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Gave Germline a go because of the buzz in this thread, and enjoyed it. It was indeed hella dark, but not unrelentingly so - there was (slightly dim, but present) light at the end of the tunnel, and a few moments of decency and humanity to shine the way. The protagonist's plot armour was pretty enormous, but got to the point where it felt like an intentional stylistic choice (not least because of the book's religious elements), and whilst the sexy, tragic all-female Jem'Hadar-alikes were a bit too anime for their own good, it wasn't enough to seriously break the book's tone. One thing that struck me was how much it felt like fiction by an actual combat veteran, despite the author being armchair military. The Hunter S. Thompson parallels are obvious, but throughout the book the comparison I was drawing was with The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers. I mean, obviously, it wasn't as good, but the fact that the comparison could be drawn at all is pretty something for the largely shallow, schlocky genre of milsf.
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Jul 25, 2014 14:09
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So I had a bit of free time and decided to do a Dune marathon, first one in 6 or 7 years. The ole Frank books went as usual, loved some and disliked others but then... I started reading the KJA stuff. Good God. Even at his worst Frank Herbert could write an engaging book. The pre/sequels read like fanfiction, and terrible fanfiction at that. While slogging through the sequels I remembered the teenaged me being incredibly excited about the new Dune books and then the disappointment. 
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Jul 25, 2014 18:34
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What pre/sequels? Is this like those mythical Star Wars prequels people have told me about? BECAUSE NEITHER ONE EXISTS. (Don't read the non-Frank Dune books. You're not helping anyone if you do, yourself included.)
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Jul 25, 2014 20:24
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I have finished the third Subterrene book (Chimera) recently, and for me it is the weakest of the three. It adds little to the whole story; probably the most interesting stuff is the part related to the status of the american society in those war (and post-war) times. I don't need to say it's quite somber, with non sutile references to current stuff which seem to be a little bit misplaced. My biggest issue is with the main character. I can't connect with him in any way. He is a special ops guy tasked with hunting and killing the renegade "genetic" girl soldiers we are introduced to in the first book and familiarized with in the second one. He is also a psycopath. I'm OK with "bad guys" as main characters. A credible, good villain is a very difficult assignement for a writer. But that guy is not a villain. Neither an hero. I have been unable to either love or hate him. I find him just disgusting. The first book is about the descent to hell and the ulterior redemption of a broken man. The second book is an odissey of sacrifice and valor of a girl which life was supposed to be pre-written. In neither of the books it is really possible to put yourself in the skin of the main characters (except ocasionally), but at least is easy to empathize with the drunken journalist or the runaway bioengineered killer. It simply doesn't happen with the executor in Chimera. I'm not saying the book is not good. It is equally well written, fast-paced and gruesome enough as the first two. It is just not at the same level. On the other hand, I have been hospitalized for some days with a loving pneumonia which has given me a quite high fever... and some nasty nightmares. A lot of those nightmares transported me to the Expanse universe. So, you guess, lots of vomit zombies, blue eyed scaled monsters, grown goo and enormous-but-sexy martian marines have been inside my head during those nights. Curiously, no Subterrene stuff in those bad dreams. And speaking of the Expanse, I have also read Abbadon's Gate. It's just me, or that one is much much weak than Leviathan and Caliban? The level of stupidity of some of the characters reaches new highs, and the Deus-Ex-Machina solution is not really satisfactory at all. Should I follow on and get Cibola Burns?
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Jul 26, 2014 13:07
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If you didn't care for Abbadon's Gate then Cibola Burn is probably skippable. Not a whole lot of meaning happens with regards to the events of the previous three except a bit right at the end. Otherwise the plot is mostly provincial settlement, evil-ish corporation stuff with a lot of the characters coming across as fairly flat. Some of the reviews are perhaps a little scathing in saying it feels like another novel that just had an Expanse veneer thrown on, but it certainly doesn't follow closely in the footsteps of its predecessors to mediocre result. If we're lucky the tease at the next in the epilogue might shape up to be more intetedting.
