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Robot Danger posted:I know there is an Abercombie thread, but this question kind of fits into the last few posts. I've read the first two stand-alone First Law books, and I'm about to start Red Country. It's not all Steampunky is it? Nah, no steampunk in that one. It's just a western told in the First Law setting. For some fun watching/reading, find an interview with Cherie Priest where she talks about steampunk. She's hilariously honest about how badly publishers hosed that subgenre up.
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Sep 28, 2016 19:31
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Punkpunk - taking the aesthetics of the early 80s punk scene but with a thin veneer of pseudo-historical bullshit on top.
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Sep 28, 2016 19:37
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I have never read a Steampunk book, but it strikes me as a primarily visual aesthetic that wouldn't really translate that well into written word beyond just sci-fi Victoriana. You could just read 19th century sci-fi to get the same thing.
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Sep 28, 2016 20:11
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:I have never read a Steampunk book, but it strikes me as a primarily visual aesthetic that wouldn't really translate that well into written word beyond just sci-fi Victoriana. That's pretty much exactly what it is. Victoriana + googles + airships = steampunk.
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Sep 28, 2016 20:12
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Ornamented Death posted:That's pretty much exactly what it is. Victoriana + googles + airships = steampunk. You forgot gears.
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Sep 28, 2016 20:13
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:You forgot gears. And goofy hats, but that might fall under "Victoriana."
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Sep 28, 2016 20:14
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The Victorian period is so historically interesting that it's a shame its reduced to the skin deep aspects in re steampunk
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Sep 28, 2016 20:40
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:I have never read a Steampunk book, but it strikes me as a primarily visual aesthetic that wouldn't really translate that well into written word beyond just sci-fi Victoriana. You could just read 19th century sci-fi to get the same thing. I dunno, I think there's a distinct technology necessary. Whether it's steam powered war machines or airships or a mercury pipe organ computer, it has to have some sort of the age technology ramped up to crazy levels by a madman or guy from the future or whatever. I mean, that's not how it's used, but the way it's used is currently the objection.
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Sep 28, 2016 21:42
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And twee english affections by people whose only experience of the country is doctor who. Say hello to sir timmington cogglesworth, gentleman of fortune 
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Sep 28, 2016 23:15
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FastestGunAlive posted:The Victorian period is so historically interesting that it's a shame its reduced to the skin deep aspects in re steampunk I would love to find a fantastic-elements story set in India, dealing with both the viciousness of Colonial forces and the corruption of local regimes. I've found a few historical novels and they were good stuff!
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Sep 28, 2016 23:16
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occamsnailfile posted:I would love to find a fantastic-elements story set in India, dealing with both the viciousness of Colonial forces and the corruption of local regimes. I've found a few historical novels and they were good stuff! Didn't Nisi Shawl just release a book like this only about the Belgian Congo? Like, within the past month?
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Sep 29, 2016 00:35
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neongrey posted:Didn't Nisi Shawl just release a book like this only about the Belgian Congo? Like, within the past month? Apparently yes! So that's added to my TBR pile.
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Sep 29, 2016 00:52
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neongrey posted:Didn't Nisi Shawl just release a book like this only about the Belgian Congo? Like, within the past month?
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Sep 29, 2016 00:53
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Reminds me of a story-concept I've been idly throwing around for a while. Victorian Britain discovers how to make 'golems', essentially phenomenally powerful engines fuelled by a properly-sacrificed human soul (or multiple, for the big ones). The project was initially developed in the years of the Bloody Code, when enterprising sorts who were appalled by the waste created by the UK's 220 capital offences started looking for a way to make lemonade out of lemons. It was a tremendous success, essentially giving early nineteenth-century Britain (somewhat) miniaturisable cold fusion, and all it took was the deaths of a few undesirables. Well, actually, a lot of undesirables, plus mass unemployment, because piling even more automation on top of the Industrial Revolution is going to disrupt your societal structure like whoa. Caught between the threat of impending revolution and the promise of a utopia unrivalled in history, Parliament comes up with an idea - let the Empire pay its share. So yeah, you've got reformist politicians trying to dial back golem manufacture in a world where everyone (who matters) has their own car, and where the prison-industrial complex has taken a horrifying new meaning. You've got African tribes facing off against golem-tanks sent to drag them off to a fate far worse than that offered by the slavecatchers of yesteryear. You've got a new brand of revolutionary Luddite trapped in a world with no use for them except, perhaps, as fuel, backed by foreign agents who would quite like a bit of what Britain's got. Victorian capitalism was parasitic on a grand scale, so why not try making that literal and see how things go?
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Sep 29, 2016 01:39
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It's a way different take to your idea, but you should read Ted Chiang's "72 Letters" for a short(ish) story about golems in alternative Victorian Britain and the consequences they have for their economy.
