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The Murderbot novel is out and I'm reading it. They killed ART! 
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May 5, 2020 13:27
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KOGAHAZAN!! posted:The Murderbot novel is out and I'm reading it.
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May 5, 2020 13:32
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KOGAHAZAN!! posted:The Murderbot novel is out and I'm reading it. If this is true I'm going to be deeply upset.
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May 5, 2020 13:33
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StrixNebulosa posted:If this is true I'm going to be deeply upset. I'm hoping for a third act reversal but 
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May 5, 2020 14:05
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KOGAHAZAN!! posted:I'm hoping for a third act reversal but I'm hitting up my friend who got an ARC but she's asleep and I need answers now! And yes, I did preorder it, but in hardback and it arrives tomorrow. I try not to be impatient with the USPS but also aaaaaa
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May 5, 2020 14:07
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Prism Mirror Lens posted:Haha yes I was trying to find that earlier! I’m subbed to Asimov’s and SF&F atm. I was subbed to Analog but too much of it seemed to be not-actually-stories. I’d be thinking “oh, cool setting, wonder what’ll happen?” and the piece would just end. The ones based on a feeling like puberty/depression metaphors are bad for the same reason: there is nowhere to go narratively because a feeling is not a story, so the protagonist just floats around feeling a bit funny for a while and the piece ends. It gets really frustrating reading things like that. Ugh, it's like being a teenager all over again. Anyway, this inspired me to check out the recent Hugo and Nebula awards for short fiction, and according to the Hugos, the best magazines are Uncanny and Tor.com; plenty of markets have nominees, but those are the ones that stand out. For what that's worth.
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May 5, 2020 14:32
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StrixNebulosa posted:I'm hitting up my friend who got an ARC but she's asleep and I need answers now! Spoilers specifically pertinent to the topic at hand: ART gets better. I enjoyed the book, but I maybe shouldn't have stayed up the entire night reading it.
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May 5, 2020 14:33
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kurona_bright posted:Spoilers specifically pertinent to the topic at hand: ART gets better. THANK YOU.
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May 5, 2020 14:35
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algebra testes posted:I just ordered Pandora's Star and I am not thrilled about this!! I don't remember sex creep problems with that series at all. I'm more cognizant of that stuff in my reading now but I would definitely remember this, so I think you're safe.
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May 5, 2020 14:42
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algebra testes posted:I just ordered Pandora's Star and I am not thrilled about this!! I keep trying to read this because it seems really cool but I get super loving bored every time I read this book. I read The Dreaming Void and liked it (especially the fantasy sections) and have the rest of the books but then never get around to actually reading it. I don't remember any creepy sections but I haven't read The Reality Dysfunction either. KOGAHAZAN!! posted:The Murderbot novel is out and I'm reading it. I shouldn't have looked at this spoiler <  >Side question: I realize this is the book thread but how are the Expanse books vs the TV show? It looks interesting. GreenBuckanneer fucked around with this message at 15:14 on May 5, 2020 |
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May 5, 2020 15:02
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TheAardvark posted:I don't remember sex creep problems with that series at all. I'm more cognizant of that stuff in my reading now but I would definitely remember this, so I think you're safe. Eh, I would be hard-pressed to say a Hamilton book that hasn't issues with how sex is depicted. Pandora's star for sure had these issues.
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May 5, 2020 15:13
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TheAardvark posted:I don't remember sex creep problems with that series at all. I'm more cognizant of that stuff in my reading now but I would definitely remember this, so I think you're safe. There's a teenage sex reporter. She's at least a POV character with agency, I guess. The aliens in that duology are really good. MorningLightMountain's 'opening move' is just chillingly direct.
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May 5, 2020 15:23
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GreenBuckanneer posted:I realize this is the book thread but how are the Expanse books vs the TV show? It looks interesting.
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May 5, 2020 15:37
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I guess you can say Hamilton is consistent about sex? Everyone has it in his books, and I can’t remember him sex shaming anyone. I think he’d like to be similar to Banks about it, but it’s too male-gaze-y.
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May 5, 2020 15:45
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GreenBuckanneer posted:I realize this is the book thread but how are the Expanse books vs the TV show? It looks interesting. anilEhilated posted:The TV show is better in basically every way. For one thing, I don't hate the TV version of the main character like I do in the books!
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May 5, 2020 15:50
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jng2058 posted:For one thing, I don't hate the TV version of the main character like I do in the books! You're making me want to start the TV show. I read all but the last book and Holden sucks rear end in the books. If they improved that I am interested.
