|
pentyne posted:I'm trying to find the name of a book or the series I read a while back. It starts with a trio of boys being raised in an extremely harsh religious order preparing for some war. Eventually the main character catches the attention of a senior researcher who recruits him to help with some secret female 'captives' who are basically living in lavish luxury and kept ignorant of anything. It ends up that the senior is killing them to harvest some kind of 'pearl' that grows in people from a life of decandant luxury. Left Hand of God?
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 09:59
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 08:34 |
|
|
Runcible Cat posted:Left Hand of God? omfg that was driving me insane I know I read the entire series when working graveyard shifts but couldn't remember anything past the first book
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 10:04
|
|
|
branedotorg posted:OK thanks, that'll make a nice change from when i finish WoT (23 days in, just finished Crown of Swords) Persevere. Strong men have wept at the thought of rereading the first six chapters of book 9. Be brave.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 10:44
|
|
|
Jedit posted:Persevere. Strong men have wept at the thought of rereading the first six chapters of book 9. Be brave. Is that the kidnapping one? I think that's as far as I got way back when...
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 11:32
|
|
|
Runcible Cat posted:I'm very fond of the Dune Encyclopedia too, if you can find a copy. It's basically an expansion of all the historical quotes in the novels in glorious loony proto-official-fanfic form and it's stupidly good fun. Agreed, it's amazing.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 11:33
|
|
|
branedotorg posted:Is that the kidnapping one? I think that's as far as I got way back when... If you know what happened in those chapters then you can skip them.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 12:03
|
|
|
Tars Tarkas posted:Heretics of Dune was a chore to work through for me and I never finished much of Chapterhouse Dune. That was 20+ years ago but I don't think my opinion would change much. My friend who is Dune obsessed liked all six but hate read the books by the son until they got to bad even he couldn't stand to read them. I picked up the parody book Doon from a used shop years ago but haven't tried to read it. I recall liking Chapterhouse more than Heretics, but not the reasons why I felt that way. I'm generally of the "read God Emperor and stop" crowd, less because I feel Heretics and Chapterhouse drop in quality and more that God Emperor concludes the narrative begun in Dune while the next two are more of a new narrative set in its aftermath. Also, Doon is delightful. It's full of both pointed jokes about Dune and silly slapstick bullshit. It's from that golden age of National Lampoon's when they could expertly mix highbrow and lowbrow into one fantastic unibrow.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 15:09
|
|
|
pentyne posted:
The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman. I didnt catch it at first, then I saw the last paragraph, because I remember about 10 years ago googling Memphis trying to figure out how it fit in this fantasy world.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 15:38
|
|
|
I seem to remember from reading this thread that there are some CJ Cherryh books that are very highly regarded, and some others that are generally well regarded but kind of a slog to get through. Which ones are which? I'm curious about her sci-fi specifically. I know Pride of Chanur, Downbelow Station, and Foreigner come up a lot on "best sci-fi" lists, but I don't really know anything about any of them, and I know she has a ton of other books that are probably worth checking out.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 17:43
|
|
|
MockingQuantum posted:I seem to remember from reading this thread that there are some CJ Cherryh books that are very highly regarded, and some others that are generally well regarded but kind of a slog to get through. Which ones are which? I'm curious about her sci-fi specifically. I know Pride of Chanur, Downbelow Station, and Foreigner come up a lot on "best sci-fi" lists, but I don't really know anything about any of them, and I know she has a ton of other books that are probably worth checking out. The Foreigner series is the only one I would call a slog, and that was still quite enjoyable for the first few books, IMO
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 18:02
|
|
|
MockingQuantum posted:I seem to remember from reading this thread that there are some CJ Cherryh books that are very highly regarded, and some others that are generally well regarded but kind of a slog to get through. Which ones are which? I'm curious about her sci-fi specifically. I know Pride of Chanur, Downbelow Station, and Foreigner come up a lot on "best sci-fi" lists, but I don't really know anything about any of them, and I know she has a ton of other books that are probably worth checking out.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 18:12
|
|
|
MockingQuantum posted:I seem to remember from reading this thread that there are some CJ Cherryh books that are very highly regarded, and some others that are generally well regarded but kind of a slog to get through. Which ones are which? I'm curious about her sci-fi specifically. I know Pride of Chanur, Downbelow Station, and Foreigner come up a lot on "best sci-fi" lists, but I don't really know anything about any of them, and I know she has a ton of other books that are probably worth checking out. The Cherryh fangirl has logged on Her best entry points: - Pride of Chanur Standalone, alien pov, 200~ pages. A crew of merchant lion aliens find a stowaway human and have to play politics to keep him out of other alien hands. One of her best imo. It has a sequel trilogy and that has a comedy/lighter-n-softer sequel. Only vaguely related to her main universe. - Merchanter's Luck Standalone, humans, short. Focused on a pilot trying to impress a girl, kind of - it's darker, I remember the main character dealing with past trauma. This one is a great introduction to her primary universe, the Alliance-Union universe as it shows off characters and the setting of Downbelow Station. Her Alliance-Union universe: hard sci-fi except for the FTL, which is based around the concept that the ships can go FTL, but if humans go into it without drugs, they'll see visions and usually die or