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andrew smash posted:I am honestly not sure what you mean by this. Sf/f is there, but there are other genres in the makeup (school story, mystery, romance, childrens'/YA) that are seen as more important. YA's the most important, so they tend to get thought of as YA and a little forgotten in sf/f more generally. Same deal as those angel-romance fantasies wheich are technically fantasy but sold/though of as romance, or technothrillers. E: Moreover. Safety Biscuits fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Oct 14, 2013 |
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Oct 14, 2013 22:29
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Darth Walrus posted:Gosh, Burroughs was really that successful? In his day, yeah. Keep in mind he wrote Tarzan AND the John Carter books, both of which were WILDLY successful. There were literally hundreds of Tarzan movies. It'd be the modern day equivalent of one dude writing both Wheel of Time and Song of Ice and Fire. House Louse posted:Sf/f is there, but there are other genres in the makeup (school story, mystery, romance, childrens'/YA) that are seen as more important. YA's the most important, so they tend to get thought of as YA and a little forgotten in sf/f more generally. Same deal as those angel-romance fantasies wheich are technically fantasy but sold/though of as romance, or technothrillers. The funniest thing about Harry Potter is that all the books are essentially mystery novels. The setting is fantasy but the plots are straight up mystery puzzles, just using fantasy rules to hide the ball.
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Oct 14, 2013 23:13
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House Louse posted:Per Wikipedia: drat but I wish there was more Jin Yong in English translation.
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Oct 14, 2013 23:37
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andrew smash posted:Haha, my mom read dean koontz novels when i was a kid and i stole some of them. They're basically proto-twilight. Horrible romance novels with bad sex scenes and dumb sci-fi themes such as time-traveling nazis (seriously). gently caress you! Lightning was awesome.
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Oct 14, 2013 23:50
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andrew smash posted:Oh yeah, I forgot about those. I think battuta has an interesting point though. Nobody calls those books fantasy. They don't get filed with fantasy/sf in bookstores. But they clearly are. Machetes and bows aren't swords and Uhhh, bows? I always assumed this was intentional, to avoid the SFF stigma in the aisles at the store. 
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Oct 15, 2013 00:23
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Would you guys recommend River of Gods? Cyberpunk in India sounds pretty cool and I liked the excerpt on Amazon.
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Oct 15, 2013 00:52
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TheWorldIsSquare posted:Would you guys recommend River of Gods? Cyberpunk in India sounds pretty cool and I liked the excerpt on Amazon. That sounds fascinating; I'd love more science fiction from/about South Asia (or really just people of color in general). And preferably by South Asian/poc authors. fookolt fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Oct 15, 2013 |
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Oct 15, 2013 00:59
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TheWorldIsSquare posted:Would you guys recommend River of Gods? Cyberpunk in India sounds pretty cool and I liked the excerpt on Amazon. I thought it was great when I read it a few years back.
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Oct 15, 2013 01:04
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fookolt posted:That sounds fascinating; I'd love more science fiction from/about South Asia (or really just people of color in general). And preferably by South Asian/poc authors. You should check out short fiction by Yoon Ha Lee and Benjanun Sriduangkaew. A lot of it's quite free online. I think a ton of people in this thread would enjoy The Knight of Chains, The Deuce of Stars.
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Oct 15, 2013 01:07
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TheWorldIsSquare posted:Would you guys recommend River of Gods? Cyberpunk in India sounds pretty cool and I liked the excerpt on Amazon. Confirming that River of Gods kicks rear end. If you finish the book and want more, there's also a short-story collection in the same universe called Cyberabad Days. Ian McDonald has also written sci-fi set in Istanbul (The Dervish House), which is also great, and São Paulo (Brasyl), which I thought was moderately interesting but not nearly as awesome as the other two.
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Oct 15, 2013 03:20
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Victorkm posted:gently caress you! Lightning was awesome. What this guy said.  Koontz can be awesome, so long as he leaves that loving dog out of the book. The series about the guy who can't be in sunlight is pretty badass and weird. Same with a few of his other books. Once he got into the dog years though, the quality loving tanked.
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Oct 15, 2013 03:44
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:The series about the guy who can't be in sunlight is pretty badass and weird. Same with a few of his other books. Once he got into the dog years though, the quality loving tanked. There was a dog in the Moonlight Bay books. One of Koontz's genetically-engineered super-smart dogs, in fact.
