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Cixin Liu's The Wandering Earth (2000) is getting a movie adaptation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLcghUzzQCg
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Dec 28, 2018 13:09
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Finished the Girl With All the Gifts and it nice to have zombie story where the soldier isn't the villain.
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Dec 28, 2018 14:12
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Alaan posted:I love Glen Cook too much but Port has to be on there on the back of being so weird. what does "weird" mean to you? I liked Cook and the Black Company, and that lead in to a love for all things Malazan. CoolHandMat fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Dec 28, 2018 |
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Dec 28, 2018 14:19
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Victorkm posted:To be fair, not all LitRPG enumerates every single EXP gain, though it's a pretty common trope. That pretty much describes the part in Expanse book one where the DM dumps a uber-ship filled with goodies on the players so they won't walk away from the DM's gaming session. Aka The superfast ship with 4 godkiller weapons, enough fuel to jet around the star system twice before refueling, an infinite usage Raise Dead medbay, and double sets of By the time I finished Expanse book 1, nothing in it had improved for the better so avoiding all Expanse series sequels felt like a smart move. Re-read some Ken MacLeod novels, and Ken MacLeod sure does love socialism versus capitalism plots, and/or technology versus religion plots. 65% chance of functional immortality happening if it's a Ken MacLeod technology vs. religion story, 90% chance of functional immortality happening if it's a Ken MacLeod socialism vs capitalism story. For MacLeod's socialism vs capitalism stories, there is also a 98.9999 likely-hood that Locke & Hume are kindergartener baseline education in his stories and thus almost every conflict will wind up framed in Lockian/Humian terms. The reason I ranted about Ken MacLeod's tendencies is that MacLeod is also the literary curator of Iain Banks literary estate, and I am hoping beyond hope that MacLeod will be able to suppress his tendencies in the upcoming 2019 Iain Banks anthology.
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Dec 28, 2018 16:09
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I probably shouldn't buy books because of dreams, but screw it: this morning I ordered the Etched City by KJ Bishop, Rapture by Kameron Hurley (God's War #3) and Master of Whitestorm by Janny Wurts. I need to hurry up and finish Infidel first, but man. There's so much good stuff out there, I love it.
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Dec 28, 2018 18:53
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Started reading Echopraxia. Don't want any spoilers and not really ready to talk about it but... is this vampire flirting with Bruks or am i out of my mind?
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Dec 29, 2018 00:59
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NecroMonster posted:Started reading Echopraxia. Don't want any spoilers and not really ready to talk about it but... is this vampire flirting with Bruks or am i out of my mind? Would you flirt with a dog?
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Dec 29, 2018 02:04
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Kalman posted:Would you flirt with a dog? it'd be more like a homo-sapiens sapiens flirting with a Homo neanderthalensis, but weirder unless this book contains further revelations about exactly what the vampires are. But either way, her behavior thus far towards him has been really weird. I mean, at least compared the the vampire in the last book, who come to think of it had some other weird circumstances too.
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Dec 29, 2018 03:01
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StrixNebulosa posted:I probably shouldn't buy books because of dreams, but screw it: this morning I ordered the Etched City by KJ Bishop, Rapture by Kameron Hurley (God's War #3) and Master of Whitestorm by Janny Wurts. This is how I feel in general, the last bit. Massively spoiled for choice and I love it.
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Dec 29, 2018 07:33
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I felt Etched City was pretty disappointing, looking forward to hearing more impressions on that.
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Dec 29, 2018 09:20
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Are there other books with the general feel of The Goblin Emperor? EDIT: Oh wait, the books with Murderbot, I should get those Chairchucker fucked around with this message at 13:21 on Dec 29, 2018 |
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Dec 29, 2018 13:13
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occamsnailfile posted:This is how I feel in general, the last bit. Massively spoiled for choice and I love it. Five years ago I 100% believed I was scraping the bottom of the barrel in the sci-fi/fantasy genre. I'd found CJ Cherryh, I'd read Peter Watts, etc etc - and I'd try new interesting sounding books and find that the writing was either bad or bland or upsetting. A lot of this was on me - I wasn't good at finding books, as I was just relying on exploring my local library and local bookstores - but it feels like a new world has dawned, especially in this last year. I can't turn around without finding a new author or series that I want to read, and then they're actually good! Examples: Kameron Hurley, Greg Bear, Brian Stableford, Janny Wurts, Paul J McAuley, that Magic Bites series (it's fun!)... I think the biggest dud I've encountered this month has been Warchild by Karin Lowachee, and that's mostly because it feels like it didn't properly represent itself in the summary - gritty military sci-fi with a child soldier who grows up in a rough universe - and instead it became him getting rescued from a pirate and raised by Japanese aliens who train him in the art of the blade. The writing was fine, but like... nah.
