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Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire is a pretty fun UF. I've looked through the entire list and I haven't even heard of any of the others, but some look fun. I'll grab a few.
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Aug 26, 2023 20:03
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Ornery and Hornery posted:Hi friends, looking for fantasy recommendations! I'm always happy to recommend The Night-Bird's Feather.
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Aug 26, 2023 20:29
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Tars Tarkas posted:Indie August sale this weekend, ~300 indie fantasy, scifi, and horror books - https://promotions.narratess.com/ Megazver posted:Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire is a pretty fun UF. I know a lot of the authors in the sale though thanks to my backed up TBR, I haven't read their books.  Anyway, here's a round-up of sorts: SPFBO9 books, in order of appearance on the sales page:
Other indie books that have had decent hype in indie reader circles:
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Aug 27, 2023 00:38
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I highly recommend Freya Marske's A Marvelous Light . Edwardian with magic, but it's focused on just how much capitalism and aristocratic systems suck. The hero, unaware of magic, is hired into a government office dealing with magic. His problem is that all non-magicians who become aware of magic are supposed to be brainwiped. His other problem is that he's under a curse. C.L. Polk's Witchmark is post-WWI (sort of) with magic. The hero, a physician, has to solve the mystery of somebody who shows up poisoned and dying at his hospital. In the process, the hero reveals his own magic, which is the sort that condemns him to be used as a magical battery for his more powerful sister. Also about how much capitalism and aristocratic systems suck. Both of these have great worldbuilding; neither is pennyfarthings-plus-cantrips. P. Djéli Clark's A Master of Djinn is set in a 1920s-ish Egypt where the Egyptian mastery of djinn thwarted colonialism and made Egypt a world power. The author's Cairo is richly drawn with details of food, milieu, and customs that aren't European-derived. The heroine is trying to solve a mass murder that turns out to be something much worse. (From an Amazon review: "Liked the characters, although few of the more competent characters were male. " drat straight.) All of these are also queer romances; they're romances in the way that Shards of Honor is, in that the developing romance is essential to the plot, but is not the only plot.
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Aug 27, 2023 01:25
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P. Djéli Clark was one of my professors when I was in grad school, and we also lived in the same neighborhood for a couple years so I'd often run into him walking his dogs and we'd chat for a bit. The funny thing is at the time I had no idea he was a fiction author (I think he might have had just one or two short stories published at the time) but we still talked a lot of science fiction, especially Star Trek.
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Aug 27, 2023 01:28
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Chairman Capone posted:P. Djéli Clark was one of my professors when I was in grad school, and we also lived in the same neighborhood for a couple years so I'd often run into him walking his dogs and we'd chat for a bit. The funny thing is at the time I had no idea he was a fiction author (I think he might have had just one or two short stories published at the time) but we still talked a lot of science fiction, especially Star Trek. What does/did he teach?
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Aug 27, 2023 01:44
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Arsenic Lupin posted:What does/did he teach? History of slavery. I took his class on the depiction of slavery in film and it was great. Looking up the syllabus and we watched: Birth of a Nation CSA: Confederate States of America Gone With the Wind Mandingo Manderlay Burn! Django Unchained The Last Supper Quilombo Sankofa Adanggaman 12 Years a Slave His first nonfiction book actually just came out this summer: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/jubilees-experiment/0C88ECF12CB21EB2E01B15011DB5B01A#fndtn-information
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Aug 27, 2023 01:51
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Did he say anything about Roots?
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Aug 27, 2023 02:57
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Halfway through Lathe of Heaven and it is extremely good. The psychologist is however just a tad too close to a particular manipulative individual I have had to deal with over the years
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Aug 27, 2023 04:08
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DurianGray posted: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?). The descriptions of space in the action scenes are often confusing, which is something I noticed in Murderbot, too. I would argue that the book IS a lot like a Murderbot but fantasy in large part. The tangly plot, the sometimes overly detailed descriptions of space and action. But it doesn't have Murderbot, who is such an incredible character that even when Wells gets bogged down, Murderbot's voice and pov are just plain fun to read. Kai has some of the same "I don't even want to be here!" vibes that Murderbot has, but the fun bits are replaced by mopey bits.
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Aug 27, 2023 14:19
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I think I'm going to give up scouring Kindle Unlimited for anything else worth reading. I got through 30% of Gunmetal Gods, which seems to be self-published. Not-Romans crusade against not-Ottomans at such a breakneck pace that a siege of Ottoman-held not-Constantinople is resolved over maybe a couple of dozen pages. There's a bit of magic and some unnecessarily extended descriptions of child murder and I think every female character introduced in the first quarter of the book either dies or vanishes mysteriously. A few more were introduced shortly before I gave up and I wanted to warn them. On to A Master of Djinn, which I hope lives up to the promise of A Dead Djinn in Cairo/The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (both of which are worth a read regardless).
