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Drifter posted:That's amazing, but is it any different than the videos/media already out? Or is it news because it's getting a dub or something, updated art? There's a new show being made, but I'm not sure whether the licensing is for that or the old one.
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Jul 3, 2015 15:13
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Finished the silver wings series. My god does the author love Deus ex machina. I almost threw the tablet across the room when the aliens that were repeatedly described as looking like Roswell aliens are called Ross'El to their friends.
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Jul 4, 2015 23:10
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0 rows returned posted:Is it worth it to continue with the Revelation Space series if the first one didn't do much for me? I would say to check out Chasm City. That was my entry into Reynolds's RS universe, and even though it's a standalone it dovetails nicely with a lot of the plot elements of the RS trilogy, and overall is a much more memorable book to me, even ten years on.
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Jul 5, 2015 00:45
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If I have the omnibus editions (1-6) of the Vorkosigan books, what are the books left that I need to get individually, and when should I read them between omnibus editions?
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Jul 6, 2015 05:31
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Drifter posted:If I have the omnibus editions (1-6) of the Vorkosigan books, what are the books left that I need to get individually, and when should I read them between omnibus editions? I'd definitely recommend going in chronological rather than publication order, though you can hold off on the prequel 'Falling Free' until later. From the author herself: http://www.dendarii.com/reading_order.html And someone else explaining which stories are in each omnibus: http://jamesgecko.com/vorkosigan-omnibus/ As the second mentions, 'Memory' isn't in an omnibus, but you're going to want it - if you skip it you'll be very confused.
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Jul 6, 2015 05:48
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chimz posted:I'd definitely recommend going in chronological rather than publication order, though you can hold off on the prequel 'Falling Free' until later. The really important part is to read Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance and Memory in that order; and not to read anything set after Memory before reading Memory. Also a good alternative to strict chronological order is to start with the first proper Miles book (The Warrior's Apprentice) rather than the pre-Miles duology (Shards of Honor and Barrayar; aka the "Cordelia's Honor" omnibus), and go back to read that at a later point (preferably before you get to A Civil Campaign, or you'll miss out on some loving hilarious references). The main argument for this is that the first half of said duology (Shards of Honor) is probably one of Bujold's weaker books, being an early work (and allegedly having started life in its first draft as Star Trek fanfic); the second half was written a few years later and shows a more seasoned author already. Also there's really nothing wrong with publication order either.
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Jul 6, 2015 07:52
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Groke posted:The really important part is to read Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance and Memory in that order; and not to read anything set after Memory before reading Memory. And read Komarr before A Civil Campaign. I really, really wish I could read this series for the first time again.
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Jul 6, 2015 16:28
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Yeah, so I have the omnibuses, and then went and picked up Memory and Cryoburn - the first to read after Miles Errant, and the latter to read last. Looks good. Thank you. Should be fun. Now, While picking up those two at amazon, there was lots of crosstalk about Kris Longknife and Honor Harrington. One of those is the bad series, right?
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Jul 6, 2015 17:31
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Any of you guys know much about the CoDominum series by Jerry Pournelle (and quite a few other authors)? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoDominium
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Jul 6, 2015 17:48
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Drifter posted:Now, While picking up those two at amazon, there was lots of crosstalk about Kris Longknife and Honor Harrington. One of those is the bad series, right? Honor Harrington started okay as Hornblower in Space (with a Space France and Space Britain) but it spirals downhill fast. The first two books - On Basilisk Station and The Honor of the Queen are free on baen's website. Try the first, and if it's okay go to the second. If you think "hm that was okay, but it needed another 200 pages of technobabble filler and the protagonist needs to be even more awesome," then continue with the series. Otherwise, don't. Here's the thing, though, we're discussing this in context of you buying Bujold's entire Miles series. Nobody else at Baen holds a candle to Bujold, so uh, it's going to be a pretty stark change when you finish Captain Vorpatril's Alliance and then say "hmm what next" and go for either Longknife or Harrington. Psion fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Jul 6, 2015 |
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Jul 6, 2015 18:25
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Drifter posted:Yeah, so I have the omnibuses, and then went and picked up Memory and Cryoburn - the first to read after Miles Errant, and the latter to read last. Looks good. Thank you. Should be fun. Don't forget Captain Vorpatril's Alliance which is one of the more just plain fun entries in the series.
