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I've read a couple of good books recently. One Man by Harry Connolly. This is my first by him, I got linked to a preview of the first two chapters from somewhere and decided it had potential. A man broken by the spectacular failure of his first real responsibility as heir to a noble house is living poor in his home city. He's befriended a street kid who gets caught up in gangland shenanigans and winds up having to murder a shitload of gangsters. It's a pretty solid read and I'm going to check out the rest of the City of Fallen Gods books. The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. The first of the two Lady Astronaut novels. This is set in an alternate timeline where Dewey did beat Truman. Oh, and a meteorite wipes out the eastern seaboard of the US in 1952 and threatens a runaway greenhouse effect. The protagonist is a former WASP pilot from WW2 with a dual doctorate in math and physics. Elma could be a Mary Sue, but while she's usually right about things, she's handicapped by being a Jewish woman in the 50s and an upbringing as a female math prodigy. The space program kicks into high gear because, well, the oceans will be boiling in 50 years. She plays a key part, vainly fighting to get women into the program. There's lots of good poo poo in an 'early days of space' way. Medium-high recommendation on this one, I liked it, I bought the sequel as soon as I finished the first one, but I'm calling these really good, not great. Still, it's an interesting story well told on a subject we should all love: the dream of space.
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Feb 21, 2020 04:32
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:Mate, I'd stab me first. Given that Gideon at its core was a hunted house mansion story and how it ended, I have a hard time seeing Harrow will be anything like it. Either the series devolves into into some form of relationship drama ( given that Gideon had way too many characters) or it turns into space opera. I am happy to proven wrong though.
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Feb 21, 2020 06:37
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I miss griddle and want to read more about the bone zone.
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Feb 21, 2020 08:59
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Cardiac posted:Given that Gideon at its core was a hunted house mansion story and how it ended, I have a hard time seeing Harrow will be anything like it. The blurb on Amazon suggests it'll possibly have a similar sort of feel, for whatever that's worth. She answered the Emperor's call. She arrived with her arts, her wits, and her only friend. In victory, her world has turned to ash. After rocking the cosmos with her deathly debut, Tamsyn Muir continues the story of the penumbral Ninth House in Harrow the Ninth, a mind-twisting puzzle box of mystery, murder, magic, and mayhem. Nothing is as it seems in the halls of the Emperor, and the fate of the galaxy rests on one woman's shoulders. Harrowhark Nonagesimus, last necromancer of the Ninth House, has been drafted by her Emperor to fight an unwinnable war. Side-by-side with a detested rival, Harrow must perfect her skills and become an angel of undeath — but her health is failing, her sword makes her nauseous, and even her mind is threatening to betray her. Sealed in the gothic gloom of the Emperor's Mithraeum with three unfriendly teachers, hunted by the mad ghost of a murdered planet, Harrow must confront two unwelcome questions: is somebody trying to kill her? And if they succeeded, would the universe be better off?
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Feb 21, 2020 09:32
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Junkenstein posted:The blurb on Amazon suggests it'll possibly have a similar sort of feel, for whatever that's worth. So Harry Potter then? This was a pretty generic blurb that went through all the common archetypes for a fantasy sci-fi story. At least it was not lesbian necromancers, which btw was one of the least accurate descriptions of Gideon. Cardiac fucked around with this message at 10:16 on Feb 21, 2020 |
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Feb 21, 2020 10:13
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Cardiac posted:At least it was not lesbian necromancers, which btw was one of the least accurate descriptions of Gideon. Well it wasn't all that inaccurate, it's just they were way too busy with other stuff to get around to any overt lesbianing.
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Feb 21, 2020 10:49
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Evil Fluffy posted:Catelyn Stark. Her arrogance and stupidity directly lead to the Red Wedding because she thought some guest rules were an unbreakable shield against retribution. They were, technically. Catelyn just didn't notice that Walder Frey was weaselling around the rules by serving his guests with neither bread nor salt.
