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Kesper North posted:Just finished Inhibitor Phase. Captain Brannigan's full backstory is Revelation Space's biggest potential prequel novel.
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Oct 20, 2021 05:35
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pradmer posted:First 6 books of Will Wight's Cradle series are all free. You might be thinking, okay, but are people really gonna read nine books in two weeks? The answer is yes, absolutely.
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Oct 20, 2021 06:37
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Been reading lots of older interesting sounding SF&F stories and books mentioned during my SFL Archives readthrough project. There has been a high, extremely high, miss rate so far. Maybe 6 of the 27 books or short stories I've read thanks to the SFL Archives so far were good or didn't quickly diverge into eugenics territory, or weird social sexual stratification, or gross over-indulgence with drugs, or outright author-insert power fantasies of a) hero worship, b) world ending power or c) rape incest sexual slavery cannibalism.
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Oct 20, 2021 06:43
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A few chapters into The Ten Thousand Doors of January – I’m a bit worried it’s gonna turn into one of those meta-stories about the importance of books/stories and the power of imagination, but the writing is good enough to keep stringing me along. I don’t think I’ve seen Jay Posey mentioned in this thread before, so I’d anybody’s looking for an accessible not-vampire novel (possibly for a YA reader), check out Three. A gunslinger needs to escort a mom and kid across a cyberpunk/Mad Max wasteland, grim hijinks ensue. As the goodreads reviews reminded me, Posey doesn’t spend much time on exposition; you’re just kind of dropped into things, and some things just don’t get a full explanation, so, something to keep in mind if you’re adverse to that sort of thing. Also I’m sure I’m beating a dead horse here but ugh goodreads sucks. At this point, if a review includes any pictures at all, I just keep scrolling.
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Oct 20, 2021 13:28
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I only use goodreads if it's the first result that comes up when I google a title to check the author's name or vice versa and if the other results I can see without scrolling are worse
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Oct 20, 2021 13:35
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Another Dirty Dish posted:Also I’m sure I’m beating a dead horse here but ugh goodreads sucks. It's got some reviews alright, but i need the site to help me remember what I've read. I've absolutely started a book only to realize 'hey wait I've already read this' and just forgotten Cerepol fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Oct 20, 2021 |
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Oct 20, 2021 14:29
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Same. I have serious memory issues (I struggle to even remember the contents of the book that I'm currently reading...) and I'd never be able to keep track of what I'm on without Goodreads or similar. Mine isn't even complete but it's good enough to keep me from reading the same "new to me" book 3 times.
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Oct 20, 2021 15:01
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The who Belgariad series is on sale for $2.99. E: per book.
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Oct 20, 2021 18:00
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buffalo all day posted:thanks for posting your taeks itt, its cool to see someone experiencing it for the first time. will be interested to hear what you think of book 3, esp. mat I'm only halfway through book 3 of WOT (after a week, Jesus I am not reading fast) but last night had a moment where I was yelling "are you loving kidding me" while also smiling like an idiot i don't even care that he forgot to mention he was a god at the quarterstaff for the last 2 books, lmfao
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Oct 20, 2021 18:03
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Another Dirty Dish posted:A few chapters into The Ten Thousand Doors of January – I’m a bit worried it’s gonna turn into one of those meta-stories about the importance of books/stories and the power of imagination, but the writing is good enough to keep stringing me along. I didn’t come away with that take, so I think you’re good. It was less twee-Lit lit (like Starless Sea or some poo poo) than actual portal fiction
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Oct 20, 2021 18:13
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Aardvark! posted:
Ta'veren: in the old tongue, "protagonist" (There is a partial explanation for Mat's relatively sudden expertise there, but it isn't made fully clear for another book)
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Oct 20, 2021 18:23
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Ta'veren: in the old tongue, "protagonist" Yeah, I had kinda figured there'd be at least some explanation forthcoming relating to his OLD BLOOD
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Oct 20, 2021 18:36
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Finished up the god fragments series by Tom Lloyd and... I mean, I liked it, but it just got worse in quality as it went on. It's 4 books and 2 novellas, and the first 2 and the novellas are good but the latter 2 are kinda aggressively "😑". Big giant spoilers for the entire goddamn series: every book, except the second (and novellas), ends the same exact way. OH NO GIANT MAGIC EATING MONSTER WHATEVER SHALL WE DO? OH I BET WE KILL IT LIKE THE LAST ONE WE KILLED! Seriously, one book out of 4 (and 2 novellas I guess) end with them NOT killing a giant loving bug thing. I mean yes, I get that they are dangerous, but holy poo poo dude, you literally had A GOD IN THE LAST BOOK AND STILL MADE THE ENDING ABOUT THE BUG THING... I mean, read the first one and if you like it, you will love the rest cause holy poo poo are they copy and pasted. The irritating thing is, there a fuckton of plot threads that could have taken the story to so many more places to do so much more different stuff, but it just kinda farts and sighs and ends. Neat idea, and the first 2 books are pretty good, but I feel let down by how it all got wrapped up. Dude does characters great, and dialogue is pretty nice as well, but he loving Stephen Kings the endings more than once in the series.
