|
buffalo all day posted:Read The Folding Knife next. And maybe his short story collection. PawParole posted:the engineer trilogy was absolutely golden. I wish I had amnesia so I could read it again ( no monkey paw poo poo, plz) Cool, thanks, I'll add them to my list soon as I'm done with what I'm reading right now.
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2020 00:10
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 5, 2024 00:26 |
|
|
pradmer posted:To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers - $1.99 That's a, pardon the pun, stellar novella about planetary exploration.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2020 00:39
|
|
|
David Gemmell (who sadly died in 2006) wasn't all that great at the prose level but his stories have a lot of heart. His fantasy novels range from unironically awful to pretty darn good, but the back part of his Rigante series (specifically, Ravenheart and Stormrider) are worth checking out if you're looking for a fantasy story in a fairly unique setting (an 18th-century Scotland analog). The first two books in the series (Sword in the Storm and Midnight Falcon) are good backstory but the writing isn't so hot. This was somehow related to the Dune conversation and the bad habit of book series falling off in quality as they go along, and I think I probably wanted to offer a good counter example for people looking for something different but I'm too lazy to work it into the paragraph above so I'll just leave this awkward explanation hanging here. Eason the Fifth fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Mar 21, 2022 |
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2020 03:13
|
|
|
Gemmell had some amazing books, but yea, some of them were less than good. I wasn't a fan of his "If there's a woman involved, she's gettin' raped for motivation, or if she's already got motivation, she's already been raped pre-book" trope he had going through most of the books. His Jon Shannow books are pretty good for scratching that western fantasy itch.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2020 06:22
|
|
|
Sentient AI and all around good author Craig Schaefer has released the newest Harmony Black book! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086WFLGQH Yes, the newest, since the previous book came out like, what, October of last year? He's getting lazy.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2020 11:44
|
|
|
Hard pass. His Harmony Black books haven't exactly been all that good, she's the worst investigator ever. It's weird because everything else he writes is pretty good.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2020 13:11
|
|
|
final book in Scalzi's current trilogy comes out today also. It's a climate change analogy. Very scalzi: likeable characters, narcissistic villains, fairly by-the-numbers.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2020 13:19
|
|
|
I think I've never read anything by David Gemmell, but the name keeps turning up, any particular place to take a look?
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2020 14:12
|
|
|
genericnick posted:I think I've never read anything by David Gemmell, but the name keeps turning up, any particular place to take a look? Start at the beginning with Legend. If you like that, move onto the Rigante novels, Jon Shannow and possibly Lion of Macedon. Gemmell's strength always lay in his flawed protagonists. Jon Shannow is probably the best of those because he's literally insane - a religious fanatic on an impossible quest to find Jerusalem in a post-apocalyptic world, trying to be a good and peaceful man when that's the last thing he can be - but they're all imperfect and they all have fears to face.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2020 14:55
|
|
|
Jedit posted:Gemmell's strength always lay in his flawed protagonists. Exactly right, totally agree. This is his one good play, but its strong enough to carry not just the weak parts of his novels but most of his career through characters like Druss or Shannow or Jaim Grymauch. I read an interview where he based most of these characters on his stepfather, (a good-hearted but flawed alcholic WWII veteran who'd fought at Anzio and Salerno, I think was how Gemmell put it). His love and respect for the man comes through on the page.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2020 16:30
|
|
|
Tor has the first act of Harrow the Ninth available for free.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2020 20:57
|
|
|
Cold Iron (Masters & Mages #1) by Miles Cameron - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079L5669Y Good series? I know of his Traitor Son one, but not this. Revenant Gun (Machineries of Empire #3) by Yoon Ha Lee - $0.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BH44K7K/ Anvil of Stars (Forged of God #2) by Greg Bear - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JVCHFS8/ Seveneves by Neal Stephenson - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LZWV8JO Broken Stars (short story collection) translated by Ken Liu - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C75GLGK/
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 00:41
|
|
|
Interesting news from Kate Elliott's newsletter: - Crown of Stars v1-3 are coming in audiobook form. The first one is out now. - She is SUPER excited for her book Unconquerable Sun to drop in July, and interestingly to me, her sale pages are her publisher and bookshop.org. No amazon, indie only. - and a bonus fun picture  quote:Here are the page proofs of SUN, with my patented highlighter system to help me keep track of all the names, places, things, details, foreshadowing and set up, and easter eggs (gotta find them all).
