|
Anyone who's a fan of scifi horror, especially the creepy haunted spaceship kind, should check out Nick Cutter's new book The Deep. It's set deep under the ocean on a research station in the Marianas Trench instead of on a ship in outer space, but it shares all the same elements that makes the best space horror so good. Cutter is one of the few horror authors that manages to write stuff that truly unsettles me. He's great at describing even mundane, everyday things in a way that skeeves me out, the actual horror parts are even better, and he also excels at maintaining a tense atmosphere of dread throughout the whole novel.
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 02:50
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 16, 2024 00:11 |
|
|
Cardiac posted:If you interpret the Earth government in the Owners series as socialists I don't know what to say. They do have an interesting case of environmentalism in the series. You're right, I can't actually remember what, if any, supposed rationale existed for the evil 'World Government' to be in charge of everything. I just know they were characterized as 'euthenizing the lucky' and burning alive unlucky people who get on their bad side by like page 2, and had an evil prison and evil space station with associated set piece battles. I must have missed the sentence mentioning the basis for their evil takeover somewhere among the exploding heads. Honestly, I can get past over the top strawmanning of political opponents in sci-fi, that comes with the genre, and clearly this isn't on a caliber comparable to Rob S. Pierre leading the Socialist Government of Haven or something. My biggest issue with the Owners is just how much of a downgrade in quality it is compared with the Polity stuff. Not that the latter were classic literature, but they had almost unparalleled creativity in the world building. Then we get the Owners which is completely generic dystopian fiction: Overpopulation? Check. Evil world government? Check. Space station with lasers pointing downwards? Hell yes. Brooding hero with a grudge, hot scientist girlfriend, and AI sidekick? drat right. It's just missing Megaweapon to be straight out of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Asher had seemed to be a more more cynical/realistic Iain Banks in his take on AI and so on, and this latest schlock reads as worse than Amazon self-published mil-sci fi, it's just very startling. Velius fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Apr 26, 2015 |
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 03:27
|
|
|
Finished up The Explorer and The Echo by James Smythe. They are... unique. I wouldn't call them terrific but they are pretty good. They are books 1 and 2 of a quartet called The Anomaly Quartet. Basic plot is, people go into space, and bad poo poo happens.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 04:31
|
|
|
Personally I thought The Explorer was a giant pile of poo poo but tastes vary v v
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 04:41
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Finished up The Explorer and The Echo by James Smythe. Yeah they look really intriguing, but now that Hedrigall has given a negative POV I'm hesitant.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 04:51
|
|
|
To clarify, here's my review from Goodreads:quote:1.5 stars.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 05:06
|
|
|
Eh, I thought they were solid 3 star books. That conversation you mentioned was using a special communicator so I assumed it was some black box UFO high end kinda poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 05:24
|
|
|
I didn't get nearly as hung up on the main character being an observer as much as you did so I'm not sure I'd call it a fatal flaw.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 05:27
|
|
|
PINING 4 PORKINS posted:I didn't get nearly as hung up on the main character being an observer as much as you did so I'm not sure I'd call it a fatal flaw. To be fair though I can see how it'd be a kinda lovely thing if you are expecting aliens or event horizon and get the protag you get. If you don't like the first 20% chances are you won't like the rest.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 05:32
|
|
|
Recently finished the Liveship Trader's Trilogy and good God that has to be one of the slowest and most painful starts I'd seen in a long while. The first 100 or so pages could be titled "Bingtown Makes You Stupid" but eventually things get underway and seem like they are moving along nicely by the time Kennit gets he hands on Vivacia though the stuff with the Serpents was pretty cool too, since their perspective is a bit weird at first but once everything is falling in to place in the story it's really good. The last book largely makes up for the terrible start in the first one and I'm hoping that at least some of the stuff with the Rain Wilds, especially the Vestrits who are have gone to live there come up again in the Rain Wild books. One of the few lingering annoyances in the series was Amber and how at first Amber's made out to be just a really exotic person... who carves wood like they can see what's inside waiting to be revealed... and has a freed slave earring they got from a friend... oh and they are some kind of prophet... hey that new face she carved sounds awfully familiar and a bit like... ok she found a rather specific headpiece and goddamnit really? I mean if it had been left a bit more hazy I think it'd have been better but Hobbs really, really wants to get people to make the connection without outright stating it. On to the Tawny Man Trilogy now and it seems to start out well enough though it'd be hard for it to start out as insufferable as everyone is in the beginning of the Liveship Traders. Though I couldn't help but notice in Tawny Man that it doesn't waste time in getting around to referencing some stuff from the Liveship books, especially with the Fool making it abundantly clear that, yes, that person was who you thought it was (and if you didn't know then, you know now(or you're hopeless)). As each of Hobbs' series have been chronological so far they continue to do so I assume?
