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The Thorn of Emberlain has been pushed back to next year; looks like Lynch is having issues with anxiety again. Poor guy  .
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Aug 6, 2015 03:29
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So I hesitate to make this judgment at the halfway mark, but so far, Austin Grossman's Crooked -- about Richard Nixon getting involved with various occult conspiracies during this political career -- is reminding me of Tim Powers's Declare. It's not completely blowing me away like Declare does, which is easily among my top 5 books, but Crooked is really great so far, and closer to Declare then I had hoped going into it.
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Aug 6, 2015 03:40
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Fart of Presto posted:Anyone know any of the other books? Cat Rambo's shorts are great, she writes beautiful prose for genre fiction. Rusch writes very solid workmanlike space opera. The Diving books are all really fun.
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Aug 6, 2015 04:07
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McCoy Pauley posted:So I hesitate to make this judgment at the halfway mark, but so far, Austin Grossman's Crooked -- about Richard Nixon getting involved with various occult conspiracies during this political career -- is reminding me of Tim Powers's Declare. It's not completely blowing me away like Declare does, which is easily among my top 5 books, but Crooked is really great so far, and closer to Declare then I had hoped going into it. I finished it yesterday, and I really liked it too. It's definitely in the vein of Stross's A Colder War novella, and in fact there's a direct nod to that story ("Project Koschei") in Crooked. Also evokes similar levels of paranoia and nihilism.
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Aug 6, 2015 04:11
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Halfway through the 2nd Book of The Iron Druid Chronicles and I find it charming, and extremely entertaining. Oberon, (the talking Irish Wolfhound,) is increasingly entertaining, and Atticus reads like a roleplayer out of Scion more then anything. Which I find both hilarious and Entertaining.
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Aug 6, 2015 05:43
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Turtlicious posted:Halfway through the 2nd Book of The Iron Druid Chronicles and I find it charming, and extremely entertaining. Oberon, (the talking Irish Wolfhound,) is increasingly entertaining, and Atticus reads like a roleplayer out of Scion more then anything. Which I find both hilarious and Entertaining. I'm asking you this in good faith: is this your first urban fantasy series?
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Aug 6, 2015 06:02
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McCoy Pauley posted:So I hesitate to make this judgment at the halfway mark, but so far, Austin Grossman's Crooked -- about Richard Nixon getting involved with various occult conspiracies during this political career -- is reminding me of Tim Powers's Declare. It's not completely blowing me away like Declare does, which is easily among my top 5 books, but Crooked is really great so far, and closer to Declare then I had hoped going into it.
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Aug 6, 2015 06:18
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Fart of Presto posted:A new bundle from StoryBundle, called Women in Sci-Fi is out today I liked Crossfire a lot--it's a colony with some very diverse factions dealing with some pretty serious issues plus also aliens. The aliens are interesting though this isn't one of those books that's doing a deep anthropological study of its non-human races, it's far more interested in the very human problems that followed the colony ship from Earth. Forgotten Suns was on my Amazon wishlist because of some review I read that suggested it was pretty keen, so that bumped the bundle into 'buy' category. I haven't read Starfarers but I've liked everything else I've read by McIntyre. Cat Rambo and Linda Nagata are both authors I want to read as well. Rusch I can usually take or leave--her writing is competent but not inspiring to me. I enjoy her blogging about the publishing (and self-publishing) business much more. The only thing there that gets a real 'meh' from me is the Asaro, as I've never really been able to get into her work. All in all it seems like a pretty good set, much better than the usual for Storybundle.
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Aug 6, 2015 06:22
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boneration posted:I'm asking you this in good faith: is this your first urban fantasy series? I've read 29 or something Shadowrun novelizations, Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. I've read the Fable Comic Books. 49 Animorph Books and counting? (Not recently obviously.) Also The Child Thief. A few others here or there. Why do you ask?
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Aug 6, 2015 07:07
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Turtlicious posted:Why do you ask? If you enjoy them and you intend to read more UF you're in for a treat assuming you go with some of the recommended authors.
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Aug 6, 2015 07:39
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Barbe Rouge posted:I've already found the series - The Chronicles of Josan by Patricia Bray. The funny thing is the Josan series was the first thing that came to mind but I could not, for the life of me, actually remember the name of the books or anyone in it.. or much of the plot other than 'monk with amnesia becomes puppet prince with amnesia' and what the covers looked like.
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Aug 6, 2015 08:33
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McCoy Pauley posted:So I hesitate to make this judgment at the halfway mark, but so far, Austin Grossman's Crooked -- about Richard Nixon getting involved with various occult conspiracies during this political career -- is reminding me of Tim Powers's Declare. It's not completely blowing me away like Declare does, which is easily among my top 5 books, but Crooked is really great so far, and closer to Declare then I had hoped going into it. I'm a US political history nerd and I loved Declare so you've made this an immediate acquisition for me.
