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I thought it was great. I had really wanted to see a lot of Sabetha and I got my wish in spades with a tragic drama and an interesting twist on the whole love story between the two. Basically I really liked it, although I agree the main plotline as not that compelling at the finish.
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Nov 5, 2013 09:15
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Srice posted:Did he ever say what that original con was? Because with the way the book was written it really doesn't feel like it would deserve a massive rewrite to fix that problem. Between the flashbacks and the mass infodumping in the first quarter, the main plot was kinda underwhelming as heck. That's the point. Lynch had to pull out most of the con. What you're seeing is the holes where it used to be.
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Nov 5, 2013 09:40
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Bremen posted:I'm not sure if this is the best thread for this, but it was the closest I could find. Wolf Hunt by Jeff Strand is pretty good. Not really an "in the dark" but the main monster is a werewolf, and it's not some emo-esque woe is me I am hairy and cursed werewolf. He's a complete prick and acts like one. The Desert by Bryon Morrigan is pretty good. Sort of a lovecraftian vibe to it, but basically it's a monsters in the desert eating soldiers kinda book. I'll update the post as I think of new ones.
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Nov 5, 2013 10:40
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How about the classic when you're down here, you'll float too? Totally wrong thread.. but as for monsters in the dark it's about as classic as it gets.
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Nov 5, 2013 10:53
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Wolf Hunt by Jeff Strand is pretty good. Not really an "in the dark" but the main monster is a werewolf, and it's not some emo-esque woe is me I am hairy and cursed werewolf. He's a complete prick and acts like one. The Terror by Dan Simmons is also good at that, one of his better ones. It by Stephen King is also a good read for that, but whether it qualifies for this thread is another question.
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Nov 5, 2013 11:33
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Geez man, what do you think the post above yours is alluding to?  Just reading the plot synopsis of IT on Wikipedia.. reminding myself.. The Losers then gradually realize that they are lost in the sewers, and that with their common enemy having fled they have lost their purpose as a group, and begin to succumb to panic. In order to stop the group from panicking, Beverly has sexual intercourse with each of the boys. The gang finally escape from the sewers, emerging at sunset. Perhaps don't read this book. I'd forgotten how.. ugh Stephen King it is. edit: ha then again, it is a classic horror / small group confrontation with evil story. Dean Koontz is the same stuff, yeah yeah I know he's a hack and I read him as a teenager, but bugger me if they're not exciting when you don't know any better! edit2: That big pic in the OP of NPR's classics.. that is absolutely magic. I have an Amazon order of a couple of hundred bucks worth coming.. thanks thread! Tony Montana fucked around with this message at 11:51 on Nov 5, 2013 |
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Nov 5, 2013 11:37
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Tony Montana posted:Geez man, what do you think the post above yours is alluding to? Oh, do you feel disregarded since I didn't quote you? Yeah, It has it's definitive bad moments including the ending in the sewers. Regardless, it is still a very good horror book.
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Nov 5, 2013 12:29
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Cardiac posted:The Terror by Dan Simmons is also good at that, one of his better ones. If it has sf/f content, is arguably sf/f, is by a writer best known for sf/f, or is vaguely sf/f related (Gothics or fairy story retellings, maybe), it's fine, unless there's a thread it fits into better... if in doubt, post. Anyway, the World Fantasy Awards, [http://www.locusmag.com/News/2013/11/british-fantasy-awards/]British Fantasy Awards[/url], and David Gemmell Legend Awards have been announced. The big ones are: WFA Life Achievement: Susan Cooper, Tanith Lee WFA Novel: Alif the Unseen, G. Willow Wilson (Grove; Corvus) BFA Best Novel (the August Derleth Fantasy Award): Some Kind of Fairy Tale, Graham Joyce (Gollancz) BFA Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award): Last Days, Adam Nevill (Macmillan) The Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel: The Blinding Knife, Brent Weeks (Orbit) The biggest losers were Some Kind of Fairy Tale and The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan, which both lost the Derleth and the WFA.
