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There are seven books in the "Masters of Rome" trilogy.
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Oct 30, 2023 23:00
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NoNotTheMindProbe posted:There are seven books in the "Masters of Rome" trilogy. They're still better off than the English publishers of Lukyanenko's Watch series, who published the translation of the third volume as "The final volume in the Watch Trilogy" just as the fourth volume was printed in Russian.
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Oct 30, 2023 23:35
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NoNotTheMindProbe posted:There are seven books in the "Masters of Rome" trilogy. One for each hill?
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Oct 30, 2023 23:42
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NoNotTheMindProbe posted:There are seven books in the "Masters of Rome" trilogy. As is traditional for big fantasy trilogies.
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Oct 31, 2023 14:55
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Macdeo Lurjtux posted:One for each hill? The author didn't want to pick a hill to die on.
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Oct 31, 2023 15:16
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Is there a grimdark thread or is this the place?
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Oct 31, 2023 19:48
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Sickening posted:Is there a grimdark thread or is this the place? This is probably the place. Have you read Malazan?
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Oct 31, 2023 20:51
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Yngwie Mangosteen posted:This is probably the place. Have you read Malazan? Yep. About any big mainstream series so far.
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Oct 31, 2023 20:55
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Sickening posted:Yep. About any big mainstream series so far. Which one is your favorite, and which one is the worst?
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Oct 31, 2023 20:57
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I personally don't like grimdark as a genre as I'm usually reading for escapism or ideas, but in my dabbling with the genre my favorite has to be Glen Cook's Darkwar trilogy (the opening sequence is brutal as gently caress) and the worst grimdark thing I've read was R Scott Bakker's stuff. The first book was weirdly compelling but BOY that guy likes to be miserable for no reason, usually with a side of graphic sexual violence.
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Oct 31, 2023 21:01
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Sickening posted:Is there a grimdark thread or is this the place? Depends on the grimdark, Black Library and Malazan both have dedicated threads.
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Oct 31, 2023 21:03
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Sailor Viy posted:For anyone interested in dark fantasy/existential horror, I've got a new short story out in Mysterion magazine today. It's about a human soul who's sent to the Hell of Birds. I liked it!
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Oct 31, 2023 21:20
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Not sure what exactly constitues grimdark but if dark is what you're looking for The Sad Tale of Brothers Grossbart has it in spades.
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Oct 31, 2023 21:29
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StrixNebulosa posted:I personally don't like grimdark as a genre as I'm usually reading for escapism or ideas, but in my dabbling with the genre my favorite has to be Glen Cook's Darkwar trilogy (the opening sequence is brutal as gently caress) and the worst grimdark thing I've read was R Scott Bakker's stuff. The first book was weirdly compelling but BOY that guy likes to be miserable for no reason, usually with a side of graphic sexual violence. Darkwar slaps, it starts out as grim miserable fantasy and ends up as The Black Company does C.J. Cherryh somehow I should reread it
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Oct 31, 2023 21:55
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The Majipoor Cycle: Lord Valentine's Castle, Majipoor Chronicles, and Valentine Pontifex by Robert Silverberg - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CDB8GXWV/ Solar Lottery by Philip K Dick - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005LVR01K/
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Oct 31, 2023 23:11
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Sickening posted:Yep. About any big mainstream series so far. If you're looking for recommendations I recommend Christopher Buehlman's Between Two Fires, as well as The Necromancers House and The Blacktongue Thief (the latter is more Abercrombie-esque with a lot of humor.)
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Nov 1, 2023 01:27
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StrixNebulosa posted:Which one is your favorite, and which one is the worst? This is actually a really hard question and probably is for a lot of people. I would put the top of the list the following.... The first Law Trilogy (pretty mainstream) Joe Abercrombie The Burning - Evan Winter (great concept) Gentlemen Bastards - Scott Lynch Malazan book of the fallen - Steven Erikson (despite the series being too long) Anyone following grimdark is probably not surprised by that list except maybe Evan's stuff. The popular authors are popular for a reason. I think the worst of the list is probably The Black Company series if I were to be honest. Something about the series was just so dreadfully slow for me but I kept fighting through it because its mentioned so much. I am not very hard to please as long as the story has sharp objects and is a bit gritty.
