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ToxicFrog posted:
I read the quadrail series recently, it wasn't good but at the end of each one i compulsively bought the next one ... five books in total. it's a series about an ex-spy detective on an intergalactic train in SPACE. lots of mind control, police procedurals and descriptions of train carriages.
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May 17, 2018 04:22
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branedotorg posted:I read the quadrail series recently, it wasn't good but at the end of each one i compulsively bought the next one ... five books in total. It’s good
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May 17, 2018 04:34
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:Finished the 20th annual Year's Best Science Fiction (2002) collection edited by Gardner Dozois. I really dislike Greg Egan too. I read Incandescence when it came out. The Wikipedia summary tells you all you need to know: quote:Much of the narrative explores the effects of orbital dynamics around a high mass object and requires an understanding of Newtonian gravitation and at least a basic familiarity with general relativity and its application to black holes and neutron stars to be compelling. Understanding the story's wider frame of reference and the Splinter's encounter with the Wanderer are tied in with this. I bet he goes to Mensa meetups
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May 17, 2018 06:03
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Weissritter posted:Any recommendations on books similar to David Eddings' Elenium and Tamuli? I am probably the minority, but I like them better than the Belgariad and sequel. Welllll...maybe the Greatcoats series by Sebastian deCastiel would scratch that itch. The Phoenix Guards by Brust, too, if you are down for fantasy 3 musketeers being witty at each other. The Black Company by Glen Cook. These are all pretty divergent from the Eddings, especially in tone. I’m going more for a “diverse group that does banter”
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May 17, 2018 07:27
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90s Cringe Rock posted:The March North is extremely good military fantasy where figuring out what the gently caress is going on in this quiet* little corner of a post-d&d apocalypse hellscape is part of the fun. As a Rajaniemi fan this was indeed excellent, thanks for the recommendation.
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May 17, 2018 08:05
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I'd recommend Sam Sykes if you are looking for in party banter. The City Stained Red is pretty good. Haven't read the sequel yet though. Basically, if you took a D&D group and put them in a book, and they all hated each other, you'd have the basic premise of the book. It's not litrpg by any means, it's straight up fantasy, but it's got some great banter.
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May 17, 2018 11:11
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Weissritter posted:Any recommendations on books similar to David Eddings' Elenium and Tamuli? I am probably the minority, but I like them better than the Belgariad and sequel. Some of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books deal with the Ankh-Morpork city guard, and you might enjoy those. The first of those is Guards! Guards!
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May 17, 2018 14:30
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Weissritter posted:Any recommendations on books similar to David Eddings' Elenium and Tamuli? I am probably the minority, but I like them better than the Belgariad and sequel. I will never stop being amused by the bit where Sephrenia reveals that there's a spell that removes fatigue, and she will absolutely not ever teach it to the Pandions because those meatheads will work themselves into the grave within a week.
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May 17, 2018 16:02
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Raere posted:I really dislike Greg Egan too. I read Incandescence when it came out. The Wikipedia summary tells you all you need to know: I loved Diaspora but it was as hard and dry as any science fiction I've read.
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May 17, 2018 17:29
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Ben Nerevarine posted:I loved Diaspora but it was as hard and dry as any science fiction I've read. Egan is pretty hit or miss. I'd recommend Quarantine and especially Permutation City, but apart from a few short stories (mostly the ones collected in Axiomatic) I otherwise only find him middling, far too interested in presenting the science to work that hard on the fiction. Hobnob fucked around with this message at 18:17 on May 17, 2018 |
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May 17, 2018 18:06
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Weissritter posted:Any recommendations on books similar to David Eddings' Elenium and Tamuli? I am probably the minority, but I like them better than the Belgariad and sequel. Buford's Five Gods series (Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, The Hallowed Hunt and especially the Penric and Desdemona novellas).
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May 17, 2018 18:37
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I think I know the answer to this, but if I am reading the final installment of the second Thomas Covenant Trilogy, and finding it hard to get through, am I going to feel differently about reading the 'final chronicles'? I read books 1-5 a few years ago, enjoyed them enough but then got distracted by other series. For some reason I'm now finding the depressive gloom of 'White Gold Wielder' is getting to me. However I previously picked up the omnibus addition of the final books. Given that they were written a bit later, does his writing style change or should I expect more of the same?
