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Keith Laumer is rolling in his grave right now.
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Dec 19, 2016 05:25
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Holy god it's real
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Dec 19, 2016 05:28
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lol
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Dec 19, 2016 05:29
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Wait what that's really in a book? I thought that was a joke.  Conditioning AI to get incredible pleasure from killing people in huge numbers also sounds like an extremely smart & safe idea that will totally never backfire. Wolpertinger fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Dec 19, 2016 |
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Dec 19, 2016 05:31
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fritz posted:The guns forum is doing a John Ringo read-along: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3751991 So I read a Tom Kratman book once. It was insane: openly fascist, racist and sexist to an almost unbelievable degree. I'm on page 6 of this thread and it is sooooo much worse. I didn't think there was another level to this madness but there is, and John Ringo is thriving there like a cancerous tumor.
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Dec 19, 2016 05:32
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I haven't read anything by Ringo, but I have heard him speak at conventions about Ghost. He claims that it started as a joke, that he was trying to write like the caricature liberal and liberal-leaning folks make him out to be. Then his fans started digging it and he said "gently caress it" and rode the money train to a new car or some more guns or whatever he spends his money on. He could have been lying, of course, but the few times I've heard Ringo speak, he's seemed fairly aware of himself and is dismissive of his more overzealous fans.
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Dec 19, 2016 05:39
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General Battuta posted:Holy god it's real In better author news, I tried reading Wilful Child by Erikson a while back and bounced right off. Gave it another go recently, and the sequel, and really enjoyed it. Guess you just have to be in the right mood for a book of Star Trek jokes? 90s Cringe Rock fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Dec 19, 2016 |
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Dec 19, 2016 07:02
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Ornamented Death posted:I haven't read anything by Ringo, but I have heard him speak at conventions about Ghost. He claims that it started as a joke, that he was trying to write like the caricature liberal and liberal-leaning folks make him out to be. Then his fans started digging it and he said "gently caress it" and rode the money train to a new car or some more guns or whatever he spends his money on. It doesn't matter if you're doing it ironically, if you're putting this kind of hateful poo poo. These words are making the world a worse place and to profit off that is shameful. gently caress you forever John Ringo.
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Dec 19, 2016 09:08
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Rough Lobster posted:It doesn't matter if you're doing it ironically, if you're putting this kind of hateful poo poo. These words are making the world a worse place and to profit off that is shameful. gently caress you forever John Ringo. Read the thread, and you too will unironically Hail SS-18 Satan May His Passage Cleanse The Earth!
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Dec 19, 2016 10:15
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General Battuta posted:Weber painstakingly constructed a diegetic logic that would allow age-of-sail broadside/cross the T combat in space, then he equipped his ships-of-the-line with nuclear cruise missiles. Is "constructed a diegetic logic" the new way of saying "ripped off wholesale from Bio of a Space Tyrant"? I have no idea because I haven't read Weber, but when Piers loving Anthony did it better than you and ten years sooner you have no business writing in anything but crayon.
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Dec 19, 2016 10:51
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Ornamented Death posted:I haven't read anything by Ringo, but I have heard him speak at conventions about Ghost. He claims that it started as a joke, that he was trying to write like the caricature liberal and liberal-leaning folks make him out to be. Then his fans started digging it and he said "gently caress it" and rode the money train to a new car or some more guns or whatever he spends his money on. Ghost is a book where the author insert character rapes a child prostitute and this is described in lurid detail. And then things get worse over the course of the series.
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Dec 19, 2016 13:00
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For some reason I've been living under a rock and never discovered David Gemmell before he passed away. After reading Legend I tore through another 3-4 books, great stuff. At this rate I'll finish everything by the end of the Christmas break. He managed to cram a lot of detail into his stories without the usual filler. They're very didactic but just really solid and entertaining overall. Any other similar authors I might've missed?
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Dec 19, 2016 17:23
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General Battuta posted:I can't even tell if this is satire The first paragraph, IIRC, is lifted almost directly from the book. The second paragraph is what Kratman wanted to write but probably got cut by an editor.
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Dec 19, 2016 17:42
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The Gunslinger posted:For some reason I've been living under a rock and never discovered David Gemmell before he passed away. After reading Legend I tore through another 3-4 books, great stuff. At this rate I'll finish everything by the end of the Christmas break. He managed to cram a lot of detail into his stories without the usual filler. They're very didactic but just really solid and entertaining overall. Any other similar authors I might've missed? His wife Stella's two novels are worth a read.