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 05:53
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:It's not grimdark, but it's bleakdark or grimbleak. It's just... wow I haven't ever read a book where no one is happy. It's a huge tonal shift from his regular work on his urban fantasy series. I just finished the second book and it got grimdark as gently caress. Everyone is screwing everyone else over, and there is a rape. :/ But at least the female characters continue to be strong and getting stronger.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 05:56
|
|
|
coyo7e posted:Ironically, two Russian offerings - one based on a game and the other being the impetus for a game.. I don't think the STALKER series has been translated yet, but I only spent a couple minutes looking so
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 07:45
|
|
|
Velius posted:You're right, I can't actually remember what, if any, supposed rationale existed for the evil 'World Government' to be in charge of everything. I just know they were characterized as 'euthenizing the lucky' and burning alive unlucky people who get on their bad side by like page 2, and had an evil prison and evil space station with associated set piece battles. I must have missed the sentence mentioning the basis for their evil takeover somewhere among the exploding heads. Well, in some way it is the same theme as his other books. He is a conservative, which is pretty obvious and there is nothing inherently wrong in that worldview, but it can be provoking for some. One common theme for his books is that humanity can't govern themselves without infighting and the problem is solved by AIs taking over. It is a very cynical worldview, and very reminiscent of Hobbes Leviathan. Another theme is his anti-authorianism, where both the Polity series and the Owner series ends with a big "gently caress you" to the system. As for the "environmentalism" in the Owner series, that is actually something that have been proposed by one Finnish philosopher. But I agree, the Owner series is worse than the Polity, mostly since I am missing his alien ecological systems.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 08:51
|
|
|
Evil Fluffy posted:
Yep. They occasionally dip back into what Fitz did before current, but by and large they just follow on. I think there is a decent time-gap between the Tawny Man & the series about the dragon keepers, and then again between that and the new one though.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 08:58
|
|
|
SF Signal did their monthly round up of cheap SF/Fantasy books but this time they raised the max price to $6 and found 450 books below that price point. While this was done on April 24, some books might be back to regular price, but there are still some really good titles at a decent price: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2015/04/ebook-deals-450-science-fiction-and-fantasy-ebooks-under-6-each/ Edit: Are the Gentlemen Bastards #2 and #3 really that bad? I'm currently reading The Lies of Locke Lamora and really enjoying it and would love to read more. Fart of Presto fucked around with this message at 12:11 on Apr 26, 2015 |
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 12:08
|
|
|
Fart of Presto posted:SF Signal did their monthly round up of cheap SF/Fantasy books but this time they raised the max price to $6 and found 450 books below that price point. And if you live outside the US, none of those prices will be available! 
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 12:42
|
|
|
Fart of Presto posted:Edit: Are the Gentlemen Bastards #2 and #3 really that bad? I'm currently reading The Lies of Locke Lamora and really enjoying it and would love to read more. People have mixed opinions about those two but I'd say that nearly everyone agrees that the first book is the best by far. What soured me about #3 was that there was a huge delay due to stuff that came up with the author. Which I completely understand, but all the same it's a bit rough when after so many years the end result was a book that felt like its main purpose was setting up plot points for the next book. I think #2 is alright. It's enjoyable, but not as thrilling as the first one.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 13:35
|
|
|
Fart of Presto posted:Edit: Are the Gentlemen Bastards #2 and #3 really that bad? I'm currently reading The Lies of Locke Lamora and really enjoying it and would love to read more. They're not bad, except by the standards of the first one. I enjoyed both and have re-read both, but when you start by climbing Everest there's nowhere to go but down.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 14:01
|
|
|
Cardiac posted:They do have an interesting case of environmentalism in the series. Asher is, among other things, a global warming denier.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 14:42
|
|
|
 Doesn't really sound like scifi anymore...
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 15:19
|
|
|
Cardiac posted:One common theme for his books is that humanity can't govern themselves without infighting and the problem is solved by AIs taking over. It is a very cynical worldview, and very reminiscent of Hobbes Leviathan. I would be down with insanely smart benevolent AIs running our society. Obviously he goes beyond that to almost positively assert humans can't run a planetary society effectively, but nothing in principle about the AIs running everything bothers me. Although sometimes I wonder why they have human agents for anything and don't just use Golem in every post of any significance.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 17:10
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:
Is that captain Falcon?
