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Zaphiel posted:Are there any "space trucker" books out there? A lone individual or maybe a very small crew with a cargo ship, traveling from planet to planet and having adventures? I've read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (although I'm not sure it would fit). Have you read Tuf Vo... wizzardstaff posted:Absolutely, I've got a great recommendation for- ...poo poo
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Jun 1, 2021 23:37
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Wait wait, have you read Galaxy Trucker: Rocky Road, a book based on an excellent board game?
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Jun 1, 2021 23:38
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silvergoose posted:Wait wait, have you read Galaxy Trucker: Rocky Road, a book based on an excellent board game? They gave the game a background story? Neat. I wonder if they could do the same thing with the characters and places from Through the Ages.
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Jun 1, 2021 23:46
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Powers' gimmick hits so many of the things I love. Which one is this? I've only read Declare and The Anubis Gates (and bounced off Epitaph in Rust like twice)
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Jun 2, 2021 00:40
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ToxicFrog posted:Which one is this? I've only read Declare and The Anubis Gates (and bounced off Epitaph in Rust like twice) On Stranger Tides.
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Jun 2, 2021 00:41
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wizzardstaff posted:They gave the game a background story? Neat. They did. I've not read it but hey it sure is about trucking in the galaxy! I'd only accept a TTA book if it has Ancient Vlaada.
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Jun 2, 2021 01:01
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Zaphiel posted:Are there any "space trucker" books out there? A lone individual or maybe a very small crew with a cargo ship, traveling from planet to planet and having adventures? I've read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (although I'm not sure it would fit). How about C.J.Cherryh's "Merchanteer's Luck"? No planet but a few space stations.
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Jun 2, 2021 01:49
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fritz posted:How about C.J.Cherryh's "Merchanteer's Luck"? No planet but a few space stations. There's also Poul Anderson's Nicholas van Rijn books, although those are more "merchant adventurer" than "space trucker."
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Jun 2, 2021 02:53
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"Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers" is space trucker peripheral.
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Jun 2, 2021 03:44
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McCoy Pauley posted:On Stranger Tides. I wonder how much Disney paid him for the rights to use the story for the 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
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Jun 2, 2021 04:05
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fritz posted:How about C.J.Cherryh's "Merchanteer's Luck"? No planet but a few space stations. I was going to suggest Merchanter's Luck. It's amazing.
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Jun 2, 2021 04:09
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Finished The Blacktongue Thief. I loved it overall, but felt like the third act was rushed, possibly because page or word count restrictions for marketability reasons. Like everything that happened from the "pull" scene onward just felt far too quick given the gentle slowness of the prior bits. That may have been ok if it was in the realm of increasing pace to increase suspense as things built toward a conclusion, but I didn't have that feeling. Hoping it's the first in a series, though, I want to know more about these people and this world.
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Jun 2, 2021 04:47
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Evil Fluffy posted:I wonder how much Disney paid him for the rights to use the story for the 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie. The screenwriters' original intention when dreaming up Curse of the Black Pearl was to adapt the Powers book straight across, but when workshopping it and putting it together they abandoned the idea and went with what we got. Then they finally got around to it for the 4th movie and hosed it into a cocked hat.
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Jun 2, 2021 05:27
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On the Powers front, I'd also like to put in a good word for Last Call, which is one of my favorites of his (along with The Anubis Gates and Declare).
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Jun 2, 2021 05:42
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Ok serious space trucker recs as I had to look some of these up. Some of these are IP related and a few I haven't read the whole series yet The Han Solo Trilogy by A. C. Crispin - the classic, is retro but familiar at the same time as it isn't burdened by sequels, prequels, or a sprawling book series canon. Spawned the prequel series about Lando (which is ok but written by a libertarian and some of that sneaks in) There's also an RPG module of the trilogy if you like to read sourcebooks like I do (and be sure to track down the Tramp Freighter sourcebook as that is literally this genre in Star Wars RPG form) Vatta's War series by Elizabeth Moon - Lady from a shipping magnate family kicked out of Space Academy, becomes a trucker for her family's business. More serious and galactic politics pops up. I haven't finished the series. Inherit the Stars by tony peak - space salvager lady on a quest chilling effect by valerie valdes - space truckers, kidnappings, psychic cats fortuna series by kristyn merbeth - space smugglers, galactic war, suddenly we are a space opera like most of these modern ones turn into. I have not read past book 1. Maybe pile: Terminal Alliance series by Jim Hines - space janitors! They don't go around trucking though, just learning how to operate a ship, defeat feral humans, and bust open galactic conspiracies. It's like one in spirit Guardians Of The Galaxy: Rocket Raccoon And Groot Steal The Galaxy! by Dan Abnett - okay they space truck for about 10 pages before the plot happens and they are defending a robot from an evil corporation, and it's another existing property. But it's Dan Abnett and a fast fun read.