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Jul 6, 2015 18:31
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Psion posted:Honor Harrington started okay as Hornblower in Space (with a Space France and Space Britain) but it spirals downhill fast. The first two books - On Basilisk Station and The Honor of the Queen are free on baen's website. Try the first, and if it's okay go to the second. If you think "hm that was okay, but it needed another 200 pages of technobabble filler and the protagonist needs to be even more awesome," then continue with the series. Otherwise, don't. This page actually has downloads for all the CDs full of free books Baen places in their hardcopies. AFAIK it's completely kosher since the contents of the CDs are free anyway. This one has the first dozen Harrington book in it, plus some side stories. Honor Harrington is by no means a literary masterpiece, but if you like swashbuckling space navy stuff or intergalactic politics it's a fun read.
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Jul 6, 2015 18:38
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Baloogan posted:Any of you guys know much about the CoDominum series by Jerry Pournelle (and quite a few other authors)? I've only read The Mote in God's Eye and it's sequel, Gripping Hand. Mote is prime classic sf and has a really cool alien planet/biosphere set up (even though you don't visit the actual planet until the second book). The space navy comes off pretty stuffy, some of which I think is age since publication and some is intentional but it doesn't quite hit the baroque bureaucracy that, say, Banks' The Algebraist evokes. I didn't enjoy Gripping Hand as much as Mote, partly because they dig deeper into the unexplained/handwaved stuff that made the Moties cool, but still worth reading.
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Jul 6, 2015 18:44
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WarLocke posted:This page actually has downloads for all the CDs full of free books Baen places in their hardcopies. AFAIK it's completely kosher since the contents of the CDs are free anyway. This one has the first dozen Harrington book in it, plus some side stories. yeah I know the rest are available - and yes it's totally kosher, the Baen people know the guy who runs the fifth imperium pretty well. His name is Joe Buckley, you may remember him as a minor character who kept dying horribly in a series of books published by Baen  We've had this conversation before, I think.
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Jul 6, 2015 21:26
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Used to have the Vorkosigan series on there too, but they took it down. (I'm not deleting the copy I saved, already had almost all of them in hardcopy so feel justified in keeping it for personal use.)
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Jul 6, 2015 23:43
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Baloogan posted:Any of you guys know much about the CoDominum series by Jerry Pournelle (and quite a few other authors)? "The Prince" (the compendium of four novels by Pournelle and Sterling) is one of my favorite mil-sf books. It details the beginning of the empire that is the background setting for Mote. It's mostly land based small/medium unit tactic type of stuff and follows one guy as he moves up in rank in the space marines and then starts a mercenary outfit, with a smattering of politics mixed in. Basically, the CoDominium Earth govt is breaking down, using colonies as dumping grounds for criminals (aka British Empire transportation), colonies want to break away, rebellions crushed, eventually one Enlightened Planet sets up what becomes the empire. It's not quite as nobility-worshiping as, say, Honor Harrington novels, though. I've only read a few of the War World novels and they're ok, but pretty standard mil-sf pulpy stuff. It's not high literature but I enjoy the setting.
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Jul 7, 2015 05:20
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Psion posted:Try the first, and if it's okay go to the second. If you think "hm that was okay, but it needed another 200 pages of technobabble filler and the protagonist needs to be even more awesome," then continue with the series. Christ, really? It gets worse?
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Jul 7, 2015 09:22
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Arbite posted:Christ, really? It gets worse? And then it keeps getting worse. At least for the first several books (I dropped the series quite some time ago and can't say anything about the more recent books).
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Jul 7, 2015 15:35
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Isn't that the series with the psychic space cat?
