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Kesper North posted:Leckie's top 10 favorite SF books. I thought this list was notable due to the complete and abject lack of Iain Banks: Lot of good picks on there tho, who would you toss to put Banks on?
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Oct 16, 2015 22:56
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fritz posted:Lot of good picks on there tho, who would you toss to put Banks on? Mieville.
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Oct 16, 2015 22:58
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fritz posted:Lot of good picks on there tho, who would you toss to put Banks on?
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Oct 16, 2015 23:03
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Apparently Leckie isn't particularly a fan or follower of Banks:Ann Leckie posted:I am occasionally surprised at how frequently Ancillary Justice is compared to Banks. But of course, he did the ship AI thing, so that makes sense. But I think that similarity is mostly superficial, and he was doing something quite different. I mean, in terms of his overall project. And as it happens, I’ve only read Consider Phlebas—quite some time ago, actually—and, after I sold AJ, The Hydrogen Sonata. I enjoyed both of them, of course. But they’re not part of me the same way that, say, Cherryh’s Foreigner books are, or the way Norton is. And I wasn’t responding or replying to Banks, in the way writers sometimes do, either. But of course, Banks was one of the greats. The world is the poorer for his loss.
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Oct 16, 2015 23:25
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Banks is one of those writers who I can accept must be objectively good since so many people rave about him, but I just don't get it. I've read Look to Windward, Consider Phlebas and Player of Games (in that order) and found none of them really rose above the level of average, readable sci-fi pulp. 
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Oct 17, 2015 06:41
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Use of Weapons was the book that bumped up from 'good' to 'great' for me.
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Oct 17, 2015 06:48
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Jesus gently caress it blows my mind, because I figured at least a part of her AI ship stuff just _had _ to be influenced by her. The world is poorer for her not reading Banks in his entirety.
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Oct 17, 2015 07:01
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freebooter posted:Banks is one of those writers who I can accept must be objectively good since so many people rave about him, but I just don't get it. I've read Look to Windward, Consider Phlebas and Player of Games (in that order) and found none of them really rose above the level of average, readable sci-fi pulp. Agreed. I tend not to get involved in Banks discussions, because he's not really my cup of tea. I'm not saying it's bad, because it's not. I just don't find his writing compelling enough to put him on my "Oh my god!" list.
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Oct 17, 2015 07:51
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When things appear in the Best X Ever lists, that's because collectively more people like it than like whatever more niche or more divisive thing. It doesn't mean you or really any individual person is going to find it the best item.
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Oct 17, 2015 12:15
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That's not a collective list though? And I honestly thought her writing was influneced by Banks too. Interesting to find out it's not and she doesn't even like his books.
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Oct 17, 2015 12:21
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freebooter posted:Banks is one of those writers who I can accept must be objectively good since so many people rave about him, but I just don't get it. I've read Look to Windward, Consider Phlebas and Player of Games (in that order) and found none of them really rose above the level of average, readable sci-fi pulp. Look to Windward should be read once you have understood the Banks universe. My favorite book by Banks as well.
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Oct 17, 2015 12:34
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anilEhilated posted:That's not a collective list though? That's a little inaccurate. She said she liked them, but didn't adore them.
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Oct 17, 2015 12:34
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I noticed that Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher, the first book in the new trilogy, Transformation, set in the Polity universe, is currently on sale for $1.99 on Kindle. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P6U51SK/ Probably US only, but easily fixed for non-US residents: Add a new US address in Your Account/Manage Address Book. Either pick a random one or use a friends address. The go to Your Account/Digital Content/Manage Your Content and Devices, hit the Settings tab and change the country setting by selecting the new US address. I use a Danish credit card, and have had no problems switching between my Danish address, that uses the International Kindle store, and the US address of a friend in CA, still using the same card to purchase books for a couple of years now.
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Oct 17, 2015 13:27
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Finally got around to finishing Baru Cormorant, just wanted to say it was quite good 
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Oct 17, 2015 14:27
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Darth Walrus posted:That's a little inaccurate. She said she liked them, but didn't adore them. This is the internet, the only valid positions are "this is the greatest thing since sex" or "this is literally worse than Hitler."
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Oct 17, 2015 14:39
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Fart of Presto posted:I noticed that Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher, the first book in the new trilogy, Transformation, set in the Polity universe, is currently on sale for $1.99 on Kindle. Kindle price shows up as $19.31 for me. In the US. Love the Polity, but I'll pass at that price.
