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Koburn posted:Has there ever been an attempt to edit down the Wheel of Time series to remove the filler and poo poo parts? Similar to the fan edits of the star wars prequels. 
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Apr 22, 2017 13:47
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The latest novella by Bruce Sterling, called Pirate Utopia, is among today's Kindle Daily Deals for $1.99. https://www.amazon.com/Pirate-Utopia-Bruce-Sterling-ebook/dp/B01G5V6FPQ According to Wikipedia, it's "a Dieselpunk alternative history set in the Italian Regency of Carnaro." The most recent Sterling I've read was Holy Fire which was pretty drat good but is now 10 years old. I have no idea how he has changed as a writer. I follow him on Twitter and can't really figure out if he's really into the whole maker culture, bad at making jokes, a grumpy old man, or all of the above.
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Apr 22, 2017 15:22
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Fart of Presto posted:The latest novella by Bruce Sterling, called Pirate Utopia, is among today's Kindle Daily Deals for $1.99. Good, I was just craving some pro-fascist dieselpunk. This'll surely hit the spot.
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Apr 22, 2017 15:48
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Is diesel-punk basically Water World but without the dearth of dry land? Leather vests, dust, cigars and pirates abound?
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Apr 22, 2017 17:10
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One can only hope  
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Apr 22, 2017 17:49
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SomeMathGuy posted:I'm going to be very surprised if they actually make it through all the books with that lineup. Why the gently caress would anybody advertise their involvement with Hemlock Grove?
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Apr 22, 2017 19:54
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Drifter posted:Is diesel-punk basically Water World but without the dearth of dry land? Science fiction with a World War I/II aesthetic. As opposed to steampunk, science-fiction with a Victorian aesthetic.
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Apr 22, 2017 20:32
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Darth Walrus posted:Science fiction with a World War I/II aesthetic. As opposed to steampunk, science-fiction with a Victorian aesthetic. What style of clothing does that mean? Or does everyone just walk around with one of these on their head? 
Drifter fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Apr 23, 2017 |
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Apr 23, 2017 00:48
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Vacuum tubes on everything.
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Apr 23, 2017 01:21
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Peel posted:Vacuum tubes on everything. And a lot of motorcycles
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Apr 23, 2017 01:32
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Also trenchcoats and fedoras, because people actually had an excuse in the Twenties.
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Apr 23, 2017 02:05
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I'm a huge fan of 1960s era Transistorpunk, personally
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Apr 23, 2017 03:34
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Rough Lobster posted:I'm a huge fan of 1960s era Transistorpunk, personally Check out these goggles, I stuck a shitload of JFETS on them.
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Apr 23, 2017 03:48
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Koburn posted:Has there ever been an attempt to edit down the Wheel of Time series to remove the filler and poo poo parts? Similar to the fan edits of the star wars prequels. I don't think so and it's a real pity because I think there's a good 6 book series rattling around in there among the 50 plots that take forever to move or don't go anywhere and the 80 000 words wasted on skirt smoothing and disdainful sniffing. It would be a big undertaking; the plot is so labyrinthine removing things without impairing other elements would be difficult.
