|
Combed Thunderclap posted:Never forget that covers are typically designed by publishers, with authors having little to no control over that content. I don't think it helped sales though. E: Here. quote:I have occasionally thrown my toys out of the pram over cover art. The worst three: 90s Cringe Rock fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Oct 19, 2015 |
#
?
Oct 19, 2015 20:10
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 01:50 |
|
|
Charles Stross posted:3) The Czech cover of "The Family Trade". I'm told half the bookstores in Prague misfiled it under "romance". (As I mentioned earlier, authors going ballistic over their book covers is understood. When their agent joins in, publishers take it more seriously. We got the subsequent covers changed.) e: The cover in question: 
anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Oct 19, 2015 |
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2015 21:09
|
|
anilEhilated posted:Holy poo poo I've actually seen that one in a library; I missed the author's name and thought they mislaid it into the SF section. Okay, No Return's is terrible but at least you can tell it's some kind of fantasy. Fancy condom packaging.
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2015 21:47
|
|
|
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. I'd say give Use of Weapons a try; if you don't like that one then Banks probably isn't going to be enjoyable for you.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2015 22:04
|
|
|
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. Fairly, PoG and Consider Phlebas are much more straightforward and one - note than the rest of the culture. Excession explores similar ground to PoG, but with both more depth, and more spaceships blowing stuff up. Use of Weapons should also get credit for having a done that is even more of a dick than the one in PoG.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 01:03
|
|
|
Strom Cuzewon posted:Excession explores similar ground to PoG, but with both more depth, and more spaceships blowing stuff up. Amazon US needs a kindle version of Excession already. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 01:51
|
|
|
Excession is the best Culture book because it has Mind BBS.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 02:12
|
|
|
Khizan posted:Amazon US needs a kindle version of Excession already.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 02:19
|
|
|
It wasn't available that last several dozen times I checked. Got it now, though! Thanks for pointing it out.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 02:46
|
|
|
Khizan posted:It wasn't available that last several dozen times I checked. Got it now, though! Thanks for pointing it out. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 03:51
|
|
|
coyo7e posted:I got it like a year or two ago? http://www.amazon.com/Excession-Iain-M-Banks-ebook/dp/B0167H685U/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1445303904&sr=8-1 This looks fishy to me, like someone not-the-publisher uploaded a scan. The sample has "Scanned by HugHug" at the beginning, which google search leads to some uploads of copyrighted books, not to mention the lack of any publisher information, and the cover picture is pretty bad quality even by ebook standards. On the kindle page it has "Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc." not Spectra/Bantam/Random House that owns the paperback version. The first link on google for "Scanned by HugHug" leads to the text of Excession, for free! The same beginning text as the kindle sample. In other kindle news, City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett is down to $5 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J1ISJFA/ I can't really remember but I thought goons liked it, any impressions?
