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Kestral posted:If you're in the mood for Big Sci-Fi Ideas though, I'll also recommend the palate-cleanser I went to hatereading 3BP and its sequels: QNTM's Valuable Humans in Transit and Fine Structure. Absolutely wild stuff that is also reasonably well-written and wasn't authored by someone writing in the worst traditions of Golden Age SF. Thanks for that! Ordered 3 of QNTM's books: Valuable Humans / Fine structure / antimemetics
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Apr 29, 2024 09:59
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sebmojo posted:the sequel to that's coming out soon! there was some legit publisher bullshit, but it appears to have cessated and it will soon be in the world. Yeah I'm really excited, the cover looks amazing too
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Apr 29, 2024 12:29
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Mikojan posted:Thanks for that! Ordered 3 of QNTM's books: Valuable Humans / Fine structure / antimemetics So good!
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Apr 29, 2024 13:38
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Stuporstar posted:In a similar vein, I was reading Owen Barfield’s Poetic Diction (he was the friend of Tolkien who inspired him to come up with a whole myth cycle to prop up his conlang), and though I don’t agree with the idea that “primitive man existed in a total poetic metaphorical state of mind unlike our rational minds today” because that’s way too much like other Modernist armchair philosophers assuming a human mental progression (of already anatomically modern humans) based on almost no evidence (and Western Civilization chauvinism), it does remind me a bit of that Star Trek episode. I'm not familiar with Barfield, but that does sound awfully dismissive of "primitive man" and pre-modern mental capacities. He seems to be sort of injecting Lacanian psychoanalysis into history to suggest that "primitive" people are basically children. If you'd like a good counterpoint, read Tolkien's other buddy C.S. Lewis's The Discarded Image. It describes Medieval cosmology in great detail and makes a powerful case that while it was completely wrong, it was still an entirely rational understanding of the universe and its structure based on received knowledge and observable reality available at the time. The only thing I'd argue with you about the episode is that the concepts Captain Dathon expresses aren't all that complex. "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" basically means "teamwork". "Sokath--his eyes uncovered" basically means "he understands". "Temba, his arms wide" basically means "welcoming". But again, the episode is illustrating the very point that I'm picking on--language works through association and metaphor. The real complaints should be directed not towards the universal translator but towards the Federation's Language Arts education system that never taught a single Starfleet officer how to use context clues to understand unfamiliar words and phrases.
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Apr 29, 2024 14:50
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silvergoose posted:Yeah I'm really excited, the cover looks amazing too Speaking of, I was complaining a few weeks ago about Them changing your kindle covers to a movie poster whenever a book gets adapted for the screen. Yesterday I was perusing my library for one of the legions of unread books I've purchased and then not read when I come across a loving worm crawling through an eyeball It's disgusting, turns out that it was a promotional billboard for The Strain that was literally pulled down because people complained. But now it's foreverially immortalized in my Kindle Digital Library, thank you marketers for raising my brand awareness.
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Apr 29, 2024 14:56
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sebmojo posted:the sequel to that's coming out soon! there was some legit publisher bullshit, but it appears to have cessated and it will soon be in the world. Amazon says the Kindle release is set for August 6th. Dawnhounds was really good, so I'm excited for more.
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Apr 29, 2024 15:24
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I'm reading it right now and it's pretty cool 
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Apr 29, 2024 15:45
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I have an old version of Dawnhounds bought on amazon on kindle from when it was first posted. Did that version get updated or would I need to buy it again to get the latest version?
Sibling of TB fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Apr 29, 2024 |
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Apr 29, 2024 16:41
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Sibling of TB posted:I have an old version of Dawnhounds bought on amazon on kindle from when it was first posted. Did that version get updated or would I need to buy it again to get the latest version?
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Apr 29, 2024 16:50
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Hard to Be a God by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K4JX2FM/ The Master of Whitestorm by Janny Wurts - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08S7GH5C5/ The Sword of Shannara (#1) by Terry Brooks - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBFOE6/ The Charwoman's Shadow by Lord Dunsany - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09PJ8MVYS/ Is this even under copyright still? The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085C71YG5/ New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KT7YTO6/
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Apr 29, 2024 22:43
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Sibling of TB posted:I have an old version of Dawnhounds bought on amazon on kindle from when it was first posted. Did that version get updated or would I need to buy it again to get the latest version?
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Apr 30, 2024 00:29
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:Hi it's Sascha, got DMed by a bunch of people. Gotta buy a new one unfortunately. I self-pubbed it, then Saga picked it up and we did some pretty significant rewrites (the 2021 edition is around 30k words longer) but since the editions were put out by two different 'publishers' they don't connect digitally like that. FWIW the 2019 edition can't be bought anymore anywhere and is relatively rare so you've got a cool little time capsule/rare book? I'm hanging onto my handful of original copies, they mean a lot to me. oh holy cannoli, I own the 2019 edition in physical. I'll have to pick up the remix edition and the sequel when it drops!
