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It's not that he's not funny or clever, it's that no one can *ever* be as funny or clever according to his fans. He's made out as some sort of ideal "this is the perfect sci-fi funny man and none can eclipse him". Feh.angel opportunity posted:Hitchhiker's Guide also has that kind of aura around it where some people who are into it think saying "Don't Panic" or "Bring a towel" etc. is a hilarious reference to make out of nowhere. This makes me kind of actively dislike it rather than just say "not for me." It's also this.
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Apr 14, 2018 18:01
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angel opportunity posted:Douglas Adams is a very specific type of humor that some people absolutely love and some people bounce off hard. I found Hitchhiker's Guide incredibly boring, and the humor intensely grating and not funny. I wouldn't say he's "not clever," but his style of humor just does nothing for me. Hitchhiker's Guide also has that kind of aura around it where some people who are into it think saying "Don't Panic" or "Bring a towel" etc. is a hilarious reference to make out of nowhere. This makes me kind of actively dislike it rather than just say "not for me." His best joke was actually about how insurance executives deserve the death penalty.
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Apr 14, 2018 18:23
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The absolute best joke in the Hitchhikers Guide series was the sunglasses lenses that go pure black whenever there is danger around.
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Apr 14, 2018 18:29
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Some new good self-published fantasy: Rage of Dragons. Sets itself apart with a fantastical African setting and a protagonist who advances through hard work rather than any innate gift.
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Apr 14, 2018 21:13
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also the best joke in the Hitchhiker's Guide isquote:“How can you have money,” demanded Ford, “if none of you actually produces anything? It doesn't grow on trees you know.” coffeetable fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Apr 14, 2018 |
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Apr 14, 2018 21:17
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The Dirk Gently books are like ten times better, although the Guide books aren't bad.
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Apr 14, 2018 21:36
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Adams' humor works better when he's writing essays since he has spend a bit more time in service to the actual point and can't ramble on quite as wildly as in his novels. I still enjoyed a few of them as a teenager but like that other guy posted, people making random references to them have spoiled a lot of the humor for me. Not as badly as Monty Python, where a red targeting grid flashes up in my vision whenever I hear someone referencing swallows or elderberries or whatever.
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Apr 14, 2018 22:57
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occamsnailfile posted:Adams' humor works better when he's writing essays since he has spend a bit more time in service to the actual point and can't ramble on quite as wildly as in his novels. I still enjoyed a few of them as a teenager but like that other guy posted, people making random references to them have spoiled a lot of the humor for me. Not as badly as Monty Python, where a red targeting grid flashes up in my vision whenever I hear someone referencing swallows or elderberries or whatever.
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Apr 14, 2018 23:41
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I met Adams when he was on a book tour for Last Chance To See. It was a very small bookshop with about fifteen people in it. He didn't seem in a very good mood, especially when the only questions people had for him were Hitchhiker related. One jovial fan asked "Why 42?" Adams glared at him. "Why not?"
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Apr 15, 2018 00:06
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Yep, Daniel Faust is still a monster. That murder at the end of the new book 
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Apr 15, 2018 00:06
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Stuporstar posted:Vonda N. McIntyre wrote a book like that. It's pretty good. I picked it up a while back after Ursula K. LeGuin gave it a good review. It's about a healer wandering between tribes in the wastes who uses genetically-engineered snakes as part of her shamanic practice. http://bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/book/dreamsnake/ I've read Dreamsnake a long time ago. I liked it, but I remember something about the ending feeling contrived. Anyways, it's not exactly what I'm looking for (and I'm not in the best state of mind to articulate why) but Dreamsnake felt very much like fantasy of that had a thin layer of post apoc stuff on top of it. Currently I'm reading Half a King by dint of enjoying most of Abercrombie's other stuff, but jesus I am tired of fantasy about royalty, nobility, and rich people. I'll probably stick out this first book at least, but I'll probably move on to Cherryh or back to New Sun again, along with all of the other wonderful suggestions.
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Apr 15, 2018 02:36
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GreyjoyBastard posted:Yep, Daniel Faust is still a monster. You never gently caress with "The Guy". Having trouble remembering the title of a book. Came out recently (last 5 years?) and was about an investigator being sent down to a secret army base in the ocean to check out what happened there after they lost contact. It's not The Deep by Long. Stupid_Sexy_Flander fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Apr 15, 2018 |
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Apr 15, 2018 02:45
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Or by nick cutter? Because that really sounds like the deep.
