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Evil Fluffy posted: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. Everything is more interesting than Fitz at this point. The Assassin series had a perfect ending for Fitz (well, not for him obviously, but storywise). Hobb should really start killing her darlings and not bring them back the whole time, I say while trying not to remember events in the Tawny Man series and Fools Assassin.
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Jul 8, 2015 07:24
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Hand Row posted: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. It was OK. It was the sort of book where I could post a whole bunch of cons, many of which sound like dealbreakers, but the overall experience was solid enough that they weren't a big deal. It was bleaker than the previous books, as the nightmare war against the Volarians wore down on our characters even when they were winning, and the series's problem with weak overarching villains really came to the forefront here (they basically self-destructed due to their immortality driving them nuts, which was kind of unsatisfying). The ending was much more sequel-hooky than I expected - it succeeded in capping off the trilogy as a standalone reasonably enough, but quite apart from the standard dealio of setting up even bigger, scarier supernatural forces out there, there were several major characters (especially Lyrna) whose arcs didn't feel resolved. In fact, I kind of wish the author hadn't brought in another potential supernatural menace - seeing the cast rebuild after the Volarian war and come to terms with peacetime would have been an interesting story in its own right.
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Jul 8, 2015 09:50
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Has anyone read the books Red Rising and Golden Som by pierce brown? My friend really likes them but I trust you all collectively more than her.
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Jul 8, 2015 12:42
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Nevvy Z posted:Has anyone read the books Red Rising and Golden Som by pierce brown? My friend really likes them but I trust you all collectively more than her. First one is Roman Hunger Games, second is mildly more interesting. It's alright, nothing spectacular. I enjoyed them, but they weren't off-the-wall-awesome.
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Jul 8, 2015 14:47
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Stross is doing an AMA on Reddit right now.
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Jul 8, 2015 16:24
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thetechnoloser posted:First one is Roman Hunger Games, second is mildly more interesting. Yeah this sounds about right. The first one felt like a bait and switch. I got sold on a Martian rebellion and got a bunch of teens larping instead. The second one was a cool interplanetary war romp though.
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Jul 8, 2015 18:01
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Those books are YA, I can't imagine the first one being sold as anything BUT a bunch of teens larping in space. For fucks sake, they're divided socially into color codes like Karate belts, aren't they?quote:Darrow is a Red, a miner in the interior of Mars. His mission is to extract enough precious elements to one day tame the surface of the planet and allow humans to live on it. The Reds are humanity's last hope. What about this DOESN'T scream Unless you're teenaged yourself, you really ought not be reading anything where a summary contains "Character is <age>" or "Character is a <group label>" and expecting something Drifter fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Jul 8, 2015 |
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Jul 8, 2015 18:39
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Cardiac posted:Does the third book in Lightbringer become somewhat better? No, the third one doesn't get substantially better. If you don't feel compelled to continue... don't.
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Jul 8, 2015 22:25
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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 Hyperion Had a Martian military commander fall in love on the battlefield with an infant that went though a time warp so no that's not it.
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Jul 9, 2015 00:06
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Just finished The Martian in 2 days. Holy poo poo that was a great book.
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Jul 9, 2015 00:33
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Thanks for all the Robin Hobb endorsements. I guess I will be picking up the Rain Wilds Chronicles eventually, then.gohmak posted:Just finished The Martian in 2 days. Holy poo poo that was a great book. I enjoy the survivalist portions of The Martian, but the arbitrary hops back to Earth's point of view took away from the tension and isolation, imo. I know the author wasn't going for a super psychological angle, but it still left me pining for something a little more We Die Alone in tone and style.
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Jul 9, 2015 00:38
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I'm mad that Amazon will not even sell me a physical copy of Monday Begins on Saturday
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Jul 9, 2015 00:39
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Cardiac posted:Hobb is always good and always readable. Spoilers: Robin Hobb feels that Peter Molyneux has cornered the market on hard-hitting content for end-users, so The Dog is A Big Deal. Hobb should start killing *all* of her *characters*, and then let every one of her readers move on with their life of, "not wanting to watch an author murder someone's puppy over, and over, and over..."
