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Ugly In The Morning posted:I really enjoyed that series. It's a premise that could go off the rails easily, but Tregellis has a knack for knowing exactly how far he can push it. Except for turning World War II into a setting for stupid magic/superpower nonsense, apparently.
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Sep 22, 2017 05:01
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:Except for turning World War II into a setting for stupid magic/superpower nonsense, apparently. MAD gone mad. You mad? It makes sense if you actually read the books and not masturbate while complaining that SciFi isn't the Literature you're looking for.
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Sep 22, 2017 05:03
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The superheroes-in-WWII potboilers are actually good, he says in the terrible book thread.
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Sep 22, 2017 05:10
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:Except for turning World War II into a setting for stupid magic/superpower nonsense, apparently. Are you arguing that it's like, morally insulting to the lives lost or something? Listen, buddy, the magic/superpower nonsense in WW2 boat sailed a long time ago. Like, a really long time ago.
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Sep 22, 2017 06:05
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Mr. Sunshine posted:I stopped reading after that part. Aww, that means you didn't get to the part where a bunch of Jewish soldiers have to fight alongside the SS, and they're so impressed by them they end up joining SS regiments and wearing their insignia!
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Sep 22, 2017 06:21
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TenCentFang posted:Are you arguing that it's like, morally insulting to the lives lost or something? Listen, buddy, the magic/superpower nonsense in WW2 boat sailed a long time ago. Like, a really long time ago. Especially since the Nazis themselves were a bunch of weirdo larpers trying to make alchemy work. Between that and later cold war stuff like MK Ultra, it's not a big surprise that a lot of people have gone "and what would happen if some of that poo poo did work out?" Heck, Thor Meets Captain America won a Locus award, and that's a... Weird story.
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Sep 22, 2017 06:25
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Angry Salami posted:Aww, that means you didn't get to the part where a bunch of Jewish soldiers have to fight alongside the SS, and they're so impressed by them they end up joining SS regiments and wearing their insignia! You know, even as horrendously tasteless as that twist is, it does not surprise me in the slightest that the author of WotR included it in his book.
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Sep 22, 2017 06:39
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Regarde Aduck posted:You've missed the fact that in the Laundry they're still lying to themselves. The "magic" is neither science or magic. It's what happens when you drag something from a universe with very different laws of physics into your own. The result is a destruction of science and sanity. At the small scales the laundry practices this effect can be controlled and weaponised. But the final result is that our universe of relative sanity is entirely arbitrary and fragile. The "magic" works via temporarily destroying your own universe's laws. You can't actually study or quantify that. It's the absence of quantifiability that makes it work. It removes the rules, doesn't change or add to them. The actual genre for the Laundry series is "computer janitor war stories." Charlie was various sorts of computer janitor in the past, and that's who these stories of Bob Oliver Francis Howard (and remember his passing assistant Peter-Fred Young) are for: his IT mates down the pub on a Friday.
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Sep 22, 2017 09:13
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Regarde Aduck posted:You've missed the fact that in the Laundry Oh god we have a live one. You've missed the fact that the Chinese government supplies the Laundry with the forearms of executed prisoners as raw materials to manufacture weaponized hands of glory. Or the fact that one of the Laundry's top officers keeps the shrunken heads of traitors on his desk as balls in a Newton's cradle. Tell me where the fragility is when the process can be industrialized or performed "recreationally". It's pure masturbation on how wizards (the nerds of the fantasy world) are the coolest and greatest (incidentally a huge point of contention in D&D version 3 vs version 4)
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Sep 22, 2017 10:42
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hackbunny posted:Oh god we have a live one. You've missed the fact that the Chinese government supplies the Laundry with the forearms of executed prisoners as raw materials to manufacture weaponized hands of glory. Or the fact that one of the Laundry's top officers keeps the shrunken heads of traitors on his desk as balls in a Newton's cradle. Tell me where the fragility is when the process can be industrialized or performed "recreationally". It's pure masturbation on how wizards (the nerds of the fantasy world) are the coolest and greatest (incidentally a huge point of contention in D&D version 3 vs version 4) The fragility is that the nightmare scenario they're preparing for is their own powers turning against them. CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN is an apocalypse where magic becomes more powerful, more common, less safe, less easily controlled, and more likely to attract more powerful creatures from beyond, until we either blink ourselves out of existence or get eaten by something else. In keeping with Stross's particular preoccupations, it's a none-too-veiled nuclear proliferation metaphor with a side-order of global warming.
