Board 8 > I thought you guys said this gets good. [Dresden Files up to book 3]

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azuarc
08/23/19 9:16:04 PM
#1:


The timeline:
* I begin writing urban fantasy, so I begin reading urban fantasy
* I read at least the first in a bunch of established series in the genre
* Legions of rabid Jim Butcher fans swear how good the Dresden Files are
* I read book 1. I am indifferent. It was so-so, but nothing that makes me eager to read on.
* I inform the board. The legions of rabid fans swear up and down, "But it gets good after book 3! Or maybe 4! But you have to get past the first two!"
* I dust my hands off and walk away, disinterested in reading a series that takes so long to get going.
* Several years pass.
* The legions of rabid fans scream, "NOO! YOU HAVE TO READ TO AT LEAST BOOK THREE! IT GETS GOOD THEN!"
* I consider that if I want to ever sell my own writing, I need to know the players in the industry, and that means I better understand why people like The Dresden Files.
* I suck it up and read book 2. It's mediocre at best. Having been writing for a while, I'm able to more specifically point to things I don't like about it, as well as what Butcher does well.
* I report to the board. The legions yell and mock and wail, "BUT IT GETZ GUD AFTIR BOK THR3E! I SWAER!!!!"
* I read book 3. It seems like simply more of what I experienced in book 2. There's a new character, Michael, who's kinda cool, and otherwise I fail to see anything neat or awesome about it.
* I am now reporting to the board one more time, so that, if my guess is correct, everyone will tell me how, no, it's book four where it gets good, and three's the one where you should start seeing that.

.

But look, no, sorry. These books aren't that good. There's one main problem with the stories, which leads to another problem that kinda ruins the books.

The first is that the story moves too fast. It's funny, because usually you want fast-paced tension in your story, but Butcher never takes his foot off the gas. There's no time where I have a point to catch my breath, stop and wonder about the story, to appreciate the impact of anything that's happening, because as soon as something has happened, we're right off to the next crisis. Everything is rammed so close together that there isn't even time for reflection. Simply put, these stories need to slow the fuck down. Y'all must be a bunch of crack addicts with ADD if you call this good pacing.

And the main reason why this matters, TBH, is because I have absolutely zero empathy for Harry. I don't have time to have empathy for him. He's just some dude who keeps doing a bunch of stuff. He gets beat up, tortured, broken down, and everything else, and because the story never gives him any time to actually be beat up, tortured, broken down and everything else beyond simply acknowledging these things in passing, he reads as an android or a video game lead. I don't feel like he's a real person, in any way, shape, or form.

The moment that put this over the edge for me, the moment where Butcher simply lost me and never bothered to take a second to try to recover, was when Harry discovers the death of Kim Delaney in book 2. Kim's dead, this woman he tried to mentor, and then tried to protect by not telling her things that might lead to her harming herself, and when he discovers her corpse....nothing. No shock. No anguish. Not even anger at the stupid bitch who fucked herself over. He just keeps on analyzing the scene and moving on to the next bit of action.

At brief moments, Harry betrays his own humanity by acknowledging things he should be feeling, but he doesn't actually feel them. This has been the consistent tone of all three books (as best as I can remember book 1, anyway,) and it's why I'm really not especially interested in reading about this guy.
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azuarc
08/23/19 9:16:33 PM
#2:


It's like Butcher doesn't understand how first person perspective works, because if he did the same rampaging action in Codex Alera -- and I read the first book, and that ironically ISN'T so obnoxiously fast -- it would have been fine because that's third person, multi narrator. The story doesn't live and die by the reader's attachment to the main character. But first person? First person requires a bond between the reader and the narrator, and right now that bond is simply that Harry is the guy holding the camera, talking into the mic but never actually demonstrating how he feels.

If Harry isn't an engaging character, then we need to have strong involvement from the rest of the cast. The truth is, nobody's on-screen long enough to fill those shoes. In this latest book, Michael comes close. I like Murphy and Susan, but they aren't around often enough. Harry is flying solo or simply zipping past the other characters so quickly that it needs to be his charisma that sells the novel. And he has none.

Harry's also lost his credibility as anything other than maybe a comic book character. He takes so much damage and keeps going, with no real healing, that I don't understand how he keeps moving forward. The books also pretty well establish a general idea of what he can do, and then he intermittently seems to invent superpowers. (I'm angry now, so I'm going to burn this whole house of vampires to the ground, even though my magic was so weakened I can barely light a candle.) I know it's well-known that Butcher's writing is summarized as putting his main character through as much shit as possible, but the problem is that not only does he get fucked up beyond human capacity but he also has to find ways out of those problems that aren't always believable. Simply saying "because magic" is not an excuse at this point.

