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Messages - Fedd

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Cinder Spires Spoilers / Re: Sneaky line?
« on: March 01, 2016, 09:01:36 PM »
I was sort of figuring that the CRYSTALS!tech and aether mechanics and such were either from technological development between us and the apocalypse . . . or side effects of the apocalypse itself.

Brings up the whole "chicken or the egg" sort of thing. Is Iron-Rot a consequence of whatever drove the Builders off the surface or part of the cause? In addition the animals that exist on the surface seem like exaggerated versions of current species. But spiders dont hunt humans in packs, and as far as we know, cats dont have a spoken language or intricate societies.

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Cinder Spires Spoilers / Re: Waste systems
« on: February 11, 2016, 09:32:54 PM »
So here's another question:  What do they use instead of toilet paper?  Historically it was:

- Sand or rocks (not really available in a Spire).
- Leaves (also kinda hard to find).
- Smooth piece of wood (expensive).
- Roman Sponge (this is a sea-sponge.  Don't think they'd have that).
- Bidet (possible, but a little advanced technology and you still need to wipe with something).

They can somehow synthetically create meat. I assume it is technology left by the Builders right? If I were going to build a shelter such as a spire and include tech to make food, tech to make cleaning supplies would naturally follow. Maybe there is a toilet paper vattery of some sort.

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Cinder Spires Spoilers / Re: The Index
« on: January 31, 2016, 02:24:22 PM »
One thing to remember is that the amount information that Cavendish was looking for was large.  It's not merely about a few names (that could easily be copied down).  She essentially memorized the entire book.

I think this implies that the importance of the information comes from the set of names as a whole (e.g. for statistical information?), than about a few important individuals.  Either that, or Cavendish still doesn't know which names are important.

It might be about bloodlines if the "names" refer to actual people, but I'm not convinced we can make that assertion yet.

Maybe they are Names in the Name of the Wind sense.

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Cinder Spires Spoilers / Re: Loved it! Thoughts...
« on: January 07, 2016, 05:56:05 PM »
I loved the book, but am generally not a big fan of steampunk.  To me, everything works or not based on your connection (or lack thereof) with the characters.  I read all of Codex, and while I enjoyed the action scenes and the magic (summoning?) system, I can't recall a single character a year or so after finishing, other than the villain (the bug queen).  The Cinder Spires characters need some fleshing out, but they started out a lot more vivid to me than Codex, especially the etherialists. 

It's hard to compete against a 15 book series, so I don't even try and compare against DF.  The opening book of CS is light years better than the first couple of DF, but that's not saying anything a DF fan doesn't already know. 

As to the setting, it seems to strongly hint at a steampunk genre in form only, with the eventual underpinning in harder SF.  No way to tell right now what JB has in mind, but it seems to be a stagnant colony on a hostile world that's lost most of it's tech and history. 

I started a re read several days ago, and its not the characters or setting that bug me but the dialogue. Even in Codex Alera where the characters had every reason to speak oddly, they sounded and spoke normally. In CS everyone is using that faux, archaic English. Which is really grating and tedious to read. I am enjoying the books far more than the first time tho. I just ignore the forced language.

You are right on several points, it isnt fair to compare it to dresden, since the first few in that series were pretty rough. Jim has clearly improved a ton over the years.

One thing I will disagree with you though, I love the DF, but codex alera is by far my favorite work of his.

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Cinder Spires Spoilers / Re: Loved it! Thoughts...
« on: January 04, 2016, 11:40:37 PM »
LOL, I am not saying everybody will feel the same. I just "connected" with that book in a strong way.

Not saying you were  :) but I didnt connect with it at all, and seeing that someone obviously loves it (a fan of the same author since we are on the forums lol) makes me consider that the fault was with me for rushing through it and being prejudiced against the genre.

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Cinder Spires Spoilers / Re: Loved it! Thoughts...
« on: January 04, 2016, 03:51:28 AM »
I see your points Dina. Im gonna give it a re read and see if it grows on me, or perhaps I read it too quickly the first time through and missed out on the subtlety. Gwens name bugged me as well. Jim seems to like M- named characters lol.

Ferrus and Folly were both fun and entertaining.

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Cinder Spires Spoilers / Re: Loved it! Thoughts...
« on: January 03, 2016, 05:03:13 PM »
You know, I am very surprised by that criticism, which is repeated. I think the characters are much better than the Dresden Files ones (which I loved!). I can see how Grimm and Folly are archetypical, but the others feel like real people to me. They are, hands down, my favorite part of the book.

You really feel that way? Outside of Grimm and Folly I honestly cant remember a single characters name. The girl who rebels against her mom has a few interesting thoughts/scenes and then behaves the exact same way in every scene afterwards. It was difficult to even tell the difference between the two female cadets at times. The only meaningful difference in their scenes was the Cat.

I feel JB is at his best driving action oriented characters. Not necessarily violent action, but when his books get bogged down in world building and pointless dialogue is when they are weakest. Codex Alera is a great example of this, book one is... not the best, but once he discovered how to constantly keep the characters in motion while still developing the world, the series improved dramatically.

I think Cinder spires can and most likely will improve. JB is a good writer and the series has enough interesting concepts to build upon. The first book just happened to be dreadfully boring in my opinion.

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Cinder Spires Spoilers / Re: Loved it! Thoughts...
« on: January 03, 2016, 03:33:50 AM »
Sadly Im with Ananda here. Ive loved nearly every book in the DF and codex alera but could not enjoy Cinder spires. Dont care for the genre I guess, and the dialogue was very repetitive. The warrior born character gets introduced fairly early on and yet every scene with them in it, their powers have to be described yet again. The book was fairly tedious, and the characters were completely one dimensional.


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Cinder Spires Spoilers / Re: [TAW SPOILERS] Let's talk religion
« on: October 21, 2015, 02:41:17 PM »


I happen to agree with you. I mean Jim does play with us a bit but I got the impression he'd considered a crossover from his slightly teasing answer in a Q&A a while back. It was a question about whether DF would cross over with CA. I would definitely love to see CS as part of the DFU. Consider the surface creatures and the Enemy. Especially with that recent WoJ about Outsiders looking different in each universe.

I also rather enjoy your take Burger_Prince. Reminds me a lot of Zelzanzy's Lord of Light. Super advanced techno-gods and what not. I don't think he'll go there at this point however.

Is it possible that the Cinder Spires world IS the DF Earth after the events of the BAT? There seems to be some evidence that the planet is a version of Earth after an apocalypse.

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Cinder Spires Spoilers / Re: Sneaky line?
« on: October 03, 2015, 03:46:20 PM »
There is at least some potential that WE (being modern humans) are the Builders.  That's why language puns like that exist...

Of course that would make Cinder Spires set in a massive post-apocalypse scenario where much of technology was lost... which isn't unreasonable I suppose.

Isnt there also a line where someone says a version of "Semper Fi"? It seems like the story might be set in a future version of Earth where the Enemy drove us off the surface.

I dont remember the part of human history where we mastered anti gravity tech (lift crystals) and advanced energy weapons. Compared to the Builders who built miles high indestructible buildings there tech is post apocalypse, but still pretty advanced compared to us. They can forge steel, and artificially generate meat and utilize electricity but its too expensive .  Which makes sense since it would be difficult to maintain large fuel reserves when living in a self contained spire.

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