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Aug 27, 2023 16:01
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A Master of Djinn is good (edit: or is it?). I remember reading the short stories after I read the novel and was more impressed by the short stories. I'll see if I can find my previous post.
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Aug 27, 2023 16:17
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got some chores tonight posted:I finished A Master of Djinn. It was...ok. I like the basic concept: djinn + steampunk + Cairo, but the writing leaves a bit to be desired (the action scenes especially feel a bit weak) and the central "mystery" behind the detective story is a bit obvious. I enjoyed the short story but I don't really think the full novel really enhanced the experience. Oh, maybe I didn't find it so good. big dyke energy posted:
Another opinion. got some chores tonight fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Aug 27, 2023 |
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Aug 27, 2023 16:17
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The Lost Metal (Mistborn #7) by Brandon Sanderson - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MBS37W9/ The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JVQ6DHK/ Upgrade by Blake Crouch - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JV9NXXW/
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Aug 27, 2023 16:34
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This fascinates me, just as a difference between reading styles. I was engrossed in A Master for the worldbuilding and characters; I barely remember the plot. (Also, excellent food values.) I am crushed that P. Djeli is a pseudonym, although I can see why an academic would be cautious. My Kindle tells me I gave up on The Witch King at 28%, because I just didn't care. I liked Wells's Raksura books, so my reaction isn't just Murderbot-withdrawal. I have also just admitted that I'll never get past 14% of Max Wells's Empress of Forever. Book amnesty is an excellent thing, and I unlocked that skill too late in life. I'm also late to the thread. Have y'all talked about Nghi Vo? Because drat, The Empress of Salt and Fortune novella trilogy is magnificent. The viewpoint characters, an agender monk and their historian companion bird, have a prickly sense of humor that I really enjoy. The setting is a magic-imbued Vietnam, and the plots sock you in the face. The magic system is fun, and you have a real sense that the story began before the part you're reading and continues afterward. Mentioning Vo reminds me of the Vietnamese-French multiple-award-winning author Aliette de Bodard. She has several different universes going; I love the Xuya universe, a set of novellas and novels about complex relationships between intelligent spaceships and human beings. These, again, are based on Vietnamese culture. I would recommend starting with the novella The Tea Master and the Detective. If you'd rather start with a novel, last fall's The Red Scholar's Wake is about a pirate ship, and her reluctant wife, trying to determine who murdered her first wife. Oh, and it's a big ol' space opera. A great pleasure of both the Vo and the de Bodard novels is that they treat Vietnamese, and the historic culture of Vietnam, the way that other science fiction authors treat the languages and customs of different planets. "I'm using the words, I'm using the concepts, it's on you to pay close attention and figure out what is going on." Both authors are good at letting you infer meaning through context, although I did enjoy looking up some words and especially some foods.
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Aug 27, 2023 17:13
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I know this is dumb, but seeing a book titled "A/The ____ of ____ and ____" is just a turnoff for me now. (This only goes for new books. Books written pre-game of thrones get a pass. The Years of Rice and Salt is still good.)
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Aug 27, 2023 17:44
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eXXon posted:not-Ottomans * Nottomans
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Aug 27, 2023 17:52
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fritz posted:* Nottomans #NotAllMans
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Aug 27, 2023 18:07
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Arsenic Lupin posted:This fascinates me, just as a difference between reading styles. I was engrossed in A Master for the worldbuilding and characters; I barely remember the plot. (Also, excellent food values.) I am crushed that P. Djeli is a pseudonym, although I can see why an academic would be cautious. I'm at 80% of Witch King now and the only way I can describe the writing is "tediously competent." If it had actually been bad or maybe tried something interesting/weird (that didn't work for me) I would have dropped it sooner but somehow it just lulled me through enough and had me thinking "Maybe it will change at some point" that I'm nearly done. I've liked the one Raksura I've read so far and most of the Murderbot's but I'm just kinda bored with this one. I might skim through to the end just to see the end since it's so close, but I kinda wish I had maybe dropped it sooner and picked up something more interesting. We've talked about Vo before here -- or at least I'm pretty sure this thread is where I heard about her stuff initially. The fourth Singing Hills book is supposed to be coming out in a few weeks actually (at least that's what a quick search is telling me). It's also interesting to see you liken her to Bodard, because I have tried to read a handful of Bodard's books (mosty Xuya) and with the exception of Fireheart Tiger something about her writing style just doesn't click with me. Like I can see the interesting worldbuilding ideas and everything, but for some reason I always have a lot of trouble imagining the physical spaces the characters are in and that specifically is what throws me out of them. I haven't really encountered it with another writer! Jimbozig posted:I know this is dumb, but seeing a book titled "A/The ____ of ____ and ____" is just a turnoff for me now. I call those "An X of Y and Z" titles and have a sort of kneejerk tendency to avoid them, though since you mention it, I do have Years of Rice and Salt kicking around in audiobook that I'll probably be getting to sometime soon.
