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Ccs posted:Hmm that sounds like something I might enjoy coming off a bunch of KJ Parker. I would’ve picked up the first for kindle but it’s not available on Amazon, I’ll try to get it on my phone. Apparently it's on Google play and probably some other place. I, uh,  'd the first two, as I usually do with authors I have no clue about. Dunno about y'all but Kindle samples are usually too short to get an idea of a book, and I'm not about to pay $8-20 to try one. ... I guess that's what library cards are for, but at this point, I've read more books on phone or Kindle than I have on actual paper, and I can't ever go back. I like reading laying down in bed way too much.
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Oct 6, 2021 05:12
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decades old sci-fi: James P Hogan was a crackpot writing the same style of crap that Immanuel Velikovsky did, why and how James P Hogan had the successful career he did I have no idea. actual decades old sci-fi that I enjoyed: The "a time travel machine that can go to any described artificially created universe, even those long forgotten/or not written yet" section in Monday Begins On Saturday. Can't quite remember how it went in the 2005 English translation, but the 1977 English translation is freaking amazing. The Cold War/Iron Curtain lasting for a million plus years, the time travel machine being bolted ontop of a broken down Ural motorcycle, the SovCit side of the Iron Curtain being a utopia of stuff that never happened in the actual IRL future history of the USSR, the Western side of the Iron Curtain being a hellscape of endless war for a million plus years, with every western nation enslaved and under the heel of a different conqueror (robots, aliens from another galaxy, the Empire from Asimov's Foundation series, Mongol hordes, etc), and the brief appearances of Sci-fi cover artists appearing randomly for brief seconds to paint away what they see.
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Oct 6, 2021 07:07
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Larry Parrish posted:... I guess that's what library cards are for, but at this point, I've read more books on phone or Kindle than I have on actual paper, and I can't ever go back. I like reading laying down in bed way too much. Libraries have ebooks too...
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Oct 6, 2021 11:14
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a friendly penguin posted:Libraries have ebooks too... Yeah, my local library has like 30,000 ebooks available for borrowing, and around 1000 of those are sci-fi and/or fantasy. Check your local library’s website to see what app they use (Overdrive seems to be pretty common) and try it out. It’s literally free books
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Oct 6, 2021 11:29
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Another Dirty Dish posted:Yeah, my local library has like 30,000 ebooks available for borrowing, and around 1000 of those are sci-fi and/or fantasy. Check your local library’s website to see what app they use (Overdrive seems to be pretty common) and try it out. It’s literally free books Also see if they participate with Libby (although, technically Libby is an Overdrive subsidiary) and/or Hoopla. My library does both, but both have different check-out limits and different selections. Hoopla actually includes things like visual media and music for check out as well. (You can also lay down with a paperback, if you’ve got a bedside lamp.) DreamingofRoses fucked around with this message at 11:36 on Oct 6, 2021 |
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Oct 6, 2021 11:32
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Larry Parrish posted:You don't even ever hear the protagonist's name, because who the hell thinks of their own name? 
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Oct 6, 2021 13:59
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Larry Parrish posted:Literally anyone mentioning the the Commonweal series by Graydon Saunders. Hey cool i'm just going to get my popcorn and wait for that one guy to show up and get mad again.
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Oct 6, 2021 15:59
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The Futurological Congress has an incredible amount of puns and wordplay that only work in English for something originally written in Polish. I wonder what the translation process was like.
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Oct 6, 2021 16:07
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a friendly penguin posted:Libraries have ebooks too... My local library makes me go in and download the ebook from a terminal with a flash drive. Not doing that.
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Oct 6, 2021 18:29
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The Other Wind (Earthsea Cycle #6) by Ursula K Le Guin - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004H1U22E/ Countdown City (Last Policeman #2) by Ben H Winters - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B6OV90E/
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Oct 6, 2021 22:39
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Larry Parrish posted:My local library makes me go in and download the ebook from a terminal with a flash drive. Not doing that. What the... Where do you live?
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Oct 6, 2021 22:42
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Larry Parrish posted:My local library makes me go in and download the ebook from a terminal with a flash drive. Not doing that. you can sign up for library cards all over your state, depending which state you live in. take a look and see what other libraries you can get digital cards at imo.
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Oct 6, 2021 23:55
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/613946.Leopard_Lord "This book is about Varian, who is a baron, a were-leopard (snow leopard to be exact), and bound to the dark god. He makes a deal with the god to give him his wife - as a virgin - so he can free his people from the god's cruelty." This just arrived in the mail and I'm ready for 250 pages of gothic horror romance snow leopard. Or, well, when I finish plowing through Through Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold. I'm 245 pages in and I swear to god there's only been 10 pages of wolf content and the rest is vanilla slow-paced setup for what the court intrigue is. I'd stop reading it but I've wanted to know how it resolves for literal years and if I stop now I'll never pick it up again.
