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Loucks posted:Can anyone recommend apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic fiction that doesn’t make me want to punch the author? That is, no characters who exist only to be sex objects and no obvious self-insert supermen. Bonus points for female or POC authors and major characters. Obviously Heinlein is right out. Any favorites? Bonus points for interesting and logical world/culture building. I scanned through the apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic shelf I have on Goodreads and realised how few of them would fit that bill, but I think that's partly because a lot of the classics were written in the mid 20th century and are therefore intrinsically sexist, and if they're American, intrinsically racist as well. (Actually come to think of it - Earth Abides from the 1940s is not a particularly great book, but gets marks for having a mixed race couple after the collapse.) I still recommend John Christopher and John Wyndham in spite of that, since their sexism doesn't really go beyond passive product-of-its-time stuff, certainly not into anything like Heinlein's weird sexual perversions. In particular I recently read Christopher's The World in Winter, which is from the 1960s and is about a new ice age forcing English refugees to flee to West Africa, and was constantly expecting Christopher to drop some super racist clanger. What I eventually realised instead was that as a mid-century Englishman, his prejudice wasn't race, but class - in fact so pervasive was his toxic British class prejudice that it rendered him virtually colourblind. All the upper and middle class people are polite and intelligent and reasonable, whether they're English or Nigerian, and all the working class people are boorish idiotic yobs regardless of skin colour. It was fascinating. (It is actually a good book aside from that; I recommend everything Wyndham and Christopher ever wrote.) More contemporary books I liked, which all have major female characters: The Last Policeman trilogy is about a New Hampshire detective in a world where there's only eight months until a meteor hits earth and everybody knows it, and I found it really unputdownable. David Mitchell touches on the apocalypse in the future-set sections of Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks, both of which are excellent. There's a passage at the end of The Bone Clocks I particularly admire, about the responsibility the older generation bears for the predicament the younger generation are in (as "bandits" strip the solar panels off an elderly woman's home.) I just read Alastair Reynolds' Permafrost which is a quick, pacy novella about time travellers in 2080 trying to stop the apocalypse that ravaged their world. Terminal World, also by Reynolds, appears to be a sci-fi/fantasy novel but is in fact set in our own collapsed society far in the future and has fantastic worldbuilding Clade by James Bradley is probably the best example of climate change apocalypse I've read. freebooter fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Apr 6, 2020 |
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Apr 6, 2020 02:27
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StrixNebulosa posted:har har In case you missed the reference. Shame on Rat for not giving you a chance to supply the punchline yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bigZ1fmwD-Q
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Apr 6, 2020 08:01
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Loucks posted:
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett. The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper. Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm. The Girl With All the Gifts by Mike Carey
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Apr 6, 2020 10:45
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freebooter posted:The Last Policeman trilogy is about a New Hampshire detective in a world where there's only eight months until a meteor hits earth and everybody knows it, and I found it really unputdownable. Fair warning that this series is super loving depressing. I also couldn't put it down, but drat I needed a break after finishing it.
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Apr 6, 2020 11:00
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Jedit posted:In case you missed the reference. Shame on Rat for not giving you a chance to supply the punchline yourself. Oh! I have never seen that movie, didn't know what you were doing.
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Apr 6, 2020 14:45
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Loucks posted:Can anyone recommend apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic fiction that doesn’t make me want to punch the author? That is, no characters who exist only to be sex objects and no obvious self-insert supermen. Bonus points for female or POC authors and major characters. Obviously Heinlein is right out. Any favorites? Bonus points for interesting and logical world/culture building. I've mentioned Riddley Walker before, but while I still think it's a great book it falls down a bit in your criteria. While there's no overt sexism it's still a sausage fest -- I can recall only one female character and she's only in the book for two pages. And no one's race or color is mentioned that I can remember. On the other hand, no, Riddley is not a self-insert superman.
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Apr 6, 2020 17:19
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Adam Baker has a series that starts with Outpost and has a few semi interconnected books, all the same theme but various characters. All except Terminus is pretty good. I just didn't like that one for some reason.
