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Yes, yes and yes. Republic is not as good as Lies (I doubt Lynch will ever be able to top Lies and I hope that doesn't gnaw at him too much) but it's a fine book and better than Red Seas. Mind you I didn't think Red Seas was that bad - I think people just had an understandable reaction to it being lacklustre compared to Lies and having to wait so long for book three. I'll be surprised if Thorn really comes out this year though.
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Aug 4, 2015 15:24
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Counterpoint: Half of Republic is poo poo. Opinions differ on which half, though. Red Seas works just fine, it just doesn't go in any new places after Lies.
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Aug 4, 2015 15:27
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The worst bits of Lynch are still better than a ton of other big name books out there. Not living up to Lies is unfortunate, but they're still really good books and absolutely worth picking up.
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Aug 4, 2015 15:31
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anilEhilated posted:Counterpoint: Half of Republic is poo poo. Opinions differ on which half, though. Red Seas works just fine, it just doesn't go in any new places after Lies. My only major issue with Republic was that the election stuff had very little to do with the actual election. I love political themes in SF but it had very little to show for it. So yeah, I'm one of those who preferred the flashback half more than the current half.
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Aug 4, 2015 15:38
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Any half with the Sanza twins is better by default. Personally I enjoyed Republic quite a bit and returning to that world was really fun. I get why people were lukewarm on the politics half of the book and admit there were times where I felt, "What's the point of this?" but overall I was satisfied with where the story went. Then of course there's the epilogue, which was some of the most  poo poo I've ever read.
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Aug 4, 2015 15:47
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Autonomous Monster posted:
My recollection is that Fatale's arc was mostly a meta commentary on women/minorities in comic books. Nothing happens in her arc because she's an add-on, not a legacy character. (Like Cyborg in DC, she is also a cyborg.) Similarly, the Lois Lane analogue saves the day after revealing how her story has been ignored.
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Aug 4, 2015 15:50
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Antti posted:My only major issue with Republic was that the election stuff had very little to do with the actual election. I love political themes in SF but it had very little to show for it. So yeah, I'm one of those who preferred the flashback half more than the current half.
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Aug 4, 2015 15:57
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Evfedu posted:I quite enjoyed Lies but I heard That Red Seas was a bit of filler/fluff. Is he showing signs of getting it together with Republic of Thieves? Are hopes high for Thorn of Emberlain? Should I spend Ł6 on three books? All three are good. Lies was outright fantastic, so the other two had quite a bit to live up to. Republic of Thieves was very good in my opinion. I liked Red Seas, but it's the lesser of the three.
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Aug 4, 2015 16:26
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Nullkigan posted:The Amazon monthlies look like they got updated overnight. King Rat was also amazing and the movie couldn't do it justice.
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Aug 4, 2015 17:10
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The Martian movie looks like they are keeping close to the book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wygmxzp6VzY
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Aug 4, 2015 17:53
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Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:Any half with the Sanza twins is better by default. This. I'd be way happier if he'd drop the whole stupid present-time plot and just tell more caper stories with the Sanzas.
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Aug 4, 2015 18:03
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Seldom Posts posted:My recollection is that Fatale's arc was mostly a meta commentary on women/minorities in comic books. Nothing happens in her arc because she's an add-on, not a legacy character. (Like Cyborg in DC, she is also a cyborg.) That's definitely there, but if something's dull to make a point, does that excuse it being dull? Looking around, the most common complaint with the book seems to be that it's "poorly paced" and "has a lot of filler". Which... well. When people make that sort of complaint, I often think they're overvaluing plot movement and undervaluing character development, but people don't necessarily have to value the same things in a narrative that I do, do they? The observation that half of the book goes nowhere in order to highlight the marginalisation of minority characters in comic books makes the book thematically richer, but if someone finds the actual mechanical process of reading it a chore I don't think that's going to help them much. The Lois Lane's story does the same thing, and more efficiently. Which means Fatale is marginalised even inside her own theme on marginalisation, now that I think about it. 
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Aug 4, 2015 18:15
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Evfedu posted:I quite enjoyed Lies but I heard That Red Seas was a bit of filler/fluff. Is he showing signs of getting it together with Republic of Thieves? Are hopes high for Thorn of Emberlain? Should I spend Ł6 on three books?
