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General Category => Media & Mayhem => Topic started by: Drakilian on July 03, 2015, 10:21:56 pm
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Chronicles of the Black Company
Have had these books for a while but never got around to reading them. Had a dentist appointment today and had time to kill and no internet, so I gave the first one a gander. The writing starts out disjointed and confusing, it very much feels like the writer is unsure how to either portray or segue into various events, but I gave it a pass because I was bored and had nothing better to do.
It really gets very much better though, the story becomes rather compelling in its own way, it's very much an epic written as a Dark Fantasy, really my style so I thought i'd bring it up. Starts out slow but really picks up as you learn more about the characters in the story, particularly the Taken.
Anyway, finished the first book, i'll probably finish the rest of the series while i'm out working during the next few weeks.
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Neat. Once I finish the witcher I'll try and read it,
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Oh,I read a lot of his Garrett mysteries. I remember them being at least good enough that I read all they had at the time.
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You finish it yet?
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I've had a bunch of stuff get in the way, but i'm most of the way through the 9th book
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He gets so much better as the series moves along.
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Just finished the third book. Awesome set.
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Make sure to read Silver spike afterwards, it'll never be relevant later so might as well here, haha.
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Was going to read it in order, but I guess? XD
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Silver spike is kind of in order. After the first set Silver spike follows Raven/Silent/White Rose, while the Books of the South follow Croaker (who I love by the way) and the Company.
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Croaker is great.
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He also gets better.
Also, have you been rooting for Lady/Croaker?
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I am inherently disturbed by it. XD
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:'(
Croaker/Lady was what I was rooting for practically the entire first set.
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She's like, the embodiment of mostly evil. XD
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But she's the really hot embodiment of mostly evil!
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But she's the really hot embodiment of mostly evil!
XD
Anyways, important question. Is croaker a pedophile? He said he dreamed of doing unspeakable things to 12 year olds, sooooooooooooo
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No, of course not lol. He just had a weird dream.
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No, of course not lol. He just had a weird dream.
ah okay. XD
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Just finished the tenth book. I'm feeling pretty down, as I always feel after finishing a book series I greatly enjoyed, particularly because of the way the book ended (which was both fantastic and saddening).
Goddamn that was good though. Aman, you have a lot to look forward to. Next series I'm starting up will be the Powder Mage trilogy (and all it's conjoined stories). Have heard good things about it. Updates on my game, by the way, resume in their entirety tomorrow. Feeling a little too morose to do so now.
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Sweet. It'll be good reading for the plane ride and year, I guess. ^_^
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Just finished the powder mage series now. Excellent collection, really - I normally don't like guns in fantasy but goddamn this guy made it work. Very well made characters.
I started it right after finishing The Chronicles of the Black Company, and I think that detracted greatly from the beginning. Glen Cook at his prime (the final book of the Black Company) is leaps and miles ahead of Mcclellan starting out, the story never gets as serious or dark as it does in the Black Company and you can tell, but that's not necessarily a bad thing - it's just a different writing style. I will say that Mcclellan is never as good as Cook is by the end, but that's understandable - Mcclellan writes a lot faster and is a lot younger, he's more of a mass product writer, less experience and finesse.
Mcclellan is also a bit less liberal with killing off major characters until the very end of the series (not that I would have ever forgiven him if a certain key character actually had died.)
The story is told from the key perspectives of four characters: Field marshal Tamas, Legend, Savior, Butcher and the most powerful Powder Mage to ever live besides his son.
His son is another main character, Taniel Two-Shot; his chapters in the story serve almost exclusively to advance the key plot, which actually works against him as it's clear Mcclellan couldn't afford to have too many chapters including Taniel, so Taniel is given less character development and less spotlight time than he might deserve. Almost all of his screentime is given to either his romance plot (because of course there's a romance plot) or the mental anguish he suffers from being one of the world's greatest butchers.
Inspector Adamat, a minorly gifted man with a perfect memory, is the third key character. His sections personally bored me, but they were key to give the reader important plot points that would otherwise go unnoticed. It, personally, greatly detracted from the main plot (being Tamas' war and Taniel's god-killing) when we would suddenly shift from a pitched battle to a guy looking through some archives for information. It was worth it at the end though, when we find out who the Proprietor is.
Then there's the last major character perspective - Nila.
Nila's perpectives suck.
I'm not going to lie, I was seriously rooting for her death throughout the series. Nila is a laundress. That is all. For the first 2 and a half books, and all of the short stories, Nila is literally the most useless, counterproductive and boring character in the entire novel. Then, out of nowhere around the middle of the third (and final) book, she turns out to be a special sorceress who doesn't need gloves to work her magic (something only gods are normally capable of) who will also be the most powerful Adran sorceress in over 600 years. Screw her.
Anyway, each chapter usually contains all four of these perspectives (with small skips between the two that might initially be confusing, I confused Tamas and Taniel in sudden perspective shifts more than once), and despite some unfortunate factors in some of the perspectives, the story is still more than interesting enough for me to have kept on reading on.
I'm wondering what to read next. I kinda expected this to last me longer. A while ago Sethaniel recommended that I read the Dragaeran books by Steven Brust (here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Brust#The_Dragaeran_books ), bookmarked the author but never actually read the books, I'm considering looking into them now.
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Guns? fantasy? Naaaah.
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Those were my thoughts exactly, but it really worked out. The world lore has these guys called powder mages who undergo physical enhancements through ingesting powder, they can "float" bullets for miles and they can ignite gunpowder with a thought (in a world where muskets are the very best weapons, this makes them horrifyingly lethal - since all the gunpowder their enemies carry on them suddenly explodes out of nowhere...) and the whole thing meshes really well. I normally hate guns and technology in general in fantasy because tool-ish writers can seem to come up with any sort of concept other than "guyz, technology totally counter magic and makes it sooo obsolete and useless", which is a big load of shit, but that theme is pretty weak here and the only time it's even brought up is in terms of range - powder mages have extreme range on their side when combatting Privileged (the sorcerers of the world), and anyone who's not a powder mage just runs away screaming from even the weakest mage.
