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The Veiled Throne (Dandelion Dynasty #3) by Ken Liu - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075RND5N7/
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Feb 26, 2022 20:44
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Have two more fun and light scifi story recommendations plus a uplifting scifi story rec. Harry Harrison wrote two fun light YA stories called THE MAN FROM P.I.G. and the THE MAN FROM R.O.B.O.T. And yeah, there is lots of pigs in the first book, and lots of robots in the second book. Thinking about it a bit THE BLADERUNNER is actually uplifting. It starts out grim as hell, but by the end people across multiple spectrums have come together to stop a national COVID outbreak, and the draconian laws that granted universal free healthcare but also allowed for that massive COVID outbreak in the USA to happen are being revised to be less cruelly monstrous.
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Feb 27, 2022 01:44
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quantumfoam posted:Have two more fun and light scifi story recommendations plus a uplifting scifi story rec. What massively draconian laws led to that book's massive COVID outbreak? Did they finally pass the "the opinions of willfully stupid people shall be given greater weight than those of medical experts" law?
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Feb 27, 2022 02:58
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Chewing through book 2 of The Dying Earth after years of contemporary fiction and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the 'gently caress you, I don't have to explain poo poo' attitude of the era.
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Feb 27, 2022 03:55
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Everyone posted:What massively draconian laws led to that book's massive COVID outbreak? Did they finally pass the "the opinions of willfully stupid people shall be given greater weight than those of medical experts" law? draconian laws in the book are essentially: to get free government universal healthcare, you get sterilized. Vast amounts of american people are not cool with that, so they opt out and go for a grey market of unlicensed healthcare instead, which the US government has declared illegal and cracks down on hard if it isn't rich people involved. The grey market of healthcare in book involves illegal drug manufacturers, illegal medical supply creators, and the titular bladerunners, who act as go-betweens and physical couriers between everyone, who connect patients to doctors working off the grid. The Bladerunner book plot spoilers follow: A mysterious mild flu outbreak going around the world that originated somewhere in China is really the first infection stage of a super-spreadable very lethal if not treated meningitis-on-steroids. Since the US government only acknowledges official healthcare data, and most people avoid official free universal healthcare, deadly meningitis-on-steroids outbreaks are growing across US cities with increasing frequency, and the US government has no clue how to deal with it. The grey market of private healthcare in the form of the rear end in a top hat surgeon moonlighting as a unlicensed healthcare surgeon/physician and his bladerunner(who is the main character of the book), make the connection that the mild flu + meningitis-on-steroids outbreak are two stages of the same thing, and manage to convince the head of the CDC (who is stalking the rear end in a top hat doctor for his work in loving with remote telepresence surgery pilot programs) of their findings. Head of CDC authorizes all hospitals in the United States to supply truckloads of vaccines and medicines no-questions asked, and no registration or no sterilization required to anyone who walks into a government hospital asking for them. End of book, the pandemic is contained thanks to the efforts of the grey market of unlicensed healthcare, and the goodwill gathered by the grey market of unlicensed healthcare doing 85% of the US Governments job containing the pandemic seems to be enough to have the sterilization mandate removed asap legally, and a future "i see nothing, i hear nothing, i know nothing" attitude is adopted for grey market healthcare that isn't outright killing people via medical malpractice. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 10:03 on Feb 27, 2022 |
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Feb 27, 2022 09:56
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A whole ton of books on sale today for some reason. Starting with Brandon Sanderson Mistborn Trilogy: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004H1TQBW/ Alloy of Law (Mistborn #4) - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00540QR7Q/ The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive #1) - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003P2WO5E/ Words of Radiance (Stormlight Archive #2) - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DA6YEKS/ Warbreaker - $4.50 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KYHZHA/ A Memory of Light (Wheel of Time #14) - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BMKDTNC/ Some Murderbot by Martha Wells Rogue Protcol (#3) - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0756JSWGL/ Exit Strategy (#4) - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078X1N8VF/ Three Body Problem series by Cixin Liu The Dark Forest (#2) - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00R13OYU6/ Death's End (#3) - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WDVKZY0/ The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GJQFFDX/ A Master of Djinn (Dead Djinn Universe #1) by P. Djèlí Clark - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HKXS84X/ The Shadow and Bone Trilogy: Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0176VPIFW/ Rule of Wolves (King of Scars #2) by Leigh Bardugo - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FZ8DVC7/ Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R2K5LRM/ Flesh and Spirit (Lighthouse Duet #1) by Carol Berg - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000XEC3US/
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Feb 27, 2022 19:39
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pradmer posted:A whole ton of books on sale today for some reason. Wanna give a shout out to this one as really enjoyable. Also an earlier short story about its main character and world is a free read on Tor.com https://www.tor.com/2016/05/18/a-dead-djinn-in-cairo/
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Feb 27, 2022 20:58
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pradmer posted:
This one is good.
