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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. A slight understatement.
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Dec 10, 2013 18:23
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I finished Neuromancer and hated the ending, along with not liking William Gibson's writing style. I'm interested in cyberpunk, but I'm probably not going to pursue any more of Gibson's work. Any recommendations? I'm specifically interested in writers who speculate about the effects of combining technology with our own bodies. Gibson sort of touched on this in regards to identity, but his prose obscured it too much.
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Dec 10, 2013 19:07
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I feel like Gibson is actually pretty weak in terms of plotting. Like, the plot feels intricate, but end up being pretty static. Maybe his style is responsible for that in part. It's kind of dense, with so much going on even a two hundred page story starts feeling like it's dragging out. If it weren't for his revolutionary style and occasional brilliant insight into modern life, he'd be a B or C-list author at best. Then again, since I'm a 90s kid maybe I've just absorbed so many of the concepts growing up that they just feel boring.
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Dec 10, 2013 19:31
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Venusian Weasel posted:Then again, since I'm a 90s kid maybe I've just absorbed so many of the concepts growing up that they just feel boring. I honestly think this is it. Cyberpunk as a genre has had this problem. When they were looking at re-launching the Deus Ex game franchise they did a bunch of polling and found that kids and teenagers now very rarely even recognized the term "cyberpunk".
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Dec 10, 2013 19:39
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gatz posted:I finished Neuromancer and hated the ending, along with not liking William Gibson's writing style. I'm interested in cyberpunk, but I'm probably not going to pursue any more of Gibson's work. Any recommendations? I'm specifically interested in writers who speculate about the effects of combining technology with our own bodies. Gibson sort of touched on this in regards to identity, but his prose obscured it too much. I would definitely recommend it on the strength of that alone - from a whole social class of people who live almost entirely in virtual reality and only visit the real world by temporarily possessing robot dolls, over people who turned themselves into something like giant amoebae made of neurological tissue to become intelligent beyond human imagination, to a counter-culture that sculpts its bodies into something like Dadaist anti-art, there's tons and tons of ideas of how technology could change our bodies and how those changes would influence our psychology. Just remember not to pay any attention when the protagonist starts talking about the free market and it's well worth the price of admission. Or at least borrowing them from a library, because gently caress giving Wright any money.
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Dec 10, 2013 19:58
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gatz posted:I finished Neuromancer and hated the ending, along with not liking William Gibson's writing style. I'm interested in cyberpunk, but I'm probably not going to pursue any more of Gibson's work. Any recommendations? I'm specifically interested in writers who speculate about the effects of combining technology with our own bodies. Gibson sort of touched on this in regards to identity, but his prose obscured it too much. http://www.amazon.com/Augment-Part-1-Eric-Gabrielsen-ebook/dp/B00GDJ0YDK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386706981&sr=8-1&keywords=augment+eric is exactly about that. There is a previous book by th same author, http://www.amazon.com/Gideons-Fall-...%27s+fall+eric, but no Kindle version available. I think that The Continuing Times series by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Keys_Moran is the bet of cyberpunk.
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Dec 10, 2013 21:26
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Roydrowsy posted: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 21:31
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Any recommendations for good audiobooks? I am nearing completion on the 6 dune novels and have Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell queued up but I have a credit to burn on audible and would like to find something to use it on. I don't much care if it's a novel I've read before, i'm more interested in good performance.
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Dec 10, 2013 21:52
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Cardiovorax posted:John C. Wright is a huge rear end in a top hat and a large part of his novels are a love letter to Libertarianism, but I think that his Golden Age trilogy is a really, really great exploration of a highly transhumanist far future, where sophisticated AI and human modification are an omnipresent part of daily life. The plot itself is pretty forgettable, but it's really just a backdrop for Wright to present all his ideas on. Sounds interesting, aside from that whole "libertarian" thing. My favorite part of neuromancer was probably chapter 4 when the whole simstim thing was introduced. Too bad Gibson didn't do much new with it afterwords, other than use it as an easy way to jump from character to character. You're description sounds like the golden age trilogy is comparable to those aspects of Neuromancer. I'll check them out. From my local state-run library. I looked at Wright's wikipedia page and his picture looks like it belongs in the reddit.jpg thread. gatz fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Dec 10, 2013 |
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Dec 10, 2013 22:52
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There's more of a window into the Stimsim industry in the sequels, especially Mona Lisa Overdrive, where it's an entire subplot, but if you weren't too enthused with Neuromancer it's probably not worth the time. Fragments of a Hologram Rose, one of his pre-Neuromancer short stories, is entirely about the effects of stimsim addiction.
