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Cardiovorax posted:What's the closest you can get to David Edding's Belgariad without actually being David Eddings? I know it's shallow and about the most generic fantasy you can get, but somehow I feel like I need to read something in that general mindset right now - wholesome, a large cast of characters who like and care each other, nothing really bad happens to anyone on screen and in the end the Bad Guys are defeated and everybody is happy forever. I've been having kind of a bad week, I needs me some brain fluff. I suppose you could try Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks (I know, I'm going to hell...)
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Feb 3, 2014 22:53
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Magic Kingdom For Sale: SOLD by Terry Brooks? Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Well, there's the sequel, The Mallorean. There's also the Polgara the Sorceress standalone. The standalone Belgarath the Sorcerer is pretty awesome as well. Both run parallel to both series. Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:The Misenchated Sword was pretty cool, and it's by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Most of his series is good, only one book kinda went apeshit and only one book really sucked. The first one was pretty good though. Lawrence Watt-Evans posted:The Ethshar stories are fantasy, but they don't quite fit in the usual niches in that field. They're not deadly serious, the tone's usually pretty light, but they're not outright farce or parody, either. You'll find a lot of happy endings and coming-of-age stories, and not much angst -- but puns are relatively scarce, and slapstick is usually kept to a minimum.
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Feb 3, 2014 23:11
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Azathoth posted:After reading the first draft, Jonathan L. Howard's editor should have taken away Howard's thesaurus until such time as he could prove that he could use it responsibly. It had a definite "look at this big word I know!" feel and distracted from the narrative flow when I had to look up what puscillanimous or lugubrious meant to understand what he was trying to describe, and this comes from a guy who loves Gene Wolfe, so I'm not afraid or annoyed by obscure vocabulary, just how it was implemented there. This puzzles me a little because, as someone else mentioned, it feels perfect in the context of Johannes' character. Conceding that I only started it last night and have caught myself being mildly annoyed at the writing a couple of times, so maybe it does get worse, but so far no issues that really detract from how much fun the book is.
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Feb 3, 2014 23:39
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Irony.or.Death posted:This puzzles me a little because, as someone else mentioned, it feels perfect in the context of Johannes' character. Conceding that I only started it last night and have caught myself being mildly annoyed at the writing a couple of times, so maybe it does get worse, but so far no issues that really detract from how much fun the book is.
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Feb 3, 2014 23:51
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syphon posted:The easy answer (even though it violates your caveat) is Eddings' other series, The Elenium/Tamuli. Personally I thought the Elenium/Tamuli were much more fun than the Belgariad/Mallorean and were also mercifully shorter. Blog Free or Die posted:Yeah, the Corum books rule. Anthologies are good, but then you miss out on the amazingly rad covers. Look at this poo poo: Yeah the Runestaff is pretty great. I love that weird old style of cover art, I have a boxed set of the Dancers at the End of Time with similar covers.
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Feb 3, 2014 23:55
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VanderMeer's new book comes out tomorrow and it looks like it's going to be a good one: http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-jeff-vandermeer-20140202,0,4423172.story quote:"Annihilation," in which the educated and analytical similarly meets up with the inhuman, is a clear triumph for Vandermeer, who after numerous works of genre fiction has suddenly transcended genre with a compelling, elegant and existential story of far broader appeal.
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Feb 4, 2014 00:14
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Yo, if you read The Explorer by James Smythe and were interested in its sequel, The Echo, I'm pretty hesitant to recommend it! It's another dose of nihilistic existential torture with an increased focus on how hosed everyone is. It does live up to its title, though, so I'll give it that. http://www.amazon.com/The-Explorer-James-Smythe/dp/0062229419 http://www.amazon.com/Echo-James-Smythe-ebook/dp/B00DB3D6AY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391473011&sr=1-1&keywords=the+echo Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Feb 4, 2014 |
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Feb 4, 2014 01:16
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The Explorer is literally the worst science fiction book I've ever read.
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Feb 4, 2014 01:31
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I think it's far from the worst but ultimately pointless.
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Feb 4, 2014 01:44
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It's utterly boring. The entire novel until literally, loving LITERALLY the last two pages consists of the main character hiding in vents and watching things happen. It's also completely devoid of actual science. The author seems to think that turning off a spaceship's engines would result in the ship coming to a dead stop. The characters have lag-less conversations with people back on Earth, over distances of light-minutes-to-hours. It's so loving unreadably bad.
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Feb 4, 2014 01:51
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I wonder what the relationship is between the author and the science advisors he references because the sequel is full of the same poo poo, though he does learn about light lag.
