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Patrick Spens posted:Temeraire is pretty good, but later novels drop off quickly and deeply. Every character is a Mary Sue, including real-life crazy despot Napoleon Bonaparte.
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Jul 6, 2015 23:13
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Patrick Spens posted:Temeraire is pretty good, but later novels drop off quickly and deeply. The biggest sin it commits is that the explanation of the mysteries of the setting is slightly less interesting than if the mysteries were left unexplained, but the author insists on methodically revealing every mystery anyways. This isn't necessarily a fatal flaw to a series in general, but becomes one because the of second-biggest sin, which is that the characters are incredibly two-dimensional and lacking in any originality. Because of this, each book is slightly worse than the one that came before it. As one reads, the slow realization sets in that the series isn't a journey to a destination where there will be a big payoff at the end, but rather an increasingly boring slog with progressively fewer interesting things to see. I still think the first book is worth reading, because the setting was genuinely that interesting, but with the caveat to stop reading when the reader has had enough. It's one of those series where, with the benefit of hindsight, I wish I would have stopped reading one book sooner.
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Jul 6, 2015 23:14
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It's like Honor Harrington only much worse (a low bar to be sure)
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Jul 6, 2015 23:17
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Patrick Spens posted:It does share the lack of focus that characterizes late BC, but if you really like fantasy places that are obviously based on historical areas I'd give it a shot. You don't just get NotEurope, you get NotGermany, and NotRome, and NotFatimids and NotTime displaced Vikings. Also, have you read his Dread Empire series? Does Dread Empire get any better? I had to really push myself to get through the first book, then got a third of the way through the second, felt bored senseless and stopped.
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Jul 6, 2015 23:36
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The Rat posted:Does Dread Empire get any better? I had to really push myself to get through the first book, then got a third of the way through the second, felt bored senseless and stopped. If you don't like THAT Dread Empire, you should go read Walter Jon Williams' Dread Empire. Fuckin' nice set of books.
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Jul 6, 2015 23:47
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The Rat posted:Does Dread Empire get any better? I had to really push myself to get through the first book, then got a third of the way through the second, felt bored senseless and stopped. Instrumentalities is better than Dread Empire; I'd answer your question "no", though, Dread Empire is pretty steady throughout.
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Jul 6, 2015 23:47
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syphon posted:Yeah I really didn't like ${TITLE} Of Thorns but am really enjoying Prince of Fools. I'm a sucker for humor/action in my books! What series can people recommend with a similar world to that of these books? I really enjoy the "way after some sort of apocalypse, but now there is magic". For the records, I've read Vance's Dying Earth stuff, and the Wolfe Urth books.
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Jul 6, 2015 23:59
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Drifter posted:If you don't like THAT Dread Empire, you should go read Walter Jon Williams' Dread Empire. Fuckin' nice set of books. Except for the part where they have no tension whatsoever. When the very premise of your story is that the two protagonists are the only people with functioning brains in the galaxy there isn't much to keep the reader interested. I actually liked the characters a lot, but Jesus, have someone face a challenge sometime.
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Jul 7, 2015 00:27
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The Rat posted:Does Dread Empire get any better? I had to really push myself to get through the first book, then got a third of the way through the second, felt bored senseless and stopped. If you didn't like the first book, you are very likely not going to like the rest of them no.
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Jul 7, 2015 00:54
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tonytheshoes posted:Got it--so it's a summer blockbuster in book form. Just not my thing... Well, that's not true. The focus is just on the science and engineering challenges rather than the psychological ones. I loved the book and so did all my engineer friends and we all found the characters both believable and relatable.
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Jul 7, 2015 01:42
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platero posted:What series can people recommend with a similar world to that of these books? I really enjoy the "way after some sort of apocalypse, but now there is magic". For the records, I've read Vance's Dying Earth stuff, and the Wolfe Urth books. The demon cycle series by Peter V. Brett is that i'm pretty sure.
