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Daric posted:Coming up on the end of Skin Game in my reread. Really glad I went the Audiobook route this time, Marsters doing all the voices really makes the characters come to life. I was worried at the beginning of this that Harry's stupidity and general lack of wokeness may sour my love for the books but I was wrong, I do still love these books. Yeah, they're a little heavy-handed in the beginning and Harry could stand to be less of a misogynist. And I never felt like Harry describing every woman character's breast size or fuckability was necessary but the other parts I enjoyed. I definitely want to see more of what becomes of this world. Like Peace Talks is ever coming out. I took a break from the series for a couple of years after Skin Game, intending to come back when there were a few books out at once. Recently checked back in to discover that Skin Game is still the most recent book. What on earth happened? And how does Peace Talks have 40 reviews on Goodreads when as far as I can tell it doesn't even have a publication date yet?
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Dec 16, 2019 14:20
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It’s done. It’s just waiting to get published.
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Dec 16, 2019 15:02
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Polaron posted:What on earth happened? A million different things. But it’s better not to talk about because it turns into a huge fight any time it comes up.
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Dec 16, 2019 15:18
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Short version is Butcher changed wives and houses and that delayed his process.
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Dec 16, 2019 15:21
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We have a release date! July 14th.
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Dec 16, 2019 16:03
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Others series impression + the spin-off Lake Silence: started strong, had a great story arc where a hate group infiltrated society and became so bad to the point of people who didn't join the hate group were kicked out of their jobs and beaten and worse. Then instead of a nuanced takedown of said hate group, the Others just put Europe underwater and regressed society in America, thus allowing the boomer author to spend all of book 5 fellating the concept of small, close-knit communities with conservative values. The villains of that book smoked weed (gasp), one was a prostitute (EVIL), and were from the city (which taught them their evil ways!) Then because I'm stupid I also read Lake Silence, and that was the worst book I've read this year. The heroine constantly referred to men as Vigorous Appendages, no one in the book had a brain, and all tension was destroyed in the first hundred pages because the heroine instantly befriended the Others and they ate the villains as they showed up. Also shout-out to the nonstop sexism - the only lady cop in the entire series was given the position because the Others forced it on the humans in a clumsy "we're all feminists here right" spotlight. All the other ladies were teachers, nurses, or bookstore employees. They use girl talk to scare off the boys, they're deeply concerned with romance, and it was very, very frustrating to read. Basically none of the women in the series got to be movers and shakers of the plot unless they were magical, and due to how the magic works in this series that makes them victims. I know another poster in here said it was full of misandry, with lots of dudes dying, and yeah there were a lot of dudes dying, but they kind of left out Asia Crane getting killed (for being evil and daring to have aspirations beyond being a housewife), and then the whole bit in book 4 where the Others just ate entire towns including the children. So I'd say that everyone suffered, and the sexism went both ways - men have to be macho protectors of women, and women have to be passive home-makers. deep breath So yeah. Others 1-4 was problematic but good to read, very page-turnery and I enjoyed watching the hate group go, but 5-6 threw out anything interesting and doubled-down on how society should be run and I really regret reading them. It would've been a lot better if the author could do nuance at all, but literally every villain (except Asia Crane) had no motivation beyond "kick puppies" and no brain, so the plot's tension hinged on when the Others would find the villain and eat them instead of anything complicated. To recover I have returned to the Elantra series by Michelle Sagara and I'm on Cast in Silence and it's very, very good. e: Oh and there was diversity in the Others series: in book 5 there was an asian man who showed up and introduced rice to america, then vanished, never to be seen on-screen ever again. StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Dec 16, 2019 |
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Dec 16, 2019 16:22
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Peace Talks has a release date! It's a mere 8 months away! https://www.tor.com/2019/12/16/jim-butchers-new-novel-peace-talks-will-publish-in-2020-for-the-20th-anniversary-of-the-dresden-files/ Just in time for my birthday lmao
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Dec 16, 2019 19:03
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As much as I talk poo poo about Butcher and Dresden, he's been pretty open and honest about what has been taking so long with Peace Talks, so I can't fault him. It's not like Rothfuss who gets mad at the idea that people expect him to finish the book he promised would be done a decade ago.
