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How does Cixin Liu's The Wandering Earth compare to the Three Body books? Edit: Oh wait, it looks like a novella, despite amazon.co.uk listing the print length as 482 pages. Junkenstein fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Oct 8, 2015 |
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Oct 8, 2015 16:15
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i'm reading dune and it's awesome!
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Oct 8, 2015 16:39
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Junkenstein posted:How does Cixin Liu's The Wandering Earth compare to the Three Body books? I've read some of Liu's short fiction, including that one. It's really good and well worth reading. 482 pages is probably a collection of his shorter work. Go for it !
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Oct 8, 2015 17:09
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I finished Ancillary Mercy. It was a good book, the ending to me seemed a little off putting in its way but it wasn't bad or anything. I did like how you could probably argue that the Ancillary series is the lost history of the birth of The Culture. You know, I know it isn't, but I miss Banks. Still a lot of loose ends and mysteries left, so she could easily continue the series from another viewpoint. All in all, do recommend. Great novels always suffer for their endings anyway.
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Oct 8, 2015 17:16
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Wait, what? Apparently Tanya Huff released a sixth Confederation of Valor book, An Ancient Peace. Awesome.
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Oct 8, 2015 17:48
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oTHi posted:I have a soft spot for the Exile trilogy, and maybe the Icewind Dale trilogy, but the rest of his stuff is basically garbage (even Exile and Icewind Dale aren't especially good). There are far better D&D authors (for varying definitions of 'better'). I always preferred The Cleric Quintet by Salvatore but it is undeniably goonie as gently caress, again nostalgia goggles. Trying to read the wikipedia synopsis of the Drizzt stuff over the years is insane by the way.
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Oct 8, 2015 18:12
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The Gunslinger posted:I always preferred The Cleric Quintet by Salvatore but it is undeniably goonie as gently caress, again nostalgia goggles. Pwent was known for wearing vicious-looking spiked armor. He was also known for never having ever taken a bath. He had an odor so foul that even other dwarves avoided standing too close to him. In one instance, Catti-brie rubbed his head in a fond manner and ended up with a film of stinking filth on her hand. Thibbledorf's armor was ridged so as to catch the flesh of a close-held enemy and tear it when the dwarf began to shake and gyrate. He apparently tried to persuade a werewolf to bite him but got turned down, then died and became a vampire and recruited a band of undead drow. Salvatore.
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Oct 8, 2015 18:40
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chrisoya posted:Thibbledorf Pwent If I recall, this character basically killed things by essentially dry humping them to death.
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Oct 8, 2015 18:43
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EVGA Longoria posted:Looking for some politics and/or planning and/or intrigue books. Reading Goblin Emperor now and enjoying it. Also enjoy the bits of the various Eddings books where they were politicking for votes. The Baroque Cycle By Neal Stephenson has the best political maneuvering I've read anywhere.
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Oct 8, 2015 19:09
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hatesfreedom posted:I finished Ancillary Mercy. It was a good book, the ending to me seemed a little off putting in its way but it wasn't bad or anything. The ending was pretty much the only possible way of resolving that storyline short of of another trilogy's worth of books. I didn't think it was too badly done. Probably should have seen it coming, but I didn't.
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Oct 8, 2015 19:17
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GrandpaPants posted:If I recall, this character basically killed things by essentially dry humping them to death.
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Oct 8, 2015 19:57
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Khizan posted:The ending was pretty much the only possible way of resolving that storyline short of of another trilogy's worth of books. I didn't think it was too badly done. Probably should have seen it coming, but I didn't. Nothing was strictly badly done you're right. I just wanted something more to be resolved. Instead it ended with, I felt, a lot of story still to go. I'd like to know more about the ships, the Presgar, the original Raddch... everything, I'd like to know more about everything. The lack of gender is getting a smidge annoying. I don't know why it didn't bother me at all the previous two books, but this one it slowly did. I wonder if Ann Leckie has a sheet with all the characters genders listed, because for a lot of them I just assumed they were all female unless they did something fairly male-stupid like punching walls and bemoaning how they don't understand. So here's to more books. Hopefully from the viewpoint of anybody but Breq.