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Finished Silver Spike. Damn that was good. :'(
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Hate it when a great read finally ends haha! It brings both relief and remorse! :)
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Yup. Gonna try and move through the next book, but I just hate reading on an iphone. Ugh. XD
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"The Great One remains secure. The lesser one who lay in the shade of the prisoning tree does so no longer. It has been resurrected and given new form. It comes south too, but it is so insane and vengeance-starved that it is not to be feared. A child could dispose of it"
This made me lol drak. Soooo glad I read silver spike first.
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"The Great One remains secure. The lesser one who lay in the shade of the prisoning tree does so no longer. It has been resurrected and given new form. It comes south too, but it is so insane and vengeance-starved that it is not to be feared. A child could dispose of it"
This made me lol drak. Soooo glad I read silver spike first.
Man, they make children different down south.
I was actually happy Raven died at the end, he kinda turned into a piece of shit.
I can't believe Cook managed to make Smed the pedophile so goddamn sympathetic. Old Man Fish takes the cake for best char in that entire book though.
Is this from the first book of the south? I thought it was only referenced sometime in the last four books when the immortal Otto and Hagop went back to collect info in the northern empires.
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Yeah, first book.
I dunno, I was horriefied when he died. He was terrible, but I dunno, he didnt really deserve better but it felt like he did.
Old Man Fish was awesome. And yeah, somehow Smeds didnt seem so horrible, ha ha. Case was great, loved him.
As for the kid thing, maybe, ha ha. I just got to the part about the Southern Black Company kids. XD
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Yeah, they're super badass XD
Course, can't say anything about them without spoilers (Mogaba especially has a huge role to play)
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Holy shit is that you
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Holy shit is that you
http://www.bountyheadbebop.com/forum/index.php?topic=1764.0
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Holy shit.
Farking Taken are Farking unkillable goddammit
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Just finished book 4. LadyxCroaker isnt as squick, but its still weird. Mogba is my favorite character, with One Eye/Goblin coming in close second. Croaker got better, but not nearly as much as those two, ha ha.
Lady finally showed her tactical brilliance, imo. Always really thought she was aeons behind Darling (who was the greatest commander ever), but now she showed her stuff.
Farking Taken never farking dying god farking dammit taken asshats
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I thought everything the limper made it through made that pretty obvious XD
Yeah, Lady's a beast
If it makes you feel any better, all the other company characters share your opinion about Lady and Croaker XD
You'll really come to appreciate Croaker's tactical brilliance and scheming ability much later, in one of the final showdowns against LongShadow, haha.
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No see, once Shifter returned I knew they survived. That all of them survived aside from Soulcatcher. We saw soulcatcher die. With a golden ass arrow. With the lady, full power, dealing with her.
And then outta goddamn nowhere, Farking hell
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Man, it's unreal how far off you are XD
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Goddammit Mogba.
Goddammit demon babies
Yay Croaker!
Fark you smoke
Yay Blade!
Yay Murgen!
Goddammit SoulCatcher.
I miss goblin and one eye.
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Damn the (1st) Book of Murgen was great. Poor Murgen. Croaker goes up in badass, down in being a nice guy, ha ha. Lady too. One eye wins best character. Fark Mogba.
:( blade
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Ha, you finished that one fast :)
Just going to speed through the next, I suspect. I love Murgen as a narrator, he was great for his segment.
Croaker is forever the nicest member of the company, take that back!
Yeah, really sucks what happened with Mogaba - you actually get to see his perspective much much later and realize how much he regrets breaking off from the company the way he did.
Lady was never nice XD
Give Blade a book or two, haha. The comeback is glorious.
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Yeah, Murgen kept me hooked, and I wasnt down to go to some of the classes today.
Croaker's farking crazy man. Super badass, but nothing like he was in the begining. Times changed. Damn, the books really make you feel like youre going through those farking years.
Yeah, Mogba was screwed from the start.
She was getting there! XD (and then she became the fake lady of death)
Cant wait. Loved Blade.
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Oh yeah, in the last book of Croaker he's nearing on 80 and you can really tell his age from it, it made me sad right up until the end because of just how badly everything had changed.
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Its insane. This is probably the only series I've read that has time passing down pat. Its amazing.
So, now that Ive read the first book of Morgan, should I countinue to the next one? Or read Ottos first?
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Its insane. This is probably the only series I've read that has time passing down pat. Its amazing.
So, now that Ive read the first book of Morgan, should I countinue to the next one? Or read Ottos first?
Murgen! Murgen dammit!
Otto's? There are no Books of Otto XD
Anyway, just read them in order - The Books of the North (the first three written by Croaker), The Silver Spike, the Books of the South (Shadow Games and Dreams of Steel), and the Books of Glittering Stone (Bleak Seasons, She is the Darkness, Water Sleeps, Soldiers live).
Soldiers live is the last book in the series and the Last Book of Croaker. Water Sleeps is the First and Last book of Sleepy. The other books in Glittering Stone are Murgen's, I believe.
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Oh, I thought there was a book detailing the tale of otto's trip to the north.
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Oh, nah, it's just a thing like "Oh, we sent Otto and Hagop north" and then a few hundred pages "Oh hey, Otto and Hagop are still alive"
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Yeah, ha ha. Farking unkillable but I expected more, lol
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Holy fark book two of Murgen is long
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They all get steadily longer, but never too long. Except for Water Sleeps, Sleepy took her Farking time advancing the story XD
The final book though, it felt like everything was moving too fast. Hell of a lot of action.
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Just met sleepy, ish. I love the names.