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Dec 16, 2019 19:19
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Butcher doesn't owe us poo poo, but conversely I've moved on from his series and I'm not sure I'm willing to reread to give a gently caress about peace talks.
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Dec 16, 2019 20:05
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Thankfully I have friends that are way more into the series than me, so I can just ask them if a character or callback pops up that I don't remember.
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Dec 16, 2019 20:13
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Butcher's issue was that since Skin Game came out, he got divorced, met a new girl, got married, and moved out of his old house so they could move into a house they were having built. Except construction ran way longer than they had initially intended so they couldn't move into their new house and had to move into Butcher's new in-laws' house. While there, he didn't have anywhere to write except the dining room table. As someone who has written most of a novel, built a house, and just came back from my in-laws' house for the weekend I feel uniquely qualified to say that this sucks and I would rather die than try to do all of that at the same time.
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Dec 16, 2019 21:09
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Polaron posted:And how does Peace Talks have 40 reviews on Goodreads when as far as I can tell it doesn't even have a publication date yet? Goodreads lets you put up a review for any book that has a listing, and AFAIK there's basically zero moderation on the site. Which means any time a popular book is coming out, it'll have a bunch of five stars and reviews with insightful opinions like "This series is the best!!!!" long before anyone can actually read it. (Or there's the flipside, when yet another YA novel gets dogpiled, and racks up one-stars and angry reviews about how they'll never read the book.)
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Dec 16, 2019 23:08
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Daric posted:Butcher's issue was that since Skin Game came out, he got divorced, met a new girl, got married, and moved out of his old house so they could move into a house they were having built. Except construction ran way longer than they had initially intended so they couldn't move into their new house and had to move into Butcher's new in-laws' house. While there, he didn't have anywhere to write except the dining room table. What novel and when's it coming out? Not pestering, just curious. And just think, once PT comes out, people can then start bitching at Butcher to hurry up with the next book in that airship fantasy thing he's also doing. Crappy fanfic aside, I'm not an author. But if I were I'd be Rothfuss more than Butcher. "Shut it, you impatient fucks. It'll come out when it comes out. The more you whine, the longer I'll take." Everyone fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Dec 16, 2019 |
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Dec 16, 2019 23:50
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Everyone posted:What novel and when's it coming out? Not pestering, just curious. Sometime before the sun burns out. It's a weird western I've been working on about two members of what's basically the wizard version of the US Marshals in 1880 hunting down a necromancer that's terrorizing a small West Texas town. Think aurors from Harry Potter but in the Wild West.
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Dec 17, 2019 02:29
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Daric posted:Butcher's issue was that since Skin Game came out, he got divorced, met a new girl, got married, and moved out of his old house so they could move into a house they were having built. Except construction ran way longer than they had initially intended so they couldn't move into their new house and had to move into Butcher's new in-laws' house. While there, he didn't have anywhere to write except the dining room table. As someone whose own novel is floundering as a result of life like that, I sympathize and understand entirely. Everyone posted:Crappy fanfic aside, I'm not an author. But if I were I'd be Rothfuss more than Butcher. "Shut it, you impatient fucks. It'll come out when it comes out. The more you whine, the longer I'll take." There's nothing wrong with saying that, but he kind of put himself into the situation of having sold the book trilogy to publisher and customer alike as already complete and only needing to go through editing so it was his guarantee that they would come out within a year of each other. Which, needless to say, was not a guarantee he kept. Daric posted:Sometime before the sun burns out. It's a weird western I've been working on about two members of what's basically the wizard version of the US Marshals in 1880 hunting down a necromancer that's terrorizing a small West Texas town. Think aurors from Harry Potter but in the Wild West. I'd read that, and I understand that release date, lol.
