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General Battuta posted:If any of you are into short fiction I have a piece up on Strange Horizons, one of my favorite pro markets. Even comes with a podcast! Congrats on getting published in Strange Horizons. I know you aren't really asking for a crit, but I thought I'd give some impressions anyway: This premise reminded me a bit of Ted Chiang's The Story of your Life. I have been seeing a lot of premises like this lately. In Strange Horizons, just a week or two ago, there was the story about the woman experiencing days out of order. Your twist on it was original enough that I didn't mind the similarities; I enjoyed the characters and the gradual reveal of Hayden's godhood. Keeping the beer cold was a unique and effective method of introducing how Hayden was a god and what it meant. The ending worked for me mostly because it showed that Naveen was probably most interested in Hayden the god and not Hayden the person, which was a clever touch. I didn't care for the two characters' names. They both were equally not-common in a way that made it difficult for me to keep them straight. The names of the gods (like Enshagag) struck me as somewhat pulled out of the air. The names meshed with the lighter tone you created, and they left in some ambiguity as to whether Hayden really was a god (though the beer thing exhaustively ruled this possibility out for me.) Hayden being born to ease the pain in someone's foot was just too light and too much information for me. I would have enjoyed the piece more if Hayden had not revealed any of these details about being a god. The explanation of how things were set and just happened to benefit Hayden was strong enough on their own, I didn't need to know names and facts from when he was a god. If you did tell me them, I wanted the to be more compelling names and facts. The ideas and characters were strong, but the overall piece was less effective, to me, because of the tone in the areas I mentioned. The beer temperature alone would have set a light tone for me, but the other things pushed it too far. quote:For more content, I'm curious, how many people ITT have published SF/F, or tried to do so? I submitted to the James White Award last year, but didn't win. I submitted a flash fiction piece to dailysciencefiction.com. I'm assuming it will be rejected, but I'm going to keep trying. I'm writing a novel now, but I really love short fiction and want to try to get some short fiction published before I even bother trying to get the novel published. angel opportunity fucked around with this message at 19:38 on Aug 20, 2013 |
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Aug 20, 2013 19:34
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Peel posted:This was fantastic, thanks. And it has inspired me to get going again on a story of my own. I've published 2 stories at the semi-pro level this year. The first through Isotropic Fiction and the second through Alt Hist magazine. I have good reason to believe that my first pro sale will happen in the next few months.
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Aug 20, 2013 22:25
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General Battuta posted:If any of you are into short fiction I have a piece up on Strange Horizons, one of my favorite pro markets. Even comes with a podcast! I see you are a fan of Kij Johnson 
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Aug 20, 2013 23:46
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General Battuta posted:If any of you are into short fiction I have a piece up on Strange Horizons, one of my favorite pro markets. Even comes with a podcast!
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Aug 21, 2013 00:04
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Wow... I really should have googled "Enshagag". That really changes my interpretation given that this was referenced from a real god. It makes the tone not as light as I thought. I'm usually pretty good at spotting what kind of language or culture something came from, but this totally went over my head.
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Aug 21, 2013 00:17
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systran posted:I'm usually pretty good at spotting what kind of language or culture something came from, but this totally went over my head.
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Aug 21, 2013 00:31
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Hello thread. I came in here a few weeks back and got a lot of really good fantasy recommendations which I'm still reading on. However, I'm almost done with the 3rd book in Reynold's RS series, so I figured I'd go ahead and ask some opinions on a new sci-fi series. Here is what I want - A series(The longer the better) that's at least mostly serialized. I like to invest myself. You can probably tell from context, but by sci fi I mean the spaceships kind, rather than superpowers or something. I don't mind hard sci-fi but it doesn't have to be packed full of technobabble or anything. I prefer something with a good bit of characters, hopefully a more complex story that takes place either over a big distance, or over time. It doesn't matter particularly, just something "epic". I probably should ask this in the space opera thread maybe, but I'm not sure. There should obviously be space travel, battles, etc but it doesn't have to solely focus on only that. Also, I can't stand first person. I've read and enjoyed the Honor series(yeah I know), the Commonwealth series(really liked this one) and Revelation Space. I tried Lost Fleet, but the whole thing with everyone being stupid and not knowing battle tactics because their "hero" has been missing is just a gimmick I couldn't get past. I couldn't stand Ender's Game either, again the dumb gimmick. Basically I just want a series that's got the standard stuff like spaceships and battles, and has a fairly epic feel to the story, but really as long as it's interesting it will do. I tried the Culture series, but was told they are all mostly standalone stories. I don't mind that but it's not what I want right now. Also, war/military sci-fi is good, but not a total requirement. Sorry to sound so picky and weird, it's because I'm picky and weird. Also apologies for the post being a bit disjointed, I suck at writing and articulating my tastes when it comes to entertainment. Thanks. edit: I also liked The Expanse, but I'm putting off reading the latest book for now until the next comes out. And while the whole in solar system thing didn't bother me, I prefer a bigger scale. Also the whole big mystery thing it had going for it was really cool, so I like big mysteries that make you go "WTF" even if it's a bit ridiculous. Drunk Driver Dad fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Aug 21, 2013 |
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Aug 21, 2013 03:40
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Blog Free or Die posted:^^^How much can you flip it for on ebay, though Probably enough to cover the cost of all the books I bought at the sale, but generally speaking I don't buy books to flip them.