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Yeah, nothing about him makes you think he'd be future narrator material until he's actually the narrator, haha. Same with Murgen, I suppose.
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I guess, ha ha. Though Murgen had a few books to build himself up as the next one.
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DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN.
Wow. That was good. On to Water Sleeps! XD
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You read about Croaker's gambit with Blade then?
Genius. Pure genius.
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Yeah, that was pure genius. I was Farking pulling a madglee when I read that, ha ha. I was cackling widley at like, 2 am. Scared my roomates, lol.
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I love Croaker. So Much.
I love Murgen. One Eye was great. Poor Goblin didnt get much appearance. Otto and Hagop were welcome appearances whenever they showed up.
May be the best book in the series so far. So epic. Beat Silver Spike's final showdown by miles.
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Fark you glen cook. Goblin and One Eye. :'( Probably the saddest I've been in a while.
Sleepy was great. Kinda expected more stupid "im just a guy trapped jn a woman's body" stuff, but was pleased that he didnt take it that way.
Thought Sahra was kinda weak.
Tobo was great.
Expect the strangler's son to have an impact in the next book.
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Motherfarker killed Otto and Hagop in the first Farking paragraph. Asshole.
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Fark you glen cook. Goblin and One Eye. :'( Probably the saddest I've been in a while.
Sleepy was great. Kinda expected more stupid "im just a guy trapped jn a woman's body" stuff, but was pleased that he didnt take it that way.
Thought Sahra was kinda weak.
Tobo was great.
Expect the strangler's son to have an impact in the next book.
Goblin's brief end was horrifying. What happened to One-Eye was so much worse.
It was so sad to see such an amazing character go senile.
You really feel how old Croaker's become in this last book.
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Motherfarker killed Otto and Hagop in the first Farking paragraph. Asshole.
Oh god you don't know how much worse it gets.
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Oh god you don't know how much worse it gets.
and then he tortures one eye a bit more and then Farking splat
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Goblin's brief end was horrifying. What happened to One-Eye was so much worse.
It was so sad to see such an amazing character go senile.
You really feel how old Croaker's become in this last book.
Yeah, Glen Cook didnt pull any punches. :( Still isnt.
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Just wait till you see Goblin's actual death.
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I assume that by the time you log on again you will have finished Soldiers Live, so I can only say:
Rest in Peace Goblin. We love you.
Also, super badass golem Croaker, Fark yeah.
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Just finished.
Damn. Fark you Drak, I teared up at the end. Farking everyone died. Everyone.
Ugh. :( Only now get what you meant about being depressed after fisnihing.
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Croaker lived. In the end, I'm just happy he and Lady got to be immortal together.
But every single other goddamn character in the entire story up until that point... yeah, that was horrifying. I mean, the way the Prabrindrah Drah died? That was Farking brutal. And Mogaba definitely didn't deserve to go out like that. I started really disliking Tobo after that one.
Farkin' Murgen too man. Just a sidenote along with Swan and all the others.
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Murgen was a goddammed sidenot with Riverwalker (who I liked). His death wasnt even described. Poor Murgen.
Sleepy didnt deserve that. Didnt even get a proper burial since her body was destroyed.
Mogba deserved it, but also didnt. Stupid arrogant young mogba. If he just Farking staye with the company he'd be etched in forever as a mighty hero. :(
I really liked the Khostra girls. Thankfully Cook didnt brutally murder them, tbough he tried to get Akatosh raped.
Sahra died and no one even knew.
The worst scene was where Lady woke up her daughter. That was torture. :(
Dunno if Ill be able to reply in Vampires tonight.
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Murgen was a goddammed sidenot with Riverwalker (who I liked). His death wasnt even described. Poor Murgen.
Sleepy didnt deserve that. Didnt even get a proper burial since her body was destroyed.
Mogba deserved it, but also didnt. Stupid arrogant young mogba. If he just Farking staye with the company he'd be etched in forever as a mighty hero. :(
I really liked the Khostra girls. Thankfully Cook didnt brutally murder them, tbough he tried to get Akatosh raped.
Sahra died and no one even knew.
The worst scene was where Lady woke up her daughter. That was torture. :(
Dunno if Ill be able to reply in Vampires tonight.
Arcana was raped. He didn't try, the company men were pissed that they'd killed some of the men trying to escape and they raped her and killed the other kid as revenge. Yeah, I agree - loved Croaker's two daughters.
I understand, haha.
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Oh yeah, forgot that part. Was thinking about the incest rape.
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Anyways, whats next? Dunno if Ill read the powder mages. Cant find the pdfs, and it didnt sound like you enjoued them.
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Oh, I did enjoy them. Just not as much as the Black Company. I could send you everything, of course. It's not a bad series at all, just bad when you compare it to the Black Company. You can see what the author tries to do and since I started it right after the Black Company all I could think of was how much Glen Cook did it better.
I'm probs going to start the First Law series now though. Piqued my interest and it's also in the general realm of Dark Fantasy. I've also meant to get into Brent Weeks' Black Prism saga.
The Prince of Thorns also seems like a really good read.
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Well, send over whatever youre planning to read as well as Powder, I guess. If I cant stand Powder Ill just swap over to the new stuff, ha ha.
You still have my email, right?
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Yep yep.
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Nice, thanks.
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Powder Mages was kinda meh. Taniel sucked (and Nila was so godawful. Man. Fark her) Tamas and Adament were great though. Reminded me a lot of the fourth mistborn book though.
Moving to First Law soon, I guess.
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Yes, high five on Nila hatred!
I liked Taniel, but i'm also a sucker for a love story, haha.
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Wait, seriously? You, Adam mcScrewVeronica McManipulateEveryoneWithSeduction ? XD
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I'm a sucker for a love story. Adam absolutely wasn't, haha.