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Dec 10, 2013 23:06
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Venusian Weasel posted:There's more of a window into the Stimsim industry in the sequels, especially Mona Lisa Overdrive, where it's an entire subplot, but if you weren't too enthused with Neuromancer it's probably not worth the time. Not quite enough to have to read his other novels to get there. quote:Fragments of a Hologram Rose, one of his pre-Neuromancer short stories, is entirely about the effects of stimsim addiction. A friend actually recommended that I read Burning Chrome - he said that aside from Neuromancer that was his best work. That story is in there, isn't it? That should be interesting to read, and it's available through my college's library system.
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Dec 10, 2013 23:26
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gatz posted:Sounds interesting, aside from that whole "libertarian" thing. My favorite part of neuromancer was probably chapter 4 when the whole simstim thing was introduced. Too bad Gibson didn't do much new with it afterwords, other than use it as an easy way to jump from character to character. You're description sounds like the golden age trilogy is comparable to those aspects of Neuromancer. I'll check them out. From my local state-run library. Seconding The Golden Age. It is really, really idea dense and a lot of them are quite original. Don't bother with any of his other books (the first half of War of the Dreaming is pretty decent but the second... UUUGHHHHHH). I expected so much more from him.
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Dec 10, 2013 23:31
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gatz posted:A friend actually recommended that I read Burning Chrome - he said that aside from Neuromancer that was his best work. That story is in there, isn't it? That should be interesting to read, and it's available through my college's library system. Yeah, it is. Personally, I like Gibson's short stories more than his novels. They're more of an in-depth exploration of a single idea, rather than just the swarm of concepts that characterize his novels.
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Dec 10, 2013 23:56
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Nevvy Z posted:
I enjoyed bridge of birds, but I can't find that book for under 50$ 
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Dec 11, 2013 01:25
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Ika posted:I enjoyed bridge of birds, but I can't find that book for under 50$ I think it's just a compilation, the sequels are under $5 each on abebooks.
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Dec 11, 2013 03:13
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andrew smash posted:Any recommendations for good audiobooks? I am nearing completion on the 6 dune novels and have Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell queued up but I have a credit to burn on audible and would like to find something to use it on. I don't much care if it's a novel I've read before, i'm more interested in good performance. Mark Bramhall reading Lev Grossman's The Magicians is my favourite audiobook performance I've ever heard. He perfectly captures the atmosphere of the book, and does the characters' voices excellently. If you haven't heard of the book, it's a bleak fantasy novel about a magic school (think Harry Potter but with added depression and alcohol and sex). The setting, being an exclusive New England college, as well as the bleakness and undertone of creepiness, reminds me a lot of Donna Tartt's The Secret History... only, you know, with magic. The book also has cool allusions to Narnia and other fantasy works. Don't bother with the sequel though. The Magicians works perfectly as a standalone.
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Dec 11, 2013 04:32
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Hedrigall posted:Mark Bramhall reading Lev Grossman's The Magicians is my favourite audiobook performance I've ever heard. He perfectly captures the atmosphere of the book, and does the characters' voices excellently. I've read it, thanks. I'll keep it in mind. FWIW Dune is awesome, i've mentioned it before but the audio cast is phenomenal, especially the VA for the baron harkonnen.
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Dec 11, 2013 04:48
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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. You know, now that I think about it, if someone adapted that whole thing into a decently-written novel/trilogy, I'd read it. So, right now I have a bit of a quandry. I love Ellison's short story collections, but there's so much overlap between anthologies I'm reluctant to buy more. I might just give Deathbird Stories another read, it's been like three years and it's just phenomenal stuff.