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Jul 7, 2015 03:00
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rchandra posted:Can't count as hard SF but Asimov's The Last Question sort of fits. And you should read it anyway, here. From a few weeks ago but thanks for linking that. Levitate posted:Endymion would be good if it didn't have the "guy raises a young girl who goes through a time warp and then he marries her" part which is weird If you think that's weird go watch Predestination
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Jul 7, 2015 03:06
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Yeah weird here doesn't mean 'weird', it means 'I find this material problematic and I am triggered'. Predestination is normal weird.
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Jul 7, 2015 04:30
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Antti posted:I would argue sometimes Watney lacks a proper grasp of... gravitas. Well to be fair, the gravitas on mars is like 1/5th what it is on earth.
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Jul 7, 2015 04:53
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tonytheshoes posted:Read The Martian this weekend and I was thoroughly disappointed. The book had the emotional depth of a Michael Bay movie, a mostly unlikeable protagonist (hurr, (.Y.) boobs), cardboard supporting characters, and absolutely zero suspense or feeling of danger. Yeah, don't feel bad, it was a very popcorn summer flick kind of book to me too  I thought it was fine enough and enjoyed the science parts, but totally agree about everything else besides the science-y stuff being a bit disappointing given the hype. I don't remember where I read it, but didn't it start as a series of blog posts about scientifically accurate ways to solve interesting hypothetical problems? If I'm not making that up, that goes a long way towards explaining the strengths and weaknesses of it.
sourdough fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Jul 7, 2015 |
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Jul 7, 2015 05:02
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RVProfootballer posted:Yeah, don't feel bad, it was a very popcorn summer flick kind of book to me too Yup, that's exactly how it began. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SemyzKgaUU Personally, the only parts I didn't care for were the Earth scenes; besides that I very much enjoyed it. Edit: They start talking how it came about around the 19:40 mark. BadOptics fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Jul 7, 2015 |
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Jul 7, 2015 05:13
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So I finished off The Annihilation Score by Stross. It was basically superheroes versus bureaucracy all throughout the book. Main person is Mo, which was sort of refreshing. We are also 9 months into Case Nightmare Green, which is also one of the premises of the book. Since it is a Laundry book, you know what you get, but the book was kinda a letdown after The Rhesus Chart. The plot is kinda meandering for most of the book, and then it comes to an abrupt ending. Stross have really become in love with his universe, and therefore too wordy about minor details that doesn't affect the plotline. The whole bureaucracy thing doesn't really fit with an apocalyptical setting. So there are only supposed to be 1 more book in the series, which will finish off the whole thing? Cause that seems to about right for the series, and then he can go back to the Eschaton series or write short stories from the Laundry universe.
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Jul 7, 2015 07:04
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Is the Eschaton still hosed? I thought he decided he'd broken that universe. Neptune's Brood was good though, and used the space pirates idea he'd had for the third Eschaton book.
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Jul 7, 2015 07:09
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Cardiac posted:So I finished off The Annihilation Score by Stross. Does making the main character Mo do anything to like give her a real personality? It was always weird to me that almost every other prominent female character in The Laundry Files has a strong personality but since the beginning Mo has always been more or less a giant void.
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Jul 7, 2015 09:11
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0 rows returned posted:Does making the main character Mo do anything to like give her a real personality? It was always weird to me that almost every other prominent female character in The Laundry Files has a strong personality but since the beginning Mo has always been more or less a giant void. Well, she is more or less written as a female version of Bob in the book, so go figure. Also more emphasis on clothes.....
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Jul 7, 2015 12:11
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corn in the bible posted:It's like Honor Harrington only much worse (a low bar to be sure) Is that even possible? I've read a bunch of those and they only seem to get worse. Not only it completely feels written by a far-right, NRA lover, sub-par Tom Clancy (ie: Not China is sneaky, Not Europe/France is lazy, Totally Not USA is awesome factions), but anything outside of the space porn battles is just poorly written and feels like a young adult erotica novel. HOW CAN ANYTHING BE WORSE THAN THAT?