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Dec 17, 2019 03:28
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The problem with the Dresden Files isn't that Peace Talks got delayed; it's that the series has some serious age on it now and parts of it haven't aged well, especially relative to other more recent series like Rivers of London etc. It's set in chicago and somehow has only one black character, and that person is a Russian
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Dec 17, 2019 03:38
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The problem with the Dresden Files isn't that Peace Talks got delayed; it's that the series has some serious age on it now and parts of it haven't aged well, especially relative to other more recent series like Rivers of London etc. Yeah my non-goon friends were talking about this and if book 1 were released in today's climate it would sink like a stone. It certainly wouldn't have a TV show or such an avid following. We'd be getting "this is alex verus fanfic" stuff, I think.
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Dec 17, 2019 03:40
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The problem with the Dresden Files isn't that Peace Talks got delayed; it's that the series has some serious age on it now and parts of it haven't aged well, especially relative to other more recent series like Rivers of London etc. StrixNebulosa posted:Yeah my non-goon friends were talking about this and if book 1 were released in today's climate it would sink like a stone. It certainly wouldn't have a TV show or such an avid following. We'd be getting "this is alex verus fanfic" stuff, I think. Ohhhhh yeah, this one hundred percent. See me trying to read the first few books in recent years.
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Dec 17, 2019 03:48
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I actually really like what that says about progress in our society. Also the genre, because there's so much good stuff in it for everyone.
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Dec 17, 2019 04:48
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Daric posted:Sometime before the sun burns out. It's a weird western I've been working on about two members of what's basically the wizard version of the US Marshals in 1880 hunting down a necromancer that's terrorizing a small West Texas town. Think aurors from Harry Potter but in the Wild West. Not being an rear end in a top hat, but it sounds like a novel-length version of one of Butcher's recent stories that was collected in Brief Cases. “A Fistful of Warlocks” — short story for Straight Outta Tombstone, edited by David Boop. Warden Luccio takes on necromancers in the Wild West. In any case, I'm a huge fan of the Deadlands RPG and also really liked R. S. Belcher's Golgotha books (The Six-Gun Tarot, The Shotgun Arcana and Queen of Swords). So it sounds like something very much in my wheelhouse and I will happily throw my money at you to get it.
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Dec 17, 2019 05:45
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StrixNebulosa posted:Yeah my non-goon friends were talking about this and if book 1 were released in today's climate it would sink like a stone. It certainly wouldn't have a TV show or such an avid following. We'd be getting "this is alex verus fanfic" stuff, I think. I don't think there would be that much of a difference from how it was originally received honestly. In an alternate universe where Storm Front is released in 2019, books like Alex Verus probably don't exist.
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Dec 17, 2019 06:34
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The problem with the Dresden Files isn't that Peace Talks got delayed; it's that the series has some serious age on it now and parts of it haven't aged well, especially relative to other more recent series like Rivers of London etc. Also having a protagonist that would fit right in if it was an Ernest Cline novel isn't the positive thing it used to be. It's almost to the point that the series suffers from Iron Druid syndrome (everything else about the world in the books is more interesting than the story we get). When does the next Laundry Files book come out? Also Rivers of London? Verus? Hell, I'd even pick up another Libriomancer book before revisiting Dresden. gently caress Jim Butcher for trying to make a rapist secondary character sympathetic.
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Dec 17, 2019 08:15
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Next River of London is out in February. Next Laundry Files is out '2020' but I don't believe there's an actual date yet.
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Dec 17, 2019 10:50
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Deptfordx posted:Next River of London is out in February. Is this the last Laundry Files book? I know CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN is the endgame, but the horizon seems to keep slipping farther away as he releases books. fake edit: blocked out the mildest of spoilers.
