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VagueRant posted:The previews I've read of the first two Malazan books have fascinating prose and use of language, but goddamn if I have any idea what is happening in them - so I have no idea how to feel about them! I read 8 and a half of the 10 books and most of the time still had no idea what was happening!
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Jul 11, 2014 12:52
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I figured out what's inspiring the wave of self published scifi/fantasy garbage that's clogging the Amazon genre sections.
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Jul 11, 2014 14:22
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My book club is starting The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Is this recommended?
Portable Staplefrog fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Jul 11, 2014 |
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Jul 11, 2014 16:12
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Cardiac posted:He also has a tendency to outright torture his protagonists, which becomes kinda uninteresting after awhile. I feel Scott Lynch would be much better if he slowed down his plot a bit and didn't add new things on top of what is already presented so far in the books, especially since the story would be more focused. This is horrible advice. Do not read House of Chains first, it is a direct continuation of Deadhouse Gates that resolves several things set up in that book. I still personally recommend just soldiering through GoTM, but if it's too rough for you then by all means check out Memories of Ice or Deadhouse Gates. Just not a single book beyond them.
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Jul 11, 2014 16:17
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2015:
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Jul 11, 2014 16:45
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For some reason I thought that was a photoshop and the title some kind of inside joke. But it's real and promptly intriguing.
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Jul 11, 2014 17:04
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Portable Staplefrog posted:My book club is starting The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Is this recommended? Like, there's all this poo poo connected to the book and going on in the book that would be interesting to me, but Jemisin opted to write mostly about how the tricky, scary, totally not-a-prototypical-YA-Vampire character was just super steamy and how the main character wants to gently caress him. It doesn't help that I picked it up after reading some Catherynne M. Valente stuff. Valente handles mythology like she invented the concept. Jemisin just... sort of... like, it's there, she is writing stuff about mythology, and making up her own stuff, but it's just... there.
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Jul 11, 2014 17:41
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Rusty Kettle posted:There is a new bundle of sci-fi books. Are any of these actually good? Do yourselves a favor and skip Wingman. I could do a brief synopsis, but I feel like it might not be worth the effort. Essentially, the hero is "the best pilot ever" in a post semi-apocalyptic setting, where there's enough fuel to get planes and jet fighters in the air. There's a lot of drinking, loving and being badass. None of it is written well. Even the jet fighter bits, which I expected to be the meaty bits, were lacking the mil-porn detail that I was expecting. I ended up quitting about 30% of the way in.
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Jul 11, 2014 17:46
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orange sky posted:Do you guys know of any books that have a utopian, future society like the Culture? I absolutely loved pretty much all the books, and I'm looking for more like it. Preferably nothing with a huge arc, I'd rather have independent stories (like the Culture). Neal Asher's Polity is a Utopian AI run future society but the books themselves tell stories that are rather violent events within the utopia.
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Jul 11, 2014 18:14
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For the person looking for Culture-like stories: Tanith Lee's Biting the Sun features an interesting utopia. It's still essentially a teen-rebelling-against-the-system book, but I didn't feel like it was cliché (your mileage may vary) and I repeatedly felt like I was reading a Culture book from the perspective of a young Culture citizen that wasn't necessarily happy with the Culture.
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Jul 11, 2014 19:41
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Antti posted:For some reason I thought that was a photoshop and the title some kind of inside joke. But it's real and promptly intriguing. Also intriguing: Alastair Reynolds posted:The Last Log of the Lachrymosa. 15,000 words. Subterranean Press magazine, summer 2014. A story in the Revelation Space universe.
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Jul 11, 2014 20:21
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Hedrigall posted:2015: His book covers are beautiful but I feel like they're all blending together for me.
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Jul 11, 2014 20:30
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Anyone else kind of sick of book covers where the author's name is written like an order of magnitude bigger than the actual title? Makes me feel like they're trying to sell me a brand, not literature.
