|
Just a heads up, Promise of Blood is $1.99 on the Kindle right now. I haven't read it but it looks pretty interesting and has received a ton of positive reviews with 4-5 stars on Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes and Noble.
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2013 04:06
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 11:44 |
|
|
The thing that, makes it hipster, to me, is the self awareness. It's genre fiction written in a deliberate style which is intended to suck the joy and entertainment out of reading the book. It's not accidentally ugly, it's deliberately so, and trying to be ironic about it. Hence, hipster.
|
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2013 05:14
|
|
|
fritz posted:Who wants to see some horrible opinions from horrible ex-libertarian now-hardcore-catholic John C. Wright? John is trying his best to make me recant on my affection for The Golden Age. Nah, it still owns.
|
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2013 06:38
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:John is trying his best to make me recant on my affection for The Golden Age. I'm told this is a quote from those books: quote:“One benevolent outcome of an otherwise dark and tyrannous world-empire period was the reduction, through eugenics and genetic engineering, of strains of the human bloodlines prone to substandard intelligence and mental disease.”
|
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2013 09:52
|
|
|
regularizer posted:Just a heads up, Promise of Blood is $1.99 on the Kindle right now. I haven't read it but it looks pretty interesting and has received a ton of positive reviews with 4-5 stars on Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes and Noble. Promise of Blood (and London Falling upthread) both get a thumbs up from me. Promise of Blood has first-of-trilogy-itis, it's self-contained enough but it's obviously the first part of a series so it takes a lot of time putting pieces into place and introducing the setting and characters. It's a series I'm looking forward to, though. The technology is roughly 18th century but it's not steampunk, which is pretty fresh for a fantasy novel. I also like the flavour of the setting which I think is supposed to be Central European. Like someone said earlier London Falling is kind of rough in the beginning but it improves a ton. I got special enjoyment out of it since I follow English football.  But it's not necessary.
|
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2013 10:08
|
|
|
regularizer posted:Just a heads up, Promise of Blood is $1.99 on the Kindle right now. I haven't read it but it looks pretty interesting and has received a ton of positive reviews with 4-5 stars on Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes and Noble. It was written by a Sanderson protege and it reads like it. You decide for yourself if that's good or not. Personally, I dropped it a few chapters in and moved on to Two Serpents Rise. (Which is fantastic.)
|
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2013 11:14
|
|
|
regularizer posted:Just a heads up, Promise of Blood is $1.99 on the Kindle right now. I haven't read it but it looks pretty interesting and has received a ton of positive reviews with 4-5 stars on Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes and Noble. Promise of Blood was really good, and quite imaginative. I enjoyed that book more than I've enjoyed any of Sanderson's work. Powder mages were a interesting concept. As for something close to steampunk I would recommend Alan Campbell as well. Cardiac fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Nov 24, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2013 12:24
|
|
|
Also, The Heroes by Abercrombie is 1.99 on amazon as well today. I've been waiting for a while to pick that one up so it was a pleasant surprise!
|
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2013 18:23
|
|
|
For some reason I picked up the Pern books for a re-read after 15 years and WOW there's a lot of rapin' goin' on. The women end up liking it in the end, naturally, but yeah...rapin' all up in those weyrs.
|
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2013 20:14
|
|
|
navyjack posted:For some reason I picked up the Pern books for a re-read after 15 years and WOW there's a lot of rapin' goin' on. The women end up liking it in the end, naturally, but yeah...rapin' all up in those weyrs. Don't pick up any of the Tower and the Hive series, then. It adds the word "statutory" to the sentence.
|
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2013 20:54
|
|
|
I read through the OP and noticed something: There is no mention of Douglas Adams at all. Is this because it is expected that everyone has already read him? Still, a strange thing to neglect.
