|
anilEhilated posted:Not really. It's his most famous book but it's more on the simple pulpy adventure side. If you like the more complex plot of Declare, I'd suggest Last Call or Stress of Her Regard. Declare is easily his best book, though. I'm reading The Stress of Her Regard right now and that's a real weird book. An English doctor in the early 1800s accidentally gets involved in a secret world of poets and vampires who are also Lamias as well as Muses and the original intelligent life of Earth. He also starts hanging out with Lord Byron and Percy Shelley.
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2015 21:33
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 13:24 |
|
|
After Declare, I'd recommend Last Call and Three Days to Never. Earthquake Weather is decent, too. Other things have a very different feel. But Declare is an insanely incredible book. As of Bridge of Birds. A true moment of joyful beauty.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2015 22:05
|
|
|
I may have to order Baru Cormorant from the US to get the proper title + cover.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2015 22:05
|
|
|
Peel posted:I may have to order Baru Cormorant from the US to get the proper title + cover. Because that's what books are all about
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2015 22:09
|
|
|
How long does this primitive alien stuff last in A Fire Upon The Deep? It's not that I don't find it interesting, just not really what I signed up for.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2015 22:09
|
|
|
Junkenstein posted:How long does this primitive alien stuff last in A Fire Upon The Deep? It's not that I don't find it interesting, just not really what I signed up for. There's a reasonable amount of it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2015 22:30
|
|
|
Peel posted:I may have to order Baru Cormorant from the US to get the proper title + cover. SFX magazine reviewer gave it 3.5/5. Quote that won't be making the cover of the paperback edition: "like A Song of Ice and Fire but without the glitz and sense of wonder". Odd review, really - it was quite negative overall but the score was positive.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2015 22:54
|
|
|
Maybe there's institutional or social pressures against giving a too low score to a high enough profile release? I don't actually read many reviews, I'm buying this book because I've liked Battuta's short stories and what I've seen him say about it is interesting to me.less laughter posted:Because that's what books are all about I come to your house you better believe I'm judging your books by their covers. 
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2015 23:00
|
|
|
Junkenstein posted:How long does this primitive alien stuff last in A Fire Upon The Deep? It's not that I don't find it interesting, just not really what I signed up for. There's a lot. It's one of the reasons I prefer Deepness, the perspective shifts in that are a bit less jarring.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2015 23:29
|
|
|
Just finished Baru Cormorant. General Battuta: gently caress you, man.  I mean, in retrospect, I should've seen the twist way before, but still, terrible. Is this the beginning of a series? And if it is, how many more books do you think you'll write?
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2015 23:57
|
|
|
Polikarpov posted:I started reading The Traitor Baru Cormorant and couldn't stop. What an incredible ride- I haven't read a story this compelling in a long, long time. I've enjoyed it so far (and I'm about 86% of the way through, so I don't expect anything to change before the end). My only complaint is that I went in expecting the time period covered to be more than, say, 5 years of Baru's adult life? I thought we would get the full on rise to being Darth Vader before betraying the Emperor.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 01:38
|
|
|
The Supreme Court posted:Is it still feasible to change address to get round amazon's region restrictions? I have no idea how to get my hands on a US one. There is an address in your kindle account settings that you can switch to whatever you want as long as it is a valid mailing address. Use a UK address to buy from amazon.co.uk and a U.S. address to order from amazon.com.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 01:56
|
|
|
Peel posted:I may have to order Baru Cormorant from the US to get the proper title + cover. I gave in and got the UK version because it was a difference of $8. gently caress the Australian dollar right now. I may have to print my own US dust jacket for it though...
