[Abyss]

My thread... Don't spoil me.Be warned. Spoilers.
Go...
Three chapters in and it appears I've met the three main characters...Gwen... Nothing particularly endearing or original about Gwen at this point, but I enjoyed the twist with her Mom staging the entire fight to ensure she did go join the Spirearch's guard.
Grimm. I really enjoyed this chapter, tho I have a fondness for airships generally. Liked how Butcher wrote the battle and how things went the opposite of good. Grimm him sf, well, nothing original just yet but the uniform had a nice Capt Harlok vibe and I look fwd to more.
Bridget... I did not tear up when Rowl joins her. I did not, THOSE WERE FUCKING ALLERGIES. I can already tell I'm going to enjoy what Butcher does ith the cats.
The setting generally is interesting... Getting a post apocalyptic spire city vat grown meat vibe. All good.

[Andorion]

Abyss, on 03 October 2015 - 05:10 PM, said:

My thread... Don't spoil me.Be warned. Spoilers.
Go...
Three chapters in and it appears I've met the three main characters...Gwen... Nothing particularly endearing or original about Gwen at this point, but I enjoyed the twist with her Mom staging the entire fight to ensure she did go join the Spirearch's guard.
Grimm. I really enjoyed this chapter, tho I have a fondness for airships generally. Liked how Butcher wrote the battle and how things went the opposite of good. Grimm him sf, well, nothing original just yet but the uniform had a nice Capt Harlok vibe and I look fwd to more.
Bridget... I did not tear up when Rowl joins her. I did not, THOSE WERE FUCKING ALLERGIES. I can already tell I'm going to enjoy what Butcher does ith the cats.
The setting generally is interesting... Getting a post apocalyptic spire city vat grown meat vibe. All good.

I figured you would like the cats.

[Abyss]

I admit it, I like the cats, moreso now that Rowl is getting pov chapters too.
Other authors, mostly in the YA zone, have done the cat pov thing, but Butcher manages to make it less cutesy.
That said there is a YA vibe running thru this so far, at least in all but Grimm's storyline. And even there, while I liked Ferus and Folly and I'm curious what an Etherist does, there is a Lets keep this simple element so far. I'm reminded of the first couple of ALERA books, tho Butcher's writing is far better here.
Air raid sirens just interrupted Bridget and Reggies duel.... This should be good.

[Gnaw]

The butler did it.

[Abyss]

Marathon'd the rest of the book... my reactions in more or less chronological order....



Fuck the duel, it's WAR!

Auroran soldiers need to work on their game.

Oooh, standoff.

Grimm you patriotic madman you. I liked how his men were utterly overmatched by the Aururan marines and masically won by being tricky and lucky.

What's that Rowl? Bridget fell down the well???

FOLLOW THAT CAT!!!

Heh... liking the Spirearch. He has this nifty combo of manipulative bastard and honorable noble and scholar going.

Three hour cat grooming competition!!!

I don't know what the Ropes are but that can't be good.

Geez, Nine-claws cats are dicks.

NO! Not the Ropes!

Argh xenomorphs silkweavers!!!!

Go Rowl!!!!

GO FOLLY. Holy fuck.

Wait... where's the big one....?

Cut to the pub... oh hey THERE'S the big one! REALLY BIG.

Benedict is clearly badass but am hoping there's a bit more to him.

Neat fight this. Full points to Gwen for shooting the Big One in the face. About time she did something that didn't involve yelling at people.

Cavendish is nicely creepy and evil and likes tea. Love it. Sark was better on ALIAS.

Oh fuck Bridget and Folly cannot catch a break.

oh it's on. It's SO on.

Liking the whole crystals/skyships thing.

Silkweavers! BIIIIIG silkweaver!!!!

Go verminators!!!!

FUCK MORE SILKWEAVERS

Ouch.... bye verminators.

GO ROWL BATTLE SPURS HIND LEG CHOPPER MOVE OF DOOM GOOOOO!!!!!!

"I saved his kit." "From what?" "Me." ....Rowl gets all the best lines.

The Library... Ben... brother whatsisface... Bridget.... Rowl... FUCK.

Calliope you ASSHOLE.

Save the Predator! Electrocute Gwen if necessary (or not necessary) BUT SAVE THE PREDATOR.

Airship chase! Love!!!!

Did Folly just talk to Predator? She did, FOLLY JUST TALKED TO PREDATOR!!!!

FOLLOW THAT STAR!!!

"I would tear down a spire for you Littlemouse." ROWL GETS ALL THE BEST LINES. ...no i am not crying it's allergies fuckoof.

Oh damn that was a cool airship fight.

THE ITASCA ... FUCK!!!!

COOLEST AIRSHIP BATTLE EVER WRITTEN EVER.



So yeah... i liked it.

More later.

[Andorion]

Abyss, on 06 October 2015 - 02:57 PM, said:

Marathon'd the rest of the book... my reactions in more or less chronological order....



Fuck the duel, it's WAR!

Auroran soldiers need to work on their game.

Oooh, standoff.

Grimm you patriotic madman you. I liked how his men were utterly overmatched by the Aururan marines and masically won by being tricky and lucky.

