|
coyo7e posted: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) That's shared world stuff for you.
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2014 19:46
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 03:18 |
|
|
Hedrigall posted:What about it? I've ordered about 3-400 books from it. Ah I know it's not the thread for it, but it was brought up. I meant Book Depository setting up here in Australia...
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2014 05:51
|
|
|
thehomemaster posted:Ah I know it's not the thread for it, but it was brought up. I meant Book Depository setting up here in Australia... Are they going to?
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2014 06:16
|
|
|
Peter Watts' novella The Colonel, about Siri Keaton's dad, just got released and delivered to my Kindle. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2014 06:43
|
|
|
Pretty much just a teaser for Echopraxia. Oh well, only a few more weeks.
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2014 17:25
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:Pretty much just a teaser for Echopraxia. Oh well, only a few more weeks. Yeah, I was stoked for it, but it reads like stuff cut in the editing process and stitched back together. It's short, and the dialogue in the dinner was really stilted
|
|
#
?
Jul 29, 2014 17:59
|
|
|
The Thousand Names Django Wexler is pretty good, thanks to the couple people who posted it. I hope the second one holds up, although as TTN was almost literally nothing but a long marching campaign from chapter 1, I have no idea how the author will do court intrigue. He sure does like them lesbians from boarding schools, though!
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 01:25
|
|
|
There were only two of them that I remember, Winter and Jane. Did I miss one?
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 01:31
|
|
|
Bobby? edit: spoilered that in case someone hasn't read the book and wants to. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Jul 30, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 01:33
|
|
|
coyo7e posted:Bobby? Not that it really matters, but in the second book, she's not. The second book wasn't as good as the first, but it was readable. The most boring French Revolution ever for the first 3/4, then a decent ending.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 02:20
|
|
|
I was really drawn into that book until he started rehearsing battle formations. Someone on this forum said you can tell exactly when a fantasy author started touching himself if you read closely enough and it was about the moment "battle squares" got introduced.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 02:27
|
|
|
Hedrigall posted:Are they going to? yes!
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 06:05
|
|
|
Finished reading The Fall of Hyperion tonight after finishing Hyperion a week ago. What a story. One of my favorite novels I've read in a long time; it had been on my list for years and I found both of them at the local book store here a few weeks ago. I'm going to pick up the next two in the series, is Dan Simmons' other stuff worth checking out?
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 06:07
|
|
|
my bony fealty posted:Finished reading The Fall of Hyperion tonight after finishing Hyperion a week ago. What a story. One of my favorite novels I've read in a long time; it had been on my list for years and I found both of them at the local book store here a few weeks ago. I feel like we need to put this in the OP or something.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 06:25
|
|
|
my bony fealty posted:Finished reading The Fall of Hyperion tonight after finishing Hyperion a week ago. What a story. One of my favorite novels I've read in a long time; it had been on my list for years and I found both of them at the local book store here a few weeks ago. Save yourself. Stop now. Some of his horror is cool though.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 06:35
|
|
|
Yeah I just read through a few pages of this thread from the beginning and looks like it's not something to bring up here! For what it's worth I kind of got numb to the overuse of literary and historical themes and poorly structured rationalization/poorly explained points of view and went along for the ride with the whacked-out scenarios. Changing topics entirely, how does St. Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman compare to its predecessor? I got bored of reading historical fiction & biographies so I'm back in sci-fi mode now and trying to go through some of the 'classics' I haven't read.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 06:44
|
|
|
I've always wondered how many authors literally crib their ideas from history and how many just, well, think them up "originally" by osmosis - sort of a "nature vs nurture" to crib from someone else to reduce my own thoughts to a lowest common denominator, as it were? Sometimes people forget what brought them to their best or successful ideas, or just prefer to stroke their own egos to the point of forgetting where they got their source? There are always plenty of "Arthurian retelling" stories or "I totes wanted to see what would happen if someone threw Xenophon and the Long Retreat INTO SPACE" or "dude, The Lost Legion, what's up with that? let go  " but at the same time, does every home-spun revolt against a local, privileged class have to be a retelling of the French revolution, or every fight against onerous tariffs required to be a purposeful copy of the American revolution? All nomadic horse-archer cultures required to be Mongols with a different name?Don't get me wrong I'm like, the number-one-biggest-fan-of-reductive-criticism in storytelling however, it seems like some authors might truly think that their ideas are a genesis for New Ideas, despite there only being about 8 or 10 plot arcs in all of human storytelling when you really want to fit everything into the same mold. And then of course the author could always lie and then you think welp, the best stories are often just well-spun lies. edit: personally I strive to avoid ellipses and (unconscious) imperative statements however sometimes it's worth doing anyway, and other times I forget and just say outright that X means Y, no matter how well-practised I strive to be. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 07:16 on Jul 30, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 07:08
|
|
|
coyo7e posted:I've always wondered how many authors literally crib their ideas from history and how many just, well, think them up. You've read Harry Turtledove as well then? WW2 but with magic. The American Civil War but with oppressed whites. WW2 eastern front, but in America.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 08:17
|
|
|
Mr Darcy posted:You've read Harry Turtledove as well then? Even his fantasy does it. The Videssos Cycle is set in a geographically flipped Byzantium.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 10:07
|
|
|
It's also basically Guy Gavriel Kay's entire thing, isn't it?