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Jul 26, 2014 17:13
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darnon posted:evil-ish corporation stuff with a lot of the characters coming across as fairly flat. Well, business as usual in this aspect. In the first two novels the only characters who are not completely flat are Miller and Avasarala, with Bobby coming second. Holden is flat as a  bill. Alex is just a part of the furniture (fix him to the Roci command chair a la Moya Pilot in Fascape and you won't get any difference) and Naomi is a mixture of Spock, Scottie and Uhura with a little bit of Bones just to make the mix more spicy.After ending the first book I have noticed I dont really know a poo poo about the characters I should have bonded with. The more authentic of the regulars being probably Amos. I really like the world and setup building, but the _writing_ is subpar.
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Jul 26, 2014 19:38
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Amberskin posted:Well, business as usual in this aspect. In the first two novels the only characters who are not completely flat are Miller and Avasarala, with Bobby coming second. Holden is flat as a Cool. I wasn't the only one who thought that. I would've bought more into the silliness of the plot if the characters weren't so flat. I'm about to finish up Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy, which is like a lesson into making a silly plot work because the characters are developed into meaningful, somewhat complex people. Above all, they're the furthest thing from boring.
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Jul 26, 2014 20:01
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Finally finished The Lies of Locke Lamora and it was quite an enjoyable story. Satisfying and self-contained. Jean Tannen was the best. I am shocked they haven't made a movie of it yet, it would adapt quite well. (Man, we live in a world where the exciting fantasy story about a band of conmen in some kind of alternate universe Venice dealing with a cycle of revenge doesn't get a movie, but a book that originated as Twilight fanfiction does.  )I struggled through some of the more info-dumpy chapters, the author has a tendency to just hit you with a wikipedia page on the history of his world sometimes. But the later chapters when it all kicked off were fantastically gripping. Couple spoilery notes: - I was initially annoyed that Locke was having a dramatic, heroic showdown with the villain at the end when he didn't seem like much of a swordsman. Then it was great when he got totally outclassed and stabbed multiple times and eventually only won by trickery and lies! - Oh and even the subchapter from the villain's POV watching his plans crumble was excellently written, I thought. - Really liked that Don Salvara and his wife got an epilogue too. - We never found out how Father Chains died? I guess that's for the other books? - The three page preview of the next book with Jean turning a crossbow on Locke was so obviously a play to get them out of trouble, it was a little silly. Well recommended, goons. But I am wondering why I haven't heard anyone say anything about the two other entries in the Gentleman Bastards series? Are they just nowhere near as good? holocaust bloopers posted:Cool. I wasn't the only one who thought that. I would've bought more into the silliness of the plot if the characters weren't so flat. I'm about to finish up Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy, which is like a lesson into making a silly plot work because the characters are developed into meaningful, somewhat complex people. Above all, they're the furthest thing from boring. In some annoyingly indescribable way, the writing flows a lot better compared to the Locke Lamora book too.
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Jul 27, 2014 05:28
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You're in for a treat. I have thoroughly enjoyed the First Law series so much. Joe Abercrombie does so much right with regards to just weaving a very fun, interesting story. Yea writers exist who do some very creative and complex narrative poo poo, but I value a guy who can hit all of the basics exceedingly well. After I finish up the third book I'll be starting the Farseer Trilogy.
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Jul 27, 2014 05:55
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Anyone know about bookdepository in Australia?
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Jul 27, 2014 11:51
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VagueRant posted:Well recommended, goons. But I am wondering why I haven't heard anyone say anything about the two other entries in the Gentleman Bastards series? Are they just nowhere near as good? Between how great Lies was, how good Red Seas was, and the poo poo set up in Republic, book four should be a drat fine novel. Or, it'll be a disappointing continuation of the slow decline in quality - either way, I'm looking forwards to finding out.
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Jul 27, 2014 12:12
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thehomemaster posted:Anyone know about bookdepository in Australia? What about it? I've ordered about 3-400 books from it.
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Jul 27, 2014 12:40
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thehomemaster posted:Anyone know about bookdepository in Australia? It's good, if you want a place to order based in Australia then Booktopia is good too, their prices are comparable with TBD and they have flat rate shipping in Australia.
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Jul 27, 2014 13:10
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1. Find exact edition of the book you want. 2. Copy the ISBN. 3. Paste into http://www.booko.com.au 4. Find cheapest total price (book + shipping) for Australia. Some sites like Booktopia, mentioned above, will give you free shipping if you go to them through Booko.
