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Author Topic: Return of the Book Thread  (Read 1286447 times)
Rasix
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Reply #6580 on: March 02, 2021, 08:10:22 AM

I started reading the Dresden books. Read about 5 and will probably read a few more, but something is a bit off. Just a bit too... try hard?

He writes from Harry's perspective, and Harry is a bit of a dork and, to be honest, chauvinist. A lot of it reads like wish fulfillment. It's a good story and interesting world, but I don't hold Butcher's writing up as a reason to read the series.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2021, 09:12:04 AM by Rasix »

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lamaros
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Reply #6581 on: March 02, 2021, 09:35:14 PM

I started reading the Dresden books. Read about 5 and will probably read a few more, but something is a bit off. Just a bit too... try hard?

He writes from Harry's perspective, and Harry is a bit of a dork and, to be honest, chauvinist. A lot of it reads like wish fulfillment. It's a good story and interesting world, but I don't hold Butcher's writing up as a reason to read the series.

Yeah the whole, "I'm chivalrous, now excuse me while I tell you all the details about the women's breasts and nipples, it's cold out" stuff is pretty tiring. It annoys me a lot more than Garrett P.I.'s "I'm sexist, I know, but I'll leave most of it to your imagination" stuff.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2021, 09:37:53 PM by lamaros »
Draegan
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Reply #6582 on: March 03, 2021, 05:29:31 AM

I've tried to re-read Dune a number of times in the last month.

I'll get to page 5 soon. I promise.
BobtheSomething
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Reply #6583 on: March 03, 2021, 08:36:27 AM

I've tried to re-read Dune a number of times in the last month.

I'll get to page 5 soon. I promise.

Maybe start with the appendices?
Khaldun
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Reply #6584 on: March 03, 2021, 10:14:29 AM

Dune is definitely a slow burn kind of read--it's so all-in on the world-building that even the exposition only comes in the form of both portentous and pretentious dialogue and Paul's inner monologue.
Johny Cee
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Reply #6585 on: March 03, 2021, 01:11:12 PM

I started reading the Dresden books. Read about 5 and will probably read a few more, but something is a bit off. Just a bit too... try hard?

He writes from Harry's perspective, and Harry is a bit of a dork and, to be honest, chauvinist. A lot of it reads like wish fulfillment. It's a good story and interesting world, but I don't hold Butcher's writing up as a reason to read the series.

Yeah the whole, "I'm chivalrous, now excuse me while I tell you all the details about the women's breasts and nipples, it's cold out" stuff is pretty tiring. It annoys me a lot more than Garrett P.I.'s "I'm sexist, I know, but I'll leave most of it to your imagination" stuff.

Harry feels like an audience surrogate/wish fulfillment character lots of times, so it feels blech because its putting his actions/thoughts on you.  As was pointed out in other places, Harry also has a pretty strong Nice Guy vibe and tends to think that women want him, but he also isn't getting any, so it feels extra gross.  Harry's voice is very modern/nerd culture, which helps with that audience identification.

Let's put it this way:  If Harry stared complaining about all the Chads getting the Beckys, would you be surprised?


Garrett is a character, we are just privy to his inner thoughts.  He also spends inordinate time talking about beer, horse paranoia, and how bad the swamps were in the war.  His voice, like many Cook characters, is kind of self-educated Blue Collar.  I wouldn't even call him sexist...  he seems to have no problem respecting women as equals or superiors (unlike Dresden!), he's just always on the prowl/kind of a womanizer.  He's sometimes a bit gross/sexually aggressive in a noir kind of way.  I'm entertained by Garrett as a character, but don't particularly identify with him.

NowhereMan
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Reply #6586 on: March 04, 2021, 06:55:30 AM

Yeah, Harry was written to be consciously like that but it really didn't work that well, it was at least partly an effort to pastiche/homage pulp detective stuff. Butcher has, I believe, admitted as much and made an effort to change those aspects of Harry and he's less obnoxious about that in later books. I do like that you see some actual character growth from people in the Dresden books but I wouldn't recommend anyone persevere through it if you're not enjoying things (at least once you're past the first 3 books, that I don't remember being particularly good).

