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WarLocke posted:but I'm hoping it's similar to Butcher's first couple of books and just a kind of rocky start. They never get better. There's promise, but the author ignores it in favor of the stupid crap.
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Jun 19, 2014 05:18
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WarLocke posted:I think something in my brain is broken, because I am on the second book and I can see how the author tries way too hard to fit in all the pop culture stuff, but I still chuckled at Atticus prepping a vampire on how to be cool while they're storming a witches coven via tossing the head of a basalt elemental through the floor/ceiling. Or his response to getting his newly-regenerated ear shot off again. Spoiled that in case anyone else is so hard-up for urban fantasy they might read this drek. The vampire scene was hilarious. Thing is Atticus' schtick is funny the first time. And the second. Maybe even the third. Hell I still chuckled at Oberon in the last book a couple times. They never get better. Like a car that runs out of gas, it eventually stops. Eventually he starts scraping the bottom of the barrel, and it just falls flat.
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Jun 20, 2014 04:20
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Ornamented Death posted:The Iron Druid series starts out pretty strong, but then craters in the fourth and fifth books. I mean, really craters; they are just bad books. The sixth book is an upturn in quality, and the seventh book seems to be continuing that trend, though I'm not very far in it so Hearne could still gently caress it up. The issue, though, is that Hearne dug himself into such a deep hole, quality-wise, that he's probably going to spend the remainder of the series getting back to the quality of the first two books, and that's assuming he doesn't screw up along the way. Goddamnit am I going to have to buy the most recent Iron Druid book? I felt #6 was getting better after the awfulness that was #4 and #5, but not good enough to buy another.
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Jun 20, 2014 04:40
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Dravs posted:Just finished the Codex Alera series after running out of other books. I enjoyed it quite a lot actually, was pretty satisfying. What are peoples issues with it? Tavi's arc is very, very predictable, the story itself becomes formulaic, and Isana is a horrible human being (and no one ever calls her out on it). Of the three, Isana bothers me the most. I spent every book hoping that she'd get eaten, shived, enslaved, burned, crucified, assimilated, drowned, drawn-and-quartered, flayed, impaled, or otherwise perish.
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Jun 27, 2014 20:18
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Arcsech posted:The guy who does them normally just wasn't available for that one for whatever reason. Ghost Story was delayed, and the change in release schedule didn't jibe with Marsters' schedule. He had previous commitments, and so they had to get someone else to do the audiobook.
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Jun 28, 2014 04:46
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Harry's matured a lot, but I consider it something of a shame that he's regressed so much emotionally since the end of Ghost Story. I know, Winter Mantle, base urges, blah blah blah... Still, I wish the winter crap was spread out across all base urges, not just I SEE WOMAN AND I MUST gently caress.
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Jun 30, 2014 02:21
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ImpAtom posted:How do the Laundry Files books improve, by the way? I got to the second book and I hated the stupid James Bond/Bond Girl plot so much that it kinda put me off from reading more. I really enjoyed the first one but the second was way too self-indulgent and slow-paced for me. The second book is the only one with that particular conceit. I've found that people love it or hate it. I've found the books to consistently improve over time.
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Jul 1, 2014 18:49
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cultureulterior posted:I liked the new Laundry Files. I'd say it was the best one yet. Howard is powering up at a high rate, too. Agreed.
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Jul 4, 2014 23:42
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Roger Tangerines posted:Anybody else read The Severed Streets? I made the mistake of starting it two nights before Skin Game hit. Then I dropped it in favor of Skin Game, and I haven't gone back to it yet. I'll give it another shot here once I finish Old Man's War again.
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Jul 5, 2014 03:53
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TV show is decidedly mediocre. It is at its best when adapting the books but it only does that for an episode or two. It's not awful or anything. The header in the OP has the lead actor in it.
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Jul 11, 2014 03:07
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oxsnard posted:That's sweet but it could go either way. Not sure I'd like the CW treatment for the show but FX/HBO/Showtime could be amazing Have you seen Arrow? Because if they do Dresden with the same quality and care they've done Arrow, I'm on board 100%.
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Jul 11, 2014 06:30
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Fried Chicken posted:Quite literally, if you read the character introduction. I'm certain that is not an accident, Stross has to be familiar with those stories Stross really gets corporate IT/Software Development, let me tell you. We switched to an Agile/Scrum system at work ~9 months ago and all that stuff with The Scrum in the latest Laundry book? It spoke to my heart, man.
