|
I am F5ing my kindle so hard right now!!!
|
#
¿
May 27, 2014 04:53
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 15, 2024 11:47 |
|
|
Murphy speculation (Spoilered for last book stuff): Murphy is getting a coin. I know, but hear me out. She has been described more than once as "fallen" or a "fallen woman." She was Lasciel in Harry's creepy sex dream, and "People do crazy things for love. Crazy, crazy things." Remember, when Harry needed the extra oomph to save Maggie, the Winter Mantle was the lesser of three or four evils, including Kemmler's Darkhallow and picking up a Coin. Even if she'd never gotten hurt, Murphy is 40 years old at least (she'd be closer to 50 but I'll close my eyes and pretend she was the world's youngest police LT ever when we met her 16-17 years ago.) Point is, especially now that she's been hurt, she needs a fairly substantial equalizer to stay in the game. I don't think the Swords provide that kind of physical oomph. In any case, I don't think Butcher is unaware of any of this, I don't think he's going to sideline his favorite rear end-kicker, and he's a fan of fall and redemption stories, so yeah, he's setting Good People up for a Fall...
|
|
#
¿
May 28, 2014 07:37
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Also, let's face it, racist. (with a hat tip to the PC Grant / Rivers of London series for pointing that out in hilarious fashion) Ethically-Challenged Practitioners. And what's extra hilarious is that Nightingale buys into it!
|
|
#
¿
Jun 29, 2014 06:18
|
|
|
ookiimarukochan posted:"Bob Howard" (which, we are regularly told, is a code-name) is a short form of his full name "Bob Oliver Francis Howard" - Stross is totally familiar. If you aren't reading his blog, http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/, you are missing out on a bunch of explanations, interesting story ideas he can't quite turn into books, etc etc. Yeah, I kind of knew it was a code name since he mentions the whole true name thing in the first book, but when he gets mentioned in the same breath as "Agent CANDID" with the same conventions, I was really 
|
|
#
¿
Jul 12, 2014 12:39
|
|
|
SystemLogoff posted:It all depends on how much you care about the story of letters being left behind. One of the things that bugged me about Anthony Ryan's second book after Blood Song. He dropped the framing device and I think the book suffered for its loss.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 2, 2015 12:01
|
|
|
Benny the Snake posted:Thanks. There's also something bugging me about the whole conceit of the series as well. If each river in London has an associated diety, wouldn't their health be dependant on their respective river? Therefore, Mama Thames, Father Thames, Lady Ty, et all shouldn't have so much influence but therefore be rather sickly and diseased to do decades upon decades of human polution and negligence, right? I just don't find it very feasable that any God or Goddess of nature would hold any sort of proper influence or power in any post-industrial nation nowadays. Especially in London, the town where the Industrial Revolution first took place. Not necessarily. If their power is based off the importance and influence of their river rather than the purity of the water.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 30, 2015 08:26
|
|
|
Khizan posted:Simon R. Green manages to build worlds I really like and then completely gently caress up the story he tells in them. This. It's the easiest thing in the world to copy and paste character descriptions...
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2015 03:12
|
|
|
Fried Chicken posted:What was that quasi-urban fantasy thing from a few years back where Bush invaded hell? I remember it getting mocked in LF, it was like mixing a David Weber power fantasy with a Tom Clancy handbook with the most smug "I'm too smart for religion" crap I've seen in a while. It was sucking David Petraeus' dick harder than Paula Broadwell by having him beat hell, while at the same time stroking its own ego about how hell was bronze age savages and military hardware was so Gosh darn awesome in its ability to blindly kill civilians. That sounds like John Ringo's "Through the Looking Glass" books. Oh. John Ringo. No.
