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Elizabeth Moons paksenarrion books are at least a step above Dragonlance but they're very clearly inspired by a 1st edition d&d paladin character. Hardly "new" though.
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Feb 17, 2021 00:15
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Danhenge posted:Can you articulate your reasoning for why you think it's "Harry Potteresque"? I can totally see it not being someone's jam but that characterization seems like nonsense. The March North is much more “what if the Taken of the Black Company (big fuckoff wizards with geography altering scope) had been around forever and finally managed to wrangle a cooperative society instead of war to the knife?” The next two books are very much two characters working through their respective sorcery talents in the context of that society, which is as close to Harry Potteresque as I’m willing to give them.
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Feb 17, 2021 00:26
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Elizabeth Moons paksenarrion books are at least a step above Dragonlance but they're very clearly inspired by a 1st edition d&d paladin character. Hardly "new" though. On the one hand, you can follow the main character's level progression as she acquires the trappings of a paladin. On the other hand it's a well-written, grounded story with likeable characters. I really like the series, and if the story of a young woman who runs away from the farm, joins a mercenary company, and becomes a paladin appeals to you, do not hesitate to pick it up.The prequel novel about the leader of a peasant's rebellion is also good.
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Feb 17, 2021 00:47
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mllaneza posted:On the one hand, you can follow the main character's level progression as she acquires the trappings of a paladin. On the other hand it's a well-written, grounded story with likeable characters. I really like the series, and if the story of a young woman who runs away from the farm, joins a mercenary company, and becomes a paladin appeals to you, do not hesitate to pick it up.The prequel novel about the leader of a peasant's rebellion is also good. Oh yeah it's decently well executed but you can tell when she hits 4th level because her magic steed shows up
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Feb 17, 2021 01:10
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Cicero posted:I feel like there's a lot of stories with characters that kind of start that way, but then get dragged into the big world-ending plots somewhere along the series. The main party in Orconomics, for example. I guess in the Sword And Sorcery genre they don't get dragged into an epic quest? The term Epic Fantasy covers those, no matter how burtal or self-serving the protagonist. Sword and Sorcery is mainly a short story and collections of short stories/fixups genre, which kind of precludes getting dragged into big world-ending quests/plots. Orconomics isn't particularly Sword and Sorcery in any case it's just revisionist fantasy. For a good overview http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=sword_and_sorcery fez_machine fucked around with this message at 01:51 on Feb 17, 2021 |
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Feb 17, 2021 01:48
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tiniestacorn posted:Has anyone read Piranesi? I shotgunned it in one sitting and I was riding high, feeling like "drat this might be an all-timer" and then the cop showed up and the real world intruded in a boring way >:| and now I think it's merely good. I agree that's one of the book's weaker aspects. The fact in particular that it was a police detective rather than one of Piranesi's loved ones or another former acolyte of the professor just seemed thematically... off. It exposes the world to the Real World in a particularly humdrum way in that it implies there's been an entire police procedural story about a missing person going on in the background, with an ordinary person discovering an extraordinary world, that we've missed out on. Making the Stranger, the person who's searching for Piranesi, be somebody who was already part of the history of that world in some way would have felt neater to me. Still a great book though.
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Feb 17, 2021 02:05
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Dragonshirt posted:Are there any new, good "adventuring party" style sword and sorcery books? WotC don't publish anything without Drizzt on the cover. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30841984-kings-of-the-wyld
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Feb 17, 2021 02:16
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mewse posted:
Not as bad as 19th century Russian literature with the various ways you can refer to each individual, but still. And responding to the ambassador showing up without a retinue, I can believe it when you're a space station of what, like 30k, 300k people? That's like a really small city in the US without the benefit of air and food growing on trees. Resources and people are tight and you can't expect to have any actual protections if the gloves are off in that sort of city. I do admit it would be nice for the main character to have some staff though, as a person who appreciates a ~40 hour work week.
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Feb 17, 2021 02:37
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Oh yeah it's decently well executed but you can tell when she hits 4th level because her magic steed shows up Paksenarrion is great, but it’s a gritty setting with lots of sexual violence. It’s no Ash, but it’s not a super fun adventure for a happy go lucky girl. That said, there’s something really compelling about the characterization and her willingness to do the right things that never seems sappy or Mary-Sue esque.