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Jul 12, 2014 01:43
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Dravs posted:Yeah reading this thread made me think that the entire series of books is just constant lolcat, when in fact is it literally a single sentence in one of the books that is used by Atticus as a joke. But such is the sperg of goons I guess. It's just a particularly dumb joke at a time when the series as a whole is on a downward slide. That's all.
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Aug 5, 2014 16:01
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Einander posted:It came up earlier in the thread, so I have to say: man, The Magician's Land is goddamn excellent. Easy 10/10, good at every single portion of the book, makes excellent use of the material from the previous books and retroactively elevates both of them. I can't recommend it highly enough. I found the first quite good but the second was sort of a letdown. This is good news!
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Aug 6, 2014 14:16
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awesmoe posted:This is a really good example of what I was saying. If the writing style of that blurb annoys you, do not read this book. You're crazy. The Rook was awesome.
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Aug 9, 2014 04:28
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Benny the Snake posted:I gotta say I'm enjoying the Dresden Files series so far. "Storm Front" was passable. I skipped "Fool Moon", as per this thread's advice. "Grave Peril" was what showed me that this series has legs and "Summer Knight" is what made me a fan. Now I'm starting "Death Masks" and it's pretty fun so far. All of his Dresden short stories (except for the last 2-3 years) are compiled in Side Jobs, so just get that if you want Dresden short stories. There are some real gems in there.
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Aug 11, 2014 20:16
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treeboy posted:I'm personally of the opinion that Fool Moon isn't as bad as people make it out to be. It's definitely one of the two weakest books in the series but there are some pretty great moments in it as well. The problem with Fool Moon is that it's at the very beginning of the series. People who read Storm Front and think it had promise despite the annoyances get to the sequel where those same annoyances are dialed up to 11. That's where they stop reading. I encourage everyone who's a true fan of the series to read Fool Moon. But newbies can skip it to get to the good stuff if they're not convinced by Storm Front.
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Aug 12, 2014 15:52
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Renegret posted:I'm up to Blood Rites and I just reached the part where they reveal Harry's long lost brother. There is exactly a 0% chance he will surive the end of the book. looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool Russad posted:I picked up the first book in this series late May or early June, and I just finished Skin Game today. I enjoyed most of it, even if I find Harry to be a less sympathetic character the more time I spend in his head. But I noticed Butcher started to overuse some phrases. "Doggy grin" and "showed me his teeth" come to mind. But I think the thing that annoyed me the most was his excessive use of "tips of her breasts". At first I thought he just didn't know that we had a word for that already. Like maybe he was sitting around going, "I like boobies. I really like the thing in the middle of the booby. I wish there was a word for that. Oh well, I'll just have to keep plugging along talking about her boob knobs." But then he actually used the word nipple a couple of times, so now I don't know what to think. Boob knobs is my new favorite phrase. Anyway, Harry's male gaze is extensively discussed. He's supposed to be a huge goon about it. Sort of a noir trope. Anyway, it's a perfectly valid thing to be annoyed by. But I just brush it off because everything else is great!
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Aug 16, 2014 03:25
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posts.
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I had no idea people were annoyed by Marcone. He's awesome!
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Aug 26, 2014 17:46
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Ika posted:I thought the accords were recentish. Updated in 1994! They existed before that though.
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Aug 27, 2014 18:47
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Azuth0667 posted:I'm wondering if that's a first time event because of the happenings in Proven Guilty or if they are repeat offenders. Did we ever find out what happened in Arctis Tor in the aftermath of the hellfire attack on it? If I remember right Nic gets very upset when Harry mentions it in Small Favor but, I don't think its a solved mystery yet. I like to think he got so pissed in Small Favor because he knew Mab would gently caress him up for it. Attacking the Archive? That's the Archive's problem, or her allies'. Attacking Arctis Tor is a whole different issue.
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Aug 28, 2014 01:18
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Renegret posted:So I'm getting close to the end of Dead Beat and I accidentally cracked my E-Reader oh god help me I'm having withdrawal symptoms OH GOD WHAT DO I DO I'M FREAKING OUT MAN. Kindle? Use the cloud reader and you can read it on any PC.