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Apr 6, 2020 17:28
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StrixNebulosa posted:Oh! I have never seen that movie I think that's a crime in some places
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Apr 6, 2020 18:17
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Loucks posted:Can anyone recommend apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic fiction that doesn’t make me want to punch the author? That is, no characters who exist only to be sex objects and no obvious self-insert supermen. Bonus points for female or POC authors and major characters. Obviously Heinlein is right out. Any favorites? Bonus points for interesting and logical world/culture building. You may really enjoy Marcel Theroux's Far North. It's about a person trying to survive in post-apocalyptic Siberia. Neville Shute's On the Beach has some dated gender roles, but the women characters are well drawn and respected. And it's just a beautiful novel about coming to terms with the end of the world. The comedy option is David Brin's The Postman. In that, the genetic supermen are the villains, and a cabal of women take up roles as sex objects to assassinate them.
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Apr 6, 2020 20:34
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StrixNebulosa posted:Oh! I have never seen that movie, didn't know what you were doing. Well I'm embarrassed. I sort of assumed that everyone has seen Blazing Saddles. (You should correct that if you ever get the chance, BTW, it's almost as funny as Young Frankenstein.)
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Apr 6, 2020 21:11
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Steelheart (Reckoners #1) by Brandon Sanderson - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ARHAAZ6 Looks like it might be YA? Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016CQUL4U/
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Apr 6, 2020 23:14
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pradmer posted:Steelheart (Reckoners #1) by Brandon Sanderson - $2.99 It is a YA "Evil superheros" story, and the series isn't all that great even by YA standards. Note that I generally like Sanderson, so this isn't just an author thing. There's nothing super objectionable that I noticed, but I don't recommend it.
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Apr 6, 2020 23:19
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PeterWeller posted:The comedy option is David Brin's The Postman. In that, the genetic supermen are the villains, and a cabal of women take up roles as sex objects to assassinate them. Unbelievably cringey excerpt from the book's afterword, in which Brin is thanking various people: quote:And finally, my thanks to those women I’ve known who have never ceased to startle me, just when I’ve grown complacent and need to be most startled, and who make me stop and think.
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Apr 6, 2020 23:54
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Spirit Gate: dropping what seems to be a fantasy version of white phosphorus on an enemy army is probably against the fantasy geneva convention.
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Apr 7, 2020 01:48
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(snip) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) Somebody fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Apr 9, 2020 |
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Apr 7, 2020 06:23
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uh what? Slightly shocked that no-one mentioned Martha Wells fantasy stories and books when this thread was discussing "fantasy game of thrones style stories" over the weekend. Prefer Martha Wells fantasy work over her Murderbot novelettas. All 4.25 murderbot stories are around the same length as Wells;s City of Bones or first Ile-Rien novel.
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Apr 7, 2020 06:36
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quantumfoam posted:uh what? Given that he posted a similarly themed fart story on the Wheel of Time thread, I can only assume he's going around farting all over the book barn, possibly all over SA in general. 
