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Fried Chicken posted:We don't come up with flowery and poetic names, we come up with names that get used in everyday speaking. Hence why it's the "Grand Canyon" and not some long multi apostrophe glottal stop bullshit.
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Aug 7, 2014 13:17
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coyo7e posted:And here I thought it was because we killed all the native people who'd given it a long, flowery name. "Ongtupqa" means "salt canyon" because it is the canyon where the Hopi would get their salt. Not particularly long and flowery, but short and functional like I said.
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Aug 7, 2014 15:00
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There's one thing that pissed me off about the Magician's Land. As soon as Alice came back, Quentin suddenly started going "Oh, she's such a better magician than I am. She was always better than I was. And now she's still super better. Discount the fact that I've been training for 10 years and went into super sperglord magician mode after getting my collarbone torn to shreds. Otherwise? Pretty good.
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Aug 7, 2014 15:08
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Sanderson is really bad at a lot of stuff. I almost stopped reading Way of Kings halfway through, but I ended up finishing both books that are out so far and enjoying them despite the many faults.
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Aug 7, 2014 17:19
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VagueRant posted:I'm still working on The Blade Itself and after a good start, it seemed the story was really spinning its wheels. But the Logen chapter titled Tea and Vengeance (at the end of Part I) was sooooo good. There wasn't a lot of story, but the tension, the dialogue, the excitement, the use of language - it was terrific. It read smoothly but felt worded beautifully. My only issues were that it was hard to tell how close Blacktoe actually was, and the bodycount got a little absurd. But I hope there's more as good as that. I don't remember that chapter. But it's a long story. It'll pick up more, they are still gathering the Fellowship.
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Aug 7, 2014 17:21
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Fried Chicken posted:"Ongtupqa" means "salt canyon" because it is the canyon where the Hopi would get their salt. Not particularly long and flowery, but short and functional like I said. Some day I'd like to write a high-fantasy story and just name everyone out of a baby names book or phone book. systran posted:Sanderson is really bad at a lot of stuff. I almost stopped reading Way of Kings halfway through, but I ended up finishing both books that are out so far and enjoying them despite the many faults. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Aug 7, 2014 |
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Aug 7, 2014 18:23
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coyo7e posted:Some day I'd like to write a high-fantasy story and just name everyone out of a baby names book or phone book. Khaleesi is an increasingly popular baby name these days
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Aug 7, 2014 18:50
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less laughter posted:Khaleesi is an increasingly popular baby name these days Which bothers me to no end as it isnt even her actual name! Daenerys is such a better name than Khaleesi.
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Aug 7, 2014 19:15
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GRRM is an interesting case in fantasy names because within the space of the same world he manages to be both really good and really bad at it. Oberyn Martell and Daenerys Targaryen are pretty decent names. Hizdahr zo Loraq is really bad. These examples sound pretty Eurocentric I guess - I wish I could point to some good fantasy names with less obviously European construction.
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Aug 7, 2014 20:01
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my bony fealty posted:I'm looking to get into a new sci-fi series that features expansive worldbuilding and a lengthy story documenting a future history of humanity - something like Revelation Space, or even Foundation. I really like the emphasis on crazy future technology that Revelation Space has, especially 'transhuman' elements. Dan Simmons Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion. The Expanse series Alastair Reynolds Poseidon's Children trilogy
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Aug 7, 2014 20:02
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General Battuta posted:GRRM is an interesting case in fantasy names because within the space of the same world he manages to be both really good and really bad at it. I think the dichotomy with GRRM is that he's good at naming people from Westeros because Westeros is fake-Europe and most of those names are derived from historical European names, or are even older/alternate spellings thereof. Whereas when he has characters from elsewhere, he tries to go all fake-foreign and consciously exotic, at which point things get stupid. GRRM is well-read in European history and would naturally be good at naming people inspired by European history. It follows that people who would be good at less-westernized fantasy naming conventions are the people who are well-read in non-western history - Guy Gavriel Kay? - and/or have non-Western background and interests, like mebbe Yoon Lee Ha or Aliette de Bodard. It's just that fantasy is so eurocentric in general that there are not enough of these people. PupsOfWar fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Aug 7, 2014 |
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Aug 7, 2014 20:25
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Cardiac posted:Neal Ashers Polity series should also be mentioned. I just started reading Gridlinked after reading your post and I'm really liking it so far. Definitely faster paced than what I usually read but that's not necessarily a bad thing. How does the rest of the Polity series hold up? What do people here think of Robert Charles Wilson? I really loved Spin and even its first sequel, Axis, (Vortex was pretty bad though). After I finished the Spin trilogy I read and really enjoyed Blind Lake. However, since then I've tried The Chronoliths and Burning Paradise and had a hard time getting through both of them. I've found that most of his books are around the same length and seem to follow a very similar format. Maybe I'm just sick of the style because I've heard that a lot of people consider The Chronoliths, one of his best books. johnsonrod fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Aug 7, 2014 |
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Aug 7, 2014 22:25
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Anyone else get bogged down by Starship Troopers? I'm 100 pages in and waiting for something interesting to happen. The philosophical musings of the teacher is the highlight so far.
