|
For everyone who wants good space opera: You should read Saga. Yeah, it's a comic. No, I'm not in the wrong thread. It's that good. They're giving their first issue away for free on their site and on Comixology and probably everywhere else where they can, so I hope it's okay to link to it on Imgur to avoid the hassle of going through an online store to download something for free. Read it, it's fantastic. Megazver fucked around with this message at 12:40 on Jan 23, 2014 |
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 11:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 18, 2024 08:13 |
|
|
I read a description somewhere that summed Saga up perfectly: it's like Star Wars with way more dicks in it. Highly recommended.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 12:38
|
|
|
Also, regarding Marion Zimmer Bradley, I might as well point out that she was an accessory to her husband's pedophilia, because all SF authors have to be bad people somehow, I guess. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Zimmer_Bradley#Biography
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 15:34
|
|
|
Silver2195 posted:Also, regarding Marion Zimmer Bradley, I might as well point out that she was an accessory to her husband's pedophilia, because all SF authors have to be bad people somehow, I guess. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Zimmer_Bradley#Biography Aaaaaaaahhhhahahahhhrhhrhrrghhghhhh 
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 15:43
|
|
|
 What is it with loving genre writers that makes them so hosed up.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 15:47
|
|
|
Hedrigall posted:I read a description somewhere that summed Saga up perfectly: it's like Star Wars with way more dicks in it. That would be the title of the Saga thread on these very forums. Howevermanything the recommendation, of course.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 15:48
|
|
|
I have heard nearly universal praise for Saga but I have only found it passable to above average. A lot of the time it just feels like it's meandering and I don't really care about what's going on.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 17:57
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:I have heard nearly universal praise for Saga but I have only found it passable to above average. A lot of the time it just feels like it's meandering and I don't really care about what's going on. What's it like to have no soul?
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 18:15
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:Aaaaaaaahhhhahahahhhrhhrhrrghhghhhh quote:She quickly made peace with the situation, even defending her husband from accusations of paedophilia because the 14-year-old "did not impress me as a minor child... I think he would have been old enough to be married in this state legally, so I figured what he did sexually was his own business." What the gently caress.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 19:52
|
|
|
Wait, for Saga, are we talking actual dicks or just people who are dicks or people who are actual dicks?
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 20:32
|
|
|
fookolt posted:Wait, for Saga, are we talking actual dicks or just people who are dicks or people who are actual dicks? An issue got briefly banned on Comixology for this:  There are also some brief sex scenes and nudity. And a brothel planet.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 21:15
|
|
|
Sorry, but what's censored in that picture? The face? I feel dumb  Never mind, Google provided the answers as usual.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 21:35
|
|
|
Literal instead of metaphorical giant dicks in a comic is kind of a refreshing change. Well, average-sized dicks anyway.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 22:40
|
|
|
Megazver posted:What's it like to have no soul? Lying. Saga is incredibly overhyped. I also can't stand Brian K. Vaughan's writing in it, the attempts of creating real and relatable family/love relationships are just cringeworthy at best. Will leave it at that before I explode into a massive rant. But, I am apparently in the vast minority here, so if it interests you then definitely check it out. There is potential there, which I see as wasted but you might find it to be a fuckin goldmine of spacedicks the likes of which the world has never seen before. Also I have a TGT avatar so what the gently caress do I know right.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 23:03
|
|
|
I'm doing a 50 book challenge for 2014, so I've read a few this month. You by Austin Grossman A law school drop out gets a job at a gaming studio founded by his high school friends, one of whom is dead. As much as I like gaming and even though I'm about the same age as the author, this book was boring as poo poo. The back cover blurb straight up lies about the plot. It goes nowhere and could usually be half the length for what it was trying to achieve. Anything that's even remotely interesting he ignores (Simon's death, for example) and instead harps on and on about an imaginary videogame that by the way, sounds terrible. It's surprising that the author is a game designer, because none of the things he talks about are possible in late 90s game design. Flesh Worn Stone by John Burks This guy is trying to emulate Richard Laymon, which is a bad idea on its own, but he's also way way way worse than Laymon in both writing ability and hosed up-ness. A couple is kidnapped and thrown into a cave with weekly Thunderdome-esque games where you either have to kill, rape or lose a limb. The dude's wife (and probably the author) seems to have a bit of a fetish, as she proceeds to gently caress the two available black guys while looking, winking and smiling at her husband. Author describes some dude's dick as a ''mule cock.'' Lots of helpings of rape. There is just nothing of value here. It Came from Del Rio by Stephen Graham Jones I enjoyed this a lot up until the halfway point, where it switches POV and jumps ahead a couple of decades. Up until that point it was pretty fun, even though he plays with the locations a bit loose (you never know exactly where the gently caress scenes takes place). The other half was just completely pointless with a largely uninteresting protagonist investigating a ''mystery'' we already know all the answers to because they were in the first half. Seriously, stop when you reach the middle.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2014 23:45
|
|
|
Think you might have the SciFi/Fantasy thread mixed up with the Reading Challenge thread...
