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Does anyone have any thoughts on the Witcher series, as made popular by the video games? I'm playing through Witcher 3 right now and really digging the setting. I'd love to learn more about some of the back story they keep talking about (Why is Kaer Morhen destroyed? Why is Geralt the "Butcher of Blavikin"? What was that league of sorceresses and what happened to them?). If the books are pretty good, I wouldn't mind reading through them... but my "to read" backlog is already pretty long as it is.
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Aug 17, 2015 19:20
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The "Butcher of Blaviken" thing is a reference to one of the really early short stories, and it's basically a riff on how the tales spread around - he really just defended himself against a bunch of bandits, but it grew with telling. Anyway, the books are pretty good low fantasy. The first couple of short stories are kinda rough, but it's very much worth it to stick with the series, there's a lot of surprises in that world. I'd definitely recommend reading them, especially if you like the games - haven't played 3, but the first two are pretty faithful to the setting.
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Aug 17, 2015 19:30
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syphon posted:Does anyone have any thoughts on the Witcher series, as made popular by the video games? They have a peculiar style of pacing, I thought, with a lot of exposition just coming out in random dialogue. But I ultimately enjoyed them. They are both low fantasy and high fantasy; a low presentation of high fantasy, if that makes sense. I think they're worth the read, especially if you want to know more about the game world.
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Aug 18, 2015 00:20
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Anything out there like the Heechee Saga? People exploring incomprehensible alien artifacts and culture is fun. EDIT: While I'm on the topic of old science fiction I've been thinking lately about something I read many years ago. I can only remember one part of it and I'm wondering if it might spur anyone else's memory. It was probably something terrible since I read it when I was a teenager. At one point in the story transparent, glass-like crabs start materializing on Earth. They're not hostile, but they seem indestructible. At first they're a curiosity but their numbers continue to grow, and before long there's the possibility of the planet simply being swamped by countless billions of glass crabs. Dick Trauma fucked around with this message at 00:36 on Aug 18, 2015 |
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Aug 18, 2015 00:32
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Thanks to whoever recommended "The Southern Reach" trilogy about a month ago. I was sick a from work on Friday and decided to give Annihilation a try. I couldn't put it down and ended up buying the other 2 and finishing the last book this morning. It's been a long time since I've read something that I just absolutely could not put down. I'd highly recommend it for anyone looking for a horror / sci fi mix. Very loving eerie trilogy. Also, I finished "Aurora" by KSR last week sometime and considering I'm not really a fan on his style, I actually quite enjoyed it. It's the only book of his I've ever managed to finish.
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Aug 18, 2015 01:37
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johnsonrod posted:Thanks to whoever recommended "The Southern Reach" trilogy about a month ago. I was sick a from work on Friday and decided to give Annihilation a try. I couldn't put it down and ended up buying the other 2 and finishing the last book this morning. It's been a long time since I've read something that I just absolutely could not put down. I'd highly recommend it for anyone looking for a horror / sci fi mix. Very loving eerie trilogy. Welp, another for the list
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Aug 18, 2015 01:45
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I started reading the Dune sequels and am now really annoyed that Herbert died right after writing Chapterhouse: Dune (obviously not his fault that he died, but still annoying.) If Herbert had stopped writing after God Emperor of Dune, that could have been a fitting end to the series. Leto sets humanity on the Golden Path, dies, everything is pretty much wrapped up. But nope, it continued and now presents a cliffhanger that will never be suitably wrapped up (I know about the sequels by his son, but they're apparently terrible.) So, anyone have any speculations on how Herbert would have ended the franchise? Are there any clues? Your guesses will be better than what "Sandworms of Dune" presented. Ccs fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Aug 18, 2015 |
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Aug 18, 2015 01:48
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Lprsti99 posted:Welp, another for the list Yeah, usually I don't care for "horror," but I also couldn't pot this one down
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Aug 18, 2015 01:58
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johnsonrod posted:Thanks to whoever recommended "The Southern Reach" trilogy about a month ago. I was sick a from work on Friday and decided to give Annihilation a try. I couldn't put it down and ended up buying the other 2 and finishing the last book this morning. It's been a long time since I've read something that I just absolutely could not put down. I'd highly recommend it for anyone looking for a horror / sci fi mix. Very loving eerie trilogy. i've actually been binging through these myself recently. I'm about halfway through authority.
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Aug 18, 2015 04:39
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I'm reading The Dark Forest and did not grok that it was Osama? Also, I feel this translation is off compared to the first in the series. Anyway I am intrigued to see where things go from about 25% of the way through...
