|
Re-read Skin Game. I totally forgot Michael and Charity being uh... way too cool to Harry while under the impression he slept with Molly. I feel like that maybe should have caused a little friction there during the denouement. Also I really want to read a spin-off starring Harry's two daughters getting in wacky hijinx with Mouse at boarding school.
|
#
¿
Jul 1, 2017 05:00
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 15, 2024 06:59 |
|
|
Rygar201 posted:Why? They're adults. I wouldn't be surprised if they had suspected it would happen for some time. Because Harry is 15 years older than her and had a Teacher/Student relationship with her? also she's they're daughter and they're pretty big on the whole 'no sex outside of marriage' thing what with being devout Catholics who are incredibly active in both the public and secret parts of the church. Like that was one of the explicit issues Molly was having with them when she was doing her rebellious teenager thing. Zore fucked around with this message at 14:02 on Jul 1, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Jul 1, 2017 13:59
|
|
|
Its also got the issue now that she's in a position of incredible authority over him which fucks up the power dynamic even more. Like if she orders him to do something and he refuses he gets crippled with pain. There is basically 0 chance of any kind of healthy relationship for either of them until/unless they ditch the mantles.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 2, 2017 04:20
|
|
|
Let's just be glad Skin Game ended with him getting in a relationship with Murphy and also resolving to actually be a dad to his kids.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 2, 2017 06:10
|
|
|
Mars4523 posted:I've spent the last few books in fear that Butcher will abruptly stuff Murphy into a fridge as part of a Shocking Twist. It'd be a retread at this point. He already kinda played that card with Lash and Susan and we're still mining the angst from that  And honestly there are a lot of other characters I'd see Butcher go for before Murphy. Ebeneezer especially. I really don't see him living too long past a scene with Maggie and maybe some sort of short story with him and Thomas. Also I have the feeling if he offs a female character for shock factor its going to be Elaine rather than any of the more main cast members. Zore fucked around with this message at 08:14 on Jul 2, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Jul 2, 2017 08:12
|
|
|
Also Elaine is in a unique place among background characters as she's like the one person really important to Harry he isn't in regular contact with or dead. Ivy is edging towards that too, but killing her would be super hosed up. It would also be a 'meaningful' death Harry could realistically be upset about without killing core members of the supporting cast.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 2, 2017 14:55
|
|
|
Yeah, I was leaning towards Merlin for a while with Mac but I'm reasonably sure he's the pissy dude trapped in Demonreach after Skin Game.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 3, 2017 18:50
|
|
|
Anias posted:In grrm/epic-fantasy-author's defense, they write 2-3 or more books worth of dresden by word count at a time. George R.R. Martin had a 4 year lead on Butcher. And you aren't including the 6 Codex Alera books and the Aeronaut's Windlass in that count. And even just Dresden is 1M 998K Zore fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Jul 4, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Jul 4, 2017 00:21
|
|
|
Knights are also a totally reactive force who don't engage with the supernatural outside of the Denarians. Add to that what Nick tells us in Skin Game: that the average length of time to wield a sword is 3 days and most Knights throughout history have done a singular mission and moved on.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 24, 2017 04:07
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:Well, there was that one time two of them took part in casting down the Red Court. Yeah and Michael fought a Dragon once. But that's always an immediately reactive 'you're harming an innocent mortal' and not long term interaction. Which is another reason they'd never sign the accords. They'd just break em anyways if someone needed help and most of the signatories are monsters who prey on humanity.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 24, 2017 04:21
|
|
|
Plus most magical organizations have been operating for a long rear end time, and most of them have no problem infiltrating or subverting human society. Any given Red/White court Vampire could pretty easily dismantle a clandestine organization before it really got going, and we know they regularly become/take control of influential politicians. You'd also probably run into issues with the White Council if you try to set up an MIB style agency and start using magic to do things like read minds or kill people, which is immediately what those organizations would try to do. Even the mortal organizations that have supernatural arms (the Catholic church etc) have massive issues with being subverted. Let's not forget how quickly Lasciel's coin went back into circulation.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 25, 2017 04:10
|
|
|
Wheat Loaf posted:Dresden Files evens out to one novel a year for 15 years from 2000 to 2015, and Butcher's had various short stories and six Codex Alera novels (again, with one published every year from 2004 to 2009) published in that time period as well, so I think he's been quite productive for most of his professional career up to this whole kerfuffle about his house starting. Also The Aeronaut's Windlass. 22 novels in 17 years really isn't ridiculously slow.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 23, 2017 00:15
|
|
|