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Feb 27, 2022 21:07
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Stuporstar posted:Wanna give a shout out to this one as really enjoyable. Also an earlier short story about its main character and world is a free read on Tor.com https://www.tor.com/2016/05/18/a-dead-djinn-in-cairo/ Seconded! I actually just finished it today, it's a ton of fun.
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Feb 27, 2022 21:24
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Ccs posted:This one is good. If you like Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser or the Lies of Locke Lamora, you'll probably like The Blacktongue Thief.
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Feb 27, 2022 21:53
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Reading Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt and it's odd. It's a dutch? horror novel that has been translated, and so far it's at least interesting, but to be honest I'm having some trouble visualizing what is supposed to be going on. I'm not sure it's SCARY SUPERNATURAL WEIRD poo poo horror or just like, ennui horror, or a combo of both, but I'm only like 25% of the way through it. It's definitely a unique read though. I've already picked up Hex cause it sounds neat.
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Feb 27, 2022 22:58
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I haven't read Echo but I really enjoyed Hex. I found it really creepy, and the way it was transplanted as part of the translation was nearly done.
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Feb 28, 2022 09:59
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I finished it tonight, and overall I dug it. It was weird, but interesting. The co protagonist was annoying, but that just might be me hating the "sassy gay guy" stereotype. There were a few scenes that were creepy, one or two that were just kinda "huh?", and an overall feel of "Wait, what?" so it was nice read where you have no idea where the story is going. I don't think I'll be reading it again, but it's not because it's a bad book, it's just one of those experiences you can't repeat.
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Feb 28, 2022 10:14
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Ccs posted:This one is good. Yeah, it was excellent and led me to more of Buehlmans work. Between two fires is also fantastic, The necromancer's house was also pretty good. Hope he keeps writing. On the hunt for some more traditional fantasy fare, but I feel like I've read just about all of the staples. I reread Murderbot, picked up the two standalones from Wells recommended a few pages back but I'd like a series of some sort. I'm not very up to date so I don't know if anything new and decent has popped up lately. Reading through this thread for tips is super useful though.
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Feb 28, 2022 12:12
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https://twitter.com/AShvartsman/status/1498157512901672962
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Feb 28, 2022 16:44
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https://twitter.com/jannywurts/status/1498333902645116934
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Feb 28, 2022 17:27
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I really want someone to translate the sequels to Vita Nostra. That was such a trippy and great book.
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Feb 28, 2022 17:32
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Never read her stuff but recognized the covers when I saw them, a shame
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Feb 28, 2022 17:54
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calandryll posted:I really want someone to translate the sequels to Vita Nostra. That was such a trippy and great book. Seconded
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Feb 28, 2022 18:32
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Damnit, just found out Andy Remic died as well.
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Feb 28, 2022 19:48
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Has anyone here read Vurt by Jeff Noon? I had a friend who started raving about it to me.