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Aug 18, 2015 05:20
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The Dark Forest is really good, I'm about half way through and it is hard to put down. One thing I thought was funny (early). "You have massive resources and 400 years, come up with a secret plan to save humanity". A week passes. "So what's your plan?" Also the first guy's (the president of Venezuela) idea is just to make a really big bomb. He even says that to the nuclear scientist. Hey, make the biggest nuke ever. Obviously that wasn't the full extent of the plan. but the demanding their ideas and talking about them so soon in public was kind of weird. Still good though.
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Aug 18, 2015 05:52
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thehomemaster posted:I'm reading The Dark Forest and did not grok that it was Osama? There's a different translator, but I think Ken Liu is translating the last one. General Battuta posted:The Library at Mount Char is real good. If you've ever wanted to read a book about posthuman Elder Gods dropping the hammer and going to war over the universe while tiny humans scramble around underfoot, this is for you. It's rough around the edges (mostly pacing wise) but the sense of escalation is awesome. Wasn't there some really hosed up poo poo in it, like the main character shooting someone and then barbecuing them or something?
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Aug 18, 2015 06:31
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House Louse posted:Wasn't there some really hosed up poo poo in it, like the main character shooting someone and then barbecuing them or something?
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Aug 18, 2015 06:44
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I'm looking for resources that would teach me the history of science fiction and fantasy literature, teaching about different subgenres, trends, and authors. I love reading SFF books, but I don't know enough to determine, say, what the difference between Clarke and Asimov's writing and favorite themes are. I'm specifically looking for books (but a wiki will do, I guess), but the only books I found were either just lists of publications that didn't actually explain anything, prohibitively expensive on Amazon, and Sense of Wonder, which is an anthology available on Scribed with introductions to general areas and the authors whose stories are collected. That last one sounds great, and I still want to read it, except it's over 6,500 pages long, comprised of stories from about a hundred different authors over 150 years, so it's a daunting prospect. Does anyone know of a book that's shorter, easy to access, and has more behind-the-scenes information? Also, I'm planning a second readthrough of Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. I originally picked the series up on the recommendation of someone who liked Book of the Long Sun even better, but I wanted to start at the beginning. Does anyone here have any opinions on Long Sun and Short Sun? What are they like? Solitair fucked around with this message at 07:18 on Aug 18, 2015 |
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Aug 18, 2015 07:05
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Dick Trauma posted:Anything out there like the Heechee Saga? People exploring incomprehensible alien artifacts and culture is fun. I love doing this to people. Gateway/Heechee goes from "really avant-garde for 1979" to "yeah, post- and trans-humanism just happened" in a very beautiful and very modern way.
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Aug 18, 2015 07:17
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Solitair posted:I'm looking for resources that would teach me the history of science fiction and fantasy literature, teaching about different subgenres, trends, and authors. I love reading SFF books, but I don't know enough to determine, say, what the difference between Clarke and Asimov's writing and favorite themes are. I'm specifically looking for books (but a wiki will do, I guess), but the only books I found were either just lists of publications that didn't actually explain anything, prohibitively expensive on Amazon, and Sense of Wonder, which is an anthology available on Scribed with introductions to general areas and the authors whose stories are collected. Brian Aldiss wrote and collaborated on Billion Year Spree and Trillion Year Spree which both deal with the history of SF in 1973 and 1986 respectively. I don't know how many libraries would carry them anymore but ISL might produce results for you. Adam Roberts wrote a more recent History of Science Fiction. The Cambridge and Routledge Companions to Science Fiction are textbooks but they're pretty much exactly what you're looking for--I haven't read them myself to see what kind of critical voice they use. You might be able to get them more cheaply if older editions exist; that risks losing useful new material but it depends on your focus I guess. http://feministsf.org/ is what it says and is a useful resource for resources on womens' history in SF. Samuel Delany has written several critical volumes about SF, its language and structure, and about race in SF, all of which are good topics to explore. If you want to examine themes and characters, looking for reviews of works you're curious about can help. Bloggers still review classic works from time to time, and the better reviewers will dig up the odd bit of review literature to assist them--it requires some hunting but you can find a few good ones. Strange Horizons has a lot of reviews and also does reviews of modern short stories, which many venues do not do. Reviews don't often delve too deeply into the history of the genre but they will often cite what the reviewers perceive as thematic linkages between works, which helps to sort and contrast. ETA Forgot http://irosf.com/ occamsnailfile fucked around with this message at 07:55 on Aug 18, 2015 |
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Aug 18, 2015 07:46
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Solitair posted:I'm looking for resources that would teach me the history of science fiction and fantasy literature, teaching about different subgenres, trends, and authors. I love reading SFF books, but I don't know enough to determine, say, what the difference between Clarke and Asimov's writing and favorite themes are. I'm specifically looking for books (but a wiki will do, I guess), but the only books I found were either just lists of publications that didn't actually explain anything, prohibitively expensive on Amazon, and Sense of Wonder, which is an anthology available on Scribed with introductions to general areas and the authors whose stories are collected. http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/
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Aug 18, 2015 07:50
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House Louse posted:Wasn't there some really hosed up poo poo in it, like the main character shooting someone and then barbecuing them or something?
