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Aardvark! posted:Now that I can relate to. I did that half a year ago, when I realized I couldn't see poo poo when going to bed and not having my reading glasses. I almost doubled the amount I read at night, simply because I didn't have to focus on each word and letter. Sucks getting old but at least we have the technology to help us read bad scifi/fantasy  My uncle had double eye surgery last year (one eye at a time) and weren't allowed to wear glasses when the eyes were healing. The only way he could read, was either getting books with a huge font size at the library, thus having very limited choice of books, or using an old Kindle, loaded up with a shitload of his favorite books and the font size turned to almost max. He was happy, considering the circumstances.
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Jun 27, 2021 14:35
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As someone who will easily binge-read 400-500 pages every day e-books have been a godsend. I used to run out of books I was interested in at the library, I'd read through everything so quickly and I'd be stuck waiting days/weeks for sequels/other books to arrive via ILL or be returned from other people checking them out.
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Jun 27, 2021 15:30
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Sextro posted:As someone who will easily binge-read 400-500 pages every day e-books have been a godsend.
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Jun 27, 2021 15:40
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Armauk posted:Teach me your ways. I've always read a lot, I used to get in trouble in kindergarten for reading books under my desk in class. You do anything enough you get better at it.
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Jun 27, 2021 15:51
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Silver2195 posted:I can see how that attitude would irritate a lot of SF fans; it's bad enough (from their point of view) when MWoSFs like Margaret Atwood say things like "I don't write science fiction," but it's even worse when an SF-fan-turned-pro talks like that for mainstream cred. See also: Niven and Pournelle putting Kurt Vonnegut in hell in Inferno.
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Jun 27, 2021 16:17
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e-reader device font sizes: I'm one of the weirdos who uses the smallest font size on e-reader devices and wishes there was even smaller font sizes available on kindles. It was a desperation move I pulled back in December 2020 to make the SFL Archives readthrough project go faster and not burn through battery charge on my e-reader so fast. Just like it took me 4 retro years to realize the MAGEWORLDS SFF series was the alternate Star Wars EU series kickoff that never happened, it has taken me 8 retro-years to realize that Daniel Keys Moran is the Ernest "retro 1980's nostalgia is my writing gimmick" Cline guy of the late '80's-1990's; only Cline is vastly more competent...I never thought I would say those 6 words.
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Jun 27, 2021 16:26
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Sextro posted:I've always read a lot, I used to get in trouble in kindergarten for reading books under my desk in class. You do anything enough you get better at it. Same here, but as I've gotten older and various kinds of mentally ill I can rarely do that any more.
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Jun 27, 2021 16:47
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House of Suns by Alistair Reynolds - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0819VSLF9/
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Jun 27, 2021 18:19
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pradmer posted:House of Suns by Alistair Reynolds - $2.99 This is a good book, buy it.
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Jun 27, 2021 19:03
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I'm gotten worse over the years, and I'm basically Mr Magoo without my glasses now. Even with them, there's only so much work correction can do. The ability to resize and backlight stuff was a godsend. I haven't read a physical book in at least 10 years.
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Jun 27, 2021 22:47
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The only physical books I've bought in the last few years have either been autographed copies, or out of print paperbacks. Everything else is ebook. The ability to increase the font if I need and the backlight for night reading has made life way easier. Size 8 font for lyfe* yo! *not the actual span of life but up to and including all years where size 8 is comfortable to read, I'm not old god dammit.
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Jun 28, 2021 00:21
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Exhalation by Ted Chiang only 99p on Amazon UK Kindle daily deal link
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Jun 28, 2021 09:48
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pradmer posted:House of Suns by Alistair Reynolds - $2.99 By far his best work imo. One of the great sci-fi novels of the last few decades.
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Jun 28, 2021 17:07
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got some chores tonight posted:the blade itself felt like an instant classic at the time it was written, but theres some misogynistic stuff in it and logan ninefingers feels like a lot less compelling of a character now than he does then. joe abercrombie has definitely become a better writer as he's worked on his craft. i think his newest trilogy is a lot better than his first works and hes given interviews about how he regrets how he wrote some of the female characters in his first novels and how hes worked on writing women better and writing his favourite trope of "the violent man who regrets his violence" with a little bit more nuance. How? It was a pretty generic-feeling "dark and gritty" story with a lot of major plot points telegraphed as hard as possible. It was an alright series but instant classic is a bit much.
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Jun 28, 2021 23:22
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The Grace of Kings (Dandelion Dynasty #1) by Ken Liu - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KU4O1CY/ Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions by Neil Gaiman - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC13UE/
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Jun 28, 2021 23:42
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I bounced off The Blade Itself so hard it made a noise. Seems like a good example of "low fantasy" though.
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Jun 29, 2021 01:59
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thotsky posted:I bounced off The Blade Itself so hard it made a noise. Seems like a good example of "low fantasy" though. What made you bounce?
