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freebooter posted:If Winters' publisher is going to keep putting these on sale, I'm going to keep recommending them: these books are really good and you should read them.  they're not exactly comfort food but they're well done and honestly less bleak than they have any right to be
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Mar 25, 2021 14:33
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rollick posted:I don't think it gets said enough: pradmer rules for posting those deals every day.  Thanks pradmer, you've saved me a lot of money!
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Mar 25, 2021 15:40
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rollick posted:I don't think it gets said enough: pradmer rules for posting those deals every day. yep !
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Mar 25, 2021 16:04
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rollick posted:I don't think it gets said enough: pradmer rules for posting those deals every day. 
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Mar 25, 2021 17:02
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rollick posted:I don't think it gets said enough: pradmer rules for posting those deals every day. Agreed. Thanks, pradmer! I have saved a ton of money and grown my mountain of unread books to untenable size at the same time. can't stop, will never stop.
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Mar 25, 2021 18:53
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I listened to Blindsight a few weeks ago. I thought it was a real slog at the time, but I have to say it's stuck with me. I think the audiobook format was not kind to this book. Without the opportunity to mull over and re-read the philosophically relevant parts, the book felt like mostly intra-crew squabbling and misuses of the word "topology". I'm tempted to buy a print copy and read it again, skipping the boring bits.
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Mar 25, 2021 20:42
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Late Fees posted:I listened to Blindsight a few weeks ago. I thought it was a real slog at the time, but I have to say it's stuck with me. I think the audiobook format was not kind to this book. Without the opportunity to mull over and re-read the philosophically relevant parts, the book felt like mostly intra-crew squabbling and misuses of the word "topology". I'm tempted to buy a print copy and read it again, skipping the boring bits. Yeah I'm generally very pro-audiobook and think it's a great way to experience some books that I would just never get to otherwise, but Blindsight is definitely not one I would recommend in that form. It's sometimes intentionally obtuse and I think being able to take your time with it, and flip back & forth to some degree, is pretty important. If you're okay with reading in digital formats, Watts has it for free online as a pdf (or just on his site as text). I think you can probably find it in standard ebook formats, or at least something Calibre can convert to epub/mobi/whatever.
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Mar 25, 2021 21:01
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Thanks, I like free!
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Mar 25, 2021 21:51
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Late Fees posted:I listened to Blindsight a few weeks ago. I thought it was a real slog at the time, but I have to say it's stuck with me. I think the audiobook format was not kind to this book. Without the opportunity to mull over and re-read the philosophically relevant parts, the book felt like mostly intra-crew squabbling and misuses of the word "topology". I'm tempted to buy a print copy and read it again, skipping the boring bits. Definitely give the text version a try. I’m a big audiobook fan, but my reread of Blindsight on audio after reading it first in text was like a fever dream, even though I knew what was going on. And that’s not necessarily a knock on the audiobook, which was well-executed and something I can recommend for rereads. But Blindsight is such a mindfuck that you really, really benefit from being able to dwell on the text and reread for comprehension, which is tricky in audio. Don’t completely ignore the crew segments, by the way. There’s a fair bit of interesting clues in there, both to the central mysteries and to the nature of the setting, which is far weirder and more alien than it appears at first glance.
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Mar 25, 2021 22:30
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Tars Tarkas posted:I'm liking the related books You're a loose cannon, Moon Baby, but you get results. 
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Mar 25, 2021 22:39
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buffalo all day posted:
Agreed and I also found them, to use a cliche, gripping. I generally only read in bed before going to sleep, or commuting, or lying on the beach. These were pretty much the only books in the last five years I've read where I got home from work and sat down on the couch and just kept reading, just had to know what happened next.
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Mar 25, 2021 22:47
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rollick posted:I don't think it gets said enough: pradmer rules for posting those deals every day. Yeah, I don't generally buy ebooks but pradmer's doing a real service here. withak posted:Does it get any better? The way I remember it things started to pick up a lot after about chapter 9-ish.