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Aug 8, 2014 00:30
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CaptainScraps posted:There's one thing that pissed me off about the Magician's Land. As soon as Alice came back, Quentin suddenly started going "Oh, she's such a better magician than I am. She was always better than I was. And now she's still super better. Discount the fact that I've been training for 10 years and went into super sperglord magician mode after getting my collarbone torn to shreds. Grossman has explicitly said in interviews that (end of The Magicians spoilers) Quentin hunkering down and becoming totally badass at magic after what happened to him was a mistake. I think, thematically, it made some sense that he essentially got everything he ever might have aspired to magically, but still been so filled with ennui that it didn't matter, hence why he goes back to the Wall Street job. Then when he actually wrote up the sequel he had to de-power Quentin to make the Hero's Quest stuff sensical. But really, from the start we've seen that Alice was way more invested with whatever it was that made people actually attempt to do things with magic than Quentin, even after they got involved.. So it didn't bother me that much.
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Aug 8, 2014 01:52
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Velius posted:Grossman has explicitly said in interviews that (end of The Magicians spoilers) Quentin hunkering down and becoming totally badass at magic after what happened to him was a mistake. In comparison, Brandon Sanderson for example may be a terrible writer in all sorts of ways, but at least he doesn't pull this amateurish crap due to a basic inability to plot his own books. mystes fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Aug 8, 2014 |
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Aug 8, 2014 02:25
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thehomemaster posted:Anyone else get bogged down by Starship Troopers? I'm 100 pages in and waiting for something interesting to happen. The philosophical musings of the teacher is the highlight so far. That's pretty much the whole book. I think there's like three battles total in it and the ending is pretty much like the movie in that it doesn't close the storyline. It's mostly Heinlein musing about government/the military through the characters with the occasional battle scene. I think The Forever War is a superior novel compared to Starship Troopers in this niche of sci-fi as Haldeman used the character's experiences and development to get his point across. Heinlein, as you've noticed, basically just lectures the reader on his thoughts through various people who are "grizzled old men who you should listen to". Edit: That said, I enjoyed Starship Troopers (even though I think Heinlein's ideas are incorrect). BadOptics fucked around with this message at 04:54 on Aug 8, 2014 |
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Aug 8, 2014 04:05
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less laughter posted:Khaleesi is an increasingly popular baby name these days
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Aug 8, 2014 04:45
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BadOptics posted:I think The Forever War is a superior novel compared to Starship Troopers in this niche of sci-fi as Haldeman used the character's experiences and development to get his point across. Heinlein, as you've noticed, basically just lectures the reader on his thoughts through various people who are "grizzled old men who you should listen to". You're not wrong, but it's important to note that the two authors are approaching a similar theme from completely opposite ends of the political spectrum.