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May 17, 2018 20:22
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crazyvanman posted:I think I know the answer to this, but if I am reading the final installment of the second Thomas Covenant Trilogy, and finding it hard to get through, am I going to feel differently about reading the 'final chronicles'? I read books 1-5 a few years ago, enjoyed them enough but then got distracted by other series. For some reason I'm now finding the depressive gloom of 'White Gold Wielder' is getting to me. However I previously picked up the omnibus addition of the final books. Given that they were written a bit later, does his writing style change or should I expect more of the same? Don't read the final trilogy. Don't keep making a mistake just because you already spent time and money on making it.
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May 17, 2018 20:36
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crazyvanman posted:I think I know the answer to this, but if I am reading the final installment of the second Thomas Covenant Trilogy, and finding it hard to get through, am I going to feel differently about reading the 'final chronicles'? I read books 1-5 a few years ago, enjoyed them enough but then got distracted by other series. For some reason I'm now finding the depressive gloom of 'White Gold Wielder' is getting to me. However I previously picked up the omnibus addition of the final books. Given that they were written a bit later, does his writing style change or should I expect more of the same? I don't remember a single other person in this thread endorsing any of the Thomas Covenant books.
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May 17, 2018 20:44
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Solitair posted:I don't remember a single other person in this thread endorsing any of the Thomas Covenant books.
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May 17, 2018 20:58
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I read the first Thomas Covenant book about a month ago. It's your basic Tolkien schlock with viewpoint of a fiction writer with leprosy who believes everything he's seeing is a delusion. That sounds more interesting that it actually was. The prose is purple, the characters aren't fleshed out, and the journey follows all the standard beats, with an emphasis towards depressing because of the protagonist. If you want a fun fantasy grimdark "earth person in fantasy world" I recommend Heroes Die by Matthew Stover.
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May 17, 2018 21:40
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Stephen Donaldson is a terrible awful poo poo writer.
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May 17, 2018 22:29
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anilEhilated posted:Thank God, for a while I felt I fell through to a bizarro universe where these books are considered good. Oh, my dad loved them when he was young, though as far as I know he hasn't revisited them in decades. Plus he's not a goon like us. There's also a friend of mine who loved all of them, including the Last Chronicles, but he also enjoys reading John loving Ringo and has incredibly schlock taste in general.
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May 17, 2018 23:56
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BananaNutkins posted:I read the first Thomas Covenant book about a month ago. It's your basic Tolkien schlock with viewpoint of a fiction writer with leprosy who believes everything he's seeing is a delusion. That sounds more interesting that it actually was. The prose is purple, the characters aren't fleshed out, and the journey follows all the standard beats, with an emphasis towards depressing because of the protagonist. You left out the first chapter child rape.
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May 18, 2018 00:59
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pseudorandom name posted:You left out the first chapter child rape. It's more like the 3rd. Thomas thinks that if it's all just a delusion he can do anything he wants, which apparently is rape. The dumb thing is, the girl he meets totally seemed dtf before that moment, and he didn't even bother trying the consensual route. Not like it matters, because the book goes out of its way to say she's sixteen, so he's a sicko anyway. I read the synopsis of each following book on Wikipedia, and it seems like it just retreads the same ground for 9! more books.
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May 18, 2018 01:22
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BananaNutkins posted:I read the first Thomas Covenant book about a month ago. It's your basic Tolkien schlock with viewpoint of a fiction writer with leprosy who believes everything he's seeing is a delusion. That sounds more interesting that it actually was. The prose is purple, the characters aren't fleshed out, and the journey follows all the standard beats, with an emphasis towards depressing because of the protagonist. Now I really, really want to hear your take on Blade of Tyshalle (by Stover). There are things I love about the first Covenant trilogy. Not a lot of them are in the first book. The best Covenant series sequence to me, by far, was the expedition to Gianthome in book two. Donaldson should have written a shitload more horror, though I confess some fondness for the Gap Cycle.
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May 18, 2018 04:06
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coffeetable posted:As a Rajaniemi fan this was indeed excellent, thanks for the recommendation. The next two books are rough to follow but interesting.
