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I'd hold off on The Martians. Not because it's bad, but because it's so different. There's extra Mars Trilogy stuff (including alternate timelines with the same cast), but also just about any other KSR Mars-related short fiction - most of which is interesting and good (particularly the 1985 novella Green Mars), but the whole thing hangs together pretty loosely and feels sort of scatterbrained. Read it when you get nostalgic for the Mars Trilogy in a year or two, not immediately after. Aurora is a solid recommendation. 2312 is also good. I'll also go to bat for Antarctica, which features really incredible (and true) historical vignettes of early Antarctic exploration, along side the roughly present-day fictional story.
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Jan 14, 2018 06:13
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Arcsech posted:Yoon Ha Lee writes fanfic regularly even now, and Ninefox Gambit and Raven Strategem are really very good. what are yoon ha lee's fandoms
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Jan 14, 2018 10:10
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For my next fantasy read, I can't decide if I want to start with The Faithful and The Fallen series by John Gwynne, or Stormlight by Sanderson. I'll probably read both eventually, but I'd appreciate if someone would help with my decision paralysis for now.
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Jan 14, 2018 12:23
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Drunk Driver Dad posted:For my next fantasy read, I can't decide if I want to start with The Faithful and The Fallen series by John Gwynne, or Stormlight by Sanderson. I'll probably read both eventually, but I'd appreciate if someone would help with my decision paralysis for now. I don't know the other but Stormlight is unfinished and will be for ages. Skip it for now!
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Jan 14, 2018 12:24
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I just read a short blurb on The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi I don't know anything about the author, but it sounded interesting. Any opinions on it?
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Jan 14, 2018 12:30
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StrixNebulosa posted:I don't know the other but Stormlight is unfinished and will be for ages. Skip it for now! This doesn't bother me much unless it's some deal where there's not much released yet, but the 3 main books are pretty big aren't they? Should be enough to hold me over until I want a break from it I'd imagine.
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Jan 14, 2018 12:31
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Well, the Faithful guy probably needs your money and Amazon reviews a lot more than Sanderson, being a self-publisher. EDIT: Ah, was thinking of Faithless by Graham Austin-King which has good buzz around it.
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Jan 14, 2018 12:51
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Drunk Driver Dad posted:This doesn't bother me much unless it's some deal where there's not much released yet, but the 3 main books are pretty big aren't they? Yeah they're over 3,300 pages total already
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Jan 14, 2018 13:24
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Does The Weapon Makers by A.E. Van Vogt ever amount to anything more than a stupid "we need guns to RESIST GOVERNMENT TYRANNY" screed, or should I just burn it off my list and replace it with Vonnegut's Player Piano?
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Jan 14, 2018 13:26
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Megazver posted:Well, the Faithful guy probably needs your money and Amazon reviews a lot more than Sanderson, being a self-publisher. As a counterpoint, that probably means you need to read the Faithful guy's books a lot less.
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Jan 14, 2018 13:35
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PupsOfWar posted:what are yoon ha lee's fandoms His ao3 page has a lot of Angel but it varies. He's also written Murderbot fic. also a literal answer to the question: "Active fandoms right now: Face Off, The Good Place, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Voltron: Legendary Defender, Fate/Apocrypha (we'll probably branch out to the rest of the universe)." edit: please enjoy this short piece of fanfiction about murderbot and fanfiction. 90s Cringe Rock fucked around with this message at 14:28 on Jan 14, 2018 |
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Jan 14, 2018 14:17
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Tokamak posted:I'll also mention The Years of Rice and Salt for a recommendation that's a little different. It's an alt-history novel where the black plague wiped out Europe and recounts the history of the world through reincarnations of the protagonists. Seconded, this book is great and probably my favorite KSR novel.
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Jan 14, 2018 15:53
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Jedit posted:As a counterpoint, that probably means you need to read the Faithful guy's books a lot less. Just to be clear, John Gwynne is published by Tor in the UK and Orbit in the US. Megazver has him confused with someone else.
