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Megazver posted:I don't believe there is one. I've read it, though. It's at my library, I'll go ahead and take a look.
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May 15, 2015 00:50
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The first Monster Hunter International book is free on Amazon (or Baen's site). Correia is kind of a dick sometimes, but by all accounts his series is a lot of fun.
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May 15, 2015 02:49
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50% into Dead Beat. ...god drat, this is a good book. fake edit: going on a cruise next week. So I won't be posting thoughts on what I'm reading, but rest assured, I will be reading. And posting my thoughts when I get back.
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May 15, 2015 04:26
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Benny the Snake posted:So the writer is aware of the issue of lack of visible minority characters within speculative fiction but instead of putting something together that's well-thought out, he over-compensates. Gotcha. Yeah. Although, in his defense, with a lot of the characters (maybe even most) he doesn't explicitly mention their ethnicity or skin color, it's something that I inferred from names, descriptions and details dropped in conversations. A fat old ghost healer lady whose first name is Mama could actually be a white Victorian ghost lady, for example, and I could just be paranoid and racist. 
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May 15, 2015 10:58
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Lev Grossman's The Magicians is marked down to $2.99 across Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Google and Kodo today
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May 15, 2015 18:57
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Fried Chicken posted:Lev Grossman's The Magicians is marked down to $2.99 across Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Google and Kodo today Speaking of which, here's the trailer for the TV series. Everyone's an insufferable rear end in a top hat, so it's pretty spot on so far.
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May 15, 2015 19:02
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Has anyone read The Necromancer's House by Christopher Buehlman? If so how was it? The pitch I got was "it's the plot of your standard great American novel, where the main character is always some middle age English professor who is sleeping with a grad student half his age and confronting the ennui of his life. Only its a Necromancer, there are slumbering horrors, and ravenous undead" and I'm a little intrigued, but not necessarily "buy it" intrigued
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May 15, 2015 20:02
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Megazver posted:Speaking of which, here's the trailer for the TV series. Everyone's an insufferable rear end in a top hat, so it's pretty spot on so far. Wrong video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS_20JPaEnA
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May 15, 2015 20:35
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Regarding the ending of Broken Homes, I think I've got it figured out (anyone who's read Foxglove Summer can correct me): Lesley joins the Faceless Man's side - or decides to join his side - in Whispers Underground when she and Peter visit Woodville-Gentle; Peter sees her talking to him and Varvara with her mask off, but can't hear what they're saying, so I reckon she was asking if either Woodville-Gentle or the Faceless Man was able to fix her face, and she's on his side before Broken Homes.
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May 15, 2015 20:40
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Yeah, my bad. Had it in the buffer and didn't check.
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May 15, 2015 20:40
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Anyone expecting foxglove summer to resolve or expand on Leslie's betrayal or the faceless man's plan will be disappointed.
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May 15, 2015 21:09
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The Fool posted:Anyone expecting foxglove summer to resolve or expand on Leslie's betrayal or the faceless man's plan will be disappointed.
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May 16, 2015 01:17
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I finished Foxglove Summer a couple days ago. When does the next book come out? 
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May 16, 2015 10:25
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The Fool posted:Anyone expecting foxglove summer to resolve or expand on Leslie's betrayal or the faceless man's plan will be disappointed. Metaplot books in the series seem to be every even book. I do like the odd numbered case-of-the-week books better though. Anyone have guesses on the Faceless Man? I thought it could be David Mellanby who's been aging backwards like Nightingale, as he supposedly shot himself in the face who would have made identification hard. The only problem is Nightingale's read of his signare doesn't match up with that, and I think he would have recognized David immediately from that scent. Aaronovitch has been careful not to put Nightingale and Faceless Man in the same room so far though, which makes me think it's someone Nightingale would have recognized. The other thing is while Peter is a bit of an idiot and often wrong about everything, if you look back, his reading of vestigia has never been wrong. When he meets Faceless in Soho he feels "the smell of roast pork, freshly mown grass, the stink of unwashed bodies, and a metallic taste, like iron", which is a huge clue, but I'm not familiar with London to figure out what.
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May 16, 2015 10:42
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qbert posted:I finished Foxglove Summer a couple days ago. Later this year (in the UK).
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May 16, 2015 13:34
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Ornamented Death posted:The first Monster Hunter International book is free on Amazon (or Baen's site). Correia is kind of a dick sometimes, but by all accounts his series is a lot of fun.
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May 16, 2015 18:10
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Isn't Correia one of the leading Sad Puppies guys?
