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Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance v. 3.0


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As the Peter Grant thread has been archived, can anyone tell me if the Night Witch comic is worth reading? It looks like a spin-off story from the few panels I've seen.

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I guess this is the only thread that fits, but the new Benedict Jacka "Alex Verus" book, Burned, was pretty darned good.  Stayed up until 5am reading it.  Only rarely is a book impossible to put down for me.  The weirdest part was how I started to run the futures in my head like the main character does. 

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On ‎24‎/‎04‎/‎2016 at 9:02 PM, Spaßvogel said:

I guess this is the only thread that fits, but the new Benedict Jacka "Alex Verus" book, Burned, was pretty darned good.  Stayed up until 5am reading it.  Only rarely is a book impossible to put down for me.  The weirdest part was how I started to run the futures in my head like the main character does. 

I thought it was very strong, and I really like the series. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here. Its been a while since I sooo wanted the next book in the series.

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I already read through In Shining Armor (Pax Arcana #4) once and I'm rereading it again.  It's great.  The scale of the plot and conflict is much larger than the previous three books.  While #3 was like "Hey Jim Butcher!  This is actually how you do a heist plot!", this book in particular Screams "Like Dresden Files, only better in every way".  Right down to the

protagonist's shapechanging ally who serves as his trump card in the climax, only this one actually isn't a lecherous dick.

Red Knight Falling is up next.  Harmony arguably qualifies as a "kick ass female protagonist with a personality", her main character struggle being remaining a Lawful Good heroine in a morally grey-to-black world, while she works for the SCP Foundation.

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That one's not the one with the douchey druid who is absurdly overpowered and fucks all the goddesses.  Somehow managed to mix the two up not that long ago.

I enjoyed Red Knight Falling, save for some wonky "we are family" character beats that I felt were not totally earned.

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I like Harmony, but I can't say I care all that much about her love interest.

So, what else is coming out in urban fantasy in the next few months?  Feels like everything else that's being released this year is coming out in September.

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1 hour ago, Mandy said:

I found this list over at Goodreads.  I know you're going to want to jump on reading the new Black Dagger Brotherhood novel #14 

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/84923.2016_Paranormal_Romance_Urban_Fantasy_January_June_

I actually did read about 4 of those. An older secretary at work had seen me reading a book with a questionable cover and gave me a bunch of them, raving about how good they were.  Changed my view of her forever - girlfriend rec'd a coworker some vampire pron!! B)  They were not terribly written and I had a few laughs at the ridiculously named characters, at least.

Would anyone recommend some of those on that list?  I am going to need some rec's :( I read too fast :( 

Have you checked out The Girl With Ghost Eyes by MH Boroson?  A Taoist exorcist-sorcerer priestess is attacked in an attempt to get at her father and must uncover the reason why as a prelude to finding out who betrayed her and kicking his ass.

It's like Molly Tanzer's Vermillion, only set in a later time period, more historically and politically attuned, and much better written in the sense that the plot actually delivers on what it sets up.

Other series not on that list (because who are we kidding, that's a paranormal romance list with a few urban fantasy mixed in) are The Laundry series by Charles Stross (British computer geek got drafted into his country's occult intelligence service and decides to get into fieldwork, fun ensues).  The series is a little uneven but for the most part pretty decent.  And the Elemental Assassin series by Jennifer Estep is super pulpy popcorn but not paranormal romance at least.

 

 

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So, Sara J Maas has finally finished the follow up to "Court of Thorns and Roses" and instead of reading it, I just went and read the spoilerific review commentaries. I can only say MWAHAHAHAHA!!! We totally called that one, oh yes.

With that, I am going back to trolling for Tanith Lee and Angela Carter works instead.

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2 hours ago, Lyanna Stark said:

So, Sara J Maas has finally finished the follow up to "Court of Thorns and Roses" and instead of reading it, I just went and read the spoilerific review commentaries. I can only say MWAHAHAHAHA!!! We totally called that one, oh yes.

With that, I am going back to trolling for Tanith Lee and Angela Carter works instead.

Context?

Also, Jesus.  I looked up the first book and apparently it's super rapey.

Naturaly the teenaged girls that are the author's target audience would love that shit.

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11 hours ago, Mars447 said:

Context?

