|
Ornamented Death posted:The amusing part of this discussion is that, for a forum dedicated to reading, several people have shown they have absolutely no reading comprehension. Anytime I see people not understanding what privelege is I can just quote these two posts. Cardiovorax posted:I really regret even bringing this stupid poo poo up again now, because I'm really not trying to actively poo poo this thread up. It's just so loving aggravating to keep reading over and over. It must be really nice to afford being able to not care about this sort of poo poo. I don't get that kind of choice. You get to congratulate yourself on being able to "separate the art from the artist" while I get to live with the consequences of these artists maligning me in public and their inability to separate their opinions about me from my right to live however I loving want to, all while giving money to organizations whose only and express purpose is to keep me from ever being happy by having any kind of public presence, ability to marry or getting to adopt children. Do you know what it's like to be worried about walking through parts of your own hometown for fear of slipping and being consequently beaten up and lynched because people like Wright and Card dedicate their lives to poisoning public opinion against you for the crime of existing? Do you know how often I've been assaulted personally by people who listen to people like Wright talk and nod? Neurosis posted:Everyone who has ever read Heart of Darkness should gouge out their eyes because they have read something with offensive opinions. OD has shown me the way. I'm gonna go buy Chris Brown's discography now.
|
#
?
May 9, 2014 16:50
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 05:30 |
|
|
Whalley posted:systran, you mentioned Maureen F. McHugh - what would be the best "start here" book by her? Should I just jump into China Mountain Zhang, or is there something that better encapsulates her style? I don't know if China Mountain Zhang is the best starting book by her, but it's amazing and you (everyone reading this) should definitely read it - it's well-written and moving and very aware of the fact that it's an sf novel (lots of Delany and ironised genre sf motifs), yet it's moving the genre forward. It's very historically important.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2014 17:26
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:The amusing part of this discussion is that, for a forum dedicated to reading, several people have shown they have absolutely no reading comprehension. If you are implying HoD is a critique of racism, OFFENSIVE OPINION #1, you have kind of missed the point.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2014 17:45
|
|
|
Zola posted:Octavia Butler is loving fantastic. I have several of her books in paperback, and a while ago, Kindle did a special on nearly everything she ever wrote and I got them all. The Parable of the Sower was one of the better dystopian novels I have read for a long, long time, in large part because it's a hell of a lot more realistic in many ways than a lot of the stuff that's come out more recently. I have one of those dystopian "box sets" on my Kindle, and most of them don't even come close. I read Parable of the Sower before I read McCarthy's The Road, and I thought Parable was by far the better book insofar as creating a plausible scenario goes. I've added Melissa Scott and PC Hodgell to my reading list. Hopefully I can get to them in time to have a cool conversation 
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2014 17:54
|
|
|
I'm going to read PC Hodgell just for that bread thing, because that sounds like exactly my kind of humor. Also her Wikipedia picture looks like the platonic ideal of "favourite crazy unmarried aunt."
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2014 18:01
|
|
|
Cardiovorax posted:I'm going to read PC Hodgell just for that bread thing, because that sounds like exactly my kind of humor. Also her Wikipedia picture looks like the platonic ideal of "favourite crazy unmarried aunt." If nothing else, I owe this thread for learning that there's like four-five books after God Stalk and Dark of the Moon, as the last I heard there was only a third one that was released in an extremely limited small press edition.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2014 19:17
|
|
|
I'm gonna second the recommendation for P.C. Hodgell ,I love her books, unfortunately I've already bought and read the E-arc of her latest one, so now I'm stuck waiting again.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2014 19:19
|
|
|
So are a bunch of us are all about to read PC Hodgell at the same time? I know that after I finish this NK Jemisin book, I'm getting started on God Stalk if I can find it.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2014 19:27
|
|
|
Whalley posted:So are a bunch of us are all about to read PC Hodgell at the same time? I know that after I finish this NK Jemisin book, I'm getting started on God Stalk if I can find it. Abe Books has several copies reasonably priced There's also a hardcover on Paperback Swap if you use that site.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2014 19:41
|
|
|
Zola posted:Abe Books has several copies reasonably priced Also as E-books: http://www.baenebooks.com/s-122-pc-hodgell.aspx?pagenum=1 Though you'll have to puzzle out which collections contain which books.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2014 19:58
|
|
|
BTW Wikipedia tells me that a couple of years ago, Orson Scott Card changed his mind about the whole gay thing or something. Anyone know what that's about?