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Dec 17, 2019 11:26
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Everyone posted:R. S. Belcher's Golgotha books (The Six-Gun Tarot, The Shotgun Arcana and Queen of Swords ... ...Since 2017?
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Dec 17, 2019 13:26
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Proteus Jones posted:Is this the last Laundry Files book? I know CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN is the endgame, but the horizon seems to keep slipping farther away as he releases books. Nope. It's a side story riffing on Peter Pan in the same way that Equoid reimagined Unicorns. It is a full length novel rather than a novella like that was though. Edit: Which Incidentally is free on Tor if you haven't read it. https://www.tor.com/2013/09/24/equoid/ Deptfordx fucked around with this message at 13:38 on Dec 17, 2019 |
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Dec 17, 2019 13:36
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While I think the Dresden files might not achieve the same popularity if it released today I think yall are underestimating how many people don’t care about pc in what they read. I think it would still be a success.
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Dec 17, 2019 14:49
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I think the Corbyn government and Sanders administration would outlaw Dresden if it were published today.
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Dec 17, 2019 14:56
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Just reread a few of the Dresden books and can confirm they are still a lot of fun. Summer Knight - Proven Guilty - Changes
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Dec 17, 2019 19:41
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I'm pretty sure Dresden was my first real gateway into urban fantasy, so unless Butcher goes full MAGA chud or something, DF is probably always going to get a pass from me.
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Dec 17, 2019 21:05
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So I've been threatening my friends with maybe starting the Dark Hunters series, and I was sent these links and you need to learn about this insanity as well. Merry Christmas. Wherein the author accuses her husband of poisoning her. Wherein everyone else isn't sure if this is real or not. quote:On July 26, 2019, Kenyon dropped her lawsuit against Ken, Plump, and Cavanaugh. In an email, one of Ken’s lawyers suggested that she did so in response to a motion his team filed requesting dismissal and sanctions for “filing unsubstantiated claims of far reaching conspiracies.” In a statement provided by Kenyon’s publicist, the author said she was merely “tabling” the lawsuit for financial reasons, in order to focus her money and energy on the ongoing divorce litigation instead. “However, I maintain a strong and steadfast belief in the merits of this case,” she wrote. “As the great Margaret Thatcher once said, ‘you may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.’”
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Dec 17, 2019 23:25
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biracial bear for uncut posted:It's almost to the point that the series suffers from Iron Druid syndrome (everything else about the world in the books is more interesting than the story we get). The pay-off for how the dreadful protagonist destroyed his life by the end of the series, purely by being dreadful, was almost worth slogging through all the books - I don't think we'll get as self-aware an ending to the Dresden Files, Harry isn't meant to be as irredeemable
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Dec 18, 2019 00:06
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ookiimarukochan posted:The pay-off for how the dreadful protagonist destroyed his life by the end of the series, purely by being dreadful, was almost worth slogging through all the books - I don't think we'll get as self-aware an ending to the Dresden Files, Harry isn't meant to be as irredeemable I'm only up to Staked/Besieged on Iron Druid, but yeah, Atticus really does spend a lot of time being a confrontational dick about everything, doesn't he? I mean, sometimes there's at least a bit of justification for it, but for the most part, it seems he does it just because he can.
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Dec 18, 2019 00:45
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ookiimarukochan posted:The pay-off for how the dreadful protagonist destroyed his life by the end of the series, purely by being dreadful, was almost worth slogging through all the books - I don't think we'll get as self-aware an ending to the Dresden Files, Harry isn't meant to be as irredeemable He (Iron Druid) got off lightly, and last thing that happens is he's plotting to get a new arm and basically go right back down the path he just walked. The series went even more to poo poo when Morrigan sacrificed herself for him.
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Dec 18, 2019 00:46
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DreamingofRoses posted:I’m listening back through the October Daye series from the beginning since I have more free time over the holidays. I have so many questions about Marcia. I've just started on these! I'm about 3 in and I hope they keep up this pace. I liked Dresden and all but it's pretty relieving to read some fun urban fantasy without the constant "she sexed sexingly across the sexy floor" type descriptions.
