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Cerepol posted:It's a good pitch, I did really like The Faded Suns trilogy as well and shouldn't let the genre label hold me back because I've become disillusioned by other authors. If you want to see Cherryh go "genre labels are stupid and here's why", read her 40k in Gehenna. It's a sci-fi! But it's a fantasy! But it's about generational cultural development!
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Nov 19, 2021 22:02
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Sibling of TB posted:The thing I had in mind was the stuff about pretending you can't understand the language you don't identify as as your primary spoken language. It's plausible to me that society has that as a norm but I really can't tell if anyone else thinks that. Too Like the Lightning posits a world in which everyone’s concerns, motivations, and conflicts can be understood through the lens of some offshoot of continental enlightenment philosophy. It’s the sort of book only a Byzantine historian and classicist could/would write. The Mycroft crime reveal is one of the few, genuine ‘oh holy poo poo’ moments I’ve had with a book recently.
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Nov 19, 2021 22:07
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ToxicFrog posted:Told my daughter I was going to stop the current book I was reading because I wasn't enjoying it very much and read the Enchanted Forest books instead and she was pingponging off the walls at the prospect of being able to discuss them with me That's really awesome, and feel free to share her reactions to your discussions, I remember loving those books as a kid and then again as a teen.
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Nov 19, 2021 22:08
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I’m re-reading Book of the New Sun. It’s really good and, unlike when I read it as a teenager, I’m having a relatively easy time making sense of the narrative
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Nov 19, 2021 22:14
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A Carly Rae Jihad posted:Too Like the Lightning posits a world in which everyone’s concerns, motivations, and conflicts can be understood through the lens of some offshoot of continental enlightenment philosophy. It’s the sort of book only a Byzantine historian and classicist could/would write. The whole thing with set-sets never really sat right with me. The people against them are pretty much universally portrayed as bad. Cookie, the ultra karen, creepy guy called Felix Faust, the nuturists in general. But the whole set-set thing does seem generally horrible. Like for one kind of them the babies are raised in VR rigs so that their brains adapt to 4d space, and then the final step (common to all set-sets) is a chemical/surgical treatment that sets their brains that way and stops all future personality growth/development. These kids are then sold other bashhouses/companies. None of those steps sounds good to me. There is probably an Epstein Bash House that raises set-sets that can only get aroused by wrinkled billionaires. And there would be no laws against it.
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Nov 19, 2021 22:25
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Selachian posted:I always liked Foster's Humanx Commonwealth books, although they're a bit dated at this point (and Foster's writing is never more than serviceable). From what I recall of his writing they'll match the warm embrace of senility nicely, so there's that to look forward to
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Nov 19, 2021 22:30
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A Carly Rae Jihad posted:I’m re-reading Book of the New Sun. It’s really good and, unlike when I read it as a teenager, I’m having a relatively easy time making sense of the narrative I'm reading it for the first time and yeah, it's not as dense or inscrutable as I was led to believe but also I'm pretty sure I'm being lied to often, if not constantly, by Severian, though I've yet to see any conclusive "evidence" of that, I think. I have no idea if that's true and Severian is just a classic example of an unreliable narrator, and if it is maybe it's common knowledge about the books if it is, but I went in not knowing that was likely (really I went in knowing nothing about the books other than they're set in a post-post-apocalypse Earth) and it's added some interesting snarls to the book as I've gone on. I'm only about a quarter of the way into Claw, but I'm really liking the books so far.
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Nov 19, 2021 22:41
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What is the 400 page novella referred to in the thread title
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Nov 19, 2021 22:56
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StrixNebulosa posted:If you want to see Cherryh go "genre labels are stupid and here's why", read her 40k in Gehenna. It's a sci-fi! But it's a fantasy! But it's about generational cultural development! Love the book but don't understand praising it as a subversion of the genre.
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Nov 19, 2021 23:02
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Cerepol posted:I thought that was the case in all readings regardless of age re:catcher? Not scifi, but I'd second the recommendation for the Fortress series -- they have a lot of thematic parallels (although, sadly, no equivalent for Illisidi-daja that I recall). The first four books form one series, and then Fortress of Ice is a sort of timeskip epilogue written years later. I will say that the first book starts out incredibly slow and I actually bounced off it several times. It picks up when Tristen finally leaves the tower and starts meeting and interacting with people who aren't what'shisface the ancient wizard. More generally, "dropping a human in amongst a bunch of aliens and seeing what happens" is kind of Cherryh's whole thing; you might also want to check out the Chanur series (five books) or some of her standalones like Cuckoo's Egg. They're all generally faster-paced than Foreigner, though, which is...extremely sedate.
