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If I finished and hated the first Black Company book - the second and third are not worth me trying, right? I just could not find a reason to care about those few characters or that world. And the prose was so oddly light on description and focused on completely meaningless banter-y dialogue that was not funny or interesting and did not add anything to the characters either. Plus all of PlushCow's usual criticisms. What really sucks is that when there IS detail and descriptive prose it's usually written quite well.  Either way, not even halfway through I turned to the audiobook just to get through the drat thing. It meant a break from my marathon of Discworld city watch audiobooks and all I could think about was how I sorely missed Sam Vimes and co. And now that I think about it, Jingo was ever so slightly similar to the plot of The Black Company but far, far better... Oh well, at least I have The Red Knight (the preview I read seemed pretty good) and Lies of Locke Lamora (purely going off the sheer hype) ordered and next on my to-read list. VagueRant fucked around with this message at 15:32 on Jun 6, 2014 |
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Jun 6, 2014 15:25
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I despise the Black Company books and am constantly rechecking to make sure that yes, it is that Glen Cook everyone in the thread is raving about.
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Jun 6, 2014 16:16
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zoux posted:I despise the Black Company books and am constantly rechecking to make sure that yes, it is that Glen Cook everyone in the thread is raving about. I do not get it either, man.
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Jun 6, 2014 16:33
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VagueRant posted:If I finished and hated the first Black Company book - the second and third are not worth me trying, right? Yep, don't bother. I like Cook personally but I read most of his stuff a long time ago before newer authors took his style and did more with it. His characterization is very thin and he does a lot of handwaving of events using the unreliable narrator bit which grates after awhile. On a different note I finally found the right Banks book that worked for me - Player of Games. I did not care for Consider Phlebas at all and barely finished it. Player of Games took a bit to get going but was very interesting once it did. Just starting Use of Weapons now.
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Jun 6, 2014 17:04
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I started the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. I'm about 20% into the first book, and it's slower than I expected. I really like the premise (all the details about colonizing Mars and making it habitable are really interesting), but the book has a lot of introspection and inner monologue, and is a little short on the action. You can blame my terrible attention span. Does the action in this series pick up, or is it more of the same for the rest of it? I skimmed the synopsis on Wikipedia and it seems like there's some pretty decent intrigue coming up, but nothing on the scale of 'alien invasion' or 'natural disaster' things like that.
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Jun 6, 2014 18:55
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syphon posted:I started the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. I'm about 20% into the first book, and it's slower than I expected. I really like the premise (all the details about colonizing Mars and making it habitable are really interesting), but the book has a lot of introspection and inner monologue, and is a little short on the action. You can blame my terrible attention span. Just in my opinion, the first book is the best of the three. I had to do an effort to finish the trilogy. As for action, you'll find plenty of it... but meh...
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Jun 6, 2014 19:02
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zoux posted:I despise the Black Company books and am constantly rechecking to make sure that yes, it is that Glen Cook everyone in the thread is raving about. Agree, but to be honest I have this for a ridiculous amount of writers people rave about, so I think that kind of epic fantasy just isn't the best genre for me. Patrick Rothfuss, Glen Cook, Peter V Brett, N K Jemisin, Trudi Canavan, Scott Baker, K J Parker, Richard K Morgan, Brian McClellan, C S Friedman, David Anthony Durham and probably others I forgot were all much less good than I expected based on ravings here. Some of them are just horrible, some of them merely okay-ish. To clarify, writers that I think should be raved about much more often are for example Barry Hughart, Catherynne M Valente, Connie Willis, Helene Wecker, Ted Chiang, Terry Pratchett, Paolo Bacigalupi, Octavia E. Butler, Megan Whalen Turner, etc (Note, I often only read 1 or 2 book(s) of these so maybe they wrote bad books as well). Clearly a lot of different opinions exist about which kinds of fantasy/sci-fi books are good.
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Jun 6, 2014 19:45
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I completely get why people might not like the Black Company books but they basically started the whole grim - dark - gritty movement in fantasy. Even if you don't like them they were really influential.