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May 18, 2018 04:09
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Just finished Places in the Darkness by Christopher Brookmyre action detective story set on a NEO space station in a near future corporate/government program to build a generation ship. it's not ground breaking but i really enjoyed it, the kind of book i think i used to see more of. Only downside was the pricing (in Australia) as hachette* charge more for kindle books than paperbacks * I hate them so much
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May 18, 2018 05:09
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The Thomas Covenant books are not good. Meth-head fantasy is the best way to describe the series. Greg Egan writes like his head is so far up his own rear end it forms an infinite mobius loop of condescending quasi hard sci-fi. Hal Clement did hard sci-fi much better than Greg Egan at his peak readability. Clement's Mission of Gravity holds up(pun semi-intended). Picked up the 1st two vlad taltos books. The series really doesn't look like my thing, but am willing to give the books a chance.
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May 18, 2018 05:44
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BananaNutkins posted:I read the first Thomas Covenant book about a month ago. It's your basic Tolkien schlock with viewpoint of a fiction writer with leprosy who believes everything he's seeing is a delusion. That sounds more interesting that it actually was. The prose is purple, the characters aren't fleshed out, and the journey follows all the standard beats, with an emphasis towards depressing because of the protagonist. You know, fun fantasy grimdark is not what I would associate with Thomas Covenant. And Heroes Die was some predictable power fantasy where the protagonist is this superhero in a fantasy world. Thomas covenant is ok to good and one of the classics, which is one reason everyone has an opinion on it. It is not a fun read per say, but there are some excellent passages, especially in the second series.
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May 18, 2018 06:01
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BananaNutkins posted:
Wow, I don't think I could possibly read 362881 books.
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May 18, 2018 06:11
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Cardiac posted:You know, fun fantasy grimdark is not what I would associate with Thomas Covenant. What makes Thomas Covenant classic? The only thing it stands out in is how utterly, painfully generic it is.
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May 18, 2018 10:10
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anilEhilated posted:Opposite Day? I guess. Covenant is a classic in the sense that when it was released in 1977, the fantasy field was nothing like it is today. When I read it a long time ago, it was one of the few books categorized as fantasy. I still think the two series has some great scenes and a decent story, where Donaldson writes better than the average fantasy writer. That said, I would have a hard time rereading the series and skipped on the third due to how depressing the books can feel.
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May 18, 2018 12:29
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One might download Hannu Rajaniemi's Quantum Thief for free right now, if one was so inclined.
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May 18, 2018 16:44
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crazyvanman posted:I think I know the answer to this, but if I am reading the final installment of the second Thomas Covenant Trilogy, and finding it hard to get through, am I going to feel differently about reading the 'final chronicles'? I read books 1-5 a few years ago, enjoyed them enough but then got distracted by other series. For some reason I'm now finding the depressive gloom of 'White Gold Wielder' is getting to me. However I previously picked up the omnibus addition of the final books. Given that they were written a bit later, does his writing style change or should I expect more of the same? The last series suffers from this narrative formula where there's about 9-12 different characters and each time something happens they all need to give you their opinion on it, one at a time. Then they do something and everyone needs to weigh in on how they felt about that. It speeds up towards then end where characters start to die off and there are less people to weigh in on each tiny thing they do. I didn't mind the series, especially as a time capsule as to how books were written 40 years ago, but Donaldson sure doesn't use one word where a whole paragraph will do.
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May 18, 2018 17:20
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Thanks for the advice, I'll follow it. Just as an indication of how much value I put in the series, I did get books 1-6 for free and have read them all whilst sitting on the toilet. Got me through some tough times but I'll finish book 6 and move on I guess.
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May 18, 2018 20:05
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crazyvanman posted:Thanks for the advice, I'll follow it. Just as an indication of how much value I put in the series, I did get books 1-6 for free and have read them all whilst sitting on the toilet. Got me through some tough times but I'll finish book 6 and move on I guess. I would suggest substituting laxatives for the Thomas Covenant books, then.
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May 18, 2018 20:20
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Speaking of Donaldson, he will have a new fantasy book out this year called the seventh decimate which sounded interesting.
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May 18, 2018 20:36
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Cardiac posted:Speaking of Donaldson, he will have a new fantasy book out this year called the seventh decimate which sounded interesting. How much raping is there in this one?
