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bonds0097 posted:Picked up all of the 2016 Philip K. Dick Award finalists on my Kindle. It's typically my favorite award because the books tend to be on the weirder end of the sci-fi spectrum. Anyone have any standout favorites amongst the selection? I always do this, I buy a bunch of books at once and am then paralyzed with too many choices. A few of those looked really interesting. I was thinking about doing the same.
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Jan 22, 2016 14:13
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High Warlord Zog posted:Orson Scott Card is a garbage person with garbage opinions. Many of these are repugnant. Sometimes they are hilarious. "It made money so it's good!" So the guy is batshit AND he can't logic.
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Jan 22, 2016 21:00
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Ani posted:Is there a canonical list of good Tim Powers books? I read Declare and it was just absolutely amazing. I want to read more, but the descriptions (and some of the reviews) of his other books make me doubtful. Nothing Powers has done has been as ambitious as Declare. That being said, this is how I internally classify Powers's novels and short-story collections: Essential: Declare, Last Call, The Anubis Gates. These three are what I would use for a course on Powers or the genres he represents, and they offer the most tightly-focused approach to his motifs and concerns. Excellent: The Stress of Her Regard, On Stranger Tides, Expiration Date, Dinner at Deviant's Palace, The Bible Repairman: These are not necessarily worse in quality, but they aren't quite as elegant a statement, to be hifalutin, as the tier above. They are all well worth reading. Good: Earthquake Weather, The Drawing of the Dark, Night Moves, Salvage and Demolition, Hide Me Among the Graves: These have structural flaws (or in the case of Night Moves have generally weaker stories) that end up leaving me feeling a bit colder about them than the previous tier. Okay: The Skies Discrowned, An Epitaph in Rust, Three Days to Never: The first two are Powers's first novels, written close together, and are very clearly first novels. They don't really have the sort of power Powers would (haha) discover with The Drawing of the Dark. Three Days to Never suffers from feeling almost like a retread of Declare and the three Fault Lines novels, with some additional structural issues that end up leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Bear in mind that these are still pretty good genre fiction. I have not read Strange Itineraries or the independent novella Nobody's Home. There's also Medusa's Web, which will be released in about a month.
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Jan 24, 2016 03:30
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Finished up The Curse of Jacob Tracy by Holly Messinger, and it was pretty damned good. It's... it's weird. It's a western book, set back in the old west, but it's not steampunk or anything quite as weird as an urban fantasy genre idea would give you, but it centers around the lead of Jacob Tracy and his ability to see spirits. It's not really a mystery solving book, or anything like that either. It's just a pretty good read. Oddly enough, it feels like it could have been a few novellas instead of one book, since the story is continued through various chapters and then the next batch of chapters is set a few months later. All in all though, it was great. Definitely a unique idea. Less urban fantasyish and more... spiritualist/medium kinda thing? Also couldn't help but hear John Marston as the voice for the lead 
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Jan 24, 2016 06:48
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savinhill posted:Have you read the latest two Fitz & Fool books? Cuz, man, she drags the Fool over the coals in just about every way possible that a body and mind can suffer, like I can't even think of some type of tortorous example to list as the one way it coulda been worse for him. Not that I'm against Hobb doing this, she's actually great at making her characters' various sufferings have an emotional impact on me when I'm reading her books. Oh wow, there's a whole new trilogy of Fitz books!
