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I admit this bit from the Loki's Child site is kind of clever: "a virtuoso metal band posing as a talentless pop band." It does sound like a major spoiler, though.
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Aug 29, 2016 22:59
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Name of the Wind, holy poo poo what a slog. My name is Kvothe. For too long I have suffered from how hot and rad and powerful I am. It is a blessing and a curse. M'ladies all love my ginger dick but I've got no time for them what with my busy schedule of being the best at literally all activities.
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Aug 29, 2016 23:00
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I also respect my lady love too much to approach her with my feelings. She should be free like a butterfly.
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Aug 29, 2016 23:48
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Name of the Wind, holy poo poo what a slog. I've had lots of people whose taste I otherwise respect recommend that. I was even given a signed copy for christmas one year that I still haven't read
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Aug 30, 2016 00:32
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Wheat Loaf posted:Inspired by reading through this thread, I thought I'd look up the old "terrible fantasy book covers" thread - the one that introduced the world to the legend of Cod Piecington - which was goldmined about 10 years ago, and was disappointed to see that most of the images are longer available because the hosting sites went down in the interim. Have there been any other threads for terrible fantasy book covers since? 
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Aug 30, 2016 00:40
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pookel posted:Well, this is interesting. Since I have the attention span of a squirrel, I saw "Gillian Hitler" mentioned in the above passage and popped off to google it in case it was a real reference to something, before I got to this bit. In the search results was this post in an audio engineering forum thread about most offensive band names: This is mildly interesting in that Electrical Audio is the studio run by Steve Albini, AKA Steve d'Aubigny as he appears in the book. Like divabot pointed out, he would quite happily rip the guys head off and poo poo down the hole, or at least make a cutting remark for the benefit of the many fanboys who clutter the forums begging for senpai's attention.
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Aug 30, 2016 00:43
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Stuporstar posted:A couple cyberpunk-era authors have attempted pop music centered novels that I know of, but whether or not they're complete pieces of poo poo is up for debate. I read Norman Spinrad's Little Heroes over a decade ago, and the only thing I remember apart from him predicting computer-generated pop stars was that it was mostly a vehicle for Boomer nostalgia about the good old days of rock and roll vs. them damned kids and their MTVees. There was just enough self-aware comedy in it that I'd have to reread it to determine how bad it really is. My girlfriend at the time sold me on the premise of Radio Freefall by Matthew Jarpe. I'll quote the summary: quote:In the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress but with a healthy dose of cyberpunk: Radio Freefall is about a plot to take over the Earth by power-mad, sociopathic computer-geek billionaire, Walter Cheeseman. It’s up to a strange cast of rock stars and oddballs to stop him. Basically, there's a super AI hiding inside the internet, and the guitarist known as Aqualung stops the villain by telling him the password that he says will allow him to control the AI and thereby take over the world, except that the password *actually* takes the limiters off the AI and lets it roam free. A little bit like a Rock & Roll Neuromancer, except very stupid.
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Aug 30, 2016 01:05
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divabot posted:Terry Pratchett’s Soul Music is the only example I can think of of a pop music novel that works, and that’s primarily as a Discworld novel where the pop music is that volume’s decoration, if a clearly fact-checked one. Gossamer Axe  An interesting author, too.Gabriel Pope posted:S.M. Stirling uses this defense a lot but he writes an awful lot of books where everything happens to work out wonderfully for racists and eugenicists, without anything much to suggest that this isn't super peachy. I actually believe him, the last (I think) book in the Dominion series makes it pretty clear that you're not supposed to like or identify with them. But their alt history background is a magic combination of evil-badass-redneck-super-boer-facist-slavelord that's particularly attractive to the usual suspects.
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Aug 30, 2016 01:08
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Syd Midnight posted:I actually believe him, the last (I think) book in the Dominion series makes it pretty clear that you're not supposed to like or identify with them. But their alt history background is a magic combination of evil-badass-redneck-super-boer-facist-slavelord that's particularly attractive to the usual suspects. I don't trust a single thing alt history authors say. After all, they are already experienced in creating fictional versions of real events. 
