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loquacius posted:Like, for example The Tales of Alvin Maker! Actually he isn't supposed to be Jesus but instead Joseph Smith. Also even though the book is set in the 1800s in one of the books the main character figures out that DNA exists through magic.
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Jul 20, 2015 23:39
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InediblePenguin posted:it's called Red Prophet and it has stereotype Native Americans on it wow Its depiction of Native Americans is extremely sympathetic (at the end, William Henry Harrison is cursed for life for killing a bunch of Native civilians) if still kind of stereotyped. The Prophet in question is this actual guy and effectively the real protagonist of that book, and white people in the books use the adjective "Red" to refer to Natives constantly, soooooo Red Prophet  muscles like this? posted:Actually he isn't supposed to be Jesus but instead Joseph Smith. Also even though the book is set in the 1800s in one of the books the main character figures out that DNA exists through magic. didn't know part one, forgot about part two,  to both
loquacius has a new favorite as of 23:51 on Jul 20, 2015 |
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Jul 20, 2015 23:44
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Read all the Ender Books. Read all the Alvin books. I also read this OSC trash: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Memory_of_Earth Basically the Book of Mormon in a weird Sci fi style. The only part I really remember is that the gay character agreed to stop being gay and get married so he could help their colony spaceship.
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Jul 20, 2015 23:51
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:Ender is Hitler-as-Christ. Yeah I was gonna say, this is all true, but that's how soldiers and christians are supposed to think about themselves, and Card is all about both those things
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Jul 21, 2015 21:04
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swamp waste posted:Yeah I was gonna say, this is all true, but that's how soldiers and christians are supposed to think about themselves, and Card is all about both those things Ender's Game was a huge hit but not for the reasons Card wanted. Whatever his intentions were for the book I seriously doubt that the critical reception and analysis it received were what thought he wrote. Card wrote Songmaster, which was shockingly creepy quote:Josif falls in love with Ansset the first time he meets him. He tries to avoid seeing the boy again, but this is impossible. As he slowly starts to mature, growing 17 centimetres, Ansset starts to seek out Josif's company more and more. Josif and Kyaren have a baby boy by now, but Ansset begins to realise that Josif is sexually attracted to him, as many people have been before. He recognises however, that Josif's love is different from the lust he has seen so often. Ansset starts to feel new longings. He knows that the drugs cause problems for Songbirds, particularly boys, but he has lost his songs and wants to know what happens next. Ansset eventually offers himself to the young man, saying, "I know what you want, and I'm willing". Josif lovingly brings the boy to his first climax. As Ansset experiences his first ever orgasm, he experiences enormous pain. The Songhouse drugs have almost killed him and he is forever impotent. Whatever Card says, he is unnaturally preoccupied with homosexuality and young boys.
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Jul 29, 2015 16:57
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pentyne posted:Ender's Game was a huge hit but not for the reasons Card wanted. Whatever his intentions were for the book I seriously doubt that the critical reception and analysis it received were what thought he wrote. Card wrote Songmaster, which was shockingly creepy It's the "17 centimeters" part that's weirdest, to me. Like Card's got a "You Must Be THIS TALL To Be Fuckable" sign in his study.
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Jul 29, 2015 18:06
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Oxxidation posted:It's the "17 centimeters" part that's weirdest, to me. Like Card's got a "You Must Be THIS TALL To Be Fuckable" sign in his study. I know it's always been popular to accuse the most aggressive homophobes of being secretly gay, but from Card's writings he is wholly obsessed with young naked boys.
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Jul 29, 2015 19:31
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Looking at the Ender books through a more critical lens it's clear that Card had some issues, but...holy poo poo. I had no idea about any of his other stuff.
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Aug 2, 2015 06:52
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Damnit, you guys are making me want to hate-read Skybound so I can give a better description of why it's bad beyond just "it's the teenage author's self-insert Mary Sue being a badass rebel".
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Aug 2, 2015 20:42
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I really enjoyed this takedown of Anathem. http://gmfbrown.blogspot.co.nz/2010/05/why-anathem-sucks.html Reached the end of the book, was very unsatisfied, and this really crystallized a lot of why for me.
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Aug 5, 2015 13:29
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xiw posted:I really enjoyed this takedown of Anathem. I suppose if you're a mathematician, a book with math playing a major role written by a non-mathematician would be irritating. Similar to how most books and movies regarding computers and hackers are like nails on a chalkboard to me. But god drat that "review" was tedious, uninteresting and full of nit-picky details. It's like the Neil Stephenson of reviews.
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Aug 5, 2015 13:39
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flosofl posted:It's like the Neil Stephenson of reviews.  What's your beef with Stephenson? I really enjoyed Seveneves, but i'll admit it was pretty weak after the timeskip.
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Aug 5, 2015 16:57
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Just Offscreen posted:
Actually, I don't have one and pretty much enjoy his books. But I couldn't pass up the joke after reading that tedious "review".
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Aug 5, 2015 17:00
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My beef is that the "my sweet nerd hero owns those sociologists" part of Cryptonomicon is one of the worst things I've ever read, and I've read Dune prequels.
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Aug 5, 2015 17:03
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I didn't like anathem at all. It was like a crappy cross between name of the rose and dictionary of the khazars. I have a copy of snow crab on my to read list though
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Aug 5, 2015 17:21
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The Vosgian Beast posted:My beef is that the "my sweet nerd hero owns those sociologists" part of Cryptonomicon is one of the worst things I've ever read, and I've read Dune prequels. What he said. Pretty much all the present day stuff in Cryptonomicon either pissed me off or struck me as really stupid, or both. Of course, I read it seven or so years after the dot-com bust.
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Aug 5, 2015 18:14
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Posted this in the Book Barns "Identify this story/book thread" a while backRough Lobster posted:I'm trying to remember the title of this so I can post about it in the awful books thread. Turns out this piece of poo poo book is Pariah, by Bob Fingerman. I can only assume the Bob Fingerman is as creepy as his name suggests, based off his writing.
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Aug 5, 2015 18:26
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quote:Terry Goodkind though, terrible. The main character of the Sword of Truth series, Richard Rahl, at one point ends up bringing down the evil (socialist) empire's capital city. It goes something like: I tried to read this series and could not bring myself to read the second book after slogging through the first. The entire last quarter of it is torture porn. It was loving unbearable. Also "Darken Rahl". I want to know the thought process that created that name.
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Aug 5, 2015 18:34
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The Vosgian Beast posted:My beef is that the "my sweet nerd hero owns those sociologists" part of Cryptonomicon is one of the worst things I've ever read, and I've read Dune prequels. Didn't he call them "elois" at some point? Also, there was a point in the 1940s section where a Finnish woman was referred to as (paraphrased) "speaking excellent English, like all people from her part of the world". Not in the 1940s they didn't. As for worst book, possibly "The Bear and the Dragon" by Tom Clancy. Aside from the infamous "Japanese sausage" euphemism, it seemed ridiculous how easily Russia allied with the US, how absurdly effective the high-tech cluster bombs were, how Ryan put himself at risk on the cruiser rather than allow himself to be evacuated and how the Chinese government was toppled in a bloodless coup just because they put a camera feed from drones on the internet.
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Aug 5, 2015 18:47
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Alter Ego posted:I tried to read this series and could not bring myself to read the second book after slogging through the first. The entire last quarter of it is torture porn. It was loving unbearable. The best part of it is that Richard takes to wearing an instrument of torture around his neck as a symbol of resilience or something. The very same, instrument, incidentally, that a dominatrix shoved up his rear end.
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Aug 5, 2015 19:29
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The Vosgian Beast posted:The best part of it is that Richard takes to wearing an instrument of torture around his neck as a symbol of resilience or something. So a buttplug on a necklace? It almost sounds like it's the "shitmazing" kind of bad. But the more I hear about it, the more it just sounds like the "bad" kind of bad.
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Aug 5, 2015 19:37
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He murders a crowd of protesting pacifists because they support the bad guys. This is portrayed as a good thing.