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Aug 8, 2014 05:04
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Ornamented Death posted:You're not wrong, but it's important to note that the two authors are approaching a similar theme from completely opposite ends of the political spectrum. Of course, and if I'm correct Haldeman actually served as a grunt/draftee (wikipedia says combat engineer) in Vietnam while Heinlein was a pre-WWII naval officer, so they were coming from two different points of view anyways. To clarify my earlier post, I'd say the writing style of Haldeman lends itself to a more interesting story. I can see how some people (like thehomemaster) would feel bogged down by Starship Troopers. BadOptics fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Aug 8, 2014 |
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Aug 8, 2014 05:38
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Ornamented Death posted:I got an ARC from Net Galley. I've said it before, if you want advanced copies of stuff, just start a review blog and eventually you'll be getting more books than you can possibly read. You probably won't get any of the big names (Butcher, Rothfuss, Sanderson, etc.) unless you can prove you get massive traffic, but you'll still never be wanting for something to read. I also got the arc and I don't see how this represents a future Altered Carbon. But what a hella book - and for once the last book was the best of the trilogy. Just terrific. Now, is Ringil related to Takeshi? Yeah, sorta, kinda. Couple of bad rear end mofos for sure. To me, Altered Carbon went straight downhill in books 2 and 3 while Steel Remains was just great all the way through. I plan to marry Archidi when my immortality plan comes in from Amazon, if she'll have me.
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Aug 8, 2014 06:10
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Cardiac posted:Neal Ashers Polity series should also be mentioned. I thought Gridlinked was the weakest of all the Polity and I still liked it. The Spatterjay subseries and The Technician were like totally wow I love this I love this I love this....(enuff already) and all the Polity was good enough that I bought every single one of them.
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Aug 8, 2014 06:15
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BadOptics posted:Of course, and if I'm correct Haldeman actually served as a grunt/draftee (wikipedia says combat engineer) in Vietnam while Heinlein was a pre-WWII naval officer, so they were coming from two different points of view anyways. To clarify my earlier post, I'd say the writing style of Haldeman lends itself to a more interesting story. I can see how some people (like thehomemaster) would feel bogged down by Starship Troopers. The Forever War is one of the best books I've ever read. It has possibly the most romantic ending of all time. Also, what do you mean by some people...HMM!?! :P I think what strikes me as the most important difference is that Haldeman actually thinks about what the future might hold (how much will change and yet how little) whereas Heinlein uses it to transpose his direct experience and preach to a crowd. thehomemaster fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Aug 8, 2014 |
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Aug 8, 2014 06:15
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Anyone who liked Starship Troopers or The Forever War might want to check out Armor by John Steakley. From wikipedia: "[The book] concentrates more on the psychological effects of violence on human beings rather than on the political aspects of the military, which was the focus of Heinlein's novel. ... Armor is the story of humanity's war against an alien race whose foot soldiers are three-meter-tall insects, referred to in the book as 'ants'. It is also the story of a research colony on the fringes of human territory which is threatened by pirates. The two sub-plots intersect at the end, with each providing answers and insight into events of the other. The title most obviously refers to the nuclear-powered exoskeletons worn by the soldiers, but also references the emotional armor the protagonists maintain to survive." Haerc fucked around with this message at 07:57 on Aug 8, 2014 |
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Aug 8, 2014 07:52
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The Forever War was kinda cool, but I didn't agree with the ending to it. Ending spoiler Was that the one where the galaxy ended up being populated by gay clones of the same 2 people? I've read a LOT of space war stuff so I might be getting em confused Still, something like 80-90% of the book is pretty awesome, so it's well worth a read. Speaking of awesome, just finished up Broken Souls by Stephen Blackmoore, and holy gently caress this was awesome. If you liked Dead Things, you will love this one. It's got the emotional gut punches as well as the complete "What in the holy gently caress" that I love from him, as well as an ending that really kinda blew my mind. It's the second book in the series, so if you haven't read the first one, you are going to be a bit lost since a lot of the plot points are brought over from the first book, and he's not one for rehashing poo poo in flashback sequences. Still, very much worth a read.
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Aug 8, 2014 10:05
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Mmm, I think they were asexual beings that had evolved beyond mere human desires, but there was a planet for "old" humans. The romantic part is the main character's lover going back and forth in time waiting for him.
