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Just finished reading "Station in Space"published @1958, by James Gunn. It was good, outer space is deadly as gently caress & everything is waiting to kill you in outer space, including mental breakdowns. Would recommend this book to others without reservation. James Gunn is definitely one of the few Grandmasters of Scifi that deserves respect.
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Jan 18, 2017 01:43
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Before I joined SA I would sometimes post on Spacebattles.com and one of the more amusing threads there was when Kratman came in and got in a slapfight about tanks with one of the mods on said forum. Kratman Also stare into these dead eyes, which won't actually link. http://www.tomkratman.com/kratport.jpg Jack2142 fucked around with this message at 09:13 on Jan 18, 2017 |
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Jan 18, 2017 09:09
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ArchangeI posted:Reminder that Tom Kratman believes that the right answer to an alien invasion of people-eating monsters is to revive literal SS-war criminals because they are "motivated to fight" unlike those pinko liberals these days who would just roll over. thanks for the effort, just bought a copy
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Jan 18, 2017 11:19
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Fallorn posted:It is crazy all the way down. Specially when in one of his books you can see how the main character is how he envisions himself and he kills space islam because they space 9/11 towers with his space latino wife and children inside then get a new space latino bride. Those books also include giving terrorists sex-change ops before killing them so they go to the afterlife as women 
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Jan 18, 2017 14:15
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Darkrenown posted:Those books also include giving terrorists sex-change ops before killing them so they go to the afterlife as women It is total loving insanity. I believe one of them also have the terrorists terrorist parents so they can be shamed before they die.
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Jan 18, 2017 15:44
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Jack2142 posted:Before I joined SA I would sometimes post on Spacebattles.com and one of the more amusing threads there was when Kratman came in and got in a slapfight about tanks with one of the mods on said forum. Kratman Your post in the other scifi thread make me remember a author worse than Ringo & Kratman. Survivalist warporn is the best way to describe his stuff. Be happy that you probably have not read him. Do not seek out his work unless you enjoy stupid, bizzare, enraging, russian boar obsessed, tex-mex mad max new old west bullshit Never read this author................................Dean Ing. I warned you. I loving warned you.
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Jan 18, 2017 16:35
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apophenium posted:Glad to see poo poo like this. I really enjoyed the first book, despite its flaws. There's no way I'll get to book two until later this year. I hope I got something to look forward to throughout time. That shouldn't have been read as a ringing endorsement for The Expanse series, it's really just okay sci fi airplane stuff
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Jan 19, 2017 14:44
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Professor Shark posted:That shouldn't have been read as a ringing endorsement for The Expanse series, it's really just okay sci fi airplane stuff The Expanse does some really great stuff, the biggest for me being driving home how loving huge the solar system is, and getting a grand scale without interstellar travel. It also does some really loving terrible stuff, although the worst of it is only in the last couple of books. James Holden is the most boring main character since Ted Mosby.
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Jan 19, 2017 17:02
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Yeah, characterization is their weak point. There's a lot of nerd love for Amos but I don't think they do a great job with The Happy Psycho On Our Side The villains in the series are basically made of paper as well
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Jan 19, 2017 21:38
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Professor Shark posted:Yeah, characterization is their weak point. There's a lot of nerd love for Amos but I don't think they do a great job with The Happy Psycho On Our Side I think the whole thing has gotten progressively worse. I preferred the first couple/few books when the badguy was pretty much Weyland-Yutani, but with the protomolecule instead of the xenomorphs since like you said, their ability to ascribe intent or anything to the more individual people is...not great.
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Jan 19, 2017 21:48
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I'm still getting and reading the wxpanse books as they are released but the flavour has changed. I don't think its all bad, but the 'near future realism' part that first attracted me started taking a long walk around book 4.
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Jan 21, 2017 15:49
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I really felt a strong B5 wibe from the initial parts of Expanse but that went the way of space zombies and adventuring pretty fast. Shame... Is there anything in the spirit of B5 with more grungy stations and politicking and diplomacy and such?
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Jan 21, 2017 17:31
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General Emergency posted:I really felt a strong B5 wibe from the initial parts of Expanse but that went the way of space zombies and adventuring pretty fast. Shame... Is there anything in the spirit of B5 with more grungy stations and politicking and diplomacy and such? Ian Banks culture series is a lot about diplomacy, but goes off the deep end into AI space ship battles and post humanism wankery with regularity. Washout fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Jan 21, 2017 |
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Jan 21, 2017 19:21
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General Emergency posted:I really felt a strong B5 wibe from the initial parts of Expanse but that went the way of space zombies and adventuring pretty fast. Shame... Is there anything in the spirit of B5 with more grungy stations and politicking and diplomacy and such? I didn't write this review but I think it pretty perfectly sums up my feelings about the book: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/269022030?book_show_action=true
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Jan 21, 2017 20:57
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General Emergency posted:I really felt a strong B5 wibe from the initial parts of Expanse but that went the way of space zombies and adventuring pretty fast. Shame... Is there anything in the spirit of B5 with more grungy stations and politicking and diplomacy and such? As a stand alone novel Chasm City in Revelation Space has politicking, grungy space stations and all that fun. Its probably my favorite book in the series and one that can be read without delving into the rest of the series.