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Oct 7, 2021 00:36
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DreamingofRoses posted:Also see if they participate with Libby (although, technically Libby is an Overdrive subsidiary) and/or Hoopla. My library does both, but both have different check-out limits and different selections. Hoopla actually includes things like visual media and music for check out as well. My local library is the only library in the region that doesn't use Overdrive; they use something called "CloudLibrary" that requires a hot mess of windows-specific software (and a USB cable) to get the books onto my e-reader, making it more annoying and slower than literally just biking down there and doing curbside pickup of a backpack full of hardcopies Maybe I should see if one of the neighboring cities allows out-of-region library checkouts...
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Oct 7, 2021 00:48
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I still remember how excited I was as a kid when I found out the library in the next town took our library cards and I could check out the Ruth Plumly Thompson Oz books they had. I also remember the disappointment that many of those were not very good.
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Oct 7, 2021 01:07
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StrixNebulosa posted:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/613946.Leopard_Lord Reminds me of being young and looking for fantasy in the library. I would get so cross when books with 'dragon' in the title or a dragon on the cover had nothing to do with dragons.
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Oct 7, 2021 01:21
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HopperUK posted:Reminds me of being young and looking for fantasy in the library. I would get so cross when books with 'dragon' in the title or a dragon on the cover had nothing to do with dragons. Dragonbone Chair!  e: oh man I finally remembered one that made me REAL ma: Dragon's Winter. Surprise, there are no loving dragons in it. That's even a goddamn plot point: " Twin boys were born to the dragon-king of Ippa, though only one was born of dragon-blood. He was named Karadur Atani - Fire-bringer. But Karadur Atani would never become a dragon. In a bitter betrayal, his twin brother stole his talisman and disappeared, leaving Karadur trapped - a king with the heart of a dragon, trapped in the body of an ordinary man. Now, rumors of an evil sorcery have reached Dragon Keep. A powerful wizard has risen out of legend. From his stronghold in the great ice, he rains death and destruction upon the people of Ippa. Once he was called Ankoku, the Hollow One. But Karadur Atani knows him as brother." StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Oct 7, 2021 |
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Oct 7, 2021 01:29
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I’m immediately hooked by the start of The March North, where three incredibly powerful wizards show up to a military outpost for unknown reasons. I keep having to make inferences and reread lines to figure out what is actually being talked about though. This is not a book that explains the terminology to the reader, it has to be sussed out through context clues. I’m still not sure what “the standard” is. At first I assumed it was a flag someone was holding. 4 chapters in I now think it’s a sort of pervasive magical treaty that everyone can sort of sense and which decides whether military documents are legitimate or not. By the next chapter I might think it’s something else. Ccs fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Oct 7, 2021 |
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Oct 7, 2021 02:25
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The secret power is ISO9000 compliance
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Oct 7, 2021 02:40
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DreamingofRoses posted:Also see if they participate with Libby (although, technically Libby is an Overdrive subsidiary) and/or Hoopla. My library does both, but both have different check-out limits and different selections. Hoopla actually includes things like visual media and music for check out as well. I love Libby, but its one week due dates kill me. I'm a pretty fast reader, but c'mon!
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Oct 7, 2021 02:42
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HopperUK posted:Reminds me of being young and looking for fantasy in the library. I would get so cross when books with 'dragon' in the title or a dragon on the cover had nothing to do with dragons. Exactly how I ended up reading a YA novel about a Chinese kid who ended up emigrating to 1800s America and being more or less forced to work on the deadliest portions of the intercontinental railroad. It was a good book (or at least one that stuck with me) and I learned a lot about historical horrors! But there were no loving dragons and I wanted dragons!
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Oct 7, 2021 03:34
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Fighting Trousers posted:I love Libby, but its one week due dates kill me. I'm a pretty fast reader, but c'mon! It's three weeks.
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Oct 7, 2021 03:37
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Ccs posted:I’m immediately hooked by the start of The March North, where three incredibly powerful wizards show up to a military outpost for unknown reasons. I keep having to make inferences and reread lines to figure out what is actually being talked about though. This is not a book that explains the terminology to the reader, it has to be sussed out through context clues.