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Aug 4, 2015 18:37
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Antti posted:Republic is not as good as Lies (I doubt Lynch will ever be able to top Lies and I hope that doesn't gnaw at him too much) but it's a fine book and better than Red Seas. Liar. anilEhilated posted:Counterpoint: Half of Republic is poo poo. Opinions differ on which half, though. Red Seas works just fine, it just doesn't go in any new places after Lies. Liar. CaptCommy posted:The worst bits of Lynch are still better than a ton of other big name books out there. Not living up to Lies is unfortunate, but they're still really good books and absolutely worth picking up. Bastard!
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Aug 4, 2015 18:40
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Sabetha's great because she actively resists becoming an appendage of the series' male main character, which is a fate that befalls too many female characters in fantasy, from the nominally interesting to the wastes of pagetime. There's also a sad bit of meta commentary going on where you get the feeling that Sabetha could have been the hero of her own series, going off and having her own adventures, if the fantasy genre wasn't so dude centric.
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Aug 4, 2015 18:46
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Thanks for the suggestions a couple of pages ago, everyone. Looks like a few things to occupy me for a bit.
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Aug 4, 2015 18:47
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anilEhilated posted:Yeah, I'm probably the only one who actually enjoyed the political fuckery more than the flashback story. For some reason I ended up really loathing Sabetha. There were points where I was this close and I felt like the author was throwing his hands up, rolling his eyes and going "Women, am I right?" Mars4523 posted:Sabetha's great because she actively resists becoming an appendage of the series' male main character, which is a fate that befalls too many female characters in fantasy, from the nominally interesting to the wastes of pagetime. There's also a sad bit of meta commentary going on where you get the feeling that Sabetha could have been the hero of her own series, going off and having her own adventures, if the fantasy genre wasn't so dude centric. Yeah, this in turn was actually cool about it. Basically it felt like on a few occasions Sabetha's motivations for doing what she did were inscrutable to the point of frustration, but it also helped keep that distance to the character - basically, she has been doing her own thing, and we won't be let inside her head to see what exactly her reasoning is, we'll just have to assume she's rational and not just being difficult or contrary for the sake of. I'm still kind of baffled as to how Sabetha ended up falling for Locke at any point though - it just feels weird and inexplicable to me given that Locke's infatuation with her is a pretty off-putting sort of puppy love. Their relationship would have made more sense as a sibling rivalry and it does have some aspects of that. I just can't buy it as a romantic relationship - when it was just Locke's side of the story it was easy to see as infatuation, but then Sabetha starts returning his feelings and I'm flabbergasted. Sulphagnist fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Aug 4, 2015 |
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Aug 4, 2015 18:50
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Yeah, that was what I was getting from it as well, it feels like they end up together because Plot Demands It. Like, I know gender equality and correctness thingamajigs are a big theme today but that doesn't make her a consistent (or good) character. It just feels she does a lot of what she does without motivation.
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Aug 4, 2015 18:57
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Autonomous Monster posted:That's definitely there, but if something's dull to make a point, does that excuse it being dull? I believe this is the definition of literature. All hail genre fiction! I like your point about marginalization inside marginalization.
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Aug 4, 2015 19:04
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Got to meet one of the authors that got me into reading as a child, Terry Brooks. I haven't read his stuff in years but it was cool to meet him. He is a very short old man!
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Aug 4, 2015 19:08
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Kaddish posted:Got to meet one of the authors that got me into reading as a child, Terry Brooks. I haven't read his stuff in years but it was cool to meet him. He is a very short old man! Brooks catches some poo poo for the Shannara series and its various foibles, but I enjoyed the Knight of the Word books more than I thought I would, and when I was younger I thought Magic Kingdom of Landover was an interesting approach to the somewhat overused "person from our world transported to fantasy realm, saves everyone" plot. I won't say it's great, but it wasn't terrible.
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Aug 4, 2015 19:30
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I got an ARC of Emma Newman's Planetfall, which is coming out this fall. It's good! Reminded me a lot of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. A woman wakes up from a coma with a set of numbers on her lips and genius-level intelligence. The numbers point to a distant planet. She organizes an interstellar expedition, convinced that something incredible is calling — maybe some kind of panspermic ancestor, maybe God. The story picks up twenty years after planetfall, in a colony built next to a huge biosynthetic structure they call 'god's city'. The protagonist was coma lady's best friend, before coma lady went into the city and vanished. If you like claustrophobic psychological horror and stories about exploring weird alien poo poo, I recommend it!
