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 I started thinking 'oh that's an okay metaphor'Then I reread it and no they literally built a district sized cast and filled it with concrete
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Jul 20, 2016 22:01
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Koburn posted:Going through the recently released Big Book of Science Fiction compiled by the VanderMeers. My favourite story so far is 'The Doom of Principal City' by Yefim Zozulya. I had to share this part: Is it an actual cube? Like is it several city blocks high?
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Jul 20, 2016 22:06
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Koburn posted:Going through the recently released Big Book of Science Fiction compiled by the VanderMeers. My favourite story so far is 'The Doom of Principal City' by Yefim Zozulya. I had to share this part: Your avatar made me think all that scene needs is Dredd rolling up and muttering "That's what you get, creeps".
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Jul 21, 2016 00:44
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Just finished Declare, went into it blind. Didn't even know some of the characters were based on real people. The afterword about Kim Philby was interesting. Great book all around, though the first time it switched to a past scene in the middle of a chapter I thought my digital file was messed up.
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Jul 22, 2016 09:02
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Finished the last of Parker's Fencer trilogy, The Proof House. Probably the weakest of the three, but still a strong ending. The Loredans must be the most dysfunctional family I've encountered in fiction, at least that I can recall.
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Jul 22, 2016 09:09
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taser rates posted:Finished the last of Parker's Fencer trilogy, The Proof House. Probably the weakest of the three, but still a strong ending. The Loredans must be the most dysfunctional family I've encountered in fiction, at least that I can recall. I dunno, they give each other some pretty sweet presents.
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Jul 22, 2016 12:50
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Poldarn posted:I dunno, they give each other some pretty sweet presents.
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Jul 22, 2016 16:16
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Started reading Magic Bites, the first in the Kate Daniels series. The cover made me skeptical, but so far I'm really enjoying it.
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Jul 23, 2016 00:43
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taser rates posted:Finished the last of Parker's Fencer trilogy, The Proof House. Probably the weakest of the three, but still a strong ending. The Loredans must be the most dysfunctional family I've encountered in fiction, at least that I can recall.
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Jul 23, 2016 02:25
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coyo7e posted:Been going through the engineers series. I'm not sure if it's the ebook scan or the author's prose but goddamn if there isn't a completely incomprehensible sentences every chapter or two. Do you have any examples? I'm reading it on my kindle (first book) and nothing has jumped out at me like that.
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Jul 23, 2016 04:39
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I think I'm early in the third novel but I'll try and go back and look up some stuff if I have time. I know that there's a lot fo period/engineering terminology and colloquialisms however, I ran into at least a half-dozen sentences in the first book of the trilogy where I even googled and used dictionary and translate searches and just couldn't figure out what was being said sometimes. At times it's obviously just a bad scan of the source text which hosed up a couple letters in a word or turned some punctuation into something bizarre but other times, I'm just purely stymied by what was trying to be said. I like the series a lot, it reminds me of Gilman's Half-Made World a lot more than I expected or can even elaborate on.
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Jul 23, 2016 05:01
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Robot Wendigo posted:Started reading Magic Bites, the first in the Kate Daniels series. The cover made me skeptical, but so far I'm really enjoying it. The Kate Daniels series is what Anita Blake would have been without the bat-poo poo crazy that happened around book 8.
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Jul 23, 2016 11:53
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Robot Wendigo posted:Started reading Magic Bites, the first in the Kate Daniels series. The cover made me skeptical, but so far I'm really enjoying it. navyjack posted:The Kate Daniels series is what Anita Blake would have been without the bat-poo poo crazy that happened around book 8.
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Jul 23, 2016 17:26
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Jul 23, 2016 18:10
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Plowed through the Fifth Season in one go. Really accomplished and ambitious book, and exactly the kind of thing that sucks me in and leaves its mark. Shame it ends dozens of pages too early though.
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Jul 23, 2016 19:08
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Koesj posted:Plowed through the Fifth Season in one go. Really accomplished and ambitious book, and exactly the kind of thing that sucks me in and leaves its mark. Shame it ends dozens of pages too early though. I'll be reading that in a few days. Hopefully it'll blow away every other Hugo Best Novel finalist, because so far nothing else on it seems like a masterpiece.
