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I read The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet. It's incredibly naive and dull as hell. There's no driving force behind the story. Characters are mashed up into little vignettes so they can be super positive to each other. It's aggravating.
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Jun 11, 2016 05:50
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Xenix posted:I don't think the gender stuff was anything about how society chooses language. It was about Breq not having access to people's information via wifi or whatever and an excuse for people to make two or three jokes at her expense. People make too much of it. Actually I thought it was, there's specific mentions when she's in foreign planets and stuff that she struggles to say the correct gender, especially not having magic wifi knowledge, but was relieved being back home and not having to do that on radchaai or whatever. But you are right that people probably make too much of it. I thought it was supposed to be one random social quirk and nothing more.
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Jun 11, 2016 06:01
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holocaust bloopers posted:I read The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet. It's incredibly naive and dull as hell. There's no driving force behind the story. Characters are mashed up into little vignettes so they can be super positive to each other. It's aggravating. I'm with you 200% here. Did you read the whole le Flambeur series btw or just Quantum Thief? Thoughts? I'm eyeing Fifth Season but I feel kinda obliged to finally finish my quarter-read Dune paperback...
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Jun 11, 2016 07:09
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Koesj posted:I'm with you 200% here. I tried Fifth Season and couldn't get into it. FYI, its very much fantasy and not sci-fi
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Jun 11, 2016 07:18
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Xaris posted:Actually I thought it was, there's specific mentions when she's in foreign planets and stuff that she struggles to say the correct gender, especially not having magic wifi knowledge, but was relieved being back home and not having to do that on radchaai or whatever. Yeah, it's just a part of the world. I think people reading it might have exaggerated its significance and then you get into the usual spiral where if certain people like a thing (inclusive, gender-interesting science fiction), then certain other people feel compelled to hate a thing. It also allowed for interesting introspection, personally. At first I was frustrated that I couldn't gender anyone, despite my other language being totally gender neutral, since I was reading it in English. But after a point I realized it doesn't matter - it doesn't really matter to the characters or the story, so it shouldn't matter to me either. The Left Hand of Darkness for example made a much bigger deal of gender.
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Jun 11, 2016 08:38
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blue squares posted:After 30 pages of the first Expanse book I have groaned several times. I particularly hated the description of plastic buttons and switches as being "designed for high Gs." As if that could possibly matter. Hey, if you're strapped into an acceleration chair you're not going to be reaching up to a screen in front of you to push buttons, they'll be built into the chair right by your fingers. These details are really important to the narrative! My space-immersion!
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Jun 11, 2016 12:22
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Again on the Academy series. If any of you are planning to read those books, make yourself a favor and DO NOT read them in chronological order. Specifically, don't read "Starhawk" first. I'd risk to say do not read it at all. Theoreticallty it is a prequel to Engines of God, but it's closer to what Hollywood calls a "reboot". Some things are explicitly against established "facts" in the previous novels. Examples: in Engines it is said that Hutch had never confronted a dead in space, in the whole series it is clear that there has not been any "first contact", there are no AIs in Engines, there was just a ship named "Venture" previous to Chindi, and it was lost at the beginning of the interstellar age, Quraqua was the first serious attempt to terraform a world... ans some other minor things.. The novel, on a second read, is objectively bad. I wonder if McDevitt wrote it because he was forced by contract; otherwise I can't understand why does he blow up a part of the narrative and canon established in the other books.
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Jun 11, 2016 13:46
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Velius posted:Hey, if you're strapped into an acceleration chair you're not going to be reaching up to a screen in front of you to push buttons, they'll be built into the chair right by your fingers. These details are really important to the narrative! My space-immersion! That would actually make sense and be semi-interesting. No, it's "the switches, made of metal and plastic designed to withstand hard g." As if inferior plastic would... break?
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Jun 11, 2016 15:17
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Count me in on the camp who says that the gender stuff in Ancillary is just a side detail that got blown out of proportion and doesn't matter as much as some people say it does. To me, the most interesting aspect of Ancillary Justice was the fragmentation of Anaander Mianaai's (sp?) consciousness as a result of spreading themselves over many light years. It really got me to think about human minds in relation to hard drives and wireless relays, as well as a huge hurdle to the future of the internet in an interstellar age. Today the internet allows instant communication between anyone on the planet who has it, but how can communication possibly be instant over a distance of light years? Naturally, instead of expanding on this idea, Ancillary Sword was mostly about Breq giving a stern talking-to to the meanie-poos who were in charge of her new home when she arrived. Also, I just finished Binti and I feel conflicted about the poo poo that happened to Binti and her reaction to it. Am I to admire her optimism, or think that she's in denial about some of her circumstances? Is her friendship with Okwa worth forgetting that Okwa took part in the massacre of her old friends, for instance?