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Mar 25, 2021 23:31
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Thanks all! This thread is the only reason I know which sales are actually worth posting so just keep talking about good books. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007978NU6/
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Mar 25, 2021 23:47
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tildes posted:How is CL Polk’s stuff if you’re not into romance novels per se? They seem to keep getting nebula nominations so I feel like I should check them out, but am not sure if I’d be into it (or if I’m even at all right that it’s romance novel adjacent to begin with). And is Witchmark or Midnight Bargain the better place to start? I've only read Witchmark so far (though I know I've seen people say they liked Midnight Bargain even more than the Witchmark/Kingston trilogy and I do plan to read it eventually -- also I'm pretty sure Midnight Bargain is a stand alone if you're not interested in starting a trilogy) but I thought it was pretty light on the romance. More of a fantasy/mystery book with a romance than a romance that's fantasy/mystery themed. There is a lot more focus on the initial 'murder mystery' plot and where it leads -- the romance plot was fleshed out, but definitely secondary to the other stuff. I enjoyed it pretty well, it's quickly paced and not too complicated, but still had enough depth in the worldbuilding to have some interesting twists at the end. EdBlackadder posted:Just read The Stars are Legion based on thread comments. That was a ride and not the one I was expecting. I just finished this a week or two ago and really liked it (definitely planning to check out more of Hurley's stuff soon). Agree that there were sort of two plots happening, and I would have loved to see more of the different layers within the world/ship just because I enjoyed the world building snippets that were really evocative but not over-explained. And it might seem like a weird recommendation, but if you liked the exploration parts you might enjoy Piranesi too if you haven't read that yet.
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Mar 26, 2021 00:08
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I finished reading SFL Archives Volume 19a last week, and posted the summary for it on the offsite blog. If you stacked up 71 copies of Murderbot book 1 (All Systems Red) together you roughly have the length & word count of SFL Archives Vol 19A. I used Murderbot book 1 as a comparison because almost everyone in this thread has read All Systems Red by now. SFL Archives Vol 19A was a mostly joyless readthrough for me, almost everything story or book series discussed aged badly versus 2020-2021 SF&F norms, and where things being discussed didn't age badly, they were discussed over and over and over again to such insane petty depths in the SFL Archives that I actively started forever-hating whatever was being discussed, even if I was previously a fan of the material. Only the SF&F fandom hating on BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN (it's crime was too accurately portraying the SF&F fandom culture of the 1980s & 1990s) and preferring the utterly terrible FALLEN ANGELS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_Angels_(Niven,_Pournelle,_and_Flynn_novel) and out of nowhere discussion of the 1960s tv-series MY LIVING DOLL (starring Julie Newmar as the not-sexbot) at the very end saved the Vol 19a readthrough for me. SFL Archives Volume 19b has been refreshingly good. Most of the over-discussed in Vol 19A subjects haven't come up as much, and it started out with the evergreen topic of SF&F genre authors ripping off other SF&F authors/SF&F material without acknowledgement and then acting huffy about it when called on it. Raymond Feist has been the centerpiece of this ongoing SFL Archives Vol 19b discussion. My take on it: Raymond Feist is/was the 1980's-1990's version of Jim Butcher. Whereas Raymond ripped off Tekemul RPG sourcebooks & /ZelaznyLeiber for his best known series, Jim Butcher instead rips off Rifts RPG sourcebooks & Christian mythology) for his best known series. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Mar 26, 2021 |
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Mar 26, 2021 01:24
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FALLEN ANGELS is like if Rush Limbaugh went to science fiction conventions and was mad about cancel culture in the mid-90s, what an insane book. Almost prescient in its wrongness, everything in the book is the opposite of true.
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Mar 26, 2021 09:31
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DurianGray posted:I've only read Witchmark so far (though I know I've seen people say they liked Midnight Bargain even more than the Witchmark/Kingston trilogy and I do plan to read it eventually -- also I'm pretty sure Midnight Bargain is a stand alone if you're not interested in starting a trilogy) but I thought it was pretty light on the romance. More of a fantasy/mystery book with a romance than a romance that's fantasy/mystery themed. Ty! I’ll give it a shot then
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Mar 26, 2021 09:44
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DurianGray posted:
I read Piranesi at Christmas, great book. The exploration struck me more like a well done Dying Earth, sort of reminiscent of The Book of the New Son in some ways. Or maybe Borne though that might just be down to the biological aspects and I read The Strange Bird straight after.
