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Whirling posted:Finally getting around to reading Authority and I love that the ominous government conspiracy that set up the events of the prior book is, once you get a good look at it, basically completely inept and defunded because it doesn't make the USA any money or help the CIA create new ways of loving with socialist movements. It's really pretty accurate to the experience of working for the particularly poorly-funded corners of the government, and all the more uncanny for it.
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Jan 4, 2024 07:25
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I've now finished reading He Who Drowned the World and "hurt people hurting people" is a very accurate 1-line pitch for it. Has a rather uplifting ending; at least, it's as uplifting as you can expect. Faster paced and darker compared to She Who Became the Sun. Think I liked it more overall and I thought the first one was pretty good. Also: https://twitter.com/shelleypchan/status/1688483251978219523 And: https://twitter.com/and_starlight/status/1699834004223193125
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Jan 4, 2024 08:32
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Slyphic posted:I didn't mind the shift between the first and second books, but the third one introduced my most hated trope bar none when El becomes a prophecized chosen bullshit protagonist. drat near dropped the book right then and there. I'll skip books that start that way, almost as fast as I'll pass on 'maybe the PoV character is crazy and hallucinating? or is she?' For me the instant nope is "Protagonist wakes up with no memory of who they were". It always means waiting at least half the book for them to finally work out that they're what it told me they were going to be on the back cover.
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Jan 4, 2024 09:36
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Whirling posted:Finally getting around to reading Authority and I love that the ominous government conspiracy that set up the events of the prior book is, once you get a good look at it, basically completely inept and defunded because it doesn't make the USA any money or help the CIA create new ways of loving with socialist movements. What really hits me in the book is that half the horror seems to be about being management, but your workers don't respect you at all. I found that really funny in a way. Good book though.
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Jan 4, 2024 10:23
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I quit Authority in disgust when a computer under a desk was described as a "hard drive" pretty early on. I just couldn't take it
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Jan 4, 2024 10:39
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Whirling posted:Finally getting around to reading Authority and I love that the ominous government conspiracy that set up the events of the prior book is, once you get a good look at it, basically completely inept and defunded because it doesn't make the USA any money or help the CIA create new ways of loving with socialist movements. "Wait wait wait, the Southern Reach did what with rabbits? And it's main 'expert' on this 'zone' is a barely sane anthropologist who barely survived the first expedition? And it's budget is how much again?" 
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Jan 4, 2024 11:19
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The Vorkosigan Saga definitely follows the Military Genius tropes, but it is good. It sets out to subvert a few of them, for instance by having the hero be crippled by a birth defect, but women do end up throwing themselves at the main character regardless as the series continues. It was originally intended as a power fantasy for the authors son, so the early novels (aside from the prequels) do feel kind of animeish to me, but it's all so well done they end up appealing to most people.
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Jan 4, 2024 11:42
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Hyphen-ated posted:I quit Authority in disgust when a computer under a desk was described as a "hard drive" pretty early on. I just couldn't take it I just finished Final Girl Support Group, where the main character describes it as "the CPU". I was annoyed, but I am pretty sure the author did it on purpose seeing as the character is not great with computers.
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Jan 4, 2024 11:46
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i would have had no problem at all if a character said it, or if it was a narrator with a character voice
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Jan 4, 2024 12:58
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To be fair Control is exactly the character who wouldn't have a clue
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Jan 4, 2024 13:29
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Fivemarks posted:Basically, I'm looking for books that don't exist. Binti trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor? First book won the Hugo. From Amazon - “Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.”
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Jan 4, 2024 14:58
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Hyphen-ated posted:I quit Authority in disgust when a computer under a desk was described as a "hard drive" pretty early on. I just couldn't take it thotsky posted:I just finished Final Girl Support Group, where the main character describes it as "the CPU". I was annoyed, but I am pretty sure the author did it on purpose seeing as the character is not great with computers. 
