Urban Fantasy: I wish there was more necromancy and less group sex

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cell: Nov 25, 2003; The more Johnny the better.

I'm about halfway through the first audiobook of The Hellequin Chronicles. The story and setting are interesting but the dialog and the main character's narration is a little bit painful to listen to; It just seems to be trying too hard to be cool (and I'm already sick of hearing variations on 'the glyphs on my arms flared with light'). The problem might also be that the narrator (James Langton) sounds like he's trying to emulate Paul McGann's cadence but forgetting to vary his tone. Does anyone know if the writing changes/improves in subsequent books?

# ¿ Jul 21, 2017 14:30

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 21:06

cell: Nov 25, 2003; The more Johnny the better.

ConfusedUs posted:

There's a lot of overlap between "urban fantasy" and "superheroes." There are a lot of superhero books that would be right up this thread's alley.

The Rook straddles that line. It's basically "What if the X-Men were a top-secret British government agency?"

Other notable superhero works include Brandon Sanderson's Reckoners series (beginning with Steelheart, and the online serial Worm.

Steelheart is YA as gently caress, but it's a great concept where the author, after a fit of road rage, asked himself "what if every superhero was a gigantic self-serving rear end in a top hat with a short fuse?"

The first 8-10 "books" in Worm are some of my favorite re-reads. Just be aware of the the cliche "bullied girl gets superpowers" origin. Worm continually raises the stakes, alternating between personal and physical threats, and the main character continually makes all the wrong decisions for all the right reasons.

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I don't really wanna derail this thread too much into those specific works. Visit the Brandon Sanderson thread if you wan to talk about Steelheart, or the Web Serial (wildbow fan club) thread if you want to talk Worm.

But I'm totally down with talking about the increasingly fuzzy line between superheroes and urban fantasy, and recommending more of each.

I checked out The Rook after recommendations in the previous thread, I'd definitely recommend it (though I haven't checked out the second book, Stiletto, yet)

In the same vein I'm enjoying the Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia - it's pretty much "What if X-Men was set in the early 1930s and their mutations were magic?". There's some alternate history that flows from the fact that people started getting powers in the mid-19th century but also some nods to and parallels with historical events. I had guessed all the twists of the first book by the halfway point but that didn't particularly detract from my enjoyment of the rest; I've just started the second book.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2017 09:48

cell: Nov 25, 2003; The more Johnny the better.

Wheat Loaf posted:

Does Correia do much whinging about liberals in it? I've had Monster Hunter International on my shelf waiting to be read for about a year at this point but I'm not sure if I want to go for it or not; is it going to be Larry Correia having a moan about liberals or is it just B-movie trash in prose form? I'm up for the latter but the former is tedious.

There's a new book out called At the Table of Wolves which looks like it might be fun and has a similar premise; I believe I've mentioned it in the thread before. The Amazon description begins "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy meets X-Men in a classic British espionage story. A young woman must go undercover and use her superpowers to discover a secret Nazi plot and stop an invasion of England." I'm not familiar with the author (Kay Kenyon), though.

There's some light era-appropriate Commie-bashing but at least in the first book there's not really anything that jumped out at me as being particularly anti-liberal. I would say it definitely leans towards B-movie trash.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2017 13:18

cell: Nov 25, 2003; The more Johnny the better.

Mortanis posted:

I read the first Monster Hunter and got halfway through the second before bailing on the series, and that's coming from someone that grew up as a died-in-the-wool Republican gun nut. There's not a lot of series I'd use the word "masturbatory" for, but Monster Hunter is exactly that. The gun nut that joins the secret company that eradicates monsters with big guns and finds himself attracted to a even-more-gun-nut-and-skilled woman who is beyond his reach...

And then the whole puppies thing. And his views on women, rape, and self-defense... The list goes on.

Which bothered me when I met Correia right after the Sad Puppies thing a few years back. It's annoying when someone who is a top-tier poo poo-heel turns out to be personable, but I guess it's a reminder that rabid prick can come in surprising forms.

I haven't read the Monster Hunter series but it's interesting reading this since the Grimnoir books doesn't seem to carry this sort of baggage, save some gun porn. They come across as schlocky - which is fine - but not particularly offensive (and that's coming from someone that grew up as a died-in-the-wool bleeding heart European liberal). Has anyone read the fifth and sixth Monster Hunter books (since they were published after The Grimnoir Chronicles finished) and, if so, has the tone changed at all?

# ¿ Aug 18, 2017 10:29

cell: Nov 25, 2003; The more Johnny the better.

