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Number Ten Cocks posted:Re: new Laundry Files, I wonder if the Iris Carpenter and/or Mandate bits were planned from their initial introduction. Very unlikely that these things were planned, since Charles Stross is pretty open about the whole thing not being planned this big at all, more like a few funny satirical short stories. Most of the major world building came after the third book, when the series started to take off in terms of sales and even then real life events threw so many curveballs that made changes in the whole thing necessary, as they made planned events in the book look quaint and cosy in comparison. Decius fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Jul 13, 2017 |
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Jul 13, 2017 06:02
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Alex Verus: I think he's more of a fate mage. He seems more about being able to see how he has to set up things to get to a desired outcome than knowing the outcome alone. This would also explain how he was able to set up everything for "all is according to my plan" book after book, while a Diviner like Verus can see all possibilities, but things get so fuzzy so quickly it is only of limited use, especially if all options for alternatives are eliminated. Drakh seems to be able to fo exact that: Seeing what he has to move where to win, like when he was fighting, he waited, took everything carefully and made a perfect shot - but he was unable to predict the fight itself perfectly - maybe because he couldn't set everything up or Verus is a variable he can't set up perfectly because of Alex' abilities.
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Jul 16, 2017 16:25
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Exmond posted:Thankfully the Hugo's are fan based so i can say Jim deserved the Hugo nomination. Sure, there were a lot of worse things nominated. And worse things won over the decades. But still, as much as i like the Dresden Files, and it's influence to mainstream a genre I like a lot, I would have a hard time to call it price worthy still.
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Aug 16, 2017 18:28
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Wheat Loaf posted:One thing I did appreciate about Mindspace is that the main villain is Almost Literally Marcone, but unlike Marcone, at least he's actually portrayed as a consistently lovely guy. But the interesting thing about Marcone is that he isn't a completely lovely guy. Without this he's just your typical Mafia boss, only more clever.
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Aug 18, 2017 16:44
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Wheat Loaf posted:Have been thinking, did anyone else feel like Hanging Tree a) walked right up to the edge of leaning too heavily into pop culture references; b) and jumped over; or c) didn't at all? Seemed fine to me for something set in a contemporary setting featuring a Midtwenty-ish protagonist and - in this book - a sizeable group of people even younger.
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Aug 20, 2017 19:19
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He always gets something more powerful to replace it - like the Mantel of Winter currently. Which makes sense considering the ultimate goal of the series. Fighting Outsiders with his pitiful first book abilities would be a bit odd. Verus on the other hand fights powerful, but inside the book universe normal, mages (Drakh's weird (non?)abilities aside).
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Aug 28, 2017 16:41
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Avalerion posted:Reading the first book I couldn't help wondering why Alex doesn't get a gun - with good aim and his divining he should be quite unstopable, pulling of perfect trickshots left and right. He uses guns in certain situations, but ECDing around guns in London isn't quite as easy.
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Aug 28, 2017 19:07
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The answer is always Idris Elba. Even for Kate Daniels and Myfanwy Thomas.
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Aug 31, 2017 10:42
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biracial bear for uncut posted:Does he though? Having mistakes pointed out might have been the reason for him to seek practical experience in the first place.
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Sep 29, 2017 16:15
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Captain Capacitor posted:Considering I was hanging out with Jim while making the site, I'd say it's an accurate figure. People have just started getting a bit...persistent. To the point that there were comments asking about Peace Talks on Jim's engagement video. If he publishes it before Winds of Winter I'm content. Which gives him just another 20 years or so...
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Oct 11, 2017 13:40
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Exmond posted:I agree, October Day is up there in terms of Urban Fantasy. The first book has a cliche that I hate, but it gets much much better. I love how later books put basically everything in this book into a new and different light (not to call it retcon).
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Nov 17, 2017 16:33
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Halting State was weird. Not bad as such but he wrote it in second person. A sex bot whose raison d’être has been gone for centuries and has the appropriate amount of sex considering this. It's a lot better than the setup sounds.