|
|
#
¿
May 28, 2015 06:25
|
|
|
XyrlocShammypants posted:I downloaded Naked in Death, which apparently is Book 1 of a whopping 51 story saga I had never heard of. In the first few hours of listening, it sounds like "Karrin Murphy got her own series" in some ways and I am hoping this can fill a bit of the void left by catching up in the Dresden Files series. The series is definitely 'tech and no magic' as it takes place in the mid 21st Century, but that's fine with me. I actually read a bunch of these and liked them, but at some point stopped reading. The setting is actually pretty cool. It's a future America post-post some kind of social apocalypse called "The Urban Wars." It's never (at least as far as I got) really explained what happened but the country is governed from New Washington. It's got some really good characters and definitely passes the Bechdel Test. There are some steamy sex scenes in each book, but they normally only take up a couple of pages and are easily skippable.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2015 09:02
|
|
|
torgeaux posted:The Last Detective. I don't know if I endorse the equivalency, but I endorse reading the last Edit: fixed title navyjack fucked around with this message at 08:10 on Aug 21, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Aug 21, 2015 07:16
|
|
|
Barbe Rouge posted:I think it's Policeman, not Detective. Yeah, that's what I meant. Thanks!
|
|
#
¿
Aug 21, 2015 08:11
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:Has anyone read Myke Cole's books? He was on a panel with Jim at DragonCon and was just absolutely hilarious (in fact, he was more entertaining than Jim, something I've never seen happen), and I'm curious if I should check out his work. Myke is worth reading for being MilFic written by a military guy that's not all "Evil Liberals" and "Muslims are evil."
|
|
#
¿
Sep 20, 2015 10:21
|
|
|
My  goes on: Harry killing Marcone. Marcone is the longest running antagonists in the books and is basically set up as Harry's vanilla foil. Marcone out of the picture changes EVERYTHING
|
|
#
¿
Sep 23, 2015 06:23
|
|
|
ConfusedUs posted:I'm about 25% in, and I feel the same. Yeah, the talking cats are way better than I thought, but the fishmalk etherialists got old quick. Doorknobs
|
|
#
¿
Sep 30, 2015 18:46
|
|
|
flosofl posted:What do you mean? It's attached to the ground. They even mention the danger of the ground creatures at the base of the Spire. Yeah for some reason, I don't know why, but I had imagined them floating too. Dumb, now that I think about it.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2015 04:49
|
|
|
Shinjobi posted:So Grimm is the best character in the book, right? I've enjoyed his parts more than any of the others combined. Not disliking the other characters, mind you, but all I'm getting from this book is "The Adventures of Captain Grimm & His Sassy Sidekicks." I really liked the cats. Considering I expected to hate them, that's pretty cool!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 10, 2015 12:29
|
|
|
mallamp posted:Kate Daniels isn't paranormal romance?? It is, to an extent, but the focus stays more on Kate going and finding things out and loving people up than the romance/sex/alpha crap. Kind of like the early Anita Blake books before poo poo got so loving twisted.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 29, 2016 20:17
|
|
|
calandryll posted:Anyone read Borderline yet? I'm about 20% done and it's not bad, a bit rough but could be an ok series. I liked it well enough, but I don't know if I'd actively seek out the next one.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2016 05:02
|
|
|
Wolpertinger posted:In Shining Armor was pretty drat good. Book 1 was the roughest of the bunch but enjoyable, and from then on each book has been better than the last. I'm still trying to process the avalanche of action. This was a very active novel.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 28, 2016 11:16
|
|
|
Magres posted:Oh I had no idea that the RR in JRR was Ronal Reuel. Seconded! I move nominations be closed!
