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quantumfoam posted:It's almost time for another SFL archives update post(hit 75% completion in SFL archives Volume 10), but I have to ask.
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Sep 1, 2020 00:01
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quantumfoam posted:It's almost time for another SFL archives update post(hit 75% completion in SFL archives Volume 10), but I have to ask. I read 'em! They're interesting! I just often don't have much to say in response.
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Sep 1, 2020 00:04
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quantumfoam posted:It's almost time for another SFL archives update post(hit 75% completion in SFL archives Volume 10), but I have to ask. Of course you should. Otherwise this thread boils down to about 8 books.
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Sep 1, 2020 00:04
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quantumfoam posted:It's almost time for another SFL archives update post(hit 75% completion in SFL archives Volume 10), but I have to ask. These things are worth reading about, and a lot of it is good potted context to the history of SF&F. But I'm not sure that there is anything we can say or ask about them.
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Sep 1, 2020 00:07
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quantumfoam posted:It's almost time for another SFL archives update post(hit 75% completion in SFL archives Volume 10), but I have to ask. I've been reading them, I just don't see how there's a lot of room for discussion for things from so long ago.
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Sep 1, 2020 00:10
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Yeah they're kind of interesting - i only came in midway is it possible to link directly to these? I've seen the occasional bit where I want to dig deeper but I missed where you're actually reading them from.
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Sep 1, 2020 00:50
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I read them, it's a pretty interesting window into the past.
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Sep 1, 2020 00:57
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xiw posted:Yeah they're kind of interesting - i only came in midway is it possible to link directly to these? I've seen the occasional bit where I want to dig deeper but I missed where you're actually reading them from. It's the first link in the OP of this thread. https://archive.org/details/SFLoversDigestArchive : A complete archive of the former SF-Lovers website. SF-LOVERS billed itself as the oldest mailing list, with the first digest issues dated 1979 and running until volume 25 in the year 2000. Probably the ur-Internet Resource for Science Fiction and Fantasy discussion by SF&F fans.
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Sep 1, 2020 00:57
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quantumfoam posted:It's almost time for another SFL archives update post(hit 75% completion in SFL archives Volume 10), but I have to ask. I like them and would like to see more!
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Sep 1, 2020 01:46
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TheAardvark posted:I've never read any of his non culture stuff because it's all unavailable in the US. I posted earlier ITT this problem has seemingly become worse lately, for some reason. Loads of books I've wanted to try from non-US authors in the last year or so have shown as only available through used paperbacks. What's wrong with that? I get like 80% of what I read as used paperbacks from Abebooks, shipped from the US or UK.
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Sep 1, 2020 02:38
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TheAardvark posted:I've never read any of his non culture stuff because it's all unavailable in the US. I posted earlier ITT this problem has seemingly become worse lately, for some reason. Loads of books I've wanted to try from non-US authors in the last year or so have shown as only available through used paperbacks. You should try Abebooks if you don't mind used books. https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&an=iain+banks&tn=&kn=&isbn= You can sort them by store as well if you want your order to arrive all in one package. Most of the stores offer free shipping as well so I like to give them as much business as possible.
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Sep 1, 2020 03:21
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quantumfoam posted:It's almost time for another SFL archives update post(hit 75% completion in SFL archives Volume 10), but I have to ask. I always read through them; it's interesting to hear about what was going on back then, I just don't know anything about what was going on to comment on (which makes it interesting). Thanks for posting them!
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Sep 1, 2020 03:57
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I also read them with interest, but don't have much to say. I find the history of the field really interesting and appreciate the time you take.
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Sep 1, 2020 08:39
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they're cool and I read every one
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Sep 1, 2020 08:48
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Black Griffon posted:There's so much Culture and I haven't even read the first one. Really ought to get started on that. Honestly I was surprised to realise there were only eight published during Banks' lifetime -- it seemed like way more than that. (Edit: Sorry, nine novels: I thought the Hydrogen Sonata was posthumous, but it came out a few months before he passed). rollick fucked around with this message at 09:34 on Sep 1, 2020 |
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Sep 1, 2020 09:29
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freebooter posted:What's wrong with that? I get like 80% of what I read as used paperbacks from Abebooks, shipped from the US or UK. I move around a lot. My first big move (over a decade ago) was a nightmare with multiple rooms crammed with books. I donated all of it, and while I miss the smell, it is incredibly freeing to not be tied to hundreds of pounds physical objects any more. At this point I have like, 200 books in the queue. Iain Banks is literally my favorite author, and I will absolutely read everything he has written, I just don't need to that badly right now.
