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The Good Baru Cormorant
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Nov 20, 2020 14:32
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Happy Landfill posted:Sooo I take it Baru Cormorant is a solid rec? Picked up Traitor sometime back (along with Memory of Empire) and when covid hit I thought, "well, maybe now I'll have time to finally get through my TBR pile." Pandemic brain has hit me hard and with the exception of Harrow the Ninth I haven't had the energy to read all year. It's really bumming me out My one complaint with Baru is that it's extremely good at depicting the horror of colonization and the integration of children into a new culture, and that's too much for me to handle, which is frustrating given how good the writing is.
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Nov 20, 2020 14:50
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Happiness Commando posted:You take that back. Baru is a traitor and a monster And a tyrant! 
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Nov 20, 2020 16:24
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And untitled.
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Nov 20, 2020 16:34
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Well, given the naming convention, the last book gotta be The Late Baru Cormorant.
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Nov 20, 2020 16:51
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Trader Baru Cormorant would bring things around nicely for those of us with lazy accents.
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Nov 20, 2020 17:59
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I can't read and I can't write but that don't really matter, cos I'm a brizzle city fan and I can drive a tractor baru cormorant
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Nov 20, 2020 18:21
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The Lord of the Rings: One Volume by JRR Tolkien - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007978OY6/ The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DDGX4KY/
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Nov 20, 2020 19:20
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The Problematic Baru Cormorant
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Nov 20, 2020 19:28
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Won't lie, big reason I'm excited to read it is because I heard it was a Goon Book 
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Nov 20, 2020 20:11
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pradmer posted:The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon - $1.99 I'm not going to say that Orange Tree was great, but it was solid enough that I finished it and enjoyed the experience. Most importantly, it's a fantasy novel that finishes its story in one (fat) volume. Also it has lesbians in.
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Nov 20, 2020 21:50
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Ornamented Death posted:Just to help anyone searching, it's Karl Edward Wagner. I read bloodstone years ago, kind of Conanesque but more gothic? I think he meets elric at some point? I'd forgotten all about it, might grab one and see if it's still good.
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Nov 20, 2020 22:15
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Finished Soon I Will Be Invincible. The POV characters sucked, the superfights were stilted, and it failed the bechdel test with an intensity and ferocity usually reserved for successes. Some great ~brested boobily~ going on—if you're into that kind of thing. Also wrapped up Wolfhound Century. Early Soviet magical realism via anti-fascist detective story? Pretty neat. Was punchy, with mostly believable characters and enough horrible things lurking around that I was still getting surprised near the end of the book. The rusalka in the flood was creepy and super cool. Biggest complaint is that it ended rather abruptly.
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Nov 20, 2020 22:36
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occamsnailfile posted:I'm not going to say that Orange Tree was great, but it was solid enough that I finished it and enjoyed the experience. Most importantly, it's a fantasy novel that finishes its story in one (fat) volume. Also it has lesbians in. Yeah, I would describe it as "competent by-the-numbers epic fantasy, but gay and over in one volume". If that's what you're in the mood for, it will deliver, without dragging you into a 10-15 volume series.
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Nov 20, 2020 22:54
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Forgive me for intruding on the discussion, but I would like to invite all interested posters here to this year's TBB Secret Santa. 'Tis the season to mail people books!
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Nov 20, 2020 23:07
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tokenbrownguy posted:Finished Soon I Will Be Invincible. The POV characters sucked, the superfights were stilted, and it failed the bechdel test with an intensity and ferocity usually reserved for successes. Some great ~brested boobily~ going on—if you're into that kind of thing. I quite enjoyed the audiobook of SIWBI, which had pretty entertaining voicework, but it's not very good writing as you say
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Nov 20, 2020 23:21
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Happy Landfill posted:Won't lie, big reason I'm excited to read it is because I heard it was a Goon Book Yeah, look for the Baru Cormorants. The Traitor Baru Cormorant: Forget about your worries and your strife. It's just the Baru Cormorant, the Masquerade informerant that brings the Baru Cormorants of life. Wherever you wander, wherever you roam, the forces of Falcrest infiltrate your home. Rebels hide by every tree, wanting Aurdwynn to be free. Working with them would be fantastic, first you must do something non-Incrastic like gently caress a girl or two. (Golly, thanks, Tain Hu!) The Baru Cormorants of life will come for you!
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Nov 20, 2020 23:55
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Nov 21, 2020 00:05
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Welp, finished the second book in the Tim Reaper series, and all I gotta say is "drat." cause... It's a hell of a ride. Dunno where the series is going to go from here but at least it's been entertaining so far. Sean cummings is the author, and book 2 is The Girl on Victoria Road.