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Jun 29, 2021 02:19
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Evil Fluffy posted:How? It was a pretty generic-feeling "dark and gritty" story with a lot of major plot points telegraphed as hard as possible. It was an alright series but instant classic is a bit much. Didn't it kind of start the whole grimdark fantasy thing? Obviously some of that existed before but I think that was the first time I read fantasy like that. It was influential, at least.
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Jun 29, 2021 02:21
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I read the whole Blade Itself trilogy and my predominant memory of it is that it starts to drown in its own schtick. Like, I don't have a problem with grimdark itself, but Abercrombie was way too self-satisfied and self-referential. He's not even really upending tropes, he's just pointing them out (every other paragraph) and then continuing to write them, and winking at the camera the whole time. I read the first few Game of Thrones books around the same time and the comparison was stark (hey-oooo). Martin subverts cliches in a matter-of-fact way and therefore his books feel like an actual story. Abercrombie is too pleased with himself and his books therefore feel like a cross between a thought experiment and a joke that quickly wears out its welcome. It's like if the second Game of Thrones books was full of the characters standing around talking about how shocked they were that Ned Stark had been executed because he was so important, like, almost like the main character of the world, you know.
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Jun 29, 2021 03:31
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Yeah when Baiaz or whatever is introduced with blood up to his elbows butchering an animal, and Abercrombie leaves him unnamed until he speaks and tells us who he is, you can practically hear old Joe huffing his own farts. Not a bad series per se, but tremendously overrated and he was definitely riding Martin's coattails.
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Jun 29, 2021 04:31
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i read the blade itself and by the end i felt like abercrombie was just tormenting his characters while looking at me and going "isn't this hosed up? these guys are suffering so, so much and it's entirely because i want it that way. that's pretty hosed up. it really makes you think" mostly what it made me think is that i dont like joe abercrombie very much
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Jun 29, 2021 04:49
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It is easier to read Abercrombie if you think of his books as comics with all the classic archetypes.
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Jun 29, 2021 05:07
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Armauk posted:What made you bounce? I can't say for sure, or at least I don't remember. Granted, I am not a big fantasy fan; I think the only stuff I have enjoyed enough for it to stick with me are Brust's Taltos stuff, and I guess Discworld, if you would count that.
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Jun 29, 2021 11:05
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I read the first two or three, I can't remember, and I bounced mid-book when I realised all the women characters felt like complete ciphers.
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Jun 29, 2021 12:58
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I like Abercrombie’s stuff a lot. I think the comparison to Tarantino that some have made in the past is accurate, but I also think it shares something in common with Bojack Horseman. Flawed characters that don’t really improve but at least gain a bit mote self knowledge. And unlike Martin he is very good at delivering the books on schedule which shows respect for his readers.
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Jun 29, 2021 13:31
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Look at Abercrombie over here working like a schlub while Martin dashes off half-baked video game lore and sleeps on money piles. lol What’s up with Abercrombie’s latest trilogy anyway? Saw someone mention it. Did he dial down the excess misery? Is it more YA style stuff or back to the main universe of the first set? I’m like a hundred pages into The Golem and The Jinni and it is absolutely incredible. I especially enjoy that the Jinni’s desire for freedom and the Golem’s hyper empathy and need to serve are fantasy concepts that illustrate very human states of being. It’s really artful. Why do I feel like my heart is going to be wrenched by this book?
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Jun 29, 2021 14:56
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BurningBeard posted:What’s up with Abercrombie’s latest trilogy anyway? Saw someone mention it. Did he dial down the excess misery? Is it more YA style stuff or back to the main universe of the first set? It's pretty good. Each book has a better arc than the original trilogy. It's still heavy on the misery for every character. It's definitely not YA though most of the protagonists are younger than the characters in the first trilogy and Bayaz is much more in the background. I'll be a bit disappointed if the final book coming out in September hits the same beats as the first. But I'm not sure Joe wants to make a point about a means to overthrow the ruling powers or just wants to revel in how his stand in for the forces of capitalism will always crush the efforts of the masses to escape their plight. I can contrast Joe's books with something like Baru Cormorant which actually tries to reckon with how someone might overcome the oppressive forces in the world. The First Law shows the struggle, and occasionally shows people carving out their small place in the world on the margins outside of the most oppressive grip of industrialized civilization like in Red Country, but for the most part it always comes back to "individuals will fail against the powers that be." In an Abercrombie world, Cairdine Farrier rules for centuries and Baru is merely a small thorn in his side or actually a victim of the Farrier Process. It's clear Abercrombie was influenced by Game of Thrones (or ASOIAF to be specific) but it's hard to say whether Game of Thrones was also going for this same idea that pretty human squabbles would always screw everything up forever or whether the series was supposed to have a more hopeful message at the end. We'll never really know unless George manages to get into the zone and actually produce the last 2 or however many books.
