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ANOTHER SCORCHER posted:Is the Burroughs’ Barsoom cycle worth reading? I generally like pulp, Dying Earth, Lovecraft, etc. GRRM edited a series a few years back called 'old mars' and 'old venus' that were modern homages to that era of adventure. not all great, like most anthologies, but they scratched an itch for me https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/15849699-old-mars https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24891544-old-venus
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Jul 25, 2022 01:26
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ANOTHER SCORCHER posted:Is the Burroughs’ Barsoom cycle worth reading? I generally like pulp, Dying Earth, Lovecraft, etc. Yes based on liking those examples, just remember that so much pulp just borrowed wholesale from it and a lot of things will seem familiar. Definitely read the first three, the quality dips after that but they are still fun. There is a ton of action to keep the pace going. As the content was serialized at first, be prepared for the story beats to follow that style. There is less racism than Lovecraft, though Carter fought for the Confederacy and the Martian races are all divided by colors. They are pretty fast reads. The first 5 are public domain in the US but I think all but the last book (which IIRC is just a few partial complete stories patched together by ERB's son) are public domain in Australia and if you are good with google you can figure that out. I was able to get them all within a year of haunting used book stores, and that was before a bunch got reprinted for the Disney movie. There's also the Venus series which is okay but not quite as inventive.
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Jul 25, 2022 02:49
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ANOTHER SCORCHER posted:Is the Burroughs’ Barsoom cycle worth reading? I generally like pulp, Dying Earth, Lovecraft, etc. Possibly the only fantasy genre author more copied/more influential than JRR Tolkien was in the fantasy fiction genre is Edgar Rice Burroughs. Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoom and his other fantasy series (Tarzan, Pellucidar, Land that Time Forgot, etc.) were outright copied so hard by other fantasy and scifi authors that there is a strong chance of you getting deja-vu when reading the original ERB Barsoom stories. Discworld series: The earlier Discworld books are definitely funner to read than the Discworld books in the high teens and beyond for me.
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Jul 25, 2022 03:17
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Yeah, the second biggest problem the John Carter movie had, after bad marketing, was that 90% of the coolest John Carter scenes had already been in Star Wars.
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Jul 25, 2022 03:20
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah, the second biggest problem the John Carter movie had, after bad marketing, was that 90% of the coolest John Carter scenes had already been in Star Wars. That said, I know I really enjoyed the movie and was kind of sad there was no follow-up/sequel.
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Jul 25, 2022 04:43
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pradmer posted:The Girl with All the Gifts by MR Carey - $2.99
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Jul 25, 2022 05:16
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Resuming my read at the 75% point of Accelerando by Charles Stross 3 or 4 years after last making progress. Here's hoping I don't get too confused.
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Jul 25, 2022 05:56
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FPyat posted:Resuming my read at the 75% point of Accelerando by Charles Stross 3 or 4 years after last making progress. Here's hoping I don't get too confused. This happens even if you read all of it on the same day.
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Jul 25, 2022 08:04
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Kesper North posted:This happens even if you read all of it on the same day.
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Jul 25, 2022 15:47
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Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy #2) by Stanislaw Lem - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008R2JK1S/
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Jul 25, 2022 20:19
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pradmer posted:Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy #2) by Stanislaw Lem - $1.99 I tried very hard to get through this. It's written like Monty Python meets Get Smart, without any of the funny bits. I understood the tone Lem was laying down, but it just goes on and on repeating the same theme and idea in different ways. Ultimately it makes a poignant point, but the repetition wasn't worth it to me.
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Jul 25, 2022 21:23
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MartingaleJack posted:I tried very hard to get through this. It's written like Monty Python meets Get Smart, without any of the funny bits. I understood the tone Lem was laying down, but it just goes on and on repeating the same theme and idea in different ways. Ultimately it makes a poignant point, but the repetition wasn't worth it to me. It's the ultimate shaggy dog story
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Jul 25, 2022 21:39
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Shah Gudio G. though
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Jul 25, 2022 22:07
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Harold Fjord posted:Shah Gudio G. though The second time Atlantis sunk beneath the Waves.
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Jul 25, 2022 22:23
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sebmojo posted:
I looked that up and was mildly disappointed that it was a 50s Asimov short story and not the tale of a white rapper's role in a disaster at Atlantis Paradise Island
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Jul 25, 2022 23:24
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Started the Godmakers by Frank Herbert as a palette cleanser to the witcher series, since I'm at the Lady of the Lake and 20 hour long audiobook after I've already pumped through 6 this year, when I'm already behind my goal for the year, is just too long right now. I haven't actually read a Frank H book before now (I tried reading dune as a kid and got bored to tears, haven't tried coming back to it recently to see if I still feel the same) and so far it's quite good! Also cool, I can easily listen to these books at 1.4x which saves me some time. Any suggestions for something...idk, popular, but say 7 hours long or less? I need to pump out some easy wins before I go back to these 20-50 hour long behemoths I have queued up
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Jul 26, 2022 03:47
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RDM posted:This was real good, and I don't normally like zombies. Plotting and writing were both very solid.
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Jul 26, 2022 04:01
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GreenBuckanneer posted:Started the Godmakers by Frank Herbert as a palette cleanser to the witcher series, since I'm at the Lady of the Lake and 20 hour long audiobook after I've already pumped through 6 this year, when I'm already behind my goal for the year, is just too long right now. Dawnhounds
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Jul 26, 2022 04:07
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Remulak posted:Yeah, I just read this (The Girl with All the Gifts). Probably on,y the second zombie book I’ve enjoyed and finished. Not counting Matheson I guess. The movie is very good too.