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Jan 14, 2018 16:03
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Professor Shark posted:I just read a short blurb on The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi The book feels like Scalzi's attempt to do Cherryh's DownBelow Station's universe. Scalzi himself is unpredictable, some of his work is real good(1st old mans war book & androids dream), other stuff not so much. Scalzi signed a new publishing contract, and has been pumping out lots of serialized AmazonSingle stories that later get compiled into books. Never buy the individual stories, wait for the compiled books, it's much cheaper and a smoother read. Solitair posted:Does The Weapon Makers by A.E. Van Vogt ever amount to anything more than a stupid "we need guns to RESIST GOVERNMENT TYRANNY" screed, or should I just burn it off my list and replace it with Vonnegut's Player Piano? There is going to be way worse stories than Weapon Makers to read in your project. Funnily the Weapon Maker stories are some of the worst Van Vogt stories out there. Vogt's infinitely superior Space Beagle book(1950) got The Weapon Makers on that nomination list for sympathy reasons. The Hugo award selections in the classic old days were more a reason for pulp scifi authors to meet up & have fun with other writer pals than the internet democracy style Hugo awards that exist now. If you're already cracking on your self-imposed Hugo-revisited project, modify your goal or your criteria. I never quite understood your list anyway. You said you were thinking of reading the runner-up stories + winners, then in a later post about your project said you had added not-included in the nominations stories.
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Jan 14, 2018 17:10
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90s Cringe Rock posted:https://twitter.com/motomaratai/status/745711925367967744 hell yeah
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Jan 14, 2018 22:16
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:There is going to be way worse stories than Weapon Makers to read in your project. Funnily the Weapon Maker stories are some of the worst Van Vogt stories out there. Vogt's infinitely superior Space Beagle book(1950) got The Weapon Makers on that nomination list for sympathy reasons. Not all years since the Best Novel award was established had runner-up stories. For most of the award's history there's been an initial nomination phase, resulting in four, five or six works on a final ballot which Worldcon members voted on in a second phase. Before 1959, though, there was just one phase, which skipped the ballot and went straight from nominations to one winner. Those years have been the subject of all my posts on the Hugos in the thread recently; if I can't compare the winner to the runners-up and opine on whether it deserved to win, I'll compare it to some other contemporaries that came out that year, contemporaries that could have been runners-up if there had been a ballot. The Weapon Makers is not on an official ballot, or so I thought. I wasn't aware that there was a story about it being up for a Hugo. You're right about there being some real stinkers ahead of me, though, so now I'll probably keep it in.
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Jan 14, 2018 22:23
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Possibly thinking of The Weapon Shops of Isher which was included in the "Science Fiction Hall of Fame" anthology, basically the pre-Nebula Award Nebulas? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_Fiction_Hall_of_Fame,_Volume_One,_1929%E2%80%931964
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Jan 14, 2018 22:45
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Lester Shy posted:After spending 10+ years on my bookshelf, I'm finally getting around to finishing Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, and I'm already trying to decide which of his books to pick up next. Is The Martians collection worth reading? I've heard differing opinions. Any particular KSR recommendations? Aside from The Martians, I think I'd prefer a stand-alone novel over a series for the time being. I really liked the Martians (about 10 years ago, haven't revisited it) but it's not a great book on it's own. It's more like the extended cuts or extras on a DVD the expand the world of the Mars trilogy.
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Jan 14, 2018 23:57
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Prolonged Priapism posted:I'd hold off on The Martians. Not because it's bad, but because it's so different. There's extra Mars Trilogy stuff (including alternate timelines with the same cast), but also just about any other KSR Mars-related short fiction - most of which is interesting and good (particularly the 1985 novella Green Mars), but the whole thing hangs together pretty loosely and feels sort of scatterbrained. Read it when you get nostalgic for the Mars Trilogy in a year or two, not immediately after. Is Icehenge worth a look?
