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quote:The clerk was a college girl trying to act tough, but obviously very shaken by the events, she was chewing on a tobacco cigarette and focusing very hard on the lighter in her hand. He didn't comment on the action, despite the normal illegality of smoking in doors.
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Jul 1, 2014 06:16
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I really hope the person who wrote this is about 17 years old. Otherwise 
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Jul 1, 2014 06:36
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coyo7e posted:holy poo poo You missed out on Operation Yewtree then, huh?
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Jul 1, 2014 10:20
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Fried Chicken posted:I recommend all of them. Glasshouse is probably his most interesting but also most difficult book, as it deals a lot with identity and makes heavy use of the unreliable narrator. Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise are fun space opera. Saturn's Children is him riffing on late Heinlein and picking fights with the "libertarian space cadets" as he refers to them. The Scottish PD books of Halting State and Rule 34 are very interesting near future Thanks for that summary. I am adding "Saturn's Children" to my reading queue... which is about to overflow! E: I'm reading old "classics" now. "Old" as in E.E.Smith. I had never read anything from him before. I finished "Skylark of Space", which is awfully bad even wearing the strongest posible "oldies glasses". I am now about 3/4 of "Triplanetary", which being campy is not SO bad and I'm actually quite enjoying it. I'm not sure if I will go through the Lensmen series; I will probably try one or two more books if I can find them in electronic format. Amberskin fucked around with this message at 11:36 on Jul 1, 2014 |
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Jul 1, 2014 11:33
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Tower Lord, the second Raven's Shadow book, is out today. I love when I've forgotten I preordered something and it just magically appears on my kindle.
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Jul 1, 2014 12:40
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McCoy Pauley posted:Tower Lord, the second Raven's Shadow book, is out today. I love when I've forgotten I preordered something and it just magically appears on my kindle. Shadow Throne by Django Wexler as well. These should both be excellent.
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Jul 1, 2014 12:58
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Amberskin posted:Thanks for that summary. I am adding "Saturn's Children" to my reading queue... which is about to overflow! You should read Lensmen just for the absurd escalation. By the end, wars are being fought by throwing planets at each other.
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Jul 1, 2014 13:12
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I found out yesterday that Robin Hobb is releasing a new book: Fool's Assassin will be on sale on 12 August in the UK. She's also doing a book signing at Forbidden Planet in London. I am definitely excited about this. I haven't read Fool's Fate since the first time, but I plan to correct this (via audiobook if nothing else...) before I read the new one. While we're talking Hobb, I read the first of the Rain Wild Chronicles when it came out and didn't enjoy it that much so I never bothered to go back and read the rest of the series. Does it improve?
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Jul 1, 2014 13:21
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nightchild12 posted:Well, from what I've read online (and honestly in my opinion), the Merchant Princes series is not too highly regarded. I found it entertaining enough, but it has some problems with pacing that make it kind of drag in places. quote:I've also read some negative reviews about Rule 34, but have never read it so don't know how it reads personally. quote:I think I maybe read something once about weird robot sex scenes in Saturn's Children (again, never read it)?
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Jul 1, 2014 13:58
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Merchant Princes is the sort of thing I only recommend to people who find the premise sufficiently fascinating. That's what prompted me to read it in the first place. I won't use the S word but Stross has put a fair amount of thought into how the shadow economy works and what the practical applications of the dimension-hopping ability are. I can see it coming off as dry to anyone who doesn't care about that sort of thing.
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Jul 1, 2014 14:20
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quote:I think I maybe read something once about weird robot sex scenes in Saturn's Children (again, never read it)?
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Jul 1, 2014 14:35
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Darth Walrus posted:You missed out on Operation Yewtree then, huh? If by missed out you mean I never got diddled by Mister Rogers, yeah.
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Jul 1, 2014 14:35
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Mars4523 posted:I haven't read it either (although it's on my list), but according to Wikipedia this is a book about (highly human-like) robots in a solar system where the humans have all gone extinct, which may contribute some context. That is indeed the basic premise of the book, yes; there is an interplanetary civilization consisting of robots originally created to serve humans in various capacities, but humans are no longer around. Slaves with no masters, if you like. Specifically, the main character of the novel is a robot model designed as a courtesan. But, again, no humans to serve.
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Jul 1, 2014 14:50
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Jedit posted:You should read Lensmen just for the absurd escalation. By the end, wars are being fought by throwing planets at each other. I'm sure there is somewhere a pretty lady making very basic but intelligent questions about it while she enjoys the protection of a handsome and absurdly intelligent gentleman. Oh, the old cliches!
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Jul 1, 2014 15:32
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Groke posted:That is indeed the basic premise of the book, yes; there is an interplanetary civilization consisting of robots originally created to serve humans in various capacities, but humans are no longer around. Slaves with no masters, if you like. Specifically, the main character of the novel is a robot model designed as a courtesan. But, again, no humans to serve. I think I remember seeing this book. Did the cover have a weird hybrid cgi / anime chick on the front of it?
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Jul 1, 2014 15:36
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I think I remember seeing this book. Did the cover have a weird hybrid cgi / anime chick on the front of it? The cover is a ludicrous abomination, yes, that's the one. To be fair, if you're gonna draw a sex robot protagonist for a book cover . . .
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Jul 1, 2014 15:37
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Luckily Stross's UK publisher isn't loving retarded:
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Jul 1, 2014 15:43
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Hedrigall posted:Luckily Stross's UK publisher isn't loving retarded: Thanks for a reminder. *shudder* vvvvv You are a terrible human being. The worst. Most bad. Megazver fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Jul 1, 2014 |
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Jul 1, 2014 15:44
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The cover is a ludicrous abomination, yes, that's the one. To be fair, if you're gonna draw a sex robot protagonist for a book cover . . . Man, you can't say that and not post it! 
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Jul 1, 2014 15:53
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specklebang posted:I just got my ARC of The Dark Defiles, the final book of The Land Fit For Heroes by Richard K. Morgan. Eat your hearts out. It will be available to you commoners in October while we of Royalty have long since finished it. Jerk. Going into this year I was looking forward to Echopraxia, The Dark Defiles and The Causal Angel the most so you're putting salt in the wound here.
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Jul 1, 2014 15:57
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Just finished The Rhesus Chart by Charles Stross. Holy loving Christ. I thought it was incredible, and one of the better books of the series. The stakes are real  .Can't wait for the next book, which is a Mo book. I believe it has something to do with elves?
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Jul 1, 2014 17:08
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Amberskin posted:I'm sure there is somewhere a pretty lady making very basic but intelligent questions about it while she enjoys the protection of a handsome and absurdly intelligent gentleman. A short time later, the conversation turns to eugenics, what a fantastic idea it is, and how a profitable use for those fancy planet-throwing devices might be to herd all those funny brown people onto an uninhabited world and aiming one of said devices at it. I've said it before, but Smith really demonstrates the sci-fi trends that Spinrad spoofed in The Iron Dream.
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Jul 1, 2014 17:22
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Mars4523 posted:Just finished The Rhesus Chart by Charles Stross. Definitely one of the better laundry books, has a real tense vibe to it quote:Can't wait for the next book, which is a Mo book. I believe it has something to do with elves? Elves is the book after the Mo book, it is an alien invasion book. The Mo book is a superhero book
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Jul 1, 2014 17:50
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Hey guys, let's all try to use spoiler tags for the new Laundry book, even if you're vagueposting. Otherwise the queue fills up with reports and I have to edit spoiler tags into everyone's posts and that makes me really grumpy, especially since I haven't finished the book yet myself considering it's been out barely twelve hours. Thanks! Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Jul 1, 2014 |
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Jul 1, 2014 18:12
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Fried Chicken posted:yeah, he went GRRM there. I did a mental count and I think we are down to 10 series regulars left from the atrocity archives? He did a number on his cast there Told ya. Also the Stross book covers are hilarious, but Stross had nothing to do with them as he describes in his blog and which has also been discussed in this thread. I think Hedrigall have posted Mieville covers that are pretty far away from the actual story in the book.
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Jul 1, 2014 18:14
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quote:Outside the roaring memories of the silver-haired woman in a beautiful kimono, Isaiah Thomas sat in the cooling Autumn winds as some side portion of his mind thought back to when he was a kid and people were almost literally up in arms about greenhouse gases and their effect on the world's environment. Many of those old environmentalists were still claiming, now in 2035, that Man was causing global warming even as new lows were recorded year after year.
