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Just finished Richard Paul Russo's DESTROYING ANGEL. I didn't really live up to its awesome name, I thought. I'm a pretty big cyberpunk fan but it felt extremely derivative and almost parodic. I know that's probably unfair to say about a book printed in 1992 but it's how I felt. I liked the general idea of the plot, but the resolution left me feeling cold.
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Nov 3, 2015 04:11
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Rough Lobster posted:Just finished Richard Paul Russo's DESTROYING ANGEL. I didn't really live up to its awesome name, I thought. I'm a pretty big cyberpunk fan but it felt extremely derivative and almost parodic. I know that's probably unfair to say about a book printed in 1992 but it's how I felt. I liked the general idea of the plot, but the resolution left me feeling cold. Keep reading. The rest of the series has a pretty big tone shift with a different protagonist.
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Nov 3, 2015 04:18
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freebooter posted:Good analyses of that scene (and Julia's role in the books more broadly) here and here. Thanks for linking those. Looks like both authors think Julia had to suffer trauma primarily to help round out Quentin's arc, it's a gender-role criticism I've been seeing a lot of lately.
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Nov 3, 2015 04:19
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Drifter posted:"...and then that fucker just cut right in front of us at Starbucks. What a truly evil shitbag. Zero consideration. I mean, I have places to be too, you know?" "Gorbalesh stared evilly at me from across the room. I could tell he was a seriously bad dude by that look." "So then what did he do?" "I told you I knew he was bad so I went and cut his loving head off." "Sir, I think we'll need to take you back to your cell for now."
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Nov 3, 2015 06:45
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No worries. I took them both from Choire Sicha's review of the Magicians Land - and you'll note I didn't include the third one he links to, not because I disagree with it (I do, but I disagree with a lot of the first two as well) but because it's less reasoned and more ANGRY SHOUTY TUMBLR TIME. But Sicha's review is great because he a) makes the reasoned point that there is as much of Grossman in Julia as there is in Quentin, and b) he sums up the overall theme of the series quite well: quote:It's crucial to Quentin's growing up that he be released from this stupid compulsion to make sensible stories that resolve, and most importantly, to let go of his need to form self-soothing narrative concepts of self. Momentousness, epicness, heroism, so common in young adult and fantasy fiction, are poison. They will make you wistful, falsely pre-nostalgic, soul-sick. Life isn't that. The desire for the clarity of your own tale is infantile selfishness. It's a nervous tic evolved from being crippled by fear. If you think your story will make sense in retrospect, perhaps you'll get lucky at the end, but you'd better be dying quite slowly. And this is really the whole point of the series - or at least, it was the theme that struck a chord with me most strongly, at the time in my life when I read the books. People quibble about Quentin's personality and whether he deserves what he gets and so on, but the entire trilogy is really just a metaphor about how damaging it can be to expect your life to run according to a certain narrative. Which is something all of us do, even if we don't think we are. Quentin's character attributes, to me, are beside the point.
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Nov 3, 2015 06:55
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anilEhilated posted:Also feel free to stop with the series whenever it stops being interesting. It's rather repetitive. Huh, that's an opinion. I've always thought it spans rather a lot of different... whatever, styles or whatchamacallits. You got your light-hearted space opera adventures, you got your big traumatic drama things, you've even got your romantic comedy-of-manners.
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Nov 3, 2015 10:51
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freebooter posted:Galactic North & Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds Thanks for the heads up on Galactic North. I felt pretty similar to you after reading Revelation Space. I really liked elements of it, but the pacing didn't work for me and something just felt off. I figured that I was done with Reynolds, but I kept seeing his name pop up here and decided to take another chance. I ended up reading House of Suns, and am so glad that I did. Again, his ideas are fantastic and the book really picks up momentum the further you get into it (unfortunately, it does have a slow start). The characters are also far more memorable. I can't recommend it highly enough. I'm currently up to the last 50 pages of Chasm City and have found that to be equally impressive, although very different in tone and scope. Anyway, just chipping it to say don't completely disregard his novels over his short stories.
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Nov 3, 2015 12:18
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Just research any Reynolds thing before you read it. His stuff is very, very hit or miss. I find him to be perplexingly inconsistent; usually if someone wrote something I really disliked, even their 'good' stuff is pretty awful to me. Reynolds has stuff I love almost everything about, and other stuff that is total bottom of the barrel.