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Aug 18, 2015 08:06
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House Louse posted:Wasn't there some really hosed up poo poo in it, like the main character shooting someone and then barbecuing them or something? Yes, it's full of really hosed up stuff, but in a way I thought worked well for the book's themes. Because the characters deal with such enormous stakes (near-omnipotent power over the universe) and because their various knowledge makes them resilient to physical pain and death, they develop really unhealthy and inhuman priorities. A friend dying is routine, they'll be back soon; the sun going out is a minor crisis to be dealt with once the urgent work has been handled. A lot of the book is about the psychological damage this inflicts on the characters, the trauma and horror of growing up in an environment where casual sadism is normative, and the possibility of recovery and (eventually) return to a more humane mindset. I liked the way the book used point of view to create psychological parallax.
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Aug 18, 2015 08:14
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chrisoya posted:There is some good parenting, yes. I'm surprised I haven't seen more people complaining about this, then. Just "yeah, it's good". (E: cheers guys!) Solitair posted:I'm looking for resources that would teach me the history of science fiction and fantasy literature, teaching about different subgenres, trends, and authors. The SF Encyclopaedia is the best thing out there, which is why it's listed first in the OP, and you can either start with the history of sf, or different themes, or authors, or whatever. But it's an encyclopaedia. Adam Roberts' book and Trillion Year Spree are good introductions. You could also look at reviewers' collected articles - John Clute, Damon Knight, and James Blish all had books of theirs published, but the first two are old and the last is maybe not so accessible. I don't know about more academic writing like Delany's, but quite a few people have written about cyberpunk from a postmodernist point of view. (If anyone has an opinion, please post it!) quote:Also, I'm planning a second readthrough of Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. I originally picked the series up on the recommendation of someone who liked Book of the Long Sun even better, but I wanted to start at the beginning. Does anyone here have any opinions on Long Sun and Short Sun? What are they like? They're pretty different, and the plot connections with the New Sun aren't really relevant. The Long Sun books are more plotted books about a good man in his society, rather than semi-picaresques about a bad outcast. Also, Silk is scarier than Severian. The Short Sun has a silly title and is a long quest, and more mysterious than Long Sun.
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Aug 18, 2015 08:18
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Solitair posted:Sense of Wonder, which is an anthology available on Scribed with introductions to general areas and the authors whose stories are collected. Is that this book by any chance? https://www.scribd.com/book/155735646/Sense-of-Wonder-A-Century-of-Science-Fiction It's also up on Amazon, but according to them it's less than a thousand pages. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sense-Wonder-Century-Science-Fiction-ebook/dp/B006TKOUGA
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Aug 18, 2015 08:19
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occamsnailfile posted:Bloggers still review classic works from time to time, and the better reviewers will dig up the odd bit of review literature to assist them--it requires some hunting but you can find a few good ones. Strange Horizons has a lot of reviews and also does reviews of modern short stories, which many venues do not do. Reviews don't often delve too deeply into the history of the genre but they will often cite what the reviewers perceive as thematic linkages between works, which helps to sort and contrast. I'm actually trying to be one of those bloggers. What do you mean by "review literature"? Crashbee posted:Is that this book by any chance? https://www.scribd.com/book/155735646/Sense-of-Wonder-A-Century-of-Science-Fiction Yes, that's it exactly. I love Scribd, but I don't know what's up with how it counts pages.
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Aug 18, 2015 09:19
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House Louse posted:They're pretty different, and the plot connections with the New Sun aren't really relevant. The Long Sun books are more plotted books about a good man in his society, rather than semi-picaresques about a bad outcast. Also, Silk is scarier than Severian. The Short Sun has a silly title and is a long quest, and more mysterious than Long Sun.
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Aug 18, 2015 12:07
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mllaneza posted:I just discovered that I never turned my best friend on to the Heechee series. As far as he's concerned, it's the Gateway series and he's loving hooked on the style. Yes, but as almost every fiction book speculating about computer science, it comes quite short on its expectations. If I remember it correctly, the super-massive virtual space is referred as "gigabit space". Now we have plenty of those in our phones.