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Jul 9, 2015 01:10
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corn in the bible posted:I'm mad that Amazon will not even sell me a physical copy of Monday Begins on Saturday I thought that wasn't getting republished for another few more months.
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Jul 9, 2015 01:32
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DolphinCop posted:Thanks for all the Robin Hobb endorsements. I guess I will be picking up the Rain Wilds Chronicles eventually, then. Stay away from the Soldier Son stuff, though. Coyo7e, you've gotten a bug up your butt; Robin Hobb's Assassin's sextet and Live Ship stuff is quite nice.  Bugbutter. 
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Jul 9, 2015 02:15
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Cardiac posted:Hobb is always good and always readable. Soldier Son would like to have some words with you.
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Jul 9, 2015 02:34
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Khizan posted:Soldier Son would like to have some words with you. I must be in a minority. I find all Hobb unreadable in the same way I can't stand any Thomas Covenant.
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Jul 9, 2015 02:47
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Khizan posted:Soldier Son would like to have some words with you. Still better than most other fantasy, although admittedly hardly not one of her better books. Robotnik posted:I must be in a minority. I find all Hobb unreadable in the same way I can't stand any Thomas Covenant. Why am I not surprised.
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Jul 9, 2015 07:00
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fritz posted:I thought that wasn't getting republished for another few more months. You can buy it, both for real and on ebook, in europe. Just not if you'reAmerican.
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Jul 9, 2015 10:00
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DolphinCop posted:Thanks for all the Robin Hobb endorsements. I guess I will be picking up the Rain Wilds Chronicles eventually, then. I enjoyed the Earth parts too. The book was about hope not desolation. On to Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora. August can't get here soon enough for Three-Body Problem sequel Dark Forest. gohmak fucked around with this message at 13:41 on Jul 9, 2015 |
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Jul 9, 2015 13:39
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I'm about a quarter of the way in on Naomi Novik's "Uprooted" and so far its pretty good. There are a few cliches to contend with but I trust her to go beyond them.
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Jul 9, 2015 13:52
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I finally found a copy of Sheri Tepper's Sideshow,. The villains are an EVIL HIVEMIND of UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS who tyranically enforce CULTURAL DIVERSITY upon humanity. There is a pair of male/female siamese twins who are teleported from their abusive Catholic upbringing into the future so that they can defeat the professors using their knowledge of circuses. The aliens are known as "celery aliens." The heroes work to help install a fungus that will brainwash everyone into being nice to eachother, and this allows them to finally unite humanity in happiness and the universe is saved. Also, every single male character is wrong at all times because men are evil. In the end of the book, the siamese twins are turned into otters. I think. I don't really know.
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Jul 9, 2015 14:06
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Oh yeah and the heroine is named FRINGE OWLDARK FRINGE OWLDARK
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Jul 9, 2015 14:10
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I read Uprooted recently and enjoyed it a lot. It doesn't focus too heavily on the romance and I really liked the Wood as a horrific antagonist. I also liked that the story was resolved with something besides killing the end boss. The fighting was mostly pointless and awful and solved nothing, even the special magic sword couldn't kill the Wood. It took some actual reconciliation.
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Jul 9, 2015 14:17
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corn in the bible posted:Oh yeah and the heroine is named FRINGE OWLDARK anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Jul 9, 2015 |
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Jul 9, 2015 15:16
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anilEhilated posted:Self-published fanfiction? I mean, I'm not surprised people write this stuff, but actually publishing it? Matriarch of feminist science fiction, actually.
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Jul 9, 2015 15:31
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Does anyone remember a novel where countries get put in some endless flat plane, and there's stuff about communist ants as well? The ants nuke eeryone in the end iirc
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Jul 9, 2015 15:32
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corn in the bible posted:Does anyone remember a novel where countries get put in some endless flat plane, and there's stuff about communist ants as well? The ants nuke eeryone in the end iirc Missile Gap by Charles Stross. It's a novella you can read for free at his publisher's site or something.
