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gvibes posted:Finished dick Morgan’s Thin Air. Plot ultimately seemed a bit threadbare to me, and it seems to cover pretty familiar ground, but nonetheless pretty enjoyable. A sleazy couch of a book, but I've had a great time on sleazy couches 
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Jan 4, 2019 07:36
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Hard to estimate but in terms of named characters, the I'd guess the number of human and spider legs is approximately equivalent On the whole, CoT is heavy on the spiders. 65:35 I'd say based on memories of reading it this past spring.
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Jan 4, 2019 08:18
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SirSamVimes posted:I've never really been one for novellas but reading about an autistic killer android who just wants to be left alone so it can watch TV is So he is basically the average goon? gvibes posted:Finished dick Morgan’s Thin Air. Plot ultimately seemed a bit threadbare to me, and it seems to cover pretty familiar ground, but nonetheless pretty enjoyable. Morgan’s plots have always been threadbare and are mainly there to string together a bunch of action and sex scenes along with his utter cynicism at society. I think the protagonist should be dead at least two times in Thin Air but magic healing apparently happened.
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Jan 4, 2019 08:20
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Cardiac posted:So he is basically the average goon? Except for the fact that it's actually likeable. I'm utterly loving the Murderbot books and I'm sad that they're novellas because it means I'll be done with them soon. How are Martha Wells' fantasy novels? I'm guessing they're not quite as great because otherwise people in this thread would probably still be mentioning them, but "not as good as Murderbot" still leaves a lot of room to be solid reads. Are they worth checking out?
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Jan 4, 2019 08:36
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SirSamVimes posted:Except for the fact that it's actually likeable. i thought "wow murderbot rules i'll check out some of her other stuff" city of bones is okay. not good but okay. The books of the raksura is a 5 book series about shape-changing dragons. Just don't, not even a little.
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Jan 4, 2019 09:11
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Hard to estimate but in terms of named characters, the I'd guess the number of human and spider legs is approximately equivalent
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Jan 4, 2019 09:52
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SirSamVimes posted:Except for the fact that it's actually likeable. I'm just furious at the publisher for selling the followup "novellas" at  each. They all follow close on on the previous bit and form a single cohesive story. It's a $30 Kindle novel, not even a long one, and those fuckers managed to pick a series where it's a worthwhile expenditure. I wish Wells' agent hadn't agreed to this. I bet she got stupid money for it (which she earned). I'm just dreading a future of $30 novels on Kindle that don't release all at once.
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Jan 4, 2019 10:02
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I read some of the Raksura and it seems alright. I thought it started pretty horrible but it goes to some interesting places. I kinda breezily read books like this and from the descriptions I had been picturing more like dragon cats. I like the huge grumpy grampa dragon that shows up to solve things.
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Jan 4, 2019 11:31
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Cardiac posted:Morgan’s plots have always been threadbare and are mainly there to string together a bunch of action and sex scenes along with his utter cynicism at society. I think the protagonist should be dead at least two times in Thin Air but magic healing apparently happened.I Honestly my favourite part of any Morgan book is the part where he justifies the protagonist as the hard-boiled gently caress-anything-up sex lord. Elite raised from birth one-man-armies who at all costs must save the ship, from engineering issues to murdering a full crew mutiny? Cool. Gay war hero knight-graduate who killed a dragon and saved the city he despises, awarded a Kirath blade for his actions with allies in the empire? Cool. Genetically engineered alpha male bounty hunter who's ancestors mere presence inspired their extinction milennia ago, bought back to become special forces with a training montage in a new world? Cool. Corporate killer for contract tenders/promotions who's father was killed by the very capitalist society he is climbing with a special car from a sexy mechanic that gives him the edge? Cool. United Nation's interstellar special forces, who at the touch of a button transfer into new bodies on different planets to deal with anything from political uprisings, undercover jobs, or full military engagements. Trained to walk into any situation and build an almost instant picture of the scenario, apply context and develop a response. It's all so stereotypical in a sense, and it could be argued the novels are airport fiction at worst. But the problem I have is I find them all just great loving reads. The prose is great, the worlds he builds are fantastic, the concepts, technology, politics and societies all engaging. Am I just a big primitive dumb man with power fantasies? Probably, but i'll keep reading them.
