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I like Great North Road, though I've never read any other Hamilton. The side of the book that is basically a police procedural in a society with near-ubiquitous electronic surveillance is a whole lot more relevant in tyool 2015 than the usual nerd candy spaceship stuff I end up reading.
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Oct 26, 2015 21:21
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Is anyone reading Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits? I'm about a third of the way in and enjoying it a lot, probably the best of his books so far.
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Oct 26, 2015 21:22
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I originally posted this in the space opera thread but it may be more germane (based on my tastes) here. Can someone recommend a good war in space that has an audible version? I just want something that's not Dune or GRRM in Space...but something that feels like it flows organically from current history. Can be near future too. I guess I'm just trying to avoid situations where there is no continuity to the modern day. Hence the Duchy of Mars locked in battle with the Dukedom of Titan (might make a good CKII mod though). I dunno maybe Dune does, I know like next to nothing about the genre...besides reading synopsis' on Wikipedia (yes I'm that lazy sometimes...and well I want to at least be aware of stuff existing. I wish I could give some examples of my likes, but really the only fiction I've read (well recently) is Lords of the Sith and the Seal Team 666 series...so yeah I like trashy stuff. Marshal Prolapse fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Oct 26, 2015 |
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Oct 26, 2015 21:37
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gfanikf posted:I originally posted this in the space opera thread but it may be more germane (based on my tastes) here. Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion fit this criteria, I guess. There is a space war and it's full of references to the 19th and 20th century.
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Oct 26, 2015 21:52
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The Expanse series, starting with Leviathan Wakes is relatably near-future and fairly popular. The author was apparently gurm's understudy or manservant or something, but it's definitely not "GRRM in space" in the way that you mean. It's not quite nonstop warfare, but there's plenty of action.
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Oct 26, 2015 22:58
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taser rates posted:Is anyone reading Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits? I'm about a third of the way in and enjoying it a lot, probably the best of his books so far. It's the most technically proficient of his books. I miss John Dies at the End where he was sometimes completely immature and sometimes hilariously brilliant.
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Oct 26, 2015 23:01
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I figure finished Library at Mt. Char a few weeks ago and was reflecting on it again today. Obvious end of book spoilers follow: So Father set things in motion for Carolyn to succeed him, which is very obvious from the ending. What made her the choice though? He says David begged and screamed, while Carolyn never did, as though that was some key difference. Also that she was far more monstrous when sent on that path by repeated grilling. So what? What is it about facing torture and horror without backing down that makes one an ideal successor? Is it just because that's how he arose, and that's the only trait he can think about in his successor?
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Oct 26, 2015 23:39
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He ran the scenario multiple times. Carolyn was the only one capable of pulling the whole plot off; when he reversed their roles, David always failed at some point. I think he even explicitly mentions he spent a long time trying to find a way to make it work with David because he was his biological father, but he just didn't have the necessary cruelty, calculation, whatever.
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Oct 26, 2015 23:43
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Maybe I'm not being clear about it. It isn't the outcome I don't understand, but why (Mt. Char spoilers) father chose that way to do it, and why torturing them until one of them went mad to generate a monster to challenge the others was his only MO.
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Oct 26, 2015 23:57
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Velius posted:Maybe I'm not being clear about it. It isn't the outcome I don't understand, but why (Mt. Char spoilers) father chose that way to do it, and why torturing them until one of them went mad to generate a monster to challenge the others was his only MO. That person is only the first monster to overcome.
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Oct 27, 2015 00:07
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Velius posted:Maybe I'm not being clear about it. It isn't the outcome I don't understand, but why (Mt. Char spoilers) father chose that way to do it, and why torturing them until one of them went mad to generate a monster to challenge the others was his only MO. He tried it many times in a succession of alternate realities or alternate histories or something, using a wide variety of methods.
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Oct 27, 2015 00:10
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I just finished The Dark Forest and it was ownage. I loved the massive scope and scale, and I didn't mind how huge chunks of the book were just Cixin Liu jackin off over science and crazy future tech. A couple questions I'm hoping some of you smart people can answer: 1. I get that the Sophons get in the way of our technological development by loving with experiment results(?), but specifically what kind of experiments are they missing with? 2. What was the deal with the people communicating through telepathy on the spaceship? 3. Was the whole imprint-scare just a device for Liu to give control of the space ship to the commissar, or is there some implication to there being secret defeatists that I missed? 4. I think I understand this one, but the reason that Luo Ji didn't tell anyone about his secret plan is because he didn't want the Trisolarans to catch on and use the droplet to kill him right? I read that passage a couple times over, and I feel like there was some "ah-ha!" moment I missed.
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Oct 27, 2015 00:45
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fadam posted:I just finished The Dark Forest and it was ownage. I loved the massive scope and scale, and I didn't mind how huge chunks of the book were just Cixin Liu jackin off over science and crazy future tech. 1. Mostly particle physics experiments (they physically get in the way of other subatomic particles). 2. Probably not actually telepathy so much as several people coming to a similar realization, although it's possible a semi-unexpected consequence of Hines' mind research led to them being super good at reading each other's body language. If so, it will probably be elaborated on in Death's End. 3. I think we're meant to at least consider the possibility. Again, Death's End may elaborate. 4. I don't remember for sure, but that sounds about right.