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Apr 7, 2020 07:02
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it's avshalom
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Apr 7, 2020 08:08
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Tokamak posted:it's avshalom
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Apr 7, 2020 08:18
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Jedit posted:Well I'm embarrassed. I sort of assumed that everyone has seen Blazing Saddles. (You should correct that if you ever get the chance, BTW, it's almost as funny as Young Frankenstein.) The sheriff's a n*GONG*
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Apr 7, 2020 08:34
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About 200 pages into the uncut edition of The Stand. Really enjoying it and yes, it is very topical, particularly the chapter in which King describes how an infected Texas cop infects an insurance salesman he pulls over, which then creates a "chain letter" of death, every interaction multiplying exponentially and immediately sending it beyond any hope of quarantine. There's one particular sentence which is chilling precisely because it's summary, not scene, and we never really get a first hand view of the grisly work at the coalface beyond what the half dozen main characters witness: "Captain Trips brought bedrooms with a body or two in each one, and trenches, and deadpits, and finally bodies slung into the oceans on each coast and into quarries and into the foundations of unfinished houses. And in the end, of course, the bodies would rot where they fell." I think I originally flicked through and read a lot of the uncut version in a school library or something, and then eventually read the original version myself, and have no idea which chapters are original and which are not. So far I am in favour of the uncut version. There's some stuff I remember reading and then not reading when I read the original book (if you follow) which is good stuff which adds to the story. The extra stuff like Starkey the military general and supervirus manager being dismissed and then driving out to the desert lab, cleaning up the soup off the face of the dead soldier he's been watching on CCTV for a week, and then shooting himself. That stuff's great! Less interesting is Fran's pregnancy and home drama but IIRC correctly that was all in the original version. The one thing that really, really, really bugs me beyond measure: the superficial decision by either King or his publisher to update the uncut version to the year 1990 (as though the reading public would balk at the concept of a novel set ten years in the past) and basically just do a ctrl+H to replace any mention of years, while the story flows unchanged around those numbers. Sometimes he's edited obvious stuff like who the president is (but that still doesn't make sense! Why would a crew cut military hardass like Starkey have as much of a problem with Bush as he did with Carter!) but a lot of the time he just ignores it. There's a scene where Larry calls an ambulance for his mother but does so by looking up the local hospital's number in the phone book. We're told that protagonist Stu Redman, who is about 30, was "in the war," but since he must now have been born around 1960 I guess that means he served in Grenada. It's a risibly unnecessary and stupid decision and if anyone has a link to a longread or a blog post or a great review which rightfully excoriates King/the publishers for it, or rounds up some of the funnier examples of a time paradox, I'd love to read it. edit - I was just googling around and come across a wikia page for what I think is the TV series which had the phrase "Tom treats Stu's pneumonia with advice from Nick's ghost" and it reminded me that, as I recall, the first act of this novel is the strongest. edit 2 - God I love wikias. Who could forget this classic quote: Quotes "Not actual quote" ―Peter to Ray[1][src] freebooter fucked around with this message at 10:15 on Apr 7, 2020 |
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Apr 7, 2020 10:11
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In the tv series that sheriff is Joe Bob Briggs.
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Apr 7, 2020 10:33
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jng2058 posted:Given that he posted a similarly themed fart story on the Wheel of Time thread, I can only assume he's going around farting all over the book barn, possibly all over SA in general. He posted a similarly themed cum story in gip too.
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Apr 7, 2020 12:33
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There was also quite the ripper posted in Auspol
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Apr 7, 2020 13:02
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uber_stoat posted:it's YA about a dystopian caste system dedicated to terraforming Mars. sort of hunger games-ish. I stopped after the first one. They got better after the first one, the focus shifts to civil war among the planets led by the kids from the first one. Lots of hyper stylised set pieces and fighting. Somewhere between 40k, game of thrones and Wagner. Wants to Shakespeare's Ceasar in space but is more Titus Andronicus in space. I'm not saying it's great but I enjoyed them although haven't bothered with the latest (6th?)
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Apr 7, 2020 13:15
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quantumfoam posted:Slightly shocked that no-one mentioned Martha Wells fantasy stories and books when this thread was discussing "fantasy game of thrones style stories" over the weekend. Prefer Martha Wells fantasy work over her Murderbot novelettas. All 4.25 murderbot stories are around the same length as Wells;s City of Bones or first Ile-Rien novel. I haven't read her City of Bones yet! I need to order it, but I'm finally at a point where I'm limiting my book purchases and only making orders once a month. It took a lot of work, but it means I'm beginning to make a dent in my backlog.
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Apr 7, 2020 13:53
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^^ it's quite good, but also ofc will keep while you work through what you've got. quantumfoam posted:
I think they wanted WoC only, agreed though. I wish that more of her fantasy stuff was longer too, City of Bones was so good and I'd be very on board for more of that. I like the Books of the Raksura, but I wish her multiple volumes were spread out more. To be fair, she probably just knows how much story she has to tell in a given setting, but I can dream.
