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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Like 3/4ths of Dunsany's books are public domain and available online with an easy search. There are good editions of two of them here: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks?query=dunsany I know, but I was asking about a physical book. Thanks anyway! And thanks everyone for the tips.
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Oct 4, 2020 02:34
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HopperUK posted:I know, but I was asking about a physical book. Thanks anyway! And thanks everyone for the tips. In addition to what others have said, Dover Books has inexpensive editions of Wonder Tales and The King of Elfland's Daughter available through their site.
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Oct 4, 2020 02:40
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pseudorandom name posted:Sorry, I was a bit muddled in my praise here. In my defense, somebody kept me awake into the early morning with a good book. quote:To maintain trim is to act in a way that puts the well being of others before your own. Not in the hope of reward or advantage, but in the knowledge that the only way to a good world is for all people to put themselves second so that all people will be put first.
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Oct 4, 2020 03:36
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Selachian posted:In addition to what others have said, Dover Books has inexpensive editions of Wonder Tales and The King of Elfland's Daughter available through their site. Yeah, Dover reprint editions are always solid quality.
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Oct 4, 2020 03:43
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pseudorandom name posted:Some other little things I found delightful: Personally I enjoyed the two separate occasions characters took a moment to explain that Sandersonian magic systems aren't magic at all, but rather game manuals (or, if you want to be generous, "science"). Shoutout to the GOATs Tau-indi and Ulyu Xe.
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Oct 4, 2020 03:54
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Making solid progress in SFL Archives Vol 12a, readthrough update 02 has been up for a few days, and just posted readthrough update 03 on the SFL Archives readthrough blog. This has to be mentioned though. Someone leaked the casting notes for STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, and you can see exactly where the producers gave in and stopped editing out Gene Roddenberry's skeeviness in the casting notes for the female ST:TNG characters BEVERLY CRUSHER -- Wesley's 35 year old mother. She serves as the chief medical officer on the Enterprise. If it were not for her intelligence, personality, beauty and the fact that she has a natural walk of a striptease queen, Capt. Picard might not have agreed to her request that Wesley observe bridge activities; therefore letting her son's intelligence carry events further.
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Oct 4, 2020 05:44
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quantumfoam posted:BEVERLY CRUSHER -- Wesley's 35 year old mother. She serves as the chief medical officer on the Enterprise. If it were not for her intelligence, personality, beauty and the fact that she has a natural walk of a striptease queen, Capt. Picard might not have agreed to her request that Wesley observe bridge activities; therefore letting her son's intelligence carry events further. That's not at all helped by Wesley being Gene Wesley Roddenberry's self-incest character. Oh sorry, I meant "self-insert".
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Oct 4, 2020 23:49
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For anyone who likes free books: It's a westerner's take on Chinese cultivation fantasy. Good as a 'light', action-focused popcorn fantasy read. Kind of like doofy shonen anime ala DBZ or Naruto, lots of fighting and training for fights and talking about training and fighting, but with better writing.
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Oct 5, 2020 00:12
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The bad Kindle books thread is over there, thank you.
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Oct 5, 2020 01:30
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Horizon Burning posted:The bad Kindle books thread is over there, thank you. Cradle's actually good 
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Oct 5, 2020 01:53
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StrixNebulosa posted:Cradle's actually good Maybe your taste is just poor 
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Oct 5, 2020 04:59
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Like 3/4ths of Dunsany's books are public domain and available online with an easy search. There are good editions of two of them here: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks?query=dunsany Ah, so he wrote a slice of life manga
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Oct 5, 2020 05:47
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After really enjoying Robert Charles Wilson's Blind Lake I picked up Darwinia, and... eh. It starts out great but then very quickly becomes a computer simulation story that isn't nearly as interesting as it thinks it is.
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Oct 5, 2020 05:54
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XBenedict posted:Maybe your taste is just poor Can confirm Cradle is actually good! I am so very psyched for Wintersteel.
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Oct 5, 2020 05:57
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StrixNebulosa posted:Cradle's actually good A bold claim considering that each of those three sentences contains a massive red flag.
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Oct 5, 2020 06:19
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I'm listening to the audiobook of the first Cradle book. It's not exactly fine literature, but it's entertaining...
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Oct 5, 2020 07:11
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I'm not sure which of you recommended The Steerswoman, or rather which one of your recommendations I actually saw in the several times it has been brought up this year, but thanks. I read The Lost Steersman and The Language of Power this weekend and they were fun. They slow reveal of the actual nature of her world has been entertaining. Apparently the author has been plucking along on both books 5 and 6 for like the last decade or more, in between her accountancy day job and fighting off breast cancer. I shall remain optimistic.
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Oct 5, 2020 09:59
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Cicero posted:For anyone who likes free books:
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Oct 5, 2020 11:05
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There's a non-zero amount of romance but it's a very small part of the story, at least so far.