Besides, Adam basically only seduced one person, and it was the single, lonely life mage/infernalist who clearly had a thing for vampires.
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Gah, haven't had time to start it yet, been super busy. How are you plowing through all of these?
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I'm a sucker for a love story. Adam absolutely wasn't, haha.
Besides, Adam basically only seduced one person, and it was the single, lonely life mage/infernalist who clearly had a thing for vampires.
And another but Im not sure I'm allowed to say it, lol (even if Whitechapel is dead, ha ha). Though I think that one was by accident. XD
XD Cant stand love stories stuck into action novels. If I want to read a romance, Im gonna grab a romance novel, not read a warbook. XD Gah, haven't had time to start it yet, been super busy. How are you plowing through all of these?
Vacation, and I have no other stuff to do (with all the rps moving slowly, ha ha)
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Dirty bastard, what are you doing on vacation? I have midterms dammit!
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And another but Im not sure I'm allowed to say it, lol (even if Whitechapel is dead, ha ha). Though I think that one was by accident. XD
XD Cant stand love stories stuck into action novels. If I want to read a romance, Im gonna grab a romance novel, not read a warbook. XD Vacation, and I have no other stuff to do (with all the rps moving slowly, ha ha)
Of course you're allowed to say it!
I mean, Seth is clearly never going to bring Whitechapel back (since it was too much work and it was extremely frustrating for him), so there's not point in keeping it secret.
Also, and I say this with a certainty born of intuition, romance novels suck. I like the side-romance stories. Means something more when everything's at stake.
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Yeah, but not telling you is also fun. XD
Eh, I dunno, the few Ive read have been good. (Though theyve been romance comics so I dunno)
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Finished the first book. Starts off super weak, like, terrible (imo), and I was certain that I'd absolutely hate Logen. Took a little bit of time, but it gets much better along the way. Not so happy about the ending, but thats mainly because I dont like how lots of series tend to end on a step for the next book.
Logen starts weak, but becomes great.
Jezal is okay, didntreally like him (but you will, I bet)
Gotka is the best character ever. Never have I liked a member of the inquisition like this. Almost as good as talkamata (what do you say).
Ferrow is above average, I guess.
Dog and Crew are absoluetely awesome.
The sidecharacters are generally fantastic. West, Arch Lektor, the First Magi... Favorite character is the First, obviously, ha ha.
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Sick. When i start i'll give my opinion XD
Reversed roles here, haha.
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Finally, ha ha
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Ooh, like the quote.
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Yeah, probably the first time I've read something where a savage shows up in a civilized area and reacts as one would think. Generally they just hve the constant stupid "ooh look at the big buildings" a la the bone girl from Powder.
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Bam, burnt through the next book. Gotka continues to be best main character, Logen follows, and Jezal got much better.
Farrow got bad. Qual was kinda weird, youll see what I'm saying whn yoi get there. The First got weird as well.
West was great, Dog and the others were also solid.
Wasnt the best book, but was pretty good. Does the same annoying thing and leads into the next book without giving a satisfactory conclusion. I hate it when authors do that.
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It's been one day Aman. One day goddamit.
Next thing I know i'm going to be sending you a Prince of Thorns PDF before i've even started the First Law series.
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It's been one day Aman. One day goddamit.
Next thing I know i'm going to be sending you a Prince of Thorns PDF before i've even started the First Law series.
Its your fault for not entertaining me with massive amounts of Vampire updates. :P xD
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Finished book 3! Three more short stories left, and two days left in my vacation. Lets see if I can finish it lol.
Anyways, third book was solid. Felt that it really climaxed in the third quarter, and got weaker by the end, but no big loss. We all knew where the real epic battle would be.
The big twist (if you cancall it that) in the first half was pretty obvious.
Yay for Gotka!
Jezal was solid, still didnt like farrow. The First was Farking ridiculous by the end though. Wonderibg what youll think about him and his twists.
Say one thing for Logen Ninefingers, say he makes great quotes. (And that hes an awesome character and makes me sad I'm not playing a barbarian atm. Also, the author really did well with his bezerker rage. Really felt like aimless destruction, instead of just a win-button.)
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These arent short stories.
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They're stand alone novels
Note I always called them "side stories", not "short stories"
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Finished the first book. Starts off super weak, like, terrible (imo)
Read through the first few chapters today and i got to say I disagree with this - it starts off a hell of a lot better than most novels. I mean, you can tell that the guy felt he really needed to be fancy with his writing, which made it suffer when he inevitably made mistakes adding unnecessary description, using words that could have been better replaced by other adjectives, etc.
But frankly, compared to the start of the first book of the black company (which started off really, really badly) or Powder mage, or a lot of other dark fiction works (which rely really very heavily on atmosphere anyway - which takes time to set up) - it's really quite good. Once you're done with Logen and you move onto Gotka (which, yes, by far the most wickedly awesome character, i'd love to just read a book about him), it picks up fast too.
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I dunno, I was almost gonna give up on the book with the first Logen segment.
Gotka is the Farking best.
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Hated the majority of the cast and the theme of the book. Favoritr characters were The Northman (not spoiling who) and the poison master (and aprentice), with Friendly trailing third.
Cooled down, ha ha. Anyways, the main problem with the book imo was that the theme seemed to be that you're born what you are, and can't really change (no matter how hard you try)(aside for one character), which I guess is a running theme in the series, but in this book especially. Two characters were especially treacherous and despicable imo, but succeeded anyways, and the book potrayed them to be good characters. Also the final plot twist was kinda forced and didnt feel right, but maybe it was because I was hoping it wasnt true.
A very good book anyways, even if I didnt like the end.
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Man, Jezal's a Farking dick. I keep on waiting for him to not be a piece of shit, but that moment just isn't happening.