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Aug 30, 2016 01:14
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Wheat Loaf, I managed to track down Cod Pieceington himself, if you missed him. 
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Aug 30, 2016 02:00
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spite house posted:This could describe all of Bruce Sterling's novels really. Bruce Sterling is a ridiculously turgid bastard. When he said that The Hacker Crackdown (a nonfiction work that I really liked and which is historically important) cost him a novel, I said "GOOD." TheKennedys posted:I think I just had an aneurysm looking at these; some of them are obviously either heavily photoshopped or done solely in Poser/[insert 3d rendering app of choice] but there's a bunch that look like he shopped a DAZ3D head onto a real pornstar's body and it's incredibly uncanny valley and disturbing. Someone please help me understand what's going on here There's  one which is a naked I realise my review of the cover will come across as very mean and he will be upset, but I do hope he hits a life drawing class, like, ever. At least to understand the possibility of Poser-modeling a real naturally-saggy non-porn boob. pookel posted:I admit this bit from the Loki's Child site is kind of clever: "a virtuoso metal band posing as a talentless pop band." It does sound like a major spoiler, though. It's pretty clear by the recording chapters in the preview that they've got something going on, when Jasmine lays down a perfect solo. pookel posted:Well, this is interesting. Since I have the attention span of a squirrel, I saw "Gillian Hitler" mentioned in the above passage and popped off to google it in case it was a real reference to something, before I got to this bit. In the search results was this post in an audio engineering forum thread about most offensive band names: He's a regular on the electricalaudio forums. Knows his stuff with recording, though keeps posting politics that people have to tell him to gently caress off for. Including this amazing rant: quote:What about the REAL Nazis and racist murderers -- radicalized Muslim immigrants who are overrunning every country in Western Europe and believe that infidels are fair game to be robbed, raped, and murdered? yes thanks Fenris that's great yes thank you Fenris divabot has a new favorite as of 09:18 on Aug 30, 2016 |
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Aug 30, 2016 02:03
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Sham bam bamina! posted:Wheat Loaf, I managed to track down Cod Pieceington himself, if you missed him. Haha, that always cracks me up. I am so easily amused. 
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Aug 30, 2016 09:46
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divabot posted:There's
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Aug 30, 2016 10:05
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Name of the Wind, holy poo poo what a slog. I liked Name off the Wind. I guess a teenage boy's first person narrative excuses a lot of self-involvement and the people around Kovothe were contemptuous enough to establish a pretty unreliable narrator. And then came book two and the sex fairy...
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Aug 30, 2016 12:45
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there wolf posted:I liked Name off the Wind. I guess a teenage boy's first person narrative excuses a lot of self-involvement and the people around Kovothe were contemptuous enough to establish a pretty unreliable narrator. And then trains with ninjas.
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Aug 30, 2016 12:56
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Megabound posted:And then trains with polyamorous sex ninjas.
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Aug 30, 2016 13:11
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Jesus Christ that's not a codpiece, it's the whole cod
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Aug 30, 2016 13:22
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there wolf posted:I liked Name off the Wind. I guess a teenage boy's first person narrative excuses a lot of self-involvement and the people around Kovothe were contemptuous enough to establish a pretty unreliable narrator. The Farseer Trilogy does a much better job of "precocious talented teenager" especially as he gets routinely chewed out for cocking stuff up. He also gets poisoned on a near weekly basis.
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Aug 30, 2016 16:22
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Name of the Wind, holy poo poo what a slog. Ambitious Spider posted:I've had lots of people whose taste I otherwise respect recommend that. I was even given a signed copy for christmas one year that I still haven't read I'm actually reading this right now. It's weird because it's pretty generic and the main character is a massive wish-fulfillment self-insert Batman type, but it's still really fun and not too offensive (yet?) I have no idea how it got this weird cult popularity, though, I mean it's really pulpy fantasy stuff.