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Nov 5, 2013 12:59
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Cardiac posted:The Terror by Dan Simmons is also good at that, one of his better ones. Double recommendation on "The Terror", I thought it was legitimately excellent. Compelling setting, great characters, a palpable sense of doom and disaster. One of the few things Simmons has written besides Hyperion that is worth reading.
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Nov 5, 2013 15:03
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A little late to the reply, but someone asked if The Long War (the sequel to The Long Earth) is worth reading. I thought it was just OK. It very much followed the formula of the first book with a few different players involved. Spoiler summary below People, including Sally, Joshua and Lobsang, though not together, go on long voyages into the parallel worlds. Conflict is established with a new race of sapient natural steppers. The term taciturn is used too many times, the main conflict is resolved and then disaster strikes Datum Earth.
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Nov 5, 2013 17:00
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Tony Montana posted:How about the classic when you're down here, you'll float too? I've read IT. A good book, but maybe I should clarify that I was picturing more monster and less supernatural, if that makes any sense.
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Nov 5, 2013 19:20
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Bremen posted:I'm not sure if this is the best thread for this, but it was the closest I could find. Terror fits as well as others have noted.
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Nov 5, 2013 22:15
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Are the Nagash the Necromancer series of books from the Warhammer universe any good?
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Nov 5, 2013 22:46
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Ok sci-fi thread, I really love me some Robert A. Heinlein. I've read Starship Troopers before, but it's on my Amazon order because I want to read it again. Read Have Spacesuit, Will Travel recently, heh that was fun Have Stranger in a Strange Land in the order too, never seen it but apparently it's really good.Anything else I need to cover off his best stuff? He wrote so much so I know there is plenty more I can read. I'll add The The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress as well, people generally speak well of it.
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Nov 5, 2013 22:55
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Bremen posted:I'm not sure if this is the best thread for this, but it was the closest I could find. This probably isn't quite what you had in mind, but you might want to give Jim Corbett a try. In particular, I found The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag pretty drat harrowing, but there's an omnibus edition of three of his books that includes it. If you want to get an impression of what it's like to be stalked by a predator that habitually hunts and kills human beings, Corbett was right there. wikipedia posted:The Leopard of Rudraprayag was a male man-eating leopard, reputed to have killed over 125 people. For eight years, no one dared move alone at night on the road between the Hindu shrines of Kedarnath and Badrinath, for it passed through the leopard's territory, and few villagers would leave their houses. The leopard was apparently so desperate for food that it would break down doors, leap through windows, claw through the mud or thatch walls of huts and drag people from them, devouring them. A unit of Gurkha soldiers, as well as soldiers who were expert marksmen and trackers were sent after it, but failed to kill it. Attempts to kill the leopard with high powered Gin Traps and deadly poison also failed. Several well-known hunters tried to bag this leopard, and the British government offered financial rewards to kill the beast. In the autumn of 1925, Jim Corbett took it upon himself to try to kill the leopard and, after an overall ten-week hunt, successfully did so in the spring of 1926.
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Nov 6, 2013 02:28
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Xandoom posted:Are the Nagash the Necromancer series of books from the Warhammer universe any good? You should try the Black Library thread, might get a better audience for this question.
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Nov 6, 2013 08:48
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Bremen posted:I've read IT. A good book, but maybe I should clarify that I was picturing more monster and less supernatural, if that makes any sense. The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan was quite decent. Haven't read the rest of the series since it seemed like it went down from the first book, when they start adding vampire conspiracies to the plot. Also, HP Lovecraft is always nice for creepy things in the dark, but I guess you know that.