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Jul 23, 2016 19:09
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Koesj posted:Plowed through the Fifth Season in one go. Really accomplished and ambitious book, and exactly the kind of thing that sucks me in and leaves its mark. Shame it ends dozens of pages too early though. Good thing next one's out in a couple weeks!
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Jul 23, 2016 19:45
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fritz posted:Good thing next one's out in a couple weeks! Yeah I was really glad when I caught that immediately after finishing it.
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Jul 23, 2016 20:09
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I read Greg Bear's Hull Zero Three a while back, and I'm wondering if there's anything else out there that hits similar notes-- mystery, almost horror, sci-fi that kind of captures the paranoia of being on a ship or in a confined location with something you don't understand. Any kind of sci-fi with that Alien kind of feeling would be cool actually. I've asked this other places and had the Alastair Reynolds books recommended (though I think that was in context of sci fi with cosmic horror themes in general) but I'd like something a little more self-contained like Hull Zero Three.
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Jul 23, 2016 21:15
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Just read Reynolds. He does what Hull Zero Three tried to do, except better, and David Bowie does the soundtrack. It seems there's a new Dread Empire's Fall book coming this October?! https://www.amazon.com/Impersonations-Praxis-Walter-Jon-Williams-ebook/dp/B01FQQ41DE/ Plot sounds like "Sula goes on vacation, accidentally starts a war" which I'm pretty down for.
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Jul 23, 2016 21:19
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Kesper North posted:Just read Reynolds. He does what Hull Zero Three tried to do, except better, and David Bowie does the soundtrack. I read Revelation Space, and liked it, but it felt really meandering. I get the feeling that's a common response to that one, are the rest of his books similar?
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Jul 23, 2016 21:20
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MockingQuantum posted:I read Revelation Space, and liked it, but it felt really meandering. I get the feeling that's a common response to that one, are the rest of his books similar? He has a ton of standalone stuff, and a lot of it is tightly focused. "House of Suns" is one self-contained book and is generally regarded as his best work, though I have a special affection for Revelation Space because it's so loving gothy. 
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Jul 23, 2016 21:25
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Kesper North posted:He has a ton of standalone stuff, and a lot of it is tightly focused. "House of Suns" is one self-contained book and is generally regarded as his best work, though I have a special affection for Revelation Space because it's so loving gothy. Cool, I'll grab that one and see how it strikes me. And yeah, I definitely enjoyed Revelation Space, enough that I'm probably going to re-read it. I read it probably three or four years ago and it was a fun ride.
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Jul 23, 2016 21:27
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MockingQuantum posted:I read Greg Bear's Hull Zero Three a while back, and I'm wondering if there's anything else out there that hits similar notes-- mystery, almost horror, sci-fi that kind of captures the paranoia of being on a ship or in a confined location with something you don't understand. Any kind of sci-fi with that Alien kind of feeling would be cool actually. I've asked this other places and had the Alastair Reynolds books recommended (though I think that was in context of sci fi with cosmic horror themes in general) but I'd like something a little more self-contained like Hull Zero Three. That would be Anvil of Stars, sequel to Bear's Forge of God (which is different in style and tone, but you don't really need to read it to enjoy Anvil).
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Jul 23, 2016 23:01
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Mars4523 posted:Or basically a female Dresden if Dresden wasn't a tool. I think I need to check these out.
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Jul 23, 2016 23:18
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MockingQuantum posted:I read Greg Bear's Hull Zero Three a while back, and I'm wondering if there's anything else out there that hits similar notes-- mystery, almost horror, sci-fi that kind of captures the paranoia of being on a ship or in a confined location with something you don't understand. Any kind of sci-fi with that Alien kind of feeling would be cool actually. I've asked this other places and had the Alastair Reynolds books recommended (though I think that was in context of sci fi with cosmic horror themes in general) but I'd like something a little more self-contained like Hull Zero Three. Blindsight?
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Jul 23, 2016 23:37
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Kesper North posted:Just read Reynolds. He does what Hull Zero Three tried to do, except better, and David Bowie does the soundtrack. So more 'the only remotely competent person in the Galaxy winning against idiots'?
