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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I think Glen Cook wrote a fantasy detective series as well, can't recall it offhand, had metal in the names of the book like cold copper tears or something like that. ulmont posted:He did. The first 4-5 are pretty good, especially if you enjoyed Hammett/Chandler and of course Stout. After that...it’s like Dune: stop when you want, it really won’t get better (n.b: I have read them all). I like Garrett a lot but the books are aggressively formulaic in terms of how they shake out the exact same every time, the twist is always in the same portion of the book, Garrett always figures it out at the exact same time, the threat is almost always the same, the damsel is always not a damsel at all. Which is sort of extra funny coming from the guy who wrote The Black Company, but I still thoroughly recommend reading at least a couple if you like pulpy fantasy detective book as a concept.
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Oct 4, 2019 07:19
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C.M. Kruger posted:Don't forget the part where Gerrett is at a dead end so he wanders around town until the bad guys send thugs to knock him on the head. Y'ain't wrong.
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Oct 4, 2019 08:34
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I mean it's not to say that they're without their merits. Even his cliche takes on the character archetypes of fantasy and the typical fantasy races are a lot of fun. Does sound like I should read Nero Wolfe though.
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Oct 4, 2019 13:22
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Per General Battuta's inside quote I would like to know more about these sixteen years of Yoon Ha Le short fiction I really should have been reading before now, if anyone's got a good dish. Ninefox Gambit was excellent and I'll be grabbing 2-4 tonight but I'm definitely down for just more of his brain.
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Oct 11, 2019 00:39
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Done, thanks.
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Oct 11, 2019 02:17
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He sighed as he unsheathed his credit card.
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Oct 17, 2019 01:35
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I'm still reading Revenant Gun (almost done, extremely good) but they're all sitting in my rapidly ballooning backlog. This thread is dangerous to my ever finding peace of mind in my reading time ever again.
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Oct 19, 2019 06:25
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NinjaDebugger posted:I buy everything I think I'm going to want to read, and then it sits in my giant to be read pile inside the nook app, staring at me sadly. This. I did almost no reading for like three years about a decade ago but kept accumulating backlog and finally cleared that up just before reading Gideon the Ninth. I've now accumulated like another two years of books to read already, if I read at the rate I used to when I was younger. It is a problem.
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Oct 19, 2019 17:27
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Moon comes out and you just turn inside out and get to lay there as a pile of meat for the evening.
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Oct 24, 2019 12:44
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Mr Hootington posted:When does the Black Company become bad? I'm finishing up book 2 and will get book 3, but is that a good place to stop? When I initially read Shadow Games all those horrid eons ago I was very, very much not a fan and didn't revisit them, despite loving 1-3, for a long time. I reread them recently and happily went through the whole shebang. Now fully granted, it does get worse as it goes on, for a variety of reasons, but the "read until you don't want to" methodology applies real well here.
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Oct 24, 2019 15:51
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Proteus Jones with the obviously superior reference. 
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Oct 24, 2019 17:21
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Obviously you write something cool to balance it out. And then suffer under the mental yoke that no matter how cool what you write is, that tweet is your overarching contribution to civilization. Orv fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Oct 30, 2019 |
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Oct 30, 2019 15:17
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I know they're delicious and that's all I need.
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Oct 30, 2019 15:49
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Ben Nevis posted:Just finished Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It's a fantasy set in 1920s Mexico where a young woman working as a servant for her extended family stumbles across a deposed god of the underworld and must help him regain his throne. Story is decent, and decently paced, but the draw here may well be the Mayan mythology. It delves a lot into Xibalba, the Land of the Dead, as well as other demons, spirits, etc all while travelling across a Jazz Age Mexico from a tiny village to a resort in Tijuana. If you're one of those who enjoys fantasy that draws from other traditions, this might be a good one for you. Yes hello I'll take ten directly in my veins.
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Nov 6, 2019 19:39
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cptn_dr posted:(Full disclosure I'm doing publicity for this book on a volunteer basis - I'm not getting paid, I just like it a lot and I'm not as shy as the author) I only have so much linear time! 
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Nov 9, 2019 00:17
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C.M. Kruger posted:I read Gardens of the Moon recently and it took me like 2-3 tries to actually finish it. IMO the main problem is that you have multiple prequel sections/opening acts introducing everybody before the story actually gets moving. It felt like the book didn't really "start" until after Crokus and company show up. Much as I love Malazan I'm always reticent to recommend it because, you know, aside from the baby eating and the rape and the mass murder and all that fun epic fantasy stuff, you also have to read three whole very long, very dense, completely unconnected (at the time) books before you get into the meat of the story. Sure, I think it's probably worth it but woof.
