lady narcissa Posted August 26, 2021 Share Posted August 26, 2021 13 hours ago, dog-days said: Just given up on the first Harry Dresden book. I was prepared for it being a bit lame, having been warned that it was written for an assignment as a joke, but I couldn't find anything to like about it, and the way the female characters were described gave me the creeps. Ugh. It's even more painful to read if you live in Chicago since the Chicago in his book is not really Chicago. (He originally wrote the first book as set in Kansas City but there is another series set in Kansas City so it was advised he change the location so he looked at a globe, spotted Chicago and decided to set it there...but didn't change anything except the name of the city. Ugh.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dog-days Posted August 26, 2021 Share Posted August 26, 2021 2 hours ago, lady narcissa said: It's even more painful to read if you live in Chicago since the Chicago in his book is not really Chicago. (He originally wrote the first book as set in Kansas City but there is another series set in Kansas City so it was advised he change the location so he looked at a globe, spotted Chicago and decided to set it there...but didn't change anything except the name of the city. Ugh.) That sounds like a truly awful way to decide where to set a UF series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted August 26, 2021 Share Posted August 26, 2021 16 hours ago, dog-days said: Just given up on the first Harry Dresden book. I was prepared for it being a bit lame, having been warned that it was written for an assignment as a joke, but I couldn't find anything to like about it, and the way the female characters were described gave me the creeps. Ugh. I'm glad it wasn't my introduction to urban fantasy. (Thank you, Ben Aaronovitch). Sadly it hasn't gotten all that much better 21 years later. 3 minutes ago, dog-days said: That sounds like a truly awful way to decide where to set a UF series. It's actually even worse than that. The other fantasy series was set in St. Louis not Kansas City, but they're both Missouri, and apparently you can't have that. (Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Blake books were the other series) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dog-days Posted August 26, 2021 Share Posted August 26, 2021 11 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said: Sadly it hasn't gotten all that much better 21 years later. It's actually even worse than that. The other fantasy series was set in St. Louis not Kansas City, but they're both Missouri, and apparently you can't have that. (Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Blake books were the other series) Crazy. I'm still looking for a good UF series set in the UK but outside London, since things seem to work the opposite way round here. (You have to set your fantasy series in London). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 13 hours ago, dog-days said: Crazy. I'm still looking for a good UF series set in the UK but outside London, since things seem to work the opposite way round here. (You have to set your fantasy series in London). It is kind of weird how it works like that. I did enjoy Stina Leicht's The Fey and the Fallen books, would have liked more than two though. I would also recommend looking at Graham Joyce's books for some non-London centric urban fantasy - they are all one offs though. Especially The Tooth Fairy (Coventry), The Facts of Life (also the Coventry area) and Some Kind of Fairy Tale (Leicestershire). dog-days 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derfel Cadarn Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 13 hours ago, dog-days said: Crazy. I'm still looking for a good UF series set in the UK but outside London, since things seem to work the opposite way round here. (You have to set your fantasy series in London). My Victorian UF series (Resurrection Men, Lord of the Hunt), are set in Glasgow The pub where the MC’s drink in is real and has many of the same fixtures and fittings it did in 1893. Will be four books when done. And the Glasgow is pretty authentic where I was able. The Highlands area in book 2 is a real place but heavily fictionalised. You coukd use the descriptions of Dunkellen House to get around Pollok House as I pretty much copied and renamed it. My contemporary UF is a supernatural police UF similar to Rivers of London but set in Glasgow, and is in a shared universe with the Victorian ones above. Currently with my agent being offered to publishers. dog-days and Fragile Bird 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dog-days Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 28 minutes ago, Derfel Cadarn said: My Victorian UF series (Resurrection Men, Lord of the Hunt), are set in Glasgow The pub where the MC’s drink in is real and has many of the same fixtures and fittings it did in 1893. Will be four books when done. And the Glasgow is pretty authentic where I was able. The Highlands area in book 2 is a real place but heavily fictionalised. You coukd use the