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Feb 4, 2014 01:53
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Fallom posted:I wonder what the relationship is between the author and the science advisors he references because the sequel is full of the same poo poo, though he does learn about light lag. Oh god that's even worse. At least just call it an ansible retroactively. Mass Effect did something like this with their guns. They used a heat system instead of ammo due to the mumbo jumbo tech they made up. It was kind of neat, EVERY gun had heat and infinite ammo except maybe a rocket launcher or grenades or something. Then the next game they had an ammo system where every heatsink burnt out and your pistol could only hold 10 heat sinks and your shotgun could only hold six or something stupid that didn't improve game play and made no loving sense plot wise.
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Feb 4, 2014 02:22
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Nevvy Z posted:Then the next game they had an ammo system where every heatsink burnt out and your pistol could only hold 10 heat sinks and your shotgun could only hold six or something stupid that didn't improve game play and made no loving sense plot wise. It did improve gameplay, though. Which is the only reason they needed, really.
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Feb 4, 2014 02:25
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Megazver posted:It did improve gameplay, though. Which is the only reason they needed, really. I don't even agree with that. It was barely different. But the excuse was just so bad that it bothered me all the more. One use heat sinks.
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Feb 4, 2014 05:06
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Hedrigall posted:It's utterly boring. The entire novel until literally, loving LITERALLY the last two pages consists of the main character hiding in vents and watching things happen. It's also completely devoid of actual science. The author seems to think that turning off a spaceship's engines would result in the ship coming to a dead stop. The characters have lag-less conversations with people back on Earth, over distances of light-minutes-to-hours. It's so loving unreadably bad. Maybe they live in fluidic space with superluminal EM transmission properties...
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Feb 4, 2014 05:15
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Cardiovorax posted:That sounds pretty much exactly like what I had in mind, so I'll check those out right away. Thanks to you too. From a couple pages back: fritz posted:Read the first three Ethshar books, and the sixth, and then you might as well stop. They should be in print from one small press or another, but you'll probably have to get them online or at a used book store. That's a little bit harsh, and I'm still buying them, but some of them are just better than others.
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Feb 4, 2014 05:19
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The only one I thought was a waste of time was the dragon one with the kid. He was an annoying little poo poo and the story didn't go anywhere. The weirdest one just tone wise was the one with the girl and the enchanted dagger she hosed up, cause just the sheer amount of violence in it was so completely not like anything else in the series. All the others, while not perfect, were pretty good.
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Feb 4, 2014 05:34
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:The only one I thought was a waste of time was the dragon one with the kid. He was an annoying little poo poo and the story didn't go anywhere. There's something about the voice in the last several that's just been off, starting from about The Spriggan Mirror.
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Feb 4, 2014 05:35
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Yea, I kinda chalked that up to him trying a different writing style than he had been using. The only one that really stands out to me as written "oddly" was the one about the girl who could fly. I can't recall the title of it, but she was liked by everyone and it was this kid's first adventure into the world. The story kinda went nowhere in a weird, sad way, but the way it was told was just... off compared to the first couple of books I read by him.
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Feb 4, 2014 06:15
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Abu Dave posted:I don't really want any video game references, I just liked the idea of OASIS because its kinda like the pleasure machine in Do Androids Dream. No idea how RPO won any awards Maybe try Tad Williams' "Otherland" series? It has a similar virtual reality/internet set up without all the nerd wank. It's not the best literature, but it's entertaining and it's miles better than Ready Player One. quote:What's the closest you can get to David Edding's Belgariad without actually being David Eddings? I know it's shallow and about the most generic fantasy you can get, but somehow I feel like I need to read something in that general mindset right now - wholesome, a large cast of characters who like and care each other, nothing really bad happens to anyone on screen and in the end the Bad Guys are defeated and everybody is happy forever. I've been having kind of a bad week, I needs me some brain fluff. I haven't read Eddings or Brooks in ages but I feel like Terry Brooks' Shannara series was kind of similar. Also maybe Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Cycle or some of Brandon Sanderson's books?
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Feb 4, 2014 06:33
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Lowly posted:Maybe try Tad Williams' "Otherland" series? It has a similar virtual reality/internet set up without all the nerd wank. It's not the best literature, but it's entertaining and it's miles better than Ready Player One. Tad Williams is almost as bad as Hobb at torturing his protagonists. Both Tad Williams and Hobb make their protagonists struggle for every step, every little hope is quickly quenched and the ending is always Deus Ex Machina. Despite all that, I keep reading them.... Lowly posted:I haven't read Eddings or Brooks in ages but I feel like Terry Brooks' Shannara series was kind of similar. Also maybe Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Cycle or some of Brandon Sanderson's books? The original Shannara series was basically 3 or 4 books with the exact same story and he uses the same story for Kingdom for Sale: Sold. Basically it was down to making his characters struggle and then when they realize The Truth, everything gets solved. Even though the Belgariad, Mallorean, Elenium and Tamuli were broadly similar stories full of archetypes, they were still quite enjoyable mostly due to having characters that were fun. Sometimes the whole grim-dark fantasy thingie kinda wears you down.