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Jan 4, 2019 13:54
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ed balls balls man posted:Am I just a big primitive dumb man with power fantasies? Probably, but i'll keep reading them. I kind of feel that they're the equivalent of well-written Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romances - sure, they're big and dumb, but damnit look at the heroine I can identify with and how she has an awesome sword, fights vampires, and gets a hunk to kiss. Certainly not high lit, but all kinds of fun and great to read.
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Jan 4, 2019 15:02
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SirSamVimes posted:Except for the fact that it's actually likeable. Yes. (apparently YMMV, since others don't seem to like her other works) The Raksura books are good, but not great. I liked City of Bones, but it's not her strongest book. The Ile-Rien books are my favorite after Murderbot. For Ile-Rien, start with Element of Fire, then Death of the Necromancer. Then The Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy. There's also a short in the anthology The Gods of HP Lovecraft that I just discovered recently. It's a fun, short tale that takes place in Ile-Rien (either right before or after the trilogy)
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Jan 4, 2019 16:56
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mllaneza posted:I'm just furious at the publisher for selling the followup "novellas" at I still havn't finished Murderbot series because of this, it's not that I don't have the money it's just feels way overpriced, if it was like $3.99 like Penric and Desdamona I would be 1000x more willing.
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Jan 4, 2019 19:06
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StrixNebulosa posted:I kind of feel that they're the equivalent of well-written Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romances - sure, they're big and dumb, but damnit look at the heroine I can identify with and how she has an awesome sword, fights vampires, and gets a hunk to kiss. Certainly not high lit, but all kinds of fun and great to read. Morgan haven’t done anything new, he just took the classic airport fiction a la Mickey Spillane and put it into a sci-fi environment and did it in a good way. He is hardly the first one at that as well.
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Jan 4, 2019 19:25
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Yeah, it's a bit weird that Tor.com published the first book of the Murderbot series and the Starfire trilogy at almost the same time, with the second book of the Binti trilogy having been published a few months before - all being novellas priced in the $4-$5 range. Then all sequels of the Starfire trilogy and the final installment of the Binti trilogy are being sold at the previous same price, but Murderbot is sold at full novel price. I loved the first Murderbot book, but honestly won't pay 10 bux for a novella.
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Jan 4, 2019 19:28
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Proteus Jones posted:Yes. (apparently YMMV, since others don't seem to like her other works) I liked Raksura more than you did I think but I'll agree that it wasn't as strong as the Ile-Rien stuff. I think having to manufacture an entire secondary world rather than relying on veiled historical references made it harder to bring everything alive. Would still totally play a videogame set in the Raksura world though, it almost feels like it was designed for one. I've enjoyed her short stories as well, though they're scattered around all over everywhere. Thorns is my favorite. In any case I mean I would recommend the rest of her work to people who liked Murderbot. It's not Murderbot but you can see the seeds there, the dry sarcasm comes through sometimes. I'm looking forward to the Murderbot novel.
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Jan 4, 2019 19:47
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ed balls balls man posted:Honestly my favourite part of any Morgan book is the part where he justifies the protagonist as the hard-boiled gently caress-anything-up sex lord. There's enough anarchocomunist anger and "proper" scifi in Altered Carbon that I'm okay treating them as more than a dumb power fantasy. Bit weird if he does it in every series though.
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Jan 4, 2019 19:54
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I was trying to remember the name of a series a few days ago and all I could remember was that had the feel of altered carbon and it was about an overly badass power fantasy guy with a prototype AI in his head that could control anything and it was completely over the top. I dug through and finally found it, it was the Samuil Petrovitch Metrozone books starting with Equation of life, and out of the many books I read a year this dumb series I read years ago popped into my head as enjoyable and hey maybe it'd be fun to read again.
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Jan 4, 2019 20:07
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SirSamVimes posted:Except for the fact that it's actually likeable. Yes they are worth checking out and are much much longer than the novella length Murderbot books. Once you're read a few Martha books you''ll notice she relies on a few stock character types whatever the genre, but the writing is good enough + unique enough for each setting that you won't really care. Martha Wells series summaries: Fall of Ile-Rien series: Victorian era magic-punk. Main characters that don't really fit into their respective societies and therefore act awkward as hell around their peers. Raksura series: Think of a toned down version of Jack Vance's tales of the dying earth setting but with shapeshifters + a better community vibe. The series main character manages to out-awkward Murderbot. murderbot series: you've read them, you enjoy them, no need to comment more on them
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Jan 4, 2019 21:04
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Proteus Jones posted:For Ile-Rien, start with Element of Fire, then Death of the Necromancer. Then The Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy. There's also a short in the anthology The Gods of HP Lovecraft that I just discovered recently. It's a fun, short tale that takes place in Ile-Rien (either right before or after the trilogy)
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Jan 4, 2019 21:15
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awesmoe posted:The books of the raksura is a 5 book series about shape-changing dragons. Just don't, not even a little. This is at least a moderately goony opinion.