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Jun 6, 2014 19:52
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VagueRant posted:If I finished and hated the first Black Company book - the second and third are not worth me trying, right? Also I think the Pratchett Night Watch books are just much better than the Black Company, and this is as someone who likes dark epic fantasy.
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Jun 7, 2014 01:00
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zoux posted:Two books summaries were posted in the GBS "space thread": The High Crusade is a 1960 juvenile written by Poul Anderson that is quite readable. Aliens scouts land on a small hamlet in England and proceed to get their poo poo pushed in by knights in shining armor and stalwart yeomen, who then end up riding back to alien homeworld to set up their own feudal empire among the stars. It is cute and not rapey, which is two hurdles cleared already.
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Jun 7, 2014 01:13
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I finished Germline by TC McCarthy today. It was incredible and exhausting. Similar to The Forever War filtered through Hunter S Thompson. Really good.
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Jun 7, 2014 01:14
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Slo-Tek posted:The High Crusade is a 1960 juvenile written by Poul Anderson that is quite readable. Aliens scouts land on a small hamlet in England and proceed to get their poo poo pushed in by knights in shining armor and stalwart yeomen, who then end up riding back to alien homeworld to set up their own feudal empire among the stars. I think I saw a terrible movie adaptation of that at a science fiction convention in the 90s. Holy poo poo, yes! It was supremely awful. The original story sounds entertaining though.
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Jun 7, 2014 01:56
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Related to movie adaptations of books, Edge of Tomorrow comes out today. What are people's opinions of its source work, All You Need Is Kill? Personally I thought it was great, and put it in top 5 military scifi. It is Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers meets Fiasco. Grabs you quick and is a real page turner. It is very similar to John Steakley's Armor (also in my top 5) but is a sufficiently different variation on the theme that reminded me of what I loved about Armor rather than feeling repetitive. Plus the "alien invasion" was actually plausible for once.
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Jun 7, 2014 02:26
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Fried Chicken posted:Related to movie adaptations of books, Edge of Tomorrow comes out today. What are people's opinions of its source work, All You Need Is Kill? Didn't really like it that much and a large part of the problem is that it's translated from a Japanese Light Novel which is sort of YA book halfway between Japanese comics and actual novels where a good portion of the book has various illustrations to make up for the really flat characters and general dullness. I could see it being a lot better as an anime/manga and the lack of illustrations that should have been carried over from the LN pulp might have helped getting through this book a lot more easily but otherwise, it was a real slog to get through.
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Jun 7, 2014 02:40
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Is the translation any good? Japanese pulp rarely gets good translations, they're usually serviceable at most.
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Jun 7, 2014 02:40
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muike posted:Is the translation any good? Japanese pulp rarely gets good translations, they're usually serviceable at most. It's functional but still feels a little rough at times; it's nothing as bad as a Baka-Tsuki fan job, mind you but it gets the point across.
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Jun 7, 2014 02:46
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zoux posted:I despise the Black Company books and am constantly rechecking to make sure that yes, it is that Glen Cook everyone in the thread is raving about. Walh Hara posted:To clarify, writers that I think should be raved about much more often are for example Barry Hughart, Catherynne M Valente, Connie Willis, Helene Wecker, Ted Chiang, Terry Pratchett, Paolo Bacigalupi, Octavia E. Butler, Megan Whalen Turner, etc (Note, I often only read 1 or 2 book(s) of these so maybe they wrote bad books as well). Clearly a lot of different opinions exist about which kinds of fantasy/sci-fi books are good. That said, what makes Terry Pratchett stand out for you? In my personal opinion he's about the level of a Koontz but lacks the world-building of Feist. I guess I read a lot of Pratchett sorry. I will make a point to familiarize myself with more of the authors on your list though, thank you very much for going out of your way to lay them out for someone who's not necessarily heard of several of those names..! 
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Jun 7, 2014 06:03
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coyo7e posted:That said, what makes Terry Pratchett stand out for you? In my personal opinion he's about the level of a Koontz but lacks the world-building of Feist. I guess I read a lot of Pratchett sorry. Very enjoyable satires with plenty of references, great characterization and humor and all in a neat world that gets better/more intricate the more you read, what's not to like?