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 02:59
|
|
|
Talking about questionable cover art... Badly photoshopped Jupiter blob (transparent and edgeless for some reason), and searchlight beams in vacuum! Can't wait for the book though.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 07:40
|
|
|
Hedrigall posted:Talking about questionable cover art... while fantasy cover art has moved towards symbols and clean looking insignia for its cover art sci fi still dwells in the badlands of lovely cover art. if i see a boring looking space ship i know the author must be a serious sci fi writer.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 12:30
|
|
|
muscles like this? posted:I'm reading The Stress of Her Regard right now and that's a real weird book. An English doctor in the early 1800s accidentally gets involved in a secret world of poets and vampires who are also Lamias as well as Muses and the original intelligent life of Earth. He also starts hanging out with Lord Byron and Percy Shelley.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 12:37
|
|
|
Junkenstein posted:How long does this primitive alien stuff last in A Fire Upon The Deep? It's not that I don't find it interesting, just not really what I signed up for. Most of the book is about the Tines trying to figure out what the gently caress to do with these humans who just crashed on their planet and how they can best use them to further their own goals. The stuff in the Beyond is ongoing throughout the book but is more of a secondary (if important) plotline.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 13:08
|
|
|
Polikarpov posted:I started reading The Traitor Baru Cormorant and couldn't stop. What an incredible ride- I haven't read a story this compelling in a long, long time. Finished now; I liked The Traitor Baru Cormorant a lot. Reminded me most of K. J. Parker, particularly the Engineer series. Polikarpov posted:General Battuta I hope you have a long and prolific writing career so I can read a lot more of your fiction. Second.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 13:39
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:while fantasy cover art has moved towards symbols and clean looking insignia for its cover art sci fi still dwells in the badlands of lovely cover art. if i see a boring looking space ship i know the author must be a serious sci fi writer. Still has 10x the personality of a symbol on a flat color background, even if there isn't a 100% chance the book actually involves Jupiter or even a spaceship.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 13:58
|
|
|
ulmont posted:Finished now; I liked The Traitor Baru Cormorant a lot. Reminded me most of K. J. Parker, particularly the Engineer series.  I hope you mean in the "main character makes a lot of complicated plans that work suspiciously flawlessly" sense and not in the "main character is a loathsome sack of poo poo and you keep reading only in the hopes that he and his sidekick die at the end". (I still don't know, I couldn't make it through the second book.) Baru sounds interesting, but holy gently caress Engineer was awful.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 14:07
|
|
|
ToxicFrog posted:I hope you mean in the "main character makes a lot of complicated plans that work suspiciously flawlessly" sense ToxicFrog posted:and not in the "main character is a loathsome sack of poo poo and you keep reading only in the hopes that he and his sidekick die at the end". quote:Baru Cormorant believes any price is worth paying to liberate her people-even her soul. When the Empire of Masks conquers her island home, overwrites her culture, criminalizes her customs, and murders one of her fathers, Baru vows to swallow her hate, join the Empire’s civil service, and claw her way high enough to set her people free.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 14:30
|
|
|
I read the sample chapters of Baru Cormorant. And now I feel conflicted, because Amazon.de offers both the UK and US versions. With the UK version costing half the money but I will have to wait for next week.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 14:38
|
|
|
ToxicFrog posted:I hope you mean in the "main character makes a lot of complicated plans that work suspiciously flawlessly" sense and not in the "main character is a loathsome sack of poo poo and you keep reading only in the hopes that he and his sidekick die at the end". (I still don't know, I couldn't make it through the second book.) Baru sounds interesting, but holy gently caress Engineer was awful. Then again, Parker doesn't really do likeable characters.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 14:44
|
|
|
ulmont posted:Depends on which main character you mean; the Engineer series is interesting for how a number of different characters' plans go wrong. Yeah, and I don't expect her to be. But at least as described, there's still a big loving gap between that and "Genocide Man (and his sidekick Serial Rapist Lad) embarks on a largely pointless journey of personal revenge that destroys entire nations and leaves thousands of totally uninvolved people dead, entirely by design". I mean, it didn't help that the secondary characters were largely well-meaning idiots being constantly manipulated by Ziani, so you spend the Ziani chapters wanting to throw up and the non-Ziani chapters wanting to scream HOW DID YOU SURVIVE TO ADULTHOOD WHEN YOU ARE CLEARLY TOO STUPID TO BREATHE. But a large part of it is that Ziani is completely unlikeable and unsympathetic; he's not out to free his people or even rescue his family (who, it turns out, seem to be doing ok and don't even miss him that much), he's out to burn everything the gently caress down and kill everyone because the system (that he was a part of and unquestioningly supported) hosed him over. And he doesn't even have the courage to admit it to himself, instead saying that he "has to do this" without ever examining why he has to do it. And the author seems to think that he's the protagonist and the one the reader should be rooting for. That, I think, is what ultimately turned me off the books so completely; they expect me to be cheering for the guy who is unambiguously the worst person depicted in them, which takes some doing when the #2 spot is held by a guy with a long personal history of murdering people to cover up his rapes. (There were also a bunch of other things about those books that are basically guaranteed to make me dislike them -- for example, I have very little patience for conflicts that could be resolved in five minutes if everyone involved just sat down around a table and honestly explained what was going on, and that's like 80% of the b-plot -- but the above is probably the number one reason.) ToxicFrog fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Sep 16, 2015 |
