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navyjack posted:Yeah but the books are too pricey for how short they are Library, yo.
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Jun 29, 2018 14:43
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I did not care for All Systems Red, I found Murderbot far too twee.
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Jun 29, 2018 15:51
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Peter Watts was on a latest episode of Geek's Guide to the Galaxy: Episode 315 << Coming June 30th Peter Watts joins us to discuss his novel The Freeze-Frame Revolution and his short story collection Beyond the Rift. I haven't listened yet. The episode is not on their website yet, but is available through the feed.
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Jun 29, 2018 16:35
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Everytime someone posts about a grandmaster of scifi dying, I am surprised it's not James E. Gunn, who will be 95 in 13 days. Given how most grandmasters of scifi went full bore racist/sex perv/disappeared up their own asses after they hit 50, James E. Gunn stayed sane and was able to finish off a decent-not-great trilogy of books for TOR last year. I will forever maintain that James E. Gunn's Kampus deserves a retroactive pulitzer pride for unintentional comedy. Kampus is like a dark anti-hippy version of A Confederacy of Dunces, only no-ones life is improved by interacting with the main character of Kampus.
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Jun 29, 2018 21:39
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I met Ellison many, many years ago at a con. I was very nervous, and waited while he set up his table and books. A kid came up and, mistaking Ellison for convention staff, asked him where Todd McFarlane was. Ellison's eyes just blazed as he stared at the kid, and I thought, here we go. But Ellison just said he didn't know, but with a bite that made the air snap.The kid, oblivious, just wandered away. Then his eyes turned to me. "I'm very nervous to meet you, " I said. "Why?" he snapped back. I mumbled something like how much I liked his work, tripping over my words, wondering if I was going to be blasted. But he stared at me and said, "I'm just a guy. I put on my pants just like you." Aside from Neil Gaiman, he was the nicest writer I've ever met.
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Jun 30, 2018 02:33
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Steakandchips posted:I did not care for All Systems Red, I found Murderbot far too twee. I found them way less twee than I thought they'd be judging by the blurb, and thank God for that. All Systems Red is the best of the Hugo novellas I've read so far, which I admit isn't saying muchh.
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Jun 30, 2018 02:38
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https://twitter.com/ImmanionPress/status/1012883196298563584?s=19
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Jun 30, 2018 03:30
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Is that the vampires with the weird dicks?
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Jun 30, 2018 03:32
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Ben Nerevarine posted:Is that the vampires with the weird dicks? They're not vampires, they do have weird dicks, they're hermaphrodites who lay eggs. Also the author couldn't commit to hermaphrodites and created a sister race to the Wraeththu so there are girl hermaphrodites too. e: I reread the first trilogy last year to see what high school me was reading and oh, boy. They're fun reads but I can't rec them and I don't know how they got published on anywhere but fanfic.net StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Jun 30, 2018 |
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Jun 30, 2018 03:34
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Junior high me was reading books about the murderous hermaphrodites who ruled earth. Isaac Asimov
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Jun 30, 2018 03:47
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Murderbot clicked with me more when I realized she’s just writing Pinocchio in space.
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Jun 30, 2018 04:09
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StrixNebulosa posted:They're not vampires, they do have weird dicks, they're hermaphrodites who lay eggs. So wraeththu, wraefu, waifu...
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Jun 30, 2018 05:41
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"Wendy Darling"? Really?
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Jun 30, 2018 06:02
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Selachian posted:"Wendy Darling"? Really?
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Jun 30, 2018 07:59
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jit bull transpile posted:I mean, all tech is bad but black mirror is still dumb mm, as someone who couldn't survive without technology invented in the last century, i agree. also harlan ellison seems like he was a oval office but he was influential and i've never heard of him crossing any moral points of no return (albeit i've never read too deeply into his personal life, under the fourth law of arthur c clarke), so it saddens me to learn of his death. edit: ringu0 posted:Peter Watts was on a latest episode of Geek's Guide to the Galaxy: thank you! i haven't listened to any of watts' speeches in years, but my memory is he is really good at stringing together entertaining science stuff, even if a lot of the science is more contested than what he says would indicate.
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Jun 30, 2018 09:42
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Neurosis posted:mm, as someone who couldn't survive without technology invented in the last century, i agree. Dude groped someone on stage, and scuttlebutt says it was only the tip of the iceberg for his unpleasant con behaviour. He wasn’t fun or safe to be around for female fans.
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Jun 30, 2018 12:51
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StrixNebulosa posted:They're not vampires, they do have weird dicks, they're hermaphrodites who lay eggs. I picked up the trilogy in my teens sight unseen because I was in the mood for some fantasy at the time. Hoo boy, those 50 or so pages I got through were a doozy. I think I stopped reading about the time the wandering recruiter dude's penis opened up to envelop the other guy's. 
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Jun 30, 2018 14:24
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Ben Nerevarine posted:I think I stopped reading about the time the wandering recruiter dude's penis opened up to envelop the other guy's. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!
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Jun 30, 2018 14:44
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Sci-fi authors write about docking all the time, what's the issue.
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Jun 30, 2018 15:13
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navyjack posted:Yeah but the books are too pricey for how short they are This. I got All Systems Red on sale, then saw they were charging full novel price for the sequels despite them being novellas at best.
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Jun 30, 2018 18:43
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fordan posted:This. I got All Systems Red on sale, then saw they were charging full novel price for the sequels despite them being novellas at best. The prices will go down over time. A lot of publishers are doing the same trying to soak maximum dollars from readers that NEED THING NOW, like me.
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Jun 30, 2018 19:10
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Darth Walrus posted:Dude groped someone on stage, and scuttlebutt says it was only the tip of the iceberg for his unpleasant con behaviour. He wasn’t fun or safe to be around for female fans. Someone being multi-Hugo Award winner Connie Willis.
