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Wish me luck, everyone - I just picked up the new Wild Cards anthology, and the theme is relationships.
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Nov 6, 2023 16:01
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Kestral posted:It's worth keeping in your mind, because it's one of a few times in Black Company where Croaker is telling the reader that the reality of the Company is different from the text we're reading. Remember, these books are part of their historical records, and the chroniclers are unreliable: they omit some important details, embellish others, probably straight-up lie about some. Croaker has these occasional moments where he wants to let the reader know, "Hey, these people I'm doing my best to portray in a positive light? There's a reason they're in the Black Company, and it's probably not a great reason." I mean, yeah, that's one of the reason I enjoyed the series so much back when I first read it, I guess my mind just... really shied away from Croaker being that horrible. It's not like the books don't make a point of the fact that he's a tremendous rear end in a top hat without adding that on top. If I were to guess, I'd say Smeds kind of overshadowed it in my head, since if I'm remembering right, Smeds is actually doing poo poo like that when we're introduced to him and thus he's a lot more memorable. On a different tack, I had some thoughts about the Children of Time series, specifically why I think they work so well? And it's because they're... I guess the best term is hopeful Post-apocalyptic Science Fiction? It's not really a spoiler that everything goes to Hell and completely off the rails for humanity since it happens in the first few pages, and yet, there's a real sense that it's possible to survive, to recover, to build back, different and better and avoid the mistakes of the past. If found that the books are, in their own weird way, incredibly optimistic. It was something I hadn't known I'd been missing. Not to mention that the various parallel stories are genuinely heroic and epic in their own different ways,
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Nov 6, 2023 16:54
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Safety Biscuits posted:Chronicles of an Age of Darkness is terribly even but the best bits are amazing, really some of the best sword and sorcery around, as undisciplined as it's brilliant. Even the weakest aren't bad, just not Cook pushing himself. And can I be the only person in the world who enjoyed The Wormlord and the Werewolf? Here's my favourite description of them: https://web.archive.org/web/20150926102726/http://eithin.com/cirw/2010/02/17/chronicles-of-an-age-of-darkness/ I don't know that "undisciplined" is the word. He's a wonderful corrective to the horrible genre tendency to plot using The Hero's Journey/standard video game Plot Tokens/"The Prophecy States The Chosen One Must" because he's a genius at writing story developed from character interaction and people being washed along by events they can't control but still making their own decisions as far as they're able based on what they know. Alternatively disciplined?
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Nov 6, 2023 16:54
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Remulak posted:
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Nov 6, 2023 20:06
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Cook's W&W titles are great, as are the original edition's pastel covers. Maybe not the best branding to sell for audiences in the 80s, but nowadays makes for a handsome set.
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Nov 6, 2023 22:42
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Children of Time was tremendously less entertaining than the previous two books in that series. And I can't seem to get into Empire in Black and Gold. But I also finally got around to reading Grass by Tepper and that was really satisfying. Mixed start coming off last month's all horror stack of books. From a related project of mine, I'm looking at some old tie-in novels for Renegade Legion, a late 80s FASA wargame. The first is written by William H Keith Jr. who ranges all over from terrible to 'got some good scenes in it' for me, but the other three are a total unknown, Peter L. Rice. Long shot, but any of y'all read one of them?
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Nov 7, 2023 01:33
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Century Rain by Alistair Reynolds - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0819VCQKH/ Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C102SPC/ Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) by Philip Pullman - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC1ICM/
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Nov 7, 2023 01:45
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Slyphic posted:Children of Time was tremendously less entertaining than the previous two books in that series. And I can't seem to get into Empire in Black and Gold. The Apt books I bounced off of 2-3 books in. I've liked all of his sci-fi that I've read, and Cage of Souls, but Forgotten Realms of the Bug Dudes did nothing for me.
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Nov 7, 2023 02:47
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Memory, that one. I keep mixing up their names.
