The next book which treats with the winter court will be very interesting. As of now it seems that it won't be the next book in the series, though.
Yeah. Looks like Harry's getting a book of vacation*
Wonder if hers is going to be as vicious as Harry's was. God help her.
As far as literature goes, the next Dresden files book is the thing I most look forward to. Used to be the next Song of Ice and Fire book, but Martin has kind of lost his track and, well, y'know about his writing speed. No comparison to Butcher, who writes two books a year. So looking forward to Skin Game!
Man, I gotta get the first Codex Allera book, to see if it compares to the Dresden File books.
Codex Alera is pretty great too.
It's well written and it's got a lot of cool factor on top of it. Doesn't hit all those stumbling blocks book 1 of Dresden Files did either, since this was after he'd honed his skill a bit.
Yep. And since it's not in first person and jumps character focus from time to time, you get multiple perspectives, and don't have to deal with "unreliable narrator" syndrome.
I really like the Codex Alera, but I don't consider it a great series, at least not on par with Song of Ice and Fire, Dresden Files, Mistborn, or what I anticipate The Stormlight Archive will be. Don't get me wrong, it was good, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it (multiple times), but I feel like it was a lot more hit-or-miss than the Dresden Files. It is one of those series where there were moments and characters that I absolutely loved, and moments/characters where I am kind of meh about.
One thing to keep in mind, is that the series was started on a bet. Butcher claimed he could write a good book using two lame ideas, and the ideas chosen were Pokemon and the Lost Roman Legion. When considering those origins, it is really impressive how good the series is.
Thanks, you guys. I'll check it out in the near future.
Man, I still got to get through the Mistborn trilogy... I stopped reading when time for delivering my magisters thesis was getting short and I simply forgot to pick it up again.
So afterr hearing a smuttering of prise for this series, and realising it's about urban fantasy (A gener I'm curious about exploring further) I got the first book and read it.
I thought it was fine. Like a 3.5 star review (out of 5). I had some fun moments with it, and it really picked up towards the end with some really great action scenes and a kind of dry humor which I appreciate.
Overall I'd say the book was rather mediocre. Nothing BAD, but nothing that really got my attention either. Also I don't appreciate the rather sexist approach it takes with it's female chracters.
So, given that these are my thoughts on the book, should I go ahead and get the next one? if the opening book was only O.K for me will I be interested in reading the next?
Anybody interested Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, or urban fantasy will love the series.
It gets better with each novel. The author didn't think he could get an audience for his story arc until his 3rd book., so the first two were written mostly as one-shots. It's the events in that book that set a story arc that continue throughout the series.
Harry is often anachronistic and clueless in dealing with the modern world. He grew up training to be a wizard in isolation and only has childhood memories of watching TV and some movies for cultural reference. Wizards in the series are all old fashioned and set in their ways due to not being able to use technology. While he has a sense of chivalry towards protecting women, he never expresses any sexist attitudes that women should stick to their traditional roles. In fact, he seems to like women who are confident, intelligent, and capable if taking care of themselves.
There are some undertones of sexism in that even though all the women are strong and independent, they all are clamouring to get physical with Harry, while he remains mostly naive about until they throw themselves at him. But really, Harry is a nice guy character and I think he treats his female companions with respect, even if the author keeps throwing him into romantic situations with them.
I wouldn't say that he is too naive about it. Just, y'know, chivalrous to a fault.
I wouldn't say that he is too naive about it. Just, y'know, chivalrous to a fault.
Or Lucio?
Or Murphy?
Or Queen Mab?
Or even Susan?
Bob calls him a "magic nerd" for a reason. :)
Okay, he's a bit dense sometimes, but after he got wind of what those ladies ( I question your pick of Mab, though ^^ ) felt for him, he was chivalrous to a fault.
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I just want to cite this hugely satisfying quote from Jim Butcher from his interview with Aint It Cool News:
"So I started to run a D&D game, except D&D isn’t D&D anymore because now they’re into the 4th Edition thing and it’s a cool game and all, but it’s not D&D. So I went out and grabbed Pathfinder."
And another one:
"But yeah, I did the playtest for D&D 4th Edition, I wrote a two-word review. “New Coke” and sent it in to them. I hoped that would get through, but it didn’t seem to."
Well, he is looking forward to 5E and thinks that it is a return to the standards of third edition, so we'll see where he ends up. But these quotes... immensely satisfying. I knew there was a reason I liked this guy, from what I had priorily seen from him in interviews. :D
Some minor spoilers for his next Dresden Files novel, Skin Game, in the interview, by the way.
On the other hand, THIS got my attention:
Abstruse: So we’ve got Dresden Files with the cover quote, “It’s Raymond Chandler meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. We’ve got Codex Alera, which is “Lost Roman Legion meets Pokemon”. What’s CINDER SPIRE? [Note: CINDER SPIRE is Jim Butcher’s newest series, a steampunk trilogy which doesn’t have a release date yet, but the first novel should be coming out sometime next year. –Abs]
Jim Butcher: CINDER SPIRES is Hornblower meets League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Abstruse: Because I have gone on record as saying...I’m not a big fan of steampunk. I like the style and everything, but every story I’ve read has put me off and I’ve actually said this quote verbatim: “The only way I would read a steampunk novel is if Neil Gaiman or Jim Butcher wrote it.”
Jim Butcher: Well now you’re stuck. I’m enjoying the hell out of that one. That’s been a lot of fun to write, it’s gotten a very strong response from my beta readers, the characters are a whole lot of fun. The world’s a good time. I get to write airship navy battles! I’m going back and reading CS Forester and other writers just so I can get into the same feel and flavor of it. It’s fun because I’m writing with a pirate captain and a princess all these other kind of stock characters that I’m putting in this world. That’s always the fun thing to do, when you take something that people are familiar with and you can present it in a way that’s new and strange or new and fun.
Jim Butcher is writing Steampunk with Airship Battles. SO SOLD.
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From the dead, I necro this thread...
I had the privilege of meeting Jim Butcher today at the Fantasyfestival 2023 in Esbjerg in Denmark. I have a detailed write-up of the Q&A here, if anyone is interested.
Anyhow, the reason why I called up this unthread from the grave was that I had the chance to walk a few minutes with Jim after the Q&A and talk to him about Pathfinder, given that he has been a GM for the last decade. The info I got from him is:
- His son (who is also a writer with his second novel out in a few months) introduced him to Pathfinder 2E, after he had been playing 1E for a long time.
- He also is happy about the much more balanced gameplay and talked a bit how in 1E he had to deal with a party of four Wizards, where one would cast Create Pit, the other Grease into the pit and one of the others some acid spell into the pit.
- He also exclusively runs homebrewn campaigns, using worlds he himself creates rather than Golarion.
As I said, I only had a few minutes and didn't want to become bothersome either, so I soon said my goodbyes and got back to Germany. But it's pretty cool that one of the best writers out there (IMO) is also a fellow Pathfinder enjoyer.