SF & F Mega-thread: I had to google 'spock pirate depilatory'

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > SF & F Mega-thread: I had to google 'spock pirate depilatory'

«‹›10 »

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

XBenedict posted:

Too late

They're really not bad, I mean, not the best books I've ever read or anything but I liked the first one enough to keep going and was not dissatisfied with the conclusion.

I appreciated that there was a plucky young punk and his adversary, a lady who is totally over his poo poo, and at no point was there absurd sexual tension, it was actually really loving nice to see that cliche avoided.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2019 22:02

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 15, 2024 02:36

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

quantumfoam posted:

A Darkling Sea by James Cambias isn't too bad.

It's pretty good, yeah - I liked the alien protagonist who was basically an olde-timey Victorian scientist, from a weird alien culture, suddenly thrust into first contact.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2019 02:29

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

General Battuta posted:

It�s good but I�ve been leery of rereading it because iirc it contains a seemingly obligatory never-remarked-upon sexual assault by the protagonist. That doesn�t make it Forever Attainted In All Eyes, just makes me uneager to go back.

You do recall correctly, he rapes her and then she... starts working with him to help him with his non-rape stuff? It's kinda gross. Which sucks, because the book is really good beyond that.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2019 00:53

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

dreamless posted:

It's a little unfair that space wizards count exclusively as SF, even if sometimes they're also race car drivers.

oh man I remember really liking this book and I've totally forgotten what it was but I think I was waiting on a sequel

# ¿ Oct 31, 2019 14:30

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

ToxicFrog posted:

The book is A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White (and its sequel, A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy), and the sequel you're waiting for is The Worst of All Possible Worlds.

There we go. Thanks!

# ¿ Oct 31, 2019 20:24

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Cythereal posted:

Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill

I can name the exact moment I stopped liking this book, and that moment was the Big Twist. Big Twists, in my experience, come in two flavors: the ones that make you suddenly rethink everything you've read until that point and make perfect sense while throwing everything beforehand into a whole new light, and the ones that come out of left field and just leave you confused while making the preceding drama and events feel cheap. This book has one of the latter type. Funnily for a book about robots, I thought the book's great strength was the humanity of its characters, I was invested in seeing what would happen to everyone until the author decided the stakes weren't big enough. Pity.

Not disagreeing. Loved the world, was okay with the minor big twist that the one guy was one of the false flag robots that kicked everything off, but you can't have that withotu the major twist that literally everything was planned by super AI.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2019 16:31

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Just read Greg Egan's Permutation City. I didn't understand why half of the characters existed at all, but the central ideas of the book were super cool even if they were also not explored in nearly the depth I wanted.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2019 22:12

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

MockingQuantum posted:

This reminds me that I have some late-70s pulp sci fi novel that I'd never heard of and never read sitting on my shelf at home, somebody gave it to me in a gift exchange as a joke and I can't decide if it's going to be terrible or wonderful when I get around to reading it. I wish I could remember the name because the cover is a sight to behold.

Hoping it's something like one of the wackier covers of The Centauri Device and it turns out to be a good book by a great author

# ¿ Nov 15, 2019 21:39

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

StrixNebulosa posted:

https://twitter.com/scalzi/status/1202303321547169795

I gotta admit I'm a little curious what a drug-sniffing dog picks up from a loaf of bread

I'm skeptical that it was the coriander, and I assume the cop had no specific reason to frame this particular package (because the dogs pick up on their handlers), but who knows?

# ¿ Dec 5, 2019 20:00

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Philthy posted:

Amazon AI just sent me a $5 gift certificate to buy Heretics of Dune that expires in 7 days because it noticed I stopped reading the series at God Emperor.

Nice try but I'm not falling for it!!!

That's terrifying. What's next, gift certificates for John Ringo?

# ¿ Dec 10, 2019 15:47

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

pradmer posted:

Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBJAGO/
Haven't read it yet, but I've seen it much discussed and loved here.

You're missing out. It's really, really good.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2019 15:28

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Groke posted:

Ford Nucleon, the atomic car. Never really made it off the concept drawing stage but I remember something similar in one of the Fallout games.

Canonically, all cars in the Fallout universe were atomic before the War, that's why they explode (and drench the area in radiation) when shot in 3/New Vegas/4 :eng101:

(and yes that's a lame excuse to have explodey cars and yes I don't care)

# ¿ Dec 26, 2019 18:57

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

The Raven Tower is $3.99 for Kindle today on Amazon.

