At least in written form you can skip over it easily. "Oh look, he's describing the Blue Beetle again (spoiler: not much Blue anymore! Tee hee!), time to jump half a page", whereas fast forwarding through the novel equivilent of repeat animation isn't quite as practical.
Now that I think about it, this alone would probably keep me from bothering with the audio book versions. There's an awful lot of backstory by the later ends of the series. Hell, when I was marathon'ing them back to back, I started playing a game where I'd try to guess what was going to be said about the Blue Beetle or Toot or Murphy or the Duster or his apartment, etc, etc, etc.
Nice for new readers (and a good reminder back when these would've been out year to year) as they may be, you could probably axe 20 or 30 pages from each of the last couple books if you removed the excess fluff.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
Well the re-description of things is sort of necessary as a sort of quick reminder of what all this extra stuff is. A lot of fans are going to remember, especially if they've been reading for 12 books, but it's just an extremely common (for good reason) literary tactic with a long-running series like this. And it's not even that poorly done. You get like one or two pages max of him re-describing anything throughout an entire book.
20-30 is certainly hyperbole, but 1-2 is definitely lowballing it. There's a dedicated couple of lines/paragraph to pretty much every character, location, spell, setting, item or event from an earlier book. How many times have we read about Marcone's faded dollar bill eyes, or Murphy being short, cute, an incredible marksman and adept at aikido? Or the Blue Beetle being less and less blue through the series? Or Bob the skull / repository of knowledge and his wooden shelf/collection of smutty romance novels?
Obviously it's not a dealbreaker for me, but it's prevailant throughout the series.
In re-reading the series, I am kind of looking forward to Mouse showing up, though I'm only up to book 5 again, as marathon'ing Burn Notice has taken up much of my free time.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
yeah, the details explaining things new readers might not know can be a nuisance, but it's a necessary element to make an ongoing series less intimidating.
If he didn't do this, it would be impossible to avoid being confused regularly without going through every previous book. Sure, you ought to do that, but there's no reason to exclude something to ease in the newcomers.
I love it because it's great and memorable and I enjoy the characters.
I hate it because I'm tired of reading the same descriptions over and over again and because I burn through the new book in like 12 hours only to wait until next April.
EDIT: Who here suggested that he write a buddy cop story between him and Ramirez? If there is anything this series needs more of, it's Ramirez.
I was re-reading Changes the other day and got to the part in the bar where he's talking to Mac and he starts the "Have I ever told you I'm an orphan..." dialogue and in my head I lost it. I didn't notice it the first time around, I was too busy reading, but the second time through I just want to say really? Really Jim Butcher? This is how you have to hide your unnecessary exposition now?
That's the biggest problem I have with every series of books that are supposed to work together or separately. Half the book is re-describing the characters.
Silven on
0
Viscount Islands[INSERT SoKo HERE]...it was the summer of my lifeRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
Well okay it's not that bad, but sometimes the beginning of books can be a bit of a bore because of it.
Viscount Islands on
I want to do with you
What spring does with the cherry trees.
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AntimatterDevo Was RightGates of SteelRegistered Userregular
edited January 2011
Following an in-interview announcement by Jim at MarsCon over the weekend, we’ve updated the site to reflect the new release date for Ghost Story: July 26, 2011.
NOOOOOOOOO
Antimatter on
0
Caulk Bite 6One of the multitude of Dans infesting this placeRegistered Userregular
Following an in-interview announcement by Jim at MarsCon over the weekend, we’ve updated the site to reflect the new release date for Ghost Story: July 26, 2011.
NOOOOOOOOO
Peen on
0
AntimatterDevo Was RightGates of SteelRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
do you guys want to read chapter one of Ghost Story? of course you do!
Ghost Story releases on my birthday! And I finally read Side Jobs, good read. I am a little worried now from the description of Ghost Story Butcher gave that it might be the last one. Very worried actually.
Really? I liked the Alphas.
Then again I live close to Chicago and know the neibhorhood they live in, so I would like to think that yes there are werewolves trying to keep the area safe.
I have read, like, the first three books of this series?
They are OK.
