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chernobyl kinsman posted:So did you jack off Your fascination with my jerk off material is disturbing. To answer the question. Nope. I may be a connoisseur of the written word but have yet to find anything that would curl my toes just by reading it.
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May 24, 2017 01:11
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okraslayer posted:Your fascination with my jerk off material is disturbing. Try fanfiction 
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May 24, 2017 04:29
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outlier posted:Egan's quite something. He's a real science fiction author: so much of SF is cowboys / cops / Hornblower / etc in space but he's totally about science and strange stuff that happens as a consequence. For my taste, he gradually gets too lost in the ideas and info dumps as time goes by (a friend joked about "the obligatory point in an Egan novel where the characters question the ontological basis of their own reality") but it's still amazing stuff. Ive never read Egan, but I like Stephenson and he sounds similar. How do they compare? Also if the answer is that they compare well, whats his best book? Dirty Frank fucked around with this message at 07:50 on May 24, 2017 |
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May 24, 2017 07:36
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okraslayer posted:Your fascination with my jerk off material is disturbing. This is good jerk off material I agree https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3821493&pagenumber=2&perpage=40#post472655185
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May 24, 2017 12:37
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Ras Het posted:This is good jerk off material I agree https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3821493&pagenumber=2&perpage=40#post472655185 I was enjoying that thread... unfortunate it got moved
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May 24, 2017 13:03
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I'm finishing up Metro 2035, and it's pretty good! Better than 2034, and better translated too. There are a good number of typos though. Also it is insanely funny to me that the most joyful moment in the series, when Artyom realizes that the world is still alive after all because Lady Gaga's on the radio.
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May 24, 2017 22:58
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RBA Starblade posted:I'm finishing up Metro 2035, and it's pretty good! Better than 2034, and better translated too. There are a good number of typos though. Have yet to get into that story... do the games / other media do it justice ?
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May 25, 2017 04:26
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okraslayer posted:Have yet to get into that story... do the games / other media do it justice ? The games are pretty good but a lot more action-y than the books are and play up certain characters and bits more than the novels. It takes most of the side stuff word for word from them. 2034's better translated than 2033 but the plot is significantly less interesting. The weird thing is 2035 is a sequel to the last game that came out, Last Light, as well as the last book, very loosely, but at the same time LL was based on 2034. There are also apparently like two dozen books written by other people in the series that are all terrible. The weird thing about the first book is that it's not especially well translated, but I feel being hard to read works in its favor. The book's pretty oppressive and the translation only adds to it. 2033's a happiness destroyer.
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May 25, 2017 05:34
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Dirty Frank posted:Ive never read Egan, but I like Stephenson and he sounds similar. How do they compare? Also if the answer is that they compare well, whats his best book? Hmm. Never would have thought of the comparison, but it's not a bad one. Egan is all about the science and tech as opposed to Stephenson's culture and tech. And Egan goes more into mindbending territory: characters running simulations of themselves and injecting these into hyperdimensional spaces. If I was looking for the best point of comparison, it work be John Scalzi's Accelerando. I've always liked Egan's first book Quarantine, which is fairly mild compared to his later stuff. Permutation City is a good entry point, as is his short story collection Our Lady of Chernobyl.
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May 25, 2017 13:04
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Just finished Revenger. Swallowed it in three days. Anything out there like it? I read most of Alastair Reynolds though.
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May 25, 2017 22:37
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Major Isoor posted:Also, what are TBB's general thoughts towards David Gemmell? I've just been recommended his books by a colleague after talking about the Witcher (novel) series. (I'm reading The Black Company next, but you never know - there might be a spot free, after that) Gemmell is the best heroic fantasy author. He took the muscularity of the Conan stories and gave the heroes inner demons that they have to face. It's never spelled out better than in his first novel, Legend. The protagonist, Rek, is both a master swordsman and a terrifying berserker, but he resigned his commission because he was afraid of himself and what he could do. By running from his fears he becomes more afraid, to the point where like a child he can't sleep without a night light. Occasionally the books become formulaic, but they all read well. Start with Legend and if you don't like it, move on.
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May 26, 2017 08:21
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Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger.
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May 27, 2017 18:41
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Rolo posted:Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger. Which was your favorite?
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May 28, 2017 02:11
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Jedit posted:Gemmell is the best heroic fantasy author. He took the muscularity of the Conan stories and gave the heroes inner demons that they have to face. It's never spelled out better than in his first novel, Legend. The protagonist, Rek, is both a master swordsman and a terrifying berserker, but he resigned his commission because he was afraid of himself and what he could do. By running from his fears he becomes more afraid, to the point where like a child he can't sleep without a night light. Occasionally the books become formulaic, but they all read well. Start with Legend and if you don't like it, move on. Alright, thanks! I'll have to check it out; it sounds good. Legend might have to be next on my to-read list, after TBC
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May 28, 2017 02:14
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Sandwolf posted:Which was your favorite? Probably For Esmé - With Love and Squalor followed very closely by Teddy. Those two were so good, but I also have to mention how much I liked A Perfect Day for Bananafish and Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut. I liked the entire collection, but those four really stood out to me.