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Jun 7, 2014 11:02
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I posted this in the audiobook thread, but after looking over the history, it seems like that thread doesn't get much traffic and I'm mostly want fantasy/scifi anyways, so I may as well ask here as well: Are there any audiobook services worth getting that would allow me to listen to an unlimited number of books during any given time period? I don't care about owning the audiobook, so if it goes away when I cancel, that's no problem. Also, I'm just fine with being able to listen to only one book at a time, if that matters. It would be preferable to be able to load them to a device for offline listening (either Android or Windows), but if it was strictly streaming, I could deal with that. The reason that I ask is that after spending all day reading crap for work, I'm finding that I'm having increasing trouble at night with my eyes just not wanting to focus properly. I want to read, and my brain is up for processing the information, but my eyes are not cooperating, and I'd like to read for more than just work. I've also got an hour commute that books make much better. Lately, I've been checking out audiobook CDs from the local library, but I've been moving through them at 1-2 books per week and I'm fast running out of things they have available that I'd want to listen to. However, with Audible offering 1-2 books per month and then having to buy more from there, I'm thinking I would tear through the included credits and be spending quite a bit if I got Audible or a similar service. If that's the only option, I'm willing to do it, I was just wondering if an unlimited alternative exists.
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Jun 7, 2014 19:05
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Azathoth posted:I posted this in the audiobook thread, but after looking over the history, it seems like that thread doesn't get much traffic and I'm mostly want fantasy/scifi anyways, so I may as well ask here as well: Have you checked to see if your library offers digital audiobook downloads through overdrive or a similar service? This would at least be slightly more convenient than dealing with CDs.
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Jun 8, 2014 13:48
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mystes posted:I don't think so. Audiobooks.com briefly had an unlimited plan but they dropped it after only a couple months. Probably they realize that nobody would actually want to buy audiobooks if they could rent them on this kind of plan. As for my library, they do offer it, but...the selection of SF/F boooks trends heavily towards the "paranormal romance" part of the urban fantasy subgenre and last time I was on there, I couldn't find a single thing I would want to listen to. I've gotten a bunch of good non-fiction on CD, since whoever buys that seems to have a bit of a WW2 bent, but I'm about out of that as well. Oh well, I'm to pitch more money at Amazon...
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Jun 8, 2014 14:46
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The ebook reader I use (Fabrik for Android, although it has disappeared from the Play store so getting a hold of it is a bit difficult now) has a passable text-to-speech built in that works as a poor man's audio book. It kind of shits itself on contractions and homographs which takes a little getting used to.
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Jun 8, 2014 23:12
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darnon posted:The ebook reader I use (Fabrik for Android, although it has disappeared from the Play store so getting a hold of it is a bit difficult now) has a passable text-to-speech built in that works as a poor man's audio book. It kind of shits itself on contractions and homographs which takes a little getting used to. I havne't tried any scifi or fantasy with funny names and all but my gen 1 kindles TTS was pretty good for listening to The Art of Fielding.
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Jun 9, 2014 01:17
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Looking for some recommendations. I've read the first post and done the little Sci/Fi chart thing and still not finding exactly what I'm looking for. Perhaps it does not exist. I"m looking for a good Sci/Fi book that is set in the future, with various empires/realms/factions on various planets. They don't necessarily have to be warring although I would read it if so. I'm trying to stay broad here to get a good selection to look in to. I would try and read the "Star Wars" series, but it seems like there is so many drat books that I don't even know where to begin. I've read "Foundation" by Asimov and liked it, but I'm looking for something a little different. Maybe something like "Game of Thrones" except set in space? Or "Battlestar Galactica"? MarksMan fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Jun 9, 2014 |
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Jun 9, 2014 03:38
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MarksMan posted:Looking for some recommendations. I've read the first post and done the little Sci/Fi chart thing and still not finding exactly what I'm looking for. Perhaps it does not exist. Go read Lois Bujold's Miles Vorkosignan series, it's pretty much exactly what you are looking for. The main character is basically Tyrion Lannister in space. Start with Young Miles.