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XD
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“He wiped his face, and then--his favourite part of the day--gazed at himself in the looking glass. It was a good one, newly imported from Visserine, a present from his father: an oval of bright, smooth glass in a frame of lavishly-carved dark wood. A fitting surround for such a handsome man as the one gazing happily back at him. Honestly, handsome hardly did him justice.
"You're quite the beauty aren't you?" Jezal said to himself, smiling as he ran his fingers over the smooth skin of his jaw. And what a jaw it was. He had often been told it was his best feature, not that there was anything whatever wrong with the rest of him. He turned to the right, then to the left, the better to admire that magnificent chin. Not too heavy, not brutish, but not too light either, not womanly or weak. A man's jaw, no doubt, with a slight cleft in the chin, speaking of strength and authority, but sensitive and thoughtful too. Had there ever been a jaw like it? Perhaps some king, or hero of legend, once had one almost as fine. It was a noble jaw, that[…]”
Excerpt From: Joe Abercrombie "The Blade itself".
Seriously. What a douchebag.
I mean, I totally do the exact same thing (right down to the "You're quite a beauty, aren't you?") but still.
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Realky drak? XD
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I say it in my head, but I still say it.
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XD
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Also, I love that Logen's quote you have down there is about using the bathroom. Not exactly what I was expecting XD
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;D
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Man, Ferro's even worse (and more self-absorbed) than Jezal. I mean, at least Jezal admits that he's a total pussy a few times before he sinks back into his usual shit. Ferro's just insanely aggravating with nonsensical moments of "Ooh, i'm so empty, only the killing can make it stop".
It's definitely Glotka >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Logen>>>>>>Jezal>>Ferro.
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100%
Though Logen gets really epic later on. Have you met dogman yet?
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I finished the first book.
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How was?
One more book to go. Awesome book, liked all the characters. Beck, a bunch of Northerners, Fenree, and the most angsty knight I've ever read about, lol.
Also, expressing that I have a guess on the identity of a character in the last book.
Damn, he really isnt trying to hide it, huh.
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Liked it, haha. Don't see how Ferro was above average though, hated her every line and chapter. Jezal's just a shallow douche and Ardee's a bored smartass, no romance story there for me to be a sucker for XD
Liked Logen from the start (don't know what you had against him) and, of course, INQUISITOR GLOTKA!
West's and Dogman's perspectives were pretty good too. In fact, i'd rate them both above Jezal and Ferro.
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West and Dogman becomes super awesome later on. Like, Furiously awesome
I dunno, I found Ferro funny.
Gotka!!!! ;D Super pissed he doesnt really show up in the sidestories (which arent really sidestories, ha ha.)
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Man, Superior Glotka in Before they are Hanged is even more awesome than Inquisitor Glotka.
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Fark yeah. Just wait till you see what he's really up against and what he does. It's insane.
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Eaters? I hope he's up against Eaters.
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Eaters? I hope he's up against Eaters.
eaters are Farking ridiculous. XD
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One thing that annoys the hell out of me with Abercrombie's writing - I don't think he knows what "Uh" is. He seems to replace "Hmph" with "huh" and "hmm" or "mmm" or "Ugh" with "uh" too. Like this:
“You came here 'cause I dragged you here," snapped Threetrees. "You was all for turning back an hour ago."
"Uh," said Grim.”
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Oh yeah, Grims gonna be doing that forever. Kinda assume ge just couldnt pronounce an h.
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Not just Grim though, it's Farkin' everyone.
Just read through Glotka getting a million marks that the bankers pulled out of their asses, laughed through the whole chapter.
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Okay, Yulwei's awesome, and so are Frost and Severard, but:
“The world changes, and you must change with it or be swept aside. This war will not be like the last. Khalul finally sends forth his own soldiers. An army many long years in the making. The gates of the great temple-fortress of Sarkant are opening, high in the barren mountains. I have seen it. Mamun comes forth, thrice-blessed and thrice-cursed, the fruit of the desert, first apprentice of Khalul. Together they broke the Second Law, together they ate the flesh of men. The Hundred Words come behind, Eaters all, disciples of the Prophet, bred for battle and fed over these long years, adepts in the disciplines of arms and of High Art. No peril like it has faced the world since the Old Time, when Juvens fought with Kanedias. Since before that, perhaps, when Glustrod touched the Other Side, and sought to open the gates to the world below.”
Man, Glotka's Farked.
For that matter, so is West. I really, really hope Bethod has Fenris go in and butcher Ladisla like a pig.
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It took one and three-quarters of a book but it finally happened. Someone hit Jezal in the face with a mace.
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For that matter, so is West. I really, really hope Bethod has Fenris go in and butcher Ladisla like a pig.
yeessssssssssssss
What happened is so much better.
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yeessssssssssssss
What happened is so much better.
;D
/ Poor Jezal's perfect face.
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Oh my god, Logen and Ferro banging is the funniest thing i've ever read.
“easing herself down onto him, grunting softly. "Urrrr.”
“Ah." He reached out and pulled her closer,”
“Urrrr," she whispered at him,”
“Ah," he grunted back at her,
"Urrr"
"Ah"
"Urrrr"
"Ah"
Yes. This. This is the sound of mutual, passionate sex. My face hurts i'm laughing so much.
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"Urrr"
"Ah"
"Urrrr"
"Ah"
I posted this as a joke but it actually happened this way. There was literally just this.
---
Aww, poor West. I was really rooting for him there. Walking on on Cathil and Dogman... eesh.
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Yeah, Joe's sex scenes are kinda gross, ha ha.
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Urrrr
Ah
Urrrr
Ah
It's not even the right gender doing the right sounds either. The girl's doing the man-like grunting and the guy's making the lighter moaning.
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Red Country was very good.
Best character is obviously Lamb, though Shy, Pit/Ro, and the others were pretty great too.