The books seem to each focus on some mystery that he randomly conveniently "solves" at a moment where he's completely fucked over and fucked up, and then he rallies himself (for the thirteenth time, but THIS one is different because now hw knows what he has to do!) And then most of the ending resolves itself in fairly anti-climactic fashion. For instance, I was pretty disappointed when I saw how he addressed the hexenwolf murder squad. Two of them killed each other, he somehow becomes a more capable wolf than they are and murders the other two.

So it's all bad then?

No, it isn't. I liked parts. Harry does heroic things and he does them for heroic reasons. The very end of the third book, from the point where he leaves the Nevernever, was well executed. And maybe gives signs of why people will inevitably tell me the fourth book is where it finally "gets good." I can certainly see signs in the writing of why someone would like Jim Butcher's writing. And he throws so many darts at the action scene dartboard that quite a few of them hit. The novels just have a few too many holes in the rest of their construction for me.

Like, I don't feel as if I should be able to say I like my own writing better. Well, for narcissistic reasons, obviously, I should. But not objectively. But I kinda feel that way. Of course, if I offered to let you read book one, I'd have to give the caveat that it gets better...because it does. And that's precisely why I had no problem with eventually accepting I might need to read more than one book to appreciate. But I've read three now, and it really hasn't improved. So sorry, legion of rabid fans, but I'm out.

.

also, yay for writing posts so long they have to be broken in two.
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CoolCly
08/23/19 9:20:52 PM
#3:


here lies harry dresden

he died doing the right thing
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MikeTavish
08/23/19 9:21:38 PM
#4:


The Dresden Files Series is fantastic. Not my favourite, but it's in my top 5. It doesn't start to get rolling until book 3 but if you didn't like it by then you probably just won't like it ever, and that's okay.

I'm sure his series will do just fine with one fewer person enjoying it. Peace Talks soon!

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ChaosTonyV4
08/23/19 9:21:46 PM
#5:


@ExThaNemesis is a Dresden stan, IIRC
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Sceptilesolar
08/23/19 9:24:43 PM
#6:


I'm increasingly down on it, but it's still junky fun, which is fine.
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CoolCly
08/23/19 9:29:41 PM
#7:


i'm sorry you can't appreciate greatness though. everyone always says it's book 4 but man book 3 is when I fell in love with Harry Dresden. It's just a better version of the first book with so much interesting lore building with Michael, Lea, the vampires... I loooove the ball where everything goes to hell.

I don't know why you are so personally upset about people telling you when it gets good though. It's just objectively true that the first two books aren't as good as the later ones, even though they do have the tone of the series.

I will say it doesn't sound like you really get Harry. It doesn't tell you when Harry is upset. It doesn't need to. You can interpret everything Harry is feeling by the way he talks to or about someone, or the actions he takes. To say he doesn't feel anything is a very bizarre take. He's one of the most heartfelt characters I think I've ever experienced in fiction, and the most recent thing I've read, the short story anthology Brief Cases, literally had me tearing up in multiple stories.

This is a story about Christmas. It's literally the most recent thing published in the series, so it's MASSIVE spoilers for many things, obviously. If you read this and do not feel anything, then it's really your problem.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12hNgNIqJM5jqHqC-J-jfLA0WNDG2zEW8TrK_uPzpUJg/edit
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Drakeryn
08/23/19 9:33:00 PM
#8:


azuarc posted...
If Harry isn't an engaging character, then we need to have strong involvement from the rest of the cast. The truth is, nobody's on-screen long enough to fill those shoes. In this latest book, Michael comes close. I like Murphy and Susan, but they aren't around often enough. Harry is flying solo or simply zipping past the other characters so quickly that it needs to be his charisma that sells the novel. And he has none.

I had the opposite experience, based on the first three books. I liked Harry a lot and thought his charisma carried the books, even though the side cast was pretty much flat.

The side cast is actually why I stopped reading. I disliked the policeman girl, didn't care about the reporter girl (so all the drama regarding her fell flat). And in general I got tired of all the beautiful women constantly lining up at Harry's door needing/wanting/demanding his help. This happened twice near the start of book 4, and I was like "mehhh" and put it down and haven't picked it back up.

