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crowfeathers posted:Haven't you ever wanted to read a randian dystopia scifi detective thriller novelization of an obscure adventure game written by an ex-businessman conspiracy theorist? That game was pretty decent, actually. Their ambition exceeded their budget and writing had rough patches, but it had a non-linear narrative set in a huge world, like The Last Express on steroids. That guy's writing in the excerpt is dogshit, though. Megazver fucked around with this message at 10:56 on Jan 16, 2014 |
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Jan 16, 2014 10:49
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crowfeathers posted:Haven't you ever wanted to read a randian dystopia scifi detective thriller novelization of an obscure adventure game written by an ex-businessman conspiracy theorist? Heh, I actually own this game, though I've never played it to completion. Here's the intro if anyone's interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iriKGvypG-0
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Jan 16, 2014 12:42
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Just finished Felix Gilman's Ransom City (after devouring The Half Made World). It scratched a nice bit of the Bas Lag and Ambergris spot. Any more recommendations for a weird fiction series that delves into issues of colonialism/race/gender/leftist things?
fookolt fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Jan 18, 2014 |
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Jan 18, 2014 07:23
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fookolt posted:Just finished Felix Gilman's Ransom City (after devouring The Half Made World). It scratched a nice bit of the Bas Lag and Ambergris spot. Any more recommendations for a weird fiction series that delves into issues of colonialism/race/gender/leftist things? Jeff VanderMeer comes to mind. His stuff is a bit similar to Bas Lag although the socio-political themes aren't as deep and the style/topic of the books differ quite strongly, even inside the same universe (Ambergris), far more than the Bas Lag books.
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Jan 18, 2014 08:28
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Decius posted:Jeff VanderMeer comes to mind. His stuff is a bit similar to Bas Lag although the socio-political themes aren't as deep and the style/topic of the books differ quite strongly, even inside the same universe (Ambergris), far more than the Bas Lag books. Thanks, but I actually mentioned Ambergris in my post. I really enjoyed the three books in that series.
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Jan 18, 2014 09:15
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fookolt posted:Just finished Felix Gilman's Ransom City (after devouring The Half Made World). It scratched a nice bit of the Bas Lag and Ambergris spot. Any more recommendations for a weird fiction series that delves into issues of colonialism/race/gender/leftist things? Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead and Two Serpents Rise are probably something you'll get a kick out of.
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Jan 18, 2014 10:10
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The upcoming novel Unwrapped Sky by Rjurik Davidson looks very Mieville-esque. I want to preorder it.
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Jan 18, 2014 14:07
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Okay, everybody should read The Red Knight (Miles Cameron), it's easily one of the best fantasy books I've ever read. Great intricate story, fantastic action scenes (apparantly the author is a military veteran and historian with expertise in medieval combat), good pacing and plenty of intrigue/mystery. I think the best comparison to his style is Joe Abercrombie. Apparantly the second book in the series (The Fell Sword) just came out as well.
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Jan 18, 2014 21:03
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fookolt posted:Just finished Felix Gilman's Ransom City (after devouring The Half Made World). It scratched a nice bit of the Bas Lag and Ambergris spot. Any more recommendations for a weird fiction series that delves into issues of colonialism/race/gender/leftist things? Le Guin's hanish cycle comes to mind. Theodore Sturgeon's Venus Plus X delves into gender issues, though it's not part of a series. Kiln People by David Brin has commentary on racism and the surveillance state (relevant even more today than 10 years ago). gatz fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Jan 19, 2014 |
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Jan 19, 2014 00:20
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Walh Hara posted:Okay, everybody should read The Red Knight (Miles Cameron), it's easily one of the best fantasy books I've ever read. Great intricate story, fantastic action scenes (apparantly the author is a military veteran and historian with expertise in medieval combat), good pacing and plenty of intrigue/mystery. I think the best comparison to his style is Joe Abercrombie. Nope, the second book isn't out for another couple months.
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Jan 19, 2014 00:38
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fookolt posted:Just finished Felix Gilman's Ransom City (after devouring The Half Made World). It scratched a nice bit of the Bas Lag and Ambergris spot. Any more recommendations for a weird fiction series that delves into issues of colonialism/race/gender/leftist things? Have you read Steph Swainston's Year of Our War series? I wrote it off originally because all the summaries I'd read of it made it sound like bog-standard fantasy fare (The protagonist has a super unique ability AND he doesn't play by the rules? Yawn.) but it's actually pretty clever about fantasy tropes and super surreal, in the Max Ernst/Salvidor Dali sense, at points. The first book doesn't feature any leftist issues as part of the plot, but the portrayal of its ruling class seems in line with leftist arguments -- it's no secret that the aforementioned protagonist only gets to be one of the elite because of the coincidental circumstance of his birth, and outside of that he's a stupendous gently caress-up. I'm sure someone with a better grasp of theory could find more to it than that. There's a prequel to the series, Above the Snowline, that drops the surreal elements but does involve colonialism rather heavily. It has quite a bit of fun subverting the "noble savage" archetype as well.