"Look at my car. Do you think that was bought with the earnest love of geeks?" - HaemishM
rattran
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Unreasonable


Reply #6587 on: March 04, 2021, 12:57:44 PM

His new(ish) wife also gets pissed about the misogyny and points it out to him now.
WayAbvPar
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Reply #6588 on: April 15, 2021, 05:30:58 PM

Read the first of the Assassin's Apprentice series. It was wildly uneven, but I think I enjoyed it. Haven't read a 'new' fantasy series for a couple of years, so it was fun to get to learn a new world.

When speaking of the MMOG industry, the glass may be half full, but it's full of urine. HaemishM

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Chimpy
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Reply #6589 on: April 16, 2021, 04:21:46 AM

Read the first of the Assassin's Apprentice series. It was wildly uneven, but I think I enjoyed it. Haven't read a 'new' fantasy series for a couple of years, so it was fun to get to learn a new world.

Save yourself the trouble of continuing.  DRILLING AND WOMANLINESS

'Reality' is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
Reg
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Reply #6590 on: April 16, 2021, 04:41:13 AM

You're talking about the series by Robin Hobb? I liked it myself. I think Apprentice was her first book so yeah it's a little rough. She wrote several trilogies set in that world. If you like it, then google up the reading order and follow that. Fitz gets another trilogy of his own to cap it all off.

IMO, one of the best things about it is that it's complete. You aren't making a 20 year commitment like Wheel of Time.  awesome, for real
NowhereMan
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Reply #6591 on: April 16, 2021, 05:39:11 AM

I've just finished Brandon Sanderson's Rhythm of War (newest one in the Stormlight Archives series) and really enjoyed it. It's a long book and there's a good 15-20% that probably would have been better served as standalone novella or covering off the character it focuses on in an earlier book. Sanderson has definitely gotten a handle on the climax, things genuinely do build in tension and urgency and minor plots do get resolved before the finale (rather than historically where 90% of the novel was raising questions, creating plot threads and the last 10% was resolving everything suddenly).

I hope it's not spoiler worthy but these are part of his Cosmere thing and by this point they've added a lot more of people travelling from other planets and discussions of things going on in other parts of the universe. It's very much moving from the initial high fantasy setting to more Science Fantasy. It's interesting but I can see people getting frustrated at either 1) putting in all these 'natural laws' for magic that treats it as almost a mundane element of world or 2) Putting all this pseudo-scientific stuff that is nothing like how actual science works. Hard magic fantasy types will probably enjoy it but it is very much pseudo science in the sense that he talks about science being a gradual, collaborative process but then the plot requires one character to make pretty much a solo breakthrough through pulling 20 hour days due to obsession that leaps scientific understanding forward by 6000 years. In fairness those previous 6,000 years were mostly spent fighting using magic at the direction of god level beings that didn't really give people time to research stuff I guess.

Overall it was a solid entry and I did like his tackling of depression and mental illness with Kaladin. His prose still feels pretty workmanlike and it's definitely being dealt with as text rather than subtext but it definitely feels like he's put time in to understanding the issue and trying to handle it appropriately.

"Look at my car. Do you think that was bought with the earnest love of geeks?" - HaemishM
rattran
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Unreasonable


Reply #6592 on: April 16, 2021, 06:29:22 AM

Read the first of the Assassin's Apprentice series. It was wildly uneven, but I think I enjoyed it. Haven't read a 'new' fantasy series for a couple of years, so it was fun to get to learn a new world.

Overall, I've enjoyed her writing, but parts are really bad. In all her series there's at least some parts that made me just want to give up reading it and move to something more consistent.