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Nov 7, 2023 02:56
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Slyphic posted:Memory, that one. I keep mixing up their names. I'm not even a moderate fan of that one, I'd say it's on par with a bottle episode of ST:Voyager, or The Outer Limits, and misses the scale of the previous two
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Nov 7, 2023 04:41
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Slyphic posted:Memory, that one. I keep mixing up their names. easy to do considering they could've had a name swap with zero issues in terms of the story. I liked Memory pretty well, but I liked the question of whether the raven's bicameral mind was actually sentient a whole lot.
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Nov 7, 2023 04:50
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The corvids were by far the most interesting plotline. I just really didn't want to spend so much time with the dirt farmers precocious child. After the disappointment of Children of the Apt, I'm in the mood for some good fantasy. I've been delaying reading The Shadow Saint by Gareth Hanrahan. His first* novel really impressed me both in the cross motivations and drives of the characters as well as the fascinating city they were in (strong Mieville vibes on the city) and I really want his second novel to be good. * Gareth has a long career writing tabletop roleplaying games and it shows through in the best ways at least in The Gutter Prayer.
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Nov 7, 2023 05:08
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Slyphic posted:Children of Time was tremendously less entertaining than the previous two books in that series. And I can't seem to get into Empire in Black and Gold. Quite a bit of the Keith/Ian douglas/Keith Douglass et al were either co or ghostwritten by in-house writers so I doubt the quality would slip too far I read the battletech books, the knock off battletech books (warstriders) and quite liked them back in the day but nothing else of his has quite hit the same way.
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Nov 7, 2023 11:43
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TLM3101 posted:I mean, yeah, that's one of the reason I enjoyed the series so much back when I first read it, I guess my mind just... really shied away from Croaker being that horrible. It's not like the books don't make a point of the fact that he's a tremendous rear end in a top hat without adding that on top. If I were to guess, I'd say Smeds kind of overshadowed it in my head, since if I'm remembering right, Smeds is actually doing poo poo like that when we're introduced to him and thus he's a lot more memorable. Pretty much from the outset* of the first book, the company is monstering a town/settlement. Rape, murder and destruction. Croaker writes about getting them back under control so they can move out, he offers no opinion on it, it is just what they do. *it's been a while since I read it, but it's fairly early on.
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Nov 7, 2023 12:52
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Slyphic posted:The corvids were by far the most interesting plotline. I just really didn't want to spend so much time with the dirt farmers precocious child. Oh yeah both the follow ups are really good still not finished though, fair warning. He has a second series he's started which sounds like 'what happens after the end of the epic fantasy series?' but I haven't read that. I am a huge fan of his rpg stuff, best writer in the field on balance.
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Nov 7, 2023 20:53
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Slyphic posted:The corvids were by far the most interesting plotline. I just really didn't want to spend so much time with the dirt farmers precocious child.
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Nov 7, 2023 20:59
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sebmojo posted:I am a huge fan of his rpg stuff, best writer in the field on balance. Gareth writes excellent stuff. Kenneth Hite is also top tier, and when those two collaborate it's phenomenal. Hite's Suppressed Transmissions is an awesome read, the good entertaining harmless kind of conspiracy theory insanity that's been subverted this side of the millennium. Though I have to give the best RPG writer crown to Patrick Stewart. Fire on the Velvet Horizon is 0% stats, 100% amazing high concept ideas but don't take my word for it: China Mieville posted:Superpositioning with strange panache, Velvet Horizon is an (outstanding) indie role-playing-game supplement, and an (outstanding) example of experimental quasi-/meta-/sur-/kata-fiction. Also a work of art. Easily one of my standout books of 2015.  His short piece "Black Glass" is flat out some of my favorite short fiction, let alone for roleplaying games. Slyphic fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Nov 7, 2023 |
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Nov 7, 2023 22:04
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sebmojo posted:Oh yeah both the follow ups are really good still not finished though, fair warning. He has a second series he's started which sounds like 'what happens after the end of the epic fantasy series?' but I haven't read that. that one is a shared universe, I read the first (his) and the second, the quality really dropped off. great idea but didn't do much for me tbh sorry assume you're talking about AT and this series: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36455852-redemption-s-blade branedotorg fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Nov 7, 2023 |
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Nov 7, 2023 23:07