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Jan 4, 2024 15:09
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Finished Desolation Called Peace. A lot of the book I didn't like as I read it, but it ends really strong and that's cool. Overall I liked it and would recommend it! I think my complaints were: Mahit still just floats along. The book relies a bit too much on "... and then a guy walked in firing a gun" to ramp up plot: there's a bomb at the train station (nothing happens), and a sudden viral outbreak (virus goes away, but that at least ties into the ending) The start really drags before Mahit gets abducted into the main plot with stupid station politics which don't matter because she gets kicked off the station and doesnt return. Also in the main plot, she is just sort of there, I think. Ironically Boss Baby Emporer, whose plot seems pointless and going nowhere, springs into action and does something contributing to the great ending. My main complaint is his mid plot involves information the reader knows, ie he observes reports of things we have seen. And then interstellar mail becomes a priority. Fleet Captain Lady does have a sort of moral choice sprung on her in the end that she considers for 2 paragraphs, but spends most of the time whinging about an annoying house guest. Edit: this might be a me not picking up on something but the all consuming hive mind peacing out just seemed to not make sense. "Sorry we are so tired killing all your fleets can we have a break?" algebra testes fucked around with this message at 15:50 on Jan 4, 2024 |
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Jan 4, 2024 15:48
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Hyphen-ated posted:i would have had no problem at all if a character said it, or if it was a narrator with a character voice quote:Nudging his knee on the left, under the desk: the hard drive for the monitor. He wondered if that had stopped working back in the nineties, too. Control had the feeling he did not want to see the rooms the hardware techs worked in, the miserable languishing corpses of the computers of past decades, the chaotic unintentional museum of plastic and wires and circuit boards. Or perhaps the fish did rot from the head, and only the director had decomposed.
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Jan 4, 2024 15:52
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Boob Cop posted:Use of the word "Cyclopean" in A Tale of The Malazan : Book of The Fallen necessitates that Homer's Odyssey also existed in the world created by author Steven Erikson. In this paper I will give There was a Star Wars novel that used "dopplering" as a verb and I was like "Hey doesn't this take place in the past?"
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Jan 4, 2024 15:53
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Reminds me how most of the tomes you find in Dark Souls 3 are written in Braille.
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Jan 4, 2024 15:59
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Poldarn posted:There was a Star Wars novel that used "dopplering" as a verb and I was like "Hey doesn't this take place in the past?"
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Jan 4, 2024 15:59
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Poldarn posted:There was a Star Wars novel that used "dopplering" as a verb and I was like "Hey doesn't this take place in the past?" Just tell yourself it's a translation, works for all anachronisms.
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Jan 4, 2024 16:03
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Slyphic posted:It's from the internal monologue of the character, and I don't recall him being particularly tech savvy, so it made perfect sense for him to think link that because that is exactly what you can see going through the heads of executives when you try to explain basic poo poo to them. Fuuuuck this makes me want to reread authority
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Jan 4, 2024 16:03
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Poldarn posted:There was a Star Wars novel that used "dopplering" as a verb and I was like "Hey doesn't this take place in the past?" one of the very early star wars novels written by a random sci-fi author had a grizzled spacer referencing dinosaurs on old earth and 12 year old me was disgusted that this kind of poo poo was allowed.
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Jan 4, 2024 16:12
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thotsky posted:The Vorkosigan Saga definitely follows the Military Genius tropes, but it is good. It sets out to subvert a few of them, for instance by having the hero be crippled by a birth defect, but women do end up throwing themselves at the main character regardless as the series continues. It was originally intended as a power fantasy for the authors son, so the early novels (aside from the prequels) do feel kind of animeish to me, but it's all so well done they end up appealing to most people. Has Bujold said that it was intended as a power fantasy? Sounds odd to me.
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Jan 4, 2024 16:16
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Ninurta posted:I would also recommend Steven Barnes, his Aubry Knight books....
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Jan 4, 2024 16:16
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Poldarn posted:There was a Star Wars novel that used "dopplering" as a verb and I was like "Hey doesn't this take place in the past?" Tchaikovsky uses both "lampshaded" and "go ham" without explanation in Lords of Uncreation so we know that at least the tvtropes endure.
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Jan 4, 2024 16:24
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Safety Biscuits posted:Has Bujold said that it was intended as a power fantasy? Sounds odd to me.
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Jan 4, 2024 16:25
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Poldarn posted:There was a Star Wars novel that used "dopplering" as a verb and I was like "Hey doesn't this take place in the past?" One of the 80s Lando novels by insane libertarian L. Neil Smith described something as looking like a Portuguese man-o'-war.
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Jan 4, 2024 16:50
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Poldarn posted:There was a Star Wars novel that used "dopplering" as a verb and I was like "Hey doesn't this take place in the past?"
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Jan 4, 2024 16:51
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Safety Biscuits posted:Has Bujold said that it was intended as a power fantasy? Sounds odd to me. She probably doesn't use those words exactly, but she talks about it in the postscript in one of the books. Apparently her son has/had some special needs of their own and she wrote Miles for him. It's pretty sweet.