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Aug 8, 2014 10:18
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thehomemaster posted:Anyone else get bogged down by Starship Troopers? I'm 100 pages in and waiting for something interesting to happen. The philosophical musings of the teacher is the highlight so far. thehomemaster posted:Anyone else get bogged down by Starship Troopers? I'm 100 pages in and waiting for something interesting to happen. The philosophical musings of the teacher is the highlight so far. Not a lot interesting is going to happen (as noted, 3 battles). You can amuse yourself by counting all the times where a military career as portrayed in the books can be completely stopped in its tracks by the unfettered opinion of one person, considering how opinion process that would play out in the presence of common biases, and finally analyzing what Heinlein's apparent opinion of that system is.
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Aug 8, 2014 12:41
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specklebang posted:I also got the arc and I don't see how this represents a future Altered Carbon. But what a hella book - and for once the last book was the best of the trilogy. Just terrific. Naw. The gods who live in the Ring are referred to by the Dwenda as the Ahn Foi, and it's stated somewhere in there that the Earth and the Moon were shattered in an interstellar war that involved reality-altering weapons, and expanded to include alternate realities as the conflict escalated. Dakovash reminisces with Ringil about when the Ahn Foi shattered the moon during a great war in the deep past. Humans took the Angel FTL weapons and ran with them... The two ringdwellers Ringil meets are Dakovash (which the steppe dwellers pronounce Takovach) and Kwelgrish. Dakovash in particular snickers a bit about how pretending to be a god is just the only way primitive, credulous humans can make sense of his kind. Ahn Foi/Envoys. Takeshi Kovacs/Dakovash (remember, it's pronounced Kovasch). Quellcrist/Kwelgrish. We even have a scene where Kwelgrish walks among that mat of dragongrass floating on the water, which seems symbolic of the quellcrist seaweed we learned she took her name from in Woken Furies. There is some disagreement about whether A Land Fit For Heroes is actually set on Earth, or whether it's really Harlan's World. Google a bit and you'll find spoilers with the full explanation and available evidence. Kesper North fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Aug 8, 2014 |
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Aug 8, 2014 14:58
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Humans "evolved" into clones, which can communicate with the aliens as they are all clones as well. This allows humanity to realize the war was a mistake, thereby ending it before the protagonist gets back to Earth after the final battle. The protagonist then ends up going to a planet full of unmodified humans who are a "backup" in case the clones have some sort of weakness that kills the species. The love interest of the novel also is there waiting for him after being in a state of suspended animation (due to relativity).
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Aug 8, 2014 19:32
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eriktown posted:Naw. Maybe, but this doesn't explain the lava people, the lizard men, the dragons and the undead. And seriously if this would be the truth, something I am not going to believe until Morgan explicitly says so, this would make the entire series corny as hell. Take names that are reminiscent of his previous series might just be a way to throw a bone to his fans. Also, Kovacs is hetero as hell in all of his different clones in the Altered Carbon series as far as I remember, which is kinda at odds with Dakovash in the series. Although he is/was an Envoy which operate along the lines that anything goes.
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Aug 8, 2014 19:56
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I just read the original "Dune" and are the Saudukar supposed to be over hyped as far as their fighting ability? We are told that (even before the Muad'dib arc) the Fremen are waging a guerrilla war against the now ruling Harkkonens and their Saudukar reserves and manage to consistently kill 3-5 of the enemy for every 1 Fremen lost. But the first encounter Paul has with the Fremen we are shown that Paul (and his middle aged mom) can easily defeat any Fremen using their Atreides learned fighting techniques. Then the Fremen + Muad'dib just curb stomp everyone in their path. So it would seem that the Saudukar are paper tigers BUT they did hand Duke Letos rear end to him - whose men had the same training as Paul you'd think. to be fair it was with inside help but Leto also was clearly expecting an attack. So what the hell? Presently I'd like to know.