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Sep 1, 2020 09:49
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If an author I love is dead I keep some unread poo poo stashed away Terry Pratchett: never read any Tiffany Aching books Kurt Vonnegut: never read galapagos, bluebeard, or timequake Jack London:
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Sep 1, 2020 09:56
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Just loving read them. Authors write books to be read, not to be shelved.
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Sep 1, 2020 10:06
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TheAardvark posted:I've never read any of his non culture stuff because it's all unavailable in the US. I posted earlier ITT this problem has seemingly become worse lately, for some reason. Loads of books I've wanted to try from non-US authors in the last year or so have shown as only available through used paperbacks. Against A Dark Background at least looks like it's available in the US on kindle? https://www.amazon.com/Against-Dark-Background-Iain-Banks-ebook/dp/B002CT0TXK Check that one out. rollick posted:Honestly I was surprised to realise there were only eight published during Banks' lifetime -- it seemed like way more than that. Probably an effect of them all being complete in themselves. A standalone novel feels more substantial than part 7 of 19 of the Splaargh Trilogy.
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Sep 1, 2020 12:35
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whenever i buy a physical book i give away a book i own or put it in a little free library. the circle of life....
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Sep 1, 2020 13:51
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quantumfoam posted:It's almost time for another SFL archives update post(hit 75% completion in SFL archives Volume 10), but I have to ask. Thank you for asking and not just quitting! I really like them too, the historical journey has been really interesting.
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Sep 1, 2020 15:47
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Fart of Presto posted:Look to Windward (A Culture Novel Book 6) by Iain M. Banks - $1.99 Such a good book. Ugh, I miss Banks so much. And somehow, Henry Kissinger still lives.
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Sep 1, 2020 15:59
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https://twitter.com/tordotcom/status/1300796947800961024?s=19 could they have picked anybody loving else? Jesus. I guess they did a decent job of the seasons with books, so if they stick hard to the book it might be all right.
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Sep 1, 2020 16:03
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I lost a lot of motivation to read 3BP after I read about Liu Cixin's view on the Chinese concentration camps. Guess I'll just watch it instead.
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Sep 1, 2020 16:07
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TheAardvark posted:At this point I have like, 200 books in the queue. Iain Banks is literally my favorite author, and I will absolutely read everything he has written, I just don't need to that badly right now. Be prepared for a massive drop-off in quality when you read Iain Banks' non-science fiction stories. I found them to be not good, and Iain Banks tends to write a stock white, rich, extremely privileged background male lead main character in them. ================ Going to continue with the SFL Archives read-through posts. There will be changes though, some of things I mention will expanded upon, some won't, and I may resort to multiple posts because cramming everything into one post is very exhausting to write and hyper-exhausting for other people to read. SFL Archives Vol 10 teaser -Sometime in late 1985 Samuel Delany's Dhalgren starts being used a test for the top tier of SFF fandom or "fendom" (a mispelling of fans/fandom which SFF fans adopted similar to "filksongs")Everyone involved in filksongs, I hate you. Entirely essentially the Dhalgren test is: if you managed to read Dhalgren completely and like it, you pass the test. -Samuel Delany megafans if you think Dhalgren is overblown or garbage, gently caress you you goddamn fake fen -also Samuel Delany megafans (Sidenote, I read Dhalgren completely and was underwhelmed by it. Dhalgren's main impact on me was being step one in realizing that book awards like the Hugo/Nebula are utter bullshit) Someone also stated that Samuel R Delany circa the 1980s had multiple health issues ranging from no short term memory, epilepsy, seizures, [sarcasm]Assassins Creed Eagle Sense, the power to turn water into mead[/sarcasm], etc, contributing to why Delany's writing and stories do not follow normal storytelling conventions, and why they found Delany so inspiring. How much of that (outside of my sarcasm tags) was bullshit or real? I don't really follow Samuel R Delany because he creeps me out hard. Creeps me out on a "acclaimed French Writer Gabriel Matzneff" level.