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Aug 21, 2013 05:01
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BlazinLow305 posted:Hello thread. I came in here a few weeks back and got a lot of really good fantasy recommendations which I'm still reading on. However, I'm almost done with the 3rd book in Reynold's RS series, so I figured I'd go ahead and ask some opinions on a new sci-fi series. Here is what I want - A series(The longer the better) that's at least mostly serialized. I like to invest myself. You can probably tell from context, but by sci fi I mean the spaceships kind, rather than superpowers or something. I don't mind hard sci-fi but it doesn't have to be packed full of technobabble or anything. I prefer something with a good bit of characters, hopefully a more complex story that takes place either over a big distance, or over time. It doesn't matter particularly, just something "epic". I probably should ask this in the space opera thread maybe, but I'm not sure. There should obviously be space travel, battles, etc but it doesn't have to solely focus on only that. Also, I can't stand first person. You might take a look at The Unincorporated Man, a 4 book, now complete series with a very interesting premise.
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Aug 21, 2013 05:12
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Glad you guys liked it, and well spotted Hedrigall - I wrote the story after spending time with her at the Alpha workshop, though I think the homage is almost purely structural. Story of Your Life wasn't a conscious influence, I think it's one of Chiang's weakest. I have pieces coming up in Beneath Ceaseless Skies and Lightspeed, though I'm not sure precisely when. Also, as general advice to people trying to break into short fiction: don't shoot too low. Check what kind of rates the market pays before you submit. If it's less than five cents a word, avoid them unless they have an established reputation (Ideomancer, Giganotasaurus, etc - something that publishes known names). Some people might disagree with this advice, but I'm personally of the opinion that a sale to a subpar market is worse for you than no sale at all. Assuming rejection is good. You will be rejected lots and lots and lots. You want to start at the best market and work down. My list of go-to markets, in roughly this order, would probably be Clarkesworld Lightspeed Asimov's Analog (if hard SF) Fantasy and Science Fiction (print submissions only) Strange Horizons Beneath Ceaseless Skies Apex Daily Science Fiction maybe Ideomancer, maybe Giganotasaurus, maybe Shimmer and, last, Tor.com, which pays excellent rates and gives you fantastic exposure, but which has very long response times and a very low acceptance rate But I've probably missed something important. Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet is quite excellent. General Battuta fucked around with this message at 05:53 on Aug 21, 2013 |
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Aug 21, 2013 05:26
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BlazinLow305 posted:Hello thread. I came in here a few weeks back and got a lot of really good fantasy recommendations which I'm still reading on. However, I'm almost done with the 3rd book in Reynold's RS series, so I figured I'd go ahead and ask some opinions on a new sci-fi series. Here is what I want - A series(The longer the better) that's at least mostly serialized. I like to invest myself. You can probably tell from context, but by sci fi I mean the spaceships kind, rather than superpowers or something. I don't mind hard sci-fi but it doesn't have to be packed full of technobabble or anything. I prefer something with a good bit of characters, hopefully a more complex story that takes place either over a big distance, or over time. It doesn't matter particularly, just something "epic". I probably should ask this in the space opera thread maybe, but I'm not sure. There should obviously be space travel, battles, etc but it doesn't have to solely focus on only that. Also, I can't stand first person. Before you move off Reynolds read House of Suns. It has most of what you want and is far and away Reynold's best book.