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Jul 7, 2015 12:20
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Azathoth posted:The Temeraire series has an interesting concept, which is mechanically explored in minute detail over each successive book. How far into the series one gets depends on how interesting they find that one concept. This is all true, but I'd add that the Temeraire series does a big genre shift. It starts off as historical fiction but after a few books it almost wholly stops even trying to comport with the historical setting -- all the characters start acting wildly out-of-period, world history diverges wildly, etc. The first book is something I'd feel comfortable recommending to fans of Hornblower or Johnathan Strange, but nothing after that. Furism posted:Is that even possible? I've read a bunch of those and they only seem to get worse. Not only it completely feels written by a far-right, NRA lover, sub-par Tom Clancy (ie: Not China is sneaky, Not Europe/France is lazy, Totally Not USA is awesome factions), but anything outside of the space porn battles is just poorly written and feels like a young adult erotica novel. The first Temeraire book is actually really well done, much better written than On Basilisk Station, so the disappointment is greater when yet another innovative Hornblower clone goes badly off the rails. The politics are more tolerable at least though (I've seen people describe the later Temeraire books as "what if dragons meant colonialism didn't happen"). It doesn't come across as erotica, more like fan fiction of itself. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 13:13 on Jul 7, 2015 |
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Jul 7, 2015 13:09
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Cardiac posted:Well, she is more or less written as a female version of Bob in the book, so go figure. I think there is a measurable difference - she's (way) less of an ubergoon, and takes herself slightly more seriously. The voices are similar, but you can see how her and Bob's different lives, careers, and interests have shaped them. Did feel a lot more 'end of part one' than most Laundry books - it ended with a huge, world-shaking incident and didn't have much of an epilogue to clear things up. Hopefully, we'll get another Mo book as well before we switch to another protagonist (like that vampire kid from the Rhesus Chart, who's very obviously being set up for a leading narrative role).
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Jul 7, 2015 13:59
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faceglaven posted:The demon cycle series by Peter V. Brett is that i'm pretty sure. Demon cycle is in the running for worst fantasy series ever written
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Jul 7, 2015 15:45
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spootime posted:Demon cycle is in the running for worst fantasy series ever written It started off with such promise, too. Even worse I began the series by listening to the Graphic Audio (I think?) production of it and it was so refreshingly different. I even loved that they gave the main character a southern drawl, because why the hell not? I began reading it concurrently with The Lightbringer books by Brent Weeks and it has been interesting to see the two series vary inversely in quality. Speaking of books about 'the boy who will be the world's savior,' Queen of Fire is out today. Started it only to realize that while I remember Blood Song well enough, and certain character arcs from Tower Lord, I still feel a bit at sea with all the characters whose lives I don't recall in any real detail.
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Jul 7, 2015 16:15
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faceglaven posted:The demon cycle series by Peter V. Brett is that i'm pretty sure. Giving the guy magic all over his body ends up being boring. It's like some kid read the Twenty Palaces stuff and thought, "well it'd be funner if he was totally immune to everything - and also was entirely unlikable." coyo7e fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Jul 7, 2015 |
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Jul 7, 2015 16:16
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On The Annihilation Score: +Mo not a total computer nerd goon +Focus on fantasy office-ing actually works better than the usual sci-spy stuff +Fun -Usual "suddenly all is revealed, defeated, end book" BS (just finished re reading The Hydrogen Sonata which ended similarly, what is it with British scifi authors and lazy cut to black endings?!) -Usual "everything else you were working on was secretly worthless but who cares you got promoted!!!" thing is killing any investment I have in reading these books so thank god the End of the World is coming. -I have a feeling Mo and Bob will reconcile and God I hate it I think there's another three books coming: Just Before the End of the World, The End, and After the End. MOD EDIT: Please use spoiler tags for new releases. Thanks! Somebody fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Jul 12, 2015 |
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Jul 7, 2015 16:25
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Still hoping the last scene is Bob committing suicide.
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Jul 7, 2015 16:35
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Combed Thunderclap posted:-Usual "everything else you were working on was secretly worthless but who cares you got promoted!!!" thing is killing any investment I have in reading these books so thank god the End of the World is coming. I also feel this way about my professional life!
