Westerosi Coast Gangster Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 book 3 of his series. anyone else looking forward to this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Yes? - peter bound Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westerosi Coast Gangster Posted January 17, 2016 Author Share Posted January 17, 2016 as am I, well, ttyl I guess? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 You know, I've seen a lot of people talk about the first book but I don't think I've picked up any concrete opinion of what it's actually like, apart from 'really violent' (if I'm thinking about the right thing).So... what's it like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 I thought the first book was one in a long line of Tor's 'next big thing' that I didn't buy into. Three royal brats, two brothers and a sister. The sister is immediatly forgotten about and gets about twenty pages. One brother joins some sort of elite air force made up of boarding school children and violent junior high tactics. The other is beaten by a monk in some sort of twisted karate kid style training (instead of wax on, wax off it is ill beat you with a stick and it will make you better). Then they all work to save their kingdom somehow.A lot of people I trust say book two was better but I continue to stare at it and wonder if I care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muwhahaha Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 I'm really looking forward to it. It debuted with Blood Song, Powder Mage, Wexler's series, Red Knight, Grim Company, and some other new "Grimdarks". It stood out for me and I'll be following it. I gave up on Malice, Wexler's Shadow Campaigns, and When Heavens Fall. I consider it better than Powder Mage, equal to Blood Song (but with a better sequel) but not as good as the Red Knight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 The first was OK, it had some torture porn issues that a lot of 'grimdark' seems to have. but it also had giant eagles. The sisters, uh, 'POV' was terrible though. I have yet to get to the second one because I'm about 6 years behind on new books.Also, Wexler rocks yer socks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 DR, have you read Col Buchanan's Heart of the World series? It's not quite the same as Drexler but it plays in the same ballpark, and is very good, if you like the one you could well enjoy the other.It doesn't seem to get talked about very much - got a little bit of play when the first came out, but the sequels have flown under the radar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 I have and I enjoy them quite a bit. For sone reason TOR USA dropped it after the second so I had to import the third. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Also, Wexler isn't grimdark. I don't know where that keeps coming from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Also, Wexler isn't grimdark. I don't know where that keeps coming from.Apparently no one really is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Yeah I dunno anymore. Dragons and shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Reckoner Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Dragonlance Chronicles is the last grimdark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 HEy when you're like 12, and that dragon burns that dude up with acid, thats grim dark as fuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muwhahaha Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 I think we should differentiate by those that use profanity and those that don't.Sanderson, McClellan, Jordan, Erikson (kind of), GynneMartin, Abercrombie, Bakker, Morgan, Staveley, Cameron, Wexler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
End of Disc One Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Erikson starts saying fuck in book 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muwhahaha Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Erikson starts saying fuck in book 5That's why he got a "kind of" and compared to Matthew Stover, he's C.S.Lewis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 That's why he got a "kind of" and compared to Matthew Stover, he's C.S.Lewis.A fuck is a fuck. No 'kinda' about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muwhahaha Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Really? You're equating Erikson with Stover in profanity because they both say fuck? Alrighty then. No way I'm going to argue against that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maester Llama Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Yep, I'm looking forward to Last Mortal Bond; these books deliver generous helpings of action fantasy entertainment if you're buying what they're selling. It's a long way from my "most anticipated," but I confidently expect it will be solidly enjoyable and do what it says on the tin, and that giant hawks will murder the fuck out of a whole bunch of people. What's it like? Honestly, in relation specifically to the first one, The Emperor's Blades, not much to get worked up about on paper: As SkynnJay mentions it's a royal offspring come of age and come into their destinies story, very much in the old tradition in terms of how the narrative flows, just with more blood and a certain number of swears. I'm not good at "rating" violence and levels of darkness, but while it's got nothing on Lawrence, say, nothing at all, there's a lot of carefully-described blood and cutting and suffering, and a puzzling mixture of real-world cursing and some of the most annoying and repetitive made-up swearing I've encountered recently. As mentioned above the training sequences -- for both brothers -- delight in extravagant physical torture as a way of driving home how hardcore the trainers are / the trainees are becoming. It takes an absolute age for the main plot to rev all the way up, and the coming-of-age stories that fill the space vary -- the one with the monk brother I found mega-dull, but the one with the giant hawk commandos gives some good fantasy military nonsense funtimes, though it relies on violence against women a fair bit and includes one of recent epic fantasy's most irritating and disheartening fridgings. However, the action is fun and the pages flow, and there are hints of a wide, crazy fantasy world deeply embedded in a fun embrace of classic tropes but with an interestingly twisted history of its own. And the second book starts delivering on those hints in ways I thought were satisfying. I found that the second book really got its shit together. The characters still do annoying shit, but there's a lot more forward momentum on the fun and engagingly all-out plot, with armies and prophecies and divine agendas and clashing goals leaping out of everywhere in a way that Staveley starts to draw together and orchestrate well. It's not the deepest fantasy thematically, at least in terms of how it speaks to me, but if you're down for a traditional epic fantasy story planted on a solid base and executed increasingly well as it goes on, with a couple vigourous infusions of metal in its presentation, I'd say this serves up the good stuff pretty well. It is for me, since I see this has come up, not even remotely as good as Wexler, certainly with many solid qualities, but a clear level down from Shadow Campaigns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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