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

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Just remember - it's not turbulence, it's just potholes in the air!

And I'm probably having yet another brain-freeze today, but what's "GR headquarters"?

Goodwin Rincewind, naturally.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Just remember - it's not turbulence, it's just potholes in the air!

And I'm probably having yet another brain-freeze today, but what's "GR headquarters"?

Sorry, I should know better... GoodReads

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Goodwin Rincewind, naturally.

lol

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Dhevi

That was a very good read. Can not wait for the 2nd book. ... How long of a wait now?

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

It should be sometime next year. Jim hinted in one of the many interviews that after Peace Talks the next novel length book shall be the 2nd Cinder Spires. Unforseen personal emergencies notwithstanding, it appears that Jim Butcher is back on track to writing 2 novel sized books a year.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

So, I'm a bit late because of the Yom Tov, but I'm finally working my way through it.

Jim has the Men In Saffron.
Tao of Pratchett, huh?

Finished it and really liked it. I hope Duckie is right.

[Toxaris]

I must really force myself to finish the book I am reading now first. Argh...

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

I must really force myself to finish the book I am reading now first. Argh...

Don't do it. You can always get back to it later.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

I must really force myself to finish the book I am reading now first. Argh...

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Don't do it. You can always get back to it later.

Jim has done another amazing job -- trust me you want to read it NOW!!

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Finished it and really liked it. I hope Duckie is right.

Originally Posted by Toxaris

I must really force myself to finish the book I am reading now first. Argh...

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Don't do it. You can always get back to it later.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Jim has done another amazing job -- trust me you want to read it NOW!!

[Toxaris]

I know, I know, but I have put it away so many times already. I need to finish Game of Thrones book 1 this time.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

I know, I know, but I have put it away so many times already. I need to finish Game of Thrones book 1 this time.

I read the first 50 or so pages and quit! I don't plan to try again because I then binge watched about
5 1/2 episodes of the HBO TV series and vowed never to look at another one of them again.

[AlbertaCowboy]

Originally Posted by alansplace

I wish I could too, but I'm headed out to the bush for a week on Saturday. I'll have to dive into it when I get back.

[alansplace]

Quoted from Jim Butcher's LiveJournal

jimbutcher wrote, 2015-01-07 22:14:00

Freedom v Fear

I don't make statements like this a lot, and I don't really feel like engaging in a huge debate. But there's something I need to say regarding Charlie Hebdo.

God knows I have little in common with the folks who died. I doubt we'd have agreed on very much. Looking over some of their work, I find myself rolling my eyes a lot.

But I do agree on at least one matter with them--they should be free to speak their minds without fear.

I saw this tweet attached to one of the cartoons responding to the massacre:

"Still mortified about our fallen cartoonist colleagues, but free speech will always win."

No.

No it won't.

The history of the human race demonstrates /very/ convincingly that free speech is the /exception/ to the human condition, not the rule. For millennia, those who spoke out were imprisoned or killed. Hell, you could say something that wasn't even subversive, just inept and stupid, and be destroyed for committing the crime of lese majeste.

Make no mistake. What we have today is a level of freedom and self-determination on a scale unparalleled in the history of our species. We live in what is, in many ways, a golden age. So much so that we give tremendous credit to the adage, "The pen is mightier than the sword."

But everyone always forgets the first half of that quote:

"Under the rule of men entirely great, the pen is mightier than the sword."

I'm not sure I know of anyplace that's ruled by anyone "entirely great." That adage wasn't a statement of philosophy, as it was originally used: it was a statement of irony.

Don't believe me? Look around. Notice that everywhere you go in the world, whoever happens to be ruling seems to have a great many swords.

Still, the idea contained within the quote is a powerful one--that intangible ideas, thoughts, and beliefs can have tremendous power. And that's why we should be paying close attention.

After all, intangible fear can be mightier than the sword, too. Hell, it has been for quite a while now. Don't believe me? Try getting on an airplane without taking your shoes off in the security line. While you're doing that, try cracking a joke about having a knife.

That's the power of fear, guys.

We. Are. In. Danger.

The threat isn't aimed at our government or our borders or our resources. It's targeting something far more precious--our identity. It's changing us, who we are, how we live, and not for the better.

The Western world has got the biggest and sharpest sword the planet has ever known, yes. But the extremists are armed with a weapon just as powerful: Fear. And these nuts are really good at using it.

There is /one/ way that freedom, freedom to speak, to choose, to grow, to believe, to improve, survives in the face of violent attack.

Free men and women defend it, violently if necessary--or it dies.

It's that simple. It really is.

If we forget that, if we forget that there are predators in the world who very much want to destroy those freedoms in the name of their god, their philosophy, their politics, if we forget that our freedoms /can/ and /will/ be taken away if we sit staring and do nothing, they are as good as gone.

Freedom doesn't defend itself.

We have to do it.

[AlbertaCowboy]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Quoted from Jim Butcher's LiveJournal

jimbutcher wrote, 2015-01-07 22:14:00

I loved this quote when I first read it.

[alansplace]

Jim Butcher Launches a Steampunk Fantasy Series with The Aeronaut's Windlass
By Frannie Jackson | October 2, 2015

With steam-powered tech, clairvoyant characters and cats that just might be smarter than humans, The Aeronaut’s Windlass delivers an adventurous debut in a new series from bestselling author Jim Butcher. Named after the miles-high towers in which people live to escape the dangers of the mist-shrouded surface, The Cinder Spires series introduces a world on the brink of war.

When Captain Grimm’s airship is damaged in combat, he joins a covert mission to protect Spire Albion in exchange for his ship’s restoration. But as an enemy violently threatens Spire Albion, Grimm discovers that far more is at stake than war. An ancient evil is stirring—an evil humanity may be unable to defeat.

Paste caught up with Butcher to chat about his inspiration for The Aeronaut’s Windlass, the cats who steal the show in the novel and what to expect next in the series . . . go here to read the interview.

[DHNightshadow]

I have read the first few chapters. I love it. And nine books ? Wow, this will be great, but longer waiting for Dresden ahead.

[alansplace]

Quoted from Paste Magazine.

Jim Butcher: I think the title of the next [The Cinder Spires] book will be The Olympian Affair, and the characters are off on a diplomatic mission to another Spire. A bunch of representatives of various Spires are holding a council there to decide which side they’ll be on in the war that’s coming.