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Apr 15, 2018 02:55
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Nah, had a different cover. Iirc it was a guy in a diving suit and the lab was below him. Dark cover as well. The deep was about solving some medical disease, but this was something about a secret lab doing secret poo poo until something went wrong g and they had to investigate. No sickness involved.
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Apr 15, 2018 03:11
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Found an old-rear end library book named Great Science Fiction Stories About Mars, and of course had to grab it. Published @1966, here's the list of the stories in it and one sentence recaps of the stories. The Sound of Bugles/Robert Moore Williams: Psionic martian powers, a hero UN scientist, and a evil Earth mega-financier. Nonstop to Mars/Jack Williamson: Literally a 1930s mens adventure story with Mars stuff bolted onto it. The First Martians/AE Van Vogt: Racist asswipe tries to preemptively murder a train full of people because "THEY TOOK OUR JOBS". Via Etherline/Eando Binder: Transmissions from the 1st expedition to mars mission vs giant ant hordes, the most horribly dated story in the collection. Tin Lizzie/Randall Garrett: Interplanetary rescue/escape from mars story, the most science-y story of the collection, chemical formulas & hypergolic fuels are backbones of the story. Sand-Seas/Oliver E. Saari: A stranded mars survey team stumbles across the secret of martian atomic power as a killer sandstorm hits. Omnilingual/H Beam Piper: After being poo poo on the entire story, a lady scientist cracks the omnilingual language that her colleagues couldn't. AE Van Vogt's story was surprisely good and oh so dated (railroad on MARS), Randall Garrett did his usual entertaining mildly scientific thing, the H Beam Piper story was 70% social frustration/30% scifi story. The rest of the stories in the collection were ehhhh at best.
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Apr 16, 2018 02:34
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Rand Brittain posted:The Dirk Gently books are like ten times better, although the Guide books aren't bad. Are the books anything like the BBC show? Because that was... real odd
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Apr 16, 2018 02:43
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angel opportunity posted:Douglas Adams is a very specific type of humor that some people absolutely love and some people bounce off hard. I found Hitchhiker's Guide incredibly boring, and the humor intensely grating and not funny. I wouldn't say he's "not clever," but his style of humor just does nothing for me. Hitchhiker's Guide also has that kind of aura around it where some people who are into it think saying "Don't Panic" or "Bring a towel" etc. is a hilarious reference to make out of nowhere. This makes me kind of actively dislike it rather than just say "not for me." This is how I feel about both Douglas Adams and Monty Python.
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Apr 16, 2018 03:24
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Khizan posted:This is how I feel about both Douglas Adams and Monty Python. Watching Holy Grail was a frustrating experience for me because I'd been spoiled on all the good jokes. Fortunately, I read Hitchhiker's Guide before hearing too many references to it.
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Apr 16, 2018 06:09
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:AE Van Vogt's story was surprisely good and oh so dated (railroad on MARS), Randall Garrett did his usual entertaining mildly scientific thing, the H Beam Piper story was Why wouldn't you build a railroad on mars?
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Apr 16, 2018 06:14
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Bhodi posted:I am happy to report this is an age-related phenomenon and kids these days not only do not get the reference but they also just don't give a poo poo. Now kids only communicate in the freshest memes. Entirely. I went to a college graduation party of a friend a decade younger than me and it was like Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. There was a girl in the corner trying to generate her own catch phrase by saying the same lame thing she thought she made up over and over again. The rest did nothing but quote cartoons as each other. And I thought my generation was bad with the Simpsons quotes (they don't get those either).  A few months later my friend told me I was one of the few friends she could hold an actual conversation with. I thought, Yes. I noticed. Those "kids" must be edging toward their 30s now. If that poo poo devolves any further, the next generation of college parties are gonna feature kids rolling around on the floor screaming nothing but, "I'm PICKLE RICK! I'm PICKLE RICK..." Stuporstar fucked around with this message at 06:58 on Apr 16, 2018 |
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Apr 16, 2018 06:22
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Hey all, apologies in advance as this probably gets asked quite often, but as I'm currently reading The Black Company (by goon-favourite Glen Cook) and am enjoying it quite a bit, which of his other books are worth reading? (As well as books similar to TBC, I guess. I like the more 'gritty'-ish shades-of-grey side of it, compared to stuff like LotR) I've only got the first book in the series as I was being cautious not to buy into a series I might not like, so I'm wondering if the TBC series keeps getting better or if it goes the way of Dune; where everything after the first three books take a steep decline in quality. (I'm definitely feeling like it'll be the latter, especially as there seem to be quite a few TBC books...I'm hoping they're all just as good, though) Also, I briefly looked up summaries for a couple of his other books, including Passage at Arms - which from my brief glimpse looks quite interesting! It kinda reminds me of Tom Clancy's SSN, which was about submarine warfare during the fictional not-so-Cold War. So yeah, is it as good as I hope it is? Ideally it'll be a combination of the detailed sub warfare from SSN but with the characters/interactions, etc. from The Black Company.  EDIT: Stuporstar posted:And I thought my generation was bad with the Simpsons quotes (they don't get those either). Speaking of which, we need a "Simpsons quotes only" thread, if we don't have one already - I'm certain that I (among others I know) could converse with only Simpsons quotes, given the opportunity! haha Major Isoor fucked around with this message at 07:58 on Apr 16, 2018 |
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Apr 16, 2018 07:52
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Most people say that the Black Company books do go downhill past the first three. The general advice is the same as for Dune. Read until you go "Okay, I'm done".
