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Battuta I have a question for you did your editor or someone make you add the citation footnote on the literal first page of the book because nobody would believe that quote otherwise like I personally believed it instantly it sounded exactly like something Barack Obama would say but I could absolutely see someone insisting no, that sounds fake, we have to cite our sources
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Feb 11, 2024 06:22
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Yeah they did. It’s not a great source, honestly, but the quote was too good not to use.
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Feb 11, 2024 06:36
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oh my god I knew it cracked up at the quote itself and then I saw the footnote existed and even before I clicked it on my ipad screen I was like "my god his editor made him cite his sources" e: also I'm like, twenty pages in? but the book's real good so far
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Feb 11, 2024 06:41
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I finished Exordia last night and it absolutely wrecked me. Great book but woof I needed some time to digest when I was done with it.
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Feb 11, 2024 06:45
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Ravenfood posted:City of Last Chances was loving excellent, so thanks to whoever recommended it in the thread. You'll want to get to House of Open Wounds sooner rather than later.
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Feb 11, 2024 07:20
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Can't think of any science fiction that outright has a bibliography other than Blindsight.
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Feb 11, 2024 09:49
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FPyat posted:Can't think of any science fiction that outright has a bibliography other than Blindsight. Crichton's Eaters of the Dead.
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Feb 11, 2024 15:50
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Oh man, speaking of Blindsight, yesterday the YouTube algorithm gave me a talk he did IN CHARACTER as a member of the research team that brought us vampires. Don’t know why i spoilered that, as I can’t seem to spoiler yt links anymore: https://youtu.be/wEOUaJW05bU?si=iWyYjrtHg5_A694o Now I’m re-reading every short story on his website as I warm up for another Blindsight re-reading. Maybe I’ll hit Rifters first, not sure yet.
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Feb 11, 2024 18:39
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The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003IEJZRY/ A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction by Terry Pratchett - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N6PCZ3G/ The Dead Take the A Train (Carrion City #1) by Richard Kadrey and Cassandra Khaw - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BQGJRBQR/ The Way of Shadows (Night Angel #1) by Brent Weeks - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E0V112/ The Last Policeman series by Ben H Winters - $1.99 each The Last Policeman (#1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0076Q1GW2/ Countdown City (#2) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B6OV90E/ World of Trouble (#3) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HXYHVNU/
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Feb 11, 2024 19:06
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pradmer posted:The Last Policeman (#1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0076Q1GW2/
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Feb 11, 2024 19:18
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Chairman Capone posted:Crichton's Eaters of the Dead. Yeah, I was going to say The Andromeda Strain also.
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Feb 11, 2024 20:28
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Eifelheim[sic] had a short biblio on historical sources, iirc.
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Feb 11, 2024 20:53
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Admiralty Flag posted:I know ACAB but the first book in this series was an interesting look into a good cop trying to do his job as the world falls apart, well worth $1.99 and the time, I thought. The second book unfortunately did not live up to the first but was overall worth the read. The third has been at like 20% in my Kindle for a few months and will probably end up DNF. I read the whole thing and my advice is to have something non-depressing queued up when you finish. Raising Steam (Discworld #40) by Terry Pratchett - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FIN0TGY/ Nova by Samuel R Delany - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HE2JK5S/ Empire of Sand (Books of Ambha #1) by Tasha Suri - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B8J34CC/ Ship Breaker (#1) by Paolo Bacigalupi - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035IIBT6/
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Feb 12, 2024 19:02
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pradmer posted:something non-depressing 
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Feb 12, 2024 19:36
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pradmer posted:Ship Breaker (#1) by Paolo Bacigalupi - $2.99 That's a really good book. Sort of a YA but hosed up thing. It's America after an ecological crash. The protagonist goes on a very interesting journey.
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Feb 12, 2024 20:07
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Conscious of the Exordia derails, just want to say I finished it, I enjoyed it, I gave it 5s on amazon and goodreads
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Feb 12, 2024 20:36
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OK, I'm finally reading Sagara's Cast in Shadow, and I like the characters and the setting and the plot. The dialogue isn't really doing it for me--too curt, and too many conversations with people not actually willing to talk about what they're talking about and ending in angry silence, but fine. The narrative style is causing me problems. Can someone reassure me that Sagara's writing improves as the series progresses? Because this sentence completely interrupted the flow of my experience: Cast in Shadow page 205 posted:He had the Hawks' love of paperwork written all over his severe expression, but unlike Marcus, he actually did his. The awkward aside about Marcus is painful enough, especially as the book's already established Sgt. Lion doesn't like doing paperwork and the Hawklord's character is also established well enough that I don't need to be told he likes paperwork. And never mind that Marcus is also a Hawk, and doesn't love paperwork, so the sentence characterizes Hawks as loving paperwork while refuting that characterization simultaneously. The real problem is that while I can imagine the severe expression ("Hawk" mostly does that by itself), what exactly does "Hawks' love of paperwork" look like combined with that severe expression? Annoyed at being interrupted doing paperwork plus severe expression, fine. But a while into "please come into my office" I should see on his face both "severe" and "I love me some paperwork?" Something like having him wistfully glance at his stacks of paperwork to do before continuing a conversation with Kaylin would get the job done. This is bothering me a lot more than I would like.
