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cptn_dr posted:Speaking of novellas, I'm about halfway through If Found, Return to Hell, which is fine. I picked it up on the strength of the phrase "Intern Wizard" but it's not really doing much with the premise beyond the obvious. Finished reading it, and my opinion didn't really change. It was fine, I don't regret buying it, but fanficcy found family cozy books aren't really my thing, broadly speaking. I hope it does find its audience though, I think there's a bunch of people who'd go wild for it and I would like to see it succeed.
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Aug 22, 2023 23:41
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fez_machine posted:Do not convert to AZW or Mobi because they are no longer supported by Amazon and its email to kindle services. Epub won. oh whoops, you're right. force of habit, as it used to be the exact opposite. It'll actually still accept MOBI via email despite the warning it's not supported, but that'll surely stop suddenly and without further warning some day
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Aug 23, 2023 00:04
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NoneMoreNegative posted:I posted this over in YOSPOS but I really feel 36 Streets deserves more eyes on it You had me at "spiky fuckup." It's cyberpunk, so that could mean physical or emotional spikes. Or both! I can't wait to find out.
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Aug 23, 2023 00:15
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For the person who liked The First Law looking for suggestions, I recommend KJ Parker’s The Engineer trilogy. Or if you’re in a rush, The Folding Knife. Both are books I find myself thinking about again and again. But Engineer especially because of its length and how it lures you into its world of world changing events and subsequent crushing personal moments. In a way I suppose some characters find a sort of hollow happiness, similar to in First Law.
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Aug 23, 2023 00:33
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Ccs posted:For the person who liked The First Law looking for suggestions, I recommend KJ Parker’s The Engineer trilogy. Or if you’re in a rush, The Folding Knife. Alright, this piques my interest. I like it when there are significant things going on for characters to react to, I also like getting wrapped up in the whole setting and learning about it. Basically the opposite of The Thousand Names where it was just half a book of normal drudgery, then they are pretty much just like "whoah magic. Alright then" and then nothing much really even happened with the magic or was explained in a way that it was fun to learn about. I'm sure it might in the next book, but just the way the world and characters interact has kind of branded it as boring for me. The way you describe Engineer Trilogy makes it seem like that won't be an issue! Do you know if there is an audiobook/is it good? That's what I'm looking for. I go through about 5x the audiobooks at work as I do normal reading, so I'm always having to sniff out more stuff. Drunk Driver Dad fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Aug 23, 2023 |
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Aug 23, 2023 01:42
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I just finished listening to K.J. Parker's Edit: Just realized I'm thinking of a different series by K.J. Parker. I listed to the Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City series not the Engineer series. ccubed fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Aug 23, 2023 |
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Aug 23, 2023 02:51
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One of my favourite society building bits of Engineer is how Parker made an unrealistic facet of his world work through the power of unrealistic beliefs. The Mezentines created a religion out of their industry, so they’ll never outsource their manufacturing, which allows the perpetual republic to sensibly have far higher industrial knowledge and capacity to the rest of the world. It’s a believable conceit. You could fantasy up this premise by making Vaatzes home a nation of wizards and he a rogue mage out to democratize magic for his own purposes, but by sticking with something reasonably realistic allows Parker to write a lot of satisfying scenes of people doing a craft well while tying the craft into larger metaphors about the human condition. There’s a part in the second book in particular where the forging of a particular piece of metal is tied into broader themes in a really elegant way.
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Aug 23, 2023 03:25
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I finished The Saint of Bright Doors a couple days ago. Absolutely brilliant book, I highly recommend it to anyone looking for fantasy with great writing and a very original setting. Reads like a mix of Studio Ghibli films, Michael Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter, and--weirdly enough--the SCP Foundation. I hope this one finds an audience since it doesn't really fit in any marketable category (is it fantasy? magic realism? dystopia? cosy? kind of all these things?) but there are people out there who are going to love it.
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Aug 23, 2023 04:29
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Yeah that one's been on my want to read, glad it turned out well
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Aug 23, 2023 06:39
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That does sound good. Chandrasekera’s SF criticism and non-fiction writing is really good so I’d been looking forward to it.
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Aug 23, 2023 06:49
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Sailor Viy posted:Reads like a mix of Studio Ghibli films, Michael Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter, and--weirdly enough--the SCP Foundation. Yeah okay, that single-sentence description got me to click "buy" right away.
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Aug 23, 2023 08:43
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Why isn't Commonweal on Amazon? Is he opposed to the company?
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Aug 23, 2023 08:47
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SimonChris posted:Why isn't Commonweal on Amazon? Is he opposed to the company? Yes.