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Aug 9, 2014 01:16
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The idea is that the Sardaukar are all they're hyped up to be, it's just that Paul and the Fremen are that much better. PupsOfWar fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Aug 9, 2014 |
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Aug 9, 2014 01:40
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Nah, the saudukar are supposed to be super badasses but the fremen are just that much more bad rear end. They have higher power level readings - IIRC the in-book explanation is that the fremen are descended from the saudukar but left whatever shithole planet was toughening them up and came to arrakis which is even more harsh, and made them even better fighters. Paul and his mom have bene gesserit abilities that let them dominate normal humans fairly easily. e:fb
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Aug 9, 2014 01:40
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Clark Nova posted:Nah, the saudukar are supposed to be super badasses but the fremen are just that much more bad rear end. They have higher power level readings - IIRC the in-book explanation is that the fremen are descended from the saudukar but left whatever shithole planet was toughening them up and came to arrakis which is even more harsh, and made them even better fighters. You're right. The Fremen claim to have spent generations on Salusa Secundus, the prison planet the Saudukar come from. Salusa Secundus to Arrakis wasn't much of a change. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salusa_Secundus
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Aug 9, 2014 01:48
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ShaqDiesel posted:I just read the original "Dune" and are the Saudukar supposed to be over hyped as far as their fighting ability? We are told that (even before the Muad'dib arc) the Fremen are waging a guerrilla war against the now ruling Harkkonens and their Saudukar reserves and manage to consistently kill 3-5 of the enemy for every 1 Fremen lost. But the first encounter Paul has with the Fremen we are shown that Paul (and his middle aged mom) can easily defeat any Fremen using their Atreides learned fighting techniques. Then the Fremen + Muad'dib just curb stomp everyone in their path. So it would seem that the Saudukar are paper tigers BUT they did hand Duke Letos rear end to him - whose men had the same training as Paul you'd think. to be fair it was with inside help but Leto also was clearly expecting an attack. It wasn't Atreides training that let Paul and Jessica whoop rear end, it was Bene Gesserit training. Specifically the weirding way, which they then taught to the Fremen, which further explains the new levels of rear end-kicking they're capable of.
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Aug 9, 2014 02:34
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Ornamented Death posted:It wasn't Atreides training that let Paul and Jessica whoop rear end, it was Bene Gesserit training. Specifically the weirding way, which they then taught to the Fremen, which further explains the new levels of rear end-kicking they're capable of. And fighting a desert people on their home turf, which everybody neglected to mention ITT.
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Aug 9, 2014 02:40
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coyo7e posted:And fighting a desert people on their home turf, which everybody neglected to mention ITT. Well as I recall, Salusa Secundus was kind of a barren wasteland, too, so that probably wasn't as big an advantage as learning the super secret Bene Gesserit fighting style.
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Aug 9, 2014 02:56
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coyo7e posted:And fighting a desert people on their home turf, which everybody neglected to mention ITT. This is a good point. But as to Paul's martial skill stemming from Bene Gessuit weirding style...I think the text emphasisizes his training with Duncan and Gurney as the reason for his greatness, not weirding. The movie makes the weirding way very crucial to the liberation of arrakis but the book just introduces weirding as this awesome fighting style but sort of forgets about it later. Dune is great though its just it doesn't do a good job of establishing a threatening antagonist mostly due to half the characters being psychic.
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Aug 9, 2014 06:07
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Anyone read The Magicians Land yet? I just finished it but I'm not sure how I feel about it. Whatd you guys think?
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Aug 9, 2014 06:19
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I found the Sardukar/Fremen/Bene Gesserit fighting thing in Dune funny and juvenile. We've got this REALLY BADASS set of troops who are like THE HARDEST MOTHERFUCKERS EVER but get this, on this planet there's this enigmatic group of guys that live in the loving desert and eat their own poo poo and control GIANT WORMS and guess what this clairvoyant guy is going to lead them and he is EVEN HARDER.
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Aug 9, 2014 09:00
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Ornamented Death posted:It wasn't Atreides training that let Paul and Jessica whoop rear end, it was Bene Gesserit training. Specifically the weirding way, which they then taught to the Fremen, which further explains the new levels of rear end-kicking they're capable of. The Bindu-Pranna training from the Bene Gesserit is what allowed Paul and Jessica to defeat the Fremen. They taught aspects of this to their Fremen and made them the deadliest warriors in the universe. It's also pretty much outright started that the Saudaukar are still great warriors but are nowhere near their prime due to generations of fighting only brief actions against Landsraad militia and living in luxury between. As the poster above said the supreme physical conditioning they have from their death world home also isn't up to survival on Arrakis.
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Aug 9, 2014 10:35
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