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Jan 4, 2019 21:56
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fritz posted:This is at least a moderately goony opinion. Post/avatar synergy in effect
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Jan 4, 2019 22:17
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Fart of Presto posted:Yeah, it's a bit weird that Tor.com published the first book of the Murderbot series and the Starfire trilogy at almost the same time, with the second book of the Binti trilogy having been published a few months before - all being novellas priced in the $4-$5 range. Gotten all three as e-books from the library which is 100% the way to go.
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Jan 4, 2019 23:37
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awesmoe posted:i thought "wow murderbot rules i'll check out some of her other stuff" there's definitely way more than five of them edit: they were fine light reading, nothing incredible. I was made inordinately frustrated when the main character shifts into his dragon form in order to fall faster because it is heavier. But that's probably my major gripe out of the several books I read, and it was a really minor plot point. Grimson fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Jan 5, 2019 |
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Jan 5, 2019 04:29
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Grimson posted:there's definitely way more than five of them ?? There's five Raksura novels and two Raksura short story collections.
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Jan 5, 2019 04:32
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Proteus Jones posted:?? Huh, you're right, most of them are just listed twice on Amazon, my bad.
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Jan 5, 2019 04:33
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Grimson posted:Huh, you're right, most of them are just listed twice on Amazon, my bad. loving amazon. I've been caught out by that crap more than once for other authors.
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Jan 5, 2019 04:34
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ShinsoBEAM! posted:I still havn't finished Murderbot series because of this, it's not that I don't have the money it's just feels way overpriced, if it was like $3.99 like Penric and Desdamona I would be 1000x more willing. That reminds me. Lois McMaster Bujold's current output is a series of novellas in the Five Gods setting about a young man who accidentally acquires a demon and has to become a Bastard's temple sorcerer. He fights crime. Well, technically no, he's really more of a scholar/troubleshooter for the Bastard's order. But two of them are mysteries, one is a road trip story, one a spy story, and another is a jailbreak/heist story. They're excellent.
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Jan 5, 2019 04:58
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mllaneza posted:That reminds me. Lois McMaster Bujold's current output is a series of novellas in the Five Gods setting about a young man who accidentally acquires a demon and has to become a Bastard's temple sorcerer. Yes, Penric and Desdemona. As was mentioned in the post you quoted. Also, agreed, they are fantastic. The Chalion Trilogy is the same world (and very good as well)
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Jan 5, 2019 05:02
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I spent some gift certificates getting 3 fantasy books all loosely connected to the concept of a magic school: Vita Nostra, The Library at Mount Char, and Year of the Griffin. I’m currently finishing the latter. All 3 are worth a read and vary wildly in tone. They are all mercifully vague with the mechanics of their magic systems, with things being explained just enough for the story to function, though I felt Vita Nostra’s conclusion just missed being satisfying because of how obscure it was.
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Jan 5, 2019 05:41
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How's Neal Asher? I spotted Dark Intelligence on goodreads and I'm intrigued, but I'm concerned by one of his reviews where he wrote "Nice to read unpretentious solid cover-to-cover entertainment without any concessions to the pc-focus-group-bullshit age we live in." and uh...
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Jan 5, 2019 19:44
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Proteus Jones posted:loving amazon. I've been caught out by that crap more than once for other authors. For a company that started out as a bookstore they seem to have a lot of trouble handling book listings in a same way. “Hey what’s the newest book by this author?” isn’t always easy to figure out based on what UI abortion they’re A/B testing at the time.
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Jan 5, 2019 19:48
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StrixNebulosa posted:How's Neal Asher? I spotted Dark Intelligence on goodreads and I'm intrigued, but I'm concerned by one of his reviews where he wrote "Nice to read unpretentious solid cover-to-cover entertainment without any concessions to the pc-focus-group-bullshit age we live in." and uh... The Polity stuff is like a more grimdark Iain Banks, which I tend to like. I suggest though that you read the Skinner trilogy in that world (The Skinner, The Voyage of the Sable Keech, and Orbus) and if you like it go back and read the Agent Cormac line starting with Gridlinked (it's the same world). Do not, however, read the Owner trilogy (The Departure, Zero Point, Jupiter War), unless you like quasi-libertarian ranting with your science fiction.
