[polishgenius]

JPK, on 18 September 2017 - 03:13 PM, said:

I finished The Urth of the New Sun last night. I'm entirely of the opinion that the book isn't optional and just needs to be considered the 5th book in the New Sun cycle. It answers so many of the questions that were left at the end of Citadel of the Autarch.

Ha, this is exactly why I think it is optional. It's probably necessary to link New Sun into the rest of the Solar Cycle cleanly (though I'm not sure, not yet having finished the Solar Cycle) but I'm of the opinion that not all of those questions needed to be answered and some were better left open-ended or for the reader to work out themselves. That was half the charm of New Sun.

It's an excellent book, though, Urth. Love the descriptions of space and the ship.

[End of Disc One]

Honey Cups, on 18 September 2017 - 05:36 PM, said:

How many Dresden novellas are out and what order should be read? Not looking up in case of spoilers.

The Side Jobs collection tells you when each story takes place. I believe next year the second collection, Brief Cases, will release. I've read a majority of those stories already, and some of them take place earlier in the series, so it would be hard to do a chronological read if you're waiting for that collection.'

If you want to do publication order, see the Wikipedia page and only look at the right hand side for publication dates. https://en.wikipedia...s_short_fiction

[Abyss]

End of Disc One, on 18 September 2017 - 05:42 PM, said:

Honey Cups, on 18 September 2017 - 05:36 PM, said:

How many Dresden novellas are out and what order should be read? Not looking up in case of spoilers.

The Side Jobs collection tells you when each story takes place. I believe next year the second collection, Brief Cases, will release. I've read a majority of those stories already, and some of them take place earlier in the series, so it would be hard to do a chronological read if you're waiting for that collection.'

If you want to do publication order, see the Wikipedia page and only look at the right hand side for publication dates. https://en.wikipedia...s_short_fiction

You could read the entire series to date, then the shorts. They slot nicely where Butcher has situated them, but none are essential to know what's going on in the main books. Occasionally there's an offhand reference, but Butcher routinely throws those in re events we never see (ie to give a sense of the bigger world moving along outside of the books), so it's not offputting.

Some of the shorts are pretty great, a bunch are formulaic and just decent Dresden.

You're right to avoid spoilers early in the series tho, as some are right in the blurb, ie identifying a character's relationship to another character that is only revealed or develops in a later book.

[Puck]

I'm halfway through Ricardo Pinto's The Chosen, book one in The Stone Dance of the Chameleon, and I. am. loving. this. Well, technically, not every bit (not a fan of teenaged protagonists), but it's a setting based on mesoamerican cultures and there are dinosaurs. Unlike many reviews I also actually like the slow progress of the plot, I think it's the right pace for what the book is doing. Basically, I'm halfway in love.

[Salt-Man Z]

Honey Cups, on 18 September 2017 - 05:36 PM, said:

How many Dresden novellas are out and what order should be read? Not looking up in case of spoilers.

You're in luck, as I've compiled a comprehensive list/timeline on this very messageboard!

Puck, on 18 September 2017 - 06:29 PM, said:

I'm halfway through Ricardo Pinto's The Chosen, book one in The Stone Dance of the Chameleon, and I. am. loving. this. Well, technically, not every bit (not a fan of teenaged protagonists), but it's a setting based on mesoamerican cultures and there are dinosaurs. Unlike many reviews I also actually like the slow progress of the plot, I think it's the right pace for what the book is doing. Basically, I'm halfway in love.

The first book had me enthralled. The second book (and first half of the third) really dragged for me, though. (And you'll see why when you get there.) Still, an absolutely amazing and unique trilogy.

[Abyss]

Honey Cups, on 18 September 2017 - 10:23 PM, said:

Nice. Guess I should def go buy Side Jobs then for sure. I can read as I go through the series.

If you want to be completist, it's a good idea and you WILL enjoy.

[worry]

Butcher is a repetitious fool sometimes, and it gets a little annoying if you're marathoning him. You just gotta forgive him that to get to the good stuff.

[JPK]

Hey BK, get his Bigfoot triligy as well. I'm not entirely sure where they fit in chronologically, but they are referenced in later books.

Full series spoiler:

Spoiler

Specifically, in Skin Game. Harry compares the Genoskwa to River Shoulders, and the thing damn near kills him for it.

Abyss, I'm only 1 1/2 chapters into The Causal Angel and I'm steady loving it. What the fuck happened during the time jump!? RAFO RAFO, I know...

[Abyss]

Honey Cups, on 19 September 2017 - 03:15 AM, said:

Yeah I ll try and get it before I get much further in. One gripe I'm having this time around is how much Harry is on his last leg powerwise. I think Fool Moon had this a lot. It gets irritating. Storm Front had about 4. I can't remember it getting to me the 1st time quite this bad.

My biggest problem with reading STORM and FOOL back to back was this. By halfway thru FOOL Harry has been beaten and almost out of power like eight times and its tiresome. But the end of MOON sticks the landing, and things only become crazier in the next books.

worry, on 19 September 2017 - 03:34 AM, said:

Butcher is a repetitious fool sometimes, and it gets a little annoying if you're marathoning him. You just gotta forgive him that to get to the good stuff.

