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BadOptics posted:The only downside to A Canticle for Leibowitz is the author's crazed rant at the end about euthanasia. It's understandable as from what I've read it was written by a very devout catholic, but it just fits in so horribly with the rest of the book. Besides that though I loved it. And then he euthanised himself with a gun. Where's your God now, Walter M Miller? 
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Jul 14, 2015 03:28
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Neurosis posted:And then he euthanised himself with a gun. Where's your God now, Walter M Miller? If he's catholic, nowhere near him now.
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Jul 14, 2015 04:45
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Lemniscate Blue posted:It's not high lit but I rather enjoyed Ready Player One, since I grew up on the tail end of the period he's nostalgiating (that's a word now). I don't need to read it again and I wouldn't want to read something that's just a reiteration of the same themes. If he keeps writing the same book over and over with different trappings then I probably won't bother picking anything else up.
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Jul 14, 2015 05:08
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chrisoya posted:The Society of Actuaries apparently has a science fiction competition? Some of the entries are neat, even if the writing isn't all that good. Blockchain Insurance Company, for instance, was six pages of dire exposition followed by a pretty good ending. Have a look. This must be the fantasy thread, I just thought actuaries were cool... NB I don't think the bitcoin in Neptune's Brood is our bitcoin, he was just being mildly precognitive again and picked a good name. Mel Mudkiper posted:So I keep reading reviewers hating on this Ernest Cline guy someone fill me in on what his deal is he's poo poo, stop being a loving child and read some real literature
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Jul 14, 2015 06:20
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The Water Knife really hit the spot for ultraviolent semi-post-apocalyptic after watching Mad Max. The main plot is a straightforward "chase the McGuffin" straight out of an airport thriller, but the world-building was fantastic and the characters were decent. Definitely worth reading if you're looking for something fast-paced
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Jul 14, 2015 06:48
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House Louse posted:This must be the fantasy thread, I just thought actuaries were cool... NB I don't think the bitcoin in Neptune's Brood is our bitcoin, he was just being mildly precognitive again and picked a good name.
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Jul 14, 2015 07:01
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NicelyNice posted:The Water Knife really hit the spot for ultraviolent semi-post-apocalyptic after watching Mad Max. The main plot is a straightforward "chase the McGuffin" straight out of an airport thriller, but the world-building was fantastic and the characters were decent. Definitely worth reading if you're looking for something fast-paced The plot actually reminded me of an epic western like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. It was an awesome book.
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Jul 14, 2015 07:06
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NicelyNice posted:The Water Knife really hit the spot for ultraviolent semi-post-apocalyptic after watching Mad Max. The main plot is a straightforward "chase the McGuffin" straight out of an airport thriller, but the world-building was fantastic and the characters were decent. Definitely worth reading if you're looking for something fast-paced Just finished it today, really enjoyed it. More or less on par with The Windup Girl, which was what I was hoping for. The only time I was disappointed was the five seconds before I realized the penultimate chapter wasn't the end of the book. Lucy saving the day for Phoenix would've been really trite imo, Maria being like "get a grip, bitch" was perfect Noctone fucked around with this message at 07:16 on Jul 14, 2015 |
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Jul 14, 2015 07:12
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chrisoya posted:The Society of Actuaries apparently has a science fiction competition? Some of the entries are neat, even if the writing isn't all that good. Blockchain Insurance Company, for instance, was six pages of dire exposition followed by a pretty good ending. Have a look. ...I just read a short story named after bitcoin terminology and now I hate you forever.
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Jul 14, 2015 07:27
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Neurosis posted:And then he euthanised himself with a gun. Where's your God now, Walter M Miller? If you'd read the book and especially the sequel you'd realize he'd pretty much given up on believing in anything by the end
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Jul 14, 2015 08:17
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Robotnik posted:...I just read a short story named after bitcoin terminology and now I hate you forever. (now read the short story about World of Warcraft insurance!)
