angel opportunity posted:can someone just go ahead and make the thread in the book barn that is like "Racism, Dog Whistling, , Gaslighting, Lampshading, Petty Feuds and other problematic issues in the SFF writer community," and then this thread can be for talking about books? Can somebody take you (and all the other people who'd rather shriek about how much you hate a topic than let it die naturally) out behind the chemical sheds and put you out of your misery? 
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Sep 23, 2015 13:59
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To be completely serious, this derail happens nearly every single month. It's always like 2-3 people discussing it, and it kills discussion about books for the entire course of the derail. The derail does end naturally after a few days, but then it comes right back up again just about every month, and I'm pretty sure most of the people in this thread don't care about any of this poo poo. Even if they care about it, they'd probably rather just read an article about Sad Puppies instead of discussing it at length in a thread that's supposed to be about books.
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Sep 23, 2015 14:08
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angel opportunity posted:To be completely serious, this derail happens nearly every single month. It's always like 2-3 people discussing it, and it kills discussion about books for the entire course of the derail. The derail does end naturally after a few days, but then it comes right back up again just about every month, and I'm pretty sure most of the people in this thread don't care about any of this poo poo. Even if they care about it, they'd probably rather just read an article about Sad Puppies instead of discussing it at length in a thread that's supposed to be about books. If it kills discussion, I'm guessing the problem is with you and the other people so infuriated by those posts happening you can't scroll over them, or skim them. I mean, maybe if you weren't a giant prick at first, I'd feel more sympathetic. But too late for that now.
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Sep 23, 2015 14:15
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MrFlibble posted:I tried The Blade Itself - I got almost half way through and it just didn't click for me. For some reason it never felt like a cohesive world, which would have been ok but none of the characters were doing anything particularly interesting and didn't grab me either, except the old barbarian ninefingers. I've heard it gets really good later on and I might try it again at some point, but i'm waiting for The Traitor A friend of mine has been ranting about Mistborn forever and I'm listening to the audiobook with this look on my face like someone's just farted under my nose. "Is he really- yes, yes he is actually going to tell me what power they're given by each metal and what the terminology is for how they use the metals and she is instantly going to learn what to do and how to do it". Like, I don't think he was tricking me, I just don't see what he saw in this homogeneous mass of archetypes and autistic focus on bland world-building. Same for The Traitor though! Definitely on my Soon To Read pile.
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Sep 23, 2015 14:19
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Evfedu posted:A friend of mine has been ranting about Mistborn forever and I'm listening to the audiobook with this look on my face like someone's just farted under my nose. "Is he really- yes, yes he is actually going to tell me what power they're given by each metal and what the terminology is for how they use the metals and she is instantly going to learn what to do and how to do it". Like, I don't think he was tricking me, I just don't see what he saw in this homogeneous mass of archetypes and autistic focus on bland world-building. See i'm not a huge fan of the mistborn trilogy, but I did read through all of it on my first pass. I think what tipped it is that the setting was just different enough (ash falling from the sky) the focus on the lower class (at first anyway) all of the characters had a very clear goal (overthrow the emperor) and I really liked one character (Kelsier). Looking back it has some serious problems, and I can't get into the authors supposed much better series - which considering it has two books of a planned ten is no big loss to me.
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Sep 23, 2015 14:30
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oTHi posted:(do not read the other books in that universe). This can not be emphasized enough. It will ruin Rendevous for you.
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Sep 23, 2015 14:38
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XBenedict posted:This can not be emphasized enough. It will ruin Rendevous for you. The game based on Rama II was pretty good, at least. It helps that the game ends several chapters before the book did.
