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quantumfoam posted:-A lot of Big Name authors have recently been revealed as sex predators or worse. That kind of discussion is OK in here, no one published (especially your favorite authors) is without blame. I'm without blame 
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Sep 27, 2019 16:06
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Grimson posted:Gamechanger just came out, and it's a little like if Too Like the Lightning was written by that crowd instead of a classics professor, and also set only like 100-150 years in the future.
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Sep 27, 2019 16:07
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The upcoming thread would be the third thread. It would be nice if the OP could link to both previous ones for those with archives. Here's the first: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3345499
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Sep 27, 2019 16:13
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Safety Biscuits posted:I don't mind which title you use, it's your call. I just meant it's better to have the thread rules in the OP rather than referring people to a closed thread. This last line doesn't quite make sense, though. I think you mean something more like: That's a good line change, keeping it. Sort of expected more community feedback on my proposed new SFF Megathread 3 OP text, will take the deadening silence as approval. thread relevant chat: Wasn't Orbit books supposed to be releasing The Culture: Notes and Drawings ISBN 9780356512129 by Iain Banks/Ken MacLeod by now? Found nothing mentioned or listed on the Orbit website for it, amazon shows a placeholder stub listing, with reddit having a guessitmate release date of June 2019. Guessing Ken MacLeod brain-meltdown 3.0 happened, this time caused by Brexit drama. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Sep 27, 2019 |
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Sep 27, 2019 16:31
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Happy to help.General Battuta posted:I'm without blame This is what I meant... The other thing was that it's hardly recent in many cases.
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Sep 27, 2019 16:52
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90s Cringe Rock posted:By L. X. Beckett? I do love a good X initial. Another book for the list... Yep, it's that one. It starts out pretty goofy but picks up noticeably around the halfway point as the stakes become clear. edit: It's probably also worth mentioning that if you suffer from any climate change anxiety the book is ultimately hopeful about the long-term future, but unlikely to make you feel any better about the short-term outcomes. Grimson fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Sep 27, 2019 |
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Sep 27, 2019 17:20
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General Battuta posted:I'm without blame I dunno, I bet you eat pizza with a knife and fork or something
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Sep 28, 2019 00:04
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Grimson posted:Gamechanger just came out, and it's a little like if Too Like the Lightning was written by that crowd instead of a classics professor, and also set only like 100-150 years in the future. so, 2 like 2 lightning (I'll never stop thinking of it like that now), but somewhat worse I'll still get it Ada Palmer is v cool in person incidentally  we had a little bit of social overlap while she was in Texas
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Sep 28, 2019 00:06
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GreyjoyBastard posted:so, 2 like 2 lightning (I'll never stop thinking of it like that now), but somewhat worse I think I ultimately like TLTL a little bit better, but not that much better. It's still pretty interesting.
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Sep 28, 2019 00:46
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Has anyone in here read The Dragon Waiting by John M Ford? I'd never heard of it until stumbling across it in goodreads today, and historical fiction with vampires sounds... yeah, silly, but this one sounds cool. Especially when it's described like this:quote:"This is a sneaky, sneaky book: a blood-soaked medieval fantasy; an elegant historical AU; a bleak, gritty political thriller; a witty Shakespeare fanfic; an intricate meta game full of buried jokes about Star Wars and Dracula; and a deeply serious and mature story about human damage (whether trauma or “chronic conditions”) and how we bear it, about suffering and grace."
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Sep 28, 2019 22:39
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I just got a copy last week and am two chapters in. I've been trying to check out SF authors that had good reps, especially amongst their fellow writers, but are increasingly forgotten today, so Ford, R.A. Lafferty and some others.
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Sep 28, 2019 23:35
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StrixNebulosa posted:Has anyone in here read The Dragon Waiting by John M Ford? I'd never heard of it until stumbling across it in goodreads today, and historical fiction with vampires sounds... yeah, silly, but this one sounds cool. Especially when it's described like this: I read it a long time ago (20-ish years?) and remember liking it a whole bunch, but I was dumb in those days.
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Sep 28, 2019 23:55
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fritz posted:I read it a long time ago (20-ish years?) and remember liking it a whole bunch, but I was dumb in those days. I'm dumb now so I went ahead and ordered it bundled with Daggerspell + Darkspell because why the hell not. Give me more books, internet. Drown me in them, it's the only way I can cope.