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It's not even the right gender doing the right sounds either. The girl's doing the man-like grunting and the guy's making the lighter moaning.
There is something deeply wrong with the imagery that this sentence conjures haha! ;D
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Red Country was very good.
Best character is obviously Lamb, though Shy, Pit/Ro, and the others were pretty great too.
Congrats on finishing, haha. Tell me when you want to read the Prince of Thorns series, i'll send it over.
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Congrats on finishing, haha. Tell me when you want to read the Prince of Thorns series, i'll send it over.
Thinking about reading another series while I wait for you, ha ha. Friend told me that his favorite series is called Wizard's First Rule, and that it's epic as shit.
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Woah, that's a 17 book series.
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Woah, that's a 17 book series.
... I thought it was only seven. Holy shit lol
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"I chose glory and success. The box did not contain what was on the lid."
But goddamn I love Glotka's lines.
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Greatest character
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God Farking damn, Frost and Severard. That's just not right.
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:'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
I just checked. Arch Lector Glotka isn't in any of the side stories. :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
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:'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
I just checked. Arch Lector Glotka isn't in any of the side stories. :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
Yeah, its the worst part about the side stories.
Though they tend to reference him as the cripple in the first book.
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He doesn't continue the first law series past this either. Which means no more Glotka forever.... :'(
I checked what other works he's written though - the Shattered Sea series, to be exact. Looking through the characters, father Yarvi, the main character, kinda seems like Glotka (just way less awesome and outright evil).
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Yeah, though I'm wondering if thats true. The ending of Red Country doesnt really end anything. I kinda feel like he may br wanting to countinue the First Law, since, well, the war between Bayaz and The Prophet isnt over.
Which teminds me, whatd you think of Bayaz's chessmaster scheme thing?
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Really surprised me, honestly. Never would have thought he'd have killed Juvens, or (tried, very unsuccessfully) to kill Tolomei to hide that he killed Juvens. Or any of the other terrible things he did.
I expected his ploy with Jezal, but not what he did afterwards (which was brutal and awesome), and definitely not that he owned Valint and Balk. Just saw him as a far more benevolent figure - because, frankly, he was written that way. Always found it strange that none of the other characters would trust him despite him being outwardly awesome.
Adam aproves.
I don't think the war between him and the prophet is ever supposed to end. Khalul is clearly the far more powerful individual (since he's not only a magi but an eater, and an ancient one at that), while also controlling the Ghurkish empire (which far outclasses the Union), but Bayaz has the benefit of external power (breaking the first law) and all of the maker's toys, so they kinda come to a standstill, neither one can do anything to the other.
Was kinda hoping to see Yoru with the Divider against Mamun, would have been an awesome showdown. Too bad for that.
The Feared vs the Bloody Nine was epic. Goddamn Logen's rages are awesome.
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Yeah, he was farking scary, ha ha. He pops in during The Heroes, and goddamn man. Goddamn. XD
Logen's rages are scary, ha ha. Poor Threetrees. Him dying made me sad.
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Wizards First Rule was great. Started slow, but picks up awesomely by the end.
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So yep, read through Best Served Cold, I agree, most all of the characters in there sucked.
I think Morveer was actually my favourite character of the lot, if only because he was the most competent of them all (even if he was a tremendous douche). He also had some hilarious lines - like when he says that he can't abide arrogance, after all being humble cost nothing XD
Friendly was second, being pretty awesome in every way actually. Monza and Shivers were both terrible though. Funny how Shivers kinda leached the evil out of Monza and took it into himself. Both were terrible people though, significantly worse than any of the other characters there. Shenkt was another "god" character addition. Still find it kinda funny how insane eaters are. Also makes me wonder how Bayaz is even still alive, considering how much ass Shenkt kicks. Bayaz is soooo much more fragile (and less able to produce magical blasts) than an eater, and Shenkt could literally rip him to pieces before he could even twitch a finger.
Cosca was as Cosca as always.
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I dunno, I liked Shivers and was rooting for him to kill Monza (what a bitch). Cosca was garbage. Ugh. He does get better in Red Country, though hes outclassed by all the other characters, so it doesnt seem that much better. Seriously, red country is amazing.
Yeah, the poison master was great. (His apprentice too, loved her).
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Monza started out fine (though it was insanely obvious that she was banging her brother, which was kinda weird). Got significantly worse as time passed.
Caul started out awesome. Then he kinda turned to shit. I agree that I was rooting for him to kill Monza, but not because I actually liked his character or anything - I just really hated Monza.
Yeah, Day was hilarious, too bad Monza had to turn her against morveer :(
Cosca was funny, but I hate that he ended up killing the poison master. I mean, come on, Morveer could take his slow, whiny drunken ass!
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Yeah, agreed there.
Where do you think he turned to shit?
Yup. :(
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Right around the time his eye got burned out. For a while I thought we were going to get "The bloody-nine, but all the time", instead we got "Super-bitch who feels nothing". I expect him to be less aggravating in Heroes though.
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Started heroes, gotta say that I Farking love Gorst (I knew I would, liked him wherever he appeared). His inner monologue while he talks to the girl is also the funniest thing in this entire series.
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Gorst is epic, though he gets whiny in the end iirc.
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So, forgot to post here after I finished it, but I finished Heroes (and Red Country) a while ago. Red Country was excellent. One thing I particularly liked was that you could actually see an evil side to Logan in this one (you never really saw Logan being evil in the first trilogy until he killed Tul Duru).
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Yeah Red Country was great.
Starting reading Worm (a web serial). Absolutely amazing imo
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Awesome, when you're done with that i've sent you the Broken Empire ombnibus
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Yeah Red Country was great.
Starting reading Worm (a web serial). Absolutely amazing imo
Oh I've heard of worm. It's really that good then?
