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This thread sells books
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Oct 18, 2023 17:20
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Deptfordx posted:Milton Keyes. Those concrete cows are up to something. Can we get urban design fantasy about Milton Keynes? Or whatever the genre is where the cities themselves are characters? Like seriously, it's a 1960s experiment in creating a city from the ground up in a country where every other city grew organically over hundreds to thousands of years. It's a shambling beast created by mad science.
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Oct 18, 2023 17:36
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I think one of the Laundry stories takes place there?
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Oct 18, 2023 17:39
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Gaius Marius posted:I just finished the Second of the Merlin sextology of Amber stories. Almost all the same problems I increasingly had with the Corwin stories and more acutely felt with the first of Merlin's; the work is overlong with too many digressions and speculative politicking over having actual movement in the narrative, Merlin himself makes very few actual moves in the narrative besides roaming around and talking to people and with all the extra illegitimate children the Amberites have running around it's getting harder and harder to keep everyone's loyalties and lineages straight. It does end in a more interesting way then all the stories since the first of the Corwin saga though, I'm actually compelled to keep reading actively instead of as an intellectual exercise. e: Jedit, I corrected the post attribution. Sorry! Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Oct 18, 2023 17:50
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I saw that there were two new Dragonlance books by Hickman& Weiss out so I thought I reread the main 8 books beforehand. I know it's been almost 30 years but I did not remember how almost each character barely tolerates the others.
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Oct 18, 2023 18:45
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branedotorg posted:new RJ Barker is great, if as ever depressing. Gods of the Wyrdwood, its about a planet that magic can tip with one hemisphere is constantly cold and starving and fighting for their god to win a war, tip the planet back and make themselves warm and rich, until it repeats. No metal, there are huge near sentient woods circling the planet, magic is powerful but eats your brain. You know the kind of hard-scrabble stuff they love. I liked the whole book quite a lot except for the epilogue and the last plot twist in particular. A good take on a reluctant protagonist.
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Oct 18, 2023 19:11
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Finished the last Children book. Quite liked it. In retrospect the whole series thematically reminds me of the ender series but without all the garbage
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Oct 18, 2023 19:30
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anilEhilated posted:I think one of the Laundry stories takes place there? I was going to say this, but I couldn't remember if it was a Laundry book or one of Kim Newman's Diogenes Club books. Though it does definitely seem like something that Newman would work with also.
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Oct 18, 2023 19:52
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anilEhilated posted:I think one of the Laundry stories takes place there? A short story, "The Concrete Jungle". https://web.archive.org/web/20091226101514/http://www.goldengryphon.com/Stross-Concrete.html
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Oct 18, 2023 20:15
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Macdeo Lurjtux posted:I saw that there were two new Dragonlance books by Hickman& Weiss out so I thought I reread the main 8 books beforehand. I read all of them circa 1995 (?) when I was elementary/middle school aged. Are they worth revisiting? I recently re-read the first couple of the Drizzt books and felt medium to bad about the experience.
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Oct 18, 2023 20:30
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darthbob88 posted:A short story, "The Concrete Jungle". https://web.archive.org/web/20091226101514/http://www.goldengryphon.com/Stross-Concrete.html It was also fixed-up into ~half of the Atrocity Archive, Stross’s first Laundry novel.
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Oct 18, 2023 21:33
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Late to the location bitching but I would love any/more Chicago based urban fantasy. Dresden files don't count.
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Oct 18, 2023 21:42
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Benagain posted:Late to the location bitching but I would love any/more Chicago based urban fantasy. Dresden files don't count.
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Oct 18, 2023 22:14
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Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003YFIV5Y/
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Oct 18, 2023 22:50
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pradmer posted:Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear - $1.99 Don’t bother, the premise is great but the execution is bad. I usually like his writing but this was a dud.
