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Gato posted:Just finished the first book in the Expanse series and it was... aggressively ok? It was competently written, decent enough characters, solid action sequences, but I can't think of a single idea or plot beat that really grabbed me. Plus I got sick of all the characters falling over themselves to tell the protagonist it was ok to unilaterally make really dumb decisions that get countless people killed because he's just so righteous. Aggressively Okay is a great description for them. I actually think the fifth book is pretty good, not least because it finally does what the first book should've done and gives the crew some personalities.
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Aug 10, 2018 20:30
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Gato posted:Just finished the first book in the Expanse series and it was... aggressively ok? It was competently written, decent enough characters, solid action sequences, but I can't think of a single idea or plot beat that really grabbed me. Plus I got sick of all the characters falling over themselves to tell the protagonist it was ok to unilaterally make really dumb decisions that get countless people killed because he's just so righteous. They're sci-fi airport thrillers/beach read . They're perfectly enjoyable without being particularly good—and that's fine. As long as you don't expect them to be more than that, they're worth reading on the beach.
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Aug 10, 2018 21:34
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I haven't read them in quite a while, but I'm surprised I don't hear more love for Greg Bear's The Way (Eon/Eternity/Legacy) series here. I always thought it was a really awesome setting - and the way the first book opens is a really interesting introduction into it. May be time for a re-read!
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Aug 10, 2018 22:00
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I re-read Brin on a regular basis.
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Aug 10, 2018 22:36
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Is it ok to post as link to the sci fi novel ive written? Ive put the kindle edition for free this weekend.
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Aug 11, 2018 00:49
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Meskhenet posted:Is it ok to post as link to the sci fi novel ive written? Ive put the kindle edition for free this weekend. There's a post about that in the rules thread. The basics are be prepared for criticism and ask HA first just to be sure.
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Aug 11, 2018 00:56
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MockingQuantum posted:Yeah this part never loving gets any better, I quit after the book where he spends all his time agonizing over being the only leader figure on a colony planet who doesn't want to murder everyone because of reasons. "Average, and never anything but that" seems to be Daniel Abraham's thing. I tried his Dagger and Coin series and quit it after the second book, anything interesting (the stuff with the old soldier and the banker girl mainly) is lost in a swamp of blandness and some strange bits with Rotund Hitler (who has a goatee and wears ankle-length leather capes) where I couldn't tell if they were either ham-handed attempts to humanize him or were just trying to make him more eeeeevile. Likewise I stopped reading the Expanse stuff for some reason and haven't felt any compulsion to go back to it and catch up.
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Aug 11, 2018 03:03
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Ornamented Death posted:There's a post about that in the rules thread. The basics are be prepared for criticism and ask HA first just to be sure. That's what i feared lol.
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Aug 11, 2018 03:57
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Did Brin continue the main uplift plot of discovering humans are getting deliberately screwed by getting an edited version of the galactic encyclopedia, and the one ship dodging armadas to get the news back to earth? Because I vaguely remember the trilogy ending with that cliffhanger and then the next series is dolphins in space and has nothing to do with galactic politics.
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Aug 11, 2018 04:15
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:2) these books are actually still pretty good; kinda Vernor Vingeish in retrospect but they hold up I take it you haven't yet started the new trilogy that you've never read before...
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Aug 11, 2018 04:15
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Bhodi posted:Did Brin continue the main uplift plot of discovering humans are getting deliberately screwed by getting an edited version of the galactic encyclopedia, and the one ship dodging armadas to get the news back to earth? Because I vaguely remember the trilogy ending with that cliffhanger and then the next series is dolphins in space and has nothing to do with galactic politics. Yes although it all still ends a bit unsatisfactory. The third book of the second trilogy somehow managed to both feel rushed and end before it should have. Still, ok I guess
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Aug 11, 2018 04:19
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C.M. Kruger posted:"Average, and never anything but that" seems to be Daniel Abraham's thing. I tried his Dagger and Coin series and quit it after the second book, anything interesting (the stuff with the old soldier and the banker girl mainly) is lost in a swamp of blandness and some strange bits with Rotund Hitler (who has a goatee and wears ankle-length leather capes) where I couldn't tell if they were either ham-handed attempts to humanize him or were just trying to make him more eeeeevile. I really enjoyed his Long Price Quartet, but I have to agree with you on Dagger and Coin being mediocre. It had some interesting ideas, but I didn't like his ensemble for similar reasons. I think he was trying to make the gooniest, inept antagonist and wound up overdoing it, to his detriment.
