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 Welcome to the Jim Butcher/Dresden Files/Urban Fantasy/London Megathread! The Previous Thread: The Dresden Files: Ridin' the zombie dinosaur! The Thread Before That: The Dresden Files (and more): A chitinous susurrus of good people The Ghost of the Thread Before That: The Dresden Files: Harry Doesn't Wear a Hat! Here we discuss anything and everything urban fantasy. The Dresden Files is the granddaddy of the genre, and we spend much of the OP talking about it. When we're not gushing over Jim Butcher, we talk about other Urban Fantasy novels. Dresden Files Homepage Buy the books at Amazon. Wikipedia Article If you're new here... Please post. We're good people. We'll use spoiler tags if you ask, but you must chat about the books you've finished. Crackpot theories are strongly encouraged. It's a tradition. Dresden Files Series Synopsis The Dresden Files are set in a "alternate" Chicago where magic is real, but only a few actually believe in it; it's a first-person tale told by an irascible wizard named Harry Dresden, who regularly gives the magical establishment indigestion — and the police, the same. Take Sam Spade, your Average Joe Underdog Action Star, and toss in some spellcraft, and you get Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Heck of a guy. Why Should You Read The Dresden Files?   OMG THERE ARE LIKE FIFTY BAZILLION BOOKS NO REALLY WHY SHOULD I READ THIS? I don't understand the question and I won't respond to it. NO SERIOUSLY CAN I SKIP SOME OF THESE? I HATE WORDS! The first three books are somewhat amateurish. Books 1 and 2 establish the setting but are ultimately skippable in the grand scheme of things. Book 3 sets up the metaplot for the next nine or ten books. My advice? Read book 1. If you liked it without reservation, read book 2. If you had issues with book 1, skip book 2 and move straight to book 3. Butcher is really good about re-introducing characters and locations when they first show up: you won't get lost. Fun Links: Harry's Warden Dossier http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php?topic=19774.0 (big spoilers) What Should I Read After Dresden? Updated May 10th, 2017 Face it. Most Urban Fantasy is garbage, where the main (sexy!) character fucks her way through the legions of hell. But not all of it is terrible. Here's a list of the most popular recommendations from this thread. I hope you like London. The good stuff! These are the books we here most frequently recommend, and they're all well worth your time. Buy these. Daniel O'malley: The Rook and Stiletto: Similar to Laundry Files (see below), but less geeky and far more badass. Lots of spycraft, weird powers, and has a strong female protagonist. It's my personal favorite out of all the recommendations here. Reads like "What if the X-Men were a secret branch of the British government?" The sequel is different, but still good! Ben Aaronovitch: Rivers of London: Constable-Wizard apprentice in London. Magic is scary and difficult and serious. This series is British as gently caress. Unfortunately, the US release date tends to lag far behind the British release date (several months or more). This series is exceptionally well-written. Benedict Jacka: Alex Verus: Recommended by Butcher himself, the Alex Verus series is about a mage--a diviner, who can see the future in limited amounts--living in London as an independent mage caught in a cold war between Light and Dark mages. Don't worry about the stupid black-and-white nomenclature: they're all assholes, but at least one group is up front about it. Book one is called Fated. Craig Shaefer: Daniel Faust series and Harmony Black series: Two different series, two different protagonists, all set in the same world. Daniel Faust is a grifter, a con man, who magics his way through the Vegas underworld. Harmony Black is a covert ops agent for the government, tasked with taking out magical threats. This author writes exceptionally fast, and his work is still good. His content his not anything like Brandon Sanderson, but his output is. The good-but-not-as-good-as-the-things-above stuff. These books are good--some even flirt with greatness--but just can't quite hold their own with those listed above. Libriomancer: Jim C Hines: What if you could reach into a book and pull out anything from the story inside? Alice's shrinking potion. Aladdin's lamp. A lightsaber. The only limitations are that it has to fit through the pages of the book itself, and enough people have to have read the story. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right? Johannes Gutenberg agrees, and so he founded the Proctors to hide magic from the world. Now only a select few have access, closely maintained by Gutenberg himself, for now. It's all starting to become unbound... Seanan McGuire: October Daye series: October Daye knows how cruel Faerie can be to its changeling children. Born in San Francisco and carried to the Summerlands by her pureblood mother when she was just a child, she was raised in a world that never seemed capable of understanding her. She ran away the moment the opportunity presented itself, only to find that the human world wasn't any better. There are ten books available now. The first is Rosemary and Rue. The thread suggests that, much like Dresden, you can probably start with the third: An Artificial Night. The first two are good, but the third is where the greatness inside is revealed. Charles Stross: The Laundry Files: Computer Wizard/Secret Agent wrapped around the Cthulhu Mythos, with heavy respect for Lovecraftian Horror. All Awesome & also British. The second book is very much a love-it-or-hate-it novel. Paul Cornell: London Falling: Look, another London book. This one is significantly darker than most Urban Fantasy. It's a police drama/procedural into a series of murders that involve a supernatural creature. It gets pretty drat grim. The first two chapters are a total mess of rapidly-shifting PoVs, but it gets much better, very quickly. Look for the sequel, The Severed Streets. Mike Carey: The Felix Castor Series: British exorcist fighting ghosts, demons and werewolves. Harry Connolly: Twenty Palaces 1-3 plus Prequel: A L.A. thug gets involved with Lovecraftian horrors. Great concepts. This is an excellent series that will, sadly, probably never be finished. The books were dropped by the publisher after book 3. The author self-published a prequel. Read the prequel first. It's amazing. Book 1 starts in the middle of the main character's story. The series probably would still be going strong if the author had started at the beginning rather than in the middle like he did. Miscellaneous others Here are some other stories you might see mentioned here and there in the thread. Opinions are mixed on these overall, but it's worth picking up the first novel in any of the series to see if you like it. Kevin Hearne: Iron Druid: Come for the premise (the last Druid alive pisses off the gods), stay for the sidekick, leave when the lolcats show up. Most recent book is supposedly good again, so who knows! Kat Richardson: Greywalker: Female private investigator gets into some weird paranormal stuff. Follows the Dresden school of investigation: get a lead, get beat up, find the perp, get beat up more...and so on. Richard Kadrey: Sandman Slim: Some guy escapes Hell and goes on a Punisher-like rampage against those that sent him there in the first place. Sort of Max Payne meets the Punisher by way of Dante's Inferno. There are a number of other suggestions near the top of page 165 of the previous thread! http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3501974&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=165 I haven't vetted them yet, so I cannot vouch for their quality. ConfusedUs fucked around with this message at 08:35 on May 11, 2017 |
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May 22, 2014 06:14
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 What do you get when you mix the Roman Empire and Pokemon? The Codex Alera! This is Jim Butcher's other fantasy series. Comprised of six books, Alera is complete. The last book, First Lord's Fury, hit shelves quite some time ago.       The series follows a boy, named Tavi, and his friends in their adventures in a spirited romp through the depths of slavery, war, treachery, and genocide. It also has the most hilarious origin story of any novel, ever. You could read my terrible summary below, but you're better off watching the youtube video from Comic Con 2008. It's told better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylKRYe0ZWHo If you hate youtube, here you go. Jim Butcher got into an internet flamewar. One side argued that a good idea, even terribly written, would sell. Butcher argued that even overused ideas could be twisted into a good, viable story. Idea guy challenged Butcher to write a story based on a terrible idea of idea guy's choice. Butcher said 'no, give me two terrible ideas.' Idea guy picked the lost Roman Legion, and Pokemon. Soon thereafter, Butcher started outlining the story while Big Trouble in Little China played in the background. And thus, Alera was born.
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May 22, 2014 06:15
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...moved content to OP...
ConfusedUs fucked around with this message at 15:57 on May 10, 2017 |
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May 22, 2014 06:15
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Hey guys, be cool and don't spoil the new book yet. It's not out yet for most of us.
