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Should I just skip book 4 and read a good plot summary? I have an insane amount of books I want to read (Next up is from our good friend the General)
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Jun 13, 2016 23:05
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I just read Replay by Ken Grimwood and it was a really great page-turner, one of those classic '80s paperbacks that reminded me of the best of old Stephen King. Basically it's a story about a guy who dies when he's in his 40s, wakes up back in his college dorm when he's 19, and keeps on replaying those years of his life over and over, but knowing what's going to happen in the future. Very clearly an inspiration for The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, but they end up being different sort of stories. Highly recommended.
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Jun 14, 2016 01:19
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blue squares posted:Should I just skip book 4 and read a good plot summary? I have an insane amount of books I want to read (Next up is from our good friend the General) I think 4 is eminently skippable. 3 less so, but you could prooobably get away with it.
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Jun 14, 2016 02:18
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holocaust bloopers posted:How does KJ Parker's books compare to something like Joe Abercrombie? I've only read a couple of Parker's books but the ones I did read I liked a lot for the same reasons I like Abercrombie. Probably the most similar style of fantasy you'll find to Abercrombie besides maybe Richard Morgan's fantasy series.
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Jun 14, 2016 03:39
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savinhill posted:I've only read a couple of Parker's books but the ones I did read I liked a lot for the same reasons I like Abercrombie. Probably the most similar style of fantasy you'll find to Abercrombie besides maybe Richard Morgan's fantasy series. That's great. Abercrombie's style is almost perfectly tuned to what I like in a novel: great storytelling with minimal drag coupled and an engaging writing style.
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Jun 14, 2016 04:19
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In Kindle Unlimited news I finally picked up a series I've been seeing in my LitRPG related recommendations. Continue Online: Memories by Stephen Morse. I'm rather enjoying it. It does a good job of balancing the real world and the Virtual Reality worlds presented in the book and centers on a depressed Alternate Reality Capsule repairman with a recent history full of pain and loss who wins a special copy of the titular game and is drawn into the intrigues of the AIs who pose as minor gods to the NPCs and players therein. The writing itself is good though it shows a lack of editing and/or incorrect translation (not sure if the author is native English or not. This subgenre tends to be written in other languages for the most part.) due to a few obvious typos. There's at least 2 sequels as well which I am looking forward to when I finish this one. It's got a lot of pathos and well done characters.
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Jun 14, 2016 04:39
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General Battuta posted: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. There were similar issues in Canada until fairly recently and it had to do with more permissive copyright laws. Given similar legal histories (developed from British law) I'd wager that's the reason.
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Jun 14, 2016 05:48
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I just finished Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan and really enjoyed it. How are the other Kovacs books? I've still got a massive pile of books to get through but wouldn't mind jumping them up the line if the quality holds steady.
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Jun 14, 2016 06:16
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The Ninth Layer posted:I just finished Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan and really enjoyed it. How are the other Kovacs books? I've still got a massive pile of books to get through but wouldn't mind jumping them up the line if the quality holds steady. Victorkm posted:In Kindle Unlimited news I finally picked up a series I've been seeing in my LitRPG related recommendations. Continue Online: Memories by Stephen Morse. I'm rather enjoying it. It does a good job of balancing the real world and the Virtual Reality worlds presented in the book and centers on a depressed Alternate Reality Capsule repairman with a recent history full of pain and loss who wins a special copy of the titular game and is drawn into the intrigues of the AIs who pose as minor gods to the NPCs and players therein.
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Jun 14, 2016 06:34
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It's funny that basically every LitRPG game is so grindy / 'hardcore' that in the real world the game would instantly fail due to being Very Bad. I also wonder how many of the authors are deeply autistic.
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Jun 14, 2016 06:46
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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? Peter Watts' books are usually around 350ish, depending on if you count his research notes and bibliography. Echopraxia was the middle 350 pages of a 600 page novel.