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Nov 21, 2020 00:12
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branedotorg posted:I read bloodstone years ago, kind of Conanesque but more gothic? I think he meets elric at some point? Yeah, Wagner wrote a short story where Kane meets Elric. Bloodstone is one of my favorite of his books because it highlights what sets Kane apart from all those other mighty-thewed Conan imitators out there -- Kane is just as likely to be the villain in his stories as the hero.
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Nov 21, 2020 01:02
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Jedit posted:Yeah, look for the Baru Cormorants. This is amazing. Sadly it won't make sense to people who haven't read The Traitor Baru Cormorant. Everyone read that first then come back to appreciate this post.
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Nov 21, 2020 05:19
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Jedit posted:Yeah, look for the Baru Cormorants. 
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Nov 21, 2020 10:49
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anilEhilated posted:Well, given the naming convention, the last book gotta be The Late Baru Cormorant. The Baru Cormorant, The.
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Nov 21, 2020 16:53
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pradmer posted:The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon - $1.99 I made it about 100 pages into this before giving up, it felt so generic and 90s I was wondering if the author was doing a bit.
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Nov 21, 2020 16:55
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Finished another book and I'm gonna gush, here's my goodreads review: The Queen of Ieflaria by Effie Calvin. Oh, that was delightful! A short yet sweet fantasy romance that took the concept of an arranged marriage and played with it, then tossed in all kinds of fun twists on fantasy setting ideas. If you've ever read of any Mercedes Lackey's fantasy novels this felt similar to those, but without the extreme angst. The concept is, Princess Esofi has been sent to Ieflaria to fulfill a marriage contract she was signed into when she was three. Except when she gets there, he's dead to an accident and the Queen and King are determined to have a wedding anyways - so she must choose between marrying Princess Adale or a pair of twins who would be the next in line to the throne. You can already tell who she's going to marry, eh? It's not the kind of book to keep you guessing, even if the characters take time to figure it out themselves. I've taken a star from the rating because it suffers from first novel syndrome, and the first 20% or so of the book is drowned under too much infodumping. The author has developed a setting she's in love with and so there's a LOT of writing about it instead of character interactions or anything else, and it's slooooow. Fortunately the book isn't long, so once you muscle through and the characters get to talking, it turns into a delightful romp. Esofi and Adale have to learn each other, and there's a fascinating plot: dragons have been invading Ieflaria more and more - why? And why has magic abandoned the country? I love how Esofi was ready to burn down a hospital due to its scientific blasphemy, even if this wasn't a huge part of the novel - the goddess of magic turned from Ieflaria for other reasons, and Adale helps Esofi learn why. Overall this is a fun, light romance with some cool action sequences, and the setting is fascinating, which makes me thrilled to see so many sequels. I'd happily recommend this to anyone, as it's just the perfect palate cleanser between heavier books. e: oh yeah, if you want it it's 4.19$ on the publisher's website. Cheaper than amazon and DRM free.
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Nov 21, 2020 21:54
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Light fantasy romances are exactly what I've been craving lately, so thank you very much for the rec.
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Nov 22, 2020 00:18
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I will admit to possibly being the only person in this thread not blown away by Baru Cormorant book 1. The main character really didn't hit me for, so I mainly read Baru Cormorant 1 to see how overt the 1:1 mapping to Crusader Kings 2 in it got while hoping the main character would stop reacting passively to everything around them. Spoiler: The 1:1 to mapping to Crusader Kings 2 got very overt. SFL Archives readthrough continues to deliver: -The debates about the intelligence of the various Alien lifeforms/lifestages in Alien 1979 & Aliens 1986 consistently going places. One SFLer keeps referring to the Space Jockey thing it as a (alien) "mother" constantly leading to inevitable thread confusion due to the Nostromo's AI being called "MOTHER" too. -Tales of utterly terrible fan behavior at any large conventions of the past 4 years (1984-1988) or recent personal fen-dom gathering, which leads to.... -David Brin being revealed as having utterly garbage (Harlan Ellison style) behavior towards women at conventions since at least the mid 1980s. Why it took until 2019 for that behavior by David Brin to be outed publicly is baffling. I blame the SFWA. -One of the best descriptions of why the YA genre exists, and why it has near universal appeal for readers of all ages. -The default SFL Archives -4 to +4 review scale starts being abused by the Leepers(the reviewer-idiot power couple of the SFL Archives) because they badly want to go professional/be published in magazines scifi/fantasy reviews. -Anytime LeGuin's "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" gets mentioned by SFLer's it sounds more and more like a hitpiece vs LeGuin's nearest competitor Katherine Kurtz. -SFLer Larry Klaes goes through Bjo Trimble's CONCORDANCE & points out most of the errors in it, like Kirk having two brothers? Bjo Trimble responds positively. -Elbereth being the Rutgers ARPANET server name all SFL Archives email goes to/comes from. Tolkien fans & old-school Rogue-like fans will get that reference.
