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Chairchucker posted:Link, please. Am I gonna have to add him to my banned list with Piers Anthony and Marion Zimmer Bradley? It's basically the whole plot of King Rat. Magical drum 'n bass.
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Oct 16, 2014 21:01
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Strom Cuzewon posted:Bakker does raise a legitimate point in his criticism of magic feminism. Look at WoT by comparison - women have equality and political power in the form of the Aes Sedai. Is this because of consciousness raising? Or organised protest? The dismantling of patriarchy? No. It's because they can explode your loving head. It's the Joss Whedon power-girl. Take a woman, drop her in a nightmarish patriarchy and then give her the ability to beat up near infinite rapists. Its a cartoon of feminism that doesn't help anybody, because its "strong independent woman" literally cannot exist in the real world. Well, Robert Jordan is low-hanging fruit because he doesn't accomplish his writing on gender dynamics very well, but Aes Sedai are not the only powerful women in his world. As clumsy as the execution is, the underlying idea is actually much more subtle than "this group of ladies can blow us up, so let's give women some power." Gender politics in that age of the world are actually more due to the taint on male channelers and the fact that men went mad and destroyed the world at the very beginning of the era. This places a layer of distrust over all men that gives women a leg up in wielding political power. It's sort of a reverse Adam-and-Eve -- where religion paints women as tainted because of some mythical woman's sin (and by inference the continuing potential of women to be similarly sinful), WoT paints men as tainted because of the sin of the men who broke the world (and the ongoing potential for any man to turn up as a danger to himself and those around him). Unfortunately, Jordan muddies the waters by not being very skilled or nuanced at portraying gender dynamics in such a world, but it's an interesting idea. I can certainly understand critiquing the idea that a person can overcome societal forces by just trying harder or becoming more powerful, but it doesn't therefore follow that "welp, women are obviously destined to be victims forever, better write fiction that reflects that" is any better a response. It's just going to a different extreme. Not only that, but I don't see what's so wrong with giving people who are lacking some sort of power in the real world a power fantasy in the fictional one. It's the basis for a LOT of genre fiction and just because it's not white male nerds being empowered doesn't make it any less valid. It may not add to the literary merit of the book, but it's not really there for literary purposes. I mean honestly I'm not really sure what's all that different about Kellhus from any other magically empowered fantasy protagonist, other than that he's a total dick. His SUPERLOGIC powers might be eminently appealing to internet atheist libertarian nerds but it's no less a power fantasy because it's based on uberlogic powers instead of fireball-type magic. quote:I never at any point felt as if Bakker was glorifying or endorsing the way the female characters in his series are treated. It's pretty clearly meant to be horrifying and unsettling. I see this argument a lot when it comes to depictions of women, and it's true that it may be horrifying and unsettling in a thought-provoking way for the male audience that Bakker admittedly writes for. But it's a whole other kind of horrifying and unsettling when you're the female audience and it's a kind of horrifying and unsettling that doesn't allow for you to be quite so detached.
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Oct 16, 2014 21:08
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King Rat literally ends with a dance battle. It's not a great book.
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Oct 16, 2014 22:58
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Thanks to whoever earlier in the thread recommended The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes. It's a hell of a lot of fun, and the perfect antidote to help me overcome the giant "meh" I felt upon having finished The Dark Defiles, which was so frustratingly inconsistent between good and bad parts, it just felt like a really missed chance by Richard Morgan.
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Oct 17, 2014 01:30
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McCoy Pauley posted:Thanks to whoever earlier in the thread recommended The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes. It's a hell of a lot of fun, and the perfect antidote to help me overcome the giant "meh" I felt upon having finished The Dark Defiles, which was so frustratingly inconsistent between good and bad parts, it just felt like a really missed chance by Richard Morgan. There's a sequel that just hit. It's got the same spirit of the first one. Not literature but definitely enjoyable. Kutesosh ga'jairis
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Oct 17, 2014 02:45
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I don't know how long it will last, I can't find anything about a promotion, but the kindle ebook version of Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings is currently $0.00! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003P2WO5E If you do give it a shot, know that the prologue chapter with a character named Szeth is a bit off-putting and has been described as a "videogame tutorial level" by some goons before; but the rest of the novel isn't like that and it's worth it to get past that one chapter to see if you'd enjoy the novel. And if you don't like it, well it was free! PlushCow fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Oct 17, 2014 |
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Oct 17, 2014 03:57
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Thanks for the heads up, was waiting for a couple more entries in the series but won't pass up that price to get started
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Oct 17, 2014 07:35
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I just finished A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar, now one of my favourite fantasy novels. It's a beautifully rendered story of a scion of a backwards island who learns to read and encounters books, ghosts and religion in the titular empire of Olondria. No Brandersonian magic-juggling but very definitely fantastic.