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 04:03
|
|
|
PlushCow posted:In other kindle news, City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett is down to $5 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J1ISJFA/ Get it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 04:27
|
|
|
PlushCow posted:This looks fishy to me, like someone not-the-publisher uploaded a scan. The sample has "Scanned by HugHug" at the beginning, which google search leads to some uploads of copyrighted books, not to mention the lack of any publisher information, and the cover picture is pretty bad quality even by ebook standards. On the kindle page it has "Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc." not Spectra/Bantam/Random House that owns the paperback version. The first link on google for "Scanned by HugHug" leads to the text of Excession, for free! The same beginning text as the kindle sample. It's also in their nonfiction section.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 04:38
|
|
|
Yeah, I didn't bother looking at that when I bought it on my Kindle. Noticed it when I opened it, returned it for refund, reported it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 04:49
|
|
|
oh no are you taking my ebook away from me? ya'll worse than obamer I haven't even finished it yet
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 04:50
|
|
|
Authority was terrible. The author can write a hell of a creepy wall writing in a confined space scene. Shame about all that other stuff. It could have worked as an epistolary novel. The narrator was always a step behind and mainly existed to drip information from documents. Print the reports instead of desperately trying to stretch a narrative with horrendous pacing. I have to abandon Southern Reach for Library, Traitor, or Jonathan Howard's Lovecraft detective thing.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 11:45
|
|
|
I actually liked it the most of the three. You get glimpses into how hosed up is the society that's trying to deal with the whole Area X thing; it's actually as disturbing as the poo poo that happens inside.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 12:06
|
|
|
UltimoDragonQuest posted:... Jonathan Howard's Lovecraft detective thing. Wha..? (google google google) Holy poo poo! Thanks for that, just bought on Amazon. The only other Lovcraftian detective novel that I've liked was NIghtmare's Disciple. It was part of a bunch of Chaosium Lovecraft Mythos books which were mostly anthologies pushed out in the mid-90s. Unfortunately out of print.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 13:08
|
|
|
flosofl posted:Wha..? There was this thing: http://www.amazon.com/Scream-Jeeves-Peter-H-Cannon/dp/0940884607 in which IIRC Sherlock Holmes shows up.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 13:11
|
|
|
flosofl posted:Wha..? As for actual Lovecraft/whodunit, there's always Shadows Over Baker Street. Mind you, the story quality... varies. But it's got A Study In Emerald which is pretty drat great.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 13:39
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:Oh, nice, I didn't realize the fourth one was out. I wouldn't really describe it as "Lovecraft Detective", but they are fun books. Cabal is such an adorable rear end in a top hat. Study in Emerald was the only one worth reading out of that whole collection imo.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 13:42
|
|
|
I haven't read the fourth one yet but the first is my favorite of the Cabal series.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 13:43
|
|
|
Ok Scott Lynch, does this guy manage to come up with original stuff? From the very start of Lies, I half expected the orphans to break into a song and dance routine. I had to put the second one down when they joined the cast of Pirates of the Caribbean for hijinx on the high seas. I have plodded through, but the start of Republic is just dire. It's all a bit derivative, which is a shame as there is an actual author who can write, perhaps needs to actually act out his dialogue, and most certainly needs to rethink his strategos on naming characters. They aren't bad, but they are as far from original as I have encountered in fantasy Dark Intelligence is a good read, it is a follow on from The Technician, not a sequel but it shares planets and some characters. It's main flaw, as whenever a human author writes about super-intelligence, is that the intelligence is limited by the imagination of a human and so there are some DxM "Ahah I was the real Puppet master along" moments. His AI are usually better when he just writes them as Anthropologically flawed as their human templates, just with a greater capacity to gently caress everything up. For subtext, he wrote all 3 books while caring for his wife as she was consumed by bowel cancer. New one out soon. The Skinner is, imo, as good as pulp Sci-fi gets. It is a classic and should be in every must read list. An antidote to the execrable Red Skies Under Red Seas.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 14:37
|
|
|
taser rates posted:Study in Emerald was the only one worth reading out of that whole collection imo. I'll second this guy's comments. Just look this up for free on Neil Gaiman's website.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 16:03
|
|
|
taser rates posted:Study in Emerald was the only one worth reading out of that whole collection imo. Study in Emerald is one of the best pieces of cross-over fanfiction I have ever read. It is also really good and clever. I just like to see people twist themselves into contortions about how it isn't really fanfiction (because it's good, and fanfiction can't be good).