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Sep 23, 2015 14:41
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PINING 4 PORKINS posted:You do realize you're arguing with somebody who constantly gets probated for sending people death threats, right? ahahaha that loving rap sheet (and these are just the ones specific enough to know what the probation was for) PROBATION 09/13/15 09:57pm Effectronica And now accusing people of pederasty out of nowhere? Take a sixer right now. User loses posting privileges for 6 hours. Absurd Alhazred Absurd Alhazred PROBATION 09/07/15 11:39am Effectronica This is a step up from making ironic death threats at motherfuckers though. User loses posting privileges for 1 day. Ettin XyloJW PROBATION 07/11/15 09:35pm Effectronica I am sick and tired of getting reports about your ironic death threats and abuse towards individual posters. Take this month to reflect on how to become a better poster. User loses posting privileges for 1 month. Absurd Alhazred Ralp PROBATION 07/06/15 02:47pm Effectronica Aren't you getting tired of these "ironic" violent threats? I know I am! User loses posting privileges for 6 hours. Absurd Alhazred Absurd Alhazred PROBATION 07/02/15 10:19pm Effectronica You gotta stop telling people to get out, kill themselves, etc. User loses posting privileges for 3 days. Exclamation Marx Ralp PROBATION 06/30/15 06:54pm Effectronica Cleverly hidden threat of violence. User loses posting privileges for 6 hours. Exclamation Marx Exclamation Marx PROBATION 06/26/15 10:56pm Effectronica Please do not encourage suicide. User loses posting privileges for 3 days. Absurd Alhazred Ralp PROBATION 06/26/15 05:33pm Effectronica Stop wishing violence and death upon other posters. User loses posting privileges for 6 hours. Absurd Alhazred Absurd Alhazred PROBATION 05/25/15 01:22am Effectronica Please don't support forums-assisted suicide. User loses posting privileges for 12 hours. Absurd Alhazred XyloJW
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Sep 23, 2015 14:42
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XBenedict posted:This can not be emphasized enough. It will ruin Rendevous for you.
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Sep 23, 2015 14:42
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VagueRant posted:Weeks late, but I'm a little reluctant to go in there for fear of spoilers? Still only about halfway through Name of The Wind. It's all gone quite Harry Potter. You should probably just stop, he doesn't get any better. In fact, he does things in book two that make him even more of a Mary Sue. And since Kvothe never stops being the narrator in his story he tells the Chronicler, it never stops to be all about him.
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Sep 23, 2015 14:54
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XBenedict posted:This can not be emphasized enough. It will ruin Rendevous for you. It was kind of funny how the beginning of the second book spends all that time explaining how the setting is now completely different than the original novel and instead of colonizing the Solar system everyone is back on Earth and the technology is down to around modern day levels.
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Sep 23, 2015 14:57
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In the Name of the Wind was okay as long as you could believably tell yourself Kvothe was an unreliable narrator and maybe things like the protagonist being a mega goon towards a girl were intentional.
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Sep 23, 2015 15:06
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Neurosis posted:In the Name of the Wind was okay as long as you could believably tell yourself Kvothe was an unreliable narrator and maybe things like the protagonist being a mega goon towards a girl were intentional. You can still tell yourself this, the third book will be released and will justify everything that comes before it - canonizing the series as one of the greatest modern works ever 
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Sep 23, 2015 15:12
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Has anyone else read A Darkling Sea by James L Cambias? I'm about halfway through and it's fun. It's pretty much Vernor Vinge lite. Think A Deepness in the Sky set at the bottom of the ocean on an ice moon, with the humans in underwater habitats like Sphere. The main aliens are a crustacean-like species, completely sightless, who are entering a scientific age. There's also a second alien race who are acting as mediators during the human/ocean-alien contact. The alien biology is pretty interesting, and the plot is kind of light-hearted despite a gruesome death kicking everything off. It's all about misunderstandings between the humans and aliens, and all sorts of shenanigans on the sea floor. Check it out! Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Sep 23, 2015 |
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Sep 23, 2015 15:21
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Evfedu posted:This is actually interesting to me as I'm trying to figure out what it is about certain material that just turns people off to it. In my case, it was because I'd read a genre book before. There was nothing new in Abercrombie and other people already did it better.
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Sep 23, 2015 15:26
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Neurosis posted:In the Name of the Wind was okay as long as you could believably tell yourself Kvothe was an unreliable narrator and maybe things like the protagonist being a mega goon towards a girl were intentional. Yeah, I honestly thought that was the intent of the book. I haven't read the second book or either of the novellas, though.
