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Just finished After the Saucers Landed and I, uh... didn't "get it". I mean I knew I wouldn't get it going in, but I especially didn't get what was probably the most coherent and straightforward part of the narrative: why did Ralph Reality bother to change places with George Bush? I thought the entire point of the book was that the aliens destroyed human worldview, not human society, but then it takes an abrupt shift into politically "Body Snatcher" rather than the ridiculous mindfuck life-swapping things that they had been doing previously and continue to do after. I don't know, it felt somehow dissonant.
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Apr 1, 2016 02:17
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anilEhilated posted:Makes one appreciate the attitude of Steven Erikson, whose response on people asking how to pronounce his multi-apostrophed monstrosities was "however the hell you want". I still think of the name that way even though I'm fully aware that the author has told people how to pronounce it (Drist). 
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Apr 1, 2016 03:09
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It's always been "drizzit" for me
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Apr 1, 2016 03:13
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xian posted:It's always been "drizzit" for me Same here.
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Apr 1, 2016 03:21
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Yeah I totally get that as well - I just think it's a cute anecdote about how you can totally gently caress up pronunciation for something in a SF/F novel because *reasons* and do fine, but never ever change your mind no matter how absolutely silly it may be in hindsight. Not as silly as the author forgetting/changing up the gender of the protagonist's pet no less than twice (after the first six novels were consistent,) before going back to the original, but still silly.
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Apr 1, 2016 04:00
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coyo7e posted:When I was in middle school, one of my friends passed me my first Drizzt novel by Salvatore.. He quietly insisted "you can read this but you have to remember - his name is pronounced, 'Dritts'". To 'drist' means to diarrhea in Russian, so, uh, he's Dzirt in Russian translations. D'Urden is also a sound away from Russian for 'moron' but they decided to keep it. Megazver fucked around with this message at 06:42 on Apr 1, 2016 |
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Apr 1, 2016 06:39
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Apostrophe fantasy in 2010's, hell no
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Apr 1, 2016 08:35
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WarLocke posted:God drat Please Undo This Pain hit me right in the gut. Please Undo This Hurt? The short story?
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Apr 1, 2016 09:26
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mallamp posted:Apostrophe fantasy in 2010's, hell no Your superfluous apostrophe in 2010s is pretty ironic
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Apr 1, 2016 09:29
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Sorryfor not being born in USof A
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Apr 1, 2016 14:31
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flosofl posted:Let's get back to our roots! No spacesuits needed.  
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Apr 1, 2016 17:44
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Grimwall posted:Please Undo This Hurt? The short story? Shows me for not double-checking the title before I post. 
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Apr 1, 2016 21:53
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Just finished Baru Cormorant, and I'm tempted to start reading it all over again, because I know I missed some stuff the first time through, especially little hints at the really good twist at the end. Good job, Battuta. Edit: It just occurred to me that it's going to be really tricky writing a review of this book without spoiling it. Solitair fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Apr 2, 2016 |
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Apr 1, 2016 22:59
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Whoever recommended Count to a Trillion was not wrong - if you liked the Golden Age trilogy and want more John C. Wright that is tolerable but also definitely more batshit crazy, it's pretty good. I just... sort of ignored all the weird biotruths poo poo, because the main character is an unlikeable motherfucker from postapocalyptic Texas raised by a sociopathic mother so it was fantastically accurate worldbuilding, even if I knew that the author actually believed it all.
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Apr 2, 2016 20:02
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John Ringo's zombie quadrology... In general, I'm not a big fan of zombie fiction because apocalypses are so depressing, but the can-do spirit of these books convinced me. I'd say that they are pretty great for what they are, especially when theSarah Palin-esque vice president literally saves the world in the fourth book. I laughed for several minutes after I realized what, knowing Ringo, was going to happen.
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Apr 2, 2016 22:39
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Thanks to whoever recommended The United States of Japan, it's a very entertaining book. It can be way over the top in certain areas, but in a good way that fits with it's very fast, never-a-dull-moment pacing, and even though it has those aspects, it still manages to have some gravitas, with well thought out world building and history bolstering the setting with an oppressive and menacing atmosphere. It also has some great characters, with the bonus of having such a great original main character that you can't help but love, even though he has some character traits that you would hate in other characters not presented so well, and you still hate him at times when said traits come to the fore in the beginning. I'm not finished with it yet,but the place I'm at in it right now reminds me a lot of Escape From New York, I look forward to having time to finish the rest in one go.