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 17:34
|
|
|
Hedrigall posted:And if you live outside the US, none of those prices will be available! A couple of times I've even switched back to my real address to buy books that aren't available for the Kindle in the US, like Banks' Feersum Endjinn.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 17:39
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:I would be down with insanely smart benevolent AIs running our society. Obviously he goes beyond that to almost positively assert humans can't run a planetary society effectively, but nothing in principle about the AIs running everything bothers me. Although sometimes I wonder why they have human agents for anything and don't just use Golem in every post of any significance. Uh, remember that in the end the Polity is saved by the individual acts of some human beings, after the godlike AI known as EC screws it hard with the Erebus stuff. It is Cormac, Ornandine and Mika who save both humanity and AIs from being transformed into a Jain tendril soup. Oh, and Dragon. Whose motives are so dark at the end of the series as in the beginning. "Line War" nicely wraps up the history, if you forget some inconsistencies, as I posted some days ago. E: Using Golems woud not be necessary... in that line of thought specialized drones (like Arach) would probably make more sense for an all-AI society. Of course, one of the bases of the Polity is that the AIs (or at least most of them) consider themselves as some kind of "evolved humans", and they want to get along nicely with their carbon-based cousins. Amberskin fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Apr 26, 2015 |
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 17:54
|
|
|
fritz posted:Asher is, among other things, a global warming denier. Well, to be fair killing off the larger part of the human population would reduce the effect of global warming which is done in the books. If I remember correctly, he points out the problems that overpopulation causes.. Incidentally, a global nuclear war could be great to stop global warming. There is actually a Finnish philosopher that proposes stuff like this and is apparently well liked among environmentalists. Amberskin posted:Uh, remember that in the end the Polity is saved by the individual acts of some human beings, after the godlike AI known as EC screws it hard with the Erebus stuff. It is Cormac, Ornandine and Mika who save both humanity and AIs from being transformed into a Jain tendril soup. Oh, and Dragon. Whose motives are so dark at the end of the series as in the beginning. "Line War" nicely wraps up the history, if you forget some inconsistencies, as I posted some days ago. Neither Cormac nor Ormadine are baseline humans, and Cormac is basically a prototype human being I found the ending rather weak actually. Cardiac fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Apr 26, 2015 |
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 20:20
|
|
|
Are you talking about Pentti Linkola? Because he's a crazy old man and a strawman if you think that's some kind of position actual real life environmentalists have.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 20:39
|
|
|
Neither Cormac nor Ormadine are baseline humans, and Cormac is basically a prototype human being I found the ending rather weak actually. [/quote] Yeah, Neal Asher strongest skill is the description of insane ecologies and stupidly nightmarish space monsters. The "alien" xenomorph is a puppy compared to a hooder or a droon. Nevertheless the Cormac cycle starts quite a lot of history threads, and most of them are closed in a satisfactory way in "Line War", while keeping plenty of space to further develop his Universe. Oh, and speaking of Universes, "Nemesis Games" (expanse 6) is now in pre-sell at Amazon.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 21:02
|
|
|
savinhill posted:Anyone who's a fan of scifi horror, especially the creepy haunted spaceship kind, should check out Nick Cutter's new book The Deep. It's set deep under the ocean on a research station in the Marianas Trench instead of on a ship in outer space, but it shares all the same elements that makes the best space horror so good. Cutter is one of the few horror authors that manages to write stuff that truly unsettles me. He's great at describing even mundane, everyday things in a way that skeeves me out, the actual horror parts are even better, and he also excels at maintaining a tense atmosphere of dread throughout the whole novel. Decided to give The Deep a shot since I've got a few days to wait for the new Alastair Reynolds book. I'm liking it so far so thanks for the recommendation. Speaking of Poseidon's Wake, I'm pretty excited for it. I really enjoyed the first two books in the "trilogy" so I'm hoping this one finishes it off strong. As a whole so far they're not quite as a good as his Revelation Space series but still pretty solid.
|
|
#
?