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Jun 11, 2016 16:23
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Koesj posted:I'm with you 200% here. Just Quantum Thief. I was mostly lost for the entire book save for the larger plot elements. If I do go on with the book 2, it'll be in the future. I've got a tremendous backlog to catch up on. The Fifth Season is great. Wonderful book.
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Jun 11, 2016 16:56
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blue squares posted:I tried Fifth Season and couldn't get into it. FYI, its very much fantasy and not sci-fi psionic powers are absolutely in the traditional wheelhouse of sci-fi.
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Jun 11, 2016 16:58
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Well, the difference seems to be more in the way it's approached. You can have fantasy with spaceships if you just handwave them as magic and don't try to explain anything.
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Jun 11, 2016 19:47
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Xaris posted:Actually I thought it was, there's specific mentions when she's in foreign planets and stuff that she struggles to say the correct gender, especially not having magic wifi knowledge, but was relieved being back home and not having to do that on radchaai or whatever. I don't think so. I haven't read the book since it came out, but I recall that once she was back with the Radchaai she had tea with a bunch of people and stuck her foot in her mouth again. It was all about her having a thousand years of sensors telling her that sort of information and only 20 (?) years of not having it.
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Jun 11, 2016 21:25
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RoboCicero posted:Thanks to everyone who recommended "Too Like The Lightning". It's a really enjoyable, if loving weird, and the author's history and love of the Renaissance really shines through. It's a book that is deeply interested in questions of religion which was also cool -- it's also one of those books that delve into gender stuff, so if anyone was put off by Ancillary Mercy you should probably steer well clear of this book because I can tell you right now you'll hate it to death. I liked it though, even if I disagreed with some of the propositions in the book. A unique read with fascinating stakes -- I can't wait for the sequel! In the process of writing this post I looked it up and there's going to be four books in the series? I was really hoping it was a duology instead of a trilogy, but looks like I erred in the wrong direction. hadn't heard of this but the premise sounds gently caress interesting, will check it out after a bit of non-fiction reading.
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Jun 12, 2016 06:22
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of course, there's no ebook available and the only digital edition is an audio book. gently caress ordering the hardcover.
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Jun 12, 2016 10:05
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What region are you in? I bought an ebook of too like the lightning straight off amazon, no issues, right to the Kindle.
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Jun 12, 2016 17:46
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I think the fact that Radchaai gender and sexual norms were so different from ours, especially in a way that at first glance appears progressive is important because it allows us to view the Radchaai characters with some degree of sympathy instead of hoping that their society completely falls apart. They enforce their social values at least as strictly as the Victorians did, so if they were forcing everyone to be straight and patriarchal they'd come across as cartoonishly evil to our sensibilities.
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Jun 13, 2016 00:26
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andrew smash posted:What region are you in? I bought an ebook of too like the lightning straight off amazon, no issues, right to the Kindle. Australia. We get shafted on ebook availability frequently. I feel no guilt about finding illicit copies when that happens and the ebook is available elsewhere.
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Jun 13, 2016 05:51
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Neurosis posted:Australia. We get shafted on ebook availability frequently. I feel no guilt about finding illicit copies when that happens and the ebook is available elsewhere. But I was able to buy every Discworld book published up to the point of my visit with the original covers, so at least there's that.
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Jun 13, 2016 06:22
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Neurosis posted:Australia. We get shafted on ebook availability frequently. I feel no guilt about finding illicit copies when that happens and the ebook is available elsewhere. Well if they don't want your loving money....
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Jun 13, 2016 09:05
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Groke posted:Well if they don't want your loving money.... This is such poo poo. I can't even order the book myself an gift it to someone in another reason, what the gently caress. What is it that publisher's think they're accomplishing with this?
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Jun 13, 2016 12:26
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bonds0097 posted:This is such poo poo. I can't even order the book myself an gift it to someone in another reason, what the gently caress. What is it that publisher's think they're accomplishing with this? Much more efficient to load up a massive oil burning boat with dead trees and ship books in that way.