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Jan 19, 2014 02:14
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Piell posted:Nope, the second book isn't out for another couple months. January 30th brings the release of The Fell Sword, the much anticipated sequel to The Red Knight by Miles Cameron. The UK gets it first. We get it sometime in March.
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Jan 19, 2014 02:42
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Piell posted:Nope, the second book isn't out for another couple months. Since I'm reading the second book right now (bought on Google play books, I'm in Belgium) I'm confident the book is out already here. edit: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fell-Sword-...=the+fell+sword Walh Hara fucked around with this message at 10:52 on Jan 19, 2014 |
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Jan 19, 2014 10:41
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drat foreigners!
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Jan 19, 2014 14:58
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fookolt posted:Just finished Felix Gilman's Ransom City (after devouring The Half Made World). It scratched a nice bit of the Bas Lag and Ambergris spot. Any more recommendations for a weird fiction series that delves into issues of colonialism/race/gender/leftist things? I forgot to mention that Brave New World is essentially just one big criticism of 20th century capitalism and the states that support it. As a side note, I've never seen a single reference to that book on SA (the let's play forum in particular) that takes this into account. "oh, brave new world has automation? Well this Ron hack of final fantasy 6 has automation!" "oh, we're going to a new planet in this star wars game, let's reference brave new world!" I think most people who do that kind of name-dropping either haven't read the book or just don't understand it. The latter being hard to do since Huxley wrote a great forward to the 1946 edition of the book (reprinted in every edition since, AFAIK) that flat out tells the reader what the point of the novel was.
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Jan 19, 2014 16:55
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Walh Hara posted:Okay, everybody should read The Red Knight (Miles Cameron), it's easily one of the best fantasy books I've ever read. Great intricate story, fantastic action scenes (apparantly the author is a military veteran and historian with expertise in medieval combat), good pacing and plenty of intrigue/mystery. I think the best comparison to his style is Joe Abercrombie. I recommended this in the other thread and I am pleased you enjoyed it. I'm about to start reading it through again before the second one. The main character is just so drat interesting.
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Jan 19, 2014 17:50
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gatz posted:I forgot to mention that Brave New World is essentially just one big criticism of 20th century capitalism and the states that support it. As a side note, I've never seen a single reference to that book on SA (the let's play forum in particular) that takes this into account. "oh, brave new world has automation? Well this Ron hack of final fantasy 6 has automation!" "oh, we're going to a new planet in this star wars game, let's reference brave new world!" I think most people who do that kind of name-dropping either haven't read the book or just don't understand it. The latter being hard to do since Huxley wrote a great forward to the 1946 edition of the book (reprinted in every edition since, AFAIK) that flat out tells the reader what the point of the novel was. I'm reading it right now and it's pretty mind blowing. The children loving each other in the bushes pre-pubecence is so shocking it's a bit hard to comprehend. I wouldn't be looking for insight into scifi or anything really from the video game crowd. Some people that play games also have interests beyond that, but I wouldn't count on it. I'd more count on getting frustrated by barking up the wrong tree.
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Jan 19, 2014 17:56
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BigSkillet posted:Have you read Steph Swainston's Year of Our War series. Seconding this recommendation, it's a fantastic series with some fantastic worldbuilding. According to Swainston's twitter she's been working on a new novel for the last few month and has material for a good few books mapped out.
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Jan 19, 2014 18:40
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Megazver posted:Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead and Two Serpents Rise are probably something you'll get a kick out of. Is Two Serpents Rise any good? I picked up Three Parts Dead on Kindle for $3.99 and I thought it was really fresh and original, but I'm not sure I liked it enough to pay $11.04 for the next one when I can probably pick both books up secondhand.
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Jan 19, 2014 19:56
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Zola posted:Is Two Serpents Rise any good? I picked up Three Parts Dead on Kindle for $3.99 and I thought it was really fresh and original, but I'm not sure I liked it enough to pay $11.04 for the next one when I can probably pick both books up secondhand. Well, it's as good as the first one. Don't know what that tells you.