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Jul 11, 2014 20:34
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zoux posted:I figured out what's inspiring the wave of self published scifi/fantasy garbage that's clogging the Amazon genre sections. The latest kerfuffle involving self-pubbed authors following Hugh Howey's petition to fellate Amazon is not to be missed.
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Jul 11, 2014 20:55
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Cardiovorax posted:Anyone else kind of sick of book covers where the author's name is written like an order of magnitude bigger than the actual title? Makes me feel like they're trying to sell me a brand, not literature. I used to hate this but now I covet it. It means you might stand a chance of writing full time.
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Jul 11, 2014 21:14
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Cardiovorax posted:Anyone else kind of sick of book covers where the author's name is written like an order of magnitude bigger than the actual title? Makes me feel like they're trying to sell me a brand, not literature.   (Of course, James S. A. Corey is basically just a brand anyway, since it's a pseudonym) Spug fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Jul 11, 2014 |
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Jul 11, 2014 22:23
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You sold out, GB. You used to be cool. Now it's all about the money. (I liked your squid story)
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Jul 11, 2014 22:26
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anathenema posted:The latest kerfuffle involving self-pubbed authors following Hugh Howey's petition to fellate Amazon is not to be missed. I'll try not to miss it if you drop a link herein.
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Jul 11, 2014 22:32
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anathenema posted:The latest kerfuffle involving self-pubbed authors following Hugh Howey's petition to fellate Amazon is not to be missed. You can't just tease us like that: http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/jul/08/amazon-battle-hachette-readers-writers-retailers-ebooks
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Jul 11, 2014 22:37
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There's a couple of links out there, but Chuck Wendig has some good write-ups on the subject.
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Jul 12, 2014 00:05
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I just finished Anthony Ryan's Tower Lord, and I really enjoyed it. A different sort of book from Blood Song -- no framing story (which I thought really worked well in Blood Song), and rather than the singular focus of Blood Song, four main POV storylines that Ryan kept jumping back and forth between. I sometimes find that distracting, but I thought it was well done in this book -- I never lost interest and I liked the way Ryan handled them all in the end. I thought the writing was just as sharp as Blood Song -- good action scenes, some awesome battles, a nice siege, and some interesting further development of the world that we saw only a little of in Blood Song. Ultimately, the book lived up to my relatively high expectations based on Blood Song, and I eagerly await the next book in the series.
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Jul 12, 2014 03:09
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Chinook posted: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. I know it's a weird request, and I'll let it drop after this, but if anyone has any decent suggestions that speak to what I'm looking for, I'd love it. Also, aside from that, I'm reading the Earthsea books right now, and they don't really fit what I'm asking for, but they are timeless and fantastic. I'm on the 3rd book and they almost seem biblical in a way. The writing style is very simple but the author says so much with so little.
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Jul 12, 2014 03:33
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^^^^ I remember that Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana revolves around the concept of a city state having a wizard casting a spell so people forget about it. I can't remember if it has any of the other type of stuff you're looking for though.
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Jul 12, 2014 03:42
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So about a year ago, I was reading some blog (?) entry written by David Wingrove, and he mentioned that he had written a giant desk-drawer novel about a millenia-long changewar fought by Germany and Russia, centered around the romance between a 12th-century Kievian princess and a 29th-century German operative. About a month ago, I discovered that this book had been broken into a trilogy under the title Roads to Moscow. The first book, The Empire of Time was apparently published in April this year, while the other two books are due out within the next two years. Now, I have heard nothing about if these books have a North American release date, or if anyone has actually read Empire. Has anyone here heard anything about them, or even read any of them? Marshal Radisic fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Jul 12, 2014 |
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Jul 12, 2014 03:51
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savinhill posted:^^^^ I remember that Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana revolves around the concept of a city state having a wizard casting a spell so people forget about it. I can't remember if it has any of the other type of stuff you're looking for though. Thanks, I'll look into it. Basically, I wonder if something has the "feeling" of the Xanth books without the pitfalls that Piers Anthony gets into. I think Narnia, for instance, sort of hits on it, somewhat. (I've read the Narnia books a few times as a kid/teen).
