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RndmCnflct posted:Yes, many. Part of what I liked about the series is that the different types of aliens don't just act like humans in costumes. Some of them are truly alien.
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Oct 28, 2015 06:24
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gvibes posted:It (Char) was a good book. A++++++++++ would read again The author's having an AMA on Reddit and WTF, bitches barely asked him any questions.[/url] Go ask him some questions, come on. Also, if you haven't read it yet, The Library on Mount Char is $2,99 right now. You should buy it.
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Oct 28, 2015 07:37
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gvibes posted:It (Char) was a good book. A++++++++++ would read again Just started reading this and am enjoying it a lot. Liked the Night Land reference. A Monstruwaken living in a pyramid at the end of time? Hah.
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Oct 28, 2015 14:40
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Neurosis posted:Just started reading this and am enjoying it a lot. Liked the Night Land reference. A Monstruwaken living in a pyramid at the end of time? Hah. The last one, at that!
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Oct 28, 2015 14:46
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Luna: New Moon sure has a shitload of characters to keep track of for a 400 page book.
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Oct 28, 2015 15:46
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I could have used a few more teaser bits about the various entities in the Mount Char universe. It was fine not to give any focus to them, but I wanted a little more fluff to add some spice.
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Oct 28, 2015 20:48
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mdemone posted:I could have used a few more teaser bits about the various entities in the Mount Char universe. It was fine not to give any focus to them, but I wanted a little more fluff to add some spice. Agreed. Instead, there is Steve.
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Oct 28, 2015 21:16
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mdemone posted:I could have used a few more teaser bits about the various entities in the Mount Char universe. It was fine not to give any focus to them, but I wanted a little more fluff to add some spice. Sometimes the spice is not knowing everything. It is like with the Bas-Lag series, where there are so many interesting things you want to know more about, but sometimes the mystery is better than the full fluff. Everything doesn't have to be RPG rule book or lex Sanderson.
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Oct 28, 2015 21:31
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Looking to expand my mindless scifi section. I'm looking for some fun action adventure sword and or sword/magic books. I liked the eddie lacrosse series, the deeds of paksnerrion series, the rivira series (theft of swords). Basically anything with some sort of regularish joe character that doesn't turn into a gary stu.
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Oct 29, 2015 01:26
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The Markhat series by Frank Tuttle is pretty good. The first book is a little weird, but the series picks up after that.
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Oct 29, 2015 01:42
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Chillyrabbit posted:Looking to expand my mindless scifi section. The Misenchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt-Evans is the book you're looking for.
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Oct 29, 2015 02:10
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That whole series is pretty good. Only two poo poo ones outta the bunch. The one about the dragon's blood, and the one about the immortal chick. All the other ones are pretty good.
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Oct 29, 2015 02:45
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Chillyrabbit posted:Looking to expand my mindless scifi section.
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Oct 29, 2015 02:47
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:That whole series is pretty good. Only two poo poo ones outta the bunch. The one about the dragon's blood, and the one about the immortal chick. Yeah, Watt-Evans in general is one of my favorite b-list authors. He's solid. He's got a few flubs, and it's rare that he really knocks it out of the park, but percentage-wise he has a better ratio of good books to crap than almost anybody else out there.
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Oct 29, 2015 02:50
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coyo7e posted:The Warded Man series. Is terrible past the first book.
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Oct 29, 2015 03:43
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coyo7e posted:The Warded Man series. That's basically a gary stu series in all but name. Random guy puts on tats, starts killing demons by touching em. Lady who is rape bait shows up and only wants to score with him, while everyone wonders how he can do the wondrous poo poo he does with the tats since he's the only person on the planet who decided to tattoo the symbols on his body. It's... not a good series. For way more reasons than the gary stu.
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Oct 29, 2015 04:16
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah, Watt-Evans in general is one of my favorite b-list authors. He's solid. He's got a few flubs, and it's rare that he really knocks it out of the park, but percentage-wise he has a better ratio of good books to crap than almost anybody else out there. After going from The Traitor Baru Cormorant to KJ Parker's Fencer trilogy to The Library on Mount Char, some Lawrence Watt-Evans might actually be just what I'm looking for.