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Jan 5, 2019 20:07
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ulmont posted:The Polity stuff is like a more grimdark Iain Banks, which I tend to like. I suggest though that you read the Skinner trilogy in that world (The Skinner, The Voyage of the Sable Keech, and Orbus) and if you like it go back and read the Agent Cormac line starting with Gridlinked (it's the same world). Haha, okay, thank you. That's about the best case scenario I could hope for, here. To the library! (most of the library books I ordered in the last two weeks are arriving, please send help, I'm covered in the things - !) e: Oh and the worst case scenario I was thinking of was like a John Ringo scenario where he turns an entire novel into a conservative screed
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Jan 5, 2019 20:10
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StrixNebulosa posted:Haha, okay, thank you. That's about the best case scenario I could hope for, here. To the library! That’s the Owner series. It’s awful, albeit kind of hilarious in that it’s full of straw men villains for the heroic objectivist protagonist to righteously kill. I don’t know what happened to Asher, but it’s amazingly bad compared to the Polity stuff.
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Jan 5, 2019 20:25
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StrixNebulosa posted:How's Neal Asher? I spotted Dark Intelligence on goodreads and I'm intrigued, but I'm concerned by one of his reviews where he wrote "Nice to read unpretentious solid cover-to-cover entertainment without any concessions to the pc-focus-group-bullshit age we live in." and uh... I thought Gridlinked was absolutely terrible. It had a couple of interesting ideas and one strange and fairly interesting hook, but the prose, plotting, characters etc just did nothing for me. Apparently they get better, but I doubt I'll ever be bothered to find out, especially given what I know about his politics now. I didn't really get any kind of Banks vibe of his stuff, but a lot of people seem to. Reminded me more of Peter Hamilton than anyone else.
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Jan 5, 2019 20:33
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I skimmed through the last few hundred pages of this thread in search for recomendations and picked up To Reign in Hell as a result. I'm pretty happy with it, thanks to the threat. I'd also forgotten about the link in Freeze Frame Revolution so thanks for that too.
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Jan 5, 2019 21:09
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He's not actually UKIP M. Banks, some of his books are OK if you like body horror ultraviolence and snarky psychopath drones.
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Jan 5, 2019 21:17
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StrixNebulosa posted:How's Neal Asher? I spotted Dark Intelligence on goodreads and I'm intrigued, but I'm concerned by one of his reviews where he wrote "Nice to read unpretentious solid cover-to-cover entertainment without any concessions to the pc-focus-group-bullshit age we live in." and uh... Bad. Wooden characters, boring plots, and the "interesting" aliens that people talk up his work about are just everything in the ecosystem wants to kill you. Sci-fi Australia.
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Jan 5, 2019 21:57
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StrixNebulosa posted:How's Neal Asher? I spotted Dark Intelligence on goodreads and I'm intrigued, but I'm concerned by one of his reviews where he wrote "Nice to read unpretentious solid cover-to-cover entertainment without any concessions to the pc-focus-group-bullshit age we live in." and uh... Asher is good and the unsubtle version of Banks. Great if you want fast paced action AI warfare. Don’t expect any greater philosophical thinking in it. Start with The Skinner. The Owner series is decent, and the main criticism here is more based on the politics of the protagonist rather than the story. I would say that Asher is more of a cynic with regards to humanity which is seen in the last book, where if I recall there are no human POVs, just AIs, augmented humans/AI hybrids and aliens.
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Jan 5, 2019 21:59
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I've checked out Gridlinked and Skinner from my library, whenever they arrive I will have a look. I'm hoping that they'll be solid sci-fi thrillers with lots of AIs that keep me hooked until the end. If they aren't, oh well. I'm currently working through Ventus by Karl Schroeder and Gnomon by Nick Harkaway and trying to decide if I want to own (and finish) either one. Ventus is leaning towards yes because it's fun, Gnomon is leaning towards no because while it's really interesting and has cool ideas, it's also profoundly depressing. And in the stuff I own already, I'm loving Infidel by Kameron Hurley way more than the first book! Going between it, Queen of Angels and a few others has been an utter delight. 
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Jan 5, 2019 22:11
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