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buffalo all day posted:worse,. if you can believe it Which one?
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Mar 3, 2022 23:12
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tokenbrownguy posted:idk about "hopepunk" or w/e but I could use some more chill and humanistic books ala Becky Chambers I think you'd really like The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein. Also Jaran, by Kate Elliott.
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Mar 3, 2022 23:45
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tokenbrownguy posted:idk about "hopepunk" or w/e but I could use some more chill and humanistic books ala Becky Chambers Lawrence watt-evans. Start with The Misenchanted Sword. Very 80s but ahead of the curve on humanity.
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Mar 3, 2022 23:52
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Armauk posted:Which one? It's a place most hesitate to name:
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Mar 3, 2022 23:53
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Somewhere Terrible
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Mar 3, 2022 23:54
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Armauk posted:Which one? the call is coming from inside the thread
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Mar 3, 2022 23:59
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Lawrence watt-evans. I used to reread that book every couple years or so but it got lost/given away in my Great Book Purge of last year. I need to buy that thing again.
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Mar 4, 2022 00:05
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Welp, got bored and read Dead Silence. It wasn't bad. It wasn't great though. Event horizon is still the best horror in space I've seen, and this is kinda like event horizon lite. Ending was a bit meh. Finished up Dead Silence a few days ago and yeah, generally agree with all this. A bit Event Horizon, a bit Sixth Sense. The characters feel a bit one-note, and the plot hits a lot of horror cliches, but I’ll forgive a lot if the story is about a Spooky Haunted Ship. I just wish they spent a little less time at the dystopian psych ward and a bit more time questioning whether they’re seeing ghosts, alien activity, or a some kind of portal-to-hell scenario. On a different note, I re-read the Cry Pilot series recently - I kind of forgot how much of is just boot camp/training scenes. Good action scenes though! Random  fantasy recommendation - Grim Company by Luke Scull. A bunch of wizards killed the gods and now there’s demons roaming the lands and stuff.
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Mar 4, 2022 01:18
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Finished The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. It's my favorite of the four books because unlike the rest, it didn't leave me feeling like it had unexplored elements it had wasted. Also had a more mature-feeling political ethos. Sadly it's difficult to find other science fiction books that sound like they have loveable characters other than Murderbot and Vorkosigan.
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Mar 4, 2022 02:21
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Lawrence watt-evans. You are clearly a pod person because the opportunity to rec “The Bridge of Birds” as a cheerful sci-fi/fantasy novel arose and you didn’t take it. This is some Graydon Saunders level fuckery!
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Mar 4, 2022 02:45
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General Battuta posted:It's a place most hesitate to name: Kesper North posted:the call is coming from inside the thread Thank you. Took me a bit to catch it.
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Mar 4, 2022 03:10
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Marathon lore is the only meta-thing I've found remote interesting in Bungie Studios games. http://marathon.bungie.org/story/ is still up (I hope someone archived that site but I am extremely terrible at searching for stuff online), however the associated marathon website forum is still getting posts as of 4 days ago. escapist scifi: feel free to skip over this section Elanor Cameron's MUSHROOM PLANET YA scifi series might be worth checking out, although it's probably older than most of the people who post on somethingawful. Here is the wikipedia link for the first book in the series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Flight_to_the_Mushroom_Planet And I although I think tor dot com sucks, it has the best overall description of the SPACE CAT series. https://www.tor.com/2020/09/11/the-amazing-adventures-of-space-cat/
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Mar 4, 2022 15:20
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A good cozy fantasy series that I never see mentioned is Swordheart and sequels by T Kingfisher aka Ursula Vernon. It’s got a religion of rat god lawyers that own and the main characters are mostly women in their 40s
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Mar 4, 2022 15:29
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i read the paladin books which were ftw
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Mar 4, 2022 15:39
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mrs. nicholas sarkozy posted:A good cozy fantasy series that I never see mentioned is Swordheart and sequels by T Kingfisher aka Ursula Vernon. It’s got a religion of rat god lawyers that own and the main characters are mostly women in their 40s yeah, this is good, and the rat's priesthood does own