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Jun 2, 2021 06:30
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Tars Tarkas posted:Ok serious space trucker recs as I had to look some of these up. Some of these are IP related and a few I haven't read the whole series yet Vatta's War is fine but moves more towards military science fiction as the series goes on. A bit better than average by milSF standards. It's not on my to-read list but I've run across the Diving Universe series by Kristine Kathryn Rusch several times and I gather it's basically about a woman salvaging space ships, so it might have a similar feel to what's desired.
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Jun 2, 2021 09:24
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Vatta's War is alright. I'm not sure I'd call it space truckers; it's Honor Harrington but better.
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Jun 2, 2021 10:34
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Zaphiel posted:Are there any "space trucker" books out there? A lone individual or maybe a very small crew with a cargo ship, traveling from planet to planet and having adventures? I've read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (although I'm not sure it would fit). Space Captain Smith isn't exactly about a cargo ship, being more along the lines of Sharpe in Space, but it's got the "small crew go from planet to planet having adventures" thing.
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Jun 2, 2021 10:38
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Zaphiel posted:Are there any "space trucker" books out there? A lone individual or maybe a very small crew with a cargo ship, traveling from planet to planet and having adventures? I've read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (although I'm not sure it would fit). I read a few self published space-accountant books once that were surprisingly ok. All about load variance and white-collar crime. There's a genre niche for everything.
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Jun 2, 2021 13:07
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ISTR Dragonfall 5 was a space delivery series.
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Jun 2, 2021 13:35
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Selachian posted:On the Powers front, I'd also like to put in a good word for Last Call, which is one of my favorites of his (along with The Anubis Gates and Declare). 2nd-ing Last Call, it's a creepy tarot-related Las Vegas story and well worth reading.
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Jun 2, 2021 13:59
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silvergoose posted:I love those, and last call and drawing of the dark. Declare above the others though, especially because it's one of my favorite poker games too. Just noting that you're third, not second HMPH.
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Jun 2, 2021 14:13
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Guys I...really like The Gone World. I know it's going to end all end up explained and disappointing and less freaky but the elevator pitch of investigating a bizarre occult murder in 1997 and by the way the detective is from the secret Navy space-time force that has journeyed to the horrific end of time where all humanity has been reduced to inverted crucifixion in a frozen hellscape and it's moving closer to us every time we check on it is catnip to me. Also I genuinely admire the prose, it's very plain and transparent but I acknowledge the effort require to do this style well.
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Jun 2, 2021 15:11
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Thanks everyone for the great recommendations! I downloaded the Galaxy Trucker app the other day which made me in the mood for a space trucker adventure, so it's funny that there's an actual Galaxy Trucker novel.
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Jun 2, 2021 15:38
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Stuff like the bolded part is why I continue to read the SFL Archives --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 22:15:57 GMT From: alison@fuggles.demon.co.uk (Alison Scott) Reply-to: sf-lovers-misc@Rutgers.Edu Subject: Evolution Just a few snapshots to whet your appetite. I wrote more, but will turn much of it into a fanzine article, I should think. The first is actual snapshots; my Casio QV-10 may have been the star cool toy of the Eastercon this year. Even the people who said "yawn, a digital camera" found themselves entranced by the ability to see the photos straight away and the fact that the only (extra) cost involved in taking 300 photos was the mounting pile of dead batteries. And we put it to good use producing a dodgy underground publication. Pam was on fine form, just back from America, completely jetlagged and bouncing off walls. She had approximately a zillion photos taken by Moshe from Corflu and the New York party, so I can now put faces to scads of people for whom I previously only had names. By George, you're a blurry, under-exposed, red-eyed bunch. My ex-husband Mike had a terrific time at the con, about which the less said the better. Humph. I helped auction stuff for the United Fan Funds (I think TAFF, GUFF and FATW, but I'm not sure). Another head was shaved for TAFF, and Pam has agreed to have her head shaved at Novacon on condition we raise at least 300 quid. Contributions from rasf regulars gratefully received; I personally guarantee to get a photo of Pam up onto a web site the following day. One key lot in the UFF auction was a chocolate condom, selling for a fiver to, by a strange co-incidence, Mike Scott, who appeared to have run out. The con newsletter, _Primordial Slime_, proved to be much as expected. This caused the Confabulation team to break out the Pentium laptop, 600dpi laser printer, digital camera and several reams of coloured paper which we had cunningly concealed in our hand luggage in case of just such an emergency. We produced six issues of