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 02:41
|
|
|
biracial bear for uncut posted:More like Oakes and the rape chamber. Close. The Oakes plotline from Jesus Incident is pretty much "More like As viscerally horrifying as the precursor Tleilaxu society + the body stumps were in Hellstrom's Hive, I'd backpack nuke the Scream Chamber from Jesus Incident first and foremost. Finally got around to reading Steven Erikson's Fiends of Nightmaria, and it was amusing and involved about 50% of the characters from the earlier B&BK Crack'd Pot Trail. Bauchelain got more character development, while the idiotic adventurer team provided most of the comedy factor.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 02:48
|
|
|
Oh yeah, the monstrosity that was loving itself until the hapless victim Oakes tossed in there got too close to it. Frank Herbert had some hosed up ideas about sex, ya'll. No wonder his kid set about ruining his most well known series while making as much money as he can off it Probably needs it for therapy.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 03:06
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Interesting news from Kate Elliott's newsletter: Not heard of her before, but the blurb for Unconquerable Sun sounds great, is the fantasy good?
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 10:08
|
|
|
ed balls balls man posted:Not heard of her before, but the blurb for Unconquerable Sun sounds great, is the fantasy good?  Hi I'm becoming a fangirl of hers. I haven't been reading anything BUT her stuff for the last week and it's been great. Crossroads: jawdroppingly good complex plot about a fantasy world where one nation has a bunch of godlike "Guardians" who keep the peace, with the aid of the reeve system, which is basically a bunch of sheriffs who ride around on giant eagles and stop crime. The plot opens where the Guardians are believed dead or gone, the reeves are losing power and respect, and there's a creeping darkness that's preparing hidden armies to seize control of the nation. Your main characters are: Marit, a reeve. She dies early on but doesn't stay dead. Joss, another reeve. He's devastated by her death, and devotes himself almost entirely to being the best reeve ever. Mai and Anji, a couple from a couple nations over who start the plot in their home countries, but things get complicated and dangerous and they're forced to flee to the main plot country. They're important because Anji leads a band of roughly two hundred elite soldiers. And finally, Kesh, a merchant who has been trying to sell a huge profit so he can buy off his slave-debt and be a free man again. Everything collides in a giant mess and it's amazing. It's dark and awful without being grimdark, and there's lots of cool stuff. I love it so much aaaa Crown of Stars: her earliest fantasy series, stupid long with 7 volumes that are all 800+ pages. I don't like this one as much as Crossroads - I dropped Prince of Dogs last year and am only just returning to it - so don't start here unless the setting really appeals to you. It's about not-Europe, not-Holy Roman Emperor Germany. Your main characters are...you know what? There's like five of them and it's better to start with the setting. It's straight up medieval germany, and it looks closely at the relation of kings, lords, and bishops and how the king may be top dog but he cannot use his power willynilly. There's magic - this germany is being invaded by orc/lizard men in the north, there's a civil war brewing because there's a dispute over who should be king, and there's lots of complicated politics. Most of the main characters are NOT important, so to speak - Alain is a farmboy who becomes keeper of the dogs for a local lord. Liath becomes a royal messenger. Sanglant is a knight, but winds up prisoner for most of book 2. Everyone else varies from a monk in training to a refugee girl from a razed town. You get occasional glimpses at the seats of power, but most of the plot is seen through the eyes of those lower in class, and it's fascinating. And awful, because things suck for these people. Obligatory giant warning if you want to read Crown of Stars: Liath opens the book as her father dies, and through the machinations of a local priest, she winds up sold to him as a slave. What follows is an extended torture sequence as he abuses her, tries to break her mind, and eventually rapes her. I read the entire thing in one evening and couldn't stop crying. It finally ends when she gets so sick that some royal messengers manage to free her, but she's deeply traumatized. She comes back into her own as a character, but as a sequence it's terrifying to read. As a slave she has no rights, and the bastard never stops. Yes, this is part of why I couldn't keep reading the second book - I made it through and finished the first book, but midway through the second, the abuser comes back into Liath's life and I felt just as much terror as she did upon hearing his name. I've been reassured by others that he never comes back into power over her, but I had to stop and recover myself. Cold Magic: eighty pages in, so the plot has barely begun! First person POV, following a nineteen year old girl named Cat. She starts the book as a schoolgirl trying to figure out the mystery of his father's death/maybe disappearance. There's a lot of worldbuilding and setup going on here, as this is - well - let the author describe it. "an Afro-Celtic post-Roman icepunk Regency novel with airships, Phoenician spies, and the intelligent descendants of troodons." I am deeply in love with every detail, the characters are super charming, and I want to know where it goes. Phew! The biggest things to note if you read any of her works: super long, super detailed, diverse and honest about how brutal life can be. Lots of POV characters (except in Cold Magic), and big complex fantasy worlds. I expect Unconquered Sun will be similarly complex and deep and fun, but a single volume story instead of a trilogy or longer.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 13:37