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Apr 2, 2016 23:20
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cultureulterior posted:John Ringo's zombie quadrology... I read them last year and while I liked the premise of a maritime zombie story, I thought there was no real danger after book 1 and they gained the military gear. What was it, a total of one secondary character died? At least there was only a little underage grossness with the girls going topless on their smaller boats and the enlisted military guys ogling over them. Also complete Mary Sues in both the daughters, really one of them becomes the baddest zombie fighter out there and recruited into what is left of the Marines at 13, and the other some ship captain at 15. The indifference of people when a zombie attacked someone in the first book was pretty bad as well. IIRC it was chalked up to people in NYC not getting into other people's business. And what happened to the father's brother who was protecting those rich guys? That storyline was completely dropped after they got onto the water.
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Apr 3, 2016 00:49
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DACK FAYDEN posted:Whoever recommended Count to a Trillion was not wrong - if you liked the Golden Age trilogy and want more John C. Wright that is tolerable but also definitely more batshit crazy, it's pretty good. I just... sort of ignored all the weird biotruths poo poo, because the main character is an unlikeable motherfucker from postapocalyptic Texas raised by a sociopathic mother so it was fantastically accurate worldbuilding, even if I knew that the author actually believed it all. Yeah, it really does have a lot going for it, despite the eye-rolling moments. It took me a while to get into it, actually, but by the end of the first novel the cool poo poo was stacking up and The Hermetic Millenia is nuts in the best possible way. As to maintaining the pretence that the main character is not a John C Wright mouthpiece: there are some differences, like the fact Menelaus is an atheist and Wright is an avowed Catholic, while some of the antagonists are Catholic (though Menelaus still respects the church because John C Wright couldn't bring himself to go THAT far). Neurosis fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Apr 3, 2016 |
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Apr 3, 2016 07:38
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I think this is the thread where the Forge of Gods series by Greg Bear was recommended. Figured I would put this comment in here. The whole part in the second book where the leader of the human crew literally suggests and then acts on loving a woman to 'set her straight' was pretty hosed up also the suggestion that it worked. It made me want to put the whole book down and was pretty lovely. Made me look closer at the first book and realized there were absolutely no strong female characters what-so-ever, they are almost entirely sex objects and/or useless. Makes me not like this author much.
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Apr 3, 2016 18:26
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The ToC is out for the Vandermeers' The Big Book of Science Fiction. It is insane. Yoshio Aramaki, “Soft Clocks” 1968 (Japan) – translated by Kazuko Behrens and stylized by Lewis Shiner Juan José Arreola, “Baby H.P.” 1952 (Mexico) – new translation by Larry Nolen Isaac Asimov, “The Last Question” 1956 J.G. Ballard, “The Voices of Time” 1960 Iain M. Banks, “A Gift from the Culture” 1987 Jacques Barbéri, “Mondo Cane” 1983 (France) – first translation by Brian Evenson John Baxter, “The Hands” 1965 Barrington J. Bayley, “Sporting with the Chid” 1979 Greg Bear, “Blood Music” 1983 Dmitri Bilenkin, “Crossing of the Paths” 1984 – new translation by James Womack Jon Bing, “The Owl of Bear Island” 1986 (Norway) - translation Adolfo Bioy Casares, “The Squid Chooses Its Own Ink” 1962 (Argentina) - new translation by Marian Womack Michael Bishop, “The House of Compassionate Sharers” 1977 James Blish, “Surface Tension” 1952 Michael Blumlein, “The Brains of Rats” 1990 Jorge Luis Borges, “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” 1940 (Argentina) – translation by Andrew Hurley Ray Bradbury, “September 2005: The Martian” 1949 David R. Bunch, “Three From Moderan” 1959, 1970 Octavia Butler, “Bloodchild” 1984 Pat Cadigan, “Variations on a Man” 1984 André Carneiro, “Darkness” 1965 (Brazil) – translation by Leo L. Barrow Stepan Chapman, “How Alex Became a Machine” 1996 