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Feb 17, 2021 04:34
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3/4 through Winter's Orbit and I just love how well it does third person limited with 2 POV characters both recalling a conversation as awkward for opposite reasons. I may need to switch to straight romance novels if it's normally this good
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Feb 17, 2021 04:55
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freebooter posted:I agree that's one of the book's weaker aspects. The fact in particular that it was a police detective rather than one of Piranesi's loved ones or another former acolyte of the professor just seemed thematically... off. It exposes the world to the Real World in a particularly humdrum way in that it implies there's been an entire police procedural story about a missing person going on in the background, with an ordinary person discovering an extraordinary world, that we've missed out on. Making the Stranger, the person who's searching for Piranesi, be somebody who was already part of the history of that world in some way would have felt neater to me. ooooh I'm gonna hard disagree here but I think we took different things away from the book. one of the best scenes in the book, to me, was when the teacher dude was being interrogated by the detective and straight up said "uh, no, I say these things because I can do magic. Wanna learn how?" AND IT WORKS. The idea that there's strange weird beauty in the world that gets into your skin and it's not you going insane, there is something out there that you can touch...I don't know, it hit me. Plus to me the whole end of the book is signalling that they're not, y'know, out. They know it's there and they're being gradually drawn back. Because why wouldn't you be? And I don't think having it be someone who knew him find him would work because he, as is pointed out several times, isn't who he was anymore. None of his family or friends can find him because in a very real sense he died. Our narrator for most of the book was his...child? replacement? and whoever he winds up being back in London is someone else entirely. It's starting to happen with the detective.
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Feb 17, 2021 05:06
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90s Cringe Rock posted:It's helpful to have a selection of quotes and a general writeup explaining how things are bad and getting worse! i've never dipped my toe in there but is this meant to be surprising? (yeah i've bought my share of Baen books over the years)
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Feb 17, 2021 06:39
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I feel like the Druss books by David Gemmell are pretty much sword and sorcery, or at least axe and sorcery.
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Feb 17, 2021 11:46
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I feel like the Druss books by David Gemmell are pretty much sword and sorcery, or at least axe and sorcery. And the Jon Shannow novels are gun and sorcery. Gemmell is a must read IMO, certainly Legend even if you don't read any of the others. The heroes are flawed, the enemy isn't evil, everyone has realistic motivations.
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Feb 17, 2021 12:23
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I'm burning out extremely hard on my SFL Archives readthrough attempt and will be taking a month-long break on it. This readthrough stopped being fun sometime around late 1992/early 1993, and became actively unpleasant the further I progressed. Everything I've posted about SFLoversDigestArchive has come from https://archive.org/details/SFLoversDigestArchive A 3rd party tool like notepad++ will be needed to open/read the files in the archive. Feel free to pick up my slack or data-mine the archives yourselves.
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Feb 17, 2021 15:34
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Have a good break and don't feel like you have to come back to it if you're not ready. It's been interesting, but it's not worth harming yourself.
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Feb 17, 2021 15:47
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Elizabeth Moons paksenarrion books are at least a step above Dragonlance but they're very clearly inspired by a 1st edition d&d paladin character. Hardly "new" though. Maybe the new Dragonlance books in the works will be better.
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Feb 17, 2021 17:49
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buffalo all day posted:I'm about 150 pages into The Book of Strange New Things and it's extremely good so far. I don't think I've ever seen it recommended when people ask for first contact // people interacting with alien civilization stories, is it because Michael Faber (also wrote "Under the Skin" which turned into a very good movie) fell into the Michael Chabon "it's not genre because we said so" bucket? Following up because I finished this and it was really good and also is definitely SF and should be read by folks in the thread. It also caused me to read the novel Under the Skin which is also straight SF, better written than 95% of the genre stuff I read and should also definitely be recommended more.
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Feb 17, 2021 18:47
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Dragonshirt posted:Are there any new, good "adventuring party" style sword and sorcery books? WotC don't publish anything without Drizzt on the cover. I should point out that while he still features on the covers, Drizzt tends to play a minor role in a lot of the recent novels.
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Feb 17, 2021 19:37
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Pushing Ice by Alistair Reynolds - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0819W1L1W/ Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0048EKOP0/ Parable of the Sower (Parable #1) by Octavia E Butler - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HALO4Q/ The Wolf's Call (Raven's Blade #1) by Anthony Ryan - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JYNY9N3/
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Feb 17, 2021 23:11
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Just grabbed Between Two Fires from the library, but I also got Baru 3, so I'm in for the feel-good weekend of the year.
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Feb 17, 2021 23:23
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cptn_dr posted:Just grabbed Between Two Fires from the library, but I also got Baru 3, so I'm in for the feel-good weekend of the year.
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Feb 18, 2021 16:54
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Provenance by Ann Leckie - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XW6YTKV/ Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JMKTAU/ Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XG6MG3Y/
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Feb 18, 2021 23:22
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Baen's Bar, the forum for the Baen publishing house, has gone 'on hiatus' after an expose about how there was a lot of talk of doing political violences. https://www.baen.com/bb021621 http://file770.com/wp-content/uploads/Weisskopf-baens-bar-hiatus.jpg Apparently it was too hard to moderate it (by not moderating it at all, apparently) so they're just closing the forum instead.
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Feb 18, 2021 23:45
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pradmer posted:Provenance by Ann Leckie - $2.99 This is set in the same universe as the Ancillary X series, and it's really enjoyable. It's standalone and doesn't interact with the Ancillary series in any way. Definitely worth the three dollars.