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2014 22:09
|
|
|
Chairchucker posted:BTW Wikipedia tells me that a couple of years ago, Orson Scott Card changed his mind about the whole gay thing or something. Anyone know what that's about? What specific part are you referring to re: his wiki article? All I see is the below - quote:In a 1990 essay for Sunstone magazine, he wrote that the laws prohibiting homosexual behavior should "remain on the books, not to be indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society's regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society." In May 2013, Card stated that he no longer advocated this.[42] - which is basically just saying that he's no longer in support of laws literally punishing homosexual activity. Everything else I'm reading seems to suggest he's still very heavily opposed to LGBT rights from a marriage and moral standpoint.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2014 22:21
|
|
|
Chairchucker posted:BTW Wikipedia tells me that a couple of years ago, Orson Scott Card changed his mind about the whole gay thing or something. Anyone know what that's about? His views on the subject are apparently a little more progressive now (Or at the very least he can overlook his prejudices enough to give an overtly pro LGBT books like David Levithan's Every Day a glowing review). He's still pretty batty though. As I understand it, while these days he probably wouldn't write anything like the Hypocrites of Homosexuality he still believes all the rear end-backwards nonsense that he beats the reader over the head with in books like Empire.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2014 22:53
|
|
|
My thoughts on Ancillary Justice from a few months ago:my goodreads review posted:I have real mixed feelings about this book.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 01:26
|
|
|
The author probably put 10 times as much thought as others into the world building, but she didn't put 10 times as much into the actual book. It's a fairly disappointing drip feed that makes you feel like there's a ton more to discover but what you get isn't well executed. I dunno, I really don't think it would be that interesting to learn more about the universe in more books. I think Ancillary Justice should've been written as a one-off. Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 01:33 on May 10, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 01:31
|
|
|
Zola posted:One female author who doesn't get much press and really deserves better is Melissa Scott. She has put a lot of her books on Kindle recently. The world-building of Five-Twelfths of Heaven is great, very original even twenty years after its original publication (and it's currently $2.99 at Amazon). Sometimes she's categorized as a "gay" author, but I found that while her books do often include LGBT characters, sometimes even as the main character, sexuality is an attribute, not a focus. Fair's Point is coming out literally next week! And anybody not excited about that needs to read Point of Hopes ( http://www.amazon.com/Point-Hopes-Astreiant-Melissa-Scott-ebook/dp/B007Q3W0K2/ ) like right freaking now.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 01:38
|
|
|
My big problem with Ancillary Justice was that it was incredibly loving boring.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 06:12
|
|
|
Yeah, I was not impressed with it. Some cool ideas (though maybe I'm alone in thinking the gender stuff felt a bit pointless), and if the first book is just serving as a launching point to to books where interesting things happen, then good for her (him? I think it's a her). Other books authored by women and recommended in this thread that I've recently read: Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - I just didn't get this. No interest in reading the remainder. Coldfire Trilogy - This was pretty sweet. I really cruised through these.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 06:16
|
|
|
Anyone have an opinion on Authority? I'm about 1/3rd of the way through Annihilation and while I kinda dig the whole lovecraftian vibe, sweet gently caress all has actually happened and this is pretty god damned boring. World building is great, if there's actually something going on in that world. Telling me 400 times how weird this tunnel is doesn't really sell me on the idea that this is a sci fi adventure.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 07:28
|
|
|
RVProfootballer posted:Also I'm sure this is old news to everyone here, but I never read or saw anything about John C Wright til now, and holy poo poo he's perfect: Awww, it's fedorable. 