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Nov 19, 2021 23:02
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PupsOfWar posted:What is the 400 page novella referred to in the thread title Ninurta posted:Tor released a sequel to this last month, How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It. I haven't picked it up yet as it's unfortunately a full-sized novel price of $9.99 for a 400 page novella. It's getting good reviews so I will probably pick it up once I've thinned out my queue or when I have a few more digital credits to throw at it.
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Nov 19, 2021 23:03
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ianmacdo posted:The whole thing with set-sets never really sat right with me. The people against them are pretty much universally portrayed as bad. Cookie, the ultra karen, creepy guy called Felix Faust, the nuturists in general. She deliberately wrote the society with the intention that readers would think some parts of it were great and some parts were hosed up, and that people would disagree on which parts were which. I'm not sure who likes the set-sets though.
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Nov 19, 2021 23:04
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Raising Steam (Discworld #40) by Terry Pratchett - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FIN0TGY/
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Nov 19, 2021 23:42
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Working my way through The Pariah and frankly it ain't getting better. Anyone else read this yet? Just wondering if it gets good or if it's just the same crap from the beginning. I'm at the part with the meeting in the woods with all the outlaw people. I dunno if it happens more than once, but if it does I'm at the first. I'm just having a really hard time trying to care about this foundling thief and his work in this merry band of outlaws. He sucks, the outlaws suck, and it's pretty boring.
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Nov 20, 2021 01:08
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Working my way through The Pariah and frankly it ain't getting better. Anyone else read this yet? Just wondering if it gets good or if it's just the same crap from the beginning. I'm at the part with the meeting in the woods with all the outlaw people. I dunno if it happens more than once, but if it does I'm at the first. I liked it but it doesn't really change too much, scenes change, more characters are introduced, there's a bigger narrative but the vibe is pretty constant.
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Nov 20, 2021 01:32
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Ah, drat. From the synopsis I was expecting it to be more actiony/adventurey than it is. Guess I'll just try it again later when I'm more in the mood for this speed of story.
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Nov 20, 2021 02:10
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Sibling of TB posted:The thing I had in mind was the stuff about pretending you can't understand the language you don't identify as as your primary spoken language. It's plausible to me that society has that as a norm but I really can't tell if anyone else thinks that. The language stuff is really weird. People keep treating other languages as unbreakable codes, which sort of implies that they have less capable machine translation than we do, and that surveillance is so complete that it is literally impossible for someone to have secretly taught themself modern Greek.
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Nov 20, 2021 03:54
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A Carly Rae Jihad posted:Too Like the Lightning posits a world in which everyone’s concerns, motivations, and conflicts can be understood through the lens of some offshoot of continental enlightenment philosophy. It’s the sort of book only a Byzantine historian and classicist could/would write. I could never imagine Harry Turtledove writing such books.
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Nov 20, 2021 16:05
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Goon recced Constelis Voss is free on amazon today.quote:Want a savvy, subversive LGBTQ+ sci-fi book series that slaps?
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Nov 20, 2021 16:53
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The Bone ships series by RJ Barker is easily the best fantasy I have read for quite some time. A little bit of Hobb, a little bit of Hornblower and a fantasy world where the story matters more than the world building.
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Nov 20, 2021 18:12
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StrixNebulosa posted:Book mail finally, finally arrived! I've got the Gollancz black books Conan and it's gorgeous. The one from this series:  I have four of these. Necronomicon, Lyonesse, Conan and a very similar binding, but blue, of the Earthsea books. They're just really gorgeous, the typeface is lovely and they're easy to read. I want to get the rest of em. I put the Dune collection in that binding on my Christmas list last year and my sister, well-meaning, got me a wholly different edition that doesn't match.
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Nov 20, 2021 18:28
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StrixNebulosa posted:Goon recced Constelis Voss is free on amazon today. You had me at lasagna
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Nov 20, 2021 18:56
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StrixNebulosa posted:Goon recced Constelis Voss is free on amazon today. Oh yes, this sounds like my jam. Thanks for the heads up!
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Nov 20, 2021 19:28
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The Dragon's Path (The Dagger and the Coin #1) by Daniel Abraham - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0047Y16LC/
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Nov 20, 2021 20:36
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StrixNebulosa posted:Goon recced Constelis Voss is free on amazon today. Well that review instantly turned me off lmfao. Jesus Christ.
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Nov 20, 2021 21:14
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StrixNebulosa posted:Goon recced Constelis Voss is free on amazon today. Media literacy, meaning-making and semiotics You can't have subversive LGBTQ+ sci-fi stories without a methodical hand. Every symbol has been lovingly crafted to give you a story that you can read 7 different ways to Sunday. CONSTELIS VOSS is the literary gift that just keeps on giving. 
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Nov 20, 2021 21:40
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DurianGray posted:Oh yes, this sounds like my jam. Thanks for the heads up!  Larry Parrish posted:Well that review instantly turned me off lmfao. Jesus Christ. What book review would win you over instantly?