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Aug 30, 2016 17:09
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Ryoshi posted:I'm actually reading this right now. It's weird because it's pretty generic and the main character is a massive wish-fulfillment self-insert Batman type, but it's still really fun and not too offensive (yet?) Rothfuss is a huge goony goon neckbeard and has massive appeal as "a really smart nerdy modern guy that writes fantasy" as opposed to like...old out-of-touch dudes I guess. Clearly these people have forgotten Brandon Sanderson exists though. e: also most people don't pay quite as much attention to tropes/mary sues/general failures of genre writing as goons do, and often don't realize, notice or care that Kvothe is basically King of the Gary Stus and just see it as a big epic fantasy romp with sex and AWESOME EPIC FIGHTS or whatever TheKennedys has a new favorite as of 18:10 on Aug 30, 2016 |
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Aug 30, 2016 18:01
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A lot of Rothfuss' hype came from before the first book actually came out. He got a lot of press about how he had a complete trilogy that was already all done and it was going to be awesome. Now almost 10 years later he's released a whole two of them and a novella. Good job. Also there's no way that he's actually going to finish up the story with a third book considering how slow the progress was in the second.
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Aug 30, 2016 19:09
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muscles like this? posted:A lot of Rothfuss' hype came from before the first book actually came out. He got a lot of press about how he had a complete trilogy that was already all done and it was going to be awesome. Now almost 10 years later he's released a whole two of them and a novella. Good job. Also there's no way that he's actually going to finish up the story with a third book considering how slow the progress was in the second. Just head over to the Rothfuss thread in TBB. Someone is doing a "Let's Read" and despite being a stuffy English major is pretty spot on in nailing all the flaws in Rothfuss' writing and prose. Just as an example of how up his own rear end Rothfuss is, during a workshop during a Con where he had samples of his write for comment/review he explictly said his prose was perfect and every word had been worked over and refined to perfection.
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Aug 30, 2016 19:56
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I actually like a lot of his prose so far. It's obvious that it's been edited to hell and back and has this weird air of pretension about it like he's super-sure that he's writing the next LotR but it seems to flow a ton better and be all-around more fun to read than what little I got through of A Song of Ice and Fire, which is pretty much my only other modern-written traditional fantasy book. I think I realized why Kvothe's Gary-Stu-ness doesn't grate on me as badly as it normally probably would - it's the framing device of Kvothe detailing his exploits as he sits around his lovely tavern. It's all presented as gospel truth, not something that he's making up as he goes, but just the fact that it's a guy reflecting on adventures that have already occurred rather than new challenges as the book progresses changes the scope from "wait, do they seriously expect me to believe he can pull this off?" to "wow, that's insane that he managed to pull this off!" It's just a little bit of mental rewiring, and it's pretty cheap on the author's part, but it seems to make things a bit more palatable.
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Aug 30, 2016 20:10
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Ryoshi posted:I actually like a lot of his prose so far. It's obvious that it's been edited to hell and back and has this weird air of pretension about it like he's super-sure that he's writing the next LotR but it seems to flow a ton better and be all-around more fun to read than what little I got through of A Song of Ice and Fire, which is pretty much my only other modern-written traditional fantasy book. Oh it's got a nice poetic flow to it, it's just utter loving nonsense. "silence of three parts" my arse.
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Aug 30, 2016 20:39
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My ex and all his fantasy-nerd friends raved about Name of the Wind. I read a couple chapters and was bored and irritated. I see I'm not alone in finding it off-putting. Maybe it helps to be a guy to appreciate it? Note that I loved Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and didn't find it boring at all, for comparison. The first 150 pages are slow-moving, but still interesting. I also loved Ready Player One, which I see is an unpopular opinion in this thread. But then, I'd heard no hype when I read it, and didn't know anything about it in advance, and was delighted to discover that it was set in my childhood.
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Aug 30, 2016 20:54
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Honestly, Rothfus is okay to good by the standards of the genre (A genre incidently I loving love, but I'm fairly honest with myself about how most of it is complete trash) but I'm always suprised at the hype/recognition he gets. The two novels hes released so far are enjoyable (I never read the novella because gently caress you finish the series before trying to sell me a spin off) but pretty much all my friends who have even a passing interest in the genre have read them, which isnt the case for a whole bunch of other, more interesting authors.
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Aug 30, 2016 22:34
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pookel posted:My ex and all his fantasy-nerd friends raved about Name of the Wind. I read a couple chapters and was bored and irritated. I see I'm not alone in finding it off-putting. Maybe it helps to be a guy to appreciate it?