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Oct 17, 2015 17:11
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flosofl posted:Kindle price shows up as $19.31 for me. In the US. Love the Polity, but I'll pass at that price. Perhaps Jeff Bezos just thought I needed a good deal, or more likely it was a fluke. I just double checked and yup, I still only paid $1.99 I guess it pays off checking your wishlist once in a whole and filter by "Items with price drops"
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Oct 17, 2015 18:04
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Fart of Presto posted:I noticed that Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher, the first book in the new trilogy, Transformation, set in the Polity universe, is currently on sale for $1.99 on Kindle. How is it? I enjoyed the Polity books, but the first book of the Owner trilogy was pretty bad.
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Oct 17, 2015 18:16
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ToxicFrog posted:How is it? I enjoyed the Polity books, but the first book of the Owner trilogy was pretty bad. Only last week did he mention in a blog post that he finally started writing again on a regular schedule. It's definitely going to be interesting to see what he writes next.
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Oct 17, 2015 19:00
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I'm reading the latest Mistborn novel, Shadows of Self, and it's kind of funny how little Sanderson cares about making sure you're up to speed with the setting.
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Oct 18, 2015 01:52
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muscles like this? posted:I'm reading the latest Mistborn novel, Shadows of Self, and it's kind of funny how little Sanderson cares about making sure you're up to speed with the setting. I guess not every series can have a rundown of what the Blue Beetle is.
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Oct 18, 2015 02:13
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muscles like this? posted:I'm reading the latest Mistborn novel, Shadows of Self, and it's kind of funny how little Sanderson cares about making sure you're up to speed with the setting. That actually sounds like an improvement since I gave up the last one I tried on account of it feeling like a babysitters club book in how much it dumped on you right at the start.
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Oct 18, 2015 02:31
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neongrey posted:That actually sounds like an improvement since I gave up the last one I tried on account of it feeling like a babysitters club book in how much it dumped on you right at the start. Yeah this one is much better at not doing info-dumps of the previous book. At it's worst it makes contextual references that make you go "Oh, right. They're referring thing that happened last book (or original trilogy)". Unless you're the type that immediately hits yourself in the head with a hammer after reading a book, I can't see how that's anything but a positive.
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Oct 18, 2015 03:25
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muscles like this? posted:I'm reading the latest Mistborn novel, Shadows of Self, and it's kind of funny how little Sanderson cares about making sure you're up to speed with the setting. I remembered nothing except the bare basics from Alloy of Law (two lawmen type dudes named Wax and Wayne, eat metals for magic, His uncle was up to something) but Shadows of Self was fine to follow. I think it helps that there aren't five plus characters in different parts of the world following entirely different plots. But spoiler for Alloy of Law I still can't remember exactly what his uncle was up to. It involved women in some capacity
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Oct 18, 2015 11:34
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MrFlibble posted:I remembered nothing except the bare basics from Alloy of Law (two lawmen type dudes named Wax and Wayne, eat metals for magic, His uncle was up to something) but Shadows of Self was fine to follow. I think it helps that there aren't five plus characters in different parts of the world following entirely different plots. But spoiler for Alloy of Law I still can't remember exactly what his uncle was up to. It involved women in some capacity Well, there are two possibilities for the women. Since allomancy and ferruchemy are hereditary, he might want to use them in some kind of breeding program. But that seems like a hell of a long term plan. Or he will use hemalurgy to steal their powers and recreate someone like the Lord Ruler, a full mistborn and full ferruchemist combined. Though that wouldn't explain why they only kidnapped women. We're probably still missing something. As for his larger plan, we know even less about that than we can guess about his plan for the women. So it's no surprise that you can't remember what his uncle was up to, we just don't know yet.
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Oct 18, 2015 11:44
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Yo, people gotta read Zachary Jernigan's No Return, it's probably the most truly original, unique and dope fantasy I've read in a long time. I don't understand how something this excellent coulda been slept on so hard by SF&F fans and the sf&f internet community in general, it even got a super badass cover that makes you wanna read it:
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Oct 18, 2015 23:41
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Because Night Shade was crashing and burning when it came out, so it got virtually no exposure and was hard to come by originally. That's not a problem now, and, hell, wasn't really a problem six months after it's hardcover release, but by then the damage was done.
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Oct 19, 2015 02:42
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Ornamented Death posted:Because Night Shade was crashing and burning when it came out, so it got virtually no exposure and was hard to come by originally. That's not a problem now, and, hell, wasn't really a problem six months after it's hardcover release, but by then the damage was done. Well I hope that damage get's rectified and the peoples always saying "where's the well written, for-real non formulaic fantasy ?" actually follow their recommendation beggary to an actual book that more than meets their imagined requirements instead of just settling for whatever already's been beat to death with false recs cuz of internet dominating publisher house hype.