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Nov 3, 2015 14:09
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Drifter posted:"...and then that fucker just cut right in front of us at Starbucks. What a truly evil shitbag. Zero consideration. I mean, I have places to be too, you know?" C'mon, that's a pretty big false dichotomy. It's completely possible to make someone look like a bad person and/or a significant threat without bringing in sensitive topics for cheap tabloid shock-value, and in fact, the latter tends to be a sign of lazy, unimaginative writing. See also, the depressing number of female characters in superhero comics who have rape in their backstories as a quick'n'easy source of angst (yes, I know that the lifetime stats for sexual assault in the real-world US are depressingly high, and that's not what I'm talking about).
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Nov 3, 2015 14:22
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Looks like Planetfall, which is getting a bit of buzz, is out now on Kindle, a few days before the paper version.
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Nov 3, 2015 14:29
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Junkenstein posted:Looks like Planetfall, which is getting a bit of buzz, is out now on Kindle, a few days before the paper version. Planetfall's good. It's a psychological thriller disguised as a big strange object story. And it's a lot like Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, which owns.
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Nov 3, 2015 14:41
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I'm reading "Pandora's Start" by Peter Hamilton. Does he keep introducing new characters every few pages or will he eventually go into business? I seriously doubt the book will contain enough pages to use all those characters without leaving a lot of them in the dark...
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Nov 3, 2015 16:34
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Amberskin posted:I'm reading "Pandora's Start" by Peter Hamilton. Does he keep introducing new characters every few pages or will he eventually go into business? I seriously doubt the book will contain enough pages to use all those characters without leaving a lot of them in the dark... Doesn't that book plus the second part come to over 2200 pages?
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Nov 3, 2015 20:00
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Junkenstein posted:Looks like Planetfall, which is getting a bit of buzz, is out now on Kindle, a few days before the paper version. The paperback is out today as well.
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Nov 3, 2015 20:14
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Amberskin posted:I'm reading "Pandora's Start" by Peter Hamilton. Does he keep introducing new characters every few pages or will he eventually go into business? I seriously doubt the book will contain enough pages to use all those characters without leaving a lot of them in the dark... Read the reality dysfunction, next if you're liking it. The void trilogy set after is garbage. But I reckon it's Hamiltons best non standalone space opera. But there are indeed poo poo loads of characters and a majority are pretty dumb. It's pulpy awesomeness in my view. Very much popcorn entertainment. Ignore the creepy sex and any child characters for your own benefit though.
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Nov 3, 2015 23:56
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Junkenstein posted:Looks like Planetfall, which is getting a bit of buzz, is out now on Kindle, a few days before the paper version. Planetfall was a fantastic book -- like other people have mentioned it's not much of a Big Dumb Object story, but it is a great character-based ride. If anyone liked Aurora and want more of it I'd say that this isn't a bad book.  ENDING SPOILERSWhat a loving book! I can't say I expected the protagonist to have her dead love entombed in a loving sarcophagus but it makes sense. I don't know if Sung-Soo knew the coffin was in there so as to trigger her revelation or if he was like "eh what the heck, just keep pushing this lady, it'll work out eventually". He seems too good at acting all things considered, but maybe he was trained by Lois to be The Perfect Agent. The final climb was a bit anti-climactic, if only because the tests feel a bit naff, but a great statement on faith. I also think the first-person perspective worked so well especially since we don't get a look at her house until someone else observes it -- it's totally normal to her!
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Nov 4, 2015 04:28
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Amberskin posted:I'm reading "Pandora's Start" by Peter Hamilton. Does he keep introducing new characters every few pages or will he eventually go into business? I seriously doubt the book will contain enough pages to use all those characters without leaving a lot of them in the dark... I've only read one of his books but this was a huge issue with me. He keeps going back to characters briefly introduced hundreds of pages ago and expects you to remember what their deal is - and he must know this is problematic, since he always refers to them by their full name. It always put me in the mind of working in a really big office where people can't remember each other so they always specify surnames in emails or teleconferences. Probably also because Hamilton tends to give his 28th-century dwelling characters spectacularly boring names like "Jenny Harris."
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Nov 4, 2015 09:43
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Hedrigall posted:I'm starting the Vorkosigan Saga tonight, with the omnibus Cordelia's Honour. I keep hearing how amazing this series is. I just started Barrayar. I was underwhelmed by the first two novels, so if it doesn't get any better, I'll stop here.
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Nov 4, 2015 13:33
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Mister Kingdom posted:I just started Barrayar. I was underwhelmed by the first two novels, so if it doesn't get any better, I'll stop here. I'd suggest skipping to the first Miles book, personally, if you didn't really like the first two. The Miles books have a much different feel than the ones about his parents.