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Mar 4, 2022 20:00
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quantumfoam posted:
Someone on this site had a Space Cat avatar for like a decade
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Mar 4, 2022 20:11
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The Book of Merlyn (Once and Future King) by TH White - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C7H2YHD/
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Mar 4, 2022 23:36
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hopefiction 2nd rec: There's also the Little Fuzzy childrens scifi story series but those can be pretty high-fructose corn syrup saccharine for an adult scifi reader (and tonally are way different than the original author usual writing tone (think dictator-libertarianism and white cop heroes stomping down on people of color); maybe he accidently ate some magic mushrooms during his scavenging for food to eat phase while writing the Fuzzy stories?); while I've never read the John Scalzi Little Fuzzy sequels, I am inclined to not rec them because "no to Scalzi doing homages/no to Scalzi in general" is my new motto. Since I mentioned The Little Fuzzy stories I also have to bring up the now-forgotten controversy about who originally dreamed up the Fuzzies concept (think mini-Eworks or gremlins the movie franchise without the do-not-feed rule) that I found about doing that SFL Archives readthrough. Was it H Beam Piper that came up with them, was it Robert Heinlein, was it a stolen fan idea from WorldCon or reworked from a scifi editor suggestion about clever acting pet stories? Anything is possible given how much scifi lore has been lost pre-Internet quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Mar 5, 2022 |
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Mar 5, 2022 14:08
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The Brando Sando kickstarter is now the most funded of all time. Of ALL TIME! (It’s over 23m now lol)
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Mar 5, 2022 16:47
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i don't get why his books are so popular but whatever. nice glow up
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Mar 5, 2022 17:14
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It's an oversimplificiation but I think of authors as having varying strengths at (and interest in!) plot, character, prose, setting, and ideas. Readers are likewise often very focused on only some of those. Setting ("worldbuilding") used to be a big deal in fantasy but seems like it's gone out of style; I think people who really appreciate setting often read historical fiction. People who appreciate prose above all else probably read literary fiction (this is why literary critics are always complaining that "spoiler warnings" shouldn't be needed...they just don't care about plot). I say that because the Sanderson I have read was extremely good at a particular kind of plot, one that sets up mysteries like the TV show Lost, but which actually resolves them in a satisfying way. His Mistborn trilogy is better at this than almost anything I have ever read. Alas in every other respect it's thoroughly mediocre. I haven't read Way of Kings but will try it eventually because I think the effect is better at longer lengths; when I've read shorter books of Sanderson's (e.g. Alloy of Law) there's not enough space for the setup->resolution to be as satisfying. That's not the only reason he's successful. He brings a science fictional rigor to fantasy that appeals to a certain sort of reader (I guess you could call it setting) and of course his amazing productivity has served him very well. But I have been surprised there aren't more authors who aren't able to match his use of satisfying reveals; I guess it's harder than it seems. Or maybe his rigorous "magic" lends itself to it. But I can easily name 20 SF/F books that set up intriguing mysteries and then completely fail to deliver on them and then another 20 that have great characters or prose but which have bizarrely misfiring plots. I can even name other books with rigidly mechanical magic. But it's tough to point to authors who are as good at reveals. I'm sure others could make better suggestions but when I think of people who come close to what Sanderson does, Ada Palmer and (yes, really) Seth Dickinson come to mind (life not being fair I don't know if it would succeed, but if you ever make a Kickstarter I at least would back it!). I don't think they're quite as effective as Sanderson is in Mistborn...but fortunately they are better (it seems to me) in every other respect. But I think for different reasons those both give many readers ample reason not to like them. Mycroft's style of narration is a clear reason in Palmer's case; I loved it but it's not going to be to everyone's taste. And when I gave Traitor Baru Cormorant as a gift to an avid fantasy reader, she read a bit and told me, "I can tell this is really good, but my life is too stressful to read something like this right now." So maybe the secret to popularity is being very good at one particular aspect of writing and then being bland and inoffensive in every other area. I guess you could argue this is the Marvel Cinematic Universe formula, just replace plot revelations with interconnected storylines.