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Oct 17, 2014 13:11
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Damoren is $7 with a bunch of other books at the Arcane Bundle. I recommend it. 'IN THE SAME VEIN AS SUPERNATURAL, HELLBOY, AND BLADE' A secret society of monster hunters. A holy revolver forged to eradicate demons. A possessed man with a tragic past. A rising evil bent on destroying them all. Matt Hollis is the current wielder of the holy weapon, DÄMOREN. With it, he stalks and destroys demons. A secret society called the VALDUCANS has taken an interest in Matt’s activities. They see him as a reckless rogue—little more than a ‘cowboy’ corrupted by a monster—and a potential threat to their ancient order. 
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Oct 17, 2014 21:21
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I'm about a third of the way through Ian McDonald's River of Gods, and, for anyone who's read it: does a central plot ever start bringing all these characters' stories together in a satisfying way, or is it basically just everyone doing their own thing in this weird future world?
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Oct 18, 2014 01:01
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savinhill posted:I'm about a third of the way through Ian McDonald's River of Gods, and, for anyone who's read it: does a central plot ever start bringing all these characters' stories together in a satisfying way, or is it basically just everyone doing their own thing in this weird future world? Things do come together. Not perfectly in the sense of being a nice and neat AND NOW ALL PLOTLINES MEET AT ONCE sort of thing as I recall, but some degree of meaningful cohesion does eventually develop. I wish I could forget everything about that book so I could read it again for the first time.  Write more books about non-American places in the near future McDonald! 
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Oct 18, 2014 01:35
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Combed Thunderclap posted:Things do come together. Not perfectly in the sense of being a nice and neat AND NOW ALL PLOTLINES MEET AT ONCE sort of thing as I recall, but some degree of meaningful cohesion does eventually develop. Did you read his Sacrifice of Fools? That one was awesome and set in Northern Ireland. Anyway, thanks for the response, seeing how much you like it has me a lot more enthused about reading the rest of it.
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Oct 18, 2014 01:54
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ravenkult posted:Damoren is $7 with a bunch of other books at the Arcane Bundle. I recommend it. Sounds like the Colt from Supernatural.
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Oct 18, 2014 15:51
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Is there a list of all those random bundles somewhere? There seems to be a whole lot of them, but the only one I really know about is the humble bundle.
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Oct 18, 2014 16:01
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Don't know about a list, but there's also Story Bundle, which currently has an urban fantasy bundle that somebody will like. ETA: And also Humble Book Bundle, which is currently offering Star Wars comics. darthbob88 fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Oct 18, 2014 |
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Oct 18, 2014 20:57
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This is a bit tangential, but if you enjoyed Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead and the rest of his Craft books, you should definitely check out Choice of Deathless, the CYOA he wrote set in the same setting. I've just finished beating it a few times in a row and it's definitely as good as the books - but, y'know, choosier. You can play through the first few chapters of the game for free on their site. Megazver fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Oct 18, 2014 |
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Oct 18, 2014 21:35
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Has anybody picked up Tom Doyle's American Craftsmen? I spoke to the author today at a small author festival and he seemed like a really cool guy. Not normally my cup of tea (think Seal Team Six meets Brian McClellan/Daniel O'Malley). Planning on giving it a read since he was cool enough that he deserved my money, but wanted to see if any goons had read it. Robotnik fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Oct 19, 2014 |
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Oct 19, 2014 01:51
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I wanna know too. I dig those covers.
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Oct 19, 2014 02:08
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Just finished The Rook and really, really enjoyed it. As someone who likes the concept of a british government agency that deals with supernatural horrors but really dislikes Stross' writing style, I feel like this book delivered for me in a way that the Laundry books couldn't. I enjoyed the plot and especially the characters (rather refreshing to see a strong female protagonist like this).