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Oct 27, 2015 01:17
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Dark Forest and 3 body Spoilers: On the first point, it is something that is talked about quite extensively in the first book. The premise is that any new break thru in science and materials will have to come from partial accelerators, but at some point all the results from the tests all around the world contradict each other, or give different results. They give an analogy I think about playing pool and knowing the trajectory of the ball, but instead of going on that trajectory, it takes off in to space. Anyway, the Sophons obviously travel at light speed and can interrupt any particle science experiment and give results that don't make any sense. In fact in the first book, don't a few scientists kill themselves because of it?
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Oct 27, 2015 01:24
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Kesper North posted:He tried it many times in a succession of alternate realities or alternate histories or something, using a wide variety of methods.
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Oct 27, 2015 02:29
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Sage Grimm posted:Probably for the best. The second and third book of Night's Dawn had more flat moments than good, meandering around with too many characters. There are moments of interesting ideas (how do a society of linked minds handle the crisis when faced with it directly?) but with very little focus to keep it directed on the main plot until the unsatisfying ending. I was thinking about Night's Dawn again and remembered the absolutely atrocious Mary Sue of a main character - y'know, the brave and witty 21-year-old spaceship captain who has sex with every woman he meets. I haven't seen a Mary Sue that bad outside of Heinlein. It made me feel deeply second-hand embarrassed for Hamilton every time he was on the page.
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Oct 27, 2015 03:20
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freebooter posted:I was thinking about Night's Dawn again and remembered the absolutely atrocious Mary Sue of a main character - y'know, the brave and witty 21-year-old spaceship captain who has sex with every woman he meets. I haven't seen a Mary Sue that bad outside of Heinlein. It made me feel deeply second-hand embarrassed for Hamilton every time he was on the page. Don't forget that one of them is like a 15 year old virgin from a backwards farming colony!
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Oct 27, 2015 03:40
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gfanikf posted:I originally posted this in the space opera thread but it may be more germane (based on my tastes) here. Paul McAuley's The Quiet War and its sequel.
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Oct 27, 2015 04:30
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Kesper North posted:Don't forget that one of them is like a 15 year old virgin from a backwards farming colony! And the other is an independent head of state.
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Oct 27, 2015 04:35
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CaptainScraps posted:It's the most technically proficient of his books. That's what I'm hoping for out of the new one. JDATE just had some weird mojo that made it compulsively readable, and the sequel didn't quite get there.
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Oct 27, 2015 05:02
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xcheopis posted:That person is only the first monster to overcome. Yeah, I believe the idea is that the multiverse of Mount Char is a TERRIFYINGLY HORRIBLE place, and only Father's absolute will, forged in struggle, and utter dominance over all other threats to Reality made the existence of anything nice or good possible. So if he's going to retire, his replacement has to be able to take him out, because if they can't handle him, they can't handle the next big threat to come along, either.
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Oct 27, 2015 05:48
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gfanikf posted:I originally posted this in the space opera thread but it may be more germane (based on my tastes) here. Red rising and Golden son. I dunno how good the audiobooks are. I feel a bit weird recommending them because they are almost exactly what you said you don't want, but the author does make an effort at connecting them to history too. Sort of.
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Oct 27, 2015 08:28
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The audiobooks are great.
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Oct 27, 2015 14:24
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freebooter posted:I was thinking about Night's Dawn again and remembered the absolutely atrocious Mary Sue of a main character - y'know, the brave and witty 21-year-old spaceship captain who has sex with every woman he meets. I haven't seen a Mary Sue that bad outside of Heinlein. It made me feel deeply second-hand embarrassed for Hamilton every time he was on the page. It didn't change much except change my opinion of him when he literally becomes the deus ex machina, but it did make him for most of the book, make a lot more sense.
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Oct 27, 2015 15:02
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Shab posted:On the subject of pronunciations, I truly feel for anyone who chooses to listen to the audiobook version of The Goblin Emperor. I can't remember whether i heard or read it first, but the narrator actually does a really good job with the names, even though it's no help keeping straight who's who. I've read/heard it several times and am still not 100% on everyone.
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Oct 27, 2015 17:32
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coyo7e posted:I think I read Night's Dawn pretty shortly after Donaldson's Gap Cycle, and kept conffuding the handsome dashing captain in Night's Dawn with the handsome, dashing, and totally sociopathic captain in Gap. Kraps posted:I can't remember whether i heard or read it first, but the narrator actually does a really good job with the names, even though it's no help keeping straight who's who. I've read/heard it several times and am still not 100% on everyone. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Oct 27, 2015 |
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Oct 27, 2015 17:34
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Aww man, Shadows of Self is even shorter than Alloy of Law, bummer. Audiobooks are expensive man.