Also I finally got around to starting Foundryside and then I finished it, drat, book's great, not a surprise or anything but I enjoyed it a lot.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2019 17:04

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Jedit posted:

I thought Tyrant was his title for the last book?

I hope things pick up for him.

I also thought Tyrant was going to be book 4 and also hope things turn around for GB

# ¿ Jan 14, 2020 21:01

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Affi posted:

Huh. Is there actually another Baru book? I�ve only read the first one but I liked. How�s the second one?

As good as the first, maybe slightly less so because I was expecting it to get to the point where everything was 2/3 resolved but then it turns out they forced a split into four books (which may have been undone if the third book is really 752 pages? jeez)

But it's good, buy it.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2020 15:41

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Junkenstein posted:

Haven't got round to Foundryside, but really enjoyed the full 'Cities Of' trilogy.

Foundryside's good, you should read it, I put it off for a while but I enjoyed it (in much the same way as the Cities trilogy, the plot itself wasn't particularly gripping to me but the world he set up was super interesting)

# ¿ Feb 17, 2020 13:43

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

C.M. Kruger posted:

Without the bottom text VALIS is like... the fourth, maybe fifth? PKD book that I'd guess this cover was for.

I mean I loving love it but it's definitely got a more The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch vibe even, with the asymmetric eyes on the right one (although the lips are perfect so it's clearly not that book)

# ¿ Mar 17, 2020 00:08

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Totally unrelated to the current conversation, but props to whoever recommended Recursion, book had one idea and then executed it really well and I am glad I read it even if it was a pretty quick read.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2020 16:33

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

buffalo all day posted:

popularity with the hugo voters isn't the same as overall sales though if you made a list of "best selling" SF novels of the last 25 years probably the only one that won a hugo was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. None of the other HP books won. Ready Player One wasn't nominated (not that it's any good, but it's gotta be the sci fi book that sold the most).

it basically judges popularity of a book among people who take SF seriously, which is at least interesting to know

Huh, is there not a YA Hugo? I feel like basically all the HP books were the best YA SF/F of their year. Say what you want, those books were compelling to young me.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2020 18:36

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

buffalo all day posted:

Read The Folding Knife next. And maybe his short story collection.

Second these two.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2020 17:27

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

StrixNebulosa posted:

https://twitter.com/jamesdnicoll/status/1251161731553849344

Honestly? I would probably pay a dollar for this to see if it was any good. It's a concept I haven't seen anyone else write before.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2020 17:09

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

my bony fealty posted:

Gene Wolfe was first published in 1965 and has a novel coming out in June

He's dead but still technically active

Pringles cans are coming out every day, Gene Wolfe should count as permanently active.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2020 00:36

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

quantumfoam posted:

And if you use that comparison, you have got to count Doc EE Smith as permanently active too. EE Smith was a food scientist, his Phd thesis was about wheat and worked on donut recipe stuff.

But did they put his face on them? :colbert:

# ¿ Apr 22, 2020 14:48

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Captain Monkey posted:

Thread favorite and all around great book The Traitor Baru Cormorant is the Tor free book of the month.

Yeah, congratulations GB on being picked! I assume there's some stiff competition.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2020 14:15

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

withak posted:

Amazing plot twist

Wasn't there a goon who got like 100 pages in expecting spaceships? Or was it one of the early reviews, though sadly not the "social justice Middle Earth" or "alternate universe where women are better than men at math" ones?

# ¿ Apr 28, 2020 18:03

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Murderbot: I had realized about forty pages before it came up that we never knew the name of Murderbot's company and then felt super clever when it did come up. That's all.

# ¿ May 12, 2020 22:24

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Jedit posted:

A second copy of volume 3?

Volume 1, signed?

# ¿ May 18, 2020 16:45

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

StrixNebulosa posted:

I enjoyed Centauri enough to purchase Light, the first of his Kefahuchi Tract sequence. When I'm next in a fantasy mood I'll pick up Viriconium - if I remember rightly, it helped inspire the Caves of Qud roguelike, which is an amazing goon-made game.

Huh, that connection makes perrfect sense even if I hadn't figured it out before. You definitely should, cause it's good.

# ¿ May 20, 2020 19:28

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Nondescript Van posted:

I read the Xeelee Sequence (first 4 xeelee books) and I absolutely hated it. It was a struggle to finish (I know I don't have to finish a book but it was more out of spite).

If you don't like, I suggest stopping. The prose does not change and those big ideas do not pay off either.