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Oct 20, 2021 18:46
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Another Dirty Dish posted:
I mentioned every sky a grave and the outriders books a few pages back. I've never read the three series
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Oct 21, 2021 08:35
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branedotorg posted:I mentioned every sky a grave and the outriders books a few pages back. Whoops  Every Sky A Grave sounds interesting, gonna check that out next
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Oct 21, 2021 12:45
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A desolation called peace is WAY better than the first book. I still don’t love the prose but the characters are much more compelling and the plot is more gripping this time around. Definitely interested to see where she takes this series.
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Oct 21, 2021 17:41
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buffalo all day posted:A desolation called peace is WAY better than the first book. I still don’t love the prose but the characters are much more compelling and the plot is more gripping this time around. Definitely interested to see where she takes this series. I was really not into it until about 1/3rd of the way through, then as the plotline about communicating directly with the aliens on the desert planet started in earnest, the book got a lot more engaging. Not necessarily because of that (though it definitely helped having a tangible "plot point" driving the story) but around there I feel like the book in general started to gain some momentum. I just finished it a couple of days ago, and I'd agree that now that I've finished it, I like it more than the first book.
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Oct 21, 2021 17:59
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The Black Prism (Lightbringer #1) by Brent Weeks - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003JTHY76/
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Oct 21, 2021 22:53
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It feels like the commonweal books would have benefited from a more involved editor. Both to work on the pacing of the books and to fix some of the awkward compound sentence construction. One minor example: “I don’t, I doubt any of us, need to think about going into westcreek town; our feet know the way”. There are just so many times a comma clause is shunted into the middle of the sentence in a way which makes it very hard to figure out the meaning of the sentence without rereading. All that said, still enjoying them enough to continue, but it does feel like a bit of a missed opportunity.
tildes fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Oct 22, 2021 |
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Oct 22, 2021 02:59
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tildes posted:It feels like the commonweal books would have benefited from a more involved editor. Both to work on the pacing of the books and to fix some of the awkward compound sentence construction. One minor example: “I don’t, I doubt any of us, need to think about going into westcreek town; our feet know the way”. There are just so many times a comma clause is shunted into the middle of the sentence in a way which makes it very hard to figure out the meaning of the sentence without rereading. All that said, still enjoying them enough to continue, but it does feel like a bit of a missed opportunity. It's a little more confused than arcane sometimes. But I think it's what he was going for, instead of being an accident, I guess.
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Oct 22, 2021 03:24
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The main thing I wonder about Commonweal (partway through book 3 so far and enjoying it a lot!) is - are there actually any bad people in the entire series? Some of them may not be morally good but nobody is ever less than kind and helpful. There are some faceless invader baddies but basically no interpersonal conflicts whatsoever. The closest I can think of is Chloris' mum, who is the communist equivalent of a snob and is mentioned like twice. I think the drinking game should be to take a shot every time a character's expression or voice is "benevolent".
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Oct 22, 2021 20:52
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The Line members and some of the old Independents are pretty brutal and horrible, but not to the Commonweal. There's a character in 5 who we never actually meet who seems to be regarded as a bit of a cantankerous old rear end in a top hat and a bad sorcerer, but even then hes not intentionally a bad guy.
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Oct 22, 2021 21:14
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There's the redneck that tried to brain Chloris, but even then everyone promptly agreed they were an rear end in a top hat.
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Oct 22, 2021 21:18
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The Magicians by Lev Grossman - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002AU7MJU/
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Oct 22, 2021 21:57
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Ceebees posted:There's the redneck that tried to brain Chloris, but even then everyone promptly agreed they were an rear end in a top hat. There’s also Prowess and the traditionalist graul.
