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Daniel Abraham


Tycho

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I found this topic (The Price of Spring availability) so baffling I had to make a post out of it, directing folks here for more info.

The final count here in Nashville is none of the Borders (4), Barnes and Noble (4) or Books A Million (4) are carrying it. The good news (for US folks) is that Barnes and Noble online has it for 20% off. They also have a 20% off coupon for this weekend, and that will take another 20% off. And it you are a bn member, you get another 10% off. I got the book for 16.19 instead of 27.99. (the discounts are taken one after the other, thats why it isnt 50% off retail price). So, if you live in the US and want to order this book, I would check bn.com this weekend while the extra 20% coupon is still valid.

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I'm evil. I broke down and ordered it from Amazon.de. They had only 2 books in stock, so the demand must have been quite high. If they are not sold already, it should be here by Monday.

Regarding the marketing of Abraham, the German titles for the entire series are nonsensical and generic, and they sort of piss me off. It's called "Die magischen Städte", aka. the magical towns, that makes no sense. The individual titles use at least the words from the original titles, but they way they are put together make them sound very, very generic. And I fear that they just get lost in the flood of other books with similary titles. :angry:

The covers and the lettering of the words on it are not too bad, though.

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I'm evil. I broke down and ordered it from Amazon.de. They had only 2 books in stock, so the demand must have been quite high. If they are not sold already, it should be here by Monday.

Thanks for the warning, I ordered the second one. :)

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Finally got the chance to finish The Price of Spring. Wonderful story.

Maybe we can save spoilers for a new thread. If someone else doesn't, I'll start one in a day or two, giving more people a chance to start/finish reading.

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You did, but you hadn't made it clear it was spoilers for the whole series -- your title indicated it was just the first book. So some of us read it who might not have otherwise, that's all.

:bang: Ah, my bad, then. Sorry about that.

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  • 1 month later...

That reminds me that I need to look for Darker Angels during the next visit to the bookstore.

I'm also looking forward to Leviathan Wept coming out next year. I haven't heard anything form Subterranean yet, but Aiden posted about it on his blog.

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My copy of Darker Angels shipped yesterday :D , and I think that will get bumped up to the next book I read (assuming I don't finish MultiReal tomorrow).

yesterday? mine isn't shipping till tuesday.... of course I still have 20-30 pages left in the price of spring.

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That reminds me that I need to look for Darker Angels during the next visit to the bookstore.

Such was my intent :)

I'm also looking forward to Leviathan Wept coming out next year. I haven't heard anything form Subterranean yet, but Aiden posted about it on his blog.

I saw that a couple of days ago and that cover is absolutely gorgeous. I can't wait to get my hands on that book.

yesterday? mine isn't shipping till tuesday.... of course I still have 20-30 pages left in the price of spring.

Yep, yesterday by amazon. It's shipping fedex, so it probably won't arrive until Tuesday. My fedex shipments from amazon always seem to take a day longer than UPS or USPS.

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  • 2 months later...

Here's a very good interview with Daniel at SF Signal.

I liked this answer:

SoY: What are a modern internet-age author's responsibilities when it comes to self-promotion?

DA: Briefly, meet your deadlines and don't be a dick in public. It's not a moral thing, it's just good tactics. If there's more than that, I haven't figured it out.

and this one:

SoY: Who wins in a fight between Daniel Abraham and M.L.N. Hanover? Does he have an evil goatee?

DA: MLN. Daniel's a very sensitive, thoughtful kind of guy. MLN's willing to take the kick to the balls. And of course there's no goatee; anyone using initials instead of a full name is obviously a woman.

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Last night I finished Unclean Spirits by M.L.N. Hanover. Unclean Spirits is the first book in a new urban fantasy series by Daniel Abraham under a pseudonym. As an urban fantasy it's quite decent, however, it's probably not Abraham's best work to date. Plot is pretty straightforward and slightly predictable. Characterization is the strongest point of the book with pretty realistic characters. Stylistically, I found it similar to Carrie Vaughn's Kitty series. The really unique part of the story is the nature of supernatural demons. In this world, demons from a parallel realm can crossover and "infect" a host, hence the title Unclean Spirits. The spirits cover a wide range of the monsters including traditional ones like vampires and werewolves. Recommended for anyone who likes urban fantasy. I give it a 7.5/10.

I also just finished Unclean Spirits by M.L.N. Hanover. Like Ben said it's an urban fantasy that has a slightly different take on vampires, werewolves, demons, etc.; these creatures - "riders" - are beings from a neighboring universe that take control of humans or animals. The way they would take control of things reminded me quite a bit of the television series Supernatural, as did the story in general. Not that there's a problem with that because I think Supernatural is a very enjoyable show, and that's how I would classify this book as well - enjoyable. I don't think it's high literature or even at the level of Daniel Abraham's other work.