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Feb 21, 2020 12:21
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Unkempt posted:https://www.amazon.com/American-Hippo-River-Marrow-Stories/dp/1250176433 Dear this thread: Sarah Gailey's American Hippo is a collection of novellas and short fiction set in an alternate universe where the proposal to fill Louisiana with feral hippos and hunt them for meat was not narrowly defeated. I haven't read it yet but there are some decent reviews. I just felt I should spread the word.
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Feb 21, 2020 13:03
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https://twitter.com/sfwa/status/1230535668302041090
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Feb 21, 2020 13:19
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As someone who enjoyed the first two Caine novels as fun thriller space opera novels, they're not award worthy and I hope it doesn't win.
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Feb 21, 2020 13:24
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Reported for not reading the thread 
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Feb 21, 2020 14:59
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StrixNebulosa posted:As someone who enjoyed the first two Caine novels as fun thriller space opera novels, they're not award worthy and I hope it doesn't win. This is his fourth nebula nomination (2014/15/16) for those series, seems a little weird.
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Feb 21, 2020 16:24
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gvibes posted:I thought memory called empire was pretty solid Yeah, I enjoyed it. Jedit posted:They were, technically. Catelyn just didn't notice that Walder Frey was weaselling around the rules by serving his guests with neither bread nor salt. They're not, though. They're just custom. Walder weaseling around the technicalities of the custom shows how tenuous of a shield they really are.
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Feb 21, 2020 16:35
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:I've got an ARC of Harrow, I'm about 1/3 of the way through and I don't know how much I'm allowed to say yet, but just I hate you so much. I loved the first book so much I named my little girl puppy Gideon. And she's just as obstinate as Gideon Nav. drat I can't wait for June. Stupid linear time.
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Feb 21, 2020 17:14
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Groke posted:Well it wasn't all that inaccurate, it's just they were way too busy with other stuff to get around to any overt lesbianing. It is more that it was used as a selling point for the series, when it at best was a minor plot detail. I mean, after a while in this thread the description “haunted space mansion with necromancers” was made which is more accurate and also a much better selling point. And in this regard, Gideon was a highly enjoyable read.
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Feb 21, 2020 17:34
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Where is a good place to start with Craig Schaefer?
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Feb 21, 2020 17:38
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Collateral posted:Where is a good place to start with Craig Schaefer? That being said, I feel the Revanche Cycle is entirely skippable.
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Feb 21, 2020 17:48
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Evil Fluffy posted:Catelyn Stark. Her arrogance and stupidity directly lead to the Red Wedding because she thought some guest rules were an unbreakable shield against retribution. That's not stupidity; that's living by your culture's rules. fritz posted:This is his fourth nebula nomination (2014/15/16) for those series, seems a little weird. When I was younger I got the impression that the Nebulas were more literary than the Hugos; these days I think they're more insular.
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Feb 21, 2020 17:50
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PeterWeller posted:Yeah, I enjoyed it. The fact that he did weasel around them shows that there was a need to do so. If you want something similar from the other side, look at 71-Hour Ahmed in Jingo by Terry Pratchett. Ahmed got his nickname after he killed a man an hour before the third day of the customary hospitality period was over. For this he is considered by his countrymen to be unforgivable, even though he did it because the man he killed was a mass murderer. Customs can be hugely important in some cultures, and we're told through the story of the Rat King in Game of Thrones that guestright in Westeros is one of them.