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Mar 26, 2021 10:50
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tildes posted:Ty! I’ll give it a shot then Also wanna mention that after Witchmark the sequels are more focused on political change. The sequels also shift pov to other characters (so people more invested in the romance in book one were probably disappointed, but oh well).
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Mar 26, 2021 16:17
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speaking of Piranesi, i am kind of obsessed with stories that describe vast mysterious structures that seem to go on forever. i used to have this recurring dream as a child of wandering through an endless network of furniture showcase rooms like they had in department stores way back when. just being trapped in a maze of fragments of other people's homes, trying and failing to get back to a place that was familiar. to be honest, kind of distressing at the time but it's a concept i enjoy now.
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Mar 26, 2021 19:18
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uber_stoat posted:speaking of Piranesi, i am kind of obsessed with stories that describe vast mysterious structures that seem to go on forever. i used to have this recurring dream as a child of wandering through an endless network of furniture showcase rooms like they had in department stores way back when. just being trapped in a maze of fragments of other people's homes, trying and failing to get back to a place that was familiar. to be honest, kind of distressing at the time but it's a concept i enjoy now. Read Horrorstor and Finna, both really short novels (novellas?) about IKEA knock offs. The first one is more horror, the second more sci fi. And obviously library of babel by Borges.
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Mar 26, 2021 19:34
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There's also a couple of good scps about structures that just seem to never end.
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Mar 26, 2021 19:38
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uber_stoat posted:speaking of Piranesi, i am kind of obsessed with stories that describe vast mysterious structures that seem to go on forever. i used to have this recurring dream as a child of wandering through an endless network of furniture showcase rooms like they had in department stores way back when. just being trapped in a maze of fragments of other people's homes, trying and failing to get back to a place that was familiar. to be honest, kind of distressing at the time but it's a concept i enjoy now. Go get the collected Borges!! Go now!!!
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Mar 26, 2021 19:42
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Mr. Nemo posted:Read Horrorstor and Finna, both really short novels (novellas?) about IKEA knock offs. The first one is more horror, the second more sci fi. That's gonna be "this horror is too real" for me 
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Mar 26, 2021 20:19
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uber_stoat posted:speaking of Piranesi, i am kind of obsessed with stories that describe vast mysterious structures that seem to go on forever. i used to have this recurring dream as a child of wandering through an endless network of furniture showcase rooms like they had in department stores way back when. just being trapped in a maze of fragments of other people's homes, trying and failing to get back to a place that was familiar. to be honest, kind of distressing at the time but it's a concept i enjoy now. House of Leaves sounds right up your alley.
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Mar 26, 2021 20:38
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uber_stoat posted:speaking of Piranesi, i am kind of obsessed with stories that describe vast mysterious structures that seem to go on forever. i used to have this recurring dream as a child of wandering through an endless network of furniture showcase rooms like they had in department stores way back when. just being trapped in a maze of fragments of other people's homes, trying and failing to get back to a place that was familiar. to be honest, kind of distressing at the time but it's a concept i enjoy now. I read House of Stairs in middle school. Thatmight fit.
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Mar 26, 2021 20:42
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buffalo all day posted:Go get the collected Borges!! Go now!!! That's a pro recommendation right there.
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Mar 26, 2021 20:52
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Ben Nevis posted:I read House of Stairs in middle school. Thatmight fit. Oh, man, I loved William Sleator back in the day. I should re-read some of his books to see if they hold up as an adult.
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Mar 26, 2021 20:57
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The Inivisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman feature an infinite library that links all universes, with windows that look out upon empty streets and vacant courtyards but no doorways to the outside world, if it even exists. The series is mostly about the conflict between beings of absolute order (dragons) and beings of absolute chaos (fairies), with the Librarians as intermediators rather than being about the Library itself, although that's an long-running plot point that gets touched upon on occasion. They're not like good which is why I've never mentioned them here before, but they pass the time and I'm a sucker for Secret Library stories.
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Mar 26, 2021 21:01
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Gormenghast is kind of the uber example of that kind of thing, isn't it? Or at least I hear it mentioned a lot. I've read the first chapter numerous times, will get into it someday.