What's that Rowl? Bridget fell down the well???

FOLLOW THAT CAT!!!

Heh... liking the Spirearch. He has this nifty combo of manipulative bastard and honorable noble and scholar going.

Three hour cat grooming competition!!!

I don't know what the Ropes are but that can't be good.

Geez, Nine-claws cats are dicks.

NO! Not the Ropes!

Argh xenomorphs silkweavers!!!!

Go Rowl!!!!

GO FOLLY. Holy fuck.

Wait... where's the big one....?

Cut to the pub... oh hey THERE'S the big one! REALLY BIG.

Benedict is clearly badass but am hoping there's a bit more to him.

Neat fight this. Full points to Gwen for shooting the Big One in the face. About time she did something that didn't involve yelling at people.

Cavendish is nicely creepy and evil and likes tea. Love it. Sark was better on ALIAS.

Oh fuck Bridget and Folly cannot catch a break.

oh it's on. It's SO on.

Liking the whole crystals/skyships thing.

Silkweavers! BIIIIIG silkweaver!!!!

Go verminators!!!!

FUCK MORE SILKWEAVERS

Ouch.... bye verminators.

GO ROWL BATTLE SPURS HIND LEG CHOPPER MOVE OF DOOM GOOOOO!!!!!!

"I saved his kit." "From what?" "Me." ....Rowl gets all the best lines.

The Library... Ben... brother whatsisface... Bridget.... Rowl... FUCK.

Calliope you ASSHOLE.

Save the Predator! Electrocute Gwen if necessary (or not necessary) BUT SAVE THE PREDATOR.

Airship chase! Love!!!!

Did Folly just talk to Predator? She did, FOLLY JUST TALKED TO PREDATOR!!!!

FOLLOW THAT STAR!!!

"I would tear down a spire for you Littlemouse." ROWL GETS ALL THE BEST LINES. ...no i am not crying it's allergies fuckoof.

Oh damn that was a cool airship fight.

THE ITASCA ... FUCK!!!!

COOLEST AIRSHIP BATTLE EVER WRITTEN EVER.



So yeah... i liked it.

More later.

I would rep you twice if I could. Amazing how closely our reactions mirror each other!

Follow that Cat!

[Abyss]

Andorion, on 06 October 2015 - 03:25 PM, said:

I would rep you twice if I could. Amazing how closely our reactions mirror each other!

Follow that Cat!

FOLLOW THAT CAT!!!!!

[Coco with marshmallows]

Anybody else read Cavendish as Michelle Gomez playing Missy in Dr Who?

[Abyss]

Coco with marshmallows, on 06 October 2015 - 07:17 PM, said:

Anybody else read Cavendish as Michelle Gomez playing Missy in Dr Who?

In my head she was more Eva Green per PENNY DREADFUL playing more campy evil.

[Tattersail_]

Rowl

[Maark Abbott]

I was a little disappointed none of the ships had a Vigoro Cannon.

BUHRRRRING IT ON!

[Baco Xtath]

Finished this last week. Overall, I loved the book. I like the originality of it. Loved Rowl's POV and the cat behavior overall - so much like real cats - so vain, self-absorbed, ninja, badasses. I'll definitely be following this one.

[Abyss]

CATS IS NINJAS!!!!!!

[Abyss]

rise dead ded-thread RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISE!!!!

right then, CINDER SPIRES bk 2 is out, rolling thread is needed.

I'll takethis back a step and start with WARRIORBORN, a short story Butcher released this past summer set between WINDLASS and OLYMPIAN, then move on to Olympian.

I'll try to mark Warrior spoilers clearly bcs i ack not many have read that vs the main books.

Otherwise SPOILERS uncovered for wherever i am i whatever book, no later spoilers please thanks dontmakemehurtyou.

GO!

[Abyss]

Scuze the extended pause, was a bit busy w non-reading stuff.

WARRIORBORN is fun. Benedict takes three other warriorborn (cat-people) on a mission to recover important information from another Spire. When they arrive the Spire is a mess and the four have to work together to survive. Hilarity and bloodshed ensue.

Spoiler

Benedit was a good choice for a solo story. He was interesting but underdeveloped in WINDLASS and was mostly Bridget's love interest. Here we see him in all his supersoldier glory, along w three other supersoldiers i mean warriorborn who are great fun. Maybelle the sex kitten and Jensen the idiot merc are fun. Lady Herringford I LOVE(d). Best cat-person serial killer noble EVER.

Oh hey Gwen is XO on the Predator now, good move for the character.

Weird, little things missing along w all the people eaten by acidworms.

We have enemy soldiers, weird tube worm things, an enemy warriorborn HOLY LIZARDFUCKS A DRAGON.

I like the dragon, Butcher made it nicely original, more coatl than fire breathing lizard. Great fun.

Hello minicats. MINICATS!!!!!!!!!!

Crap. Bye Maybelle. Probably.

Bye Jensen.

OH CRAP LADY F TOO OUCH!

SANZA MINICAT STRIKE YYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAA TAKE THAT MUTHAFUCKER

This last few minutes was INSANE. Especially the 'skydive w 12 cats stuck to him' thing.