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 15:49
|
|
|
PINING 4 PORKINS posted:Still has 10x the personality of a symbol on a flat color background, even if there isn't a 100% chance the book actually involves Jupiter or even a spaceship. Party-Bot noooooooooo! YOU WILL PARTY, PUNY HOOMAN!  EDIT: Now with soundtrack -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH0_C6mMN-M Dick Trauma fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Sep 16, 2015 |
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 17:24
|
|
|
ToxicFrog posted:Engineer motives
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 18:57
|
|
|
I also always got the impression that Ziani was kind of shiftless, goalless--he worked in his factory and was good at it, excellent even, in a place that discouraged excellence. When he was kicked out of that system he suddenly had a goal for the first time and seemed to almost enjoy having some new challenges to work with even if they were immensely frustrating ones in trying to do industrial crafting with a pre-industrial base. He was so completely blind to his wife's obvious complicity in his downfall that it seemed a lot like he was working the entire time just to be working, that his wife was just this ideal he had set as necessary for his return and he didn't understand her or her needs--never had really, which was why she started running around on him. The part that I found unbelievable was the massive scale of his manipulation going off so smoothly--if one is to believe his internal narration he had planned out nearly all of the immense carnage that happened ahead of time and I just found that eyerollable. That he had a plan and was working on it with the goal of getting back home I can believe but that kind of Batman-prepared-for-everything didn't quite work. His rapey assistant was one of the very few who even managed to surprise him in any substantial way. I enjoyed the trilogy but I would say that Ziani being too omniscient is its main flaw. Someone so ignorant of the emotions of others as he was of his wife's would never be able to manipulate talented leaders like Valens so easily. Anyway, reading Baru Cormorant and enjoying it so far. The balancing act of identities is a tough one and it's clear she's got a difficult road ahead.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2015 20:58
|
|
|
Just finished Baru. To be quite honest, I really only bought the book because General Battuta wrote it and I was curious about a goon-authored book. Well, I'm not curious anymore. It's probably the best debut novel I've read since Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora. Lies is, of course, still the best book in the genre but I could comfortably put Baru into my top 5. Maybe top 3.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 07:15
|
|
|
Khizan posted:Just finished Baru. To be quite honest, I really only bought the book because General Battuta wrote it and I was curious about a goon-authored book. Well, I'm not curious anymore. It's probably the best debut novel I've read since Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora. Lies is, of course, still the best book in the genre but I could comfortably put Baru into my top 5. Maybe top 3. I enjoyed Lies and I'm dying for my copy of Baru to come. What else is in your top 5?
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 09:08
|
|
|
andrew smash posted:It's been a few months since i read it but i remember being a bit confused as to why the cop was ever involved in the plot in the first place, it seems like nothing he did was anything the main character actually needed done by someone else, and since his involvement was entirely orchestrated by her i was a little lost. I also read the book in the middle of the night in one sitting though so my memory of it may be a bit fuzzy. Still Mount Char was a great little fun page-turner and I hope he never does a sequel that ruins it 
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 11:53
|
|
|
Evfedu posted:There was the whole thing about the heart in the fridge that seemed to just get sidelined and forgotten about, as well. It's a bit hard to discuss the plausibility of elaborate plans in a book where the protagonist can see the future and every possible permutation of possibilities. Nonetheless: Heart: The family thought they needed a heart to offer Nobununga as a gift when he came to help them. Carolyn wanted to kill Steve, so that she could resurrect him, so that he could take refuge with the zombies when she needed him to. So she took the opportunity to do so while getting the heart. Now, why did she involve Detective Miner? She chose it as the way to get Erwin, since they were close. Now, why did she settle on all the poo poo with manipulating Erwin as her way of killing David? Could she have picked something less elaborate? For that matter, given his near omniscience and omnipotence, could have Father perhaps chosen a little less psychotically abusing way of raising his successor? See first paragraph. Ultimately, you're just better off not thinking about it too much and enjoying the ride. For a debut novel, the book is marvelous. As for sequel, apparently he's currently working on stand-alone story about Erwin's ex-wife investigating an old school shooting (that, presumably, turns out to be more than it seems). Also, he's writing a very important short story about what happened to Toby. He did a pretty good AMA a couple of weeks ago and he seems to be still answering questions. Megazver fucked around with this message at 15:28 on Sep 17, 2015 |
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 12:20
|
|
|
