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specklebang posted:Its 120 pages of short stories. This is a popular way to introduce a "universe" to readers in hopes of them buying the full books. Also some of the Saladin Ahmed stories were nominated for awards so that might be why they are promoting his stuff.
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Dec 6, 2013 01:28
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This loving genre: “Instead of insulting us, [Hines] could be using whatever influence he has in social media to help recruit more PoC into our circles. They need to know they’d probably be much more welcome here than they might be elsewhere. (After all, many of us would love to befriend extra terrestrials or anthromorphs.)” (http://www.jimchines.com/2013/12/recruiter-of-poc/ first seen at James Nicoll's live journal) (ETA: fixed link, thanks RoboCicero) fritz fucked around with this message at 03:20 on Dec 6, 2013 |
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Dec 6, 2013 03:06
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All of those books are quite excellent, with NK Jemisin's Shadowed SUn books (two of them) being probably the closest to what you seem to be looking for. It's an incredibly well-realized ancient-egypt analogue. The author is really well educated and it shows in the detail and sophistication of her world building. [/quote] I just finished the second Shadowed Sun book, and I thought it was a big step down from the first (but still well worth reading, and if there's more later I'll read them too); setting aside, the plot felt a little more generic fantasy book stuff.
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Dec 6, 2013 03:10
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fritz posted:This loving genre: “Instead of insulting us, [Hines] could be using whatever influence he has in social media to help recruit more PoC into our circles. They need to know they’d probably be much more welcome here than they might be elsewhere. (After all, many of us would love to befriend extra terrestrials or anthromorphs.)”
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Dec 6, 2013 03:13
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fritz posted:This loving genre: “Instead of insulting us, [Hines] could be using whatever influence he has in social media to help recruit more PoC into our circles. They need to know they’d probably be much more welcome here than they might be elsewhere. (After all, many of us would love to befriend extra terrestrials or anthromorphs.)” In fairness, it's probably a case of someone engaging the mouth before the brain was in gear.
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Dec 7, 2013 11:28
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Jedit posted:In fairness, it's probably a case of someone engaging the mouth before the brain was in gear. That's what a great deal of bigotry tends to be, though.
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Dec 7, 2013 11:32
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So I started reading The Gap series. I'm halfway through the first book and I have a question... Are all the books this rapey?
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Dec 7, 2013 14:36
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LmaoTheKid posted:So I started reading The Gap series. I'm halfway through the first book and I have a question... I'm pretty sure they aren't, but I also haven't read them in nearly a decade. I enjoyed them, mostly, but they were kind of hard for me to get through. But yeah, I never recommend them to people I know for reasons I'm sure you can see.
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Dec 7, 2013 15:40
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LmaoTheKid posted:So I started reading The Gap series. I'm halfway through the first book and I have a question... That's kind of like asking about Asimov and robots, or Chalker and body-swapping. No, they're not ALL of that magnitude, but it's a recurring thing with Donaldson.
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Dec 7, 2013 16:05
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fritz posted:This loving genre: “Instead of insulting us, [Hines] could be using whatever influence he has in social media to help recruit more PoC into our circles. They need to know they’d probably be much more welcome here than they might be elsewhere. (After all, many of us would love to befriend extra terrestrials or anthromorphs.)” The last thing I read by Hines was the first book in the goblin series. Can someone explain to me how somehow now black people are considered aliens, and how Hines has enough influence to try and somehow "win" more black people over to literacy? I just feel like I am missing a HUGE chunk of this.
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Dec 7, 2013 16:19
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:The last thing I read by Hines was the first book in the goblin series. Hines has two reasonably popular series in progress and has been very active in attempts to make the SF/F community less toxic for anybody that isn't a straight white man. The "black people are aliens" thing is pretty much a racist idiot trying to put the blame on anybody but himself for there not being more people of color involved in SF/F by saying that the community is by nature welcoming to anybody, because they'd all love to meet aliens, so obviously instead of trying to make the community less toxic, Hines and others like him should be trying to recruit more.