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Oct 22, 2021 23:36
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I’m compiling a list of fantasy authors who are the best at writing dialog (based mainly on doing a Google search for “fantasy author best dialog”), and have come up with this list. What are people’s thoughts and are there some that should be on this list but aren’t, or vice-versa? I imagine that some lesser known fantasy authors are missing. Joe Abercrombie George RR Martin Steven Erickson Lois McMaster Bujold Terry Pratchett Scott Lynch Steven Brust Robin Hobb Jack Vance David Gemmell I’ve read Bujold, Martin, and Pratchett on this list and agree with their placement. (I’ve only read GOTM from Erickson so jury is still out). Also for “best” I’m equating with most entertaining or engaging. A strong wit is key. theblackw0lf fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Oct 23, 2021 |
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Oct 23, 2021 04:44
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Strategic Tea posted:The main thing I wonder about Commonweal (partway through book 3 so far and enjoying it a lot!) is - are there actually any bad people in the entire series? Some of them may not be morally good but nobody is ever less than kind and helpful. There are some faceless invader baddies but basically no interpersonal conflicts whatsoever. One of the points of the Commonweal is to try and bring up basically decent people who aren't awful to each other for no particular reason. If you're chronically antisocial nobody will let you die but you'll be eating gruel and living in the worst hut they have available that still legitimately qualifies as weather proof, and you can't use force against another citizen to get what you want. So even if you're bad in your heart (i don't think this is a real thing, but just for the sake of argument) there's good reason not to misbehave
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Oct 23, 2021 05:15
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theblackw0lf posted:I’m compiling a list of fantasy authors who are the best at writing dialog (based mainly on doing a Google search for “fantasy author best dialog”), and have come up with this list. What are people’s thoughts and are there some that should be on this list but aren’t, or vice-versa? I imagine that some lesser known fantasy authors are missing. Vance definitely belongs in that discussion, yeah. Conversely, while I like Erickson, his strengths are worldbuilding and an ability to juggle a massive cast, not dialogue. I'd say Fritz Leiber should be on the short list, too.
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Oct 23, 2021 05:51
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Selachian posted:Vance definitely belongs in that discussion, yeah. Conversely, while I like Erickson, his strengths are worldbuilding and an ability to juggle a massive cast, not dialogue. I get where you're coming from but I think its more because there's just so many characters. Iskaral Pust, Kruppe, Tehol and all the various Malazan army/marine interactions is certainly top tier for me.
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Oct 23, 2021 10:55
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Strategic Tea posted:The main thing I wonder about Commonweal (partway through book 3 so far and enjoying it a lot!) is - are there actually any bad people in the entire series? Some of them may not be morally good but nobody is ever less than kind and helpful. There are some faceless invader baddies but basically no interpersonal conflicts whatsoever. The Independent Rust is rather unsavory, I'd say. Though obviously there's limits to how bad these folks can be, constrained by the Shape of Peace. But Rust certainly seems to delight in dealing with the invaders from Reams in rather nasty ways. Though to your point about people generally being nice, I think that's part of the reason the second book is my favorite "going to sorcery school" story -- the students are motivated and time is generally not wasted on pointless bickering or in-fighting. They've got suitably aligned incentives (to not die horribly).
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Oct 23, 2021 11:23
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theblackw0lf posted:I’m compiling a list of fantasy authors who are the best at writing dialog (based mainly on doing a Google search for “fantasy author best dialog”), and have come up with this list. What are people’s thoughts and are there some that should be on this list but aren’t, or vice-versa? I imagine that some lesser known fantasy authors are missing. Toss Sebastian de Castell on that list. Traitor's Blade and Spellslinger both have well written dialog.
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Oct 23, 2021 14:29
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Quinton posted:The Independent Rust is rather unsavory, I'd say. Though obviously there's limits to how bad these folks can be, constrained by the Shape of Peace. But Rust certainly seems to delight in dealing with the invaders from Reams in rather nasty ways. yeah everyone in the series with any sense of what's going on geopolitically is rather motivated by the imminent possibility of being wiped off the map at pretty much any moment. they also, at one point, take a vote about whether to legally kill the main character, plus there's that one faction attempting to extrajudicially murder the captain but yeah most people are pretty nice and helpful, possibly initially because no one wants to be on the bad side of the wizard commune living next door, and later because said commune has genuinely done everything they can to signpost the fact that they're trying to fit in and help society like everyone else. (also because, as danhenge mentioned, most people involved have lived their entire lives in a working anarcho-syndicalist state and have profoundly different social values than you might expect) eke out fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Oct 23, 2021 |
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Oct 23, 2021 14:39
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Larry Parrish posted:The Line members and some of the old Independents are pretty brutal and horrible, but not to the Commonweal. There's a character in 5 who we never actually meet who seems to be regarded as a bit of a cantankerous old rear end in a top hat and a bad sorcerer, but even then hes not intentionally a bad guy. I've only read the first one but there we basically have the Line do a push-back like they are Frontex, because the now refugees don't understand Commonweal gender relations. There seems to be very little internal coercion and a sort of passive setup that leads to a kind of murderous xenophobia. Anyway, personal conflicts aren't really the selling point, I think. It's more about a weird society in a weird world and if it keeps being about that I'll probably read the later books too.