Xtanstic posted: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. Yeah, its a step up from Alera. Weirdly bad title, and some insipid names (Captain Grimm!), but the book itself is pretty solid and avoids some of Butchers more notable foibles as a writer. Like we don't get all the weird male gaze stuff with the female characters, but it does go into how incredibly sexy this one dude is a ton. Also features a cat as a POV character and he's pretty rad.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 23, 2017 05:18
|
|
|
xsf421 posted:I think my favorite thing is that the author realizes some of the things he gives Verus are overpowered, and makes sure they're destroyed or lost. It's nice seeing someone try to keep the power creep in check instead of Dresden where I'm pretty sure he could blow up the moon now. Dresden has had a ton of his overpowered poo poo destroyed, lost or downplayed. Remember the early "I'll make 2 potions per book which will each solve some unforseen issue" or the Bear Belt which gave him a full night of sleep, or Little Chicago, or Hellfire or most of his gadgets and gewgaws.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 28, 2017 16:36
|
|
|
Waltzing Along posted:He was influenced by Piers Anthony. I don't remember any five year olds giving impassioned defenses of pedophiles in Butcher's work tbh.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 30, 2018 16:44
|
|
|
Waltzing Along posted:
https://litreactor.com/columns/themes-of-pedophilia-in-the-works-of-piers-anthony
|
|
#
¿
Mar 30, 2018 16:53
|
|
|
Junkenstein posted:And both had their books turned into a TV series that became a cultural phenomenon. Er, what? Only Game of Thrones has had a successful TV show afaik. The Dresden show was pretty unpopular and got cancelled quick and the Wheel of Time show is in development I guess. Wheel of Time also would be really poo poo as a TV series since so much of the best stuff from the books would be impossible to do on-screen. (Also they'd probably cut Rand murdering an entire town and forcing their corpses to pose bowing down to him while he's going crazy) Zore fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Apr 16, 2018 |
|
#
¿
Apr 16, 2018 21:17
|
|
|
So I finally started reading Alex Verus. I think I like it mostly, though there are more than a few things that bother me about it. 1) Holy poo poo are his enemies morons. It feels like almost everyone he fights, including people who have fought him before and explicitly have insight into his power-set, are hit with an insane idiot ball constantly and don't treat him like an actual threat despite how successful he's been. And the people he doesn't fight are worse since none of them seem to actually respect how insanely powerful divination is. Alex keeps having internal monologues about how he's the underdog and poo poo, but his power is by far the most broken and bullshit powerful thing we see in the series. 2) I'm glad the thing where it looked like he was going to hook up with Luna was dropped after book 2/3, but Anne is still pretty bad as a love interest and it feels kinda eh the series seems to be heading that way. Alex x Caldera otp 3) There are too many assassins. There are multiple assassination attempts, sometimes upwards of 10, per book. Its silly as gently caress. 4) The politics feel inconsistent and kinda dumb. Everyone in Light Magic society hates Alex for being a former Dark apprentice basically on sight, but there's enough political will to grant at least one of the council seats to a Dark Mage and supposedly most mages are idiotic 'don't rock the boat' centrists. 5) A lot of the 'morally greyer' than Dresden stuff mostly seems to be window dressing at this point since where I left off (end of book 7) no one actually gives a poo poo about the bad things he's done any more. He's made up with the two friends who were uncomfortable with him slaughtering a group of teenagers, everyone he fights is ridiculously evil in comparison, pretty much everyone's stopped objecting to murder (even the characters defined as ardent pacifists) and have joined in on it with it... idk. There was a single sympathetic villain early on, but since then its mostly just been an escalating series of monsters.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 18, 2018 16:24
|
|
|
Proteus Jones posted:I think the one I find most appealing, is that his magic is *related* to divination but more powerful. Instead of seeing probable future paths and choosing the the optimal one, he’s able to eliminate all other paths except the one he wants. Rather than reading the future, he’s forcing his vision on the future. Yeah, having just finished up the series to this point this tracks pretty well with some of the clues in that last book. Alex having the futures just wink out when he actually tries to attack Richard is pretty telling. Of course he could also just be a Diviner who prepares more than Alex. Nothing he does on screen seems beyond the scope of what Alex could theoretically do, it just would require a ton more resources and magical items. Though he does introduce a weird an awkward retcon of 'generic universal spells' to hide his exact powerset. Up till that point in the series mages were pretty strictly defined by their element/classification and outside of gating being a thing for Elemental mages there aren't really 'universal' spells. Alex certainly isn't able to make a light etc. Zore fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Apr 18, 2018 |
|
#
¿
Apr 18, 2018 22:17