Also, Jesus.  I looked up the first book and apparently it's super rapey.

Naturaly the teenaged girls that are the author's target audience would love that shit.

Eh? Nah, it's actually not particularly rapey at all. It has some things it definitely does wrong, and some things it does right. COTAR is more Hunger Games meets Fae paranormal romance, kind of thing. It's very uneven, and features a love triangle, which is about as uncommon as seagulls at a beach, but it also has a heroine that's at least partially different and interesting, in the same vein as Katniss, i.e. she's pretty murderous, harsh and doesn't come from a super happy home, and this shows. She also needs to cheat in order to win, and partially that is her own fault.

I also think you are being really harsh on teenage girls. It's like it's one uniform group of Beliebers. Instead, I find it interesting to ponder what teenage girls are taught to like, how the world shapes what they should like and how they interact with the books they read. We don't live in a cultural vacuum and there are many reasons for why stuff like "Twilight" is popular. It has a hook that even if I could see it coming still could agree was effective. It's blunt, totally unsubtle and it panders to a lowest common denominator, but it is still efficient. The question should by why it is, not that people find it so.

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17 hours ago, Lyanna Stark said:

So, Sara J Maas has finally finished the follow up to "Court of Thorns and Roses" and instead of reading it, I just went and read the spoilerific review commentaries. I can only say MWAHAHAHAHA!!! We totally called that one, oh yes.

I'm about 30% in and I suspect I know said spoiler. 

So far, the writing is better. Also,  I don't think love triangle is accurate. I think she is with T because of how she was/what she needed at that point and this book is about her growing into who she is now and what she needs in a relationship, so R. I *hope* that doesn't lead to a back and forth. But who knows. So far, I'm liking it more than the first one. 

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On ‎5‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 1:36 PM, Lyanna Stark said:

So, Sara J Maas has finally finished the follow up to "Court of Thorns and Roses" and instead of reading it, I just went and read the spoilerific review commentaries. I can only say MWAHAHAHAHA!!! We totally called that one, oh yes.

 MMMmmm, I've got to say I just finished A Court of Mist and Fury and its not at all what I expected.  Yes, we did call one aspect of it but it absolutely was not the story I was expecting to read.  I was surprised.  The beginning of the book was a bit redundant and boring but then it sort of fits with the heroine's own state of mind.  Then what we sort of predicted happens but I was disappointed that what I was really looking forward to happening did not end up happening.  But somewhere around the middle it all came together and worked for me.

As to these books being rapey?  Yeah, not at all.  There are relationships and sex in them but its consensual.  And it doesn't go on for pages on end, in fact there is more flirting and sexual tension in the second book than the actual act.  And while these books are marketed and sold as YA, that is the publisher's decision, not the author's.  Maas has stated these books were intended for a more mature audience, not YA.  Can teenagers read and enjoy then?  Absolutely.  But these books are not about teenagers.

One aspect of Maas's books that seems to enrage some is that the heroine doesn't always stay with the person the reader expects or wants.  With YA and romance novels there has been this built in expectation created that the first person the heroine kisses has to be *the one and only* person the heroine will ever kiss and they will be her ONE TRUE LOVE.  But that isn't the way the world works.  Very few people end up or want to end up with the first person they have a relationship with.  People grow and change.  What works for you at 20 doesn't necessarily work for you at 25.  Maas's books reflect that.

 

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Thanks for the Pax Arcana rec guys. I've been home with a dodgy tummy and these have been ideal. Tore through the first two in three days and in the middle of the third now

 

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8 minutes ago, Deedles said:

Thanks for the Pax Arcana rec guys. I've been home with a dodgy tummy and these have been ideal. Tore through the first two in three days and in the middle of the third now

 

Glad to see you like it. Pax Arcana is in my view one of the better examples of the "noir inspired antihero" UF subgenre when it comes to character writing.  I liked not having to deal with John's bullshit like I've had to do with certain other popular UF protagonists.  Plus John acts like an adult male who has touched a breast before in his lifetime, which is nice.

