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StrixNebulosa posted:What are the current best sci-fi/fantasy review blogs to read, outside of tor.com? Find reviewers on goodreads you like and follow those. As a side note do not follow reviews of authors you like, it will ruin your faith in them.
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Apr 4, 2018 20:07
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Ubiquitus posted:Hey Children of Time buddy! I'd like to echo your thoughts on the book, I'm around the same spot somewhere. I'm about 60% through and had some of the same feelings. For the moment, it feels like a depressing generation ship tale happening parallel to a cool space spider story. I definitely like how the spiders are portrayed in comparison to Deepness in the Sky, the other famous space spider novel. It seems like the author put more creativity into coming up with ways for an up-jumped spider to view their world.
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Apr 5, 2018 03:06
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StrixNebulosa posted:What are the current best sci-fi/fantasy review blogs to read, outside of tor.com? I generally like James Nicoll's reviews.
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Apr 5, 2018 04:26
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StoryBundle has a World SF bundle up. Anything terribly worthwhile there?
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Apr 5, 2018 16:48
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StrixNebulosa posted:What are the current best sci-fi/fantasy review blogs to read, outside of tor.com? Strange Horizons turns up some pretty insightful criticism and isn't afraid to hold stuff to a decent standard. If you've ever wanted to see authors like Mark Lawrence and Jeff Vandermeer* get all pissy at genuinely well-thought out but negative reviews of other folks' books, it's a good place. * He's normally a pretty chill and thoughtful dude in his writing and critiques about other authors so to see this was surprising and disappointing. darthbob88 posted:StoryBundle has a World SF bundle up. Anything terribly worthwhile there? The Cassandra Khaw book is goofy fun. Like dresden files but good, spends half the time in the kitchens of back alley chinese restaurants. The cannibalism is described viscerally but, uh, lovingly. Made me want sizzling beef and such.
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Apr 5, 2018 19:59
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Servant of the Underworld is a whodunit in the Aztec Empire. Sounds fun, but it reads like the author spent all her effort on getting the details right and forgot to make it fun. I found it very stiff, very mechanical.
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Apr 5, 2018 20:05
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Secret History of Moscow is poo poo. Bland, boring UF. Russian folklore bits are kinda cool but it never goes anywhere interesting with it. e: I mean, I can see why Lavie Tidhar would love it - guy's a master of ruining potentially fantastic concepts. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Apr 5, 2018 |
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Apr 5, 2018 20:07
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StrixNebulosa posted:What are the current best sci-fi/fantasy review blogs to read, outside of tor.com? File 770 posts some interesting stuff, mostly various sorts of news and interviews you might not catch elsewhere. quote:StoryBundle has a World SF bundle up. Anything terribly worthwhile there? I liked the short stories Aliette de Bodard set in the same universe, I'm interested in reading the novel. Zen Cho is also a pretty interesting new writer. I also wanted the Apex collections just to experiment with new stuff.
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Apr 5, 2018 20:18
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Just finished up with Excession. Fantastic read. Loved all the ship mind banter. Which one should I get into next? I'm thinking Surface Detail or The Hydrogen Sonata. Suggestions?
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Apr 6, 2018 02:10
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Sharma posted:Just finished up with Excession. Fantastic read. Loved all the ship mind banter. Which one should I get into next? I'm thinking Surface Detail or The Hydrogen Sonata. Suggestions? Even if you're not a publication order purist, I think Hydrogen Sonata should definitely come last. It's his final culture book, and near his final book overall before Banks died of cancer. I think, as a book about Subliming, it strongly benefits from that context.
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Apr 6, 2018 03:03
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Siminu posted:Even if you're not a publication order purist, I think Hydrogen Sonata should definitely come last. It's his final culture book, and near his final book overall before Banks died of cancer. I get the reasoning, but I read THS before Surface Detail and one in the series that I still haven’t read. It stands alone and nothing was spoiled. You still get the context of when he wrote it.
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Apr 6, 2018 03:19
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Sharma posted:Just finished up with Excession. Fantastic read. Loved all the ship mind banter. Which one should I get into next? I'm thinking Surface Detail or The Hydrogen Sonata. Suggestions? Have you already read Look to Windward? That’s probably the strongest book in the series and most of it is written from alien points of view.
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Apr 6, 2018 06:33
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pmchem posted:I get the reasoning, but I read THS before Surface Detail and one in the series that I still haven’t read. It stands alone and nothing was spoiled. You still get the context of when he wrote it. I'm a big softie, I guess. I got value from reaching the end of a long running series and having the final novel match up with and comment on real world themes and events. It felt like a hopeful farewell. You're right though. Ain't no spoilers, and the context is easy to grasp. The Culture books do pretty well out of order.