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Oct 8, 2015 20:13
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Kalman posted:CJ Cherryh tends to fit this - Downbelow Station in particular. It might just be that Downbelow left me kind of bored, but i really would have said Cyteen and Regenesis for politics, planning, and manipulation from Cherryh. They're nothing but.
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Oct 8, 2015 20:16
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hatesfreedom posted:The lack of gender is getting a smidge annoying. I don't know why it didn't bother me at all the previous two books, but this one it slowly did. I wonder if Ann Leckie has a sheet with all the characters genders listed, because for a lot of them I just assumed they were all female unless they did something fairly male-stupid like punching walls and bemoaning how they don't understand. The only two characters I can remember that were specifically gendered were Seivarden and Anaander Miaanai, both of whom are male, and it's in the first book while they're on that first planet.
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Oct 8, 2015 20:20
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Khizan posted:The only two characters I can remember that were specifically gendered were Seivarden and Anaander Miaanai, both of whom are male, and it's in the first book while they're on that first planet. drat. I either forgot or completely missed that for Anaander Miaanai. I'm just going to continue picturing her as a short female usurper.
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Oct 8, 2015 20:25
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Khizan posted:The only two characters I can remember that were specifically gendered were Seivarden and Anaander Miaanai, both of whom are male, and it's in the first book while they're on that first planet.
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Oct 8, 2015 20:26
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hatesfreedom posted:drat. I either forgot or completely missed that for Anaander Miaanai. When Breq is telling the doctor on that first planet in Justice that she wants to kill Anaander Mianaai, the doctor says something like "Mianaai has thousands of bodies, you can't possibly kill him with just one gun". That is the only time it is explicitly mentioned, though later on in the book it makes note of Mianaai having a baritone voice which is another typically male trait. I only picked that up on my pre-Mercy reread, though. The first time I around my mental picture was a Indian woman with graying hair. Mars4523 posted:I'm pretty sure Breq's One Esk Nineteen body is female, if only because of the really condescending way one of the male bar patrons treats her in the beginning of the first book. In like the first four pages of Ancillary Justice, one of the people in the bar tells Breq " Aren't you a tough little girl?" I just noticed this for the first time when I went back to read that chapter over again.
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Oct 9, 2015 03:16
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Mars4523 posted:Wait, what? Apparently Tanya Huff released a sixth Confederation of Valor book, An Ancient Peace. Awesome. I have a copy of Valor's Choice lying around somewhere that I haven't read. The universe of that series seems kinda interesting to me, a bit Mass-Effect-y from the descriptions. Is it anything like that? I love me some multi-species galactic community books.
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Oct 9, 2015 04:17
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Hedrigall posted:I have a copy of Valor's Choice lying around somewhere that I haven't read. The universe of that series seems kinda interesting to me, a bit Mass-Effect-y from the descriptions. Is it anything like that? I love me some multi-species galactic community books. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is a fantastic, if small-scoped-in-a-busy-bigger-picture story that is very Mass Effecty, in the personal group of alien friends way and not a bad Bioware 'who am I loving next/2-dimensional character' way. It's definitely got an interesting universe and societies that I would love to see explored in a sequel or shared setting. I really enjoyed it. It was very surprising just how much I liked it.
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Oct 9, 2015 05:59
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Drifter posted:The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is a fantastic, if small-scoped-in-a-busy-bigger-picture story that is very Mass Effecty, in the personal group of alien friends way and not a bad Bioware 'who am I loving next/2-dimensional character' way. Oh yeah I've read Long Way, it's great. In fact I'm "reading" it a second time, on audiobook this time. The narration is.... not amazing. By the way did you know she's writing a sequel? Title will be A Closed and Common Orbit according to her twitter!