OneTwentySix posted:

I'd rather see a third book, hopefully from Myfanwy's point of view again, because The Rook was completely amazing. Not really expecting much from this series, but could always be surprised I guess.

I'd also like to stick with Myfanwy - while I liked Felicity/Odette as characters I missed Myfanwy's consistent point of view- but I hope in the case of a third book the audiobook producer/director looks up how she pronounces her name. Unless of course I missed somewhere that she decided to use the correct pronunciation to break from Thomas...

# ¿ Mar 15, 2019 17:13

cell: Nov 25, 2003; The more Johnny the better.

biracial bear for uncut posted:

I'm pretty sure there is a section in The Rook specifically about that.

ulmont posted:

There is.

Do you know the name of the body you are in? It�s Myfanwy. Myfanwy Alice Thomas. I would say that it�s my name, but you�ve got the body now, so I suppose you�ll be using it. People tend to mangle its pronunciation, but I would like it if you at least knew how to say it. I don�t embrace the traditional Welsh pronunciation, so for me the w is silent and the f is hard. Thus, Miff-un-ee. Simple. In fact, now that I think about it, it rhymes with Tiffany.

Yeah, that's what I mean - in the audiobook for The Rook it's pronounced as Thomas describes throughout it but in Stiletto both the narration and Myfanwy herself use the Welsh pronunciation. I just want a little consistency!

# ¿ Mar 18, 2019 09:43

cell: Nov 25, 2003; The more Johnny the better.

jng2058 posted:

Hang on, isn't that a plot point? She runs into her long lost sister who calls her by the Welsh version, and as the "new" Myfanwy she starts thinking of herself and using the Welsh version to distinguish her new self from her old erased version.

I suppose the problem might be in the first Audiobook rather than the second - when her sister shows up Katy Carmicael continues to read the name as 'Miffany' in all situations. However, Myfanwy distinguishes herself from her old personality by calling the old her Thomas and herself Myfanwy, I don't think it's ever explicitly said that she adopts the Welsh pronunciation at any point. Shantay also never comments one way or the other, and she's the only one (apart from the Grafters) in the first book who knows about the sister making contact.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2019 20:38

cell: Nov 25, 2003; The more Johnny the better.

On the subject of UF set in anywhere other than London, I've just started on The Witch Who Came In From The Cold which is set in Prague in the 70s. It was written as a serial with five different authors (Lindsay Smith, Max Gladstone, Cassandra Rose Clarke, Ian Tregillis and Michael Swanwick) all doing solo/duo writing duties across 13 episodes.

If anyone's interested, the setting features Cold War and magical conflicts going on perpendicular to each other, where people on one side of the political divide might be on opposite sides of the magical one. I can't say the book has really gone into the city's history much so far (certainly nowhere near as much as the Peter Grant series, which is my benchmark for City Porn), but at least it's a different setting? Some of the reviews complained about varying characterisation and character voices due to there being multiple authors, but I haven't noticed that much. Of course, that might be due to the fact that I've got the audiobook version which might help with consistency (the same two voice talents throughout) and am only three chapters in (two of which were written or co-written by Gladstone).

# ¿ Mar 29, 2019 19:15

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 21:06

cell: Nov 25, 2003; The more Johnny the better.

Everyone posted:

I think I love the Abigail character most of all. I always kind of liked her, but with what we learn about her in the one short story that she has a younger brother who is dying she just seems so much more real. She comes off at first like a snarkier Hermione Granger who thinks "magic is cool." And she is that, but she's also ruthlessly determined to learn magic to save her brother and neither Peter nor Nightingale seem to have grasped that about her.

(What Abigail Did That Summer and a plot point from the main novels spoilers) It's good that Abigail got a practical lesson early on that magic isn't all-powerful and can lead to more problems than solutions. Pretty sure that kind of thinking is what set Lesley off on her betrayal. I think Nightingale actually understands Abigail more than Peter does, though Peter seems a bit jealous of her progress and usually has other things to worry about.

What Abigail Did feels like it has a lot more plot and meat to it than The October Man did, though the audiobook running times are similar (~30 minutes more on this one compared to The October Man). That might just be down to having already established characters and a familiar setting/frame of reference, though. Shvorne Marks is good, Postmartin's interjections are good, whoever wrote the chapter titles for Audible is weirdly bad. Does the kindle/physical version have 'mom' and 'grieves' and other odd mis-spellings in the chapter titles? Feels like whoever did the chapters for Audible got them by listening to Marks speak them and then mishearing what she actually says.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2021 16:09

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