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Jul 7, 2015 16:11
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coyo7e posted:Isn't that the series with the psychic space cat? Yup. It's even implied that they're just as smart as humans and that they just exploit their status as cute furry animals so they can screw around.
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Jul 7, 2015 17:01
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Kesper North posted:Yup. It's even implied that they're just as smart as humans and that they just exploit their status as cute furry animals so they can screw around. That sounds like a cat alright
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Jul 7, 2015 17:35
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Kesper North posted:Yup. It's even implied that they're just as smart as humans and that they just exploit their status as cute furry animals so they can screw around. It's not implied, Honor teaches them sign language and it's shown straight out.
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Jul 7, 2015 19:14
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hannibal posted:"The Prince" (the compendium of four novels by Pournelle and Sterling) is one of my favorite mil-sf books. It details the beginning of the empire that is the background setting for Mote. It's mostly land based small/medium unit tactic type of stuff and follows one guy as he moves up in rank in the space marines and then starts a mercenary outfit, with a smattering of politics mixed in. Basically, the CoDominium Earth govt is breaking down, using colonies as dumping grounds for criminals (aka British Empire transportation), colonies want to break away, rebellions crushed, eventually one Enlightened Planet sets up what becomes the empire. It's not quite as nobility-worshiping as, say, Honor Harrington novels, though. There's really no space opera content to the CoDominium novels. The Mote books are spacier than the rest and even then, it's more grinding battle than operatic awsomeness. I like the fact that Falkenberg's Legion shows the importance of good training, discipline, and staff work rather than focusing on a few over-the-top-awesome supersoldiers. I find some of the politics interesting and some of them terrifying.
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Jul 7, 2015 20:45
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Arbite posted:Christ, really? It gets worse? In book one, the protagonist is a competent but relatively untested ship captain who ~hates politics~ and is stuck in a lovely situation where she makes the tough calls and carries through to victory. Also she thinks she's ugly for some reason. In whatever the latest book is, the protagonist is the best and most experienced fleet commander in the galaxy, is literally psychic (not just her space cat), is widely regarded as like super attractive now that she has ~confidence~, has the personal ear and respect of both her own ruling monarch (Space England) but also the president and top officials of the newly reformed and less corrupt Space France, is a high noble of the realm (so much for hating politics), is a landed noble with even more powers (literal life and death powers of everyone under her domain) on another planet and supreme admiral of their fleet, is married to another pretty good Space Admiral in a weirdo tripartite marriage I don't want to get into, has been defeated a grand total of once and it was just getting jobbed so she could escape an unescapable prison planet, lost an arm and an eye but now has a cybereye which does all sorts of fancy poo poo and a super robo-arm which has a gun built into it because of course, is a master sword duelist, pistol shot (both competition and combat), uh ... there's more, I'm sure, but you see where we're going here. Weber was supposed to kill her just like Nelson died at Trafalgar, but he completely blinked and couldn't do it. Even he admitted this has more or less written himself into a corner so his solution is to just write about other people in the universe instead, usually by co-authoring with other people I like more. It's ... it is what it is. e: also this is a series where a character was named "Rob S. Pierre" and founded a Committee of Public Safety; his right-hand man was Oscar Saint-Just. This was presented as clever. I leave everyone to draw their own conclusions. Psion fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Jul 7, 2015 |
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Jul 7, 2015 20:58
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Psion posted:In book one, the protagonist is a competent but relatively untested ship captain who ~hates politics~ and is stuck in a lovely situation where she makes the tough calls and carries through to victory. Also she thinks she's ugly for some reason. I stopped reading when the new super bad people looked like they would get schooled by a secondary character soon. Has that happened? Is there a third enemy now, or did the super bad people and their fancy space u-boats get to win this one time? Or did the series end? The Solarian League losing hundreds of space ships every book got old fast, too.
