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Is Cibola Burn better? The dude in the prologue was not under thrust (explicitly ballistic) when he shot the ring and he turned up, well, you know.
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Feb 23, 2016 08:00
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No, it's real bad, but Nemesis Games is very very strong (arguably the best book of the five). It's clearly meant as the middle pivot of the series arc, so I blame Cibola's weakness on the bloat up to a 9 book contract.
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Feb 23, 2016 16:38
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Speaking of Cibola, I'm listening to the Expanse audiobooks and it looks like the change narrators for 4 -- anyone know if the new guy is as terrible as some of the reviews make him out to be? Might have lucked out with the first three because the narrator there just nails a lot of the line delivery (especially for Avasarala in 2.) Trying to decide if I should just, you know, read the book instead of listening.
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Feb 23, 2016 20:17
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Odoyle posted:Is Cibola Burn better? I thought Cibola was better than Abbadon's Gate but it still seems kind of out of place in the series. It's a pretty slow starter though, I actually put it down for a month before picking it back up to finish it.
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Feb 23, 2016 23:00
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I have the offal opinion that Prince Roger series by John Ringo and David Weber was fun and entertaining. That The Looking Glass and Troy Rising series, I like the idea of giant space mining magnifying glasses blowing stuff up.
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Feb 24, 2016 04:53
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You know sometimes a good partnership can be better than any one author on his or her own. Take the Belasarius novels by Drake and Flint. I like those more than I do any of Flint's solo stuff. Or the Starfire novels which I enjoy more than anything Weber or White did on his own. Hell, the only Honorverse stuff I've particularly enjoyed lately were the prequel stuff cowritten by Zahn. I think in Weber's case in particular a cowriter can smooth out some of those dreary Weberisms we all complain so much about around here.
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Feb 24, 2016 07:18
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jng2058 posted:You know sometimes a good partnership can be better than any one author on his or her own. Take the Belasarius novels by Drake and Flint. I like those more than I do any of Flint's solo stuff. Or the Starfire novels which I enjoy more than anything Weber or White did on his own. Hell, the only Honorverse stuff I've particularly enjoyed lately were the prequel stuff cowritten by Zahn. I think in Weber's case in particular a cowriter can smooth out some of those dreary Weberisms we all complain so much about around here. Weber and Flint writing together is really interesting because they have similar weaknesses but their political views are so opposite that they can't have their side be always right and have to actually write competent opposing viewpoints. The downside is that instead of one Honor/Mike Stearns they end up with two or three awesome, amazing, perfect heroes, one for each part of the political spectrum. I think a lot of the cowritten stuff being better is just a case of being with a better writer - Drake, Zahn, etc. - who can recognize the stuff they do have a talent for and have them focus on writing that material.
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Feb 24, 2016 07:36
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johnsonrod posted:I thought Cibola was better than Abbadon's Gate but it still seems kind of out of place in the series. It's a pretty slow starter though, I actually put it down for a month before picking it back up to finish it. This. It is kinda a side story, with different pace and rythm (and scope). On the other hand, it is the only book with a credible, non cartoonish antagonist, and it shows a more solid Holden than in the rest of the books.
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Feb 24, 2016 16:03
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I just finished Dark Intelligence, a new sci-fi, space opera-ish book by Neal Asher. It's my first exposure to the series and decently interesting - reminded me of The Expanse more than anything. Suffered horribly from being the first book in a new series, though: almost no questions were answered or any plot lines concluded, everything seemed to be setup for later books. Also has a couple of the most perfunctory sex scenes I've seen in a book. Why, Neal Asher, does your main protagonist gently caress a catgirl in his second chapter?
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Feb 24, 2016 20:31
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Cythereal posted:
Catadapts and snakeadapts are not considered a weird thing in that universe. If you liked it I'd suggest to go for the Agent Cormac books (beginning with Gridlinked). Dark Intelligence will make a lot more sense after you read that.
