The Jim Butcher Files: Dresden . Codex Alera . Cinder Spires & More

[Toxaris]

A much later book I guess. Either in the final trilogie or just before. Too good to spill upfront I think.

[eschwartz]

I think it's obvious he will show up at some point, probably much later in the series, as

Spoiler:

he was on the island, imprisoned? in one of those crystal mounds. And everyone knows Merlin was imprisoned by Nimue in a crystal cave, so it fits.

If you heard the sneak peek that Jim read aloud on Youtube,

Spoiler:

there was a grumpy guy with a heavy British accent who just wanted "to be left alone" who was in the Demonreach Prison. Strong hints that that was Merlin.

[AlbertaCowboy]

[QUOTE=eschwartz;2755802]I think it's obvious he will show up at some point, probably much later in the series, as

Spoiler:

he was on the island, imprisoned? in one of those crystal mounds. And everyone knows Merlin was imprisoned by Nimue in a crystal cave, so it fits.

I had completely forgotten about that. That really stands to reason, although now I'm curious if

Spoiler:

Nimue

will be "Butchered" and introduced as a new, or perhaps

Spoiler:

please, please, please be Lasciel

as an existing character wearing a "mantle"...

Good thought, eschwartz.

P.S. I've coined the term "Butchered" in my own mind to associate any named individual character from myth, legend or folklore that Jim Butcher appropriated and used as a character in his own books, ie. Cat Sith.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by AlbertaCowboy

This is all I do too, despite having been warned repeatedly by far more advanced users than I, that if I do fomat to same format conversions, the sky will fall, and there will be unleashed artifacts of lost Elder Ones that reside in my book files that will cause corruption, havoc and war. [citation needed]
I've done epub to epub for years now, and never had any issues, although now I find that if I'm just doing a little bit of editing, like a cover change or metadata update, I'll use the Polish eBooks option.

As an advanced user I can reassure you none of that is true - although it is kind of a waste of time if you know what you are doing.

I would keep a master EPUB and if anything needs changing, do it there then convert to whatever format you need. Use azw3 instead of mobi for Kindles, since no mobi-to-mobi will be needed then.

But if you do use mobi, it's not a big deal, as there isn't that much difference anyway. calibre is very good at converting the look and feel, so unless you plan to edit by hand, Elder Artifacts don't matter. The inside will be incredibly ugly but you never have to look there anyway.

And remember, calibre is clever enough to update any metadata it accepts, including covers, in the EPUBs and AZW3s it holds, and all but the covers in the MOBIs, without any explicit commands, so just click send! But of course, if you WANT to update manually, you can!

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by AlbertaCowboy

I had completely forgotten about that. That really stands to reason, although now I'm curious if

Spoiler:

Nimue

will be "Butchered" and introduced as a new, or perhaps

Spoiler:

please, please, please be Lasciel

as an existing character wearing a "mantle"...

Good thought, eschwartz.

I think it also fits in the sense that I've always suspected

Spoiler:

Nimue isn't really one of the bad guys, she just had the unfortunate responsibility to have to clean up after someone else's mess.

Merlin went to the cave for healing, I'm sure of it.

[eschwartz]

Skin Game release date countdown:

111 DAYS!

(new countdown website link, because it has a timer so I like it better.)

[Toxaris]

That opens up ideas... What if

Spoiler:

the island Avalon is actually Deamonreach?

That would open up all kind of ideas. Access would not really be a problem.

Spoiler:

But who would Nimue be? Mab? Lea? Mother Winter? After all, it resembles a bit how Leo was entrapped by Mab to heal her.

I wonder how much Jim already has outlined in rough notes about these kinds of things. So, not the 'story of the book', but more the long story.

[Toxaris]

Finished Monster Hunter International yesterday. I don't really know... It is fun to read, fast paced but it is very flat. Characters are flat, monsters are flat. Everyone behaves as expected. No real twists and turns that could not be seen a mile ahead.

I enjoyed it, but I am not quite sure I will pick up the sequel.

[leanansidhe]

109 DAYS!!!!

We're getting much closer, I can't wait

[leanansidhe]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Finished Monster Hunter International yesterday. I don't really know... It is fun to read, fast paced but it is very flat. Characters are flat, monsters are flat. Everyone behaves as expected. No real twists and turns that could not be seen a mile ahead.

I enjoyed it, but I am not quite sure I will pick up the sequel.

That's too bad . I really enjoyed it and I'm just finishing it up today and have already bought Monster Hunter Vendetta. I really liked the characters and found the book to be a fun read. Sorry you didn't like it as much.

[steven522]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Finished Monster Hunter International yesterday. I don't really know... It is fun to read, fast paced but it is very flat. Characters are flat, monsters are flat. Everyone behaves as expected. No real twists and turns that could not be seen a mile ahead.

I enjoyed it, but I am not quite sure I will pick up the sequel.

The MHI series is one of the few others that I enjoy as much as Dresden. If you think you might want to give it another try, you could jump to the third book MHI: Alpha and give it a try then jump back to the second if you feel you might want to continue on. Alpha is almost a pure standalone that focuses on werewolves and if you have the first book done, then there is no spoilers for you to go ahead and make the jump forward.

Much like Butcher, Correia seems to work out the kinks and gets better with each book. There is an overreaching story arc so picking up with the second and then moving on to the fourth would be best is you do decide to continue.

Myself, I'm waiting for the fifth book Nemesis to hit later this year.

[Nyssa]

[eschwartz]

Skin Game release date countdown:

107 DAYS!

[AlbertaCowboy]

Originally Posted by leanansidhe

That's too bad . I really enjoyed it and I'm just finishing it up today and have already bought Monster Hunter Vendetta. I really liked the characters and found the book to be a fun read. Sorry you didn't like it as much.

Just finished MHI and I loved it!
I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the first person narration.
Great recommendation guys.
I'm glad I bought the omnibus because I'm diving right into MH Vendetta.

[Andy_T]

So, I am one of the others who are now reading Larry Correia's "Monster Hunter International" because many here seem to REALLY love it.

Well ... how shall I put it ... the suggestion read "If you like monsters and guns, then you will love that". That I read, and agreed with.

I would like to however put that a little more precisely ... "If you like to play with your guns and knives every evening before going to bed, think that the NRA is the greatest invention of mankind, and want to read lots and lots about that, and something about monsters, then you will love that". Well, nothing wrong with that. Other than that, it is ok-ish.

My main challenge, however, was the unbelievably incredible main character - the hero is a 24-year-old accountant, but was raised by a special-forces father, speaks five languages, has two martial arts black belts, used to work as a bouncer and illegal fighter during his study days and strongly believes that he needs to carry a concealed .357 wherever he goes in case he might get mugged. I rather like main characters who have to struggle through the books, where you are not sure that the incredible awesomeness of the character (or some deus-ex-machina rescue) will assure that every difficult situation is resolved easily, immediately. Which is whay I have not, so far, e.g. picked up the "Iron Druid Chronicles" after reading a bit into the first chapter.

So, go figure. Guess many of you will like that, and many others might rather go for Rivers of London, Alex Verus, and Night Watch instead.

So this helps to point out again one of the best things about e-readers: the possibility to download a free sample. Do that for every book that is suggested to you! If you like the sample, get the book. Did that with Sookie Stackhouse, and, while I liked the sample, I did not like it so much that as to pick up the book so far (actually, I had forwarded the decision to my wife, who liked "Midnight" ... if she likes Ths Sookie Stackhouse sample, I am willing to buy the 8-books collection and read it, but just for myself ... hmm). Should have done that with MHI, as well.

Best regards,
Andy