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Aug 23, 2023 09:34
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ToxicFrog posted:Steel Frame was great and I really want to read Origin Complex. Just waiting for it to come out on not-Amazon. https://scarletferret.com/news/origin-complex-andrew-skinner-out-today
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Aug 23, 2023 10:51
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Who's a modern successor to Robin Hobb? I've got a cold and want to listen to a meaty fantasy series that is kinda low magic, character driven, not super high stakes, not needlessly edgy. I've also enjoyed KJ Parker, Scott Lynch, Miles Cameron, Ken Liu, Tad Williams, Michael Swanwick, Ursula Le Guin, Christopher Buehlmann. I'm not as into stuff with game-like elaborate magic systems like Sanderson. Chas McGill fucked around with this message at 12:49 on Aug 23, 2023 |
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Aug 23, 2023 12:31
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NoneMoreNegative posted:I posted this over in YOSPOS but I really feel 36 Streets deserves more eyes on it It was under AU$2 too so thanks for the recommendation
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Aug 23, 2023 12:38
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Chas McGill posted:Who's a modern successor to Robin Hobb? I've got a cold and want to listen to a meaty fantasy series that is kinda low magic, character driven, not super high stakes, not needlessly edgy. Any opino Low magic, travelling judge/inquisitor moves across a land less than a generation after a brutal conquest that formed an empire. Politics and action ensue. Sequel came out this year, at least one more to come. Anthony Ryan - the pariah Stakes are highish but I didn't mind this just completed trilogy about an orphan bastard raised by outlaws who becomes an infamous knight. He has a history of patchy series but this was probably his best. Walter Jon Williams - quillifer Another trilogy, also just completed, also about an orphan who becomes an infamous knight... WJW is a better writer though and these are much bigger in scope. Classic unreliable narrator, not sure if he's actually smarter than everyone around him or if he's lying in his memoirs.
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Aug 23, 2023 12:45
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Chas McGill posted:Who's a modern successor to Robin Hobb? I've got a cold and want to listen to a meaty fantasy series that is kinda low magic, character driven, not super high stakes, not needlessly edgy. She predates Hobb by a good bit but Patricia A. McKillip has the vibes you want. oh and the obligatory recommendation of Bujold's Challion/Word of Five Gods series
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Aug 23, 2023 12:54
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Chas McGill posted:Who's a modern successor to Robin Hobb? I've got a cold and want to listen to a meaty fantasy series that is kinda low magic, character driven, not super high stakes, not needlessly edgy. Morw a contemporary of Hobb but Kate Elliot? King's Dragon might be your vibe
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Aug 23, 2023 13:38
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Isn't hobb still writing
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Aug 23, 2023 13:45
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She's semi-retired, got long covid and last time I checked didn't have anything on the horizon right now
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Aug 23, 2023 13:52
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Isn't hobb still writing branedotorg posted:Richard Swan - Justice of Kings fez_machine posted:She predates Hobb by a good bit but Patricia A. McKillip has the vibes you want. No Dignity posted:Morw a contemporary of Hobb but Kate Elliot? King's Dragon might be your vibe
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Aug 23, 2023 13:55
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Isn't hobb still writing Only short work since 2017 according to Wikipedia edit: Chas McGill posted:I read and liked these way back (though obviously not as much as Hobb) and forgot to put them in the list, good suggestions. Okay how about the Elemental Logic series by Laurie J Marks fez_machine fucked around with this message at 14:08 on Aug 23, 2023 |
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Aug 23, 2023 13:58
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I finished the audiobook of The Spear Cuts Through Water last night and it was another great thread rec that I'm glad I picked up. I'm a sucker for nested framing narratives and the way it incorporates them throughout the book was really fun to see. The audiobook narrator was fantastic, but I'm highly considering getting a hard copy sometime because I both want to loan it out to make other people read it, and I just want to read it with my eyeballs since my attention will sometimes drift a bit when listening. Currently I'm reading Witch King by Martha Wells. At about 40% in, it's been sort of slow. It feels like she's done a lot of worldbuilding on- and off-screen, but so far not much has happened in the "current day" chapters or the "past" flashback chapters that interleave each other. It's not bad, per se, but it's definitely slow (I am hoping it might pick up a bit in the back half?). Basically, if you're going in expecting something like "Murderbot but Fantasy" this is not that.
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Aug 23, 2023 14:07
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Chas McGill posted:Who's a modern successor to Robin Hobb? I've got a cold and want to listen to a meaty fantasy series that is kinda low magic, character driven, not super high stakes, not needlessly edgy. P. C. Hodgell maybe?
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Aug 23, 2023 15:02
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Anybody have any opinions on SL Huang? I see she just released a genderspun "retelling" of Water Margin/Outlaws of the Marsh, which is intriguing. I've meant to read it for ages and never got around to it because it's a real brick of a book, so I'm not certain I'd want a retelling of it instead, but I'm curious and might check it out.
