did things like bind his wrists and made him escape with magic or the like.
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May 25, 2014 20:55
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Hawkgirl posted:In Turn Coat Harry even makes fun of Peabody for his lovely German in his book. It's before he reveals himself as a bad guy so it was much more entertaining to read the second time through. Mostly a pisstake because so many people told Jim he hosed up the German after the fact. It works so well as a character building scene though. 
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May 26, 2014 23:28
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Well Harry now has two daughters he actually has to deal with which should be good. A little sad Lash is dead, but I'm interested to see what kind of relationship you can have with a spirit of intellect you birthed. Especially when you also have a human daughter you're building a relationship with. Also Uncle Thomas, Great-Grandfather Ebenezzer... Gah, why is it going to be another year? Also holy poo poo am I glad Sanya has some backup finally.
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May 27, 2014 10:49
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keiran_helcyan posted:Once the sacrifice was complete, the ghost of the sacrificed person still needed to throw the magic switch. So it needed to be someone who would 100% support you even after you murder them. And left them in Hades for all eternity. There was too much risk a random goon would just give Nic the spectral finger after he offed them. Plus he was using Dresden. If a random redshirt, or multiple, had tagged along Harry would have thrown down and absolutely derailed the whole thing. He's also absolutely terrified of something. He threw away a poo poo ton of assets on this mission to collect weapons to 'save the world' as Deidre put it. Considering gis later chat with her in the underworld, perhaps he knows or thinks Judgment day is coming and he's trying to get something to stop it.
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May 27, 2014 23:44
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Hand Row posted:So bring a minion and kill him? If they don't do it then kill your daughter. He knew he was bringing along Dresden for the gate of Ice, and Michael ended up coming to. Bringing a random mook would probably have tipped Harry and Michael off to what was really going on, and both of them have a tendency to say 'gently caress the consequences' if something like that happens. Plus he's absolutely frightened of something and believes that Deirdre being stuck in Hades' domain will protect her from 'the Adversary'. Now if that's Nemesis, the White God or someone else we have no idea. But something spooked Nick hard and he put a ridiculous number of resources into play for this plan. I figure he's trying to prevent an apocalypse of some kind. And sacrificing his daughter was worth it for both of them.
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Jun 2, 2014 05:08
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Travic posted:Maybe this has already been asked and if so I'm sorry, but why didn't Harry become a paraplegic again temporarily once he put the iron manacles on and lost the Mantle? He doesn't lose the Mantle when exposed to Iron, it just really hurts him and cuts through his whole pain negation thing. He was stabbed by the little fairies in Cold Days and also didn't lose his ability to walk. The only time he full out goes parapalegic is when he commits, or is about to commit, some act that fundamentally goes against Winter. He collapsed when he decided to violate the Unseelie Accords (which Mab set up and Winter has a vested interest in).
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Jun 8, 2014 06:42
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Fried Chicken posted:Supposedly Mother Summer has changed once when the previous one abdicated, but Mother Winter is the original. Yeah, it seems the further down the totem pole you go the more turnover there is. We know there have been at least two Queens per court, at least 3 Ladies (though odds are probably more than that since Maeve was only two hundred years old and Mab/Titania have been around for more than a thousand years if the Hastings comment is anything to go by) and then dozens or hundreds of knights.
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Jun 10, 2014 00:46
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:When Harry is pierced by iron in Skin Game, he doesn't become paralyzed, whereas when he said "gently caress Winter Law" in Cold Days, he did. He got stabbed by Lacuna with a nail in Cold Days and didn't get paralyzed then either. Even if it hurt a lot.
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Jun 10, 2014 15:33
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WarLocke posted:I haven't read any of these comics(?) but in the books his duster has always been brown hasn't it? No. Its been black canvass and then two seperate black leather coats gifted from Susan and Molly.
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Jul 3, 2014 17:55
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Wade Wilson posted:I just discovered that Jim Butcher apparently wrote a Spider-man novel called The Darkest Hour. I enjoyed it well enough. He writes Peter and Harry almost identically, and its a fairly standard Dresdenesque 'tons of poo poo going down at once.' It also pulls really heavily on the Spider totem stuff and Dr. Strange is a big supporting character. Also the Rhino is an ally and Mary Jane is the real hero of the story. Zore fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Jul 30, 2014 |
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Jul 30, 2014 06:09
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Ugggh, I really want to like the Peter Grant books but Foxglove Summer really didn't help. The world in the books feels so... small and disjointed. There's all this poo poo going on that nobody has any clue about for decades until suddenly it all pops up. There's no sense of a greater whole or that they're part of a bigger world, every book just sort of jams a new supernatural community/cult in. I don't know, the series just feels jarring.
