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fritz posted:Are y'all ready for more horrible author opinions&behavior: http://dsmoen.livejournal.com/544470.html Well holy jesus mcfuckerton
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Jun 13, 2014 05:10
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fritz posted:Are y'all ready for more horrible author opinions&behavior: http://dsmoen.livejournal.com/544470.html Holy gently caress  . For those who didn't click the link, apparently Marion Zimmer Bradley was an abusive mother and a pedophile enabler. Excerpts of testimony from her depositions regarding her husband's pedophilia are pretty chilling: http://www.sff.net/people/stephen.goldin/mzb/excerpts1.html.
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Jun 13, 2014 05:19
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Yeah, I knew about her enabling her (ex)husband but I only found out about her being a molester too the other day. I'm still recovering from the head explosion. 
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Jun 13, 2014 06:08
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Welp, guess it's time to update the King Arthur thread with a trigger warning.
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Jun 13, 2014 14:08
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Edit: sorry for being inconsiderate trigger: forum damage Putting trigger warnings on anything will deservedly result in this subforum being annihilated.
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Jun 13, 2014 14:21
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nightchild12 posted:I've never been involved with the military, so take this with a grain of salt, but I found this particularly compelling in Joe Haldeman's The Forever War. I thought it was an excellent novel. It was, in my uninformed opinion, very obviously an attempt to describe the author's experiences in Vietnam and afterward. The main character is conscripted out of college, given absolutely useless but extremely dangerous training, and sent to fight an enemy which he irrationally hates, then comes back to a civilian world which does not make sense to him and which he cannot fit in to since it is so different from what he is used to. It is heavy on the horrors of war and the insane psychological impact it has on the people who are forced to fight in it, with heavy doses of the difficulty of reintegration and the confusing, bizarre structures of the military bureaucracy. I'm kind of looking for similar books, time travel/displacement is one of my favorite things and the combination of the war was great.
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Jun 13, 2014 14:32
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Neurosis posted:Yessssss
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Jun 14, 2014 14:38
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coyo7e posted:You're just jealous because Heinlein convinced Hubbard to have a threesome with himself and his wife. Hubbard cuckolded Heinlein? And Heinlein asked for it? Hahahaha holy loving poo poo lol.
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Jun 14, 2014 17:15
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Neurosis posted:Hubbard cuckolded Heinlein? And Heinlein asked for it? Hahahaha holy loving poo poo lol. I don't make any aspirations to the article's title but yeah, Heinlein was pretty much just DTF, not necessarily just redheads and relatives like in his books. This biography in the article points to his second wife being responsible for some of the changing of a lot of his political and world views. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Jun 14, 2014 |
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Jun 14, 2014 17:21
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fritz posted:Are y'all ready for more horrible author opinions&behavior: http://dsmoen.livejournal.com/544470.html That is some jacked up stuff..
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Jun 14, 2014 18:25
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Can anyone recommend good one-off books that aren't part of a series? I'm open to anything except hard military sci-fi.
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Jun 15, 2014 00:30
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regularizer posted:Can anyone recommend good one-off books that aren't part of a series? I'm open to anything except hard military sci-fi. Most of what Charles Stross writes are one off books that are drat good. Accelerando would be a great one to try out if you like his writing.
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Jun 15, 2014 01:11
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regularizer posted:Can anyone recommend good one-off books that aren't part of a series? I'm open to anything except hard military sci-fi. These are some of the recent one-off books I've read, that I enjoyed: The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks: Space Opera about investigating gas giants and their inhabitants. The Androids Dream by John Scalzi: Comedy scifi about an excop who looks for a special sheep to avoid interstellar war. House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds: Galaxy spanning adventure about a "family" of clones suddenly under attack after having been around for several millenia. iminay posted:Most of what Charles Stross writes are one off books that are drat good. Accelerando would be a great one to try out if you like his writing. While I haven't read Accelerando yet, it's on my list, and you can grab it for free here
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Jun 15, 2014 01:20
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Wolf Hunt by Jeff Strand is a favorite of mine, and it's a one off (until October when he has a sequel coming out). Basically, 2 mob thugs are hired to transport a guy who claims to be a werewolf. Chaos and hilarity ensue. Also, bonus points for the werewolf being a complete and utter bastard. They are rarely written like that. There is a sequel coming out in October but this one was written as a single book, and there isn't any sort of DUHN DUHN DUNNNNN ending or weird series setup. It's just a great book.
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Jun 15, 2014 01:25
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fritz posted:Are y'all ready for more horrible author opinions&behavior: http://dsmoen.livejournal.com/544470.html Holy Crap. I went to high school with her grandkids. We knew something was up, but not that it was anything like that bad.
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Jun 15, 2014 01:48
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regularizer posted:Can anyone recommend good one-off books that aren't part of a series? I'm open to anything except hard military sci-fi. I recently re-read 'Armor of Light' by Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett. Sir Philip Sydney + Christopher Marlowe + Stuart Scotland + spies + magic + etc, how can you not like it.