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Nov 6, 2013 09:18
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Cardiac posted:The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan was quite decent. Haven't read the rest of the series since it seemed like it went down from the first book, when they start adding vampire conspiracies to the plot. Gonna disagree and say not to waste your time with this book. My impression from when I read it: The Strain- loving awful. The characters all have the personalities of cardboard- for an example, one of the main characters has maybe five lines in the entire book, and otherwise seems to exist only to carry things for the actual main character. Also, to really drive home to idea of vampires being dangerous, del Toro spends just about every other chapter ignoring plot progression and just describing random people getting killed. Oh boy. I also seem to remember a lot of really needlessly detailed descriptions of exactly what make and model weapon the characters were using.
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Nov 6, 2013 09:43
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Laird Barron's The Croning has some good monsters from the dark who want to eat humans. It suffers a little because it's kind of obvious it's his first full length novel, but the actual monsters and tone are creepy as gently caress. It's not really so much of a thriller as the request asked for but I enjoyed it a lot. His short stories are good, too, but they don't all involve the same specific set of antagonists.
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Nov 6, 2013 09:48
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Radio! posted:Gonna disagree and say not to waste your time with this book. My impression from when I read it: The Strain- loving awful. The characters all have the personalities of cardboard- for an example, one of the main characters has maybe five lines in the entire book, and otherwise seems to exist only to carry things for the actual main character. Also, to really drive home to idea of vampires being dangerous, del Toro spends just about every other chapter ignoring plot progression and just describing random people getting killed. Oh boy. I agree, the characters mostly sucked, however I still found the vampires quite creepy and the whole outbreak was done well. There is a reason I didn't read more than the first one in the series.
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Nov 6, 2013 09:55
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Tony Montana posted:Ok sci-fi thread, I really love me some Robert A. Heinlein. Those are pretty much the strong ones. I really like his juveniles. Citizen of the Galaxy and Tunnel in the Sky are both very much of-their-time, but still good reads.
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Nov 6, 2013 10:34
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I was trying to work out which fantasy series I wanted to read next. I have read all the books by Abercrombie, Lynch, Rothfuss, GRRM, Hobb, and other authors and series I've forgotten which were evidently not that great in hindsight. At the moment it is a toss-up between Malazan or Sanderson's books. The impression I got was that Malazan was great, but confusing. Sanderson was good, but maybe formulaic or not so intriguing.
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Nov 6, 2013 14:26
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Have you read Earthsea?
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Nov 6, 2013 15:17
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ace_beef posted:I was trying to work out which fantasy series I wanted to read next. Sanderson is probably simpler to read since everything is thoroughly explained. I donn't particularly fancy his writing, although he finished of WoT in a good way. WoT is also a series you might wanna consider, cause then you also get Sanderson. Being a fan of Erikson, my choice is easy. I found the Malazan series easy to get into since Erikson keeps up the pace of the storyline for the most part of the series. There is a lot of names, but that is a problem common to many fantasy series. Malazan series is complex, but the complexity is for the most part hidden and the story lines themselves are easy to get into.
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Nov 6, 2013 15:39
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ace_beef posted:I was trying to work out which fantasy series I wanted to read next. Wrap your eyeballs round David Gemmell's Rigante series.
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Nov 6, 2013 15:45
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Thanks for the replies. Haven't read Earthsea. I was up to book 4 of WoT, but got swamped with university work and kind of lost interest. I read some of Gemmell's other books and found them alright. I think i will read Malazan first, the rest will end up on a list that will hopefully be smashed out these holidays.
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Nov 6, 2013 16:20
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Radio! posted:Gonna disagree and say not to waste your time with this book. My impression from when I read it: The Strain- loving awful. The characters all have the personalities of cardboard- for an example, one of the main characters has maybe five lines in the entire book, and otherwise seems to exist only to carry things for the actual main character. Also, to really drive home to idea of vampires being dangerous, del Toro spends just about every other chapter ignoring plot progression and just describing random people getting killed. Oh boy. Also... "The trailing edge flaps and the ailerons--the spoiler panels on the back sides of the wings--were all straight up like Paula Abdul, which is how the pilots set them after runway touchdown." Horribly written...