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Jul 9, 2015 15:36
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Enjoyed Red Rising and Golden Son, thanks for the recommendations. It felt like a mature blend of Hunger Games, Ender's Game, Gattaca and Spartacus. Waiting for the last book to be released now. Any other fairly recent, non-lovely, mature books with a similar concept/vibe?
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Jul 9, 2015 15:58
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anilEhilated posted:Self-published fanfiction? I mean, I'm not surprised people write this stuff, but actually publishing it? Sheri Tepper has written lots of books and won several awards. She is crazy, and you should read some of her books. The Companions, which ends with God destroying the human race by giving them really good sex toys, is especially bizarre.
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Jul 9, 2015 16:08
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corn in the bible posted:Sheri Tepper has written lots of books and won several awards. She is crazy, and you should read some of her books. The Companions, which ends with God destroying the human race by giving them really good sex toys, is especially bizarre. Minus God, that's precisely what caused human extinction in a couple of Charles Stross novels! (The main character of the first one is one of the sex toys, whose life is without purpose now that her creators are extinct.)
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Jul 9, 2015 19:37
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Kesper North posted:Minus God, that's precisely what caused human extinction in a couple of Charles Stross novels! (The main character of the first one is one of the sex toys, whose life is without purpose now that her creators are extinct.) Is that explained in Neptune's Brood? IIRC in Saturn's Children the reasons of the extinction are a mistery. Amberskin fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Jul 9, 2015 |
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Jul 9, 2015 19:45
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Kesper North posted:Minus God, that's precisely what caused human extinction in a couple of Charles Stross novels! (The main character of the first one is one of the sex toys, whose life is without purpose now that her creators are extinct.) Also Harlan Ellison's story "How's the Night Life on Cissalda?", where a bunch of blobby aliens with powerful telepathy and pheromones destroy human civilization in a flurry of nonstop boinking.
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Jul 9, 2015 20:05
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Amberskin posted:Is that explained in Neptune's Brood? IIRC in Saturn's Children the reasons of the extinction are a mistery. No... no, it's pretty clearly described that way in Saturn's Children.
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Jul 9, 2015 20:21
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Selachian posted:Also Harlan Ellison's story "How's the Night Life on Cissalda?", where a bunch of blobby aliens with powerful telepathy and pheromones destroy human civilization in a flurry of nonstop boinking. If I'm remembering rightly, this story includes a Queen Elizabeth II sex scene.
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Jul 9, 2015 20:30
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TheHoodedClaw posted:If I'm remembering rightly, this story includes a Queen Elizabeth II sex scene. It does. Ellison throws in a bunch of scenes of celebrities being sexed by Cissaldans, including William Shatner, Truman Capote, the Dalai Lama, Idi Amin, Salvador Dali, Billy Graham, and yes, Liz 2.
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Jul 9, 2015 21:29
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Kesper North posted:No... no, it's pretty clearly described that way in Saturn's Children. Ouch. Time to reread the book.
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Jul 9, 2015 22:26
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Selachian posted:It does. Ellison throws in a bunch of scenes of celebrities being sexed by Cissaldans, including William Shatner, Truman Capote, the Dalai Lama, Idi Amin, Salvador Dali, Billy Graham, and yes, Liz 2. Quite the party there.
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Jul 9, 2015 22:44
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Kesper North posted:Minus God, that's precisely what caused human extinction in a couple of Charles Stross novels! (The main character of the first one is one of the sex toys, whose life is without purpose now that her creators are extinct.) it is weirder when god's plan is to give people submissive sex dolls until they die out its ok though because he spares the people who have pet dogs. all other humans must die, but dog lovers survive
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Jul 9, 2015 23:13
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Drifter posted:Stay away from the Soldier Son stuff, though. corn in the bible posted:Oh yeah and the heroine is named FRINGE OWLDARK coyo7e fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Jul 9, 2015 |
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Jul 9, 2015 23:39
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