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Aug 5, 2015 20:11
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22 Eargesplitten posted:He murders a crowd of protesting pacifists because they support the bad guys. This is portrayed as a good thing. iirc it's some contrived ticking time bomb scenario and the supporting the bad guys thing is only secondary. Still hosed up though
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Aug 5, 2015 20:37
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The Vosgian Beast posted:My beef is that the "my sweet nerd hero owns those sociologists" part of Cryptonomicon is one of the worst things I've ever read, and I've read Dune prequels. I only read the first third of the book, but the MC's wife/gf is part of a social of elite liberal arts/sociology/"enlightened" group and the figurehead, some free thinking professor gets smug and starts talking about how the US governemnt is going to destroy ghettos and bulldoze parks to build the "information superhighway" and the MC just starts yelling at him. I didn't get the impression that the MC was anything more then a childish prick. The group clearly knew nothing about emergent technology and given how even in 00s people in positions of power and still baffled by the simplest new thing it's not fair to verbally attack them for being unaware. Maybe the group was being insanely smug because the MC didn't have an advanced degree but they all knew he worked extensively in computers and programming. I can't remember the details, it may have been worse then that. This is what I found quote:G.E.B. Kivistik is basically a gag character, but once he's actually challenged on his statements, he stops being pretentious and points out that Internet access is a privilege not easily given to, say, the poor, and the advantages it can confer can leave large groups of society behind rapidly while granting enormous advantages to others, which depending on who you ask, has pretty much been what's happened in the ten years since the book was released. Even Stephenson, who is trying to load the deck, refers to Randy's defense as "an uncontrollable urge to be a prick."
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Aug 5, 2015 22:38
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These people are all imaginary. This did not happen. Stephenson created this scenario.
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Aug 5, 2015 22:45
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The Vosgian Beast posted:These people are all imaginary. This did not happen. Stephenson created this scenario. But his SI-OC Randy still doesn't come off as being in the right. He's at best an rear end in a top hat to the misunderstood and unaware of the huge gap between him and the layman in terms of technological awareness.
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Aug 5, 2015 22:49
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The Vosgian Beast posted:My beef is that the "my sweet nerd hero owns those sociologists" part of Cryptonomicon is one of the worst things I've ever read, and I've read Dune prequels. Also, Stephenson's insistence on exclusively referring to Japan as 'Nippon'. Also Stephenson frequently referring to women as 'females'. Also failing to give Alan Turing, a fascinating historical figure, any characterization other than 'gayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy'. It is the neckbeardiest book.
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Aug 5, 2015 23:42
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Lamprey Cannon posted:Also, Stephenson's insistence on exclusively referring to Japan as 'Nippon'. Also Stephenson frequently referring to women as 'females'. Also failing to give Alan Turing, a fascinating historical figure, any characterization other than 'gayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy'. It is the neckbeardiest book. Wrong, this is the neckbeardiest book. 
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Aug 6, 2015 02:37
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Klaus88 posted:Wrong, this is the neckbeardiest book. Girls, girls, you're both pretty
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Aug 6, 2015 02:44
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Klaus88 posted:Wrong, this is the neckbeardiest book.  Not pictured: cellphone belt clip
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Aug 6, 2015 03:15
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Klaus88 posted:Wrong, this is the neckbeardiest book. I thought people were exaggerating but that book is loving awful. I can't understand why so many esteemed authors thought it was good. It's nothing more then "Hey, the 80s were the best THE BEST THE BEST THE BEST ARGHHHHHH IM CUMMING ALL OVER MY VINTAGE COLLECTION OF JOHN HUGHES MOVIES!" Even worse, the main female character is special because unlike all those other girls who choose model-like bodies in the MMO, she's "rubenesque" which makes the main character-SI totally in love with her for how authentic and real she is. Oh, and when he professes his love for her even having never met she rejects him because she thinks she's ugly, and later the MC finds her photo and she's got one of those dark red facial marks that she thinks ruins her forever. She's also 165 lbs and 5'7, I don't know how that correlates to fat/chunky/curvaceous etc. The evil corporation is played so hamfisted that they invite the MC up for a virtual interview, and then go "We found where you live (he's actually not there) and we're going to blow it up with bombs and plant meth lab stuff so the police will totally believe it was a drug lab explosion muahahahah!" Next they send soldiers wearing body cams after one of the guys in real life and film themselves throwing him out a window while laughing and high-fiving each other saying "Man, us Sixers are so great at killing this stupid people who dare challenge us." and much more other dumb stuff. Oh, and the only other female character is a big fat black girl the MC thought was a white male. The book is a loving joke and will probably crash hard as a movie because 80% of moviegoers don't want to sit there listening to smackdowns that consist of "oh yeah, and do you know the actor who played the teacher's aide in Breakfast Club? I DO BITCH YOU JUST GOT SERVED" I'm glad Armada is getting savaged by the critics. Even the ones who loved RP1 point out is basically the same thing only now ripping off other books under the guise of "geek references"
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Aug 8, 2015 04:57
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John Big Booty posted:Yeah, but does the author look like this?
