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Kestral posted:Someone spoil me - in a limited way - on Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora. I'm just over halfway through a book that was sold to me as a pessimistic take on extrasolar colonization, and it seems clear that isn't what the book is about at all. I found it to be an extremely optimistic take on extrasolar colonization.
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Jul 26, 2016 21:10
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Kestral posted:Someone spoil me - in a limited way - on Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora. I'm just over halfway through a book that was sold to me as a pessimistic take on extrasolar colonization, and it seems clear that isn't what the book is about at all. I've read more than enough about balancing the resources of the ship and its failing systems on the voyage to Tau Ceti, and the politics of a generation ship - I have no interest at all in spending the rest of the novel reading about those same things, but in reverse, especially when the characters are paper-thin and seen from such a remote vantage that I really couldn't care less about any of them except Ship. So, would someone mind telling me whether they actually end up turning the ship around and heading back to Earth? Because if that's the case I'll put it down here and look for something else. To elaborate a little on mcustic's reply, they turn the ship around and head back to Earth but it shakes out a little differently than the way in and has a couple of awesome sequences in the end, especially with Ship. Believe me, I was feeling pretty awful around that point too but sticking to it was worth it.
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Jul 26, 2016 21:13
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Ship is cool and good
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Jul 26, 2016 21:17
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I'm in a room with Max Gladstone at the Alpha young writer's workshop and he says 'buy my book goons" Four Roads Cross is out today!
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Jul 26, 2016 21:17
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I haven't even read Full Fathom Five or Last First Snow yet but fine By the way Guy Gavriel Kay somehow snuck up a book on me
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Jul 26, 2016 21:21
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pseudorandom name posted:I found it to be an extremely optimistic take on extrasolar colonization. 
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Jul 26, 2016 21:51
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Kestral posted:Someone spoil me - in a limited way - on Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora. I'm just over halfway through a book that was sold to me as a pessimistic take on extrasolar colonization, and it seems clear that isn't what the book is about at all. I've read more than enough about balancing the resources of the ship and its failing systems on the voyage to Tau Ceti, and the politics of a generation ship - I have no interest at all in spending the rest of the novel reading about those same things, but in reverse, especially when the characters are paper-thin and seen from such a remote vantage that I really couldn't care less about any of them except Ship. So, would someone mind telling me whether they actually end up turning the ship around and heading back to Earth? Because if that's the case I'll put it down here and look for something else. To further expand, they don't turn the ship around until after they have a botched shot at colonisation, so you do see that if that's what you're after..
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Jul 26, 2016 22:26
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Cardiac posted:The traitor in general felt like a book written by someone trying to be a little too clever. So in other words like a normal goon. I'd absolutely agree with that. General B has the tools, he just needs to choose better wood to carve.
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Jul 26, 2016 23:41
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dy. posted:Come on, it absolutely is obscure, and it's kind of hilarious that you're trying to do literary dick measuring here. I am a pretty voracious reader and I hadn't ever seen it before Baru Cormorant. I also think the book's use of it made sense, since the empire had a bit of a different lexicon for many of its concepts, like the way 'hygiene' was used in a more moral sense. It might come up in books a lot but it shows up occasionally in lesbian porno, which is how I know it. I UH MEAN
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Jul 27, 2016 01:44
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All right, Aurora readers, you've convinced me. I will soldier on, but if this book ends with them arriving in Sol to find Earth depopulated, so they colonize it instead, possibly after some clumsy callback to "tacking" the ship through the system to burn off speed like the boat from the first chapter,, I will be annoyed.
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Jul 27, 2016 01:55
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I've been meaning to read some Kim Stanley Robinson - is Aurora a good starting point? I was thinking either that, or the Mars Trilogy
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Jul 27, 2016 02:31
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Kestral posted:All right, Aurora readers, you've convinced me. I will soldier on, but if this book ends with them arriving in Sol to find Earth depopulated, so they colonize it instead, possibly after some clumsy callback to "tacking" the ship through the system to burn off speed like the boat from the first chapter,, I will be annoyed. You're good! Enjoy the rest of the book! Yes, Aurora is a good starting point.
