[Traveller]

D, on 24 December 2012 - 06:26 PM, said:

I'm going to be getting these for Christmas (people are bad at surprising me with books ), so I hope everyone except Traveller is right!

I hope you like them, too. It's the only case I can think of where I've followed forum advice on books, and decided I didn't agree, so odds are you'll like 'em. The story kept me reading, but I didn't think the Romans-in-another-Universe/Pokemon thing worked, and I didn't particularly enjoy reading them due to Butchers writing style. Or lack of one.

Briar King, on 25 December 2012 - 12:40 AM, said:

Malaclypse, on 24 December 2012 - 01:27 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 21 December 2012 - 11:10 PM, said:

Malaclypse, on 19 December 2012 - 05:38 PM, said:

Does it get better?

A bit.

Traveller, on 23 December 2012 - 11:28 PM, said:

Malaclypse, on 19 December 2012 - 05:38 PM, said:

read the first one and it was utter shite, only barely got through it and the ending was so unutterably juvenile and cheesy I could hardly believe it.

Does it get better? Spoilers don't bother me, btw

I'd say, no, it doesn't.

I kept reading as everyone was telling me it would get better, and then later I felt I should finish the series as I'd started it. By the last one I was trudging through, and at the end I wish I'd read something else instead.

Something good, for example.

So despite what a lot of other people will say, I would think that if you didn't like the first one, you're really not going to suddenly change your mind by book 2, 3, or even 5.

Thanks. I can't see it getting any better. For similar concepts, Barclay does a much better job dealing with a more interesting scenario, ie. the birth of magic in a similar world. Cry of the Newborn is a solid book.

Thats a bummer. Atleast try to get to bk 2 where all the rest of us are saying how the story explodes all your joy sensors in your brain.

See, this is what I was told when I voiced doubts about book 1. I got a unanimous 'keep reading, it gets much better.' So I did, yes, there are some good elements to it, but I personally found the lead characters very shallow, and Butchers writing... incredibly amateurish. Constant repeated phrases, and everyone talking 'quietly' to each other all the time for no apparent reason, drove me mad as I wanted to read the story but the problems were too distracting. When you find yourself scanning down a page to see just how many more times the same words or phrases appear, you know you're not getting on well with it. I don't know about joy, mostly I was torn between wanting to find out how it would end, and throwing the book at the wall in frustration.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 25 December 2012 - 07:48 PM

[D'rek]

So I'm about 300 pages into the first one and I like it quite a bit. I don't know what you guys are all complaining about with your "the first one was is awful [but it gets better]" stuff. If this is your definition of awful, you need to read more crappy books!

Sure, the Calderon parts before Amara and evil dudes get there is pretty generic fantasy sheeps-ville at first, and you're like "oh geez, the farmers are going to have a civil dispute, how tedious". But then they do have a civil dispute... by going all Vader and force-choking each other. '

The only problem I foresee is that now I will never be able to read another generic fantasy farm setting book without constantly thinking about how some force-choking would improve it...

[Abyss]

D, on 02 January 2013 - 05:12 PM, said:

...The only problem I foresee is that now I will never be able to read another generic fantasy farm setting book without constantly thinking about how some force-choking would improve it...

But that applies to most things.

[D'rek]

Finished book 2 on the weekend. Decided I will read book 3 next, but then read a different book or two between Alera 1-3 and 4-6. #2 was good, though I think I actually liked #1 better. The exoticism of the herdbanes, gargants, wax spiders, crocodile thingies, etc made it very engrossing, while #2 is a lot of human-vs-human conflict and intrigue instead.

Spoiler

Or human-vs-vord-human.
I'm kinda lumping the Marat themselves (but not their totems) and the wolf dudes in with humans, as though different they aren't *that* different enough to be in the same level of weird and coolness as the foreign animals listed above)

Book 1's bad guy was better, too, and IMO made the climax more heart-pounding

Spoiler

Fidelias magic-roping the noose on Fade and tossing him over the wall? Nooooooooooo!
Whereas the vord queens were kinda boringly inhuman.

Still good though!

Up to the end of book 2, it seemed to be getting pretty obvious that

Spoiler

Tavi is the Princep's son, and Fade probably ran away from the battle to bring Tavi to Isana after Tavi's mom and Princep-daddy died.

Except that then Isana calls him son, so I guess Isana was the Princep's girlfriend and bore Tavi, and probably Fade ran away with either pregnant-Isana or Isana-and-baby-Tavi. Plenty of reason for Isana to hate Gaius without really knowing him then, from whatever things came up in her relationship with the Princep.

And then perfect setup for Tavi to inherit grandpa's kingdom or whatever.

But it kinda seems too obvious... I'm expecting Butcher to flip this around somehow and I probably won't see the flip coming at all.


Lastly, the first Amara chapter in book 3 is straight-up porn.

This post has been edited by D'rek: 28 January 2013 - 03:58 PM

[D'rek]

#3 is done. Pretty damn entertaining more or less all the way through. The Isana plotline was kinda boring, but the Tavi one was really fun.

Only one mind-blowing moment in the main book (spoilers for #3 and Dead Beat)

Spoiler

I really, really thought Tavi was planning to use old Roman catapults on the bridge - introducing one at the start and never using it would be like introducing Sue at the start of Dead Beat and never using her later!

But having Venosaur Crassus and Max use Solar Beam was way more awesome.

Totally didn't pick up on the Sextus > Septimus bit before, but Tavi = Octavius was a cool *mental click* moment.

...then the epilogue came, and it was awesome. Jim Butcher writes the best damn epilogues ever.

Spoiler

I remember thinking "where the hell is Fidelias?" at the very start, and finally Amara asks the same question. But as Marcus? Damn! And that conversation between him and Gaius is positively loaded.

And then Tavi flicking the furylamp switch and Kitai's eye-rolling reaction was sooooo good.

And then Kitai does it and

[lastname]

Finished Furies of Calderon a little while ago and it was a mixed bag for me. There were some fun bits but Butcher's writing really bothered me. Crappy prose (see spoilered section below if you really want to) sticks out a lot more in a fantasy setting than in Dresden's world. I liked the fun bits enough that I'll pick up the second book at some point.

Spoiler

A dozen instances of "laying down" (on something): He/she isn't a frickin gardener laying down some sod. It's "lying down"!
A million instances of "off of": This would be fine if you were to say "... the cutting off of his hand". It is nonsensical, I think, to say, "He jumped off of his horse." This has been covered ad-nauseum by Merriam Webster and others.
"You are kidding me, you've gotta be joking": This was Pirellus, a presumably educated pseudo-Roman Commander, not some random farmboy. All I can say is, "You've gotta be kidding me!"
"I've got a bad feeling about this": Really?

- aspiring grammar Nazi

[Dolmen 2.0]

Princeps Fury is amazingly epic.

That is all.

[lastname]

Briar King, on 31 October 2013 - 04:11 AM, said:

Dolmen+, on 28 October 2013 - 07:37 AM, said:

Princeps Fury is amazingly epic.

That is all.

Fucking A it is

I agree heartily. I was an ass for ragging on Butcher . On to First Lord's Fury.