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Oct 29, 2015 04:34
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Chillyrabbit posted:Looking to expand my mindless scifi section. Vlad Taltos novels by Steven Brust?
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Oct 29, 2015 05:12
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:That's basically a gary stu series in all but name. I rally liked the first book for the world building. I liked the second book for the breadth he added to the world, but was starting to tire of "I am invincible!". The third book I read because, "hey I'm already invested, maybe it's wrapping up..." I got through three chapters of the 4th book, and I'm just done.
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Oct 29, 2015 05:53
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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: This book is dumb and I abandoned it about 40 pages in.
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Oct 29, 2015 07:03
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pseudorandom name posted:This book is dumb and I abandoned it about 40 pages in. I mean he called it "dope fantasy" so I'm not sure the bar was really set that high.
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Oct 29, 2015 11:27
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RndmCnflct posted: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. Yeah, sure, I'll bite. I've been watching The Clone Wars recently and it's left me in the mood for milfic. Especially since the War in Heaven re-release always seems to be tooth-achingly close but never actually immediate (Battuta!  )
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Oct 29, 2015 12:13
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Autonomous Monster posted:Yeah, sure, I'll bite. I've been watching The Clone Wars recently and it's left me in the mood for milfic. Especially since the War in Heaven re-release always seems to be tooth-achingly close but never actually immediate (Battuta! Almost there! It's immediate now, barring disaster it'll only be a few days.
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Oct 29, 2015 14:30
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Khizan posted:Is terrible past the first book.  FWIW it is better than The Jade Mage... Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:That's basically a gary stu series in all but name. This is 100% true. I don't remember rape bait girl maybe I didn't read that far. Sorry, someone on facebook recently recommended this series to someone who'd recently finished a much higher quality series. When I called him out on it being literally garbage, he got mad because "the tatted-up guy isn't really the protagonist", despite the entire first novel being in his perspective iirc. The second one was so bad I just quit reading after a few chapters. It's basically like somebody heard of 20 Palaces and then thought, "you know if you just covered your entire body in tattoos YOU WOULD BE INVINCIBLE and then they forgot to write a story or craft a point behind it all. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Oct 29, 2015 |
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Oct 29, 2015 15:06
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Halfway through Mount Char and this Erwin character is horrible and extremely jarring.
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Oct 29, 2015 15:09
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Here's a serious question, which book series(es) can people name where the protagonist isn't completely emotionally undeveloped for the course of the story? The Waded Man and Jade Mage are a couple of low-skill (I'd say low effort but I'm sure the authors are quite proud of their work) fantasy novels with this theme I see in sf/f a lot: they are literally unable to deal with complex emotions without just getting more and more angry and escalating to higher and higher levels of violence. The Jade Mage in particular was absolutely atrocious, with the marty stu protagonist literally destroying entire villages because he gets mad - dozens of people at a time, constantly, get blown to bits because he's got a lovely attitude - even his teacher is afraid of his childish temper and godlike power levels. I wonder if this is an sf/f thing because there are lots of man-child wanna-be authors who are themselves bad at handling emotions, or because there are lots of men who are bad at dealing with their emotions (and men seem to be the majority of authors, especially sf/f) without punching walls and breaking stuff, or because Americans are the majority of the sf/f I read, and they specifically are bad at sorting through emotions past the "Hulk smash!" level of inquiry. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Oct 29, 2015 |
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Oct 29, 2015 15:14
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Arguably city of stairs, the main character is essentially a bureaucrat. She does have a pet viking though this might not meet your criteria. Look to Windward? Basically the entire book is about people learning to deal with emotional trauma, some violently and others not.
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Oct 29, 2015 15:36
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The Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman cops a lot of flak (undeservedly imo) but by the end of it Quentin has actually grown into a mature, functioning man. Bonus points for actually explicitly going through the HULK SMASH phase first. And sure, a lot of people have said "yeah haha good for him, becoming a functioning human being by age 30..." But is that not the hero the millenial generation needs? I definitely see where you're coming from, emotional underdevelopment is a major issue in SFF largely because so many SFF writers are nerds with great imaginations who aren't really sure how to write nuanced characters and/or aren't really sure how to emotionally evaluate themselves. Add in the nerd pandering and there's a lot of wish fulfilment Gary Stu characters out there. This is really not dissimilar from the poster a while back who asked for scifi that actually has good writing and good characters, and my answer is the same now - look for the "literary" authors who have dipped a toe in sci-fi: Margaret Atwood, Michael Chabon, Michel Faber, etc. But then maybe that's not the light, escapist stuff you're looking for. gently caress it, my go-to underrated book is The Golden Globe by John Varley. Light, easy, hilarious, hands-down the most loveable first-person POV character I've ever read in either SFF or literary fiction.