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Feb 24, 2016 21:28
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Amberskin posted:Catadapts and snakeadapts are not considered a weird thing in that universe. If you liked it I'd suggest to go for the Agent Cormac books (beginning with Gridlinked). Dark Intelligence will make a lot more sense after you read that. I didn't like it. I thought the setting and writing were okay, had a completely pointless and weird catgirl hooker (and a brief, perfunctory rape scene that's barely commented or dwelled on that's promptly dismissed and never brought up again), and felt like a book-long prologue to the next book(s) that failed to tell an interesting story in this book. I want to be interested in Penny Royal as a character, but "inscrutable machine god with no clear motivation or limits" is a very, very hard archetype to do well and I was not impressed enough with Asher's writing to think what becomes of Penny Royal will be anything but a disappointment.
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Feb 24, 2016 21:32
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Cythereal posted:I didn't like it. I thought the setting and writing were okay, had a completely pointless and weird catgirl hooker (and a brief, perfunctory rape scene that's barely commented or dwelled on that's promptly dismissed and never brought up again), and felt like a book-long prologue to the next book(s) that failed to tell an interesting story in this book. A lot of your criticisms of Penny Royal come from the fact that this book assumes you've read the preceding books, and have that background on Penny Royal. I can't imagine reading Dark Intelligence and getting much out of it without having read the rest of the Polity series. Check out some reviews of Gridlinked before you give up, but if you just straight didn't like Asher's writing it might just not be for you. That said, I'm pretty surprised to see a negative Asher opinion - everyone I've spoken to about him has loved him!
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Feb 25, 2016 00:56
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pork never goes bad posted:A lot of your criticisms of Penny Royal come from the fact that this book assumes you've read the preceding books, and have that background on Penny Royal. I can't imagine reading Dark Intelligence and getting much out of it without having read the rest of the Polity series. Check out some reviews of Gridlinked before you give up, but if you just straight didn't like Asher's writing it might just not be for you. That said, I'm pretty surprised to see a negative Asher opinion - everyone I've spoken to about him has loved him! Oh, Penny Royal is an existing character? I saw the book in the library billed as "Book one of the Transformation series" and assumed it was the start of a new series/setting. The book didn't do much for me as it is. Penny Royal is the only character I came away from the book wanting to know more about - everyone else is either trite and one-note, is forgotten about halfway through, or gets their personality/identity completely rebooted in the book's climax.
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Feb 25, 2016 01:22
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Cythereal posted:Oh, Penny Royal is an existing character? I saw the book in the library billed as "Book one of the Transformation series" and assumed it was the start of a new series/setting. New series, not a new setting.
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Feb 25, 2016 01:58
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Penny Royal is an important piece of the background in the previous books, and a moderate player in some of them. Certainly, though, you learn some of the background, and the notion that it is "inscrutable machine god with no clear motivation or limits" is somewhat resolved (though certainly the fact that Penny Royal is at least at cross-purposes if not opposed to the typical Polity/Prador sociopolitical dimensions of the novels do mean that it's not, well, entirely scrutable... but that's the point)
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Feb 25, 2016 02:03
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pork never goes bad posted:Penny Royal is an important piece of the background in the previous books, and a moderate player in some of them. Certainly, though, you learn some of the background, and the notion that it is "inscrutable machine god with no clear motivation or limits" is somewhat resolved (though certainly the fact that Penny Royal is at least at cross-purposes if not opposed to the typical Polity/Prador sociopolitical dimensions of the novels do mean that it's not, well, entirely scrutable... but that's the point) All I got for Penny Royal's motivations were "Is probably not actively malicious towards anyone but doesn't give a flying gently caress about them either, and is trying to settle accounts before moving forward with... whatever it is that it's doing, gently caress if I know because of how massively it hosed with everyone's memories and identities." Next to Penny Royal the only other character I thought was kind of interesting was Sverl. Spear, Trent, and Isobel were all very dull. Not a bad book (not a good book either) per se, but extremely unsatisfactory by the merits of its own story (as opposed to the story it's apparently setting up) and I came away thoroughly underwhelmed by the setting and author.
