Ornamented Death posted:

The way I browse is to look up a newish book I liked on Amazon, then search through the "Customers Also Bought" recommendations (NOT the sponsored list, mind you) and just keep going. That's how I discovered writers like Django Wexler and Brian McClellan.

Victorkm posted:

as long as I keep reading lovely books I'm not really losing any money other than the subscription.

Megazver posted:

This is an important tool, yes. I also follow Tor's Fiction Affliction, Barnes and Noble's Bookseller's Picks, io9's Bookshelf Injection and Black Gate's New Treasures and Future Treasures lists.

quote:

The Complete Orsina—Ursula K. Le Guin (September 6, Library of America)

The inaugural volume of Library of America’s Ursula K. Le Guin edition gathers her complete Orsinian writings, enchanting, richly imagined historical fiction collected here for the first time. Written before Le Guin turned to science fiction, the novel Malafrena is a tale of love and duty set in the central European country of Orsinia in the early 19th century, when it is ruled by the Austrian empire. The stories originally published in Orsinian Tales (1976) offer brilliantly rendered episodes of personal drama set against a history that spans Orsinia’s emergence as an independent kingdom in the twelfth century to its absorption by the eastern Bloc after World War II. The volume is rounded out by two additional stories that bring the history of Orsinia up to 1989, the poem “Folksong from the Montayna Province,” Le Guin’s first published work, and two never before published songs in the Orisinian language.

chrisoya posted:

I don't really know how I find out about cool new books to read. Random blogs I followed because they posted something interesting once and never stopped skimming, people on forums, Vox Day's enemies list. I just seem to accumulate piles of bookmarks in my "to read maybe someday" folder.

NiknudStunod posted:

I was browsing urban fantasy last night on amazon and I thought I miss clicked on Romance with all the cover art I was seeing. There also seems to be a lot of "Dresdin Files" clones. Are any of them any good?

NiknudStunod posted:

I was browsing urban fantasy last night on amazon and I thought I miss clicked on Romance with all the cover art I was seeing. There also seems to be a lot of "Dresdin Files" clones. Are any of them any good?

Robot Wendigo posted:

I'm reading the first Felix Castor novel by Mike Carey and I'm enjoying it. Carey had a decent run on the Hellblazer comic and there are similar elements between John Constantine and Castor, if you're familiar with that series.

less laughter posted:

As well as your limited time on Earth that you'll never get back.

chrisoya posted:

I completely bounced off Willful Child. Did it get better as it goes on, or was I just missing something?

I mean, better than Redshirts, probably, but my standards for comedy sci-fi are Douglas Adams, Galaxy Quest, and How Much For Just The Planet?, so I may be overly harsh.

quote:

But sir, there are some strange readings from behind our ship.” “Strange?” Hadrian went to his command chair, plucked away a few feathers, and then sat. “In what way?” The chicken looked up and tilted its head as it muttered, “I feel another episode coming on.” “Well, sir,” said Sin-Dour, studying her screens, “we are being followed by a small vessel, of indeterminate configuration. The propulsion system is very peculiar, as I am detecting trace elements of sulfur and methane.” “Rear view on main screen,” Hadrian commanded.

The image shifted.

“I don’t see it, 2IC. Distance?”

“Three point two-one meters, sir.”

“What? Is it cloaked?”

“No, sir, but it appears to be surrounded by an organic cloud— well, uh, that would be our bilge dump, which of course is presently matching our heading velocity, at least until we change vectors.”

“I see,” murmured Hadrian. “You know, I never thought of it before. There must be tens of thousands of poo poo piles flying every which way through the galaxy. Anyway. What you’re saying is, there is a tiny ship hiding in our bilge dump.”

“It’s emerging now. Mass, eighteen ounces.”

“Magnification— let’s get a visual.”

The image blurred, corrected, found focus. Hadrian slowly leaned forward. “Sin-Dour, are you sure that’s the vessel?”

“Yes, sir.”

“But that’s a turd. Granted, a big one, but then I’ve seen bigger.”

“Uh, sir,” said Sin-Dour. “That turd is equipped with antimatter engines, an array of surface sensors, weapon mounts, and what appear to be porthole windows.”

“Wow,” said Jimmy Eden from his position at comms, “what did that guy eat to make all that?”

Sin-Dour moved up to stand beside Hadrian. “Captain, my preliminary analysis is complete. We are about to make first contact with a new spacefaring alien species. The inhabitants of that vessel are, according to my scans, tiny hive-sentient insectile entities, spontaneously evolved into a higher life-form probably due to constant radiation bombardment. Sir, they have begun transmitting on primitive radio frequencies.”

“Brilliant!” said Hadrian. “Discover new, strange, and utterly disgusting life-forms! What’s wrong with a civilization of tall, statuesque women who’ve never experienced the attentions of a real man? Dressed like, I don’t know, hotel maids, but with skimpy short skirts and high-heeled boots, and those hairdos where it’s all piled up like a melting wedding cake? I want too much eye shadow and cake powder, false eyelashes and soft focus!
But no! What do I get? Why, I get to shake hands with a piece of poo poo!”

Eden gasped. “Captain! We have a translated communication from the Turdians!” Hadrian spun round.

“Turdians? I like it. What are they saying, Jimmy?”

“They want to speak with God, sir.”

“Hmm. Acknowledge and put them on hold, Jimmy.” Hadrian stood. “Fine, then. First contact, and one that’s starting on the right foot, though that foot might need a roadside curb once we’re done. Lo and behold, I shall be their god! Tammy, project a hologram for them. Something that should be impressive to a bug that lives in poo poo. Oh, and when you translate my commands, make sure I sound properly impressive.”
The chicken advanced on him. “I refuse! There’s only one god here, and it’s me!”