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Jul 27, 2016 02:31
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Number Ten Cocks posted:I both understood it and was annoyed by it. Go full Gene Wolfe or don't do poo poo like that. It's not the only time the novel pulls this trick; remember the torpedoes and exocet? There might be others. General Battuta posted:I'm in a room with Max Gladstone at the Alpha young writer's workshop and he says 'buy my book goons" If you're going to buy that, you may as well but the new Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy when it comes out: http://www.johnjosephadams.com/best-american/2016-contents/
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Jul 27, 2016 02:47
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Kestral posted:All right, Aurora readers, you've convinced me. I will soldier on, but if this book ends with them arriving in Sol to find Earth depopulated, so they colonize it instead, possibly after some clumsy callback to "tacking" the ship through the system to burn off speed like the boat from the first chapter,, I will be annoyed. I guess half of that is what happens? Anyway it's a real good book and the characters are fine but Ship is super special. KSR tried something different and he mostly pulled it off. Second best generation ship story published last year. Red Mars is still the best entry point imo
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Jul 27, 2016 02:51
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General Battuta posted:I'm in a room with Max Gladstone at the Alpha young writer's workshop and he says 'buy my book goons" I came here to post the release announcement.  Magical Lawyers Holy poo poo
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Jul 27, 2016 02:51
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GreyjoyBastard posted:I came here to post the release announcement. This gives me an idea though.
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Jul 27, 2016 03:00
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cptn_dr posted:I've been meaning to read some Kim Stanley Robinson - is Aurora a good starting point? I was thinking either that, or the Mars Trilogy Rusty fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Jul 27, 2016 |
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Jul 27, 2016 03:35
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the_homemaster posted:I guess half of that is what happens? What's the first?
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Jul 27, 2016 03:41
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n/m
withak fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Jul 27, 2016 |
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Jul 27, 2016 04:31
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House Louse posted:It's not the only time the novel pulls this trick; remember the torpedoes and exocet? There might be others. But an exocet is just a flying fish and a torpedo is a torpedo! They're not exactly modern.
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Jul 27, 2016 04:53
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holocaust bloopers posted:What's the first? Children of time
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Jul 27, 2016 05:07
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coyo7e posted:They excel at pacts with demons. GreyjoyBastard posted:I came here to post the release announcement. Love this series!
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Jul 27, 2016 05:14
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the_homemaster posted:Children of time I'll second that. That book was just a random recommendation from goodreads and turned out to be one of the best books I've read in awhile.
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Jul 27, 2016 07:34
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the_homemaster posted:Children of time Ah yes, that was very fine.
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Jul 27, 2016 07:43
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Since I'm a Craig Schaefer fanboy I thought I'd mentioned THERE'S A NEW FAUST STORY OUT! However, that isn't the only cool part. It's part of an anthology called Urban Allies : https://www.amazon.com/Urban-Allies-Brand-New-Collaborative-Stories-ebook/dp/B017H7ACYM/ It's a big book of various urban fantasy authors mixing and matching characters into different universes. Stuff like Joe Ledger and Agent Franks (from the Monster Hunter series). Faust is in a story with someone from a series that's either not out yet or it's a character who's getting their own sub series, I'm not really sure. Either way, seems like a cool idea. Once the check clears I'm gonna be grabbing a copy of it. Thought some of you might wanna know about it.
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Jul 27, 2016 07:44
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General Battuta posted:But an exocet is just a flying fish and a torpedo is a torpedo! They're not exactly modern. Exactly. The novel uses several modern-sounding words to create its non-modern milieu. It was "going full Gene Wolfe".
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Jul 27, 2016 09:43
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If that's the kind of criticism we're throwing at it, instead of the massive structural failures I associate with some other books that got recommended here multiple times, then I really don't feel bad at all about defending my purchase. Also Children of Time is a treasure  Reading Pohl's Gateway right now. Jesus how did I miss out on this before.
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Jul 27, 2016 10:43
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Since I'm a Craig Schaefer fanboy I thought I'd mentioned THERE'S A NEW FAUST STORY OUT! I'm about three quarters through this, and it's pretty solid (though FFS, eleven bucks for an e-book?). I find I'm most enjoying the stories written by authors I'm not familiar with. The worst bits are the ones by writers I really like (like the Seanan McGuire one) teaming up with someone I've never read, because the "voice" gets really jarring. Not bad stories, necessarily, just not what I expect from those writers. (And unfortunately, the Schaefer story is in that category: it's painfully obvious that Steven Saville is a Brit, because Faust keeps saying poo poo that no American would say, and it kept knocking me out of the story. There's also a reference to Heaven, which doesn't exist in Schaefer's books. This happens a few times in the anthology, the problem of crossing different UF universes that don't operate by the same rules.) I'm also being harsh on the Schaefer one in particular, because Queen of the Night was so loving good and this was a major letdown in comparison.