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Aug 11, 2018 04:40
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Xenix posted:I really enjoyed his Long Price Quartet, but I have to agree with you on Dagger and Coin being mediocre. It had some interesting ideas, but I didn't like his ensemble for similar reasons. I think he was trying to make the gooniest, inept antagonist and wound up overdoing it, to his detriment. I'd say "well, he does write for Wild Cards", but as of the new volume that also applies to Charles Stross.
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Aug 11, 2018 07:51
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dy. posted:I haven't read them in quite a while, but I'm surprised I don't hear more love for Greg Bear's The Way (Eon/Eternity/Legacy) series here. I always thought it was a really awesome setting - and the way the first book opens is a really interesting introduction into it. I don't know if his later stuff is better, but I read his The Forge of God and struggled to get through it. Cool idea, terrible execution, in my opinion.
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Aug 11, 2018 08:36
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Gato posted:Just finished the first book in the Expanse series and it was... aggressively ok? It was competently written, decent enough characters, solid action sequences, but I can't think of a single idea or plot beat that really grabbed me. Plus I got sick of all the characters falling over themselves to tell the protagonist it was ok to unilaterally make really dumb decisions that get countless people killed because he's just so righteous. Wouldn't rate the first one as better than Average, and was barely interested enough to finish the second one despite the much-needed introduction of some better PoV characters. There were a few stylistic and mechanical things that annoyed me about them - sequences that should have been tense and scary losing their edge in a sort of genre-aware ironic tonality, the third-act introduction of the random PMC villains in Book 1, the rootlessness of the Earth/Mars/Belt conflict. I would have to follow up on this thought to be sure, but I reckon a lot of the buzz came from audiences and critics outside the usual genre circles, pulled in by the GRRM connection and the unusually heavy marketing push. The series has a bunch of concepts and setting tropes - its relative Hardness, the heterogeneity and argot of the Belters, development of incipient transhuman identity, integrating Weird Horror and Cyberpunk tropes with space operatic set pieces - that are pretty wild if your main sci-fi grounding is star wars, star trek and battlestar galactica, but aren't that new if you've read a lot of sci-fi from the New Wave or later. I can't think of any idea in it that hadn't been written about by 1985. PupsOfWar fucked around with this message at 10:49 on Aug 11, 2018 |
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Aug 11, 2018 09:04
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For Audiobook people, the Murderbot books are around the same price as the ebook, and I am really liking the narrator.
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Aug 11, 2018 11:56
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The Expanse books ripped off Larry Niven's Known Space series so heavily, Niven could win a lawsuit for theft if he wasn't senile. Anytime I give the Vorkosigan books another chance, Miles is always the least interesting character in them. I'd rather read more about Miles parents, the emperor, Miles cousins, the spymaster, or the peons of Miles notMercenary space fleet.
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Aug 11, 2018 13:56
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So I finally got around to reading Lord of Light. To summarize, a good read. The influence of that book is readily seen in a lot of other books. Good prose, a story with flow. Only negative are the somewhat bland characters. I can see what Simmons tried to do with Ilium, with a clear influence from Zelazny but with a massive failure in execution to say the least. Finally, in the afterwords of my edition GRRM mentions a pun that the book is based upon but which I completely missed? Jedit posted:I'd say "well, he does write for Wild Cards", but as of the new volume that also applies to Charles Stross. Which means we get to read how Wild Cards fight the UK bureaucracy?