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 16:13
|
|
|
ArchangeI posted:Study in Emerald is one of the best pieces of cross-over fanfiction I have ever read. The 2nd Edition of the boardgame just came out. It's fun.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 16:36
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:Oh, nice, I didn't realize the fourth one was out. I wouldn't really describe it as "Lovecraft Detective", but they are fun books. Cabal is such an adorable rear end in a top hat. I literally burned this book. But yeah, A study in Emerald wasn't bad.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 18:56
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:Oh, nice, I didn't realize the fourth one was out. I wouldn't really describe it as "Lovecraft Detective", but they are fun books. Cabal is such an adorable rear end in a top hat.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 20:01
|
|
|
Stross's A Colder War is really good
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 20:04
|
|
|
UltimoDragonQuest posted:Cabal is great but I meant Carter and Lovecraft.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 20:17
|
|
|
Just finished Shift and I'm moving on to Dust now. Enjoying the trilogy, but I seem to be reading a lot of books lately where the protagonists spend a lot of their time getting relentlessly shat upon.  Hopefully I can pick up something a bit more upbeat afterwards, especially since I have both Aurora and Traitor Baru in my queue for later in the year. How's Ancillary Justice for that? I've been thinking I should pick that up now that the whole trilogy is done.anilEhilated posted:Oh, nice, I didn't realize the fourth one was out. I wouldn't really describe it as "Lovecraft Detective", but they are fun books. Cabal is such an adorable rear end in a top hat. The big problem with that collection, I think, is that most of the authors went for "Lovecraft story using the Holmes characters" rather than "Holmes story in Lovecraft's setting". Study in Emerald does the latter and owns as a result. Most of the collection does the former and is at best mediocre, even from authors I normally quite like. UltimoDragonQuest posted:Cabal is great but I meant Carter and Lovecraft. You have my attention. ToxicFrog fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Oct 20, 2015 |
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 20:47
|
|
|
UltimoDragonQuest posted:Authority was terrible. The author can write a hell of a creepy wall writing in a confined space scene. Shame about all that other stuff. It could have worked as an epistolary novel. The narrator was always a step behind and mainly existed to drip information from documents. Print the reports instead of desperately trying to stretch a narrative with horrendous pacing. For what it's worth, I disliked Authority but appreciated it a lot more after reading the final book.
|
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 21:23
|
|
|
I can imagine it paying off but it's a slog that should have been integrated with a story that had more movement. The first 15% of Library At Mount Char is good but has a lot of dumb abuse as backstory.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2015 00:05
|
|
|
UltimoDragonQuest posted:I can imagine it paying off but it's a slog that should have been integrated with a story that had more movement. I disagree with this wrong opinion. I'd say it was one of the best modern Fantasy novels in a while. Father was basically creating a god from initially mortal children using an extremely brutal survive, adapt, and overcome upbringing that made for some characters that were fundamentally broken in interesting ways.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2015 00:21
|
|
|
I just spent the last month reading through The Terror and god dammit Dan Simmons I hope you burn in hell
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2015 03:28
|
|
|
TheWhiteNightmare posted:I just spent the last month reading through The Terror and god dammit Dan Simmons I hope you burn in hell I was probably going to read this after The Causal Angel... Is this a good "god dammit" or bad "god dammit"?
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2015 03:32
|
|
|
The Terror is a decent 800-page book that would have been a really good 400-page book.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2015 03:43
|
|
|
RVProfootballer posted:I was probably going to read this after The Causal Angel... Is this a good "god dammit" or bad "god dammit"? It's a tremendously long novel in dire need of an editor and the latter half is an almost entirely pointless slog culminating in nothing worth mentioning. The only positive thing I have to say is that it appears well researched and Simmons does a good job conveying the misery the ship crews must have experienced.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2015 03:45
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:The Terror is a decent 800-page book that would have been a really good 400-page book. It definitely overstays its welcome and the latter half of the book feels like an entirely different story but I still ended up enjoying it somehow. I've read few books like it, the combination of quasi-historical and supernatural elements was interesting. Simmons can't end a book to save his life but I'm used to that from other authors 
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2015 16:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 01:50 |
|
|
UltimoDragonQuest posted:The first 15% of Library At Mount Char is good but has a lot of dumb abuse as backstory. The Gunslinger posted:It definitely overstays its welcome and the latter half of the book feels like an entirely different story but I still ended up enjoying it somehow. I've read few books like it, the combination of quasi-historical and supernatural elements was interesting. Simmons can't end a book to save his life but I'm used to that from other authors
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2015 16:42
|
|