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Jun 9, 2014 03:54
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So I'm reading the first book of The Damned by Alan Dean Foster, A Call to Arms. Discussed pretty recently in this thread so I won't retread the general premise. It's okay, not as weighty as it might be given the subject matter, and I don't think the writer manages to do aliens well at all, but holy poo poo something irritating about the book is the protagonist. The first human aliens come in contact with is a complete pussy. He hears of mind-wiping oppressive aliens bent on including all life in their collective and sees nothing to disprove this and sets out to sabotage human involvement in fighting against these monsters, something humans are singularly well-equipped to do. I'm 71% through and am hoping he catches a laser beam at some point. Edit: oh my God, it gets worse. The protagonist just found out that these thought-manipulating aliens are on their way to attack Earth and he believes only a few governments might mobilise defence forces and most people will want nothing to do with the fighting. loving die. Neurosis fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Jun 9, 2014 |
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Jun 9, 2014 04:19
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MarksMan posted:Looking for some recommendations. I've read the first post and done the little Sci/Fi chart thing and still not finding exactly what I'm looking for. Perhaps it does not exist. Vorkosigan is good. Downbelow Station is one book that fits your wants exactly. Also try The Expanse.
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Jun 9, 2014 04:38
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Neurosis posted:So I'm reading the first book of The Damned by Alan Dean Foster, A Call to Arms. Discussed pretty recently in this thread so I won't retread the general premise. It's okay, not as weighty as it might be given the subject matter, and I don't think the writer manages to do aliens well at all, but holy poo poo something irritating about the book is the protagonist. The first human aliens come in contact with is a complete pussy. He hears of mind-wiping oppressive aliens bent on including all life in their collective and sees nothing to disprove this and sets out to sabotage human involvement in fighting against these monsters, something humans are singularly well-equipped to do. I'm 71% through and am hoping he catches a laser beam at some point. Wait what? Aliens are invading and the protagonist is sabotaging the humans? I'm confused.
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Jun 9, 2014 09:42
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Wolpertinger posted:Wait what? Aliens are invading and the protagonist is sabotaging the humans? I'm confused. No he's just an immense pussy pacifist who believes most humans won't become involved with a conflict against monsters wanting to tamper with every sapient race's gene code to make them servile. He gets better at the end when he joins the military and finds peace in shedding blood for the Blood God. He's trying to prove to the alien races humans are no good to use in protracted conflict because we naturally find war repugnant. The aliens in this are real softcocks and some of them suffer apoplexy when confronted with violence. If they sent a bunch of WH40k fiction to most of the races they would probably die just from reading it (due to violence and terrible writing).
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Jun 9, 2014 09:56
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Neurosis posted:No he's just an immense pussy pacifist who believes most humans won't become involved with a conflict against monsters wanting to tamper with every sapient race's gene code to make them servile. He gets better at the end when he joins the military and finds peace in shedding blood for the Blood God. He's trying to prove to the alien races humans are no good to use in protracted conflict because we naturally find war repugnant. So is it like the author is making him a strawman pacifist, or is this not deliberate? It sounds like a somewhat contrived situation to make the fact that humans are incredibly bloodthirsty a virtue. Because there's pacifism and then there's bending over and letting your entire species be enslaved forever.
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Jun 9, 2014 10:03
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Wolpertinger posted:So is it like the author is making him a strawman pacifist, or is this not deliberate? It sounds like a somewhat contrived situation to make the fact that humans are incredibly bloodthirsty a virtue. Because there's pacifism and then there's bending over and letting your entire species be enslaved forever. Eh, he's a strawman in the sense that he caves eventually and his resistance is not philosophically very deep, but it's hardly meant to portray humanity in a positive light. I don't get the feeling like the desire for peace is at all meant to be seen as fatuous. Rather, that humanity's propensity and talent for conflict is an aberration which serves in this particular instance but is totally unsuited for civilised existence. The arguments are relatively unsophisticated; as much as I like the premise it's still pretty light reading. Some of the other races are willing to and capable of fighting, but they are only a few out of the alliance humanity enters. The books (as I have now moved onto the second) attribute humanity's fractious nature partly to our geography, which apparently is more divisive than most worlds, which have a pangaea style supercontinent with flat terrain, encouraging early cooperation. I can't help myself in wanting the humans to stomp aliens in this book. Our warlike nature is meant to be a negative, but in most of the fiction I read even when humans are demonstrably evil I want a trillion jackboots to stomp a trillion trillion alien snouts on a billion worlds, forever.