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Jul 24, 2016 00:03
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MockingQuantum posted:I read Greg Bear's Hull Zero Three a while back, and I'm wondering if there's anything else out there that hits similar notes-- mystery, almost horror, sci-fi that kind of captures the paranoia of being on a ship or in a confined location with something you don't understand. Any kind of sci-fi with that Alien kind of feeling would be cool actually. I've asked this other places and had the Alastair Reynolds books recommended (though I think that was in context of sci fi with cosmic horror themes in general) but I'd like something a little more self-contained like Hull Zero Three.
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Jul 24, 2016 00:04
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ToxicFrog posted:I think I need to check these out. I googled those books because I'm with this guy, 'Harry Dresden but a woman' was enough to sell me. Someone please tell me all the stuff about her being mated to a beast god (presumably the lion on all the covers?) isn't as awful as it sounds?
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Jul 24, 2016 00:04
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mcustic posted:That would be Anvil of Stars, sequel to Bear's Forge of God (which is different in style and tone, but you don't really need to read it to enjoy Anvil). I don't understand the comparison. Anvil of Stars is much closer to Lord of the Flies or Ender's Game than what MockingQuantum is describing. If you're referring to the Brothers, all I would say is that while they are definitely alien, they are far from being treated as horrific, tonally.
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Jul 24, 2016 00:32
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Shab posted:I don't understand the comparison. Anvil of Stars is much closer to Lord of the Flies or Ender's Game than what MockingQuantum is describing. If you're referring to the Brothers, all I would say is that while they are definitely alien, they are far from being treated as horrific, tonally. Even if that's the case, I'm still interested. I'll add them to the list.
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Jul 24, 2016 00:36
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mcustic posted:That would be Anvil of Stars, sequel to Bear's Forge of God (which is different in style and tone, but you don't really need to read it to enjoy Anvil). But it'd be kind of stupid not to since it provides some pretty important context for you to hold in your mind while you're reading the sequel. MockingQuantum posted:I read Greg Bear's Hull Zero Three a while back, and I'm wondering if there's anything else out there that hits similar notes-- mystery, almost horror, sci-fi that kind of captures the paranoia of being on a ship or in a confined location with something you don't understand. Any kind of sci-fi with that Alien kind of feeling would be cool actually. I've asked this other places and had the Alastair Reynolds books recommended (though I think that was in context of sci fi with cosmic horror themes in general) but I'd like something a little more self-contained like Hull Zero Three. Ship of Fools/Unto Leviathan by Russo has a great sense of despair and fear of the unknown, though it's not necessarily limited to the ship. Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Jul 24, 2016 |
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Jul 24, 2016 01:12
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Kesper North posted:He has a ton of standalone stuff, and a lot of it is tightly focused. "House of Suns" is one self-contained book and is generally regarded as his best work, though I have a special affection for Revelation Space because it's so loving gothy. Am I missing something with House of Suns? It was decent enough, with some loving amazing ideas that I feel were never really developed and felt like set dressing for the less interesting story that we ended up getting.
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Jul 24, 2016 01:14
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Buca di Bepis posted:Ship of Fools/Unto Leviathan by Russo has a great sense of despair and fear of the unknown, though it's not necessarily limited to the ship. Heh, looking at my to-read list, I already had Ship of Fools on there from ages ago. That, plus two recommendations in here, is probably a sign I should read that one soon.
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Jul 24, 2016 01:44
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WarLocke posted:I googled those books because I'm with this guy, 'Harry Dresden but a woman' was enough to sell me. It's less the "but a woman" that caught my eye and more the "but not a tool". I stopped reading Dresden Files after book 3 or so because I wanted to strangle most of the alleged good guys, including Harry Dresden himself.
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Jul 24, 2016 02:21
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MockingQuantum, it's not sci fi but Dan Simmons' "The Terror" checks all of the other boxes.
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Jul 24, 2016 03:59
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The TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman's American Gods has a trailer if anyone was waiting for that.
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Jul 24, 2016 07:52
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not going to watch until i know if the djinni having crazy gay sex with the taxi driver makes it in.
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Jul 24, 2016 08:22
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But, what about the giant man eating vagina?
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Jul 24, 2016 08:35
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Neurosis posted:not going to watch until i know if the djinni having crazy gay sex with the taxi driver makes it in. Neil said if you can think of any bit you really liked in the books, it probably made it.
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Jul 24, 2016 09:08
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