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Dec 7, 2013 16:25
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Ah. That almost makes sense. I rarely read about authors I like to read because there has almost NEVER been a moment where I have learned something about an author that wasn't "Boy that guy's a shithead and I just gave him some money". Still haven't figured out how to recruit black people, but that apparently comes into play later after animorphs. I kinda feel like Kyle in that CHIMPOKOMON episode of South Park, where I'm just always late to the cool thing 
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Dec 7, 2013 22:32
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LmaoTheKid posted:So I started reading The Gap series. I'm halfway through the first book and I have a question... The first book is by far the rapiest.
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Dec 7, 2013 22:39
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NinjaDebugger posted:That's kind of like asking about Asimov and robots, or Chalker and body-swapping. No, they're not ALL of that magnitude, but it's a recurring thing with Donaldson. Yeah, I went into it blind, no knowledge of Donaldson. Thanks for the info, I might go on after this one, but we'll see.
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Dec 7, 2013 22:45
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Jedit posted:In fairness, it's probably a case of someone engaging the mouth before the brain was in gear. Is what I would have thought, until I mistakenly scrolled down and read the comments. Lots and lots of rank-closing going on there. I love genre fiction but I've never been to a SF con and I really don't ever want to. I "bought" that Saladin Ahmed book too - pretty excited to read it!
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Dec 8, 2013 01:45
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Fallom posted:The first book is by far the rapiest. Probably because the plot revolves around a woman being kidnapped and treated as a sex slave. In the second book the same woman is involved in an at best unhappy relationship with, at worst raped by, the man who saves her from this.
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Dec 8, 2013 15:02
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Prop Wash posted:Is what I would have thought, until I mistakenly scrolled down and read the comments. Lots and lots of rank-closing going on there. I love genre fiction but I've never been to a SF con and I really don't ever want to. I mean I can see that statement as being well-intentioned, but the comments are pretty  I'm not sure if it's racism or geeks just closing ranks because their statement was challenged (which I think you're never supposed to do in the name of open-mindedness). Who am I kidding, it's both. Anyway, I "bought" the Saladin Ahmed book too. Was a really solid read and I hope the Dervish girl shows up again. She's a really fascinating character.
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Dec 8, 2013 17:37
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I need a recommendation. What I'm looking for is something engrossing and long (a series), and I guess it needs to be fairly straightforward. I'd really like to read something like space-horror. Something in space in the future, and with some dark and twisted horror. I read Hull Zero Three but found it to be way too intangible/abstract - as though the author didn't quite know what he was describing. The horror was so-so as well. Alternatively fantasy-horror would be ok too! I'm really just looking for something disturbing and haunting. I think a few parts of the Nightangel trilogy achieved that feeling. As an aside, I read only half of Hawksmoore by Peter Ackroyd before I lost the book, and thought it was nicely dark and disturbing.
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Dec 8, 2013 22:35
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Tenacious J posted:I need a recommendation. If you haven't read them already, the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds is long and engrossing: you get a main trilogy, two prequel novels, a collection of short stories and a collection of novellas. Moreover, they're dark, gothic and twisted; full of creepy themes, unknowable alien terrors, and gloomy propositions for the future of humanity. The main ship (Nostalgia For Infinity) is like a haunted cathedral in space. The plot is like a darker version of Mass Effect (in fact the series apparently inspired the creators of Mass Effect). They're loving great, absolutely my favourite SF series. edit: for posterity, the books are: Revelation Space Redemption Ark Absolution Gap (read these 3 in order) Chasm City (prequel, probably best read between the 1st and 2nd book of the trilogy) The Prefect (prequel, read after the main series) Galactic North (8 short stories, IMO best read either just before or just after Absolution Gap) Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days (2 novellas, read at any time) Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Dec 9, 2013 |
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Dec 9, 2013 01:31
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Looks good. Thank you!