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Jul 27, 2014 13:17
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Re-reading the Trial of Blood and Steel (haha) series by unknown Aussie writer Joel Shepherd. It's pretty good, if fairly paint by numbers and not particularly subtle (the series' plot revolves around the setting's Fantasy Polytheistic Christianity going full douchebag and deciding to genocide the liberal, fairly advanced ninja elves and their human allies). Still an enjoyable ride though, and the central character grows rather nicely.
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Jul 27, 2014 14:17
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thehomemaster posted:Anyone know about bookdepository in Australia? Already been answered but yeah, it owns. I've bought textbooks from there too, and probably saved about a few hundred bucks. Apparently it does some regional pricing shenanigans, but since they give free shipping and are still cheap as hell, I recommend the hell out of them.
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Jul 27, 2014 14:55
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Just wanted to add my endorsement for the Daniel Faust series of urban fantasy novels by Craig Schaefer mentioned earlier in the thread. The first book is The Long Way Down. I really enjoyed it and the sequel, Redemption Song. It is set in an alternate Las Vegas (He changed the name of the casinos and restaurants but they are based on real life versions) and stars a sorcerer with a questionable moral compass who is backed up by the rest of the sorcerer community of Vegas. The second book was even better than the first.
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Jul 27, 2014 16:24
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Not only does Notes from the Internet Apocalypse suck, it even turned into a hilarious social media situation.
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Jul 27, 2014 17:50
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Who's Glad Stone and why does he have a boner for this book? Oh, nevermind, just googled it and why is this retard wandering around facebook going MY BOOK IS SO GOOD UNF on random people's pages? Stupid_Sexy_Flander fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Jul 27, 2014 |
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Jul 27, 2014 18:46
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Who's Glad Stone and why does he have a boner for this book? Notes From the Internet Apocalypse, written by Wayne Gladstone. I like to think that he's just going around Facebook looking for any mention of his book.
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Jul 27, 2014 18:50
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Jedit posted:It is, I've been curious about it for years, and I can't buy it cheap now because of Nazizon regional lockout. Good news ! It's a terrific book, contains a ton of interesting ideas, and is totally worth the not-cheap price. If you CAN get the cheap price, do so. Fun fact, the producer might never have heard of the book, but the show The Pretender is basically Shockwave Rider set in the modern day.
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Jul 27, 2014 18:54
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ravenkult posted:Not only does Notes from the Internet Apocalypse suck, it even turned into a hilarious social media situation. Internet/meme humor references the book. With a character named after the author. How could it not be good?
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Jul 27, 2014 22:30
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Amberskin posted:My biggest issue is with the main character. I can't connect with him in any way. He is a special ops guy tasked with hunting and killing the renegade "genetic" girl soldiers we are introduced to in the first book and familiarized with in the second one. He is also a psycopath. I'm OK with "bad guys" as main characters. A credible, good villain is a very difficult assignement for a writer. But that guy is not a villain. Neither an hero. I have been unable to either love or hate him. I find him just disgusting. Then again most of the other stuff about sentient space warships (hello? Flight of the Navigator, anybody?) by B V Larson seemed even worse as they were about people who get abducted and then end up flying around in their own personal alien space ships and uhh, blowing poo poo up or something. There are a LOT of books in that series. holocaust bloopers posted:You're in for a treat. I have thoroughly enjoyed the First Law series so much. Joe Abercrombie does so much right with regards to just weaving a very fun, interesting story. Yea writers exist who do some very creative and complex narrative poo poo, but I value a guy who can hit all of the basics exceedingly well. After I finish up the third book I'll be starting the Farseer Trilogy. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 22:37 on Jul 27, 2014 |
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Jul 27, 2014 22:33
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FastestGunAlive posted:Internet/meme humor references the book. With a character named after the author. How could it not be good? Holy gently caress, if that pic takes off, his will become a meme of himself being a whiny author who wrote a book about internet memes with a character in it who's basically an internet meme. That's like inception levels of dickheadedness.
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Jul 27, 2014 23:15
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I just finished The Crimson Campaign, the second book in Brian McClellan's Powder Mage trilogy, and it was excellent -- I liked it even more than Promise of Blood. The world development is good, the three main storylines being advanced were interesting, the characters are all enjoyable, and McClellan writes great battle scenes. The only downside was it ends on something of a cliffhanger, at least as to one of the three storylines, and it's going to be a tough wait until the final book is out.