go insane. - Downbelow Station isn't as good as the rewards would have you believe, sadly, but it's still a fascinating book. It's about a space station caught between two sides of the war, taking in refugees and risking riots, and the multiple povs are people caught up in trying to make this stuff not explode into firey death. Unfortunately it has aliens and they're the planetside primitives, and Cherryh wrote them... poorly. Which sucks as aliens are usually her strong point! But not here. Here the aliens are noble savages. - Cyteen is her best work, bar none. It's a giant novel that was split up into three parts for publication. It's super heavy and complicated, and I need to warn for slavery, rape, abuse, and similar triggers. It starts slow and weird, setting up the world: the colonized planet that's been ruled by a super-genius lady. Yes, there's a council, but she's been a heavy player for so long that when she's murdered, it upsets everything. Her family sets out to clone her and raise the clone to be her best heir... but things get complicated. There's a fascinating gay romance tucked into it, and lots of questions about what makes someone human. - Regensis is Cyteen's sequel and while I loved it, it's not going to take you to the heights of Cyteen. It's honestly the author going "hey I'd like to see these characters again, see what they're up to" and doing just that without really expanding the concepts. More of a comfort-food sequel than a mind-expanding one. - Rimrunners is about a soldier who's lost and literally starving for food and work at the beginning, and gets picked up by a ship that's not trustworthy or friendly. I haven't finished this one as it's so bleak, but I keep meaning to come back to it. - Heavy Time / Hellburners is... they're prequels to the whole setting, and start about mining and wind up in military sci-fi territory, and I need to give them a better read than I did. - Finity's End is about a teenager finding a home in a spaceship and also there's a lot of worldbuilding in the Alliance side of the universe. This one works better as a vague sequel to Downbelow Station I think? I remember enjoying it a lot. - I don't remember Tripoint, sorry. And I haven't read Serpent's Reach, though I understand it's only vaguely, VAGUELY connected to this universe as it's set many millions of years away on a planet where the local humans coexist with the local bug aliens. The A-U universe rarely features aliens! - Forty Thousand in Gehenna is another one of her great works. One faction dropped a colony ship on a planet and supported it while they built a colony and used their clone-people to help, and then the war shifted and they were abandoned. Cue the colony disintegrating and the genre shifting as it follows generations into a kind of fantasy story, as the offspring of the colony become kind of... bonded? With the local weird lizards, and it gets weird and cool. Foreigner Series - Foreigner is a series set up in trios. The concept is that a human colony ship got lost on its way to its destination, and through a string of events it drops colonists on an alien planet and they settle and make peace, then war with the natives, and we enter the story centuries later. The humans live on a humans-only continent and interact with the aliens through a diplomat-translator who lives with the aliens. His name is Bren, and he will be your pov character for the next 20+ books. The first trilogy is about Bren learning about the aliens and their politics and a major upheaval happening and spoilers spoilers spoilers The second continues this, and I'll be blunt: consider the series finished at book 6. Books 1-6 are a closed story that's really fascinating and fun. Books 7+ are the author going "hey this is fun, can I keep going?" and she does. A new pov character enters, the author goes hard on delving into the alien society and really exploring it, and it becomes weirdly court intrigue cozy sci-fi with occasional adventures. I love it deeply but it slows down and becomes a relaxed adventure instead of the nail-biter it was before. I've reread the whole thing at least twice and will do it a third time, don't tempt me. Her Other Works - Fortress in the Eye of Time is epic fantasy, and I adore it. A mage tries to summon back an ancient elf-lord-mage and fails... and succeeds. He gets a blank slate named Tristen instead, a boy who loves birds and doesn't understand anything. An evil mage destroys the mage, and Tristen is rudely forced to head out and grow up. The other protagonist is the young prince who quickly becomes an unready king, and this is one of my favorite depictions of medieval kingship in fantasy: he has to bargain and deal with the twin forces of the church (who hate elves) and his many lords, who are so eager to throw his authority aside. The first book ends in a final battle against an ancient evil, but then the sequels are about the fallout and development of everyone in the universe. It's fascinating, and kind of feels like a prototype Foreigner in that the author relaxes and goes to explore the universe instead of sticking to a focused story. - The rest of them. They're going to vary from utter dogshit (Hestia) to fuckin' weird (Voyager in Night) to stuff I'm already regretting not writing up (Faded Sun Trilogy). And the Morgaine series, which was her first work and I admit it, I didn't like it. Reading Cherryh is one of my favorite things to do as the books are almost always interesting, they're ALWAYS tense and uncomfortable (she's really good at making you feel a character's misery) and she nails aliens unlike any other author. Absolutely understands how to make them weird in believable ways. I wish to god she'd write more of them instead of sticking to A-U and its mostly alien-free setting.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 18:25
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Reading Cherryh is one of my favorite things to do as the books are almost always interesting, they're ALWAYS tense and uncomfortable (she's really good at making you feel a character's misery) and she nails aliens unlike any other author. Absolutely understands how to make them weird in believable ways. I wish to god she'd write more of them instead of sticking to A-U and its mostly alien-free setting. Aliens that are alien are one of my favorite things in fiction, and I've been meaning to read more Cherryh that isn't Pride of Chanur, where my recollection of the aliens is that they're furry humans. What are her top books for aliens that are Not Human?
