Cardiovorax posted:

and the winner was this obviously plagiarized?

Peel posted:

Not even the Nebulas? I stand corrected. Maybe I was thinking of the Clarke. Which Ancillary Justice also won.

systran posted:

Ancillary Justice was okay but I honestly do think it won just because of the gender thing, which wasn't really even made very interesting within the story.

Ornamented Death posted:

On the other hand, I finished The Dark Defiles today and have no one with which to discuss it .

Great book, and a fitting end to the series btw.

spootime posted:

Howd you get your hands on this? Its not out until the 14th of october or something

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.

Hell, I don't even have a blog and they still let me get this book .

Khizan posted:

The gender thing was actually pretty loving brilliant because it's gotten SO much more discussion for the book than it otherwise would have received.

Autonomous Monster posted:

I think, if I was going to give this book a grade, it'd be a B, or possibly a B+- I'm not sure I needed another Fitz book, but gently caress it- I've been living in this guy's head since I was twelve, at this point I'm up for whatever. The chronological issues, while jarring, ultimately don't harm the narrative all that much- all we really need to know is that Time Has Passed and Bee exists and is nine now. Of course, again, I've never had a great sense of time and if you're the sort of person who gets really loving mad because A Crown of Swords only covers a week then it might be more of a problem for you.

Otherwise, I don't think it's going to appeal to anyone who's not a fan of Hobb's work (I know there're a number of you here), but if you're looking for more of the same, this is it.

Rougey posted:

Christ, I just finished reading Fools Assassin.

GRRM might murder everyone you love, but death is too easy for Hobb. She is the Queen of Pain and suffering and I am a masochist.

Cardiac posted:

Hobb is worse than GRRM, since she makes you care for her characters and then she kills them. GRRM just have morally ambigous characters that he kills off in plot twists.
The death of Nighteyes still makes me sad like other deaths of companion animals. Ten thousand men crucified by the road (Deadhouse Gates) don't come close.
Just started reading it and it is with familliar joy and dread I encounter old friends.
Sometimes I feel like the best ending for Fitz was how it ended in the first series.

Arkeus posted:

Yes, GRRM doesn't really make his character suffer

neongrey posted:

I couldn't get into it, but space opera is incredibly not my thing in the first place. Still think it probably deserved it the most out of the pool of nominees.

Hedrigall posted:

People latch onto the gender stuff in the same way that people said The Matrix was like, really smart and philosophical, guuuyyyyys.

Hedrigall posted:

And Janet is amazing

GENDERWEIRD GREEDO posted:

The author called too much attention to it by making the main character remark so often on how much trouble it had dealing with gendered language, especially before saying things which had no apparent gender associated with them (I sure hope I don't mess up this phrase, argh it's so awkward and I don't want to offend anyone by getting the gender wrong...."Yo what's up").

Peel posted:

Like Systran said I took this as comments on the non-English language she was speaking - of course the distinctions don't render in English, because English doesn't make those distinctions, just like Radch doesn't make the distinctions English does. It doesn't translate, which is the point. I thought that was made clear in the text but maybe I'm misremembering.

GENDERWEIRD GREEDO posted:

So yeah I guess that falls in line with the first point in your post. It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense for a knowledgeable character to struggle between saying "el gato" and "la gato" and have people talk about how important that is to the overall work.

andrew smash posted:

Well you struggled with it, apparently.

Khizan posted:

el gato, la gata

quote:

The three heads snapped around. Two of the girls turned and ran. The third novice hesitated for a fatal moment—looking. Wondering.
He had her hand. “Amicia?” he said into her eyes, and then put his mouth over hers. Put an armoured leg inside her thighs and trapped her—turned her over his thigh as easily as throwing a child in a wrestling match, and she was in his arms. He rested his back plate against the ledge of the cloister and held her. Gently. Firmly.
She wriggled, catching her falling sleeve against the flange that protected his elbow. But her eyes were locked on his—and huge. She opened her lips. More there than simple fear or refusal. He licked her teeth. Ran a finger under her chin.
Her mouth opened under his—delicious.
He kissed her, or perhaps she kissed him. It was not brief. She relaxed into him—itself a pleasing warmth, even through the hardened steel of his arm harness and breastplate.
Kisses end.
“Don’t take the vows,” he said. “You do not belong here.” He meant to sound teasing, but even in his own head his voice dripped with unintended mockery.
He stood straight and set her on the ground, to show that he was no rapist. She blushed red from her chin to her forehead, again. Even the backs of her hands were red. She cast her eyes down, and then shifted her weight—he watched such things. She leaned forward—
And slammed a hand into his right ear. Taking him completely by surprise. He reeled, his back hit the wall with a metallic thud, and he caught himself—
—and turned to chase her down.
But she wasn’t running. She stood her ground. “How dare you judge me?” she said.
He rubbed his ear. “You mistake me,” he said. “I meant no hard judgement. You wanted to be kissed. It is in your eyes.”
As a line, it had certainly worked before. In this case, he felt it to be true. Despite the sharp pain in his ear.
She pursed her lips—full, very lovely lips. “We are all of us sinners, messire. I struggle with my body every day. That gives you no right to it.”
There was a secret smile to the corner of her mouth—really, no smile at all, but something—
She turned and walked away down the gallery, leaving him alone.

[...]

“That was quick,” said Michael, admiringly, as he emerged. The captain was careful not to do anything as gross as tuck his braes into his hose. Because, had he taken her right there against the cloister wall, he would still have re-dressed meticulously before emerging.
Why didn’t I? He asked himself. She was willing enough.

Hedrigall posted:

Cardiovorax posted:

Never mind that Banks did it first, twenty-five years ago and like an order of magnitude less obnoxiously. He actually managed to make an interesting commentary on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis out of it, instead of mediocre tumblr bait.

Velius posted:

I'm trying to think of a more pretentious post that could have made the same points, but I don't think I can. I feel like we have enough material at this point for a Cardiovorax post bingo game. We get it, really, you think Ancillary Justice, Hugo Award winner, was not an original work or interesting to you. Please stop haranguing.

Megazver posted:

But haranguing is fun!

Cardiovorax posted:

Forums posters are not leftover bits of transhuman artificial intelligences.

Cardiovorax posted:

It really is. Sometimes it's just really satisfying to be pointlessly viciously spiteful at something.