an alternative convention newsletter, _Wrath of Ghu_. I'm hoping that Steve Davies will upload the text of _Wrath of Ghu_ to rasf over the next couple of days, possibly with short descriptions of the photos ("This is a photo of Martin Easterbrook. He is clearly a broken man.") but I haven't actually asked him. We're currently trying to find some web space to put them on along with the pictures. We printed about 40 photos in the newsletter overall; mostly of the convention, but with quite a few of moose. Evolution was held at the Radisson Edwardian, Heathrow. I wouldn't say that the layout was complicated, but the hotel has a sign over the door saying "Licensed to serve intoxicating beverages on and off the premises. Abandon hope all ye who enter here." Most con members navigated by dropping various articles of paraphernalia at each location so that they would recognise where they were if they were lucky enough to return. I'm sure this is true; I helped Pat McMurray with the lost and found box. Signs of the form "XYZZY", "To the Minotaur" and "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike" started appearing spontaneously (Footnote 1: but they bore a surprising resemblance to the official signs that Steve Davies was producing for the con.) Committee members all carried a long thread (not that many of them cared about what Heinlein said to Panshin). (Footnote 2: I'm really, really glad to include that joke, because I was desperate to put it into WoG but was overruled by all of my co-editors and was forced to make it about 2000% more accessible). The real ale bar was right by the jacuzzi, which was nice; the real ale ran out on Sunday, which wasn't. I stayed up far too late (surprise) which proved very dangerous on at least one of the nights, involving words like Worldcon, British and Next, not necessarily in that order. Anyway, I'm exhausted. More sometime soon. Alison Scott alison@fuggles.demon.co.uk ------------------------------ 6 SFL Archives Volumes to go before I find out if glassblowing really IS (or was circa the 1980's/1990's) filed under 666 in the dewey decimal system. Nobody spoil me on this.
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Jun 2, 2021 16:29
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silvergoose posted:Just noting that you're third, not second HMPH. This is really confusing, I assume you meant to quote me? Haha I thought HMPH was an acronym. Also yes, I am third. You are the better person.
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Jun 2, 2021 16:33
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General Battuta posted:Guys I...really like The Gone World. I know it's going to end all end up explained and disappointing and less freaky but the elevator pitch of investigating a bizarre occult murder in 1997 and by the way the detective is from the secret Navy space-time force that has journeyed to the horrific end of time where all humanity has been reduced to inverted crucifixion in a frozen hellscape and it's moving closer to us every time we check on it is catnip to me. Did you read the First Fifteen Lives of Harry August? It might be extremely your jam.
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Jun 2, 2021 17:10
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General Battuta posted:Guys I...really like The Gone World. I know it's going to end all end up explained and disappointing and less freaky but the elevator pitch of investigating a bizarre occult murder in 1997 and by the way the detective is from the secret Navy space-time force that has journeyed to the horrific end of time where all humanity has been reduced to inverted crucifixion in a frozen hellscape and it's moving closer to us every time we check on it is catnip to me. I don't much recall the prose, but I thought it was a pretty solid book all around. Mystery horror time travel or whatever may be a genre I like. Captain Monkey posted:Did you read the First Fifteen Lives of Harry August? It might be extremely your jam. Also liked this, but Claire North is definitely my jam.
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Jun 2, 2021 20:22
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My one and only in-person experience with fandom was a small con organized by that same Alison Scott and her friends about 20 years ago. They were a pretty chill crowd, actually. Got drunk with Ken MacLeod and talked a lot more about cephalopods than politics.
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Jun 2, 2021 22:19
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A Proper Uppercut posted:This is really confusing, I assume you meant to quote me? Haha No, I was quoting myself to dramatically prove my useless, useless point  Zaphiel posted:Thanks everyone for the great recommendations! Okay, my suggestion is especially funny to me given this new information of why you were asking.
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Jun 2, 2021 23:28
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pseudorandom name posted:The Gone World is very much airport Dad fiction, I don't recommend it. while you're wrong about the first one, gone away world is also my least favorite Nick Harkaway book I've read fake edit: actually it turns out i misremembered what else he wrote, but the statement is still accurate because Gone Away World is merely goodish while Gnomon is Legit Literature I incorrectly thought he'd written The Half Made World, which is a truly amazing weird western, and The Rise Of Ransom City, which is merely excellent
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Jun 3, 2021 00:25
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Bold Robot posted:I loved the Tines in Fire but did not really enjoy spending so much more time with them. At the time I gave it a pass cause I figured it was just setup for a hot take: tyrathect in fire is transgender-analogous
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Jun 3, 2021 00:27
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finale but at this point who knows if that's gonna happen.