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May 5, 2020 15:55
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KOGAHAZAN!! posted:The Murderbot novel is out and I'm reading it. same
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May 5, 2020 19:14
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My one sentence summary of Peter Hamilton still holds up then.... Peter Hamilton: Han Solo main character analogues and super awkward sex scenes galore. Schneider Heim posted:Action, fancy weapons and armor, fighting sick rear end foes as a nobody, paradoxically uplifting even if the world is extremely hosed up Steven Erikson's Malazan series was recommended to you a few times, and it's a solid rec. Just be aware that extensive internal character monologuing kicks in around book 5 or book 6 and never goes away. There was a extremely minor DC Comics character called Resurrection Man whose entire gimmick was getting killed then coming back sort of like Dark Souls. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_Man_(comics) "action, weapons and armor, fighting sick rear end foes as a nobody": Strontium Dogs and the Judge Dredd 2000 AD series popped to mind.
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May 5, 2020 19:16
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Murderbot preorder bonus short story just went out, check your email.
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May 5, 2020 19:17
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I wish I wasn't so interested in the world/ongoing plot of Reality Dysfunction because knowing I'm always within 10 pages of an awkward sex scene is a tough read. Also there was just a paragraph where main character talked about how he wanted to smack a little girl for being a brat, but had to content himself with staring at the way her older sister's fabric moved over her body. Within 5 pages he's loving both the older sister and her mother and making promises that he loves them.  I'm 52% into a book twice as long as anything I've read recently and I very rarely drop a book but ugh.
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May 5, 2020 19:21
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quantumfoam posted:"action, weapons and armor, fighting sick rear end foes as a nobody": Strontium Dogs and the Judge Dredd 2000 AD series popped to mind. Dredd doesn't really fit the "nobody" bill, considering that he's known and feared throughout a city of 800 million people and considered so important to law and order that they installed a replacement under his name when he retired.
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May 5, 2020 19:25
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True. Judge Dredd is usually the sick rear end foe nobodies go up against in the 2000 AD serials, and 90% you'll be rooting for both sides to win. Solid Judge Dredd story-arcs with Dredd as the main character are: Call Me Kenneth, Cursed Earth, Judge Call, and Block mania/Apocalypse War, which all happen in the first 5 yearly/Case Files Judge Dredd collections.
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May 5, 2020 19:44
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pseudorandom name posted:Hey, let me save you the trouble of reading Peter F. Hamilton: the "hey God, we're in trouble. poo poo's all hosed up. can you fix it for us?" "sure thing, pal" *poof* -the end, no moral
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May 5, 2020 19:53
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anilEhilated posted:The TV show is better in basically every way. Yeah the authors are involved in writing the show and they said the show is them doing what they wish they had done with the books.
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May 5, 2020 21:18
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Kestral posted:You really, really do. Anyone who's played FreeSpace needs to play Blue Planet. I've read Three Hearts and Three Lions and found it to be pretty decent and not really libertarian or anything. It suffered a little bit from being "basic" but it sort of founded the genre, so of course you'll have seen some of it's tricks before. I thought it was worth reading.
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May 5, 2020 21:50
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TheAardvark posted:What kind of adult that can read sci-fi written in English wouldn't know that 550lbs is a lot? I could accept a kid or translation though. ...most of the population of Europe under the age of about 50? Even in the UK which isn't full bore metric we measure people's weight in stone not lbs. Just casually gliding over that figure without thinking to do the maths it's not going to be obvious.
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May 5, 2020 22:35
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Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079DNTPRK/
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May 5, 2020 23:30
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feedmegin posted:...most of the population of Europe under the age of about 50? Even in the UK which isn't full bore metric we measure people's weight in stone not lbs. Just casually gliding over that figure without thinking to do the maths it's not going to be obvious. I'm willing to stand corrected on this. I just always thought the "basically 2 to one ratio" and "a bit under 2 to one ratio" that's been baked in my head for as long as I can remember would be similarly common among Europeans, or at least the ones reading American hard sci-fi. Celsius/Fahrenheit on the other hand I would never expect anyone to have a mental picture of, that poo poo's just hosed.
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May 5, 2020 23:32
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KOGAHAZAN!! posted:The Murderbot novel is out and I'm reading it. This is a very good Murderbot book. I wish the Murderbot and teen sidekick plot line had been longer before other elements came in, but this is a series I don’t read or care that much for the plot, I’m just here for “The humans and augmented humans are having feelings and they’re getting all over meeeeee!!!” and Murderbot growing as a person.