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Oct 27, 2015 17:49
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mdemone posted:That's what I'm hoping for out of the new one. JDATE just had some weird mojo that made it compulsively readable, and the sequel didn't quite get there. It is not. It's more technically sound but far less batshit.
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Oct 27, 2015 17:58
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Kraps posted:I can't remember whether i heard or read it first, but the narrator actually does a really good job with the names, even though it's no help keeping straight who's who. I've read/heard it several times and am still not 100% on everyone. That's good to hear. I've since finished the book (enjoyed the hell out of it) and now I'm curious about the audiobook. I also had a hard time tracking all of the characters, especially those whose names begin with Cs- except for Csevet, but fortunately the book can be enjoyed regardless. anilEhilated posted:That's one thing I really liked in that book: the names are regular tongue-twisters but they make sense once you figure out the basic rules and then they start telling you who's related to whom in that whole clusterfuck of a court. It's not apostrophes for apostrophes' sake, there is a method to their madness. This too. There's a little section at the end of the book on name construction rules and I wish it had been at the beginning instead.
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Oct 27, 2015 18:05
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Kraps posted:Aww man, Shadows of Self is even shorter than Alloy of Law, bummer. Audiobooks are expensive man. Yeah, after reading it I was less surprised that he banged out two books. That one goes by QUICK. I can only assume that the kandra business started as a sideplot that eventually didn't work in the larger context, and instead of cutting it out in Sanderson fashion he just expanded it. That twist at the end honestly surprised me, though. Normally Sanderson is so damned straightforward. Is there any consensus on Grace of Kings? I decided to read it after reading Ken Liu's translation of 3 body and figured his original stuff might be worth it. It feels very standard romance of the three kingdoms like some stuff feels ripped directly from Tolkien. Should I be reading Bridge of Birds Instead?
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Oct 27, 2015 18:46
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There are very few books you shouldn't be reading Bridge of Birds instead of.
anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Oct 27, 2015 |
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Oct 27, 2015 20:01
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Robotnik posted:Is there any consensus on Grace of Kings? I decided to read it after reading Ken Liu's translation of 3 body and figured his original stuff might be worth it. It feels very standard romance of the three kingdoms like some stuff feels ripped directly from Tolkien. Should I be reading Bridge of Birds Instead? I haven't read Grace of Kings, but Bridge of Birds owns owns owns and you should be reading it instead of posting. The next two books aren't as good, sadly; IMO is this because they are largely rehashes of BoB.
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Oct 27, 2015 20:03
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any suggestions for the BoTM poll? Maybe Library at Mount Char again?
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Oct 28, 2015 00:54
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flosofl posted:This is the correct reaction.
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Oct 28, 2015 01:53
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Robotnik posted:Yeah, after reading it I was less surprised that he banged out two books. That one goes by QUICK. I can only assume that the kandra business started as a sideplot that eventually didn't work in the larger context, and instead of cutting it out in Sanderson fashion he just expanded it. That twist at the end honestly surprised me, though. Normally Sanderson is so damned straightforward. I didn't enjoy Grace of Kings. It started off interesting but it quickly devolved into an outline and summary of plot points of an epic novel - This happened, then this, and then this battle that they won and this other battle too, and all character development has stopped and here are some more summaries of plot events. I got bored of it. Can't remember if goons enjoyed it or not, only that some were excited for it.
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Oct 28, 2015 02:00
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PlushCow posted:I didn't enjoy Grace of Kings. It started off interesting but it quickly devolved into an outline and summary of plot points of an epic novel - This happened, then this, and then this battle that they won and this other battle too, and all character development has stopped and here are some more summaries of plot events. I got bored of it. Can't remember if goons enjoyed it or not, only that some were excited for it. I was getting bogged down in it, and then the first female pov character showed up and she was a Timeless Beauty and was instructed to use her seductive wiles for the good of her nation and peaced out.
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Oct 28, 2015 02:03
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I just read all of Tanya Huff's Valor/Confederation series. Six of them so far. Plot summary: A gritty space marine chick meets and kills a lot of aliens. Aside from two of the books in the middle they were all really good. Some interesting alien exploration and discovery. As is typical of long running series, if you like the first one you will probably like the rest of them.
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Oct 28, 2015 05:14
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Does it have cool alien races that don't just serve as gun-fodder?
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Oct 28, 2015 05:28
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Hedrigall posted:Does it have cool alien races that don't just serve as gun-fodder? The titular Confederation is made up of the founding Elder Races, aliens who joined the Confederation after founding but before the big war kicked off, and a trio of less technologically developed species that were brought in because they were the only ones who still knew how to fight as a society. The latter group are the only one who look like funny hairless apes. Everything else is more and more exotic, and there's mention of an off-page allied government that's apparently not even carbon based.
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Oct 28, 2015 05:40
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Hedrigall posted:Does it have cool alien races that don't just serve as gun-fodder?
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Oct 28, 2015 06:11
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