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Amberskin posted:Ouch. Time to reread the book. I have a cat in my lap, so I can't go find the passage. but the author also mentions it in his "behind the scenes" blog post on the book: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/07/crib-sheet-saturns-children.html
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Jul 10, 2015 00:07
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corn in the bible posted:it is weirder when god's plan is to give people submissive sex dolls until they die out this is already happening in japan 
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Jul 10, 2015 00:57
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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.
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Jul 10, 2015 03:10
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Finished KSR's Aurora tonight. It was great, of course. Interesting choices in POV and overall plot. He wields his trademark awe of environments in a slightly different way here - far more judiciously, but to great effect. His evolving stance on spaceflight/exploration/colonization is a (or the) central theme, and after this I'm not sure if there's much more to say. It's strange, since I like his space-themed novels very much, but if this was the last one he ever wrote it would make sense. As a side note, I find his unabashed reuse of themes/ideas/places/characters/names/conversations to be interesting and unique among authors. Meditative. He doesn't change things for the sake of changing them, but he doesn't try to fit them together for the sake of, either. There's no shared universe, but they're not totally separate either. It gives his body of work more of a body. It lends to the sense that he's circling around some bedrock of truth, poking at it from different angles. I like it.
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Jul 10, 2015 05:15
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corn in the bible posted:You can buy it, both for real and on ebook, in europe. Just not if you'reAmerican. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Monday-Starts-Saturday-S-F-MASTERWORKS/dp/1473202213/ ??? amazon.de looks the same.
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Jul 10, 2015 05:59
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Kesper North posted:I have a cat in my lap, so I can't go find the passage. but the author also mentions it in his "behind the scenes" blog post on the book: Got it, thanks. And my memories of the book came back. I got the idea mankind just died of boredom, and didn't realize the sexbots had an important role about that; after all, sexbots where available just for the elites; on the other hand, in that kind of society where work was not necessary and there were no real challenges for a human being, probably most of the society qualified as elite. I'll reread the book anyway. I probably missed more stuff along it. Right now, after going thru the complete Revelation Space books (I think the only one I've not read is "The Prefect") I'm reading the first book of the Laundry Files. 1/3 thru it, I'm enjoying the read. Lovecraft + Dilbert + 007 = blast.
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Jul 10, 2015 10:07
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fritz posted:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Monday-Starts-Saturday-S-F-MASTERWORKS/dp/1473202213/ ??? amazon.de looks the same. If you have an american address or card you cannot buy it.
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Jul 10, 2015 10:43
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I'm reading "Poseidon's Wake" finally (grr Gollancz) and to my suprise, I'm enjoying it a good deal more than the previous books in the series. It has a lot more of the cosmic-horror-creepy elements, and competing agendas that Reynolds does well.
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Jul 10, 2015 13:57
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Prince of Fools and The Liar's Key are very good. I really liked the Jorg books too though. They give me a Gene Wolfe Book of the New Sun vibe. The Wheel being the ruins of the LHC still causing all sorts of problems, and all the other technology and nukes running amok in a fantasy world, is just so cool in every way.
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Jul 10, 2015 16:07
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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. This review needs linking again.
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Jul 10, 2015 16:28
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Holy gently caress, Dean Koontz is 70. 70
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Jul 10, 2015 17:02
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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. At the weird hippy private school I went to the book The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri S. Tepper was required reading in one of the English classes. It was a pretty interesting book (and doesn’t have any over-the-top fantastic elements,) but I remember it doing that uncomfortable thing some science fiction novels do where you can’t tell if it’s using eugenics as a theme or outright advocating eugenics. Blastedhellscape fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Jul 10, 2015 |
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Jul 10, 2015 17:56
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I'm really loving confused about that woman's philosophical standpoints. From that review and the posts here it's... eco-determinist catholic feminism?
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Jul 10, 2015 17:59
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Kesper North posted:I'm reading "Poseidon's Wake" finally (grr Gollancz) and to my suprise, I'm enjoying it a good deal more than the previous books in the series. It has a lot more of the cosmic-horror-creepy elements, and competing agendas that Reynolds does well. I love the concept of a really advanced race collectively becoming nihilist due to the not being able to stop the heat death of the universe. "Whoa is me, the universe will end eventually so what is the point of this dyson sphere I've contructed if my no one can marvel at it trillions of years from now." Then the humans are like "Knowing that nothing ever matters makes good deeds truly altruistic" 
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Jul 10, 2015 22:13
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Blastedhellscape posted:At the weird hippy private school I went to the book The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri S. Tepper was required reading in one of the English classes. It was a pretty interesting book (and doesn’t have any over-the-top fantastic elements,) but I remember it doing that uncomfortable thing some science fiction novels do where you can’t tell if it’s using eugenics as a theme or outright advocating eugenics. Gate to Women's Country is explicitly pro-eugenics.
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Jul 10, 2015 22:22
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anilEhilated posted:I'm really loving confused about that woman's philosophical standpoints. From that review and the posts here it's... eco-determinist catholic feminism? No, she hates organized religion too. Especially Catholicism.
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Jul 10, 2015 22:23
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corn in the bible posted:Gate to Women's Country is explicitly pro-eugenics. As is the rest of her oeuvre, yes. Tepper is that rarest of things, a literal eco-fascist.
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Jul 10, 2015 23:19
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Seriously, check out this Strange Horizons interview. The rabbithole has no bottom.
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Jul 11, 2015 00:00
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So I loved Glen Cook's Black Company series, is his Dread Empire series any good?
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Jul 11, 2015 04:49
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Mustang posted:So I loved Glen Cook's Black Company series, is his Dread Empire series any good? I liked Dread Empire, but I recommend Instrumentalities of the Night over Dread Empire.