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Dec 11, 2013 05:19
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gatz posted:Not quite enough to have to read his other novels to get there. Burning Chrome is great. I don't think there's a single story in it I don't like.
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Dec 12, 2013 06:52
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andrew smash posted:Any recommendations for good audiobooks? I am nearing completion on the 6 dune novels and have Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell queued up but I have a credit to burn on audible and would like to find something to use it on. I don't much care if it's a novel I've read before, i'm more interested in good performance. My wife's been listening to the Foundation series and she's really enjoyed it so far.
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Dec 12, 2013 18:52
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andrew smash posted:Any recommendations for good audiobooks? I am nearing completion on the 6 dune novels and have Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell queued up but I have a credit to burn on audible and would like to find something to use it on. I don't much care if it's a novel I've read before, i'm more interested in good performance. I just discovered that Jack Chalker's Well World and Four Lords Of The Diamond series are on audible.com. I haven't heard the narration but I'm pretty excited about these. I have all the original books and I've read them at least 3 times in my life. Might be worth taking a look.
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Dec 12, 2013 22:39
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specklebang posted:I just discovered that Jack Chalker's Well World and Four Lords Of The Diamond series are on audible.com. I haven't heard the narration but I'm pretty excited about these. I have all the original books and I've read them at least 3 times in my life. Might be worth taking a look. Man, I love those, but The Wonderland Gambit is on there, and that should be #1 on the Jack Chalker list.
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Dec 12, 2013 23:24
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Popping in to say that I just finished The Quantum Thief and I am absolutely blown away. Definitely putting The Fractal Prince on my Christmas list. Of all the things that struck me about it, I could be wrong, I got the impression that the Oubliette is essentially human-basic's last stand. Everyone else is either posthuman like the zokus or Mieli's people. That, or...how did Unruh put it? "Fragments in Fedorov's dreams." Keeping that in mind cast a certain gravity over the whole story without having to hammer it over my head 
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Dec 14, 2013 03:00
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Red Crown posted:I could be wrong, I got the impression that the Oubliette is essentially human-basic's last stand. Everyone else is either posthuman like the zokus or Mieli's people. Mieli is stuffed to the gills with Sobornost tech from her service to the pelligrini. Aside from their fascination with smartmatter sapphire and some hints that their ship minds like Perhonen might have been pulled out of some sort of communal afterlife, there's not really been any signs that the Oortians aren't pretty baseline too. Still, it's hard to say they count when they basically waltzed off as far as it's humanly possible to get from the inner system so they don't have to deal with anyone else.
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Dec 14, 2013 10:01
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Ceebees posted:Mieli is stuffed to the gills with Sobornost tech from her service to the pelligrini. Aside from their fascination with smartmatter sapphire and some hints that their ship minds like Perhonen might have been pulled out of some sort of communal afterlife, there's not really been any signs that the Oortians aren't pretty baseline too. Still, it's hard to say they count when they basically waltzed off as far as it's humanly possible to get from the inner system so they don't have to deal with anyone else. Except for, you know the wings. And the ability to sing things into existence. That being said in TFP you find that Earth also seems to have mostly baseline humans, as the wildcode scares off the Sobornost and the Zoku don't seem to be hell bent on integrating everyone into their form of existence.
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Dec 14, 2013 18:09
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So can Zoku back people up or not? As far as I remember they brought Pixil back after she was killed. How does it square with their non-copying ideas?
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Dec 14, 2013 18:55
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Xenix posted:Except for, you know the wings. And the ability to sing things into existence. i always assumed this was more how they interact with their technology than something posthuman, it's really not any different than how isidore uses his nanotech synthesizer to make food. There's just no mysticism associated with my example.