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Dec 19, 2016 19:32
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ToxicFrog posted:Having read it three times, I think the first book does hold up well on re-reading -- but the second book is two potentially excellent heist stories (Locke Lamora on the High Seas and Locke Lamora Robs a Casino) awkwardly wedged together into one book, and the third book felt like Lynch was trying to do the same thing Brust is doing in the later Taltos books, but not nearly as well. Yeah, I feel the exact same way, the second book is 2 good books (maybe even 3, I would have liked more time in that first town where Locke was rehabbing). Books 2 and 3 also really suffer from a lack of supporting characters, which is probably why I enjoyed the flashback parts of book 3 more than most people.
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Dec 19, 2016 20:18
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WarLocke posted:The first paragraph, IIRC, is lifted almost directly from the book. No, it's all verbatim, it's all real 
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Dec 19, 2016 21:27
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That one was published by Vox Day's publishing house anyway, so I'm not sure what kind of editing you'd expect.
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Dec 19, 2016 21:30
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Apraxin posted:I remember in the first book Weber goes into escape pods and abandon ship procedures, and how unusual it is for a ship to be lost with no survivors. And then later in the book when that happens to one of the Havenite ships, Honor's crew is pretty upset, despite them being enemies, because a whole crew of hundreds dying is a horrifying exception to the rule of naval warfare. But then by the later books you get fleet battles that are basically: '"Fire!" ordered Admiral Smith, and a billion Mega Missiles spewed forth from Fleet A. On the bridge of Flagship B, Admiral Jones barely had time to gasp in horror before they, their crew of 10,000, and everyone else on every one of the fleet's 500 Super Battleships were atomized.' One of the things I liked about the earlier books was the emphasis on unorthodox, surprising tactics. Figuring out a use for the grav lance/energy torpedo combo, using the natural features of the solar system to lie in ambush, fielding LACs with bubble shields -- even missile pods were cool and interesting the first time they were used, back in book 5 or so. All of that faded away as the scale went up and the battles went from "Honor tries to turn an outnumbered and outgunned force and a pile of random crap into victory" to "whoever brings the most missiles wins". General Battuta posted:Holy god it's real 90s Cringe Rock posted:Nominated for a Hugo. 
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Dec 19, 2016 22:12
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To be fair, so was Chuck Tingle. he should have won
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Dec 19, 2016 23:27
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Whenever mil sci-fi is brought up i feel obliged to vouch for Rick Shelley's Lucky 13th series. It's fairly standard, conventional war with such "marvels" as VTOL aircraft and helmet based squad comms. It's essential space ww2 infantry combat. That unremarkable quality plus the fact that it doesn't have weird sex or horrible politics makes it remarkable in my opinion, so far as mil sci-fi is concerned. There's also only three books in the series.
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Dec 20, 2016 00:10
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FastestGunAlive posted:Whenever mil sci-fi is brought up i feel obliged to vouch for Rick Shelley's Lucky 13th series. It's fairly standard, conventional war with such "marvels" as VTOL aircraft and helmet based squad comms. It's essential space ww2 infantry combat. That unremarkable quality plus the fact that it doesn't have weird sex or horrible politics makes it remarkable in my opinion, so far as mil sci-fi is concerned. There's also only three books in the series. How 'bout that Forever War?
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Dec 20, 2016 00:53
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I dug the whole time displacement thing in Forever War. When that dude loses an arm or leg or something and he's asking the docs how the new prosthetics are, and they are like "Uhm, dumbass, we grow you new poo poo now. Been that way for years" was pretty cool. Love the idea of a ten year journey to a fight and you gotta fuckin hope the other side hasn't had some serious breakthroughs in weaponry in the mean time.
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Dec 20, 2016 01:10
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Solitair posted:How 'bout that Forever War? Forever War is great but I always mix it up with Old Man's War because they both have war in the name. Also, the nonfiction book The Forever War.
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Dec 20, 2016 01:25
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FastestGunAlive posted:Forever War is great but I always mix it up with Old Man's War because they both have war in the name. Also, the nonfiction book The Forever War. Same, but Vernor Vinge's The Peace War instead.