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Jul 27, 2016 12:33
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A third of the way through Ninefox Gambit. Digging Cheris + Jedao so far, though I'm a tad concerned at the lack of anything resembling a supporting cast up to this point. I think I've acclimated to the setting, but thus far the unique world-building conceits don't seem to be contributing anything to the narrative besides atmosphere (I can see this story working in any setting that has the technological or magical mechanisms to produce a stored personality like Jedao). Not that the atmosphere in question isn't nice, but these arcane calendrical whatsits haven't intersected with the character arcs yet. Will see if this changes much as the plot thickens. I think my favorite part thus far is the use of AI. Jedit posted:Honest opinion: I thought it was an error on General Battuta's part to use it. It's a very obscure word, but the fault was that before using it he'd already established that Baru's people engage in three-way marriages and that the evil empire considers this perverse. So when they talk of Baru as a suspected tribadist, a lot of people who didn't know the word (I admit, me included) would assume they were referring to the customs of her people not being trained out of her rather than to her being a lesbian. While I figured it out eventually, I felt the good General had tried to be a bit too clever for his own good. I think various readers' confusion re: Baru's sexuality comes partly from the baroque nomenclature, but also partly from Battuta's attempts to avoid the male gaze and to limit physical descriptions generally. Kind of cut himself off from a lot of the stock imagery and tropes that might normally be used to depict a character who is sexually repressed but longing. PupsOfWar fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Jul 27, 2016 |
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Jul 27, 2016 12:52
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General Battuta posted:But an exocet is just a flying fish and a torpedo is a torpedo! They're not exactly modern. Agreed on torpedo, but your average reader does not know French well enough to know the word for flying fish, and your above average military enthusiast doesn't know where Exocet came from.
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Jul 27, 2016 13:21
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General Battuta posted:But an exocet is just a flying fish! Only if you're french. The word hasn't really migrated into english.
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Jul 27, 2016 13:27
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IIRC the main UK english meaning for exocet is, ironically, a make of missile. I think it's even a naval one? Oppressive naval (ex) empire high five!
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Jul 27, 2016 13:57
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Oh yea I've got Children Of Time. That'll be started here in the next month or so.
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Jul 27, 2016 13:59
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PupsOfWar posted:A third of the way through Ninefox Gambit. I'm almost finished with the book and there's a big Jedao infodump near the end that kind of ties a lot of stuff together. As for the supporting cast, it never really happens but that's kind of a deliberate thing with the setting because Cheris is so fixated on the fortress and also knows that as soon as they're done Kel command will erase everyone's memories since they don't like people knowing what exactly is going on with Jedao.
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Jul 27, 2016 15:05
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Koesj posted:If that's the kind of criticism we're throwing at it Gene Wolfe is a pretty good writer, you know.* These posts where I'm saying yes, the novel does do this stuff you're saying it should do, are in fact praising it. *Note to self: post with sig.
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Jul 27, 2016 15:37
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Fart of Presto posted:The Moreau series is available on Kindle in two volumes and all the Apotheosis books are available too, but I can't find any electronic versions of the Hostile Takeover series. Following up on this because Swann finally responded (email went into spam filter). Hostile Takeover is unlikely to get an ebook omnibus until (and if) DAW decides to do a new edition of Hostile Takeover; it basically fell in between the cracks of when DAW started releasing ebooks as a matter of course.
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Jul 27, 2016 15:46
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Koesj posted:Reading Pohl's Gateway right now. Jesus how did I miss out on this before. Read this last year and loved it. Is the rest of the Heechee series any good?
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Jul 27, 2016 15:52
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the_homemaster posted:Red Mars is still the best entry point imo Thanks for the recommendation. Speaking of which, Red Mars is only $4.99 on Amazon Kindle right now.
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Jul 27, 2016 16:31
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Ben Nevis posted:Read this last year and loved it. Is the rest of the Heechee series any good? Ehhh, they're kind of middling. Nothing as good as Gateway at least.
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Jul 27, 2016 16:32
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Ben Nevis posted:Read this last year and loved it. Is the rest of the Heechee series any good?
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Jul 27, 2016 17:03
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