|
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2013 23:46
|
|
|
navyjack posted:For some reason I picked up the Pern books for a re-read after 15 years and WOW there's a lot of rapin' goin' on. The women end up liking it in the end, naturally, but yeah...rapin' all up in those weyrs. Geez, and most people who read these read them as kids.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 02:53
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:Geez, and most people who read these read them as kids. I remember throwing an Anne McCaffrey book against the wall as a kid. I can't remember which book or why, but something about her attitude towards sex always squicked me out. I do remember that much. I haven't read her since.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 03:25
|
|
|
Max Awfuls posted:How many Tea Party creeps are there actually writing mainstream fantasy and sci-fi? I've come to these genres recently and I keep stumbling on these Dan Simmons and Orson Scott Card nutters and every time I look up any recommendation I dread googling the author and finding them going on a rant about feminazis and Muslim Obama. Oh also I forgot to mention Jerry Pournelle, who doesn't publish much anymore but had a major influence on "Military SF". Here's a blog post from him: https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/?p=16304
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 03:50
|
|
|
Waltzing Along posted:I read through the OP and noticed something: The OP has Asimov and Clark, it should probably have Adams as well. I can totally see why no one realized he should be in there though. I mean who hasn't heard of Douglas Adams? But then who hasn't heard of Asimov or Clarke?
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 09:09
|
|
|
I read through Promise of Blood in one sitting, and greatly enjoyed it. I'll buy the next one.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 10:36
|
|
|
wiegieman posted:I read through Promise of Blood in one sitting, and greatly enjoyed it. I'll buy the next one. Dude makes Sanderson seem like Shakespeare from the first couple pages. Tin ear for prose. I don't know if I can get into it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 15:18
|
|
|
fritz posted:Oh also I forgot to mention Jerry Pournelle, who doesn't publish much anymore but had a major influence on "Military SF". Here's a blog post from him: https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/?p=16304 I didn't mind Pournelle too much when he's on TWiT. But reading that, ugh. I followed the other link and the other guy mentions reading a book on embryology but says it doesn't explain how a baby forms. He must have read a lovely book then because it's pretty well known how a fetus develops and it's a relatively simple thing. Sigh.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 15:23
|
|
|
calandryll posted:I didn't mind Pournelle too much when he's on TWiT. But reading that, ugh. I followed the other link and the other guy mentions reading a book on embryology but says it doesn't explain how a baby forms. He must have read a lovely book then because it's pretty well known how a fetus develops and it's a relatively simple thing. Sigh. http://old-www.somethingawful.com/flash/shmorky/babby.swf
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 16:12
|
|
|
Just a heads up. Joe Nassise is doing a giveaway at the moment. If you buy the new book he has out (Watcher in the Dark), email him a copy of the receipt and he will give you a free ebook. There's some pretty good ones to choose from. I think the giveaway ends tomorrow at midnight.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 16:15
|
|
|
The best flashtub, I crack up every time.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 17:53
|
|
|
Jedit posted:They didn't exactly keep 2001 close to the book; they were written at the same time, and informed each other. The weird thing about the whole 200X series is how each time Clarke wrote a new one it was slightly out of continuity with the last. 2010 the book is a sequel to the movie version of 2001 and 2065 is a sequel to the movie version of 2010. Then there's 3001 which has an Independence Day ending.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 20:06
|
|
|
muscles like this? posted:The weird thing about the whole 200X series is how each time Clarke wrote a new one it was slightly out of continuity with the last. 2010 the book is a sequel to the movie version of 2001 and 2065 is a sequel to the movie version of 2010. Then there's 3001 which has an Independence Day ending. And something weird about circumcision. I enjoyed seeing Frank Poole get a fair crack of the whip, though. He was basically in the movie just to die.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 20:12
|
|
|
Today's Kindle Daily Deal is definitely worth the $1.99: I really enjoyed Equations of Life by Simon Morden, the first entry in the Petrovitch/Metrozone series. It's an action packed cyber-punkish adventure with gun-toting nuns, organized crime lords in a post-nuclear war London, the Machine Jihad, and a protagonist that swears all the time, except it's in Russian. It's a perfect Sunday afternoon book.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2013 12:16
|
|
|
This might be a stupid question but I'm curious whether there's any recommended reading order for the books/stories by Cordwainer Smith. His bibliography is so confusing and probably it doesn't even matter but I just bought The Rediscovery of Man and wanted to make sure I get the right 'effect'. When should I read Norstrilia? What about any other collections of short stories?