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Apr 6, 2018 09:04
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Looking through my amazon account and it seems that last year I purchased The Fith Ward: First Watch & Kings of the Wyld: The Band. I really don't remember buying these and for some reason they were never delivered to my kindle. Question is are they any good or trashy books to read on a plane?
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Apr 6, 2018 11:23
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I liked em, but cop procedurals in a fantasy world are just my jam. Kings of the Wyld I sort of remember... I think it was something like a mercenary band gets back together because the daughter of the leader is in some kinda merc trouble? I don't remember much of it, but I remember it having some good bits in there.
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Apr 6, 2018 11:35
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Stupid Decisions posted:Looking through my amazon account and it seems that last year I purchased The Fith Ward: First Watch & Kings of the Wyld: The Band. I really enjoyed the former. There is a considerable amount of positive buzz around the latter.
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Apr 6, 2018 11:40
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Kings of the Wyld is a whole lot of fun.
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Apr 6, 2018 12:22
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Kings of the Wyld is decent. Some parts were a bit dad-jokey, maybe, I think? It was a while ago. The gimmick is that adventuring bands are basically like actual bands. On a plane? Yeah, definitely give it a go.
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Apr 6, 2018 12:49
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On to the reading list they go! Thanks for the info.
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Apr 6, 2018 13:18
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https://ebookclub.tor.com/ Murderbot is the free book for this month. Technically All Systems Red, but I like the Murderbot title better.
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Apr 6, 2018 14:41
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People should unironically read Murderbot, people who praise it aren't being ironic or anything, it really is good.
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Apr 6, 2018 14:43
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90s Cringe Rock posted:Kings of the Wyld is decent. Some parts were a bit dad-jokey, maybe, I think? It was a while ago. The gimmick is that adventuring bands are basically like actual bands. Please don’t embed your kindle in a skull a few rows ahead when someone makes a ‘The cake is a lie’ joke; its a fun book but there’s a few spots where an editor could have been more unkind. I said it was Robert Asprin does his best Joe Abercrombie (or maybe vice versa ) and I stand by it  Edit: Bankschat; anyone read the nonfic ‘Masters of Modern Science Fiction Book’ about his work? NoneMoreNegative fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Apr 6, 2018 |
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Apr 6, 2018 15:06
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90s Cringe Rock posted:People should unironically read Murderbot, people who praise it aren't being ironic or anything, it really is good. Do it....do it!
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Apr 6, 2018 15:13
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90s Cringe Rock posted:People should unironically read Murderbot, people who praise it aren't being ironic or anything, it really is good. For free! https://twitter.com/tordotcom/status/982247771599065088 Can’t argue with that price (can argue about the regular price)
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Apr 6, 2018 15:41
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Yeah grab it now while it's free because the ebook is undeniably overpriced the rest of the year.
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Apr 6, 2018 16:00
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I liked em, but cop procedurals in a fantasy world are just my jam. Also a little dad-jokey in parts, but for a fantasy procedural you might try Dian Duane's Stealing the Elf King's Roses. It's a little dad-jokey in spots, but it's good and has an interesting setting: a multiverse with gates leading between them. There's Actual Midgard, the home of the elves, a modern-ish world with magic mixed in with technology (and the actual presence of Justice appears in courtrooms). I liked it. It's a shame she had her big, setting changing idea for the first book in the setting, so there aren't likely to be more, but it's a good read.
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Apr 6, 2018 16:12
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I finished reading the Cyphernomicon FAQ this morning. It was a hyper-difficult read, and I was so very happy when the last 7% of the Cyphernomicon FAQ turned out to be appendixes. Bonus: I found out where the one cool idea* in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon came from. To sum up the difficulty of reading the Cyphernomicon completely, in it's original state the Cyphernomicon FAQ is a 1.1MB text file with no formatting. The Cyphernomicon FAQ itself was a "best-of" summary of the Cypherphunk Mailing list as of 1994-09-01. The Cypherphunks mailing list lasted from september 1992 to december 1998, and yearly dumps of the mailing list(with most of the spam messages weeded out) range in size from 2mb to 30+mb text files. Yes, TEXT files again. TEXT files with zero formatting. The Cyphernomicon FAQ had many, many catchphrases and pages beyond count of strung together phrases + past/future/present-day/what-if theory-crafting that really resembled this GIF.  * the people who have read Cryptonomicon should recognize this 18.10.3. Personal security for disks, dead man switches + I have heard that some BBS operators install dead man switches near the doors to rooms containing their systems…entering the room without flipping the switch causes some action to be taken.
