Author Topic: Alternatives While We Wait  (Read 28869 times)

Offline YukonC

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Alternatives While We Wait
« on: July 20, 2018, 02:57:55 AM »
I'm running through the entire series again on audiobook for about the 10th time and always enjoy the ride, but would like something else while I'm waiting for Peace Talks.  I've finished Working for Bigfoot, Brief Cases, Codex Alera series and Cinder Spires.  Audible.com suggested another character that was supposed to be "like" Dresden, but I couldn't even make it through the 1st chapter and returned the audiobook for refund.

What can you guys recommend to fill the void?  Thank you.

Offline Ananda

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Re: Alternatives While We Wait
« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2018, 02:47:25 AM »
I’m listening to a series called Malazan, Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson right now and it’s really good. The first book is a bit of a drag, but it gets better and better. The writing is a lot better than the DF books, too. And, the series is complete, which is a big bonus. I listen to the series at night while my husband snores, so it has really been quite a lengthy experience with each book being 42 hours or more in terms of narration length.

Anne Rice’s vampire books are great, too. Well, not all of the books are great, but the earliest ones (Interview, Vampire Lestat, etc.) and a couple of the middle and one or two of the latter ones are superb. She started the books in 1976, so she went through many periods with her writing.

Her Witching Hour series was great, too.

JD Salinger wrote some really amazing shorts and a few brilliant books. My favourite is Franny and Zooey followed closely by the shorts, A Perfect Day for Bananafish and Teddy.

Another favourite book is Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. Narcissus and Goldmund was also really good.

Offline wardenferry419

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Re: Alternatives While We Wait
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2018, 01:11:44 PM »
I’m listening to a series called Malazan, Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson right now and it’s really good. The first book is a bit of a drag, but it gets better and better. The writing is a lot better than the DF books, too. And, the series is complete, which is a big bonus. I listen to the series at night while my husband snores, so it has really been quite a lengthy experience with each book being 42 hours or more in terms of narration length.

Anne Rice’s vampire books are great, too. Well, not all of the books are great, but the earliest ones (Interview, Vampire Lestat, etc.) and a couple of the middle and one or two of the latter ones are superb. She started the books in 1976, so she went through many periods with her writing.

Her Witching Hour series was great, too.

JD Salinger wrote some really amazing shorts and a few brilliant books. My favourite is Franny and Zooey followed closely by the shorts, A Perfect Day for Bananafish and Teddy.

Another favourite book is Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. Narcissus and Goldmund was also really good.
Witching Hour should have been a stand-alone. What follows is not so good.
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Offline Ananda

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Re: Alternatives While We Wait
« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2018, 01:40:31 AM »
Witching Hour should have been a stand-alone. What follows is not so good.
Yeah, the first was the best by far, but the others have their moments. I didn’t like the taltos, so that aspect was not great to me. I loved the Uncle Julian character in the series and the Deirdre storyline was tragic. A lot of the Talamasca stuff was interesting, too.

She wrote a Lestat, taltos crossover book later in her career. That was awful. She really went off the rail for a period of her career. She even stopped writing any supernatural stuff because she’d gone religious crazy and would only write about the Jesus character. Fortunately, she got over that and wrote some okay books afterwards. She did a new one about Lestat et al to tie up the stories for all the major and a lot of the minor characters in the vampire books a few years ago and it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great, but not terrible, either. Definitely worth a read if one enjoyed any of the series.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2018, 01:50:29 AM by Ananda »

Offline Fcrate

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Re: Alternatives While We Wait
« Reply #4 on: July 30, 2018, 03:52:18 AM »
How about The Demon Cycle? Awesome from start to finish. The last book in the original series was published a few months ago, so.... Complete! With 5 decent sized books, it'll take some time off your hands while you wait.
هل أخذت الغاب مثلي منزلاً دون القصور
فتتبعت السواقي وتسلقت الصخور
هل تحممت بعطره وتنشفت بنور
وشربت الفجر خمراً من كؤوس من أثير

Offline flying peach

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Re: Alternatives While We Wait
« Reply #5 on: July 31, 2018, 04:33:20 AM »
Not a book, but if you have the metv channel Kolchak the nightstalker.

There's an article on the interwebz where Butcher describes whistling the Kolchak theme after a creepy experience, so I know he's familiar with it.

I've watched about six episodes and I think a lot of the episodes has a piece that corresponds to possible minor inspirations for the Dresden files.

It's B grade fun, so it won't be everyone's cup of tea.