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Sep 29, 2019 01:04
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StrixNebulosa posted:Has anyone in here read The Dragon Waiting by John M Ford? I'd never heard of it until stumbling across it in goodreads today, and historical fiction with vampires sounds... yeah, silly, but this one sounds cool. Especially when it's described like this: Ford is pretty consistently great, imo. If you ever want to see him go full gonzo, read How Much For Just The Planet?
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Sep 29, 2019 08:24
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Kesper North posted:Ford is pretty consistently great, imo. If you ever want to see him go full gonzo, read How Much For Just The Planet? 
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Sep 29, 2019 09:05
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I rarely buy physical books anymore but I'm visiting Austin TX and they have a really cool, really big independent book store. I picked up Penguin editions of The Left Hand of Darkness and The Once and Future King, two books I've always wanted to read and now I have some that will look nice on the bookshelf.
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Sep 29, 2019 13:43
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StrixNebulosa posted:Has anyone in here read The Dragon Waiting by John M Ford? I'd never heard of it until stumbling across it in goodreads today, and historical fiction with vampires sounds... yeah, silly, but this one sounds cool. Especially when it's described like this: It's a very unusual and ambitious book. It takes a long time for the main plot to get started, and the structure is quite disjointed; the first five chapters are essentially four short stories. And there are some bits which are so obscure as to be a fault in the telling. On the other hand, it's vivid, gory, humane, and has a pretty unusual setting. I recommend it. You might find this useful if you've read the novel: https://eblong.com/draconc/index.html (Oh, the Charles Williams quotations are ironic; they're from his Arthurian poetry, in which Byzantium is essentially the City of God on earth.) Shouldn't that Star Wars reference be Star Trek, by the way?
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Sep 29, 2019 14:25
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Am about 25% through the scifi story collection The Final Frontier edited by Neil Clarke. So far the worse story in the collection has been Seth Dickinson's "Three Bodies at Mittani". The over-blown imagery laden inter-personal conflict inside 3BAM that takes up 85% of the story would have been much more bearable if 3BAM didn't also have a cheap "having your cake + eating it too" ending. Have to blame Neil Clarke somewhat for this, putting 3BAM so close to Nancy Kress's "Shiva in Shadow" in the collection was just asking for an unfavorable comparison between the two stories, given the similar story elements in both. Kress's story also dealt with a 3 person triad inter-personal conflict and virtualized minds, but in a different way.
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Sep 29, 2019 20:20
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Long ago I tried and gave up on Peter F. Hamilton's Void series after enjoying the Nights Dawn trilogy as a dumb teen. Well I've just finished all 8 in published order and it was a pretty fun space opera, as long as you skip past the fairly crappy sex poo poo he couldn't help but put in every few chapters.
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Sep 30, 2019 01:08
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I'm reading Declare by Tim Powers, and I'm wondering if it gets better or the payoff is worth it? Right now the story is just spy and counter spy and counter spy spy shenanigans (that aren't really that much fun). It's kinda boring. Will the payoff of THE HORRORS HE'S SEEN be worth the read or is it gonna be some lame rear end Lovecraftian "OH poo poo MY ANCESTOR hosed A MONKEY GOD" kinda thing? I've heard good things about the book, but honestly it's kinda boring right now. I'll push through if it gets better though.
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Sep 30, 2019 08:50
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It's really good, but if you don't think so by now it may not be for you. I don't remember it getting weirdly racist, at least.
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Sep 30, 2019 09:34
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90s Cringe Rock posted:It's really good, but if you don't think so by now it may not be for you. I don't remember it getting weirdly racist, at least. On this note, was anyone else thrown by the protagonist dropping a hard R near the end of Darwin's Radio by Bear?
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Sep 30, 2019 13:50
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I'm reading Declare by Tim Powers, and I'm wondering if it gets better or the payoff is worth it? I think it's probably worth it. For me generally, Powers has better ideas than he does execution. Somehow the pacing always gets a little off and what should be an exciting adventure gets a little draggy. I totally get feeling like the spy stuff is boring. Further that one has some issues where some neat bits are overly alluded to before you get to them in the flashback and they lose impact. That being said, the payoff is quite good.
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Sep 30, 2019 15:45
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I'm reading Declare by Tim Powers, and I'm wondering if it gets better or the payoff is worth it? It’s fantastic almost all the way through but if you’re not enjoying it already maybe it’s not for you.