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Oct 18, 2023 22:52
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Awkward Davies posted:I read all of them circa 1995 (?) when I was elementary/middle school aged. Are they worth revisiting? I recently re-read the first couple of the Drizzt books and felt medium to bad about the experience. Huh I'd like to know this too. And also if that super depressing trilogy where Taz ruins the world by being out of the time stream are still mega bummers.
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Oct 18, 2023 23:11
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Awkward Davies posted:I read all of them circa 1995 (?) when I was elementary/middle school aged. Are they worth revisiting? I recently re-read the first couple of the Drizzt books and felt medium to bad about the experience. They didn't age well, and a lot of stuff in there is really problematic (looking at you Riverwind and Goldmoon). They're very much of their era of fantasy and looking back...it's probably better that we all kind of collectively moved on. I mean don't get me wrong, like you all I read and loved them as a teen, but...yeah, they're probably best left to fond remembrance.
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Oct 19, 2023 00:36
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Benagain posted:Late to the location bitching but I would love any/more Chicago based urban fantasy. Dresden files don't count. Have you read The Shining Girls? It's kinda horror, but also features weird time travel stuff. Edit: Lauren Beukes is in no way from Chicago, but the book is good, and I kinda trust that she did her homework. There's also a lot of intersectional feminist history in there. Lead out in cuffs fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Oct 19, 2023 |
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Oct 19, 2023 02:25
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My three favorite speculative fiction novels based in London that no one asked for and one person specifically asked not to receive*: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman Kraken by China Mieville The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison aka Sarah Monette *The ones I can think of right now/also possibly the only London based speculative fiction I’ve read Awkward Davies fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Oct 19, 2023 |
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Oct 19, 2023 02:39
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Recently finished reading The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar. It's a really unique book, something like if Virginia Woolf ever set her mind to writing an epic fantasy novel. Although it's nominally about war and politics in a fictional setting, hardly any of the text actually focuses on the fighting itself. Instead, the dominant theme is nostalgia, with the characters looking back in the midst of violence on the childhoods they have lost and the homes they can never return to. The prose is absolutely gorgeous, but tricky to follow at first with all the moving back and forth in time. If you're in the Venn diagram of readers that love both fantasy and literary fiction, I highly recommend it.
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Oct 19, 2023 03:05
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buffalo all day posted:The Last Kingdom series is technically historical fiction (England during the reign of Alfred the Great in the 9th century) but everyone believes in gods and some supernatural stuff happens every now and then, it’s also supremely better written than everything you mentioned. If you don’t mind a lack of on screen dragons or fireballs it’s great. This gives me an excuse to mention that I finished the netflix adaption. Its good. And it somehow manages to avoid becoming absurd that 30 years has apparently passed between the end of season 1 and 5 and yet Uthred (son of Uhtred) only looks 5 years older. The movie that "finishes" the series up to the end of the books is worth skipping though. 3 books in 2 hours is too much.
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Oct 19, 2023 03:18
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VanillaGorilla posted:So what’s the world of epic fantasy looking like now, outside of Brandon Sanderson (who has become a victim of his own success, IMO)? This is a function of romance and LitRPG authors being way more prolific than anybody else, and also because discoverability is absolute crap, so you end up with publishers shoving everything they can in every single vaguely-applicable category. Amazon has cracked down on this recently by limited self-pubbed books to a max of 3 categories, but yeah: when you have fantasy romance/LitRPG authors who push out 6+ books a year vs the epic fantasy author who manages 1 book every 1-2 years, the epic fantasy category ends up being a dumping ground for pretty much everything other than things you would strictly consider epic fantasy. VanillaGorilla posted:I guess I'm trying to fill the WoT shaped hole in my heart after finishing my 3rd series reread in anticipation of the show. I've also read the Malazan series a couple of times, and loved them as well. I've tried to get into Sanderson but something about his prose and the underlying formula that his books often follow just doesn't resonate (through no fault of his - he has a style, and I can respect it). If you're open to more indie fantasy, then the current heavy hitter in "classic" epic fantasy done in a modern style is Ryan Cahill with The Bound and the Broken which is basically a mash-up of Paolini's Eragon and Jordan's The Eye of the World with f-bombs. As someone who's read both of those earlier works, I didn't think Of Blood and Fire lived up to its predecessors, nor did I find that it brought anything new to the table, and the character and dialogue writing was lacking for me, but if you're nostalgic for that kind of epic fantasy, it might hit the spot for you. The Tide Child trilogy I've read the first two books and found them okay. Besides Cradle, Will Wight has written more traditional epic fantasy: The Elder Empire which is two parallel trilogies. Doesn't matter which order you read them in; the conceit is that you're getting two different sides of the same set of events. I actually like this series better than Cradle.