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Jul 12, 2014 04:37
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Chinook posted:Thanks, I'll look into it. Oh, the Chathrand Voyage series would probably be to your liking too. A lot of it takes place upon a cursed ship voyaging on a world that contains a large part that is cut off from the rest in a sort of time loop because of wizards loving around and has a lot of other ancient curse magic type situations. It also has a lot of cool, otherworldly races of creatures, monsters and lands with good mythology, adventure and characters.
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Jul 12, 2014 05:13
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Chinook posted:Thanks, I'll look into it. Maybe 'One for the Morning Glory' by Barnes?
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Jul 12, 2014 06:39
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Marshal Radisic posted:About a month ago, I discovered that this book had been broken into a trilogy under the title Roads to Moscow. The first book, The Empire of Time was apparently published in April this year, while the other two books are due out within the next two years. Now, I have heard nothing about if these books have a North American release date, or if anyone has actually read Empire. Has anyone here heard anything about them, or even read any of them? The first one doesn't appear to have shown up in Locus's "Forthcoming" book list, which is really surprising. That said, Amazon.co.uk's selling it, so I'd say if you want to read it go ahead an import it and don't wait for a North American release.
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Jul 12, 2014 06:44
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McCoy Pauley posted:I just finished Anthony Ryan's Tower Lord, and I really enjoyed it. A different sort of book from Blood Song -- no framing story (which I thought really worked well in Blood Song), and rather than the singular focus of Blood Song, four main POV storylines that Ryan kept jumping back and forth between. I sometimes find that distracting, but I thought it was well done in this book -- I never lost interest and I liked the way Ryan handled them all in the end. I thought the writing was just as sharp as Blood Song -- good action scenes, some awesome battles, a nice siege, and some interesting further development of the world that we saw only a little of in Blood Song. I liked Tower Lord well enough but ultimately I feel like it didn't live up to Blood Song. Mostly this was due to the structure of Blood Song really working well for me (looking at slices of Vaelin's life over a relatively long period of time) and the fact that there was so much going on that you didn't know because you only followed Vaelin. In Tower Lord I feel that too many of the things outside of Vaelin's control were revealed far too quickly and easily. However, I really enjoyed the whole thing about the world being past the point of prophecy and how Frentis, not Vaelin, was the Darkblade. I'm still looking forward to the next book, but will have some muted expectations for it.
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Jul 12, 2014 15:57
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McCoy Pauley posted:I just finished Anthony Ryan's Tower Lord, and I really enjoyed it. A different sort of book from Blood Song -- no framing story (which I thought really worked well in Blood Song), and rather than the singular focus of Blood Song, four main POV storylines that Ryan kept jumping back and forth between. I sometimes find that distracting, but I thought it was well done in this book -- I never lost interest and I liked the way Ryan handled them all in the end. I thought the writing was just as sharp as Blood Song -- good action scenes, some awesome battles, a nice siege, and some interesting further development of the world that we saw only a little of in Blood Song. Yeah, I enjoyed it too. I felt the criticisms listed earlier in the thread were accurate but no big deal - the switch to an ASOIAF-style story framework was a bit clunky but served its purpose of giving us a broader perspective on the setting, and whilst the ending was in a slightly weird spot, he had the decency to do it at the end of an arc without a mega-gigantic cliffhanger. One thing I really like about the series is Ryan's generosity to his cast - there's the occasional charmless, worthless rear end in a top hat, but a disproportionate amount are given humanity, sympathy, and/or a chance to do something cool even if they're largely unpleasant people. It's quite endearing.