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Oct 7, 2021 06:24
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Ccs posted:I’m immediately hooked by the start of The March North, where three incredibly powerful wizards show up to a military outpost for unknown reasons. I keep having to make inferences and reread lines to figure out what is actually being talked about though. This is not a book that explains the terminology to the reader, it has to be sussed out through context clues. Same here. I got the free preview, read it, immediately bought the full book, read it, and am now on the 2nd. The standard is, as far as I can tell, an incredibly powerful sorcerous artifact that allows a military unit to become something of a gestalt hive-mind and do instant comms, cooperative magical workings, BIND THE DEAD OF THE FALLEN TO SERVICE IF THEY WANT, and stuff like that. It also seems to be an actual dimensional space where the Line-Captain keeps their poo poo. Honestly I’m dying for more info, but as far as I can tell, the Commonweal is basically a fantasy version of Banks’ Culture whose power is based on some sorcerer back in the Bad Old Days whipping the poo poo out of The Black Company’s Ten Who Were Taken and instead of sealing them in a cursed graveyard, made them sign a binding citizenship construct. (I didn’t spoil this bit because it’s obvious 10 pages in and how I would elevator pitch it). Also I love the giant murder sheep and he must be protected at all cost
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Oct 7, 2021 06:36
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navyjack posted:Same here. I got the free preview, read it, immediately bought the full book, read it, and am now on the 2nd. The standard is, as far as I can tell, an incredibly powerful sorcerous artifact that allows a military unit to become something of a gestalt hive-mind and do instant comms, cooperative magical workings, BIND THE DEAD OF THE FALLEN TO SERVICE IF THEY WANT, and stuff like that. It also seems to be an actual dimensional space where the Line-Captain keeps their poo poo. Honestly I’m dying for more info, but as far as I can tell, the Commonweal is basically a fantasy version of Banks’ Culture whose power is based on some sorcerer back in the Bad Old Days whipping the poo poo out of The Black Company’s Ten Who Were Taken and instead of sealing them in a cursed graveyard, made them sign a binding citizenship construct. (I didn’t spoil this bit because it’s obvious 10 pages in and how I would elevator pitch it). Apparently this isn't on amazon. How/where do I get it for an ereader?
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Oct 7, 2021 06:46
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D-Pad posted:Apparently this isn't on amazon. How/where do I get it for an ereader? Google play books. You can do it through the website, and it'll give you an epub or mobi or something.
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Oct 7, 2021 06:55
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freebooter posted:I think you'd like Ian McDonald - give his Luna trilogy a shot. I tried reading the first one a while back and it didn't really click, but went back to it recently since people were talking about the series a few weeks/months ago and ended up enjoying it a lot more this time around. Some of the male characters got clothing descriptions as detailed as the women, this was surprising for science fiction writing. D-Pad posted:Apparently this isn't on amazon. How/where do I get it for an ereader? It's available on Google Play. After buying it you can go into the My Books page and then export/download it as a epub, at which point you can transfer it over to a reader by whatever method you prefer.
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Oct 7, 2021 06:56
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D-Pad posted:Apparently this isn't on amazon. How/where do I get it for an ereader? Just FYI if it hasn’t been made clear, these books drop you into a weird complex fantasy world without so much as an “as you know..” I’m two books in and still don’t have definitions of some commonly used terms. Now this is very much my poo poo but keep it in mind. The Google play preview is like 11 chapters to the point where I thought maybe it was buggy and gave me the whole thing, so feel free to check the free sample. It doesn’t suddenly start holding your hand so if you are still mad you don’t know what the gently caress the “Shape of Peace” is, then feel free to bail.
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Oct 7, 2021 07:10
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And if you want answers , feel free to ask the many accounts the author has in this thread to promote his self-published book, like mine!
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Oct 7, 2021 07:13
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FPyat posted:The Futurological Congress has an incredible amount of puns and wordplay that only work in English for something originally written in Polish. I wonder what the translation process was like. Much the way Anthea Bell's translation for Asterix worked, I expect. When the original pun didn't translate, it got replaced with a different but appropriate pun in English. There's a visible drop-off in the quality of the last two albums because the new translator isn't as good at it. E: which reminds me, album 39 is out in two weeks. Jedit fucked around with this message at 09:36 on Oct 7, 2021 |
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Oct 7, 2021 09:29
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a friendly penguin posted:What the... Where do you live? dilapidated rural California. Now to be fair they might have actually acquired real ebook tech in the last 5 years that isn't weird, proprietary, or literally just a license to give people file copies (but not over the internet), but I haven't heard of it. the computers in the main library haven't changed since I was old enough to use them, anyway. they still have 1024x768 LCD panels from 2000 lol.