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Jun 13, 2016 12:30
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bonds0097 posted:This is such poo poo. I can't even order the book myself an gift it to someone in another reason, what the gently caress. What is it that publishers think they're accomplishing with this? bonds0097 posted:publishers think I found the problem.
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Jun 13, 2016 14:31
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There's probably some perfectly simple explanation that everyone within publishing finds super stupid and frustrating but they're bound by legal poo poo to support.
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Jun 13, 2016 17:42
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How does KJ Parker's books compare to something like Joe Abercrombie? I want fantasy that's bleak and cruel but entertaining.
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Jun 13, 2016 18:04
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holocaust bloopers posted:I want fantasy that's bleak and cruel but entertaining. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Nothing
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Jun 13, 2016 18:17
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MrSlam posted:Unfortunately, he wants a fantasy novel with zero magic, no potions, no fantasy races, no dragons or unrealistic animals, no gods, no dream sequences or prophecies. I think he wants historical fiction but it in a made up place?
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Jun 13, 2016 20:31
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failed PhD candidate writes novel about how a super smart philosopher takes over the world with the power of reason
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Jun 13, 2016 20:37
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You can cut a Jordan novel by two-thirds and miss nothing. You can lop off the first-half of a Sanderson novel and miss nothing. You can remove both halves of a Rothfuss book and then read something else. What good SFF authors, male and female and preferably alive, usually write books no longer than the 300 page mark? EDIT: I read the Prince of Nothing back in the day and found it quite musing in its bleakness, although the only scene I remember is where the sexually-frustrated barbarian digs holes in the ground and fucks them. I may devote time to the second series but I hope Bakker calls it quits if they publish Book 6 Part 2, given how limited the audience compared to ASOIAF. Inspector Gesicht fucked around with this message at 20:52 on Jun 13, 2016 |
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Jun 13, 2016 20:43
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Inspector Gesicht posted:You can cut a Jordan novel by two-thirds and miss nothing. George Saunders VVVV Yeah Planetfall is good. blue squares fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Jun 13, 2016 |
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Jun 13, 2016 20:44
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Emma Newman's Planetfall comes in at a touch over 300 pages. The Southern Reach books are pretty short, the whole trilogy put together is something like 600 pages and in another world was only one novel in the first place. I'm actually interested in this too because I've come to appreciate the certain tightness and brevity in older SF novels compared to the doorstoppers today. Zelazny and Bester for example.
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Jun 13, 2016 20:47
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Fails in the third criterion.
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Jun 13, 2016 20:48
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coyo7e posted:Dhalgren. Speaking of Delany, would the Neveryon books fit the bill?
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Jun 13, 2016 20:51
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holocaust bloopers posted:How does KJ Parker's books compare to something like Joe Abercrombie? I haven't read Abercrombie, but Parker definitely fits all three of those criteria. All of his stuff has a really dry essentially British wit to it, even as the characters are doing terrible things or having terrible things happen to them, usually that they themselves were responsible for in some way. The short stories/novellas are a good starting point, or if you want something novel length and standalone, The Folding Knife.
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Jun 13, 2016 21:19
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Inspector Gesicht posted:What good SFF authors, male and female and preferably alive, usually write books no longer than the 300 page mark? Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books hover around that mark, +/- 30 pages or so.
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Jun 13, 2016 21:38
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Ornamented Death posted:Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books hover around that mark, +/- 30 pages or so. The Vlad Taltos books that aren't Athyra or Dragon anyway. They stink.
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Jun 13, 2016 22:20
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I finished the first book in Leviathan Wakes and it was actually really good. No idea where the series is going to go next but I'm on board for at least the next book.
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Jun 13, 2016 22:27
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blue squares posted:I finished the first book in Leviathan Wakes and it was actually really good. No idea where the series is going to go next but I'm on board for at least the next book. The second book is even better than the first. But don't let that fool you, the third book is really boring, and the rest of them are kind of meh.
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Jun 13, 2016 22:44
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Nah, the fifth one owns again.
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Jun 13, 2016 22:45
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Nippashish posted:The second book is even better than the first. But don't let that fool you, the third book is really boring, and the rest of them are kind of meh. This last one was probably the best in the series. But yeah, the third is OK and closes out an arc, but the 4th is pretty... something. And you can probably take or leave most of the novellas, but read The Churn for sure.
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Jun 13, 2016 22:45
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