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pradmer posted:Century Rain by Alistair Reynolds - $2.99 I almost picked up Golden Compass yesterday, but today the Omnibus for the series went on sale so I got that instead. The Poppy War Trilogy is also $8 so I picked that up too
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Nov 7, 2023 23:09
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pik_d posted:
oof, condolences
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Nov 7, 2023 23:25
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American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008AS84PM/ Cold Iron (Masters and Mages #1) by Miles Cameron - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079L5669Y/ Sins of Empire (Gods of Blood and Powder #1) by Brian McClellan - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KT7YTV4/ Hounded (Iron Druid #1) by Kevin Hearne - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J4WN0I/
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Nov 7, 2023 23:55
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branedotorg posted:that one is a shared universe, I read the first (his) and the second, the quality really dropped off. Nope: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/62315620
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Nov 8, 2023 02:46
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Something in my brain has finally clicked and The Night Land now flows properly for me instead of being an absolute chore. Still going to take a while to finish, because I have to slow myself waaaaay down to make the strange sentence structures flow properly, but I'm definitely going to finish it. This has got to be one of the great what-ifs in fiction: what if Hodgson had written this with, like, 25% less faux-17th Century style so that more people would have recognized and appreciated it, and given it more cultural cachet. What would SF/F lit and lit-adjacent things look like now, I wonder?Slyphic posted:Gareth writes excellent stuff. Kenneth Hite is also top tier, and when those two collaborate it's phenomenal. Hite's Suppressed Transmissions is an awesome read, the good entertaining harmless kind of conspiracy theory insanity that's been subverted this side of the millennium. Stewart is a marvel, and Veins of the Earth - the project that piece was made for - is something you can read completely independent of its game use. The horror of deep time and underground spaces full of Things That Should Not Be, absolute nightmare fuel mixed with eerily beautiful strangeness. That said, if I'm going to pick someone to give the RPG writer crown to, it's Jenna Moran, author of the astonishingly beautiful The Night-Bird's Feather in fantasy fiction, and Nobilis and Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine (among others) in the RPG space. The only time I'll stop shilling for Moran's criminally underappreciated work is when I'm being Graydon Saunders.
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Nov 8, 2023 05:00
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Kestral posted:That said, if I'm going to pick someone to give the RPG writer crown to, it's Jenna Moran
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Nov 8, 2023 06:14
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Slyphic posted:Wisher Theurgist Fatalist is a hell of a drug, and I have a copy of Nobilis on my game shelf, but she just doesn't click with me like the others. Much as I loathe the rear end in a top hat, Red & Pleasant Land and Maze of the Blue Medusa were both readable and fun to run (it was just after they were published, I hadn't had the experience of trying to talk to him yet, the other stuff was only starting to come out). Most recently though to impress me was Jacob Hurst and his Hot Springs Island books (Field Guide to... and The Dark of...). Very cool interwoven story and setting, and just gobsmackingly excellent typography and layout. Yeah vorheim and his rewrite of that horror module were good too
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Nov 8, 2023 07:40
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So I'm reading Interview with the Vampire for the first time in like 20 years or something. I know a lot is made of the homoeroticism, but what's sticking out to me the relationship between Claudia and Louis borders on pedophilic. I dunno if I've just been poisoned by "6000 year old loli anime dragon" internet memes, maybe without that context a 70 year old in the body of a five year old wasn't as fraught in 1976? I guess I could be reading too much into it also, but the language she uses when talking about Claudia is uncomfortably sensual.
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Nov 8, 2023 19:19
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zoux posted:a 70 year old in the body of a five year old wasn't as fraught in 1976
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Nov 8, 2023 19:34
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Or the ending of Memnoch the Devil
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Nov 8, 2023 20:40
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It's been a while since I read Anne Rice, but Octavia Butler tried a similar "much older vampire in the apparent body of a child" thing in Fledgeling and it was even more uncomfortable by several orders of magnitude. I get that she was probably going for some kind of social commentary with it, but I dunno that she pulled it off (I love most of her stuff, but it's definitely my least favorite of her works I've read so far, for that and other more story-structure based reasons). So caveat emptor there to anyone else trying to read all of Butler's writing.
