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andrew smash posted:I read an interview with the showrunner who said she wanted to introduce the quellists and wasnt sure if shed get the chance to do a second season, so thats why they ended up the way they did. Not a great reason mind but there it is. That's an incredibly dumb reason, given what ended up in the show had almost nothing to do with the Quellists in the books. The only similarities were the name, pretty much.
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Mar 23, 2018 19:31
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Agreed
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Mar 23, 2018 19:41
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I wanna read taltos and discworld but both are large and costs will add up. Are there any good bundled collections out there?
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Mar 23, 2018 21:18
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Nevvy Z posted:I wanna read taltos and discworld but both are large and costs will add up. Are there any good bundled collections out there? Discworld is not a series per say, so you can pick basically any of his first 20 books and go from there. The latter books should be taken at a later state given Pratchetts illness.
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Mar 23, 2018 21:40
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Cardiac posted:Discworld is not a series per say, so you can pick basically any of his first 20 books and go from there. 1. This is not true. There are several different arcs and an increasing amount of backstory and context. Some tips here but I recommend Guards, Guards!: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/524399-terry-pratchett-s-discworld-where-or-how-to-start 2. Per se was taken from Latin and is not spelled that way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_phrases_(P)#per_se
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Mar 23, 2018 21:48
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I've been spending the last few weeks reading through Taltos for free, because I prefer to read on a Kindle and my local public library has Overdrive and Overdrive has all of the omnibus editions of Taltos ready for lending. A lot of Pratchett is on there, too. It's definitely a good way to go if you are worried about cost.
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Mar 23, 2018 21:58
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meinstein posted:I've been spending the last few weeks reading through Taltos for free, because I prefer to read on a Kindle and my local public library has Overdrive and Overdrive has all of the omnibus editions of Taltos ready for lending. A lot of Pratchett is on there, too. My library's Overdrive does not have Brust or most of Discworld, unfortunately. I was planning on eventually buying all of Discworld anyway.
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Mar 23, 2018 22:12
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ulmont posted:1. This is not true. There are several different arcs and an increasing amount of backstory and context. Some tips here but I recommend Guards, Guards!: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/524399-terry-pratchett-s-discworld-where-or-how-to-start Wrong. Reading Pratchett is super easy. You pick a book ( not Shepherds crown), enjoy it, pick a new book, enjoy it. Read them all? Just start over. I fail to see why one would need a reading order, unless one is a pedantic sperg, which is aptly shown in your point nr 2.
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Mar 23, 2018 22:26
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"Per say" is just especially dumb, Cardiac. It has nothing to do with saying.
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Mar 23, 2018 22:32
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While you can pick up any Discworld book, some of the latter books (particularly the Watch and Moist von Lipwig books) really benefit from having read the previous books in that 'series'. I can't imagine reading Night Watch without having read at least one other Watch book first.
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Mar 23, 2018 22:40
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StrixNebulosa posted:5# Chanur's Legacy I think I'd give Chanur's Homecoming that title just for the epilogue. I take it out and re-read it whenever I need a big hit of warm fuzzies.
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Mar 23, 2018 22:54
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Hey guys I just finished The Stone Sky and I don't know what to read now. Go get some Nnedi Okorafor if you haven’t already - Who Fears Death is solid but dark, and the Binti novelettes are a lot of fun.
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Mar 23, 2018 22:58
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Dramatika posted:Go get some Nnedi Okorafor if you haven’t already - Who Fears Death is solid but dark, and the Binti novelettes are a lot of fun. Zahrah the Windseeker is a pretty decent book if you don't mind it being written for preteen kids.
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Mar 23, 2018 23:03
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Nevvy Z posted:I wanna read taltos and discworld but both are large and costs will add up. Are there any good bundled collections out there? You can get the first 6 bundled in the Book of Taltos and The Book of Jhereg
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Mar 24, 2018 00:04
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D1E posted:I read them all in completely random order and I don’t think the experience suffered at all for it. Why not just get whichever one is cheapest or most easily available? There are a few that are coherently in a chronological order. Biggest is Consider Phlebas -> Look To Windward, but I don't particularly like CP, so.  also Use of Weapons -> Surface Detail, if I recall correctly?
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Mar 24, 2018 01:07
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Do Asher's books have to be read in order or are they all just standalone books in the same universe? Been thinking of trying him out but don't wanna start in the rear end end of a series.