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Oct 5, 2020 11:57
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GladRagKraken posted:I'm trying to find a book I found out about here, and I've skimmed through the thread and I couldn't find it again. It was this future dystopia where there were all sorts of enhanced fabrics, and the protagonist was a tailor. Is that ringing any bells? Can someone remind me of the title? Yarn by Jon Armstrong?
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Oct 5, 2020 13:36
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freebooter posted:After really enjoying Robert Charles Wilson's Blind Lake I picked up Darwinia, and... eh. It starts out great but then very quickly becomes a computer simulation story that isn't nearly as interesting as it thinks it is. Did you finish it? The computer generation thing is more an interstitial before it goes back to more pulpy stuff. I read it when it came out and one was of my favorite quick reads for a few years after. The only other thing I read of his was the Spin books.
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Oct 5, 2020 14:07
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Thirty-Five Minutes posted:Yarn by Jon Armstrong? YES! Thank you.
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Oct 5, 2020 14:18
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I finished KJ Parker's Academic Exercises. Really good, I've become a fan of his now. I'm reading his second short story collection, Father of Lies, which is less good, but still decent. He's better at writing down on their luck students who end up accomplishing something great or are swept up in some insane plan, less good at writing geniuses who manage to effortlessly accomplish their plans, and very bad at writing women. The worst story I've read so far was "Downfall of the Gods" which had a female protagonist (though she's a deity, so...). I didn't really buy the voice he was giving her, and being an immortal being there was nothing that could harm her. It was a very low stakes story with a not very compelling protagonist. I read some reviews of The Folding Knife after finishing that book, and critics pointed out that many of Bassano's philosophical viewpoints that he comes to as he lives through a war read as very trite, which they felt suited his character as a spoiled aristocrat. Basso's faith in his nephew Bassano was viewed as another of Basso's flaws, because Bassano is not actually as brilliant as Basso believes. But in the short stories, these philosophical ideas come up again and again. The concept that there is no real morality, there is just sides, and people congregate on one particular side or another without any concept of right or wrong. This is an idea Parker keeps returning to, and puts into the mouths of characters he builds up as the greatest philosophers of their age in his world. Which makes me wonder if he really believes it, and Bassano's conclusions in The Folding Knife were meant to be poignant and true revelations that he comes to during war. In which case a lot of critics are giving Parker too much credit, believing he's satirizing a view he might actually believe in.
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Oct 5, 2020 18:15
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Thirty-Five Minutes posted:Yarn by Jon Armstrong? GladRagKraken posted:YES! Thank you. LOL this is literally the series that I couldn't remember but suggested to you and you turned down. I knew the second book was called Grey, except I spelled it Gray and good luck searching book titles for something that generic. Thanks for finding it, Thirty-Five Minutes.
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Oct 5, 2020 19:13
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The Dreamblood Duology (The Killing Moon, The Shadowed Sun) by NK Jemisin - $6.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DSTTQAO/ The Powder Mage Trilogy (Promise of Blood, The Crimson Campaign, The Autumn Republic) by Brian McClellan - $9.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NZNTK6V/ The Testaments by Margaret Atwood - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KVLPYDQ/ The Bone Ships (Tide Child #1) by RJ Barker - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MPW3GMX/ Cradle series 1-7 by Will Wight - Free Unsouled - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H1CYBS6/ Soulsmith - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M09PWJQ/ Blackflame - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0716GZ8QX/ Skysworn - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0762YQ2H8/ Ghostwater - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DFWZP9C/ Underlord - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NJ3B6HN/ Uncrowned - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X8ZH6BS/ Thanks to Cicero for the heads up.
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Oct 5, 2020 22:30
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Mark Lawrence "The Impossible Times" trilogy on sale at amazon (I haven't read these books but I enjoyed the prince of thorns trilogy from the same author) One Word Kill $0.99 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C24V3SD Limited Wish $0.99 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H4FTJ7T Dispel Illusion $1.99 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QRTQ2K3
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Oct 5, 2020 22:38
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pradmer posted:
The Bone Ships is a fun pirate romp with weird magic birds, but I should warn the reader that it ends with the words "So, it is over" "No. Now, it begins"
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Oct 5, 2020 23:21
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Macdeo Lurjtux posted:Did you finish it? The computer generation thing is more an interstitial before it goes back to more pulpy stuff. Yeah, I still found the latter two thirds to just be unenjoyable, a sense of an idea Wilson had that he failed to execute. Like, the entire 50-page climax of the undying not-soldiers going off to fight the... lizard virus programs in the lost city? I was just bored and felt it was a waste of my time. No clear stakes, no sense of action-and-consequence, and characters I didn't care about. On the strength of Blind Lake and the very beginning of Darwinia, though, I'm going to keep reading him and have a few more of his books on order.