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Jun 30, 2018 21:18
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Darth Walrus posted:Dude groped someone on stage, and scuttlebutt says it was only the tip of the iceberg for his unpleasant con behaviour. He wasn’t fun or safe to be around for female fans. oh. well, that's pretty gross.
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Jul 1, 2018 04:56
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Just finished reading Freeze Frame Revolution. So good. Watts knocked it out the park this time around.
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Jul 1, 2018 11:39
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Steakandchips posted:Just finished reading Freeze Frame Revolution. So good. Watts knocked it out the park this time around. Made it look like a breeze frame revolution?
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Jul 1, 2018 21:43
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Kesper North posted:Made it look like a breeze frame revolution? You are someone's dad.
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Jul 1, 2018 22:48
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BananaNutkins posted:You are someone's dad.  Father of pun.
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Jul 1, 2018 22:52
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Re-read Terry Pratchett's novel Dark Side of the Sun this weekend. Dark Side was still a light entertaining read and I had forgotten how extremely detailed the Dark Side universe was for a one-off scifi book. If Dark Side had been more popular in this universe, I could see Pratchett making an entire book series out of it, similar to how Pratchett developed his Discworld series. Million-to-one chances was a running gag in Dark Side, similar to how Pratchett would use million-to-one chances in his Discworld series.
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Jul 2, 2018 01:01
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:Re-read Terry Pratchett's novel Dark Side of the Sun this weekend. Dark Side was still a light entertaining read and I had forgotten how extremely detailed the Dark Side universe was for a one-off scifi book. If Dark Side had been more popular in this universe, I could see Pratchett making an entire book series out of it, similar to how Pratchett developed his Discworld series. Million-to-one chances was a running gag in Dark Side, similar to how Pratchett would use million-to-one chances in his Discworld series. The difference being that in Dark Side, million to one chances work because the people taking them don't leave things to chance and think probability is for suckers, idiots, and poor people.
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Jul 3, 2018 20:17
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Darth Walrus posted:Dude groped someone on stage, and scuttlebutt says it was only the tip of the iceberg for his unpleasant con behaviour. He wasn’t fun or safe to be around for female fans. for a brief moment of utter terror I thought you were talking about Peter Watts I would have difficulty handling that
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Jul 4, 2018 00:05
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GreyjoyBastard posted:for a brief moment of utter terror I thought you were talking about Peter Watts Nah. This is more accurate for Watts. Darth Walrus posted:Dude groped someone
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Jul 4, 2018 03:06
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Halfway through Echopraxia and it’s disappointing after Blindsight. He’s really good at expressing the horror of vampires though.
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Jul 4, 2018 05:02
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io9 published a list of upcoming SF/F and this one caught my eye, so I was going to go for a longshot and ask if anyone's heard anything about this super new book (released yesterday, apparently), The Book of Hidden Things. Here's the blurb:quote:Four old school friends have a pact: to meet up every year in the small town in Puglia they grew up in. Art, the charismatic leader of the group and creator of the pact, insists that the agreement must remain unshakable and enduring. But this year, he never shows up. Maybe I'm just jonesing for something along the lines of Umberto Eco (RIP), but that setup can either be really engrossing or end up really poo poo, depending on where this journey goes.
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Jul 4, 2018 23:09
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GrandpaPants posted:io9 published a list of upcoming SF/F and this one caught my eye, so I was going to go for a longshot and ask if anyone's heard anything about this super new book (released yesterday, apparently), The Book of Hidden Things. Here's the blurb: I believe the author is currently doing the rounds with a blog tour. At least, he just did Scalzi's blog.
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Jul 4, 2018 23:17
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Curious about opinions on Greg Bear? Just started reading The Forge of God, and the premise is pretty sweet (almost feels like Independence Day may have cribbed from it a bit so far), but I'm not quite sold on the writing, but maybe I just haven't warmed up to it yet.
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Jul 5, 2018 00:06
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Curious about opinions on Greg Bear? Just started reading The Forge of God, and the premise is pretty sweet (almost feels like Independence Day may have cribbed from it a bit so far), but I'm not quite sold on the writing, but maybe I just haven't warmed up to it yet. Bear's writing is middling but very digestible as far as the genre goes. The Forge of God is probably my least favorite of Bear's work--it's meandering in a way that's not very compelling, culminating in a melodramatic climax that doesn't feel earned. The sequel has very little in common with it, but for my dollar it's a much better standalone work and lets him do what he does best: explore big ideas. His best work is "The Way" series, in my opinion. Again, the writing is merely serviceable, but it's a framework that allows him to explore grand sci fi ideas. He's pretty good. Ben Nerevarine fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Jul 5, 2018 |
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Jul 5, 2018 00:20
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Curious about opinions on Greg Bear? Just started reading The Forge of God, and the premise is pretty sweet (almost feels like Independence Day may have cribbed from it a bit so far), but I'm not quite sold on the writing, but maybe I just haven't warmed up to it yet. His writing tedious, especially at novel length. His short stories are tolerable, but I couldn't even finish the novel version of Blood Music because it was just a short story padded to novel length with a ton of boring drivelly detail from a mediocre prose stylist.
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Jul 5, 2018 00:25
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Kinda what I figured. I'll stick with it for now and see how it goes.
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Jul 5, 2018 00:53
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Just started The People's History of the Vampire Uprising and while I'm only 5% into it, it's pretty good so far. It's written like a book where instead of a protagonist that's traditional, there's just the person who wrote the book, and a collection of news stories and stuff regarding the whole thing. quote:A People's History of the Vampire Uprising: A Novel
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Jul 5, 2018 04:41
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So it’s world war v?
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Jul 5, 2018 05:33
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