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Oct 15, 2013 04:11
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Yea, but it fit in with the whole genetic engineering aspect of the book. Same with Watchers (a good book). When the superdog just shows up (Canus ex machina) and saves the day is when it gets incredibly annoying. The last decade or so of his writing has been "If a dog shows up, that dog is gonna save the day" plot development.
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Oct 15, 2013 04:29
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Nondescript Van posted:Is "Ancillary Justice" and good? I've read positive things but all of it just seems like ad copy from the publisher. I just finished it and found it really enjoyable. One warning: it's clearly the first in a series, and the book ends more as a setup for further stories than as something completely self-contained. The protagonist is a pretty interesting viewpoint (and not just for the pronoun usage Megazver mentions): she's an ex-starship, and in flashback chapters (there are two storylines) we often see her POV from multiple places at once, or as multiple members of a squad of AI-slaved/networked Ancillaries. Megazver posted:There is a lot of hype for it, but a large amount of it is about how ~*socially progressive*~ it is with the default pronoun for everyone in the book being 'she', etc. That's over-simplifying it a bit. The protagonist's language doesn't have gendered pronouns, she uses "she" as a default pronoun, and when interacting with other cultures that do care about this has difficulty in getting the gender of pronouns correct. There's definitely an interesting side-effect here, where many characters mentioned, I could not tell you if they were male or female unless our POV character happened to make some observation about them (expecting a child, etc) or a character for whom pronouns *do* signify talked about them. I found it interesting (though confusing at times) and did not see it as some kind of big socially progressive agenda thing -- the empire in question is certainly backwards or problematic in plenty of other ways that probably outweigh pronoun usage in the grand scheme of things. Subjugating planets and converting (large) problematic segments of the population into AI slaved soldiers, to subjugate more planets with, for example...
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Oct 15, 2013 09:11
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I just finished the fourth Peter Grant book (Broken Homes) by Ben Aaronovitch. I have to agree with whoever it was who posted in this thread earlier about the big twist coming out of nowhere. There were little hints here and there, but even those conflicted with another part of the plot. Also what was the big River party about? It kind of just happened and contributed nothing to the plot. I'd really like to see these books fleshed out an extra 80 pages or so. I love Aaronovitch's take on wizards and I want to see more of Grant's training and research. It seems at the moment he's just doing the same things from the first book, but now with the staff construction added. Loved the Russian character though and her little history. Hopefully reveals a bit more about Nightingale's aging affliction or teaches Grant some mad poo poo. Aaronovitch can write the action scenes well and i'd love to see more of them.
ed balls balls man fucked around with this message at 11:54 on Oct 15, 2013 |
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Oct 15, 2013 11:50
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The last book of the Thomas Covenant series by Stephen R. Donaldson is out today. The Last Dark. I know opinions are mixed about even the original books here, which are unarguably better than these recent publications, but I thought I'd put it out there. I've found the new series to be worth reading, albeit probably not necessary, if that makes sense.
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Oct 15, 2013 13:37
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Azathoth posted:General Battuta's comment is dead-on. His writing is deeply problematic for anyone who is even passably aware of issues with either gender or sexuality, and for someone looking for books that tackle bigger issues within the fantasy or scifi genre, Bakker is the exact wrong place to start. He's the logical conclusion of the "written exclusively for men" strain within the fantasy genre and his exploration of the issues he tries to tackle is misguided at best and offensive at worst. Do you have to agree with an author's premise to find their ideas interesting or their material worth reading? Perhaps you might find it worth reading BECAUSE you don't agree with them? I guess there's nothing whatsoever of intellectual value in reading material written by people you don't agree with. Lol (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Oct 15, 2013 17:23
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There's a world of difference between avoiding books because you might not like them and critiquing an author's arguments.
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Oct 15, 2013 17:57
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Cardiac posted:Reading sex scenes by Hamilton and Morgan makes me cringe, simply because the scenes are basically a wish fullfillment of the authors.
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Oct 15, 2013 18:58
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mallamp posted:It's even worse reading the same from female authors "ahhh those abs, ahh that androgynous, yet muscular & oiled teenager (who's bi-sexual by the way, and reads poetry)". At least you can relate to the male-written male-centric stuff as a man. Oops, no, that's not trendy opinion at all - actually I'm feminist and I hate all those dirty male authors. You forgot "waist-length hair".
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Oct 15, 2013 19:02
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Play posted:Do you have to agree with an author's premise to find their ideas interesting or their material worth reading? Perhaps you might find it worth reading BECAUSE you don't agree with them? I guess there's nothing whatsoever of intellectual value in reading material written by people you don't agree with. Lol I'm not going to read the Turner Diaries either.
