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So I finished The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms this week and it felt more like a romance novel than a good fantasy novel. Do the later books change that or does it follow the same pattern? I didn't mind the way it was written which I have seen has bothered others but just couldn't get past the feeling that I was reading a bad romance novel dressed up as fantasy.
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Jul 3, 2014 17:24
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These are The Rhesus Chart spoilers, FYI:Cardiac posted:Since Bob now have become the Eater of Souls I guess they are similar in power level. Bob is explicitly able to shut down Mo's violin and notes that he should destroy it (implying he could). I think we can assume Bob is higher power now.
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Jul 3, 2014 19:37
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Fried Sushi posted:So I finished The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms this week and it felt more like a romance novel than a good fantasy novel. Do the later books change that or does it follow the same pattern? I didn't mind the way it was written which I have seen has bothered others but just couldn't get past the feeling that I was reading a bad romance novel dressed up as fantasy. Apparently books two and three get better, but why bother if you hated the first one? There are more books out there to read than you can in your lifetime. Check out her next series or read something else entirely.
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Jul 3, 2014 20:02
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Megazver posted:Apparently books two and three get better, but why bother if you hated the first one? There are more books out there to read than you can in your lifetime. Check out her next series or read something else entirely. Because other than the romance elements I liked the concepts and overall writing. If the romance is downplayed in the subsequent books I would be more interested in reading them.
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Jul 3, 2014 20:11
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Just an FYI, Amazon.com has Ancillary Justice ebook for $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BAXFDLM/ I jumped on it, as goons here often recommend it and you can't go wrong at that price. I wouldn't wait on it if you're interested, this wasn't posted as a daily deal today so it's just publisher discretion and who knows how long it will last, could be days, weeks, or just hours - nobody knows.
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Jul 4, 2014 03:50
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Hey continuing ARC chat from the last page or two, has anyone got (or know someone who's got) an ARC of Grossman's The Magician's Land? If so, is it any good? I'm re-listening to the audiobooks of TM and TMK (voiced excellently by Mark Bramhall, honestly the best audiobooks I've ever heard) to prepare.
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Jul 4, 2014 06:16
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SUPERFINE CONCUBINE posted:I still rate Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days as one of the better shorter stories I've read, so it feels like Reynolds gets lost in novel-length stories. Also I guess maybe his non-RS novel stuff is good? Like Blue Remembered Earth? Haven't read it but "people" say it's tighter.
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Jul 4, 2014 11:12
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It is pretty much unanimous that Reynolds' best work is House of Suns. I liked Diamond Dogs, and thought Revelation Space, Chasm City and The Prefect were okay, but House of Suns was really superlative stuff that awed me with its atmosphere.
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Jul 4, 2014 11:17
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Neurosis posted:It is pretty much unanimous that Reynolds' best work is House of Suns. I liked Diamond Dogs, and thought Revelation Space, Chasm City and The Prefect were okay, but House of Suns was really superlative stuff that awed me with its atmosphere. It's also a refreshing shift in tone from the revelation space series.
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Jul 4, 2014 14:52
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PlushCow posted:Just an FYI, Amazon.com has Ancillary Justice ebook for $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BAXFDLM/ Hedrigall posted:I'm re-listening to the audiobooks of TM and TMK (voiced excellently by Mark Bramhall, honestly the best audiobooks I've ever heard) to prepare.
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Jul 4, 2014 18:48
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I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but I'm trying to track down a short story I read a few years ago on a blog somewhere. It was done in short installments on the blog. It takes place on a spacecraft sent to make first contact. The ship does make first contact, with some bug things that eat their own young and it's acceptable to them, but not to us. And since we were superior to them, we probably tried to talk some sense into them or something like that. Then, a third alien race appears, superior to us, which just likes having orgies and pleasure all the time. To them, the way we treat our children is morally wrong and they decide to wipe us out. I think it ends like that. Does anybody know about this?
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Jul 4, 2014 19:05
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Sounds like Three Worlds Collide aka The Baby-Eating Aliens by Eliezer Yudkowsky, the guy who wrote a gigantic  Harry Potter fanfic.
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Jul 4, 2014 19:20
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I cannot ever take that story seriously after reading the sentence quote:I suspect the aliens will consider this one of their great historical works of literature, like Hamlet or Fate/stay night
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Jul 4, 2014 19:32
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Yudkowsky is the biggest idiot ever. He's a dumbass compsci wannabe with no actual degree or real job who literally thinks he knows everything. He banned a chemist from his forums once for having the nerve to tell him that he got something wrong in one of his unbearably long-winded blog posts about natural science.