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Mar 5, 2022 18:47
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quantumfoam posted:Since I mentioned The Little Fuzzy stories I also have to bring up the now-forgotten controversy about who originally dreamed up the Fuzzies concept (think mini-Eworks or gremlins the movie franchise without the do-not-feed rule) that I found about doing that SFL Archives readthrough. I first heard of the controversy over where the idea came from when the Scalzi novel hit, in a way it seems quaint because the idea of cute alien pets that may be more than that seems so basic of an idea but like 80 years ago so many of our common tropes were just gleams in some weirdo's eyes.
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Mar 5, 2022 18:54
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that's kind of exactly why I don't like Sanderson lol. there's nothing wrong with his books exactly but they all feel like streamlined committee designed movies or game plots. they're never bad, but they're never good either. there's a type of person who just sucks that poo poo down and asks for seconds, though, so it sells I guess.
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Mar 5, 2022 19:10
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Lex Talionis posted:It's an oversimplificiation but I think of authors as having varying strengths at (and interest in!) plot, character, prose, setting, and ideas. Readers are likewise often very focused on only some of those. Setting ("worldbuilding") used to be a big deal in fantasy but seems like it's gone out of style; I think people who really appreciate setting often read historical fiction. People who appreciate prose above all else probably read literary fiction (this is why literary critics are always complaining that "spoiler warnings" shouldn't be needed...they just don't care about plot). Even as someone who backed his Kickstarter I'll say that Sanderson isn't really my favorite author. I don't think he sucks. I did enjoy the Mistborn trilogy (though I never really got into the follow-ups). But I never got into his finishing the Wheel of Time because that series just loving exhausted me even back when Robert Jordan was still alive. The first couple of books of the Oath of Kings were pretty cool, but I think that thing's going to exhaust me as well. Favorite author status kind of fluctuates over time with me. Based on sheer quantity of stuff I own, it's probably Jim Butcher (own all 17 of his Dresden novel, all six Codex Alera and The Aeronaut’s Windlass), but it terms of personal preference I really like Ben Aaronovitch way more (and I likely hope in vain that he'll transition the Peter Grant series into becoming the Abigail Kamara series because I think there's a lot more story space to explore beyond staying with "police procedural with magic and also I just loving love the Abigail Kamara character).
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Mar 5, 2022 19:10
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if we go by sheer volume of books mines probably e.m. foner lmfao. who has written about 30 of what is basically the exact same book, but I'm here for it.
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Mar 5, 2022 19:21
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FPyat posted:Finished The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. It's my favorite of the four books because unlike the rest, it didn't leave me feeling like it had unexplored elements it had wasted. Also had a more mature-feeling political ethos. Sadly it's difficult to find other science fiction books that sound like they have loveable characters other than Murderbot and Vorkosigan. Just finished that one too. Does anyone know if there a reason it’s the end of the series? It didn’t really tell a four part story, more just four stories in the same world with a loose connection.
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Mar 5, 2022 19:41
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smackfu posted:Just finished that one too. Does anyone know if there a reason it’s the end of the series? It didn’t really tell a four part story, more just four stories in the same world with a loose connection. it's just grouped by release order iirc
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Mar 5, 2022 19:43
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Larry Parrish posted:if we go by sheer volume of books mines probably e.m. foner lmfao. who has written about 30 of what is basically the exact same book, but I'm here for it. whoa this looks like my exact thing how the hell have i never heard of this guy
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Mar 5, 2022 19:43
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smackfu posted:Just finished that one too. Does anyone know if there a reason it’s the end of the series? It didn’t really tell a four part story, more just four stories in the same world with a loose connection. The author said it felt like the right place to stop because she has other universes to explore.