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Oct 15, 2013 19:04
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Play posted:Do you have to agree with an author's premise to find their ideas interesting or their material worth reading? Perhaps you might find it worth reading BECAUSE you don't agree with them? I guess there's nothing whatsoever of intellectual value in reading material written by people you don't agree with. Lol I got more than two books in Bakker's series before I ran across his views online, and I only found them because I had already become deeply troubled by some of the actions of the protagonists, which were being presented as good, when they were really not to me. I discovered a spoiler that I had already guessed: Kellhus isn't the protagonist and I'm not supposed to like him., which addressed my concern. However, when I read some of what he believed, only then did I grasp why Bakker decided to take the story in the direction he did. His philosophy really isn't apparent in The Prince of Nothing without a key. Perhaps it gets more overt later, but up to the point I read, I chalked it up to idiosyncratic misogyny, which is how it manifests. It also takes 1000+ pages to get that far, which is a long ways to go for someone who isn't used to doorstopper fantasy. I never said don't read them, only to go in with eyes open, but let's not ptetend this is Lolita or another book expressing horrible opinions in a sympathetic fashion. This is well-written fantasy, with horrible philosophical backing, written by a broken man who believes his broken views are a good thing.
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Oct 15, 2013 19:30
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Combed Thunderclap posted:Confirming that River of Gods kicks rear end. If you finish the book and want more, there's also a short-story collection in the same universe called Cyberabad Days. Cool, I'll check it out. Finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Fascinating story. I was going to compare it to Blade Runner but I realized that they're such different beasts that it's not really worth it.
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Oct 15, 2013 20:21
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So I finished "On the Steel Breeze", latest book by Alastair Reynolds in the Poseidon's Children series, yesterday. First impression: Was that all? At least the previous book had some cool features like The Evolvarium and the Merfolk, but in this book Reynolds introduces different plot elements and doesn't really expand upon them. To me it felt like he would have needed an editor to cut down various plot elements and focus on the story line. Given that the book spans several centuries in time, similarly to Accelerando, I guess it is hard to get a cohesive story line going. It seems like he is trying to do something on artificial intelligence despite it's apparently not his forte. Revelation Space series works for the most part since it deals with cold hard space and good characters, while House of Suns had a focused story line, and given he is an astrophysicist that's probably something more up his sleeve.
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Oct 18, 2013 07:54
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Has anyone else read Miles Cameron's The Red Knight? I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying it, considering I've seen it out for a while but never really bothering with it due to the uninteresting sounding blurb. It's got a Black Company/Song of Ice and Fire feel to it, but while still being in the same realistic/grim style it isn't as oppressively bleak and cynical as SoIaF, which made me grow to dislike that series - I can only stand utterly unlikable characters killing each other off and dying horribly for so long, you know? 
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Oct 18, 2013 11:14
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Wolpertinger posted:Has anyone else read Miles Cameron's The Red Knight? I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying it, considering I've seen it out for a while but never really bothering with it due to the uninteresting sounding blurb. It's got a Black Company/Song of Ice and Fire feel to it, but while still being in the same realistic/grim style it isn't as oppressively bleak and cynical as SoIaF, which made me grow to dislike that series - I can only stand utterly unlikable characters killing each other off and dying horribly for so long, you know? I've put it down 1/3 through to read something else and didn't go back to it yet, but I should. It was pretty decent. He way overdid it with the number of PoVs, though.
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Oct 18, 2013 11:58
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I found it really hard to enjoy with the choppy POVs (seriously some of the 'chapters' would be like a sentence and then it was on to someone else) and hated the way he wrote female characters. The battle scenes (i. e. most of the book) were pretty great once he settled into them, though -- the author is really into medieval history and reenactment, and it shows.
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Oct 18, 2013 14:08
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A Game of Chess posted:I found it really hard to enjoy with the choppy POVs (seriously some of the 'chapters' would be like a sentence and then it was on to someone else) and hated the way he wrote female characters. The battle scenes (i. e. most of the book) were pretty great once he settled into them, though -- the author is really into medieval history and reenactment, and it shows. Yeah, the choppy PoVs were a bit much - they also indirectly resulted in a ludicrous number of characters when combined with the length of the book - it was quite the tome. I admit that I got many characters completely mixed up or forgot about them. To be fair, though, he did have a good number of completely separate PoVs going on that were all having equally interesting stories - a lot of books with multiple PoVs make me hate the author when you swap from the interesting character to a boring one, but that didn't happen as much here.