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Jul 4, 2014 19:37
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Antti posted:Sounds like Three Worlds Collide aka The Baby-Eating Aliens by Eliezer Yudkowsky, the guy who wrote a gigantic I did not know the same person wrote both of those things! portions of my life make significantly more sense now
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Jul 4, 2014 19:50
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Three Worlds Collide also has a digression about how wonderful humanity is now that it's legalised rape, because of course it does. We have a Less Wrong mock thread, actually, if you want to get into the weirder excesses of Yudkowsky's little cult.
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Jul 4, 2014 20:01
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If you want to laugh until you die, look up Roko's Basilisk.quote:Some people familiar with the LessWrong memeplex have suffered serious psychological distress after contemplating basilisk-like ideas — even when they're fairly sure intellectually that it's a silly problem.[5] The notion is taken sufficiently seriously by some LessWrong posters that they try to work out how to erase evidence of themselves so a future AI can't reconstruct a copy of them to torture.[6] General Battuta fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Jul 4, 2014 |
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Jul 4, 2014 20:56
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If your New New Space Opera doesn't have a sect of rokoist terrorists who demand all resources be put to building super-intelligent AIs, I'm not interested.
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Jul 4, 2014 21:10
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Darth Walrus posted:Three Worlds Collide also has a digression about how wonderful humanity is now that it's legalised rape, because of course it does. I didn't know this thread existed, I'm happier now that I know of it
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Jul 4, 2014 21:32
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Darth Walrus posted:Three Worlds Collide also has a digression about how wonderful humanity is now that it's legalised rape, because of course it does. I'm pretty sure that was put in to show that humans themselves are now weird and alien or something. Dumb and badly implemented and doesn't make sense when the slightest amount of scrutiny is applied, but I don't think the author's actually suggesting this is a positive aspect of this future society.
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Jul 5, 2014 00:27
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I think the deal with that was that there were ubiqutious personal forcefields or something that you only turned off if you wanted the possibility of rough play. ... I guess now that I've typed that out I realized the explanation doesn't help matters any.
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Jul 5, 2014 01:12
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TOOT BOOT posted:I think the deal with that was that there were ubiqutious personal forcefields or something that you only turned off if you wanted the possibility of rough play. It was written by a dude who brags about his Harry Potter fanfic on his OKcupid profile where he's constantly on the lookout for extra BDSM buddies. I think that sentences says everything anyone needs to know about him.
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Jul 5, 2014 01:15
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Antti posted:Three Worlds Collide So there's
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Jul 5, 2014 01:42
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Zore posted:It was written by a dude who brags about his Harry Potter fanfic on his OKcupid profile where he's constantly on the lookout for extra BDSM buddies. ...gently caress, this was just a trap to get me to admit I knew that, wasn't it?
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Jul 5, 2014 03:57
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Man, The Rhesus Chart was a roller coaster. Not sure it was the strongest book in the series, but definitely an improvement over The Apocalypse Codex. It had just the right blend of goofy bureaucratic satire and deadly serious cosmic horror that I love the Laundry for. The last part of the story hit like a ton of bricks. The clinical walkthrough of Old George's attack was a brilliant bit of writing - not only does it have the awful feeling of "walkkng through a school shooting" as someone upthread put it, it does a really good job of showing how utterly it shattered Bob. I mean, he has a tendency to joke especially in bleak situations, and he couldn't really come up with anything to add. What makes it worse is that there's clearly more terrible things in store for Bob. In the last couple books it seems like he's been at the limits of his competence, and Angleton has been a huge help getting him on the right track. With Angleton gone, he's going to be in way over his head. I feel even worse for Mo, the job's clearly destroying her. And if Bob is to be believed, her support network is well and truly hosed given how this story ended. I really want to read the next book now to see how things are going from her perspective.
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Jul 5, 2014 08:00
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Darth Walrus posted:Three Worlds Collide also has a digression about how wonderful humanity is now that it's legalised rape, because of course it does. Oh, gently caress, there are ACTUAL people who think that way? Seriously, this guy looks like he really needs a shrink. Or 3^^^^^3 shrinks.
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Jul 5, 2014 11:35
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I'm on board with those who say that they thought The Rhesus Chart was a strong entry. I about half thought I was going to drop The Laundry Files after the last book, but I really liked this one. Also going to drop some praise for The Shadow Throne. I thought it was a good second book, and I liked how the "magic" was part of the story but not the driving force. Wexler is a guy to watch and I'm thrilled to hear that he's planning another addition to his Forbidden Library YA series I have to say, though, that I was disappointed in The Tower Lord. I think Ryan's new-found publishers and editors managed to edit out the charm of the first book. I was disappointed by the lack of the framing story and I felt like it ended on a peculiar note. I'll be reading the next in the series, but I won't be looking forward to it quite as much as I had this one.
