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darthbob88 posted:Anybody have any thoughts on the current Women in SF/F Humble Bundle? I'm somewhat tempted just on the strength of the Octavia E Butler, but don't know much about the other authors. I don't know any of the other authors, but the Butler books are worth it for the whole thing imo. Those are two of her best books, and they're terrifyingly appropriate for the modern political atmosphere. The only thing I'd note is that they've got them in the wrong order for some reason -- the one in the $1 bundle is the sequel.
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Mar 19, 2017 23:33
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Re the bundle, Kate Eliot is an author I respect, though I have never much gotten into her stuff. I like Robin McKinley a lot; I have never read Sunshine (people who have seem to like it), but I loved Hero and the Crown-- though I should note it is YA. Older YA though so while it's aimed at a younger target market, it has less of the current conventions bogging it down. Mostly it's a shorter fantasy novel aimed at girls.
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Mar 19, 2017 23:48
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Kalenn Istarion posted:I'm not sure I agree - her decisions result in some major strategic losses at a couple points and spoilering some bad stuff that you may want to find out by reading she gets pretty horrendously mutilated, her decision to shoot the guy that messed with her in university got her expelled from the senate or whatever for years. Thing is, being a Mary Sue doesn't mean nothing bad happens to you, just that everything revolves around you and you're the bestest and the mostest around, with a side of author self-insert wish fulfillment. Hell, it was pretty common for the original Mary Sue type characters, including "Lieutenant Mary Sue" from whose name we derive the phrase, to die tragically at the end of her story so that everyone could mourn the passing of such a wonderful person. You know, how everyone does react when they fake Honor's execution after Book Seven. In short, I stand by my verdict. Your appeal is denied. Honor Harrington stands convicted of Aggravated Mary Sue-ness. The sentence is to be pointed at and laughed at.  Khizan posted:This is because they are standard issue Timothy Zahn SF and Zahn, while a bit formulaic, is a much better writer than Weber and he's infinitely less likely to crawl up his own rear end about missile swarms and the virtues of capitalism. This is also true. darthbob88 posted:Anybody have any thoughts on the current Women in SF/F Humble Bundle? I'm somewhat tempted just on the strength of the Octavia E Butler, but don't know much about the other authors. ToxicFrog posted:I'm not familiar with most of the other authors; I read some Kurtz's books growing up (the Deryni trilogy and Camber of Culdi, which is a prequel IIRC) and thought they were ok but not great, but I might get more out of them now. I too read Katherine Kurtz's Deryni novels when I was but a lad. I recall liking them, but not much else. I also always get them confused with Jennifer Roberson's fairly similar Chronicles of the Cheysuli, which I also don't remember too much about except that I liked them, and at least with the Cheysuli books I can remember how they ended which is more than I can say about the Deryni ones. 
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Mar 20, 2017 06:16
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Echoing what others said about the bundle re: Butler, it's worth it just for her. But there's a fair amount of good stuff in there. Elizabeth Hand does a sort of modern gothic horror, generally about upstate New York hippies aging slowly into yuppies and dealing with the eldritch power they awakened in their youth. Jane Yolen has written some YA books I really loved including the Pit Dragon trilogy, and people have already discussed Kurtz and McKinley. They're not favorites of mine but they're solid. Also: Honor Harrington is the Sue-est of Sues, like it just keeps getting more and more blatant. Weber's strawman politics aren't great either (Rob. S. Pierre) but I was able to let that slide past me. I got up to whatever book where the PRC attacked Manticore's home system and they just barely got defeated, leaving both Manticore and the PRC militarily weakened and probably vulnerable to the other galactic powers that had been getting some development lately and I don't have a huge urge to continue. The thing is, it's perfectly fine to read trashy war novels just like it's perfectly fine to read trashy romances, and it doesn't actually reflect on you personally when someone calls the book what it is. Examining what you like in a critical light is a useful activity for figuring out more of what you might like, and also sometimes some things about yourself.
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Mar 20, 2017 22:48
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Quick PSA: Neuromancer by William Gibson is currently available on Kindle for $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000O76ON6
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Mar 20, 2017 23:19
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Ulio posted:Speaking of Obsidian, they seem like the best devs to make a fully fledged Asoiaf game. Too bad Obsidian have awful luck and never get contracted for any big games anymore. Give the IP to Paradox so they can make Crusader Kings: ASOIAF Edition?