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Sep 29, 2016 01:47
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I was going to mention that story exactly. It was one of my favorites in the collection, which was a really really good collection. As far as the story idea goes, it has potential. One of the major elements in a lot of golem myths is that they turn on their creators after a period of time--how would industrial British authorities deal with that? Have professionally 'scrub teams' on duty to remove the sign for life from their heads? There was also a Bester story, "Fondly Fahrenheit" about a guy whose only source of income is an android that becomes erratic at high temperatures and he has to keep skipping town with it every time it kills because he certainly isn't going to sully his own hands with work. occamsnailfile fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Sep 29, 2016 |
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Sep 29, 2016 02:18
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occamsnailfile posted:I was going to mention that story exactly. It was one of my favorites in the collection, which was a really really good collection. I actually thought it would be more interesting if the technology was reliable, give or take the odd weird, creepy quirk. The downsides to it are obvious and horrifying enough already, but if it works, and works well, that gives people more reason to want it despite how massively destabilising, blasphemous, and just plain evil it is. The Tragedy of the Commons wouldn't work if the land wasn't good for farming, after all.
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Sep 29, 2016 02:44
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I can easily see a fantasy series rolling it off that involving demons and angels being pissed off that souls aren't getting to their final reward because they are being burnt up for fuel. It's a pretty great starting point for all kinds of branching off.
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Sep 29, 2016 02:50
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Can we actually pitch ideas for stories here? I thought this was the wrong subforum for that.
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Sep 29, 2016 05:27
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Solitair posted:Can we actually pitch ideas for stories here? I thought this was the wrong subforum for that. It's not really, but as long as it's a cool and fun idea you won't get grief for it.
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Sep 29, 2016 07:40
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Finished James Cambias's A Darkling Sea today. Honestly the reason I really got it from the library was that the book takes place on the moon Ilmatar in the Ukko system - those are Finnish pagan deities, or as one character says, "named after a human culture that has been long wiped out."  The book starts off well but the pacing crawls into a geothermal vent and dies mid-way. The Ilmataran aliens' underwater civilization is well thought up and engaging (it does the Vinge thing where their POV is told rather anthropocentrically, but when they are viewed externally through the human characters' eyes they become properly alien), and the best parts are when humans finally start communicating with them, but the author decided to throw in external conflict in the form of a third species, another interstellar race competing with mankind and having a Prime Directive built into their collective psyche, and it's too much and drags the narrative down. The human characters are dire. Some of them act completely idiotically, the protagonist is too smarmy and not terribly sympathetic, just a dialogue vehicle. He falls in love with another human crewmember and the romance is utterly perfunctory, perhaps for the best. The ending falls completely flat. Everything takes place dozens of kilometers under the sea where humans can only survive thanks to advanced technology, like magical medication that allows them to live in very high pressure, but I felt no sense of danger or menace from the environment. The book wasn't too long, at least - 350 shorter than average pages, but could've probably lost 50 and been better off. Sulphagnist fucked around with this message at 09:04 on Sep 29, 2016 |
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Sep 29, 2016 08:59
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I can easily see a fantasy series rolling it off that involving demons and angels being pissed off that souls aren't getting to their final reward because they are being burnt up for fuel. Wasn't that in one of the Sandman Slim books? Tartarus was the final destination for demons and angels whose essence was used to fuel the universe or something?
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Sep 29, 2016 13:39
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Nah, Tartarus is sort of like hell's hell, where the REALLY bad people get locked away. Demons, angels, etc all end up there if they gently caress up horribly enough and don't really have a body anymore. If hell is basically a prison for souls or cosmic beings, Tartarus is more like a solitary wing in a superman prison. It's where the devil sends people who need more punishment than the normal hell, so it's a pretty bad place overall.
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Sep 29, 2016 16:10
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Nah, Tartarus is sort of like hell's hell, where the REALLY bad people get locked away. Demons, angels, etc all end up there if they gently caress up horribly enough and don't really have a body anymore. If hell is basically a prison for souls or cosmic beings, Tartarus is more like a solitary wing in a superman prison. It's where the devil sends people who need more punishment than the normal hell, so it's a pretty bad place overall. I seem to remember that there was no getting out ever, and if you were in your eventual fate was fuel for the furnace (it completely consumed your soul or something). Obviously, anti-hero Gary-Stu managed to break Tartarus and got out. I guess I can go back and look it up, but that would mean re-reading it.
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Sep 29, 2016 16:21
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Sandman Slim is best read as a page or two of short summaries of each book because what an ultimately bland series with a couple cool ideas. Imagine if Harry Dresden was even Harry Dresdener. 
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Sep 29, 2016 17:07
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Antti posted:Finished James Cambias's A Darkling Sea today. Yeah, my feelings weren't far off this. It was a breezy read that was more enjoyable than not in the moment, like a lesser David Brin novel from the 90s. Not a bad book if you want something for a beach holiday but not something that will linger in your mind.
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Sep 29, 2016 17:23
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Man I'm loving Cixin Liu's Death's End
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Sep 29, 2016 18:50
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I'm like 85-90% of the way through The Big Book of Science Fiction and while I've enjoyed it I've come to the conclusion that Jeff VanderMeer's personal bent towards "weird" sci fi and horror has caused the collection to have a definite bent towards the spooky, horrifying, and apocalyptic.