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May 28, 2017 02:30
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Cat's Cradle. Im starting to warm up to Vonnegut, plus I liked being able to read a chapter a minute.
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Jun 4, 2017 02:33
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I read the two We Are Legion, We Are Bob books. They were alright. Mary Sue as gently caress and dripping with Star Trek fanboyism but competently written and enjoyable in the same way that The Martian was, for the engineering and problem solving thought experiments.
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Jun 4, 2017 04:08
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Universal Harvester by John Darnielle It wasn't Wolf in White Van, but I enjoyed it a lot. I've lived in the rural Midwest for a extended periods, so a lot of the characters and the general hair's breadth from weirdness atmosphere were even more believable. I probably would have liked it less if I'd been reading instead of listening, as Darnielle's delivery was excellent. I definitely recommend the audio version. When She Woke by Hillary Jordan 3.5/5. Excellent concept and brilliant as an homage, but a lot of the most intriguing aspects of the world Jordan created are breezed over in favor of philosophical reflection. That made sense given the protagonist and the connection to Hawthorne, but it left a lot of threads I wish had been explored more.
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Jun 4, 2017 05:03
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The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu I knew going into this that it wouldn't have what I liked most about the first book, but I thought this one worked well enough. It has some weird hangups and slow spots, like an homage to that lovely "Curse 5.0" story by the same author that doesn't affect the plot, or the hard science diversions into stuff like astrophysics while suspended animation technology passes without comment (because I don't think the author's interested in that field but the plot as it's structured can't work without that tech), or an overly idealized romance that feels too good to be true. And yes, the Osama bin Laden cameo is hilarious, especially in hindsight. Still, it incorporates a few different tones without feeling like they should be in different books, the solution to the conflict makes sense and is well-hidden, and I have to give Liu props for resolving the trilogy's apparent conflict before the last book even starts. I barely have a clue what Death's End will be about, and I look forward to finding out later this month.
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Jun 6, 2017 08:59
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The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley Gothic horror in 1970s England? Yes, please! It took a couple chapters to get into this one, but it paid off in spades. I particularly liked the multiple levels of horror, tradition, and uncertainty at work in this, and Hurley did an excellent job of choosing what to tell the reader when. One of its reveals was a little predictable, but it's still a good, subtle, disturbing read.
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Jun 6, 2017 18:22
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A Gentleman in Moscow - more "LitFic" than my usual fare but I really enjoyed it. A Russian aristocrat living in a luxury hotel in Moscow after the revolution gets placed on permanent house arrest in the hotel. The book covers decades, the protagonist is erudite and charming, and it gives some interesting observations about life under the Soviet regime. It kind of reminded me of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, another LitFic/Book Club type book that I really enjoyed.
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Jun 7, 2017 14:05
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Ngaio Marsh's Death in Ectasy / Vintage Murder. Working on Artists in Crime now - they're all Inspector Alleyn murder mysteries, and basically fun light reading. Marsh has a real knack for decently clever little puzzles with fun interrogations, and I could read these like popcorn.
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Jun 8, 2017 04:19
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I just finished Great Expectations and I know this seems to be an unpopular opinion but I really, really enjoyed it. the ending that I won't spoil even though the book is over a hundred years old was the most emotional I've gotten over a book in a long, long time.
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Jun 10, 2017 07:11
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landgrabber posted:I just finished Great Expectations and I know this seems to be an unpopular opinion but I really, really enjoyed it. the ending that I won't spoil even though the book is over a hundred years old was the most emotional I've gotten over a book in a long, long time. I think that is a popular opinion, actually.
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Jun 10, 2017 11:24
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Finished Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov a while ago; it's a bit slow at times but I enjoyed the general theme of it. Has the trilogy a better pacing?
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Jun 10, 2017 14:57
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Imaginary Friend posted:Finished Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov a while ago; it's a bit slow at times but I enjoyed the general theme of it. Has the trilogy a better pacing? I definitely thought so. I started with Prelude and felt the same way. Since the three main trilogy books are collections of novellas, you move a lot quicker from premise to premise, and there's less time spent on characters and action scenes (which can be fine, but definitely aren't Asimov's strong suit.)