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Nov 1, 2023 02:08
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Ccs posted:If you're looking for recommendations I recommend Christopher Buehlman's Between Two Fires, as well as The Necromancers House and The Blacktongue Thief (the latter is more Abercrombie-esque with a lot of humor.) Blacktongue series is dark stuff, burned through it all so far. Between Two Fires is something I own, but put down pretty quick because.... well you know. Haven't tried the Necromancers house though, thanks. its halloween and I can't reply to everyone tonight, but good stuff folks. I have read so much that sometimes recommendations turn from "hell yeah, I will try that" to "gently caress, already read it  ".
Sickening fucked around with this message at 02:15 on Nov 1, 2023 |
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Nov 1, 2023 02:12
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Going back to Vance-chat... I'm re-reading it as some filler. And.... How in the world is this over 70 years old? Other than the atrocious gender roles (thanks, classical f/sf!), it just feels so... modern. Or so weird and distinctive that it defies the concept, at least.
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Nov 1, 2023 02:36
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Because Vance got ripped off hard by everyone following him.
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Nov 1, 2023 02:45
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Gaius Marius posted:Because Vance got ripped off hard by everyone following him. Also he could string words together real good.
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Nov 1, 2023 05:41
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Sickening posted:Blacktongue series is dark stuff, burned through it all so far. Between Two Fires is something I own, but put down pretty quick because.... well you know. Haven't tried the Necromancers house though, thanks. If it helps at all, Chris is also a super cool dude and good people.
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Nov 1, 2023 07:43
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Unrelated to dark stuff, I just finished the Final Architecture series, can anyone explain the loving essiel to me, in spoilers or something? Also, is General Battuta still around here?
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Nov 1, 2023 07:51
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The Essiel are aliens, hth.
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Nov 1, 2023 07:59
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Silly Newbie posted:If it helps at all, Chris is also a super cool dude and good people. He did (does?) a circuit as Christophe the Insultor at ren fares across the US too. You and your friends show up and pay him to roast each other for you.
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Nov 1, 2023 14:36
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Grimchat, I read the first two of the 'Covenant of Steel' trilogy by Anthony Ryan - THE PARIAH and THE MARTYR - and while they're not as dark as some Abercrombie books, theres still some crunchy battle scenes in there. I'll have to get on the third book at some point, I liked the first two a lot. Re: Vance, love him but yeah it's a mans world in the Gaean Reach - there is one single sudden POV switch in the last of the Planet of Adventure books to a female companion and it's weird both in that JV did it at all and that it's obviously not a comfortable zone for him to write in, it sticks out like an untrained weasel.
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Nov 1, 2023 14:57
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Silly Newbie posted:Unrelated to dark stuff, I just finished the Final Architecture series, can anyone explain the loving essiel to me, in spoilers or something? They're Giant, barely mobile space clams who are part of a culture that operates under the assumption that they are divine beings. They also have insanely advanced tech they got through events that are never explained, but one assumes they have been around for a while. I think maybe they never got wiped out by the architects because there simply aren't that many of them, so they initially didn't create the sort of massive psychic pressure that triggered the attacks. They were slowly able to develop their technology without interference, until they stumbled across cool poo poo created by other civilizations that had been previously wiped out that let them bootstrap themselves into doing the weird poo poo we saw. Because they are Gods, they only communicate through their chosen intermediaries, who are relatively free to interpret what the Essiel say in whatever way they prefer. The only downside is if the intermediaries gently caress up they will die very badly.
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Nov 1, 2023 15:50
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pseudorandom name posted:The Essiel are aliens, hth. Bivalve aliens, specifically 
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Nov 1, 2023 15:50
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NoneMoreNegative posted:Grimchat, I read the first two of the 'Covenant of Steel' trilogy by Anthony Ryan - THE PARIAH and THE MARTYR - and while they're not as dark as some Abercrombie books, theres still some crunchy battle scenes in there. I'll have to get on the third book at some point, I liked the first two a lot. The last book is a big drop off. Endings are hard to write.
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Nov 1, 2023 16:25
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Silly Newbie posted:Unrelated to dark stuff, I just finished the Final Architecture series, can anyone explain the loving essiel to me, in spoilers or something? Sup
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Nov 1, 2023 16:32
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Silly Newbie posted:Unrelated to dark stuff, I just finished the Final Architecture series, can anyone explain the loving essiel to me, in spoilers or something?  But with arms and the eyes are on stalks I finished that series too, yesterday. It was an entertaining, fun read, but I think his Children of Time is his best.