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Dec 20, 2016 01:38
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90s Cringe Rock posted:That one was published by Vox Day's publishing house anyway, so I'm not sure what kind of editing you'd expect. Hugo-nominated editing 
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Dec 20, 2016 02:53
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Forgall posted:To be fair, so was Chuck Tingle. he should have won Him winning would have owned since he was going to have Zoe Quinn accept the award on his behalf. I mean, not owned from a literary standpoint obviously, but it would've been a fun middle finger to the puppies
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Dec 20, 2016 22:28
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I think it's better this way, the real middle finger was having a work that merited the award winning.
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Dec 20, 2016 23:11
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Autonomous Monster posted:Same, but Vernor Vinge's The Peace War instead.
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Dec 21, 2016 00:03
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There's nothing literary about the hugos anyway so I'm pulling for chuck accepting his award through an animatronic talking butthole next year.
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Dec 21, 2016 00:32
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idiotsavant posted:Sanderson is terrible, but I don't think Locke Lamora holds up after the first book or after re-reading, either. It'll scratch the itch a little better, though. Pretty high standards if Lynch is just "little better". Imo you have to go to lit. fantasy authors to find better books and there won't be any heists there. Books 2 tries way too hard though and in book 3 he's suddenly trying to turn it into serious literature
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Dec 21, 2016 08:19
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mallamp posted:Pretty high standards if Lynch is just "little better". Imo you have to go to lit. fantasy authors to find better books and there won't be any heists there. Books 2 tries way too hard though and in book 3 he's suddenly trying to turn it into serious literature Book 2 has a section where they pass through a dangerous narrow strait with some mystical figure in it that causes ship wrecks, and that is still the only part of the book I remember, especially since it seemed like such a wasted opportunity. Lynch is really approaching power-leveling Locke given the last book.
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Dec 21, 2016 09:25
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FastestGunAlive posted:Whenever mil sci-fi is brought up i feel obliged to vouch for Rick Shelley's Lucky 13th series. It's fairly standard, conventional war with such "marvels" as VTOL aircraft and helmet based squad comms. It's essential space ww2 infantry combat. That unremarkable quality plus the fact that it doesn't have weird sex or horrible politics makes it remarkable in my opinion, so far as mil sci-fi is concerned. There's also only three books in the series. Holy god thank you for this, I love these kinds of books and it is so. friggen. hard. to find them.
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Dec 22, 2016 08:18
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Would anyone recommend Four Roads Cross for somebody who liked Three Parts Dead enough to read another Tara/Alt Coulumb book but probably not the shared world followups?
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Dec 22, 2016 09:42
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No. Read them all - the other parts of the world give context to Alt Coulomb and introduce some people you meet in the second Alt Coulomb book, and are worthwhile on their own as well.
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Dec 22, 2016 10:23
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Eh. You could probably understand it but you'd miss a lot of character references in the latter half of the book. I'd at least read Two Serpents Rise and Last First Snow first. They're both pretty good, easily on the level of the first one, and they've got Aztec Batman in them. You can skip Full Fathom Five, though. I think that's pretty easily his weakest book and I skip it on rereads a lot of the time.
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Dec 22, 2016 10:33
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Are they linking up in meaningful ways to form a grander story or is it still episodic?
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Dec 22, 2016 10:54
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Four Roads Cross felt like it had built up by the end to carry some of the larger story forward. It was also perhaps the most direct continuation of an existing book in the series (picking up on the heels of Three Parts Dead) They definitely all contribute to the overall story of the world. Characters or events mentioned in passing in one book being explored in more detail in others. For example, the King in Red, who's mentioned in one sentence in 3PD, but is a central character in 2SR and L1S, and turns up briefly again in 4RC.
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Dec 22, 2016 12:10
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USMC_Karl posted:Holy god thank you for this, I love these kinds of books and it is so. friggen. hard. to find them. Cool. Let me know what you think.
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Dec 22, 2016 14:37
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Off-topic: Why is goodreads such poo poo? Recommendations are all like "Hey, you read sci-fi, here's some random sci-fi you probably won't like but eh". Now their logo has jpeg artifacts. Like, put some effort into it goddamn. On-topic: Read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and really liked it. The characters are kind of tropes but it was entertaining. I expected more consequence out of getting shot before going in, like someone actually dying and not just the AI, since the AI was probably the less developed "character", but it was still good in my opinion. What's the second book like? orange sky fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Dec 22, 2016 |
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Dec 22, 2016 15:01
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orange sky posted:Off-topic: It's been utterly broken by self-published authors whoring for ratings and whatnot.
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Dec 22, 2016 15:23
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