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Feb 28, 2022 22:03
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I love Eastern European sci-fi/fantasy. There's always a 'tangibility' to it that a lot of Western sci-fi/fantasy lacks.
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Feb 28, 2022 22:18
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I finally finished all three volumes of KJ Parker's Two of Swords, which was originally serialized in 23 parts. The serialized format really shows in the first two volumes. You cycle through continually changing POVs, they (mostly) don't recur and you have to piece together the overall narrative. It's not until the third volume that it really starts coming together. I've only read 16 Ways and The Folding Knife before this and comparatively speaking, Two of Swords is weirdly more depressing but also simultaneously more uplifting compared to the other two. Like, the premise of the entire story is really horrifying—far more so than the other two Parker works I've read—but the series actually ends on a high note?! I think I enjoyed this more than The Folding Knife but not as much as 16 Ways to Defend a Walled City, and I haven't figured out whether that's because 16 Ways is first person and the character voice is very distinctive. Two of Swords is in third person limited and the POVs all feel a little detached (since that is his style) so it takes a little while to get into them and once you're there, the next episode bounces you to a different POV. All of the POV characters are plot important in one way or another and Parker does deliver on all the foreshadowing in the end so I was satisfied at the end of the book, but it's unlikely that I'd reread it again.
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Mar 1, 2022 03:36
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I’m rereading Parker’s 2015 book Savages and it’s very good, so concise and with a good balance of what made his earlier books work but with the fat trimmed down. Two of Swords bulked up again and I found some of the secret society stuff a bit ridiculous. I think he’s on the right track with writing in the first person in his recent books though. They’re more fun even while having the same gruesome stuff he’s always written about, because of the character voices.
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Mar 1, 2022 04:28
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Hiro Protagonist posted:Has anyone here read Vurt by Jeff Noon? I had a friend who started raving about it to me. I read it, and the sequels, a long time ago. All I remember was it being weird (like aping new wave sf kinda weird), and very british. Also possibly kinda racist in retrospect? Not trying to be, but with things that could be read that way.
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Mar 1, 2022 06:01
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Leng posted:I finally finished all three volumes of KJ Parker's Two of Swords, which was originally serialized in 23 parts. The serialized format really shows in the first two volumes. You cycle through continually changing POVs, they (mostly) don't recur and you have to piece together the overall narrative. It's not until the third volume that it really starts coming together. It's not often that I think about books past a week or two after finishing them but I've thought about two of Swords a few time. So I guess I liked it a lot
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Mar 1, 2022 06:09
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That's funny. I liked two of swords just enough to keep going through the end of the second volume. I'm now a quarter of the way through the third volume and I just can't bring myself to pick it up. It's just...boring.
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Mar 1, 2022 07:25
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Danhenge posted:It looks like we're getting two Laundry Files books this year. The one that comes out this year follows the storyline from Dead Lies Dreaming and on March 1st we get a new Bob book. I had apparently pre-ordered the Bob book based on this post, forgot about it, and was pleasantly surprised to have it pop up just as I was going to bed. I figured, hey, I will give the first couple of chapters a go and then fall asleep. So you can imagine my surprise when I finished the book. The book is a single chapter, 81 Kindle pages long, and ends quite abruptly. It is short on both pages and plot, extremely skippable, and most certainly overpriced for what it is. Very mild spoiler/frustration: I am quite irked that Dr. Angleton's notes relating to the plot are mentioned multiple times, awaited upon to provide further information, received, and then never looked at or mentioned again. It felt like a side story drabble with extremely forgettable characters we aren't supposed to care about because they won't be showing up in the main story line again. I would wait for a sale to buy this one.
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Mar 1, 2022 07:54
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Nice piece of fish posted:Yeah, it was excellent and led me to more of Buehlmans work. Between two fires is also fantastic, The necromancer's house was also pretty good. Hope he keeps writing. His vampire novel The Lesser Dead is good as well.