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Oct 29, 2015 17:04
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Neurosis posted:Halfway through Mount Char and this Erwin character is horrible and extremely jarring. Erwin is a complete tool. Not sure why he's in the book. If you haven't gotten there yet, the scene in The Oval Office will stoke your hate to a fiery inferno.
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Oct 29, 2015 17:45
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Eh. I liked him.
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Oct 29, 2015 17:48
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He feels pretty Mary Sue-ish but weirdly enough I feel the book needs a character like him to intersperse all the bleakness.
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Oct 29, 2015 19:56
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coyo7e posted:Here's a serious question, which book series(es) can people name where the protagonist isn't completely emotionally undeveloped for the course of the story? The Waded Man and Jade Mage are a couple of low-skill (I'd say low effort but I'm sure the authors are quite proud of their work) fantasy novels with this theme I see in sf/f a lot: they are literally unable to deal with complex emotions without just getting more and more angry and escalating to higher and higher levels of violence. The Jade Mage in particular was absolutely atrocious, with the marty stu protagonist literally destroying entire villages because he gets mad - dozens of people at a time, constantly, get blown to bits because he's got a lovely attitude - even his teacher is afraid of his childish temper and godlike power levels. Read books written by women. I know people hate hearing that, but really, if you're blaming that trend on male authors then read fewer male authors. v  vTo focus on books that fit that with male characters at least... In the Greatcoats series by Sebastien de Castell, Falcio is protagonist who uses his wits more than his blade. Problems tend to arise if he stops thinking. Even his moments of anger are more focused and controlled. Any given series by Carol Berg. Valen in The Lighthouse Duet is a renegade and ne'er-do-well who just wants to keep his head down and gets wrapped up in mysteries instead. Lucien in The Sanctuary Duet (second book coming out in December!) is an artist and morgue assistant. Portier in The Collegia Magica is a librarian-turned-detective. Things tend to not blow up in her novels (unless Damien is involved, but that's Damien for you). The main male character in The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin spends most of his time preventing disasters. Its sequel is still being written, though. Still, brilliant book. Catherynne Valente's books don't really even have violence, in terms of what the protagonists cause. Patricia McKillip's books, likewise, though I think her only series longer than two books is The Riddle-Master. The Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling has plenty of swashbuckling fun, but the protagonists don't go on rage-fueled rampages. The first trilogy is mostly a mystery. We won't talk about the rest. Then you have, say, Valdemar, where nearly every single character is emotionally immature, but in other ways. Honestly I can't think of much genre I've personally read where violence was a first resort unless the point was that the character was overly aggressive as an intentional part of his character. But usually if a book synopsis focuses on the protag's combat skill and the wars they have to fight, to the exclusion of their character, I don't pick it up.
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Oct 29, 2015 20:03
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Echo Cian posted:Read books written by women. I know people hate hearing that, but really, if you're blaming that trend on male authors then read fewer male authors. v Happiness Commando posted:Vlad Taltos novels by Steven Brust? Hieronymous Alloy posted:The Misenchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt-Evans is the book you're looking for. Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:The Markhat series by Frank Tuttle is pretty good. Thanks everyone for the rec's, I always hated going out to read a novel and not caring for the character at all since all the drama is manufactured against a gary stu. I like my books wholesome with a dash of adventure and trials and journeys.
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Oct 29, 2015 23:24
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I'd anti-recommend the Greatcoats series over there. The first book's quality drops so rapidly in the last third, I'd barely give it a three out of five.