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May 22, 2014 06:17
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THF13 posted:Can we not tell people to skip Fool Moon? None of the books are particularly long and some important stuff happens. It's a long series. Two of the most frequent questions from new readers are "Do I have to start at the beginning?" and "I didn't really like the first book, but I hear this is a good series. When does it get good?" The answer to both of those questions frequently involves some mention that they should skip Fool Moon if they didn't like the first book.
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May 22, 2014 06:26
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Daveski posted:I read the first three Dresden novels a while ago and didn't like them enough to continue - however, it sounds like the series gets much better from there, and I'm looking for some light summer reading, so I think I'll give these books another shot. Seems like Grave Peril is pretty important in setting up some major story arcs, but I don't remember it too well... is it worth re-reading this one? Or should I just skip to that party scene at the end and refresh my memory there? The last half or third of Grave Peril is where the series gets its legs. After that point, every book is as good as or better than the one before.
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May 22, 2014 16:10
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Thyrork posted:I got to three, three loving books of the sword of truth on the recommendation of a "friend", gently caress the sword of truth books and everything related. I made it through all except the last three. Did you make it to the evil chicken that's not a chicken? That's in one of the first few books. I should have stopped but didn't.
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May 22, 2014 22:34
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Just finished up my reread of Cold Days, and I gotta ask, anyone notice that Harry is now dropping F-bombs like crazy now that he's the winter knight? There were only a couple Fbombs in Cold Days, but yeah, before that, there had only been a few in the whole series. Hell's Bells is an actual curse used by actual people, by the way. I've an uncle that says it all the time. It's not made up.
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May 23, 2014 17:53
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Thyrork posted:... That's actually pretty cool! Yeah it's short for "Hell's bells and buckets of blood" which is an old British curse.
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May 23, 2014 19:40
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Yeah you haven't been charged yet. Cancel the kindle order, and make a physical book order. I did the opposite a couple weeks ago.
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May 24, 2014 04:06
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Also, new kindles are cheaper than ever, so a replacement should be fairly easy to come by. My first kindle cost me over $300. Nowadays the low end ones go for like $70.
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May 24, 2014 19:19
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Everything from small favor on.
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May 24, 2014 19:46
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Srice posted:Broken street dates are p dang common for books so as long as the spoilers are clearly labelled and tagged it should be good, no? Yeah, just use spoiler tags. It's out in a couple days anyway.
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May 24, 2014 23:44
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When the thorn manacles get put on Harry for the first time in the books, he has a brief flashback to Lea using them on him before, as a young man. So yeah, those scars could be from the thorn manacles. 
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May 26, 2014 02:51
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why oh WHY posted:Pretty sure it was ConfusedUs. I joked about wishing I had given him his retarded Dresden/Pony crossover fanfiction picture and like a day later there I was with one of my own. Nope. Someone gave me one too
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May 26, 2014 16:10
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I'm about 25% through severed streets. It's good so far. But now I won't get it done before skin game. I'll have to pick it up after and I hope it doesn't taint my enjoyment.
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May 26, 2014 19:14
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Still not unlocked for me here in the states, but man, I'm jonsing hard. I might be up late tonight (I've got heartburn fierce after some lovely Mexican food), and if I'm still up when it unlocks...yeah, no sleep.
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May 27, 2014 01:42
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Since I still don't have Dresden on my Kindle, I went ahead and updated the third post where we talk about other urban fantasy. Go ahead and argue about that for a while. Maybe that will pass the time until my Kindle downloads this thing and I spend half the night reading it.
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May 27, 2014 04:53
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navyjack posted:I am F5ing my kindle so hard right now!!! Me too! I really hope it unlocks at 12am Eastern and not 12 Pacific.
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May 27, 2014 04:55
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I've never ordered a Dresden book by Kindle before, so I have no idea. I have a sinking feeling that it's going to be 12am Pacfic time. 