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Dec 18, 2019 11:08
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Apparatchik Magnet posted:I think the Corbyn government and Sanders administration would outlaw Dresden if it were published today. But wouldn't this mean the Johnson government would declare Dresden the best series ever just to pour more salt into Corbyn's wounds?
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Dec 18, 2019 14:09
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Kojiro posted:I've just started on these! I'm about 3 in and I hope they keep up this pace. I liked Dresden and all but it's pretty relieving to read some fun urban fantasy without the constant "she sexed sexingly across the sexy floor" type descriptions. For me it helps to think of Harry as the emotions of a 13 year old boy placed into the intellect/competence of the 30ish male wizard.
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Dec 19, 2019 02:52
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Finished Dark Descendant by Jenna Black, of the Nikki Glass series and hm. Hrm. Here's the review I slapped together for goodreads: Trigger warning: rape threats, off-screen rape, violence, etc. Essentially a vampire novel with the themes of having your life destroyed, being menaced by immortal jerks, getting weird powers, and getting drawn into centuries-old conflicts - but it doesn't have the vampires. Instead, the folks in this series are the bastard children of the gods. Our heroine is a scion of Artemis, and that means she gets an invisible tattoo that only she and other scions can see, she has perfect aim, and she's a great hunter. But of course, she doesn't start the novel that way. She started it as a plain ol' human private detective. In order to entice you to read it, I'll leave out the details and cut right to the main thrust of the plot: due to an accident Nikki kills another scion, which wakes up her powers. This makes her valuable to both factions of immortal descendants: scions of Artemis are rare. Unfortunately, as she killed another scion, that makes one of the factions hate her automatically, as he was their friend. Even more unfortunately, the other faction cuts right to the point: they want her to use her powers to find them more scions so they can kill them. So she starts the novel screwed: the faction she'd want to join hates her, and the other side is evil. She decides to screw them both and leave, but...well, once you're in the game, you can't leave. They threaten her adopted sister, and she has to start making choices to keep herself and her sister safe. This makes for a weird tone, as the novel isn't written to emphasize the horror of the situation. Nikki is a very no-nonsense POV and she rarely dwells on things. She'd be perfect in an action-fest urban fantasy where she could kill vampires, but instead she's placed in this strange, messed up situation and she has to find her way out through politics and getting to know these weird immortals instead of shooting things. I liked it? The plot goes in some strange directions by the end - I mean, how often does a novel end where the finale isn't defeating some evil, but rather watching a man walk to a pyre where he's expecting to burn to death? - but it's strange in an interesting way, and I want to see how things play out. But I also didn't like it? The only character I really liked was Nikki, as everyone else was distant - either evil, grieving because of their friend's death, or Nikki's sister (who is nice but kind of flat) and again the tone is very strange. The novel is also clearly setup for the rest of the series, with the major-major villains still running around, all kinds of unresolved drama, and Nikki still not comfortable with anything. Ultimately I liked this book and want to read more, but it's hard to rec it until I read more. Especially because the back covers of the other books are all "hard-hitting action! fun!" but the content is...much darker.
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Dec 19, 2019 16:19
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Everyone posted:For me it helps to think of Harry as the emotions of a 13 year old boy placed into the intellect/competence of the 30ish male wizard. I get that its in his character, but it doesn't make it any less awful to read, for me. I liked the stories and the world but man I did not enjoy being in Harry's head.
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Dec 23, 2019 14:34
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I can forgive like 90% of the ridiculous "she's hot" exposition with a brief internal eyeroll, but there were like 4 or 5 books in a row that just could not stop talking about training bras. I get that they met when Molly was a kid, that's fine. Why is the only way you can drive that point home involve preteen breasts. Literally every single time her age was mentioned.
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