Didn't help that I was reading Iain Banks' stuff for the first time in between her books.
Rendakor
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Reply #6593 on: April 16, 2021, 05:25:08 PM

I liked her first two Fitz trilogies (haven't read the newer one) but really hated the Soldier Son one. First book was mediocre, second was really shit, third was not purchased.

"i can't be a star citizen. they won't even give me a star green card"
Reg
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Reply #6594 on: April 17, 2021, 05:31:14 AM

Yeah, soldier son was garbage. Luckily, it had no visible connection to Fitz' universe so I figure it doesn't count. :)
HaemishM
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Reply #6595 on: September 06, 2021, 09:54:25 AM

NEW BOOK ALERT!

It took me two years to write but I finally have another Bridge Chronicles book out. It's called Paycheck Euphoria, the 6th book in the series and you can get it for your various devices here.

Next book hopefully won't take so long, and it will technically be my first standalone, non-genre book.

Khaldun
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Reply #6596 on: September 06, 2021, 08:20:20 PM

Congrats! That's a fantastic achievement.
lamaros
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Reply #6597 on: September 07, 2021, 05:30:35 AM

NEW BOOK ALERT!

It took me two years to write but I finally have another Bridge Chronicles book out. It's called Paycheck Euphoria, the 6th book in the series and you can get it for your various devices here.

Next book hopefully won't take so long, and it will technically be my first standalone, non-genre book.

Respect!
Chimpy
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Reply #6598 on: September 07, 2021, 12:45:21 PM

Next book hopefully won't take so long, and it will technically be my first standalone, non-genre book.

Will it be an autobiography then?

"A Day in the Life of the King of the Mud People" seems like a good title.

 why so serious?

'Reality' is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
HaemishM
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Reply #6599 on: September 07, 2021, 08:09:53 PM

It will actually be set in Mississippi in the 1960's, so more like Prequel to the Mud People's Kingdom.

RhyssaFireheart
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Reply #6600 on: September 09, 2021, 07:37:03 AM

Doing what I can.


HaemishM
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Reply #6601 on: September 10, 2021, 07:50:44 PM

Need Discord thumbs up emoji.  Thumbs up!

Sky
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Reply #6602 on: September 10, 2021, 08:26:45 PM

Just finished the 3rd book in the Book of Koli trilogy by Carey. I've been really burned out on tropey and/or ideological tracts masquerading as fiction, haven't really enjoyed a novel in years. Picked up the first Koli book on a whim (I'm a shelf browser) and thought it would bug me (first person, very specific speech patterns of the narrator). Best books I've read in a looong time.

Now I'm pissed I'm done and back in shitty novel hell. Thinking about just rereading some Culture stuff.
Salamok
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Reply #6603 on: January 07, 2022, 03:27:15 PM

You're talking about the series by Robin Hobb? I liked it myself. I think Apprentice was her first book so yeah it's a little rough.

It might have been the first book in the series but Robin Hobb wrote quite a few books in the 80's before starting the Farseer stuff.  I liked em enough to read them all but found it to be a pretty depressing series.
Khaldun
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Reply #6604 on: January 07, 2022, 04:22:02 PM

I'm kind of liking Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.
Samwise
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Reply #6605 on: January 09, 2022, 08:44:40 AM

I got a bunch of books for Christmas that I'm trying to make my way through (and maybe pick some to donate/re-gift rather than keep) before I move them from the coffee table to the shelves and they end up languishing there for decades.  I feel like I do this every year, with varying levels of success.

Recently finished "The Anomaly" by Herve Le Tellier.  Sci-fi set in the year 2021, feels like a really good Twilight Zone episode with a streak of Dr. Strangelove humor running through it.  Jumps between something like six PoV characters with relatively short chapters, so it's got that "one more chapter" snack food quality to it.  I'll probably end up re-gifting this one, as it was lots of fun to read but not one I'm going to want to return to.

Next up is "Orwell's Roses" by Rebecca Solnit, which I've only just started on; it's nonfiction so I'm probably not going to devour it in two sittings, but it's at least tangentially about gardening so it has a good shot at holding my interest.