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Aug 27, 2023 18:12
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The Killer of Mice and Men: A Fallout Story
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Aug 27, 2023 18:17
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Jimbozig posted:I know this is dumb, but seeing a book titled "A/The ____ of ____ and ____" is just a turnoff for me now. Mike Carey's books written with his wife and daughter both have that title pattern (The City of Silk and Steel and The House of War and Witness) and they're both good.
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Aug 27, 2023 18:21
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Hobnob posted:#NotAllMans #IJustWantToPutMyFeetUp
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Aug 27, 2023 18:29
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It's not that Vo's writing reminds me of Bodard's; it's that "awesome writer whose worlds are Vietnam-based" reminds me of both of them. For one thing, it's fantasy vs. SF. For another, I remember Bodard as much sadder.DurianGray posted:Like I can see the interesting worldbuilding ideas and everything, but for some reason I always have a lot of trouble imagining the physical spaces the characters are in and that specifically is what throws me out of them. I haven't really encountered it with another writer!
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Aug 27, 2023 18:52
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eXXon posted:I think I'm going to give up scouring Kindle Unlimited for anything else worth reading. I got through 30% of Gunmetal Gods, which seems to be self-published. Not-Romans crusade against not-Ottomans at such a breakneck pace that a siege of Ottoman-held not-Constantinople is resolved over maybe a couple of dozen pages. There's a bit of magic and some unnecessarily extended descriptions of child murder and I think every female character introduced in the first quarter of the book either dies or vanishes mysteriously. A few more were introduced shortly before I gave up and I wanted to warn them.
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Aug 27, 2023 19:57
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DurianGray posted:Like I can see the interesting worldbuilding ideas and everything, but for some reason I always have a lot of trouble imagining the physical spaces the characters are in and that specifically is what throws me out of them. I haven't really encountered it with another writer! I have this issue as well, and weirdly enough it’s been a problem in this read of Jurassic Park. You’d think this would be a book that revels in borderline-excessive descriptions of dinosaurs, but nope! They barely get described at all, and just rely on ambient cultural knowledge - which is odd, considering a bunch of the dinos in it were popularized by the movie. For those wondering: no, you don’t need to read Jurassic Park. It has good bones (heh), but the movie is much, much better. The sense of wonder it evokes is sorely lacking in the novel, and it turns out that’s super important. Which is funny, because Book-Hammond actually comments on how none of the other characters are experiencing the awe and wonder he’d hoped to inspire in his visitors, and Spielberg correctly assessed that without that experience of “holy poo poo, DINOSAURS” the story falls flat.
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Aug 27, 2023 20:13
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Tars Tarkas posted:Indie August sale this weekend, ~300 indie fantasy, scifi, and horror books - https://promotions.narratess.com/ For self pubished stuff I think the SPFBO competition (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Published_Fantasy_Blog-Off) does a pretty good job of finding the better ones. I haven't read it myself, but "The Thirteenth Hour" scored pretty high so that might be worth checking out. Otherwise, I also recognised Angela Boord, but again no opinion on the two of her books in that list.
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Aug 27, 2023 20:39
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just a reminder for folks to get your votes in on the BotM for September, on the theme of "first encounters with aliens by humans" https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4040287
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Aug 27, 2023 20:48
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DurianGray posted:I'm at 80% of Witch King now, and the only way I can describe the writing is "tediously competent." If it had actually been bad or maybe tried something interesting/weird (that didn't work for me) I would have dropped it sooner but somehow it just lulled me through enough and had me thinking "Maybe it will change at some point" that I'm nearly done. I just finished it and the ending just made it even worse lmao. I had to go back and reskim some stuff because it seemed like I must have missed something but they really just find the character they had been looking for the while book, and it happens completely off screen, and it skips to an explanation that's basically just "she's ok now! Anyway onto the next thing. The End."???  I am absolutely bewildered. I also had the realization that with maybe one exception, none of the main characters seem to have any interests or hobbies. They've got barely enough meat on them to keep the plot(s) moving, and that's all. I generally don't like to just dunk on books I didn't enjoy, but this one is gonna stick with me for a while as a "what not to do" for storytelling for a lot of reasons. And I had wanted to like this! I thought it would at least be decent. Woof.