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Oct 9, 2015 06:03
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Hedrigall posted:Oh yeah I've read Long Way, it's great. In fact I'm "reading" it a second time, on audiobook this time. The narration is.... not amazing. That's awesome. I'm stoked she's able to write a second one.  As for the audiobook, I'm sorry to hear it sucks, but since I've only ever used audiobooks for lectures and stuff I'm not personally disappointed. They move much more slowly - it's like trying to watch a movie in slow motion. Can't stand it, even if I up the playback speed. 
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Oct 9, 2015 06:11
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anilEhilated posted:To be fair he sounds exactly like a paper RPG character a goon would play. Pwent would grapple enemies and then kind of have a seizure while holding them and cut them into ribbons. He also had an autistic brother who wanted to be a druid and could only say "doo-dad!" and (minor character spoiler he eventually does become a real The weirdest thing about Salvatore is that the later and later into his stuff you go, the more it sounds like he's just throwing darts at the index for an item compendium yet of all the licensed D&D authors he is the only one I can think of offhand who gleefully ignores any and all game rules and realities when writing.. And then you read his "original" stuff and it's even more boring and generic than the D&D stuff. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 06:18 on Oct 9, 2015 |
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Oct 9, 2015 06:14
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Oh, cool. For all those who love D&D style books and enjoy horribly foul humor, all of Robert Bevan's books are on sale for 99 cents a pop. Short stories, main books, etc. I love this series 
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Oct 9, 2015 06:49
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Hedrigall posted:I have a copy of Valor's Choice lying around somewhere that I haven't read. The universe of that series seems kinda interesting to me, a bit Mass-Effect-y from the descriptions. Is it anything like that? I love me some multi-species galactic community books. Mars4523 fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Oct 9, 2015 |
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Oct 9, 2015 07:07
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coyo7e posted:Goony as gently caress: You're mixing up your Salvatore dwarfs. Pwent was a Battle Ranger of Buenor's. The "Doo-dad" was Pikel Bouldershoulders, who with his brother Ivan, were companions of Cadderly (Cleric Quintet). You also forgot to mention Cadderly's deadly Yo-Yo's. I'm the goon that read way too many of these books in the 80s and 90s.
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Oct 9, 2015 08:02
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Library on Mount Char was weird, but awesome. Thanks to whoever recommended that one.
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Oct 9, 2015 08:35
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Kampfy Von Wafflehaus posted:Library on Mount Char was weird, but awesome. Yeah, it was a great combination of Stross and Gaiman. I really liked it and it was a long time since I read such a good standalone novel. I don't see why people have issues with it?
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Oct 9, 2015 14:14
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From what I've seen here, they're complaining about the lack of characterization and the characters casual approach to acts of horrific violence. I'm fairly sure those are both fully intentional, though.
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Oct 9, 2015 15:01
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Ceebees posted:It might just be that Downbelow left me kind of bored, but i really would have said Cyteen and Regenesis for politics, planning, and manipulation from Cherryh. They're nothing but. I've only read Finity's End (borrowed from my aunt, it was the only Cherryh book she had), are the other books worth reading?
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Oct 9, 2015 15:33
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Torrannor posted:I've only read Finity's End (borrowed from my aunt, it was the only Cherryh book she had), are the other books worth reading? Hell yah! Merchanter's Luck, Cyteen, and Downbellow Station were some of my favorites. But she's written a great many.
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Oct 9, 2015 16:32
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anilEhilated posted:From what I've seen here, they're complaining about the lack of characterization and the characters casual approach to acts of horrific violence. I'm fairly sure those are both fully intentional, though. Eh, considering what happens in the book to the characters a somewhat jaded approach to violence seems appropriate. Adam Blacks treatment of Carolyn comes to mind, not that she remembered it though. I liked the idea of president Lemay though. Characterization was pretty decent considering the scope of the story. When it comes to characterization, there is IMO usually a balance between it and a good flow in the story, and I typically favor a good story.
