[QuickTidal]

Tattersail_, on 02 August 2016 - 09:34 PM, said:

I think I'm way ahead of the pack here. Maybe not QT. I have read 8 books on my kindle by Andrews. Awesome series. When is book 9 out QT?

Mid-September I believe.

[amphibian]

I'm fully up to date too. Next book comes out September 20.

[Abyss]

Finished bk 4 MAGIC BLEEDS. Another satisfying hit of the Kate-amine.

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

ALL BOOKS TO BK 4 SPOILERS

SPOILERS GIANT UNDEAD WEREPENIS WILL FUCK YOU IN THE BRAINS AND DROWN YOU

IN ZOMBIE WERESEMEN IF YOU KEEP READING

AFTER THIS POINT WITHOUT HAVING READ

THE FUCKING BOOKS SPOILERS

SPOILERS




Era was a great villain. Yes, her evil master plan was 'kill a lot of people', but her zombie mage sidekicks were fun, she was a valid threat from the start, and prompted Kate to up her game and make some hard choices about the Order, the Pack and Curran. Some crazy action scenes too. I liked the worldbuildling... the werepolitics were interesting, Simonn's manipulations were kind of sad, the insight into the Order was a nice reveal. Hugh's werecroc agent was a nice addition, look fwd to seeing her again




I am, however, becoming a little annoyed with the villains, who have been 'visually' interesting in the sense of cool powers, fun flunkies, serious opposition for the heroes... but whose motives are about par for a filler episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer ...

Magic Bites - the red Stalker - Immortal shapeshifter serial rapist/killer whose big plot was to rape and kill the hero. Ok, straightforward start for a book one. Fine.

Magic Burns - Margerwhatsisface - evil god wants to invade and eat world. because evil.

Magic Strikes - the Rakshasas - evil shapeshifters want to kill and eat good shapeshifters. because evil.

Magic Bleeds - Era - evil warrior necromancer who wants to kill good shapeshifters. because evil.

...I realize Roland is lurking in the background and provides the impetus for the Rak's and Era, but thats still underlying plot. Machiavellian this ain't.

Also, all four books culminated in some form of 'face the badguys in an arena'. I appreciate a big fight finish, really, but this is verging on video game level of predictable/repetitious. I'm utterly engaged by the characters, so it's more of a foible than an actual problem.




On to MAGIC SLAYS.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 05 August 2016 - 04:06 PM, said:

...I realize Roland is lurking in the background and provides the impetus for the Rak's and Era

^^This actually means much more than you think. RAFO.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 05 August 2016 - 04:41 PM, said:

Abyss, on 05 August 2016 - 04:06 PM, said:

...I realize Roland is lurking in the background and provides the impetus for the Rak's and Era

^^This actually means much more than you think. RAFO.

Roland is Ted, isn't he....? ...or maybe Derek... ...or is it Doli? Is Doli really Roland?!!?!??! ...I will be serious fucking pissed if Roland is Doli in disguise....

[amphibian]

I think the next book will have you in a better place regarding villains.

The episodic nature seems to be how the series caught on as a whole, rather than launching straight into the deep plot. Lower stakes initial buy-in might be a good narrative tactic for book series going forwards

[Cause]

I have begun. Half way through book 1.

This is very important though. We need a poll. Will it be Kate-amine or Katecstasy.

[amphibian]

Kateamine is it.

[Abyss]

Kateamine.
CoKate is too close to CoCaine and Katestacy sounds like two sorority sisters who hang out together too much. ....sorry QT.

[Cause]

These books don't seem to even get off the ground till book 3 but I see tremendous growth in the third book. Hopefully it continues.

Thank God for Kindles! I would not purchase a book with these covers in public!

[Abyss]

Seriously. The cover of MAGIC SLAYS is anatomically impossible... the fuck is wrong with her legs?








I did, however, enjoy the book. Especially the finale which was a nice switch from the 'big bad shows up, Kate fights it, Curran kills it' pattern to date.

Spoiler

Seriously, bringing in the weres, vamPeople, witches, volves, druids, misc other mages AND mercs... to deal with a bunch of anti-magic terrorists

...oh yeah, that was nicely epic.




Started the Andrea-centric novel GUNMETAL MAGIC in earbook now. So far so good. The narrator mostly succeeds in not making her sound like Kate, but regardless the character has enough differences to keep the story distinct, and the writing is at the same level as the later books, which is to say better than the earlier ones.

A bit of a challenge for them to write Andrea since she isn't human the way Kate is, but so far they make the werehyena thing work.

I realized a chapter or so in that this is the second Andrea story, there was an earlier Andrea/Rafael one - MAGIC MOURNS - I have that too but didn't feel the need to pause.




As nitpicky aside: It is a little odd to me that hyena are native to Africa and Asia but most of the werehyenae are white or Hispanic. I think Jezebel is the only black member so far.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 16 August 2016 - 03:55 PM, said:

As nitpicky aside: It is a little odd to me that hyena are native to Africa and Asia but most of the werehyenae are white or Hispanic. I think Jezebel is the only black member so far.

They are not made in Africa though. These are American people who have turned into these creatures. Remember Shifters in the Kate Daniel's world come from being infected with the Lyc-V virus. They don't choose what they shift into based on location or natural animals of the area.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 16 August 2016 - 04:23 PM, said:

Abyss, on 16 August 2016 - 03:55 PM, said:

As nitpicky aside: It is a little odd to me that hyena are native to Africa and Asia but most of the werehyenae are white or Hispanic. I think Jezebel is the only black member so far.