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Jul 7, 2015 16:58
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I can't recall if Six Gun Tarot and Shotgun Arcana by RS Belcher have been discussed here. Golgatha, NV is an mining town that has a lot in common with Sunnydale or Pine Cove. The sort of place where long time residents have taken the time to make sure they know the correct plural of Apocalypse. Angels, monsters, and cults abound. Arrayed against them are the sheriff, who has been hanged 3 times, a half-Indian deputy named Mutt, and a teenage boy named Jim with his pa's glass eye. Belcher pulls from all sorts of belief systems, there's touches of Gnosticism, Mormonism, native American lore, Cthulhu Mythos, and even some bits pulled in from The Far East. I read the two here in the last couple of weeks, and thought they were fun summer reads. They sort of have the feel of Christopher Moore's stuff if it were in the Old West, or Buffy or something similar. Just a bit of a busted mining town on the edge of the desert, and darned if vampires, chupacabra, and madmen don't just keep wandering in and trying to upset things.
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Jul 7, 2015 17:03
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Speaking of Lightbringer. How does it compare to The Night Angel Trilogy? Night Angel wasn't really grabbing me, but I've heard Lightbringer is better.
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Jul 7, 2015 18:03
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General Emergency posted:Speaking of Lightbringer. How does it compare to The Night Angel Trilogy? Night Angel wasn't really grabbing me, but I've heard Lightbringer is better. It is much, much better. I enjoyed portions of Night Angel (the scenes in the prison pit were really well written) but for the most part it really came across as amateur writing that desperately needed an editor. Either he improved greatly or got that needed help. It's still not nearly as good as some of the better authors (Abercrombie, Lynch) in terms of style but it is easily more entertaining than most in the genre.
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Jul 7, 2015 19:41
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I finished the Tawny Man trilogy by Robin Hobb recently, and phew, it really burnt a lot of my good will with the series. She's a fantastic author as always, but the plot structure was just a little bit too obsessive about tying a neat little bow around every character's life. I found that I much preferred the more sober endings that she gave the Farseer and Liveship Traders trilogies. Her next set of books is the Rain Wilds Chronicles, which I've been dragging my feet on starting because I'm worried about Hobb taking the same Let's-Tidy-Everything-Up approach to the characters from the Liveship Traders, which would be a shame on account of how much I enjoyed that trilogy. Can anyone else recommend/warn off? PS: the Tawny Man trilogy also featured one of the most catastrophically irritating instances of queerbaiting I have ever in my life laid eyes upon
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Jul 8, 2015 00:23
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Rain Wilds is kind of like the Liveship trilogy in that the first half of the first book is all setup, as in the characters whining and bitching. Once you get through that it's okay.
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Jul 8, 2015 00:42
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Well to be fair, the gravitas on mars is like 1/5th what it is on earth.  Cardiac posted:So I finished off The Annihilation Score by Stross. quote:So there are only supposed to be 1 more book in the series, which will finish off the whole thing? 0 rows returned posted:Does making the main character Mo do anything to like give her a real personality? It was always weird to me that almost every other prominent female character in The Laundry Files has a strong personality but since the beginning Mo has always been more or less a giant void. Combed Thunderclap posted:-Usual "suddenly all is revealed, defeated, end book" BS (just finished re reading The Hydrogen Sonata which ended similarly, what is it with British scifi authors and lazy cut to black endings?!) quote:-Usual "everything else you were working on was secretly worthless but who cares you got promoted!!!" thing is killing any investment I have in reading these books so thank god the End of the World is coming. quote:-I have a feeling Mo and Bob will reconcile and God I hate it chrisoya posted:Still hoping the last scene is Bob committing suicide.