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Oh I've heard of worm. It's really that good then?
yeah its really good. Not Black Company level, but it's addicting. Bug (I refuse to call her by her official name) is amazing. The rest if the cast are phenomenal as well. The story is really well crafted, great foreshadowing, and each time a threat appears, it feel threatening without lessining the impact of the other threats. Great read. Wanna finish it tonight.
Awesome, when you're done with that i've sent you the Broken Empire ombnibus
Sweet
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Read Prince of thorns and got halfway through king of thorns yesterday and today. You can blame the books for me not updating.
The protagonist is the most unlikable, pure evil unredeemable shit you've ever read, and that's probably the biggest downfall of the series. The writing in the first book is also a little vague and confusing. Second book helps quite a bit though, and the whole thing seems made to make the main character much more likeable.
The whole thing is unecessarily gritty and meandering (it's cheap dark fiction, where something like the Black Company was rich in comparison) but it's better than most nonetheless. Very engaging once you get into it, moreso than the first law series I'd say.
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Also, a loooooot of comically stupid stuff in the books. Funniest unlikely thing would have to have been the necromantress' attempted forced wedding in the marsh.
Author also clearly has a hard on for his protagonist.
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Finished worm. Really good. Finale wasnt the best, but was pretty great. Epilogue was ehhh, aside from Defiant's final peice, which was amazing. Beyond amazing.
Gonna start pact.
@Drak
Gonna read your books when I'm on the cruise next week, since I wont have interwebs
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Another Cruise? You decadent bastard haha! :D
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Finished worm. Really good. Finale wasnt the best, but was pretty great. Epilogue was ehhh, aside from Defiant's final peice, which was amazing. Beyond amazing.
Gonna start pact.
@Drak
Gonna read your books when I'm on the cruise next week, since I wont have interwebs
How many Farking cruises do you people go on?
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Another Cruise? You decadent bastard haha! :D
Booyah motherfarkers. Its just that Operation A.P.E got tan and I raring for another one, ha ha.
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Try not to shoot anyone on this one though... ;D
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Try not to shoot anyone on this one though... ;D
Probably gonna release a deadly disease instead, ha ha.
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Well, as long as it's for the 'greater good' I suppose it's OK. :D
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Just finished emperor of thorns.
All I have to say is that this guy knows how to end a story (his afterthought wasn't half bad either). Very nice.
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Oh, and Aman, i'll send you three more books (the first three of the malazan book of the fallen series) - the authors are huge fans of the Black Company and while the first is widely considered to be confusing and doesn't give you much information, the second is said to be very much like Glen Cook's work and a much better continuation. I read the first a long time ago and i'll be re-reading it now.
Mentioning it because i'm pretty sure you'll finish Prince/King/Emperor of thorns in two or three days.
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Oh, and Aman, i'll send you three more books (the first three of the malazan book of the fallen series) - the authors are huge fans of the Black Company and while the first is widely considered to be confusing and doesn't give you much information, the second is said to be very much like Glen Cook's work and a much better continuation. I read the first a long time ago and i'll be re-reading it now.
Mentioning it because i'm pretty sure you'll finish Prince/King/Emperor of thorns in two or three days.
Sweeeeet
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Dammit, meant to post those last two in what drak's been reading
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Moved it~
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Finished Thorns. Eh, not your best pick, but def better then some of the first law books.
Best character was easily Maliana.
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Never read the Malazan trilogy. First book is absolute shyte, couldnt finish it.
Anyone got any other good dark fantasy books? Got a flight soon and Ill need the distractions
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What's "dark?"
Rivers of London series; memory sorrow and thorn series by tad Williams; The Scar by China mièville (Drak might like that one too)
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Never read the Malazan trilogy. First book is absolute shyte, couldnt finish it.
Anyone got any other good dark fantasy books? Got a flight soon and Ill need the distractions
It's actually a ten book series (Malazan Book of the Fallen), with various associated works, including the Crimson Guard, a series written by Stevenson's friend and roleplaying partner Ian Cameron Esslemont, and a prequel set several hundred thousand years in the past.
The first book is, indeed, hard to get through, but the book really picks up about halfway through Gardens of the Moon, and the series itself starts to sink its claws into you somewhere in between Deadhouse Gates (Second Book) and Memories of Ice (third Book). It can be pretentious (extremely so) at times but it's overshadowed by what I personally think is some truly amazing world building, and there are some great characters. Deadhouse Gates (second Book) also has one of the best characters in the whole series, Duiker the Imperial Historian of the Malazan Empire (he's 100% Croaker, you feel it right away when you start reading him).
You really should give the series a second chance. I read the first book years ago and then gave up (despite the fact that i'd bought the first five books in the series). I gave it another try recently and now i'm on book eight (Toll the Hounds). It can take a while to get through (it's been about 3 months for me to read as far as i've read, but that's including time off i've had to take due to work and school, etc).
Also, Barabus is loosely based on Karsa Orlong, a character whose backstory spans the first several hundred pages of Memories of Ice, and it's one hell of a backstory.
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What's "dark?"
Rivers of London series; memory sorrow and thorn series by tad Williams; The Scar by China mièville (Drak might like that one too)
Rivers of London is Whitechapel!
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Drak
I think Sharp Ends (book from 2016) has Gotka in it
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IT DOES
"The Union army may be full of bastards, but there's only one who thinks he can save the day single-handed when the Gurkish come calling: the incomparable Colonel Sand dan Glokta.
Curnden Craw and his dozen are out to recover a mysterious item from beyond the Crinna. Only one small problem: no one seems to know what the item is.
Shevedieh, the self-styled best thief in Styria, lurches from disaster to catastrophe alongside her best friend and greatest enemy, Javre, Lioness of Hoskopp.
And after years of bloodshed, the idealistic chieftain Bethod is desperate to bring peace to the North. There's only one obstacle left - his own lunatic champion, the most feared man in the North: the Bloody-Nine . ."