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Feb 12, 2024 20:38
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Narsham posted:OK, I'm finally reading Sagara's Cast in Shadow, and I like the characters and the setting and the plot. The dialogue isn't really doing it for me--too curt, and too many conversations with people not actually willing to talk about what they're talking about and ending in angry silence, but fine. Huh? That sentence indicates to me that he absolutely hates paperwork, but unlike Marcus he gets it done.
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Feb 12, 2024 20:55
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Exordia has temporarily ruined my ability to read anything without killer pacing. I was in the middle of a fantasy brick when it came out, and now that I’ve tried to return to it my eyes just glaze over.
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Feb 12, 2024 21:04
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mewse posted:Conscious of the Exordia derails, just want to say I finished it, I enjoyed it, I gave it 5s on amazon and goodreads I finished it yesterday, but I haven't reviewed or rated it yet because I still don't know how I feel. I guess my review needs to include the phrase, "thought-provoking." I like that the good General distrusts easy answers grounded in moral simplicity. I wanted a different ending. I know some people said they didn't like the potential hooks for a sequel, but I'd like to see one.
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Feb 12, 2024 21:10
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Zorak of Michigan posted:I finished it yesterday, but I haven't reviewed or rated it yet because I still don't know how I feel. I guess my review needs to include the phrase, "thought-provoking." I like that the good General distrusts easy answers grounded in moral simplicity. I wanted a different ending. I know some people said they didn't like the potential hooks for a sequel, but I'd like to see one. Yeah.. my review was just "Ambitious, mind-bending sci fi." I really appreciated the moral ambiguity and how the characters grappled with it. The ending worked for me. I found the sci-fi parts a bit too complex. I think I have a goldilocks zone where like Brandon Sanderson not understanding sound waves makes me feel like the author doesn't understand science as well as I do, the stuff in Exordia had me thinking the author understands science better than I do. I feel like when I read Gibson or Stephenson (or even Crichton) that there isn't stuff going over my head.
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Feb 12, 2024 21:21
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pradmer posted:something non-depressing yyyyyyeah
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Feb 12, 2024 21:28
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mewse posted:Yeah.. my review was just "Ambitious, mind-bending sci fi." The high-falutin' number theory physics and symmetries and so on is self-acknowledged bullshit, per the afterword. We get a deep dive to see what's going on with Aixue in general and with regards to her passion in specific. You're sorta meant to go "Oh, that was a lot of information I didn't understand. I guess, if it makes the story go forward..." Imagine you are Chaya Panaguiton.
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Feb 12, 2024 21:35
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mllaneza posted:That's a really good book. Sort of a YA but hosed up thing. It's America after an ecological crash. The protagonist goes on a very interesting journey. First in a series set in this world. Some characters recur but it's more about setting and theme than the people. Though there are some banger characters. I have no idea why it's YA, it's brutally violent and people say "gently caress" and poo poo.
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Feb 12, 2024 21:40
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Zorak of Michigan posted:I finished it yesterday, but I haven't reviewed or rated it yet because I still don't know how I feel. I guess my review needs to include the phrase, "thought-provoking." I like that the good General distrusts easy answers grounded in moral simplicity. I wanted a different ending. I know some people said they didn't like the potential hooks for a sequel, but I'd like to see one. I think the issue with having a sequel is how the gently caress do you follow that up? A big part of Exordia was how much research went into the real-world stuff. Military hardware, history and culture of a whole lot of different peoples, geography of Earth, etc. The geography and culture is mostly nuked, and the military hardware's useless against the Ss'rin, so the story now has to stand much more firmly on Battuta's imaginary setting. I would still read it, though.
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Feb 12, 2024 21:49
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Admiralty Flag posted:I know ACAB but the first book in this series was an interesting look into a good cop trying to do his job as the world falls apart, well worth $1.99 and the time, I thought. The second book unfortunately did not live up to the first but was overall worth the read. The third has been at like 20% in my Kindle for a few months and will probably end up DNF. This series started my interest in the little microgenre of apocalypse noir, where a detective/noir hero does his/her thing in the context of a world that's in the middle of falling apart. Sleepless by Charlie Huston is another example, and you can sort of argue that so is Gibson's The Peripheral.
