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Apraxin posted:Also I made the mistake of looking at the Goodreads reviews for Revenger, and one of the top 5 recommended reviews was a '0 stars, did not finish", which I'm gonna reproduce in full here because I could feel my brain melting as I read it, and I really need to share my pain: oh hey I didn't know that the girls from Foam Adventures wrote book reviews
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May 21, 2017 20:51
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Pretty much every top review in goodreads tend to be trash and the top ones are always from the same people. How does one person know everything about shakespearean plays, lord of the rings mythology and the non cannon star wars universe? Well they probably don't so some of the reviews just have no merit because the person writing them has no idea what they read. I recommend reading more than one review since a rating is always going to be subjective and everyone has a different system. I consider 3/5 stars a good book but for a lot of people 3 stars is really low.
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May 22, 2017 02:20
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Pretty much every top review in goodreads tend to be trash and the top ones are always from the same people. How does one person know everything about shakespearean plays, lord of the rings mythology and the non cannon star wars universe? Well they probably don't so some of the reviews just have no merit because the person writing them has no idea what they read. I recommend reading more than one review since a rating is always going to be subjective and everyone has a different system. I consider 3/5 stars a good book but for a lot of people 3 stars is really low.
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May 22, 2017 02:28
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If someone forced me to give number 3/5 would be my "Well the book was fine, I don't think I will really ever read it again" level.
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May 22, 2017 03:23
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I really hate being forced to use 4 or 5 point review systems, because it quickly becomes "all of it is three, except for a few things i'm really disinclined to be charitable toward or which I'm trying to use to weight my suggestions away from Stephen King's Wolves of the Calla or something. There are a few 5s, but mainly it ends up that almost anything I considered worth finishing ends up as a 3 or 4 simply because most people are inclined to be kinder than they might really be if you could plot their feelings on a graph. --- I've got a request though. I was wondering if anyone knows of any interesting fantasy and/or historical fantasy novels or series which are set in a pre-Iron Age setting? It could be egyptian warriors or assyrian pirates or even just flat cave people (read clan of the cave bear and one or two of the sequels, it was pretty alright but I forgot most of it.) I'd even settle for a western that mainly oriented around the natives either before or after white people showed up, etc. I think I'm kind of tired of "this is how a smith works iron and steel, also we totally figured out how damascus steelworks and shoehorned it into this setting," and could use a breather.
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May 22, 2017 03:40
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coyo7e posted:I really hate being forced to use 4 or 5 point review systems, because it quickly becomes "all of it is three, except for a few things i'm really disinclined to be charitable toward or which I'm trying to use to weight my suggestions away from Stephen King's Wolves of the Calla or something. There are a few 5s, but mainly it ends up that almost anything I considered worth finishing ends up as a 3 or 4 simply because most people are inclined to be kinder than they might really be if you could plot their feelings on a graph. I think Dianna Wynne Jones wrote some decent bronze age stuff but I can't remember titles.
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May 22, 2017 03:47
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I find Goodreads fine, and immensely useful for organising a to-be-read list. Yeah there's some bullshit Tumblresque reviews like that one on the last page but those give themselves away very quickly, like a Wikipedia page you know is unreliable, and for the most part the reviews I see are decent. Although I think I follow well-read people and that affects the algorithms so maybe I see better reviews pop up at the top of a book's page? I know the algorithms for my main feed are completely hosed, they prioritise showing a variety of users rather than whatever's most recent. So I'll see one review from a guy I KNOW reviews a book at least once a week, then scroll down to see the same loving review from last year that one of my friends wrote in November or whatever. Also yeah the star ratings are dumb and the product of either happy-clappy Tumblr culture or social media corporate culture where expressing bad opinions is steered away from. Two stars is "it was ok" when that's what three stars should be. One star is "didn't like it" whereas four stars is "really liked it" and five stars is "it was amazing"? Come the gently caress on. I only ever read books I expect I'll like but I still come across stinkers with regularity, give us an "absolutely hated it" rating.
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May 22, 2017 04:04
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If you want to see an entertaining wikipedia page (or an attempt at making one), check out the change-logs for B V Larson's wiki entry (or lack of a valid wiki page).