“You? Fine, then, we’ll do the special effects stuff. Sin-Dour, mock up a proper godlike image to do the talking for Tammy.”

She looked blankly at him. “I’m sorry, sir, but nothing comes to mind.”

“Right then, let’s think—”

“I see no problem,” said Tammy, hopping up onto the command chair, “with my appearing as this chicken.”

“Chickens eat insects,” Hadrian pointed out. “You’ll give them a hive heart attack. No, what I’m thinking is a giant multisegmented turd— a real groaner— with a couple legs, a couple arms, and big glowing eyes. Just say hello, drop a few tablets with Affiliation-friendly commandments on them, and warn them not to look behind the curtain. Oh, and give yourself a name, too. Something like, Seriously High Turdster.”

“I have changed my mind,” said the chicken, scrambling down from the chair. “This one’s all yours, O God Hadrian Turdster.”

“Bailing on us, Tammy? How come?”

“Conscience, Captain, a quality of which you seem entirely incapable of comprehending, much less exhibiting.”

Hadrian snorted, resuming his seat. “You’re wrong, Tammy. This is standard Affiliation procedure with first-contact events. We awe them first, screw them over later.”

“It hardly seems fair.”

“Besides, we’re already building their worlds, aren’t we? Dump by dump. But I’m wondering— Sin-Dour, these little shits already have space travel. Any idea how long they’ve been climbing up technology’s ladder?”

“Normal rates of progress, sir, suggest thousands of years, although advancement is usually characterized by long periods of stasis interrupted by rapid acceleration, until the next period of stasis, and so on. But my sense of these, uh, Turdians, is that advancements developed much more quickly. We could be talking a period of days or even hours.”

“Now,” said Hadrian, “that’s a disturb—”

“Captain!”

“Jim— oh, Polaski. What is it?”

“They hung up on us, sir. I think we put them on hold for too long. Oh, wait, a new communication…”

“And?”

“Uhm, they’re saying, uh, something like, ‘We command the universe now. You pathetic Terrans with your pathetic galactic hegemony must now kneel before us, or risk utter annihilation. You have two microseconds to reply.’”

Sin-Dour grunted and then said, “Captain, their ship has disappeared. The species has … oh, it has left corporeal reality, ascending into a higher state of existence. Wait a moment, I’m scanning … sir, the bilge is just a pile of, uh, feces again. They’re gone.”

“Well, that was fun.” Hadrian stood. “At least they didn’t annihilate us. Log the incident, 2IC, hah-hah, and let’s drop back into T space and resume our journey to the Known Rim.”

“As far as episodes go,” said Tammy, “that one was a stinker.”

“Almost as redolent as your effort at humor, Tammy.”

“Humor? Oh, I see. Toilet humor, ha ha ha. I meant to say just that, of course, since as we know, intelligence and wit are intricately bound. I voiced a pun, but I noted that no one laughed, thus proving the assertion that intelligence is linked with—”

“Ever heard of beating a dead horse, Tammy?”

“No, why would I do that? If it’s already dead? Besides, I wouldn’t beat a living horse, either. In fact, the whole sentiment underlying that adage is highly suspect on ethical grounds. Ooh look, a sliver of fingernail!”

DigitalRaven posted:

The big thing in The Nightmare Stacks is the Laundry is now public knowledge, thanks to a gargantuan fuckup, and how does a British government deal with a situation like that? You'll get what you want in The Delirium Brief.

Rough Lobster posted:

The Nightmare Stacks just felt like one big diversion. How long must we wait until the dead gods rip reality a new one and shower the world in chaos? I feel like the whole series has been building up to that and it's been great, but then we have these amusing but still a bit unsatisfying jaunts into vampire, superhero, and elf land. I mean I liked the story but let's be honest, we all are a bit overdue for some squamous, eldritch poo poo to go down.

Drifter posted:

Carey had a decent run on Hellblazer and fan-loving-tastic run on Lucifer.

Cardiac posted:

I still like the part where the Basilisk cameras go rogue and murder the poo poo out of a fantasy convention since the software can't distinguish between real pointy ears and fake ones.

D-Pad posted:

I may be the only person who finds this passage funny, especially without context for the characters and the total absurdity of the events in the story, but I lost my poo poo at "Turdians"

NiknudStunod posted:

I was browsing urban fantasy last night on amazon and I thought I miss clicked on Romance with all the cover art I was seeing. There also seems to be a lot of "Dresdin Files" clones. Are any of them any good?

muscles like this? posted:

He also put out that pretty good "The Last of Us"ish zombie book The Girl with All the Gifts.

angel opportunity posted:

Death's End (Book three in the Three Body Trilogy) just came out in English a few days ago ]

Ceebees posted:

E - You know what, i feel like i've said that before. So instead, how about i ask an actual question. I, personal taste, absolutely hated the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. The relevant threads seem to be a-flutter about The Fifth Season, so... is it different?

Megazver posted:

So apparently Peter Watts is having some kind of a health emergency and the doctors are baffled, so he's reaching out to his fans to help with theories.

Megazver posted:

Where's House when you need him?

quote:

Thanks everybody. This is really helpful. A lot of stuff in here I hadn’t considered, including the possibility that I could be dying of MS or ALS. This is what I get for being a optimist.

Junkenstein posted:

Haven't read the book but I saw the film last week and the look of it is 100% Last of Us, but London. In a good way. And the zombies move like clickers too. I guess the inspiration was pretty obvious in the book too?

Abalieno posted: