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I'd never heard of portal fantasy as a term but sounds like much the same as 'island in the sea of time', after S.M. Sterling's horribad series, which is a trope that gets used all too much in soft alt history like 1632.
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Jun 24, 2015 23:55
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There's the River of the Dancing Gods books I think also by Stasheff? I think that counts. The Wizardry series by Rick Cook about a programmer named Wiz who is transported to a land where he finds magic can be programmed. Also the Well of Souls books are sort of portal fantasy/sci fi.
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Jun 25, 2015 02:27
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Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry qualifies. It's...alright, I guess.
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Jun 25, 2015 02:50
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Victorkm posted:The Wizardry series by Rick Cook about a programmer named Wiz who is transported to a land where he finds magic can be programmed. My favorite version of this plot (in part because gently caress Forth and reverse Polish notation) is in Broken Crescent by S. Andrew Swann: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/075640214X?ie=UTF8&tag=sandreswannsh-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=075640214X
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Jun 25, 2015 04:30
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My favorite recent "transported to fantasy realm" books are those Caverns & Cobolds ones by Robert Bevan. They're about a group of friends playing D&D, I mean C&C, who are transported to the world they're roleplaying in by the angry neckbeard DM after they make fun of him and don't play the way he wants em to. The audiobooks are awesome, with the narrator providing some great voices for the characters, especially the min-max half orc, who's always making GBS threads himself cuz of his as low as possible charisma score.
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Jun 25, 2015 05:52
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My favourite portal fantasy book will always be Lev Grossman's The Magicians. Take a depressed high-schooler, put him in American-Hogwarts, and when he becomes too disaffected with that, give him an existentialist crisis by then putting him in hosed-up-Narnia. It's the Inception of fantasy worlds, and it's loving marvellous 
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Jun 25, 2015 06:07
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savinhill posted:My favorite recent "transported to fantasy realm" books are those Caverns & Cobolds ones by Robert Bevan. They're about a group of friends playing D&D, I mean C&C, who are transported to the world they're roleplaying in by the angry neckbeard DM after they make fun of him and don't play the way he wants em to. The audiobooks are awesome, with the narrator providing some great voices for the characters, especially the min-max half orc, who's always making GBS threads himself cuz of his as low as possible charisma score. I haven't heard the audiobooks but god drat do I love the novels. The short stories are pretty good if you have kindle unlimited as well.
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Jun 25, 2015 06:53
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occamsnailfile posted:Eric Flint is on the more tolerable end of the silly mil-sf stuff for me. It's probably the heavy emphasis on the working class parts of the fantasy world--dude's a hardcore socialist but the 1632 books are mostly about the greatness of 'murica in the 1600s. It's telling that the big drat heroes are basically the labour union organizers.
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Jun 25, 2015 07:39
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Ornamented Death posted:Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry qualifies. It's...alright, I guess. Not Kay's finest or most polished work, but a pretty impressive exercise in just how many fantasy clichés can be stuffed into one trilogy.
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Jun 25, 2015 07:41
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Ape Gone Insane posted:Figured I would post this here too: Honestly Battletech and its goofy EU is very GoT with stompy mechs. Also in regards to Alt-History and Eric flint etc. I think my favorite series with this premise was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_General_series I felt it was better put together than the Belisarius series and it is the one work of Sterling I really like. I feel a problem with alot of the Baen MilScifi guys is they all do their own thing and have some creative ideas, but the books feel like the same conflicts and same characters in different universes and it gets a little boring. (I went through a big MilScifi period in highschool) Jack2142 fucked around with this message at 08:51 on Jun 25, 2015 |
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Jun 25, 2015 08:43
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The Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove. it's not milsfi, but it's pretty GOTy...that I remember.
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Jun 25, 2015 08:57
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Just wanted to drop by to say two things. I'm currently reading Neal Stephenson's Anathema, and it's great but drat it's slow. I'm loving it so far though (40% in). It kind of reminds me of "A Canticle for Leibowitz" (1961 Hugo Awards winner), in the sense that a religious order basically worships science, knowledge and "dialogue" (which is really submitting counter-arguments to a theory to make sure it's worthwhile). I'll see where it leads but I'm afraid to be disappointed as the expectations the first half of the book sets are pretty high. The second thing is a book recommendation. A friend and I were discussing the causality principle and long story short we started discussing what cause led to the Big Bang - there must be something before that generated the cause and its effects we currently live in. And we were wondering if there's any good science fiction book that covers that (probably hard SF). We could read about string theory and poo poo but I figure there must be a good book about this somewhere. Is there?
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Jun 25, 2015 15:44
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occamsnailfile posted:The concept is often called a "Portal Fantasy" in that a hero from our own world goes through a portal to somewhere magical. http://bestfantasybooks.com/portal-fantasy.html has a list though as you can see from that there's a lot of variation that still meets those basic requirements. The 1632 series is alt-history but definitely involves using modern ideas in a medieval time period. I guess it's different from Cross-Time Engineer in that it uses an ensemble cast rather than focusing on a central character. _The Anubis Gates_ by Tim Powers is a great example.
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Jun 25, 2015 15:48
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Furism posted:Just wanted to drop by to say two things. I'm currently reading Neal Stephenson's Anathema, and it's great but drat it's slow. I'm loving it so far though (40% in). "great but drat it's slow" applies to the first 40 percent of basically everything Neal Stephenson has written, with the possible exception of Zodiac. Honestly, even the first 40 percent of Seveneves seems pretty slow, and he blows up the moon in like the first page. I love all his work, but it can definitely take a while to get going.
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Jun 25, 2015 16:47
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If you like the first 40% of Anathema, I'm pretty confident you'll end up liking the whole thing. I don't remember it being a weak ending or anything, so if you like Stephenson's style in the first half, no reason you won't like the second half.
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Jun 25, 2015 16:55
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Furism posted:The second thing is a book recommendation. A friend and I were discussing the causality principle and long story short we started discussing what cause led to the Big Bang - there must be something before that generated the cause and its effects we currently live in. And we were wondering if there's any good science fiction book that covers that (probably hard SF). We could read about string theory and poo poo but I figure there must be a good book about this somewhere. Is there? Hmm. Have you tried Summa Theologica?
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Jun 25, 2015 17:02
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Phanatic posted:_The Anubis Gates_ by Tim Powers is a great example. Errr, I don't know. Wasn't the main character a werewolf poet who timetraveled with a wizard or something? Regardless, it was only just time traveling, too, wasn't it? I think the Necroscope series by Lumley might be a better example of a portal world cum fantasy wizard stuff. Furism posted:The second thing is a book recommendation. A friend and I were discussing the causality principle and long story short we started discussing what cause led to the Big Bang - there must be something before that generated the cause and its effects we currently live in. And we were wondering if there's any good science fiction book that covers that (probably hard SF). We could read about string theory and poo poo but I figure there must be a good book about this somewhere. Is there? HHGTTG series. 
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Jun 25, 2015 17:12
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Drifter posted:Errr, I don't know. Wasn't the main character a werewolf poet who timetraveled with a wizard or something? Regardless, it was only just time traveling, too, wasn't it? I think the Necroscope series by Lumley might be a better example of a portal world cum fantasy wizard stuff. It's a rather overrated book but not a bad one.
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Jun 25, 2015 17:33
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Drifter posted:I'm trying to find some new books for a friend, and I know he really loved the Magic Kingdom of Landover series by Terry Brooks. Hell, when I was a kid I really liked them too. I would suggest looking for books with a similar tone rather just the same concept. Maybe the first few of Asprin's Myth books, maybe The Misenchanted Sword.and then the other Ethshar books. Stasheff did republished and edited versions of the warlock books that were significant improvement s over his first efforts, so you might want to look for the revisions. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Jun 25, 2015 |
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Jun 25, 2015 17:43
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House Louse posted:Hmm. Have you tried Summa Theologica? Wikipedia posted:The Summa's topics follow a cycle: the existence of God; Creation, Man; Man's purpose; Christ; the Sacraments; and back to God. Yeah, no, that's not gonna work for me. Well I guess it qualifies as fiction though. 
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Jun 25, 2015 17:55
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Furism posted:The second thing is a book recommendation. A friend and I were discussing the causality principle and long story short we started discussing what cause led to the Big Bang - there must be something before that generated the cause and its effects we currently live in. And we were wondering if there's any good science fiction book that covers that (probably hard SF). We could read about string theory and poo poo but I figure there must be a good book about this somewhere. Is there?
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Jun 25, 2015 17:56
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Re: Egan, I absolutely plowed through Quarantine and thought the Oceanic collection had some really good stories in it as well, but have others kinda stalled with Permutation City like I have? I feel like it still hasn't really grabbed me halfway in, something about the plot being very slow to coalesce maybe?
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Jun 25, 2015 18:08
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Seconding the Ethshar books. I really like 'The Unwilling Warlord'.
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Jun 25, 2015 18:17
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Furism posted:Yeah, no, that's not gonna work for me. Well I guess it qualifies as fiction though. Think he meant Summa Technologiae.