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Sep 29, 2016 19:45
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anilEhilated posted:Yeah, but "punk" usually implies a social anti-authoritarian aspect. That's pretty much only found in the original steampunk book: The Difference Engine. It's also basically completely different than what is called steampunk now. gohmak posted:Man I'm loving Cixin Liu's Death's End I'm not all that far in still, but so am I. a kitten fucked around with this message at 22:59 on Sep 29, 2016 |
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Sep 29, 2016 20:56
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a kitten posted:That's pretty much only found in the original steampunk book: The Difference Engine. Which is in my opinion the reason that steampunk is stupid as gently caress in general. Bas-lag, if you consider it steampunk, does have that aspect though.
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Sep 29, 2016 21:28
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I've got no desire to defend steampunk, but even punk music left an over-arching focus on anti-authoritarianism behind once it was realized there was money in it.
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Sep 30, 2016 00:31
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andrew smash posted:Which is in my opinion the reason that steampunk is stupid as gently caress in general. Bas-lag, if you consider it steampunk, does have that aspect though. Bas-Lag is nootttttttt steampunk. There's steam technology but there's also coal powered electricity, diesel powered vehicles, tons of magic, golems, computers, high energy physics, and more.
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Sep 30, 2016 00:46
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Hedrigall posted:Bas-Lag is nootttttttt steampunk. There's steam technology but there's also coal powered electricity, diesel powered vehicles, tons of magic, golems, computers, high energy physics, and more. i agree with this but it gets lumped in with steampunk a lot, or at least it used to. neongrey posted:I've got no desire to defend steampunk, but even punk music left an over-arching focus on anti-authoritarianism behind once it was realized there was money in it. yeah, punk is dead
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Sep 30, 2016 01:10
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Nothing is steampunk.
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Sep 30, 2016 01:23
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There's a lesbian steampunk anthology that actually has some quality authors in it, and a lot of the anti-authoritarian, or at least anti-colonial bent to its stories. I don't really care for most fiction that aims for that label, nor for the dress-up scene, but I liked that collection.
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Sep 30, 2016 01:39
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I think the steampunk thing I've most enjoyed is 80 Days. Yes, the game.
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Sep 30, 2016 01:52
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Finished The Castle Doctrine, the new Daniel Faust book. drat. Somehow this manages to be both the darkest and the funniest book in the series to date. I'm gonna go all out and call it the best, too, since beyond the mob-war plot it's really about character development and Faust growing the gently caress up and realizing what a reckless rear end in a top hat he's been, and making a conscious choice to change his course. (And that newfound self-awareness makes it both more acceptable and more awful when he goes full-villain mode. Like when it's heavily implied that he (spoilers for 75% in) tortures a dude to death with a power drill. I mean, the guy had it coming, but poo poo.) Highlights: Any scene Freddie is in; Herbert West, Racist Reanimator; the Twins (yes, the Twins); the Melanie bits (wherein Schaefer demonstrates how to write a friendship between an older man and a teenager without it being sexual and creepy); and the moment when Schaefer does his take on a device Stephen King used in the Dark Tower and somehow makes it work (writing himself into the novel. Well, sort of. Kind of. Now I want to know if the dude has a secret alcove in his office.) And as always, king of the long-term callbacks. I wouldn't have caught this if I hadn't recently started rereading the series, but there's a throwaway line in book one where Faust bitches about a magician named David and says "he knows what he did." Now, six books later, we find out who David is and what he did.
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Sep 30, 2016 02:02
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StonecutterJoe posted:Finished The Castle Doctrine, the new Daniel Faust book. drat. Somehow this manages to be both the darkest and the funniest book in the series to date. I'm gonna go all out and call it the best, too, since beyond the mob-war plot it's really about character development and Faust growing the gently caress up and realizing what a reckless rear end in a top hat he's been, and making a conscious choice to change his course. Yeah, I liked it for the dark turn Faust took. You could say he's... the guy.
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Sep 30, 2016 02:05
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I've only really decided to dig into SF in the past couple of years, after bouncing hard off of whatever our library had when I was a kid (Asimov and Clarke, I think). I wouldn't have been able to put it into words then, and it's been two or three decades, but I seem to recall finding the characters boring and the prose flat. At the same time, I'm interested in exploring some of the earlier stuff in the genre, which doesn't seem to come up here much. I just picked up The Stars My Destination and Bradbury's short story collection Golden Apples of the Sun; the Bester is fun so far but no great shake in the prose department (fabulous opening line aside), whereas Bradbury is very lyrical but to the point of sometimes overwhelming the story, and he seems a bit thin in terms of plot. Can anyone recommend some fun stuff from the 50s through to the 70s that you feel still holds up today (i.e. not just a classic everyone knows, but something you've read and find still interesting from a style and plot perspective)?
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Sep 30, 2016 03:19
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I really like Stanislaw Lem stuff. I don't read a lot of sci-fi, especially older novels, but Solaris is my favorite and Lem is my favorite sci-fi author.
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Sep 30, 2016 03:30
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