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May 22, 2017 04:27
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So I just finally finished Red Sister, and it was pretty good, but I'm struggling to be excited about 2 sequels. I mean, it not like it was a bad book, but the entire time I couldn't help but compare it to Blood Song, and Blood Song is just a much better magical/battle school type book. I mean this has a great setting, with a lot of unique and interesting world building, but it just a worn genre for me to use as framing device. I feel like his characters in Prince of Fools and Prince of Thorns were just more interesting, and doing more interesting things. Like not spending all day in school. I don't know, I think I'm just over the whole battle school genre. Just skip to graduation, and we'll take your word that they're badasses with a troubled past. The Glumslinger fucked around with this message at 05:12 on May 22, 2017 |
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May 22, 2017 05:08
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The Glumslinger posted:So I just finally finished Red Sister, and it was pretty good, but I'm struggling to be excited about 2 sequels. I mean, it not like it was a bad book, but the entire time I couldn't help but compare it to Blood Song, and Blood Song is just a much better magical/battle school type book. I mean this has a great setting, with a lot of unique and interesting world building, but it just a worn genre for me to use as framing device. I feel like his characters in Prince of Fools and Prince of Thorns were just more interesting, and doing more interesting things. Like not spending all day in school. I've heard Blood Song is good, but arent the sequels really bad or something? I've put off reading Blood Song just because of how bad the sequels were supposed to be. I'm reading Red Sister (really just started right now so I can't comment about your gripes) since I do like Mark Lawrence's stuff, but I suppose that's one potential difference is the next books could be good as opposed to knowing they're bad.
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May 22, 2017 05:32
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I think Dianna Wynne Jones wrote some decent bronze age stuff but I can't remember titles. There are 2 books by Matthew Woodring Stover that fit the bill, Iron Dawn and Jericho Moon. E: Looks like they're back to next to impossible to find in ebook form though.
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May 22, 2017 05:34
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Reminder that Goodreads' review scores are global averages and not predictive and are thus useless.
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May 22, 2017 05:36
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Victorkm posted:I just finished the LitRPG book "Dominion Of Blades" by Matt Dinniman. I'd have to give it a hearty recommend. Dominion of Blades is probably the best LitRPG book I have read so far. The writing can be clunky at times, and theres a lot of typos, but there's none of the weird sexism or homophobia that pervades the translated fare (quite the opposite in fact), and the plot is really cool. While not really being LitRPG in the same sense people think of it now you should check out Mogworld by Yahtzee Crosshaw. I haven't read Dominion of Blades to know how close the two compare but based on your description here I bet you'd like Mogworld as well.
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May 22, 2017 06:12
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Xaris posted:I've heard Blood Song is good, but arent the sequels really bad or something? I've put off reading Blood Song just because of how bad the sequels were supposed to be. I'm reading Red Sister (really just started right now so I can't comment about your gripes) since I do like Mark Lawrence's stuff, but I suppose that's one potential difference is the next books could be good as opposed to knowing they're bad. Blood song was average at best.
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May 22, 2017 06:15
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Xaris posted:I've heard Blood Song is good, but arent the sequels really bad or something? I've put off reading Blood Song just because of how bad the sequels were supposed to be. I'm reading Red Sister (really just started right now so I can't comment about your gripes) since I do like Mark Lawrence's stuff, but I suppose that's one potential difference is the next books could be good as opposed to knowing they're bad. Just read Blood Song, it is very self-enclosed. But yeah, I only read the first sequel and it was pretty mediocre. Thinking back on it, somehow it covered way too much ground, while simultaneously dragging the entire way. God, what a weird book. But yeah, read Blood Song, its great
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May 22, 2017 06:27
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In a weird confluence of events, China Mieville is on the latest Chapo Trap House podcast.
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May 22, 2017 07:54
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I think Dianna Wynne Jones wrote some decent bronze age stuff but I can't remember titles. I think you're thinking of The Spellcoats but that's the only one I can think of.
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May 22, 2017 10:27
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The Glumslinger posted:Just read Blood Song, it is very self-enclosed. But yeah, I only read the first sequel and it was pretty mediocre. Thinking back on it, somehow it covered way too much ground, while simultaneously dragging the entire way. Read Blood Song and skip the sequels. It doesn't really end on a cliffhanger.
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May 22, 2017 10:58
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Mel Mudkiper posted:imagine reading the reviews on goodreads If you see a gif or image meme, skip the review. This has worked well for me with Goodreads reviews.