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Jul 7, 2015 21:09
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Libluini posted:I stopped reading when the new super bad people looked like they would get schooled by a secondary character soon. Has that happened? Is there a third enemy now, or did the super bad people and their fancy space u-boats get to win this one time? Or did the series end?  I'm gonna guess the new super bad people are getting wrecked or will be getting wrecked pretty soon, because of course they will. I don't know though, because I also stopped reading them. I enjoy reading pulpy trash fiction just to see how bad it can get but these just burned me out. They aren't actively offensive like some other authors I could name and shame, they're just so boring. Weber super loving loves tech upgrades. This is the guy who would play Civ 5 hiding in the corner of the map teching up until he'd maxed out the tech tree and then he'd start doing things. Every time: tech upgrades, motherfucker! I actually dig that on some level, but it can only carry you so far when the rest of the book just doesn't have enough to carry it.
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Jul 7, 2015 21:13
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I kinda prefer lovely incompetent people in my sci fi
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Jul 7, 2015 21:17
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I was at Barnes and Noble and they have a free booklet with a new short story in it promoting The Expanse on SyFy, anyone read it? I'm curious what people think about it. I thought it was kind of interesting but I feel like anyone who hasn't read the rest of the books won't give a poo poo about it and and it's a bad introduction to the series, even though it treats one of the basic universe building points. It should have just been the prologue to Leviathan Wakes instead of its own story.
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Jul 7, 2015 21:22
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Libluini posted:I stopped reading when the new super bad people looked like they would get schooled by a secondary character soon. Has that happened? Is there a third enemy now, or did the super bad people and their fancy space u-boats get to win this one time? Or did the series end? Most of the plot progress for the Mesa Alignment stuff has been happening in the Torch/Crown of Slaves books, so you only get Honor showing up for a brief cameo every once in a while. The viewpoint characters are Anton Zilwicki (a retired Manticoran super spy dude, his teen daughter is the queen of Torch) and Victor Cachat (who is basically Space France Jason Bourne) and that particular spinoff series is almost completely devoid of spaceship fights, instead it's more about ground-level spy-type infiltration stuff (with the obligatory politics infodumps mostly coming from the Mesan side).
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Jul 7, 2015 22:02
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WarLocke posted:Most of the plot progress for the Mesa Alignment stuff has been happening in the Torch/Crown of Slaves books, so you only get Honor showing up for a brief cameo every once in a while. The viewpoint characters are Anton Zilwicki (a retired Manticoran super spy dude, his teen daughter is the queen of Torch) and Victor Cachat (who is basically Space France Jason Bourne) and that particular spinoff series is almost completely devoid of spaceship fights, instead it's more about ground-level spy-type infiltration stuff (with the obligatory politics infodumps mostly coming from the Mesan side). Yeah, I've read all those books, too. Now it looks like the Mesan Alignment gets torched in the next book and then what? One or two books of Harrington slaughtering Solarian spacers by the millions, I guess. David Weber seems to have forgotten that just having many enemies doesn't work as a threat when the only danger the heroes face is getting tired of murdering so many of them. Edit: The only thing I see which could get this mess back on track is if Honor Harrington's good friend gets her rear end killed when she tries to take on the Mesan Alignment with her fleet. Because otherwise, there's simply no plausible threat left. Edit 2: In hindsight, maybe I should spoiler this poo poo. Libluini fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Jul 7, 2015 |
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Jul 7, 2015 22:14
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Yeah, you won't get any argument from me that Weber is running out of antagonists. But what can you expect, the series is seriously at least two dozen books long now if you include the spin-offs and short story anthologies. Weber needs to find a way to just end it. (So he can spend more time writing Safehold books  )
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Jul 7, 2015 22:20
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Zorak of Michigan posted:There's really no space opera content to the CoDominium novels. The Mote books are spacier than the rest and even then, it's more grinding battle than operatic awsomeness. Good point, I forgot I was in the space opera thread rather than the regular scifi thread.
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Jul 8, 2015 01:22
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Psion posted:
Wasn't it Honor Harrington where the author wrote like a three page derail about advances made in missile technology and missile launch technology, ending literally with "none of this mattered to the characters in this particular moment"? Because that still sticks to my mind as the most blatant and terrible infodumping I've ever read. Should be enshrined and given to each prospective mil sci-fi writer the moment they first boot up a text editor.
