|
More short SFF that I'm tearing through trying to make my numbers on the book challenge: Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi - I've liked the Oyeyemi I've read (White is for Witching and Icarus Girl) but this fell short of those I think. It's sort of a mish mashing of fairy tail stuff with exploited girls making gingerbread in a non-existent ostensibly modern country. And then weird family/immigrant relationships after they flee. It didn't quite hang together for me. Probably do other Oyeyemi instead. Finna by Nino Cipri - When a wormhole opens in Not-Ikea and sucks in a grandmother, the two newest hires are designated to enter and recover the old woman or her nearest alternate world approximation. Only, they've recently broken up. So they navigate various alternate Ikeas, many quite hostile, trying to save the day and reconcile their relationship. I enjoyed this one. Quick, light, appropriately critical of capitalism and to some extent Ikea. Jack by Connie Willis - I think maybe a new release of an existing long story/novella. During the Blitz, a bomb monitoring team in London takes on a new recruit who is eerily adept at finding persons buried in rubble. Disappointed in myself for missing the trick, but it's pretty solid. The Four Profound Weaves by RB Lemburg - The first published "Birdverse" book. Apparently others exist digitally somewhere? I dunno. An older man and older woman travel together. She seeks to learn and perfect the final of the four profound weaves, he seeks to understand his place in the world. Serious trans themes. Interesting world. You don't need to have read other stuff by the author, but you can tell other stuff exists. Unexpected Stories by Octavia Butler - Apparently 2 stories discovered more or less in the attic by the executor of Butler's literary estate. One was sold to Ellison for his Final Dangerous Visions collection discussed earlier. The first is different clans in a fantasy/alien/post apocalyptic world, who for reasons unexplained must have at least one member of a specific caste. Themes of caste, color, obligation and power. The 2nd is psi powers discovered in America probably in the 70s and a woman who wants to break away from official group and try to local and develop talented kids on her own. I preferred the second. Neither is great, there's better Butler, but hey, if you've read it all, more Butler! The Postutopian Adventures of Darger and Surplus by Michael Swanwick - A con-man and con-genetically-altered-dog-man scam their way across a post utopian world. This was OK. I want more snappy patter, more clever schemes, and less people really wanting to have sex with the heroes. Thief by Margaret Whalen Turner - The longest book of these at 270 pages, this was surprisingly good. I didn't know much about it. It's about a thief who is taken out of jail to steal an important artifact which will help determine the fate of 3 neighboring kingdoms. Solid all round, and generally pretty interesting too. I'll probably pick up the sequel. Ring Shout by P Djeli Clark - 1920s Georgia. Earlier in the century white supremacists used The Birth of a Nation as a spell to summon otherworldly help that feeds on hate. Now Maryse and her other misfit women fight Ku Kluxes, pointed headed demons masquerading as regular Klansmen. But something big is afoot. Can Maryse save the world? Can she even save herself? I really enjoyed this. Good action, good horror elements. Would recommend.
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 06:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2024 16:14 |
|
|
Let's say that Baru would be incredible at that game, which consists (based on reading about it and about 10 minutes of play before decided to go back to shooters) of a lot of looking at maps and analyzing areas and their local rulers and various relationships between them.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 06:40
|
|
|
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. especially because as far as I'm concerned the official novelization of the game did not, which is a weird stance to take but eh, death of the author
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 07:15
|
|
|
I mean the author can try to deny it but its basically all laid out plain as dayquote:"We need more prestige points before we can forge a claim to the duchy of Falcrest" Baru grimaced, " and without that our moral authority is going to keep us from pushing any reforms through." She rubbed her temples. Perhaps installing Glitterhoof as spymaster had been a mistake but that horse had powerful friends
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 07:29
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 07:37
|
|
|
The Chad Jihad posted:I mean the author can try to deny it but its basically all laid out plain as day Fuckin 
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 08:17
|
|
|
General Battuta posted: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 Hold him down, orderly, he's got into the thesaurus again! *shakes head sadly* Donaldson's Syndrome, the worst case I've ever seen.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 09:53
|
|
|
Since there has been talk of Wolfhound Century that made me want to re-read it - lo and behold, Amazon has the whole trilogy on cheap today.
anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 12:31 on Nov 22, 2020 |
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 09:59
|
|
|
Finished Piranesi and it's great. A relatively simple story massively enhanced by the pitch perfect tone of the unreliable narrator, which turns the story into a sort of constant puzzle for the reader to try and guess at. I don't think it will stick in my memory or invite re-reading the way J Strange & Norrell did, but as a one-off reading experience it's easily in my top three of the year.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 10:01
|
|
|
The Chad Jihad posted:I mean the author can try to deny it but its basically all laid out plain as day Okay, fine. So it is a 1:1 of Crusader Kings 2.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 10:36
|
|
|
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. edit: General Battuta posted: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 
Drakyn fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Nov 22, 2020 |
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 15:16
|
|
|
General Battuta posted: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 You write good, and also I came to say: Tor's Best Books of 2020 quote:The best books for me this year were the dense ones, whose familiar worlds I could sink back into, even if I had to work to reorient myself. Seeing Baru’s plot against the Masquerade extended from three books into four meant more time with The Tyrant Baru Cormorant, with her breathtaking budgeting of others’ lives and her gnawing self-doubt about her place within the cancerous empire. Seth Dickinson’s geopolitical fantasy series makes me feel like I’ve been let in on a wondrous secret, and makes me finally understand why my parents have been turning to binge-watching so many political dramas since lockdown started. I don’t think I could have handled Baru’s story ending this year, so I’m grateful for more time to watch her struggle to balance her personal ledger.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 15:55
|
|
|
DACK FAYDEN posted:now I want to write something that maps 1:1 to SMAC Man. Yang was such a dick.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 16:25
|
|
|
Selachian posted: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. Cherryh, McCaffrey, and MZB never get mentioned or compared with Le Guin whenever Elfland comes up in the SFL Archives. Mainly because Cherryh hadn't started her writing career when Elfland was written, while McCaffrey only seems to get discussed in the SFL Archives regarding Pern. To the SFL Archives MZB has always been off in her own Darkover zone, with the latest about MZB in the SFL Archives being WTF comments about her extremely controlling behavior at Darkover conventions & LARP events. the idea of her being Le Guin's "nearest competitor" Anytime Elfland has been brought up in the SFL Archives, SFLer's make special note of Le Guin being the daughter of a famous anthropologist, then always seem to imply Le Guin was punching down when she wrote it. Turns out back when Elfland came out, both Le Guin & Kurtz were finalists for the 1973 Mythopoeic Awards. Kurtz was the new-comer with 2 well selling books within 2 years, while everyone else up for that award had been professionally writing since at least the mid 1960's (the 1973 Mythopoeic Awards winner had been writing since the 1940s). Tars Tarkas posted:Curious if you've seen any stories of people with bad behavior there that haven't been publicly outed So far it's just been Isaac Asimov, Harlan Ellison, and now David Brin. Keep in mind this is the 1980's and lots of things flew back then that would not fly today/get covered up or explained away. Just like there is a dedicated Heinlein Defense Squad in the SFL Archives, there is also a unpaid SFWA defense squad that go beyond the H-D-S in defending SFWA members. One of the more memorable SFWA super-fans in the SFL Archives got super-loving pissy about Kurt Vonnegut not being a member of the SFWA.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 17:37
|
|
|
Ben Nevis posted:More short SFF that I'm tearing through trying to make my numbers on the book challenge: Heard a lot about P Djeli Clark, he's got a ton of novellas out that look good. Gonna pick up Ring Shout now on this recommendation.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 18:30
|
|
|
General Battuta posted: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 They're good books, Battuta. I'm legit looking forward to The Fourth Book Baru Cormorant, and I'm vibrating with excitement so hard I'm clipping through the floor at the prospect of a full-length SF novel from you, since your SF short stories are loving tasty.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 18:43
|
|
|
ToxicFrog posted:They're good books, Battuta. Turns out the Good General can outwrite David Weber with a six week novel. https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/mission-of-honor-retold.64883/
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 18:57
|
|
|
mllaneza posted:Turns out the Good General can outwrite David Weber with a six week novel. Oh goddammit I am absolutely going to read that I thought I was Weber-Free Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Nov 22, 2020 |
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 19:19
|
|
|
Ben Nevis posted:Finna by Nino Cipri - When a wormhole opens in Not-Ikea and sucks in a grandmother, the two newest hires are designated to enter and recover the old woman or her nearest alternate world approximation. Only, they've recently broken up. So they navigate various alternate Ikeas, many quite hostile, trying to save the day and reconcile their relationship. I enjoyed this one. Quick, light, appropriately critical of capitalism and to some extent Ikea. Finna was definitely a fun little read. The sequel, Defekt, is supposed to be coming out in April and it follows one of the other employees having to search the store for defective merchandise (with the help of his possible clones/copies?).
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 20:23
|
|
|
Lavinia by Ursula K Le Guin - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003IEJZTC/ The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O2BKJV8/
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 20:59
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Oh goddammit I am absolutely going to read that Likewise, but you never truly escape Weber...