They are not made in Africa though. These are American people who have turned into these creatures. Remember Shifters in the Kate Daniel's world come from being infected with the Lyc-V virus. They don't choose what they shift into based on location or natural animals of the area.

Yeah, I'm not expecting geographic accuracy and science from an urban fantasy series. It was just something that jumped out at me, since most/all the werewolves appear to be white American people, the foxes are Asian, Jim is a panther and Doli a tiger. The one weredingo was Australian.

[amphibian]

Welcome to the biggest problem I have with the series - the sometimes verging on bigoted "who's what animal" choices. I get that the Lyc virus can spread nicely between family members like regular illnesses too, but this "conforms to stereotype" thing happens a bit too much to really be anything other than laziness.

This post has been edited by amphibian: 16 August 2016 - 05:31 PM

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 16 August 2016 - 04:39 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 16 August 2016 - 04:23 PM, said:

Abyss, on 16 August 2016 - 03:55 PM, said:

As nitpicky aside: It is a little odd to me that hyena are native to Africa and Asia but most of the werehyenae are white or Hispanic. I think Jezebel is the only black member so far.

They are not made in Africa though. These are American people who have turned into these creatures. Remember Shifters in the Kate Daniel's world come from being infected with the Lyc-V virus. They don't choose what they shift into based on location or natural animals of the area.

Yeah, I'm not expecting geographic accuracy and science from an urban fantasy series. It was just something that jumped out at me, since most/all the werewolves appear to be white American people, the foxes are Asian, Jim is a panther and Doli a tiger. The one weredingo was Australian.

Not all the wolves are white (in fact I think the Alaska Ice Pack has a number of native americans), and all the foxes aren't asian (I'm not sure where you got that)...but I largely think as the series goes on the diversity of animals they shift into gets more diverse as Ilona just blows open the list of animals she can have as shifters. But I can list lots of non-typical choices of animals-to-humans... I mean where does Clan Rat fall? or Clan heavy? Like sure some of the animals might culturally line up with the geography of where they are from...but I don't see it as a problem at all. I mean Curran is a blonde white guy and is a Clan cat, Jim is a beefy black guy and is Clan cat, and Dali is an Indonesian woman and is Clan cat. I don't see anything inherently poorly chosen on that front when most of clan cat is that diverse.

Edit: I also think that Jim and Dali are both cats to be compatible within the narrative, and that was purposely chosen by Andrews.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 16 August 2016 - 05:36 PM

[Abyss]

Can't say with certainty but all the foxes I can recall were Asian and all the rats were Hispanic. Curran is a big white guy but he's also an 'Old One', so technically he could be a Neanderthal or something if that were a factor.

But it's just speculation, nothing turns on it. I agree that the notion that Lyke-v type is in any way geographic would be ridiculous in the 'world' the authors have made.

The hyenas just jumped out at me because they are so central to the story.




...It's still better that what LK Hamilton did with her werehyenas, who were all for some reason gay male S&M addicts (as an aside, her wererat alpha was devastatingly attractive knife fighting dark haired Hispanic dude named Raphael... coincidence? ).

[Cause]

QuickTidal, on 16 August 2016 - 04:23 PM, said:

Abyss, on 16 August 2016 - 03:55 PM, said:

As nitpicky aside: It is a little odd to me that hyena are native to Africa and Asia but most of the werehyenae are white or Hispanic. I think Jezebel is the only black member so far.

They are not made in Africa though. These are American people who have turned into these creatures. Remember Shifters in the Kate Daniel's world come from being infected with the Lyc-V virus. They don't choose what they shift into based on location or natural animals of the area.

I find the whole Lyc-V things goes against a core fundement of the books. Magic and tech can't co exist. They swing back and forth likes waves etc. Yet Lyc-V is a very scientific way to explain a magic curse. Similiarly we are told how the first ampire was created (MAGIC!) but apparently vampirism is nos spread by a pathogen.

I like the blade movies, it explains vampires nicely in our modern world where science is real, with a virus that rewrites your DNA. In the Kate books I find it muddles the divide between magic did and their is a rational explanation for all of this. I also cant help but think that they lifted the virus idea. If not from blade then from underworld or wherever the hell it comes from originally.

[Abyss]

It's a magic virus, duh.

But that's pretty well established which is why the big threat in SLAYS affects weres.

Also, in GUNMETAL, Andrea comments on how her werehyena senses get a boost when the magic is up.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 17 August 2016 - 03:28 PM, said:

It's a magic virus, duh.

But that's pretty well established which is why the big threat in SLAYS affects weres.

Also, in GUNMETAL, Andrea comments on how her werehyena senses get a boost when the magic is up.

Possible Andrea spoilers, as I can't recall what book this was revealed in...

Spoiler

Andrea is Beastkin though, not a normal Lyc-V infected shifter, so I'll wager she has different senses, no?

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 17 August 2016 - 04:19 PM

[Cause]

She tells me its a virus and I accept it. This is the rules of fantasy books. You buy into the wold or you don't.

I just find it odd and thematically inconsistent. Magic is governed by peoples faith. Phones sometimes work in a magic wave because people don't really know how they work, they work as if by magic, so sometimes they do. The Jews write things and because they have faith in them they offer protection. Wa

A magic virus, to me, seems a contradiction in terms. Is it magic that makes them shape-shifters or is it the virus? It rewrites their DNA (this is sciency) but the magic is what lets them add mass without it having to come from anywhere. The plastic surgeon once mentioned using Lyc-V for procedures.

I suppose imorten pathogen is better. A pathogen could be anything. It could literally just refer to the magic that passes into someone from contact with vampire blood.

Not really important in the gran scheme of things