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Apr 23, 2017 05:42
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McCoy Pauley posted:I enjoyed his Low Town trilogy (there's also a prequel short story), as well as (to a lightly lesser extent) his novella "The Builders." Low Town is about a former secret agent who is now low-level drug dealer in a bad part of this big city, in a lightly fantastic, mostly hardboiled setting. Parts of it reminded me of the Takeshi Kovacs novels, if Kovacs had been holding down a drug trade in some city in the Forgotten Realms or something. I mean all that in a good way -- it was a fun read, and I think if you liked A City Dreaming you might like it. I'll second this. Low Town was pretty enjoyable and I enjoyed reading those. I bounced off The Builders just because being talking animals wasn't my thing but maybe Il'll try again in the future.. Empty Throne duology was pretty loving awful, very poorly written and in just an offputting amateur-hour way so I'd say skip that and pretend it doesn't exist because its a pretty bad blackmark. I'll have to read A City Dreaming as I didnt even know he had a new book out. Xaris fucked around with this message at 10:32 on Apr 23, 2017 |
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Apr 23, 2017 10:30
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Drifter posted:What style of clothing does that mean? Well, I got the story from the link, and apparently it's an all-black set of a shirt, jodhpurs and kepi. Basically, all the good guys are dressed like this:  The entire story so far is  And poorly written, even for Sterling
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Apr 23, 2017 15:20
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Neat! Space Team Vol 1 is on sale at amazon for .99 cents! It's books 1-3. They are on kindle unlimited, but the books are pretty good. The first one tries a little bit too hard to force the funny for a bit, but the overall series is hilarious. Well worth a buck. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06X9ZKWKJ
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Apr 24, 2017 08:09
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General Battuta posted:Book owns, although I found the action around the climax really hard to follow on the first read. Rifters 1 is also pretty good, in a very different way. I see what you mean. I have the combined Blindsight + Echopraxia so there was even less indication I was coming to the end. poo poo seemed to suddenly hit the fan without much warning. All the action was so intense for the whole book that there wasn't much of a crescendo. I really liked how innocuous the reveal about Sarasti being controlled by the Captain was. After all the earth shattering neuro-horror it was nice to have a twist that was a more subdued "wait....what?".
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Apr 24, 2017 14:18
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Kalenn Istarion posted:Just skip books 7-10, ez Winter's Heart (#9) owns
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Apr 24, 2017 19:25
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ROFLburger posted:Winter's Heart (#9) owns A Crown of Swords also reads very well, ending as it does with One Power Paintball in Shadar Logoth and an actual advancement of the overall plot. It's only #8 and #10 (plus the start of #11) that aren't good, and at least Jordan spent the time writing himself out of the corner unlike a certain other author born in 1948.
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Apr 24, 2017 20:34
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Crown of Swords also has Mat fighting the gholam in the slums, Nynaeve and Elayne having to apologize to Mat, and a bunch of other fairly good scenes. It's one of my favorites, honestly. Also, I find that in a reread I don't actually dislike book #8 that much. My dislike for it really stemmed from waiting for it after book 7 and then having to wait for book 9 after it. Since I can just go 7->8->9 now, I'm really pretty okay with it. Khizan fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Apr 24, 2017 |
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Apr 24, 2017 20:53
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Which was the circus one. It's terrible.
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Apr 24, 2017 20:59
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ROFLburger posted:Winter's Heart (#9) owns I dunno, I'm actually reading that one right now and it seems kind of pointless. Not as bad as Path of Daggers was, though.
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Apr 24, 2017 21:12
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The end of Winter's Heart is the best part of the book.
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Apr 24, 2017 21:15
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You could probably make a decent single large novel out of 7-10 (well, as decent as the limitations of Jordan's writing will allow).
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Apr 24, 2017 21:41
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#9 was the book where I stopped reading, because it took a thousand pages for sweet gently caress all to happen, and that was the point when I realized that Jordan would continue starting new subplots and never resolving them until the day it took multiple volumes to cover a single minute of plot.
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Apr 24, 2017 23:28
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ToxicFrog posted:#9 was the book where I stopped reading, because it took a thousand pages for sweet gently caress all to happen, and that was the point when I realized that Jordan would continue starting new subplots and never resolving them until the day it took multiple volumes to cover a single minute of plot. Funny since I figured out the same thing except on Book #4 or 5?
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Apr 25, 2017 02:27
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Xaris posted:Funny since I figured out the same thing except on Book #4 or 5? I was young and stupid. In recent years I've actually been making a conscious effort to fail-fast and recognize when I'm just reading a book or series because of inertia or because I'm curious about where it's going (without actually enjoying the reading itself), and stop. There are too many good books out there to waste time.