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Jun 29, 2021 15:59
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The Fifth Season (Broken Earth #1) by NK Jemisin - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H25FCSQ/ The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087X6Z1GS/ Space Opera by Catherynne M Valente - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074ZJQT6P/ Some Night Watch series books by Sergei Lukyanenko - $1.99/$1.99/$2.99 Night Watch (#1) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DB3FSNW/ Twilight Watch (#3) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DB3FT2C/ The Last Watch (#4) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0011UCOU2/
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Jun 29, 2021 16:48
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BurningBeard posted:I’m like a hundred pages into The Golem and The Jinni and it is absolutely incredible. I especially enjoy that the Jinni’s desire for freedom and the Golem’s hyper empathy and need to serve are fantasy concepts that illustrate very human states of being. It’s really artful. Why do I feel like my heart is going to be wrenched by this book? The Golem and the Jinni is a great book. My only complaint is that my wife and I used the audiobook to fall asleep to and that narrator puts me out like a light, so it took forever to finish.
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Jun 29, 2021 17:09
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pradmer posted:The Fifth Season (Broken Earth #1) by NK Jemisin - $2.99 somehow I've actually read almost all of this list?? Night Watch was weirdly readable, it feels very russian. Vampires. Space Opera is only recommended if you *really* like Eurovision.
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Jun 29, 2021 17:43
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I watched the movie adaptions of the Night Watch movies because they had incredibly impressive vfx for films that were made for like $4 million. That's like Hallmark movie money but somehow Day Watch pulled off some crazy car vfx scenes that rival The Matrix (I thought I had misremembered how cool the scene was because I watched it 10 years ago, but its on youtube and it still looks pretty fantastic!) It's too bad Russia has such crap leadership because everyone I've met from Russia is so ridiculously talented. Though maybe that's due to all the "best" people emigrating out. But it seems like it would be a nice country to live in if accidents of history hadn't made it such a brutal place.
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Jun 29, 2021 19:15
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Ccs posted:I watched the movie adaptions of the Night Watch movies because they had incredibly impressive vfx for films that were made for like $4 million. That's like Hallmark movie money but somehow Day Watch pulled off some crazy car vfx scenes that rival The Matrix (I thought I had misremembered how cool the scene was because I watched it 10 years ago, but its on youtube and it still looks pretty fantastic!) The Directors Cut of Day Watch restores the scene from the trailer where someone jumps onto a moving train. Unfortunately you can't get the movie with its international subtitles intact, nor can you get the original in that version either any more. Which is a loving sin, because they weren't just text at the bottom of the screen - they were integrated into the movie itself. And the best use of the technique was in the second movie; when Saushkin throws the raw meat at the wall and shouts "Bitch!" the word is left smeared on the wall in blood.
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Jun 30, 2021 11:35
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My bookmark for this thread was last read back on page 50-something where folks were "discussing" 'I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter', so it's serendipity that this article just got published: https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22543858/isabel-fall-attack-helicopter You should read it.
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Jun 30, 2021 14:27
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NoneMoreNegative posted:My bookmark for this thread was last read back on page 50-something where folks were "discussing" 'I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter', so it's serendipity that this article just got published: Yikes.
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Jun 30, 2021 14:29
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NoneMoreNegative posted:My bookmark for this thread was last read back on page 50-something where folks were "discussing" 'I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter', so it's serendipity that this article just got published: Really excellent article, thank you for sharing it. Worth reading for anyone who is involved in communities online, really.
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Jun 30, 2021 14:40
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Yeah fantastic article. Though it breaks my fuckin’ heart. I wish her the best. The internet was a mistake. Also, so that’s where Emily VanDerWerff ended up. I loved her work at The A.V. Club before it declined into garbage.
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Jun 30, 2021 16:37
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God, wow that article is heartbreaking and absolutely worth a read. I was barely on twitter back when all that was going on and only kind of heard about it from the periphery and after the fact, but wow people can be so awful. I really hope she's able to be out and be herself one day.
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Jun 30, 2021 16:45
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Geez, the juxtaposition between these two things:quote:After she checked out of the hospital, Isabel Fall ceased to be Isabel Fall. “I had a few other stories in the works on similar themes, and I withdrew them; that is the most concrete thing I can say that I stopped doing,” Fall says. “More abstractly, more emotionally, I have stopped trying to believe I am a woman or to work towards womanness. If other people want to put markings on my gender-sphere and decide what I am, fine, let them. It’s not worth fighting.” quote:So what’s the worst that might have happened if, somehow, the “Attack Helicopter” detractors were right and the story was a secret reactionary text? Well, I hope the outrage brigade on twitter feels proud of themselves.
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Jun 30, 2021 18:23
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Really draws a stark line between allyship and insecure people with a tenuous sense of self-worth who are far too online. That’s for sure. I mentioned this when that last article from the Thai elite adjacent author came up. This is what happens when inflamed rhetoric becomes the go to. It’s too tempting for people to bathe in the glow of their false hero narrative. Right wing shitheads dragged the whole discourse down, and well-meaning people embraced hostility and paranoia to their detriment as well as the detriment of actually marginalized folks. unattended spaghetti fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Jun 30, 2021 |
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Jun 30, 2021 18:42
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Kind of incredible that N.K. Jemisin isn't mentioned by name in that article.
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Jun 30, 2021 20:56
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