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Jul 14, 2015 09:11
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Mars4523 posted:According to reviews this basically describes Armada to a tee. I enjoyed Ready Player One as a light adventure without other considerations, but Armada sounds like a straight rip-off of The Last Star fighter - possibly with a dose of The Computer Warrior from the 1980s Eagle comic, which mined the same seam.
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Jul 14, 2015 10:08
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Jedit posted:I enjoyed Ready Player One as a light adventure without other considerations, but Armada sounds like a straight rip-off of The Last Star fighter - possibly with a dose of The Computer Warrior from the 1980s Eagle comic, which mined the same seam.
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Jul 14, 2015 11:20
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Mars4523 posted:The Last Starfighter with more '80s masturbastion, by all accounts. The Slate review is something. quote:I felt like Luke Skywalker surveying a hangar full of A-, Y- and X-Wing Fighters just before the Battle of Yavin. Or Captain Apollo, climbing into the cockpit of his Viper on the Galactica’s flight deck. Ender Wiggin arriving at Battle School. Or Alex Rogan, clutching his Star League uniform, staring wide-eyed at a hangar full of Gunstars. quote:This is a book that ends with someone unironically quoting Yoda.
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Jul 14, 2015 11:35
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NicelyNice posted:The Water Knife really hit the spot for ultraviolent semi-post-apocalyptic after watching Mad Max. This book really made me want to play Fallout: Phoenix as a Water Knife.
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Jul 14, 2015 12:12
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BadOptics posted:The only downside to A Canticle for Leibowitz is the author's crazed rant at the end about euthanasia. It's understandable as from what I've read it was written by a very devout catholic, but it just fits in so horribly with the rest of the book. Besides that though I loved it. I honestly thought it was well balanced. Its understandable that the catholic monk would be against it but at the same point you also understand the guy that is pro euthanasia. its not like the doctor is written as a horrible monster.
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Jul 14, 2015 12:15
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Alhazred posted:I honestly thought it was well balanced. Its understandable that the catholic monk would be against it but at the same point you also understand the guy that is pro euthanasia. its not like the doctor is written as a horrible monster. I agree with this generally. It seemed fairly clear from the text that the suffering of the patient was being needlessly prolonged by dogmatic adherence to Catholic stricture, which was probably some kind of metaphor for the lingering death of humanity throughout the book and/or illustrating how two sides with good intentions still caused a lot of pain.
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Jul 14, 2015 17:18
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Has anyone read the newer Shannara books? I'm feeling kinda nostalgic with the news of the Shannara series on MTV and feel like revisiting the world. I liked the first three books. The next four or five were a little more of a chore as it became rather clear to me that the series was stagnating and Brooks was kind of grasping at straws to extend a franchise he was more or less done with. Then in the 2000's, he releases these new books that just feel like cheap cash ins taking advantage of the LotR movies. I stopped giving a poo poo after trudging the High Druid of Shannara series. Has he gotten any better since then?
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Jul 14, 2015 17:21
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chrisoya posted:drat. They didn't even HAVE A-Wings at Yavin! Come on!
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Jul 14, 2015 17:31
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Linnear posted:Has anyone read the newer Shannara books? I'm feeling kinda nostalgic with the news of the Shannara series on MTV and feel like revisiting the world. If you've read one Shannara book you've read every Shannara book.