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 01:25
|
|
|
Venusian Weasel posted:It's a short story, but Boojum might be up your alley. I certainly enjoyed it. I just read this, holy poo poo yes. The "drinking wine in a hot tub" ~space pirate~ bit was a bit embarrassing to read, but apart from that, it was literally exactly what I was looking for. Thank you! I wish there was more in this universe. Cardiac posted:Iain Banks is the go-to author for living ships and it is the whole basis for his Culture series. Thanks, I just hit up Wikipedia. I've unsurprisingly heard of Iain Banks and the Culture series, but have never looked into it much. From what I can tell, the concept of Minds isn't exactly what I had in mind (heh) when thinking of "living ships", but still sounds really appealing anyway. The Edenist culture in The Reality Dysfunction seem to be a better fit with their bio-tech and sentient starships. How much sex is in there? It must be a fair amount for you to mention it? I prefer that sex just be "implied" when it has to be mentioned at all, basically the equivalent of "fading to black". I'm willing to suffer through some lovely sex scenes if it means I would otherwise enjoy the books though. Quickly going though summaries of some stuff by Neal Asher, I can't really see any mention of living ships or anything similar?
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 03:08
|
|
|
You will suffer through some lovely sex scenes, and suffer, and suffer.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 03:10
|
|
|
It isn't just sex. There's also a ton of really dumb wacky stuff. Reality Dysfunction had some cool potential, but was like at least 3/4 terrible. Also one of the dumbest endings, after 3000+ pages of setup.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 03:19
|
|
|
Oh gosh. I guess I'll put it in the "consider reading when you've got nothing better to read" pile. I started Star Soldiers (which you can grab for free) the other day to get a sci-fi fix while I'm looking for something "living ship" related. I think I'll do as Cardiac recommended and get stuck into the Culture series when I've finished up with this book.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 04:14
|
|
|
Cardiac posted:Also, why don't we ever call out Mieville for being a communist/socialist that still believes in the revolution? you say this like it's a bad thing.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 04:31
|
|
|
Cardiac posted:Also, why don't we ever call out Mieville for being a communist/socialist that still believes in the revolution? Why would we do that? His stuff is at least well-written, and besides, I think you'll find many readers are left leaning.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 04:39
|
|
|
It ties in with being well-written, but his characters also aren't bomb throwing radicals either. Isaac was by far the most so of all his protagonists, the rest of them (of the books i've read anyway) are generally socially conscious but hardly revolutionaries.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 04:48
|
|
|
Reality Dysfunction is NOT WORTH READING. Yes, this is my opinion, but holy poo poo don't waste your time.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 06:08
|
|
|
Xik posted:
The sex in The Reality Dysfunction (of which there is quite a bit) is only sometimes graphic and doesn't approach, like, Jean M. Auel extremes when it is. It's mostly just awkward and hackneyed, and includes some gross body-horror during a couple of sexual episodes involving the antagonists. There is some rape - actual and contemplated, though thankfully off-screen most of the time - also involving the antagonists. The main dudebro protagonist guy - the guy who has most of the sex - is a huge skeeve whose skeeviness is indulged by the narrative for a long time. If you ignore all the sex, the series is like most Hamilton: vaguely serviceable pulp that won't blow your mind unless you're wowed by sheer physical scope. PupsOfWar fucked around with this message at 08:37 on Jan 24, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 08:32
|
|
|
While it is worth mentioning his political leanings when Mieville comes up, it's not exactly difficult to find extremely far right-wing genre fiction. It's worth it to me to sometimes ask about sci fi or fantasy that has a more leftward bent because I sometimes get exhausted with the barrage of fascism and libertarianism and I don't want to grab some sci fi book at random to find just yet another fascist or libertarian apologia.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 09:10
|
|
|
Xik posted:
The concept behind the Edenist culture is neat but holy god don't read The Reality Dysfunction, it's like three Space Bibles worth of awkward plot and even more awkward sex. Also while I don't agree with Mieville's beliefs regarding the inevitable revolution I respect him for being able to write good stories that don't bash your face in with his ethos. The same often can't be said of people writing far right-wing genre fiction and military sci-fi, which being in the military myself I find unbearable.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 09:59