As with most 1st person stories, the main character was developed very well, but I found the other characters lacking (it took me along time before I was able to separate Chogyi Jake and Ex in my mind). I also felt the book suffers from us not seeing enough of what the riders are capable of or just how bad they are. We also don't get a definite reason of why they are bad, if they are all bad, etc. (I really liked the final battle, and wish there had been more like that throughout the book.)

While not in the upper echelon of fantasy like the rest Daniel Abraham's work, it is very enjoyable and I am looking forward to the next book in the series. This book created a lot of fertile ground that can be built on during the rest of the series, and I'm ready to read more.

6-7/10 ...I can't decide on a proper rating right now.

Over the weekend I read Unclean Spirits written by Daniel Abraham under a pen name. It was better than a lot of the urban fantasy I have read lately (though I admit I am probably burned out on that subgenre right now) due to its strong characterization. I did not like it as much as the books in The Long Price, which I consider to be truly outstanding fantasy, but if he releases more books in the urban fantasy series I will read them. :)

Feeling weird about it, but finished Unclean Spirits and was entirely underwhelmed. I love his other series, he is the author I have been most excited about since I found GRRM, but this book... It took me five tries to make it to the middle of the book and I finished it only because it picked up at the last fifth. The main char is a female and I am not sure that was a good choice - there were references to female things, but it just didn't ring true. Was also really lacking in action for an urban fantasy novel.

I will buy and read to support DA, but dunno if I am going to enjoy the books as much as I hoped. :(

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While the reviews for the first book weren't stellar, by most accounts Darker Angels was a definite improvement.

I liked it quite a bit more, and as I think back on the two books I really do like what Abraham has set up and I am really looking forward to where he can possibly take the series. With as much talent as Abraham has, and the ground work he has lain there is no doubt in my mind that this will become a top notch urban fantasy series.

Here's all the reviews I could find (with minimal effort :P) for book 2.

Darker Angels by MLN Hanover (Daniel Abraham):

I also re-read Unclean Spirits just beforehand. I was again struck by how... ambivalent, I suppose... I am towards these. I enjoyed them - as I enjoy most urban fantasy - and, unlike most urban fantasy, I have no complaints about the quality. But I've learned that, in general, authors strongly espoused by the general consensus of this board - I react strongly to them, either love or hate or, most commonly, 'this is good stuff but it's not what I enjoy reading'. I just don't feel anything strongly here and that throws me a bit.

Granted, these aren't the books that get Abraham praise around here, and are different enough that he uses a pseudonym (though I expect part of the reason for that lies in the bizarre gender politics of the subgenre). But I just expected something that would stand out for one reason or another, and this is much more ordinary. In fact, if there is anything in particular that this series seems to do differently from the genre in general, it's that it seems more grounded in reality, in normality - in the sense that it seems a bit more like what all that crazy shit would really be like if it were real. It tries to keep from going all over-the-top action movie on you, though it's still in that general family. And it doesn't lack for the occasional eye-rolling moment that requires a bit of disbelief-suspension (the apparently infinite money thing, for one).

I finished ML Hanover's second novel and liked it much, much better than the first in that series. Up next is Blood of Ambrose, which seems to be a love or hate it novel.

After that I finished Darker Angels by M.L.N. Hanover (man, it's a pain in the ass typing those initials :P ). I agree that it was a bit better than the first, and though it's not near the excellent Long Price Quartet, this series is good so far. Still waiting for an explanation on Jayne's tattoo and the Black Sun connection. ;)

Then came Darker Angels by M.L.N. Hanover (Daniel Abraham). I liked this book quite a bit more than the first one. Set in New Orleans we get a different take on the riders and voodoo (it was interesting seeing some of the same Loa that were in Tim Power's On Stranger Tides that I read earlier this year), and I really liked this take on voodoo. I would like to get more on why the series is call The Black Sun's Daughter, because at this point we've only got a few snippets of that. I do like how Jayné is developing her skills at a normal pace rather than being introduced to the world of 'riders' and becoming an expert in one book. I'm definitely looking forward to where this series will go.

8/10

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Quick question for the Abraham readers. I'm going to begin reading A Betrayal in Winter, but it's been probably three years since I read A Shadow in Summer, and I remember very little from it, other than the concepts of the poses and the Andats. I'm sure my memory will be jogged once I begin, but are there any specific plotlines that continue from the first to the second book, any major details or characters that should be remembered from the first, or does the story of the second book stand on its own enough that I don't need to worry about it? Thanks in advance. I definitely don't plan on waiting the same length of time before picking up the 3rd and 4th books.

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