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Dec 9, 2013 01:51
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Hedrigall posted:They're loving great, absolutely my favourite SF series. Wait, what about Bas Lag? :o
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Dec 9, 2013 02:06
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fookolt posted:Wait, what about Bas Lag? :o That's my favourite fantasy series! and i know, new weird crosses genres blah blah bluh bluh, but Bas-Lag is definitely more fantasy than SF
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Dec 9, 2013 02:13
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Novellas might not be quite what you're looking for, but Charlie Stross's A Colder War and Missile Gap. First introduces shoggoths and Cthulhu to the Iran-Contra Affair, the second is Earth suddenly getting mapped to a giant disk in the Magellanic Clouds. Arguably the last act of Accelerando could be considered horror where it's implied the ultimate fate of the Singularity is a bunch of AIs floating around the wreckage of the Solar System, endlessly trading penny stocks, paper conpanies, scams, etc.
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Dec 9, 2013 02:52
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Everything above is a good recommendation, and although it's not a series of course I'll add Blindsight.
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Dec 9, 2013 03:12
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Venusian Weasel posted:Novellas might not be quite what you're looking for, but Charlie Stross's A Colder War and Missile Gap. First introduces shoggoths and Cthulhu to the Iran-Contra Affair, the second is Earth suddenly getting mapped to a giant disk in the Magellanic Clouds. Arguably the last act of Accelerando could be considered horror where it's implied the ultimate fate of the Singularity is a bunch of AIs floating around the wreckage of the Solar System, endlessly trading penny stocks, paper conpanies, scams, etc.
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Dec 9, 2013 04:23
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General Battuta posted:Everything above is a good recommendation, and although it's not a series of course I'll add Blindsight. It's not a series yet, but there's a sequel/side-quel coming out next year. Blindsight is also free on the author's homepage, so you can give it a taste and see if you like it.
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Dec 9, 2013 06:16
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Tenacious J posted:I need a recommendation. I just finished reading the Expanse novels by James Corey. Space opera set in a future where mankind has just begun colonizing the solar system. The horror comes in when an alien virus is discovered, and uses whatever biomass around it to create something using its encoded commands. Lots of Dead Space style repurposed human body parts.
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Dec 9, 2013 07:24
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Hedrigall posted:That's my favourite fantasy series! and i know, new weird crosses genres blah blah bluh bluh, but Bas-Lag is definitely more fantasy than SF Ah! I figured but I thought maybe you meant "speculative fiction" when you said SF.
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Dec 9, 2013 09:05
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FewtureMD posted:I just finished reading the Expanse novels by James Corey. Space opera set in a future where mankind has just begun colonizing the solar system. The horror comes in when an alien virus is discovered, and uses whatever biomass around it to create something using its encoded commands. Lots of Dead Space style repurposed human body parts. I really liked the second book of the three that are out, it managed to combine what felt like two halves of a story into a cohesive whole. The third didn't really do it for me, I was expecting a conclusion and found out, oh, hey, we got contracted for three more books! This isn't going to be the end anymore, so let's spin our wheels a bit!
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Dec 9, 2013 19:06
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Is there anything vaguely similar in tone and content to the Mars Trilogy, but that has interesting, well-written characters and dialogue? I slogged through about 2/3 of Red Mars on the recommendation of a friend before giving up as nobody in it had Human Cadence or was really like a person in any meaningful way. KSR is no le Carré, that's for sure. If nothing else, a recommendation of some sci-fi that is kinda philosophical and not just about space libertarian heroes on a warship would be nice. Sci-Fi I tried but did not enjoy, so please don't recommend it: - Dune - Banks' stuff Books I do like (most of which aren't really sci-fi, but which might help, I don't know): - Pretty much all of Primo Levi's stuff - Kundera's stuff (sometimes) - Steppenwolf but not much other Hesse (occasionally) - His Master's Voice
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Dec 9, 2013 23:19
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Have you tried Solaris? Since you liked His Master's Voice?
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Dec 9, 2013 23:38
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systran posted:Have you tried Solaris? Since you liked His Master's Voice?