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Mar 21, 2017 04:17
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Evil Fluffy posted:Give the IP to Paradox so they can make Crusader Kings: ASOIAF Edition? that would be lamer and less cool than real history
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Mar 21, 2017 04:22
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Evil Fluffy posted:Give the IP to Paradox so they can make Crusader Kings: ASOIAF Edition? Good news!
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Mar 21, 2017 04:59
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ToxicFrog posted:I had no idea Zahn had written stuff in the Honorverse. Going to need to check those out, I think. It's the first book I've read by him. I ended up finishing it, it was pretty meh amd not nearly as good as the rest of the novel. His chain fetish worked it's way in one more time before the end, dude is nuts for chains haha
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Mar 21, 2017 14:21
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Finished Cartwright's Cavaliers since it was starting to pick up steam on audible...don't do this...it's bad. Not only does it suffer from new author syndrome, it also starts getting more and more stuffed with modern pop culture references...when it's the 23rd century...and no the main character didn't timetravel to the future. It's also just not very good in general so yeah, don't bother. At least the new Caine book by Charles Gannon was great. occamsnailfile posted:Also: Honor Harrington is the Sue-est of Sues, like it just keeps getting more and more blatant. I'm pretty sure the Suest of Sues is Ia from A Soldiers Duty by Jean Johnson. A series that everyone should read for comedy value if nothing else.
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Mar 21, 2017 15:19
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ShinsoBEAM! posted:Finished Cartwright's Cavaliers since it was starting to pick up steam on audible...don't do this...it's bad. Not only does it suffer from new author syndrome, it also starts getting more and more stuffed with modern pop culture references...when it's the 23rd century...and no the main character didn't timetravel to the future. It's also just not very good in general so yeah, don't bother. Fat virginal brony who loses everything to his evil mother but then finds that his father and grandfather put all this stuff in a tax dodge and then he finds a magical old man who knows everything and helps him. He becomes amazing at mercenaring, the hot woman who works for him ... I gave up. It was just a poo poo book and just kept getting worse.
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Mar 22, 2017 12:32
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So do the greatcoats get better or just sort of stay the same because I'm like three chapters in the first one and it's so incredibly mediocre
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Mar 22, 2017 15:13
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The first book gets so much worse about halfway through. If you're not enjoying the first few chapters, stop now.
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Mar 22, 2017 15:22
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No, it never gets any better. It's aggressively mediocre from start to finish, scaling down to "actively bad" at the ending.
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Mar 22, 2017 19:04
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Nevvy Z posted:So do the greatcoats get better or just sort of stay the same because I'm like three chapters in the first one and it's so incredibly mediocre The first handful of chapters are kind of slow, but it picks up after the first time Falcio blacks out and goes crazy on some dude.
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Mar 22, 2017 21:20
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Nevvy Z posted:So do the greatcoats get better or just sort of stay the same because I'm like three chapters in the first one and it's so incredibly mediocre I didn't enjoy it and didn't get much of a "musketeers" vibe from it. None of the characters were interesting, the setting was generic, and the great coat itself is incredibly lame for how often it's a key item
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Mar 23, 2017 11:36
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Gluten Freeman posted:I don't know any of the other authors, but the Butler books are worth it for the whole thing imo. Those are two of her best books, and they're terrifyingly appropriate for the modern political atmosphere. The only thing I'd note is that they've got them in the wrong order for some reason -- the one in the $1 bundle is the sequel. Robin McKinley is fantastic and The Hero and the Crown is a great loving book.
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Mar 23, 2017 14:09
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branedotorg posted:Fat virginal brony who loses everything to his evil mother but then finds that his father and grandfather put all this stuff in a tax dodge and then he finds a magical old man who knows everything and helps him. I was hoping ohh I'm supposed to dislike this character right now and they will have character development...this never happened. Also kept expecting the mother thing to be like part of some super important plan...but nope just evil mother for some reason. Somehow what actually broke my cringometer was not even him getting the girl, but the final battle with all the spider mercs so yeah it just kept getting worse. Well whatever I'm doing my part in bringing down that 4.4/5 on goodreads now.