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:Tor has the first act of Harrow the Ninth available for free. I'm enjoying this but I think it might actually make the wait for the rest (due in August) even worse. I can safely say, not quite halfway through, that Harrowhark's head is not a comfortable place to spend time in.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 15:06
|
|
|
Quinton posted:I'm enjoying this but I think it might actually make the wait for the rest (due in August) even worse. I'm not reading it for exactly this reason.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 15:35
|
|
|
yeah same. I must make the torturous wait a little less torturous.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 16:11
|
|
|
Just a warning to anyone looking at cheap books - Seveneves is loving terrible. Legitimately poorly written and lazily thought out.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 16:35
|
|
|
Kate Elliot chat: I bounced off Jaran years ago; I read Spiritwalker/Cold Magic back in 2015, and while I finished it, I found it a long and weary road, and wrote this about it at the time:quote:The first book I found repeatedly jarring because I consistently failed to build a working mental model of most of the characters. I don't know if this is what actually happened, but it kind of felt like she wrote the book out of order, during which time her model of the characters changed, and then stitched it together, resulting in dramatic changes in tone even within a single scene. Based on StrixNebulosa's descriptions of her other books, her schtick is "books where bad things happen to good people basically all the time", so know what you're getting into. (It did actually have an upbeat ending, but that was basically the only part of the trilogy that was actually cheerful.)
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 16:54
|
|
|
Reading 3 novels at once what?? Impressive. I would forget stuff or get things mixed up. The only times I have more than one book I'm currently reading is if one of them is a re-read, or the other book is non-fiction; non-fiction I can juggle, put down for months and go back etc, but a novel I cannot.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 18:08
|
|
|
PlushCow posted:Reading 3 novels at once what?? Impressive. I would forget stuff or get things mixed up. Oh, my sweet summer child...  I have terminal "read all the books at once" itus and bounce between books super super frequently. At some point Kate Elliott will release me and I can go back to focusing on other authors and zoom zoom zoom As for how I remember what's going on in every book: I just do. I don't know how. Once I pick up a book it's like putting on a jacket. Once I'm all in and comfy, I can go.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 18:20
|
|
|
ToxicFrog posted:Kate Elliot chat: I bounced off Jaran years ago; I read Spiritwalker/Cold Magic back in 2015, and while I finished it, I found it a long and weary road, and wrote this about it at the time: Huh. I'm now 120 pages into Cold Magic and aside from the arranged marriage, it hasn't felt like what you're describing at all. Cat's been cheerful and forceful, instrumental in helping Bee retrieve her sketchbook, busy trying to solve the mystery of her dad, and now that things are literally exploding around her, she's looking for escape routes and handholds. Now if you described Crown of Stars as "bad things happen to good people all the time" I'd agree, but not in Cold Magic, not yet. It's been one of Elliott's lightest novels yet. I have to say, I like how she handles dark material - a different author would get the grimdark label, but she has a way of... it's not the end of the world? People can and do survive, and good deeds do result in good outcomes? And sometimes they don't, but it's not a book that's determined to be grim and wallow in the gore. Crown of Stars, of course, is a bit of an exception so far, and the darkest of her works (so far that I've read) No comment on Jaran, I've only read these three series so far. I'm wary of Jaran as it's terminally incomplete and I don't know if I could stomach that.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 19:01
|
|
|
Captain Monkey posted:Just a warning to anyone looking at cheap books - Seveneves is loving terrible. Legitimately poorly written and lazily thought out. I thought it was pretty decent other than that last bit where the dozens and dozens of pages could be summarized in like 2-3 sentences.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 20:31
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Oh, my sweet summer child... oh my god
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 20:40
|
|
|
PlushCow posted:Reading 3 novels at once what?? Impressive. I would forget stuff or get things mixed up. Yeah, I can juggle one of a non-fiction book, a non-genre fiction book, and a genre book, but after that? I would go crazy.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 20:54
|
|
|
it takes an concerted fight against my diagnosed ADHD to not read every book I own at once, and the only way I get any reading done is by sticking to that.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 21:25
|
|
|
Generally my reading patterns are like this: focus on two books, swap between them, read 50-100 pages per day. At least, that's the ideal as I read the fastest that way. I also often wind up reading 3-6 books, with 10-20 pages per book, and rotate endlessly until I latch onto one for focused reading. I'd like to get to a point with my reading stack where it's down to 2-4 books instead of 20 but it's very hard not to start books. I get so curious...