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Jun 15, 2014 01:57
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That sounds fun, especially if Sidney and Marlowe meet... Here's an interesting article about Octavia Butler's unfinished manuscripts. It's mostly about the Parable books but at io9 there's a bit more about a sequel to Fledgling.
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Jun 15, 2014 03:39
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iminay posted:Most of what Charles Stross writes are one off books that are drat good. Accelerando would be a great one to try out if you like his writing.
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Jun 15, 2014 09:56
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Forgall posted:Glasshouse is a sequel to Accelerando, so technically it is a part of a series (although it's a same-universe-far-future-no-recurring-characters kind of sequel). No it isn't.
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Jun 15, 2014 16:19
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Fart of Presto posted:
This is Reynolds's best book too. I recommend it to everyone.
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Jun 15, 2014 17:01
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Yeah, House of Suns is really good. In the long run it probably won't be standalone - Reynolds has said he's going to do a sequel - but it will always be completely comprehensible by itself and have a relatively satisfying conclusion.
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Jun 15, 2014 17:17
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Do all of Alastair Reynolds' books happen in the same universe or what?
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Jun 15, 2014 17:52
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No, Blue Remembered Earth took place in another universe and he's got a few other stand alone stories.
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Jun 15, 2014 17:55
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Kraps posted:Do all of Alastair Reynolds' books happen in the same universe or what? Definitely not! Revelation Space universe: - Revelation Space - Redemption Ark - Absolution Gap - Chasm City (prequel) - The Prefect (prequel) - Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days (collection) - Galactic North (collection) Poseidon's Children universe: - Blue Remembered Earth - On The Steel Breeze Standalone novels: - Century Rain - Pushing Ice - House of Suns - Terminal World He also has another fictional universe in the Merlin stories, which consists of three novellas (Hideaway, Minla's Flowers, Merlin's Gun) - these are awesome and he describes them as space opera dialled up to 11. They're all in the collection Zima Blue.
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Jun 16, 2014 06:29
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How is Poseiden's Children shaping up? I don't hear too much about it one way or the other considering the esteem held by his other work and the fact that we're already two books in
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Jun 16, 2014 12:32
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NicelyNice posted:How is Poseiden's Children shaping up? I don't hear too much about it one way or the other considering the esteem held by his other work and the fact that we're already two books in It's a'ight. Reynolds is trying his hand at optimistic, near-future stuff. It's different. Second book was a bit of a drag but there's promise for the third.
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Jun 16, 2014 12:35
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Hey, guys. I was hoping I could throw myself at the mercy of your recommendations. I work in a library so I've been reading a lot and have kind of hit a wall with the vast amount of potential books to read. I tend to like cyberpunk stuff like Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs novels, despite their flaws, and the classic Gibson/Sterling/etc. stuff. I like non-romance urban fantasy stuff like Paul Cornell's London Falling. While I'd like some depth, I'm not intrinsically opposed to YA stuff. I generally prefer SF to fantasy and, as a rule of thumb, I'm not into things where technology is masic a la Dune. It'd be cool to find SF crime stuff. These are just general preferences so don't be afraid to go outside the box they paint. Thanks, guys!
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Jun 16, 2014 12:45
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robotox posted:Hey, guys. I was hoping I could throw myself at the mercy of your recommendations. I work in a library so I've been reading a lot and have kind of hit a wall with the vast amount of potential books to read. Go to the SF Encyclopaedia (link in the thread title) and search "crime" and "YA"; Halting State (not too good) and Rule 34 (haven't read it) by Charles Stross, and Dervish is Digital and I think others by Pat Cadigan were first to my mind. Also The Caves of Steel by Asimov maybe, although that's a little different. There's a different thread for urban fantasy; I like Mike Carey.
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Jun 16, 2014 16:23
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robotox posted:Hey, guys. I was hoping I could throw myself at the mercy of your recommendations. I work in a library so I've been reading a lot and have kind of hit a wall with the vast amount of potential books to read. KOP by Warren Hammond is a pretty cool SF noir detective novel if you are looking for a series to start on.
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Jun 16, 2014 18:56
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Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix Plus is cyberpunk meets space opera meets political thriller and is pretty pro. It definitely inspired a lot of later writers that regularly get recommended here. Also there is no ebook form so bonus library privilege
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Jun 16, 2014 19:21
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Robotox, read Gun, With Occasional Music, if you haven't already.