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Jul 11, 2015 04:59
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Prolonged Priapism posted:As a side note, I find his unabashed reuse of themes/ideas/places/characters/names/conversations to be interesting and unique among authors. Meditative. He doesn't change things for the sake of changing them, but he doesn't try to fit them together for the sake of, either. There's no shared universe, but they're not totally separate either. It gives his body of work more of a body. It lends to the sense that he's circling around some bedrock of truth, poking at it from different angles. I like it. What cases did you catch being reused? It's been a while since I read the rest of his stuff, so I only noticed Pauline.
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Jul 11, 2015 05:13
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corn in the bible posted:No, she hates organized religion too. Especially Catholicism.
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Jul 11, 2015 06:10
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Blastedhellscape posted:At the weird hippy private school I went to the book The Gate to Women’s Country by Sheri S. Tepper was required reading in one of the English classes. It was a pretty interesting book (and doesn’t have any over-the-top fantastic elements,) but I remember it doing that uncomfortable thing some science fiction novels do where you can’t tell if it’s using eugenics as a theme or outright advocating eugenics.
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Jul 11, 2015 08:54
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Prolonged Priapism posted:Finished KSR's Aurora tonight. It was great, of course. Interesting choices in POV and overall plot. He wields his trademark awe of environments in a slightly different way here - far more judiciously, but to great effect. His evolving stance on spaceflight/exploration/colonization is a (or the) central theme, and after this I'm not sure if there's much more to say. It's strange, since I like his space-themed novels very much, but if this was the last one he ever wrote it would make sense. I totally agree and I love him for it. It's like how I read Icehenge after the Mars Trilogy, you can see it was just an early idea that he then tempered into greatness. If I were to model myself after a writer it would be him.
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Jul 11, 2015 13:07
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anilEhilated posted:Really? Because the whole "people need to atone for what their ancestors did" thing seems pretty unoriginal but rather Original to me. Grass is pretty unabashedly anti-Catholic, and also anti-foxhunting. And in the end our supermensch heroine Majorie Westriding rides into space on her giant fox boyfriend, who is also invisible
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Jul 11, 2015 13:13
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New trailer for the Expanse: http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/09/expanse-trailer
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Jul 11, 2015 15:25
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Dammit. Tom Piccirilli died.
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Jul 11, 2015 22:07
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The Quantum Thief was really good. Is the sequel as good? I don't want to get gotten by a Lies of Locke Lamora situation again.
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Jul 11, 2015 22:27
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Not as good but still plenty enjoyable. I feel the third one takes a drop in quality, though.
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Jul 11, 2015 22:31
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Speaking of drop in quality, Queen of Fire is a two and a half stars on Amazon right now. It was just two stars earlier today.
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Jul 11, 2015 22:47
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DACK FAYDEN posted:The Quantum Thief was really good. Is the sequel as good? I don't want to get gotten by a Lies of Locke Lamora situation again. The entire trilogy is worth it but yeah the first is the best. Edit: I think everyone saw that Queen of Fire was going to be a dud.
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Jul 11, 2015 23:00
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I mean, not really? Tower Lord was a swerve in a different direction from Blood Song and it was somewhat rougher, but I still enjoyed it. The reaction this time goes way beyond "this is not what I expected", though.
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Jul 11, 2015 23:10
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Maybe not dud but I think most were leery of the third book even though the second was ok. Too bad I really liked the first book.
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Jul 11, 2015 23:17
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I think the thing with The Causal Angel is that the sense of wonder diminishes somewhat because it's not doing anything completely new like The Quantum Thief and The Fractal Prince. It's still worth reading but it doesn't grab you the same way. Also by the third book the author's style of throwing you in the deep end is not as powerful as a device because, on the one hand, you already know a lot of the jargon (at least by context), and on the other, it's growing thin from repetition.
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Jul 11, 2015 23:24
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I just finished the latest Django Wexler (Thousand Names, Shadow Throne) book, The Price of Valour. I have to say, I'm impressed. It's like Wexler took every single complaint I had with The Shadow Throne and tackled it head on. And that ending. It was obvious from the start that Jane wasn't exactly stable, but I wasn't expecting her to try and shoot Winter, holy poo poo. 
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Jul 12, 2015 04:05
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Good news, apparently the Expanse pilot doesn't suck: http://io9.com/the-expanse-is-the-show-we-ve-been-wanting-since-battle-1717279167
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Jul 12, 2015 04:09
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Kesper North posted:Good news, apparently the Expanse pilot doesn't suck: Doesn't suck so far. SyFy doesn't have a good track record maintaining even mediocre quality.
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Jul 12, 2015 04:29
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Lemniscate Blue posted:Doesn't suck so far. SyFy doesn't have a good track record maintaining even mediocre quality. Supposedly this is going to be their most expensive series to date. Might not mean much, but I'm cautiously optimistic.
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Jul 12, 2015 04:32
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Megazver posted:I mean, not really? Tower Lord was a swerve in a different direction from Blood Song and it was somewhat rougher, but I still enjoyed it. The reaction this time goes way beyond "this is not what I expected", though. I thought Tower Lord had a completely different tone and pace from the first book. It wasn't bad in it's own way but it felt like too much of a shift from Blood Song. I haven't read Queen of Fire yet and I'm not sure I'll bother, the reviews are absolutely scathing. Maybe I'll try the next Django Wexler book, Shadow Throne was a mess but at least I'm hearing better things about Price of Valour.
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Jul 12, 2015 04:38
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Today's UK Kindle daily deal includes a number of decent sci-fi books, including Ancillary Justice, Starship Troopers, Proxima by Stephen Baxter, a couple of Arthur C Clarke's, Metro 2034 (but not 2033), and Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds.
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Jul 12, 2015 08:14
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