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 18:38
|
|
|
Kestral posted:Aliens that are alien are one of my favorite things in fiction, and I've been meaning to read more Cherryh that isn't Pride of Chanur, where my recollection of the aliens is that they're furry humans. What are her top books for aliens that are Not Human? Alien heavy Cherryh: - Chanur series, all of it (you'll see more of the non-lion-aliens in the trilogy. a lot more!) - Faded Sun trilogy - Serpent's Reach (I think, haven't read myself) - Cuckoo's Egg (haven't read myself) - Foreigner (all of it, the atevi are some of my favorite aliens) - Hunter of Worlds (haven't read)
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 18:42
|
|
|
Very, very surprised that Forty Thousand in Gehenna isn't in that list.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 19:22
|
|
|
pseudorandom name posted:No, it has an infinity of worlds. Erasmus comes from a third Earth, which Miriam visits for a while. Remember, there was a long lost secret branch of the Family that was hell bent on revenge because they believed they had been abandoned by the rest of the Family, but in actuality the founder of this branch had lost his knotwork, redrawn it from incorrectly from memory, and accidentally ended up in a different universe. This sounds wild, I might have to check it out.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 20:37
|
|
|
ed balls balls man posted:The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman. That series was good but odd in so many ways. If I recall, they figure out how to do biological warfare as well invent a nuke during the course of the series, all within a catholic medieval setting. It had some clear up and downs in terms of the story.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 21:12
|
|
|
Is Axiom's End by Ellis good? She has a sequel coming out.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 22:42
|
|
|
Kraps posted:Is Axiom's End by Ellis good? She has a sequel coming out. I found it to be okay, neither great nor bad. The plot is Transformers, the prose is serviceable but rarely amazing. However I'm being a harsh grader, it's noticeably better than that of a lot of books that have their own threads on this subforum. I guess what I'm saying is that I was whelmed. I plan to get the sequel because 'fine' still puts it way above many other novels. It's kind of like one of the recent Transformers movies, but by a better writer - if that interests you, you will like it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2021 23:20
|
|
|
Haven't read a bunch of Cherryh but I really liked the Faded Sun Trilogy so another recommendation for that.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2021 01:04
|
|
|
The very first Cherryh book I read was Finity's End and I think it's a good intro to that universe. There's a lot of backstory you won't understand but you don't really need to and it isn't intrusive in the book. It's very focused on a couple of specific characters and the plot is 'teen has to adjust to suddenly living on a spaceship' so you get introduced to that world with him. It's incredible.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2021 01:10
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/ToughSf/status/1435987718975197186 https://twitter.com/nyrath/status/1436010987086286853 if you know what the projectrho website is, thats the guy who made it
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2021 01:30
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Foreigner Series I recently had the displeasure of reading a Goodreads review of Foreigner that sniffily condemned Cherryh for, like too many female SF/F writers, having an outmoded and inept focus on the interior psychology of its characters, violating 'show, don't tell.' I checked the guy's other reviews, and yeah, he doesn't have the most enlightened views towards books that feature the experiences of GSM. PawParole posted:https://twitter.com/ToughSf/status/1435987718975197186 gently caress.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2021 03:04
|
|
|
Kraps posted:Is Axiom's End by Ellis good? She has a sequel coming out. Fwiw I checked it out from the library and returned it a week later unread. The first couple of pages feature high school essay level writing which is fine sometimes but I bounced off this one.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2021 04:21
|
|
|
SSJ_naruto_2003 posted:The first couple of pages feature high school essay level writing which is fine sometimes but I bounced off this one. That is exactly how I would describe the prose in Axiom's End, yes.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2021 00:28
|
|
|
SSJ_naruto_2003 posted:Fwiw I checked it out from the library and returned it a week later unread. The first couple of pages feature high school essay level writing which is fine sometimes but I bounced off this one. It's got a 3.8 rating on Goodreads, allowing for the 1-1.5 Goodreads inflation that's bad.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2021 11:07
|
|
|
I have only read Foreigner; it's highly regarded and was a slog to get through.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2021 11:35
|
|
|
Snuff (Discworld #39) by Terry Pratchett - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FFW46S/ Revenger by Alistair Reynolds - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LXW2IUQ/ Again, Dangerous Visions: Stories by Harlan Ellison - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J90EO6S/
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2021 18:23
|
|
|
pradmer posted:Again, Dangerous Visions: Stories by Harlan Ellison - $1.99 This is a great collection of which only some are by Ellison.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2021 18:33
|
|
|
Remembering how batshit Heinlein went in response to that test bad, does anyone want to imagine how much 9/11 would have made him lose it?