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Mar 24, 2018 01:18
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Do Asher's books have to be read in order or are they all just standalone books in the same universe? The wikipedia page has a good overview. TL;DR not all of them are in the same universe, but the ones that are are mostly in a few series with a defined order.
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Mar 24, 2018 02:34
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Do Asher's books have to be read in order or are they all just standalone books in the same universe? They’re a set of series that overlap characters and locales, with a standalone or two. I’d probably recommend the Spatterjay books first, followed by the Agent Cormac series. I’d also recommend reading The Technician *before* the Transformation series. Prador Moon is prequel detailing the 1st contact between the Prador and the Polity Collective. Whatever you do, don’t read The Owner series, unless you like in-your-face Libertarianism Will Save The Day in your sci-fi. Stick with the Polity books.
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Mar 24, 2018 02:37
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Discworld books can be dated to early/late Pratchett by how much Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler is in them. Moist von something is Dibbler expanded out to a main character....and really not that interesting. Early Pratchett was very good. Weird sisters, mort, the rincewind/twoflower/the luggage books, pyramids, guards guards, and moving pictures.
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Mar 24, 2018 03:22
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all Pratchett is good imo Except Raising Steam (I think that's the one I was thinking of) I thought that was substantially less good
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Mar 24, 2018 03:27
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Chairchucker posted:all Pratchett is good imo I’m partial to mid to later Pratchett because you can just feel the rage roiling beneath the satire.
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Mar 24, 2018 03:31
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Unseen Academicals was bad and Snuff was worse. Both read like embarrassing early drafts that had been put to publish way too soon.
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Mar 24, 2018 04:00
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Hoping someone has some suggestions on what to read next for a space opera with plenty of fun high tech things that make society more interesting (cloning, gene modding, consciousness downloading, androids, etc). Especially stories that don't try to be particularly grounded in reality or anything like it. Bonus points if it's not military. Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem are what spurred the desire for more of this. Other things I've read that would fit the bill are The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and the Ancillary Justice books. Generally, I'm really character-focused - with good characters (and an interesting setting), I'm pretty forgiving on the plot. Like, I grew up on the Star Wars novels, I don't need anything great out of a book if it's enjoyable. I also love political maneuvering, so giant space senates are cool.
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Mar 24, 2018 04:31
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EVGA Longoria posted:Hoping someone has some suggestions on what to read next for a space opera with plenty of fun high tech things that make society more interesting (cloning, gene modding, consciousness downloading, androids, etc). Especially stories that don't try to be particularly grounded in reality or anything like it. Bonus points if it's not military. Jack Vance's Demon Princes series, and his other Oikumene/Gaean Reach stories.
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Mar 24, 2018 04:45
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Why do science fictions authors like Libertarianism so much?
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Mar 24, 2018 05:18
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TOOT BOOT posted:Why do science fictions authors like Libertarianism so much? Cause a made-up world is the only way that poo poo works
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Mar 24, 2018 05:19
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EVGA Longoria posted:Hoping someone has some suggestions on what to read next for a space opera with plenty of fun high tech things that make society more interesting (cloning, gene modding, consciousness downloading, androids, etc). Especially stories that don't try to be particularly grounded in reality or anything like it. Bonus points if it's not military. Space Team by Barry Hutchison is space opera, and in pretty much no way serious. There's 8 books out now (plus a few short story collections), and I am 99% sure they are on kindle unlimited. The first one is a bit too try hard, but it picks up, and the series is fun. Lots of weird poo poo going on, with a main character who is basically just a random human guy who got accidentally abducted, and then goes on the run with SPACE criminals. The Wrong Stars was kinda interesting as well. Bit... odd but kept me interested enough to finish. Can't recall the author offhand though. Came out kinda recently.
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Mar 24, 2018 05:32
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navyjack posted:Cause a made-up world is the only way that poo poo works The Moon is a Harsh Mistress only works because a super-computer does all the grunt-work in phase two of the Phase 1: Phase 2: ? Phase 3:
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Mar 24, 2018 05:44
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Captain_Person posted:While you can pick up any Discworld book, some of the latter books (particularly the Watch and Moist von Lipwig books) really benefit from having read the previous books in that 'series'. Hence my original comment on the 20 first books or so. There are also some books where Vimes are in as a side character, which can easily be read as stand alone. Personally I never bothered about reading Pratchett sequentially, I just simply read the books as they came out starting with Mort and Equal rites. And being a non native English speaker, there are things I could care less about. Proteus Jones posted:They’re a set of series that overlap characters and locales, with a standalone or two. The Owner series is still an ok read for us that have no issues separating fiction from reality. The starting point to Asher should be the Skinner, since it is his best and contains his core story elements ie alien biology, AI and AI warfare and fast paced action sequences.