|
|
|
Xik posted:The Edenist culture in The Reality Dysfunction seem to be a better fit with their bio-tech and sentient starships. How much sex is in there? It must be a fair amount for you to mention it? I prefer that sex just be "implied" when it has to be mentioned at all, basically the equivalent of "fading to black". I'm willing to suffer through some lovely sex scenes if it means I would otherwise enjoy the books though. Of you're interested in Peter Hamilton's Reality Dysfunction stuff you could try his short story anthology A Second Chance At Eden. The titular novella is a murder mystery set in the first biotechnological orbital and yes it has bad sex scenes in it but it's pretty brief. It's also the weakest story I can remember from the book. The rest of the stories are OK as far as I can remember, range from near future blood sports to a mini space opera with a strong biotechnological theme throughout. Neal Adams has a mixture of Culture style AI ships and not sure how much of a spoiler this is at this point but an alien biotechnological space craft/entity drives the plot of the first book in the Agent Cormac series.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 10:11
|
|
|
Welp, that was a discussion alright.Hieronymous Alloy posted:*insert a whole lot of useful information here* Yeah, Mallory really isn't cutting it for me. It's blander than plain bread. Also Uther Pendragon is kind of a dick. I think I'll follow your suggestion: Howard Pyle here I come. paradoxGentleman fucked around with this message at 10:38 on Jan 24, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 10:35
|
|
|
fermun posted:While it is worth mentioning his political leanings when Mieville comes up, it's not exactly difficult to find extremely far right-wing genre fiction. How many Toms Kratmen does a single China Mieville balance out.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 15:28
|
|
|
Point six.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 15:39
|
|
|
drat, I really liked Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga (and a couple of his standalones, I can't recall the titles) so I was going to try out Reality Disfunction. You guys are making it sound pretty terrible though.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 19:19
|
|
|
If you liked Commonwealth you'll like that.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 19:34
|
|
|
Heh, so there are enough negative opinions here to make me pass on Hamilton. That just leaves me with Culture. While it's not exactly what I had in mind regarding the living ship thing, it's fairly close and setting/concept sounds really interesting so I probably won't be disappointed anyway.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 21:32
|
|
|
Farscape is a weird as poo poo TV show with an actually living ship, as in it's a big whale thing they get in and it flies them around. But Bank's AI is more what I think of with 'living ship', as in it's intelligent and talks to you easily and is more of a comrade and friend than a tool you use to get around. You can have an organic ship that is a lump of meat with various ways to control it, but just the way the Xenophobe acts in Use of Weapons was easily one of the highlights of that book to me. It keeps a human crew because it thinks they're fun. It likes throwing parties for them and generally hanging out, while at the same time assures one of the main characters that despite it's seemingly laid back attitude.. if poo poo gets nasty it will respond with all the might and terror of a Culture attack ship (it says it in a much cooler way than that too).
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 21:36
|
|
|
Tony Montana posted:Farscape is a weird as poo poo TV show with an actually living ship, as in it's a big whale thing they get in and it flies them around. Another reason why the Minds keep humans around is that it helps them feel more of a sense of self-preservation instead of instantly going into full on martyr mode.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 22:07
|
|
|
Also the minds do have humanoid avatars with which they can attend parties and go visit their crew and passengers. I'm not sure if banks ever clearly states whether the avatars have to be synthetic.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2014 23:46
|
|
|
They can be organic enough to have sex with the crew. That's not something I ever needed to know.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2014 00:22
|
|
|
The orgies on the Xeno are apparently quite epic and the ship probably joins in. Haha, what a mindfuck.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2014 00:28
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 18, 2024 08:13 |
|
|
Cardiovorax posted:They can be organic enough to have sex with the crew. That's not something I ever needed to know. Gary Gibson's Shoal books had something like this, it led to some funny scenes in it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2014 00:58
|
|