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Feb 25, 2016 02:13
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Cythereal posted:..and I came away thoroughly underwhelmed by the setting and author. Which is unsurprising, given the setting is lain out in uh, a prior nine books (chronologically) with a dozen making up the existing universe? I mean, feel free to judge and like/dislike whatever you want (obviously) but it seems like a pretty weird approach to deciding you dislike a pretty well regarded author and series. Blitter fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Feb 25, 2016 |
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Feb 25, 2016 16:42
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Blitter posted:Which is unsurprising, given the setting is lain out in uh, a prior nine books (chronologically) with a dozen making up the existing universe? Like I said, I didn't know it was an established setting - I'd heard of the author, but I saw "book one" on the book and assumed it was new. I picked up what all's going on in the setting pretty well, I just don't find the setting or characters - with one or two exceptions - interesting. The prador in particular are dull. Was "orcs" copyrighted? Also, catgirls. Why. And why did the protagonist gently caress one within two pages of getting an organic body. And why the rape scene that came and went in two pages with zero foreshadowing and was never mentioned again and didn't serve any story purpose. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Feb 25, 2016 |
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Feb 25, 2016 17:26
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Cythereal posted:Also, catgirls. Why. And why did the protagonist gently caress one within two pages of getting an organic body. I know you've played Star Trek Online. You know the answer to that.
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Feb 25, 2016 17:35
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Again I think most of your complaints are because you picked up a book in a pretty developed universe that assumes you read at least some of the previous books. This is not really your fault per se but because of this I don't really think any of your criticisms hold any weight. Also the Prador are giant enemy cannibalistic space crabs and I never ever got the orc vibe or generic alien vibe from them. Maybe thats the feel this book gave of them but having read pretty much all of the other books I have to disagree with you on your judgement of them. Take some time and read the rest of the series, I don't think I have ever heard a bad thing about them either but maybe they are just not your thing.
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Feb 25, 2016 18:45
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Thank you for the advice, but I don't think I will. I found Dark Intelligence a mediocre book with an awful plot and pacing, and it has not given me any desire to read more of the setting. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Feb 25, 2016 |
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Feb 25, 2016 19:11
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I found Cythereal to be a poo poo tier poster, with awful posts and grammar, and it has not given me any desire to read more of his posts.
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Feb 25, 2016 19:19
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Sorry I hurt your feelings, Neal.
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Feb 25, 2016 19:28
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I was gonna engage more but it's fruitless
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Feb 25, 2016 19:30
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Cythereal posted:Sorry I hurt your feelings, Neal. Don't worry about it. I tried to read Gridlinked a couple years ago and hated it, so sometimes even someone who starts at the beginning of Asher can find it not to their tastes!
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Feb 25, 2016 19:35
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Cythereal posted:Like I said, I didn't know it was an established setting - I'd heard of the author, but I saw "book one" on the book and assumed it was new. I picked up what all's going on in the setting pretty well, I just don't find the setting or characters - with one or two exceptions - interesting. Alright, yeah, it's clearly waay too much effort to you know, flip the book open and see the giant loving list of books previously written in the Polity world. Prador? Gosh, no chance that they were you know, developed in the previous books or anything. Anyways, thanks for posting your dumb poo poo, so I know to take your view on any other book with the grain of salt it deserves.
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Feb 25, 2016 19:38
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Cythereal posted:Sorry I hurt your feelings, Neal. Nah. Asher is actually busy with therapy in the wake of his wife's death (January 2014), which I think is why we haven't seen a timeline for the next book. http://theskinner.blogspot.com/
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Feb 25, 2016 19:44
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I know people who do not like reading Asher but wish they could right like the man. He is not for everyone just like KJ Parker isn't for everyone but they know how to wordsmith.
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Feb 25, 2016 20:05
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Cythereal posted:
The Prador are not orcs. They are far more disgusting and fascinating. Make yourself a favor and read the rest of the books in the series.
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Feb 25, 2016 20:29
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Amberskin posted:The Prador are not orcs. They are far more disgusting and fascinating. Make yourself a favor and read the rest of the books in the series. No, thank you. This book did not engage my interest with the setting and I am content to leave it at that.