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Sep 23, 2015 15:35
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MrFlibble posted:You can still tell yourself this, the third book will be released and will justify everything that comes before it - canonizing the series as one of the greatest modern works ever 
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Sep 23, 2015 15:37
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ToxicFrog posted:Yeah, I honestly thought that was the intent of the book. I haven't read the second book or either of the novellas, though. Be aware if you continue with the series that the stand alone novella, "The Slow Regard of Silent Things" is aptly named. Very aptly. Like dead on the loving nose this describes what you will read. The only way it could be named more clearly would be "I, Patrick Rothfuss, am going to write about a side character who has no goals in life except fixating on the hero of my series as she dilly dallies through a week thinking about things that don't matter in a boring way. Nothing of consequence happens in the true sense of the word consequence - the character in this novella goes on no journey physical or spiritual, learns nothing, does nothing and nothing happens. Also I included a note about how this story might not be for you because I recognized that this is basically me wanking off onto a page" coffeetable posted:yes this man is playing the long con I choose to believe what I believe because ultimately it doesn't matter. I will likely have forgotten about the series by the time the third book is released.
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Sep 23, 2015 15:44
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Jedit posted:In my case, it was because I'd read a genre book before. There was nothing new in Abercrombie and other people already did it better.
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Sep 23, 2015 15:55
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There's a new StoryBundle out and it's not curated by Kevin J. Anderson! They're PKD Award finalists but I honestly haven't heard of most of them and only a few of the authors too.
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Sep 23, 2015 16:32
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ToxicFrog posted:The game based on Rama II was pretty good, at least. It helps that the game ends several chapters before the book did. Aaaa I LOVED that game. I must've been eight or ten when we played it, so my brother and I would just stare over my dad's shoulders and tell him what to do. I don't know if it was legitimately hard as hell, or just hard because we were tiny children, but we were stuck in the avian lair with the  watermelons for months. And then the game put you on a timer and rushed you through the awesome octospider lair 
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Sep 23, 2015 16:42
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Antti posted:There's a new StoryBundle out and it's not curated by Kevin J. Anderson! Really? I've at least heard of most of them. Looking at the list of PKD finalists over the years, they have a surprising fondness for Elizabeth Hand, which suggests she doesn't get much hardback press. That's a shame. There was also a note somewhere that fewer and fewer noteworthy books are published as paperback originals, making the award harder to give. I find that interesting but I don't have enough additional data to really examine it. I guess if they're going to publish something, trad publishers go with the hardback at least a little? Do trade paperbacks count for PKD award or just mass market?
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Sep 23, 2015 16:43
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I'll readily admit it may be an issue with me instead of the authors or the novels. It seems like there's 1980s and 1990s stuff there and I'm not too familiar with authors or works specifically from that era.
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Sep 23, 2015 16:52
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VagueRant posted:Weeks late, but I'm a little reluctant to go in there for fear of spoilers? Still only about halfway through Name of The Wind. It's all gone quite Harry Potter. MrFlibble posted:See i'm not a huge fan of the mistborn trilogy, but I did read through all of it on my first pass. I think what tipped it is that the setting was just different enough (ash falling from the sky) the focus on the lower class (at first anyway) all of the characters had a very clear goal (overthrow the emperor) and I really liked one character (Kelsier). Looking back it has some serious problems, and I can't get into the authors supposed much better series - which considering it has two books of a planned ten is no big loss to me. On the upside, Sanderson will likely finish all 10 Stormlight books before GRRM finishes the last two ASOIAF books. Jedit posted:In my case, it was because I'd read a genre book before. There was nothing new in Abercrombie and other people already did it better. Pretty much how I felt after finishing First Law. The books could've been more interesting if it hadn't been so blatant early on what was going to happen for multiple characters. Given the setting I'd say even the whole the good guys are also rotten and bad thing wasn't too surprising either. Evil Fluffy fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Sep 23, 2015 |
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Sep 23, 2015 18:02
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If you want to read a series of stories told by a unreliable self-aggrandising narrator in a bar, read Arthur Conan Doyle's Exploits and Adventures Brigadier Gerard. The guy who did the British audiobook of The Name Of the Wind does a excellent reading of them too.