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Nov 6, 2013 16:30
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ace_beef posted:I was trying to work out which fantasy series I wanted to read next. If you want to try Sanderson, Way of Kings is probably his most, uh, okay book. I do not have the strength of will to suffer through the first two Malazan books to get to the promised land of "oh it gets good!" so I can't help you there. A few fantasy novels I've enjoyed recently: A Thousand Names by Django Wexler. Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone Blood Song by Anthony Ryan Low Town by Daniel Polansky The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman The Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones Heroes Die by Matthew Stover
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Nov 6, 2013 16:36
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tonytheshoes posted:were all straight up like Paula Abdul Is this serious? What does that even mean? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xweiQukBM_k
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Nov 6, 2013 16:49
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Has anyone tried Tom Lloyd's Stormcaller books? It was billed as a finished series along the lines of Malazan but it just seems really generic, and the pacing is god awful. I checked out some reviews and it was all just "waa too many POVs" and I don't really care about that after Malazan. I'm about halfway through the first and really can't see myself going on.
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Nov 6, 2013 17:26
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General Battuta posted:Continuing a pretty good year for my short fiction, I've got [url=http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/dickinson_11_13/]a story up on Clarkesworld today I really enjoyed this story and I can see a lot of elements from your recent post on world building in that story. Do you have any advice for writing with these higher-end markets in mind? Some people in my writing group want to workshop together and aim for it. Beyond reading the magazines I want to submit to and writing a lot, is there anything you learned from experience that most people wouldn't think of?
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Nov 6, 2013 17:42
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Tony Montana posted:Is this serious? What does that even mean? Great question--that was a mere 19 pages in... The book over-explains EVERYTHING, and it reads like Del Toro recited the story to Hogan and Hogan essentially typed it out verbatim.
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Nov 6, 2013 17:53
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Tony Montana posted:Ok sci-fi thread, I really love me some Robert A. Heinlein. The best Heinlein novel that nobody has read is Citizen of the Galaxy.The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is his best work overall. Stranger in a Strange Land is his best weird novel. I'd also recommend his short-story collections because they give a great overview of his work (several contain excerpts from the weirder novels, so you can dip your feet without diving in) as well as a lot of personal commentary and essays that give interesting perspectives on why he wrote each thing. Be aware that there are two types of Heinlein: Space Adventure Heinlein and loving Weird Heinlein. His best work, like The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, is at least 75% Space Adventure and no more than 25% loving Weird. His worst work (Number of the Beast) is over 75% loving Weird. Stranger in a Strange Land is worth reading but it hasn't aged as well as his other stuff, and is definitely on the loving Weird side of things. I think the most important thing to remember is that he's writing immediately pre-sexual-revolution, and in some senses at least that book precipitated the 1960's (Ken Kesey read it heavily).
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Nov 6, 2013 18:07
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The best Heinlein novel that nobody has read is Citizen of the Galaxy.The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is his best work overall. Stranger in a Strange Land is his best weird novel. Oh, I'm no Heinlein newbie, that's where the love comes from I'm just a stranger in a strange land myself right now (ha!) and I'm ordering a pile from Amazon and want to flesh out that part of my personal library. I know he gets weird, but I like the weird. I read Starship Troopers something like 10 years ago and what I remember is pod-soliders and loving power-armor that once you've read that you forever look at the Paul Verhoeven movie with scorn.. but then long sections of politics and talk of society and some of that really deep, thinky sci-fi that you're pondering long after you've put the book down for that day.So Troopers is on the list and I'm going to do that thing where you go back to something you remember as awesome and see if it's still awesome (don't disappoint me, you bastard  ). The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is on the list because I never even knew about it and everyone says to read it.Now is Citizen of the Galaxy like Have Spacesuit, Will Travel? That was fun and all, but I'm looking for something a bit thicker and deeper. As for the short story collection, this is for everyone else here too, rather than just Heinlein isn't there a collection published by the Hugo Awards or something.. a famous one that if I perhaps get a back copy of I can get a whole stack of great sci-fi shorts in there? Can anyone recommend the name of the collection, a particular issue.. or know what I'm babbling about?