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 21:20
|
|
|
Well that's about the fastest I've ever been disappointed by a book. Lindsay Ellis' Axiom's End gave me a hundred pages of confusing and unpleasant thriller-esque stuff with frustratingly stupid alien(s?) and an increasing sense of anxiety the further I read it. I went into it expecting the main character to be picked up by some agency and used to help translate an alien, but instead she lost her job, got attacked by an alien at home, had to run from the MIB, and then randomly wound up trying to break into Google and excuse me, what? I love first contact novels. I love Transformers. But this was not those.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 21:38
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Well that's about the fastest I've ever been disappointed by a book. Lindsay Ellis' Axiom's End gave me a hundred pages of confusing and unpleasant thriller-esque stuff with frustratingly stupid alien(s?) and an increasing sense of anxiety the further I read it. I went into it expecting the main character to be picked up by some agency and used to help translate an alien, but instead she lost her job, got attacked by an alien at home, had to run from the MIB, and then randomly wound up trying to break into Google and excuse me, what? Eh, I didn't have a huge problem with that. But major aspects of the novel only exist to be explored in sequels (her dad) and the bits near the end sort of felt like I was reading The Shape of Water but aliens. I like Lindsay Ellis' video essays, but I'm not a huge fan of the book. It had its moments, and I might still pick up the sequel, but yeah.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 22:02
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Well that's about the fastest I've ever been disappointed by a book. Lindsay Ellis' Axiom's End gave me a hundred pages of confusing and unpleasant thriller-esque stuff with frustratingly stupid alien(s?) and an increasing sense of anxiety the further I read it. I went into it expecting the main character to be picked up by some agency and used to help translate an alien, but instead she lost her job, got attacked by an alien at home, had to run from the MIB, and then randomly wound up trying to break into Google and excuse me, what? It's one of the worst-written novels I can remember reading. But the book becomes easy to understand when you realize that it was only published because of her massive audience. Whatever work a publisher is supposed to do for the author, I think it's fair to say they didn't do for Ellis. 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. Readers are weird. I got similar comments on my web novel and they'd always be referencing things I had never read. Then, they'd never pick up on the bits and pieces that were actual homages, winks, or references to other works. 
|
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 22:53
|
|
|
Milkfred E. Moore posted:It's one of the worst-written novels I can remember reading. But the book becomes easy to understand when you realize that it was only published because of her massive audience. Might be, but she did a pretty good video on what it takes to get published and she made mention that her having an audience meant Jack and poo poo, and Jack left town. But you have to take her at her word on that so
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 23:04
|
|
Riot Carol Danvers posted:Might be, but she did a pretty good video on what it takes to get published and she made mention that her having an audience meant Jack and poo poo, and Jack left town. But you have to take her at her word on that so She's also said in an interview with another channel that it's a relatively recent thing for publishers to contact Youtubers with an audience and offer to ghostwrite a novel on their behalf. In her case, she already had something in her trunk ready to go. Which, if I recall Ellis' own video correctly, she says her publishing deal came from a fan in the industry (or a friend of a friend?) who asked her if she had any novels sitting around. So, both can be true. 'My audience didn't matter until some new business model kicked in.'
|
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2020 23:22
|
|
|
Milkfred E. Moore posted:She's also said in an interview with another channel that it's a relatively recent thing for publishers to contact Youtubers with an audience and offer to ghostwrite a novel on their behalf. In her case, she already had something in her trunk ready to go. Which, if I recall Ellis' own video correctly, she says her publishing deal came from a fan in the industry (or a friend of a friend?) who asked her if she had any novels sitting around. So, both can be true. 'My audience didn't matter until some new business model kicked in.' Yeah, for her to say her audience didn't matter rings really false when she stated in that video that she was approached by an agent and not the other way around. Clearly, her audience did matter, because that's where the deal came from.
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2020 00:13
|
|
|
Finally had the time to finish Tyrant. Excellent book and series. I like how Traitor changed my perspective on the story with the idea that every pawn is a king/queen in their own game. It was really interesting seeing everyone, big and small, playing their plans off of each other through all three books. Tyrant: Twice in Tyrant I really had to stop and evaluate the books and what I'd read to that point. Once was when the idea of another (or more) groups of cryptarchs was brought up. It was so obvious but I'd fallen into the trap of trusting what characters heard from other characters who are obviously deceiving them on some level. The other was Renascent. I spent the whole book looking for clues because I assumed that at some point we'd meet a disguised Renascent or Stargazer. When Cosgrad talked about Renascent being someone else or a group of people or something I started to wonder how far up the chain Itinerant or Hesychast really were.