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:He does actually straight-up lose some friends (Sonder, possibly Caldera. Eh, Sonder still works with him despite everything and there's every indication that relationship is going to mend based on their scenes in the last book. Ditto Caldera. ConfusedUs posted:I remember a lot of speculation about what, exactly, his power is. It seems to be subtly different (and far more powerful) than Alex's. Remember though, no one knows what Richard's powers are exactly. And every other diviner we see in the series is a weird old hermit, and it usually drives initiates insane. quote:I think it' also relevant that Verus is the only "combat diviner" we really see; every other diviner in the series is a massive scaredycat who gets the hell out of dodge at the first sign of trouble. So it's not unrealistic for other mages to expect verus to be more like Helikaon or other more cowardly diviners who just cut and run, rather than someone who takes the fight to the enemy. This is a fair point though. The other diviners we see 'onscreen' tend to vastly downplay how their abilities work or just fudge it for whatever reason. Zore fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Apr 18, 2018 |
|
#
¿
Apr 18, 2018 22:25
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:The impression I get is that Verus is a lot more focused on predicting the immediate short term future than the other diviners we meet are. He's . .. literally . . . short-sighted. Yeah, he goes for a high degree of accuracy on the immediate future. The others are much more about picking out the broader picture. Remember, the Crusaders start trying to kill him because that master Diviner was like 'Yeah, looking ahead there's about a 30% chance he fucks this whole thing up and gives the artifact to Richard, 60% chance he just dies and a 10% he manages to thread the needle'. On an event that was a week+ out. Those odds are going to be constantly changing, but they're okay with the snapshot. Basically the other diviners are pollsters and take the overall temperature of the country while Verus is crawling around mapping out a single street and its residents really well. They're going to be right most of the time overall, but Verus is crawling in the weeds constantly and will sometimes be able to catch edge cases etc. Because they're probability mages and Verus is the idiot who actually tries to go for 100% certainty on everything. Zore fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Apr 18, 2018 |
|
#
¿
Apr 18, 2018 22:39
|
|
|
Avalerion posted:Honestly after it being hyped up here - i expected Alex to have done much worse than tag along for one bad mission in a mostly support role, then regret it almost immediately and do his best to fix it. Especially once you realize most of his supporting cast have done worse when they were the same age. But its his reveal that triggers a bunch of pearl clutching.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2018 14:30
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Zing Harry on-screen torturing those ghouls is arguably darker than anything Alex ever gets up to.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2018 14:35
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:I'd disagree there but it may be because I'm thinking legally. Verus commits felony murder and kidnapping ; his compatriots have defenses -- luna lacks intent, Anne was under duress and in self defense -- but he doesn't, he did it willing ly. Similarly, Dresden always has an out to absolve him of anything really awful - literal demonic influence, etc. I mean, if we assume real life legality Verus almost definitely would have walked or served a reduced sentence by turning on the rest. He approached the authorities in an attempt to turn himself in and even save the girl and its only the super hosed way mage society works in those books that he ended up left out in the cold. And Luna and Anne stacked up a lot of bodies between them even if it was without intent/under duress
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2018 15:23
|
|
|
thrawn527 posted:So, if I'm bailing out on Iron Druid...Alex Verus? Its okay. I binged on it a few weeks ago and posted some impressions in the thread. Good but not great, the world building is a little weak and contrived, some of the naming conventions are real bad, no one ever actually respects how goddamn powerful Alex actually is etc.
|
|
#
¿
May 10, 2018 17:23
|
|
|
ConfusedUs posted:There's a definite undercurrent of whimsy much like you'd get in Discworld, just with more body horror. And also 'What if Xavier's School was government run and designed to churn out emotionally distant adults'
|
|
#
¿
May 16, 2018 18:41
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:That's explained I believe -- at several points he talks about how most people don't actually actively choose their actions, they just operate on rails based on their environment -- people have free will, but don't use it. He also just straight up invents some kind of universal magic that every mage can use in the latest 2 books which contradicts a ton of the previous work since it literally never shows up or is mentioned until he wants to hide what kind of mage someone is for a reveal.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 30, 2018 15:50
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Eh, that falls under retconning I think. From the start there are certain things like detecting magic in items and using gate stones that he's established "any mage" can do, he just formalizes it later on. Right but then Richard pops up and is shooting generic energy bolts and pulling up shields which is like explicitly something most mages cannot do but is handwaved as ' universal spells anyone can used'. Which uh doesn't track with what Alex can do. At all. Somebody fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Jun 30, 2018 |
|
#
¿
Jun 30, 2018 16:02
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Right, but Alex is also "what the gently caress" about it, it's very clear that somehow Richard is breaking the rules and that's the point. (Presumably with something he got from the alien dimension he traveled to) (My guess: he Harvested a Djinn or something) Just flagging you missed it in the quote And the way I read it Alex was surprised he was so effective with items and generic spells, not that he could do it.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 30, 2018 16:14