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Jan 24, 2016 22:10
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Alright thread, I just finished reading the entire Black Company series. Overall I liked it, as I think it provided something unique that I've not gotten from other novels, which is like a literal history of a group of ppl, the titular company, over however many decades. That felt suitably epic, to see them from Book 1 to Book X or whatever and see where everything ended up after traversing thousands of miles and fighting forever and ever. If I had a complaint, it would be that *series spoilers* by the end I was getting a bit tired of the terse writing when it came to conflict resolution and the deaths of important characters. Howler, Murgen, & Sleepy all get got over what amounts to like 4 lines of text and hardly much of anything is made of it as we rush to the conclusion of the series. This has been played out with other named company dudes, but considering 2 of these characters were annalists & 1 was a wizard that has had a bug up the company's rear end for 9 books, I figured if and when they went out it wouldn't be written in the manner it was. It was just disappointing, that bit, but the rest of the ending was ok. I liked the new company loving off back to Hsien or whatever and the 2 girls taking over as annalist & croaker & lady chilling on the plains. Oh wait, one more complaint, Croaker didn't tell us about Khatovar after he assumed godhood and could see it  Now what should I read next? I'm looking for Sci-fi or fantasy. With black company done I've now read: malazan, black company, expanse, culture, mieville, asoif, raven's shadow series, alastair reynolds bibliography, mongoliad, dan simmons, patrick rothfuss's bullshit, bernard cromwell, a bunch of 1 offs Whats out there for me now?
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Jan 25, 2016 04:42
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Recent thread favorites are The Traitor Baru Cormorant and City of Stairs (both are excellent reads, and written by goons). If you're up for a challenging series I'd recommend Gene Wolfe's New Sun series.
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Jan 25, 2016 04:45
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City of stairways, huh? Boy, my heart will just about explode. Is there any chance it could be the bottom of a low slope instead?
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Jan 25, 2016 04:48
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Don't worry, all of the stair ways are broken and lead to nowhere, you don't have to climb any of them.
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Jan 25, 2016 04:49
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I take it opinion is a little divided on City of Stairs? It's somewhere on my reading list, I assume based on recommendation here.
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Jan 25, 2016 04:53
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big scary monsters posted:I take it opinion is a little divided on City of Stairs? It's somewhere on my reading list, I assume based on recommendation here. No I think it's fairly unanimously well thought of. It has some flaws but overall has an interesting premise, solid characters and good pacing.
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Jan 25, 2016 05:03
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Less Fat Luke posted:Recent thread favorites are The Traitor Baru Cormorant and City of Stairs (both are excellent reads, and written by goons). If you're up for a challenging series I'd recommend Gene Wolfe's New Sun series. i don't think city of stairs was a goon author unless i totally missed that discussion
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Jan 25, 2016 05:04
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andrew smash posted:i don't think city of stairs was a goon author unless i totally missed that discussion
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Jan 25, 2016 05:07
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andrew smash posted:i don't think city of stairs was a goon author unless i totally missed that discussion No, Robert Jackson Bennett was a goon, but he was driven away years ago.
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Jan 25, 2016 05:07
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Why was that?
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Jan 25, 2016 05:17
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huh, okay then. How do you even know? I guess i wouldn't even know batutta wrote baru cormorant if he hadn't posted about it in this thread.
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Jan 25, 2016 05:18
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andrew smash posted:huh, okay then. How do you even know? I guess i wouldn't even know batutta wrote baru cormorant if he hadn't posted about it in this thread. I vaguely remember him talking about his first book years ago.
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Jan 25, 2016 05:22
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Hedrigall posted:Why was that? IIRC his first book was kind of stupid and he didn't take criticism well.
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Jan 25, 2016 05:33
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Hedrigall posted:Why was that? Something he wrote early on was bad or something, so some posters acted predictably when they found out who he was.
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Jan 25, 2016 05:34
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He wrote Mr. Shivers while actively posting and it wasn't very good. But he posted before he published it.
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Jan 25, 2016 05:37
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Felix Gilman used to post here as well, though I think he just drifted off more than anything.