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Nov 22, 2020 00:35
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quantumfoam posted:I will admit to possibly being the only person in this thread not blown away by Baru Cormorant book 1. No, I wasn't blown away with it either. I described it at the time as a bad book written very well. But I wasn't put off enough by the failings of the plot to not read the second book, and as it turned out it fixes a lot of the things that I felt were wrong with the first.
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Nov 22, 2020 00:53
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quantumfoam posted:-David Brin being revealed as having utterly garbage (Harlan Ellison style) behavior towards women at conventions since at least the mid 1980s. Why it took until 2019 for that behavior by David Brin to be outed publicly is baffling. I blame the SFWA. Curious if you've seen any stories of people with bad behavior there that haven't been publicly outed
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Nov 22, 2020 00:58
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Major Isoor posted:Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing, regarding your spoiler! The Silver Spike is still my favourite one, but it definitely ended well, I feel. Ignore Port of Shadows. Absolutely terrible in the worst creepy old SF writer way. He's got some new Black Company short stories in The Best of Glen Cook, which is an excellent anthology, collecting from all across his work; there's a Darkwar piece, Starfishers stuff, excellent Dread Empire material. Get that instead.
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Nov 22, 2020 01:12
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quantumfoam posted:I will admit to possibly being the only person in this thread not blown away by Baru Cormorant book 1. I have never played Crusader Kings 2 tho
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Nov 22, 2020 01:33
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I like Katherine Kurtz (and I believe Le Guin has apologized for being overly harsh on her in "From Elfland"), but the idea of her being Le Guin's "nearest competitor" doesn't make sense. Nearest competitor in what? If you mean "among female SF/fantasy writers," then Cherryh, McCaffrey, and MZB (at least before her husband's crimes were common knowledge) were head and shoulders above Kurtz in terms of influence and readership.
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Nov 22, 2020 03:07
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quantumfoam posted:The main character really didn't hit me for, so I mainly read Baru Cormorant 1 to see how overt the 1:1 mapping to Crusader Kings 2 in it got while hoping the main character would stop reacting passively to everything around them. Spoiler: The 1:1 to mapping to Crusader Kings 2 got very overt. Can you explain what it means to map 1:1 to a non-narrative game about medieval Europe? It’s sort of like saying something “maps”(?) to civilization
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Nov 22, 2020 03:45
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quantumfoam posted:I will admit to possibly being the only person in this thread not blown away by Baru Cormorant book 1. What does a 1:1 mapping to Crusader Kings mean? Does it have a campaign or something? I think that if you follow up with the next two books you won't find baru to be passive for sure.
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Nov 22, 2020 03:48
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quantumfoam posted:The 1:1 to mapping to Crusader Kings 2 got very overt. General Battuta posted:I have never played Crusader Kings 2 tho you guys have had this exact exchange at least once before 
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Nov 22, 2020 05:01
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PupsOfWar posted:you guys have had this exact exchange at least once before The Time Travelling Baru Cormorant
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Nov 22, 2020 05:30
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I'm sorry, it's just a weird thing to hear. I don't know how I could 'overtly' be mapping a story to something I don't know anything about.
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Nov 22, 2020 06:05
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General Battuta posted:I'm sorry, it's just a weird thing to hear. I don't know how I could 'overtly' be mapping a story to something I don't know anything about. I'm not sure how you even map a story to Crusader Kings which has no real coherent narrative. It's like saying your story maps 1:1 with Civilization 2.
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Nov 22, 2020 06:16
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I would be pissed off if I had any pride or positive emotional investment in my work still left in this drifting cnidarian bloatage of a brain 
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Nov 22, 2020 06:19
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Kchama posted:I'm not sure how you even map a story to Crusader Kings which has no real coherent narrative. It's like saying your story maps 1:1 with Civilization 2. That's probably both the why and the how. The brain maps patterns onto chaos, reflexively. I haven't played CK2 but it's likely just a tabula errata.
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Nov 22, 2020 06:22
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