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Oct 19, 2014 05:30
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Robotnik posted:Has anybody picked up Tom Doyle's American Craftsmen? I spoke to the author today at a small author festival and he seemed like a really cool guy. Not normally my cup of tea (think Seal Team Six meets Brian McClellan/Daniel O'Malley). Well, it was very much a Dude-Thriller. The world-building was cool but ultimately I don't enjoy the genre and I'm not American, so I stopped reading halfway through.
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Oct 19, 2014 09:11
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Can one of our Brit/Scot/UK goons explain what "gently caress this for a game of soldiers" means? I kinda get the gist of it, it's a fancy way of saying "gently caress that, no way" but I don't get the whole soldiers thing. Am I missing something? "Nope, would rather play with action man" or something? It's popping up a LOT in a book I am reading and it's just weird enough to irritate me.
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Oct 19, 2014 09:52
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Soldiers are young men who get up to a lot of dumb poo poo in their downtime. That's basically "a game of soldiers." Tomfoolery. Buffoonery. A contest to see how many matchsticks you can cram up your dick.
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Oct 19, 2014 10:13
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Ah, that makes sense. I was wondering about it, because for some reason (in my head) all british and uk people played with tin soldiers as kids, and somehow this meant "gently caress it I'd rather play with my army men". Yea I dunno where I got that either. Appreciate the explanation though, makes WAY more sense than mine did 
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Oct 19, 2014 10:18
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Combed Thunderclap posted:Things do come together. Not perfectly in the sense of being a nice and neat AND NOW ALL PLOTLINES MEET AT ONCE sort of thing as I recall, but some degree of meaningful cohesion does eventually develop. I wish the whole thing was following the AI killer. That plotline was awesome.
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Oct 19, 2014 14:43
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Ah, that makes sense. I'd always thought of the phrase as related to either playing with toy soldiers or playing pretend "war". There's kind of a connotation that something you were doing for fun suddenly got a lot more difficult or frustrating - "Bugger this for a lark" being an equivalent utterance.
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Oct 19, 2014 16:48
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Yeah, I always assumed that 'game of soldiers' referred to kids playing 'soldiers' by running around yelling 'bang bang' at each other, taking each other prisoner, and so on.
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Oct 19, 2014 16:52
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I just read Asher's The Skinner, and I really enjoyed it. How's the rest of the series?
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Oct 19, 2014 19:49
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a foolish pianist posted:I just read Asher's The Skinner, and I really enjoyed it. How's the rest of the series? That series is pretty much the best of what he's written. Very enjoyable read.
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Oct 19, 2014 20:13
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bonds0097 posted:Just finished The Rook and really, really enjoyed it. As someone who likes the concept of a british government agency that deals with supernatural horrors but really dislikes Stross' writing style, I feel like this book delivered for me in a way that the Laundry books couldn't. I enjoyed the plot and especially the characters (rather refreshing to see a strong female protagonist like this). I gave up a little ways in because it read like an action-adventure video game written down. Protagonist wakes up knowing nothing and gets spoon-fed the background and rules of the universe as the story progresses.
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Oct 19, 2014 21:08
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Finally got around to reading Leviathan Wakes and enjoyed it a great deal. Read the second one and was kind of disheartened by how much of a carbon-copy the initial setup was (a lost daughter, same plucky Firefly crew, minor and seemingly-unrelated Scooby Doo mystery which is obviously the lynch-pin of the entire solar system's issues, poo poo, you even turned one character into a character from the previous novel for half the book, aaand of course amoral corporations being behind it all). Moving on to the third novel now and am still enjoying the heck out of it, the second novel redeemed itself in my eyes after the initial same-y setup, although I was sad the Firefly guys didn't add any more crew members - four people is kind of a ridiculously small crew for a corvette. I do have one question, I got Leviathan Wakes on kindle, and there's like, and entire second novel once it's over - some sword and sorcery one I've never heard of..? Is this a glitch, or a freebie from one of the co-authors behind the pseudonym?  Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Pretty much all of Gemmell's books are hard core archetype fantasy.  ), and loved the poo poo out of the  in the Jon Shannow stuff. The Troy and Greek series were pretty fun. If you didn't like the Drenai you might try the Rigante stuff - it has the advantage of moving across a broader spectrum technology-wise, and Gemmell really, really liking the movie Highlander (Sword in the Storm is the weakest of them imho, as it's the most generic fantasy setting - the rest shoot forward in time and deal with decadent empire and firearms).  