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Jul 14, 2015 17:58
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Mars4523 posted:The Last Starfighter with more '80s masturbastion, by all accounts. The Slate review is something. I've just started it because I thought that Ready Player One was fun in its own way. Not good, but fun. I could let Cline's obsession with all things 80s be a part of that particular book's universe. That being said Armada is loving unbearable. The obsession with every aspect of that decade is still there except he can't use the theme of a world dominated by a video game created by somebody with Cline's same mania in order to justify the references. I'll probably still sweat through it, but only because I have it on audio and will use it as background noise. The protagonist has a genie (figuratively) for a boss who buys him all the expensive gaming equipment he needs just essentially so he has a kid to play video games with him. He spends a couple of paragraphs telling you about how hot his own mother is. He storms out of his classroom because otherwise he'd kick the rear end of the bully who is picking on other students. His two best friends, in the same scene, are arguing why Thor's hammer is way more badass of a weapon than Sting from The Hobbit. I've only read the first two chapters so far, I think? Robotnik fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Jul 14, 2015 |
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Jul 14, 2015 20:02
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SKimming the Rothfuss thread, and this post got me thinking:Solice Kirsk posted:I actually enjoyed the second book more than the first, but like the entire second half drags on. If Rothfuss didn't use incredibly stupid names for absolutely everything I think I would have been able to put up with it more. Sentences like: "I lowered myself into Heart of Stone, then countered Flying Fists with Lily of the Tiger" are used to describe every single thing, from magic, to sex, to fighting. That description feels like it's ripping off Wheel of Time, and the name-drop gimmick is tiresome there. Although the final moment of Sheathing the Sword makes it almost worthwhile. So what fantasy should I read if I want something with some well described action sequences? WoT and NotW as mentioned are a bundle of not-kung-fu. Prince of Nothing pulls the view back too far, and tries to focus on too many characters, while variably describing them by name, religion, ethnicity, or title, so it descends into a vague morass, and that's when he's not throwing around death counts of such magnitude that it makes every general look thoroughly incompetent.. Malazan goes the other way, tethering the view only to what single characters can immediately see and hear, so you get scenes written like "He rolled to the side, saw a shape blur past him, heard a body hit the ground" which just about works for small-scale scenes, but in battles I felt like I spent more time trying to puzzle out what's going on than actually enjoying the flow of it all. And, kind of similar - what fantasy should I read for well described wizard fights? WoT got too caught up in the mechanics of magic, I felt like I was reading a DnD handbook. But when on the rare occasions when Rand cuts loose there's some pretty mythic-scale set-pieces - like when he nukes the assembled hordes of Mordor in Helm's Deep, or opens portals to volcanoes. PoN is easily my favourite for this. There's the occasional Bigby's Raised Middle Digit but for the most part it skips straight to exploding people's hearts and setting their eyes on fire. When Akka brings out the Gnosis it doesn't feel like a fightscene, it feels like the world is coming to an end. But eventually he runs out of set-pieces, and by the second trilogy the wizard fights are just a repetitive annihilation of endless hordes of monsters (which is kind of the point of those books, but the later battles are just a chore to read through)
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Jul 14, 2015 20:42
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Not quite what you're after, but fairly short and very good: Jack Vance's The Miracle Workers has some interesting "wizards," who occasionally fight each other or get involved in large-scale battles. I really liked the way their magic worked. (no, it's not one of the Dying Earth stories that inspired D&D magic)
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Jul 14, 2015 20:51
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Strom Cuzewon posted:So what fantasy should I read if I want something with some well described action sequences? Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy. Strom Cuzewon posted:And, kind of similar - what fantasy should I read for well described wizard fights? Possibly Mistborn but Sanderson is also exhausting with describing how the rules of everything works. You could try David Hair's Moontide books or Jim Butcher's Codex Alera. But both of them require you being ok with reading about not-Rome fighting either not-Islam or not-the-Zerg. edit: for wizard fights definitely read the Powder Mage books by McClellan. Robotnik fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Jul 14, 2015 |
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Jul 14, 2015 20:54
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I just finished another book that fits the whole post apocalyptic sorta-mad max genre, Benjamin Percy's The Dead Lands. It's set in America long after society has collapsed from a world wide pandemic and resulting nuclear exchanges. There are some isolated enclaves of organized humans struggling to survive amidst a devastated landscape. The story starts out in one of these, St Louis, and follows a reimagined Lewis and Clark expedition launched from there. It doesn't have car chases, but still does have some great, very imaginative action set-pieces. It's very well written, with great and memorable characters, and deep thematic content.