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Jul 27, 2014 23:18
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McCoy Pauley posted:I just finished The Crimson Campaign, the second book in Brian McClellan's Powder Mage trilogy, and it was excellent -- I liked it even more than Promise of Blood. The world development is good, the three main storylines being advanced were interesting, the characters are all enjoyable, and McClellan writes great battle scenes. The only downside was it ends on something of a cliffhanger, at least as to one of the three storylines, and it's going to be a tough wait until the final book is out. Great series, Haven't gotten into fantasy books this heavy since WOT when I was a teen (this series is nothing like WOT, potential readers). Fortunately he has a lot of novellas and short stories that pre date the current events and help shape the world and characters more. I haven't checked them out yet but I'm sure there as good as the full length books.
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Jul 28, 2014 00:03
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FastestGunAlive posted:Fortunately he has a lot of novellas and short stories that pre date the current events and help shape the world and characters more. I haven't checked them out yet but I'm sure there as good as the full length books. IMO the novellas and short stories are hit or miss.
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Jul 28, 2014 00:11
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Holy gently caress, if that pic takes off, his will become a meme of himself being a whiny author who wrote a book about internet memes with a character in it who's basically an internet meme. That's like inception levels of dickheadedness. It's almost as if he's being facetious or something.
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Jul 28, 2014 00:15
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McCoy Pauley posted:I just finished The Crimson Campaign, the second book in Brian McClellan's Powder Mage trilogy, and it was excellent -- I liked it even more than Promise of Blood. Same here, I was worried when I started it because I couldn't remember who everyone was from the first book and some series suffer in sophomore books cuz of an expanding scope and plot, while not keeping the reader invested & caring as much for the new stuff. McClellan did awesome with this one though and had me hooked and forgetting my worries within the first chapters. coyo7e posted:I read the "Undying Mercenaries" books on a lark a while back and the protagonist struck me as an unlikable douche as well. He's a hardcore gaming basement-dweller who ends up homeless so he joins the military because hey, good at Call of Duty and poo poo! Then he acts like an utter rear end (even on his psych evals his answers are like "Do you cut in line of a distracted person at the grocery store? "gently caress YEAH AM A LEADER OF MEN!!!") yet proceeds to gently caress every woman who he spends some time around, kills all the badguys, poo poo-talks his superior officers to the faces constantly, goes off the reservation entirely, and still saves the day and continues getting promoted to bigger and badder power armor suits. The second book was a lot worse than the first, he literally becomes a turn coat for both sides, fucks the space alien women too, and then at the end everybody gives him a bunch of medals for just being a completely insufferable and self-centered asshat. The Chimera protagonist's negative character traits come more from him having serious PTSD from horrific war experiences, feeling alienated from regular society and not finding a way to fit back into civilization, and feeling disillusioned and betrayed by the government and authority figures he's fought for his whole adult life. He can be an unpleasant person to read about cuz of this and commits some hosed up scummy acts, as well as being very self destructive, but I don't view him as being a douchy, goony typical mil-scifi type protagonist.
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Jul 28, 2014 00:34
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Street Soldier posted:It's almost as if he's being facetious or something. Gladstone spotted.
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Jul 28, 2014 03:41
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How the gently caress is that being facetious. Also he sucks because the book has 3 stars on Goodreads and a bunch of 1-star reviews so plenty of people thought it sucked too.
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Jul 28, 2014 04:36
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McCoy Pauley posted:I just finished The Crimson Campaign, the second book in Brian McClellan's Powder Mage trilogy, and it was excellent -- I liked it even more than Promise of Blood. The world development is good, the three main storylines being advanced were interesting, the characters are all enjoyable, and McClellan writes great battle scenes. The only downside was it ends on something of a cliffhanger, at least as to one of the three storylines, and it's going to be a tough wait until the final book is out. Huh. I found The Crimson Campaign to be notably worse than the first book. Like, a lot worse than it. My biggest problem is that Taniel and Ka-poel have suddenly become so powerful that any scene involving them loses any sort of impact. No matter what the enemy, either Taniel will hulk out and rip it apart barehanded or Ka-poel will have a voodoo doll in her pack and she'll godmode it to death. At the end of the book they're fighting basically the entire enemy army in the enemy camp and she just pulls thousands and thousands of loving voodoo dolls out of her backpack, mindfucks the enemy army into fighting itself, and then they walk out of the camp. It's just the worst goddamn thing and it ruins what would have been an otherwise decent book.