Apr 26, 2015 21:15
|
|
|
Fart of Presto posted:Edit: Are the Gentlemen Bastards #2 and #3 really that bad? I'm currently reading The Lies of Locke Lamora and really enjoying it and would love to read more. No, they're aren't. They're decent books that get poo poo on because they're not on the level of Lies of Locke Lamora. The problem with that is that Lies is probably the best fantasy book of the past decade and there are very few books in the genre that are on a level with it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2015 00:09
|
|
|
johnsonrod posted:Speaking of Poseidon's Wake, I'm pretty excited for it. I really enjoyed the first two books in the "trilogy" so I'm hoping this one finishes it off strong. As a whole so far they're not quite as a good as his Revelation Space series but still pretty solid. I'm dying for this book too! Early reviews are all really solid. And it's also the longest of the trilogy at 608 pages! Lots of reading ahead starting tomorrow 
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2015 00:10
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2015 01:43
|
|
|
M'literature
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2015 01:46
|
|
|
Whenever I'm reminded of that title I think it's a shame Vance never turned it into a long-running series. We could have had sequels called Slaves to the Wankh, Masters of the Wankh, Empire of the Wankh, Enemies of the Wankh, Chapterhouse: Wankh, and the final installment, The End of the Wankh (released as The Vinegar Strokes in the UK).
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2015 07:29
|
|
|
The Wizard of Wankh.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2015 07:39
|
|
|
Amberskin posted:Yeah, Neal Asher strongest skill is the description of insane ecologies and stupidly nightmarish space monsters. The "alien" xenomorph is a puppy compared to a hooder or a droon. Apparently his latest series, starting with Dark Intelligence, is already written and finished by him and is only waiting on publishing according to a AMA on Reddit. So he has some work ethic, despite having his wife pass away last year.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2015 07:45
|
|
|
quote:The editors of the Vance Integral Edition restored the author's preferred title for the first book: The Chasch. They also altered the second to The Wannek and replaced 'Wankh' with 'Wannek' throughout the text. Vance was convinced to change the name after being informed of the meaning of the word 'wank' in British and Commonwealth slang. I find it hilarious that a man with a vocabulary that enormous and who used to be a sailor didn't know what 'wank' means.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2015 12:35
|
|
|
I once found an essay devoted to arguing against Wanek and in favour of Wankh. Apparently, Vance eventually stated his preference for Wanek because he grew weary of the subject. The worst thing about Vance is that he has inspired a lot of people to attempt his style and fall flat on their faces (namely Gary Gygax). Some of them even make a show of acting like background characters in his books, throwing a sort of literary tantrum over minor issues. The essay's author was one such imitator. Vance has influenced my writing style, which is sometimes ornate and old-fashioned, but I don't look for opportunities to slip "punctilio" into ordinary discussion.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2015 14:49
|
|
|
Halloween Jack posted:I once found an essay devoted to arguing against Wanek and in favour of Wankh. Apparently, Vance eventually stated his preference for Wanek because he grew weary of the subject. I wasted quite a few years trying to write like Vance when i was younger. Like Wodehouse, it seems a lot easier to imitate than it actually is. The only writer I've seen who can actually do a Vance-ish style and make it work is Matthew Hughes, in his Henghis Hapthorn and Archonate stories. Hobnob posted:Whenever I'm reminded of that title I think it's a shame Vance never turned it into a long-running series. We could have had sequels called Slaves to the Wankh, Masters of the Wankh, Empire of the Wankh, Enemies of the Wankh, Chapterhouse: Wankh, and the final installment, The End of the Wankh (released as The Vinegar Strokes in the UK). It actually is part of a series, the "Planet of Adventure" tetralogy. The Wankh, by the way, are an alien race who use human servants known as ... Wankhmen.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2015 16:13
|
|
|
The thing is, Vance didn't write like that by accident. He used a very different, terse style in his crime thrillers, and he knew how to employ it in his sci-fi/fantasy works for effect when necessary.The Dirdir posted:Anacho ran his long white fingers over the fabric of Reith's jacket. "So I suspected." He displayed a small black button. "And now we know who tracks you. Do you recognize this?"
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2015 16:39
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 16, 2024 00:11 |
|
|
Just started The Goblin Emperor and holy poo poo this book is good. It's well written, is making me sad only 10% in, and does a really good job capturing the whole "Sense of duty but in over my head" thing. Bits of it remind me of stuff like The West Wing or House of Cards, where someone who has power is still restrained by tradition, expectation, etc of their office. And I'm loving the subtle cultural differences between the Elvish and Goblin kingdoms and the fact that she went into such detail. The letter from the Goblin ambassador is rolled vellum instead of folded parchment because that's just how they do things. Harold Fjord fucked around with this message at 18:04 on Apr 27, 2015 |
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2015 17:49
|
|