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Nov 13, 2019 09:06
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cptn_dr posted:I dunno, I think Deadhouse Gates is a good enough standalone novel that even though it doesn't really connect to the meat of the story until much later, it's hardly a chore. I meant Ice and Chains. Deadhouse is a quality follow-up to Gardens and is maybe (I'd have to do some real thinking about it but I think I'm right) the only Malazan book I have zero complaints with. E: Also turns out I'm dumb and meant Ice and Tides but completely forgot about Chains actual story re Karsa. Guess it's time to reread! 
Orv fucked around with this message at 09:41 on Nov 13, 2019 |
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Nov 13, 2019 09:33
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Lost Fleet is cool because it does relativistic space combat which as far as I know is pretty rare but everything in between those is aggressively same-y and quickly rides into the badlands.
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Nov 14, 2019 04:57
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Ninefox Gambit: Do The Heresy Again I finished Revenant Gun just last night and while I agree that there is somewhat of a lesser emphasis on the bizarre universe of the second and third novels I think it holds up to the end. Interestingly my favorite bit all the way through the series was the servitor stuff, though all of it was some level of engaging for the most part.
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Nov 19, 2019 04:04
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Jedao is none of those things, though?
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Nov 19, 2019 09:47
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StrixNebulosa posted:The Black Jewels features magic golden cockrings of obedience on at least two main characters so far, and they're brought up pretty often. I mean, how sure are we that they're actually magical?
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Nov 19, 2019 17:51
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StrixNebulosa posted:They can sense a man's disobedient thoughts if he tenses up too much, and cause pain as punishment, so.... I'm just gonna leave all these horrific jokes on the table and say that's pretty weird.
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Nov 19, 2019 18:53
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I couldn't speak to whatever linguistic mechanics of Polish-English translation are responsible for it - including maybe there being new translations since I read them - but when I went through the books they were pretty, crisp, let's say? There's a certain level of odd formality to the dialogue and a lot of the description tends towards dry. I enjoyed my time with them a fair bit and they certainly deepened my appreciation of the games I'd recently played but while there is a definite upswing in writing quality as the books go on I don't think the nature of the prose changes overmuch. You can probably drop it.
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Nov 19, 2019 23:15
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The Witcher stories and books are definitely a few or more toes into bog-standard fantasy in places but there's something to be said for the world he's written being bleak without being grimdark and for the characters mostly acting like people in the poo poo world they've found themselves in. Ultimately though, much as I like them they're not aggressively revolutionary.
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Nov 20, 2019 00:24
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Call me when they decide to waste Jeremy Irons again.
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Nov 20, 2019 13:34
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I need to give the Powder Mage stuff another try. It's one of those things, like I do with TV a lot, where I just inexplicably stopped reading it one day despite enjoying it and then never picked it up again.
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Nov 26, 2019 01:10
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BadOptics posted:Finished The Scar last night and it was a great story, but if I ever see the word "puissant/puissance" again I'm gonna have a stroke. Would you say the prose was quite puissant in your recollection?
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Nov 29, 2019 04:53
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tokenbrownguy posted:Finished the first powder mage book. Yeaaaaaah. I started rereading it and while powder magic is extremely cool and the end where the protag 360 no scope headshots god is extremely fun-dumb, yeaaaaaaah.
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Dec 3, 2019 09:21
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pradmer posted:Any opinions on Seven Blades in Black by Sam Sykes? I haven't read his other stuff but the first two books in this series are on sale today. I have not read Seven Blades in Black but I will say that Sam Sykes writes very good snark and very hateable characters, do with that as you will.
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Dec 4, 2019 04:35
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Silver2195 posted:When people aim for “historical” takes they often end up with a bunch of unintentional anachronisms anyway, while removing interesting elements. Like the 2004 movie. I like that movie.  Not because it's good, mind you.
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Dec 12, 2019 16:29
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Some smatterings of the EU stuff are okay for what they are, any license genre fiction is inevitably gonna be rich in low quality nonsense with occasional standouts. Just, avoid the Yuuzhan Vong.
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Dec 29, 2019 01:52
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StrixNebulosa posted:Cherryh always starts her series with helpless men being thrust into situations they don't understand and being forced to suffer before they can integrate and become competent. Foreigner eventually turns into competence porn, but first Bren has to get poisoned, nearly die a dozen times, and deal with the world's least elegant toilet. Her books are next on my giant catch up list but if they weren't that last bit'd certainly do the trick just to see what on earth you could possibly be talking about.
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Jan 2, 2020 11:13
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I feel attacked.
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Jan 6, 2020 16:22
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