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Aug 27, 2023 22:42
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I’m reading Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Memory and the jumping around is killing me. Stop cutting away to another vague period in time before “now”, godammit. Just loving tell me what happens.
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Aug 28, 2023 05:20
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Jedit posted:Mike Carey's books written with his wife and daughter both have that title pattern (The City of Silk and Steel and The House of War and Witness) and they're both good. So do Storm Constantine's Wraeththu books (The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit, for instance), and while they predate GoT, I'd hesitate to call them good.
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Aug 28, 2023 05:42
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Awkward Davies posted:I’m reading Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Memory and the jumping around is killing me. Stop cutting away to another vague period in time before “now”, godammit. Just loving tell me what happens. Gonna bookmark this post and come back in a few days.
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Aug 28, 2023 05:55
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Bilirubin posted:Halfway through Lathe of Heaven and it is extremely good. The psychologist is however just a tad too close to a particular manipulative individual I have had to deal with over the years Finished this tonight. It started with a really of it's era and time feel (PK Dick similarities in the playing with reality) but ended firmly on Ursula's tone I thought, centered on people and their relationships.
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Aug 28, 2023 06:22
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anilEhilated posted:I actually liked that book a lot, it's a almost a fantasy thriller. It gets a lot weirder and more interesting as it goes on, too. Agreed on the treatment of women, though - the second book in the series is a lot better about this since both main protagonists are the "woman behind the throne" type. Oh, I didn't realize it was a series. Well, I thought the magic/gods/religion might eventually lead somewhere, but I couldn't get past the minimal characterization and uninspired dialogue. The setting made me think of Jack Whyte's Templar books, the first of which was so disappointing (for somewhat different reasons, to be clear) I couldn't finish it either despite enjoying most of the Camulod books... as a younger reader, anyway. I'm not sure I'd still like them on a re-read.
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Aug 28, 2023 06:25
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eXXon posted:I couldn't finish it either despite enjoying most of the Camulod books... as a younger reader, anyway. I'm not sure I'd still like them on a re-read. Yeah, I loved those about 20 years ago. I've been considering a re-read, but I'm concerned. I will give Whyte credit for the Author's Note at the start of the fourth book that's basically: "Literally everyone I know has told me that I hosed up my depictions of women in the first three books. And they're right, I'll do better starting now." He did gently caress that up and he did fix his poo poo, at least by the standards of when he was writing (1994).
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Aug 28, 2023 08:28
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Selachian posted:So do Storm Constantine's Wraeththu books (The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit, for instance), and while they predate GoT, I'd hesitate to call them good. It's almost like the real problem is authors trying to evoke ASOIAF with their book titles.
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Aug 28, 2023 08:48
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Finished reading The man who folded himself, cause someone told me it was a classic time travel sci fi novel. Bit weird, way gayer than I expected, and reminded me of Loki with the female variant bit. I can't decide if it was good or not though. I mean, it's a unique story and all that but honestly it's sort of like the goblin emperor where basically squat happens other than this dude finding multiples of himself and wandering around doing what he wants. I think I would have liked it better had it been more adventurous, because honestly I don't give a gently caress about some rando dude who has an uncle with a time belt. Witnessing his journey over and through time to understand how things should be is nice and all but also basically boring as hell. I guess I'm just not into the self discovery style books. Neat read, and I'd recommend it if you wanted to read about time travel, just not if you want to read an exciting novel about time travel.
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Aug 28, 2023 09:39
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Awkward Davies posted:I’m reading Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Memory and the jumping around is killing me. Stop cutting away to another vague period in time before “now”, godammit. Just loving tell me what happens. You'd hate Use of Weapons. (I love UoW and Tchaikovsky's novels).
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Aug 28, 2023 13:53
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pseudorandom name posted:Gonna bookmark this post and come back in a few days. edit: oh, person reading this, please don't click I do not want to spoil things, should have been even more explicit DACK FAYDEN fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Aug 28, 2023 |
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Aug 28, 2023 14:30
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DACK FAYDEN posted:I don't remember which Children book is which, is this the one where we are going on an adventure or was that the other one third book in the series. I am also going to come back to that post lol
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Aug 28, 2023 14:35
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It’s the second book. In the third, they’re all fully integrated into the spider/human/octopus/alien microbe alliance (real spoiler, seriously don’t click)
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Aug 28, 2023 15:23
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