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Nov 20, 2021 21:43
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StrixNebulosa posted:
i just kind of ignore every spiel that talks about why I should read something instead of a vague synopsis. this is especially important in the web novel world where 99% of them just list genres like an ingredients list at a diner. but i am especially instantly repulsed by saying it'll make me woke to read some idiots book or whatever. i could go in to the political implications but mostly the idea of consumption = expression is insanely gross.
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Nov 20, 2021 22:04
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Larry Parrish posted:i just kind of ignore every spiel that talks about why I should read something instead of a vague synopsis. this is especially important in the web novel world where 99% of them just list genres like an ingredients list at a diner. but i am especially instantly repulsed by saying it'll make me woke to read some idiots book or whatever. i could go in to the political implications but mostly the idea of consumption = expression is insanely gross. I'm kind of with you on this, I absolutely love stories with strong queer themes or relationships but nothing sets off my danger signals like a synopsis that goes - It's LBGT - It's LGBT - It's LGBT which immediately makes me wonder how well the story works outside of doing a representation
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Nov 20, 2021 22:33
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I mean putting the progressive credentials ahead of even a plot blurb is pushing it Which to be clear the book itself does not do! quote:On the dystopian planet-sized ship CONSTELIS VOSS, an android receives a 90s-era personality file. Alex is born as the only android to contain human memories. In his quest for understanding just who he truly is, he discovers curiously familiar friends, a cruel technocratic dictatorship and a time-bending mystery that threatens everyone aboard the ship. Strategic Tea fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Nov 20, 2021 |
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Nov 20, 2021 22:33
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Strategic Tea posted:I mean putting the progressive credentials ahead of even a plot blurb is pushing it now see i still am not sure I'd want to read it, but it at least tells me about what the book actually is lol. you'd think with all the trash I read I just kind of yolo into book picks but it's more like I looked at 200 that day and read 3 of them
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Nov 20, 2021 22:45
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It's free which means it is in my Kindle Library now, and it can't be worse than some of the rando stuff Amazon recommends me
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Nov 21, 2021 01:18
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Tars Tarkas posted:It's free which means it is in my Kindle Library now, and it can't be worse than some of the rando stuff Amazon recommends me i just read the first few sample pages and i wouldn't be so sure, you pretty wine-mouthed little thing
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Nov 21, 2021 02:31
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Just finished Conan short story “Phoenix on the Sword” and goddamn that was good. The setup was interesting (gently caress slavers), the villains terrible, the action furious and bloody - and the unknowable horror from beyond space and time was a great cap to it all. The repeated emphasis on Conan’s barbarianism felt very weird, like he’s a different breed of human entirely, but it worked to explain why he could see a soul-shattering horror and react with pure aggressive rage instead of giving up and dying.
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Nov 21, 2021 04:57
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His INT is high but his WIS is low, so he's cunning but when he gets vaguely confused by something he just goes CONAN SMASH PUNY WEIRD THING!
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Nov 21, 2021 05:30
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Yah, Conan is actually a pretty smart dude. Smart enough to realize he is so strong and good at killing things that this is very often his best option.
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Nov 21, 2021 10:00
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Sham bam bamina! posted:What's the fantasy part of it, and how is "generational cultural development" at odds with science fiction? Wow I missed this, sorry for the delayed response! With the caveat that it's been some years since I read 40k in Gehenna, IIRC the phases go like this: it starts as a sci-fi about a colony dealing with being abandoned -> devolves slowly into generational cultural development as the youngsters develop new and wilder cultures (especially with the lizards) -> becomes full-blown fantasy with lizard-riding warfare with a society that has never known spaceflight. Like, if you cut out the first half of the book and focused entirely on that sequence it'd read as straight fantasy. I am fascinated at how Cherryh links sci-fi/fantasy genre labels to tech levels. Not that she does this explicitly, but the feel of her books.
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Nov 21, 2021 17:45
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HopperUK posted:I've got the Gollancz black books Conan and it's gorgeous. The one from this series:
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Nov 21, 2021 20:21
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StrixNebulosa posted:The repeated emphasis on Conan’s barbarianism felt very weird, like he’s a different breed of human entirely This reflects Howard's...interesting ideas about culture and race. If you view it uncharitably, it's basically a rationalization for why Northern Europeans are superior to both "civilized" Southern Europeans and East Asians and "savage" Native Americans and Sub-Saharan Africans. This is complicated by the cyclical aspect; Howard believed that all "races" go through periods of "savagery" and "civilization" as well as "barbarism." But this doesn't negate the element of biological racism because race and culture are deeply intertwined in this worldview; "races" that sink deep enough into "savagery" will "degenerate" into literal apes. Silver2195 fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Nov 21, 2021 |
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Nov 21, 2021 20:57
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Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FHBV4ZX/
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Nov 21, 2021 20:57
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