|
|
|
seaborgium posted:I don't think you can give up the mantle like that though. Every other time we've heard of something transferring the person who held it had to die. I doubt there's a way to voluntarily give it up to some other vessel of Winter, but I'm guessing Michael would try and possibly could find a way. I don't think Molly technically "chose" to accept the mantle, she was just closest at the time it transferred so there could be a loophole. You can give up or change mantles on Halloween somehow. That's been a big metaphysical thing that got brought up in Cold Days with Kringle/Odin.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 13, 2018 18:08
|
|
|
docbeard posted:(It also puts a LOT in perspective if you start thinking of Harry as Basically Spider-Man, But With Magic.) Which is really evident if you read the Spider-Man novel Butcher wrote. Zore fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Jul 27, 2018 |
|
#
¿
Jul 27, 2018 21:21
|
|
|
Deptfordx posted:Incidentally, is that any good? Eh. It's fine I guess? It's basically a mid-tier Dresden book except starring Spider-Man instead. Down to being primarily about magical bullshit and heavily featuring Dr. Strange I do like that it pretty heavily features Mary Jane and she gets to like actively do stuff. Also a weirdly sympathetic portrayal of the Rhino.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 31, 2018 16:03
|
|
|
I also take issue with the idea Rivers is better plotted. It has stronger prose and pretty good character work, but the mechanics of everything are a huge mess after roughly the second book. The non-stop intro of new huge magical societies that were apparently just off screen the entire time is really offputting. Especially since Nightengale is constantly swinging between 'yes WW2 killed magic' and 'I've managed relationships with all this weird magic poo poo across the entire island by myself for 70 years'
|
|
#
¿
Jun 18, 2019 22:26
|
|
|
Beachcomber posted:If they're so great, why were they losing to the Red Court? Was it just a numbers game? Partially. Remember the Red Court made the first strike and managed to take out a lot of Wizards or turn them. They also had massive resources in the mortal world and access to modern technology which Wizards largely don't. Also you can churn out new vampires pretty quickly, even making them from your enemies, but Wizards take at a minimum years to get to 'basic competence'. And even with all those advantages the White Council was holding its own for years and eventually killed every Red Court vampire in existence. Like the poo poo Harry saw Ebenezer or the Merlin pull off in passing was insane. It just doesn't matter when you have like a dozen people covering the entire world. Remember so many Wardens died North America was being covered by 3 people
|
|
#
¿
Jun 26, 2019 01:46
|
|
|
LLSix posted:
Harry and Ebenezer were both integral and they're two of the top people in the Council. Harry likes to downplay it because he started off on the wrong foot with the Council, but by Changes he's a really important and high up member of their exclusive military arm. Also if Harry's actions counted as White Council to start the war it seems fitting they should also count as White Council when he ended it.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 28, 2019 17:51
|
|
|
ImpAtom posted:Harry also is pretty blunt about the fact that he's effectively a bomb. He does a lot of damage but has almost no control or sustainability. In comparison we see other wizards are capable of less explosive but more effective methods of damage. Yeah, seeing Ramirez in action during the raid on the White Court was really cool because he was loving with entropy and being really tricky with water in a way we never see Harry act. Or the difference between Dresden and Ivy during that book where they're locked in the theater and cut off from the outside with limited magic. Dresden runs out of juice almost immediately while Ivy's casting incredibly complicated and powerful spells for much longer by just being much more efficient.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 28, 2019 18:20
|
|
|
Gnoman posted:Don't forget that the Merlin explicitly put "genocide Red Court" on his to-do list, and was just waiting for the right time to strike. Plus I mean they were interrupting a ritual that was aiming to kill a senior council member. Killing Harry was a completely incidental side effect and the whole thing would have come to a head without him. It is incredibly telling that the Red Court set up a ritual powerful enough to kill every Red Court vampire in existence solely to kill a senior council member. Zore fucked around with this message at 21:03 on Jun 28, 2019 |
|
#
¿
Jun 28, 2019 21:01
|
|
|
Hub Cat posted:Is there ever an instance where Dresden kills a nonhuman not in self defense? The only time I can think of is the ghoul in the desert and that is portrayed as not okay. He kills some Fae loving with him at the Ball in Cold Days.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 9, 2019 22:18
|
|
|
rndmnmbr posted:Death of the Author is a thing too. Its a thing thats literally in the text.  Death of the Author is about not taking the author's outside poo poo into account and letting the text speak for itself. Not just a blanket 'I can make up whatever!' thing.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 10, 2019 22:48
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 15, 2024 06:59 |
|
|
Harry is the dude who once spent all of his free time for more than a year and a half building a scale model of Chicago in his basement. And about 50% of his regular socialization is playing DnD with people 10 years younger than him with most of the rest monopolized by non-human monsters at this point. He is exactly the kind of person who has no idea about anything to do with politics but will have some opinions if prompted
|
|
#
¿
Jul 25, 2019 05:20
|
|