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Oct 19, 2023 03:53
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Seeing eragon and wheel of time in the same sentence hurts me
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Oct 19, 2023 03:55
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Sailor Viy posted:Recently finished reading The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar. It's a really unique book, something like if Virginia Woolf ever set her mind to writing an epic fantasy novel. Although it's nominally about war and politics in a fictional setting, hardly any of the text actually focuses on the fighting itself. Instead, the dominant theme is nostalgia, with the characters looking back in the midst of violence on the childhoods they have lost and the homes they can never return to. The prose is absolutely gorgeous, but tricky to follow at first with all the moving back and forth in time. If this is your jam I also suggest The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera!
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Oct 19, 2023 05:25
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VanillaGorilla posted:They didn't age well, and a lot of stuff in there is really problematic (looking at you Riverwind and Goldmoon). They're very much of their era of fantasy and looking back...it's probably better that we all kind of collectively moved on. Riverwind and Goldmoon are kind of frustrating because they're best written characters in the book. They never hit the whole Noble savage thing these fantasy constantly did at the time, and they get more depth than the other characters. If you didn't know that Hickman was a devout Mormon that has some interesting ideas on racial purity
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Oct 19, 2023 06:16
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Sailor Viy posted:Recently finished reading The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar. It's a really unique book, something like if Virginia Woolf ever set her mind to writing an epic fantasy novel. Although it's nominally about war and politics in a fictional setting, hardly any of the text actually focuses on the fighting itself. Instead, the dominant theme is nostalgia, with the characters looking back in the midst of violence on the childhoods they have lost and the homes they can never return to. The prose is absolutely gorgeous, but tricky to follow at first with all the moving back and forth in time. Samatar is so good and The Winged Histories might be the most thoughtful and considered fantasy novel I’ve ever read. Have you read A Stranger in Olondria? Not quite the tour de force that The Winged Histories is but also amazing.
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Oct 19, 2023 06:43
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Sailor Viy posted:Recently finished reading The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar. It's a really unique book, something like if Virginia Woolf ever set her mind to writing an epic fantasy novel. Although it's nominally about war and politics in a fictional setting, hardly any of the text actually focuses on the fighting itself. Instead, the dominant theme is nostalgia, with the characters looking back in the midst of violence on the childhoods they have lost and the homes they can never return to. The prose is absolutely gorgeous, but tricky to follow at first with all the moving back and forth in time. Whoa, haven’t heard of this but am intrigued
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Oct 19, 2023 07:37
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Leng posted:If you're open to more indie fantasy, then the current heavy hitter in "classic" epic fantasy done in a modern style is Ryan Cahill with The Bound and the Broken which is basically a mash-up of Paolini's Eragon and Jordan's The Eye of the World with f-bombs. As someone who's read both of those earlier works, I didn't think Of Blood and Fire lived up to its predecessors, nor did I find that it brought anything new to the table, and the character and dialogue writing was lacking for me, but if you're nostalgic for that kind of epic fantasy, it might hit the spot for you. as someone who spent a lot of time reading pitchfork and going to concerts at small clubs in the late aughts, describing a cross between eragon and the eye of the world with f bombs as “indie” triggered me greatly
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Oct 19, 2023 07:40
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tiniestacorn posted:If this is your jam I also suggest The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera! I was actually raving about this in the thread a month ago! One of my favourite fantasy debuts in years. GhastlyBizness posted:Samatar is so good and The Winged Histories might be the most thoughtful and considered fantasy novel I’ve ever read. Yeah, A Stranger in Olondria is next on my list. I wasn't quite sure if Winged Histories was a sequel or a sidequel or what, but it mostly made sense without any other context.