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Dec 9, 2013 23:41
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Maybe Ursula LeGuin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" is up your alley. Ambassador goes to a human planet to reestablish contact. People there are different, over the few thousand years since last contact they've become semi-hermaphroditic. The story focuses mainly on his attempts to understand them, but there is some fantastic worldbuilding thrown in for good measure. LeGuin is also great at writing in a human voice, so it feels like you're having the story told to you by someone who's actually been there.
Venusian Weasel fucked around with this message at 08:46 on Dec 10, 2013 |
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Dec 10, 2013 08:43
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Venusian Weasel posted:Maybe Ursula LeGuin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" is up your alley. Ambassador goes to a human planet to reestablish contact. People there are different, over the few thousand years since last contact they've become semi-hermaphroditic. The story focuses mainly on his attempts to understand them, but there is some fantastic worldbuilding thrown in for good measure. LeGuin is also great at writing in a human voice, so it feels like you're having the story told to you by someone who's actually been there. I've only read a couple of the Hain Cycle books but the Dispossessed and the Left Hand of Darkness are called classics for a reason. They're also readily available in second hand book stores and charity stores if price is a factor (hell I found my copy of the b Dispossessed in Poundworld of all places). I really ought to read Earthsea sometime, actually.
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Dec 10, 2013 12:01
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jBrereton posted:Yep, HMV is my favourite Lem, though. I'll second the recommendations of Le Guin, but if you like Lem, quote:Lem singled out only one[citation needed] American SF writer for praise, Philip K. Dick—see the 1986 English-language anthology of his critical essays, Microworlds. Dick, however, perhaps due to his illness, believed that Stanisław Lem was a false name used by a composite committee operating on orders of the Communist party to gain control over public opinion, and wrote a letter to the FBI to that effect.[18] I'd say start with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
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Dec 10, 2013 13:46
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I'l give those books a try, thanks, thread. (incidentally, "perhaps due to his illness..." is one of those classic Wiki quotes of our time)
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Dec 10, 2013 14:15
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Hedrigall posted:If you haven't read them already, the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds is long and engrossing: This recommendation already worked, buuuuuut I'm gonna back it up. I've been hooked for a few weeks now. Definitely read Chasm City just after Revelation Space- you probably won't want to step away from the setting and characters of the "main trilogy", but having finished Chasm City and started into Redemption Ark, I find it feels much more like the second book in a quadrilogy than a prequel of any sort. (Plus, it's the order they were written/published in.)
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Dec 10, 2013 15:38
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So here's a question, awhile back I was reading about how the goons participated in some massive EVE online battle and earned a name for themselves. While none of it made sense, I found reading about battle strategies and maneuvering to be really interesting. I think it was one of the things I enjoyed most about Enders game. Are there other books out there that place focus on strategy and planning with consideration to large scale battles? It seems really specific to ask about, but it's worth a shot
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Dec 10, 2013 16:06
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Roydrowsy posted:So here's a question, awhile back I was reading about how the goons participated in some massive EVE online battle and earned a name for themselves. While none of it made sense, I found reading about battle strategies and maneuvering to be really interesting. I think it was one of the things I enjoyed most about Enders game. There are a lot of those books, the trick's finding any remotely decent ones.
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Dec 10, 2013 16:55
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There are probably a few Star Wars books heavy on naval engagements. Also Joe Abercrombie's the Heroes is centered around a single battle. It might not quite fit what you are looking for though. Mandragora posted:* Barry Hughart: The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox doesn't really create a fantasy world so much as write a love letter to Chinese and pre-Chinese mythology and drop you smack dab in the middle of it. And then asks you to tag along with a geriatric, drunken, lecherous Sherlock Holmes analogue as he solves mysteries that seem benign on the surface but then lead through the heavens, hells and every spirit realm in between. Completely faithful and respectful to that mythology, too, although written with razor-edged humor. I just started this based on liking other stuff recommended on that post and holy poo poo it's a fun book. Harold Fjord fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Dec 10, 2013 |
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Dec 10, 2013 17:49
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