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2013 17:01
|
|
|
the least weasel posted:This might be a stupid question but I'm curious whether there's any recommended reading order for the books/stories by Cordwainer Smith. His bibliography is so confusing and probably it doesn't even matter but I just bought The Rediscovery of Man and wanted to make sure I get the right 'effect'. When should I read Norstrilia? What about any other collections of short stories? He has a single collection of all his stories and a single novel, I am p. sure. You've already mentioned them. You read the former, then the latter.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2013 17:45
|
|
|
the least weasel posted:This might be a stupid question but I'm curious whether there's any recommended reading order for the books/stories by Cordwainer Smith. His bibliography is so confusing and probably it doesn't even matter but I just bought The Rediscovery of Man and wanted to make sure I get the right 'effect'. When should I read Norstrilia? What about any other collections of short stories? There's a timeline in most editions of The Rediscovery of Man, but most of the stories only fit into it very loosely and don't really benefit from being read in order. I think Norstrilia comes near the end. IIRC only the NESFA Press version of Rediscovery is absolutely complete, though. By the way, if anyone's intersted in comic sf, John M. Ford's How Much For Just the Planet? is very good and funny, and you don't have to like Star Trek to enjoy it - I don't.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2013 17:54
|
|
|
I just noticed that Michael Swanwyck has a really neat little series of stories up at Tor.com (four so far): http://www.tor.com/stories/2012/07/the-mongolian-wizard
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2013 18:43
|
|
|
Thanks for your replies. It turns out that what I bought was not the complete short story collection after all but a 'best of' with exactly the same name. I asked originally because I thought this was meant to be the only major collection and the introduction states that it constitutes only half of his short stories. I guess I'll have to go look for the proper The Rediscovery of Man.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2013 09:00
|
|
|
So, Hyperion. Just finished it this morning and I feel fairly confident that it ended on the highest note it's going to reach but somehow there are three(?) more books. I remember seeing a couple people in here say that Fall was also good, which seems totally implausible but I am curious enough that I have to at least ask for more opinions. Stick it out for one more book, or abandon ship now and pretend he never wrote another word so I can say I genuinely liked the thing?
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2013 19:59
|
|
|
Abandon ship.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2013 20:00
|
|
|
Irony.or.Death posted:So, Hyperion. Just finished it this morning and I feel fairly confident that it ended on the highest note it's going to reach but somehow there are three(?) more books. I remember seeing a couple people in here say that Fall was also good, which seems totally implausible but I am curious enough that I have to at least ask for more opinions. Stick it out for one more book, or abandon ship now and pretend he never wrote another word so I can say I genuinely liked the thing? Walk away.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2013 20:01
|
|
|
Irony.or.Death posted:So, Hyperion. Just finished it this morning and I feel fairly confident that it ended on the highest note it's going to reach You're talking about the last story, the one about time dilation, right? Not the embarrassing actual ending where characters sing "We're off to see the Wizard"? The Fall of Hyperion is different - it's a novel and not a short story collection - and I found it a lot more rewarding and interesting, although that's probably because it had a plot... The Endymion books were pants, though.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2013 21:57
|
|
|
I'd say give Fall of Hyperion a go, but absolutely under no circumstances read anything with 'Endymion' in the title (unless it's by Keats I guess)
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2013 22:09
|
|
|
I don't even remember what happened in any of the books after Hyperion, they're that forgettable.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2013 22:10
|
|
|
Just bought Hyperion myself, but if it has Hitler then I'm out.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2013 23:56
|
|
|
andrew smash posted:Walk away. Fallom posted:Abandon ship. I did not follow this advice and it is one of the few regrets I have in terms of things I've read.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2013 00:25
|
|
|
I thought Fall of Hyperion was worth the read but it doesn't measure up to Hyperion. From the handful of his books I've read it just seems like Simmons can't end a story without going totally insane.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2013 01:05
|
|
|
I wish I could extract the image of a cat licking cream out of a saucer from my mind.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2013 01:49
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 11:44 |
|
|
Fallom posted:I wish I could extract the image of a cat licking cream out of a saucer from my mind. I'm going to regret asking why, but...
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2013 02:21
|
|