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Mar 23, 2017 16:21
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A new book in the Revelation Space series is on its way! Alastair Reynolds mentioned that it's a sequel to The Prefect, set two years after the events of that book. No title yet and an expected release date in early 2018: http://approachingpavonis.blogspot.dk/2017/03/new-one-in.html quote:New one in Fart of Presto fucked around with this message at 13:03 on Mar 25, 2017 |
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Mar 25, 2017 03:37
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Fart of Presto posted:A new book in the Revelation Space series is on it's way! That's awesome news. Reynolds is my favourite sci fi author and I've loved everything he's written except Century Rain and Terminal World. I can't remember when exactly The Prefect takes place but I wonder if this new book will have something to do with the start of the melding plague. It's too bad we have to wait another year for it though.
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Mar 25, 2017 06:31
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Finished up a new one, Tombyards & Butterflies: A Montague and Strong Detective Novel (Montague & Strong Case Files Book 1) by Orlando A. Sanchez. It's honestly pretty great. The bickering/bitching/interplay between the two leads is pretty good. It's sort of... obvious Dresden Files comparison, but more along the lines of Supernatural with the bitching back and forth, but with elements of a much bigger world. There's a few things raised and a few characters introduced in the first book that apparently are going to be useful down the line, but we sort of "start" the novel in the middle of the action and it sort of rolls from there. I really enjoyed it, even if I don't "get" the title reference. It's available on Kindle Unlimited if you have that, and well worth the read if you are looking for something not super grimdarky or super romantical "OMG I AM AN ALPHA SHIFTER AND THIS DRAGON IS AMAZING AND NOW WE WILL HAVE THE GAY SEX BECAUSE OMG I'M ALSO AN ELF SOMEHOW" weird bullshit that is about 90% of the KU titles seem to be. Next week is a new Schaefer novel! Woohoo!!!!
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Mar 26, 2017 02:18
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Finished up a new one, Tombyards & Butterflies: A Montague and Strong Detective Novel (Montague & Strong Case Files Book 1) by Orlando A. Sanchez. There's, like, a whole bunch of self-published UF novels up on Amazon with interchangeable-looking covers and fairly mad-libby blurbs and it's hard to say which one are worth checking out. I suppose I'll give this one a look.
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Mar 26, 2017 15:54
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:
Can't you say this every week? I'm about to finish The Castle Doctrine which means I'll be caught up with Faust/Black. It's mental that they've all been released in the space of three years and that there's also a whole other series that I haven't read. HOW?
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Mar 26, 2017 17:13
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Junkenstein posted:Can't you say this every week? He's basically Sanderson but with no family/kids (and I don't think he does cons or tours), so nothing distracts him from being a Machine that Writes. I actually checked once out of curiosity, and his word count is super close to Sanderson's: the difference is that Sanderson writes doorstops and Schaefer's books are in the 90k word range, so he publishes more often.
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Mar 26, 2017 18:36
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Another difference is that Schaefer is actually good at what he does.
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Mar 26, 2017 19:40
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Yea, I gotta admit, as much as I liked the Mistborn series, I kinda hated the whole "LEMME EXPLAIN HOW MY D&D CAMPAIGN WORKS" feel his works tend to have. Schaefer just writes a lot, and pretty well. I didn't finish the fantasy series he had (gently caress that first one was depressing as hell), but so far the Faust and Black series are amazing. Also, just finished up the first book in the Jessica Christ series by H. Claire Taylor. They are also on Kindle Unlimited, and the first book is hilarious. More along the lines of A. Lee Martinez or Christopher Moore. Really reminds me of Lamb, but in a good way.
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Mar 26, 2017 20:52
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Yea, I gotta admit, as much as I liked the Mistborn series, I kinda hated the whole "LEMME EXPLAIN HOW MY D&D CAMPAIGN WORKS" feel his works tend to have. Just bought the Jessica Christ book on this rec. I'll let you know what I think. I loved Lamb, but I've been reading Chris Moore for 20 years. This book has got a seriously Moore-ish cover, too!
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Mar 26, 2017 21:54
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Definitely let me know what you think. I just blew through the second book, and just literally downloaded the third. I never thought I'd be happy reading a book about a young girl through a teenage girl and the weird poo poo that happens because she's God's kid, but drat these are funny. The second one slightly less than the first, but enough to keep me interested anyway.
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Mar 26, 2017 23:38
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Just started reading Red Mars and I'm loving it, love all the insight on human condition
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Mar 28, 2017 14:50
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orange sky posted:Just started reading Red Mars and I'm loving it, love all the insight on human condition One of my all-time favorites.