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Aug 11, 2018 16:22
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and then the fit hit the Shan Laughed like an idiot for several minutes when I first read that Lord of Light is good
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Aug 11, 2018 16:24
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Cardiac posted:Which means we get to read how Wild Cards fight the UK bureaucracy?  They should start with something easier. Like Thanos. Or God.
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Aug 11, 2018 16:29
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Cardiac posted:
It all starts when the fit hits the Shan
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Aug 11, 2018 21:58
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Could you explain the pun/joke?
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Aug 11, 2018 22:10
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Steakandchips posted:Could you explain the pun/joke? https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-202882.html quote:Wentworth & Flexner ["A Dictionary of American Slang"] cite an anecdotal origin [remembered independently by Robert Claiborne, Prof. Anthony Brown, and Paul Beale, covering mid 1930s - mid '50s], which is perhaps valid: a guest, unable to find the w.c., uses a hole in the bathroom floor and on rejoining the party, is asked, 'Little man, so spic and span, where were you when the poo poo hit the fan?' according to Phrase Finder (http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/17/messages/683.html). Past that .. .it's literally the first quarter of the book. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Aug 11, 2018 |
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Aug 11, 2018 22:24
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Steakandchips posted:Could you explain the pun/joke? poo poo hit the fan I don't know the characters/context but it's a play on that terrible terrible joke Anyhow, I came in here to ask - anyone in hear of the Recluse series by LE Modesitt Jr? I've been hauling in books from the barn today and found like ten of these Recluse books, and it's fascinating how there's like, so little information about them on the internet outside of "they're good" with weirdly... "the magic works like this" information without anyone actually writing down a plot summary.
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Aug 11, 2018 22:27
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:The Expanse books ripped off Larry Niven's Known Space series so heavily, Niven could win a lawsuit for theft if he wasn't senile. After reading Bujold’s other books, I think Miles is a really important presence in the Vorkosigan saga. He gives his stories a manic, chaotic energy, and her work can be slightly drab without it. You may like other characters more, but he helps create (or escalate) the utter lunacy they have to deal with.
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Aug 11, 2018 22:36
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StrixNebulosa posted:poo poo hit the fan I read them once. I seem to recall them being of the same quality as the Eddings books, though less well written.
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Aug 11, 2018 23:14
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I mean, I know that poo poo hitting the fan is a phrase, just that I do not remember the event occurring in the book... Metaphorically, it did, of course... Sorry. I am thinking about this too much.
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Aug 11, 2018 23:25
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StrixNebulosa posted:poo poo hit the fan I've read a few of the Recluce books. I still reread the first one (The Magic of Recluce) occasionally. There's a poo poo load of them and the timeline is all over the place. I really like that first one though. However, the onomatopoeia does tend to get a little annoying.
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Aug 11, 2018 23:38
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StrixNebulosa posted:Anyhow, I came in here to ask - anyone in hear of the Recluse series by LE Modesitt Jr? I've been hauling in books from the barn today and found like ten of these Recluse books, and it's fascinating how there's like, so little information about them on the internet outside of "they're good" with weirdly... "the magic works like this" information without anyone actually writing down a plot summary. They are all fine. Usually some form of coming of age story as our protagonist is forced to take action because no one else will. ...if you read one and don’t like it, you might as well stop because they are all very similar.
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Aug 11, 2018 23:47
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ulmont posted:They are all fine. Usually some form of coming of age story as our protagonist is forced to take action because no one else will. This was my biggest issue, the Recluce books tend to be very samey. My personal favorite is The Magic Engineer mostly because it's about a magic blacksmith who builds an ironclad and rocket launchers even if it ends on THIS IS FANTASY NO GUNS ALLOWED.
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Aug 11, 2018 23:52
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Cheers, thanks everyone. I'm gonna dig into the Magic of Recluse - worst case scenario, it goes back into the pile. Best case, I enjoy it!