descriptions of Dunkellen House to get around Pollok House as I pretty much copied and renamed it. My contemporary UF is a supernatural police UF similar to Rivers of London but set in Glasgow, and is in a shared universe with the Victorian ones above. Currently with my agent being offered to publishers. Good luck getting your UF taken on by a publisher. The world needs a Glasgow UF series! Will give your Victorian series a go. Derfel Cadarn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derfel Cadarn Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 6 hours ago, dog-days said: Good luck getting your UF taken on by a publisher. The world needs a Glasgow UF series! Will give your Victorian series a go. Enjoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ants Posted September 27, 2021 Share Posted September 27, 2021 Added the Craft Sequence to the #2 list of completed series. It doesn't seem like there are anymore coming (I can't find any references anyway). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted September 27, 2021 Share Posted September 27, 2021 13 hours ago, ants said: Added the Craft Sequence to the #2 list of completed series. It doesn't seem like there are anymore coming (I can't find any references anyway). I would definitely read more if Gladstone wrote them and there's plenty of scope for doing so but I also haven't seen any indication that more are planned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ants Posted September 28, 2021 Share Posted September 28, 2021 5 hours ago, williamjm said: I would definitely read more if Gladstone wrote them and there's plenty of scope for doing so but I also haven't seen any indication that more are planned. His website doesn't have an update on the Craft Sequence in the last few years, and his blog seems to have stopped. I bought and read his latest book (Empress of forever, quite enjoyable but not as good), so maybe he isn't writing any more. Which is a damn shame. The Craft Sequence is amazing, and the last book was arguably the best of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted September 28, 2021 Share Posted September 28, 2021 16 hours ago, ants said: His website doesn't have an update on the Craft Sequence in the last few years, and his blog seems to have stopped. I bought and read his latest book (Empress of forever, quite enjoyable but not as good), so maybe he isn't writing any more. Which is a damn shame. The Craft Sequence is amazing, and the last book was arguably the best of them. I agree The Ruin of Angels might have been my favourite of the series. I suppose at least it ends on a high if he isn't going to do more. It looks like he has a new (non-Craft sequence) book out soon: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Last-Exit-Max-Gladstone/dp/0765335735/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=max+gladstone&qid=1632852353&sr=8-7 American Gods meets The Dark Tower in Last Exit, a dark, contemporary fantasy of the open road, alternate realities, and self-discovery, from a Locus Award-nominated and Hugo and Nebula Award-winning writer Max Gladstone. ants 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortstark Posted October 30, 2021 Share Posted October 30, 2021 On 9/27/2021 at 8:34 PM, ants said: His website doesn't have an update on the Craft Sequence in the last few years, and his blog seems to have stopped. I bought and read his latest book (Empress of forever, quite enjoyable but not as good), so maybe he isn't writing any more. Which is a damn shame. The Craft Sequence is amazing, and the last book was arguably the best of them. Have been on a bender reading craft sequence this last couple weeks.. reading out of chronological and published order, thus I am now in the middle of Full Fathom Five with only the last book left.. these are well written books with great characters and plot, but full fathom five has pushed this series over the edge into exalted territory for me, funny though that I was aware of the books before now without any interest, Jah know.. shades of Long Price Quartet.. nothing happens before the time .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEyedGhost Posted November 9, 2021 Share Posted November 9, 2021 On 10/30/2021 at 1:36 PM, shortstark said: Have been on a bender reading craft sequence this last couple weeks.. reading out of chronological and published order, thus I am now in the middle of Full Fathom Five with only the last book left.. these are well written books with great characters and plot, but full fathom five has pushed this series over the edge into exalted territory for me, funny though that I was aware of the books before now without any interest, Jah know.. shades of Long Price Quartet.. nothing happens before the time .. Check out Robert Jackson Bennett's The Divine Cities trilogy when you're in the mood for something similar and also excellent. ants 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwellordream Posted November 12, 2021 Share Posted November 12, 2021 Jade City (the first book in the Greenbone Saga) is really cool urban fantasy set in a