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Oct 29, 2015 23:26
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:That whole series is pretty good. Only two poo poo ones outta the bunch. The one about the dragon's blood, and the one about the immortal chick. I thought the last few (the ones he serialized and then published thru Wildside) were pretty disappointing, I didn't really feel that there was any tension and everybody was just so utterly sensible about things. (I still haven't gotten around to reading 'The Sorcerer's Widow')
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Oct 29, 2015 23:29
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Echo Cian posted:Honestly I can't think of much genre I've personally read where violence was a first resort unless the point was that the character was overly aggressive as an intentional part of his character. But usually if a book synopsis focuses on the protag's combat skill and the wars they have to fight, to the exclusion of their character, I don't pick it up. I don't think violence was really the issue here, it's more the fact that many characters in SFF can't deal with any emotion other than anger (which they deal with by smashing things and killing people). If they feel anything that isn't righteous anger, they get mad. Part of the reason, I think, is that the authors themselves have trouble articulating their emotions. Men still aren't particularly encouraged to talk about their emotions (with anger a notable exception), so describing how to deal with anything that isn't rage is difficult. On the other side of the spectrum, the readers of SFF are predominantly male and also don't want to read about a character spending dozens of pages soul-searching and slowly coming to terms with their issues. Or at least the authors don't think their readers want to read about it, which feeds back into their unwillingness or inability to write about it. the other part is that emotions are the opposite of rationality, and Science Fiction has elevated rationality to the highest virtue. In classic sci-fi, problems are solved by the right application of science and technology, not by character development. More modern sci-fi puts a bigger emphasis on characters, but problems are still ultimately solved by rerouting a tachyon stream through the main deflector dish. Emotions other than anger only get in the way of that, because they need to be sorted through before the correct solution can be applied. The perfect sci-fi hero is a stoic engineer. Since someone told authors that the main character should have flaws, it is easy to make them really, really angry at things. Anger doesn't necessarily get in the way of solving the issue and might in fact provide the motivation to solve the issue in the first place.
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Oct 30, 2015 00:00
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fritz posted:I thought the last few (the ones he serialized and then published thru Wildside) were pretty disappointing, I didn't really feel that there was any tension and everybody was just so utterly sensible about things. (I still haven't gotten around to reading 'The Sorcerer's Widow') Eh... I can see that. They definitely came across as "telling a story" moreso than "OH WHAT AN ADVENTURE!" Even The Sorcerer's Widow was kinda boring. Not as bad as that dragon blood one or that immortal girl though. God those sucked. The one about the chick who hosed up her athame and killed a shitton of people was surprising good, if weirdly violent for him. I think my exact reaction to it was 
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Oct 30, 2015 00:21
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Has anybody read Slade House yet? I haven't read all of David Mitchell's books so I'm not sure if the reader is supposed to know who Norah transferred her soul to at the end. Is it a character that has already appeared in an earlier book? Or is it a character Mitchell is saving for a future novel, since I guess Marinus' story isn't over yet.
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Oct 30, 2015 03:37
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I just ordered the Books of the South set by Glen Cook (the next three after the first trilogy). It was only C$14 from indigo with free shipping so whatever, but are they good? Mediocre with interesting bits? I find myself intrigued with how the dude under the old tree and the dude under the new tree will play out. I also like Croaker but I'm not sure about how his relationship turned into a somewhat goony "M'Lady doth be too pure for my love" thing as I've seen that kind of turn go bad too many times. Re: relationship it was a bit goony from the start to be honest. Dude heard about cute girl, fantasizes, sees her in real life, is awkward, gets stupid every time he has a chance to make a move in spite of massive hints from girl that she's interested... It was the only point I didn't like other than a somewhat rushed feeling to the ending. Oh hey there's Bomanz the megawizard but he's gone hiding and oh there he's back and he blew up a dragon but he's dead again  I also got a hardcover copy of The Traitor Baru Cormorant which thankfully brought its whole name north with it instead of the weird short version the UK got. I don't have any reservations about that one 
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Oct 30, 2015 05:36
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ArchangeI posted:I don't think violence was really the issue here, it's more the fact that many characters in SFF can't deal with any emotion other than anger (which they deal with by smashing things and killing people). If they feel anything that isn't righteous anger, they get mad. Do you have any examples? I'm not at all sure what you mean, anger isn't the only emotion of protagonists in books I've read. Is it because a lot of stories deal with betrayal and revenge? Even then, anger may be appropriate and it still isn't the "only way" they deal with issues.
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Oct 30, 2015 05:57
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