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Sep 12, 2014 23:30
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Cold Days is really, really good. It's also an incredibly important book. Changes was the first book in a three-part trilogy that changed the nature of the series. Changes cut Harry's ties to his previous life as a professional wizard. All the physical things that made Harry who he was were gone. Harry's been held back, in many ways, by those things. His lovely apartment. His crappy car. His dusty office. His magical crutches. Bob. Harry relied on these things, depended on them, and built his life around them. Ghost Story forced him to look inward. Harry had to own up to who he was, look at the results of his actions, and move on. Ghost Story is a radical shift in tone from the previous 12 books; the conflict is mostly internal. The Corpsetaker plot is secondary in importance to the real story: Harry isn't who he used to be. At this point, Harry has nothing to fall back on. His life, as it was before, was over. All his stuff is gone. All his friends think he is dead. Harry struggles back to life to find that he is no longer the man he used to be. In Cold Days, we find Harry struggling with his new identity, or lack thereof. He's a new creature. He doesn't want to be the cold-hearted killer that Mab intends to make of him, but he's not the self-appointed magical sheriff of Chicago either. In the midst of this identity crisis, he uncovers Nemesis. This gives Harry a purpose, one that he can use to re-shape himself. This new Harry thinks bigger than Chicago. He must. Harry is now the Warden of Demonreach. He's the bane of outsiders. He's Nemesis's nemesis. This new Harry is built upon the ruins of the old. He's been rebuilt. Better. Stronger. Faster. Thew new Harry has to touch base with his old network. It wouldn't make sense to dump the existing characters. Murphy, Thomas, Michael, Butters, and Molly are all pillars of the series. Harry doesn't forget them, but he does re-forge those relationships over the course of the book (and a bit into Skin Game). Molly is no longer his apprentice. Murphy is no longer the unrequited love. Butters is no longer a scared weakling. They've grown and changed every bit as much as Harry. Same faces, new stories. Cold Days is the most important book in the series since Grave Peril. It has set a new foundation for the meta-narrative. The old stories are, with a few exceptions, done. It's a whole new ball game. I encourage you to look beyond the Nemesis plot. That aspect of the new Dresden in its infancy. We've seen naught by signs and portents. The real meat and potatoes is how Harry forges a new life amidst the ruins of the old.
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Sep 15, 2014 08:19
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Scintilla posted:Ha, my opinion is pretty much the complete opposite. I think Invidia massively outstayed her welcome and should have died at the end of Captain's Fury, a victim of her own methods. The only character worse than Invidia is Isana. I hated both of them, but at least Invidia eventually gets her comeuppance.
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Sep 16, 2014 20:27
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Dresden also barely ever actually has sex. I can only think of twice on-screen, and while one of those certainly resulted in a power-up, the aftereffects of the other sorta balanced it out. Three. Although the last one was in a dream. Death Masks (Susan) Changes (Mab) Skin Game (Murphy)
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Sep 17, 2014 16:55
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There's no need to belittle Geisladisk's opinion. However, that is like, just his opinion, man. I'm personally thrilled that we see Harry evolve, change, and learn. There's no way I could have read 15+ books of early series Harry. He was a buffoon, at best. I do--to some extent--miss the investigation/noir trappings of the early series. However, it's never really went away 100%. Turn Coat and Ghost Story were pretty heavy on the investigation. Skin Game was a heist. So that's a pretty good percentage of recent books (three out of five) that pay homage to the noir trappings of the early series.
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Sep 18, 2014 21:13
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I, too, have this problem with buildings.
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Sep 19, 2014 17:24
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Alright guys. It's official. It's going on the list of recommended books. The Alex Verus series is quite good. He's like Dresden's long-lost brother, raised by wolves in the wild untamed jungles of England.
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Sep 23, 2014 06:17
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NinjaDebugger posted:He's basically the complete opposite of Dresden, which is part of what makes him interesting. He has a versatile and incredibly useful power, but it's really bad at direct confrontation and he -can't- just sling explosions around. Agreed. Basically he's awful in any 1on1 confrontation and hell on wheels when he can get his enemies to hurt each other.