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 12:14
|
|
|
I don't ever see her mentioned in the thread, but I'm going to throw out a recommendation for Nalo Hopkinson - I just finished her book Midnight Robber and I'm definitely going to seek out the rest of her novels. It's a coming-of-age story about a pampered young girl living on a planet colonized by the descendents of Carribeans (think the flip side of Gene Wolfe's The Fifth Head of Cerberus) who gets exiled with her father to an alternate-universe version of the planet they use as a prison, which is full of creatures from Carribean and African mythology. It was pretty freaking cool. I'd recommend pulling it up on Amazon and reading the first few pages via the "look inside" feature - the whole thing is written in this silky Carribean patois and you'll know immediately whether you're going to love the book or not. edit: also John C. Wright was really obviously a shithead as far back as the Golden Age trilogy so all the posts on here defending him are pretty fuckin' funny
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 14:54
|
|
|
Popular Human posted:edit: also John C. Wright was really obviously a shithead as far back as the Golden Age trilogy so all the posts on here defending him are pretty fuckin' funny Edit: Yeah the near death conversion happened in 2008, well after the Golden Age and even the Orphans of Chaos. Still a shitheel before that obviously 
Less Fat Luke fucked around with this message at 15:25 on May 10, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 15:21
|
|
|
Also book talk - I read The Carpet Makers a while back and absolutely loved it, but could never find it as an ebook. Well now it's published on the Kindle store as well as Andreas Eschbach's newest translation Lord Of All Things. Anyone read it yet? I picked it up and started it, seems like an interesting story if a little slow.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 15:24
|
|
|
Zola posted:Another unsung female writer is PC Hodgell. God Stalk is also wildly original. I believe the first two books, God Stalk and Dark of the Moon, are included in this Kindle edition. You have got to love a heroine who attempts to use a charm to speed the rising of bread and instead causes the loaf to develop rudimentary internal organs. They're also about cat-people and the protagonist has a magical giant housecat that's also blind so ymmv depending on how knee-jerk you are about goony/anime cliches (although the series was written a long time before either were a thing.) coyo7e fucked around with this message at 15:53 on May 10, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 15:50
|
|
|
Popular Human posted:I don't ever see her mentioned in the thread, but I'm going to throw out a recommendation for Nalo Hopkinson - I just finished her book Midnight Robber and I'm definitely going to seek out the rest of her novels. It's a coming-of-age story about a pampered young girl living on a planet colonized by the descendents of Carribeans (think the flip side of Gene Wolfe's The Fifth Head of Cerberus) who gets exiled with her father to an alternate-universe version of the planet they use as a prison, which is full of creatures from Carribean and African mythology. It was pretty freaking cool. I'd recommend pulling it up on Amazon and reading the first few pages via the "look inside" feature - the whole thing is written in this silky Carribean patois and you'll know immediately whether you're going to love the book or not. coyo7e posted:I read these back in college because my DM had them all in hardcover and had a good time going through them, but they were ultimately forgettable to me in large, I could only give a very rough outline of most of what went on in the books at this point. They were remarkably tough to find though the last time I looked, so being on kindle is pretty cool. It does involve cat people, but only in the sense that there are giant talking saber-tooth tigers.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 16:01
|
|
|
Cardiovorax posted:I'm going to read PC Hodgell just for that bread thing, because that sounds like exactly my kind of humor. Also her Wikipedia picture looks like the platonic ideal of "favourite crazy unmarried aunt."  Cardiovorax posted:It does involve cat people, but only in the sense that there are giant talking saber-tooth tigers. How much more "cat people" does it get? I mean it's basically Thundercats up in that poo poo. The only story arc I recall was that I think the protagonist ends up basically doing a Richard Rahl a la Wizard's First Rule climax, since I seem to recall the big bad guy was her father or some poo poo? I could be entirely misremembering though, been a long time. I do remember enjoying the third book where she got stuck being civilized. High Warlord Zog posted:His views on the subject are apparently a little more progressive now (Or at the very least he can overlook his prejudices enough to give an overtly pro LGBT books like David Levithan's Every Day a glowing review). He's still pretty batty though. As I understand it, while these days he probably wouldn't write anything like the Hypocrites of Homosexuality he still believes all the rear end-backwards nonsense that he beats the reader over the head with in books like Empire. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 17:13 on May 10, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 16:47
|
|
|
coyo7e posted:I'm gonna have to debate you on that point. The protagonist is a cat girl with claws - she has to wear gloves with holes in them. Her big burly buddy is also a catbro, of a different caste. If I remember correctly, there are also giant saber toothed cats which are another caste of the same race of cat people. coyo7e posted:The only story arc I recall was that I think the protagonist ends up basically doing a Richard Rahl a la Wizard's First Rule climax, since I seem to recall the big bad guy was her father or some poo poo? I could be entirely misremembering though, been a long time.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 17:10