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Oct 5, 2020 23:33
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I liked spin quite a bit but haven't read the two other books yet
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Oct 5, 2020 23:38
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Hi thread, I'm looking for some fantasy or Sci fi by a female author for a book club that wouldn't normally read that. I've read The Left Hand of Darkness recently and was thinking of suggesting the Dispossessed, but Kindred by Octavia Butler also looks good. Any suggestions would be welcome. Also you guys seem cool.
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Oct 6, 2020 00:21
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Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is good (based on reviews and what I've read so far), very recent, and short.
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Oct 6, 2020 00:33
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Cavelcade posted:Hi thread, I'm looking for some fantasy or Sci fi by a female author for a book club that wouldn't normally read that. I've read The Left Hand of Darkness recently and was thinking of suggesting the Dispossessed, but Kindred by Octavia Butler also looks good. Janny Wurts' To Ride Hell's Chasm is standalone! CJ Cherryh's Pride of Chanur is also standalone, with optional sequels.
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Oct 6, 2020 00:35
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Cavelcade posted:Hi thread, I'm looking for some fantasy or Sci fi by a female author for a book club that wouldn't normally read that. I've read The Left Hand of Darkness recently and was thinking of suggesting the Dispossessed, but Kindred by Octavia Butler also looks good. We did The Dispossessed as a Book of the Month a couple years ago, you can find the thread here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3812499 What I'd really suggest though is Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees, which we also did as a BOTM a few years ago, and it's out of copyright so a free download; thread here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3781830 Piranesi is probably also a great pick but I haven't gotten to it yet.
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Oct 6, 2020 00:55
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Cavelcade posted:Hi thread, I'm looking for some fantasy or Sci fi by a female author for a book club that wouldn't normally read that. I've read The Left Hand of Darkness recently and was thinking of suggesting the Dispossessed, but Kindred by Octavia Butler also looks good. I read Kindred recently and it's good, but I think it was also on a lot of American high school curricula for a long time so many of them might have already read it. I'd recommend: - Oryx and Crake, which is IMO the better and more prescient Margaret Atwood novel than the more obvious pick of The Handmaid's Tale (which is a good book, but also a very dull one, and far less plausible a future than Oryx and Crake) - China Mountain Zhang, a sci-fi novel I admire for simply telling its characters' personal stories within its sci-fi world (near future Chinese Communist dominated America, though it was written in 1992) rather than having them directly influence it - The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, a fun and easily readable time travel story about a guy who keeps living his lifespan over and over (and I haven't read it, but apparently Kate Atkinson's Life After Life is a similar concept and was very popular) - My Real Children, a Sliding Doors-esque novel about two divergent narratives after a woman in the 1940s makes a critical decision, but world history is also dramatically diverging as well as her own life - From the Wreck. A well-meaning shapeshifting alien latches onto a 19th century shipwreck survivor and his family; this is a pretty obscure Australian book but I liked it a lot
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Oct 6, 2020 00:57
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Cavelcade posted:Hi thread, I'm looking for some fantasy or Sci fi by a female author for a book club that wouldn't normally read that. I've read The Left Hand of Darkness recently and was thinking of suggesting the Dispossessed, but Kindred by Octavia Butler also looks good. Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle.
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Oct 6, 2020 01:22
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Cicero posted:There's a non-zero amount of romance but it's a very small part of the story, at least so far. I think even this much is overselling it. The main character and another semi-main character become close. There's some slight awkwardness about it, and I think at most one other character gets jealous of his sister spending time with the main character. And that's about it, across 7 entire books.
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Oct 6, 2020 01:29
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They haven't done anything yet, but it's obvious where it's heading But yes it's very minimal and hasn't blocked the plot or anything
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Oct 6, 2020 01:44
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Cavelcade posted:Hi thread, I'm looking for some fantasy or Sci fi by a female author for a book club that wouldn't normally read that. I've read The Left Hand of Darkness recently and was thinking of suggesting the Dispossessed, but Kindred by Octavia Butler also looks good. The Dispossessed is a fine choice. I'll also throw The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee on the pile of recommendations you've already gotten.
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Oct 6, 2020 01:51
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SFL Vol 12a readthrough is complete and up at the offsite blog. Also did some work on the Dramatis personae of the SFL Archives listings. 5 SFL Vol12a update summaries in total, got to read some interesting things, also got to suffer through some absolutely boring crap I gave negative-127% about (Robert Heinlein the writer debates, the Boscone 25 debacle, more Heinlein debates, with a chaser of David Eddings and MZB). Links to the SFL readthrough blog have been shared previously, and are in the OP. Feeling extremely burned out after finishing SFL Vol 12a, and I know that SFL Vol 12b will be inflicting pain on me. I find Star Trek: The Next Generation painful, and Riker creeps me out/gives excessive "Dennis Reynolds IMPLICATION vibes: but the implication factor is ramped up to being shoved out of a airlock if you say NO."
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Oct 6, 2020 02:05
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Hey, Riker is extremely sensitive to consent 
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Oct 6, 2020 02:24
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