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Jul 8, 2015 01:09
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DolphinCop posted:I finished the Tawny Man trilogy by Robin Hobb recently, and phew, it really burnt a lot of my good will with the series. She's a fantastic author as always, but the plot structure was just a little bit too obsessive about tying a neat little bow around every character's life. I found that I much preferred the more sober endings that she gave the Farseer and Liveship Traders trilogies. Her next set of books is the Rain Wilds Chronicles, which I've been dragging my feet on starting because I'm worried about Hobb taking the same Let's-Tidy-Everything-Up approach to the characters from the Liveship Traders, which would be a shame on account of how much I enjoyed that trilogy. Can anyone else recommend/warn off? I wouldn't especially call the ending to the Rain Wilds Trilogy tidy, and honestly most of the leads in Liveship Traders are secondary characters in Rain Wilds. Edit: Also it is substantially better than Tawny Man.
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Jul 8, 2015 01:25
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Anyone plow into Queen of Fire and have thoughts on it? I enjoyed the first one but the second book was generic and forgettable. Don't have high hopes for the third.
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Jul 8, 2015 01:25
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Velius posted:Except for the part where they have no tension whatsoever. When the very premise of your story is that the two protagonists are the only people with functioning brains in the galaxy there isn't much to keep the reader interested. I actually liked the characters a lot, but Jesus, have someone face a challenge sometime. Also, physics and orbital mechanics do not work that way. Specifically, he's got spaceships routinely zipping along at relativistic (or nearly so; it's been a while) velocity, passively slingshotting back and forth between gravity wells of planets. Nuh-uh, the amount of delta-V you can get from a gravity slingshot is roughly on the order of the escape velocity of the planet you use for the maneuver. Broke my suspension of disbelief. Groke fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Jul 8, 2015 |
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Jul 8, 2015 06:42
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Robotnik posted:It is much, much better. I enjoyed portions of Night Angel (the scenes in the prison pit were really well written) but for the most part it really came across as amateur writing that desperately needed an editor. Either he improved greatly or got that needed help. It's still not nearly as good as some of the better authors (Abercrombie, Lynch) in terms of style but it is easily more entertaining than most in the genre. Does the third book in Lightbringer become somewhat better? I have read the first 2 and they are readable, but not more than that. Decent flow in the story but it just feels rather shallow and the characters are kinda generic. It is really a series made for selling on airports. DolphinCop posted:I finished the Tawny Man trilogy by Robin Hobb recently, and phew, it really burnt a lot of my good will with the series. She's a fantastic author as always, but the plot structure was just a little bit too obsessive about tying a neat little bow around every character's life. I found that I much preferred the more sober endings that she gave the Farseer and Liveship Traders trilogies. Her next set of books is the Rain Wilds Chronicles, which I've been dragging my feet on starting because I'm worried about Hobb taking the same Let's-Tidy-Everything-Up approach to the characters from the Liveship Traders, which would be a shame on account of how much I enjoyed that trilogy. Can anyone else recommend/warn off? Hobb is always good and always readable. And I am still bummed about Nighteyes in the Tawny Man trilogy. Rain Wild Chronicles are nice, new characters for most of the time and it is interesting to the continuation of the dragons fate from Liveship Traders.
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Jul 8, 2015 07:11
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DolphinCop posted:I finished the Tawny Man trilogy by Robin Hobb recently, and phew, it really burnt a lot of my good will with the series. She's a fantastic author as always, but the plot structure was just a little bit too obsessive about tying a neat little bow around every character's life. I found that I much preferred the more sober endings that she gave the Farseer and Liveship Traders trilogies. Her next set of books is the Rain Wilds Chronicles, which I've been dragging my feet on starting because I'm worried about Hobb taking the same Let's-Tidy-Everything-Up approach to the characters from the Liveship Traders, which would be a shame on account of how much I enjoyed that trilogy. Can anyone else recommend/warn off? The Rat posted:Rain Wilds is kind of like the Liveship trilogy in that the first half of the first book is all setup, as in the characters whining and bitching. Once you get through that it's okay. You also do have some Liveship characters showing up at times however the only real issue is that you can see a lot of previous character types come back up, including the very obviously total rear end in a top hat husband who you just want to see die in the worst way. The character development for some of the more 'main' characters is good though, and the slow start isn't as bad as Liveship's was. I wish her most recent series was more cursed shores (and pirate isles) stuff. It just seems more interesting than Fitz and the Six Duchies at this point.
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