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Dec 12, 2014 01:49
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Well, the libriomancer book was weird. Spoilers I don't know where the gently caress the series goes from here, this was a hell of a change to the status quo. Magic out in the open, Gutenberg dead and all the locks on books destroyed. The book was also disjointed and felt almost rushed or incomplete. Also the stuff between chapters made the chronology confusing and weird, though I appreciated most of them. The letter Isaac's brother sent him was a great callout and gulping even if there is no reaction in the text. I honestly don't see how you follow up on any of this poo poo.
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Jan 6, 2015 11:01
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effervescible posted:That's really not much better. Yeah, to put it in perspective, 
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Jan 29, 2015 00:20
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Mars4523 posted:Harry never goes full on MRA. His chauvinism is more of the low key, insidious kind. That said, he does get proven wrong, and there are a bunch of female characters who are pretty great. Hahahaha, what. I can see where you're coming from with Murphy, even if I think she'd be a poor viewpoint character for a lot of other reasons, but you think the literal incubus who feeds on women would make the books less obnoxious and better about gender politics. The guy who is supernaturally attractive and has women, against their better judgement, throw themselves at him. Yeah, I'm sure that'd be great. Jesus, some people way the gently caress oversell Harry's flaws and minimize other people's. Harry is never the popular goon stereotype MRA. He's an idiot, damaged goods, and has some deeply ingrained attitudes that are annoying. But they're also a legitimate character flaw, one totally believable for someone in Harry's circumstances, and end up loving him over until he gets character growth and is forced to deal with them! Flawed characters are a thing. Having flaws, and either conquering them, or being conquered by them, is basically the basis of dramatic storytelling.
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Jan 29, 2015 23:13
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Metal Loaf posted:Is it? I can't completely remember myself! If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but that's how I thought it went. No, she describes him as a giant, awkward dude who most people think is autistic. He refuses to make eye contact, looks at things that aren't there, is constantly mumbling to himself and pulling out crayons and poo poo to mark things. Oh and he wears a long leather overcoat regardless of weather. She does mention some stuff about how he's terrifying when he lets loose, but throwing fire and force around with reckless abandon can count for some scary points.
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Jan 30, 2015 10:01
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Rumda posted:Kemmler was WW1 Kemmler was also WW2. Remember, the Wardens took him out a bunch of times because he kept coming back to life. The final time was definitely post WW2 when Justin took Bob from the ashes of his hideout.
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Feb 4, 2015 23:59
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Benny the Snake posted:So I just finished "Foxglove Summer" and Daniel O'Malley's sequel to "The Rook"-"Stiletto"-isn't comming out for another month and only electronically Where are you getting this? Amazon seems to have it releasing in January 2016.
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May 14, 2015 05:52
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Benny the Snake posted:I asked my local Barnes and Noble a couple weeks ago. Yeah, it looks like the release was recently pushed back another six months to next January. 
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May 14, 2015 06:03
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:What's the dumbest outfit Dresden has ever worn in the books? I'm thinking of doing a HoboDresden cosplay, and outside of fighting in the nude, I remember there was one point in an early book where he's dressed in a terrible dumpy tee-shirt and a pair of raggy sweatpants. He wore the cheesy dracula costume to Bianca's party.
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May 17, 2015 22:23
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Benny the Snake posted:Dead Beat was the point where I stopped reading actually. It was where Harry refused to hit Kumori with his staff, despite the fact that she practically had a fireball ready to chuck at his face, because "she's a girl and I don't hit girls": Yeah, you can stop reading wherever you like and no one's gonna blame you for it. Some of that stuff is pretty cringeworthy and hard to read. But Harry's issues with women aren't excused as the series goes on, and there is a good portion where he gets his soul flayed for it. I see where you're coming from, Harry's got some hosed up issues, but I don't agree that the text is supporting him. While he ends fine in Dead Beat, the central conflict and issue of two previous books (Fool Moon and Grave Peril) entirely revolves around his character flaw of infantalizing women. Its how he gets his part-time apprentice killed, Susan vampirized and leads to a ton of people dying to a werewolf and vampires. Like, Harry gets hosed over by his thing with women a lot until he's forced to actually confront it and deal with it. Its one of the reasons the Turn Coat/Changes/Ghost Story trilogy is great because every aspect of Harry's life gets absolutely shattered, and it happens because of his flaws and hubris. And then he's stuck, dead, trying to figure out how to change Zore fucked around with this message at 03:06 on May 24, 2015 |
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May 24, 2015 03:02
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bowmore posted:I meant for new readers Because that would still take a pretty inordinate amount of time and would probably make about zero dollars. And it would push back his work on all the new books he's writing since he is back to two series.