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Mar 24, 2018 05:55
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Space Team by Barry Hutchison is space opera, and in pretty much no way serious. Tim Pratt. He wrote the Marla Mason "grumpy magician in the big city" urban fantasy series before that. He tends to have cool ideas but doesn't quite flesh them out as much as I wish he would. Still, a fun read. Up for a Phillip K. Dick award next weekend.
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Mar 24, 2018 06:45
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Nevvy Z posted:I wanna read taltos and discworld but both are large and costs will add up. Are there any good bundled collections out there? Most of the Taltos books are published together, you'll want to start with The Book of Jhereg which has the first three.
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Mar 24, 2018 10:50
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Any suggestions on where to start with CJ Cherryh? A lot of her stuff sounds right up my alley.
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Mar 24, 2018 10:53
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Any suggestions on where to start with CJ Cherryh? A lot of her stuff sounds right up my alley. Pride of Chanur, Merchanter's Luck! Both are short and standalone. Downbelow Station and Cyteen are meatier but way harder to read.
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Mar 24, 2018 10:56
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fez_machine posted:Jack Vance's Demon Princes series, and his other Oikumene/Gaean Reach stories. These are fantastic and lovely and I highly recommend them, but as I recall they very specifically don't have a lot of the fun high tech stuff, because there is the Institute, which fights the spread of such technology. Try John C Wright's The Golden Age and Count to Trillion series. The man himself is a religious weirdo who pumps out bizarre conservative rants on his blog, but as silly as I find him as a person, he writes very imaginative so-high-tech-it's-magic sci-fi. The Quantum Thief is also delightfully weird and isn't written by your bizarre email rant unkle, but the first book at least stays on one planet. I also really enjoyed the Bobiverse books. It's kind of a, uh, 4X strategy novel about a guy who, after being revived after cryosuspension, finds himself being installed as an AI of an interstellar probe ship. So he does that, starts colonizing worlds, replicating himself and eventually ends up saving what's at that point left of the human race and spreads it through the galaxy. Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire and Pratt's The Wrong Stars, unfortunately, I thought weren't very good, so I'd anti-recommend them.
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Mar 24, 2018 11:58
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Night Watch was the last truly great Discworld book, as far as I'm concerned. Monstrous Regiment/the Moist books were alright, but nowhere near the standard of The Truth/Thief of Time/The Last Hero/Night Watch. Things started to get actively bad with UA and then Snuff is loving grotesque. (actually it's all downhill from Small Gods)
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Mar 24, 2018 12:20
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Cardiac posted:The Owner series is still an ok read for us that have no issues separating fiction from reality. LOL, What a stupid argument.. That's like saying Watch on the Rhine is fine because it's just fiction. Of course, in this case all of Kratman's works are fascist power-wanks.
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Mar 24, 2018 13:44
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Autonomous Monster posted:Night Watch was the last truly great Discworld book, as far as I'm concerned. Monstrous Regiment/the Moist books were alright, but nowhere near the standard of The Truth/Thief of Time/The Last Hero/Night Watch. Things started to get actively bad with UA and then Snuff is loving grotesque. I feel like the first Moist book is genuinely good. The Tiffany Aching books are mostly excellent too.
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Mar 24, 2018 14:33
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I feel like the first Moist book is genuinely good. The Tiffany Aching books are mostly excellent too.
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Mar 24, 2018 14:46
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anilEhilated posted:Granny Weatherwax's presence can save just about anything. That's a strange way to spell Nac Mac Feegle.
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Mar 24, 2018 15:46
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I finally finished Gridlinked and, even acknowledging that it was his first novel, disliked it to the extent that it would take a hell of a lot to convince me to read anything else by Asher (so I probably won't). I was going to make an effort post about all the issues I had with the book, but.... eh, effort. Was a shame because I was really expecting to like it and it came from this era that was a bit of a renaissance in British space opera and I like most of the other big authors who were churning out this stuff around the same time. I think I might opt for a reread of The Commonwealth Saga to get my early 2000s Brit SF fix. Edit: And having checked his twitter/blog etc. Yikes. He certainly likes re-tweeting climate change denial links and racist alt-right idiots. Gravy Jones fucked around with this message at 16:36 on Mar 24, 2018 |
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Mar 24, 2018 16:04
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