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Jan 25, 2016 05:56
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Jerkface posted:Now what should I read next? I'm looking for Sci-fi or fantasy. With black company done I've now read: malazan, black company, expanse, culture, mieville, asoif, raven's shadow series, alastair reynolds bibliography, mongoliad, dan simmons, patrick rothfuss's bullshit, bernard cromwell, a bunch of 1 offs E: For reasons, these are only available as ebooks, and only via the Google Play Store. Something about the author not liking other places' contracts. It's a bit fiddly in a web browser, but you can talk the site into dispensing a perfectly normal ePub that can be fed into your ebook reader of choice. It's worth the minor hassle. 90s Cringe Rock fucked around with this message at 09:57 on Jan 25, 2016 |
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Jan 25, 2016 07:54
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chrisoya posted:Graydon Saunders' The March North is a different take on military fantasy, and the sequel, A Succession of Bad Days, is about some young wizards being trained not to kill themselves and everyone around them. James Nicoll has some reviews, and even when I disagree with him, he's a pretty interesting reviewer. Neal Asher, particularly Agent Cormac seem a natural suggestion.
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Jan 25, 2016 08:17
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I'll check out Cormorant Traitor Baru first, since its easily accessible on Amazon. Thanks for the suggestions guys I'll try and track down those other books as well.
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Jan 25, 2016 08:47
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taser rates posted:Felix Gilman used to post here as well, though I think he just drifted off more than anything. Yeah, I remember that. Half-Made World was good, though I didn't read the sequel.
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Jan 25, 2016 08:50
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Jerkface posted:Now what should I read next? I'm looking for Sci-fi or fantasy. With black company done I've now read: malazan, black company, expanse, culture, mieville, asoif, raven's shadow series, alastair reynolds bibliography, mongoliad, dan simmons, patrick rothfuss's bullshit, bernard cromwell, a bunch of 1 offs Joe Abercrombie's First Law series? Starts with The Blade Itself.
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Jan 25, 2016 08:50
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Jerkface posted:Now what should I read next? I'm looking for Sci-fi or fantasy. With black company done I've now read: malazan, black company, expanse, culture, mieville, asoif, raven's shadow series, alastair reynolds bibliography, mongoliad, dan simmons, patrick rothfuss's bullshit, bernard cromwell, a bunch of 1 offs The Revanche Cycle by Craig Schaefer is 3/4 books complete now. Its pretty decent and if his release schedule lately is any hint the fourth book could be along by June or earlier. I have enjoyed the first 3 books starting with Winter's Reach even though he doesn't do a great job at representing distance between major locations in the books in the later entries. If you like Urban Fantasy at all, he has 2 other series set in the same world of demons and magic - the Daniel Faust novels which have 5 or 6 entries and are great heist/revenge stories and the Harmony Black series which only has 1 book so far but follows a witch working for the FBI who is introduced in the Faust books. The second book in Harmony Black comes out next month or so and the first one released in the last month. He's a good author to follow if you like having 2-3 books a year from them.
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Jan 25, 2016 11:58
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chrisoya posted:Graydon Saunders' The March North is a different take on military fantasy, Read this last year and loved it. Graydon's prose takes a little getting used to (except for those of us who were regulars on rec.arts.sf.written back in the day and already know his style) as it is very information-dense. Will recommend, will read sequel.
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Jan 25, 2016 12:35
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Victorkm posted:The Revanche Cycle by Craig Schaefer is 3/4 books complete now. Its pretty decent and if his release schedule lately is any hint the fourth book could be along by June or earlier. I have enjoyed the first 3 books starting with Winter's Reach even though he doesn't do a great job at representing distance between major locations in the books in the later entries. As a sidenote the first book of the Revanche Cycle is like 1buck on Amazon and even the Audiobook is like 2bux. You won't lose mutch if you don't like it.
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Jan 25, 2016 12:43
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RVProfootballer posted:Yeah, I remember that. Half-Made World was good, though I didn't read the sequel. Rise of Ransom City was fantastic, and his standalone The Revolutions was great as well, definitely recommend those.
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Jan 25, 2016 14:58
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Just finished City of Blades. Sigrud noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. 