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Aug 30, 2016 22:44
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Yikes, yeah. I didn't even know it was a widely known book. Someone loaned it to me and I thought it was pretty cool. I like it for all the reasons I like Stranger Things, basically. Content: one of the worst books I've ever read is called Don't Hurt Laurie. This was a book club choice at my school when I was in about 3rd grade, and I was captivated by its premise of a shocking tale of child abuse, but didn't want to actually spend money on it. So when I ran across it at a thrift store as an adult, I bought it out of curiosity.   Judging from the acclaim this got, I expected, at least, a competently written after-school special. Nope. After Laurie gets the courage to tell someone about the abuse, this happens:  In summary: the psychiatrist explains that her mom isn't evil, just "sick," she gets sent to live with the mean, "crabby" grandma she doesn't like, with the promise that once her mom "gets better," she can come back home to live with her (and the stepdad who also doesn't like her). This is presented as a happy ending. Note that her mother has previously thrown boiling water on her, broken her bones, attacked her with a knife, and emotionally abused her all her life. Note that there's no question of a criminal trial for her and we are told that she isn't really a bad person. I really hate '70s literature for kids sometimes.
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Aug 30, 2016 23:14
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pookel posted:Yikes, yeah. I didn't even know it was a widely known book. Someone loaned it to me and I thought it was pretty cool. I like it for all the reasons I like Stranger Things, basically.
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Aug 31, 2016 00:42
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pookel posted:Judging from the acclaim this got, I expected, at least, a competently written after-school special. Nope. After Laurie gets the courage to tell someone about the abuse, this happens:
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Aug 31, 2016 01:07
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TheKennedys posted:Rothfuss is a huge goony goon neckbeard and has massive appeal as "a really smart nerdy modern guy that writes fantasy" as opposed to like...old out-of-touch dudes I guess. Clearly these people have forgotten Brandon Sanderson exists though. I don't get the love for Sanderson, at all. Is Stormlight a million times better than Mistborn or something, because that series went to poo poo fast.
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Aug 31, 2016 05:58
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People say it better than mistborn but I really liked mistborn so meh. His love of overly explained magic systems never died tho.
CharlestheHammer has a new favorite as of 06:22 on Aug 31, 2016 |
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Aug 31, 2016 06:20
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Aug 31, 2016 07:16
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Is penny arcade still a thing.
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Aug 31, 2016 07:23
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Weirdly, yes. They manage to be funny a couple times a year.
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Aug 31, 2016 07:37
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Fashionable Jorts posted:Weirdly, yes. They manage to be funny a couple times a year. how can you manage to read the words when your eyes are rolling back into your skull trying to not look at the art
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Aug 31, 2016 08:43
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there wolf posted:I don't get the love for Sanderson, at all. Is Stormlight a million times better than Mistborn or something, because that series went to poo poo fast. I liked Warbreaker, which was probably mostly because it's just one single fairly short book. He's better when he's just constrained to a single straightforward plot, which is probably also why Mistborn 1 was so much better than the sequels. SiKboy posted:Honestly, Rothfus is okay to good by the standards of the genre (A genre incidently I loving love, but I'm fairly honest with myself about how most of it is complete trash) but I'm always suprised at the hype/recognition he gets. The two novels hes released so far are enjoyable (I never read the novella because gently caress you finish the series before trying to sell me a spin off) but pretty much all my friends who have even a passing interest in the genre have read them, which isnt the case for a whole bunch of other, more interesting authors. The protagonist is a dude who is always the smartest person in the room, always ready with a scathing  , super competent at everything he deems important, and who is only ever disliked by certified assholes because of prejudices. It's essentially pure, distilled nerd wish-fulfillment. Case in point, the literal (literally literal) sex goddess complimenting him on his loving talents right after taking his virginity.
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Aug 31, 2016 09:11
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rothfuss is trash
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Aug 31, 2016 10:05
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complete and utter trash
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Aug 31, 2016 10:05
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throw him in the garbage bin and piss from on high upon his smouldering remains
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Aug 31, 2016 10:06
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