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Oct 19, 2015 06:46
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muscles like this? posted:I'm reading the latest Mistborn novel, Shadows of Self, and it's kind of funny how little Sanderson cares about making sure you're up to speed with the setting. A person can always reread the earlier stuff. Plus Sanderson writes fast enough that most people would still remember the overarching plot and most of the important details of prior books. Assuming you still know the setting is better than a chapter (or more) of recap writing.
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Oct 19, 2015 07:05
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Why is Lowtax so angry on that cover?
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Oct 19, 2015 07:18
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savinhill posted:Yo, people gotta read Zachary Jernigan's No Return, it's probably the most truly original, unique and dope fantasy I've read in a long time. I don't understand how something this excellent coulda been slept on so hard by SF&F fans and the sf&f internet community in general, it even got a super badass cover that makes you wanna read it: Oh! That's someone else's arm, not a really weird leg.
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Oct 19, 2015 08:16
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savinhill posted:Yo, people gotta read Zachary Jernigan's No Return, it's probably the most truly original, unique and dope fantasy I've read in a long time. I don't understand how something this excellent coulda been slept on so hard by SF&F fans and the sf&f internet community in general, it even got a super badass cover that makes you wanna read it: I remember passing on it because it looked like it was going to be a little too much of the ultraviolence for me.
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Oct 19, 2015 13:53
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savinhill posted:Yo, people gotta read Zachary Jernigan's No Return, it's probably the most truly original, unique and dope fantasy I've read in a long time. I don't understand how something this excellent coulda been slept on so hard by SF&F fans and the sf&f internet community in general, it even got a super badass cover that makes you wanna read it: edit: drat, reading up on it, it actually does look interesting. What the gently caress is with that cover though. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Oct 19, 2015 |
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Oct 19, 2015 14:15
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anilEhilated posted:Not sure if serious but I can't imagine the deviantart cover helped there. Most authors don't have any say in what their covers are going to look like. 99% of the time if a book (from a legitimate publisher) has a bad cover the author knows it and doesn't like it either.
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Oct 19, 2015 14:24
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savinhill posted:Yo, people gotta read Zachary Jernigan's No Return, it's probably the most truly original, unique and dope fantasy I've read in a long time. I don't understand how something this excellent coulda been slept on so hard by SF&F fans and the sf&f internet community in general, it even got a super badass cover that makes you wanna read it: I remember reading the goodreads blurb on this a couple of months back and the use of the word "erotic" to describe the novel quickly persuaded me to move on. The novel might be all fine and everything, but I think I can be forgiven for passing up on a genre book with that word attached to it by its marketing. Marketing can be misleading and godawful, but there are so many books out there that I have no need to take that kind of chance. Sucks for the author, of course.
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Oct 19, 2015 15:01
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savinhill posted:Yo, people gotta read Zachary Jernigan's No Return, it's probably the most truly original, unique and dope fantasy I've read in a long time. I don't understand how something this excellent coulda been slept on so hard by SF&F fans and the sf&f internet community in general, it even got a super badass cover that makes you wanna read it: The kindle version costs more than the hard cover, which is a nice touch. I assume the publisher has invested in concrete barriers and a good fire suppression system at their office.
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Oct 19, 2015 15:06
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Kesper North posted:Mieville. I would agree in some instances with Mieville, but I thought Embassytown was strong.
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Oct 19, 2015 16:10
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savinhill posted:Yo, people gotta read Zachary Jernigan's No Return, it's probably the most truly original, unique and dope fantasy I've read in a long time. I don't understand how something this excellent coulda been slept on so hard by SF&F fans and the sf&f internet community in general, it even got a super badass cover that makes you wanna read it: This is weird, because the pull quote says, "this is a good and important book," but the cover says, "this is pulpy nonsense." And while I'd read either of those two options, them trying to co-exist makes me really skeptical. Also, if I didn't like Player of Games how likely am I to like other Banks novels?
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Oct 19, 2015 18:41
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Patrick Spens posted:This is weird, because the pull quote says, "this is a good and important book," but the cover says, "this is pulpy nonsense." And while I'd read either of those two options, them trying to co-exist makes me really skeptical. 
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Oct 19, 2015 18:46
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Never forget that covers are typically designed by publishers, with authors having little to no control over that content. That's not always true (I think that Saturn's Children cover was actually even worse at one point and Stross managed to get them to tone it down a little? and many publishers do work very carefully with authors to make sure they're happy with their covers) but...
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