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Aug 12, 2018 00:44
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Thanks again to everyone who recommended Legends of Ethshar, I'm now halfway through The Blood of a Dragon and still quite enjoying myself. Before starting I was looking forward to Ithanalin's Restoration the most, but after reading The Unwilling Warlord I'm now way more curious about The Night of Madness and The Vondish Ambassador, since I'm assuming that the former will contain more stuff about the Source and the latter about Vond.
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Aug 12, 2018 01:40
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General Battuta posted:Aggressively Okay is a great description for them. So does the action get zanier? I liked the first book for being gritty and having kind of realistic characters, up until the main dudes get shot like 12 times in the casino planet, and are just mildly inconvenienced. After that point it was just a video game script, so I didn't want to read another.
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Aug 12, 2018 03:13
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ToxicFrog posted:Thanks again to everyone who recommended Legends of Ethshar, I'm now halfway through The Blood of a Dragon and still quite enjoying myself. Before starting I was looking forward to Ithanalin's Restoration the most, but after reading The Unwilling Warlord I'm now way more curious about The Night of Madness and The Vondish Ambassador, since I'm assuming that the former will contain more stuff about the Source and the latter about Vond. Great! Those are all good ones. Blood of a Dragon is probably one of the worst, there's one other that's outright bad but I forget the title. The Misenchanted Sword protagonist does show up every so often in the background in some of the later books.
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Aug 12, 2018 03:16
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The one about the girl with wings was pretty crappy. The dragon's blood one (if it's the one I am remember) was kinda craptastic as well. The sorcerer's widow wasn't great either. The rest are pretty good. I remember thinking "HOLY poo poo" at the one with the girl who hosed up making an athame.
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Aug 12, 2018 04:20
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Read Mur Lafferty's Six Wakes today. Went into the book blind, expecting little, came away impressed. Randomly grabbed blind reading fantasy/scifi book in 2018 trend continues to be good. The only flat out disappointments for 2018 have been Abercrombie's Best Served Cold + Traitor Baru Cormorant, even "sounds like a 3rd rate hitchhiker guide knockoff" Swift Kick in the Asteroids turned out better than I expected. Ian R. MacLeod's Breathmoss short story was still fresh in my mind from Gardner Dozois's 2003 Years Best SciFi Anthology while reading Traitor Baru Cormorant. Both stories shared starting elements (triple parent family, seaside villages, clever child, etc). Baru Cormorants author pulled the Greg Egan "main character is super-smart but so passive in-story that a bowl of jello has more personal agency" trick while novelizing a modded Crusader Kings 2 campaign. Overall preferred Breathmoss to Traitor Baru Cormorant. Here's a link to Ian R. MacLeod's Breathmoss story for anyone interested. http://will.tip.dhappy.org/blog/Porn%20Recommender/.../book/by/Ian%20MacLeod/Breathmoss/Ian%20MacLeod%20-%20Breathmoss.html Considering Day of Locust as the next book to read.
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Aug 12, 2018 04:52
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Finished up Becky Chambers A Closed and Common Orbit. It had me sobbing. She writes feelings real well.
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Aug 12, 2018 05:00
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StrixNebulosa posted:Cheers, thanks everyone. I'm gonna dig into the Magic of Recluse - worst case scenario, it goes back into the pile. Best case, I enjoy it! The Recluse books are kinda neat because like, everybody has jobs and lives and families and whatnot. Also, like someone else said, the timeline can get weird, because there are thousands of years of history and Modesitt will just pick one and that’s where the book is set. It’s kind of cool, because stuff that is pre-history or ancient history in one book will be the setting of another.
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Aug 12, 2018 08:05
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Steakandchips posted:I mean, I know that poo poo hitting the fan is a phrase, just that I do not remember the event occurring in the book... Metaphorically, it did, of course... Hey so I looked this up because I was curious and There's one human body that belongs to a guy called Shan that's an epileptic - so when he has a seizure, "the fit hits the Shan"
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Aug 12, 2018 08:21
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I need a time machine so I can go back in time and smack LE Modesitt Jr every single time he decides it's a good idea to write out sound effects. Thwack.......shlap.........
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Aug 12, 2018 15:37
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