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Apr 16, 2018 08:01
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Passage at Arms is good, yes, and The Dragon Never Sleeps is an epic space opera series crammed into one book. It's dense. And also good.
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Apr 16, 2018 08:10
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Passage at Arms is more Das Boot than Clancy and is pretty good. It's a prequel to the Starfishers series which frankly isn't very good IMO and can probably be skipped. The Dragon Never Sleeps is his other scifi story and is good, basically it's about immortal legions of peacekeepers in space charged with maintaining the status quo. Garrett PI is essentially noir/detective stories in a Ankh Morpork style city about a ex-marine turned PI who keeps either getting dragged into stuff or getting hit in the head by thugs. I've only read the first set of stories but the Dread Empire series is very much a prototype of the Black Company series. It's more epic fantasy in style and is a little rougher around the edges. I really like The Instrumentalities of the Night, which is basically about the Fantasy Mediterranean undergoing a supernatural apocalypse circa 1200 or so. Lots of papal scheming, not-Cathar heresy, not-Catholic wizards, and early gunpowder warfare. Sadly the series apparently didn't sell well so the last two books are somewhat rushed to finish the series.
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Apr 16, 2018 08:18
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The Chad Jihad posted:Are the books anything like the BBC show? Because that was... real odd The books (and the Stephen Mangan adaptation) are nowhere near as manic and caffinated as the show. To put it in Hitchhiker terms - book Dirk is basically Arthur Dent, show Dirk is Ford Prefect on a sugar-high.
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Apr 16, 2018 11:05
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edit: nm, misread
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Apr 16, 2018 11:28
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Shoutout to Glen Cook's Darkwar series, it's a weird mix of fantasy and sci-fi and it's definitely interesting. About a primitive dog lady finding out that her home is tech-restricted, kind of?
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Apr 16, 2018 11:52
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C.M. Kruger posted:Passage at Arms is more Das Boot than Clancy and is pretty good. It's a prequel to the Starfishers series which frankly isn't very good IMO and can probably be skipped. Oh, I'd actually forgotten about Das Boot - that's interesting. So it's a really long and arduous journey for the crew, then? Sounds good! I might need to check out The Dragon Never Sleeps and perhaps Darkwar too, after all this (that dog thing sounds weird, although after looking up a brief description of the series, it does sound interesting. Also, TDNS kind of reminds me of Dune, during the Leto II period of enforced peace) Major Isoor fucked around with this message at 13:11 on Apr 16, 2018 |
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Apr 16, 2018 12:52
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StrixNebulosa posted:Shoutout to Glen Cook's Darkwar series, it's a weird mix of fantasy and sci-fi and it's definitely interesting. About a primitive dog lady finding out that her home is tech-restricted, kind of? Darkwar is pretty great; I'd probably rank it as my third-favourite Cook after Passage at Arms and The Black Company. Conversely, I didn't like Dread Empire at all; it felt more like a collection of plot outline notes waiting to be turned into books. Really, I find that Cook is also over the goddamn map, so liking or disliking one of his books or series doesn't give much signal WRT what you'll think of the others.
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Apr 16, 2018 13:30
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I'm very happy to say that Glen Cook writes dog people aliens as aliens, not as a furry thing. It's like Cherryh's lion people in the Chanur series, they're interesting aliens.
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Apr 16, 2018 13:43
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Khizan posted:Most people say that the Black Company books do go downhill past the first three. The general advice is the same as for Dune. Read until you go "Okay, I'm done". I'm on Water Sleeps (Book 9) and by God are you right. I'm still enjoying the series but the first three are definitely the best. The Silver Spike was pretty close in quality to the first three with a sharp drop-off after that.