C.J. Cherryh, “Pots” 1985 Ted Chiang, “The Story of Your Life” 1998 Arthur C. Clarke, “The Star” 1955 John Crowley, “Snow” 1985 Samuel R. Delany, “Aye, and Gomorrah” 1967 Philip K. Dick, “Beyond Lies the Wub” 1952 Cory Doctorow, “Craphound” 1998 W.E.B. Du Bois, “The Comet” 1920 Jean-Claude Dunyach, “Paranamanco” 1987 (France) – translation by Sheryl Curtis S. N. Dyer, “Passing as a Flower in the City of the Dead” 1984 Harlan Ellison, “‘Repent Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktock Man” 1965 Carol Emshwiller, “Pelt” 1958 Paul Ernst, “The Microscopic Giants” 1936 Karen Joy Fowler, “The Lake Was Full of Artificial Things” 1985 Sever Gansovsky, “Day of Wrath” 1964 (Ukraine) – new translation by James Womack William Gibson, “New Rose Hotel” 1984 Angélica Gorodischer, “The Unmistakable Smell of Wood Violets” 1973 (Argentina) – first translation by Marian Womack Edmond Hamilton, “The Star Stealers” 1929 Han Song, “Two Small Birds” 1988 (China) – first translation by John Chu Alfred Jarry, “The Elements of Pataphysics” 1911 (re-translation by Gio Clairval; France) Gwyneth Jones, “The Universe of Things” 1993 Langdon Jones, “The Hall of Machines” 1968 Kaijo Shinji, “Reiko’s Universe Box” 1981 (Japan) – translation by Toyoda Takashi and Gene van Troyer Gérard Klein, “The Monster” 1958 (France) – translation by Damon Knight Damon Knight, “Stranger Station” 1956 Leena Krohn, “The Gorgonoids” 1992 (Finland) – translation by Hildi Hawkins R.A. Lafferty, “Nine Hundred Grandmothers” 1966 Kojo Laing, “Vacancy for the Post of Jesus Christ” 1992 (Ghana) Geoffrey A. Landis, “Vacuum States” 1988 Tanith Lee, “Crying in the Rain” 1987 Ursula K. Le Guin, “Vaster Than Empires and More Slow” 1971 Stanisław Lem, “Let Us Save the Universe” 1981 (Poland) – translation by Joel Stern and Maria Swiecicka-Ziemianek Cixin Liu, “The Poetry Cloud” 1997 (China) – translation by Chi-yin Ip and Cheuk Wong Katherine MacLean, “The Snowball Effect” 1952 Geoffrey Maloney, “Remnants of the Virago Crypto-System” 1995 George R.R. Martin, “Sandkings” 1979 Michael Moorcock, “The Frozen Cardinal” 1987 Pat Murphy, “Rachel in Love” 1987 Misha Nogha, “Death is Static Death is Movement” 1990 Silvina Ocampo, “The Waves” 1959 (Argentina) – first translation by Marian Womack Chad Oliver, “Let Me Live in a House” 1954 Manjula Padmanabhan, “Sharing Air” 1984 (India) Frederick Pohl, “Day Million” 1966 Rachel Pollack, “Burning Sky” 1989 Robert Reed, “The Remoras” 1994 Kim Stanley Robinson, “Before I Wake”1989 Joanna Russ, “When It Changed” 1972 Josephine Saxton, “The Snake Who Had Read Chomsky” 1981 Paul Scheerbart, “The New Abyss” 1911 (Germany) – first translation by Daniel Ableev and Sarah Kaseem James H. Schmitz, “Grandpa” 1955 Vadim Shefner, “A Modest Genius” 1965 (Russia) –translation by Matthew J. O’Connell Robert Silverberg, “Good News from the Vatican” 1971 Clifford D. Simak, “Desertion” 1944 Johanna Sinisalo, “Baby Doll” 2002 (Finland) – translation by David Hackston Cordwainer Smith, “The Game of Rat and Dragon” 1955 Margaret St. Clair, “Prott” 1985 Bruce Sterling, “Swarm” 1982 Karl Hans Strobl, “The Triumph of Mechanics” 1907 (Germany) – first translation by Gio Clairval Arkady & Boris Strugatsky, “The Visitors” 1958 (Russia) – new translation by James Womack Theodore Sturgeon, “The Man Who Lost the Sea” 1959 William Tenn, “The Liberation of Earth” 1953 William Tenn, “Ghost Standard” 1994 James Tiptree, Jr., “And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side” 1972 Tatyana Tolstoya, “The Slynx” 2000 (Russia) – translation byJamey Gambrell Yasutaka Tsutsui, “Standing Woman” 1974 (Japan) – translation by Dana Lewis Lisa Tuttle, “Wives” 1979 Miguel de Unamuno, “Mechanopolis” 1913 (Spain) – new translation by Marian Womack Élisabeth Vonarburg, “Readers of Lost Art” 1987 (Canada/Quebec) – translation by Howard Scott Kurt Vonnegut, “2BRO2B” 1962 H.G. Wells, “The Star,” 1897 James White, “Sector General” 1957 Connie Willis, “Schwarzschild Radius” 1987 Gene Wolfe, “All the Hues of Hell” 1987 Alicia Yánez Cossío, “The IWM 1000” 1975 (Chile) – translation by Susana Castillo and Elsie Adams Valentina Zhuravlyova, “The Astronaut” 1960 (Russia) – new translation by James Womack Yefim Zozulya, “The Doom of Principal City” 1918 (Russian) – first translation by Vlad Zhenevsky Taken from this io9 article.
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Apr 3, 2016 20:31
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Holy poo poo. 1,200 pages, and if the stories I don't know are half as good as the ones I do, that's going to be a memorable collection.