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Nov 6, 2013 18:32
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Tony Montana posted:Oh, I'm no Heinlein newbie, that's where the love comes from Yeah, Citizen of the Galaxy is one of the later juveniles. It's more mature than Spacesuit but less . . ah. . .thematically complex. . .than, say, Starship Troopers. The collection you want is http://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Hall-Fame-Vol/dp/0765305372 There was a volume 2A and 2B also and they're also worth getting. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Nov 6, 2013 |
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Nov 6, 2013 20:45
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Tony Montana posted:Ok sci-fi thread, I really love me some Robert A. Heinlein. I still get choked up when I re-read The Man Who Sold the Moon. Creating an entire industry that changed the world just to get to visit the moon, and then nobody ever lets you go! 
coyo7e fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Nov 6, 2013 |
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Nov 6, 2013 21:10
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The collection you want is http://www.amazon.com/Science-Fiction-Hall-Fame-Vol/dp/0765305372 There was a volume 2A and 2B also and they're also worth getting. Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein. One book. $15 bucks. gently caress YEAH.  coyo7e posted:This is my personal favorite Heinlein. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Past_Through_Tomorrow I still get choked up when I re-read The Man Who Sold the Moon and get to Delos' trip. Creating an entire industry that changed the world just to get to visit the moon, and then nobody ever lets you go! :baw: Oh right, this is that collection of his shorts I think someone else mentioned. Holy smokes, it's worth a lot of money on Amazon, I'm guessing it's thick. I think I've got enough for my current order and that one can wait for the library edit: Totale provvisorio= EUR 165,66. What? So I'm in Italy and my Italian sucks and I'm getting bored, gently caress this stupid TV.. bring me space mens! Tony Montana fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Nov 6, 2013 |
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Nov 6, 2013 21:11
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systran posted:I really enjoyed this story and I can see a lot of elements from your recent post on world building in that story. Do you have any advice for writing with these higher-end markets in mind? Some people in my writing group want to workshop together and aim for it. Beyond reading the magazines I want to submit to and writing a lot, is there anything you learned from experience that most people wouldn't think of? Man, I wish I had a magic bullet. I guess my two pieces of advice would be to focus on your prose style - read literary writers, pay attention to details of scansion, imagery and word choice - and to make sure your stories are focused. Yoon Ha Lee had a really decent quote on that: quote:The whole point of a short story is to assassinate the reader. You don’t have the time or the space to go to war or do large maneuvers, you can’t do chapters of elaborate setup, there’s much less room for character development—a good writer can get more character development in, but that isn’t my particular strength. Anyway, everything in the short story has to drive toward a short sharp point, whatever it is you’re trying to leave the reader with at the end of the story. I say “assassinate” and it sounds hostile, because it is. I work better when I can think in terms of opponents. The thing is that I don’t want the reader to see the short sharp point clearly from the beginning, but I want it to make sense afterward as the angle of attack. Tactical sense, I guess, in the context of the story’s setup. Cut the unnecessary, make your story elegant and kinetic. All that said, I sold to Clarkesworld after at least eight or nine rejections there - it really is a high-end market. Persistence not just in submission, but in making yourself write outside your comfort zone and pushing towards goals in your craft, is probably the most important key.
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Nov 6, 2013 22:06
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Tony Montana posted:Oh right, this is that collection of his shorts I think someone else mentioned. Holy smokes, it's worth a lot of money on Amazon, I'm guessing it's thick. I think I've got enough for my current order and that one can wait for the library http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...&condition=used
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Nov 6, 2013 22:31
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Trying to remember the name of a science fiction short story where the scene is a long bitter feud between two arch rivals on some colonised planet. One of the main protagonists is dying and begs his enemy to end things, who then declines, citing ‘if you are gone, whom would I have left to hate’? Maybe Asimov or Philip K Dick?
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Nov 6, 2013 23:22
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