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Aug 23, 2023 17:50
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DurianGray posted:I finished the audiobook of The Spear Cuts Through Water last night and it was another great thread rec that I'm glad I picked up. I'm a sucker for nested framing narratives and the way it incorporates them throughout the book was really fun to see. The audiobook narrator was fantastic, but I'm highly considering getting a hard copy sometime because I both want to loan it out to make other people read it, and I just want to read it with my eyeballs since my attention will sometimes drift a bit when listening. My mind boggles at the concept of an audiobook for TSCTW  The sheer density of tricks it plays with the fonts and italics, the multiple perspectives within the same sentence, I don’t know how you could possibly do it in audio. Time to check this out. You should definitely have a look at the text, it’s wild.
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Aug 23, 2023 18:06
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branedotorg posted:Anthony Ryan - the pariah How is this book, and any other newer books by him compared to Blood Song? I remember liking that well enough for a self pub book, but I was extremely disappointed with the sequel and never finished the trilogy. Will the pariah disappoint like Tower Lord?
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Aug 23, 2023 19:29
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Kestral posted:My mind boggles at the concept of an audiobook for TSCTW That's another reason I want a hard copy for sure! The narrator was really good at doing subtle voice changes to indicate the asides and perspective shifts and whatnot, and I figured the text must have some interesting things going on too.
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Aug 23, 2023 19:37
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Went through a fantasy war novel lately. It was just one really long battle with tons of names and backstories where some of the soldiers died seconds after their introduction. I think it was a bit on the long side and felt tedious at times. There were also a lot of tropes and mythological stuff which felt a bit overused by today's standard. The female representation was downright awful. They were either shining trophies to fight other, or scheming wifes who wanted to stab their husbands or family into the back. Baring one or two special exceptions, all women had the role of 'wife'. And the story arc felt incomplete. By the end of the book the battle hasn't even reached it's conclusion. That felt like complete sequel bait. It was nicely written though. Lots of poignant visual methaphors and pompous speeches. All in all I'm glad I went through it but wouldn't actually recommend reading 'Iliad'. cant cook creole bream fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Aug 23, 2023 |
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Aug 23, 2023 19:47
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Counterpoint, the Iliad rules and the aristeiae almost all fuckin' own bones. I wish there was more on Diomedes, though. Akhilles is cool and all but Diomedes is the best. e: Also, it's a lot of fun to listen to in audiobook form, given that's its original form.
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Aug 23, 2023 19:52
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My old Greek isn't all that good, so I settled for the German audiobook.
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Aug 23, 2023 19:55
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Yeah, I listened to it in English because my ancient Greek is nonexistent. I just meant listening rather than reading.
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Aug 23, 2023 19:58
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The Emily Wilson translation of the Iliad is coming out in about a month, and I can't wait. I loved her translation of the Odyssey.
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Aug 23, 2023 20:03
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The Iliad is sick as hell.
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Aug 23, 2023 20:03
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fez_machine posted:oh and the obligatory recommendation of Bujold's Challion/Word of Five Gods series Those are just plain very good to great books. Don't skip the Penric novellas, those are superb.
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Aug 23, 2023 20:07
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Gaius Marius posted:The Iliad is sick as hell. Depends on the translation quote:SING TO ME MUSE, OF VELOUR AND THE MAN
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Aug 23, 2023 20:24
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Hi guys I'm looking for a book recommendation, does anyone have anything more recent than the Iliad?
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Aug 23, 2023 20:38
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the amazing thing about the Iliad is that even today it’s a cool story with heroes at its base level but then the more you learn and think about archaic Greece and the culture it came from the more it opens up and actually reflects these universal human feelings and experiences in war. so much so that there’s a famous book about how what happens with Achilles is like what happened to soldiers in Vietnam https://www.amazon.com/Achilles-Vietnam-Combat-Undoing-Character/dp/0684813211 imagine you’ve completely internalized how significant Agamemnon taking a war prize (briseis) from Achilles would be in an heroic society (basically, the worst thing possible). suddenly it’s this story where the hero is a victim who retreats from battle after being unjustly robbed of basically the only significant thing in his culture (arete / glory as expressed through trophy). he basically gives up on everything he and everyone else believes in. then he re-emerges after losing a comrade and commits unthinkable atrocities against a man everyone respects and honors (homer even lets the reader see hector with his son/wife in a totally devastating scene), only to finally allow the victim’s body/soul to rest after the father of the victim begs him (itself almost unthinkable). amazing that the fundamental text of ancient Greek society is a story where the Greek “hero” rejects everything fundamental about his culture and does horrible things to the foreign guy whom we are clearly meant to sympathize with
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Aug 23, 2023 20:39
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mewse posted:Hi guys I'm looking for a book recommendation, does anyone have anything more recent than the Iliad? The Odyssey
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Aug 23, 2023 20:42
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