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Author Topic: What Drak's been reading  (Read 66233 times)

Drakilian

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What Drak's been reading
« on: July 03, 2015, 10:21:56 pm »

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.
« Last Edit: August 23, 2015, 03:36:17 am by Drakilian »
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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #1 on: July 04, 2015, 04:46:11 pm »

Neat. Once I finish the witcher I'll try and read it,
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Sethaniel

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #2 on: July 04, 2015, 07:11:21 pm »

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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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2015, 01:20:26 am »

You finish it yet?
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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2015, 01:34:15 am »

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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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2015, 01:34:33 am »

He gets so much better as the series moves along.
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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2015, 01:36:30 am »

Just finished the third book. Awesome set.
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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2015, 01:42:31 am »

Make sure to read Silver spike afterwards, it'll never be relevant later so might as well here, haha.
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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #8 on: August 02, 2015, 01:54:02 am »

Was going to read it in order, but I guess? XD
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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #9 on: August 02, 2015, 02:10:47 am »

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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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #10 on: August 02, 2015, 02:17:36 am »

Croaker is great.
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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #11 on: August 02, 2015, 02:23:15 am »

He also gets better.

Also, have you been rooting for Lady/Croaker?
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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #12 on: August 02, 2015, 02:26:49 am »

I am inherently disturbed by it. XD
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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #13 on: August 02, 2015, 02:44:08 am »

:'(

Croaker/Lady was what I was rooting for practically the entire first set.
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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #14 on: August 02, 2015, 02:45:12 am »

She's like, the embodiment of mostly evil. XD
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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #15 on: August 02, 2015, 02:50:03 am »

But she's the really hot embodiment of mostly evil!
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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #16 on: August 02, 2015, 02:58:05 am »

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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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #17 on: August 02, 2015, 03:15:23 am »

No, of course not lol. He just had a weird dream.
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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #18 on: August 02, 2015, 09:29:59 am »

No, of course not lol. He just had a weird dream.
ah okay. XD
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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #19 on: August 10, 2015, 11:10:22 pm »

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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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #20 on: August 10, 2015, 11:24:26 pm »

Sweet. It'll be good reading for the plane ride and year, I guess. ^_^
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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #21 on: August 23, 2015, 03:34:40 am »

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.
« Last Edit: August 23, 2015, 03:40:53 am by Drakilian »
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Daedalus

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #22 on: August 23, 2015, 02:54:38 pm »

Guns? fantasy? Naaaah.

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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #23 on: August 23, 2015, 03:04:05 pm »

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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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #24 on: September 16, 2015, 06:27:18 am »

Finished Silver Spike. Damn that was good.  :'(
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BerkaZerka

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #25 on: September 16, 2015, 07:04:38 am »

Hate it when a great read finally ends haha! It brings both relief and remorse!  :)
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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #26 on: September 16, 2015, 07:19:55 am »

Yup. Gonna try and move through the next book, but I just hate reading on an iphone. Ugh. XD
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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #27 on: September 17, 2015, 02:10:46 am »

"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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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #28 on: September 17, 2015, 07:59:53 pm »

"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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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #29 on: September 18, 2015, 12:03:07 am »

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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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #30 on: September 18, 2015, 01:40:09 pm »

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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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #31 on: September 19, 2015, 12:13:46 pm »

Holy shit is that you
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Drakilian

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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #33 on: September 20, 2015, 03:44:52 am »

Holy shit.

Farking Taken are Farking unkillable goddammit
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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #34 on: September 20, 2015, 03:48:08 am »

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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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #35 on: September 20, 2015, 08:45:44 am »

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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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #36 on: September 20, 2015, 08:51:28 am »

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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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #37 on: September 20, 2015, 08:55:34 am »

Man, it's unreal how far off you are XD
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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #38 on: September 21, 2015, 07:14:27 am »

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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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #39 on: September 21, 2015, 03:36:41 pm »

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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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #40 on: September 21, 2015, 03:39:46 pm »

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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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #41 on: September 21, 2015, 03:44:31 pm »

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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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #42 on: September 21, 2015, 03:48:33 pm »

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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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #43 on: September 21, 2015, 03:52:54 pm »

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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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #44 on: September 21, 2015, 03:57:51 pm »

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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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #45 on: September 21, 2015, 04:04:36 pm »

Oh, I thought there was a book detailing the tale of otto's trip to the north.
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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #46 on: September 21, 2015, 04:05:52 pm »

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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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #47 on: September 21, 2015, 04:06:28 pm »

Yeah, ha ha. Farking unkillable but I expected more, lol
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Not Aman

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #48 on: September 21, 2015, 04:17:12 pm »

Holy fark book two of Murgen is long
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Drakilian

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Re: What Drak's been reading
« Reply #49 on: September 21, 2015, 04:19:38 pm »

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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