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Nov 1, 2023 18:06
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Sickening posted:The last book is a big drop off. Endings are hard to write. ah foop, maybe I'll wait for it to be on a deal instead of full price then.
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Nov 1, 2023 18:11
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As always I suggest Jesse Bullington for grimdark
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Nov 1, 2023 18:12
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NoneMoreNegative posted:ah foop, maybe I'll wait for it to be on a deal instead of full price then. Yeah, all the mystery and build up just .... flopped without anything to show for it. Shame really.
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Nov 1, 2023 18:58
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Yngwie Mangosteen posted:He did (does?) a circuit as Christophe the Insultor at ren fares across the US too. You and your friends show up and pay him to roast each other for you. It's pretty great, he ripped on me so hard at Bristol once I fell off my bench laughing. Danhenge posted:They're Thanks, that confirms that I didn't miss anything and it just wasn't explained any further. Glad to see you're still in the community. Hope things are going well and hope to read more from you.
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Nov 1, 2023 20:26
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Sci-fi fans, any suggestions for books that prominently feature encounters with / survival in profoundly alien ecosystems? I've started watching Scavengers Reign, which I can only describe as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind meets Akira as drawn by Moebius, and I'm now craving some literary depictions of seriously weird and hostile ecosystems that aren't just set dressing to human drama, but which actually drive the story. Any length is fine too! Novel, novella, short story, whatever works.
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Nov 1, 2023 20:55
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Out of the silent planet and perelandra both have bits of that but aren't about it. They do have some amazing descriptions of the Xenoscape though.
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Nov 1, 2023 21:13
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Kestral posted:Sci-fi fans, any suggestions for books that prominently feature encounters with / survival in profoundly alien ecosystems? I've started watching Scavengers Reign, which I can only describe as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind meets Akira as drawn by Moebius, and I'm now craving some literary depictions of seriously weird and hostile ecosystems that aren't just set dressing to human drama, but which actually drive the story. Expedition by Wayne Barlow, though it's pretty costly. Saturn Rukh, Camelot 30K, and Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward. Probably others by him also that I'm forgetting, it's been a while since I read his works. Used to love him, though. Timemaster I think has some aspects of unique ecosystems. The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring by Larry Niven. 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke has several segments on the Jovian and Europan biospheres though they're not major parts. Lovecraft's short story "In the Walls of Eryx" set on a Venus as conceived of in 1936 might also be of interest: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/iwe.aspx EDIT: Carl Sagan co-wrote a 1976 article on the possibility of life in Jupiter's atmosphere that is available for free online, if you want something on the topic that's harder science: https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1976ApJS...32..737S This article led to the segment in Sagan's Cosmos on Jovian life and undoubtedly influenced Clarke's 2010 (and probably Forward's Saturn Rukh also), though at the same time Clarke was speculating on Jovian atmospheric life at least as early as the 2001 novel in 1968 and A Meeting with Medusa in 1971: Chairman Capone fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Nov 1, 2023 |
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Nov 1, 2023 21:14
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Kestral posted:Sci-fi fans, any suggestions for books that prominently feature encounters with / survival in profoundly alien ecosystems? I've started watching Scavengers Reign, which I can only describe as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind meets Akira as drawn by Moebius, and I'm now craving some literary depictions of seriously weird and hostile ecosystems that aren't just set dressing to human drama, but which actually drive the story. As I will do at any opportunity, I will suggest Sentenced to Prism by Alan Dean Foster. Guy gets shipwrecked, more or less, on a planet with a silicon based, and some silicon-carbon hybrid stuff, ecosystem.
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Nov 1, 2023 21:49
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Kestral posted:Sci-fi fans, any suggestions for books that prominently feature encounters with / survival in profoundly alien ecosystems? I've started watching Scavengers Reign, which I can only describe as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind meets Akira as drawn by Moebius, and I'm now craving some literary depictions of seriously weird and hostile ecosystems that aren't just set dressing to human drama, but which actually drive the story. The book you're looking for is probably The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson. It's a bit dated in parts but some of the first truly well done survival themed SF ever written.
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Nov 1, 2023 21:56
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