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Sorry I guess the thread fell off my radar. I never read that series, so it could be a roll of the dice. I guess check them out and see if it's worth it, and if it's good I might go ahead and pick them up.
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Robert Jackson Bennett
- Thread starter jmal2000
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Guest, did you like the last podcast notification?? Well here's the second one, and for the third podcast! Yep. This Thursday 8-8-24 at 7pm Central
Go here to check out his podcast thread for info on topics and links!Go into the FoH discord and find the Happy Time Fun Hour channel and give it a listen!
OU Ariakas
Diet Dr. Pepper Enjoyer
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The first one was really good. He really has a way of crafting a weird, compelling setting. I started the second one, got 50 pages in, it didn't catch me so I stopped and don't know how I feel about it so far. His one shot novels were great, but just the start to this second one where he is re-introducing the characters and the setting is just so fucking boring. I will power through it and report back once I finish the latest Stephen King short story collection, You Like It Darker. Spoiler alert: King is still the best horror short story writer in the world.
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Yeah the guys really creative, and he writes pretty decent dialogue and compelling characters, but it almost kind of seems like a Stephen King deal where his original novels were the best and then you just kind of tapers off. I don't know. I just haven't read any of his newest stuff.
There is another...
I don't remember if I had mentioned it in this thread, but got to shill for my boy Nick Cutter. If you like some pretty horrific, Lovecraftian fiction, you should check his body of work out.
LiquidDeath
, he has three novels that would be right up your alley. Again, all of the audio versions are fantastic. I think I've listened to all of his novels three times at this point, they're just probably the best horror fiction that's come out in recent memory.- 2
Lolkaitis
Bronze Squire
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I like his stand alones. I personally liked the Founders Trilogy. His new murder mystery series is pretty cool as well. He's releasing the second book of his new series Shadows of Leviathan every year now, instead of every 2 years which he did with Founders Trilogy.
My favorite character in the Founders Trilogy was Clef. Robert Jackson Bennett does a good job of making him a loveable character. Also I liked Orso a lot.
My favorite character in the Founders Trilogy was Clef. Robert Jackson Bennett does a good job of making him a loveable character. Also I liked Orso a lot.
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Shit, might have to check them out. Thank you sir. For a lurker to come out of nowhere and talk about this oddball topic, well I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Just makes sense that they're being genuine about it.
Right on...
Unless you're some sort of Robert Jackson Bennett bot army to drive sales to his audible library!
Intrinsic
Person of Whiteness
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I finished Boom 1 the other night and am about 50% in to Book 2. It is a cool setting and some neat ideas with the sigil system. Book 2 is more enjoyable so far because the introduction and groundwork was laid and he can explore more ideas and flesh them out. We’ll see if it continues.
However! The dialogue is pretty horrific most of the time. Maybe I’m getting too old but every other word is either goddamn or shit in conversations, places where no one would regularly cuss or emphasize things. It is jarring for some reason. Something else I read recently suffered from the same, where the same language was used for all characters (not specifically swearing) and so it became difficult to really tell who was talking without being stated and it took away from them building unique personalities.
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OU Ariakas
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Ok, so I tore through book 1 of the Founder's Trilogy and really liked it but it took me something like 4 months to get through book 2. Now I am 30 pages into book 3 and I fucking hate it. I think I have decided that the dialogue, the constant bitching about slavery/colonialism, and all of the talk about consent and merging with the the technology from last book. It is exhausting and just dumb. It sucks because I have loved all of his standalone books but this makes me not want to start his other trilogies (even the one he hasn't finished yet). His born/raised/living in Austin is just too much for him to overcome in a multi-book story arch.
Edit: He also killed/changed my favorite two characters at the end of book 2 and now leaves us with a full cast of females as the main characters....like all of them. None of them are particularly likeable and their inner monologue is just the same shit over and over again.
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Intrinsic
Person of Whiteness
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Yeah, I think when posting I was at the start of book 2 and arrived at the same opinion as you. It took me a long time, relatively, to finish book 3. I don't look back at it fondly and wouldn't even care if a special edition was ever released. Do need to read some of his standalone stuff though, maybe do that after finishing Coldfire trilogy.
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OU Ariakas
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I was so dissatisfied with the first part of book 3 that I just went to find a summary and found this on Reddit. It seems like I dodged a bullet reading the rest of it since this person seems to have the exact same problem with the books that I have.
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Man, I remember the Cold Fire trilogy. Haven't read those since high school. I don't remember much about them though other than they were on an alien world but it was kind of a fantasy setting, and your fears or dreams would create monsters or something.
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Intrinsic
Person of Whiteness
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That's a pretty succinct one sentence summary. Far future, lost human colony, evolved on a different world where there is some "magic" there where human thoughts and fears influenced the rapid evolution of things, and those fears also manifest demons and other things. It's just okay. Started off stronger than it has kept going. Someone in a Malazan group on Facebook recommended it so figured why not give it a shot. Hasn't lived up to my expectations though.
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I remember enjoying it when I was young, but probably wouldn't hold up to my current expectations.
I liked it, but I do remember that Friedman was one of the authors that writes very unrealistic male characters, so that can be a problem. I thought the story was pretty memorable though.
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Pretty sure it's a woman author. I think maybe it was just her pseudonym. I mean from the bank stuff that I can remember I thought it was a pretty creative world though, but I couldn't tell you much about the plot other than maybe the names of the two main characters. Damien Kilcannon Vrice and Gerald Tarrant aka The Hunter. Think he was a vampire of sorts that murdered his family for power or something. Don't remember the name of the Big Baddy, Casca maybe, or the love interest. Think they sailed a ship somewhere in the second book to some other land.
Maybe I'll go and reread those one day. I remember it was a pretty neat setting, and something fairly original.
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Ukerric
Bearded Ape
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Lolkaitis
Bronze Squire
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I was informed Founders Trilogy Book 3 was a war book. What I liked about the that third book is the concept of psychic societies. I think RJB did a real good job portraying that. Also the fight scene with Craesaedes were pretty epic. I got a lot of cool visuals in my minds eye reading that.
Did you guys visualize a lot of imagination with esp in it as well, reading book 1 and book 2?
Did you guys visualize a lot of imagination with esp in it as well, reading book 1 and book 2?
How about when it's Craesades versus Tevanne in the book 2, and a missile comes through a wall targeted at Craesades, i just thought was a real clever way of indicating how psychic these entities are in the book
Anyways, book 3 has some good epic fight scenes in the end of it
And viva la Orso! I was convinced he was a bad guy when he was first introduced, really threw me off.
Anyways, book 3 has some good epic fight scenes in the end of it
And viva la Orso! I was convinced he was a bad guy when he was first introduced, really threw me off.
OU Ariakas
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The 1st book was top tier, the second one was barely readable, and the 3rd was so bad that I stopped after 3 chapters. His single books are much more memorable and enjoyable.
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