Actually I thought Arraris' trick at the end was pretty average upon reread.

 

I'd just like to say that I don't know many of us that actually enjoyed how Harry 'magically' won the day in the end of the seventh book without ever using magic. Without spoilers for Codex Alera, Tavi used Roman tactics to beat the Canim, which worked. Against the final enemies, that wouldn't of worked. No normal tactics were working anywhere, which is why the Canim were on their doorstep in the first place. Tavi had to use the wit he used throughout the books to beat the final enemies, but he also needed a LOT of firepower.

 

I don't recall seeing this in the thread yet...

The Riyria Revelations by Michael Sullivan
Volume I
Volume II
Volume III

Originally written by the author to entice his dyslexic daughter to enjoy reading, the author has taken a standard fantasy setting and rejuvenated it through exceptional characters, tight pacing and first-rate plotting in six books bound in three volumes. Following a pair of mercenaries, Hadrian (a swordsmen) and Royce (his thief partner), it details their adventures in episodic manner. The characters, especially Thrace and Arista evolve throughout the series realistically.

My sole quibble with the stories is that the travel time between locations felt too brief for me. While this is no Wheel of Time or Game of Thrones, this is a very well done and enjoyable fantasy series that I wholeheartedly recommend.

 

Honestly, it's not that it went super downhill because the other books were bad, it's more because Captain's Fury was so freaking good. The ending, is something that you can see coming from a mile away, but also necessary in my opinion to fully close up the story. I was quite satisfy with it to be honest, although my opinion may be slightly different due to the fact I read the whole series all at once, rather than waiting for it to come out of release.

 

My favorite parts of Codex Alera were actually in Captain's Fury

Spoiler

after he got his furies

.
The entire reveal in that book was something I enjoyed immensely.

Spoiler

When Araris first tells Tavi and salutes, whispering "Hail, Gaius Octavian."

I got chills. Favorite scene in fiction.
Books 3 and 4 were definitely great books, but books 5 and 6 were hardly "off the deep end." Tavi became a badass, but didn't lose any of his cunning. He didn't

Spoiler

beat Navaris

with main strength or

Spoiler

crush the vord advance from behind

with some amazing power, he used his wits to outsmart his opponents, just like he had in the rest of the books. It's just that with greater strength to back him up, his deeds grew comparably larger.

Spoiler

He goes from stopping the marat (halting a plot to overthrow the crown) to stopping taken canim (halting a plot to overthrow the crown) to stopping a canim advance (halting a plot to overthrow the crown) to killing a lesser vord queen (saving a species from extinction in order to help stop a plot to overtake the world) to killing the greater vord queen (saving the realm and halting a plot to overtake the world, putting Alera in a position to prepare to fight back against the vord).

He still has great moments and I think it's a perfect series for a DLP crowd. It's essentially a weak but cunning hero who changes the fate of the world single handed while also gaining personal strength along the way.

If you don't mind that it's high fantasy rather than urban, it's great. I actually reread it more often than Dresden or HP now.

 

Captain's Fury? Do you mean Cursor's Fury? I'm pretty sure no such book exists.

EDIT: I'm wrong nevermind. The reason I didnt remember it is because i thought it was the most boring of the books.

 

I disagree

 

Hey guys, I just finished reading Blindsight by Peter Watts and it left me pumped. It was dark and fascinating and left me with questions, even though its conclusion was morbidly cathartic. So now I need some good science-fiction to keep me from going into withdrawal.

Any suggestions?

 

Captain's Fury was the best book in the Alera series (followed closely by Cursor's). Some very minor spoilers follow, unhidden. Stuff about the basic set up of the world, forms of magic, beings and religion, etc. Plot related spoilers will be marked and hidden behind spoiler tags.

Anyway, I finished Sanderson's Way of Kings last night. I have mixed feelings about it, though the overall impression is that it's very good. It's a real page turner, very gripping, and has the trademark Sanderson twist at the end. The characters are all well developed and distinct. The action is well written, and perfectly paced. I think the pacing is actually what I admire most about WoK: despite its length, there's real momentum behind the story and a sense of building up to a climax throughout. Every chapter moves the story forward, and at the end of every chapter you know what the next chapter (for that character - it's multiple PoV) is going to be roughly about.