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Feb 4, 2014 11:20
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Cardiac posted:Even though the Belgariad, Mallorean, Elenium and Tamuli were broadly similar stories full of archetypes, they were still quite enjoyable mostly due to having characters that were fun.
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Feb 4, 2014 11:56
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Megazver posted:It did improve gameplay, though. Which is the only reason they needed, really.
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Feb 4, 2014 20:13
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I've never made it more than a few hours into ME1 because the combat is so awful. ME2 and 3 got a lot of things wrong, but going from half-rear end-shooter to 3/4-rear end-shooter wasn't one of them.
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Feb 4, 2014 20:28
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Khizan posted:I've never made it more than a few hours into ME1 because the combat is so awful. ME2 and 3 got a lot of things wrong, but going from half-rear end-shooter to 3/4-rear end-shooter wasn't one of them. if you approached mass effect from the expectation that it was not a shooter but an action RPG it was considerably better. The shooter gameplay is poo poo but for a diablo in space it's not as bad.
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Feb 4, 2014 20:58
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That's exactly what I did. I had the difficulty on easy because I didn't like the shooting mechanics, but I viewed the game as an RPG and it was one of my favorites.
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Feb 4, 2014 21:17
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andrew smash posted:if you approached mass effect from the expectation that it was not a shooter but an action RPG it was considerably better. The shooter gameplay is poo poo but for a diablo in space it's not as bad. Yeah, but you still have to play through the lovely gameplay no matter how you look at it. I may try it again and just use a character editor to supercharge myself enough to utterly trivialize the combat. That's how I handled Planescape: Torment which I had the same "awesome story lovely gameplay" problem with.
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Feb 4, 2014 21:59
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Khizan posted:Yeah, but you still have to play through the lovely gameplay no matter how you look at it. I may try it again and just use a character editor to supercharge myself enough to utterly trivialize the combat. That's how I handled Planescape: Torment which I had the same "awesome story lovely gameplay" problem with. You don't need a character editor, ME1 is ludicrously easy no matter what you do.
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Feb 4, 2014 22:07
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There's probably a whole subforum you could take this discussion to. Are the ME novelizations any good?
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Feb 4, 2014 23:34
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Nevvy Z posted:There's probably a whole subforum you could take this discussion to. The first chapter of the one I've tried to read was bad even by tie-in fiction standards.
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Feb 4, 2014 23:41
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Nevvy Z posted:Are the ME novelizations any good? Confirming that they're disappointingly awful. You're better off just reading the Codex entries.
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Feb 4, 2014 23:53
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Has anyone ever read a book based on a video game/movie/etc. that wasn't awful? I sure haven't, especially not novelizations.
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Feb 5, 2014 00:13
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The one Tex Murphy book and the Gabriel Knight book, the first one, I read weren't... well, they weren't good but I've read worse.
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Feb 5, 2014 00:24
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I liked Timothy Zahn's Star Wars books with Grand Admiral Thrawn, but that's stretching it a little far.
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Feb 5, 2014 00:42
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DontMockMySmock posted:Has anyone ever read a book based on a video game/movie/etc. that wasn't awful? I sure haven't, especially not novelizations. When I was a kid, I loved The Black Hole, by Alan Dean Foster, and didn't even realise it was based on a movie. It's not the height of science fiction, but it's definitely not awful. On the other hand, I also loved the Gremlins novel because it really expanded the entire mythology. Unfortunately, I suspect that if I re-read it now, it would probably be significantly less awesome than I remember.
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Feb 5, 2014 01:18
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dp
BrosephofArimathea fucked around with this message at 01:23 on Feb 5, 2014 |
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Feb 5, 2014 01:18
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DontMockMySmock posted:Has anyone ever read a book based on a video game/movie/etc. that wasn't awful? I sure haven't, especially not novelizations. The first Doom novel is not...awful. It's sort of okay-ish? It did some things right and some things wrong but it's not really bad. Just sort of mediocre. I have somewhat fond memories of it. The rest of the books go downhill, rapidly.
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Feb 5, 2014 01:57
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DontMockMySmock posted:Has anyone ever read a book based on a video game/movie/etc. that wasn't awful? I sure haven't, especially not novelizations. 40K output is pretty good. Other than that not so much.
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Feb 5, 2014 03:13
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DontMockMySmock posted:Has anyone ever read a book based on a video game/movie/etc. that wasn't awful? I sure haven't, especially not novelizations. The Crysis 2 novelisation by Peter Watts is not bad at all.
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Feb 5, 2014 03:57
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Yeah, I was gonna say, I'm not sure Crysis Legion qualifies as good but Watts really worked it. It's packed with crunchy science stuff and he even cares enough to make some nice changes like making a few of the nameless CELL goons women.
General Battuta fucked around with this message at 04:35 on Feb 5, 2014 |
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Feb 5, 2014 04:20
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