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Oct 19, 2023 08:12
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Yeah I just finished Saint of Bright Doors and it's amazing. I think it and Spear Cuts Through Water are the coolest new fiction I've read in a while, locked tomb notwithstanding.
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Oct 19, 2023 13:20
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Macdeo Lurjtux posted:Riverwind and Goldmoon are kind of frustrating because they're best written characters in the book. They never hit the whole Noble savage thing these fantasy constantly did at the time, and they get more depth than the other characters. If you didn't know that Hickman was a devout Mormon that has some interesting ideas on racial purity Riverwind and Goldmoon are in this odd place because they're incredibly important to the beginning of the plot, but quickly become these afterthought characters while the narrative turns to focus on Laurana's growth, her love triangle with Tanis and Kitiara, and Caramon and Raistlin's abusive relationship. I think in some ways, those books really hold up well. Laurana and Kitiara are solid strong female characters(tm). Tanis is portrayed as a dipshit who almost blows everything because of his waffling between them. Raistlin abusing his brother is portrayed as this corrosive thing that eats at both of them. The first one is amateurish and essentially a let's play of the first two game modules. The third one makes some poor choices and assassinates Laurana's character development some to set up its finale. But the second one is some solid schlocky fantasy with a heavy dose of pathos. They definitely go for an ESB-style "the middle entry has to be the sad entry" vibe in Winter's Night and nail it.
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Oct 19, 2023 15:25
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Dragonlane made me a happy highschooler. Just the perfect schlock for that age.
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Oct 19, 2023 15:32
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Sailor Viy posted:
Well this is me, so on the list it goes. A Stranger in Olondria was already there, but I'll start with The Winged Histories instead. Are these on the fantasy side of the fantasy/literary fiction spectrum or the other way? I don't care one way or the other, but I feel like I end up reading what I think are fantasy and then they end up categorized as fiction. They're still good! But sometimes it seems odd to talk about them here. Like I love Quan Barry and Helen Oyeyemi, but despite the speculative elements, I hesitate to bring them up because they're most definitely on the literary side of the aisle. Though we've talked about The Vorrh so it happens. I just read Weyward by Emilia Hart because I very much dig the magical connection to nature but my library had it in the fiction section.
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Oct 19, 2023 15:46
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I was just thinking about Dragonlance because I'm moving and getting rid of a bunch of books, but I can't bring myself to get rid of my Annotated Chronicles that I got signed by Margaret Weis when I was like 12. It was basically my intro to high fantasy (and somehow I even convinced a couple friends to read them in high school). Raistlin is like the most cliche character ever and I was still obsessed with how badass and ~conflicted~ he was and how he basically goes from a whiny nerd to a literal god. I haven't read Legends in a while but I wonder if it actually holds up better than the original trilogy since it's all about time fuckery and adventures in the underworld which is all more interesting than a basic D&D campaign. I do remember reading a lot of the prequels and side adventures and stuff and being bored out of my mind with pretty much all of them except the Raistlin novels. The two trilogies probably don't hold up much but they're way more competent than the greater EU. edit: actually, has anyone here read the Death Gate Cycle? That's the Weis/Hickman series that really sticks with me from my middle/high-school fantasy reading. I haven't gone back to reread it in a long time and I imagine it might have the same clunkiness that a lot of their books do, but it has some incredibly creative worldbuilding that I still think about all the time. Ror fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Oct 19, 2023 |
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Oct 19, 2023 15:54
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Ror posted:I was just thinking about Dragonlance because I'm moving and getting rid of a bunch of books, but I can't bring myself to get rid of my Annotated Chronicles that I got signed by Margaret Weis when I was like 12. It was basically my intro to high fantasy (and somehow I even convinced a couple friends to read them in high school). Raistlin is like the most cliche character ever and I was still obsessed with how badass and ~conflicted~ he was and how he basically goes from a whiny nerd to a literal god. Raistlin is kind of great because he's the stereotypical tabletop D&D wizard of the time--using the party as meatshields on his own personal quest for power that leads him to ditch the party and do solo sessions where he challenges the gods--and he's presented as this giant toxic rear end in a top hat who sucks all the fun out of the adventure for everyone else. And the Legends I think do hold up better than the Chronicles. Hickman and Weiss cleverly use time travel to write a trilogy that's both prequel and sequel and touches on some of the cool adventure locations from the modules that were glossed over in the Chronicles.