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Jul 12, 2014 16:05
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Chinook posted:I know it's a weird request, and I'll let it drop after this, but if anyone has any decent suggestions that speak to what I'm looking for, I'd love it. You would have to hunt these down second-hand, but you might enjoy Midori Synder's New Moon trilogy. I always wondered why she wasn't better known, she's a good writer. Here's the first book If you like gently humorous fantasy, there's always Lawrence Watt-Evans. The Misenchanted Sword gets recommended by Goons fairly regularly. While they don't exactly fit your list, both authors do fantasy/magic but are not Tolkienesque in the least, which is why I recommend them.
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Jul 12, 2014 17:20
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Zola posted:If you like gently humorous fantasy, there's always Lawrence Watt-Evans. The Misenchanted Sword gets recommended by Goons fairly regularly.
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Jul 12, 2014 17:29
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Cardiovorax posted:I've read that on a goon recommendation recently and I can honestly say that all the Ethshar novels are really, really bad. Don't read them. I really wish you would not do this. Just because you disliked something doesn't mean it's bad, it only means you disliked it. I know one guy who hated to read that loved the Misenchanted Sword, he borrowed it from me so many times to re-read it that I made him a present of it. I'm certain that there's a lot of books I have read that you would think were poo poo. I'm equally certain that the opposite is true. I will never, ever get on your case for saying "I thought it sucked" because that's opinion, but please don't make the mistake of assuming that everyone will feel the same.
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Jul 12, 2014 17:49
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Zola posted:I really wish you would not do this. Just because you disliked something doesn't mean it's bad, it only means you disliked it. I know one guy who hated to read that loved the Misenchanted Sword, he borrowed it from me so many times to re-read it that I made him a present of it. Although, thinking about it, I suppose The Misenchanted Sword was the best of the lot. Kinda hokey ending maybe. Cardiovorax fucked around with this message at 18:04 on Jul 12, 2014 |
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Jul 12, 2014 17:59
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I don't think it's been mentioned in the thread yet, but the World Fantasy Award nominees for 2014 were announced a few days ago. The books up for best novel are: Richard Bowes, Dust Devil on a Quiet Street Marie Brennan, A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane Sofia Samatar, A Stranger in Olondria Helene Wecker, The Golem and the Jinni Gene Wolfe, The Land Across Of the six, I've only read the Gaiman and the Wolfe, and neither of them endeared themselves to me very much. Any of the others particularly good? I've never even heard of Dust Devil or A Stranger in Olondria, although the latter looks really interesting.
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Jul 12, 2014 20:54
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If anything, this is still way better than the Hugo ballot. I've heard good things about the Golem book.
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Jul 12, 2014 21:05
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I've attempted to read some of Gene Wolfe's other books and really liked, but couldn't finish them. Is The Land Across any more accessible than his usual?
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Jul 12, 2014 21:06
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Portable Staplefrog posted:I've attempted to read some of Gene Wolfe's other books and really liked, but couldn't finish them. Is The Land Across any more accessible than his usual? The short answer is no. It continues the trend he's been on since An Evil Guest or so - come up with a cool idea, then bog it down by having endlessly circuitous conversations between characters whose motives we don't really understand. This wouldn't be so bad (hell, some of the finest literature ever written isn't much more than a series of conversations) if he didn't marry it to paperback-mystery level plotting. It's bad, and it's the first Wolfe novel I've picked up that I couldn't finish. (It was still better than The Ocean at the End of the Lane though - Jesus what a turd). Which of his books have you tried to read, if you don't mind me asking?
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Jul 12, 2014 21:13
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Popular Human posted:
I loved The Book of the New Sun up until I realized that I didn't really understand what was happening and continuing was probably pointless. Also, a few short stories that I forgot the titles of.
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Jul 12, 2014 21:21
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Portable Staplefrog posted:I loved The Book of the New Sun up until I realized that I didn't really understand what was happening and continuing was probably pointless. Also, a few short stories that I forgot the titles of.
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Jul 12, 2014 21:28
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