Yeah, he approaches each book as if it might be someone's first, and i get it, i totally get it, but on the marathon it's utterly tiresome, however much i love the dresdencrack.

JPK, on 19 September 2017 - 05:45 AM, said:

Hey BK, get his Bigfoot triligy as well. I'm not entirely sure where they fit in chronologically, but they are referenced in later books.

Full series spoiler:

Spoiler

Specifically, in Skin Game. Harry compares the Genoskwa to River Shoulders, and the thing damn near kills him for it.

The (entirely fun) BIGFOOT trilo is available (or was) as a small collected novella, but the stories will likely be in BRIEF CASES as well. The shorts are all pretty irrelevant to the main story, even the ref JPK notes.

Quote

Abyss, I'm only 1 1/2 chapters into The Causal Angel and I'm steady loving it. What the fuck happened during the time jump!? RAFO RAFO, I know...

Heh.. it's not just RAFO, it's important RAFO. Trust in Jean (never trust Jean).

[End of Disc One]

IIRC book 3, Grave Peril, was one of the biggest offenders of Harry getting constantly beaten down. Great book though.

This post has been edited by End of Disc One: 19 September 2017 - 02:36 PM

[Abyss]

End of Disc One, on 19 September 2017 - 02:36 PM, said:

IIRC book 3, Grave Peril, was one of the biggest offenders of Harry getting constantly beaten down. Great book though.

I didn't think GP was quite as bad as FM but yeah it was still a thing.
Thankfully by SUMMER KNIGHT it becomes less silly on that point.

[JPK]

25% into The Causal Angel. I have some thoughts so far, some minorly spoilerish:

1- Locke Lamorra ain't got shit on Jean Le Flambuer.

Spoiler

2- Little Matjek is fucking awesome. Every time he's around he's simply eating the whole scene. From his Narnia obsession and questing Jean about the ending of The Last Battle to his breaking every vir Jean can think to throw at him... it's easy to see why the elder Matjek's were so scary and ran the whole show.

3- the Gun Club is fucking awesome.

4- Mieli's chapters are utterly captivating. The first one with her climbing the mountain in pursuit of the Yuki-Onna was just beautifully written and executed.

5- Holy Shit... they killed the entire Oubliette. That's not terrifying power at all.

In summary, how in the fuck did Hannu manage to make this series even more awesome after The Fractal Prince?

This post has been edited by JPK: 20 September 2017 - 03:24 PM

[polishgenius]

1- Jean Le Flambeur ain't got shit on Arsene Lupin (on whom he is openly based).

[Andorion]

Finished Moon over Soho. Neat little ending there. I think PC Grant will get some character evolution in the next book.

[Abyss]

JPK, on 20 September 2017 - 03:24 PM, said:

25% into The Causal Angel. I have some thoughts so far, some minorly spoilerish:

1- Locke Lamorra ain't got shit on Jean Le Flambuer.

Spoiler

2- Little Matjek is fucking awesome. Every time he's around he's simply eating the whole scene. From his Narnia obsession and questing Jean about the ending of The Last Battle to his breaking every vir Jean can think to throw at him... it's easy to see why the elder Matjek's were so scary and ran the whole show.

3- the Gun Club is fucking awesome.

4- Mieli's chapters are utterly captivating. The first one with her climbing the mountain in pursuit of the Yuki-Onna was just beautifully written and executed.

5- Holy Shit... they killed the entire Oubliette. That's not terrifying power at all.

In summary, how in the fuck did Hannu manage to make this series even more awesome after The Fractal Prince?

Yeah, your point 5 in particular was staggering. Total 'did that just happen?' moment.

polishgenius, on 20 September 2017 - 04:39 PM, said:

1- Jean Le Flambeur ain't got shit on Arsene Lupin (on whom he is openly based).

Part of why he's a great character, truly.

Andorion, on 20 September 2017 - 04:59 PM, said:

Finished Moon over Soho. Neat little ending there. I think PC Grant will get some character evolution in the next book.

You won't be dissappointed, I think.

[Andorion]

30% into Whispers Underground.

Yay, Leslie's back! I really missed her.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Finished Newman's Vagrant trilogy earlier this week. Highly recommend it. I'm looking forward to reading his oeuvre as his career continues.

About 1/4 of the way into Mieville's The Scar. Some luscious prose in here.

[Andorion]

Reading Max Gladstone's Ruin of Angels, also The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington

[Mentalist]

Short rundown of what I've been reading since end of Aug during my vacation:

1) Re-read of "The Steel Remains" - I remembered next to nothing about this, except Ringil and a bit about Eg. On a re-read, it's still not as good as Morgan's Covacs stuff, but it's ok, and some interesting world-building aspects.