(Harry is cool enough that I might get back to the series someday, especially since book 4 is apparently where the series gets good. But I have a big book backlog)
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Sceptilesolar
08/23/19 9:34:27 PM
#9:


I dunno about the 'this is where the series gets good' argument. I was meh on it until Dead Beat (the 7th book), which is genuinely great.

But I don't think there's a single point you can look to and say 'it was bad before and now it's good'.
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Shaduln
08/23/19 9:36:33 PM
#10:


It's more of a "1&2 are written really roughly and 3 gets better". It's also if you don't like it after 3, you probably won't like it.
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azuarc
08/23/19 9:40:15 PM
#11:


CoolCly posted...
I don't know why you are so personally upset about people telling you when it gets good though. It's just objectively true that the first two books aren't as good as the later ones, even though they do have the tone of the series.

It's not that people tell me when it gets good. It's their fanatical level of insistence. Y'all are a bunch of zealots. And between not wanting to miss out on something I might appreciate, and knowing that I need to have enough knowledge on a series to be able to compare my work against it, I couldn't ignore it completely.

So I fully expected that there was going to be this massive improvement. I expected the worldbuilding and the style to blossom from that point and for a newer author to transcend into writing something...well, transcendent. That was the level of fervor I got from everyone who insistently decries how good this series is.

Instead, I got something that was maybe average, but flawed.

CoolCly posted...
I will say it doesn't sound like you really get Harry. It doesn't tell you when Harry is upset. It doesn't need to. You can interpret everything Harry is feeling by the way he talks to or about someone, or the actions he takes. To say he doesn't feel anything is a very bizarre take.


Oh, I think I get him just fine. Where I disagree is that I don't believe he shows his emotion at all. He tells it to you, in an extremely clinical fashion. Because that's expedient. But if he were to show it to me, it might actually slow him down and hinder the pace of the story, and Butcher writes like there's a bomb on the bus he can't risk let blow up.
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StealThisSheen
08/23/19 9:42:56 PM
#12:


I feel like going "Man this series is really popular I wonder why" and then going "Well this sucks my stuff is better" might be kinda... Missing a point somewhere. Like, there's a reason people like it, I'd assume, so it's probably not safe to assume you just... Know better?
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DoomTheGyarados
08/23/19 9:43:46 PM
#13:


The Dresden Files is probably my favorite fantasy series ever, don't agree at all about Harry obviously.
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azuarc
08/23/19 9:47:15 PM
#14:


StealThisSheen posted...
I feel like going "Man this series is really popular I wonder why" and then going "Well this sucks my stuff is better" might be kinda... Missing a point somewhere. Like, there's a reason people like it, I'd assume, so it's probably not safe to assume you just... Know better?

I don't assume I know better. But I did assume it would be distinctly better than my writing in such a way that I could learn a thing or two from it. Instead, I have to come to the board asking why it rings so many people's bells. I shouldn't have to ask why.
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StealThisSheen
08/23/19 9:50:18 PM
#15:


azuarc posted...
StealThisSheen posted...
I feel like going "Man this series is really popular I wonder why" and then going "Well this sucks my stuff is better" might be kinda... Missing a point somewhere. Like, there's a reason people like it, I'd assume, so it's probably not safe to assume you just... Know better?

I don't assume I know better. But I did assume it would be distinctly better than my writing in such a way that I could learn a thing or two from it. Instead, I have to come to the board asking why it rings so many people's bells. I shouldn't have to ask why.


I mean, that's literally assuming you know better, though.

Maybe the things you think are bad are what people actually like about it? Maybe they like things like the quicker pace.
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Drakeryn
08/23/19 9:52:14 PM
#16:


Yeah the nonstop pacing was one of the things I liked

Never a dull moment
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#17
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CoolCly
08/23/19 9:54:41 PM
#18:


it sounds like you have A LOT to learn from it
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Sceptilesolar
08/23/19 9:55:46 PM
#19:


I don't think it's very hard to understand why people like it. It's got a one-liner-slinging protagonist fighting magical monsters in a huge setting. It's easy to consume and enjoy, in a pulpy sort of way. It relies on cliches pretty heavily, but that's not such a bad thing. If you have expectations about how things will go and characters will behave, it's easy to just go along with that and not think about context.
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azuarc
08/23/19 9:59:39 PM
#20:


Sceptilesolar posted...
I don't think it's very hard to understand why people like it. It's got a one-liner-slinging protagonist fighting magical monsters in a huge setting. It's easy to consume and enjoy....