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Mar 5, 2022 19:47
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AARD VARKMAN posted:whoa this looks like my exact thing how the hell have i never heard of this guy I know his Date Night on Union Station is often free on Amazon as that's how I got it long ago
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Mar 5, 2022 20:06
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all of his books are on KU
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Mar 5, 2022 20:21
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The Big Book of Science Fiction edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CWZH7C4/
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Mar 5, 2022 20:51
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Lex Talionis posted:I say that because the Sanderson I have read was extremely good at a particular kind of plot, one that sets up mysteries like the TV show Lost, but which actually resolves them in a satisfying way. This is inherent to how he plots—i.e. he starts with the end in mind and then he works backwards to figure out how he can earn the ending. If you're interested in his method, you can check out this summary video, which is pulled from his BYU lectures on plotting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hO7fM9EHU4 In his longer books, the climax sequence is where multiple plot threads/payoffs intersect, which is always has a huge emotional impact. But that's not the only reason why he's so good; it's also because of his philosophy on writing magic. Hard magic systems draws a certain type of reader, and part of the draw in a Sanderson book is always "how does the magic work?" And it's always more involved than just "you think really hard and want it to work", which makes it an interesting puzzle. Because the magic system is well-defined, his characters can use it to solve problems in a satisfying way. If you're clever, you can work it out in advance from the clues and gloat about it; if you miss them, it feels like a plot twist, but one that works because you can go back and find all the clues you missed. There's a reason that his author brand/reader experience includes the term "Sanderlanche" - it's because the big twist/s are coming to reveal how the clues all fit together to solve the multiple mysteries he's been stringing you along for the entire book/series. And if you're that kind of compulsive reader, who needs to know how it all works, you will forgive a lot. I'll forgive infodumps, clunky scenes, slow pacing, etc and keep pushing past other things that would bother me in another book because I know the pay-off is going to land. I've never gotten to the end of a Sanderson book and felt cheated that the ending wasn't earned. That's not to say I think all of his books are brilliant. His last two books were much weaker compared to earlier books, for various reasons, but since they're also the penultimate book in a series, I'll still read the next ones. Because I trust that the Sanderlanche in those series endings will make up for the weaker book that came before it. Lex Talionis posted:But I have been surprised there aren't more authors who aren't able to match his use of satisfying reveals; I guess it's harder than it seems. Or maybe his rigorous "magic" lends itself to it. But I can easily name 20 SF/F books that set up intriguing mysteries and then completely fail to deliver on them and then another 20 that have great characters or prose but which have bizarrely misfiring plots. I can even name other books with rigidly mechanical magic. But it's tough to point to authors who are as good at reveals. You should try Will Wight. The way he writes is perfect if you want Sanderson-style, but lighter fare and shorter books. Lex Talionis posted:I'm sure others could make better suggestions but when I think of people who come close to what Sanderson does, Ada Palmer and (yes, really) Seth Dickinson come to mind (life not being fair I don't know if it would succeed, but if you ever make a Kickstarter I at least would back it!). I don't think they're quite as effective as Sanderson is in Mistborn...but fortunately they are better (it seems to me) in every other respect. But I think for different reasons those both give many readers ample reason not to like them. Mycroft's style of narration is a clear reason in Palmer's case; I loved it but it's not going to be to everyone's taste. And when I gave Traitor Baru Cormorant as a gift to an avid fantasy reader, she read a bit and told me, "I can tell this is really good, but my life is too stressful to read something like this right now." So maybe the secret to popularity is being very good at one particular aspect of writing and then being bland and inoffensive in every other area. I guess you could argue this is the Marvel Cinematic Universe formula, just replace plot revelations with interconnected storylines. Janny Wurts is comparable if you want someone who writes stories on the same scale with better prose and world building that is just as intricate with a blend of both hard and soft magic systems that aren't written in a way that lets you compile a D&D handbook. But re: Baru and similar books, it's not about whether or not you like it or whether it's well written or not or whether there's humor in them or not. Those books are, for lack of a better word, heavier/more serious books. They tackle big themes and make you think and question your assumptions/worldview. That's not to say heavy topics are absent from Sanderson books (mental health, religion, genocide, addiction are all things that come up in the Stormlight books) but they're not a thematic focus in the same way. Just