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 10:19
|
|
|
my bony fealty posted:Finished reading The Fall of Hyperion tonight after finishing Hyperion a week ago. What a story. One of my favorite novels I've read in a long time; it had been on my list for years and I found both of them at the local book store here a few weeks ago. Don't. Or, if you do, don't expect the sequels to keep up with the first two books. In my opinion, Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion end with a pretty well closed story. The follow ups are not in par, and are unnecessary.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 11:16
|
|
|
They're tolerably readable, but more in the generic goofy scifi sense than in the accidental piece of genius sense that Hyperion was.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 11:19
|
|
|
coyo7e posted:
If I read one more god drat Belisarius retelling it'll be my own fault.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 14:15
|
|
|
Darth Walrus posted:It's also basically Guy Gavriel Kay's entire thing, isn't it? And Tim Powers. Who is awesome. _Declare_ is especially awesome.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 14:59
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:I feel like we need to put this in the OP or something. I thought of adding a "frequently recommended" section to the OP (which I think is badly flawed by trying to do too much in too little depth) but the only book I could think that was worth adding was Blindsight. Although I suppose we could broaden it to "stop reading here" too; we could add the Dune series as well. coyo7e posted:There are always plenty of "Arthurian retelling" stories or "I totes wanted to see what would happen if someone threw Xenophon and the Long Retreat INTO SPACE" or "dude, The Lost Legion, what's up with that? let go You're conflating three phenomena here. First, there's author responding to other works of literature, like the Arthurian stories you mention. Second there's authors plagiarising history, which isn't necessarily blatant or bad. And third, people in general are ignorant of history, so they see nomadic horse archers and think Mongols, even if they're not especially similar. And of course you can see all three at once: George R. R. Martin trying to write more realistic and magical high fantasy, drawing on real history, and being seen as just rewriting the Wars of the Roses. quote:does [...] every fight against onerous tariffs required to be a purposeful copy of the American revolution? This strikes me as being a weird example... is this really such a cliché as the others?
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 16:47
|
|
|
my bony fealty posted:Finished reading The Fall of Hyperion tonight after finishing Hyperion a week ago. What a story. One of my favorite novels I've read in a long time; it had been on my list for years and I found both of them at the local book store here a few weeks ago.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 19:31
|
|
|
Phanatic posted:And Tim Powers. Who is awesome. _Declare_ is especially awesome. So I love Declare, and at this point have sort of given up hope of finding anything else that so perfectly marries the occult and John Le Carre spycraft. I guess Ian Tregillis's Milkweed Triptych scratched that itch in part, but I'm not sure I'll find anything that hits all the high points for me that Declare did. I haven't enjoyed The Laundry Files books that I've read (which were the first 2 or 3 -- I'm forgetting the names). Of the other Powers books I've read, I enjoyed Anubis Gate, and did not really enjoy The Stress of Her Regard (I liked the way it handled history and occult events like Declare, but the actual setting did little for me). Given all that, what Tim Powers book should I read next?
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 21:06
|
|
|
(x-post) Good news everyone! Alastair Reynolds' new Revelation Space short story, "The Last Log of the Lachrimosa", is free to read online here!