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Mar 1, 2022 10:51
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Nice piece of fish posted:Yeah, it was excellent and led me to more of Buehlmans work. Between two fires is also fantastic, The necromancer's house was also pretty good. Hope he keeps writing. Shame because his other stuff is good to great.
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Mar 1, 2022 11:08
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The Dead Djinn short story https://www.tor.com/2016/05/18/a-dead-djinn-in-cairo/ was great and now I'm really enjoying the book (fell asleep at 2am reading it), so thread delivers again.
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Mar 1, 2022 11:20
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Leng posted:I've only read 16 Ways and The Folding Knife before this and comparatively speaking, Two of Swords is weirdly more depressing but also simultaneously more uplifting compared to the other two. Like, the premise of the entire story is really horrifying—far more so than the other two Parker works I've read—but the series actually ends on a high note?! I remember writing an (in retrospect, idiotic) post about it being one his less bleak novels and someone rightly replied to me something like "you do remember that the happy-ish end is predicated on mass death, right???"
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Mar 1, 2022 11:23
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ClydeFrog posted:The Dead Djinn short story https://www.tor.com/2016/05/18/a-dead-djinn-in-cairo/ was great and now I'm really enjoying the book (fell asleep at 2am reading it), so thread delivers again. Yeah, I haven't started it yet, but I've got the novel on the strength of that Short Story. Speaking of Tor shorts, if you haven't seen them. Don't miss out on the Judge Dee shorts they've been publishing. https://www.tor.com/search-page/?s=dee
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Mar 1, 2022 13:08
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Is there anyone who is currently writing epic or mythic grim fantasy a la the Elric books? I can't quite think of the way to articulate what I'm looking for other than Elric or "the kind of fantasy that metal bands write songs about." Something that's big and grandiose and sort of world-ending dire in its plotlines, but less of a direct descendant of Tolkien or doorstopper 90s fantasy like Jordan. And a vaguely similar but (I think?) distinct request, who are the must-reads of early pulp fantasy? The weirder, the better, ideally. I've read a fair amount of Conan, and I've read the Dying Earth books but no other Jack Vance, but not much else from that style.
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Mar 1, 2022 19:48
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Shards of Honor (Miles Vorkosigan #1) by Lois McMaster Bujold - $3.49 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005BH9T86/ When did they make the covers of these so lame? The Goblin Emperor (#1) by Katherine Addison - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FO6NPIO/ The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. Le Guin - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E4A32X8/ The Expert System's Champion (Expert Systems Brother #2) by Adrian Tchaikovsky - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088Q8RZ18/ Day Watch (Night Watch #2) by Sergei Lukyanenko - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DB3FSQY/ Hounded (Iron Druid #1) by Kevin Hearnes - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J4WN0I/
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Mar 1, 2022 20:00
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MockingQuantum posted:Is there anyone who is currently writing epic or mythic grim fantasy a la the Elric books? I can't quite think of the way to articulate what I'm looking for other than Elric or "the kind of fantasy that metal bands write songs about." Something that's big and grandiose and sort of world-ending dire in its plotlines, but less of a direct descendant of Tolkien or doorstopper 90s fantasy like Jordan. For early pulp, try Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series (Swords and XXXX). Also Roger Zelazny's Princes of Amber. For something modern, I wouldn't necessarily compare it directly to Moorcock or expect metal bands to cover it, but if you haven't read any N. K. Jemisin give that a try, they are certainly big, grandiose and world-ending dire.
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Mar 1, 2022 20:06
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Base Emitter posted:For early pulp, try Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series (Swords and XXXX). Also Roger Zelazny's Princes of Amber. I have read the Broken Earth books and honestly, yeah, they had the sort of feel that I'm looking for, though I'd maybe want something that hews even a touch closer to traditional fantasy. Between Two Fires also scratched that itch at times, and to a lesser extent so did Blacktongue Thief, to think of a couple of examples I've read recently.