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Mar 28, 2017 16:03
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I just started We Are Legion (We Are Bob) this weekend and I'm pouring through it. I don't typically read Sci-Fi but this really grabbed me in. Who knew I would be so entertained by reading about automated self-replicating schedules and delegation? I'm also really enjoying the recaps of the years between Bob's death and him becoming the AI.
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Mar 28, 2017 16:26
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I just finished Invisible Planets a collection of contemporary Chinese SF short stories compiled by Ken Liu. It has 13 stories by 7 authors, so most have multiple stories. I thought the stories were all pretty solid and I enjoyed having multiples of several authors; I felt like it gave me a better sense of whether I'd enjoy more of their work. There's 3 essays at the end about SF in China that were all pretty interesting. On the whole, I thought this was a good collection and I feel like I have a better sense of Chinese SF. The sole downside was one story by Liu Cixin was just a segment from TBP. Still, would generally recommend the book.
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Mar 28, 2017 21:01
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Read Scalzi's newest, The Collapsing Empire. It's typical Scalzi - funny, breezy read, mostly dialogue. I did see him wonder on his blog about why people keep telling him that the book seems shorter than his other ones, even though it's the similar length, 100k-ish, as mandated by his contract, as his other books. Quite frankly, in his other books he uses a hundred thousand words to tell a hundred thousand word story, and here he squeezes in enough plot that would be a lot more comfortable told in a book thrice the size. It's actually too brisk and efficient. There are three main points-of-view in a book that's short enough that it can just about support one and he just doesn't let it breathe. It's snap-snap-snap plot point A to B to C, whoops, book over. Megazver fucked around with this message at 09:39 on Mar 29, 2017 |
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Mar 28, 2017 23:06
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orange sky posted:Just started reading Red Mars and I'm loving it, love all the insight on human condition lol
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Mar 28, 2017 23:32
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Megazver posted:Read Scalzi's newest, The Collapsing Empire. It's typical Scalzi - funny, breezy read, mostly dialogue. I did see him wonder on his blog about why people keep telling him that the book seems shorter than his other ones, even though it's the similar length, 100k-ish, as mandated by his contract, as his other books. One of the amazon reviews I read complained about a lack of major resolution in this book, as though maybe it was a setup book for a subsequent series. Did you feel this was the case?
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Mar 29, 2017 04:04
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ihop posted:One of the amazon reviews I read complained about a lack of major resolution in this book, as though maybe it was a setup book for a subsequent series. Did you feel this was the case? Yeah, that's why I haven't bought it yet. Scalzi's stuff used to be an auto-buy for me but the past few novels I've read of his seemed more like sequel hooks than independent works. I wish he'd write more stuff like Android's Dream -- SF that's both funny and well-written is vanishingly rare; set aside Douglas Adams and it's practically mythical.
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Mar 29, 2017 04:26
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Yeah, that's why I haven't bought it yet. Scalzi's stuff used to be an auto-buy for me but the past few novels I've read of his seemed more like sequel hooks than independent works. Does Charles Stross not count? e: Read Spider Robinson, too!
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Mar 29, 2017 04:29
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StrixNebulosa posted:Does Charles Stross not count? . Stross dabbles in comedy every so often but it's not really his thing; he's mostly writing urban fantasy these days. The Callahan stories are functionally unicorns -- they're so far off on the fringe that they almost don't even count as SF any more. Android's Dream on the other hand was 1) an unmistakeable space opera, and 2) was genuinely hilarious throughout and came the closest of anything of Scalzi's that I've read to having an actual unique style & tone, comical without every quite descending into outright parody, like the space-opera plot was playing straight man to the jokes -- Vernor Vinge meets Robert Asprin.
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Mar 29, 2017 05:33
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ihop posted:One of the amazon reviews I read complained about a lack of major resolution in this book, as though maybe it was a setup book for a subsequent series. Did you feel this was the case? Oh yeah, it's like one half - or perhaps one third - of the story.
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Mar 29, 2017 09:30
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Definitely let me know what you think. I just blew through the second book, and just literally downloaded the third. I dunno how far you got, but I knocked them out during a slow shift and they don't get better. The problem I had was, nothing of consequence ever actually happens. The first book was funnyish, but yeah, don't pay if you don't have Kindle Unlimited.
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Mar 29, 2017 09:44
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