Great story. I very enjoyed that.

[Abyss]

Let me jump ahead here... CH 14, the first few minutes, Gwen - who, in shocking contrast to bk 1, i am loving in her role as Predator's XO - and Grimm stroll through Spire Olympia on their way to visit a friend of Grimm's, who happens to be a Piker airship captain. Those seven minutes of 'chat' about airships was the single greatest non-shooting fantasy lit airship text i have ever read. Butcher... damn. The level of thought Butcher put into this... into his world here generally... is staggering. It could be absolute BS, a 'real' paratrooper or navy or air force soldier might poke holes in what they chat about but goddamit it reads SO GOOD. The sheer planning required to think through this fantasy world of spire cities and crystal powered airships and gunpoder weapons, come up with a society that is inherently 'poor', then create an entirely plausible system for that society's airships, and explain it in a way that contrasts with the Avalon/Aurora/etc Spires and airships we've seen so far... while at the same time telling the reader more about the Avalon airships and why Predator specifically is special... I ack it's become trendy elsenet to slam Butcher for some if his patterns and other stuff in Dresden but godsdammit this book is GREAT.

[Abyss]

Moving back in time, some initial reactions....


Oh hi Calliope!

hi Sark!!!

hi mysterious vaguely evil olverlord spirearch dude!!!

hi CavendishWHAT THE FUCKING FUCK IS SHE DOING
WHAT IS THAT AND WHY IS SHE
WTF WHAT NO SERIOUSLY EW
AND ALSO HOLY FUCK OMG WTH.....

...ok ok everything is alright now that was gross and weird.....

Yay, back on the Predator!!!!
Hi Grimm!
Hi Gwen!!!
And Gwen is XO and i'm loving her witty repartee w the First Mate.

Hi Folly!!!
Folly is having tea w Predator. OMG i love this.

Ah, so we are parallel to events in WARRIORBORN, literally (hee) just ahead of events at the end of the story. Strictly speaking a reader need not have read the short, it's explained well, but that's still a bit of a dick move considering it just became widely available and usually at silly prices.

So technically 'hi Benedict' is appropriate even tho i just saw him in the short story like an hour earlier and we get to meet the minicats again so that's good.


I like Abby and Alex Bayard, fun new characters and their chemistry is nicely done.

Cat politics are so much fun, and Rowl is going to end up completely owned by the minicats here.

Hi Bridget!!!
Hi Rowl!!!! ...riding on a special platform on Bridget's shoulder armor, naturally.

[Abyss]

k i love Abby just a little

ah, we're doing the 'important meeting where everyone important gathers' thing

Spire Atlantis w its ruling etherialist cabal is intriguing. 'The Spectrum'... hee

fascinating the amount of time we're spending w Calliope and the Auroran marines angsting about flying around helping Cavendish massacre colonies - REnaldo is sort of an archetype but i like the byplay tween him and his sgt and Sark

the Auroran duelist Valesko is going to be an absolute asshat and a great villain

k Bridget, Benedict and Rowl's mission to the surface is at once interesting but also feels like we're just getting them out of the way

i like Grim and Bayard's friendship. i dont like how Abby is manipulating it tho it is a good plot point

have to say it again, the visit to the Piker ship is just excellent airship goodness

Ravena is glorious and Grim deserves her

heh, i like Findley more and more

k the Olympian admiral thank Gwen for taking out the silkweaver back in bk 1 was hysterical and totally apropriate.

the Spectrum Ladies' lunch took some wild turns. Abby and Folly were doing an excellent job til Evil Duelist guy showed up. I loved Abby's response, decking the woman who set her up.

huh... we are absolutely looking at a situation where Bayard is taken out and Grim has to fight the duel. And I am here for it.



Ch 27

Fantasy lit NEEDS more giant praying mantis attacks. This entire sequence was so good. It was obvious something was going to attack them to motivate Far to hand over the territory to the minicats, Butcher spent way too much time on the setup for it not to, but the pay-off was solid. I didn't think Bridget or Ben or Rowl were in real peril, but it wasn't looking good. Also, cats vs giant praying mantises!!!!

Also, cat politics are great.

'A Mistmaw'. No clue what that is but i want more of it.

Ch 28-30

Ren and Calliope plotting against Cavendish, great. Ren stating 'I will become a pirate.', YES.

....now why are they on the way to Olympia....?

Yep, Valesko is a problem. That 'practice' duel was as brutal as it had to be to make the point.

Also setting up the Bayard v Valesko duel cleverly w the side discussion re the aeroport dueling platform. That is some Star Wars level 'big hole to fall down' planning.

[Abyss]

Calliope you JERK. AGAIN.

Abby's duel was excellent.

Grimm's was savage.

And while both were very predictable, Butcher executed (heh) the action scenes very effectively.

Farris and Folly were particularly entertaining protecting Abby from magic during her duel.

And now... Mistmaw on the way, Auroran aramada too, Calliope and Ren penned in by crystal zombies, Grimm wounded, Abby pregnant, Ben and Bridg and Rowl and Fenley racing to get there in time... yeah, this finale is shaping up VERY nicely.