|
|
|
If it has claws like a cat, and its friends are cats, and it can talk to cats, it's a catgirl.  Don't get me wrong I'm being reductive about it by a ton however, I figure if I don't then in a couple days some angry goon will have bought the book and be all butthurt that it's about a magic catgirl who talks to her magic pet cat. It was a good series and I've been meaning to read it again, and am stoked it on ebook now.  Also holy poo poo those covers! I had no idea a teen girl had so much cleavage!  Cardiovorax posted:If something like that happens it's not within the first two and a half books. 
coyo7e fucked around with this message at 17:20 on May 10, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 17:16
|
|
|
coyo7e posted:If it has claws like a cat, and its friends are cats, and it can talk to cats, it's a catgirl.  coyo7e posted:Also holy poo poo those covers! I had no idea a teen girl had so much cleavage!
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 17:54
|
|
|
Cardiovorax posted:I know, so why ruin everybody's fun? Agreed. And I will also point out that the first book came out in 1982. Things that might seem like tropes NOW were actually original then. The cat, I might add, is a hunting cat and pet she has a bond with rather than magical happy treecat that makes her so much more preciouses.... It's not her perky sidekick who makes witty observations or anything.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 20:47
|
|
|
Popular Human posted:edit: also John C. Wright was really obviously a shithead as far back as the Golden Age trilogy so all the posts on here defending him are pretty fuckin' funny I like his sci fi books quite a bit but would never defend Wright or his opinions, which are repugnant. About a third of the way through the Night Lands rewrite Stoddard did. Liking this quite a lot. How good are Stoddard's novels?
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2014 20:51
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:I like his sci fi books quite a bit but would never defend Wright or his opinions, which are repugnant. "High House" was pretty good, the sequel was just ok.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2014 00:57
|
|
|
Zola posted:One female author who doesn't get much press and really deserves better is Melissa Scott... Sometimes she's categorized as a "gay" author, but I found that while her books do often include LGBT characters, sometimes even as the main character, sexuality is an attribute, not a focus. Can you recommend any other authors like this? I've been having a rather annoying problem with my local library system. Everything that it considers 'gay fiction' tends to be either poorly written smut or serious novels that try to get deep into the issues of gender and sexuality. Unfortunately, I do most of my reading on lunch break at work. I'm just looking for something light to relax with for a bit, but I would prefer any romantic subplots to be something that I can actually relate to. That sort of stuff certainly does exist, but if I want to get it at the library I have to either know what I'm looking for ahead of time or stumble across it through blind luck. To give a few examples, I've enjoyed The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan, the Warriors of Estavia series by Fiona Patton, the Elemental Logic series by Laurie J. Marks, and the Smoke and Shadows series by Tanya Huff. Of those, The Steel Remains and its sequel were probably my favorite. It's rather refreshing to see the standard 'hyper-aggressive badass warrior' role filled by a gay guy.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2014 04:38
|
|
|
JTDistortion posted:Can you recommend any other authors like this? I've been having a rather annoying problem with my local library system. Everything that it considers 'gay fiction' tends to be either poorly written smut or serious novels that try to get deep into the issues of gender and sexuality. Unfortunately, I do most of my reading on lunch break at work. I'm just looking for something light to relax with for a bit, but I would prefer any romantic subplots to be something that I can actually relate to. That sort of stuff certainly does exist, but if I want to get it at the library I have to either know what I'm looking for ahead of time or stumble across it through blind luck. The only ones I really know of other than the ones you mentioned where there are main characters that are gay and neither have that aspect of them be almost entirely ignored, or devolve into smut or sexual philosophy is The Last Rune series by Mark Anthony, which is a bit of an old school style fantasy, but is actually a pretty good one. The main character doesn't even really realize he's gay, it's sort of a gradual growth of a friendship between him and another one of the main characters that turns into a real relationship without ever having angsty overdramatic relationship drama. The other one is Lyn Flewelling's Nightrunner series where the two main characters are a gay couple who work as sort of spies/thieves for hire. I kinda wish there was more characters like that honestly - just ordinary good fantasy books where the point of view character happens to be gay and isn't afraid to have him have a relationship with another person (without turning into a romance novel - I mean this happens with straight leads all the time, so). I mean occasionally you get a side character or two, but almost never a point of view character. Wolpertinger fucked around with this message at 05:08 on May 11, 2014 |
|
#
?