There's a ton but I only vaguely remember Curnden Craw, and I swear i've never heard of Shevedieh or Javre before. Colonel Sand Dan Glotka and the Bloody nine are the real prizes.
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13 stories, a lot of them related to that thief and Javre, so I think these are new characters. Some are told from the perspectives of characters we've never seen before.
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Say did we ever end up reading the Shattered Sea series?
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Say did we ever end up reading the Shattered Sea series?
I dont think so. I'm down Lol
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Fark smeds was a great character
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Farking hell I forgot who Smeds even was.
I need to re-read Chronicles of the Black Company
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Still the best series i've ever read.
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Ive been using it to push off studying for my last exam
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So good
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Yo drak apparently Glen Cook released another Black Company book a year ago. Port of Shadows.
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I was about to say that I don't like that because the series ended on a very, very final note, but looking it up it's actually set in-between the first and second book... and it's about the Lady and Soulcatcher's 3rd sister?
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Yeah okay i'm not liking what i'm seeing here, looked at a bunch of reviews and while i'm not thin-skinned enough to care that the story's filled with rape or creepy shit, there was a spoiler review describing the plotline here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2534423989?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1 which is really not what I wanted to so.
Especially the fact that everyone's memory is erased at the end of the novel. That's some cop-out shit right there. Obvious and probably necessary but a cop-out nonetheless.
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Though hey, if you're looking for something to read, I've been reading a lot of translated/webnovels as of late. Generally lower quality of writing (grammar/language-wise, since a lot of them are translated or have no editor) but a lot more willing to be creative with the plot or go into a lot more detail about things. Two best ones I've read so far are the following:
Lord of the Mysteries
http://novelfull.com/lord-of-the-mysteries.html
Follows the story of Zhou Mingri (though he quickly adopts and uses the name of the person whose body he inhabits, Klein, and you rarely see his name again), a chinese guy who enacts a ritual from a book on Earth that sends him into the body of a guy who shot himself in the head in the setting of Lord of the Mysteries. The setting is cthulhu/victorian era-esque, something I don't actually normally like, and which put me off from reading it for a really long time, but once I actually started I found it was extremely well executed and came with a very compelling magic system.
There are a couple infodumps early on when Klein is training with Old Neil but you can honestly skim through most of those.
It's translated from a Chinese novel, so there are some sayings that are a little weird if you're not used to them, but I found it to be a pretty high quality translation.
I'd say the series is roughly halfway done atm, it gets another 2-3 chapters every day (which will likely slow down when it catches up to the author), and i'm fairly confident in the author's plan for the story moving forward.
Mother of Learning
Follows a moody little piece of shit teenage kid going to wizard school who ends up caught in a time loop. He quickly grows out of his asshole personality and spends a very long time in the time loop. Author sucks at counting, something you'll notice very quickly when he starts actually putting down hard numbers on how much time has actually been spent in the time loop, but that's an inconsistency you can mostly ignore. The writing very quickly picks up once the time loop actually starts, though you'll have about two or three chapters before that happens.
The writing's great, the protagonist quickly becomes very likeable, the setting and the progression of the plot is well-paced IMO, and the story is nearly done, supposed to be finished this month actually. I'd strongly recommend you read this one first, if you read either or both of these series/novels, since it's nearly done and you won't have to end up waiting for any chapters.
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Yeah okay i'm not liking what i'm seeing here, looked at a bunch of reviews and while i'm not thin-skinned enough to care that the story's filled with rape or creepy shit, there was a spoiler review describing the plotline here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2534423989?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1 which is really not what I wanted to so.
Especially the fact that everyone's memory is erased at the end of the novel. That's some cop-out shit right there. Obvious and probably necessary but a cop-out nonetheless.
Thats unfortunate lol. I read the review.
What a weird twist haha. Though hey, if you're looking for something to read, I've been reading a lot of translated/webnovels as of late. Generally lower quality of writing (grammar/language-wise, since a lot of them are translated or have no editor) but a lot more willing to be creative with the plot or go into a lot more detail about things. Two best ones I've read so far are the following:
Lord of the Mysteries
http://novelfull.com/lord-of-the-mysteries.html
Follows the story of Zhou Mingri (though he quickly adopts and uses the name of the person whose body he inhabits, Klein, and you rarely see his name again), a chinese guy who enacts a ritual from a book on Earth that sends him into the body of a guy who shot himself in the head in the setting of Lord of the Mysteries. The setting is cthulhu/victorian era-esque, something I don't actually normally like, and which put me off from reading it for a really long time, but once I actually started I found it was extremely well executed and came with a very compelling magic system.
There are a couple infodumps early on when Klein is training with Old Neil but you can honestly skim through most of those.
It's translated from a Chinese novel, so there are some sayings that are a little weird if you're not used to them, but I found it to be a pretty high quality translation.
I'd say the series is roughly halfway done atm, it gets another 2-3 chapters every day (which will likely slow down when it catches up to the author), and i'm fairly confident in the author's plan for the story moving forward.
Mother of Learning
Follows a moody little piece of shit teenage kid going to wizard school who ends up caught in a time loop. He quickly grows out of his asshole personality and spends a very long time in the time loop. Author sucks at counting, something you'll notice very quickly when he starts actually putting down hard numbers on how much time has actually been spent in the time loop, but that's an inconsistency you can mostly ignore. The writing very quickly picks up once the time loop actually starts, though you'll have about two or three chapters before that happens.
The writing's great, the protagonist quickly becomes very likeable, the setting and the progression of the plot is well-paced IMO, and the story is nearly done, supposed to be finished this month actually. I'd strongly recommend you read this one first, if you read either or both of these series/novels, since it's nearly done and you won't have to end up waiting for any chapters.
U get me haha. Knew youd have something to read.