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Jun 16, 2014 20:15
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Guys, I hate you all. Since I bookmarked this thread I simply have not enough time to keep in pace with all the recomendations you don't stop posting here  My last two reads were the first book in the "Damned" series, by Alan Dean Foster, which I didn't like a lot, and after that one the first book in the Expanse series (Leviatan Wakes), which I have enjoyed a lot. I have already commented about the former. The later takes its time to get into pace, but from 3/4 of the book onwards I could not stop reading. In my opinion the detective character is quite bland at the beginning (I was speeding the read of his POV chapters because i found them poor in comparison with the Resourceful Space Captain ones), but the character grows with the story, and there is a point where he does really take the lead. I recommend that book to anyone who likes both hard science fiction and light space opera. Now i have returned to the Subterrene War and I'm reading the second book. It is just as dark as the first. I was fearing it was the same story told from the POV of one of the Genetics, but it is not. The history is different (the world is obviously the same), and just after a few chapters it takes off and makes the reader to wonder if the worst bastards are the poor murderer girls or the wackos who made and trained them. To this point I can do nothing but recommend it, not only to the lovers of mil-fic (mil tech is not really soooo important in the story, personal experiences of the characters is), but for the general near-future society-is-sick stories aficionados. Next book will be probably the second Expanse novel. I'm pretty decided to not go on with the Damned. And regarding to Alan Dean Foster... how are the "Hummanx commonwealth" novels? Are those worth a try? Keep posting good reading advice!
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Jun 16, 2014 22:17
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robotox posted:Hey, guys. I was hoping I could throw myself at the mercy of your recommendations. I work in a library so I've been reading a lot and have kind of hit a wall with the vast amount of potential books to read. I liked Michael Marshall Smith's "One of Us." It's sort of a noir-ish sci fi crime story. It takes place in a future where people can get rid of unwanted dreams and memories, and the main character is an ex-bartender/petty criminal who now collects the memories. It's used for stuff like passing lie detector tests. He takes on the memories temporarily, then gives them back once the danger period is over. The plot kicks off when he receives the memory of committing a murder and the perp won't take it back. Keeping the murder in his memory means that he could be on the hook for it, so he has to go one the run and then all sorts of other weird stuff starts happening. This is also a world where everything has AI, including common household appliances like refrigerators and coffee machines and it makes for some really cool plot points. It's kind of surreal, but I thought it was a fun read.
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Jun 17, 2014 00:09
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robotox posted:Hey, guys. I was hoping I could throw myself at the mercy of your recommendations. I work in a library so I've been reading a lot and have kind of hit a wall with the vast amount of potential books to read. Try George Alec Effinger's Budayeen series about a cyberpunk Islamic-dominated world. Also S. Andrew Swan's Moreau books about cyberpunk furries (no seriously it's awesome)!
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Jun 17, 2014 01:40
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navyjack posted:Also S. Andrew Swan's Moreau books about cyberpunk furries (no seriously it's awesome)! This series really covers a lot of territory depending on where you jump in. The first four are some good cyberpunk noir with lots of action scenes and gunplay. Chock full of furriness if that's a major red flag to your goon sensibilities as well as the racist undertones of the species nationalities (the rats are Mexican, get it?). If you want a bit more future sci-fi there's the Hostile Takeover trilogy which has a marked decrease in bipedal animals being set a couple hundred years after the first. AI, space travel (although mostly it focuses on a central planet; a libertarian hypercorp mecca), and lasers'n'plasma guns. Unlike the earlier four, the three books are contiguous so you kind of need to get through them all for the culmination of the plot which can make it a little bit of a marathon to get through. The final trilogy of the Apotheosis set follow a bit more closely on the establishment of Hostile Takeover. Has a lot in common in my mind with the Expanse series although with more spacefaring (and the moreaus are back). Definitely go into this having at least read the Hostile Takeover trilogy since it makes a lot of references to it. The ending is kind of weak being rather deus ex machina and a big heap of fanservice for readers of the series as a whole. There's also his Cleveland Portal novels if you want some noir urban fantasy even if the setting is basically Shadowrun minus the cyberpunk.
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Jun 17, 2014 02:40
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If you want to read a really cool cyberpunk noir story featuring anthropomorphic animals, read the short story "Tiger, Burning" by Alastair Reynolds.
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Jun 17, 2014 04:46
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The Expanse just got extended to nine books.
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Jun 17, 2014 21:24
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General Battuta posted:The Expanse just got extended to nine books. If you haven't jumped ship yet, loving jump ship. 6 was already 3 too many.
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Jun 17, 2014 22:46
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ShutteredIn posted:If you haven't jumped ship yet, loving jump ship. 6 was already 3 too many. After reading everyone's reactions to Cibola Burn, I think I'm good with just the first three. Then again, I read the latter two Hyperion sequels so I am a huge idiot and will probably read all 9. I am the sci fi general audience.
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Jun 17, 2014 23:02
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General Battuta posted:The Expanse just got extended to nine books. Who keeps thinking this is a good idea? I mean, jesus, even if they plan to write 9 books, don't say that you're extending your original story to 9 -- say that you're going to wrap it up in 6 (or even better, 3) and then write another trilogy (or two) in the same universe. Unrelated, I recently finished Promise of Blood and loved it. Haven't picked up The Crimson Campaign yet, but plan to soon. I've noticed there are 2 shorts and novella by McClellan also available in the Kindle store -- is it safe to assume that if I liked Promise of Blood I'll find those shorter works worth my time?
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Jun 18, 2014 00:05
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