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2016 21:53
|
|
|
Geokinesis posted:Is there any "Rural Fantasy"? Not exactly fantasy because they're aliens, but Zenna Henderson's "The People" stories are about country-folk with strange powers. Dated as hell but still cool.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 5, 2016 01:44
|
|
|
mrking posted:Yea I went into the book thinking "talking cats wtf" and ended up loving the cats. I expect the second time around the main child characters won't be so insufferable, entitled, and juvenile. Me too! I almost didn't read it because of "talking cat Mafia" and the cats are the reason I'll pick up the second.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 24, 2016 11:29
|
|
|
ImpAtom posted:I actually wonder if it wouldn't be Michael. Then he'd be protecting his daughter, Michael is perhaps the one person who the Winter Knight mantle would have a hard time corruption, he's already been a knight and shown his worth, and yet there's just enough there for it to be a serious risk and for Harry to loathe himself for it in traditional Harry fashion. Oh man, Charity would KILL him!
|
|
#
¿
Sep 21, 2016 01:30
|
|
|
Drifter posted:If you want less alpha poo poo relationship stuff the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews is better - I mean, it's still there, but its' a lot better. I think Andrews wrote the better series, even. I just read the most recent book in this series and I can recommend it. Yeah, it's hot lady kick-rear end magic-user Mary-Sue and her Alpha-Shifter, but it doesn't get into squicky were-loving (much), the magic is cool and non-bog standard, and the over-arcing mythology is interesting enough to make the weak points worth overlooking.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 21, 2016 09:39
|
|
|
docbeard posted:Call me a contrarian if you must, but I don't really care about any Word of Jim unless those words are contained in books about the wizard Harry Dresden with titles made out of puns. I thought Cowl and Kumari were the two wardens that died "offstage" while Dresden was riding Sue? Maybe because one had an Asian name? It's been a minute.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 22, 2016 08:47
|
|
|
Wade Wilson posted:Cowl and Kumori were the last two necromancers standing. No, sorry. I meant that there were two Wardens (one a female with a Japanese name?) who both "died" off-screen or with a "no body recovered" right when the big fight starts and I always wondered if they weren't Cowl and Kumori's cover. I'll root through the book and find the passage and see if I can make sense.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 22, 2016 23:13
|
|
|
Calidus posted:Mab is really one of best characters in the series. She definitely in my top 3, and might even be number 1. Mab is a perfect example of how no one is a villain in her own mind. Everything she does is purposeful and aimed toward the greater good.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 27, 2016 11:14
|
|
|
flosofl posted:Are you saying she's a villain? I'm saying if she's a villain, then nobody is. Even Nick(odemus), if you drilled right down to it, doesn't see himself as "Capital E" Evil. He has what he considers just and good reasons for what he does. He's not a mustache-twirler. Honestly, I think it's almost a theme with the Dresden Files. Not so much "Good and Evil are where you stand" as " There's a thin line. Blink and you'll miss it."
|
|
#
¿
Oct 27, 2016 12:04
|
|
|
Khizan posted:Harry also does working sets with 400 kilos. This blows away pretty much every weightlifting record in the world, and that's as his daily workout. And he's a tall lanky runner, not the Mountain That Rides. While removing the limiters might let somebody shift 400kg once because their kid is trapped under it or something, it's not going to let that person do working sets at 400kg. Yeah. Butter's theory doesn't really hold up with what we've directly observed.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 29, 2016 02:18
|
|
|
Exmond posted:So uhh, this might not be the place with it but after my RPG group failed to start up Dresden Files RPG (Lot of effort to make a city) we are starting up Urban Shadows. Kind of has the same urban fantasy premise and the system is more focused on Story rather than mechanics. Has anyone tried it out? Stephen Blackmoore's "Dead Things" has what you're looking for, I think.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 29, 2016 21:25
|
|
|
Wheat Loaf posted:Is there anything good / noteworthy in UF that's set in the 19th / early-20th century? Maybe Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate books. They're YA and silly, but reasonably fun. The Anno Dracula books by Kim Newman might scratch that itch (decidedly NOT YA). The Bartimeus (sp?) books by Johnathan Stroud (also YA and silly) If you can handle Orson Scott Card and "non-Mormonism-seriously-you-guys", read the Alvin Maker, but, much like Dune, stop when you don't like them anymore.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 12, 2016 03:24
|
|
|
ookiimarukochan posted:A warning - they're very much twee stick-some-gears-on-brown-clothes 2nd generation steampunk (i.e. no consideration of the politics, all the nobility are kind wonderful chaps, etc) This is absolutely accurate.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 14, 2016 10:11
|
|
|
Wheat Loaf posted:Right, I understand it's more of a steampunk series than an urban fantasy one, but is anyone able to recommend or advise against The Custard Protocol by Gail Carringer? The Parasol Protectorate are the main series. Custard Protocol follow the kids of that, and Etiquette and Espionage are YA in same universe I think? I enjoyed them, but they are FLUFF.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 21, 2017 06:09
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:Having read at least some, if not all, of the books in each series, that's the order I'd give them. That said, I'd personally put Craig Schaefer's Daniel Faust/Harmony Black books above all of them. Agree! Craig Schaffer is a machine. Also, check out Stephen Blackmoore's "Dead Things" (can't remember if that's the name of the series or just a book). It's got a reluctant necromancer willing to burn LA to the ground for the ones he loves. Less ridiculous but about as noir as the Sandman Slim books.