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Dec 29, 2018 13:47
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anilEhilated posted:I felt Etched City was pretty disappointing, looking forward to hearing more impressions on that. I got 40% of the way through the book and gave up because it didn't seem to be going anywhere. After some decent character hooks in the opening part I really expected more. Also re the Gnomon praise above, I paused in reading that at around 35% (although I will start it up again soon) because I found the prose style bloated. There were interesting bits and pieces in there and certainly the plot had direction, hence why I haven't just dropped it entirely, but the word count for what is actually presented in the book began to annoy me early on, to the point where I couldn't push it out of my mind how many paragraphs could have been rewritten to convey the same sentiments much more simply, or often deleted entirely since they merely repeated things already established.
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Dec 29, 2018 14:20
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I finished "Dune Messiah" yesterday and I liked it in a way, but I feel like the last 25-30% of the book wasn't holding my interest as much, other than just being invested enough to want to see how it specifically played out. From what I read, the general consensus is if you like "Dune" then you should read "Dune Messiah," then continue on if you liked *that*. After the end of Dune Messiah, I feel like it's going to just keep going on and on like that forever. Is it worth continuing on if I'm kind of iffy on Dune Messiah?
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Dec 29, 2018 18:49
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the traitor baru cormorant, a prominent hopepunk novel,
PupsOfWar fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Dec 29, 2018 |
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Dec 29, 2018 19:28
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MarksMan posted:I finished "Dune Messiah" yesterday and I liked it in a way, but I feel like the last 25-30% of the book wasn't holding my interest as much, other than just being invested enough to want to see how it specifically played out. From what I read, the general consensus is if you like "Dune" then you should read "Dune Messiah," then continue on if you liked *that*. After the end of Dune Messiah, I feel like it's going to just keep going on and on like that forever. Is it worth continuing on if I'm kind of iffy on Dune Messiah? Nope. With Dune you just quit the moment you're tired of its poo poo.
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Dec 29, 2018 19:59
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Khizan posted:Nope. With Dune you just quit the moment you're tired of its poo poo. Lol, I'm pretty sure I'm there. I just read the Wiki synopsis of Children of Dune and God Emperor and it just seems like it would be mild torture to actually try to read the details of how that story plays out. Maybe I'll start on trying to finish the Foundation series now; I read the first book and never went further. I still feel like I'm on a semi-cyberpunk obsession though, so debating on where to go from here. I read Neuromancer recently and loved it; I started Snow Crash before but never completely finished it
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Dec 29, 2018 20:07
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MarksMan posted:Is it worth continuing on if I'm kind of iffy on Dune Messiah? The third book continues the themes of prescience vs free will etc. Then there's a hard break and book 4 is thousands of years in the future. So.. end of book 3 is a much clearer stopping point IMO, but if you're not enjoying it then don't suffer through it.
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Dec 29, 2018 20:12
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PupsOfWar posted:the traitor baru cormorant, a prominent hopepunk novel, Well, in a way. It certainly isn't noblebright. And any goodness in the world does depend on constant upward grinding effort against an uncaring universe bolted together out of human flesh and human misery, using mutual self-interest as the enzymatic bonding agent holding the frail chicken nugget of human civilization together: the power of meat glue in a deep fat fryer. (I love hopepunk.)
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Dec 29, 2018 20:46
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MarksMan posted:I finished "Dune Messiah" yesterday and I liked it in a way, but I feel like the last 25-30% of the book wasn't holding my interest as much, other than just being invested enough to want to see how it specifically played out. From what I read, the general consensus is if you like "Dune" then you should read "Dune Messiah," then continue on if you liked *that*. After the end of Dune Messiah, I feel like it's going to just keep going on and on like that forever. Is it worth continuing on if I'm kind of iffy on Dune Messiah? Drop the Dune series if you're not feeling it and just read wikipedia summaries of the Frank Herbert books (avoid the Brian Herbert/KJA books). Honestly the Dune series is really about nepotism with increasingly less stable personalities in charge for all the factions as the series goes on. Especially in the case of the super-smug factions Bene Gesserit and Bene Tleilaxu, I'm talking about you.
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Dec 30, 2018 00:18
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you can really make some big progress on your page count per day if you just stop reading books and read the wikipedia pages instead. it's a great strategy for those of us who lead busy lives programming computers.
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Dec 30, 2018 00:24
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A human heart posted:you can really make some big progress on your page count per day if you just stop reading books and read the wikipedia pages instead. it's a great strategy for those of us who lead busy lives programming computers. There are actual ads running on tv right now that are like "don't have time for books?! subscribe to our service and listen to summaries of books!"
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Dec 30, 2018 00:27
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A human heart posted:...those of us who lead busy lives programming computers. So much is explained, now.