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May 22, 2017 11:13
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Just finished Wolf Moon, second book in Ian McDonald's Luna trilogy, about a bunch of mafiesque corporate families on the moon which is variously described as Dallas on the Moon or "Game of Domes." It lacks something that stops it from being quite perfect, but it's still really really really good. Like, 9/10 or 5 stars on Goodreads good. Do yourself a favour and check it out. Something in particular about McDonald is that his prose style - his ability to string together an evocative, descriptive turn of phrase - is by far one of the best in sci-fi. He's actually a genuinely good writer, and could be one outside the sci-fi ghetto if he so chose. The only other exclusively sci-fi writer on that level I can think of is William Gibson.
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May 22, 2017 12:07
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freebooter posted:Just finished Wolf Moon, second book in Ian McDonald's Luna trilogy It's gonna be a trilogy now? Man, my to-read pile is never going to shrink... (first world problem, I know).
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May 22, 2017 12:16
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coyo7e posted:I've got a request though. I was wondering if anyone knows of any interesting fantasy and/or historical fantasy novels or series which are set in a pre-Iron Age setting? It could be egyptian warriors or assyrian pirates or even just flat cave people (read clan of the cave bear and one or two of the sequels, it was pretty alright but I forgot most of it.) I'd even settle for a western that mainly oriented around the natives either before or after white people showed up, etc. Michelle Paver's Wolf Brother series. Rosemary Sutcliff, Warrior Scarlet (probably others too, can't remember whether Sun Horse, Moon Horse is pre-Iron Age or not. All her stuff is worth reading though). Elizabeth Marshall Thomas' Reindeer Moon series.
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May 22, 2017 12:30
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freebooter posted:Just finished Wolf Moon, second book in Ian McDonald's Luna trilogy, about a bunch of mafiesque corporate families on the moon which is variously described as Dallas on the Moon or "Game of Domes." It lacks something that stops it from being quite perfect, but it's still really really really good. Like, 9/10 or 5 stars on Goodreads good. Do yourself a favour and check it out. Brilliant! I read half of the first one, went "I love this", and stopped reading it so I could read it when it was finished. I'm working on River of Gods now which is just as good. He really is insanely good.
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May 22, 2017 12:46
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Groke posted:It's gonna be a trilogy now? Man, my to-read pile is never going to shrink... (first world problem, I know). Yeah, which kind of annoyed me because I distinctly remember him saying it would be a two book series, and I only read the first book a month ago, and then this came out, and I thought "cool I can just do the whole thing fresh in my mind." Except now I'll have to wait two years for the next and it's not quiiiite good enough for all the characters and plot movements to stay fresh in my memory. I feel like I can make the GOT comparison because McDonald himself does. And weirdly, he is an objectively better writer (in general) than GRRM, but GRRM specifically nails the "dynastic families" vibe way better than McDonald. I was constantly flicking towards the clan lists at the back of the book to check who was who, which I don't think is a good sign. But overall they're very good books and he really nails fantastic, tense set pieces. Specifically the early part in book 1 where Rachel Mackenzie is assassinated by a hacked bot while trying to get her kid to sanctuary and the long sequence in the second half of book 2 where spoilt party boy Lucasinho has to try to get his little cousin to safety in the midst of an all-out lunar war, and has to think and act very carefully on their flight across the surface; one of those really good sci-fi combinations of character drama and cold, hard, calculated scientific logic. And also, in fact, the whole lunar war angle - where you see it from the point of view of various characters, none of whom can really tell what the gently caress is going on because all the comms are down and they're confused and isolated and frightened. Also as an Australian I just generally love the fact that the evil family is Australian - particularly the Rupert Murdoch analogue - and the presence of Australians on the moon. ("Turn your comms on, you loving galah!") Although as with his earlier books like River of Gods, where I suspected he was just familiar enough by research with a country like India to fool other outsiders but never a native, the same is true here - no Western Australian would ever dream of naming their invented cocktail a 1788. freebooter fucked around with this message at 13:04 on May 22, 2017 |
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May 22, 2017 13:01
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freebooter posted:Also as an Australian I just generally love the fact that the evil family is Australian - particularly the Rupert Murdoch analogue - and the presence of Australians on the moon. ("Turn your comms on, you loving galah!") Although as with his earlier books like River of Gods, where I suspected he was just familiar enough by research with a country like India to fool other outsiders but never a native, the same is true here - no Western Australian would ever dream of naming their invented cocktail a 1788. As an American I have no idea what 1788's significance is, or why it would matter to a Western Australian (as opposed to an Eastern one?) - so, uh - would you mind explaining? I'm curious, and while wiki has helpfully explained that 1788 was the day Brits showed up there, I still don't see what the east vs west thing is.