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Apr 7, 2020 18:00
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RIP ZEEZ
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90s Cringe Rock posted:What's the filesize? It's a meaningless number, but I'm curious.
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Apr 7, 2020 18:06
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While cleaning and organizing my book collection, I discovered something called "The Secret Books Of Paradys I & II" by Tanith Lee. Can anyone give me some information about this series, and if this is a good point to come into the series if I decide it sounds worthwhile?
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Apr 7, 2020 18:07
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gvibes posted:12 MB. The only books on my kindle larger are two dictionaries and, weirdly, Oathbringer (by Sanderson). One other Sanderson Stromlight book is also 12 MB. He has a lot of generic maps and pictures in his books to liven up the generic prose
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Apr 7, 2020 18:11
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Gnoman posted:While cleaning and organizing my book collection, I discovered something called "The Secret Books Of Paradys I & II" by Tanith Lee. Can anyone give me some information about this series, and if this is a good point to come into the series if I decide it sounds worthwhile? As the local Tanith Lee fan: The Paradys books stand alone; they share a setting but not characters, so you can jump in anywhere. From what I remember, the Paradys books are Lee at her most Gothic. If you like horror, blood, sex, death, rape, debauchery, curses, cruelty, drugs, rape, black magic, revenge, bad ends, insanity, ghosts, vampires, and doomed romances all piled on top of each other, Paradys is your place. (Yes, I did deliberately set up the "you said rape twice" joke. I am nothing if not obliging.) I'd say the Paradys stories are also Lee at her purplest, but honestly, the prose is well beyond purple and into the ultraviolet. If you expect everything to be explained and loose ends to be tied up, this is not the book for you. Selachian fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Apr 7, 2020 |
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Apr 7, 2020 18:33
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freebooter posted:I recall, the first act of this novel is the strongest. Yeah, the parts where the novel deals directly with the plague and how people struggle to survive in its immediate aftermath is the strongest. The middle section where the two communities build themselves is fairly generic and lacking in detail, and the end is just King pushing hard to put a bow on everything and be done. Really, the only problem I have with the uncut version is some of the more excessively vile poo poo that was cut out of the original edit, like I don't need to read about Trash getting sodomized with a handgun.
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Apr 7, 2020 19:39
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PeterWeller posted:Really, the only problem I have with the uncut version is some of the more excessively vile poo poo that was cut out of the original edit, like I don't need to read about Trash getting sodomized with a handgun.
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Apr 7, 2020 19:45
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Selachian posted:As the local Tanith Lee fan: Stop it I just said I wasn't buying more books this month!!!
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Apr 7, 2020 20:12
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Hugo nominees were announced today: https://conzealand.nz/blog/2020/04/08/hugo-and-retro-hugo-finalists-announced
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Apr 7, 2020 22:35
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StrixNebulosa posted:Oh! I have never seen that movie, didn't know what you were doing.  You should fix that, Blazing Saddles is great.
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Apr 7, 2020 23:07
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Movies take too long to watch and I'm not enthused by the summary so I'm going to pass on Blazing Saddles. Sorry. Try reccing me a book instead?
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Apr 7, 2020 23:15
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pseudorandom name posted:Hugo nominees were announced today: https://conzealand.nz/blog/2020/04/08/hugo-and-retro-hugo-finalists-announced Goondolences to the novella nominees not named Ted Chiang
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Apr 8, 2020 00:12
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Going up against Ted Chiang will be hard, but I reckon This Is How You Lose The Time War has a fighting chance. Pretty strong novella lineup in general though.
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Apr 8, 2020 00:16
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pseudorandom name posted:Hugo nominees were announced today: https://conzealand.nz/blog/2020/04/08/hugo-and-retro-hugo-finalists-announced Wow avengers endgame that’s uh some list to be on
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Apr 8, 2020 00:16
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