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Feb 12, 2024 21:51
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grassy gnoll posted:The high-falutin' number theory physics and symmetries and so on is self-acknowledged bullshit, per the afterword. Sort of. The ingredients are real, the implied connections and underlying logic are furious handwaving. The idea that there may be a connection between number theory and physics is certainly an appealing one to a lot of physicists.
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Feb 12, 2024 21:52
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I dropped Cast in Shadow after a couple of chapters because I couldn't get on with the prose style. And I was being driven nuts by 'I looked over at Shady Guy. He was looking thoughtful. Probably thinking about the event that happened between us that I'm still angry about but won't directly inform the audience of. I saw him looking back at me and I felt furious and looked away and grabbed my knife.' Like, constantly. Just tell me what happened between them stop dropping hints I'm going loving nuts arrghhh ...I might also have just been in the wrong mood to be charitable towards it.
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Feb 12, 2024 21:52
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HopperUK posted:I dropped Cast in Shadow after a couple of chapters because I couldn't get on with the prose style. And I was being driven nuts by 'I looked over at Shady Guy. He was looking thoughtful. Probably thinking about the event that happened between us that I'm still angry about but won't directly inform the audience of. I saw him looking back at me and I felt furious and looked away and grabbed my knife.' Like, constantly. Just tell me what happened between them stop dropping hints I'm going loving nuts arrghhh With the understanding that the prose style may not work for you full stop, if you ever want to try it again and want some spoilers to know what Severn's deal is, I will be happy to tell you!
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Feb 12, 2024 21:55
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General Battuta posted:Sort of. The ingredients are real, the implied connections and underlying logic are furious handwaving. The idea that there may be a connection between number theory and physics is certainly an appealing one to a lot of physicists. Did start out wanting to write about cosmology and information theory this time and then work your back to Anna, or find that Anna's story couldn't be told without the cosmology, or was it more circular? I could see a through line from the Baru novels to the moral questions you explore in this one, but the use of information theory and the idea of something that isn't even entirely real but is instead of holographic projection of an equation seemed like it came out of left field.
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Feb 12, 2024 22:51
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There was always a character whose morality was based on direct transcendent approach to the truth, a gnostic type. The connection between pure mathematics and physics seemed like the most real and compelling way to tackle that for a character who wasn’t religious.
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Feb 13, 2024 00:53
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Math is religion
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Feb 13, 2024 01:13
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General Battuta posted:There was always a character whose morality was based on direct transcendent approach to the truth, a gnostic type. The connection between pure mathematics and physics seemed like the most real and compelling way to tackle that for a character who wasn’t religious. Thanks! Also, review written.
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Feb 13, 2024 01:14
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branedotorg posted:the Swan one i had on preorder but thanks for the heads up on RJB, I found Foundryside a bit juvenile and disappointing after City of Stairs so hadn't been following but fantasy buddy cop is a genre I'm almost guaranteed to but May I ask what you mean by Foundryside being juvenile? It’s been a little bit since I’ve read it, so I can’t remember anything specific, but juvenile is a word I personally can’t find a way to ascribe to the series.
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Feb 13, 2024 02:33
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General Battuta posted:Sort of. The ingredients are real, the implied connections and underlying logic are furious handwaving. The idea that there may be a connection between number theory and physics is certainly an appealing one to a lot of physicists. It'll be a while before I can get to Exordia so I don't know the particulars but I think the connection is reasonably well-established in places such as 'dynamical billiards' : https://www.math.brown.edu/reschwar/Papers/schwartz_ICM.pdf and dynamic systems more generally.
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Feb 13, 2024 02:35
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Gaius Marius posted:Math is religion -- the ninefox gambit et al
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Feb 13, 2024 02:40
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Do the Vlad Taltos books permit much skipping around? I'm about to run an RPG that owes a great deal to that series (Blades in the Dark), and I remember just enough from reading Jhereg ages ago that my brain will do that annoying "Oh, I know what's about to happen and all the tension has gone out of this scene" thing as I'm reading it, but not enough to actually remember the setting or characters very well. I was thinking of skipping to Yendi, if that's viable.
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Feb 13, 2024 03:14
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As I recall the first three books are chronologically reversed. But maybe I hosed something up!
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Feb 13, 2024 03:20
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Some of the later books are flashbacks, but I don't remember which ones. The 17th book, Lyorn, is out April 9th. I should queue up a series re-read, because that's the 17th of 17.
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Feb 13, 2024 03:34
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mllaneza posted:Some of the later books are flashbacks, but I don't remember which ones. The series is actually going to be 19 books; Taltos and The Last Contract plus the cycle.
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Feb 13, 2024 03:49
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