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Oct 9, 2015 17:11
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flosofl posted:You're mixing up your Salvatore dwarfs. Pwent was a Battle Ranger of Buenor's. The "Doo-dad" was Pikel Bouldershoulders, who with his brother Ivan, were companions of Cadderly (Cleric Quintet). You also forgot to mention Cadderly's deadly Yo-Yo's. I forgot about the yo-yos though. They were probably forgivable to me because I like doing yo-yo tricks and I liked Startropics, so any chance for more war yo-yos is a weakness of mine... Didn't he even beat some badass boss enemy by filling a yo-yo with nitroglycerin and hitting them in the chest with it, too? I'm the goon who collected D&D novels and then saved them in pristine condition and got mad when people creased the spines or bent the covers. Throwing them away was a hard bit of growing up to do.
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Oct 9, 2015 18:29
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Ceebees posted:It might just be that Downbelow left me kind of bored, but i really would have said Cyteen and Regenesis for politics, planning, and manipulation from Cherryh. They're nothing but. hatesfreedom posted:Hell yah! I found Downbelow Station hard to get into, but Cyteen owns. Regenesis kind of feels like it wants to be book two of a trilogy, though; it wraps up a lot of relatively unimportant side plots like who killed Ariane Alpha while dancing around the big questions like is the Azi-based Union society long term stable, and if not, what if anything can Ariane Beta do about it? I thought Cyteen stood well on its own, but with the addition of Regenesis it's crying out for a third book, IMO. But yes, Cherryh owns and if you're looking for intrigue and political machinations, her books tend to have a much heavier focus on that than on laserspewpew. With that in mind I'd probably head the list with Cyteen, Regenesis, the Foreigner books, and possibly Devil to the Belt and the Merchanter books as well.
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Oct 9, 2015 19:53
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Torrannor posted:I've only read Finity's End (borrowed from my aunt, it was the only Cherryh book she had), are the other books worth reading? Yes! If you want to read something "different", go for the Chanur Series. Old School space opera, where the main characters are a bunch of female feline merchants. Lots of fun, some political intrigue. By the way, I finished The Traitor Baru Cormorant. First of all, I salute you, Batuta. Please keep the books coming. I liked the crescendo in the pace of the story, which becomes frantic just before the end. THAT end. Somehow I saw it coming, there are enough tips about what Baru is up to but... gently caress!. Do you plan to write more stories happening in the same World? Oh, and like someone said in this thread, that is a loving good lesson about how to write a grim, violent and dark story without resorting to rape, sexual abuse or gore-ish carnage. Very well done, sir! Amberskin fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Oct 9, 2015 |
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Oct 9, 2015 22:22
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coyo7e posted:Bah poo poo you're right, I haven't read anything by him in probably 13-15 years so it all runs together. Yeah, I seem to remember he had the asplody yo-yo thing going on. I think his wife used darts and hand to hand. That series was more eye-rolling than Salvatore's usual stuff (which is saying a lot), since Cadderly more or less beat an Ancient Red Dragon by himself.
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Oct 10, 2015 00:47
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Once, I picked up an R.A. Salvatore book. There was a gnome named Dagnabbit. I put down the book.
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Oct 10, 2015 05:28
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coyo7e posted:The titular Cleric is unable to use bladed weapons because D&D has a thing about clerics spilling blood or something.. So instead he invents nitroglycerin and then fills vials of it and puts them into crossbows and shoots people in the chest. This sounds like something you'd find in an underground Xcrawl arena, not to mention D&D clerics aren't supposed to use bows either. 