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Sep 22, 2017 11:35
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Someone should Let's Read Watch On The Rhine because that sounds like the worst and most tasteless book in existence. Also I'm already dead inside and fear nothing.
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Sep 22, 2017 12:06
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Jew it to it! posted:The Milkweed Triptych by Ian Tregillis sort of fits the bill of what you're looking for.
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Sep 22, 2017 15:17
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Sham bam bamina! posted:So, Necroscope but set earlier. Not really. It's basically a WWII spy novel with Nazi technofuckery and British warlocks for a significant part of the first one, the second one is a Cold War spy novel with Russian technofuckery upsetting the fragile balance like ICBMs did, and I can't describe the third one without massive spoilers.
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Sep 22, 2017 15:27
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The Furlites of Aroriel thread has gotten its first hints at Shartball, and it seems like basically alien rugby.
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Sep 22, 2017 16:06
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Sham bam bamina! posted:So, Necroscope but set earlier. Nothing like Lumley.
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Sep 22, 2017 17:37
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What's RPO?
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Sep 22, 2017 21:30
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coyo7e posted:What's RPO? Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
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Sep 22, 2017 21:37
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Darth Walrus posted:The fragility is that the nightmare scenario they're preparing for is their own powers turning against them. CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN is an apocalypse where magic becomes more powerful, more common, less safe, less easily controlled, and more likely to attract more powerful creatures from beyond, until we either blink ourselves out of existence or get eaten by something else. In keeping with Stross's particular preoccupations, it's a none-too-veiled nuclear proliferation metaphor with a side-order of global warming. Yeah nice save Stross, but remember when you made Donald Knuth the most powerful wizard in the world and the unreleased volumes 5 and on of The Art Of Computer Programming classified magical tomes?
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Sep 22, 2017 22:16
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Presented without context or comment:
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Sep 22, 2017 22:19
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hackbunny posted:Presented without context or comment: Stephan king is actually good :shh:
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Sep 22, 2017 22:24
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hackbunny posted:Presented without context or comment: 
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Sep 22, 2017 22:38
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Mr. Sunshine posted:
That's been the American right's dominant narrative for the last quarter-century or so. And it was lurking within the culture of the right pretty much from the start of the Cold War. (Google the John Birch Society sometime, and then stay up late knowing that their ideology is in the driver's seat of all three branches of government right now.)
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Sep 23, 2017 00:08
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I'm a huge Bill Bryson fan and will buy pretty much anything that has his name on it. In the early 90's, after 20 years as a newspaper reporter in the UK, he was leaving to return to America and took a walking trip, writing about it in Notes From a Small Island. As an American expat living in the UK at the time, I loved the book and the view of life in the UK from a perspective I could really relate to. Twenty plus years (and several best sellers later), he sets out to write basically a sequel to Notes From A Small Island called The Road to Little Dribbling. All the second book is is an old man bitching about change and how he hates it. It's supposed to encompass a journey from the south end of England all the way up thru Scotland, but 3/4 of the book is London and the home counties, barely touching on the the rest of the country. Quite the waste of 600 pages, but of course, it being Bill Bryson, every book reviewer was lining up to stroke his dick.
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Sep 23, 2017 02:25
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hackbunny posted:Presented without context or comment: I love this picture because I can totally imagine this man writing the infamous "bonding" scene it It. As well as a manifesto and homemade bomb instructions. On a cave wall.
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Sep 23, 2017 03:13
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hackbunny posted:Presented without context or comment: Was this back in his coke fiend days?
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Sep 23, 2017 03:17
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The Vosgian Beast posted:Was this back in his coke fiend days?
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Sep 23, 2017 03:33
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hackbunny posted:Presented without context or comment: $4000,000? Who writes numbers that way?
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Sep 23, 2017 03:53
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uli2000 posted:I'm a huge Bill Bryson fan and will buy pretty much anything that has his name on it. In the early 90's, after 20 years as a newspaper reporter in the UK, he was leaving to return to America and took a walking trip, writing about it in Notes From a Small Island. As an American expat living in the UK at the time, I loved the book and the view of life in the UK from a perspective I could really relate to. Twenty plus years (and several best sellers later), he sets out to write basically a sequel to Notes From A Small Island called The Road to Little Dribbling. All the second book is is an old man bitching about change and how he hates it. It's supposed to encompass a journey from the south end of England all the way up thru Scotland, but 3/4 of the book is London and the home counties, barely touching on the the rest of the country. Quite the waste of 600 pages, but of course, it being Bill Bryson, every book reviewer was lining up to stroke his dick.