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Sep 23, 2015 21:35
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Mars4523 posted:Holy gently caress @ The Library at Mount Char. This book seems like it was really well received here and I'm really confused because I thought it was pretty bad, and BB recommendations are usually pretty spot on. The characters are just awful. Carolyn is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl with the inscrutable plan. Also she's dirty and smelly but we won't fail to mention that she's still really sexy. Tee-hee oops guess the President is dead lol why is that important?? Oh the sun's gone and everyones starving oops guess I forgot about that lol  Steve is a doofus and all around moron and apparently the reader's supposed to identify with him. Steve, having witnessed countless wonders and miracles, has been offered one wish, any wish. "Wow anything?! Like I can ask for a really nice car??" gently caress you Steve Don't even get me started on Erwin. Erwin is literally a Bruiser/STDH post come true. He's a war hero Medal of Honor recipient who is also a super special agent and can do whatever he wants and solve crimes and did we mention he's a badass? He can also walk up to the President of the United States and talk to him like he's an old fishing buddy, and also Erwin was the subject of a best-selling biography detailing his badass deeds so most of the regular folks he comes across know him on sight. Also I think they said he was a Command Sergeant Major which is one of the highest possible enlisted postings in the military and usually requires over 20 years of distinguished service and and amazing record to even have a shot at getting. Erwin did it in 13 years! Also he insists that everyone, everywhere calls him "Erwin", even his subordinates when he was in the military. You don't loving call E-9s by their first name on a daily basis. There are some imaginative ideas but they're mostly poorly realized. The characters just ruin any chances of this being anything other than decent. I'd give it a 4/10.
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Sep 23, 2015 22:03
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Haha, I am close to finishing it after starting it yesterday, so not reading the spoilers and my opinion could change... But I like it quite a bit. Not super amazing, but imaginative and interesting and with some nice twists and turns. Up next for me is The Traitor!
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Sep 23, 2015 22:17
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Rough Lobster posted:Carolyn is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl with the inscrutable plan. Also she's dirty and smelly but we won't fail to mention that she's still really sexy. Tee-hee oops guess the President is dead lol why is that important?? Oh the sun's gone and everyones starving oops guess I forgot about that lol I'm honestly not sure how much does getting the military details wrong spoil the story, or if you really need to identify with Steve - I found it pretty difficult to identify with any of the characters in that book, alien ways of thinking being a theme in it and all, and I still enjoyed it a lot. It's obviously opinions but a lot of your complaints sound like nitpicking for nitpicking's sake. Yeah, Erwin is too much of a flawless hero but that's the type Carolyn needed to find or make. Steve isn't supposed to be inteligent, his whole deal is being made a patsy and then changing Carolyn's mind by sheer bloody-mindedness.
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Sep 23, 2015 22:32
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You are more likely to find positive evidence of life on other planets than you are to find a CSM that wants or even tolerates being called by his or her first name by a subordinate. It'd (completely unironically) break my suspension of disbelief, too, to find something where the author has a really obvious lack of any and all clue how things actually work, especially if it was tacked on to everything else mentioned.
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Sep 23, 2015 22:39
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should have thought about that before joining the military
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Sep 23, 2015 22:52
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Darth Walrus posted:Mixon's report has been getting a fair amount of criticism lately. This is a particularly huge and comprehensive takedown. Might still be summat to it, and her behaviour was undoubtedly weird and unpleasant, but the circumstances of the campaign against Sriduangkaew do seem murkier than we'd hitherto imagined. If this is the same defense thing I read a week or so ago it's about as credible as David Icke reporting on reptilians, especially when the author started engaging in personal attacks and insults against individuals, while at the same time crying about how everyone was being too mean to ROH(who let's not forget issued many death n acid-throwing-in-face threats). quote:Has anyone else read A Darkling Sea by James L Cambias? I'm about halfway through and it's fun. It's pretty much Vernor Vinge lite. Yeah, I read this and it was very enjoyable. Had some good humor like you said, and I very much enjoyed the undersea aliens. There was also some decent political type intrigue with the human space exploration. savinhill fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Sep 23, 2015 |
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Sep 23, 2015 22:53
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We're sorry that the story about the young woman who kills god to become god is ruined by the unrealistic portrayal of a soldier.