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Feb 21, 2020 18:03
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Jedit posted:The fact that he did weasel around them shows that there was a need to do so. Customs are hugely important in every culture, but they're still just customs. Walder doesn't weasel his way around the bread and salt because he's afraid of consequences for his actions. He knows that any consequences he faces for betraying the Starks depend on who wins the war, not on what dishes he serves them. He just weasels around the custom to soothe his own conscience and tell himself he acted righteously in response to the Stark's initial betrayal. Cat is stupid because she thinks consequences actually do depend on being fed the customary food. Safety Biscuits posted:That's not stupidity; that's living by your culture's rules. She's already been involved in breaking her culture's rules when Robb reneged on the wedding pact. Indeed, breaking that pact is exactly where she and Robb show just how loving dumb they really are. Robb thinks these customs actually mean something beyond enforcing the status quo. These dipshits think a powerful and slighted man with an inferiority complex is going to let them get away with breaking one custom because they did so to honorably observe a different one. Walder doesn't give a gently caress about Robb doing the honorable thing by some girl from some petty house. He wants respect and power. That's all he's ever wanted, and he's willing to do anything to get it. Cat is too dumb to realize that obvious fact. Cat and Robb should've figured this out when Ned was killed. They stubbornly and stupidly insist that Westeros works the way custom says it should work when all the evidence around them points to the fact that Westeros works the way the powerful decide it will work. E: To use a contemporary American politics analogy: Cat Stark is basically Susanne Collins, except Susanne Collins is just pretending to think traditions and customs will constrain Trump's actions. In other words, Cat Stark is just a dumb as a Republican senator pretends to be. PeterWeller fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Feb 21, 2020 |
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Feb 21, 2020 18:36
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anilEhilated posted:He's got a reading order on his website so I'd suggest starting at the beginning. None of the books are offensively bad, some are just more boring. On this subject, is there a good summary or synopsis for Revanche anywhere? I'm considering going through the whole Craig Schaefer universe timeline (at least until I get bored with Harmony Black books, which happened last time) but I might skip past the Revanche books. I enjoyed them but don't feel like I'll get much out of rereading them, I'm mostly interested in what sort of crossover/easter eggs show up in the Faust books.
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Feb 21, 2020 20:25
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anilEhilated posted:He's got a reading order on his website so I'd suggest starting at the beginning. None of the books are offensively bad, some are just more boring. If you dig grim (and I mean loving GRIM) fantasy it's probably worth a read. I didn't make it past the first book though. The happiest guy in the book is the one who's dying, which says a lot about the overall tone. Honestly it took me too about the 3rd? chapter to start digging his first book. Whatever early chapter involves the sewer. Up until that point I was kinda meh about it, but something clicked and boom, loved it.
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Feb 21, 2020 20:25
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MockingQuantum posted:I'm mostly interested in what sort of crossover/easter eggs show up in the Faust books. It's a lot of world building/setup that makes the Wisdom's Grave trilogy payoff (where certain Revanche Cycle characters cross into the Faust books and all sorts of poo poo hits the fan). I mean, there are a lot of smaller plot details that don't come up again, but the overall meta-plot won't have quite the foundation it would otherwise have if all you read is the Faust books before getting into Wisdom's Grave. Also yes: Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:If you dig grim (and I mean loving GRIM) fantasy it's probably worth a read. I didn't make it past the first book though. The happiest guy in the book is the one who's dying, which says a lot about the overall tone. It definitely doesn't shy away from graphic descriptions of just how painful some of the deaths are, that's for sure.
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Feb 21, 2020 20:54
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I mean if y'all want ARCs it's actually not super hard: 1) set up a book blog 2) run consistently long enough that publishers know you're serious about it 3) set up a NetGalley account 4) all the free ARCs you want I did a stint as a publicist for at Allen & Unwin; we had a newsletter with all our upcoming titles in it that went out monthly to critics and bloggers, and they'd reply with the free poo poo they wanted, and I'd spend just that whole day sending out free books. If you want digital instead of print you're even easier (see: NetGalley). It's a huge part of how the industry runs. If you're known as a person who talks about books, publishers want to give them to you. If you're talking about books in your spare time anyway, it's not a huge stretch to start writing one review a month. If you started now, you'd absolutely be in the position to request Alecto when the ARCs swing around.
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Feb 21, 2020 21:16
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fritz posted:Those were probably Katherine Kurtz's Deryini books. Ohhhhhh of course they were lol
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Feb 21, 2020 23:11
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Thanks for the Cherryh recommendations all. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HALO4Q/
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Feb 21, 2020 23:54
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Jedit posted:They were, technically. Catelyn just didn't notice that Walder Frey was weaselling around the rules by serving his guests with neither bread nor salt. The real weaselling is that he said "mayhaps" when offering them food and safety, which is the Riverlands equivalent of crossing your fingers behind your back so your promise doesn't count.