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Jan 20, 2014 09:50
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Decius posted:Jeff VanderMeer comes to mind. His stuff is a bit similar to Bas Lag although the socio-political themes aren't as deep and the style/topic of the books differ quite strongly, even inside the same universe (Ambergris), far more than the Bas Lag books. Would you classify Ambergris as having leftist leanings? Finch felt more anti-authoritarian (authoritarian not being an exclusive property of the right) in the vein of 1984 and Shriek and The Book of Ambergris felt like a weird melding of feudal and industrial era England which don't have much to do with modern politics.
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Jan 20, 2014 14:30
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Does the political slant of a book really bother people that much?
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Jan 20, 2014 14:36
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WastedJoker posted:Does the political slant of a book really bother people that much? Many people in this thread will refuse to read anything by an author who espouses right-wing views outside of a book, so apparently it does. It rarely bothers me personally unless it is extremely overt. The only book from my recent readings that annoyed me enough to stop reading was The Dispossessed, probably because of my economics degree and its casual dismissal of the discipline. I was just interested in that take of VanderMeer's stuff because I didn't get that particular impression. His books do have political themes, I just didn't think of them in that way.
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Jan 20, 2014 14:46
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WastedJoker posted:Does the political slant of a book really bother people that much? Depends on the book, really. I don't read Card cause he's a gigantic asshat, but mainly the whole "political" issue in a book (for me) is where it affects the plot or just makes the book more of a sounding board for the author's leanings, moreso than telling a story. Perfect example was a book I tried to read a year or two ago that sounded pretty fun by the description, but turned out to be just weird rear end right wing political rants about various things from evil muslims to rape bait women who don't know their place. It turned out to be a far cry from the fantasy novel I thought it was gonna be. When I discovered 2 different descriptions of the book on amazon (one for the kindle, one for the paper version) it all kinda clicked.
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Jan 20, 2014 15:17
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I would like to learn more about the Arthurian legend, as what little I know of it comes form Horrible Histories, and while they are amusing I don't feel comfortable basing all my knowledge of such a cornerstone of fantasy on them. I would like to read something that encompasses as much of the original legends as possible; although I consider myself a robust reader but I'm not sure if I can tacke the source material. What would you suggest?
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Jan 20, 2014 15:26
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paradoxGentleman posted:I would like to learn more about the Arthurian legend, as what little I know of it comes form Horrible Histories, and while they are amusing I don't feel comfortable basing all my knowledge of such a cornerstone of fantasy on them. I would like to read something that encompasses as much of the original legends as possible; although I consider myself a robust reader but I'm not sure if I can tacke the source material. What would you suggest? This. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Arthur_and_His_Knights_of_the_Round_Table Wikipedia says it's a 'children's novel' but the writing is simple, not simplistic. I read it as a 12 yr old and imprinted the whole Arthurian legend into my mind. I must've read it close to 10 times over my life, I often pick it up just to read single tales.
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Jan 20, 2014 16:05
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paradoxGentleman posted:I would like to learn more about the Arthurian legend, as what little I know of it comes form Horrible Histories, and while they are amusing I don't feel comfortable basing all my knowledge of such a cornerstone of fantasy on them. I would like to read something that encompasses as much of the original legends as possible; although I consider myself a robust reader but I'm not sure if I can tacke the source material. What would you suggest? In looking up T.H. White to see how accurate his Arthur stories are, I found this list, perhaps it will be useful
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Jan 20, 2014 16:06
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Depends on the book, really. For everyone who hears this about John C Wright may I recommend you read the first book of The Golden Age. It is incredibly idea dense and depicts a near-utopia that isn't a far right wing fantasy but is just loving interesting. More dense in ideas than The Quantum Thief which is a supreme compliment. Don't touch his later stuff. While there is some good stuff it is quite sparse and he is indeed a bit of a Christian/Libertarian nut. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 16:16 on Jan 20, 2014 |
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Jan 20, 2014 16:14
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Neurosis posted:For everyone who hears this about John C Wright may I recommend you read the first book of The Golden Age. It is incredibly idea dense and depicts a near-utopia that isn't a far right wing fantasy but is just loving interesting. More dense in ideas than The Quantum Thief which is a supreme compliment. The book actually almost seems to be making fun of itself at times - there's one scene where the protagonist wakes up from cold storage, thinks his room is dirty, find a bunch of cleaning nanobots in the broom closet and then smugly congratulates himself on performing manual labour, "like his pioneer ancestors," because the nanobots need to be guided to the dirty spots with a laser beam instead of finding them on their own.