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Nov 4, 2015 14:57
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Bumped into this on my news feed this morning, following james corey: http://deadline.com/2015/11/the-expanse-digital-premiere-syfy-series-1201604928/ Nov 23.
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Nov 4, 2015 17:30
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Vorkosigan chat: I started with the Miles books and read two of those before I skipped back to read the Cordelia books and had a good time.
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Nov 4, 2015 17:43
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That might actually be a good way to avoid constantly rising desire to strangle the little poo poo.
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Nov 4, 2015 18:08
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WarLocke posted:I'll actually jump on this: I need space navy stuff to read. I've already churned through the entire Baen catalog (Honor Harrington, Legacy of the Aldenata, Lt. Leary, all that), Mike Resnick's Starship series, the Starfire books, just finished Joel Shepherd's Kresnov books and Renegade the other day... I need suggestions where to go next. Try Evan C. Currie. I quite enjoyed all his Sci fi stuff. The Hayden War series starts with "On Silver Wings". While the unrelated Odyssey One series starts with "Odyssey One". Both are good.
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Nov 4, 2015 19:53
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Mister Kingdom posted:I just started Barrayar. I was underwhelmed by the first two novels, so if it doesn't get any better, I'll stop here. I'd read the first Miles book next. Stopping reading the Vorkosigan books before reading a Miles one seems a bit weird.
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Nov 4, 2015 21:43
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Isn't Barrayar the second novel if you go by internal chronology? I guess technically Falling Free is the first one, but it has very little to do with the rest of the novels and probably shouldn't be read first.
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Nov 5, 2015 09:54
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Sjonkel posted:Isn't Barrayar the second novel if you go by internal chronology? I guess technically Falling Free is the first one, but it has very little to do with the rest of the novels and probably shouldn't be read first. Yes, Barrayar immediately follows Shards of Honor if you ignore Falling Free (which you should for the reasons noted).
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Nov 5, 2015 13:15
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Yeah, reading Falling Free was a mistake. But Barrayar is a step up before you get the even better and quite different Miles books.
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Nov 5, 2015 14:03
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You can buy The Builders, the first book in Daniel Polansky's (Low Town) new series for just 2,99$ on Amazon right now. From what I've heard of it, it's kind of like Redwall meets a Tarantino western.
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Nov 5, 2015 17:44
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Megazver posted:You can buy The Builders, the first book in Daniel Polansky's (Low Town) new series for just 2,99$ on Amazon right now. From what I've heard of it, it's kind of like Redwall meets a Tarantino western. I loved the Lowtown books and the first one in that epic fantasy series(Those Above I'm pretty sure it's called) he started early this year, I had no idea he had this coming out too, thanks
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Nov 5, 2015 21:07
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Darkrenown posted:Try Evan C. Currie. I quite enjoyed all his Sci fi stuff. The Hayden War series starts with "On Silver Wings". While the unrelated Odyssey One series starts with "Odyssey One". Both are good. Yeah I've read both of those series. Sorry, if I listed all the milsf I've read we'd be here all day. Worth it for ridiculous scenes like countersniping dudes from a loving space elevator though.  I actually ended up going down a tangent and am reading Joel Shepherd's Sasha books (A Trial of Blood & Steel is the series IIRC). Shepherd's writing is snappy and the books have been pretty great so far. I'm kind of tickled that the fantasy elf stand-ins are basically Vulcans straight out of Star Trek with their logic and rational-ness.
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Nov 5, 2015 21:17
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WarLocke posted:Yeah I've read both of those series. Sorry, if I listed all the milsf I've read we'd be here all day. Sasha herself is kind of a brat, but the books are 100% aware of that fact and she's called out frequently by people around her. I really like Rhillian, who we first meet in book 2. Shepherd maybe goes a little too far how he makes you hate the conservative Polytheistic Fantasy Catholics, although we do meet plenty of members of that religion who aren't genocidal assholes. Going back to milsf Tanya Huff's Confederation series follows Space Marines, not Space Navy, but they're still great books. They're what broke me out of the Baen milsf pit of dreck.
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Nov 5, 2015 22:27
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TheHoodedClaw posted:I'd read the first Miles book next. Stopping reading the Vorkosigan books before reading a Miles one seems a bit weird. Well, I'm a dumbass. I started reading Barrayar and realized when I got to the "let's go buy a swordstick" part that I'd already read it. That's how much of an impression it made on me. Ahem. So, on to The Warrior's Apprentice.