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Sep 30, 2019 16:31
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Cover and brief excerpt from Harrow the Ninth.
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Sep 30, 2019 16:55
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Second person past is a loving choice, whew
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Sep 30, 2019 17:53
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Is "lesbian necromancers" actually working as a selling point? It's like of all the descriptors you could use for Gideon or Harrow, that's the cheapest and least defining?
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Sep 30, 2019 18:11
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Nae! posted:Second person past is a loving choice, whew oy vey.
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Sep 30, 2019 18:16
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I started reading The Monster Baru Cormorant because my new job has had stretches where I don't have anything to do and I didn't want to get bored. The introduction of new POVs has taken some getting used to, but otherwise it's been pretty good so far.
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Sep 30, 2019 18:17
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I'm reading Declare by Tim Powers, and I'm wondering if it gets better or the payoff is worth it? I had the exact same issue early on, but I did finish it and really enjoy it by the end. However it sounds like you gave the book a chance and if it's not working for you it's okay to move on. There are unambiguously good novels I've stopped when they weren't working for me. I started Pride and Prejudice from a recommendation from the Aubrey/Maturin series thread and the writing stood out immediately as witty and clever but the plot didn't grab me at all and I put it down. I'll give it another go someday, as I struggled the first time I tried to read Master and Commander and went back to it a year(+) later and now it and its sequels are my favorite novels. Maybe Declare will work better for you some other day.
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Sep 30, 2019 18:28
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Nae! posted:Second person past is a loving choice, whew Jesus loving christ. Also...bewb armor. Looks like a winner.
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Sep 30, 2019 18:37
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Nae! posted:Second person past is a loving choice, whew I imagine it will switch after the prologue. I hope. Cover looks good, though.
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Sep 30, 2019 18:41
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Campbell posted:Is "lesbian necromancers" actually working as a selling point? It's like of all the descriptors you could use for Gideon or Harrow, that's the cheapest and least defining? It probably is working, but I agree that's a cheap description that does the book and the series as a whole a disservice. The only thing more of a footnote than the characters' sexualities is the space setting. Neither of which, for the record, cause problems with the book. It's a great book and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who likes unique second-world fantasy with sharp prose and a modern feel. What I wouldn't recommend it for is a) lesbians, and b) space-faring. If you want books where lesbianism is the focus or space is the focus, you can do better elsewhere.
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Sep 30, 2019 18:45
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Nae! posted:It probably is working, but I agree that's a cheap description that does the book and the series as a whole a disservice. The only thing more of a footnote than the characters' sexualities is the space setting. Neither of which, for the record, cause problems with the book. It's a great book and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who likes unique second-world fantasy with sharp prose and a modern feel. What I wouldn't recommend it for is a) lesbians, and b) space-faring. If you want books where lesbianism is the focus or space is the focus, you can do better elsewhere. Didn't the author do an interview where she basically said the publisher latched on to that, and she basically intended it the way you described?
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Sep 30, 2019 18:48
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Nae! posted:Second person past is a loving choice, whew I mean, Harrow absorbed Gideon’s memories/personality/power/whatever, so maybe we’re getting a Gideon viewpoint after all.
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Sep 30, 2019 18:55
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It's worked for the book because it's flash and catchy but yeah, it's a very technically accurate description. In other news, boy Ninefox is weird as poo poo, I'm diggin' it.
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Sep 30, 2019 18:55
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Second person worked in Raven Tower, I’m sure it can work here.
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Sep 30, 2019 19:35
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Solitair posted:I started reading The Monster Baru Cormorant because my new job has had stretches where I don't have anything to do and I didn't want to get bored. The introduction of new POVs has taken some getting used to, but otherwise it's been pretty good so far. I recently finished reading Traitor and Monster and I thought they were very good. I was worried they’d be too smart for me and was hoping for political intrigue on the approximate level of Dune and I feel like that’s what I got. The political scheming feels like it kinda recedes to the background in the second book
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Sep 30, 2019 19:46
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General Battuta posted:Second person worked in Raven Tower, I’m sure it can work here. Everyone whined about it in Raven Tower too, even though I feel like it had a perfectly fine reason for being written that way.
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Sep 30, 2019 20:15
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Both Raven Tower and Broken Earth were fantastic. Bring on more second person.
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Sep 30, 2019 20:31
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