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Sep 23, 2017 03:57
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Tiggum posted:$4000,000? Who writes numbers that way? Someone who made a typo.
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Sep 23, 2017 05:04
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I made a Twitter thread about Tom Delonge's UFO conspiracy book if you guys wanna check it out. https://twitter.com/grittyrebootSA/status/912963335662039040?s=09
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Sep 27, 2017 14:12
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Screaming Idiot posted:I love this picture because I can totally imagine this man writing the infamous "bonding" scene it It. As well as a manifesto and homemade bomb instructions. This was originally printed when he was a student: 
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Sep 27, 2017 14:30
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RC and Moon Pie posted:This was originally printed when he was a student: This poster went on to be scenery in the original Silent Hill (along with SH's elementary school being designed after the school in Kindergarten Cop. Yes, really.)  Crazy eyes Stephen King really gets around.
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Sep 27, 2017 16:27
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spite house posted:That's disappointing but not surprising. Notes From A Small Island was great, but an awful lot of it was given over to grousing about how icky any form of modernization is, and misty-eyed pastoral chauvinism that reminded me of Michael Moorcock's criticisms of Tolkien. Think I'll be giving this one a miss. (Though his observation that it's a shame England never tried communism, not because of its viability as an economic system but because the English, with their penchant for mediocre food, lowered expectations and waiting in line, would be terrific at it, remains a classic.) I read it and it's... ok. There are some pretty good observations and some interesting stories but it's not much of a travelog
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Sep 27, 2017 19:55
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uli2000 posted:I'm a huge Bill Bryson fan and will buy pretty much anything that has his name on it. In the early 90's, after 20 years as a newspaper reporter in the UK, he was leaving to return to America and took a walking trip, writing about it in Notes From a Small Island. As an American expat living in the UK at the time, I loved the book and the view of life in the UK from a perspective I could really relate to. Twenty plus years (and several best sellers later), he sets out to write basically a sequel to Notes From A Small Island called The Road to Little Dribbling. All the second book is is an old man bitching about change and how he hates it. It's supposed to encompass a journey from the south end of England all the way up thru Scotland, but 3/4 of the book is London and the home counties, barely touching on the the rest of the country. Quite the waste of 600 pages, but of course, it being Bill Bryson, every book reviewer was lining up to stroke his dick. He also wrote a book called The Mother Tongue which is basically factual errors and stupid ideas from cover to cover.
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Sep 27, 2017 20:12
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hackbunny posted:Presented without context or comment: Stephen King as Killer BOB? King nowadays seems like a fun, laidback guy full of interesting stories, but 70s and 80s King sounds like he'd be terrifying to encounter in person.
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Sep 27, 2017 22:37
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Jerry Cotton posted:He also wrote a book called The Mother Tongue which is basically factual errors and stupid ideas from cover to cover.
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Sep 28, 2017 00:43
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OldMemes posted:Stephen King as Killer BOB? King nowadays seems like a fun, laidback guy full of interesting stories, but 70s and 80s King sounds like he'd be terrifying to encounter in person. To be fair, '80's Stephen King was by all accounts a sapient mass of alcohol and cocaine shoddily inhabiting a human skin, so... yeah.
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Sep 28, 2017 01:41
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Does make me wonder what various nationals think of Bill Bryson's travelogues. Down Under probably sells better in Australia than anywhere else because it's quite affectionate and brings up cool stuff most Australians didn't even know about. Also, it's goddamn hilarious. Also, he is right at least that the English language is a shambling Frankensteinian abomination too horrible to die that spreads like a disease and assimilates like the Borg.
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Sep 28, 2017 01:47
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Sham bam bamina! posted:I imagine that it would have driven you to obscenity... if your language contained any obscenities. Oh jesus caries I'd managed to forget all about "ravintolassa". Voi lakkiluken lakkiluke!
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Sep 28, 2017 13:31
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Antivehicular posted:To be fair, '80's Stephen King was by all accounts a sapient mass of alcohol and cocaine shoddily inhabiting a human skin, so... yeah.
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Sep 28, 2017 17:08
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