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Jun 14, 2016 06:51
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blue squares posted:failed PhD candidate writes novel about how a super smart philosopher takes over the world with the power of reason But have you been published in Nature? http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v503/n7477/full/503562a.html I am genuinely looking forward to the ending of this series, since conceptually it is one of the original fantasy series out there, for both good and bad.
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Jun 14, 2016 06:58
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blue squares posted:Should I just skip book 4 and read a good plot summary? I have an insane amount of books I want to read (Next up is from our good friend the General) I thought the fourth book was more interesting than the third, but it was less relevant to the plot. It wasn't a bad book, but if you have lots of other books and are only interested in the core plot of the series, then you can skip it. It is about a group of people living in a remote part of space facing a calamity, struggling to adapt and survive. It's a decent one of those books, but nothing mind blowing.
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Jun 14, 2016 07:19
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The biggest issue for me with book 3 was that two of the characters were just not interesting. The authors tried to make some complex characters that just didn't work very well. The plot was good enough, and important for the whole story arc, but those two characters just didn't work and made it hard to read the book. Book 4 had much better characters, but less interesting plot, but I still enjoyed it. And as said, book 5 was awesome again. The Expanse is one of the few series I'll preorder any book of, and unless they mess up hugely several books in a row, I'll keep buying them. One of my absolute favorite series right now.
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Jun 14, 2016 08:55
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I honestly find an Expanse book's quality directly proportional to the amount of Avasarala in it. After 5 I stopped giving a gently caress about anyone on Holden's crew.
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Jun 14, 2016 11:43
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Inspector Gesicht posted:You can cut a Jordan novel by two-thirds and miss nothing. I don't remember how long they are offhand, but Carol Berg, Catherynne Valente and Sebastian de Castell are all very engaging and don't drag (except for the Bridge of D'Arnath, skip that series). And my attention span is almost nonexistent these days. (For more details, see my thread post history.) I also just read The Devil You Know by KJ Parker and that was both extremely short and quite fun. By comparison, I found The Way of Kings unreadable even by skimming. If I find myself skimming multiple chapters waiting for anything to get interesting and then find I'm only a quarter of the way through the book according to Kindle, and this after putting up with the worst excuse for a fight scene I have ever read in a published novel right up front, I'm not finishing that drat book.
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Jun 14, 2016 12:36
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Tokamak posted:I thought the fourth book was more interesting than the third ... I agree completely. I found the third book a real struggle to get through, despite enjoying the setting. As mentioned earlier, two of the central characters were terrible. I'm not sure why the fourth book has such a bad reputation. It wasn't up to the standard of the second, but I'd probably put it on par with Leviathan Wakes.
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Jun 14, 2016 12:52
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proka posted:I agree completely. I found the third book a real struggle to get through, despite enjoying the setting. As mentioned earlier, two of the central characters were terrible. Part of it for me was that the stage for book 4 was so radically different than the others. We go from a system-wide setting where the future of humanity is potentially at stake to a corporation vs. settlers cut off from everyone else. It was narrative whiplash from what I had come to expect. It's exacerbated by the the fifth book going back to a Belters vs. Earthers vs. Martians and some serious poo poo going down. Plus I got a real "western serial" vibe from it. The stakes never felt any more than "Black Bart's going to blow the dam and flood the town!" to me.
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Jun 14, 2016 13:06
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proka posted:I agree completely. I found the third book a real struggle to get through, despite enjoying the setting. As mentioned earlier, two of the central characters were terrible. And the setup of Abbadon's Gate is stupid, even trying to think in-universe. Cibola Burn is a different kind of a book. It is probably OK to skip it, unless the thins that happen in the Ancient compound get some kind of comeback in the next books. But I would not recommend to do it (skip), mostly because it is the one with a better character handling. Even Holden looks less like a perfect and immaculate good guy. And the bad guy is not a moustached cartoonish evil puppet master. Actually, his behaviour is (mostly) logical and goes into "a guy doing his job the better he can". The fifth book is really good, but in my opinion it does not reach the second one. For one, I found Naomi's backstory a little bit forced. Of course, we are talking about a series that contains brown goo vomiting zombies, so this probably fits fine.