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Aug 4, 2015 22:20
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General Battuta posted:If you like claustrophobic psychological horror and stories about exploring weird alien poo poo, I recommend it! Fuckin' sold!
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Aug 4, 2015 22:27
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Hello thread, has anyone read Robin Hobb's new Fitz book? As someone who think she's been off form since she finished the Tawny Man trilogy, would this change my mind?
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Aug 4, 2015 22:55
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I know this is supposed to go into the "identify that book thread", but since it's a fantasy book I thought it woul dbe more appropriate here (and that the chances of someone who doesn't read the identify thread will see it are better). Fantasy, the MC is a young monk in either a lighthouse or a monastery (although I seem to remember that he's alone) who turns out to be someone important (a prince or a powerful mage or something like that). That's all I remember.
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Aug 4, 2015 23:49
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General Battuta posted:I got an ARC of Emma Newman's Planetfall, which is coming out this fall. It's good! Reminded me a lot of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Sounds like Prometheus.
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Aug 5, 2015 01:07
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General Battuta posted:I got an ARC of Emma Newman's Planetfall, which is coming out this fall. It's good! Reminded me a lot of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. That sounds fantastic and is going on my to-buy list immediately.
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Aug 5, 2015 01:29
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I don't want to oversell it — it's a compelling read and I blew through it, but it's not Blindsight or Annihilation. Still, I liked it a lot!
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Aug 5, 2015 01:34
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Sounds just up my alley. Preorder: Successful. Thanks!
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Aug 5, 2015 01:43
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Oh, for people who like alt-history and/or China Miéville, he's doing an alt-history novel next year called The Last Days of New Paris! That's two new works for 2016, along with the standalone novella This Census Taker. So exciting.
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Aug 5, 2015 01:51
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General Battuta posted:If you like claustrophobic psychological horror and stories about exploring weird alien poo poo, I recommend it! Well that sounds promising!
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Aug 5, 2015 02:00
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General Battuta posted:I don't want to oversell it — it's a compelling read and I blew through it, but it's not Blindsight or Annihilation. Still, I liked it a lot! what did you think of archivist wasp?
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Aug 5, 2015 02:06
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andrew smash posted:what did you think of archivist wasp? I have a copy but haven't read it yet. I am acquaintances with the author so I'm not going to have an unbiased take.
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Aug 5, 2015 02:24
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Barbe Rouge posted:I know this is supposed to go into the "identify that book thread", but since it's a fantasy book I thought it woul dbe more appropriate here (and that the chances of someone who doesn't read the identify thread will see it are better). Planetfall added to my To Read list because, frankly, what is Blindsight.
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Aug 5, 2015 13:04
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General Battuta posted:I got an ARC of Emma Newman's Planetfall, which is coming out this fall. It's good! Reminded me a lot of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. I was hoping for a rewrite of this: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/981838.Planetfall
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Aug 5, 2015 13:23
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Evfedu posted:This is super-little to go on but it sounds a lot like The Darkness That Comes Before from the Prince of Nothing series. I managed to find out the name of the series in the meantime: The Chronicles of Josan by Patricia Bray.
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Aug 5, 2015 13:31
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I just finished Jack Glass by Adam Roberts. I enjoyed it, other than the ending being a bit meh. Is his other stuff any good? Alternately, is there a recommendation for something similar out there?
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Aug 5, 2015 21:03
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A new bundle from StoryBundle, called Women in Sci-Fi is out today $5 gives you
Supposedly it's some fun action oriented space opera, but that's all I know. Anyone know any of the other books?
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Aug 5, 2015 22:18
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quote:Fantasy, the MC is a young monk in either a lighthouse or a monastery (although I seem to remember that he's alone) who turns out to be someone important (a prince or a powerful mage or something like that). That's all I remember. Another possibility is The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley. Amazon kept recommending it incessantly and when I was temporarily between books, I caved. One of the main characters was indeed a prince "hidden away" at a monastery as the book opened. Then Edit- Also, maybe Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg? Vylan Antagonist fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Aug 6, 2015 |
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Aug 6, 2015 00:29
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Vylan Antagonist posted:Another possibility is The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley. Amazon kept recommending it incessantly and when I was temporarily between books, I caved. One of the main characters was indeed a prince "hidden away" at a monastery as the book opened. Then I've already found the series - The Chronicles of Josan by Patricia Bray. I've read Carol Berg's Lighthouse Duet and they're great. Can't wait for the final book of the Sanctuary Duet.
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Aug 6, 2015 03:23
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