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May 16, 2015 18:23
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coyo7e posted:As someone who read it, I might disagree. It's the most distilled Texan Manifest Destiny Gun Porn novel I think I've ever read. And then it goes downhill. Yeah, this is my feeling on it too. ImpAtom fucked around with this message at 19:18 on May 16, 2015 |
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May 16, 2015 18:33
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Ornamented Death posted:The first Monster Hunter International book is free on Amazon (or Baen's site). Correia is kind of a dick sometimes, but by all accounts his series is a lot of fun. I'm making a hand tilt. The action scenes are really fun but they're sandwiched between some THIS IS WHY WE NEED GUNS YOU LIBERAL FAGGOTS rhetoric and ughhhhh
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May 16, 2015 19:06
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What are your thoughts on his grimnoir chronicles series? I really liked the books, and the mechanics of the magic system remind me of Brandon Sanderson's work.
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May 16, 2015 19:38
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The Monster Hunter books could be fun in an action movie kind of way if it weren't for the fact that he can't go five pages without stroking off to an issue of Guns and Ammo while muttering about liberal pansies.
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May 16, 2015 19:59
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Clinton1011 posted:What are your thoughts on his grimnoir chronicles series? I really liked the books, and the mechanics of the magic system remind me of Brandon Sanderson's work. I'm halfway through the first one (Hard Magic) and so far I think it's decent, despite the silly name. I like the magic system, with lots of different and more or less clearly defined abilities (rather than the usual wizards who can do everything). I like the setting too, basically 1930s "pulp noir" where magic is public knowledge and the world has changed to adapt to that fact. It does feel like the author is getting paid by the word sometimes though, drawing things out longer than necessary. I also suspect I'll get tired of his gimmick of name-dropping famous people from the era eventually. The characters sometimes feel a bit exaggerated and unrealistic too. All of those things fit the "pulp noir" theme I suppose though. I'm listening to the audio-book version read by Bronson Pinchot, who does a pretty good job.
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May 16, 2015 20:09
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Wheat Loaf posted:Isn't Correia one of the leading Sad Puppies guys? Yep
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May 16, 2015 21:05
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coyo7e posted:As someone who read it, I might disagree. It's the most distilled Texan Manifest Destiny Gun Porn novel I think I've ever read. And then it goes downhill. Yeah, I read The Grimnoir series first, really enjoyed it, and then tried MHI. Ignoring the fact that Correia is a shitbag, the book just isn't good. It's just a giant masturbatory wish fulfillment fantasy. The romantic subplot actually made me angry. Aside from the writing leading me to believe that Larry has never met a human woman before, it boils down to "I deserve this girl even though I am an irredeemable shitbag". And make no mistake, the main character is an irredeemable shitbag. I was actively rooting for the villain. I did MHI on audiobook, and something that I noticed early on is that his characters don't use contractions. That makes every conversation seem extremely awkward and unnatural. Normally I don't have a problem separating an author from his views, but Larry can't stop himself from jizzing his opinions all over the text, up to and including a "liberals are the real racists!!!" in the middle of the book, in a conversation that was in no way related to anything in the story. It just seemed like he couldn't write another word unless he let the reader know about those goddamn libby lib libs.
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May 16, 2015 22:24
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Russad posted:Yeah, I read The Grimnoir series first, really enjoyed it, and then tried MHI. Ignoring the fact that Correia is a shitbag, the book just isn't good. It's just a giant masturbatory wish fulfillment fantasy. The romantic subplot actually made me angry. Aside from the writing leading me to believe that Larry has never met a human woman before, it boils down to "I deserve this girl even though I am an irredeemable shitbag". And make no mistake, the main character is an irredeemable shitbag. I was actively rooting for the villain. Contrast with John Ringo, who at least seems slightly self aware. Oh, John Ringo no...
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May 16, 2015 23:17
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Russad posted:Yeah, I read The Grimnoir series first, really enjoyed it, and then tried MHI. Ignoring the fact that Correia is a shitbag, the book just isn't good. It's just a giant masturbatory wish fulfillment fantasy. The romantic subplot actually made me angry. Aside from the writing leading me to believe that Larry has never met a human woman before, it boils down to "I deserve this girl even though I am an irredeemable shitbag". And make no mistake, the main character is an irredeemable shitbag. I was actively rooting for the villain. God, I'm a right wing gun nut at times and I want to punch Correia in the face repeatedly after reading. I got about a third through the second one and quit, and that was before I found out just how reprehensible he is in his views on women and the Sad Puppies stuff. I actually met him a few times back in February at a LTUE and the sad thing is he's really, really charismatic in person. It's easy to see how someone with really lovely, hosed up views can get a following based on force of personality and being the "voice of a moral minority" or whatever sleazy poo poo they're calling themselves now.
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May 17, 2015 00:04
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Mortanis posted:God, I'm a right wing gun nut at times and I want to punch Correia in the face repeatedly after reading. I got about a third through the second one and quit, and that was before I found out just how reprehensible he is in his views on women and the Sad Puppies stuff. He's seems better than Vox Day, I suppose.
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May 17, 2015 00:59
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Wheat Loaf posted:He's seems better than Vox Day, I suppose. Nah, just more charismatic/likeable.