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2020 02:10
|
|
|
Milkfred E. Moore posted:She's also said in an interview with another channel that it's a relatively recent thing for publishers to contact Youtubers with an audience and offer to ghostwrite a novel on their behalf. In her case, she already had something in her trunk ready to go. Which, if I recall Ellis' own video correctly, she says her publishing deal came from a fan in the industry (or a friend of a friend?) who asked her if she had any novels sitting around. So, both can be true. 'My audience didn't matter until some new business model kicked in.' Nae posted:Yeah, for her to say her audience didn't matter rings really false when she stated in that video that she was approached by an agent and not the other way around. Clearly, her audience did matter, because that's where the deal came from. Y'all might be right and I completely misunderstood part of that video. I'm usually doing something else when I've got videos like that playing.
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2020 02:29
|
|
|
Nae posted:Yeah, for her to say her audience didn't matter rings really false when she stated in that video that she was approached by an agent and not the other way around. Clearly, her audience did matter, because that's where the deal came from. I mean, it have been that the agent was just impressed by Ellis' work, and thought that her videos showed she had promise as a writer, but I'm real skeptical of any claim that being famous (even low-key internet famous) didn't factor into the publisher's decision.
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2020 04:19
|
|
|
Patrick Spens posted:I mean, it have been that the agent was just impressed by Ellis' work, and thought that her videos showed she had promise as a writer, but I'm real skeptical of any claim that being famous (even low-key internet famous) didn't factor into the publisher's decision. IIRC the agent came looking for her to write something without having seen any of her written work.
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2020 04:45
|
|
|
Ben Nevis posted:Thief by Margaret Whalen Turner - The longest book of these at 270 pages, this was surprisingly good. I didn't know much about it. It's about a thief who is taken out of jail to steal an important artifact which will help determine the fate of 3 neighboring kingdoms. Solid all round, and generally pretty interesting too. I'll probably pick up the sequel. the sequels are much better than the first one, IMO
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2020 16:17
|
|
|
Doobie Keebler posted:Finally had the time to finish Tyrant. Excellent book and series. I like how Traitor changed my perspective on the story with the idea that every pawn is a king/queen in their own game. It was really interesting seeing everyone, big and small, playing their plans off of each other through all three books. Part of me thinks Renascent doesn't actually exist, and is just a political-fiction made manifest. People get orders, they pass them on under the codename Renascent, people pass on other orders, and eventually the activities of the group becomes the "person" of Renascent. It fits with the all the themes of power being obscured, the inexorable inevitability of Empire, the constant rule by conspiracy etc. It's very Chinese Room, and we know how much GB loves Blindsight
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2020 19:27
|
|
|
Does anyone in here know of any lists of fantasy novels that have companion animals? Think Mercedes Lackey and/or the Pern series - the main character is chosen by a magic animal and then they go on adventures. I'd like to explore the genre - I know there's Cherryh's Rider at the Gates, but what else is out there? Anything good? (Or interestingly bad?)
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2020 22:01
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Does anyone in here know of any lists of fantasy novels that have companion animals? Think Mercedes Lackey and/or the Pern series - the main character is chosen by a magic animal and then they go on adventures. There was that one that was Hornblower with Dragons. Naomi Novik's 'Temeraire' books. Think I read one, and gave up by book two. Don't remember it as interestingly bad. A Boy And His Dog, also.
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2020 22:10
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Does anyone in here know of any lists of fantasy novels that have companion animals? Think Mercedes Lackey and/or the Pern series - the main character is chosen by a magic animal and then they go on adventures. A Companion to Wolves fits this very explicitly.
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2020 22:11
|
|
|
His Dark Materials?
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2020 22:19
|
|
|
Slo-Tek posted:There was that one that was Hornblower with Dragons. Naomi Novik's 'Temeraire' books. Think I read one, and gave up by book two. Don't remember it as interestingly bad. Yeah, I've read Temeraire and they were thoroughly OK to bad as they went on. OnceIWasAnOstrich posted:A Companion to Wolves fits this very explicitly. Ah yes! I'd been meaning a reread of that, thanks for the reminder! And His Dark Materials... kind of, sort of fits. Great reads!
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2020 22:33
|
|
|
. . . Pokémon? There's _A Night in the Lonesome October_, which is narrated by the animal companion This is the sort of thing that TV Tropes can be relatively useful for.
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2020 22:49
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2024 16:14 |
|
|
A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan #1) by Arkady Martine - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C7BCB88/ A Little Hatred (Age of Madness #1) by Joe Abercrombie - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MJ656W9/ Binti: Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DH9QFMY/ I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XB49BG4/ Scavenger trilogy by KJ Parker - $2.99/$1.99/$1.99 Shadow - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B3VX3TA/ Pattern - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B3VX3Y0/ Memory - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B3VX3T0/ The Folding Knife by KJ Parker - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035IICZO/ The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0047Y0FIM/ The Troupe by Robert Jackson Bennett - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004RD854O/
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2020 23:48
|
|