“Get anything with written Iolynic out of here, too—or Urun, or Stakhi, anything I don’t speak. I need to look self-conscious about it. Post a sign demanding that all business, verbal and written, be conducted in Aphalone. The whole city will think I can’t speak anything but.” “Your Excellence, you can’t speak anything but.” “I’ll learn.” The Traitor Bear Bird is starting out pretty drat strong. Not disappointed.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 13:21
|
|
|
Yeah the reviews really really help. Your current rank is good but you want it to get higher if possible (top 1000 at least), and more reviews will get the rank higher: Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,223 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) #316 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy #419 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy #704 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States I know your publisher handles all this stuff, but basically a rank of 1,000 for a book priced at $2.99 brings in ~$100/day. Higher price DOES NOT help the ranking, so if your book gets to rank 1,000, it will bring in ~$450/day. #3,000 ranking is probably around $200-$250/day for the price you are at. Your publisher is getting $9 per sale. Since higher price does not affect ranking, it means that rank 3,000 is actually very good for $12.99, because you are competing with all the romance books that are 99 cents, but you're still selling really well in comparison. You also are not in Kindle Unlimited, and Kindle Unlimited gives a huge rankings boost as well, and you're competing with tens of thousands of books that are in KU. With the garbage I publish, I have never held a sub-1,000 ranking for longer than a week, but a fantasy book can probably sit there much, much longer. A big chunk of good reviews will really help your visibility on all the algorithms, and if you can break into top 100 on the Scifi/Fantasy categories, it will help a lot too. The higher rank you get now with the initial press and advertising rush will give you a lot more 'stickiness'. Basically hitting a high rank early helps you stay at a high rank longer. It takes quite a long time to drop high rankings, but if you ever hit something like 40,000 ranking, going from 40,000 to 500,000 can happen very quickly, because 40,000 is one or so sales per day, and 500,000 is one sale every few days. I kind of doubt traditionally published fantasy published by Tor is at great risk of going to low sale numbers like that, but still, hitting a high rank early can stick you into 10,000+ ranking for years: Ancillary Justice, which came out two years ago, is still at a decent ranking (this also means that, right now, your book is outselling Ancillary Justice  ): Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #264 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Opera #405 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Science Fiction 8,000 rank is on the cusp of not really making great money, but there are still the hardcover and paperback sales, and honestly I have no idea what percentage of income that brings in vs. the Kindle sales. This site actually predicts the number of sales a book makes: http://www.novelrank.com/asin/B00BAXFDLM: In 2015, so far, this old-rear end book has probably made the publisher ~$40,000. This is JUST THE KINDLE edition, again I have no idea how to interpret physical copies' rankings and numbers. I realize Tor is taking all the money and then giving you advances/cuts/whatever the contract says, but this can give you a decent idea what kind of money Tor is pulling in and how well your book is doing financially. I just started reading your book and I'm often kind of slow, but I like it so far and will leave a good review when I'm done
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 15:53
|
|
|
Thanks for the info! I will make everyone write Amazon reviews.Khizan posted:Just finished Baru. To be quite honest, I really only bought the book because General Battuta wrote it and I was curious about a goon-authored book. Well, I'm not curious anymore. It's probably the best debut novel I've read since Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora. Lies is, of course, still the best book in the genre but I could comfortably put Baru into my top 5. Maybe top 3. I'm glad you liked it!
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 16:21
|
|
|
I am finally getting around to reading Redemption Ark. I've read House of Suns, The Prefect, Revelation Space, Chasm City and Diamond Dogs/Turquoise Days by Reynolds, and the Khouri/Thorn relationship is by far the worst aspect of any of the Reynolds books I have read. I know characters aren't his strong point and all but man does it suck.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 16:29
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:I am finally getting around to reading Redemption Ark. I've read House of Suns, The Prefect, Revelation Space, Chasm City and Diamond Dogs/Turquoise Days by Reynolds, and the Khouri/Thorn relationship is by far the worst aspect of any of the Reynolds books I have read. I know characters aren't his strong point and all but man does it suck. I don't even remember who Thorn is...lol
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 16:38
|
|
|
He's the colonist resistance (?) dude whose personality is 'I am a good guy' and who (Absolution Gap spoilers) literally just vanishes between books, whisked away by a neutron star for the terminal sin of being dull
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 17:05
|
|
|
Geneal Battuta, I read your book until 3 AM instead of studying for my midterm. This is my final semester in my masters program and it's the first time I'm cramming because I did something else instead. Fantastic book, and I loved the ending. I can't wait to see what else you write.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 17:07
|
|
|
He is also intended to be cocky and a bit roguish but Reynolds is no good at writing that type of character so instead he is just bland and has an awkward stiff romance with Khouri.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 17:08
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 13:24 |
|
|
Well...I still don't remember him I am pretty off Reynolds. I wait until a book of his gets like glowing reviews before I touch it. I read the first book in his new trilogy but haven't felt like reading the second yet...and I don't see that changing.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2015 17:54
|
|