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Feb 18, 2021 23:53
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a foolish pianist posted:This is set in the same universe as the Ancillary X series, and it's really enjoyable. It's standalone and doesn't interact with the Ancillary series in any way. Definitely worth the three dollars. Thank you for pre-emptively answering my question
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Feb 19, 2021 00:05
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Kchama posted:Baen's Bar, the forum for the Baen publishing house, has gone 'on hiatus' after an expose about how there was a lot of talk of doing political violences. "too hard to moderate" is an interesting way of phrasing "our moderators actively promote the murder of people left of themselves".
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Feb 19, 2021 00:22
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"We have received no complaints about the content of the Bar from its users." yes, that is part of the problem, you see
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Feb 19, 2021 00:27
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pradmer posted:Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang - $1.99 Probably everyone here has already read it, but if not: Stories of Your Life and Others is extremely good. I've been recommending it to friends a lot and never encountered anyone who wasn't completely in love with it after reading it.
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Feb 19, 2021 00:30
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Kchama posted:Baen's Bar, the forum for the Baen publishing house, has gone 'on hiatus' after an expose about how there was a lot of talk of doing political violences. From that article that was posted a couple of days ago, it sounds like the main draw of the forum was that JOHN RINGO  and the like would post there, and if you ban nazis then oops, you've banned most of the authors who cared to participate
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Feb 19, 2021 00:34
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Walh Hara posted:Probably everyone here has already read it, but if not: Stories of Your Life and Others is extremely good. I've been recommending it to friends a lot and never encountered anyone who wasn't completely in love with it after reading it. I'll go against the grain and say I found it to be very dry and lifeless. It's 'Ideas' sci-fi which I know is right up some people's alleyway, but there are so many writers who can match good sci-fi concepts with genuinely good writing that I don't understand why Chiang gets so much praise.
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Feb 19, 2021 00:37
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Speaking of short fiction, though, I've nearly finished Mark Haddon's collection The Pier Falls which is really, really good and several of its stories are SFF, particularly The Wolf and the Woodpecker which is about a catastrophically failed mission to Mars, and Wodwo, which is a modern-day magical realist retelling of Gawain and the Green Knight.
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Feb 19, 2021 00:42
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DigitalRaven posted:"too hard to moderate" is an interesting way of phrasing "our moderators actively promote the murder of people left of themselves". My favorite part of this was Eric Flint himself, in response to one quote from the expose, defending the Bar by saying that that user is just SOME RANDO named THEORYMAN who is going to listen to him?? I bet nobody knows who he is!! Theoryman was, as you might guess, a moderator. https://twitter.com/jayblanc/status/1348664180610637824 Anyways, can't police anything at all. Kchama fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Feb 19, 2021 |
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Feb 19, 2021 00:44
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freebooter posted:It's 'Ideas' sci-fi which I know is right up some people's alleyway, but there are so many writers who can match good sci-fi concepts with genuinely good writing that I don't understand why Chiang gets so much praise. To be honest, no, I don't that there are many writers that match good sci-fi concepts with genuinely good writing at all? Like 90% of sci-fi writers have bad prose (worse than Chiang) and 95% don't have very interesting ideas either. Ted Chiang's writing reminds me of Borges. It's just focused on meaning, but that doesn't mean it's bad. I'll give Mark Haddon a try though, thanks for the recommendation! Walh Hara fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Feb 19, 2021 |
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Feb 19, 2021 09:46
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Walh Hara posted:To be honest, no, I don't that there are many writers that match good sci-fi concepts with genuinely good writing at all? Like 90% of sci-fi writers have bad prose (worse than Chiang) and 95% don't have very interesting ideas either. This. There's not exactly a surfeit of writers who have both a head full of compelling SF concepts and good prose. Chiang's no Le Guin but he's very good, one of the best working today.
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Feb 19, 2021 09:52
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Ted Chiang’s prose is adequate, but his ideas and ability to invoke emotion are outstanding, which is why he’s the best currently active English-language sci-fi author.
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Feb 19, 2021 10:33
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Yeah, I don't think Chiang as unemotional ideas man fully explains his appeal or popularity. I agree that his prose is frequently bland or clumsy (there's one line in Exhalation where he italicizes the explanation of the core scientific concept just so nobody could miss it) but he also puts some effort into providing a bridge or emotional hook for a more mainstream reader.
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Feb 19, 2021 13:09
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He's one of the few authors I've read where the movie adaption of his work is somewhat better than the book, with both being pretty good.
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Feb 19, 2021 13:48
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Hmm. I disagree with that. I think the short story is better - a shocking assertion in this forum, I know. But the short story wouldn't work as a movie, or would be a really weird nonlinear art piece or something, and the adaptation they made is excellent and does work as a movie.
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Feb 19, 2021 16:04
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I don't see how his stories are only "ideas" too. Lots of them have great emotional and psychological depth to them. "Story of Your Life" and "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" are great that way. Even those that don't put an emotional journey at the centre of the action (eg the sperm golem one) have a lot more going on than a Kafka-esque conceit. I'm a Ted Chiang worshipper though. I love short stories, and I feel as if his best stories are among the best that the form has to offer. CommonShore fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Feb 19, 2021 |
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Feb 19, 2021 16:38
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