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May 18, 2018 21:50
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So I was going to try out some Gene Wolfe, but I was going though my kindle library and saw Anubis Gates, and remembered I wanted to read On Stranger Tides, so I picked up that up along with the audiobook (whispersync is loving great). Its narrated by Bronson Pinchot and his pirate voices are amazing.
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May 18, 2018 23:54
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BananaNutkins posted:I'm reading Raymond E. Feist's Magician right now. I was surprised at how solid the prose was, and the world and characters have more detail than anticipated. Very vanilla Tolkin-esque setting, though, and a typical coming of age/hero's journey style plot. Some of the later books can get pretty full of themselves, especially when dealing with philosophical stuff. The Serpentwar books are pretty good except the last one goes pretty badly off the rails near the end. I had a hard time being able to stand Pug by the end of the series but it was pretty good overall. My main gripe with the series was Feist going heavy on philosophy and the universe and existence, especially with regards to the Dread and other stuff. You get a taste of it in Darkness at Sethanon but some of the later/final books try too hard to answer everything at times. What they ultimately do with Nakor and Miranda is groan-inducing, too. Betrayal at Krondor was such a good game. Got it as a Christmas present as a kid but I didn't read any of the books until years later so I didn't know any of the references, like why one person was addressed with two different names by different people. There were so many ways to break and cheese things in the game, or get all the money you'd ever need. It also covered pretty well for unexpected behavior. Like in chapter one if you head east before going south someone comments about how you'll probably draw less attention, but if you go all the way to the east and then south, making as big a loop as possible, someone (maybe Locklear?) comments to the effect of "ok there's no way they'll be look this far off the route for us." It's a shame that Return to Krondor was apparently not as good.
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May 19, 2018 00:54
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I read the first Covenant trilogy when I was fifteen back in the Eighties, and was very troubled by it. This was after coming to it after Tolkien and Brooks, which had me expecting that sort of fantasy again. Nope. Robot Wendigo fucked around with this message at 03:04 on May 19, 2018 |
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May 19, 2018 01:47
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GreyjoyBastard posted:Now I really, really want to hear your take on Blade of Tyshalle (by Stover). Blade of Tyshalle is weird. It's been a while since I read it, but I seem to remember loving that the uber-tough jeet kun do expert protag is crippled and doing everything from a wheelchair and refuses to stop being a bad rear end. But then I sort of hated how everything in the story was eventually resolved by the convergence of the metaphysical magic system and the protags(read:the author's) philosophical outlook on life. The first book was a little like Jean Claude Van Damme in Narnia, a B-movie that was nevertheless loveable and interesting. The second book took everything too seriously and got preachy about the Ayn Rand ideas and lost a bit of the immersiveness because of it.
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May 19, 2018 02:39
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I recently picked up an Arthur C. Clarke audiobook omnibus. I've been reading Clarke for four decades, and I've read many of his works multiple times. I've still spent the last week going, "Holy poo poo! This story! I'd forgotten about this story!" It's been amazing. I can't believe how many stories he wrote that I either forget were his stories, or forgot existed until I started listening to this audiobook. Over and over, I get a few minutes into a story, and it clicks in my head, and I realize it's yet another one I'd forgotten about. The other thing that's surprising is that I've read all of them. I'm 40+ hours into a 50+ hour audiobook, and I think I've recognized every single story, so far. I know "Arthur C. Clarke wrote a lot of awesome science fiction" isn't exactly revelatory, but this has been like reuniting with an old friend, and rediscovering all kinds of great things I'd forgotten about him.
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May 19, 2018 03:09
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BananaNutkins posted:Blade of Tyshalle is weird. It's been a while since I read it, but I seem to remember loving that the uber-tough jeet kun do expert protag is crippled and doing everything from a wheelchair and refuses to stop being a bad rear end. But then I sort of hated how everything in the story was eventually resolved by the convergence of the metaphysical magic system and the protags(read:the author's) philosophical outlook on life. I do think all the fascist, caste poo poo in the world was due to an evil god influencing earth was pretty lazy writing but I guess it kinda worked with where the final book went.
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May 19, 2018 04:15
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