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Mar 26, 2021 21:13
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SimonChris posted:Oh, man, I loved William Sleator back in the day. I should re-read some of his books to see if they hold up as an adult. http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/f&sf/88-08.html posted:To say that science fiction is the literature of adolescence does not demean the field, it is high praise. Adolescent readers are passing through a time when their conception of reality and their role within it are in flux. Everything is negotiable, everything is possible, and greatness is within their grasp. Whoever writes the literature of adolescence is creating the casual and moral universe of a generation. It isn't a trivial matter.
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Mar 26, 2021 21:18
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uber_stoat posted:speaking of Piranesi, i am kind of obsessed with stories that describe vast mysterious structures that seem to go on forever. Neither of these are books so apologies but after I read Piranesi I wanted to scratch this same brain-itch so I spent some time with the game Echo and didn't regret it. Game itself is more weird and ambitious than good, but the aesthetic is really neat. Also potentially check out the manga / movie Blame! which features an awful infinite cyberpunk hellscape. It's extremely grim and I found the storytelling in the manga to be near incoherent in places but may be worth it for the visuals alone. E: oh also Manifold Garden. buffalo all day posted:Go get the collected Borges!! Go now!!! well no wonder he was good at stories like this 
NmareBfly fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Mar 26, 2021 |
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Mar 26, 2021 21:56
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NmareBfly posted:Neither of these are books so apologies but after I read Piranesi I wanted to scratch this same brain-itch so I spent some time with the game Echo and didn't regret it. Game itself is more weird and ambitious than good, but the aesthetic is really neat. https://store.steampowered.com/app/265690/NaissanceE/ There is also NaissanceE, which is free and quite piranesian. SimonChris fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Mar 26, 2021 |
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Mar 26, 2021 22:10
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NmareBfly posted:
Haha yes Blame is great for this. The author's other series Biomega also fits the bill to a lesser extent. There's a film for Blame on Netflix which has more of the plot-friendly sections, but much of the manga is wandering through exceedingly vast megastructures for absurd lengths of time. Sadly the author has now transitioned to safer and considerably more boring series.
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Mar 26, 2021 22:22
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thank you for all the suggestions. that I haven't read more Borges is an indictment of my lazy rear end given that he's such a massive influence. been meaning to take a look at that Blame! manga since it came up during wiki deep dives (the Megastructure!) but i will check out all of the things y'all have mentioned.
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Mar 26, 2021 22:24
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HopperUK posted:Gormenghast is kind of the uber example of that kind of thing, isn't it? Or at least I hear it mentioned a lot. I've read the first chapter numerous times, will get into it someday. Yes, and the Gormenghast trilogy in general is a brilliant landmark of original fantasy. They are very dense books - written in the 1950s but almost in a 19th century style, like reading Dickens or Moby Dick or something - but if you can persevere they're really, really worth it. Like nothing else I've ever read. SimonChris posted:Oh, man, I loved William Sleator back in the day. I should re-read some of his books to see if they hold up as an adult. I read a couple of his short stories as a kid and recently picked up House of Stairs, and yeah, it's a neat and readable little book that would be classed as middle school or YA today. Short but engaging.
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Mar 26, 2021 23:28
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I wish there were more Blame! knock-offs.
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Mar 26, 2021 23:37
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Kesper North posted:FALLEN ANGELS is like if Rush Limbaugh went to science fiction conventions and was mad about cancel culture in the mid-90s, what an insane book. Almost prescient in its wrongness, everything in the book is the opposite of true.  shtick already, and then the rest is just the author's names.
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Mar 26, 2021 23:46
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uber_stoat posted:speaking of Piranesi, i am kind of obsessed with stories that describe vast mysterious structures that seem to go on forever. i used to have this recurring dream as a child of wandering through an endless network of furniture showcase rooms like they had in department stores way back when. just being trapped in a maze of fragments of other people's homes, trying and failing to get back to a place that was familiar. to be honest, kind of distressing at the time but it's a concept i enjoy now. There's "The High House" and "The False House" by James Stoddard but they're kind of Christian in the CS Lewis sense.
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Mar 26, 2021 23:52
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