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Jan 4, 2024 18:33
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Figured I'd jump on the bandwagon (late) and post some favorite SFF from last year. For cozies, the Singing Hills stuff, both Monk and Robot, and both Legends and Lattes were great. Some of my favorites all year. I was hype for the return of some craft wars from Gladstone and Dead Country did not disappoint. Even Though I Knew the End by CL Polk and Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Ann Older were some enjoyable short, sapphic, detective stories. Who thought Chuck Tingle could write a good serious novel. Really enjoyed Camp Damascus. A few random books I've not seen anyone talk about but enjoyed and other people might like: On Earth as it is on Television, Her Majesty's Royal Coven, The Monsters We Defy, and A Brief History of Living Forever. In the random books no one talked about category, I want to specifically call out Meister of Decimen City by Brenna Rainey. There's heroes, villains, dinosaurs, and honestly quite a lot to say about family trauma. It's got some serious stuff wrapped up in a lot of fun, and if that's your jam, I'd recommend it. My favorite book not yet mentioned was Flux by Jinwoo Chong. It uses time travel as to explore grief, representation, and (to a lesser extent) the problems with big tech.
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Jan 4, 2024 18:46
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Ben Nevis posted:Who thought Chuck Tingle could write a good serious novel. Really enjoyed Camp Damascus. This horror book thread poster escape artist posted:Okay, if you read Camp Damascus and enjoyed it, I suggest, highly, that you look at his other titles. He has erotic Kindle singles with the best titles and names... I don't even want to spoil any in this thread. Go to Amazon, search Chuck Tingle.
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Jan 4, 2024 19:47
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Finished the new Dean Koontz novel A Bad Weather Friend and honestly the biggest thing I can think of to say is "holy gently caress there is no dog!". It's sort of a cozy adventure story and while the overall premise is dumb as hell, it's actually a decent read. It sort of reads like it's for young kids, except for the whole witnessing a parent get shot thing. They don't turn into a batman analogue though, so that was nice. It's free on Amazon so I can safely recommend it at that price. I honestly can't say if it's a good book or not, I'm still kinda in shock there wasn't a dog.
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Jan 4, 2024 20:07
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genericnick posted:What really hits me in the book is that half the horror seems to be about being management, but your workers don't respect you at all. I found that really funny in a way. Good book though. Control never manages or successfully exerts authority at any point in his life. 
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Jan 4, 2024 21:58
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fritz posted:Qouzl, also by Alan Dean Foster, is incredibly furry. No mentions for J*ck Ch*lker and his fearsome furry transformation fetish?
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Jan 4, 2024 22:09
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I don't remember his transformation thing having much to do with being furry although I was not a completionist back when I was a less discriminating reader and do not care to try and remember in any case.
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Jan 4, 2024 22:23
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CaptainRat posted:I don't remember his transformation thing having much to do with being furry although I was not a completionist back when I was a less discriminating reader and do not care to try and remember in any case. Chalker is equal opportunity, he's pretty much a fan of every sort of transformation. Animals, genderswap, bimbofication
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Jan 4, 2024 22:26
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NinjaDebugger posted:bimbofication That's the one I remember 
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Jan 4, 2024 22:26
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Runcible Cat posted:No mentions for J*ck Ch*lker and his fearsome furry transformation fetish? There's at least one Chalker fan in this thread but it's not me.
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Jan 4, 2024 22:27
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CaptainRat posted:That's the one I remember Four Lords of the Diamond was a hell of a trip in a lot of ways. There's also a fair bit of rape in his books, and also a lot of rapists getting absolutely loving destroyed by their comeuppance.
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Jan 4, 2024 22:27
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Runcible Cat posted:No mentions for J*ck Ch*lker and his fearsome furry transformation fetish? lmao you don't have to censor him. His writing is fascinating but also you're going to slam headfirst into his kinks and he is NOT shy about it. Which I can respect but also dude. dude. please. Calm your tits a little. Please.
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Jan 4, 2024 22:31
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genericnick posted:What really hits me in the book is that half the horror seems to be about being management, but your workers don't respect you at all. I found that really funny in a way. Good book though. I read it just after a major promotion and it's such a great take on the basic everyday fear that you're not very good at your job, that your bosses are disappointed in you and your subordinates resent you.
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Jan 5, 2024 00:38
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NinjaDebugger posted:Four Lords of the Diamond was a hell of a trip in a lot of ways. There's also a fair bit of rape in his books, and also a lot of rapists getting absolutely loving destroyed by their comeuppance.
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Jan 5, 2024 01:06
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