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Aug 18, 2015 12:10
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PLEASE DO NOT POST ABOUT DARK FOREST WITHOUT SPOILER TAGS. I just saw something not spoiled and I'm now forced to not read this thread at all until I finish the book. Thanks a bunch for that.
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Aug 18, 2015 13:21
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I'm 40% through Dark Forest and I'm enjoying it well enough, I guess, but it's not exactly bursting with ideas and imagery like Three Body Problem.
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Aug 18, 2015 14:04
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Ccs posted:I started reading the Dune sequels and am now really annoyed that Herbert died right after writing Chapterhouse: Dune (obviously not his fault that he died, but still annoying.) If Herbert had stopped writing after God Emperor of Dune, that could have been a fitting end to the series. Leto sets humanity on the Golden Path, dies, everything is pretty much wrapped up. But nope, it continued and now presents a cliffhanger that will never be suitably wrapped up (I know about the sequels by his son, but they're apparently terrible.) Chapterhouse:Dune posted:Daniel chuckled. "That would've been funny. They have such a hard time accepting that Face Dancers can be independent of them." Hive-minded Face Dancers. Daniel and Marty's conversation gives me the impression that they've spent so long accumulating and sharing memories and personalities that they've become a huge colony organism, making decisions not as individuals, but as a species. They've finally grasped what it means to think long-term and large-scale - just as Leto, and Kynes before him - wanted humanity to do. And it's horrifying. I always imagined them as a grotesque mockery of the Bene Gesserit. Democratic, accountable, and transparent, without the need for the elaborate panopticon of proctors and comeyes that runs through Chapterhouse. Not because they have any respect for the individual, but because they've completely moved beyond the idea of "individual" as a unit of measurement. Brian Herbert does some stuff with renegade Face Dancers, but treats them exactly the same as the original's during the time of the God Emperor, only serving Omnius instead of the Tlelaxu masters. There's nothing there that would inspire the kind of metaphysical terror that would cause the Honored Matres to flee halfway across the universe just to escape them. Also given Herbert Senior's predilection for destroying the institutions of his universe, I'm fairly certain the Bene Gesserit would have been destroyed after their victory over the HMs. Probably by disappearing up their own arses while the galaxy burns down around them.
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Aug 18, 2015 15:44
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Just finished the Dark Forest. If Three-Body Problem was an A+, I give this one an A-.Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah, it seemed like there were some big "fridge problems" in this one. Still very good but -- As far as the second thing goes, the Trisolarans didn't have any good choices. The three suns would have eventually destroyed their planet, so they had to find a new planet. Earth was in reach of their present capabilities, essentially defenseless against their technology level, and clueless enough to be shouting "Heeeellllloooooo!! Is anybody out there??" into the void. Any other planet probably would have been a voyage of tens of thousands of years. It was pretty clearly the best solution that they were going to have, and it would have worked if it wasn't for Luo Ji surviving an improbable number of assassination attempts and his willingness to blow both sides up. The biggest problem for me was the assassin who shot him in the chest and then was like "If I knew you had armor, I'd have shot you in the head". Everything is perfectly in place and he decides against a head shot for no reason other than that the story demands that Luo Ji not get shot in the head. A missed headshot would have had the exact same effect on the story, and it wouldn't have felt so drat clumsy.
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Aug 18, 2015 16:26
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Solitair posted:I'm actually trying to be one of those bloggers. What do you mean by "review literature"? Books or blog posts of other reviews and essays about the genre. It can be journal articles, books, intro essays, interviews, all kinds of related matter--there's a fair bit out there, but sometimes hard to find. I'm referring to the more academic end of things here since that seems to be what you were after but writing about genre runs the gamut.
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Aug 18, 2015 18:24
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Strom Cuzewon posted:Hive-minded Face Dancers. Daniel and Marty's conversation gives me the impression that they've spent so long accumulating and sharing memories and personalities that they've become a huge colony organism, making decisions not as individuals, but as a species. They've finally grasped what it means to think long-term and large-scale - just as Leto, and Kynes before him - wanted humanity to do. And it's horrifying. That's a good thought. A hive of face dancers seems much more satisfying than an evil robot named Ominus.