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May 27, 2014 05:07
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Nicodemus was certainly after that knife, and that knife is almost certainly the spear of destiny. Amongst other things, lore says that the Spear grants immortality. That's something Nicky is desperate to have again, after having his illusions of invincibility shattered by Harry in Small Favor. In the end, Nick has a plan, and he cannot accomplish it if he's dead. His noose used to be good enough, but a few years ago Harry drat near strangled him with it. There's even a brief exchange early in the book where Harry and Nick have a bit of banter about his so-called invincibility. Murphy , or rather Karrin, is probably at the beginning of her exit from active duty. She's getting older, and it'll be quite some time before she's physically capable again. Even when she's capable, she won't be at 100%. She's been outclassed for a while, and this is a good way to handle that exit. Let her go from comrade-in-arms to something more intimate. She'll get to stick around without the necessity of having to come up with excuses why she can (or cannot) join in the action. You'll also notice that Harry spent the entire book calling her Karrin, not Murphy, and that's yet another sign of change in the character. She's come a long, long way. I actually like Karrin where I really did not like Murphy Butters has been one of my favorite tertiary characters for a while, and I love where he went in thise book. I hope we get to see him be Sir BatJedi, but hopefully not for a book or two. Let him fade a bit and become more powerful than we can possibly imagine. Did anyone notice that this book broke the Vampire pattern? It's the first to break any of the patterns, really. But as the first multiple-of-three book since Harry killed the Red Court, it makes sense. I really expected Mavra or the Whites to show up, at least in passing, but I'm glad they didn't.
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May 28, 2014 05:54
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Mars4523 posted:Seriously, there is no limit to the amount of what the gently caress I would have for this series. Karrin Murphy, who from day one has been a capable mortal ally to Harry Dresden and who when facing any number of supernatural beasties has always been able to look after herself and kick tons of rear end (including icing two Council level warlocks on her lonesome), getting reduced to the handwringing girlfriend will basically cause me to immediately go "gently caress this" and throw all my Dresden books out. You know, except for the parts where she has repeatedly turned down the swords? Or the fact that she is--by at least a decade--the oldest remaining "active" fighter? Or that she took a debilitating injury? I'm not saying she can't find a more active role, but narratively this is the perfect time to transition her into a different role. I like Murphy as the spunky Action Chick but, frankly, that's just about all she is. I'd love to get a chance for her to get away from that role and grow as a character.
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May 28, 2014 07:11
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AlphaDog posted:The Swords seem to give the Knight whatever they need to match (not necessarily defeat) their opponent, as long as the wielder doesn't betray the sword's purpose. This would include the ability to cut things that are normally un-cuttable, should it be necessary. Michael's Sword doesn't cut through Nick's sword because Michael doesn't need that sort of thing to have a chance of beating Nick in a sword fight. Butters does need something like that, and his Sword obliges. Since they're levellers the Swords' abilities seem to depend on who's wielding them. This is exactly how they work in the official RPG, by the way.
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May 29, 2014 02:50
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Yeah the show changed a lot of things and can't really be used as a 1:1 comparison with the books. TV Bob is best Bob though. And TV Morgan was black, but was so good at being Morgan that I pictured book Morgan as black for years.
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May 29, 2014 18:57
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FordPRefectLL posted:This plotline already happened except for the very last part. The Paranet may qualify. As a seed, at the least.
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May 30, 2014 06:45
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Wade Wilson posted:What book was it where Harry argues with the Merlin about this? It was right after he did the Zombie Dinosaur stuff, IIRC. Like the first or second chapter of Proven Guilty.
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May 30, 2014 20:18
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Thyrork posted:Can anyone link to the post that numbered all the Dresden files with the predictions of whats to come? Dresden Files Patterns Vampires every third book (Grave Peril, Blood Rites, White Night, Changes) (Pattern broken after the events of Changes) Faeries every fourth book (Summer Knight, Proven Guilty, Changes) Denarians every fifth book (Death Masks, Small Favor, Skin Game) Bad Wizards Did It every book that's a prime number that doesn't match one of the above: (Storm Front, Fool Moon, Dead Beat, Turn Coat, Ghost Story) This only applies to who the main bad guy is: any of those can appear in any book, and they can be the main bad guy of books that don't fit any pattern, such as faeries in Cold Days (#14) ConfusedUs fucked around with this message at 20:24 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 20:22
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Illuyankas posted:I wonder if it'll turn out that there'll be a new pattern of Outsiders every x books now, starting at Cold Days, or if the old patterns are falling apart. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Changes changed most of the patterns, although Denarians is holding strong! Of course, this means that Nicky gets to set off the Apocalypse in book #20.