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Jan 20, 2014 17:46
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Thanks for the suggestions. I've decided I'll try my hand at Le Mort D'Arthur, and I'll try something simpler if it proves to be too much for me.
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Jan 20, 2014 17:51
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Cardiovorax posted:Wright is an insane Mormon who hates gay people with a passion, but The Golden Age is really surprisingly good about it. The protagonist occasionally points out how much he loves the free market, but he also continuously shits in his own shoes because of his smug sense of entitlement, so it kind of equals out. He's Catholic. He's very, very insistent about how Catholic he is. And the Golden Age was written before he had a heart attack and converted, so he was just a right-wing libertarian back then.
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Jan 20, 2014 17:58
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Cardiovorax posted:Wright is an insane Mormon who hates gay people with a passion, but The Golden Age is really surprisingly good about it. The protagonist occasionally points out how much he loves the free market, but he also continuously shits in his own shoes because of his smug sense of entitlement, so it kind of equals out. Yep. The protagonist seems relatively balanced early on. Later he encounters people outside the general society and falls prey to their wiles instantly because he has no idea what is going on. Then he lectures them on decent behaviour while not even vaguely being connected to their reality. In the third book Atkins tells him he is a oval office and he doesn't quite get it. Then you read the first book of the War of the Dreaming and it is fun fantasy where everything in Gaiman's Sandman is turned up to 11... And then you read the second book and it becomes awful beyond belief. As I've said before, I'd recommend all of the Golden Age, but the later stuff, uggghhh...
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Jan 20, 2014 18:00
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paradoxGentleman posted:Thanks for the suggestions. I've decided I'll try my hand at Le Mort D'Arthur, and I'll try something simpler if it proves to be too much for me. It can be pretty tough going, depending on how much it's been edited; the grammar and vocabulary take a lot of getting used to. The Once and Future King works really well as a stepping stone to it. Also it rules, one of my favorite books.
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Jan 20, 2014 20:10
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How is the sequel to Canticle for Liebowitz?
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Jan 20, 2014 20:13
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paradoxGentleman posted:I would like to learn more about the Arthurian legend, as what little I know of it comes form Horrible Histories, and while they are amusing I don't feel comfortable basing all my knowledge of such a cornerstone of fantasy on them. I would like to read something that encompasses as much of the original legends as possible; although I consider myself a robust reader but I'm not sure if I can tacke the source material. What would you suggest? I bet there's people who hate it with zeal, but I'd defend it passionately. Blog Free or Die posted:The Once and Future King
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Jan 20, 2014 20:16
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WastedJoker posted:Does the political slant of a book really bother people that much? It's not an issue of "bothering" me; I just read a lot of right wing sci-fi and Clancy-type garbage as a kid and I'd like to balance it out with all the stuff I missed.
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Jan 20, 2014 20:18
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If you want some bizarre left-leaning scifi you could always just read some Sheri Tepper. quote:Generations in the future, when humanity has spread to other planets and Earth is ruled by Sanctity, a dour, coercive religion that looks to resurrection of the body by storing cell samples of its communicants, a plague is threatening to wipe out mankind. The only planet that seems to be spared is Grass, so-called because that is virtually all that grows there. It was settled by families of European nobility who live on vast estancias and indulge in the ancient sport of fox hunting--although the horses, hounds and foxes aren't what they what they appear to be. Rigo and Marjorie Westriding Yrarier and family are sent to Grass as ambassadors and unofficial investigators because the ruling families--the bons--have refused to allow scientists to authenticate the planet's immunity from the plague.
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Jan 20, 2014 20:22
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Blog Free or Die posted:It can be pretty tough going, depending on how much it's been edited; the grammar and vocabulary take a lot of getting used to. The Once and Future King works really well as a stepping stone to it. Also it rules, one of my favorite books. I really like The Once and Future King as well, but my recollection is that it plays faster and looser with the source material, which is why I recommended the one I did. Of course, now that I think about it, I can't remember much of it. I think a re-read is in order. Everyone should read TOAFK anyway.
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Jan 20, 2014 20:40
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crowfeathers posted:How is the sequel to Canticle for Liebowitz? It's been a long time since I read it but as I recall it's enjoyable but not really in the same league as Canticle; it's a much more conventional post apocalyptic novel that happens to be set in the same world.
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Jan 20, 2014 21:39
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crowfeathers posted:If you want some bizarre left-leaning scifi you could always just read some Sheri Tepper. I picked this up from a charity shop in Leeds and its one of the most labourious books I have ever read.
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Jan 20, 2014 23:20
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