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Khaldun
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Reply #6606 on: January 09, 2022, 09:30:41 AM

I like Solnit's writing--she's got a ton of range.
lamaros
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Reply #6607 on: January 09, 2022, 10:17:14 PM

I read the Naomi Novik wizardry YA books recently.

Really enjoyed the first one and the second was a real let down.
Khaldun
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Reply #6608 on: January 10, 2022, 07:15:59 AM

I haven't started the 2nd one yet. I didn't like the first one very much--way way way too much infodumping and the main character's inner voice didn't always seem very consistent to me.
Johny Cee
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Reply #6609 on: January 10, 2022, 08:59:59 AM

I'm kind of liking Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.


Read the characters list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_of_Crows


Lots of people have had the reaction of enjoying the book but having to vent at the ridiculous characters ages and backstories.... general theory is that the author shaved 10 years off of everyone to get the book into the YA category.

I mean:

"Inej Ghafa is a sixteen-year-old Suli girl known as the Wraith.[8][7] She is a spy for the Dregs and Kaz's right hand. Her preferred weapons are knives which she names after different saints.[12][7] Her family were travelling performers and her act was the tightrope, so she is extremely agile and lightfooted. She is rather superstitious, and one of the most religious out of the Crows.[7] She was kidnapped by slavers and tricked into working in a brothel before Kaz bought her indenture.[11] She's described as short, with bronze skin and black hair, worn in a braid.[7]"

So this 16 year old is renowned spy and knife-fighter, right hand of a mob boss.  Oh yah, and a former slave and... child prostitute?

"Kaz Brekker, also known as Dirtyhands,[8] is seventeen and a master thief with a reputation for doing anything for the right price.[9][7] He is second in command of the Dregs, and as the mastermind of the group, the de facto leader of the Crows.[10] He is haphephobic due to a traumatizing incident in his childhood and has a limp in his right leg from an improperly healed break.[11][7] He is described as very pale, with dark hair and dark brown eyes. He uses a cane with a crow's head top as a mobility aid and occasionally, as a weapon.[7]"

So this 17 year old is a master thief who needs a cane as a mobility aid (which he can still fight with!), has loads of trauma, while also being in charge of a criminal organization?


It's all pretty obviously ridiculous  It's fine though....  never pay attention to supposed ages in YA novels or anime.
Khaldun
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Reply #6610 on: January 10, 2022, 11:26:32 AM

Yeah, I just flat out ignored the ages of the characters, because they act like people in their late twenties.
lamaros
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Reply #6611 on: January 10, 2022, 04:15:36 PM

I haven't started the 2nd one yet. I didn't like the first one very much--way way way too much infodumping and the main character's inner voice didn't always seem very consistent to me.


Second is more and worse. You might want to give it a miss.

Yeah, I just flat out ignored the ages of the characters, because they act like people in their late twenties.



The Shadow and Bone TV series is watchable, but even there the characters are all a bit dumb.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2022, 04:20:03 PM by lamaros »
Fraeg
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Mad skills with the rod.


Reply #6612 on: January 17, 2022, 02:45:32 PM

recently read The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman. 

https://thenerddaily.com/review-the-blacktongue-thief-by-christopher-buehlman/

cheeky fun with a character whose snarky comments and thought kept me chuckling throughout.  Fantasy setting, main character is the loveable rogue/thief with a filthy mouth type thingy, but I cruised through this book on vacation and will definitely pickup the next one when it comes out.

cheers

"There is dignity and deep satisfaction in facing life and death without the comfort of heaven or the fear of hell and in sailing toward the great abyss with a smile."
Khaldun
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Reply #6613 on: January 17, 2022, 05:46:56 PM

Going to try Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth. Will report back.
Phildo
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Reply #6614 on: January 17, 2022, 07:13:23 PM

Going to try Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth. Will report back.

I enjoyed this book and the sequel quite a bit.  It's very weird in a fun way.
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