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Aug 19, 2015 03:24
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Khizan posted:In a way, The Lies of Locke Lamora is almost a problematic debut novel, though, because that's the standard he's held to now. He could write one good solid book a year for the rest of his life and never get a review that doesn't go "Meh, not as good as Lies" because most authors go their entire careers without ever writing one book that's that good, much less two of them. I've always thought that Red Seas and Republic got a bit of a bad rap just because they were being held up to the best book of the past decade. I don't know, I think that Red Seas and Republic both have significant issues regardless of comparisons to Lies. Red Seas has major pacing problems and some bizarre tonal shifts that felt almost self indulgent. The plot got increasingly dense and unlikely to the point of exasperation. Republic felt like one half of a decent story. I would've appreciated the time shifted narrative more if the present day portion wasn't so absurd and had any real stakes. Sabetha as a character felt shallow despite a healthy page count of setup and their relationship lacked any real chemistry. I know some people enjoyed the establishment of a true villain at the end but to me it seemed really forced and cliched. I have no real desire to see any more books in that universe. In fact I think it would probably be easier on Lynch if he was just able to work on something new. He seems to have some personal issues and the pressure of maintaining a lengthy series with a lot of expectations can't be helping. Forgetting fantasy for a moment I finally found a Reynolds book I like - House of Suns was an absolute delight and I could barely put it down at times. He have anything else of that caliber? I didn't care for Revelation Space and it really turned me off trying his other stuff for awhile.
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Aug 19, 2015 15:16
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The Gunslinger posted:
You're probably not wrong in this respect, but unfortunately he probably has no say in the matter either. Guess it's just one of the pitfalls of being signed to a seven-book series deal straight off the back of book 1.
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Aug 19, 2015 15:22
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The Gunslinger posted:Forgetting fantasy for a moment I finally found a Reynolds book I like - House of Suns was an absolute delight and I could barely put it down at times. He have anything else of that caliber? I didn't care for Revelation Space and it really turned me off trying his other stuff for awhile. Not really, House of Suns is kinda the standard "even if you didn't like Revelation Space, you should still give this a go" recommendation.
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Aug 19, 2015 16:10
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Junkenstein posted:Not really, House of Suns is kinda the standard "even if you didn't like Revelation Space, you should still give this a go" recommendation. As one who read House of Suns first, and then got bored by Revelation Space, I can say this is accurate. House of Suns was so drat good.
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Aug 19, 2015 16:25
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occamsnailfile posted:Books or blog posts of other reviews and essays about the genre. It can be journal articles, books, intro essays, interviews, all kinds of related matter--there's a fair bit out there, but sometimes hard to find. I'm referring to the more academic end of things here since that seems to be what you were after but writing about genre runs the gamut. Well, I'm not exactly looking to write a senior thesis. I just want to be well-informed so I don't have to review a book in isolation if I don't want to. You mentioned Strange Horizons as a good source of reviews, and I'd like to know if you have any more to recommend. Also, I just noticed that the resources you posted earlier skew heavily to science fiction, and I'd like to learn about fantasy as well. Are there other resources that can tell me more, or do people just not analyze fantasy as much?
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Aug 19, 2015 17:18
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General Battuta posted:The Library at Mount Char is real good. If you've ever wanted to read a book about posthuman Elder Gods dropping the hammer and going to war over the universe while tiny humans scramble around underfoot, this is for you. It's rough around the edges (mostly pacing wise) but the sense of escalation is awesome. Thanks for recommending this, really enjoyed it. It reminded me of a cross between Good Omens (which I haven't read in ages) and John C. Wright's Chronicles of Chaos.
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Aug 19, 2015 17:27
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The Gunslinger posted:I don't know, I think that Red Seas and Republic both have significant issues regardless of comparisons to Lies. Red Seas has major pacing problems and some bizarre tonal shifts that felt almost self indulgent. The plot got increasingly dense and unlikely to the point of exasperation. Didn't he have a breakdown or something in the middle of book 2? I still haven't read the first one, but I seem to recall someone saying he was having some emotional problems or a breakdown or something from working on the second or third book. Maybe that's why they aren't up to par with the others?
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Aug 19, 2015 18:05
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Oh god there's gonna be seven Locke Lamora books? That's gotta suck. Being tied to the same world for so many years.
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Aug 19, 2015 18:25
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Leather Bear posted:Oh god there's gonna be seven Locke Lamora books? That's gotta suck. Being tied to the same world for so many years.  One point of good news is they're already named, which leads one to assume there's at least some plot structured out to fill the whole series. At least it's not SOIAF or Expanse where they just keep adding books.
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Aug 19, 2015 19:09
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Read the first. If you really enjoyed it then weigh up the pros and cons of reading a big rear end series that isn't even close to finished. If you don't like the idea of waiting around then The Lies of Locke Lamora functions perfectly as a stand alone novel. The second has a bitch of a cliff hanger and i've heard the third doesn't have a completely clean ending either.
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Aug 19, 2015 19:43
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