May I recommend Ilona Andrews to you, then?
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Sceptilesolar
08/23/19 10:08:40 PM
#21:


azuarc posted...
Sceptilesolar posted...
I don't think it's very hard to understand why people like it. It's got a one-liner-slinging protagonist fighting magical monsters in a huge setting. It's easy to consume and enjoy....

May I recommend Ilona Andrews to you, then?


I'll keep it in mind, sure. I haven't really been interested in picking up any long-running fantasy series in a while, but I could use new reading material.
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Maniac64
08/23/19 10:12:25 PM
#22:


azuarc posted...
Sceptilesolar posted...
I don't think it's very hard to understand why people like it. It's got a one-liner-slinging protagonist fighting magical monsters in a huge setting. It's easy to consume and enjoy....

May I recommend Ilona Andrews to you, then?

Any specific series or book yo start with?
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Anagram
08/23/19 10:14:27 PM
#23:


I've never read Dresden Files, but I did watch the TV show.

It seemed reasonably interesting?
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Wedge Antilles
08/23/19 10:18:06 PM
#24:


I never really see anyone on the board talk about it. What's a legion to you? 3 people? 4?

I enjoy the fast pace personally. Wheel of Time is popular but I don't like it because there's too much time where nothing happens.
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LiquidOshawott
08/23/19 10:35:09 PM
#25:


Ive read 8 or so (last one I finished was the one featuring Molly)

The first few feel rather typical. I think it was Death Masks that made me appreciate the series for what it was

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azuarc
08/23/19 10:53:13 PM
#26:


Maniac64 posted...
Any specific series or book yo start with?

Andrews is a husband-and-wife team. They have four series.

Kate Daniels -- their main series, about 10 books plus a forthcoming spin-off trilogy with one of the villains. Post-apocalyptic Atlanta, MC who is the daughter of an ancient demigod, and initially is trying to lay low and eke out an existence as a sword-wielding mercenary.
On The Edge -- a not terribly good PNR series. Avoid.
Hidden Legacy -- their current main project, which is one trilogy that is being followed by another told by the old MC's younger sister. Houston, but filled with powerful magic users, politics, and some romance on the side.
The Innkeeper Chronicles -- a property that started as a silly story they wrote a chapter a week for on their blog, and has somehow become a real thing. First book is blatantly goofy, but the follow-ups are decent and the premise is kinda cool.

Probably start with Kate Daniels (begins with Magic Bites), though Hidden Legacy is a reasonable choice if you don't mind romance elements mixing in. All of them feature a strong (in both senses) female protagonist.
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azuarc
08/23/19 10:54:12 PM
#27:


Wedge Antilles posted...
I never really see anyone on the board talk about it. What's a legion to you? 3 people? 4?

Dozens. This is definitely not the first time a Dresden Files thread has appeared on the board. I'm also thinking of fans I've seen elsewhere as well.
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Drakeryn
08/23/19 11:14:25 PM
#28:


Not quite a legion, but I tried the series because it was recommended by Chris and other board 8ers.

I feel like the b8 book hierarchy is Mistborn > Dresden > HP. Maybe Dark Tower in fourth.
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Wedge Antilles
08/23/19 11:16:26 PM
#29:


Stormlight Archive should be in there somewhere.
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NFUN
08/23/19 11:21:03 PM
#30:


anything cosmere > dresden > anything sanderson not cosmere* >>> hp

*wheel of time if you count that here is impossible to place but imo it's at the top

Also we'll need to see where Mistborn actually is because right now it's two different collections and opinions on them differ, plus Tombolo is reading it right now. Both me and Eddv think Well of Ascension is pretty weak and he doesn't like them that much in general so maybe it's not that highly regarded
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azuarc
08/23/19 11:23:09 PM
#31:


I may have to go back to trying Sanderson. I've mostly sworn off of books over 600 pages...and WoT may have had something to do with that...but I mostly liked his contributions to the last three books.
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Peace___Frog
08/23/19 11:23:36 PM
#32:


Drakeryn posted...
Not quite a legion, but I tried the series because it was recommended by Chris and other board 8ers.

I feel like the b8 book hierarchy is Mistborn > Dresden > HP. Maybe Dark Tower in fourth.