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May 17, 2015 01:16
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Benny the Snake posted:I would, but I'm ADD as a motherfucker, so I'd be half-tempted to browse on the 'net. Just as a followup question to this, I've only heard of Magical Realism recently, and it sounds a lot like UF for the most part. Does anyone know what the distinction is or what makes Magical Realism a separate genre from other scifi/fantasy? I think you can set UF wherever you want to but if you aren't using something like New York or London that has it's own mythos from years of film/tv/books you need to spend a lot more time fleshing the city as a character out. It's a lot more work but it has its rewards. Honestly one of the reasons I like Peter Grant so much is we learn about the history of London through his voice, he doesn't just rely on our perceptions and memories of London. And Foxglove Summer proved he can tell that kind of story about a quaint little town of a few thousand people not just the big city everyone knows. (Foxglove Summer has a really excellent 'Hot Fuzz' style to it.) mistaya fucked around with this message at 09:06 on May 17, 2015 |
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May 17, 2015 09:02
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Magical realism tends to be a lot less overt about the supernatural and generally uses it as a background, not the focus of the story. I haven't really read much of it, but what I saw was mostly character-driven plots using mythological backdrops. Alternately, you could argue that magical realism is what the LITERATURE folk invented to deal with good fantasy being a thing, but that's opening a whole new can of worms.
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May 17, 2015 09:32
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Clinton1011 posted:What are your thoughts on his grimnoir chronicles series? I really liked the books, and the mechanics of the magic system remind me of Brandon Sanderson's work. I read the first one, and quite enjoyed it once I'd got over the fact that despite starting with a bunch of pseudo-noir narration and a character who's a sort of PI, it's not actually remotely a noir detective novel, it's a magic action novel. I'd note that I have awful taste in baen-style scifi and fantasy though. I don't tend to think too deeply about it, certainly a lot less than I should. He's a LOT worse at magic systems than BranSan, albeit he's trying with Grimnoir. I quite like the 'magic has just been rediscovered and is well and truly out of the closet' setting though. And yeah, quite a lot of conspicuous ARE GUNZ stuff, which puts me off a LOT as a Brit. . Dare I ask: Sad Puppies?
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May 17, 2015 12:27
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thespaceinvader posted:Dare I ask: Sad Puppies? It's about ethics in fantasy novel awards shows. Wheat Loaf fucked around with this message at 13:18 on May 17, 2015 |
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May 17, 2015 13:12
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Magical realism is 'magic happens, but nobody gives a gently caress about it'. Like in a fantasy book where it rained donuts, you'd expect a society to maybe worship a donut god or have a donut-based magic system, and in any event agriculture would be vastly different. In a magical realism book a husband looks out the window and says 'It's raining donuts again', and his wife turns the page of her newspaper and says 'that's nice dear'.
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May 17, 2015 15:03
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Tunicate posted:Magical realism is 'magic happens, but nobody gives a gently caress about it'. That's actually a fairly good definition :P I think my working definition is that it's fiction written from a viewpoint where the fantastic is a normal part of everyday life. There are a couple of Marquez quotes that are really illustrative: quote:It always amuses me that the biggest praise for my work comes for the imagination, while the truth is that there's not a single line in all my work that does not have a basis in reality. The problem is that Caribbean reality resembles the wildest imagination. quote:Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 15:14 on May 17, 2015 |
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May 17, 2015 15:11
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Wheat Loaf posted:He's seems better than Vox Day, I suppose. That's not a high bar.
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May 17, 2015 15:14
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thespaceinvader posted:Dare I ask: Sad Puppies? I'm gonna just quote the description for the first result when i googled it quote:Larry Correia helps lead a group called the Sad Puppies that says the Hugo Awards for science-fiction writing are controlled by a leftist elite.
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May 17, 2015 15:31
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Should be noted that their way of fighting said hypothetical elite is forcing a bunch of right-wing nutjobs into the nominations even if they can't write for poo poo. See: John C. Wright.
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May 17, 2015 16:12
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Haha, fair enough on MHI - I haven't read it, was just passing along the fact that it was free. And it's important to note that for all their posturing, the Sad Puppies did not get their slate nominated, the Rabid Puppies (organized by Vox Day) did. There's a lot of overlap, so the important thing to look at is where the slates differ, and in just about every case, it's the RP guy that got nominated.
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May 17, 2015 17:08
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anilEhilated posted:Should be noted that their way of fighting said hypothetical elite is forcing a bunch of right-wing nutjobs into the nominations even if they can't write for poo poo. See: John C. Wright. Uhhh Wright's written some really drat fun and neat books. His Golden Age series is good and pretty unique.
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May 17, 2015 19:38
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Tunicate posted:Magical realism is 'magic happens, but nobody gives a gently caress about it'.
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May 17, 2015 19:43
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