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Nov 30, 2015 01:44
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It'll be interesting to see if Harry's position as Winter Knight will lead to him being able to use tech more easily. And freak him out. I could totally see Butcher using that as a source of angst and a way to let Harry actually interact more with the modern world.
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Nov 30, 2015 18:59
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Azuth0667 posted:Is captain Grimm basically supposed to be Harry if he had a flying pirate ship? He doesn't have anywhere near the problems with authority. Or women. Grimm is pretty cool tbh.
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Dec 7, 2015 23:52
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I am okay with the lightsaber? I think it works honestly. He probably will reforge the sword though. And since Butters isn't a katana guy maybe this time it gets turned into a rapier so he can still pretend to have a lightsaber when it glows.
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Mar 17, 2016 19:46
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Or Papa Raith was raping enough women that just playing the odds meant he'd have some kids; and we know he made sure they were physically cared for while they were pregnant at least. Which fits with him being a meglomaniac who wants to control a whole thriving family of Whampires. He is still nigh- immortal and having one or two kids a decade fits with that info and what we see of Inari/ etc. Thomas probably just thought since he's been with Justine for more than a decade and she never got pregnant she never would. And since he spent a lot of time actively avoiding feeding on people he might just have assumed he was completely infertile. Or that he'd have to try with many women to actually get someone pregnant. It's not the dumbest assumption we've seen characters make in the series.
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May 20, 2016 04:22
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Scorchy posted:Stiletto was good, though unevenly paced. I think if he had trimmed out some of Myfanwy's bits and a good chunk of the third act, it would have been a much better package. The new characters are good though, Felicity's awesome and Odette grew on me. Yeah, I think the book suffered a lot by making Myfanwy mostly a secondary character but still giving her a good chunk of being the viewpoint character. It sort of carried through some plot threads from The Rook really half-assedly (her encounter with her brother, Checquy interpersonal relations, etc.) but didnt really develop them beyond saying 'yeah this stuff is still going on I guess'. I feel like there needed to be a cleaner break and just focus on Felicity/Odette with Myfanwy in the background or actually make Myfanwy the main character again and focus on her personal and professional struggles. It just tried to juggle too many things I think. Still very enjoyable even if I thought it was stupid how hard it went on Grafter super-science and how it was totally real not like the fake magic powers of the Checquy 
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Jun 26, 2016 02:35
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Magres posted:Butters uses Bob as a power source. They talk about it briefly in Skin Game. Yeah, that's exactly why he no longer uses potions. And also why the bear belt that gave him a full-night sleep never showed up again. They were part of the ridiculously formularic part of early Dresden (Here, let me go down to my lab and make exactly two potions that I will use in really fitting circumstance) and robbed a lot of narrative tension. I'm pretty sure Butcher's said on the record if he could re-write the early books he'd leave out the potion-making entirely.
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Jun 30, 2016 04:18
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A. Beaverhausen posted:About that, *late Skin Games spoilers* I really hated how Lasch was demoted to just a villian. With how we last saw her before Skin Games we had a Denarian that actually did something really cool. I understand it was because she was in Harry's head for so long, I just wish Jim had done something else with her. Well... Lash and Lasciel were very different entities by the end. Lash had been changed and is dead, having her sacrifice rendered meaningless would undermine a huge theme of the books. Plus we saw the result of her legacy in her daughter. Lasciel was always a villain and is behaving exactly how I would expect her to considering Harry ultimately rid himself of her shadow. She didn't get the character development, her dead twin did.
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Aug 21, 2016 17:53
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anilEhilated posted:I'm not sure. I always felt that the most important point Dracula was making was something about the virtues of Victorian morality. I mean, UF is basically a supernatural horror offshoot. And most of them have horror and horror tropes deeply ingrained in their very fabric. The biggest difference is that the protagonist has the ability to win when they fight the supernatural. In that sense, Dracula would count but something like Frankenstein would not.