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Oct 23, 2021 15:40
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Just finished the last book in the Terra Ignota series, Perhaps the Stars. It was very good. Were the other books in the series discussed in this thread? I am a someone late-joining lurker.
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Oct 23, 2021 17:31
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Lancelot posted:Just finished the last book in the Terra Ignota series, Perhaps the Stars. It was very good. Were the other books in the series discussed in this thread? I am a someone late-joining lurker. Yes; especially the first one, when it came out. I still have not got around to #2, sadly.
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Oct 23, 2021 18:08
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Lancelot posted:Just finished the last book in the Terra Ignota series, Perhaps the Stars. It was very good. Were the other books in the series discussed in this thread? I am a someone late-joining lurker. I finished book 2 and just kinda had 0 desire to continue, but I love books about differing human society so I don't regret reading it. So much sci fi has future people living exact capitalist replicas of our lives today, it was refreshing having the weird lifestyle faction splits. It's weird, I remember way more about the first book and a half or so than most I read, not sure why I quit after book 2.
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Oct 23, 2021 18:26
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I really recommend reading the rest in the series! Book 3 I think is the only weak one out of the four, and even then it's good and has some great character moments as well as continued good worldbuilding. The last book sticks the landing, fully buying into the quasi-religious elements without that ever seeming cringeworthy or hokey.
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Oct 23, 2021 18:37
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I've started reading Voyage of the Space Beagle. It's pretty interesting so far. I like how, despite the Golden Age sci-fi silliness, the treatment of academic/military politics/bureaucracy is pretty grounded. Despite the book being an obvious inspiration for Star Trek in many ways, Star Trek tended to tone that down considerably; Spock and McCoy may have bickered with each other, but IIRC there was never really a sense that any of the major TOS or TNG characters were anxious about the relative prestige of their departments or opportunities for promotion. General Battuta posted:I read some of the Space Beagle short stories and my fav part was always when they sit down to analyze the alien life form in the context of weird early 20th century eugenics. I don’t even mean ‘favorite’ purely as mockery, it was like reading artifacts from another culture. They really believe this poo poo and treat it as objective fact! I don't think "eugenics" is quite the right word for it, but yeah, the characters make a lot of sweeping macrohistorical/sociobiological statements that we're apparently supposed to take seriously (like that you can measure the amount of religious doubt in a civilization by looking at its architecture, and that an organism descended from a civilization that was abruptly destroyed at its height would definitely be evil). To be fair, they do mention knowing about at least two intelligent species other than humans, which makes it easier to accept that they have some actual evidence base for these pronouncements.
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Oct 23, 2021 20:19
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genericnick posted:I've only read the first one but there we basically have the Line do a push-back like they are Frontex, because the now refugees don't understand Commonweal gender relations. There seems to be very little internal coercion and a sort of passive setup that leads to a kind of murderous xenophobia. Anyway, personal conflicts aren't really the selling point, I think. It's more about a weird society in a weird world and if it keeps being about that I'll probably read the later books too. The second book's (A Succession of Bad Days) main POV character is new to The Creeks, new to use of The Power, etc, so there's a lot more opportunity for the reader to learn about the world and how it works, through his eyes. Rereading the first book after learning more about the setting is fun and illuminating.
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Oct 23, 2021 20:54
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Finished: The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett - the first Discworld book, now I know why people like these. I got three more when they were $2.99 ebooks but I'll probably just pick up most the rest when they pop up at goodwill/used book stores as I remember them being pretty common while browsing those places. The Burning God by R.F. Kuang - Final book in the trilogy continues the dark and despairing path set by the prior novels, the ending is sadly obvious hundreds of pages before it happens. Still a great trilogy but don't read this if you are looking for a feel-good book. Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee - I thought this was going to be space battles as I got it confused with some of their other work, but instead it was a neat story about magic paint and living constructs set in occupied not-Korea by not-Japan. The magic system was great as long as you don't think about it too hard and the characters were real even if the main one seemed to not learn lessons The Book of Wonder by Lord Dunsany - wonderful collection of imagined stories of invented mythologies with a few loose connections, the kinds of tales authors borrowed from, then authors borrowed from those, and now we are like six generations in. The prose is old enough it doesn't zip along like modern books so don't feel bad if it isn't your cup of tea, I'm used to older styles so it didn't bother me at all. Surprisingly little racism. currently reading: Fell Cargo by Dan Abnett - Warhammer pirates! You don't really need to know anything about Warhammer to enjoy this exciting pirate tale, pure pulp fun and I hope it sticks the landing!
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Oct 23, 2021 21:37
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