2) since I was back home, I finally read a book I got from one of my cousins about a year ago- "Політ золотої мушки", or "The flight of a golden fly" by Bohdan Voloshyn. It's a collection of satirical short stories exposing a bunch of Western Ukrainian quirks through a fictional small town and its inhabitants. The hook of the book is supposed to be it's heavy use of extreme Galician dialectisms (my cousin and her husband had a very hard time reading it). However, due to me spending a lot of time around 2nd and 3rd gen Uki Canadians who use the archaic Galician as their primary Ukrainian, that factor wasn't a barrier for me. As for the content, I've read the earlier stories before, somewhere (I suspect I may have gotten the book from the Uki section of my library in Canada). The later stories lost the satirical tone, getting somewhat darker, and the tone change didn't really work for me. Still, an ok distraction overall.

3) Also read Arnold Joseph Toynbee's "Civilization on Trial" and "The West and the World"- 2 collections of essays written by a history prof writing in the 1950s about the philosophy of history. If you take into account that this is written way before the Internet and at the onset of the Cold War, there were some scarily interesting and accurate insights in there about the course of world's history looking at it in a "clash of civilizations"-type of analysis, but philosophy instead of political science. Worth a look, despite how clearly dated it is.

4) Because I didn't want to cart the whole volume back with me, I speed-read Saltykov-Schedrin's "Tale of One City". Satire exposing Russian absolutism and popular acquiescence to authority is all kinds of depressing.

5) While in Europe, I resumed "The Cold Commands". I'm still interested where Morgan is going with this, and gonna try to pick up "The Dark Defiles" tomorrow so I can finish the trilo while it's still fresh, but i';m not loving it. It's ok, but not great.

6) I also read Ian McDonald's "Brasyl" which was pretty fun, though I liked the "River of Gods" approach with many more PoVs better than just having 3 storylines to follow. Still, a really cool premise, and strong theme of local colour made it an engrossing read overall.

I also started Francis Fukuyama's The origins of Political order: From Prehuman times to the French Revolution which so far is an oddly accessible (after "End of History") attempt at applying evolutionary principles to human societies to trace the evolution of the main components of liberal democracies throughout human history. It feels like it'd be a pretty monumental work, so I think i'll try the Malaz re-read approach to this of squeezing in a chapter a day before bedtime to make sure I don't abandon this, because it's pretty interesting and development theroy and comparative studies have always been my favourite aspects of my Poli Sci almost-minor in undergrad.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 24 December 2017 - 09:38 PM

[Andorion]

Mentalist, on 23 September 2017 - 09:59 PM, said:

Short rundown of what I've been reading since end of Aug during my vacation:

1) Re-read of "The Steel Remains" - I remembered next to nothing about this, except Ringil and a bit about Eg. On a re-read, it's still not as good as Morgan's Covacs stuff, but it's ok, and some interesting world-building aspects.

2) since I was back home, I finally read a book I got from one of my cousins about a year ago- "Політ золотої мушки", or "The flight of a golden fly" by Bohdan Voloshyn. It's a collection of satirical short stories exposing a bunch of Western Ukrainian quirks through a fictional small town and its inhabitants. The hook of the book is supposed to be it's heavy use of extreme Galician dialectisms (my cousin and her husband had a very hard time reading it). However, due to me spending a lot of time around 2nd and 3rd gen Uki Canadians who use the archaic Galician as their primary Ukrainian, that factor wasn't a barrier for me. As for the content, I've read the earlier stories before, somewhere (I suspect I may have gotten the book from the Uki section of my library in Canada). The later stories lost the satirical tone, getting somewhat darker, and the tone change didn't really work for me. Still, an ok distraction overall.

3) Also read Arnold Joseph Torynbee's "Civilization on Trial" and "The West and the World"- 2 collections of essays written by a history prof writing in the 1950s about the philosophy of history. If you take into account that this is written way before the Internet and at the onset of the Cold War, there were some scarily interesting and accurate insights in there about the course of world's history looking at it in a "clash of civilizations"-type of analysis, but philosophy instead of political science. Worth a look, despite how clearly dated it is.

4) Because I didn't want to cart the whole volume back with me, I speed-read Saltykov-Schedrin's "Tale of One City". Satire exposing Russian absolutism and popular acquiescence to authority is all kinds of depressing.

5) While in Europe, I resumed "The Cold Commands". I'm still interested where Morgan is going with this, and gonna try to pick up "The Dark Defiles" tomorrow so I can finish the trilo while it's still fresh, but i';m not loving it. It's ok, but not great.

6) I also read Ian McDonald's "Brasyl" which was pretty fun, though I liked the "River of Gods" approach with many more PoVs better than just having 3 storylines to follow. Still, a really cool premise, and strong theme of local colour made it an engrossing read overall.

I also started Francis Fukuyama's The origins of Political order: From Prehuman times to the French Revolution which so far is an oddly accessible (after "End of History") attempt at applying evolutionary principles to human societies to trace the evolution of the main components of liberal democracies throughout human history. It feels like it'd be a pretty monumental work, so I think i'll try the Malaz re-read approach to this of squeezing in a chapter a day before bedtime to make sure I don't abandon this, because it's pretty interesting and development theroy and comparative studies have always been my favourite aspects of my Poli Sci almost-minor in undergrad.

I really liked the Dark Defiles, I think you may like it too.

Been meaning to read Toynbee forever.