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On May 11, 2016 at 11:05 AM, Mandy said:

It really was a refreshing series.  Please feel free to recommend more like this.  I'm really stuck without a book series I'm excited about right now.  I've started reading some old Patricia Briggs fantasy stuff (it's just meh) that I happen to have at work and I've been watching TV at night - not my ideal, I'd rather be reading.  These and the Mike Carey Felix Castor books are probably the best male-lead UF I've read thus far.

I didn't find anything objectionably awful about that series, but it's been a while and I don't recall anything particularly memorable about it either.  It's not exactly action oriented like Pax Arcana or something like Kate Daniels, however, although I suppose that the protagonist acquires a modicum of competence later on in the series.  Also, the protagonist's love interest is super annoying.  He's her significantly older police commander, and he's basically a bastard mish mash of your Angry Police Chief archetype mixed with your generic female written UF/PR Asshole Love Interest archetype.  It's pretty awful.

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On the Walker papers, its been a while but I can't remember the love interest being that bad. But the series is a bit up and down.

On ‎11‎/‎05‎/‎2016 at 2:05 AM, Mandy said:

It really was a refreshing series.  Please feel free to recommend more like this.  I'm really stuck without a book series I'm excited about right now.  I've started reading some old Patricia Briggs fantasy stuff (it's just meh) that I happen to have at work and I've been watching TV at night - not my ideal, I'd rather be reading.  These and the Mike Carey Felix Castor books are probably the best male-lead UF I've read thus far.

Another series with a good male protagonist is Harry Connolly's 20 palaces. Unfortunately there are only 3 books and will be no more.

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23 minutes ago, Mandy said:

For those of you who have read C.E. Murphy's the Walker Papers series, do all the books take place in the "spirit world" or whatever in all of the books?  That was almost unbearable.  It was decent, I like the characters, but if they're all like that, I don't want to waste my money.

ETA: I went and read some reviews of the second book over at Goodreads and thought, "Well, maybe I should skip ahead to book 3." She's LYING DOWN on the cover of book 3, and the plot says most of the city can't wake up.  I'm going to go ahead and assume most of this book's action takes place in the "spirit world" while Joanne is asleep.  BFS

Let's be honest here, Joanne lying down on the cover of book 3 probably has more to do with meeting the "Sexy brunette in a tank top" quota that appears to be mandatory for female written UF than any kind of desire for plot relevance.

Its been a while since I've read the series, and I don't have any particular inclination to go back to it, but from what I remember the magic system mostly involves the spirit world.  It's certainly not as action packed a series as Kate Daniels, Pax Arcana, or The Girl With Ghost Eyes, which begins with a spirit walk and ends with the heroine destroying a giant ghost construct with Kung fu.  Joanne is certainly nowhere nearly as adept with violence.

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1 hour ago, Mandy said:

I'm just having a hard time finding something that sounds appealing. Maybe I'm starting to get jaded.  Starting!  hahahahaha Sigh.

ETA: But really... strong female who isn't annoying or super young or needy or whiney or dumb, who kicks ass and isn't into sparkly vampires... decent writing with some humor I don't roll my eyes at, and no Ayn Rand style page long run-on sentences describing some incorporeal crap that I don't care about...

And you're not a fan of Harmony Black.  (I've found that series improves quite a bit on rereading.  Plotting wise it's actually  quite a bit bigger and better than Schaefer's Daniel Faust series, even though they share a setting.)

Prospero's War was readable, although I found Jaye Wells' other series (something about vampires vs mages) to be pretty shit.  Wells isn't particularly great with worldbuilding, which is actually pretty hokey.

The Elemental Assassin series by Jennifer Estep is pure popcorn. The heroine isn't particularly insightful, the worldbuilding is actually pretty poor, and the author is a white woman who uses "Po-po" with a completely straight face, but the books are nothing if not action packed and the asshole alpha male love interest doesn't last long.

I'm taking a look at Demon's Daughter by Amy Braun.  The reviews are decent and the main character is apparently badass, but 25% of the way through the Amazon preview and the narrative abruptly grinds to a halt to give us a description of the appearance of the protagonist and the little sister she's trying to protect.  It's a huge bad writing alert, but maybe things will get better.

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oh, I HATED the elemental assassin series. I didn't get through the first book before metaphorically throwing it at the wall (read: deleting it from my ebook).iirc the heroine and everyone around her needed a good slap and it was full of the worst UF tropes.

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