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Dec 12, 2017 16:58
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Beachcomber posted:And there's no eyestrain? None, it's not like a screen. It is tiny ink balls suspended in liquid that are turned black or transparent by applying a short burst of electricity. It's very much like reading from a very smooth paper.
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Dec 12, 2017 18:52
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Jack B Nimble posted:What's a good "urban" fantasy set in rural America? I want to read a fantasy book in a mundane setting and no city, let alone London, is mundane to me. Eliott James' Pax Arcana series takes place in a rural - or at least small town -setting in several books. It's also very good, despite the lead being a werewolf.
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Dec 22, 2017 13:25
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Exmond posted:Oh, gently caress off people are allowed to have their own opinions. Wasn't it written by Butcher's ex-wife, who is a Romance writer, or do I misremember? Edit: Duh, no, Skin Game was long after their divorce, was maybe some earlier scene. Decius fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Apr 11, 2018 |
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Apr 11, 2018 18:03
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Plus: Not to get too political, but the whole setup looked a lot more unrealistic until 2-3 years ago. if you substitute "light mage" with center-right and "dark mage" with far-right/fascist it might be a bit more relatable how a group that has been in the weeds for decades quite quickly can gain political influence, access and popularity despite being assholes and shitstains.
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Apr 19, 2018 06:32
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Old Kentucky Shark posted:What the gently caress ever happened with that, anyway? I remember hearing about it, seeing what a convoluted mess it looked like, and backing away. All the articles about it I can find are from 2012 at the latest. That's because it basically ended in 2012, when they published all the stuff they had in five books (and the last few already only by "lesser" writers). It continued on as fan fiction shared world until 2014, when even fan authors stopped doing anything with it. Like most online serial publishing deals (Tad Williams' Shadowmarch, Scalzi's Human Division etc.) the idea is neat, but commercially it's far less lucrative than simply publishing a book. As work of art it's often also worse, because it is more stretched out and with more fillers than a well written book that's intended as book. But that's something one could say about the original Dicken's serials, Stephen King's Green Mile or various SF stories from the serial days in Analog & Co. Incidentally most of them were reworked and tightened up when put into book form.
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Apr 30, 2018 06:40
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Well, I can only say some things you rightfully criticise are the "first book syndrome" issues, and will be done better later on. Others will be used to show Alex - and others - growing as characters and persons.
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May 18, 2018 17:13
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jivjov posted:Read the short stories in between books of that other reread? Yeah, the whole book, even if you haven't read any of the stories before, takes only a short afternoon.
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Jun 11, 2018 15:16
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And a "Poochie" is a cringe-worthy character added in a desperate a tempt to appeal to the crowd/turn a show around, make it "X-Treme". Comes from The Simpsons episode where they added the dog Poochie to Itchy & Scratchy with the infamous sentence 'And if Poochie isn't on screen everyone should ask "Where is Poochie?"'. Also coined the "My planet needs me" and "Poochie died on the way to his home planet". Also a character who seems to unnecessary steal the limelight in a story or is referenced again and again without real purpose, just to get the name in.
Decius fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Jun 14, 2018 |
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Jun 14, 2018 07:04
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biracial bear for uncut posted:He also plays some other MMO that super-nerds cream their pants about, but I don't remember the name of it. He worked on The Long War mod for XCom, which explains why Verus' magic is basically save scumming.
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Jul 11, 2018 17:31
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With exception of Luna (whose power is more subtle) they are all also very powerful and/or combat mages, which often puts them more in the line of fire., even with his opponents it's the case. The heaviest hitters Richard has are two women.
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Jul 21, 2018 06:26
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Dawgstar posted:I might try that. The only one I read was one of Molly's, which talks about (sigh) The Rack and spends it all wondering What Would Harry Do? (Blast harder.) Wondering WWHD is super in character for Molly though?