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Oct 19, 2023 16:58
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Ror posted:edit: actually, has anyone here read the Death Gate Cycle? That's the Weis/Hickman series that really sticks with me from my middle/high-school fantasy reading. I haven't gone back to reread it in a long time and I imagine it might have the same clunkiness that a lot of their books do, but it has some incredibly creative worldbuilding that I still think about all the time. I have, and went back and reread them a couple years ago. The neat world building is still there but definitely extremely clunky with mediocre characterization.
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Oct 19, 2023 17:29
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Benagain posted:Late to the location bitching but I would love any/more Chicago based urban fantasy. Dresden files don't count. Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk is a sapphic detective noir novella with magic set in 1930s Chicago. Would you be able to tell it was Chicago without them saying it? Maybe, but it's just a fast and satisfying story so it's worth reading regardless.
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Oct 19, 2023 17:54
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PeterWeller posted:Riverwind and Goldmoon are in this odd place because they're incredibly important to the beginning of the plot, but quickly become these afterthought characters while the narrative turns to focus on Laurana's growth, her love triangle with Tanis and Kitiara, and Caramon and Raistlin's abusive relationship. Also, Goldmoon becomes irrelevant to the whole "bringing the gods back to the world" plot when Elistan steps in as high priest and chief evangelist. Because every church must be headed by a beardy old guy, I suppose. Benagain posted:Late to the location bitching but I would love any/more Chicago based urban fantasy. Dresden files don't count. Go thou and seek out John M. Ford's The Last Hot Time. Ari Marmell also has a series about a 1930s Chicago private eye who's actually an exiled faerie lord. I've only read the first, Hot Lead, Cold Iron, but it wasn't half bad.
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Oct 19, 2023 18:35
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Selachian posted:Also, Goldmoon becomes irrelevant to the whole "bringing the gods back to the world" plot when Elistan steps in as high priest and chief evangelist. Because every church must be headed by a beardy old guy, I suppose. To be fair, the whole "bringing the gods back to the world" plot is basically an afterthought once they get the Discs. And oddly enough, I think that's a sign that Hickman and Weiss were growing as writers. They realized the story's real draw was the characters they and the other module designers came up with during playtesting and smartly focused the story on them and their relationships.
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Oct 19, 2023 18:57
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Sailor Viy posted:Recently finished reading The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar. It's a really unique book, something like if Virginia Woolf ever set her mind to writing an epic fantasy novel. Although it's nominally about war and politics in a fictional setting, hardly any of the text actually focuses on the fighting itself. Instead, the dominant theme is nostalgia, with the characters looking back in the midst of violence on the childhoods they have lost and the homes they can never return to. The prose is absolutely gorgeous, but tricky to follow at first with all the moving back and forth in time. Ooh I’m intrigued
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Oct 19, 2023 19:07
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