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Sep 1, 2020 16:19
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Re: Delaney he did say in the 80s that he saw burned out cities that other people didn't (like, actually, not metaphorically, apparently), had some mental health stuff, and some disability stuff. Not sure about all the specifics though! I've had some trouble getting into his sci fi, and have kind of decided to just let it be. I did think Times Square Red was a good look at networks of social contact in cities, but I decided to not really read more of him thanks to the Times Square Blue parts, that included a lot of underage sex in porn theaters and whatnot which kind of colored the whole experience. foutre fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Sep 1, 2020 |
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Sep 1, 2020 17:12
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Strange question time: are there any other writing projects as ambitious/huge in scope as Warhammer 40k's Horus Heresy? If you don't know, that's a 54 book long series written by multiple authors that covers a mostly coherent narrative / piece of history in the 40k 'verse. It's in its final series now, the Siege of Terra thing, and I'm just... in awe of how huge it is, and how successful. And, more importantly to this thread, I cannot think of any other sci-fi/fantasy series that goes as big. Am I missing something? Please say yes.
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Sep 1, 2020 22:27
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StrixNebulosa posted:And, more importantly to this thread, I cannot think of any other sci-fi/fantasy series that goes as big. Am I missing something? Please say yes. Does Guin Saga count?
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Sep 1, 2020 22:51
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StrixNebulosa posted:Strange question time: are there any other writing projects as ambitious/huge in scope as Warhammer 40k's Horus Heresy? If you don't know, that's a 54 book long series written by multiple authors that covers a mostly coherent narrative / piece of history in the 40k 'verse. It's in its final series now, the Siege of Terra thing, and I'm just... in awe of how huge it is, and how successful. And, more importantly to this thread, I cannot think of any other sci-fi/fantasy series that goes as big. Am I missing something? Please say yes. I feel like what makes Horus Heresy so cool for me is the fact that I've also read several 40k rulebooks, played several games, spent hours on wiki articles and read a ton of other 40k novels. I think the only thing that could come close would be a series of Star Wars novels about the old republic or some kind of Star Trek epic. I still have so much Horus Heresy left, drat.
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Sep 1, 2020 22:55
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Hull Zero Three 
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Sep 1, 2020 22:55
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StrixNebulosa posted:And, more importantly to this thread, I cannot think of any other sci-fi/fantasy series that goes as big. Am I missing something? Please say yes. darkgray posted:Does Guin Saga count? Or Perry Rhodan?
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Sep 1, 2020 22:59
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 God that's a lot of words, AND it was translated? Yes I want to check that out!General Battuta posted:Hull Zero Three YEP. I love the author but boy, that book did not know what it was doing. I might give away my copy of it. darkgray posted:Does Guin Saga count? Yes, now get someone to translate it please! I want to read that! Black Griffon posted:I feel like what makes Horus Heresy so cool for me is the fact that I've also read several 40k rulebooks, played several games, spent hours on wiki articles and read a ton of other 40k novels. I think the only thing that could come close would be a series of Star Wars novels about the old republic or some kind of Star Trek epic. I just finished rereading 1 and I'm moving onto 2 and jesus christ there's so much. Which is great I love a feast but also holy poo poo there's so much
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Sep 1, 2020 23:01
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StrixNebulosa posted:Strange question time: are there any other writing projects as ambitious/huge in scope as Warhammer 40k's Horus Heresy? If you don't know, that's a 54 book long series written by multiple authors that covers a mostly coherent narrative / piece of history in the 40k 'verse. It's in its final series now, the Siege of Terra thing, and I'm just... in awe of how huge it is, and how successful. And, more importantly to this thread, I cannot think of any other sci-fi/fantasy series that goes as big. Am I missing something? Please say yes. it looks like horus heresy is about 5.3 million words -- wheel of time is a single story told over 15 books (14 in the main sequence + a prequel) and is 4.4 million words, which is at least roughly comparable
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Sep 1, 2020 23:03
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StrixNebulosa posted:Strange question time: are there any other writing projects as ambitious/huge in scope as Warhammer 40k's Horus Heresy? If you don't know, that's a 54 book long series written by multiple authors that covers a mostly coherent narrative / piece of history in the 40k 'verse. It's in its final series now, the Siege of Terra thing, and I'm just... in awe of how huge it is, and how successful. And, more importantly to this thread, I cannot think of any other sci-fi/fantasy series that goes as big. Am I missing something? Please say yes. I mean kinda? In English, there's the Star Wars Extended Universe (now mostly Legends) which broadly covers the history of the Star Wars universe from the end of Jedi like thirty or forty years into the future. It's not dominated by a single event like the Heresy, but it does have continuing characters, events that lead into other events, consequences of earlier decisions coming back to affect the current stories. It's also a hot mess, not really designed to be a single unified story until fairly late in the day, kinda screwed the pooch once they decided to move from single novels and trilogies written by a single author to Horus Heresy style multiple writers on one long story. Yuzan Vong? Yuzan WRONG!  There are individual books and trilogies within the SWEU that I'd recommend, but reading the whole thing? Especially since they were published out of chronological order and trying to figure out what to read when would be a challenge? It sounds like a lot of work for not all that much payoff, really. There's also all the Star Trek novels, but those are even less connected than the Star Wars ones, with multiple different versions of what the Romulans and Klingons are like, which then got run over by the later series from TNG on. That's even less worthwhile to read all of, but there are a handful of decent books hiding in there too. Other than that, all I can think of are a couple of other collaborative story worlds like Thieves' World and Wild Cards, but those are far shorter than the Heresy and usually collections of short stories in the same world rather than anything approaching a continuing narrative, though I guess they did occasionally have different angles on the same event style books. The problem is that only a big franchise has the cash to burn to bring in enough writers to do a Horus Heresy, so your possible candidates are few and far between. Trek, Star Wars, and 40k are the only ones that come to mind within the English SF/Fantasy realm, and those all have their hearts elsewhere.