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Feb 25, 2016 20:35
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KJ Parker is the only author who ever made me think, "This is brilliant and I don't want to read more of it."
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Feb 25, 2016 22:55
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Buncha people all getting butthurt in here. Neal does have a lot of faults as a writer, I certainly would not compare him to asimov or whatever sci-fi great. But he does introduce a lot of pretty great concepts and monsters and characters somewhere in between all the (mostly boring) action sequences. That is what really keeps me reading his stuff. And to the end of a series you start to get a real Mary Sue vibe as his characters conquer everything with aplomb. Maybe his newest series is just a little too full of the bad side of his writing, from reading the synopsis it seem like more of the same and not really worth reading, I'll probably end up getting too curious eventually and reading it anyway tho. I could see someone new to his writing just thinking it was a mish-mash of other concepts and authors. It kind of snuck up on the setting over time since he's now combined the ideas of uplift, AI, Post humanism, nanotechnology, berserkers, rogue von neumann machines etc. Washout fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Feb 25, 2016 |
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Feb 25, 2016 22:56
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Blitter posted:Alright, yeah, it's clearly waay too much effort to you know, flip the book open and see the giant loving list of books previously written in the Polity world. Prador? Gosh, no chance that they were you know, developed in the previous books or anything. Why are you acting like a huge baby
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Feb 25, 2016 23:07
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TheWhiteNightmare posted:Why are you acting like a huge baby Oh, more that I don't think judging an author from one book mid series is very useful; I've certainly taken an immediate dislike for the first read of some books and then kicked myself later when I found later to find their other stuff enjoyable. Also, I thought the Prador pretty cool, so uh maybe butthurt too ha ha.
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Feb 26, 2016 05:22
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Asher can be an enjoyable author. The Polity stuff is generally exciting and not too bogged down in the author's politics. The settings are very diverse and if the characters are cardboard, it's not much worse than the genre as a whole. Then there's the Owner trilogy he wrote, which is unbelievable tripe. I've ranted about it before and won't belabor the post, but it's almost impossible to see it as the same author. Maybe he got a brain tumor?
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Feb 26, 2016 13:28
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Zorak of Michigan posted:KJ Parker is the only author who ever made me think, "This is brilliant and I don't want to read more of it." Kaleidoscope Century. Jesus, that was difficult to read.
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Feb 26, 2016 21:11
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Velius posted:Asher can be an enjoyable author. The Polity stuff is generally exciting and not too bogged down in the author's politics. The settings are very diverse and if the characters are cardboard, it's not much worse than the genre as a whole. Don't authors usually get more editorial control the more popular they are? It really seems like his newer stuff is a lot less coherent than his earlier books. The Owner had a lot of really odd jarring sequences that really detracted from the story (torture sequences, bizarre sex scenes, pointless megadeath etc), but there was some pretty cool stuff in it as well, the 3rd book was pretty terrible. The dystopian cyberpunk stuff was good when you found it.
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Feb 26, 2016 21:31
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Phanatic posted:Kaleidoscope Century. Jesus, that was difficult to read. Yeah, I felt gross and like the world was gross after reading that one. That said, I found myself reading it again a couple of times. It's a good book.
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Feb 27, 2016 03:20
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jng2058 posted:Or the Starfire novels which I enjoy more than anything Weber or White did on his own. If you're interested in that sort of thing, all the Starfire books just came out on Audible.
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Feb 27, 2016 13:27
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I've started on Poseidon's Wake by Alistair Reynolds now. I've only read one book of his before, Pushing Ice, and that was a long time ago though I remember enjoying it. I'm not sure whether this is an established setting or not - sure feels like it, but as with Dark Intelligence it might also be dropping the reader in in situ. I was not expecting African culture to be a big thing in the book, or that one of the two protagonists is a happily married lesbian (bonus points for the book not making a big deal out of her homosexuality at all), and I'm interested to see where things go with her. The chapters back in Sol are much less interesting, though I'm curious how they could end up tying in to the other protagonist.
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Feb 28, 2016 00:19
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