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Apr 25, 2017 03:21
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Yeah it's kind of amazing and jarring how quickly Sanderson starts to wrap poo poo up. Don't get me wrong, it still takes three books, but when he takes over it goes from Robert Jordan crawl to "okay poo poo's happening now!" and doesn't really slow down til the end. The transition from 11 to 12 is pretty funny to see now that the series is complete.
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Apr 25, 2017 04:19
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Xaris posted:Funny since I figured out the same thing except on Book #4 or 5? I figured out the same thing on book #1. 
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Apr 25, 2017 04:35
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Was Ancillary Mercy worth reading? I read Ancillary Justice several times and then was somewhat bored by Ancillary Sword and kind of forgot about the third book until just now, for some reason.
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Apr 25, 2017 05:01
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andrew smash posted:Was Ancillary Mercy worth reading? I read Ancillary Justice several times and then was somewhat bored by Ancillary Sword and kind of forgot about the third book until just now, for some reason. You might as well finish the series. You will note that this is not high praise. I read about a third of Mercy before realizing I was taking the series out of order. Justice is the only prize in the trilogy. mllaneza fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Apr 25, 2017 |
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Apr 25, 2017 05:05
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Jedit posted:A Crown of Swords also reads very well, ending as it does with One Power Paintball in Shadar Logoth and an actual advancement of the overall plot. It's only #8 and #10 (plus the start of #11) that aren't good, and at least Jordan spent the time writing himself out of the corner unlike a certain other author born in 1948. Well to be fair, that certain author has to actually write to get out of his corner.
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Apr 25, 2017 06:02
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Solitair posted:I figured out the same thing on book #1.
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Apr 25, 2017 07:10
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mllaneza posted:You might as well finish the series. Yeah, after Justice, Sword and Mercy are weirdly kinda dull. I'd say Mercy is better than Sword, but still. Strange direction for that series to go.
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Apr 25, 2017 11:23
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andrew smash posted:Was Ancillary Mercy worth reading? I read Ancillary Justice several times and then was somewhat bored by Ancillary Sword and kind of forgot about the third book until just now, for some reason. I enjoyed Mercy and think that, yes, it's worth reading, but it's not as good as Justice. You'll probably like it more than Sword, though.
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Apr 25, 2017 11:34
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Number Ten Cocks posted:Which was the circus one. It's terrible. By circus do mean the time where Nynaeve and Elayne joined a travelling show to hide themselves or the part where Mat and Tuon join the same travelling show to hide themselves?  The former's in TFoH, I think? But that book's also got Rand taking Cairhien and Andor and Mat becoming a general by accident, and so is officially Rad As gently caress. Actually, I'm struggling to think of any Rand plotlines I don't like. Mat's are usually pretty great too. It's just the Supergirls' stuff and Perrin hunting Aiel for three entire books or whatever the gently caress that was. I swear the Supergirls spend 90% of their time locked up in stuffy rooms sniping at each other and waiting for things to happen. In other news, David Goyer is adapting The Black Company because Eliza Dushku wanted to play the Lady. So that's happening.
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Apr 25, 2017 11:36
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Cardiac posted:Well to be fair, that certain author has to actually write to get out of his corner. As I understand it, a certain author's problem is not so much not writing, but more endlessly rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. Granted, this also results in a dearth of actually finished manuscripts, but the process is different. (Which is an amusing parallel with another author of an earlier generation but with the same middle initials, because that other author was in his time the High King of endless rewrites, to the point where careers were subsequently made from his desk drawers full of leftover drafts and revisions.)
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Apr 25, 2017 12:09
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Autonomous Monster posted:In other news, David Goyer is adapting The Black Company because Eliza Dushku wanted to play the Lady. So that's happening. I also discovered we're getting a new novel set between the first two. Hmmm.
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Apr 25, 2017 13:06
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Autonomous Monster posted:In other news, David Goyer is adapting The Black Company because Eliza Dushku wanted to play the Lady. So that's happening. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Apr 25, 2017 |
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Apr 25, 2017 14:15
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