pastiche of 1970s Hong Kong; it has some great action scenes and plays off a lot of gangster film tropes. It centers around the Lan siblings who are struggling to keep control of the island nation of Kekon while contending with their own family dysfunction and rival gangs. The female characters are treated seriously and not just as love interests to be killed off and one of the lead POVs is gay without it being played as a joke or a tragedy. dog-days 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Kabong Posted November 14, 2021 Share Posted November 14, 2021 (edited) Gladstone has more craft books planned, don't know when he plans on writing them though. Oh and while I'm in here, anyone have thoughts on the October Daye(I think I spelled that right) series? The opinions on goodreads on that one are...wildly different. (I need to go back and read this thread it seems) Edited November 14, 2021 by El Kabong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady narcissa Posted February 16, 2022 Share Posted February 16, 2022 @Fragile Bird I'm going to try to paste some of your quotes from the First Quarter Reading post regarding Crescent City and respond to them here...hopefully they paste over... Quote And the last chapter is a delightful shocker that I did not see coming, even though, honest to God, I mused about it happening while reading the first book. Okay I love spoilers but I was not even seeking them out for the Crescent City series because I just at this point did not care that much but I rather inadvertently saw a spoiler on Instagram so I know what it is. Let me just say... Spoiler I am not thrilled about it. I sort of hate when worlds collide like this. And I am a big fan of series coming to an end instead of spinning off into never ending sagas. And part of me slightly wonders if less people were buying CC than the other two series and if this is a way to suck those readers/buyers in. But we shall see where it goes. Quote Thank the gods Maas is a demon fast writer and the next book will likely be out in a year, because the cliffhanger is wonderful. I almost wonder if we are going to have a long painful wait on this cliffhanger. SJM just had a second baby last week. Plus she sold her house in Pennsylvania, spend 6 months in Hawaii, and moved to California in the past year. And has also spent the past year working with Ron Moore on the possible Hulu series of A Court of Thorn and Roses books. I am just going to guess that maybe that will have slowed down with her new book writing. But maybe she is super woman writer? I think we got some false expectations set up with her early string of publishing since she did have so many things finished/outlined before her first book was ever published and that allowed for just a domino of publishing books every year like that. But we shall see. In any event, I am rereading the first Crescent City book (sorry I cannot for the life of me remember the breath and life and blood titles and just default to the series name) and will report back before starting the second one. Fragile Bird 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted February 16, 2022 Share Posted February 16, 2022 I look forward to more discussion! Spoiler I really did think about cross-pollination because of the fact she used the same kinds of people/fae/shifters in the two series. It seems to be that stories about people crossing through space/time rifts are popular. Hell, Alice in Wonderland was basically that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady narcissa Posted March 29, 2022 Share Posted March 29, 2022 @Fragile Bird Sorry, it took me F-O-R-E-V-E-R to reread the first Crescent City and then equally long plus some to read the second one. It's way too long, there are way too many plot lines and the romance taking over from the urban fantasy dominance of the first one made it less interesting to me. I just do not like Hunt that much. The friendships between the characters are probably my favorite part of the series. Oh you might find this interesting, SJM did a spoiler filled interview about the ending of the second book with some stuff revealed about book 3 which she has finished a first draft of: Deedles and Fragile Bird 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 On 3/29/2022 at 12:26 AM, lady narcissa said: @Fragile Bird Sorry, it took me F-O-R-E-V-E-R to reread the first Crescent City and then equally long plus some to read the second one. It's way too long, there are way too many plot lines and the romance taking over from the urban fantasy dominance of the first one made it less interesting to me. I just do not like Hunt that much. The friendships between the characters are probably my favorite part of the series. Oh you might find this interesting, SJM did a spoiler filled interview about the ending of the second book with some stuff revealed about book 3 which she has finished a first draft of: Lol, I said she wrote at demon speed! I can’t look at it now, will comment later! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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