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Apr 30, 2024 00:33
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StrixNebulosa posted:oh holy cannoli, I own the 2019 edition in physical. I'll have to pick up the remix edition and the sequel when it drops!
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Apr 30, 2024 00:35
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:In physical, that's like ... one of about 400-ish? 2019 edition sold around 3.5k copies total but the vast majority were digital. We had 300 printed in New Zealand then around 100 more were Amazon print on demand. Cool! Count me as one of the happy hundred, then!      e: The original cover is cooler than the new one.
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Apr 30, 2024 00:42
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Yeah I love the original, though I do get the change. My understanding is that US audiences want their covers to be less abstract and more direct? A fantasy novel should have a guy with a sword on it, a sci-fi novel should have a spaceship. I remember the original cover getting a lot of angry confused notes from readers like "I thought it was a guide for camping", "is that a chicken drumstick?" Also that'll be one of 100ish Amazon ones -- iirc they'll either be printed in the US or printed in Wellington and the US copies are via the 'zon.
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Apr 30, 2024 00:54
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If the author for The Traitor Baru Cormorant still pokes around in this thread, just wanted to let you know ive recommended the series to a few folks and they've really enjoyed it. Hope you are doing well!
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Apr 30, 2024 00:56
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KKKLIP ART posted:If the author for The Traitor Baru Cormorant still pokes around in this thread, just wanted to let you know ive recommended the series to a few folks and they've really enjoyed it. Hope you are doing well! They literally posted on this page like 9 posts up from you They're a great thread regular
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Apr 30, 2024 01:04
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KKKLIP ART posted:If the author for The Traitor Baru Cormorant still pokes around in this thread, just wanted to let you know ive recommended the series to a few folks and they've really enjoyed it. Hope you are doing well! Thank you 
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Apr 30, 2024 01:04
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The Frequent Poster General Battuta. The Never Probated General Battuta. The Permabanned General Battuta.
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Apr 30, 2024 03:21
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:Yeah I love the original, though I do get the change. My understanding is that US audiences want their covers to be less abstract and more direct? A fantasy novel should have a guy with a sword on it, a sci-fi novel should have a spaceship. I remember the original cover getting a lot of angry confused notes from readers like "I thought it was a guide for camping", "is that a chicken drumstick?" This is truly baffling to me because it's the exact opposite of what I want out of a cover honestly--"Guy with a sword on it" as the cover is about the biggest turn-off for me when it comes to a fantasy book cover. It kind of makes me assume it's going to be bland and generic. That said, I think like 90% of US genre book covers are utter poo poo so maybe my tastes are just at odds with most book-buyers in the US.
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Apr 30, 2024 04:42
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Lois McMaster Bujold hated all the covers to her books with Baen. And after years of complaining about the ugly loving covers they kept saddling her with, Jim Baen finally let her pick one, and it was her worst selling book in years. So she went back to the ugly Baen covers because there is a market for that.
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Apr 30, 2024 04:52
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Have they tried having the protagonist doing a youtube thumbnail face on the covers?
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Apr 30, 2024 05:02
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Patrick Spens posted:Lois McMaster Bujold hated all the covers to her books with Baen. And after years of complaining about the ugly loving covers they kept saddling her with, Jim Baen finally let her pick one, and it was her worst selling book in years. So she went back to the ugly Baen covers because there is a market for that. which cover was that?
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Apr 30, 2024 05:09
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It's kind of an unfortunate reality of trad – they do things you're going to hate, but those things are really good at selling books. It's their whole job. The stuff that moves copies and the stuff that makes the author feel happy and respected will sometimes overlap, but when there's a dispute, the thing that moves copies tend to win. Like I'm shown copies of my covers and asked whether I like them, and I'm allowed to give feedback, but if that feedback is going to veer into a direction that makes the book unsellable my rear end is getting ignored. Like idk, this is the Sunforge cover  I don't have the original version on-hand but the silhouettes were significantly younger-looking. Like left to right, those three characters are 17, 25, and 29. The guy in the middle is canonically notably small, but originally his proportions made him look more like a child than just a short king. That feedback was received, and edits were made. I do get some level of cover-control, it just tends to be at the level of fine details. I get asked for general ideas at the start and the sketches that come out take them onboard but also totally ignore them when needed, then I get asked if I want to make any tweaks and those tweaks get signed off if they don't touch the bottom line. So like, that typeface is The Blockbuster Typeface that all the numbers show moves a lot of copies. I'd much rather it were something a bit more Art Nouveau to fit the setting, but it's not happening because it's going to mess with sales. SurreptitiousMuffin fucked around with this message at 06:04 on Apr 30, 2024 |
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Apr 30, 2024 05:11
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a typeface moving sales seems loving insane to me i would understand if a typeface hurt sales, like using comic sans (LOL) or something like that, but helping sales?
