[Andorion]

QuickTidal, on 20 December 2014 - 01:21 PM, said:

amphibian, on 20 December 2014 - 06:22 AM, said:

Andorion, on 20 December 2014 - 02:28 AM, said:

Quote

as seen through Kate who is a relatively unenhanced human in comparison to everyone else

I would like to disagree about this.

Also one of the main attractions of this series for me was that there was a seriously kickass female protagonist with no big hangups and the romance angle did not really detract ffrom this.

In the beginning, everyone else has greater magical power than Kate. She's a terrific sword fighter, but the others have shapeshifting powers, regeneration, vampire piloting, blessings of gods and so on. She doesn't.

So that's what I'm talking about without getting into spoilers.

Yeah it's not about her not having power, it's totally about her not using that power. She uses a power word not even a quarter of the way into the first book, and she chastises herself for revealing that much.

EDIT: Andorion got to it before me.

Yeah in terms of increasing power, she picks up more magic words and refines the blood magic. Though as of the most recent book that is still pretty sporadic I thought. Her main focus was on conealing her power.

SPOILER FOR MAGIC BURNS. SPOILER INVOLVES DIRECT QUOTE

QT Remember this?

Spoiler

My cue. I ran forward, light on my feet, farther and farther away from the shapeshifter line. Ahead, the Fomorians swelled before me.
I dropped all the guards. All the leashes, all the chains, everything that ever restrained me through the discipline and fear of discovery, I let all of it go. No need to hide. Magic flowed through me, intoxicating, heady, seductive. It mixed with my bloodlust and I realized that’s how my father must have felt when he led his armies into battle. I was raised by Roland’s Warlord. I’d dropped my shackles and they would bow to me.
Magic sang through me. Drunk on its strength, I held nothing back and barked a word of power.
“Osanda!” Kneel.
The magic erupted from me like a tsunami. The ground shook as hundreds of knees hit it in unison. The Fomorian ranks collapsed to the ground in a spray of blood and crunch of broken leg bones, as if a giant had stomped an enormous bloody footprint in their midst. My pain was so slight, I barely noticed it. The pressure of magic within me finally eased.
Faced with its vanguard writhing on the ground in pain, the horde halted in horror. I saw Morfran across the field, his disgusting face distinct before me with preternatural clarity, his eyes shocked. I drank that shock in. I reveled in it and I laughed.
“Bring your army, little god! My sword is hungry!”

[QuickTidal]

Yeah, that was an awesome moment!

[amphibian]

Andorion, on 20 December 2014 - 10:07 AM, said:

I read it as not so much not having power, but consciously not using power. As for the group affiliation, frnakly I thought the Order sucked. They never actually did anything discernibly useful.

She had two power words from Voron from childhood and then proceeded to not get any more until the first book dumped four more on her lap early on (in her mid 20s). She didn't have that much power - it was all "potential unrealized" at that point.

The Order's effectiveness isn't really the point of what I was saying; Ilona Andrews basically put her in the positions to episodically control every single powerful group in Atlanta over the course of the books due to her niceness. The Order, the Pack, the Vampires, the Vikings, the Witches and so on all bow to her when she comes calling. It's not because it's in their best interests to do that. It is because she's nice and has some sort of connection to the top person by familial ties or because she's a Mary Sue.

At least Dresden had to walk into spots and make friends/enemies by himself (other than the Raiths/Council).

This post has been edited by amphibian: 20 December 2014 - 02:54 PM

[Baco Xtath]

Finished Traitor's Blade a couple nights ago; definitely one of my top reads of the year. Halfway through Six-Gun Tarot then leaned on and broke my kindle. New one should be here in a couple days so I'm on Feersum Injun until it arrives.

Tried to listen to Off to Be the Wizard and gave up after an hour; way too silly for me. Now I'm listening to season 1 of the Beam and Broken Monsters. Both are good. Going to star Jhreg sometime in the next couple days for my first foray into Vlad Taltos.

[Andorion]

Finished my little tour through sci-fi with Nivens Ringworld Saga. Also dipped into Wahammer 40K with some Ciaphas Cain books. Funny, entertaining, but a little repetitive. But they qualify as great light reads when you are between heavy series. This has made me want to get back into the Warhammer universe again.Wonder hwat would be a good re-entry point. There are so many books....

On a different note started Michael Stackpole's At the Queens Command. . Seems pretty standard stuff so far, but its exploration themed and thats what I love reading about.

[Abyss]

Just finished Rajanieni's CAUSAL ANGEL. And DAMN, that author had one mindfuck of an imagination! I could nitpick a few things, maybe I'll do that in the ded thread, but overall a satisfying end to a hell of an amazing series.
Then reread SKIN GAME bcs I needed some random dresdencrack and that finale remains breathtakingly awesome.
Now... Now I finish EX MACHINA... then...
Not sure... Probably Aaronovich's FOXGLOVE SUMMER.