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Sep 1, 2020 23:08
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buffalo all day posted:it looks like horus heresy is about 5.3 million words -- wheel of time is a single story told over 15 books (14 in the main sequence + a prequel) and is 4.4 million words, which is at least roughly comparable The Malazan Book of the Fallen is 3.325m words just for the main series plus a further 2.6m in ancillary stories, excluding the Bauchelain stories and the forthcoming sequel trilogy.
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Sep 1, 2020 23:11
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There were dragonlance novels, but I think that was more of a universe and less of a specific event over the entire run.
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Sep 1, 2020 23:12
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StrixNebulosa posted:I just finished rereading 1 and I'm moving onto 2 and jesus christ there's so much. Which is great I love a feast but also holy poo poo there's so much Are there any huge omnibuses out now? I own a smidgen, I've borrowed some from friends and I've borrowed very few from the library (not a high priority in Norwegian libraries), but if I'm gonna finish the whole thing, I'm gonna have to be effective. buffalo all day posted:it looks like horus heresy is about 5.3 million words -- wheel of time is a single story told over 15 books (14 in the main sequence + a prequel) and is 4.4 million words, which is at least roughly comparable But then you'd have to read wheel of time.
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Sep 1, 2020 23:13
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New monthly deals today. The City We Became (Great Cities #1) by NK Jemisin - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MFKQDJM/ Emergency Skin (Forward collection) by NK Jemisin - $0.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VFMFPP4/ Other Foward books by different authors also on sale. Nova by Samuel R Delaney - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HE2JK5S/ The Redemption of Time (Remembrance of Earth's Past #4) by Baoshu/Ken Liu - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JYZ4G6N/ Note: Not by Cixin Liu. The Way of Shadows (Night Angel #1) by Brent Weeks - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E0V112/ Empire Games (Merchant Princes) by Charles Stross - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HMMYSOW/ Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O65X836/ Harmony Black series 1-4 by Craig Schaefer - $0.99 each Harmony Black - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZX99WCA/ Red Knight Falling - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017RBIZJ2/ Glass Predator - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZ2HO4W/ Cold Spectrum - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XRP6ZL6/
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Sep 1, 2020 23:18
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Black Griffon posted:Are there any huge omnibuses out now? I own a smidgen, I've borrowed some from friends and I've borrowed very few from the library (not a high priority in Norwegian libraries), but if I'm gonna finish the whole thing, I'm gonna have to be effective. ha ha ha no, seriously your best bet for getting the HH is via ebook, as physical copies are expensive, even used. I'd like to thank my new good friend calibre and its ereader for somehow being the ebook reader I needed to actually be able to read ebooks on my laptop. Still need to get a kindle but hey-ho reading a chapter inbetween posts here on SA is working. Star Wars and Trek kind of don't really count for me as they're a connected universe, not a single narrative? But then unlike Guin Saga and the german mega-thing it has many different authors and is a collab effort so yeah. What I'm hearing is that there really is nothing out there like it, which is absolutely wild to me, I'm so glad it exists. And re: Wheel of Time and Malazan: they're good / flawed in their own specific ways and I doubt I'll ever finish reading them. More power to those who love 'em, and also shoutout to how good WoT 1 was with its paranoid horror for most of its plotline, I loved that.
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Sep 1, 2020 23:23
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Yeah, I own a considerable number of physical 40k books, and I think they cost me a bunch. The kindle is probably the best gift I've gotten in ages though, so there's that. Edit: what the gently caress there's an Eisenhorn #4?????
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Sep 1, 2020 23:27
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