Also I'd recommend going through the Druss novels, the way he brings the main conflict in Legend back around with the Druss prequelsw adds some nice meat to the scenes in Legend - the funeral feast gave me shivers the second time I read it, after knowing the history between Druss and the not-mongols VagueRant posted:I finally finished listening to the audiobook of Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings. Dude is a technically proficient writer and there were a few small moments where he got an emotional reaction to me and where I was attached to characters - but goddamn that book is stupidly long. More happens in the first Harry Potter than happens in the 400,000 words of this nearly-as-long-as-the-entirety-of-Lord-Of-The-Rings book. It is crazy crazy long but your claim is pretty hyperbolic. Hedrigall posted:King Rat literally ends with a dance battle.  Luckily I can't remember almost anything about Mieville's King Rat because of this - and the fact that I went through all of those books in a short period so they really ran together a ton. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Oct 19, 2014 |
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Oct 19, 2014 21:38
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PlushCow posted:I don't know how long it will last, I can't find anything about a promotion, but the kindle ebook version of Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings is currently $0.00! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003P2WO5E
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Oct 19, 2014 22:03
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a foolish pianist posted:I just read Asher's The Skinner, and I really enjoyed it. How's the rest of the series? The Skinner series is his best, by quite a long way, but his whole Polity universe is excellent. In the review I never quite got round to finishing, I think I went with something along the lines of 'a worthy modern successor to Iain M Banks' Culture' - though it could equally feel like a prequel to that. It feels like a younger, angrier, more brutish society that stands a chance of maturing into the Culture if it's not eaten by Jain tech, or indeed the Jain themselves, first. Also, Sniper is awesome.
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Oct 19, 2014 23:09
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coyo7e posted:I do have one question, I got Leviathan Wakes on kindle, and there's like, and entire second novel once it's over - some sword and sorcery one I've never heard of..? Is this a glitch, or a freebie from one of the co-authors behind the pseudonym? It's the latter. It's the first book in the Dagger and Coin series: http://www.danielabraham.com/books-by-daniel-abraham/the-dagger-and-the-coin/
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Oct 19, 2014 23:15
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coyo7e posted:
Not a glitch, it was to promote Daniel Abraham's latest fantasy series, which is pretty decent. ^^^ Ooops, left my reply window open too long
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Oct 19, 2014 23:23
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savinhill posted:Not a glitch, it was to promote Daniel Abraham's latest fantasy series, which is pretty decent. Book 4 in that series actually just came out, only 1 left. The main villain is basically the platonic ideal of a neckbearded goon, its great.
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Oct 20, 2014 01:57
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thespaceinvader posted:The Skinner series is his best, by quite a long way, but his whole Polity universe is excellent. In the review I never quite got round to finishing, I think I went with something along the lines of 'a worthy modern successor to Iain M Banks' Culture' - though it could equally feel like a prequel to that. It feels like a younger, angrier, more brutish society that stands a chance of maturing into the Culture if it's not eaten by Jain tech, or indeed the Jain themselves, first. That looks interesting. Where should I begin? I think Gridlinked was the first published novel in that universe, but cronologically the first seems to be "Prador Moon". Now, here is the usual dilemma: should I read the books in the order they were written, or in their "in-universe" chronology?
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Oct 20, 2014 12:19
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Amberskin posted:That looks interesting. Where should I begin? I think Gridlinked was the first published novel in that universe, but cronologically the first seems to be "Prador Moon". Now, here is the usual dilemma: should I read the books in the order they were written, or in their "in-universe" chronology? I read them in the written order and it was (unsurprisingly) fine to do so. It's the way everything builds up best I'd say, as it is the way the author expanded and built the whole thing after all.
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Oct 20, 2014 13:36
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I just got to the point in City of Stairs where Shara and Sigrud meet the mhovost (mid book spoiler) and  that's the poo poo of nightmares
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Oct 20, 2014 15:19
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Oh hey, look, a fan! Oh hey, a shovelful of poo poo! http://requireshate.wordpress.com/2014/10/15/apologies-and-finality/
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Oct 20, 2014 17:15
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Seems reasonable to me. She posted this too. Benjanun Sriduangkaew is a really good writer, I've quite liked her short fiction. Sharp, poetic space opera with really keen images and a post-cyberpunk edge. She was up for the Campbell last year.
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Oct 20, 2014 17:45
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