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Sep 23, 2014 18:00
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Benny the Snake posted:I was talking about The Dresden Files with another goon and it suddenly the root cause of my dislike in this series. It's because this is supposed to be an R-rated series and yet those elements are conspicuously absent or covered-up, like watching a like film on basic cable and noticing how they've obviously censored the profanity. Butcher's clearly trying to write a series with adult sensibilities but there's clearly something keeping him in first gear. Then again, I just finished Blood Rites-does it get better? Just because they don't run around screaming "gently caress" all the time doesn't mean it's toned down. Seriously, there's a ton of sex, graphic violence, and swearing. Fucks happen, just not every other word. Also, just FYI, "Hell's Bells" is an actual, real-life curse.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:57
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mirthdefect posted:http://storybundle.com/fantasy?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=urbanfantasyStory Bundle has a wee Bigfoot short story collection [/URL] from Butcher. Anything in there worth buying other than the Bigfoot stuff?
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Oct 15, 2014 19:19
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I didn't know people hated Butters. I like the little guy. I also like how he turned into sort of a Wizard Batman. He's fun. 
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Oct 28, 2014 16:27
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Wade Wilson posted:Well, last we got word of Sanya was a grainy aerial photograph of him with radiation burns facing off against two Denarians in the Middle East, so at the very least he's going to be scarred the gently caress up next time we see him in a book. I don't remember this. When did it happen? Was it just something said in passing at one point?
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Oct 30, 2014 21:07
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The Greywalker series has a female protagonist, but they're boring. The Rook has a female protagonist and it totally owns.
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Nov 18, 2014 20:14
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I just re-read all four Twenty Palaces books this month. Goddamn, what a series it could have been if he'd just started with the prequel. The first book is frustrating as hell when you don't understand the character's recent history. Book 1 starts literally hours after Ray gets out of jail following the events in the prequel. But those are events are never explained. Just endlessly referenced. It's frustrating to the reader to have all this information deliberately withheld. The books thrive on their eldritch weirdness, but are very slow burns otherwise. So you spend 70% of book one wondering what the gently caress is going on. You're told over and over that predators and magic are bad and dangerous, with vague allusions to previous events. There are no details and little showing. Just constant tell, tell, tell. Then at the end it's made mostly clear. If you've read the prequel, the pacing and references suddenly snap into place. You see weird poo poo, and you know it's just the edges of something far worse. You know because you've seen what can happen.
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Nov 18, 2014 21:36
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Megazver posted:I believe he did write the prequel first, but the publishers didn't want it. Child of Fire was the second novel written. The publishers are dumb. Just like the networks that air TV series out of order and then wonder why they bomb. The first book is workable (to some degree) as-is, but its pace is glacial and the mystery is artificial, which I find frustrating. R.I.P. Firefly and Twenty Palaces
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Nov 18, 2014 21:52
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Early 2016 is my guess. Unless he pulls out peace talks in record time I wouldn't expect it to be fully written until late 2015, and then it will go in for editing and stuff. Gone are the days when he can write write two books a year. Dresden is way more complex and each book more dense than it was in the early days.
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Nov 23, 2014 19:49
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Fine with me
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Nov 23, 2014 22:29
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Early Michael is a lot more preachy and actively tries to "save" Harry in more ways than one. Later Michael both trusts Harry and realizes the futility of that approach. Instead, he focuses on being the living example of God's grace, forgiveness, and power on earth. He hopes that Harry (and others, it's not all about Harry) will see that example, learn from it, and see the light. And, of course, he gets to be loving awesome while doing it.
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Dec 8, 2014 06:15
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LoG posted:I started listening to Furies of Calderon today, and umm I don't think it's that good. Does it get better? I know it's kind of a subjective thing to ask. What bothers you about it? The writing gets better, the characters (mostly) develop well, and, frankly, the third book in the series as an ending that rivals zombie T-Rex in terms of fist-pumping gently caress yeah! The third book, overall, is really good. But if you find the overall tropes of the series (orphaned boy with hidden potential/mysterious past, noble savages, the Zerg (complete with eventual Queen of Blades figure), and more) annoying, no, it doesn't get better. My thoughts is that the Alera books peak in the middle, with the latter two being better than the first two. Book three is loving awesome from start to finish. Book 2 has an abysmal first act. Overall, it's more Butcher being Butcher: Decent first book, second book that does all the wrong things from the first, then suddenly the series snaps together and turns into something pretty good! Do check out the second or third post of this thread for the bet that lead to this series's conception, even if you don't read the rest of the books.
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Dec 10, 2014 03:11
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