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Sep 23, 2015 22:55
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Strobe posted:You are more likely to find positive evidence of life on other planets than you are to find a CSM that wants or even tolerates being called by his or her first name by a subordinate. It'd (completely unironically) break my suspension of disbelief, too, to find something where the author has a really obvious lack of any and all clue how things actually work, especially if it was tacked on to everything else mentioned. I didn't think it was amazing or anything, but it was a good read and I enjoyed it. Anyway, a lot more weird thing happen than life on other planets, so I guess you would accept it. Rusty fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Sep 23, 2015 |
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Sep 23, 2015 23:17
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Anyone have opinion on Sullivan's Riyria series? It's a somewhat formulaic Fafhrd and Grey Mouser clone which tends to be caper-based or politics-based but I quite enjoyed them the two times I went through the series. Certainly made The Legend of Eli Monpress look like a bad hack job. Also there's some cute things the author snuck in here and there like the name of the thief's horse, etc. I saw a review on some book review site that said it was "the worst thing ever written" according to the article's author, but most reviews rate them fairly solidly and I have enjoyed them well enough. I enjoyed Red Rising and Golden Son, they didn't seem especially amazing to me and iirc the protagonist was one of those classic "angry young male who gets angry at everything" characters which grates on me after a while. I may be forgetting but I seem to recall that he was just a hateful arrogant little poo poo, but I also might be getting it mixed together with the Undying Mercenaries series or something (which is certainly starred in by just about the most unlikable sperglord gamer rear end in a top hat, ever.) Neurosis posted:ahahaha that loving rap sheet (and these are just the ones specific enough to know what the probation was for)
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Sep 24, 2015 00:18
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I only read the first Riyria book. Like you said it's nothing ground breaking but it was a fun, light read with likeable characters. I've got the rest on my to read list
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Sep 24, 2015 01:33
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savinhill posted:If this is the same defense thing I read a week or so ago it's about as credible as David Icke reporting on reptilians, especially when the author started engaging in personal attacks and insults against individuals, while at the same time crying about how everyone was being too mean to ROH(who let's not forget issued many death n acid-throwing-in-face threats). Different one, near as I can tell, and contains solid, documented evidence of both fabricated claims and a deliberate campaign of harassment by a small group of writers (including chat-logs of them organising the full Anita Sarkeesian treatment for Sriduangkaew).
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Sep 24, 2015 01:37
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Darth Walrus posted:Different one, near as I can tell, and contains solid, documented evidence of both fabricated claims and a deliberate campaign of harassment by a small group of writers (including chat-logs of them organising the full Anita Sarkeesian treatment for Sriduangkaew). I see the chat-logs, but I'm not seeing a link to the source of them; as far as I can tell, they could have been made up out of whole cloth.
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Sep 24, 2015 01:50
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Silver2195 posted:I see the chat-logs, but I'm not seeing a link to the source of them; as far as I can tell, they could have been made up out of whole cloth. The report only seems to link to still-extant stuff - the writer notes that he got much of this from digging through archives of now-deleted items, which often aren't so easy to directly link. He does at least provide a date of August 2nd, 2014, if you want to go fishing. Darth Walrus fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Sep 24, 2015 |
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Sep 24, 2015 02:21
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Hedrigall posted:Has anyone else read A Darkling Sea by James L Cambias? I'm about halfway through and it's fun. It's pretty much Vernor Vinge lite. While I've been deployed overseas this year, I've been working through most of the monthly io9 "Sci-Fi and Fantasy you can't miss" monthly lists.. at least most of the sci-fi. "A Darkling Sea" is one that I read a few months ago. I greatly enjoyed it. I loved the addition of the 3rd race (the other spacefarers) adding some tension to the story. It's definitely Vinge lite. Reminds me a lot of A Fire.
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Sep 24, 2015 02:25
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pseudorandom name posted:We're sorry that the story about the young woman who kills god to become god is ruined by the unrealistic portrayal of a soldier. That's only part of it. The main criticism I had was that there's three characters that we spend 90% of the book following and they're all terribly written. The second was that the story was kind of bad and meandering. Really the only thing going for the book IMO are some admittedly cool ideas, but I felt that that wasn't enough to make it a good book in the face of its flaws.
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Sep 24, 2015 03:01
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