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Oct 7, 2021 10:58
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navyjack posted:Just FYI if it hasn’t been made clear, these books drop you into a weird complex fantasy world without so much as an “as you know..” I’m two books in and still don’t have definitions of some commonly used terms. Now this is very much my poo poo but keep it in mind. The Google play preview is like 11 chapters to the point where I thought maybe it was buggy and gave me the whole thing, so feel free to check the free sample. It doesn’t suddenly start holding your hand so if you are still mad you don’t know what the gently caress the “Shape of Peace” is, then feel free to bail. the coolest part is there's all this depth and history just out of sight, and absolutely none of it matters. it gets brought up by people when its important, but even then they frequently just refer to it and everyone nods in understanding. i normally hate this kind of anti-exposition but done like this it's amazing and I wonder how I read anything else
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Oct 7, 2021 11:05
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If it isn't obvious from these posts, I am a librarian and am always happy to answer any questions regarding library things. And I would make more recommendations of books, but y'all are much faster at responding. Keep up the good work.ToxicFrog posted:My local library is the only library in the region that doesn't use Overdrive; they use something called "CloudLibrary" that requires a hot mess of windows-specific software (and a USB cable) to get the books onto my e-reader, making it more annoying and slower than literally just biking down there and doing curbside pickup of a backpack full of hardcopies That's not how Cloud Library works... Or it isn't how it has to be. They have apps for Apple, Android and Kindle Fire. So unless you're using an e-ink kindle, really shouldn't be a serious issue. But agreed, Cloud Library is one of the worst options and not just for the readers. It sucks for the libraries too. Fighting Trousers posted:I love Libby, but its one week due dates kill me. I'm a pretty fast reader, but c'mon! Yeah, this is a changeable setting. You can set your checkouts to 1, 2 or 3 weeks. I think it defaults to 1 week which is some crap for both the reader and the library. Larry Parrish posted:dilapidated rural California. Now to be fair they might have actually acquired real ebook tech in the last 5 years that isn't weird, proprietary, or literally just a license to give people file copies (but not over the internet), but I haven't heard of it. the computers in the main library haven't changed since I was old enough to use them, anyway. they still have 1024x768 LCD panels from 2000 lol. I'm going to go with probably it has changed. But don't want to speak without verifying especially since I know how rural California libraries can be. But as some others have said, with the pandemic on, it has been a little easier to get digital library cards from other systems without leaving home. You get a card number and set up a password/PIN and then you can get immediate access to downloadable content. Some of them do make you go to the library eventually to prove your residency/get the physical card, but again, a lot of those deadlines have been extended if not taken away entirely due to not wanting to encourage people to go out in the world. You might be able to get cards from very far away places and others you might have a reciprocal agreement with anyway. Like in Maryland, anyone living in any county can get a library card at any other county. They've just made that agreement. Or in Northern Virginia, any of the surrounding areas can get library cards despite not being a resident. So don't give up hope. But it might take some work.
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Oct 7, 2021 11:43
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Changeable setting on the library side, you mean?
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Oct 7, 2021 12:04
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silvergoose posted:Changeable setting on the library side, you mean? Nope, changeable by each individual reader at each individual checkout: https://help.libbyapp.com/en-us/6008.htm But I guess it's possible the library has limited these options. I've never seen a library do that but possible.
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Oct 7, 2021 12:44
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navyjack posted:Honestly I’m dying for more info, but as far as I can tell, the Commonweal is basically a fantasy version of Banks’ Culture whose power is based on some sorcerer back in the Bad Old Days whipping the poo poo out of The Black Company’s Ten Who Were Taken and instead of sealing them in a cursed graveyard, made them sign a binding citizenship construct. (I didn’t spoil this bit because it’s obvious 10 pages in and how I would elevator pitch it). if you survived the jump from Black Company to Anarcho-Syndicalist Wizard School between books 1 and 2, you're definitely over the biggest hump in terms of difficulty learning what the gently caress is going on in the world, everything becomes gradually more clear at that point also [book 3+ spoilers] book 2 really does work well in retrospect because seeing them all as students and very fallible humans (well, human-ish creatures) is a good contrast to the absolutely terrifying god-wizard-polycule-hivemind they become
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Oct 7, 2021 12:50
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DurianGray posted:Exactly how I ended up reading a YA novel about a Chinese kid who ended up emigrating to 1800s America and being more or less forced to work on the deadliest portions of the intercontinental railroad. It was a good book (or at least one that stuck with me) and I learned a lot about historical horrors! But there were no loving dragons and I wanted dragons!
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Oct 7, 2021 13:03
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a friendly penguin posted:Nope, changeable by each individual reader at each individual checkout: https://help.libbyapp.com/en-us/6008.htm Oh!! Interesting. One of my libraries restricts to 7 and 14, the other allows 7 14 21. Bizarre.
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Oct 7, 2021 13:37
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Drakyn posted:Around age 8-10 I was trying to read Laurence Yep's Dragon of the Lost Sea series and was similarly bamboozled by this dragon-but-no-dragons titling. Dude, I'm pretty sure that's the book I read in elementary that I couldn't remember the name of forever. I just remember a kid and a dragon walking across a salt desert.
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Oct 7, 2021 14:56
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a friendly penguin posted:Nope, changeable by each individual reader at each individual checkout: https://help.libbyapp.com/en-us/6008.htm scanners.gif Holy crap, that is life changing information.
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Oct 7, 2021 15:07
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