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May 22, 2017 13:06
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1788 is when Sydney and more broadly the east coast was settled, whereas Western Australia has a very long history of secessionism, especially (this is the kicker) from mining magnates with delusions of grandeur. None of which is at all a criticism of McDonald, just an example of one of the small quirks that an outsider would never pick up on, and which doesn't really matter. Or to paraphrase Englishman Neil Gaiman, "I can't write a New York that would convince a New Yorker, but I can write one that will convince an American who's never been there."
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May 22, 2017 13:17
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freebooter posted:1788 is when Sydney and more broadly the east coast was settled, whereas Western Australia has a very long history of secessionism, especially (this is the kicker) from mining magnates with delusions of grandeur. Ohhhhhhh, okay. That's fascinating, thank you! I imagine it would be fun to go over River of Gods with a native of those cities - see what they'd pick out. Still, it's impressive that he's captured the texture so well without being a native. I have to respect that.
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May 22, 2017 13:22
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freebooter posted:\Or to paraphrase Englishman Neil Gaiman, "I can't write a New York that would convince a New Yorker, but I can write one that will convince an American who's never been there." This is why I like the Rivers of London series so much. There are an essentially infinite number of fantasy novels set in London, but most of them are written for Americans; Aaronovitch writes for Londoners.
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May 22, 2017 13:25
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StrixNebulosa posted:As an American I have no idea what 1788's significance is, or why it would matter to a Western Australian (as opposed to an Eastern one?) - so, uh - would you mind explaining? I'm curious, and while wiki has helpfully explained that 1788 was the day Brits showed up there, I still don't see what the east vs west thing is.
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May 22, 2017 13:28
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freebooter posted:1788 is when Sydney and more broadly the east coast was settled, whereas Western Australia has a very long history of secessionism, especially (this is the kicker) from mining magnates with delusions of grandeur. i do not think an australian in the time i have been alive would call someone a 'loving galah' ('loving [white] dog oval office' is the trash epithet i tend to hear the most). Tornhelm posted:Probably because gently caress the Eastern states. There's a fairly large culture difference between the Eastern and Western/Southern/Northern Australia. It's fairly similar to the US where the East Coast is faster paced and more self-centred and everywhere else is more laid-back and relaxed. Also most of the overall governmental policy favours the Eastern states, which is probably why we're constantly up poo poo creek without a paddle as a country. i'm west australian and have spent a fair bit of time in victoria and think the cultures are remarkably indistinguishable. sure, melbourne has a lot more left wingers, but the culture and values are pretty homogeneous.
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May 22, 2017 14:08
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:This is why I like the Rivers of London series so much. There are an essentially infinite number of fantasy novels set in London, but most of them are written for Americans; Aaronovitch writes for Londoners. I think this is an enormously rich vein of analysis. Especially when it comes to London and New York, they're cities which everybody around the world grows up "knowing" without actually knowing. And in fact when you go there, even most of the Brits/American who live there aren't actually from London/New York, they're from Derbyshire or Nebraska or whatever. So they too are enchanted by the fable of the big city. I lived in London for a year and I think I met less than 10 native-born Londoners. More broadly, I grew up in suburban Western Australia watching American and British TV and reading American and especially British books, since it was at the school library or the public library and all their books were outdated stuff from the 60s-80s. (Which doesn't matter in SFF, which is what I was reading.) And for all the talk in Australia about how our society is becoming "Americanised," if I look at my Goodreads stats now, I massively grew up reading British fiction. So I grew up with this idealised vision of a Brian Jacques, Wind in the Willows, John Wyndham, John Christopher, JRR Tolkien, West Country autumnal pubs cider blah blah blah bullshit. And then I actually went and lived there and it was all horribly modernist Ballardian zero-hour contracts and austerity and bleakness and David Cameron and weirdly authoritarian government bodies, and every English person I met saying "Oh, you're from Australia - why on earth would you move here?" I've had half a bottle of wine tonight, that's my story. Narrative fiction gives us warped and weird views of places and makes us think we know them when we don't? I dunno! Read Ian McDonald's Luna books, they're good.