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Jun 9, 2014 10:11
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I really like that trilogy, and the early protagonist is hilarious in his fumbling attempts to downplay humanity's violent nature. He's a classical composer who is on a working holiday when the aliens run into him, and even the most gentle music he writes sounds like death metal to them. He gets a bunch of useless hippies and bums to go and join the alien war effort and they slaughter all opposition. Essentially even a super mild mannered human is still a killer primate from a harsh, high gravity world.
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Jun 9, 2014 13:11
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I wonder how mild the alien worlds must have been to produce such pacifists. I get that they had organisational unity at a much earlier stage than we could have managed, but surely you'd think some would be physically tougher due to some nasty predators. It's not going to happen but I am going to hope some cybernetically augmented humans turn up that the aliens never even considered making but some horrible biotech corp dreamt up that can rip the alien races in half.
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Jun 9, 2014 13:28
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It goes into detail about that in the later books. In general, the answer is "ridiculously so."
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Jun 9, 2014 13:37
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 Skulls for the skull throne!
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Jun 9, 2014 13:40
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A decent chunk of the next two books concerns a conspiracy among the Weave races to try and isolate the humans post war because they are loving terrified of what's going to happen once the humans get tired of playing nice
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Jun 9, 2014 13:45
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thatbastardken posted:A decent chunk of the next two books concerns a conspiracy among the Weave races to try and isolate the humans post war because they are loving terrified of what's going to happen once the humans get tired of playing nice Are they good enough to do that? I feel like the books downplay just how damned smart and immoral humans can be when they set their minds to it, and I'd like to see some really Machiavellian machinations at play. It's difficult for me to tell if it's a limitation of the alien races or of the author, but that some of the alien races occasionally show signs of cleverness suggests it's the aliens, and I hope so for the sake of the books' progression!
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Jun 9, 2014 13:49
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darnon posted:The ebook reader I use (Fabrik for Android, although it has disappeared from the Play store so getting a hold of it is a bit difficult now) has a passable text-to-speech built in that works as a poor man's audio book. It kind of shits itself on contractions and homographs which takes a little getting used to. I've been using a couple different android readers over the last while for this purpose; Moonreader + is a pretty decent bit of software and I pestered the dev about an undocumented TTS feature that allows > 100% normal TTS reading speed, and combined with the recentish TTS voice updates from google it does a pretty good job. Still some weird readings of contractions etc, but I find it bearable. I'd listen to actual audiobooks if switching between reading and listening didn't require buying multiple formats of the same books and then the loving around to stay in sync. Really wish audiobooks came with a .epub and a reader that syncs and lets you swap between reading and listening.
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Jun 9, 2014 13:51
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Neurosis posted:Are they good enough to do that? I feel like the books downplay just how damned smart and immoral humans can be when they set their minds to it, and I'd like to see some really Machiavellian machinations at play. It's difficult for me to tell if it's a limitation of the alien races or of the author, but that some of the alien races occasionally show signs of cleverness suggests it's the aliens, and I hope so for the sake of the books' progression! The aliens have a pretty solid conspiracy, and use their social strengths to their advantage. They are way out of their league though.
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Jun 9, 2014 14:26
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thatbastardken posted:The aliens have a pretty solid conspiracy, and use their social strengths to their advantage. They are way out of their league though. One strength of the series, I've gotta say, is that it stirs up human racism. I feel like we're smarter and more industrious than any of the Weave species, due to our sharp brains being forged over the millenia by competition rather than cooperation. I hope that is intentional but again I wonder how much is limited by the author's imagination, until I get further. Still, for a 'light' space opera series it has made me post a lot, so it's doing its job.
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Jun 9, 2014 15:33
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