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Jul 28, 2014 06:17
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ravenkult posted:How the gently caress is that being facetious. Being deliberately inappropriate?
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Jul 28, 2014 06:30
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Victorkm posted:Gladstone spotted. You should say his first name as well. There's also a Max Gladstone writing books right now and he's loving awesome.
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Jul 28, 2014 09:24
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Megazver posted:You should say his first name as well. There's also a Max Gladstone writing books right now and he's loving awesome. Gladstone spotted.
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Jul 28, 2014 11:20
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Darth Walrus posted:Gladstone spotted. W-what? No! SHUT UP.
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Jul 28, 2014 11:42
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Megazver posted:W-what? No! Disraeli spotted?
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Jul 28, 2014 15:52
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I just finished "Blue Remembered Earth" and "On the Steel Breeze" by Alastair Reynolds. I've read most of his other books and overall I'm pretty torn whether I like them more than the Revelation Space series so far. I really like the Rev Space universe but I found that some of the character arcs and plot lines ended too abruptly. This new series seems like he has a much better idea of the trilogy's overall plot as a whole. Regarding "On the Steel Breeze",Ever since reading Chasm City, I've loved the whole generation ship idea. I'm glad he decided to go back to it again. Thanks to this thread I'm now giving Germline a try and so far it's pretty good. I'm also reading Cibola Burn which like other people have said doesn't really feel like it's connected to the main plot of the previous 3 in the series. It's not terrible so far but I guess well see how it goes.
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Jul 28, 2014 17:39
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coyo7e posted:I read the "Undying Mercenaries" books on a lark a while back and the protagonist struck me as an unlikable douche as well. He's a hardcore gaming basement-dweller who ends up homeless so he joins the military because hey, good at Call of Duty and poo poo! Then he acts like an utter rear end (even on his psych evals his answers are like "Do you cut in line of a distracted person at the grocery store? "gently caress YEAH AM A LEADER OF MEN!!!") yet proceeds to gently caress every woman who he spends some time around, kills all the badguys, poo poo-talks his superior officers to the faces constantly, goes off the reservation entirely, and still saves the day and continues getting promoted to bigger and badder power armor suits. The second book was a lot worse than the first, he literally becomes a turn coat for both sides, fucks the space alien women too, and then at the end everybody gives him a bunch of medals for just being a completely insufferable and self-centered asshat. Thanks for this heads-up. I have read the first one and I was wondering if I should go into the second. To be honest. it was a fun read (I think it is more a satire than anything else, and if it is NOT then it is really awful).
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Jul 28, 2014 19:37
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So I just went through the Mongoliad at a breathtaking pace (I'm a sucker for $1.99 ebooks with over 400 pages,) and frankly really enjoyed it. It was weird how obviously many of the original crew of authors wandered away from their own baby after the first couple books didn't tie everything up yet, aside from the first two books being kind of all over the place and surprisingly short then before being followed by a (in comparison) monstrously long third novel (and then a fourth, and then a fifth, and then a sixth which didn't even have an author who apparently was part of the initial project) it was a hell of a ride at the price of a large fast-food lunch for one person. The first two really didn't feel like they fit together particularlyu gracefully but then as the third and following ones moved along it came together quite well. I suspect that it was a bit of a rush to get all of those disparate writers' pet storylines tied together before "oh god we created too many characters how does this all end up tied together and concluded" but they led up to a pretty fun overall story. I'm gun-shy about the other stuff I haven't read (making them all have "A ForeWorld SideQuest" in their titles struck me as a bad sign) however the main series itself was pretty fun while it lasted and the price was right. I was kind of surprised that there isn't a Mongoliad thread in TBB (archived? maybe self-contained within the Stephenson thread despite most of it not being written by him at all?) and I'd recommend the main sextet of books over most other stuff I recently read. savinhill posted:The Chimera protagonist's negative character traits come more from him having serious PTSD from horrific war experiences, feeling alienated from regular society and not finding a way to fit back into civilization, and feeling disillusioned and betrayed by the government and authority figures he's fought for his whole adult life. He can be an unpleasant person to read about cuz of this and commits some hosed up scummy acts, as well as being very self destructive, but I don't view him as being a douchy, goony typical mil-scifi type protagonist. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Jul 28, 2014 |
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Jul 28, 2014 19:40
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