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Apr 16, 2018 13:54
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Proteus Jones posted:It's not that he's not funny or clever, it's that no one can *ever* be as funny or clever according to his fans. He's made out as some sort of ideal "this is the perfect sci-fi funny man and none can eclipse him". Feh. I just feel like this is part of an I got too old for this syndrome where people look back with nostalgia on this thing from their youth and refuse to see that there is new content just as good...maybe even better!
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Apr 16, 2018 15:05
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It's also good to remember that Hitchhiker's started as a radio show, and sometimes comedy that translates well over audio doesn't work in print. Personally I found the books charming and entertaining but never laugh-out-loud funny. Then again, I basically never laugh-out-loud reading a book, so I might not be the best judge.
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Apr 16, 2018 15:35
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Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel's Saga may be the only books that have truly made me laugh out loud. The humor can be subtle but it's soooo funny. Reading Suldrun's Garden now and it is not laugh out loud funny, but it is very good and balances grim brutality with genuine heartfelt emotion very well.
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Apr 16, 2018 15:59
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Was Eowyn's terrible soup an addition for the movies or in the book?
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Apr 16, 2018 16:25
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Arglebargle III posted:Was Eowyn's terrible soup an addition for the movies or in the book? movies.
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Apr 16, 2018 16:35
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my bony fealty posted:Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel's Saga may be the only books that have truly made me laugh out loud. The humor can be subtle but it's soooo funny. Cudgel causing the demon Phamphoun to run riot is prob. the hardest I have laffed at a book ever. Or maybe the fate of Iuconnus dog Ettis.
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Apr 16, 2018 16:38
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C.M. Kruger posted:The Dragon Never Sleeps is his other scifi story and is good, basically it's about immortal legions of peacekeepers in space charged with maintaining the status quo. The Dragon Never Sleeps is very dense and mile-a-minute, I remember turning a page and ten years had passed. It's like six Dune books rolled into one and the vibe I got from it was Dune + Culture - to be clear, the Culture wasn't established when Cook wrote it, though of course Dune was Dune. I should read it again. It's really good. ' edit: Imagine a galaxy-spanning human empire dominated by a bunch of noble houses and mercantile barons, basically a Dune or Thousands Suns setting, except they once had Culture-level technology with massive warships and AI, and aeons ago they used this tech to build an immortal, gigantic Special Circumstances section armed to the teeth, who is ideologically committed to maintaining the empire and preventing any one faction from getting too powerful and destabilizing the whole thing. Also, they're the good guys. Sulphagnist fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Apr 16, 2018 |
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Apr 16, 2018 18:24
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Major Isoor posted:Oh, I'd actually forgotten about Das Boot - that's interesting. So it's a really long and arduous journey for the crew, then? Sounds good! I'll recommend the Darkwar series too. This is his story of how someone grows up to be a world-wrecking sorceress. She didn't want to be the way she was, poor kid just wanted to learn to fly. She ends up having to destroy and re-make her culture to save it from an impending ice age. In the Black Company books Croaker occasionally muses how someone who started out as a fat, happy baby turns into a Limper or Soulcatcher. This series is Cook exploring that. The Dragon Never Sleeps is a lot of fun. It's a big, sprawling story with a lot going on. There are some great space battles along the way. I re-read it every few years. I like the Shadowline/Starfishers series, warts and all. The first one is about mercenaries and pirates told as if it were Norse myth, down to the one-eyed general with ravens. The next two follow an incidental character from Shadowline and his partner in Naval Intelligence on a deep cover assignment that gets a little weird.
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Apr 16, 2018 19:07
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Just to fill out the other side of Glen Cook chat: aside from his other books, what should I read if I loved Black Company? In particular I loved the Ten Who Were Taken and all of the mythology surrounds them. I've read First Law, which is probably the most common recommendation I hear. I enjoyed it and liked the characters, but I feel like you never really got the same sense of scale of the war as you do in Black Company. a secondary point, but I'm also a sucker for when fantasy/sci-fi books pointedly don't fill in the gaps, like in the case of (spoiler for earlier Black Company books) Moonbiter, Nightcrawler, and the Faceless Man, where you know they exist, you know they're probably loving terrifying like the rest of the Taken, but you're never told that much more about them beyond hints here and there. You get the feeling Cook had thought through their background and details, but never revealed any of them because the Company just never really crosses paths with those particular Taken.
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Apr 16, 2018 19:41
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