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Dec 30, 2018 00:28
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mewse posted:There are actual ads running on tv right now that are like "don't have time for books?! subscribe to our service and listen to summaries of books!" I liked the Skymall ads for subscriptions to summaries of business management books which is just a fascinating concept Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Dec 30, 2018 |
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Dec 30, 2018 02:00
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Fallom posted:I liked the Skymall ads for subscriptions to summaries of business management books which is just a fascinating concept Typical business management books are 10% business management ideas and 90% motivational stories about successful businesses to help convince the reader that they really could start a business with the ideas from the book. If you already run a business and don't need the pep talk a summary can get you the core without wasting time on fluff. Edit: a subscription service for this still sounds odd to me though
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Dec 30, 2018 02:45
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Fallom posted:I liked the Skymall ads for subscriptions to summaries of business management books which is just a fascinating concept I had to track it down, the ad I was seeing was for a service called blinkist and I'm 99% sure this is the ad
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Dec 30, 2018 02:57
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My local sff bookstore has The Monster Baru Cormorant and the newest Robert Jackson Bennett book prominently displayed side by side and I gotta know, is it coincidental successful (former) goon author synergy or does one of you work at Mysterious Galaxy
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Dec 30, 2018 19:46
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Nine Fox Gambit is 99 pence on Kobo at the moment.
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Dec 30, 2018 19:57
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The Murderbot/Martha Wells story "Compulsory" in the January 2019 issue of WIRED isn't bad. caveat: it's very short.
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Dec 30, 2018 20:02
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Angrymog posted:Nine Fox Gambit is 99 pence on Kobo at the moment. Each of the three Machineries of Empire books (Ninefox Gambit, Raven Stratagem and Revenant Gun) are $0.99 at Amazon as well. I'm guessing it's only for December and they go back to the regular price on Tuesday.
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Dec 30, 2018 20:09
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Leafed through The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking by Brooke Borel, and page 42 in it being a picture of Der Spiegel's fact checking system in action is very HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy meta(42 meme), and therefore worthy of being mentioned in this thread. For people who have no idea what I'm talking about, Der Spiegel (a German news magzine/newspaper/multimedia company) is currently going through a major scandal over one of their top reporters, Claas Relotius, duping the gently caress out of Der Spiegel's fact-checking system for years and years.
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Dec 30, 2018 22:59
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my bony fealty posted:My local sff bookstore has The Monster Baru Cormorant Also this is finally available on UK Kindle!
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Dec 30, 2018 23:16
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Selachian posted:The book and the show barely have anything in common, so it's best to put the book out of mind if you want to watch the show. Not surprising. I'd say the same thing about Total Recall and "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale." NoNostalgia4Grover posted:Drop the Dune series if you're not feeling it and just read wikipedia summaries of the Frank Herbert books (avoid the Brian Herbert/KJA books). Has anybody tried to do an online read-through of Anderson's Dune books for the purpose of mocking them, or an in-depth analysis of why they're awful?
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Dec 30, 2018 23:56
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Solitair posted:Has anybody tried to do an online read-through of Anderson's Dune books for the purpose of mocking them, or an in-depth analysis of why they're awful? They tried and died.
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Dec 31, 2018 00:06
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Honestly I’d like to understand why the Anderson books are so bad because I only remember trying to read one and going “what the gently caress is this” and quitting a few chapters in
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Dec 31, 2018 00:50
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Solitair posted:Not surprising. I'd say the same thing about Total Recall and "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale." Think of Christopher Tolkien and Chris Tolkien's endless series of books documenting the drafts/notes that his father wrote during the creation of LotR, the Hobbit, and lesser JRR Tolkien stories like farmer giles. Got all that in your head? Good. Now take away all the talent of Christopher Tolkien, make the Frank Herbert Dune universe notes/drafts of future Dune books lost to time/burned in California wildfire(s)/never existed in the first place. Then picture the vast trove of never-published/rejected/slush pile submissions of the Star Wars Extended Universe and using the best methods of https://youtu.be/x6MxvzliG6I randomly paste in Dune character names/words and send to the publisher. That is the Brian Herbert/KJA Dune books experience.
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Dec 31, 2018 01:15
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City of Brass is pretty good.
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Dec 31, 2018 02:35
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5 bucks for NK Jesmin's short story collection on Kindle. Haven't read it yet. https://twitter.com/nkjemisin/status/1079424381812703233
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Dec 31, 2018 02:59
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mewse posted:Honestly I’d like to understand why the Anderson books are so bad because I only remember trying to read one and going “what the gently caress is this” and quitting a few chapters in Remember that you asked for this. Also it spoils the poo poo out of Sandworms of Dune but really who gives a gently caress? quote:The end nears
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Dec 31, 2018 03:14
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I'd read a litrpg adaptation of that. Also, ultraspice.
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Dec 31, 2018 04:20
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