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May 22, 2017 14:14
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Neurosis posted:i do not think an australian in the time i have been alive would call someone a 'loving galah' ('loving [white] dog oval office' is the trash epithet i tend to hear the most). I agree they are indistinguishable when you compare the difference to Alabama vs New York or Surrey vs Glasgow, but they're still there. I maintain an arrogant, narcissistic mining magnate from Western Australia would never name a cocktail a '1788' Side note, re: "loving galah": I never used Australian slang and in fact in my teenage years I had a cultural cringe about it and would deliberately avoid it, but in my late 20s I use it a lot and genuinely can't tell whether that's hipster irony or just the fact that as an adult you interact with older people a lot more and it bleeds into your language freebooter fucked around with this message at 14:21 on May 22, 2017 |
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May 22, 2017 14:17
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5 Star rating system is fine, 2 stars for okay is fine. Both of them help prevent snarky rating bombing and how many books do you actually rate a 1 or 2 on Amazon? At least compared to the number of books you rate a 4 or 5. The 10 star rating system always devolves into 7 is okay, 1-6 is awful to poor, 8 is good, 9 is great, 10 is amazing. So why not just merge 1-6 and be done with it? The Glumslinger posted:So I just finally finished Red Sister, and it was pretty good, but I'm struggling to be excited about 2 sequels. I mean, it not like it was a bad book, but the entire time I couldn't help but compare it to Blood Song, and Blood Song is just a much better magical/battle school type book. I mean this has a great setting, with a lot of unique and interesting world building, but it just a worn genre for me to use as framing device. I feel like his characters in Prince of Fools and Prince of Thorns were just more interesting, and doing more interesting things. Like not spending all day in school. Same Koburn posted:Goodreads shouldn't be used without a custom adblock filter for gifs in reviews. This makes such a huge difference.
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May 22, 2017 14:36
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:This is why I like the Rivers of London series so much. There are an essentially infinite number of fantasy novels set in London, but most of them are written for Americans; Aaronovitch writes for Londoners. Yeah, as a Londoner Aaronovitch's series is one of the very, very few London-set fantasies I can tolerate. I tried to talk an online friend out of writing a London-set fantasy trilogy and failed. Curse you Google Street View!
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May 22, 2017 14:42
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freebooter posted:I agree they are indistinguishable when you compare the difference to Alabama vs New York or Surrey vs Glasgow, but they're still there. I maintain an arrogant, narcissistic mining magnate from Western Australia would never name a cocktail a '1788' yeah i can agree there are some differences; i suppose my experience is that you'll find basically the same sets of sub-cultures (few in number) running through the various states, just the balance in any given city is distinctive. i contrast that with my understanding of the us where it seems like there are quite radical differences between the different regions. as for the mining magnate thing, working in tax law, i can say that wa hits above its weight in terms of aggressive 'everything i make is the sweat of my own brow and i shouldn't have to give up any of it' clients so it sounds like the villains for luna are properly sourced.
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May 22, 2017 15:04
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The preferred term is 'flamin' galah'.
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May 22, 2017 15:40
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coyo7e posted:I've got a request though. I was wondering if anyone knows of any interesting fantasy and/or historical fantasy novels or series which are set in a pre-Iron Age setting? It was said already, but Iron Dawn and Jericho Moon are great if you can find copies of them.
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May 22, 2017 18:08
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Poldarn posted:It was said already, but Iron Dawn and Jericho Moon are great if you can find copies of them. Stephen Baxter has done a few. Xeelee sequence is very good hard sci-fi too.
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May 22, 2017 21:04
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freebooter posted:Read Ian McDonald's Luna books, they're good. I recently read The Falls: A Luna Story in The Year's Best Science Fiction 32nd Annual Collection, which was my first introduction to McDonald. I often bounce off hard SF, but McDonald still managed quite an impressive emotional punch.
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May 23, 2017 00:20
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Finished up City of Miracles. Good ending to the series, which overall I enjoyed a lot. Anybody got thoughts on Dave Hutchinson's "Europe in Autumn" series? I saw a review on Strange Horizons a while back for the second book and thought it sounded interesting.
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May 23, 2017 08:02
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