Did you read Vacuum Diagrams? Because that's the only one of Baxter's works I'd actively recommend (it's a short story collection, spanning time and all set in the Xeelee universe) and if you already read the bad books you might as well get the good one done.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2020 18:23

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

I was not expecting Gideon the Ninth to be what it is but I'm really enjoying it.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2020 11:17

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

General Battuta posted:

Early reviews of Tyrant Baru Cormorant are starting up, it's out next week. Get those preorders in! I'm coming to be pushing it pretty hard here, sorry in advance.

oh dang that's super soon

(my preorder is already in, never you fear)

# ¿ Aug 5, 2020 00:54

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Gato posted:

The Three Body Problem on the other hand was fascinating to me, a reader used to British and American perspectives, because it was a nominally global novel in which all the major players happen to be Chinese, and anyone who wasn't Chinese was a broad stereotype. My favourite was the Japanese woman who turns out to be a devious sociopath who melodramatically commits seppuku when her plan is foiled.

The later books have the American CIA man who is a Hard Man Making Hard Choices and the only surprising thing about him is that he actually turns out to be right, because Cixin Liu's misogyny apparently weighs heavier than the nationalism.

(I really dislike how that character was handled, don't get me started)

# ¿ Aug 26, 2020 15:19

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Kestral posted:

That's, uh, kind of a big deal and now I wonder if I might have to put off book three until I can read it in text format.

Only halfway through book three but it isn't a big enough deal to be worth putting off, I think.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2020 10:16

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Evil Fluffy posted:

I'd take a repeat of the 00s over the last 4-5 years in a loving heartbeat, to say nothing of the next 4-5 if Trump gets a second term.

Assuming the context was strictly American military action abroad, disagree. (and I make that assumption because we were talking about Animorphs)

any other context obviously agree

# ¿ Sep 4, 2020 16:53

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Silly Newbie posted:

I didn't know anything about the author's politics going in, but I feel like I really, really did after the first book, and yikes. Books 2 and 3 are a little more (modern) politically neutral, to my reading, although super depressing.

Closer to politically neutral but incredibly misogynistic, as the focal female characters make literally every choice wrong (up to and including two distinct ones that should have wiped out the entire human race!) while various Hard Men Doing Hard Things make enormous sacrifices, cleverly trick the near-omniscient aliens, and propose insane ideas that are just strictly better than the ladies' in every way.

like seriously it's a shame that the universe in the books is so cool cause it's definitely in the John C. Wright box for me, where I love the ideas in the books and I hate every single character and everything about the way the author expressed everything

# ¿ Sep 9, 2020 15:47

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Black Griffon posted:

Getting way close to a derail here, but he's expressed support for Chinese government concentration camps among other things, and that's not exactly neutral.

Right, I wasn't characterizing his (abhorrent) personal views, just the political stances as published in the books (which still lean authoritarian)

# ¿ Sep 9, 2020 17:07

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

quantumfoam posted:

-SFLers note that Jack Chalker's stories all seeming to have involuntary species + gender swaps for main characters and the subsequent kinky sex that happens due to species/gender changes makes me very happy I have only read one of Jack Chalker's stories (it was notable for the extreme speed of the plot movement vs modern fantasy books) and nothing more.

this is true, good to know they knew it even at the time

# ¿ Sep 14, 2020 11:01

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Just finished Baru 3, did I miss any indication that the spinal surgery to remove a slice of Abd's tumor was going to paralyze him before it was revealed that it had happened? I thought they said they were super good at that thing so I assumed it would not happen.

# ¿ Sep 18, 2020 21:40

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

DurianGray posted:

Baru 3 spoilers:

There's also the fact that Iscend isn't the one who did the surgery, the Cancrioth took Abd and Iraji back on the ship do to it. And the surgeries were interrupted by Faham's raid on the ship, so even if everything had been going fine before then, that was probably when his spine was injured.

More Baru 3 spoilers: Right, I assumed that the Cancrioth were really, really good at those surgeries because they've been doing this for a millennium, but that the latter was the reason why because the ship presumably was getting hosed up by the drugs and all the violence.

# ¿ Sep 19, 2020 12:06

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 15, 2024 02:36

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

quantumfoam posted:

-1986 SFL people continue debating Tolkien lore throughout April 1986 into early June 1986 and gradually come to the conclusion that GANDALF IS ILLITERATE

...Isn't he the one that reads the Elvish script on the door into Moria? Or is that someone else and he just speaks friend and enters?

(note that doesn't mean he can read Westron, or whatever the Hobbits write in, or any other language other than whichever of Q/S that is on the door)

# ¿ Sep 19, 2020 20:59

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > SF & F Mega-thread: I had to google 'spock pirate depilatory'

«‹›10 »