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Jul 26, 2022 04:38
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Remulak posted:Yeah, I just read this (The Girl with All the Gifts). Probably on,y the second zombie book I’ve enjoyed and finished. Not counting Matheson I guess. i read it this week too and it's pretty ftw but i liked zone one a little more. probably because it's even more ambiguous and hopeless.
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Jul 26, 2022 05:26
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I just finished A Desolation Called Peace, and I really enjoyed it, though I was frustrated that the main characters took forever to figure out the alien threat is a hivemind, despite it being a pretty easy inference.. There was something about the flow of the book that let me comfortably binge it, which I appreciated.
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Jul 26, 2022 05:52
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HopperUK posted:The movie is very good too. They were written at the same time. Mike Carey also appeared in the movie as a zombie, if you keep an eye out.
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Jul 26, 2022 19:31
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Finished Inhibitor Phase and can't say I liked it too much. It felt like fanservice, unnecessary return to familiar places and faces one more time. Plot elements that felt like they were pulled out of pocket with minimal setup towards the end again. Still, I didn't like Absolution Gap either, yet something made me pick this one up still. Probably because I read Pushing Ice a month back and it was much more enjoyable. Even Inhibitor Phase there were things to like really - the mood of sorts the Reynolds' Revelation Space universe of ruins is at this point, and hyperpigs. Some ideas and concepts that work when Reynolds doesn't drown them in words. Lunsku fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Jul 26, 2022 |
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Jul 26, 2022 19:34
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Finished the original Earthsea trilogy. I will pass on the last 3. The books are written in a very annoying way.
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Jul 26, 2022 20:59
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Mr Hootington posted:Finished the original Earthsea trilogy. I will pass on the last 3. The books are written in a very annoying way. Really? What about it gets on your nerves? I think the writing is amazing. I'm reading the third book now.
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Jul 26, 2022 21:09
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Mr Hootington posted:Finished the original Earthsea trilogy. I will pass on the last 3. The books are written in a very annoying way. The last 3 are written in a very different way, but if you're one of those strange beings who doesn't love LeGuin you might find them annoying also.
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Jul 26, 2022 21:12
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DACK FAYDEN posted:
Joke writes itself.
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Jul 26, 2022 21:16
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HopperUK posted:The movie is very good too. That young lady playing the title role deserves a great acting career. Teenager stealing the show against Glenn Close, goddamn.
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Jul 26, 2022 21:19
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Tor's free ebook is The Border Keeper by Kerstin Hall No idea if it is any good but it is free https://ebookclub.tor.com/
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Jul 26, 2022 21:23
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Lunsku posted:Finished Inhibitor Phase and can't say I liked it too much. It felt like fanservice, unnecessary return to familiar places and faces one more time. Plot elements that felt like they were pulled out of pocket with minimal setup towards the end again. Entirely agree, and for me the reason I picked this one up was because I thought he might correct the mistakes of Absolution Gap. Really disappointing to just see him make the exact same mistakes all over again.
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Jul 26, 2022 21:38
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HopperUK posted:Really? What about it gets on your nerves? I think the writing is amazing. I'm reading the third book now. It has a sing-song or poetry style to it that annoyed me.
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Jul 26, 2022 21:43
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If you liked For All Mankind, try Hot Moon by Alan Smale, which has the same basic alt-history POD and premise. I'll absolutely shamelessly shill for this one since I'm listed in the Acknowledgements.
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Jul 26, 2022 21:44
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HopperUK posted:The movie is very good too. When I saw the movie I'd forgotten that it's a zombie story, so that scene at the beginning scared the ever-loving poo poo out of me. But yeah, the film owns, the kid owns hard, and I love any music by Christobal Tapia de Veer. I use this track (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22Jt3N5sTCk) in my BitD game for whenever spooky ghost poo poo is going down.
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Jul 26, 2022 21:52
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Mr Hootington posted:It has a sing-song or poetry style to it that annoyed me. Ah fair enough. I love it.
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Jul 26, 2022 22:06
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https://twitter.com/GameDesignDan/status/1551833167677591552?s=20&t=Plhqj62SsqEQTRN1uJK6fw
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Jul 26, 2022 22:35
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Oh, it looks like Baen has collected versions of the Penric & Desdemona books available in both hardcover and ebook versions.
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Jul 26, 2022 23:16
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Got my Paperwhite in today. I gotta say, for one listed as "Good" I cannot find a scratch or dent on this thing.
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Jul 26, 2022 23:21
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TheCog posted:I just finished A Desolation Called Peace, and I really enjoyed it, though I was frustrated that the main characters took forever to figure out the alien threat is a hivemind, despite it being a pretty easy inference.. There was something about the flow of the book that let me comfortably binge it, which I appreciated. There's a Jack Vance novella called The Miracle Workers with the same twist. Despite living on the same planet for centuries, the humans haven't figured out that the aliens are a hive mind, and the aliens haven't figured out that the humans aren't a hive mind. There are some aspects of that story I like, but it's kind of a second-order idiot plot because of that aspect.
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Jul 26, 2022 23:21
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Got my Paperwhite in today. I gotta say, for one listed as "Good" I cannot find a scratch or dent on this thing. Paperwhites are really great, just solid, all-around workhorses. I love the older model with the recessed screen yoi could lay face down. Didnt even need a cover.
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Jul 26, 2022 23:58
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Tars Tarkas posted:Tor's free ebook is The Border Keeper by Kerstin Hall "Surreal picaresque adventure through 999 demon realms" sounds pretty good, I'll have to give it a shot.
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Jul 27, 2022 02:34
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