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May 5, 2020 23:53
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navyjack posted:This is a very good Murderbot book. I wish the Murderbot and teen sidekick plot line had been longer before other elements came in, but this is a series I don’t read or care that much for the plot, I’m just here for “The humans and augmented humans are having feelings and they’re getting all over meeeeee!!!” and Murderbot growing as a person. Same, honestly. If there was a collection of slice-of-life stories that just involved Murderbot tripping over feelings as it tries to navigate daily life I would read it in a heartbeat. One of the things that really stood out to me in this book is that ART is very aptly named. I mean, it was definitely more than a little ruthless in Artificial Condition, but man that aspect of its personality really came through here (the exchange between it and Iris before it switched to plan B01 was extremely good). kurona_bright fucked around with this message at 00:08 on May 6, 2020 |
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May 6, 2020 00:04
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TheAardvark posted:I'm willing to stand corrected on this. Measurement chat just reminded me of one of the minor irritants in Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series: by the second book, whenever a character was introduced, he'd say "she stood about five foot six, or 167 centimetres." Even aside from a character's height being irrelevant, that's such a weird and clunky precise measurement that nobody would be able to a) ascertain at a glance, or b) use in casual conversation. It also reminds me of David Wellington (a horror writer whom I don't mind) setting a werewolf story in Canada and trying to fit in with the metric system with phrases like "the floor was covered in ten centimetres of water." edit - and to balance that out, an American writer who got it right: Dan Simmons' Hyperion future uses kilometres but refers to them as "kays." Maybe it's an Australian thing but only newsreaders and police officers say the full word "kilometres," that's too much of a mouthful for ordinary speech.
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May 6, 2020 00:56
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freebooter posted:
In American English I think you'd say "a few inches of water". What would you use in a metric country? Obviously "ankle deep" or something works for anyone.
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May 6, 2020 01:04
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Ankle deep is what I'd probably use. I was born and raised long after metric was introduced in Australia but I still sometimes say feet or inches when I'm talking about a vague amount, because there's just no roll-off-the-tongue measurement between centimetre and metre. Also possibly because the school rulers kids use are 30cm which is almost exactly one foot, so I have a much better mental picture of what a foot is than what a metre is. I guess it also persists in speech because plenty of boomers still think and talk in imperial.
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May 6, 2020 01:10
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biracial bear for uncut posted:Anything that was made into a Tom Cruise movie is automatically forbidden in my reading recommendations. That movie is a high budget XCOM Let's Play where someone beats it via savescumming and then ends the LP as they start New Game+ and it's fun to watch despite Tom Cruise being an insane cultist.
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May 6, 2020 01:18
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StrixNebulosa posted:Murderbot preorder bonus short story just went out, check your email. I didn't get this  Hope it's not because inbetween my preorder and it coming out today, my CC on file with Amazon was canceled.
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May 6, 2020 01:25
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Xtanstic posted:I didn't get this You should tweet tor about this, they should be able to hook you up.
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May 6, 2020 02:00
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Evil Fluffy posted:That movie is a high budget XCOM Let's Play where someone beats it via savescumming and then ends the LP as they start New Game+ and it's fun to watch despite Tom Cruise being an insane cultist. For all that Tom Cruise is an insane cultists, he's legitimately a great actor, so it's not surprising.
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May 6, 2020 03:33
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I've never understood why people hate on Cruise for being a scientologist when half of Hollywood are scientologists, but anyway, this rule means you can never read The War of the Worlds.
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May 6, 2020 03:38
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I've almost finished John Scalzi's Old Man's War (because I mistook it for Haldeman's The Forever War) and I've been enjoying it as a fun, pacy read. The only thing that bugs me is that all the characters have this 2000s deadpan humour which reminds me of the characters in The Martian (the film, haven't read the book) in that it doesn't sit quite right, plus it makes them all blend together, and feels like the work of a writer who learned about other people through Usenet or message boards rather than actual human interaction. (But that's probably true of half of sci-fi, and other than that he's a better writer than most of his peers).
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May 6, 2020 03:41
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Evil Fluffy posted:That movie is a high budget XCOM Let's Play where someone beats it via savescumming and then ends the LP as they start New Game+ and it's fun to watch despite Tom Cruise being an insane cultist. That description actually makes it sound worse. freebooter posted:I've almost finished John Scalzi's Old Man's War (because I mistook it for Haldeman's The Forever War) and I've been enjoying it as a fun, pacy read. The only thing that bugs me is that all the characters have this 2000s deadpan humour which reminds me of the characters in The Martian (the film, haven't read the book) in that it doesn't sit quite right, plus it makes them all blend together, and feels like the work of a writer who learned about other people through Usenet or message boards rather than actual human interaction. (But that's probably true of half of sci-fi, and other than that he's a better writer than most of his peers). Get used to it if you read Scalzi because everything he writes has that character tone.
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May 6, 2020 03:47
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