take a look at this blog post from General Battatu on everything that went into writing Baru: https://www.sethdickinson.com/2015/11/24/the-secret-design-of-the-traitor-baru-cormorant/ Sanderson doesn't approach his books like this. When he explores heavy themes, he does so at a character level, rather than a book level, if that makes any sense. So you can see Hrathen and Sazed struggling with their faith, you see Dalinar wrestling with his past, you see Kaladin learning how to live with depression, etc but the books as a whole aren't premised on exploring any of those issues. The way he comes up with a book is he literally runs through all of the random "what if" thoughts he had (usually related to subverting tropes/archetypes) and then mashes them together for fun. The premise of Mistborn was "what if the prophesied hero died?" and the plot idea was "my fair lady meets Ocean's Eleven" for example. His "zeroeth law" (for writng magic but which can be extended to his philosophy on telling stories in general) is "err on the side of awesome". And that comes through in books. The draw of reading Sanderson is when you want something that has a reasonable amount of substance, is competently executed but is not heavy with an optimistic vibe. It's great for escapism without having to go into the trashy reads category where the books are obviously churned out as disposable one-time reads. The books make you think, but not the "question my worldview" type of thinking; it's "how is this character going to use magic/an important artifact to solve this problem and can I figure it out before it happens on the page?" So my TL;DR is Sanderson is successful because his books make people think, but not in a way that might make them question their own worldview and notions of identity.
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Mar 5, 2022 22:51
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FPyat posted:Has anyone read Artifact Space by Miles Cameron? I didn't have any issues with the first chapter but stopped reading. Really enjoyed it. Like HH but better. I really enjoyed Masters and Mages, Traitor Son (to some extent) and his Chivalry series though so i'm a bit of a fanboy.
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Mar 5, 2022 23:14
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to quote myself from last year,AARD VARKMAN posted:Finished Artifact Space by Miles Cameron. Just what I was in the mood for - spacers on a big ship dealing with conspiracies, trading, and fighting, but not exclusively military. The afterword said it'd be completed in one more volume so hopefully not too long a wait.
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Mar 5, 2022 23:19
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Leng posted:Janny Wurts is comparable if you want someone who writes stories on the same scale with better prose and world building that is just as intricate with a blend of both hard and soft magic systems that aren't written in a way that lets you compile a D&D handbook. I still need to check out her Wars of Shadow and Light series. The Empire series she did in the Riftwar setting focused on Kelewan and the Tsurani was really good and I've heard that series is solid as well.
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Mar 6, 2022 00:16
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I'm rereading Diaspora by Greg Egan and it's still as mind-expandingly impactful as the day I first started reading it. Are there any other examples of fiction writing that delves super-deep into software processes? The only other examples that I can think of are the chapter in Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds where the ship's subroutine examines sensor data, and Crystal Society by Max Harms, written from the perspective of a half-dozen AI processes collectively managing a single robot body.
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Mar 6, 2022 00:26
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FPyat posted:I'm rereading Diaspora by Greg Egan and it's still as mind-expandingly impactful as the day I first started reading it. Are there any other examples of fiction writing that delves super-deep into software processes? The only other examples that I can think of are the chapter in Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds where the ship's subroutine examines sensor data, and Crystal Society by Max Harms, written from the perspective of a half-dozen AI processes collectively managing a single robot body. How many other works by Greg Egan have you read? Because Permutation City might tickle that itch and there's sure to be more in his shorter works.
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Mar 6, 2022 01:40
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fez_machine posted:How many other works by Greg Egan have you read? Because Permutation City might tickle that itch and there's sure to be more in his shorter works. I've read Permutation City and Quarantine, though Schild's Ladder will be the next book I read.
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Mar 6, 2022 01:44
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Evil Fluffy posted:I still need to check out her Wars of Shadow and Light series. The Empire series she did in the Riftwar setting focused on Kelewan and the Tsurani was really good and I've heard that series is solid as well. The Empire trilogy is one of my all time favorites. If you start the Wars of Light and Shadow now, you might finish right on time for the last book, which is in dev edits right now.
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Mar 6, 2022 04:12
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