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Dec 14, 2013 20:21
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I just finished Lord of Light and it was goddamn fantastic. I can't believe I never heard of it before someone on SA mentioned the "many kilowatts of prayer" line. Even though it was pretty short, Zelazny has a great writing style. He somehow mixes conventional written style with oral storytelling--things seemlessly transition from "he said/she said to "It is said that Sam <did something>". It's enough to hint that there is an unreliable narrator, and that most of the work may be just a dramatization of historical events that is being recounted. The incorporation of Hindu and Buddhist is also fascinating, as most Sci-fi seems to be approached from the perspective of Western religions (when those things come up, anyway). The whole world he builds is fascinating, and I'm extremely glad he never explicitly lays out the backstory, but instead hints at it with references that describe the general shape of things. I'm also really pleased with his decision to forgo the usual sci-fi technical info dumps--the main characters know that all they do is technology, but language used brushes with mystical (for instance, Agni wields the "Universal Fire"). Nuclear weapons are never mentioned by name, but implied to exist as the mighty weapon of Shiva's chariot (some sort of rocket or jet propelled aircraft). Another point of interest is that, as far as I can recall, no computers are ever mentioned to exist. The text describes (or implies) a wide range of technologies---technologically augmented psychics (the gods), energy weapons, power armor, heat seeking missiles (and arrows), mind uploading...but never computers, at least nothing more than a few references to machines that store data. Unlike most of the other sci-fi of the era, computers (and by extension, robots) never play a part. The mythological language that is laid on top of the technologies present serves to emphasize that this is a story about people first and foremost. EDIT: Oh yeah, anyone who liked Lord of Light got any suggestions? I'm considered reading Dhalgren yet again, but I definitely want something new... Slanderer fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Dec 16, 2013 |
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Dec 16, 2013 00:27
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Slanderer posted:I just finished Lord of Light and it was goddamn fantastic. I can't believe I never heard of it before someone on SA mentioned the "many kilowatts of prayer" line. Even though it was pretty short, Zelazny has a great writing style. He somehow mixes conventional written style with oral storytelling--things seemlessly transition from "he said/she said to "It is said that Sam <did something>". It's enough to hint that there is an unreliable narrator, and that most of the work may be just a dramatization of historical events that is being recounted. If you haven't found a copy of Creatures of Light and Darkness then I highly recommend making the effort. Its fantasy presented as sci fi opposed to Lord of Light's sci fi presented as fantasy, if that makes any sense. II think of them as almost paired novels in many ways.
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Dec 16, 2013 00:38
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Slanderer posted:EDIT: Oh yeah, anyone who liked Lord of Light got any suggestions? I'm considered reading Dhalgren yet again, but I definitely want something new... Almost anything else by Zelazny except Amber is worth reading. Zelazny was a really experimental writer and almost every one of his books is stylistically different from all the others (the Amber series was basically his cash cow -- it's not bad for what it is, but it's bad for Zelazny). Creatures of Light and Darkness is Zelazny's first work and his most experimental. Many of the chapters are written in different genres (i.e., one chapter is a play, one's a lyric poem, etc.). It's a little rough and raw but contains some of his most brilliant work (keep an eye out for the Agnostic's Prayer). Lord of Light is my favorite of Zelazny's books; I think of it as his most adult work, in the best sense of adult. His most entertaining book on the other hand may be A Night in the Lonesome October, a light-hearted fantasy horror pastiche written entirely from the viewpoint of Jack the Ripper's dog. His best short story is A Rose for Ecclesiastes.
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Dec 16, 2013 02:40
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:His best short story is A Rose for Ecclesiastes. "And for a breath I tarry" is one of my personal favourites. It's more of a long short story than a novel, but it's a really engrossing read. I won't spoil it, but think "the Genesis but with robots" and you won't be too far off the mark.
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Dec 16, 2013 10:18
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EdBlackadder posted:If you haven't found a copy of Creatures of Light and Darkness then I highly recommend making the effort. Its fantasy presented as sci fi opposed to Lord of Light's sci fi presented as fantasy, if that makes any sense. II think of them as almost paired novels in many ways. Hieronymous Alloy posted:Almost anything else by Zelazny except Amber is worth reading. Zelazny was a really experimental writer and almost every one of his books is stylistically different from all the others (the Amber series was basically his cash cow -- it's not bad for what it is, but it's bad for Zelazny). Thanks, I'll give these a shot.