I find Dresden and Murphy to be pretty irritating though. Like Murphy will says something along the lines of "I'm a cop I need to know these things to protect people and it's not your job yadda yadda yadda" and Dresden never says "these are fucking vampires/werewolves/wizards Karrin, let me deal with it because you do not know what the deal is with them and are liable to fuck it up." He just sort of pussies out and lets her be all "raargh!" on him.
Their relationship improves a lot over the series.
Dresden gets better at dealing with the police, or at least more familiar the force, and Murphy gets a lot better at playing along with Harry's way of doing things. She even starts getting more involved in his work further along, rather than just getting in his way all the time.
Posts
Now that I think about it, this alone would probably keep me from bothering with the audio book versions. There's an awful lot of backstory by the later ends of the series. Hell, when I was marathon'ing them back to back, I started playing a game where I'd try to guess what was going to be said about the Blue Beetle or Toot or Murphy or the Duster or his apartment, etc, etc, etc.
Nice for new readers (and a good reminder back when these would've been out year to year) as they may be, you could probably axe 20 or 30 pages from each of the last couple books if you removed the excess fluff.
Obviously it's not a dealbreaker for me, but it's prevailant throughout the series.
In re-reading the series, I am kind of looking forward to Mouse showing up, though I'm only up to book 5 again, as marathon'ing Burn Notice has taken up much of my free time.
If he didn't do this, it would be impossible to avoid being confused regularly without going through every previous book. Sure, you ought to do that, but there's no reason to exclude something to ease in the newcomers.
I picture a conversation where Harry consoles Michael later on, mentioning how he completely blindsided Nicodemus and nearly strangles the guy.
Also, the Elder Gruff was awesome. I doubt we'll see him again, but I'd love to see more of him.
Poor Thomas. And Morgan.
And damn, but that last page hits hard.
I love it because it's great and memorable and I enjoy the characters.
I hate it because I'm tired of reading the same descriptions over and over again and because I burn through the new book in like 12 hours only to wait until next April.
EDIT: Who here suggested that he write a buddy cop story between him and Ramirez? If there is anything this series needs more of, it's Ramirez.
What spring does with the cherry trees.
Still annoying as hell.
But hearing about every character over and over every book can be sort of a drag.
MISTER IS SO BIG
BOB IS SO PERVY
MICHAEL IS SO GOOD
THOMAS IS SO SEXY
MURPHY IS SO SHORT AND GOOD COP AND SHE'S GOOD PEOPLE
What spring does with the cherry trees.
That's the biggest problem I have with every series of books that are supposed to work together or separately. Half the book is re-describing the characters.
What spring does with the cherry trees.
dead beat, turncoat and small favor. they were all pretty good i thought if a bit formulaic
Hoping I can find them both soon enough.
Me too actually.
it's a must-read for the series, really :P
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
What spring does with the cherry trees.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
How sure are you about that?
But man I can't get into side jobs, a few of these have been rough around the edges sofar and I have a copy of Wise Man's Fear sitting here...
It's the same story that was at the end of the "Welcome to the Jungle" comic, and it was bad then, too.
I never really liked the Alphas much though.
Then again I live close to Chicago and know the neibhorhood they live in, so I would like to think that yes there are werewolves trying to keep the area safe.
They are OK.
I find Dresden and Murphy to be pretty irritating though. Like Murphy will says something along the lines of "I'm a cop I need to know these things to protect people and it's not your job yadda yadda yadda" and Dresden never says "these are fucking vampires/werewolves/wizards Karrin, let me deal with it because you do not know what the deal is with them and are liable to fuck it up." He just sort of pussies out and lets her be all "raargh!" on him.
Dresden gets better at dealing with the police, or at least more familiar the force, and Murphy gets a lot better at playing along with Harry's way of doing things. She even starts getting more involved in his work further along, rather than just getting in his way all the time.
does he lose that whole chivalry bollocks thing as well?
Although he mostly just directs that at Murphy. :P
Although the writer is kind of a chauvinist, which is pretty evident in the way he writes most (If not all) of the female characters.
There's a definite improvement in his work over the series, but that fact never really changes.