May 11, 2014 05:04
|
|
|
I've been reading the Culture Novels by Iain M. Banks, and I think this poo poo is loving up my worldview. The Wiki explains the context, but really, the writing is drat good and the characters are well developed. I keep meaning to read something else after I finish the book I'm working on, but I have without thought, moved straight into the next book. It isn't a series necessarily, as the characters don't carry over. What carries over is the universe and the ideas, the basic structure of how everything works and functions. The characters in every book are new, the world is not. There is a bit, maybe even a lot of psychology and philosophy. It is smart, however, and short. He doesn't beat you over the head with it, and I haven't found anything that I found hard to digest. The way he writes what he writes just makes it part of the story, and frankly, I've enjoyed the parts where he does get deep. This is a far advanced society with billions of members that live in a dream. They don't have to work, because work isn't necessary. Their lives are so different from ours that I couldn't explain it. They do what they want, and anything they want to do is acceptable. One point in the story is about murder. What happens if someone kills someone else? That person is stuck with a robot drone that follows them around and stops them from killing again. They are also ostracized by society. In the context of the story, it made a ton of sense. I think I really like these books, and I would definitely recommend them.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2014 05:06
|
|
|
Pohl posted:I've been reading the Culture Novels by Iain M. Banks, and I think this poo poo is loving up my worldview. Read those books very slowly. I haven't found anything quite like them 
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2014 05:11
|
|
|
Banks is a treasure. His literary novels are also (frequently) really great.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2014 05:21
|
|
|
fookolt posted:Read those books very slowly. I haven't found anything quite like them Don't bring me down, drat. This is like reading Gordon R Dickson for the first time. Serious sociological poo poo happening right here, in this book. I love this stuff. I'm way behind on reading new authors, and everyone keeps pointing me to steam-punk. I like some steam-punk, but I like this sort of material much more.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2014 05:34
|
|
|
JTDistortion posted:Can you recommend any other authors like this? I've been having a rather annoying problem with my local library system. Everything that it considers 'gay fiction' tends to be either poorly written smut or serious novels that try to get deep into the issues of gender and sexuality. Unfortunately, I do most of my reading on lunch break at work. I'm just looking for something light to relax with for a bit, but I would prefer any romantic subplots to be something that I can actually relate to. That sort of stuff certainly does exist, but if I want to get it at the library I have to either know what I'm looking for ahead of time or stumble across it through blind luck. I will suggest God's War by Kameron Hurley. I think this will meet your expectations. The Steel Remains is great, the last book will be out in October. I plan to have an audio marathon of all 3.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2014 07:10
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 05:30 |
|
|
General Battuta posted:Banks is a treasure. His literary novels are also (frequently) really great. The only problem is that once you've finished them, it's one hell of a thing to find another series that gives you the same feeling like the Culture provides.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2014 08:50
|
|