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I finished reading the Clifford D Simak novel Time and Again today and man that is a book that wastes an interesting premise. I can give it some slack because it was written in 1951 and so some of the ideas probably came off as more innovative back then but they kind of fall flat today. The story takes place 6000 years into the future where mankind has taken over the galaxy because they show they are willing to go total HAM on anybody who opposes them. The main character is Asher Sutton, an agent for the human government who was sent to 61 Cygni the one planet humanity has never been able to get to. 20 years later he returns with a body altered by what he found there and an idea that will change the universe forever. He soon finds himself embroiled in a temporal cold war where both sides want him to write the book detailing his discovery but one would like him to revise it so humanity is the sole beneficiary. There's also a whole thing about an underclass of genetically engineered (although he doesn't use the term) humans who are completely organic but are confusingly called androids. Like I said an interesting idea but the problem is that Ash spends the majority of the book just kind of wandering around being passed from one group to another, each wanting to exploit him for their own advantage. There is a fun part where he's challenged to a duel and learns that he isn't allowed to reject it for religious reasons because humans have proven themselves to be huge hypocrites about "Thou shalt not kill" it no longer counts. The ending is probably the most disappointing part because the story just kind of peters out with Ash giving the good guy side of the temporal cold war the means to stalemate their opponents (which is all they need to win) and then he goes off to write his book. I think the very end is supposed to be some kind of twist/message as the final line reveals that his love interest is actually an android but she was so massively underdeveloped and underused that I was just left going "so what?"
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Jun 3, 2021 02:09
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Groke posted:My one and only in-person experience with fandom was a small con organized by that same Alison Scott and her friends about 20 years ago. They were a pretty chill crowd, actually. Got drunk with Ken MacLeod and talked a lot more about cephalopods than politics. Sounds like that happened when MacLeod was dreaming up or actually writing his Engines of Light SF series. Literal lightspeed interstellar travel, alien abductions being real, UFOs, "grey aliens" evolved from Earth saurian, cephalopods being interstellar spaceship pilots, asteroids being intelligent and periodically bombarding planets when they got too noisy, etc.
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Jun 3, 2021 02:16
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Yeah, it was right around the time the first of that series came out.
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Jun 3, 2021 04:43
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Selachian posted:There's also Poul Anderson's Nicholas van Rijn books, although those are more "merchant adventurer" than "space trucker." Followed in continuity by the David Falkenhayn stories, which are also merchant adventurers - an elite, mixed species, team of very competent people out to make big bucks finding new markets or sources for Van Rijn's company. Both series are good SF adventure, just watch out for the obligatory 1960 misogyny. Anderson at least writes women as people, unlike say, most of Asimov's stuff.
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Jun 3, 2021 05:22
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GreyjoyBastard posted:
I loved the half made world but thought the rise of ransom city was big average. He wrote a occult parlour alt history after that that I never got around to, I don't think Felix Gilman is still writing though
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Jun 3, 2021 11:05
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genericnick posted:I've been reading Richard Morgan's The Dark Defiles and now I remember why I dropped the series more than a decade ago. I'm a third through and I think every interaction any character had was them being 100% tiresomely aggro. It's just incredibly one-note. I have somewhat fond memories of Altered Carbon and its sequels, but there it probably worked better since you had only the single POV who spent every encounter rolling 2 D6 on the intimidation table. Finished it, for what it's worth. And what it's worth is not much. I don't think it's much of an exaggeration to say that all POVs he ever wrote are the same and while his shtick kind of fit in Altered Carbon, if you take the same POV, split it in three characters and drop them into a fantasy setting it gets much more grating. If you'd cut every interaction that was a character being needlessly insufferable until they get a rise out of their opposition, only to make them back down with their badass staring technique you'd safe half the weight. Come to think of it, I picked Altered Carbon up in the same batch as Bakker and Abercrombie, but today I really would only recommend the latter.
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Jun 3, 2021 11:24
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GreyjoyBastard posted:hot take: tyrathect in fire is transgender-analogous I was kind of irritated by his take on how gender works for Tines when I read Fire years ago. How come entities that are pack-minds of 4-5 creatures consider themselves one of 2 genders? How does that even work? The one who always made sure he was all males to make himself extra aggressive was kind of amusing, and the 2-gender thing allowed for a nice subtle pronoun switch when Flenser took over, but basically it just came over as laziness on Vinge's part.
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Jun 3, 2021 12:01
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I just finished Assassin's Apprentice. I picked it up because I had heard good things about Hobb. It was fine? It was a by-the-numbers fantasy coming-of-age story. Fitz, the protagonist, is likeable enough, which I guess is my overall feeling about everything in the book, but ultimately it came off as generic and forgettable. One thing that really stood out was the glacial pacing, as the scope of the story covered in a 400 page book felt equivalent to what you would you get in the exposition chapters of another fantasy series. The narrative sort of felt like a stereotype of what non-fantasy readers probably think fantasy books are about. So, what's the catch with this author and this series? I see there are like 2-3 separate trilogies just about Fitz. Does she use the slow pace to really endear you to the character as you grow with him? Does the narrative eventually becoming more complex and interesting? I'm on the fence about whether I want to read the rest of the trilogy or just move on.
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Jun 3, 2021 15:22
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