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Jan 22, 2017 06:49
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Jack2142 posted:As a stand alone novel Chasm City in Revelation Space has politicking, grungy space stations and all that fun. Its probably my favorite book in the series and one that can be read without delving into the rest of the series. The Prefect is good too
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Jan 22, 2017 08:00
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gohmak posted:The Prefect is good too Yeah, but the Prefect is set earlier before when the setting is nice and shiny. Also I just was cackling incessantly at the fact one of the space stations was named Sea-Tac, that threw a really random curve ball I wouldn't have thought would be a thing in a sci-fi novel.
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Jan 22, 2017 09:23
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I still like the Neil Asher polity books for a glimpse of the possible distant future politics
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Jan 22, 2017 10:59
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General Emergency posted:I really felt a strong B5 wibe from the initial parts of Expanse but that went the way of space zombies and adventuring pretty fast. Shame... Is there anything in the spirit of B5 with more grungy stations and politicking and diplomacy and such?  It's pretty good and quite funny.
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Jan 24, 2017 21:29
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Just finished James E Gunn's Transgalactic. It was worth it for Rory the dinosaur's POV chapter.
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Jan 25, 2017 00:37
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gohmak posted:The Prefect is good too To elaborate a little, the titular Prefects are nightwatchmen who safeguard the execution of the democratic process in a swarm of autonomous asteroid polities. They make sure no one fucks with the computer systems that are used to run the referenda, but the franchise is the only thing they're allowed to protect. I know there's a type who just loves that sort of thing because I'm one of them. There are dozens of us! Dozens!
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Jan 26, 2017 20:26
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God drat it John C. Wright.quote:In a complex speech, Notor explained something Phaethon already knew. Most deviants are deviant because they are poor. Most poor are poor because they lack the self-discipline necessary to forgo immediate gratification. They were not the kind of people able to lend money and wait for a return.
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Feb 2, 2017 07:26
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n4 posted:God drat it John C. Wright. Nooooooooooo no no. 
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Feb 2, 2017 07:40
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hahaha, told you so. post scarcity society where its still a thing to scold the lazy poors. Wright's a hack.
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Feb 2, 2017 07:43
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Emnity posted:I'm still getting and reading the wxpanse books as they are released but the flavour has changed. I don't think its all bad, but the 'near future realism' part that first attracted me started taking a long walk around book 4.
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Feb 2, 2017 18:17
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There's another bit in the Phoenix Exultant where the Sophotechs (hyper intelligent AIs) explain their morality, and they explicitly have a pro-life stance: quote:“Eveningstar said, “Entities not yet self-aware, but who, in the natural and orderly course of events shall become so, fall into a special protected class, and must be cared for as babies, or medical patients, or suspended Compositions.” I guess in fairness to Wright the context of birth is so drastically different in these books that it makes the modern debate irrelevant. The Phoenix Exultant is dragging a bit. I think I'll finish it but I might bail on finishing the series if it doesn't pick up.
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Feb 2, 2017 19:14
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Lord Hydronium posted:Cibola Burn is a bit of an odd man out, and the closest thing the series has to a standalone. The next two books are a lot more focused on the near future space opera stuff. I have no clue what direction the author is trying to take with the series anymore. They started off with some great space horror then transitioned into a galaxy-spanning colonization extravaganza and then went "oh hey never mind lol" over the last two novels. Admittedly, I'm only 65% of the way through the latest one. Maybe they should go the Lost Fleet route and spin off into 3 different series that I lose track of and stop reading. Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Feb 2, 2017 |
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Feb 2, 2017 19:50
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I think after the series ended up being wildly successful, they had a burst of early enthusiasm and scaled up their ambitions, then pulled back once they realized they were losing focus. It's okay. Not everyone gets it right with every book. I'm still having a lot of fun as of the end of Babylon's Ashes, and it's not like we have to wait ten years for a new book or anything. They "churn" ( :V ) out a book every year or so reliably and Daniel Abraham still writes his solo projects on top of that.