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Jun 14, 2016 13:45
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Finished Baxter and Reynolds' Medusa Chronicles. It starts off a bit slow and uninteresting, and barely touches on Clarke's original story, to the point where I was starting to wonder what the point of writing it as a sequel was, if all they wanted was to explore the relationship between humans and the machine intelligences they create over the next millennia or so. But the events and setting of the short story do come into play and things start to pick up from there on, with the scope and imagination expanding exponentially from there. I'd definitely recommend reading the original and this as one story. I haven't actually read any Baxter before, so can only compare it to Reynolds' stuff. It evokes a lot of his usual themes, with one scene in particular standing out as a classic Reynolds uneasy, kinda-horrific, yet kinda-wonderous trip Basically Diamond Dogs to the absolute, ridiculous extreme.
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Jun 14, 2016 14:46
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Inspector Gesicht posted:You can cut a Jordan novel by two-thirds and miss nothing. Why would you care if a writer keeps writing a series that you may not even read?
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Jun 14, 2016 15:44
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0 rows returned posted:Peter Watts' books are usually around 350ish, depending on if you count his research notes and bibliography. Speaking of which, is there going to be a third Firefall book? I think I saw someone mentioning it online, but lost the link, and later couldn't find any details. ... and, speaking of Watts in general, how does the Rifters trilogy thematically compare to the Firefall books? I'm halfway through Starfish, and it's mostly a deepwater psychodrama, which, while being fascinatingly transhuman, is not really what I was looking for.
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Jun 14, 2016 16:08
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Stick with Starfish. It gets really good in the last third, in a way you probably aren't expecting. The next two books get considerably darker and I didn't find them as compelling. Not bad, but each one shades closer to being a grim slog without actually getting there. Thematically I think Rifters/Firefall have lots in common, but halfway through Starfish you won't have hit the big ones yet.
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Jun 14, 2016 16:43
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Amberskin posted:And the setup of Abbadon's Gate is stupid, even trying to think in-universe. Well, a guy doing his job the best he can who'd blatantly always fantasised about killing people in a security v freedom morality play and was chuffed as hell when he finally got to do it.
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Jun 14, 2016 17:25
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The Expanse's 4th book was pretty good, in my opinion, but it felt like a completely standalone thing. Book 3 was definitely a "Oh, poo poo, our contract got extended, slam the brakes!" wheel-spinning venture,though. I remember thinking it was the end to the trilogy going in (they originally were just going to be writing 3 books), and hoping for something much, much better than I got. Especially after how good the second book was.The Ninth Layer posted:I just finished Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan and really enjoyed it. How are the other Kovacs books? I've still got a massive pile of books to get through but wouldn't mind jumping them up the line if the quality holds steady. The second one was really good, though very different (much less of a detective story). I've been trying to grind my way through the 3rd for three years now and it's just never clicked for me.
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Jun 14, 2016 17:40
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Echo Cian posted:I don't remember how long they are offhand, but Carol Berg, Catherynne Valente and Sebastian de Castell are all very engaging and don't drag (except for the Bridge of D'Arnath, skip that series). And my attention span is almost nonexistent these days. (For more details, see my thread post history.) I love Bridge of D'Arnath, personally, but I'm given to understand that's not necessarily the most popular opinion.
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Jun 14, 2016 18:04
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savinhill posted:Why would you care if a writer keeps writing a series that you may not even read? Because it might nudge the readers of said series into a bit of critical thinking?
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Jun 14, 2016 18:33
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Oh yea so I'm 1/4 the way through the second book in the Alchemy Wars series by Ian Tregillis. They're very good reads. The last one comes out in December I believe.
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Jun 14, 2016 18:59
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Koesj posted:Because it might nudge the readers of said series into a bit of critical thinking? I'm not following.
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Jun 14, 2016 19:12
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holocaust bloopers posted:Oh yea so I'm 1/4 the way through the second book in the Alchemy Wars series by Ian Tregillis. His Milkweed Triptych books were really good, which took me by surprise because the whole "Nazi Science Supersoldiers" thing sounded like it'd end up being really cheesy and cliched in a bad way.