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Jun 10, 2017 16:23
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Absalom, Absalom! Jesus loving Christ.... To clarify a bit, this is far and away the most difficult book I have ever read. I know the overall plot but all of the little details are buried in the Faulkner's pretentious writing style. There's a sentence that is 1288 words and, technically, its not even a complete sentence. boop the snoot fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Jun 11, 2017 |
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Jun 11, 2017 00:06
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Solitair posted:The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu What's that story about (and does it relate to the whole 'mental seal' storyline that just vanished)
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Jun 11, 2017 00:44
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TBeats posted:Absalom, Absalom! Something being hard to understand doesn't make it 'pretentious'
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Jun 11, 2017 01:22
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A human heart posted:Something being hard to understand doesn't make it 'pretentious' The language he uses is pretentious in nature. You're more than welcome to disagree, but it won't change my opinion of it. But if you want to hound on a single word that you disagree with, that's your prerogative.
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Jun 11, 2017 01:34
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Penric and the Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold This wasn't my jam at all. It's a fantasy where things are breezy and lighthearted and the problem is easily solved with all the loose ends tied up. I don't find the ideas present in the world engaging, aside from the protagonist sharing his body with a demon in a cooperative partnership. I'm still hoping for something spectacular from Bujold, given her reputation, but this isn't it. The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson These are more like it. Both are excellent revisionist takes on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, tweaking perspective without breaking established lore in order to provide a very different experience from the rest of the mythos. I would recommend Vellitt Boe more, especially if you're not in a "kill whitey" mood, but both are great and well worth reading.
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Jun 11, 2017 02:16
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TBeats posted:Absalom, Absalom! Stream of consciousness is not inherently difficult at all. There are so many ways you could approach it if you're actually having trouble. Read it slowly instead of feeling like you have to plow through it. Mark your spot with pencil marks or something.
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Jun 11, 2017 06:17
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TBeats posted:The language he uses is pretentious in nature. You're more than welcome to disagree, but it won't change my opinion of it. do you know what pretentious means
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Jun 11, 2017 08:56
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Solitair posted:Penric and the Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold I think her reputation derives mostly from fandom, so expecting something spectacular is off the bill. Based on my (admittedly years old) reading of Bujold, it was competent commodity fiction that went down easy and left little residue. That Cthulhu Mythos stuff you cited looked interesting though. Going to chase that up.
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Jun 11, 2017 11:36
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TBeats posted:The language he uses is pretentious in nature. You're more than welcome to disagree, but it won't change my opinion of it. You wrote four sentences about the book, one of which included the phrase "Faulkner's pretentious writing style". You're quite free to hold on to that opinion, but "you're focusing on a single word I used" is not a valid defence I finished Love in the time of Cholera which started out really, really well, then turned into a dumb repetitive sludgefest for about 200 pages. I guess the end was good but it wasn't half the book 100 Years is
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Jun 11, 2017 12:04
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The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks First book of his Culture series for me but I loved it so much I ordered the other ones from an online book shop. I particularly enjoyed it because I've spent/wasted a huge amount of time playing strategy games of all sorts and this whole book essentially features such a (fictional) game. I'd recommend this to anyone irregardless of the predictable issues about male spaceguy authors and romantic ideals.
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Jun 11, 2017 12:17
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Imaginary Friend posted:Finished Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov a while ago; it's a bit slow at times but I enjoyed the general theme of it. Has the trilogy a better pacing? The later books have better characters (I mean, for Asimov they're good), the earlier ones better plot.
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Jun 11, 2017 16:38
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I just finished "The Drowned Cities" by Paulo Bacigalupi. It seems to fit into his universe from "The Windup Girl." I'm guessing it's set earlier. (China still a world power, no references to genetically engineered crop diseases). Come to think of it, everything of his I've read could be on the same timeline. It's like a grimdark version of those kid-meets-monster stories. It's about child soldiers and the kind of war that would use them. When I found out Bacigalupi wrote YA I wasn't anticipating the same sort of tone as his adult novels, but there it is. The biggest difference is less sex, and the juvenile protagonists. If anything it's grimmer and darker than The Windup Girl, and WAY more so than The Water Knife. I'm ranking this below The Tamarisk Hunter, but above the rest of his work I've read so far. Now I need to seek out Shipbreaker.
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Jun 11, 2017 16:50
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A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson What happened to this guy's prose? It's super awkward, pretentious and melodramatic, and I snickered whenever modern swear words popped up. Near the end a mystical character who drives a hard bargain says "Now gently caress off," for instance. It's a shame, because the plot's pretty decent and I would have liked it alright if Wilson could use his words properly.
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Jun 14, 2017 19:27
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Solitair posted:A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson You mean, in comparison to the first one or in general? Because I thought the style worked in the first one.
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Jun 15, 2017 10:23
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