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Feb 2, 2017 20:38
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I believe the 9 (might not be the right number) book arc was planned from the outset, and I expect a return to the kind of tones and topics that were brought up throughout the series, and I expect to see a resolution as the series comes to a close. I liked the latest book a lot more than some of the middle ones, too, by the end at least. By figuring out how to trigger the gates to swallow stuff, they've also perhaps unwittingly figured out how to alert/avoid the scary aliens who ate the old ones. It's unclear what the implications will be. I didn't love the political reconciliation at the end - I thought after rocks were dropped on earth you might find some more extremism take hold, but there we are
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Feb 2, 2017 21:05
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I'm slogging through Ashes wondering if it's possible for the writers to create a worse, less interesting antagonist than Marcus. I'm starting to get that feeling I get right before I drop a book/ TV/ game series, which is too bad because I want to see where things go.
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Feb 8, 2017 02:46
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Professor Shark posted:I'm slogging through Ashes wondering if it's possible for the writers to create a worse, less interesting antagonist than Marcus. I'm starting to get that feeling I get right before I drop a book/ TV/ game series, which is too bad because I want to see where things go. Yeah I'm at the point that I will wait for reviews instead of blindly picking up the next book
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Feb 8, 2017 16:55
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But Nemesis Games totally owned, at least in terms of finally developing the characters and advancing the status quo. How's this one?
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Feb 9, 2017 06:55
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General Battuta posted:But Nemesis Games totally owned, at least in terms of finally developing the characters and advancing the status quo. How's this one? Lord Hydronium fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Feb 9, 2017 |
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Feb 9, 2017 18:29
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Professor Shark posted:I'm slogging through Ashes wondering if it's possible for the writers to create a worse, less interesting antagonist than Marcus. I'm starting to get that feeling I get right before I drop a book/ TV/ game series, which is too bad because I want to see where things go. Im at that exact moment too. Slogging is the perfect word for what I'm doing.
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Feb 12, 2017 00:16
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I finished it and (non specific spoilers about ending): things are wrapped up for the solar civil war plot and things are set to move back to the Slow Zone and the mysteries of the extinct Builders for the last three books, so I guess it was worth it in the end if the series returns to what I find to be the most interesting part of the series
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Feb 13, 2017 00:35
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Anything new that's good?
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Feb 13, 2017 17:14
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I recently picked up Perilous Waif. It's a bit of a mixed bag. The author has clearly spent a great deal of time thinking about how cultures would evolve with easy access to fabricator technology and about the implications of being able to mass produce self-aware android serfs. The main character is a young girl, which is a nice break from the usual fare. She is an orphan with a mysterious origin who is quickly becoming very powerful as various augments begin to grow in. There is a touch of YA style mary sue antics, complete with the requisite two powerful love interests. I found the space battles to be well done and it made an attempt to be more "hard SF" with the weapons and technology. On the other hand, pretty much all the androids in the book are female, and programmed into submission by either imprinting on a master, requiring a superior for all direction due to being blocked from forming independent goals or being given a pack mentality that induces submission to authority. The various exotic locations, individuals (genetic engineering and body mods has led to a great splintering of the human race) combined with the space travel and battles give it a very space opera vibe. Some of the themes, especially around the androids might be very off putting to people. The book is on kindle unlimited though so if you have that I would recommend giving it a try since you can drop it with no loss if it rubs you the wrong way.
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Feb 21, 2017 09:03
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So...is it presented as good and acceptable that the androids are waifubots? Like, that's an OK state of affairs that we should not expect to be challenged? It's not actually wrong for media to present distasteful situations, so long as those situations are overcome (or at least struggled against) during the narrative.
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Feb 22, 2017 07:17
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Miss-Bomarc posted:So...is it presented as good and acceptable that the androids are waifubots? Like, that's an OK state of affairs that we should not expect to be challenged? Yea pretty much, even the protagonists best friend gets rescued and asked to be whatever she wants and just says "lol just keep me as a slave its great!". A bunch of secondary characters are just like "sure that's just the way it is we love it". It sucks that it's so loving prevalent too, the author obviously has it as some kind of sexual bondage fantasy and just can't loving stop talking about it, and it's not even a major story arc. Hell in a different story arc some ex slave terrorists are presented as being the worst kind of bad guys and the main character kills them all when they try to brain hack her. The lovely part about the entire thing is it's so obviously easy to correct within the story line but the author never does because he has such a boner for it and some kind of lovely desire to make his imaginary teenage bisexual waifus. If he had chopped out all that garbage it would be a pretty good book but it really tanks the entire thing and you feel vaguely oily when reading yet another exposition about the teenage protagonist making out with her best friend slave. Washout fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Feb 22, 2017 |
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Feb 22, 2017 19:18
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Opal fucked around with this message at 07:12 on Feb 23, 2017 |
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Feb 23, 2017 07:07
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