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Aug 6, 2015 08:34
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ShutteredIn posted:Cat Rambo's shorts are great, she writes beautiful prose for genre fiction. occamsnailfile posted:All in all it seems like a pretty good set, much better than the usual for Storybundle. I just grabbed the full bundle and if one or two don't click, I can in good conscience skip them. Thanks for the input 
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Aug 6, 2015 09:03
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I just started Swan Song by McCannon(McCammon?) and I got a feeling its going end up like the Stand but i'm only 30-50 pages in. I read the very first chapter and had it pegged for late 80s then saw that yea its 1987 and theres a war in Afghanistan and the middleeast is a wreck Am i going to be disappointed?
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Aug 7, 2015 05:59
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I remember it as being pretty drat good. On the other hand that was back when it was new and I was a teenager, so who knows?
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Aug 7, 2015 06:44
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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 want to be the author who thought ripping off the story of Oblivion in such an unsubtle fashion was a good idea.
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Aug 7, 2015 07:51
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muscles like this? posted:A really good superhero novel is A Once Crowded Sky by Tom King. It deals with a world that used to have superheroes and worked by comic book rules (like one character has emotional problems because his loved ones kept dying and coming back to life) but a big disaster happens and there's only one guy left, a former sidekick who refused the call to action. I have this ebook and haven't read it yet, but I do have to say just the way it's made is excellent, with not only illustrations, but actual comic panels inserted throughout various parts of the novel and the "dramatis personae" having thumbnail pics for each character. "A Once Crowded Sky" is a pretty cool name too, actually what caught my attention about it originally. Gonna have to bump this to the head of the pile now that I'm reminded of it. Another good superpower type book I read in the past year is VK Schwab's Vicious. It was a dark, character-driven story about a rivalry between two top student/scientists doing research about how certain people in their world gained powers through near-death experiences. It had a very good pace and plot, and great character development, especially where the powers were concerned.
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Aug 7, 2015 09:19
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Fart of Presto posted:
I am probably the only person here who owns a copy of Stars. This will hopefully change shortly. Summary: Janis Ian, the former child prodigy responsible for Society's Child and latter day folk legend, is also a huge SF nut. Much to her surprise, as she's incredibly insecure, she found that a large number of SF writers are huge fans of her. Thus came to pass an anthology of 30-odd stories, all inspired by Janis Ian songs. Like most anthologies it's a curate's egg, but there's a fair amount of interesting stuff in there by people you will have heard of - I think the best known contributor is Charles de Lint. E: I'm mistaken. The best known contributors are Orson Scott Card, Robert J Sawyer and Stephen Baxter. Jedit fucked around with this message at 11:41 on Aug 7, 2015 |
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Aug 7, 2015 11:38
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Jack2142 posted:I want to be the author who thought ripping off the story of Oblivion in such an unsubtle fashion was a good idea. I haven't read it, but 'unwanted royal heir raised as a monk (usually but not always with secret kung fu/magic powers/evil gods/conspiracies/ancient prophecies/all of the above)' is actually a decently common trope, even before Oblivion. From what I've heard of the book, it doesn't have much in common with Oblivion other than that, too.
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Aug 7, 2015 11:45
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Fart of Presto posted:A new bundle from StoryBundle, called Women in Sci-Fi is out today I got this one. I'm currently reading Recovering Apollo 8, which is a short story but so far absolutely excellent. I've been genuinely choked up a couple of times already which is impressive less than halfway through a 65 page piece. I'm mildly addicted to Storybundle, but in my defence, I've got two weeks holiday coming up and an e-reader.
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Aug 7, 2015 19:29
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So, does anyone remember the Julian May book series of the Pliocene Saga and the related Milieu Trilogy? They turned up in my Amazon recommendations, and I'm looking to get them again. I remember loving them when I was in HS (and far less critical of what I read) when they were first put out in paperback by Del-Ray and had amazing Michael Whelan cover art. I'll write up on whether they stood the test of time and my fully developed cynicism if anyone's interested. Related awesome Whelan cover-art of the Non Born King (Pliocene 3): 
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Aug 8, 2015 05:14
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Victorkm posted:Jesus christ what is wrong with you Craig Schaefer! So many books so fast. Is this 5 in 2 years in just this series alone? So he's the urban fantasy Brandon Sanderson book-writing robot. I'm on board with this.
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Aug 8, 2015 07:56
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Yea. Dude writes like crazy. Thankfully no d&d feelings to the books though.
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Aug 8, 2015 08:47
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platero posted:So he's the urban fantasy Brandon Sanderson book-writing robot. I'm on board with this. I think he's better than Sanderson, honestly. Less complex worldbuilding, but he can introduce what worldbuilding he's done without sounding like he's reading from the Player's Handbook.
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Aug 8, 2015 09:23
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Wolpertinger posted:I haven't read it, but 'unwanted royal heir raised as a monk (usually but not always with secret kung fu/magic powers/evil gods/conspiracies/ancient prophecies/all of the above)' is actually a decently common trope, even before Oblivion. From what I've heard of the book, it doesn't have much in common with Oblivion other than that, too. Eh I am aware of that it was more the Emperor's Blades bit coupled with that plot hook that made me think... drat that not really subtle.