There are also some great moments in there when you're in awe of Sanderson's writing skill.

One example (very minor spoilers):

Spoiler

There's a Kaladin chapter, then a Dalinar chapter, then a Kaladin chapter. The Dalinar chapter depicts the hunt for a chasmfiend: why it's done, how it's done, what for, etc. Then the next chapter, with Kaladin, it's mentioned that Kaladin had asked around and now understood about chasamfiends and gemhearts. It was such a great moment where you're just like "very nice Sanderson, very nice". A perfect execution of show vs. tell. Many authors would have just had someone explain to Kaladin about it. But through showing us from another character viewpoint then returning to Kaladin we got a much more interesting, and probably more insightful, lesson in chasmfiends.

In fact, almost everything of note is shown rather than told, even if it does mean hopping around a lot in time, viewpoint, etc.

So, the good: the pacing, the technical writing.

The characterisation is pretty good overall. However, there are moments of weakness, particularly with Kaladin's storyline, where Sanderson relies on some pretty cheap and well-worn writing cliches to establish reader-protagonist sympathy. Self sacrificing hero who puts others before himself, to the extent that he unthinkingly places himself in danger over and over again. Helplessness in the face of injustice. Being unable to strike an inferior antagonist out of concern for social consequences. One time I actually found myself having to put the book down for 5 minutes because I was so angry at Sanderson for using such a cheap plot device to (successfully) manufacture righteous anger in the reader on behalf of Kaladin.

Also, on a number of occasions I found myself actually enjoying bad things happening to him. (Major spoiler.)

Spoiler

For example, when his team was murdered after he rejected the shardblade. Serves him right for turning it down.

But characterisation is generally very good. And even Kaladin, though somewhat clichéd in his role as the archetypal hero, is a very well written one. His storyline is the one that you find yourself really looking forward to coming back to.

My real problems with Way of Kings are actually to do with the setting and the plot.

The plot has a couple of flaws (or rather, fails to line up with my preferences on a number of items).

Firstly, you have the now-tired overaching plot of "a great evil threatens the whole world, but the world is busy squabbling among themselves". To name three modern fantasy series that utilise this: Song of Ice and Fire, Alera, and now Stormlight Archive. Always, always, the "internal squabbling" plot is far more interesting: it's more complex, more human, more realistic/gritty. The "external threat" part is simplistic good vs. evil stuff in comparison, and the enemy there is often some epitome of evil rather than human evil, which is far more interesting. I just wish all these authors would just drop the external threat part entirely and make the internal squabbles the main part. The external threat is just unnecessary, and now irritating after it's been used so much.

Secondly, the "external threat" is an apocalyptic one. I've made my dislike of apocalyptic stories known elsewhere. To summarise, I think the most interesting parts of stories come from complex societies, the characters who move through those societies (and maybe try to change them), and the clash between two or more societies. Apocalypses destroy all complexity. Apocalypses are simple. They have clear good guys and bad guys. The stakes are the highest they could be, which means motivation is boring: fight or be wiped out. They minimise the potential for political games, as they unify people. Unity is boring. Difference is interesting.

The setting is very imaginative, and there are some nice, clever elements. However, it feels a mess. There's just too many different, apparently disconnected, forms of magic. The shardblades and plates are cool, as is windwalking. I rather feel that those would have been enough. But on top of that there are the other 9 forms of magic used by the other orders of the Knights Radiant (windwalking being one of the 10), soulcasting, voidbinding, Old Magic, fabrials. Then there's the magic in the environment - highstorms, spren, stormlight - which is connected to the others but distinct. And more is hinted at: the Honorblades, which are said to be very different from shardblades. The Heralds appear to have some other set of powers as well (e.g. the storms are related to one of the heralds somehow). Then there's Hoid's music magic, and other forms of magic are hinted at (all the various Dawn- things: Dawnshards, Dawnsinging, etc.). And then there's Odium, the Almighty, and Cultivation. It's all just too much.