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Jan 15, 2018 00:04
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branedotorg posted:Is Icehenge worth a look? Its like 100 pages of interconnected short stories that feel very similar to the Mars trilogy.
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Jan 15, 2018 01:15
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branedotorg posted:I really liked the Martians (about 10 years ago, haven't revisited it) but it's not a great book on it's own. It's more like the extended cuts or extras on a DVD the expand the world of the Mars trilogy. I agree with this, although reading the first story set in Antarctica was really good right after reading the trilogy. Two hundred years of dramatic, sweeping future history and the creation of a utopian state, and then you think you're reading an extended cut story about how the early settlers went through all their training in Antarctica before the Ares voyage, and it ends with "So they cancelled the program."
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Jan 15, 2018 02:29
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Solitair posted:Not all years since the Best Novel award was established had runner-up stories. For most of the award's history there's been an initial nomination phase, resulting in four, five or six works on a final ballot which Worldcon members voted on in a second phase. Before 1959, though, there was just one phase, which skipped the ballot and went straight from nominations to one winner. Those years have been the subject of all my posts on the Hugos in the thread recently; if I can't compare the winner to the runners-up and opine on whether it deserved to win, I'll compare it to some other contemporaries that came out that year, contemporaries that could have been runners-up if there had been a ballot. Like I said before, the estate of Isaac Asimov is likely to have that 1950's Hugo data you want. Save yourself from lots of bad fiction that will make you question literacy itself, and contact the estate with a browse request. Asimov's notes about what authors were present at each 1950s Hugo meetup would by inference get you that same data too, any scifi authors there were 75% likely to have been nominated for that years Hugo award, bump that probability up to 90% if the scifi authors lived outside of the country where the award was presented. Foreign language classics like Stanislaw Lem's Star Diaries (1957 original publish date) would not have been nominated for the 1957 Hugos because the English translation of it only came out in 1976, and not many scifi readers or authors read polish, ignoring the whole Iron Curtain cold war communications embargo between Soviet sphere nations & the rest of the world. Instead marvel that Vernor Vinge's True Names never won a award, yet got so many things right about the internet for a story published in 1981. Back in 1981, the civilian internet didn't exist outside of major universities.
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Jan 15, 2018 02:37
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branedotorg posted:Is Icehenge worth a look? Yeah. You see lots of early echos of ideas that play out on a grander scale in the Mars trilogy and Aurora, but it does work as its own slightly weird and meditative thing.
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Jan 15, 2018 08:53
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Drunk Driver Dad posted:For my next fantasy read, I can't decide if I want to start with The Faithful and The Fallen series by John Gwynne, or Stormlight by Sanderson. I'll probably read both eventually, but I'd appreciate if someone would help with my decision paralysis for now. I read the first book of The Faithful and The Fallen and found it to be a generic chosen one versus ancient evil story. It's not bad as such but Stormlight is a much more interesting take on epic fantasy.
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Jan 15, 2018 13:15
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Tokamak posted:Probably Aurora. This book is so good.
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Jan 15, 2018 22:15
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Finished reading Tantamount which was centered around Spelljammer esque “sail ships in space”. Always liked the concept even though I’ve never played a Spelljammer game and this is the first book I’ve read that uses the principle. The plot centers around the crew of the titular merchant ship who get caught up in a war between two planets. I liked it but there were two incredibly obnoxious characters who fought every time they were together. Now I’ve started Gemmell’s Legend and I’m finding it’s old school flavor incredibly refreshing after a lot of darker, more complex modern fantasy I’ve read recently
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Jan 16, 2018 01:25
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FastestGunAlive posted:Finished reading Tantamount which was centered around Spelljammer esque “sail ships in space”. Always liked the concept even though I’ve never played a Spelljammer game and this is the first book I’ve read that uses the principle. The plot centers around the crew of the titular merchant ship who get caught up in a war between two planets. I liked it but there were two incredibly obnoxious characters who fought every time they were together. Harm's Way by Colin Greenland is an excellent book with a similar aesthetic.