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Feb 22, 2020 00:20
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Also Robb is like 14 in the books and his dad is Ned Stark, of course he's going to do the honorable thing and not the smart thing.
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Feb 22, 2020 00:23
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Kalman posted:I feel like that’s Katherine Kurtz, not Kerr? Though they have practically the same last name, one is the Deryni books and the other the Deverry books, and both have vaguely Celtic high fantasy with magic aspects sooooo god knows preteen me confused them constantly.
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Feb 22, 2020 00:34
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90s Cringe Rock posted:Thank you. Man I really really wanted to like those Sarah Gailey Hippo books. Alas.
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Feb 22, 2020 00:42
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TOOT BOOT posted:Also Robb is like 14 in the books and his dad is Ned Stark, of course he's going to do the honorable thing and not the smart thing. Robb is Ned's son through and through. He could be grizzled and middle aged and he'd still make the same mistakes, just like his dad. That's what makes those Starks dumb. They stubbornly refuse to acknowledge that honor and custom don't have intrinsic power.
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Feb 22, 2020 02:09
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It's been ages since I read either series but the fact that you can be having this discussion about whether or not the Starks are "dumb" is my point. The character in Abercrombie's books is more along the lines of: "Well, sire, I would advise a pincer movement to..." (Interrupting, while flourishing a fancy sword with too many jewels on the hilt) "RIDICULOUS! We shall of course do THIS..." Etc. There is no discussion to be had. It's just caricature. It's the most extreme example in the book, but from memory, I remember it being emblematic of what annoyed me about the series as a whole, especially one portrayed as Grimdark Fantasy For Grownups. It's all just caricature with no depth.
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Feb 22, 2020 10:09
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:I mean if y'all want ARCs it's actually not super hard:
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Feb 22, 2020 11:11
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navyjack posted:Man I really really wanted to like those Sarah Gailey Hippo books. Alas. Makes me more curious about the real story, though. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 12:17 on Feb 22, 2020 |
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Feb 22, 2020 12:10
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90s Cringe Rock posted:Thank you. They aren't very good though. Great concept, poor execution. Just finished RJ Parker's boneships. That guy writes grim fantasy worlds so well, this one's a dying planet / Patrick O'Brien fantasy pastiche and it ticked a lot of boxes for me.
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Feb 23, 2020 02:58
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Speaking of Griddle Nueve, I read SurreptitiousMuffin's The Dawnhounds and I loving love it. It also has weird lesbian supernatural poo poo, but reading it I realized it hit more and more of my favorite fantasy beats. If I want y'all to experience it the same way I did, I can't list everything, but a short list could be something like: 1) A world built on something that is obviously far older and way more extinct, and the implications of that. 2) Technology based on Weird Stuff (outside of Dawnhounds we'd be talking about something like magitek from Final Fantasy, in Dawnhounds itself it's mushrooms). 3) Queer people. 4) Some really grody and brutal action scenes. On the surface it's a story about a disillusioned cop, stuck on a lovely patrol, in a terrible city full of assholes and how she gets a new lease on life by, uh, coming back to life, but it's also about the nature of authority, family, "true" magic in a magical world and unfathomably powerful forces on the edge of your consciousness. Yat, after coming back to life, goes on somewhat of a Support goon authors, but also support Dawnhounds because it rocks butt.
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Feb 23, 2020 03:44
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Ooh, that's on Kindle Unlimited in Australia! Gotta read it in.... 3 days before my trial runs out! Sounds up my alley.
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Feb 23, 2020 04:56
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Neati! It's also on KU. Just grabbed a copy.
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Feb 23, 2020 06:04
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I liked that book so much I'm one of the authors who blurbed it in the cover. 😎 But in all seriousness it's a fantastic read and I'd recommend it to anyone who: 1. Likes truly original China Mieville levels of unique world. 2. Likes their cop stories more Disco Elysium than standard police procedural. 3. Gaaaaaay.
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Feb 23, 2020 07:50
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I also really enjoyed The Dawnhounds.
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Feb 23, 2020 08:22
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