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May 30, 2014 20:31
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FordPRefectLL posted:Skull and Crossbones. Yeah now I'm sold.
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Jun 1, 2014 21:04
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He's never lost his legs when pierced by iron/steel. That only happened in Cold Days when he straight up abandoned Winter principles/duties. Iron = no more convenient ignoring of pain Abandonment of duties = no mantle = no legs
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Jun 2, 2014 17:26
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thespaceinvader posted:I had a wail of a time with the book, but I can;t help but agree with the point someone made on the previous page that Butcher REALLY needs to learn to kill his darlings. It's starting to feel like no-one's really under any real threat - when was the last time a major protagonist OR antagonist died? Susan? And before that Shiro? Actually, I guess it was Maeve... gently caress that. I'd much rather actions have consequences that are NOT death. Death is final. If Butcher killed off people, they wouldn't have the chance to do better things later! We wouldn't have had Michael's awesome return in Skin Game, or Molly's transition, or Butters' batman arc, or anything like that, if they were dead.
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Jun 2, 2014 20:22
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WastedJoker posted:When was it revealed that Vadderung is Kringle!? Cold Days, near the end of the book.
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Jun 2, 2014 21:56
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Edit: that was weird First it said my post didn't go through, so I posted again...and now both of them are there.
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Jun 2, 2014 21:56
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Bobulus posted:Here's a question that may or may not be important later: You assume that's how they're all created. We have no evidence for or against that.
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Jun 4, 2014 23:03
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WastedJoker posted:Harry figures that Grey is using ectoplasm to bolster his mass when he converts into a horse - is that how Shagnasty worked? I don't recall the mechanics of him. That's how pretty much all shapeshifting and summoning works when there is mass change involved.
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Jun 5, 2014 16:14
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Fried Chicken posted:Edit: A Wizard Did It. Literally I'm gonna go with this, in lieu of an in-universe explanation. ~~wizards~~
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Jun 5, 2014 16:27
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Captain Capacitor posted:I'd like to put it to a vote. For those that have seen Butcher in person, is his answer of "Huh, that seems like an inconsistency" annoying or funny to you? He says it with such a poo poo-eating smirk and barely-concealed glee that you know he's doing the equivalent of *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*. It's funny. Butcher is funny.
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Jun 9, 2014 19:37
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Xtanstic posted:Yeah me too. Thirded
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Jun 14, 2014 03:49
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Dr. MonkeyThunder posted:I asked for one at a Ghost Story signing so at least the idea's in his head. Though he didn't seem very keen on the idea. He said something about having to drink a lethal amount of sugar to write it. I guess at least now he has more options. It could be a buddy cop deal with Lacuna, a Dirty Dozen spoof where he takes a platoon of other Za-guards on mission, or even a training day with some new recruits. Full Metal Za Guard This is my needle. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. My needle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my needle is useless. Without my needle, I am useless. I must stab my needle true. I must stab harder than my enemy, who is trying to kill me. I must stab him before he stabs me. I will. Before the Za-Lord I swear this creed: my needle and myself are defenders of my court, we are the masters of our enemy, we are the saviors of my life. So be it, until there is no enemy, but peace. Amen.
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Jun 16, 2014 23:14
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Calidus posted:I thought mortal basically means can die of old age, in the dresden cosmos. The fae don't age because of the passage of time do they? I was under the impression that the only reason the mothers appear old is because of the mantles. Mortal is a tradeoff. Free will, but you eventually die. Immortal creatures cannot go against their nature, duty, or role. Mab literally cannot lie. Uriel literally cannot act directly. They can choose how they go about their duties but they cannot choose not to act in their nature. Nemesis fucks that up somehow and essentially gives free will to those who should not have it.
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Jun 18, 2014 15:50
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