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Aug 21, 2013 05:39
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My wife's hunting for some examples (for a class of 16-17 year olds) of "difficult/sophisticated" fantasy novels in order to demonstrate how titles within the same genre can vary wildly in terms of: * sophisticated language (read: heavy) * complexity (i.e. not the standard "saving the world from a clearly defined evil") I thought that maybe grabbing some examples of "high" fantasy would fit the bill, but I'm not a big fantasy reader myself so I didn't want to dive headlong into a few titles only to find that they're considered teenage-fantasy-levels by experienced fantasy readers. The OP and flow-chart were very helpful in terms of a starting point - just curious if there's other titles out there any of you would recommend. My wife's initial request was something along the lines of "like Heart of Darkness but Fantasy"; one other stipulation she made is that it has to maintain a non-adult rating (I think the incest from something like A Song of Ice and Fire might be a bit much for a catholic school). Hopefully that's not too specific - thanks!
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Aug 21, 2013 08:39
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Perdido Street Station starts with an almost unreadably difficult passage about a man sailing up a river into a terrible place. I'm not sure it remains comfortably young-adult-safe much past that point, but the opening at least could do...
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Aug 21, 2013 08:49
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buildmorefarms posted:My wife's hunting for some examples (for a class of 16-17 year olds) of "difficult/sophisticated" fantasy novels in order to demonstrate how titles within the same genre can vary wildly in terms of: A Canticle For Leibowitz sounds perfect for these requirements, but it's SF. The Lies of Locke Lamora would do for fantasy if you don't mind bleeping out the swear words.
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Aug 21, 2013 08:55
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BlazinLow305 posted:Hello thread. I came in here a few weeks back and got a lot of really good fantasy recommendations which I'm still reading on. However, I'm almost done with the 3rd book in Reynold's RS series, so I figured I'd go ahead and ask some opinions on a new sci-fi series. Here is what I want - A series(The longer the better) that's at least mostly serialized. I like to invest myself. You can probably tell from context, but by sci fi I mean the spaceships kind, rather than superpowers or something. I don't mind hard sci-fi but it doesn't have to be packed full of technobabble or anything. I prefer something with a good bit of characters, hopefully a more complex story that takes place either over a big distance, or over time. It doesn't matter particularly, just something "epic". I probably should ask this in the space opera thread maybe, but I'm not sure. There should obviously be space travel, battles, etc but it doesn't have to solely focus on only that. Also, I can't stand first person. What about The Culture series by Iain M Banks? I really like all the things you mentioned and I also love The Culture series. It's quite a bit more optimistic than RS though.
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Aug 21, 2013 09:05
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General Battuta posted:Perdido Street Station starts with an almost unreadably difficult passage about a man sailing up a river into a terrible place. I'm not sure it remains comfortably young-adult-safe much past that point, but the opening at least could do... Jedit posted:A Canticle For Leibowitz sounds perfect for these requirements, but it's SF. The Lies of Locke Lamora would do for fantasy if you don't mind bleeping out the swear words. Thanks to you both! I think explicit language isn't as much of a deal-breaker as more adult themes (like perhaps sexualised violence or extremely detailed torture) would be, so that's perfect.
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Aug 21, 2013 09:05
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buildmorefarms posted:Thanks to you both! I would definitely worry about both of those things in Perdido. It gets fairly dark. Ah - how about some LeGuin? A later Earthsea book, maybe? They're very accessible but Tehanu in particular complicates the traditional fantasy narrative of the earlier books a great deal.
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Aug 21, 2013 09:08
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buildmorefarms posted:My wife's hunting for some examples (for a class of 16-17 year olds) of "difficult/sophisticated" fantasy novels in order to demonstrate how titles within the same genre can vary wildly in terms of: Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange by Susanna Clarke is a fantasy set in Viktorian England with fairies and sorceror. Quite popular even outside the normal fantasy/scifi readers. Otherwise, LeGuin or Wolfe seems appropriate. I read the Earthsea series as a teenager and that was great fun then.
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Aug 21, 2013 09:39
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General Battuta posted:Perdido Street Station starts with an almost unreadably difficult passage about a man sailing up a river into a terrible place. I'm not sure it remains comfortably young-adult-safe much past that point, but the opening at least could do... What about The City and The City? Not as complex as Perdido maybe, but I would love to have a class of 16 year olds read that (or any Miéville). It's fantasy depending on how you want to interpret the latter chapters; it's about two cities that share the same space physically, but not socially.