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Jul 8, 2015 02:00
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ArchangeI posted:Wasn't it Honor Harrington where the author wrote like a three page derail about advances made in missile technology and missile launch technology, ending literally with "none of this mattered to the characters in this particular moment"? Because that still sticks to my mind as the most blatant and terrible infodumping I've ever read. Should be enshrined and given to each prospective mil sci-fi writer the moment they first boot up a text editor. This seems like the appropriate point to post "How David Weber Orders a Pizza:" http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=635193
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Jul 8, 2015 04:01
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blackmongoose posted:This seems like the appropriate point to post "How David Weber Orders a Pizza:" So what you're telling me is that the Safehold series is loving terrible?
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Jul 8, 2015 05:54
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Drifter posted:So what you're telling me is that the Safehold series is loving terrible? It's not space opera so I don't really bring it up in this thread, but it's a lot better than his Harrington stuff. It's still Weber, if you can't stand his infodump writing style that hasn't changed, but he avoids a lot of the 'new writer' mistakes he made with Harrington, and the setting isn't a lazy 'X but in SPACE' kludge. The main character is still pretty mary sue-ish, but it kind of fits the narrative (state-of-the-art space age android versus muskets and sabers isn't exactly an even contest) but the books acknowledge that no single person, no matter how superhuman, could simply roll up and change a society overnight, so he has to work behind the scenes, gathering allies, supporting them with 'inventions', etc.
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Jul 8, 2015 06:44
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Urgh. Safehold was just so boring though. I liked some of the concepts, but the execution was very dry.
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Jul 8, 2015 06:54
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Psion posted:Even he admitted this has more or less written himself into a corner so his solution is to just write about other people in the universe instead, usually by co-authoring with other people I like more. It's ... it is what it is. Sheesh. I did enjoy his book with Timothy Zahn. The fact that the chief villain was just murderous and not some sado-necro-pedophile was a nice change of pace for the genre. It would have been a better ending if the heroes had only stopped one of the ships from getting away, but I guess there's only so much you can hope for.
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Jul 8, 2015 08:12
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Arbite posted:Sheesh. I did enjoy his book with Timothy Zahn. The fact that the chief villain was just murderous and not some sado-necro-pedophile was a nice change of pace for the genre. It would have been a better ending if the heroes had only stopped one of the ships from getting away, but I guess there's only so much you can hope for. Yeah, "A Call to Duty" wasn't bad at all. Much better than the regular Honor stuff, anyway. It got a little technical about how fictional FTL drives work, but otherwise it was decent enough.
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Jul 8, 2015 08:29
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ArchangeI posted:Wasn't it Honor Harrington where the author wrote like a three page derail about advances made in missile technology and missile launch technology, ending literally with "none of this mattered to the characters in this particular moment"? Because that still sticks to my mind as the most blatant and terrible infodumping I've ever read. Should be enshrined and given to each prospective mil sci-fi writer the moment they first boot up a text editor. Sure was! And I was the terrible person who inflicted that upon this thread. Sufferrrrrrrrr. Arbite: Yes, his Zahn collaboration started a little rocky but has some potential - it's not bad. Of particular note, it's a (chronological) prequel so the tech is much, much less advanced - this is a good thing. Also Zahn is, y'know, better at writing. Those two combine to make the potential much, much stronger than any 'current" chronology book, where the only solution to making an interesting scenario writing in a universe founded on ship combat is to ignore the ship combat. I'll be interested to see what happens in book two after A Call To Duty - it's a planned trilogy right? I sure hope it stays one. also I found this by clicking some links from that truly accurate pizza thing. quote:So what we need is "Honor Harrington: David Weber's Classic Tale of Titanic Battles and Cunning Intrigue (The 'Good Parts' Version)"? I can just see the footnotes now:
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Jul 8, 2015 17:11
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