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Jun 14, 2016 19:56
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Strategic Tea posted:Well, a guy doing his job the best he can who'd blatantly always fantasised about killing people in a security v freedom morality play and was chuffed as hell when he finally got to do it. Yeah, no doubt he is a psycho. But in the psycho scale he is way beyond Dresden and similar corporate genociders. And, barring the "I'm with the good guys doing good guys stuff" Amos is not what you'd call a nice guy.
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Jun 14, 2016 20:09
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Ugly In The Morning posted:His Milkweed Triptych books were really good, which took me by surprise because the whole "Nazi Science Supersoldiers" thing sounded like it'd end up being really cheesy and cliched in a bad way. That sounds loving awesome. I am down for some Wolfenstein fantasy.
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Jun 14, 2016 20:14
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holocaust bloopers posted:Ian Tregillis. Reading Something More than Night by him now. It's a little hit and miss.
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Jun 14, 2016 20:22
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holocaust bloopers posted:That sounds loving awesome. I am down for some Wolfenstein fantasy. It gets really, really good. Trying to describe it sounds like some kind of elementary schoolers "And then the british warlock ran into the guy who walks through walls!" type thing, but it all gets pulled off rather nicely. Just don't read any descriptions of the third book, because it'll spoil a lot of the first and second.
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Jun 14, 2016 20:28
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I mean his series about alternate history war between the Dutch and French where clockwork robots seek humanity while avoiding epoxy grenades or whatever is kind of a hard sell. He pulls it off phenomenally well.
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Jun 14, 2016 21:08
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I even liked Something More Than Night a lot (even if the twist is really loving obvious). Guy seems to be a specialist at pulling good books out of extremely silly premises.
anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Jun 14, 2016 |
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Jun 14, 2016 21:17
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anilEhilated posted:I even liked Something More Than Night a lot. Guy seems to be a specialist at pulling good books out of extremely silly premises. I think he's an expert on knowing exactly where to draw the line, so things that could easily be over-the-top and silly stay... well, "grounded" isn't really the right word, but everything fits together really well and is internally consistent.
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Jun 14, 2016 21:20
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The Ninth Layer posted:I just finished Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan and really enjoyed it. How are the other Kovacs books? I've still got a massive pile of books to get through but wouldn't mind jumping them up the line if the quality holds steady. I really enjoyed all of them. You get a real sense of the long timescale for which the character has lived by the end of it, and he really does evolve as the series go on. Plus you learn a lot more about the other human-settled worlds, including Kovacs' homeworld, and the whole thing is very imaginative, bleak and yet oddly beautiful. YMMV, but I reread them every few years and still enjoy them. Also if you read all those, there are references in his 'Land Fit for Heroes' trilogy that (MASSIVE SPOILER) implies that Land Fit For Heroes is actually in the deep future of the Altered Carbon setting after a devastating war using causality-violating weapons broke reality, causing humans to collapse back into savagery. It is further implied that the "gods" of the Land Fit for Heroes setting are Kovacs and friends fighting (or playing a game?) among themselves in orbit while using humans as pawns on the ground to fight off a series of alien invasions. It's clever and I'm a sucker for SF hiding under a thin dressing of fantasy.
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Jun 14, 2016 21:44
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Grimson posted:I love Bridge of D'Arnath, personally, but I'm given to understand that's not necessarily the most popular opinion. I liked the first book, but found the second to be a bad slog and haven't gotten to the rest. So for someone who is starting from the position of not wanting to read wasted words, I'm not going to recommend it.
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Jun 14, 2016 21:47
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Ugly In The Morning posted:I think he's an expert on knowing exactly where to draw the line, so things that could easily be over-the-top and silly stay... well, "grounded" isn't really the right word, but everything fits together really well and is internally consistent. Yea I think that's accurate. Tregillis knows exactly how far he can push it within his playground.
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Jun 14, 2016 22:10
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