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Nov 8, 2023 21:51
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zoux posted:So I'm reading Interview with the Vampire for the first time in like 20 years or something. I know a lot is made of the homoeroticism, but what's sticking out to me the relationship between Claudia and Louis borders on pedophilic. I dunno if I've just been poisoned by "6000 year old loli anime dragon" internet memes, maybe without that context a 70 year old in the body of a five year old wasn't as fraught in 1976? I guess I could be reading too much into it also, but the language she uses when talking about Claudia is uncomfortably sensual. Wait til you read Fledgling! e: poo poo beaten
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Nov 8, 2023 22:00
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Fledgling rules. Octavia Butler leaned right the gently caress into how loving gross and creepy and upsetting vampires can be.
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Nov 8, 2023 22:06
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That was my first Octavia Butler book (chapter). And last.
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Nov 8, 2023 22:06
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Kestral posted:Something in my brain has finally clicked and The Night Land now flows properly for me instead of being an absolute chore. Still going to take a while to finish, because I have to slow myself waaaaay down to make the strange sentence structures flow properly, but I'm definitely going to finish it. This has got to be one of the great what-ifs in fiction: what if Hodgson had written this with, like, 25% less faux-17th Century style so that more people would have recognized and appreciated it, and given it more cultural cachet. What would SF/F lit and lit-adjacent things look like now, I wonder? Or even if Hodgson had just survived ww1. Still you can see the influence he had on Lovecraft.
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Nov 8, 2023 22:13
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General Battuta posted:Wait til you read Fledgling! Yeah I don't think I'm gonna
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Nov 8, 2023 23:13
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Slyphic posted:Though I have to give the best RPG writer crown to Patrick Stewart. Fire on the Velvet Horizon is 0% stats, 100% amazing high concept ideas but don't take my word for it: Fire on the Velvet Horizon is just exceptional. For those condensed high concept ideas, there's not much that can come close but moreover the dude pays attention to language. It can be a bit florid sometimes and I'll admit I'm a sucker for excessive alliteration/assonance/similar bullshit but describing the summoned fire demons, the Flammeous Lads, as "like barbecued boys, or baked apes" has stuck in my mind like a burr. And yeah, Scrap Princess's biro and xerox art rules too.
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Nov 8, 2023 23:23
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Kestral posted:That said, if I'm going to pick someone to give the RPG writer crown to, it's Jenna Moran, author of the astonishingly beautiful The Night-Bird's Feather in fantasy fiction, and Nobilis and Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine (among others) in the RPG space. The only time I'll stop shilling for Moran's criminally underappreciated work is when I'm being Graydon Saunders.  I also have to mention Wisher, Theurgist, Fatalist, just because, while I've never played it, and never met anyone who's played it, and I'm honestly not even sure it's playable as written, the idea of an RPG that is itself a metaphor for the RPG design process, where the different character classes are all different design roles and, if you successfully finish a campaign, the end result is the sourcebook for an entirely new RPG, makes me very happy. That said, if I had to recommend one book of hers it would be The Night-Bird's Feather.
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Nov 9, 2023 00:04
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The Complete Poppy War Trilogy: The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic, The Burning God by RF Kuang - $7.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXLM3JSF/
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Nov 9, 2023 00:21
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pradmer posted:The Complete Poppy War Trilogy: The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic, The Burning God by RF Kuang - $7.99 no thanks!
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Nov 9, 2023 00:23
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http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/ Don't sleep on Stewarts website for interesting stuff in general. https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/ is also good for 'RPG guy with electic taste writes about anything' as well.
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Nov 9, 2023 00:38
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I think Butler just had a thing for older guys. It's all over her writing. Even really great writers aren't immune from telling on themselves sometimes.
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Nov 9, 2023 01:00
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