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Jan 26, 2016 03:51
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Groke posted:Read this last year and loved it. Graydon's prose takes a little getting used to (except for those of us who were regulars on rec.arts.sf.written back in the day and already know his style) as it is very information-dense. Will recommend, will read sequel. Unfortunately the sequel is both much longer, and not nearly as good. I like some of the ideas behind it, but it just takes way too long to go anywhere. [spoiler]Also I cannot imagine anything that could possibly threaten the Commonweal, given how much clout they have to throw around by the end of A Succession of Bad Days.
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Jan 26, 2016 05:02
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taser rates posted:Rise of Ransom City was fantastic, and his standalone The Revolutions was great as well, definitely recommend those. I didn't like Rise nearly as much as The Half-Made World. It's much more obtusely related to the central conflict of the setting, and therefore not as satisfying (of course you can accuse me of being a manchild who just wants simple narratives for my childish brain ). Still decent, though.
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Jan 26, 2016 05:17
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taser rates posted:Rise of Ransom City was fantastic, and his standalone The Revolutions was great as well, definitely recommend those. FWIW i also really liked thunderer and gears of the city.
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Jan 26, 2016 05:58
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Finished Nemesis Games and boy, Corey really feels like they have to drag the series out, don't they? It almost feels like Abaddon's Gate all over again, except this time they couldn't even be bothered to introduce new characters and instead dump the backstories of Holden's crew on us. At least most of the story is fairly interesting, even if it ends up going nowhere - "by the way, most of Earth blew up" seems like the best summary of the book.
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Jan 26, 2016 14:38
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anilEhilated posted:Finished Nemesis Games and boy, Corey really feels like they have to drag the series out, don't they? It almost feels like Abaddon's Gate all over again, except this time they couldn't even be bothered to introduce new characters and instead dump the backstories of Holden's crew on us. At least most of the story is fairly interesting, even if it ends up going nowhere - "by the way, most of Earth blew up" seems like the best summary of the book. More like 9-11 in steroids, from space. I'm really curious about how will the writers develop the storyline. And I absolutely want a Marco/Avasarala confrontation. On the other hand, I found Naomi backstory quite interesting. And Bobbie is back. Never not like Bobbie.
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Jan 26, 2016 15:25
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drat, lots of new books out today. Staked by Kevin Hearne, City of Blades by Robert Bennett, and Broken Hero by Jonathan Wood. Stupid bills being due at the stupid due date, keeping me from getting my read on
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Jan 26, 2016 15:36
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anilEhilated posted:It almost feels like Abaddon's Gate all over again, except this time they couldn't even be bothered to introduce new characters and instead dump the backstories of Holden's crew on us. Also I guess I don't get the whole filler/plot distinction for The Expanse, since the series feels like it's more about telling a number of relatively episodic stories than everything aiming towards one big endpoint. There's the overarching alien plot that we get installments of in each book, but the actual stories themselves are all about how people interact within that framework, and the setting is rich enough that that feels (to me at least) like it could go on for quite a while. I'm more concerned with the books being good reads themselves than how much they advance towards some hypothetical finale.
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Jan 26, 2016 16:26
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:drat, lots of new books out today. Staked by Kevin Hearne, City of Blades by Robert Bennett, and Broken Hero by Jonathan Wood. Daughter of Blood (Helen Lowe) is out today too.
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Jan 26, 2016 16:32
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Lord Hydronium posted:You're phrasing this like a bad thing, but I thought that the Roci crew were oddly underdeveloped before this book, so focusing on them was a welcome addition to the series. Anyway I agree about it being episodic stories - and that's in fact my main issue with it. Abaddon's Gate and this one are not very good as self-contained stories; they feel like they are only there to move the overarching plot a bit - we need to build the space teleports, we need to blow up the Earth and steal the molecule but they aren't engaging on their own. Nemesis Games doesn't even provide any sorts of closure for its own story arc. It's like they had a set of events they needed to happen and tried to fit them into a story. I'm still going to read the next book but this one was definitely one of the weakest in the series. Oh well, City of Blades is next and I'm looking forward to that one.
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Jan 26, 2016 17:17
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