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Jan 16, 2018 02:17
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XBenedict posted:This book is so good. I concur. It's the only KSR book I've read and enjoyed.
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Jan 16, 2018 02:38
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Harm's Way by Colin Greenland is an excellent book with a similar aesthetic. It's not fantasy but Karl Schroeder's Virga series also has 'sailing ships in space' and is excellent, and also involves exploring a lot of weird ancient artifacts of a very strange (but still human) civilization.
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Jan 16, 2018 03:59
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Started reading Nine Princes in Amber the other day. Wife asked what I was reading and when I told her, she asked if it was about a gangbang.
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Jan 16, 2018 04:34
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Professor Shark posted:I just read a short blurb on The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi I don't know, I loved pretty much everything Scalzi put out in a very pulpy, light read kind of way, but I really disliked The Collapsing Empire. I can't remember what exactly made me dislike it, but I want to say it is something to do with the characters. Scalzi always writes smarmy nerd characters that are too cool for school, but I want to say The Collapsing Empire had characters that were just totally insufferably nerd cool and sapped all the fun out of the story. Ah, this is what I wrote in my review on Goodreads: quote:I'll be honest and say that, while I enjoyed the story and the premise and will probably pick up the next book in the series, the characters just didn't do it for me. Every other word out of most of the characters' mouths was gently caress and, while I'm not diluted enough to think that swearing is not a part of standard speech, I find it hard to believe that the political elite would be slinging "gently caress off"s and "gently caress you"s around with such gusto. Sure, they are more of an elite caste that were born into their positions, but I still don't really think that they'd be quite so crude.
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Jan 16, 2018 06:07
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USMC_Karl posted:I find it hard to believe that the political elite would be slinging "gently caress off"s and "gently caress you"s around with such gusto. Sure, they are more of an elite caste that were born into their positions, but I still don't really think that they'd be quite so crude. lol
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Jan 16, 2018 07:03
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shrike82 posted:lol Yeah, seeing transcripts of Trump's outbursts has kind of made that a little laughable. 
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Jan 16, 2018 07:45
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Started reading Nine Princes in Amber the other day. Wife asked what I was reading and when I told her, she asked if it was about a gangbang. "It's about gangsters trying to become king!"
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Jan 16, 2018 12:14
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shrike82 posted:lol Hotpants. Jesus Christ.
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Jan 16, 2018 15:18
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Started reading Nine Princes in Amber the other day. Wife asked what I was reading and when I told her, she asked if it was about a gangbang. It isn't? I'd better reread that then.
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Jan 16, 2018 15:53
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USMC_Karl posted:Yeah, seeing transcripts of Trump's outbursts has kind of made that a little laughable. Politicians have always been that vulgar and crude when off-mic (and sometimes someone leaves one hot which is always fun). LBJ was *notorious* for it. So was Nixon. Even Carter was known to get a little salty.
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Jan 16, 2018 16:34
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Proteus Jones posted:Politicians have always been that vulgar and crude when off-mic (and sometimes someone leaves one hot which is always fun). LBJ was *notorious* for it. So was Nixon. Even Carter was known to get a little salty. LBJ also regularly peed on the White House, so yeah, all bets are off.
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Jan 16, 2018 16:55
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occamsnailfile posted:It's not fantasy but Karl Schroeder's Virga series also has 'sailing ships in space' and is excellent, and also involves exploring a lot of weird ancient artifacts of a very strange (but still human) civilization. This looks interesting, thanks for the rec.
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Jan 16, 2018 17:39
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MockingQuantum posted:LBJ also regularly peed on the White House, so yeah, all bets are off. He also complained to his tailor that his trousers were always too tight to accomodate his girthy cock and balls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zNMo8kl7Ac
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Jan 16, 2018 18:47
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