Offline wardenferry419

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Re: Alternatives While We Wait
« Reply #6 on: July 31, 2018, 09:27:19 AM »
Kolchak was a big inspiration for the X-files as well.
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Offline Quantus

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Re: Alternatives While We Wait
« Reply #7 on: July 31, 2018, 01:37:48 PM »
All things Brandon Sanderson.  And if you like Audiobooks you might check out the Graphic Audio productions: they're audiobook productions but with a full voice cast, score, sound effects, etc.  It's a Movie without all the distracting pictures...
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Offline Stiletto

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Re: Alternatives While We Wait
« Reply #8 on: August 05, 2018, 03:40:07 AM »
The tv show Supernatural is very reminscent of the Dresden files. And there are lots of seasons. Which are also crazy long. :)
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Offline Hustead

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Re: Alternatives While We Wait
« Reply #9 on: August 06, 2018, 05:42:52 PM »
The Nightside Series from Simon R. Green is very similar to Dresden. It's urban fantasy and the main character is very similar in personality to Dresden. The main difference is that he's British.

That series has already been completed, so no more waiting for the next book from the Nightside.
« Last Edit: August 06, 2018, 05:44:39 PM by Hustead »

Offline zetadog

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Re: Alternatives While We Wait
« Reply #10 on: August 21, 2018, 05:15:19 AM »
The President's Vampire series by Christopher Farnsworth is pretty good.  There only seems to be one supernatural "good" guy. and half the story is told through the perspective of his human handler.

The Monster Hunter series by Larry Correia is also pretty good.

Offline UncommonSense

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Re: Alternatives While We Wait
« Reply #11 on: August 29, 2018, 01:22:54 PM »
All things Brandon Sanderson.

This, however, The Mistborn Trilogy is the only one(I believe) of his series that is fully completed.  The rest are serialized and in progress.  Not to dissuade, however we could easily find ourselves in another situation where we're just waiting for the next book for years.

That being said, big fan of his newest series, The Way of Kings.

The Malazan Book of the Fallen starts slow, gets really good, but then, for me, unravels a bit.  Erikson is a good world builder but his world got a little to big for me to keep track of.  So many characters and places, magic systems, politics, it gets a bit much.  There are some absolute standout books and characters however.

Everyone raves about the Kingkiller Chronicles, and the first book was excellent.  The second book was...unsatisfying and now we've been waiting several years for the "conclusion" with no end in sight.

I'm torn about my feelings toward The Iron Druid Chronicles.  I've read the whole series and while I liked the Atticus initially, he constantly chooses the wrong path.  While we, as the reader, question his decisions they bring him more and more sorrow.  It almost reads like a Greek tragedy.  I liked the series and read it through to the end, even read most of the shorts, but I'm conflicted as to whether I can honestly recommend it.

I've only ever read Ender's Game, and not the succeeding books, because I heard middling reviews of them, but it's worth a read as a standalone.

In terms of non-series books, read American Gods and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, they're excellent.  The nostalgia factor of Ready Player One kept me interested, but I think it could have been a better book with a stronger third act.

Bear in mind, any criticism I have is tempered by the fact that I am not creative and cannot write worth a damn.  These are my opinions and I would gladly listen to any counters you have as maybe I've missed something.
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Offline flying peach

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Re: Alternatives While We Wait
« Reply #12 on: September 09, 2018, 04:34:15 AM »
I just finished 5 ebooks that are the free type with kindle unlimited that's the Montague and Strong series. Worth a try if you have kindle unlimited. It has good and bad things about it, but I liked it. The character references that wizard in Chicago (meaning Harry Dresden) but he also references a wizardly type in Saint Louis in the same sentence. Anyone know who that is?

Anyway, the main character is cursed to immortality by Shiva, has a time stopping sigil on his wrist that causes a dominatrix librarian dressed lady luck to appear and slap him around a bit, a pet hellhound, and is best friend's with a mage who he operates a detective agency with.


Offline mentallooser

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Re: Alternatives While We Wait
« Reply #13 on: September 09, 2018, 05:41:06 PM »
I've tried a number of series that are supposed to feel similar.  Never found anything that didn't veer too close to tropy corny fantasy romance, or just wasn't all that good.  Butcher kind of has a corner on this whole thing.  Did really love the codex aleta.  Sadly the new one is something I have failed to get through about a dozen or so times

Offline Just Al

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Re: Alternatives While We Wait
« Reply #14 on: September 11, 2018, 07:21:13 PM »
I've been enjoying the Laundry books by Charles Stross, where magic is a function of higher math, and if you discover one of the functions that can summon one of the outsiders (he doesn't call them that) the folks from the Laundry show up and make you a job offer you (literally) can't refuse.