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Aug 21, 2013 10:22
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buildmorefarms posted:My wife's hunting for some examples (for a class of 16-17 year olds) of "difficult/sophisticated" fantasy novels in order to demonstrate how titles within the same genre can vary wildly in terms of: Not so much the second, but The Simarillion would work for the first part.
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Aug 21, 2013 12:25
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buildmorefarms posted:Thanks to you both! Johnathan Strange is probably what you want, it's basically a fantasy novel written as if written by a contemporary of Jane Austen. Completely kid-safe. Lies of Locke Lamora is well-written and *awesome* but the language is mostly modern and it does contain some graphic torture scenes.
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Aug 21, 2013 12:44
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I'm reading Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun... it probably would be too much for high school students though. quote:Wolfe makes extensive use of allegory within the series, as Severian is identified as a Christ/Apollo figure: he is destined to revitalize the Sun and save the Earth while at the same time destroying it. Adding further to the books' many riddles is Wolfe's usage of archaic, obscure (but never invented) words to describe the world of the far future. In an Appendix at the end of The Shadow of the Torturer, Wolfe explains that this is one of the difficulties in translating Severian's writing ("in a tongue that has not yet achieved existence") into English. An example can be found in Severian's fuligin cloak ("the color that is darker than black"), probably derived from fuliginous, an obscure and archaic word meaning sooty.[10] Other examples are optimates, named for a political faction in Republican Rome, aquastor, a spiritual being that appears in the works of Paracelsus, and fiacre, a small carriage (which is, in fact, a French word with that meaning).
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Aug 21, 2013 13:47
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Cardiac posted:Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange by Susanna Clarke Late Georgian/Regency England actually. Napoleonic Wars and all that, very different time.
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Aug 21, 2013 15:39
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Give them The Worm Ouroboros, most of them won't understand enough of the writing to figure out that it's an extremely silly typical fantasy story.BlazinLow305 posted:spaceships It might run afoul of your no gimmicks stipulation, but check out the Night's Dawn books. I guess it's technically just a trilogy but they're like a thousand pages each and I think the original release split them all into three books.
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Aug 21, 2013 15:46
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systran posted:I'm reading Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun... it probably would be too much for high school students though. That's a little too complex. The Wizard Knight is Wolfe's take on fantasy which is actually a lot more straightforward than most of his tales... It'll still go way over the head of a lot of highschoolers, though. The Latro books are historical fantasy which are amazing. Fifth Head of Cerberus is his most concise novel. It is a post-colonial text and a really good one so it has that recommending it given the Heart of Darkness comparisons. Probably his best text to analyse at a high-school level, actually. It's three stories which are interwoven, set on a planet where the natives are shapeshifters that can imitate humans. They assumed human shapes when we came and some have forgotten they were ever shapeshifters. They may have also interbred, but it's difficult to tell. The first is about the son of an important figure in the colonial community who is conducting rather unethical experiments on his son, the second is a story set hundreds of years beforehand, a fable about the natives, and the third looks at the travails of a scientist visiting the planet who takes a native boy under his wing. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Aug 21, 2013 |
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Aug 21, 2013 15:54
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buildmorefarms posted:My wife's hunting for some examples (for a class of 16-17 year olds) of "difficult/sophisticated" fantasy novels in order to demonstrate how titles within the same genre can vary wildly in terms of: Everlost, Everwild, Everfound by Neal Shusterman would be worth looking at.
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Aug 21, 2013 23:53
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Johnathan Strange is probably what you want, it's basically a fantasy novel written as if written by a contemporary of Jane Austen. Completely kid-safe. I agree, although it's incredibly long and half of it is footnotes so it could be difficult for a high school class attention span. Also, if you're looking at Mieville, Embassytown might be better for high school kids. I think it's a little easier to wrap your head around than Perdido Street Station and the fact that language and metaphor are a central part of the story makes it interesting from an academic standpoint. What I would really recommend for a class though, is short stories. It's much easier to compare and contrast a range of voices and subject matters by pulling a selection of stories. I know that we read Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" in school and James Tiptree Jr. also might be a good ones to look at. You could also get in some authors whose other works might be off the table from a content standpoint. George RR Martin has some good short stories, for example. You can also compare voices from different times - stories from the 1970s vs. now, etc.