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Apr 3, 2016 20:43
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Well that's going to be a pretty drat big book, all right. ,..hey, a Jon Bing story? Translated to English? (Bing (pbuh) was basically a living saint of SF in Norway, his 1970s stuff was the earliest genre books I can remember reading for certain.)
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Apr 3, 2016 20:46
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Cool to see so many non-Anglophone stories, especially two from  .
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Apr 3, 2016 20:51
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chrisoya posted:Holy poo poo. 1,200 pages, and if the stories I don't know are half as good as the ones I do, that's going to be a memorable collection. Yeah that's the first anthology I've seen in a while that looks like it could compete with the old "Hall of Fame" volumes. That one looks like a buy.
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Apr 3, 2016 20:51
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It's also a great argument for e-books. I prefer paper but 1200 pages in one volume is a lot.
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Apr 3, 2016 20:57
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Quinton posted:Book two is a "going to sorcery school" book that avoids the common tropes and involves vast works of magical civil engineering. Self-published, but not available on Amazon (annoying), they are downloadable drm-free from Google Play Store, and available from various other ebook services. Book three is out, and appears to pick up right where book two left off (there is some amount of time that has passed, but the characters are still in "sorcery school" etc.). http://dubiousprospects.blogspot.com/2016/04/another-instance-of-committing-book.htm
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Apr 4, 2016 18:02
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Hey so Player of Games is wonderful.
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Apr 4, 2016 18:21
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holocaust bloopers posted:Hey so Player of Games is wonderful. You ain't seen nothing yet, wait til you get to Use of Weapons.
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Apr 4, 2016 18:24
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holocaust bloopers posted:Hey so Player of Games is wonderful. I should probably space-move onto this after I've finished struggling through The Quantum Thief. Liked UoW and Excession, loved The Algebraist. What's your take?
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Apr 4, 2016 18:24
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Koesj posted:I should probably space-move onto this after I've finished struggling through The Quantum Thief. Liked UoW and Excession, loved The Algebraist. What's your take? My last and only Banks novel was Consider Phlebas, which I found to be a good time. Player of Games is a simple story told well.
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Apr 4, 2016 18:41
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Neurosis posted:Yeah, it really does have a lot going for it, despite the eye-rolling moments. It took me a while to get into it, actually, but by the end of the first novel the cool poo poo was stacking up and The Hermetic Millenia is nuts in the best possible way. Good to hear the sequel is even nuttier, I am holding out hope all four will be readable because I really did enjoy the world.
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Apr 4, 2016 19:11
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Look to Windward has to be my favourite Culture novel. I started it first but couldn't get into it. Then came back to it years later, having demolished the rest of the books. It's a really good one to end on IMO. Something felt really profoundly sad about it, without things getting overly cynical or mean.
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Apr 4, 2016 19:59
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Look to Windward is amazing. Surface Detail is amazing. Matter is amazing. Inversions is Amazing. Use of Weapons is amazing. Excession is amazing. I haven't read the Hydrogen Sonata yet but I'm assuming it's gonna be amazing.
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Apr 4, 2016 20:14
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I only read one culture novel and it was about a shapeshifter and was kind of boring.l
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Apr 4, 2016 21:18
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Sounds like Consider Phlebas, which is probably the least unique of them
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Apr 4, 2016 21:26
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So anything good coming out in the next few months? I saw last night that the next Locke Lamora book is pegged for June/July.
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Apr 4, 2016 21:42
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holocaust bloopers posted:So anything good coming out in the next few months? There's nothing showing up for it on Locus: http://www.locusmag.com/Resources/ForthcomingBooks.html For me personally I'm not seeing a lot exciting on a quick glance-through, there's a print edition of Bujold's "Penric's Demon", and then the new N.K.Jemisin in August. Past that there's a new Reynolds in September and the new Abhorsen book from Garth Nix in November. (But there's a bunch of stuff from thread-favorites?)
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Apr 4, 2016 23:12
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Death's End by Cixin Liu is coming in September. I thought it was sooner, and that link above me says August. I wonder if they delayed it by a month.
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Apr 4, 2016 23:20
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holocaust bloopers posted:So anything good coming out in the next few months? This doesn't seem like the worst list? http://io9.gizmodo.com/40-science-fiction-and-fantasy-books-that-will-rock-you-1749950897 They do monthly ones as well but April isn't up yet it looks like
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Apr 4, 2016 23:51
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fritz posted:There's nothing showing up for it on Locus: Other interesting stuff includes Stella Gemmell's sequel to The City, Mike Carey's new solo novel, the latest in the Rivers of London series, what I believe is the next Laundry novel, and the finale of the Long Earth series.
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Apr 4, 2016 23:59
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