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Jul 1, 2014 18:23
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Hahaha, what is that from?
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Jul 1, 2014 18:28
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fookolt posted:Hahaha, what is that from? This, I think: corn in the bible posted:I went to the bookstore today and found a self published novel. Timgs because lovely cellphone photos.
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Jul 1, 2014 18:40
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specklebang posted:I just got my ARC of The Dark Defiles, the final book of The Land Fit For Heroes by Richard K. Morgan. Urg I want this. I did win an ARC of Edward Cox's 'The Relic Guild' though so i'll probably read that to tide me over. I love Richard Morgan's stuff, it's just loving mental.
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Jul 1, 2014 18:42
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Just finished The Girl With All The Gifts. I never really thought I'd compare Orson Scott Card favorably to M.R. Carey, but at least Ender Wiggin addressed the fact that he committed genocide. I get the whole Pandora thing, but the whole point of that fable is that Pandora was curious, opened the box, and bad things happened. Melanie knowingly lets lose a pathogen that will kill every person left alive on the planet to make way for her newer, better people, because she decides that's the only way to stop everyone else from killing each other. There's a world of difference there, and Melanie based that assumption on a sample size of a half a dozen people. Rant over, carry on.
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Jul 1, 2014 19:53
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Maud Moonshine posted:While we're talking Hobb, I read the first of the Rain Wild Chronicles when it came out and didn't enjoy it that much so I never bothered to go back and read the rest of the series. Does it improve? I liked it well enough to finish the series but I don't think it really improves; I thought the third and fourth books had way too little happening in them despite satisfying conclusions to some characters arcs and the series would have been better as a trilogy.
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Jul 1, 2014 20:34
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Does anyone know of any fun, campy space opera books I can read? Something light and fun, like Star Wars or Farscape would be great.
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Jul 1, 2014 20:36
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fookolt posted:Hahaha, what is that from? Bystander. It can be yours for only thirteen dollars: http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/luke-thrythlind-green/bystander/paperback/product-18745374.html But your copy won't be the author's personal copy that he sold to a used bookstore 
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Jul 1, 2014 20:39
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corn in the bible posted:Bystander. It can be yours for only thirteen dollars: http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/luke-thrythlind-green/bystander/paperback/product-18745374.html Haha, you never told us: author Luke "Thrythlind" Green
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Jul 1, 2014 20:43
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gently caress, that dude has a lisp too?
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Jul 1, 2014 22:53
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I'm thinking of getting stuck into Mark Lawrence's latest novel, Prince of Fools; I'm a big fan of Joe Abercrombie's stuff, and I've heard that Lawrence's writing is similarly grim 'n gritty. Is it worth picking up the Broken Empire trilogy, I've heard it received some very mixed reviews?
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Jul 1, 2014 23:43
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RVProfootballer posted:Haha, you never told us: author Luke "Thrythlind" Green 
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Jul 1, 2014 23:51
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InMyHighCastle posted:I'm thinking of getting stuck into Mark Lawrence's latest novel, Prince of Fools; I'm a big fan of Joe Abercrombie's stuff, and I've heard that Lawrence's writing is similarly grim 'n gritty. Very iffy. They're ultra grim dark, to an almost comical extent. The setting is actually interesting, but I found the last book in particular to be a serious slog to a fairly unsatisfying ending. Velius fucked around with this message at 00:36 on Jul 2, 2014 |
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Jul 2, 2014 00:12
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Since people are posting about ARCs they've gotten/are getting, I just found out I'll be getting one for Fool's Assassin.
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Jul 2, 2014 00:52
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Captain Mog posted:Does anyone know of any fun, campy space opera books I can read? Something light and fun, like Star Wars or Farscape would be great. Hell yes, read The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn, who's also known for writing the best (read: "only good") Star Wars novels. It's a standalone book about rogue space adventurers and a murder mystery on a spaceship. Tons of adventure and intrigue, hopping from spaceport to spaceport; and tons of cool aliens. It's the lightest fluff but I loved it.
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Jul 2, 2014 04:48
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