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Aug 22, 2013 00:43
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specklebang posted:You might take a look at The Unincorporated Man, a 4 book, now complete series with a very interesting premise. I still can't decide if TUM was tolerable or preachy. I think it comes down to whether or not the author(s?) actually believe the screed their wunderkind main character promulgates, or are using him to critique. Ceebees fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Aug 22, 2013 |
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Aug 22, 2013 01:43
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So, I've been reading the Takeshi Kovacs novels - previously I'd started on Altered Carbon but hadn't finished it - and while they are enjoyable on the whole, one thing that's irritating me is the gratuitous sex. Every female character introduced I have to wonder 'So, when is Kovacs going to sleep with her?' I find it all the more irritating because Kovacs doesn't really seem to have that much charisma, Envoy training notwithstanding.
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Aug 22, 2013 03:05
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Ceebees posted:I still can't decide if TUM was tolerable or preachy. I think it comes down to whether or not the author(s?) actually believe the screed their wunderkind main character promulgates, or are using him to critique. I thought Incorporation was a brilliant concept and I secretly cheered for the bad guys but not the bad Avatars.
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Aug 22, 2013 06:02
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Ceebees posted:I still can't decide if TUM was tolerable or preachy. I think it comes down to whether or not the author(s?) actually believe the screed their wunderkind main character promulgates, or are using him to critique. It won the Promethius award in 2010, for best Libertarian novel...
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Aug 22, 2013 10:17
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buildmorefarms posted:My wife's hunting for some examples (for a class of 16-17 year olds) of "difficult/sophisticated" fantasy novels in order to demonstrate how titles within the same genre can vary wildly in terms of: The Silmarillion or even The Lord of the Rings would probably fit the bill despite being books that a lot of people here probably actually read in high school. It's going to be hard to find modern titles within those constraints (my first suggestion was going to be BotNS by Gene Wolfe like the posters above but it's literally about a cannibal assassin) as a lot of books with more sophisticated language kind of deal with heavier subjects. However, Tolkein was a Catholic and a linguist so he should be perfect.
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Aug 22, 2013 10:28
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BlazinLow305 posted:I prefer something with a good bit of characters, hopefully a more complex story that takes place either over a big distance, or over time. It doesn't matter particularly, just something "epic". I probably should ask this in the space opera thread maybe, but I'm not sure. There should obviously be space travel, battles, etc but it doesn't have to solely focus on only that. Also, I can't stand first person. Have you or have you not read Bujold's Vorkosigan series yet? Because if you haven't that sounds like it should hit the spot rather well.
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Aug 22, 2013 13:48
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Is this seriously how Hyperion ends?
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Aug 22, 2013 18:53
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Hyperion doesn't have a good standalone ending; it and The Fall of Hyperion are basically one book, broken into two pieces. A lot of Simmons' books are like that - Endymion/The Rise of Endymion and Illium/Olympos also.
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Aug 22, 2013 19:20
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Great Gray Shrike posted:Hyperion doesn't have a good standalone ending; it and The Fall of Hyperion are basically one book, broken into two pieces. A lot of Simmons' books are like that - Endymion/The Rise of Endymion and Illium/Olympos also. Simmons has Stephen King disease when it comes to endings. That said, I actually thought Illium had a decent standalone ending. Olympos is just pretty terrible in general.
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Aug 22, 2013 19:29
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Ceebees posted:I still can't decide if TUM was tolerable or preachy. I think it comes down to whether or not the author(s?) actually believe the screed their wunderkind main character promulgates, or are using him to critique. I can't remember where I read this, but in an article with the authors I believe they claim that at least one of them is (was?) solidly libertarian, but as they wrote through the series it influenced both of their worldviews in the opposite direction. Which is kind of interesting just from a psychological standpoint, given that researching and writing a novel has rarely been known to drastically change any writer's mind on his/her theme. So maybe that makes it worthwhile for you?
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Aug 22, 2013 19:34
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CowboyKid posted:Is this seriously how Hyperion ends? I felt the same way. Then I read the second half and felt worse.
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Aug 22, 2013 20:11
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So amazon just threw this up at me. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A281B5I/ref=pd_csr_hcb_youra_b_t It has an Iron Druid short story in it, too.
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Aug 22, 2013 20:20
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Wangsbig posted:I felt the same way. Then I read the second half and felt worse. I got halfway through book two and gave up on it forever. Did you feel that the "Keats" thing was going a bit too far in book one? Maybe it felt like he was trying to give a nod to an author he liked and got slightly carried away? Well in book two you get a ROBOT JOHN KEATS as a viewpoint character, wait actually I think you get two robot Keats, each a different version. That female detective character falls in love with the first robot Keats, by the way.
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Aug 22, 2013 20:38
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