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Mar 1, 2022 20:08
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MockingQuantum posted:Is there anyone who is currently writing epic or mythic grim fantasy a la the Elric books? I can't quite think of the way to articulate what I'm looking for other than Elric or "the kind of fantasy that metal bands write songs about." Something that's big and grandiose and sort of world-ending dire in its plotlines, but less of a direct descendant of Tolkien or doorstopper 90s fantasy like Jordan. Cathrynne Valente might have some things like what you want? Take a look at Deathless and see how you feel about it; I think the tone is in the area of what you're aiming for, even if it isn't exactly metal. If you haven't read The Traveler in Black by John Brunner, that's some good classic stuff. Tanith Lee is exactly what you want, now I go down the list, provided you're prepared to go from zero to explicit demon sex before you get ten pages into Night's Master. It sounds weird but it's a classic for a reason.
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Mar 1, 2022 20:18
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The ebook collections for Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser mentioned above go on sale all the time, I got both parts of the whole archive super cheap when they were posted here Cheap pulp ebook reprints i had in my wishlist (~$3.99): Heroes of Atlantis & Lemuria by Manly Wade Wellman, Leigh Brackett, Frederick Arnold Kummer Jr. Of all the heroes of the legendary land of Atlantis, none were greater than Kardios, warrior and bard! In his travels he encounters creatures from the stars, self-proclaimed gods, nefarious wizards, and untrustworthy lascivious queens. For years fans of sword-and-sorcery fiction have demanded a collection containing all of Manly Wade Wellman’s tales of Kardios. Their demands had not been met—until now! In addition, this book contains all of Frederick Arnold Kummer, Jr.’s Lemurian adventure stories (also never collected before) and a hard-to-find Leigh Brackett story set in Mu. Join the heroes of Atlantis and Lemuria on their fantastic adventures! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XPHF96Q/ Renegade Swords Stories included: “The House of Arabu” by Robert E. Howard “Necromancy in Naat” (unabridged version) by Clark Ashton Smith “The Woman of the Wood” (previously unpublished version) by A. Merritt “The Slaughter of the Gods” by Manly Wade Wellman “People of the Dragon” by Lin Carter “The Pillars of Hell” by Lin Carter “The Rune-Sword of Jotunheim” by Glenn Rahman and Richard L. Tierney “Princess of Chaos” by Bryce Walton https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085BX7G2Y/ Renegade Swords II Stories included: “The Roaming Forest” by Michael Moorcock “To Rescue Tanelorn” by Michael Moorcock “Marchers of Valhalla” by Robert E. Howard “Killer” by David Drake and Karl Edward Wagner “The Unlawful Hunter” by Keith Taylor “The Haunting of Mara” by Keith Taylor “The Pool of the Stone God” by A. Merritt “Stoneskin” by John Morressy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08YFHDPJF/ I've read almost all of these authors though for many not those specific stories, some of these are old enough when there was not a big distinction between scifi and fantasy so they get weird in that way. Others are closer to 60s-70s magazines which are more Conan-esque. Once you start getting more authors you like you can find older pulp magazines on archive.org or other public domain sites and that have some of their stories and probably run across other stories/authors that are good and then never read anything modern for years and suddenly realize you need to catch back up and read a ton of books. Not that I know anything about that happening...
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Mar 1, 2022 20:22
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MockingQuantum posted:I have read the Broken Earth books and honestly, yeah, they had the sort of feel that I'm looking for, though I'd maybe want something that hews even a touch closer to traditional fantasy. Between Two Fires also scratched that itch at times, and to a lesser extent so did Blacktongue Thief, to think of a couple of examples I've read recently. Give the Hundred-Thousand Kingdoms trilogy a go too. I liked BE but it also felt to me like it was a little more sci-fi-influenced than typical fantasy.
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Mar 1, 2022 20:30
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