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Aug 8, 2015 21:35
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flosofl posted:So, does anyone remember the Julian May book series of the Pliocene Saga and the related Milieu Trilogy? They turned up in my Amazon recommendations, and I'm looking to get them again. I remember loving them when I was in HS (and far less critical of what I read) when they were first put out in paperback by Del-Ray and had amazing Michael Whelan cover art. I'll write up on whether they stood the test of time and my fully developed cynicism if anyone's interested. I still have that book, and the others. Like you I adored them back in the nineties, I've revisited them a couple times since then. They're not half bad, although the series could probably have used a few more female characters. Aiken Drum us a pretty awesome character. I could have handled a bit more resolution in the end but open questions are fun too,
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Aug 8, 2015 21:46
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Has anyone read Seveneves by Stephenson? I read the Kindle sample and it seems interesting. Really enjoying Rainbows End right now, thanks to whoever recommended it.
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Aug 9, 2015 00:04
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Martello posted:Has anyone read Seveneves by Stephenson? I read the Kindle sample and it seems interesting. I plowed through it, yeah. It's a stiff angular read, full of exposition blocks and thin characters. But I enjoyed it! I'm a sucker for anything like Kerbal Space Program, and the story's a pretty compelling ride. The joy in the book comes from the same place as the terror — the human race is on very thin ice, every death and loss of resources is a huge blow, and things just keep getting worse.
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Aug 9, 2015 00:17
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Martello posted:Has anyone read Seveneves by Stephenson? I read the Kindle sample and it seems interesting. It's alright. As a series of What Ifs it's interesting, as a series of plot points it's coherent and sometimes cool, but after knowing the sequence of events I have zero desire to read it again. There's not much to the characters or even the setting, crazy as it becomes. The prose is lackluster. The narrative has essentially no breathing room - 98% of the sentences in the book either directly move the plot forward or are expository. He created a world that could have all sorts of cool/impactful vignettes and "side" scenes, but he hardly explores it. Maybe I'm just spoiled, I've been on a major KSR kick lately. Who else writes "literary" sci-fi on a level like him? Besides, like, LeGuin?
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Aug 9, 2015 02:21
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KSR?
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Aug 9, 2015 02:43
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Martello posted:Has anyone read Seveneves by Stephenson? I read the Kindle sample and it seems interesting. It has three parts of varying quality -- part one, in which a tiny fraction of the human species gets their rear end to space, is great; part two, in which Hillary Fiorina kills almost all of them using Politics, was mercifully short, and part 3, 5000 Years After, was implausible fantasy bullshit.
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Aug 9, 2015 02:44
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Prolonged Priapism posted:Maybe I'm just spoiled, I've been on a major KSR kick lately. Who else writes "literary" sci-fi on a level like him? Besides, like, LeGuin? Banks, I guess. Mieville has a lot of literary firepower.
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Aug 9, 2015 02:56
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Jeff VanderMeer
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Aug 9, 2015 03:38
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Prolonged Priapism posted:Maybe I'm just spoiled, I've been on a major KSR kick lately. Who else writes "literary" sci-fi on a level like him? Besides, like, LeGuin? Yeah, I'll second Banks -- that's the closest thing I can think of. Martello posted:KSR? Kim Stanley Robinson.
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Aug 9, 2015 03:43
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Martello posted:Has anyone read Seveneves by Stephenson? I read the Kindle sample and it seems interesting. Seveneves got really infodumpy toward the end. One of those that would be much better minus 200 pages. Otherwise it was decent.
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Aug 9, 2015 03:52
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Velius posted:I still have that book, and the others. Like you I adored them back in the nineties, I've revisited them a couple times since then. They're not half bad, although the series could probably have used a few more female characters. Aiken Drum us a pretty awesome character. Yeah I'll second all that, I have (most of) both series. They're not as good as I thought they were when I was a teenager, but they're still pretty good.
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Aug 9, 2015 04:10
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Prolonged Priapism posted:Maybe I'm just spoiled, I've been on a major KSR kick lately. Who else writes "literary" sci-fi on a level like him? Besides, like, LeGuin? Mièville for sure. He's leaps and bounds ahead of most sci-fi writers from a literary perspective. Embassytown in particular is not only an excellent piece of literature but also a fascinating exploration of the nature of language.
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Aug 9, 2015 06:08
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Eleanor Arnason and Ted Chiang, though both of them are more into short stories. Chiang's never published a novel, while Arnason has written a few, a while ago, which are still pretty great. Adam Roberts.
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Aug 9, 2015 06:51
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The Strugatsky Brothers
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Aug 9, 2015 10:53
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I just finished Ancillary Justice , the first of Anne Leckie's debut trilogy and it owned. I have not actually read that much so I figured the Hugo Award winner would be a safe place to start and it was. The world is super immersive and she does a great job of conveying the emotions of the protagonist. The only complaint I have is the repeated "ugh but I have so many options and they all lead to unknown/doom" summaries that seemed to crop up every other chapter towards the end of the book once it all kicked off. However the idea of the ancillaries/ships was lots of fun to read about and I'm psyched to read book two when it arrives.
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Aug 9, 2015 11:27
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