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Dec 16, 2013 18:12
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If you end up reading Amber after Zelazny's other stuff - and I liked it for what it was, so you might want to - the Corwin books (first five) are a lot better than the Merlin ones (last five). I feel like the Corwin ones were a complete story. The Merlin ones just ... well, it feels like they're wedged in there pretty awkwardly. Also they just seem so much more dated, or they aged a lot worse, or something. Also, if you go for them at all, just remember: you've seen one hellride, you've seen them all.
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Dec 16, 2013 18:24
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Psion posted:If you end up reading Amber after Zelazny's other stuff - and I liked it for what it was, so you might want to - the Corwin books (first five) are a lot better than the Merlin ones (last five). I feel like the Corwin ones were a complete story. The Merlin ones just ... well, it feels like they're wedged in there pretty awkwardly. Also they just seem so much more dated, or they aged a lot worse, or something. Yeah, I don't want to be too harsh on Amber because they're fun for what they are, if only because Zelazny is clearly writing down whatever pops into his head. They're what happens when a genuine genius sees how well all those Dungeons and Dragons novels are selling and realizes his kids need braces. They're fun reads with brilliant moments but all the coherence and structure of a jello salad.
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Dec 16, 2013 18:35
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gatz posted:I finished Neuromancer and hated the ending, along with not liking William Gibson's writing style. I'm interested in cyberpunk, but I'm probably not going to pursue any more of Gibson's work. Any recommendations? I'm specifically interested in writers who speculate about the effects of combining technology with our own bodies. Gibson sort of touched on this in regards to identity, but his prose obscured it too much. Stephenson has his own thread because lot of his stuff lately seems to be ego-stroking for his audience to feel smarter by reading his stuff however, his earlier stuff is a lot of fun and a lot less  A lot of their short story stuff is set in present times or near-future however, it's almost all very "cyberpunky," whether they're writing about post-apocalyptic scientists slinging anti-aging drugs to hillbilly militias, phone phreaks robbing COCOT payphones and driving around the desert in a van, extreme sports enthusiasts using smartgear to break into bizarre robotics facilities, or shady gun-runners making deals with idealistic revolutionaries to hire oldschool terrorists to fight for their cause. Globalhead and A Good Old-Fashioned Future are solid forays, and Holy Fire is an interesting one with a not-embarassingly-written female protagonist. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Dec 16, 2013 |
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Dec 16, 2013 19:10
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gatz posted:I finished Neuromancer and hated the ending, along with not liking William Gibson's writing style. I'm interested in cyberpunk, but I'm probably not going to pursue any more of Gibson's work. Any recommendations? I'm specifically interested in writers who speculate about the effects of combining technology with our own bodies. Gibson sort of touched on this in regards to identity, but his prose obscured it too much. Man, that's weird. If I had to pick one writer on Earth whose prose cut directly to the sharp feverish truth of human/technology interaction at the expense of everything else, it'd be Gibson.
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Dec 16, 2013 23:45
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I know it's kind of a long shot, but are there any Stanislaw Lem short stories that a little kid would understand? Like age 7-8. My mom is an elementary teacher doing a project on Poland and I thought it would be neat if she could find a story to read her class.
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Dec 17, 2013 01:43
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Radio! posted:I know it's kind of a long shot, but are there any Stanislaw Lem short stories that a little kid would understand? Like age 7-8. My mom is an elementary teacher doing a project on Poland and I thought it would be neat if she could find a story to read her class. The Cyberiad? I mean, duh. quote:Featuring quests and adventures and demanding royals and hermits and pirates and even the phrase “once upon a time”, alongside literary devices such as alliteration, punny phrases and nested tales, I quickly became desperate for a nerdy 8 year old to whom I could read these out loud to.
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Dec 17, 2013 02:01
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Hey guys, I'm wondering about books that involve a laser somewhere significantly in the story's plot. An example of what I'm looking for is VALIS by Philip K. Dick where a laser is pretty prominent in causing the mental breakdown of a guy. Anyone know of any other cool laser stories?
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Dec 17, 2013 04:40
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The Ninth Layer posted:Hey guys, The only ones I can think of offhand are Brin's Sundiver and Niven's The Ringworld Engineers.
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Dec 17, 2013 05:28
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