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Jul 14, 2015 20:57
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Malazan series. It starts out with a giant black magical dude standing on a floating moon giving the finger to an entire army and loving it up. First Law Trilogy is good too although not much magic.
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Jul 15, 2015 00:46
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For those who enjoyed the Creatures and Caverns series by Robert Bevan, everything is .99 for the next couple of days. Short stories, books, etc., just his amazon and look. Personally I love the series, and haven't found anything else quite like it. It's horrible, crude, disturbing, and god damned hilarious.
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Jul 15, 2015 01:46
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It's been said before, but I found it to be very true.....The end of the Southern Reach Trilogy..... What a loving abortion.   
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Jul 15, 2015 03:32
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XBenedict posted:It's been said before, but I found it to be very true.....The end of the Southern Reach Trilogy..... What a loving abortion. Why? I loved it.
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Jul 15, 2015 03:49
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General Battuta posted:Why? I loved it. It was less of a finale and more of a "I need to finish this, so let's just take the parts that I cut from the first two, then add some random second-person narrative, because I'm bored with this poo poo".
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Jul 15, 2015 04:01
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The third one's my favorite. I was really surprised by how much got straight-out answered, and the new POVs were awesome.
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Jul 15, 2015 04:12
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Velius posted:If you've read one Shannara book you've read every Shannara book. If you've read Lord of the Rings, you've read a Shannara book.
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Jul 15, 2015 05:31
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Internet Wizard posted:They didn't even HAVE A-Wings at Yavin! Come on! I'm kind of annoyed I didn't realize this immediately after reading that quote.
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Jul 15, 2015 05:31
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chrisoya posted:Not quite what you're after, but fairly short and very good: Jack Vance's The Miracle Workers has some interesting "wizards," who occasionally fight each other or get involved in large-scale battles. I really liked the way their magic worked. It had some interesting ideas about the concepts of "magic," "science," etc. It also lacks likable characters and has a somewhat abrupt ending.
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Jul 15, 2015 05:46
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mllaneza posted:If you've read Lord of the Rings, you've read a Shannara book. Yeah, it's nice without all the lovely songs and poems.
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Jul 15, 2015 07:35
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General Battuta posted:The third one's my favorite. I was really surprised by how much got straight-out answered, and the new POVs were awesome.
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Jul 15, 2015 08:13
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I went into Southern Reach with reviews stating don't expect answers!! echoing in my head, and I was pretty surprised by how much straight up exposition there was in the last book. I thought the way it brought everything together was well done. It even kinda made the second book retroactivelly better.....XBenedict posted:It was less of a finale and more of a "I need to finish this, so let's just take the parts that I cut from the first two, then add some random second-person narrative, because I'm bored with this poo poo". ...so I don't really agree with this at all. It felt to me that he knew where everything was going in the books one and two, and exactly how things would end and be tied up in the final volume. Junkenstein fucked around with this message at 11:21 on Jul 15, 2015 |
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Jul 15, 2015 11:17
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Silver2195 posted:It had some interesting ideas about the concepts of "magic," "science," etc. It also lacks likable characters and has a somewhat abrupt ending. I'm not sure Vance ever wrote a likeable character though.
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Jul 15, 2015 11:20
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I mean... That's not really true? Even in the Dying Earth omnibus, Cugel and Rhialto are jerks, sure, but Guyal, T'sais and Ulan Dhor are alright. I also liked Kirth Gessen from Demon Princes. Vengeful hypercompetence is not unattractive. Oh and I liked Magnus Ridolph from the one story I've read of his. (Pretty sure GRRM's Tuf Voyaging was based on him.)
Megazver fucked around with this message at 11:38 on Jul 15, 2015 |
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Jul 15, 2015 11:34
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Strom Cuzewon posted:So what fantasy should I read if I want something with some well described action sequences? Literally anything by Gemmell. quote:And, kind of similar - what fantasy should I read for well described wizard fights? The two big wizard fights in the Belgariad are pretty drat good.
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Jul 15, 2015 13:21
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