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Jul 6, 2014 06:22
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Do we not have a horror thread? I see the cosmic horror one, but I just read The Three by Sarah Lotz and I'd like to read some more urban or mystery horror. All Goodreads recommends are loving zombie books.
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Jul 6, 2014 23:13
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zoux posted:Do we not have a horror thread? I see the cosmic horror one, but I just read The Three by Sarah Lotz and I'd like to read some more urban or mystery horror. All Goodreads recommends are loving zombie books. The Bone Key by Sarah Monette.
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Jul 6, 2014 23:53
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zoux posted:Do we not have a horror thread? I see the cosmic horror one, but I just read The Three by Sarah Lotz and I'd like to read some more urban or mystery horror. All Goodreads recommends are loving zombie books. Just read it too and really enjoyed it. Did you read Last Days by Adam Nevill? It's quite good and very original.
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Jul 7, 2014 00:08
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I read "A Spell for Chameleon" as a teenager, but only recently have come to realize just how much he ran that series into the ground, and from some internet reading, just how much of a creepy pervert he is. But there are things I remember liking about that first book (or two? I forget) of the Xanth series that I wouldn't mind finding another series for. 1. Truly magical world that is only partially understood. Not just ancient legends and misremembered deeds, but people that were turned into trees, or spells that make you forget a place when you leave it. 2. I remember the deadly wilderness being very interesting. Lots of strange plants and animals that were absolutely fatal. 3. Fairy-tale like curses/spells that would cause a person to lay down comfortably and never get up, happily dying of thirst and hunger. If I pick up a random fantasy series, I feel that I'm almost certainly going to eventually be treated to Tolkienesque tropes, which isn't always what I want. The simplicity of that first Xanth book had some qualities I liked, and I wondered if anyone knew of an author that captures some of that, without eventually resorting to helpless mute 11 year old forest nymphs forcing themselves on the main character to get their voice back, or some bullshit.
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Jul 7, 2014 00:34
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Speaking of horribly creepy, I recently read the 'The Wizards of Eredwynn' series by Daniel Harris. The main character who is an unspecified age, but at least 19-20 is transported to a fantasy universe and ends up marrying a 16 year old girl, and consorting with 10 other girls, between 12 and 15. It was just so gratuitous and absolutely shameless. The character also had an 'uncontrollable sex-magic aura' that basically compelled women to sleep with him.
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Jul 7, 2014 00:52
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I'm a bit behind the curve on the laundry books having just read the first one, but is government-issue toothpaste significant in some way or just a running gag?
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Jul 7, 2014 01:52
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oTHi posted:Speaking of horribly creepy, I recently read the 'The Wizards of Eredwynn' series by Daniel Harris. The main character who is an unspecified age, but at least 19-20 is transported to a fantasy universe and ends up marrying a 16 year old girl, and consorting with 10 other girls, between 12 and 15. Conrad Stargard
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Jul 7, 2014 02:36
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andrew smash posted:I'm a bit behind the curve on the laundry books having just read the first one, but is government-issue toothpaste significant in some way or just a running gag? More like a one-off gag.
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Jul 7, 2014 02:45
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eriktown posted:More like a one-off gag. Fair enough, it came up 3 or 4 times in the atrocity archive so I thought it might be A Thing
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Jul 7, 2014 03:04
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I'm reading Shadow and Claw and I can't decide if I like it. I love the worldbuilding I just don't know if I care about the actual plot. I don't think I do.
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Jul 7, 2014 04:10
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Nevvy Z posted:I'm reading Shadow and Claw and I can't decide if I like it. I love the worldbuilding I just don't know if I care about the actual plot. I don't think I do. It's a book that rewards patience and many rereadings. Nothing is what it looks like at first glance. If that's not your thing, i can understand not really liking it.
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Jul 7, 2014 04:25
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Nevvy Z posted:I'm reading Shadow and Claw and I can't decide if I like it. I love the worldbuilding I just don't know if I care about the actual plot. I don't think I do. Reading this as well, for the first time. I have similar feelings, but instead of not caring I find myself caring without being able quite explain why at this point. Similar feelings I had when reading Gormenghast, or even some Japanese fiction like Sanshiro and Kokoro. Partly it's the setting, partly the characters, prose, the style, but I feel there is this other element at hand that I can't quite grasp. I think it's just the feeling I get when reading. So, uh, I guess I like it because I like it. 
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Jul 7, 2014 10:03
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The Book of the New Sun is one of those things I enjoy reading about more than I actually enjoy reading. I love what it's doing, I love watching people show all of the layers to this particular onion, but's not something I ever find myself enjoy reading, no matter how many times I try.
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Jul 7, 2014 10:12
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