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2021 19:57
|
|
|
FPyat posted:gently caress. Yeah, Winchell is a legend. http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/prelimnotes.php
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2021 21:16
|
|
|
Harold Fjord posted:This is a great collection of which only some are by Ellison. Yeah, it includes some really good stories ... and then there's Piers Anthony's "In the Barn."
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2021 22:46
|
|
|
branedotorg posted:i was going to recommend that too but it's really only two alternate worlds right? It's awhile since i read them. At least by the follow up series there's at least 4 alternate timelines that have mattered. Note that what looks like 'our' timeline is one of them from the start...(topically, note how they describe their version of 9/11). I have read and liked the followup series fwiw 
feedmegin fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Sep 11, 2021 |
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2021 23:53
|
|
|
Selachian posted:Yeah, it includes some really good stories ... and then there's Piers Anthony's "In the Barn." God dammit! I'd almost removed that loving story from my memory. Thanks a whole loving lot.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2021 02:07
|
|
|
Selachian posted:Yeah, it includes some really good stories ... and then there's Piers Anthony's "In the Barn." You made me remember "In the Barn" and now I have to raid my liquor cabinet and drink myself blind on a work night, THANKS.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2021 03:11
|
|
|
I'm never going to read anything by Piers Anthony ever again: what's so bad about the Barn story? Also hi I just bought several Jack L Chalker novels because my brain has impulses sometimes, and I did enjoy the Quintara Marathon for being batshit crazy.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2021 03:19
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:The Cherryh fangirl has logged on This is super useful for future-me who will eventually get around to a Cherryh read so I am thanking you in advance, and posting so that I can find this again in the future.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2021 03:21
|
|
|
Xtanstic posted:This is super useful for future-me who will eventually get around to a Cherryh read so I am thanking you in advance, and posting so that I can find this again in the future.  A few bonus notes: - The earlier the work by Cherryh, the more likely it is to be brutal/bleak/grim. Her writing really mellowed as she aged, and you can see a direct line from her earliest stuff (Morgaine, Faded Sun) being almost painful to read reaching the 80s-90s where there's a fine line (the bulk of her best work) and then she hits the 2000s and her stuff just relaxes into almost cozy sci-fi. (Foreigner book 7+, Chanur 5 (it's practically a comedy). I can't explain it, as I don't know much about her personal life. - What I do know about her personal life is that she's a happily married lesbian to another author (Jane Fancher) and blogs about surprisingly banal/boring stuff on her Wave Without A Shore blog. ... that said, uh wow I just spotted this while opening her blog: quote:That’s what’s delayed getting books done. But Alliance 2 (title uncertain) is underway again, our publisher is endlessly patient and sympathetic, I’ve caught up to where I was when the cancer intervened, and I’m back at work in my work station for hours on end. For those of you new here, I had colon cancer, which threw Jane off her schedule to get 2 hips replaced, while she took care of me (and my biweekly sessions in the chemo lab and two days later getting the inserted line disconnected) until I was through chemo, then a gallbladder attack sent me taking her to the ER clinic at 3 AM in a snowstorm and she ended up having emergency gallbladder removal at 10:30 the following morning. A week before her rescheduled first hip replacement. So that was how we spent OUR 2020. She’s now had her second hip replaced, and I’m recovering nicely, past the tests, and we’re both vaccinated and will be fully-aged-and-immune come this THursday. Yay! gently caress cancer, and gently caress aging, I want her to stick around writing infinite Foreigner sequels. 
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2021 03:33
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Also hi I just bought several Jack L Chalker novels because my brain has impulses sometimes, and I did enjoy the Quintara Marathon for being batshit crazy. You can't just not tell us which ones, you drat tease.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2021 03:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 08:34 |
|
|
NinjaDebugger posted:You can't just not tell us which ones, you drat tease. Web of the Chozen, Lilith, Midnight at the Well of Souls, and Cybernetic Walrus. I made sure to get a proper spread so I can try his different series. e: The Four Lords of Diamond stands out to me a lot because the concept of splitting an assassin into four separate people on wildly different planets is buckwild.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2021 04:08
|
|