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Aug 8, 2015 13:28
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Alter Ego posted:I tried to read this series and could not bring myself to read the second book after slogging through the first. The entire last quarter of it is torture porn. It was loving unbearable. IIRC his dad's name is Panis Rahl and his son's name is Dick Rahl.
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Aug 8, 2015 13:57
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John Big Booty posted:Yeah, but does the author look like this? Ernest Cline looks like this:  also true story I saw Neal Stephenson in person at an event at my college back when he was still my favorite author and I was still in 100% read-every-Stephenson-book-and-nothing-else mode but didn't say hello because I was aware of how shitfaced drunk I was at the time
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Aug 8, 2015 14:40
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Also I just wrote a post in another PYF thread about Ready Player One yesterday so I'll just paste that post hereloquacius posted:I liked Ready Player One as a concept but the prose was just so awful, as though the author had a touch of the 'sperg or the 'tism
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Aug 8, 2015 14:42
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Man the more I read RPO, the more excited I got. Because I was absolutely positive that a moment was gonna happen where the main character beats the game or whatever and gets scolded by the story's Willy Wonka for absolutely wasting his life researching 80's stuff. Then we all learn a valuable lesson about not worshipping the past or something.
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Aug 8, 2015 14:48
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Also honestly I'm always disappointed when SF authors don't look like huge dweebs. Like, I saw a picture of the guy who wrote the irredeemable nerd book I'm currently reading and he looks like this and I'm like yeah sounds about right
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Aug 8, 2015 15:17
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Rough Lobster posted:Man the more I read RPO, the more excited I got. Because I was absolutely positive that a moment was gonna happen where the main character beats the game or whatever and gets scolded by the story's Willy Wonka for absolutely wasting his life researching 80's stuff. Then we all learn a valuable lesson about not worshipping the past or something. The book barely qualified as YA fiction, the only reason it was listed as "adult science fiction" is because the only people who'd get the references are 27-50 and therefore the only people likely to buy it. Oh, and I forgot my favorite part, after the MC because world famous for solving the first 2 keys he confesses to the female MC and she rejects him, so he goes on a bender and gains a ton of weight to where his expensive immersion suit would be too tight around his fat body, so he locks himself out using a health/nutrition program with a unchangeable end time (2 months) but by the end of the 2 months loves it so much he keeps it and gets super ripped in a couple of months from previously being obese. That's not how the human body works Mr. Cline, but you've clearly got some strong opinions on the human form and beauty as evident from your writing.
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Aug 8, 2015 20:24
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The Vosgian Beast posted:The best part of it is that Richard takes to wearing an instrument of torture around his neck as a symbol of resilience or something. Plus he gets massive Stockholm syndrome at one point, and they slowly try to make his abuser seem sympathetic. Which really just makes it sicker and weirder.
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Aug 8, 2015 20:29
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flosofl posted:I suppose if you're a mathematician, a book with math playing a major role written by a non-mathematician would be irritating. Similar to how most books and movies regarding computers and hackers are like nails on a chalkboard to me. So, I have to say, this is the first mathematician I've run across that takes a "dialectical materialist" approach to the philosophy of mathematics. And he's ranting about the "mysticism in mathematics." This man is a tool. But I agree that Anathem was almost unreadably bad. Holy poo poo: This guy is a HARDCORE materialist. He is REALLY MAD about other people not being materialists. Not atheists, materalists. Hate Fibration has a new favorite as of 00:03 on Aug 9, 2015 |
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Aug 8, 2015 23:40
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