|
|
#
¿
May 10, 2017 02:15
|
|
|
OneTwentySix posted:He put a cottonmouth snake in the middle of Lake Michigan, and it bugs the hell out of me. You can find them in extreme southern Illinois, but Lake Michigan is over 350 miles beyond their most northern range. Timber rattlesnake would be plausible, possibly even a massasauga, but definitely not a cottonmouth. I know this makes me a giant nerd. The giant Wrigley Field parking lot got a laugh out of me.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2017 23:41
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:There's a great mystery series set in Miami and the Keys in the seventies and eighties, the Travis McGee books by John D. McDonald. Ahem. Set in Ft Lauderdale, tyvm, Slip F-18, Bahia Mar aboard the Busted Flush.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 3, 2017 06:40
|
|
|
Decius posted:I'm currently on a Seanan McGuire's October Daye series bender (I think someone here is friends with her?) Book one is pretty rough (not as rough as Dresden book 1 though), but drat, by book three it's incredibly gripping and well written. The growth in writing ability is really astonishing. Main character not overpowered, no male gaze (since the main character is a woman written by a woman you at best get some descriptions of various hunks), quite funny at times, very cruel at others. You must like Faerie stuff however, since that's all it is about. I endorse this post whole-heartedly. If you can handle some romance in your UF, I'll add the "Magic 'blank'" series by Ilona Andrews. There are SEXXXXY shapeshifters, but it's not cringeworthy most of the time, and there is a cool Slavic mythology slant you don't see much of and the protagonist is actually pretty badass.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 9, 2017 06:30
|
|
|
Number Ten Cocks posted:That was revealed in a sample chapter months ago. Did we know from previous books that the Mandate was the Black Pharaoh? Or was that new info. Also, I didn't understand the bit at the very end where the Feeder babbles that gibberish at him? What was that about?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 11, 2017 21:26
|
|
|
Number Ten Cocks posted:That was revealed in a sample chapter months ago. You should go read it, it has a quick throwaway line that gives a chilling look into Bob's power-up After an attack on him where he used his Eater of Souls power to kill the 3 bad guys, he tells someone that if it had gotten away from him, he could have Eaten everyone in a kilometer radius (in downtown London). He then notes to himself that that is bollocks...he's not sure how far he could Eat, but it was a hell of a lot further than that. He also compares himself to a Trident submarine. Our little IT geek has grown way up!
|
|
#
¿
Jul 12, 2017 01:48
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 15, 2024 11:47 |
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:There are a bunch of wheel of Time references in Verus. The most direct is probably when Luna considers taking Zarine as a mage name and then decides against it. I'm super confused by the status of magic in society in these books. There seems to be no secrecy. They run around blowing poo poo up and getting in gunfights and having big meetings on fancy dress in visible London landmarks, but I don't recall any discussion of hiding out from the normies?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 16, 2017 20:41
|
|