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Oct 18, 2013 23:18
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I'll throw in one final plug of Harry Connolly's Kickstarter for his epic fantasy novel The Great Way because I have no shame . It hit the final stretch goal yesterday and now everyone who pledges $12+ will get the Twenty Palaces prequel novel, the to-be-finished-next-year pacifist UF novel (think Dresden Files meets Auntie Mame) and, now, the short story collection with almost every short story he wrote so far which will include new Twenty Palaces story (all in ebook format) in addition to the other stuff you'd get depending on the tier. There are also some cool-sounding RPG supplements for FATE Core and some wallpapers and a map, but the books are the exciting bit. It's a hell of a deal from an excellent writer.
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Oct 18, 2013 23:34
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I really hope this sorta makes a switch flip in his brain to where he goes "Hmm, kickstarter for a new 20p book might be a good idea!".
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Oct 18, 2013 23:48
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I suspect we'll have to see a few more successful novels from him before he gives it another try. I'm okay with waiting a while, as long as he actually writes other awesome books while at it.
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Oct 18, 2013 23:55
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I am trying to find a leather bound copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as a present for my 16 year old cousin. I know the book exists because I have the leather bound version on my desk at work but now I can not find it any where in stores in my area, E-Bay, Amazon and Google have not turned up anything in searches. This is a probable long shot but have any of you all seen the leather bound version in your local bookstores? I will gladly pay for you to pick it up for me and a small finders fee too, I will happily give him the normal paperback version but seeing has how this is one of my favorite books to read, I want to get him the nicer looking book.
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Oct 19, 2013 18:59
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The one you're looking for is "The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide." Google tells me it's being sold for around 50 dollars new.
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Oct 19, 2013 21:12
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There's also a super-fancy leatherbound edition from Easton Press (gilt edges, ribbon bookmark and all that) that you can find from resellers for a couple hundred, though I think that might be just the first book instead of all five.
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Oct 19, 2013 22:01
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Barnes & Noble has this leather-bound omnibus of all 5 Hitchhiker's Guide books. Looking at the reviews, there are some questions about the quality, but the design is attractive. I own this Wings Books edition which looks tacky with the dust jacket and extremely plain without it, but it feels like a fairly high-quality binding. It withstood my many teenage re-readings, anyway.
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Oct 19, 2013 22:43
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Megazver posted:I'll throw in one final plug of Harry Connolly's Kickstarter for his epic fantasy novel The Great Way because I have no shame . Last few hours on there, so get in while you can.
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Oct 19, 2013 23:07
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Looking at the Easton Press books brought up a few Google images and I found the copy I have. http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/230597700506?lpid=82utm_campaign=localinventory&gclid=CLjS5vCHpLoCFWtk7Aodo18AFw(link to book on E-Bay) and what the heck would cause that copy of the book to shoot up in value so much? I remember getting it for $20 about 10 years ago or so I think.
Rythe fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Oct 20, 2013 |
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Oct 20, 2013 00:30
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Rythe posted:Looking at the Easton Press books brought up a few Google images and I found the copy I have. http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/230597700506?lpid=82utm_campaign=localinventory&gclid=CLjS5vCHpLoCFWtk7Aodo18AFw(link to book on E-Bay) and what the heck would cause that copy of the book to shoot up in value so much? I remember getting it for $20 about 10 years ago or so I think. Heh, I got that book for $20 from Amazon. And it's also one of the few things I took with me when I moved to LA. Nice!
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Oct 20, 2013 07:02
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So, Harry Connolly got 50K, which puts him at second highest money total among Kickstarter for single author fiction novel projects. (There's a few more memoirs and anthologies and picture books with more money.) The guy who got more money for his novels is best known for being a creator of multiple TV shows and being "UK's Walt Disney or George Lucas.". This has been a really impressive run. One more Kickstarter like this and I have a feeling we're getting more of Twenty Palaces next.
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Oct 20, 2013 07:14
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Finished Throne of the Crescent Moon today. I really got into it, which is kind of weird for me with a fantasy book. I really liked it, but in places the plot sort of felt like it was just a vehicle to describe life in Dhamsawaat. The ending felt a little rushed, and I'm afraid that the next book in the series is just going to be about a bigger bad, after this book spent a lot of time building up how evil the antagonist was. Overall though, I liked the story. Any word on when the next one is out?
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Oct 21, 2013 21:04
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