The natural history makes little sense (how did chickens and horses evolve, if every other part of the world is radically different and non-mammalian?).

Chronology is also somewhat unclear, but I can forgive that, as it's part of the story - the characters are trying to oncover the secrets of the past, and the reader is coming along for the ride. Though given that, I feel that perhaps we shouldn't have got such an unambiguous prologue. He was going for dramatic irony, I guess.

So like I say, I have mixed feelings. I would definitely recommend that people give it a read, and in terms of how gripping the story is I think it's Sanderson's best novel (that I've read). There are parts of the Mistborn trilogy which, for me, got a bit dull and pushing forward was a drag. Not so with Way of Kings. It's a great story. I just don't think I'd want to play around in the sandbox he's setting up like I would many other fantasy series.

 

I understand where you're coming from with this. At first I was also annoyed with his character but I finally came to understand him when we saw his flashback when he was a kid where it was established that it was just how he was raised and the principals instilled in him by his father. I compared to how we would generally accept that an antagonistic character turns out that way because of how they grew up in the past. I guess if anyone we should blame Kaladin's father for his shortcomings.

Hmm good point but how would you make such conflicts interesting for a whole ten books when at the same time you have an over arcing plot for the entire series driving it?

It was the first book. I guess he introduced everything so that we can get a sense that this things exist and are part of the world so that in the later books he can concentrate on a bunch of them,do whatever he is going to do with them then move on. This way it will feel organic and not like something he just came up with and is trying to incorporate into the story.

I second this

 

Hey, me again, i started reading the dresden series last week on the recommendation of many on this website. I thought, fine, I've known about for long enough and it seems to check every box in my 'good book' list.

I'm at the end of grave peril now and I'm so surprisingly infuriated that I had to put the book down to rant a little in confusion and, obviously, anger.

Spoilers may follow:

Why do people find this book appealing? More specifically, what is there to like about dresden himself? He's an incompetent of the highest order. He's deathly afraid of EVERYTHING, mind bogglingly incompetent, stupidto the point where he has no right to be cocky or arrogant to anyone, let alone all of enemies whom seem to best him at every opportunity until he wins in the end by the most contrived methods imaginable!

Most of the time, the conflict stems from ignorance, manufactured by dresden and a few others in the most annoying way imaginable. The head wounds he suffers should kill him, several times. His magic is his only saving grace, and that's somehow taken from him most of the time.

What's left to like?

His chivalry? Hardly unique. His willingness to defend the innocent? Well, defending when he's such a frightened, weak puppy that often causes more harm than good is a subjective term.

I'm so confused and annoyed by the obvious appeal this miserable, weak, idiotic, arrogant, self - depreciating, knee-shakingly frightened, magically inept and stupid character garners that I'm pulling my hair out.

Someone please explain it to me! Does it get better? Does he? Does being a winter knight in the future change things in this regard?

I'm despairing here... I figure I best figure out now if I'm wasting my time.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

The first two/three books aren't very good compared to the rest of the series. Butcher was little more than an amateur author at that point; he hadn't gotten the characters down at all and hadn't honed his talent to what it is now. Finish the third book and you'll see the seeds of why we love the Dresden Files so much.

 

Yeah, Summer Knight is where you get hooked, IMO.

 

All right, I'll stick it out, I bought the first four so I got one after grave peril as well.

Here's to hoping he gets to cast three spells in a row without passing out in the future.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

His power is progressive, Dresden in book 12 could wipe the floor with Dresden in book 1. It's not a stale thing.

 

Or a month later.

The Vampire Files
​

Set in post-prohibition Chicago in the 1930s, the first book deals with a guy waking up on a beach as a newly risen vampire and his subsequent search for his killer. Subsequent entries in the series deal with other cases he looks into as a part-time private investigator.