[Traveller]

Dicken's A Christmas Carol.

Just because I've seen so many versions I can hardly remember the original, and I'm feeling festive. Also reading Memories of Ice as my overdue reread continues.

[JPK]

Baco Xtath, on 20 December 2014 - 05:05 PM, said:

Going to start Jhereg sometime in the next couple days for my first foray into Vlad Taltos.

I envy you for this. One of those books I'd love to read for the first time again.

[JPK]

I'm absolutely loving Chasm City. I'm glad I saved this for after the main trilogy, but I see how reading it right after Revelation Space would have helped clear up certain things in books two and three, like the virus.

[Puck]

Still not much time for reading, so I'm slowly making my way through a couple of short story anthologies. Fearsome Magics proves to be entertaining so far, and I have Fearsome Journeys waiting as well. It works as I can read one story before bed time. Can't do without reading.

This, however, reminds me that after several short stories I REALLY want to check out more stuff by K. J. Parker. Can anyone recommend where to start?

This post has been edited by Puck: 24 December 2014 - 09:50 AM

[amphibian]

The Engineer trilogy is the best place to start. The stories for the Fencer and the other one are considerably more grim.

[polishgenius]

I wouldn't necessarily start with Engineer - I did, read the first one but stuck on the second one and didn't read anything else of her for years.

Then I started reading her standalones a little while back and enjoyed them much more (although The Company is unbelievably depressing). I recommend Sharps or The Folding Knife as a starter, personally.

[Tiste Simeon]

Man Kylar is so whiny. In fact near enough everyone in this book (2nd Night Angel book) seems to spend the whole time moaning and worrying about each other without ever talking about it.

The only cool person in it is

Spoiler

Jarl and he just got killed.

It's getting quite annoying.

[JPK]

polishgenius, on 24 December 2014 - 09:46 PM, said:

I wouldn't necessarily start with Engineer - I did, read the first one but stuck on the second one and didn't read anything else of her for years.

Then I started reading her standalones a little while back and enjoyed them much more (although The Company is unbelievably depressing). I recommend Sharps or The Folding Knife as a starter, personally.

The same thing happened to me with Engineer and since I finally finished it, I've only managed to read The Company. You're right, it's bleak as shit, but after those two examples I have to ask if any of her stuff isn't.

This post has been edited by The Incredible Kitsu: 25 December 2014 - 04:33 AM

[Puck]

Thanks for the input

Part of what drew me into Parker's short stories was that they tended to be on the bleak side but without wallowing in it, so this sounds promising. I think I have The Company on my TRP in paperback, which sounds like a strange way to start, but on the other hand it sounds like something I'd like

[EmperorMagus]

Puck, on 25 December 2014 - 10:19 AM, said:

Thanks for the input

Part of what drew me into Parker's short stories was that they tended to be on the bleak side but without wallowing in it, so this sounds promising. I think I have The Company on my TRP in paperback, which sounds like a strange way to start, but on the other hand it sounds like something I'd like

I would recommend "The Folding Knife" instead of the Company. Because it's simply just brilliant. I was dazed for a whole day after finishing it.

[amphibian]

KJ Parker can WRITE REAL GOOT.

However, the nature of that "goot" writing is a particularly tough kind for many readers to digest and enjoy. Puck seems well aware of the general dour outlook/compulsion to pick at what "good" and "evil" are in the story and characters (as well as the technical explanations of things that rivals that of Neal Stephenson), so that's good.

I'm of the opinion that more people should read KJ Parker and that Malazan/Stephenson/ASOIAF/Black Company are particularly good precursors to her corpus.

[Andorion]

Finished Stackpole's Queens Command. Started the second book Of Limited Loyalty. 30 chapters in and the book just turned on me. So far it had been pretty straightforward exploration, with mystery, a mild bit of politics and a miniscule bit of combat. The magic system was being gradually laid out. Then BOOM and it goes all Cthulhu-shit. So now we have tentacled monster visaged temples, magical glyphs, also old magic resurfacing. In fact the last chapter or two reminds me a lot of Peter Hamilton's Reality Dysfunction, only fantasy, not sci-fi.

[Maark Abbott]

Incidentally I'm reading the GN version of Way of Shadows.

I always pronounced Kylar as Kyle-argh. Odd to realise it's meant to rhymer with 'killer'.

[Avatar]

After 2 years of reading lots of books from other writers, I'm reading Erikson again. And man, Forge of Darkness is great! It is written very well (so far) and somehow it reminds me of Midnight Tides (still my favorite Malazan book.)