I did give Dark Tower a go because of b8. I want to say it was actually cokes' mafia theme that made it sound interesting?
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NFUN
08/23/19 11:29:21 PM
#33:


azuarc posted...
I may have to go back to trying Sanderson. I've mostly sworn off of books over 600 pages...and WoT may have had something to do with that...but I mostly liked his contributions to the last three books.

I think for the most part he avoids that super wordy fantasy trope. Stormlight is denser than it needs to be for sure, but it's much faster than Wheel of Time (probably about on par with the pace of the first few WoT books), and Mistborn isn't loquacious in general, nor is Warbreaker that bad. and he has a bunch of novellas that are good too
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azuarc
08/23/19 11:32:06 PM
#34:


I bought the first Way of Kings book, and then never got around to reading it because the book literally hurt my hands to hold. Was like an 1100 page paperback, lol.
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ExThaNemesis
08/23/19 11:42:09 PM
#35:


jfc just keep reading you fuckin nerd Harry will make a believer outta you
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Wedge Antilles
08/23/19 11:53:04 PM
#36:


Personally I like the Wax and Wayne novels much more than the original trilogy. Vin and Elend never did anything for me. Things went downhill kinda quick for me when Kelsier died.

The first 3/4 of Way of Kings was really slow I felt but everything from that last quarter onwards is great.
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NFUN
08/23/19 11:55:17 PM
#37:


Wedge Antilles posted...
Personally I like the Wax and Wayne novels much more than the original trilogy. Vin and Elend never did anything for me. Things went downhill kinda quick for me when Kelsier died.

The third ones deals a lot with the struggle between Ruin and Preservation and I really love that sort of, especially in Sanderson's Universe.

have you read secret history?
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Leafeon13N
08/23/19 11:56:13 PM
#38:


Dresden is great but i stopped recommending it once it felt like it was never getting continued.
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Wedge Antilles
08/23/19 11:58:41 PM
#39:


NFUN posted...
Wedge Antilles posted...
Personally I like the Wax and Wayne novels much more than the original trilogy. Vin and Elend never did anything for me. Things went downhill kinda quick for me when Kelsier died.

The third ones deals a lot with the struggle between Ruin and Preservation and I really love that sort of, especially in Sanderson's Universe.

have you read secret history?


Yup, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Really looking forward to the last Wax and Wayne book.
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NFUN
08/24/19 12:02:54 AM
#40:


Leafeon13N posted...
Dresden is great but i stopped recommending it once it felt like it was never getting continued.

he just finished the new one
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Leafeon13N
08/24/19 12:07:25 AM
#41:


NFUN posted...
Leafeon13N posted...
Dresden is great but i stopped recommending it once it felt like it was never getting continued.

he just finished the new one


I know I'm cautiously excited.
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Wedge Antilles
08/24/19 12:09:33 AM
#42:


Leafeon13N posted...
NFUN posted...
Leafeon13N posted...
Dresden is great but i stopped recommending it once it felt like it was never getting continued.

he just finished the new one


I know I'm cautiously excited.


He also came out with a short story a couple months back that takes place right after the next novel if you're looking for something to tide you over.
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KanzarisKelshen
08/24/19 5:36:58 AM
#43:


OK. So. Dresden Files breakdown. I've been writing an UF novel on and off, a lot of which was a reaction to DF and thinking I could do better alongside a very close friend, so let me see if I can offer you a detailed perspective...

-Harry Dresden is definitely a heartfelt character. It's very important to understand he also is very, very good at not confronting his own feelings. He jokes and quips constantly because he's terrified and crumbling at the edges a lot of the time and if he didn't do it, he'd break. Practically his entire inner monologue is textbook irony, in the classical sense. If you want to see what an actually underdeveloped character is like, read, say, Iron Druid.

-He's a shonen protagonist. There's not much point beating around the bush there. Imagine a very fleshed out Goku and you're not too far off the mark. People like it when their shonen media is thought-out for a change. Don't think of the books as you would something like Saving Private Ryan or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Try to see them in the vein of Terminator 2 or the Fast and the Furious series.

-Book 2 is poorly written. There's not much to say about it. Characters act OOC, the plot is hokey, and the action mostly weak. Using it as an example of something that breaks immersion is correct, but pointless. It's a significant step down from book 1 and book 3 is a much bigger step up, purely at the technical level. No fan of the series tries to defend it, because it's not too defensible and nothing that happens in it really matters.