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 21:38
|
|
|
Powder Mage Trilogy (Promise of Blood, Crimson Campaign, Autumn Republic) by Brian McClellan - $9.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NZNTK6V/ The Rising (Alchemy Wars #2) by Ian Tregillis - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00W22IMAO/ Eon by Greg Bear - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J3EU5RC/ The Hammer and the Cross by Harry Harrison - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008KP3WD4/
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 22:37
|
|
|
I normally float between 2 and 3 books at a time, but it's just depending on what I'm in the mood for. Usually there's a funny one, a space one, and a fantasy one. Different moods for when I'm not up to dealing with something I'm not in the mood for. Rarely have two of the same type/style though.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 22:49
|
|
|
I once read four books simultaneously and felt stressed because I wanted to finish them all around the same time. It felt like reading one 3000-pager and I was very eager to get it done with by the time I was halfway through. I keep telling myself I'll use Goodreads more often to keep track of my progress and book opinions but I never get around to it. TOOT BOOT posted:I thought it was pretty decent other than that last bit where the dozens and dozens of pages could be summarized in like 2-3 sentences. shouldhavebeentwobooks.argument Solitair fucked around with this message at 22:59 on Apr 15, 2020 |
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 22:56
|
|
|
PlushCow posted:oh my god This belongs in an "images you can feel" compilation for me. Strix,  on your ability to multitask.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 22:58
|
|
|
Solitair posted:I keep telling myself I'll use Goodreads more often to keep track of my progress and book opinions but I never get around to it. I only got into goodreads because I joined book chat discord and they all do it, so I had to join in. Yaaay peer pressure. Now I can argue over whether a book deserves 4 or 5 stars. Pros: - makes brain happy as page numbers go up whenever I update them - can see how many books I've read in a year - easy to see what I've read in a given genre; "what's the best sci-fi for me to read" a friend asks and I can just look - throwing books on the TBR list means I can check it whenever I go buying books - the discontinued-for-good shelf is fun to glare at Cons: - owned by amazon, the biggest fuckers - occasionally really slow to load - annoying to add in your backlog - my "review to come" category taunts me endlessly - goodread reviews are 80% garbage with reaction gifs and the most stupid readers I have ever met. stop giving 1 star to a book you don't understand! don't penalize a book for your stupidity!
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 23:02
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:I only got into goodreads because I joined book chat discord and they all do it, so I had to join in. Yaaay peer pressure. Now I can argue over whether a book deserves 4 or 5 stars. My system is to download a Kindle sample for every book I've ever seen a recommendation for and get them when they're two bucks or less, maybe three if I know I want to read one enough. I currently have over seven thousand items on Kindle, and I'm guessing less than five percent of that is full books.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 23:04
|
|
|
I've been using goodreads exclusively to track which/how many books per year, which is like extremely low effort journaling
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 23:05
|
|
|
I've thought about adding my finished physicals to GR, it's pretty easy with the ISBN scanner, but then there's all the books I've borrowed from friends or libraries or whatever and it's so much
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 23:32
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Huh. I'm now 120 pages into Cold Magic and aside from the arranged marriage, it hasn't felt like what you're describing at all. Cat's been cheerful and forceful, instrumental in helping Bee retrieve her sketchbook, busy trying to solve the mystery of her dad, and now that things are literally exploding around her, she's looking for escape routes and handholds. With the caveat that I read these ~5 years ago, so all I have to go on are some very vague memories and what Past Me wrote down about it -- I believe this was more of a problem in the second and third books (and the finale of the first). But I recall walking away with a very "wow, that sure was a trilogy where good deeds consistently get you kicked in the teeth" feeling. A bunch of people posted:Goodreads chat I've long since made peace with the fact that if it's not in the tty I won't remember to use it and ended up writing my own book tracking/journaling software in zsh, on top of taskwarrior. Gives me a nice command-line interface for logging books I've read, books in progress, and books I want to read, and annotating them with both tags and long-form commentary. It even has a half-assed BBCode export feature I hacked together when I was still participating in the Booklord Challenge threads, and some commands for aggregate statistics so I can see, e.g., my genre and fiction/nonfiction breakdown for a year.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 23:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 5, 2024 00:26 |
|
|
I have never in my life been able to read 2 books at once, but honestly I haven't tried in at least a decade. It feels off in a weird way. I should try it again some time since how much i read daily ties directly to how much I like my current book.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2020 00:28
|
|