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Apr 30, 2024 05:41
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mystes posted:Have they tried having the protagonist doing a youtube thumbnail face on the covers? Yeah that's the correct parallel. It's gross but it works so people do it.
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Apr 30, 2024 05:45
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Doktor Avalanche posted:a typeface moving sales seems loving insane to me SurreptitiousMuffin fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Apr 30, 2024 |
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Apr 30, 2024 06:12
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Patrick Spens posted:Lois McMaster Bujold hated all the covers to her books with Baen. And after years of complaining about the ugly loving covers they kept saddling her with, Jim Baen finally let her pick one, and it was her worst selling book in years. So she went back to the ugly Baen covers because there is a market for that. https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1032160-i-just-read-on-tvtropes-lois-mcmaster Not quite true, per Bujold. (My guess was Cetaganda.) Those Baen covers are awful, though. Even the spines look bad.
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Apr 30, 2024 06:34
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:So like, that typeface is The Blockbuster Typeface that all the numbers show moves a lot of copies. I'd much rather it were something a bit more Art Nouveau to fit the setting, but it's not happening because it's going to mess with sales. For what it's worth, a random google search for "art nouveau font" shows me a lot of fonts that would instantly turn me off from the book if I was just going by the cover.
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Apr 30, 2024 07:10
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DACK FAYDEN posted:in general I am also primed to believe that something clunky in translation is often because it was clunky in the original (because translators want to do as good a job as they can Sometimes the translation is just poo poo, however. I've read more than a few Norwegian translations of English originals where the translator would for example just do literal word-for-word translations of (not very obscure) idioms into something that made absolutely no sense. Or confusing similar words (invincible/invisible, etc.)
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Apr 30, 2024 09:28
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:Yeah I love the original, though I do get the change. My understanding is that US audiences want their covers to be less abstract and more direct? A fantasy novel should have a guy with a sword on it, a sci-fi novel should have a spaceship. I remember the original cover getting a lot of angry confused notes from readers like "I thought it was a guide for camping", "is that a chicken drumstick?" Or I guess printed wherever's closest to whoever ordered it, my copy says "Printed in Great Britain by Amazon"
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Apr 30, 2024 11:51
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i'm in japan on vacation and the recent alastair reynolds chat made me look for japanese translations of his books (i speak the language fluently) managed to find a 1000 page paperback (very unusual to have such a lengthy paperback) of revelation space and the dramatis personae for it made me lol:   
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Apr 30, 2024 15:02
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That is not how I pictured the characters, like at all. Except Sajaki who's pretty spot on.
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Apr 30, 2024 15:12
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Funny, Yuuji-san is the biggest departure from my headcanon. (I thought he was described in the text as having chimeric blackface.)
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Apr 30, 2024 15:14
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Wasn't Sajaki always hitting people with a flute
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Apr 30, 2024 16:43
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Yeah. I always imagined him as halfway between Jetstream Sam and Mifune in Yojimbo but wielding a flute.
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Apr 30, 2024 16:47
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I just finished Consort of Fire by Kit Rocha, a romantasy. It started as a read and finished as a hate-read. I love romance novels, and this may be the worst one I've ever read. The writing is dreadful. I wound up skipping the sex scenes because of cringe at the dialogue and the descriptions. The plot is one-note. The poor downtrodden women at the beginning (a princess and her assassin friend/lover) become the Everlasting Dream and the Embodied Void at the end (while remaining themselves as far as personality and body go). Avoid. I would go so far as to say avoid anything by the author (a team of two people). Yuck.
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Apr 30, 2024 17:05
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I’d love to see illustrated dramatis personae in more books, that’s a cool feature.
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Apr 30, 2024 21:20
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I remember a lot of early Star Wars EU books had illustrated dramatis personae pages in Japanese translations. Along with the covers being a lot more detailed than the US versions it led to the Japanese translations being the only source for images for a lot of obscure Bantam-era characters.
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Apr 30, 2024 21:28
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:It's kind of an unfortunate reality of trad – they do things you're going to hate, but those things are really good at selling books. It's their whole job. The stuff that moves copies and the stuff that makes the author feel happy and respected will sometimes overlap, but when there's a dispute, the thing that moves copies tend to win. That was the one nice thing about self pubbing. I was able to pick the artist and somehow he was both available and within my price range. And he did an amazing job https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Nx3WPN But at the same time, would the book have been better with an industry editor? Probably. Would it be in actual bookstores? Yeah, if it had actually gone through all the mechanisms of the publishing industry somehow, which wasn't likely. But my day job is working as an industry vfx artist where life is notes and creative decisions completely outside of my control so it was nice to have some control over something creative. Those Revelation Space designs looks somewhere between Ghost in the Shell and Battle Angel Alita.
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Apr 30, 2024 23:26
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