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Aug 26, 2016 16:47
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ImpAtom posted:If you managed to block the goddamn Earth Pokemon making people horny thing out of your memory than more power to you. That wasn't really part of any of the romances though? Like that was a weird detail, but it didn't really play into any of them and mostly seemed to be a 'clever' way to foreshadow Tavi's strategy at the end of the book.
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Sep 14, 2016 00:56
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Blasphemeral posted:One of the big ones from when I was on there is that Mab is actually (and has been all along) Molly after time travel shenanigans. As in, not just that sentence, but an entire dissertation-level essay write-up. I liked it back before White Night when the big theory was that Cowl and Kumori were future Harry and Molly. Or that the Gatekeeper was future-Harry. Or the Merlin was future-Harry. Or Mac was future-Harry. They had a thing for basically everyone being future-Harry time travelling. It was kinda fun. I uh, stopped reading when that one person poo poo up everything after Changes because Harry and Murphy kissed and it torpedoed their Harry/Molly hardcore shipping.
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Sep 21, 2016 23:18
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docbeard posted:He's also the kind of dude who could be talked into understanding that he's not up to this particular challenge, especially if it's veteran parents Michael and Charity Carpenter doing the talking. Yeah, and we've seen a ton of young adult supernaturals running around in the series. Changelings, Vampires, the various flavors of werewolves, paranetters... starting a fairly 'normal' school that caters to that community wouldn't really be out of the question. Especially since everyone's freaking out about the Formor picking people off, I can see them wanting to pool their children under mutual protection.
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Sep 27, 2016 20:49
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NerdyMcNerdNerd posted:I can't think of a scenario where any form of critter would want their child anywhere near Harry Dresden, or his kid. Can you imagine how many fire drills they'd have every year? I hope Jim's next Dresden universe book series isn't some YA stuff, or White Court, or something like that. Its definitely implied to have changed when Molly took the Mantle. Harry notices it first and kinda freaks out a little internally and tries to distract Michael from it
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Sep 27, 2016 22:30
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Azuth0667 posted:I dont think they have the same creepy rape vibe the white court does. Re-read the early books, they were really rapey with people getting hooked on their drug-saliva and prostituting themselves for it. Red was basically just as bad as the White court, they just got people physically addicted to being their slaves instead of mentally doing it.
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Oct 15, 2016 19:53
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Aerdan posted:Remember that Harry's talked about the importance of names several times early on in the series, most prominently when he's calling on supernatural critters. Yeah, let's not forget summoning Mother Winter. He actually hurt her, and he was mostly guessing some of her names.
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Oct 25, 2016 18:00
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Wizchine posted:I don't recall that kind of thing going on in the Codex Alera series, but I could be wrong. It doesn't happen as much in Alera (though it does happen quite a bit), and Cinder Spires is better as well.
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Jan 8, 2017 01:50
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Dienes posted:I absolutely loved The Rook and just started Stiletto. It looks like the sequel follows Felicity and Odette pretty much exclusively. Will we get any chapters from Myf's perspective? Yeah, there are a few from her perspective though she's mostly a supporting character with a larger than average subplot.
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Mar 2, 2017 05:01
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I just feel like the world in the Rivers of London books is incredibly disjointed. Like the world feels super tiny and it feels really artificial as the series went on and he just kept adding ridiculous numbers of hidden things Nightengale just... ignored for 60 years I guess? Like I get he was traumatized, but jesus christ you think he might have noticed all the goddamn magicians running around before Peter showed up. I dunno why, but it just bugs the crap out of me.
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May 10, 2017 04:57
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:It's weird to me that people don't like Peter Grant. He's an absent minded nerd trying to make good, who's finally found something he's good at. He's not a jerk, he's not particularly obnoxious, he's a bit goony sometimes but to nowhere near the extent that Dresden is. He's okay, but the magical world around him feels like it crumples under any degree of scrutiny while the actual London parts are very real. Which makes it unfortunate the books largely deal with the magical stuff tbh. Sort of a reverse Dresden in that sense 
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May 30, 2017 15:27
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NerdyMcNerdNerd posted:Seems like there's a short list of cities for UF. London, New York, and Chicago. Sometimes Paris, sometimes Vegas. I'd kind of like to read some UF set somewhere different, like Moscow, or Beijing, or something, by someone that knew the culture and the cities. A lot of them do, its just usually lumped in with standard fantasy instead of UF in yhat case. Like if we extend the definition to include non-real world settings you could probably add a bunch of stuff like Mistborn, Pedido St. Station etc. Adding fictional cities to earth has also largely fallen out of vogue.
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Jun 2, 2017 21:03
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