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Jul 28, 2018 03:26
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He however prepares everything to allow for Brexit and Trump to occur (he rewrote the last part of The Delirium Brief because of Brexit) and have their explanation in the endgame for Humanity instead of just too many stupid people being stupid. No idea if we ever reach the year 2016 in the series, though. He seems now pretty firm that it ends in 2-3 more books after The Labyrinth Index, while keeping the universe in a state that allows him to write more books in it, at least prequels/series set before the apocalypse. Personally I see no reason why the books should follow somewhat real-world political earth-quakes, since with the climax of The Nightmare Stacks we very, very firmly left anything resembling our current timeline, not to mention the Britain-changing events of The Delirium Brief.
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Aug 20, 2018 10:28
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Proteus Jones posted:Hell yes! (for both) He wrote in his last big writing update that the series will finish in 2–4 books. He wants to keep the universe around in a form that allows him to write books outside the mainline (prequels or side stories), but the basic story will end in 4 books max, since he's feeling finished with it after 20 years writing it.
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Oct 5, 2018 03:42
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Hemp Knight posted:This. Can't really agree with this. I read the first "it wasn't good" posts here before I read the book and dreaded that it might indeed be bad - but I don't see it. It feels just like the other books, same kind of narration, tone and quality. Just one part in the middle feels quite slow, but that part improves in hindsight, when Peter is back at the Folly. Can't really say that Lesley didn't make sense or that TFM's hobbies were somehow introduced out of the blue as a complaint upthread was. I enjoyed it a lot as book and as capstone of a chapter of the story.
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Dec 6, 2018 07:17
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Fallom posted:Stross couldn't figure out where to go with the main character and decided to branch out into other perspectives to varying results, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't painfully obvious that he's spinning his wheels because he can't figure out what to do with the main plot. He had similar issues with another series he wrote. Wheel spinning? Outside of the superhero book (which also first outed the whole thing to the public and set up a bunch of stuff for the current situation) I don't see it, since every book moves things very, very quickly into the endgame of the Apocalypse, which seems a fine pace, since he said the whole story will be over in 3-4 books.
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Jan 7, 2019 07:13
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She's the most powerful of all of them by several orders of magnitude and at the same time the most vulnerable. Also Richard really seems to need her somehow for his plans. But yeah, it does get a bit old by now.
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Jan 24, 2019 06:37
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Pretty sure it was shortly after her face melted off - he offered her to fix it, and she took his offer.
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Jun 9, 2019 15:53
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Beachcomber posted:Isn't Verus' power basically save-scumming anyway? Yes, which is why I absolutely love it!
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Jun 25, 2019 16:32
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Yeah, being very wrong about the city in book 1 is fine in the early days of the Internet, Butcher had neither the money nor the reason to spend the money to travel to Chicago for checking out the city for a book project that might most likely amount to nothing (like most book projects). By book 5 of a now rather successful series it's quite a bit less defendable. It was not impossible or prohibitively expensive to travel to Chicago for a week or so - or buy some books about the city, or simply find some people living there to mail your script to to make sure you get the basic layout right - like he does now I think (once he publishes anything again).
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Jul 7, 2019 06:46
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Please tell me, the fictional wizard dude I like so much isn't a stinking SJW, which I despise so much/stupid racist redneck I look down on! Just tell me he would never vote for the evil fucker/bitch the other side is stupid enough to vote into power!
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Jul 25, 2019 04:10
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I am here not to praise Dresden, but to bury him. Just like you I never liked him, he must have tricked me into reading this trash somehow! My taste is high-brow and impeccable, I would never read something pulpy and just fun! No wait, I love these books about that nerdy, overpowered wizard, who is so goony he should wear the hat. Flaws and all, wait time, iffy wokeness in 20 years hindsight and recons to smooth out things a bit. Can't wait for the next book, even if other UF series burn brighter in my heart, Dresden was one of my first loves in the genre.
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Aug 11, 2019 05:18
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