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Jun 25, 2015 18:39
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Furism posted:
The classic Tau Zero, by Poul Anderson, touches the Big Bang issue (somehow). Cosm, by Gregory Benford, can be close to what you are searching for... just from another point of view. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/96354.Cosm
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Jun 25, 2015 20:21
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Cool, thanks for all the recommendations guys I'll check them out!
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Jun 25, 2015 21:44
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Furism posted:Yeah, no, that's not gonna work for me. Well I guess it qualifies as fiction though. This is such a m'lady post.
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Jun 26, 2015 01:26
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Drifter posted:HHGTTG series. Fairly sure one of the Red Dwarf books covers it as well. Everyone should read the red dwarf books anyway, they're really funny.
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Jun 26, 2015 02:02
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Furism posted:Cool, thanks for all the recommendations guys I'll check them out! Can't count as hard SF but Asimov's The Last Question sort of fits. And you should read it anyway, here.
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Jun 26, 2015 08:05
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MrFlibble posted:Fairly sure one of the Red Dwarf books covers it as well. Everyone should read the red dwarf books anyway, they're really funny. Don't read the Doug Naylor solo book though, that one isn't that great.
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Jun 26, 2015 13:21
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Megazver posted:Think he meant Summa Technologiae. Nope, Aquinas' proofs of the existence of God as ultimate cause of the universe. Seriously, James Blish's "Cities in Flight" books, but you can skip the first one. It's pretty dull, if I remember. E: Also it's Summa Theologiae, oops. Safety Biscuits fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Jun 26, 2015 |
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Jun 26, 2015 15:36
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muscles like this? posted:Don't read the Doug Naylor solo book though, that one isn't that great. I definitely remember preferring Backwards but I don't think Last Human was terrible. To be clear to people who may not know the series has divergent conclusions .It goes Red Dwarf THEN Better than Life THEN Backwards OR Last Human.
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Jun 26, 2015 15:37
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The book series is weird because the further along it goes the less I like it. I really like the first book, only partially like the second, didn't think the Rob Grant one was that good and hated the Doug Naylor one. The Rob Grant one is strange because like 2/3 of the way through it seems like he forgets that Cat and Lister are teenagers now.
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Jun 26, 2015 17:08
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Oh man... I'm currently listening to the Audiobook version of Hyperion (finally) and holy crap it's good. Both the book and the audio production. The different narrators really strengthen the style of each pilgrim's story. I'm currently up to the Detective story so sadly it's nearly over. Are the other Hyperion novels worth it? What about Ilium/Olympos? I remember hearing that Simmons' other stuff isn't as good as Hyperion. vvvv---Got it. At least I have one good one to go then. General Emergency fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Jun 26, 2015 |
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Jun 26, 2015 17:45
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Read the second Hyperion book, then just stop. Please. It's not worth it.
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Jun 26, 2015 17:47
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chrisoya posted:Read the second Hyperion book, then just stop. Please. It's not worth it. This could be the next thread title.
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Jun 26, 2015 18:00
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Illium/Olympos is decent for what it is - a completely batshit insane clusterfuck of randomly picked sci-fi tropes. Fun read, though. Best Simmons book is The Terror, anyway.
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Jun 26, 2015 18:07
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Just got a message from my bookshop that Annihilation Score by Stross was sent today. Just need to finish The Water Knife before it arrives.
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Jun 26, 2015 18:45
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Cardiac posted:Just got a message from my bookshop that Annihilation Score by Stross was sent today. You know, I'm really pissed about the US release date for "The Annihilation Score". Like, the UK version comes out on July 2nd - right when my four-day weekend begins, and I would have time to read the whole thing in one sitting, because it's the 4th of July weekend in America and I don't have any friends or loved ones within thousands of miles so I'm going to be spending the whole long weekend in my apartment with my cat. But the US release is obviously timed to come *after* the 4th of July weekend. Is relaxing with a book during a holiday just not supposed to be a thing in America? Fuckers. Fuckers fuckers fuckers. I may do the old Kindle country switcheroo anyway. And then there's the fact that Poseidon's Wake doesn't even come out in the US until *next year*... Fuckers. Fuckers fuckers fuckers fuckers fuckers.
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Jun 26, 2015 19:32
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anilEhilated posted:Best Simmons book is The Terror, anyway. It strikes me that if someone likes the battle against the elements parts of the The Terror, and/or if they like The Martian, then that person should really read Ernest Shackleton's South. It's still in print.
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