-This is a minor nitpick at the lore level, but it's a quickly established fact wizards have a significantly stronger healing factor than normal humans, which is why they can live elongated lifespans, age more gracefully and die harder. Harry's ability to bounce back from terrible things isn't unexplained.

-Something I don't think you hit on is that the action is incredibly clear, lucid and concise. As these books are action movies in paper form, this matters. If you take nothing else from them, try to compare how you write fights and see if you can make them hustle and pop this much.

-Building up on the previous point, something you should learn from these books (like, actively learn and confront, not just mention in passing) is that Urban Fantasy never slows down. Dresden Files was the book that led me to coin the term 'Crisis Weekend', describing plots where the heroes end up entangled in a dire situation that resolves itself in the span of a few days, with no room for long-term character growth or significant, observable changes from beginning to end of a given story. The characters in DF, as with all action movie characters, are static in a given tale. The change happens in-between books. If you want to write UF, you should confront this and ask yourself how you're gonna deal with it. If you want to allow characters to change mid-story, how is the supernatural not going to force rapid responses? Why is the problem not going to snowball in such a way that the characters can't take a break from it without being stupid, criminally negligent, or evil? If you want to go fast, how are you planning to keep multiple plates spinning so that your readerbase doesn't see the illusion of depth that the Crisis Weekend has for what it really is? Working out how Butcher handled this across three books is something you'll find useful to help you decide how you're going to do your own thing.

If you can point out specific grievances or high moments, I can probably go into more detail, because me and my cowriter discussed this series a lot as we avidly read them and gradually fell out of love with them. But for a start, I think this should be enough.

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Corrik7
08/24/19 7:13:20 AM
#44:


Has everyone here read azu's book?

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Tom Bombadil
08/24/19 7:34:10 AM
#45:


o ya go my cosmere

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azuarc
08/24/19 1:51:48 PM
#46:


KanzarisKelshen posted...
OK. So. Dresden Files breakdown. I've been writing an UF novel on and off, a lot of which was a reaction to DF and thinking I could do better alongside a very close friend, so let me see if I can offer you a detailed perspective...

All very good points. I failed to mention that the action is written very well. It's something I expect from an author, and I've very annoyed when they can't manage that. If there's one thing that I thought these books had going for them, it was that.

KanzarisKelshen posted...
-Building up on the previous point, something you should learn from these books (like, actively learn and confront, not just mention in passing) is that Urban Fantasy never slows down.

I can't say I completely agree with this, or at least not to the extent that we see it in DF. If I'm reading Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews, Seanan Maguire, Chloe Neill, whoever...the protagonist has times to stop and catch their breath a pinch. They regroup, they consider, they discuss the situation with the rest of the cast and/or they get pulled aside in a B plot. There's never a dull chapter, but there's an ebb and flow to their pace. With DF, everything's so hopped up all the time that this cycle is completely absent. I can't notice the highs if everything is a high.

Corrik7 posted...
Has everyone here read azu's book?

The only person I can remember sharing it with is Drakeryn.
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KanzarisKelshen
08/24/19 3:09:48 PM
#47:


DF is very much at the extreme end, yeah -- but since it was such a big influence, it's trickled down into a LOT of other UF authors. I honestly can't recall the last UF story that I saw have a month long timeskip or longer, for instance. It all gets resolved in a week, maybe ten days, every time.

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Corrik7
08/24/19 3:35:19 PM
#48:


azuarc posted...
The only person I can remember sharing it with is Drakeryn.
I read it and gave you feed back. Rude.

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Drakeryn
08/24/19 3:41:22 PM
#49:


azuarc posted...
The only person I can remember sharing it with is Drakeryn.

Wasn't me. I remember you talked about the premise, and I (ineffectually) tried to think up blurb ideas, but that was all.
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Robazoid
08/24/19 3:52:56 PM
#50:


I haven't read Dresden but legions of fans swearing something gets better is familiar to me. I experienced that with Brandon Sanderson. He's the new god of writing so I checked out Elantris and found it super mediocre. Everyone told me his first novel was just rough so I read the Mistborn trilogy and found it super mediocre. Then everyone told me he didn't really get good until some other gigantic series and just... nah. I gave him four books worth of shots, I'm good.

I used to be really bitter about it and argued on the books and literature board that people only liked Sanderson because he writes fast (dude wrote a whole novel in a single airplane ride). Nowadays I just think people have different tastes and move on to read other things. I'm more of a science fiction guy anyway.
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