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Oct 10, 2015 06:19
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I liked The Traitor: Aurdwynn is not-Genoa with a nice defendable river up to the not-Alps. Falcrest is not-Rome. Taranoki is not-Corsica / not-Sardinia. Orianti is not-Siciliy / not-Tunisia/Carthage (Phoenicians). The Stakhierzi are the not-Gauls and not-Goths, except potentially organised and with even better smiths. This makes the statements in the book that war is about making the other side give up instead of killing everyone slightly hilarious, as the Punic wars can be summed up by "Why won't these loving Romans surrender?". The influx of asian influences, with family names first, the grand bureaucracy, civil servant exams, and advanced alchemy is pretty neat. Falcrest in particular comes to an interesting point where their military mainstay is Half-Plate Hoplites with White Phosphor Grenades to toss over the shield wall, but are backed up by complicated mechanisms for ranged weapons - naphtha rockets and hwacha (putting us around 1600 tech-wise, with guns maybe on the horizon but probably not as they tend to be less interesting in novels). It's a refreshing blend to see. They also apparently have a fully functional ubermensch eugenics and indoctrination program, or enough population to basically hide several cities worth of children of agreeable breeding disappearing. Hopefully inexplicable magic isn't involved. The "Excellencies of Falcrest"(?) being the administrative equivalent of the Wulin (part of, but apart from, normal society; having great power and responsibility; apparently necessary; responsible for 99% of all events of interest) is also neat. The widespread presence of Candidates and Clarified, despite the small number of actual members, plus the spy network and clarified, make this more than just 'power behind the throne'. The biggest annoyance is that Baru, despite being the titular and only narrated character, is not really the POV one. If she were, her plans and effectiveness would have been more obvious and sooner. Instead, to understand her you have to rely upon what she says out loud and DOESN'T think (I don't think she ever once thinks of a free Taranoki), not what she's shown as thinking. This has echoes of a Saturday morning show where the heroes solve a mystery because of information the viewer doesn't have, yet at the same time the clues were there and the twist wasn't at all unexpected. The kerfuffle about the title made it even more obvious what was going to happen. I'm finding it difficult to decide how to feel about it, especially as Baru actually ending up as the Accepted and Successful Foreign Queen of Aurdwynn would have been weirder and sort of 90's mary-sue-fanfiction-ish. The danger with the sequels is that the constant testing will continue - why would anyone ever treat Baru as a full equal, especially injured? Has everything she has been told been true, such as Cartonn dealing with that spymistress? I-am-not-a-lesbian will get incredibly tedious, even if we were to find out it's a ploy (which I'd prefer to not be the case because it's one of Baru's few features that aren't 'smart' and 'ruthless'). Hammering home the same themes again and again basically gives you the first few Honour Harrington books, by the end of which you have a completely unrelatable cyborg demi-god as a main character. Also some character names feel like lost bets thanks to the way I pronounce them in my head: Sharty O'Lackey? Carton of Pure Juice? Tame Who? Taint You? But yeah, fantastic book and an increasingly rare fantasy one where the main character isn't a rapist or well-meaning halfwit that gets bailed out by gods, and best of all titles aren't changed for the sake of being ~different~. Absolutely plan on picking up the next one. Now I just have to decide what to read next. Twelve Kings sounds vaguely interesting, but I could just grab The Martian. Pity Downbelow Station and the other Cherryh stuff that got recent mentions isn't on the UK Kindle store.
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Oct 10, 2015 10:44
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Nullkigan posted:Now I just have to decide what to read next. Twelve Kings sounds vaguely interesting, but I could just grab The Martian. Pity Downbelow Station and the other Cherryh stuff that got recent mentions isn't on the UK Kindle store. Some of her stuff is available drm-free on Closed Circle. The only Alliance-Union books there are Hellburner and Heavy Time, though. I just looked at the UK kindle store and it is loving weak. The Canadian one has all the Chanur and Faded Sun books and most of Foreigner. Weirdly, it's missing Cyteen but has the sequel, Regenesis. You could try buying from there, if the Kindle DRM clusterfuck permits that. As far as I can tell there are no official ebook versions of Cyteen anywhere; the closest you can get is to buy a hardcopy and then seek out an unofficial scan. ToxicFrog fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Oct 10, 2015 |
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Oct 10, 2015 13:44
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Khizan posted:When Breq is telling the doctor on that first planet in Justice that she wants to kill Anaander Mianaai, the doctor says something like "Mianaai has thousands of bodies, you can't possibly kill him with just one gun". That is the only time it is explicitly mentioned, though later on in the book it makes note of Mianaai having a baritone voice which is another typically male trait. I only picked that up on my pre-Mercy reread, though. The first time I around my mental picture was a Indian woman with graying hair. I assumed that Anaander had bodies of all genders and races and etc. (Also I think Uran was gendered male in book two?)
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Oct 10, 2015 14:04
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