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Nov 6, 2015 02:45
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Shadows of Empire by Jay Allen is so edgy and gritty that I could not stop rolling my eyes. Thanks for nothing, Amazon recommendations.
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Nov 6, 2015 04:18
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Darkrenown posted:Try Evan C. Currie. I quite enjoyed all his Sci fi stuff. The Hayden War series starts with "On Silver Wings". While the unrelated Odyssey One series starts with "Odyssey One". Both are good. Thanks for this. I gave up on Scifi when I was 13 and learned about anal beads from one of the Rama sequels. After Red Rising/Golden Son I caught the bug and read Armor by John Steakly, and it was good but didn't scratch the itch. Reading the first of Odyssey One and I think it's exactly what I was looking for.
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Nov 6, 2015 06:52
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I know I'm late to this party but I just finished Three Body Problem on a recommendation from a friend and I was really, really disappointed. I thought the first half or so was decent to great at times, then it just fell apart. Cixin's characters are just so bad. I get that he is Chinese but even his crunchy American ecoterrorist talks like a Serious Educated Chinese Functionary. The only halfway interesting character is the Hardboiled Cop With A Heart Of Gold who must be included because I think if you publish a novel in China that doesn't include him you're sent to jail. His characters, who start out pretty bad, degrade into like what happens when American cartoons make fun of Japanese cartoons. "I know you are a famous astrophysicist who aims to apply special relativity, the relationship between time and space, which is the currently accepted theory of the structure of spacetime, to nanomaterials! And also you are locked into a deep melancholy due to the recent events as discussed in the last chapter! Hm! I must implore you to have faith, however!" "Yes. I see. I have rekindled my faith in humanity and will strive to do my best! Let's progress to the next chapter in which I will explain to several high-ranking generals the higher-dimensional nature of fundamental particles." The Three-Body Problem, and why it's real rough for the Trisolarians is just hammered into you over and over and over. The MMO thing is interesting at first but gets obvious real quick, and then there's a dozen more chapters and a cute but real pedantic description of a computer that leads to nothing except what you pretty much already knew going in. However, the absolute worst, by far, is the sophons and everything afterward. That got handwavy REAL quick. I mean, I get why he did it. The premise for the rest of the series is that the aliens can read all of our poo poo and also mess up particle accelerators (which are, apparently, ultimately the singular font of knowledge) but man oh man. I told my friend about how the book struck me and he told me to read Dark Forest. He says it's way better and a lot of the character problems are cleared up. I started it and it just keeps getting worse. The imaginary girlfriend stuff was really hard to take. My question: people online (and my friend) say that it gets good after the first half, then really good thereafter. On the other hand TBP got a lot of breathless western reviews (~*China's Asimov*~). Does it actually get any better?
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Nov 6, 2015 17:39
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Onion Knight posted:My question: people online (and my friend) say that it gets good after the first half, then really good thereafter. On the other hand TBP got a lot of breathless western reviews (~*China's Asimov*~). Does it actually get any better? It does but I think it's fair to say the series isn't for you. I don't see how recommending Dark Forest to someone who hated Three Body was a good idea. Edit: since you've started though, maybe read up until the orbital assassination then decide if you want to go on. Junkenstein fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Nov 6, 2015 |
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Nov 6, 2015 17:46
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Junkenstein posted:It does but I think it's fair to say the series isn't for you. I don't see how recommending Dark Forest to someone who hated Three Body was a good idea. Yeah, so far they're BIG IDEA novels, like the Foundation Trilogy. If you're into that, you'll like it. If you want good, consistent character development, this may not be for you. Personally, I found the plot flat, the characters lifeless, but the novel ideas and tech in the books were enough to keep me around. Definitely not on any "must read" recommendations to anyone.
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Nov 6, 2015 17:50
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Speaking of Foundation, is it worth reading the trilogy? I've only ever read the first one and it definitely felt like only part of a full book. I found it to be an okay series of vignettes interspersed with some character going "Seldon foresaw this!" It was fine but didn't exactly inspire me to read more of the series.
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Nov 6, 2015 17:58
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Shab posted:Speaking of Foundation, is it worth reading the trilogy? I've only ever read the first one and it definitely felt like only part of a full book. I found it to be an okay series of vignettes interspersed with some character going "Seldon foresaw this!" It was fine but didn't exactly inspire me to read more of the series. I enjoyed them but I was young and had lots of time. I think his robot stories were better.
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Nov 6, 2015 18:06
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I liked it a lot but if you didn't like the structure of the first book they don't change all that much. E: robot stories were great, the way they were eventually all tied together was less so
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Nov 6, 2015 18:07
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