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Apr 6, 2018 16:32
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but, why? and you know you can't skip the appendices, they're where you find out half the backstory of the characters
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Apr 6, 2018 17:43
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MockingQuantum posted:Yeah grab it now while it's free because the ebook is undeniably overpriced the rest of the year. It's £2.22 in the UK and branded a 'Kindle Single' which seems about right. The sequels are all listed at £8 though, gently caress that.
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Apr 6, 2018 18:06
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Junkenstein posted:It's £2.22 in the UK and branded a 'Kindle Single' which seems about right. The sequels are all listed at £8 though, gently caress that. Are they all novellas, or are the new ones actually novel length? If novellas, yeah that's expensive and I'll unfortunately need to wait a few months after they're released before the price drops to a point where it makes sense.
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Apr 6, 2018 18:13
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Proteus Jones posted:Are they all novellas, or are the new ones actually novel length? 160 pages apparently, but I guess pre release data can be wrong. The release schedule doesn't point towards them being door stoppers though.
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Apr 6, 2018 18:16
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Junkenstein posted:It's £2.22 in the UK and branded a 'Kindle Single' which seems about right. The sequels are all listed at £8 though, gently caress that. Oh that's not too bad. I remember a while back I bought a bunch of highly-recommended Tor novellas (on US Amazon), and all of them were $4 or $5 which is entirely reasonable, but Murderbot/All Systems Red was definitely $10.70 which sounded insane. Now it's also $4 though I have no idea when it changed. I honestly think the higher price might have been an oversight on Tor's part or something, they've always really pushed the Kindle Singles and their novellas in general as a really well-priced intro to the author's work.
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Apr 6, 2018 18:33
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Fallom posted:
Significant difference though, the critters in Deepness are aliens with an arachnoid body plan, the ones in Children of Time are actual giant loving spiders.
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Apr 6, 2018 22:25
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Groke posted:Significant difference though, the critters in Deepness are aliens with an arachnoid body plan, the ones in Children of Time are actual giant loving spiders. And in deepness weren't the alien scenes all interpretations from the MRI-brain-hosed human analysts?
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Apr 7, 2018 02:49
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yes. the autistic analysts were explicitly projecting human trappings onto the nature of the interactions - this is commented on pretty clearly a couple of times. one might say it's a crutch if we're being uncharitable and that vinge can't write aliens - his fire upon the deep ones aren't very alien in nature - but i think it's convincing in deepness taken alone.
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Apr 7, 2018 04:30
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Neurosis posted:yes. the autistic analysts were explicitly projecting human trappings onto the nature of the interactions - this is commented on pretty clearly a couple of times. one might say it's a crutch if we're being uncharitable and that vinge can't write aliens - his fire upon the deep ones aren't very alien in nature - but i think it's convincing in deepness taken alone. And there's the bit near the end where you get unfiltered human perceptions of spider-world.
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Apr 7, 2018 05:00
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The act of writing fiction is all built around the idea of "human experience." There's a reason both authors use "crutches" to write their alien POVs. Vinge does his "human filter" thing, while Tchaikovsky has the "character" (Portia? I can't remember the name) coming back generation after generation. That is a "crutch" as well, but without either of these crutches you'd end up breaking fiction conventions really hard and probably creating an unreadable story. Any time you do really weird aliens, if you show from their POV you will need some form of crutch to make it readable. You can have humans there and show the aliens through their POV. I can't remember exactly how Mieville did it in Embassytown, but I think you only saw those aliens through the human POV.
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Apr 7, 2018 05:16
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Neurosis posted:yes. the autistic analysts were explicitly projecting human trappings onto the nature of the interactions - this is commented on pretty clearly a couple of times. one might say it's a crutch if we're being uncharitable and that vinge can't write aliens - his fire upon the deep ones aren't very alien in nature - but i think it's convincing in deepness taken alone. gently caress of, dog bros are cool aliums
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Apr 7, 2018 05:18
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angel opportunity posted:The act of writing fiction is all built around the idea of "human experience." There's a reason both authors use "crutches" to write their alien POVs. Vinge does his "human filter" thing, while Tchaikovsky has the "character" (Portia? I can't remember the name) coming back generation after generation. That is a "crutch" as well, but without either of these crutches you'd end up breaking fiction conventions really hard and probably creating an unreadable story. I'm just shy of halfway through Embassytown and yeah, so far a lot of the aliens' "alienness" is conveyed through how incomprehensible their communication can be to humans. I do feel like there's another shoe that has yet to drop though. Also I am super digging Embassytown. I love when sci-fi writers tackle linguistics in an interesting way.
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Apr 7, 2018 05:24
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Even Asher who is great at doing alien biology, puts a depressingly human POV on his aliens and ais.
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Apr 7, 2018 05:38
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