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 23:07
|
|
|
Mars4523 posted:Does Prince of Thorns and its sequels ever become less goony? Saw it in the bookstore and I was checking out some reviews for it that were talking about how it seemed to have a 14 year old GAMEFAQS forum poster's attitude towards race, women, and sexuality. I had a tough time with that one, and it was easily my most disappointing read this year. To be fair, this year's list includes all the Lamora books, but this book was plain awful. The whole 2nd dark age setting could have been really interesting, but the author just kind of throws the setting to the lowest priority while the main character loses his temper in a bunch of places that have no context to the reader.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2014 23:21
|
|
|
McCoy Pauley posted:So I love Declare, and at this point have sort of given up hope of finding anything else that so perfectly marries the occult and John Le Carre spycraft. I guess Ian Tregillis's Milkweed Triptych scratched that itch in part, but I'm not sure I'll find anything that hits all the high points for me that Declare did. I haven't enjoyed The Laundry Files books that I've read (which were the first 2 or 3 -- I'm forgetting the names). Have you read The Rook? It fulfills occult-Le Carre, and does it pretty well.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2014 00:12
|
|
|
McCoy Pauley posted:Given all that, what Tim Powers book should I read next? Last Call. The followups to that are good too (Expiration Date, Earthquake Weather), but definitely Last Call.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2014 00:24
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:Peter Watts' novella The Colonel, about Siri Keaton's dad, just got released and delivered to my Kindle. Thanks for pointing this out I then went and bought pretty much all the novellas advertised on Tor along with this. Am reading Blindsight now. Really confused tbh. Vampires, Fireflies...really don't know what's going on. Am up to the bit where they seem to be having a meeting and are confused by the motives of whoever sent the Fireflies (unless the Fireflies are the people...?). To be honest I often feel more confused when reading ebooks. Not sure why. EDIT: What would people's best books involving gen ships be? thehomemaster fucked around with this message at 00:46 on Jul 31, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2014 00:29
|
|
|
Dryb posted:Have you read The Rook? It fulfills occult-Le Carre, and does it pretty well. I have, and I enjoyed it, although not as much as Declare. Has O'Malley written anything else? Is anyone else doing spy/occult stuff? Maybe I should give Stross another shot. Phanatic -- I'll check out Last Call. Thanks.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2014 00:47
|
|
|
McCoy Pauley posted:I have, and I enjoyed it, although not as much as Declare. Has O'Malley written anything else? Is anyone else doing spy/occult stuff? Maybe I should give Stross another shot.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2014 01:53
|
|
|
thehomemaster posted:Am reading Blindsight now. Really confused tbh. Vampires, Fireflies...really don't know what's going on. Am up to the bit where they seem to be having a meeting and are confused by the motives of whoever sent the Fireflies (unless the Fireflies are the people...?). I can share your pain. Watts can get really terse sometimes, especially when his experts are talking to one another it cuts down to short key phrases without the conventions of actual speech. That's kind of the point, though, is that these are genius-level scientists and the actual discussion is taking place on a higher level. At the same time, you're supposed to kind of not really have a loving clue what's going on because these geniuses don't really have a loving clue what's going either and that's just how alien this poo poo is supposed to be. e: That and it's through the lens of a narrator who can't person naturally in the first place because he had half his brain cut out. darnon fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Jul 31, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2014 02:05
|
|
|
Well then I suppose it's doing an admirable job! All said, it seems intriguing and the writing is solid. There was a line about eyebrows coming together like courting caterpillars, but we'll let that slide.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2014 02:33
|
|
|
darnon posted:I can share your pain. Watts can get really terse sometimes, especially when his experts are talking to one another it cuts down to short key phrases without the conventions of actual speech. That's kind of the point, though, is that these are genius-level scientists and the actual discussion is taking place on a higher level. At the same time, you're supposed to kind of not really have a loving clue what's going on because these geniuses don't really have a loving clue what's going either and that's just how alien this poo poo is supposed to be. Yeah, a big thing of it is that everyone on the ship has been modified to be neurologically different and transhuman. They are Nobel prize level genius scientists, and Siri was sent along not just to make the aliens comprehensible to the baseline humans, but also the rest of the crew. Hence why the doctor refers to him as the Commissar, it is Siri's job to monitor everything and dumb it down for us. Except since he is also neurologically modified he can't really do it, because he can't convey the emotions needed to highlight what is going on and get through to people. Anyways, the Fireflies were spysats. The glowed as they burnt up in the atmosphere, hence the name. "Vampires" get explained in the book in more detail, but basically they are humans who were neurologically wired to have pattern matching and predictive skills that put them beyond even the rest of the super smart people, but doing so also changes things so far that the end up in the psychopath portion of the autistic spectrum. There is some evolution stuff tied up in that, but that would be spoilers, you'll enjoy it yourself. Just know they are super smart even by the standards of people running around with supercomputers in their heads, and incredibly violent and predatory. Fried Chicken fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Jul 31, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2014 03:12
|
|
|
McCoy Pauley posted:So I love Declare, and at this point have sort of given up hope of finding anything else that so perfectly marries the occult and John Le Carre spycraft. I guess Ian Tregillis's Milkweed Triptych scratched that itch in part, but I'm not sure I'll find anything that hits all the high points for me that Declare did. I haven't enjoyed The Laundry Files books that I've read (which were the first 2 or 3 -- I'm forgetting the names). Give Drawing of the Dark a shot. It's not spies, but it is occult alternate history. I also really enjoyed Salvage and Demolition, which has certain similarities to Anubis Gates.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2014 04:54
|
|
|
I really didn't think much of Drawing of the Dark. There just wasn't much to the plot.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2014 06:30
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 03:18 |
|
|
Mars4523 posted:Some people don't like the second book, but Stross's The Laundry series is excellent. The latest book is a good reason to get back into the series if you dropped it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2014 06:52
|
|