The series as a whole is really more mystery/thriller genre than fantasy. Although the main character is a vampire, entire books will go by with him being the only supernatural element to the story. His undead nature mainly affects the story by virtue of the special abilities he has that help him investigate things. The series has a mostly traditional Stoker take on vampire abilities/weaknesses, although garlic and holy objects are ignored, as is the need for an invitation over a threshold.

It's a fun read if you like film noir or something similar, and the mysteries are generally engaging enough that you won't be bored. I like the books for showing how being turned into a vampire doesn't particularly change the main character's life in the most basic ways - he still needs to make cash somehow, still muddles through relationships, still needs a place to live, etc.
12 books and probably as many short stories - the series is still ongoing, although the author's a bit slow to release.

Grimnoir Chronicles

Another post-WWI series. This one takes place in an alternate universe where people with magical abilities have been appearing for about a century. There are only a dozen or so specific abilities, so the magic for the most part plays out like mutant powers than traditional wizard stuff. The main character, Jake Sullivan, is drawn into a larger conspiracy involving magic users while pursuing a criminal.

The world is built very well for the most part and easy to grasp. The main character is a subversion of the big stupid brute - he's actually self educated and becomes one of the more knowledgeable experts concerning magical abilities. The plot itself builds to a satisfying twist and conclusion at the end of the first book. The second book clearly sets up the third (and final?), so I can't really comment on the strength of the plot yet. It was still a good read, though, and introduced a rather excellent character. Word of warning - the majority of the chapters are from third person POV over Sullivan's shoulder, but they switch fairly often to other characters. I normally detest this in books, but I found the secondary characters/plot to be interesting enough to not be pissed off this time.

One criticism is that in-universe blimps are the primary mode of nation-wide transportation, so when aerial scenarios are described it got a bit confusing. Maybe I have bad spatial reading comprehension, though.
Two books, a prequel short story, and the third to be published this year.

Second Sons Trilogy

The series follows Dirk Provin, the younger son of the Duke of Elcast. Early events in the book bring him to the attention of both the dictator of the realm, Antonov Latanya, and the high priestess of the religion that keeps him in power.

The book doesn't involve magic, but rather focuses on Dirk's intelligence and political maneuvering as he tries to gain the upper hand while powerful people try to use him for his own ends. He's actually one of the least physically imposing characters of the series, with almost no martial skills. He's also not the only one trying to manipulate people, and many of his conflicts stem from having to deal with other people's plots.

Mild spoilers, but a less vague summary:

Spoiler

Dirk is extremely intelligent, and catches the attention of the high priestess for his mathematical talent. She secretly used another mathematician to predict an eclipse prior to the series' start, and used this act to convince Antonov Latanya that she had divine favor. However, she doesn't know when the next eclipse will be, so she is desperate to use Dirk to calculate the date before she is exposed as a fraud.

Trilogy here.
​

 

Recommendation seconded.

I've read the series and found it to be quite enjoyable. If I remember correctly, the books are divided into plot-arcs of 3 books each (at least the first 6-9 books are sorted this way). There's quite a few short stories published in the anthologies that include Dresden Files SS (that's how I stumbled upon the series).

What I enjoyed the most about the series is the atmosphere - the 30's, the mob, the omnipresent corruption with a few cases of honest cops, a strong hint of Philip Marlowe.
However the last 2-3 books are a bit bland, as if the author ran out of good ides.

All in all, a good detective mystery/thriller series with a hint of supernatural flavor. A good read to kill the time in between new Dresden Files.

7/10

 

The pseudo-trilogies within the books are fairly loose; most of them stand on their own with no problems. There are only one or two that actually have plot threads hanging for the next book to pick up. And as Bukay says, the focus is really on the '30s, not on the supernatural. Once the first three books are done I believe he doesn't get involved in anything vampire related for 7 or 8 books.

 

I gotta say, I really like the Alex Verus, I actually prefer them over the Dresden Files if only because it's other wizards causing shit rather than fairy queens and fallen angels.