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Hieronymous Alloy posted:BIG NEWS do they call him a titan because of the weight of his books
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Jan 19, 2019 04:31
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Selachian posted:aka "We found this poo poo in the bottom of a box in his attic." He had definite opinions about it as of 2003: Robert Jordan posted:It's title was Warriors of the Altaii, and you will never see it, or know anything about it. I have not destroyed the manuscript, because it has powerful juju...but in my will I have provisions to have that manuscript burned. But until then I'm afraid to get rid of the juju that resides in it.
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Jan 19, 2019 06:04
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fordan posted:He had definite opinions about it as of 2003:  Poor Robert.
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Jan 19, 2019 06:15
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Reading through the Vorkosigan Saga now. On book 3(2? I read falling free first) reading in internal chronological order. Thoroughly enjoying it. My main thought is that any male author would have had about 5 sex scenes by now. The romance between the two main characters has felt more like the lead-up in a harlequin romance, which feels much better than the awfully written sex scenes I'm used to from most SF authors. It maybe helps that I know their romance is going to result in the main character of like 5 books, so I'm rooting for them. Still good though.
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Jan 19, 2019 18:13
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Loutre posted:Reading through the Vorkosigan Saga now. On book 3(2? I read falling free first) reading in internal chronological order. Thoroughly enjoying it. There is, in fact, a Regency style romantic farce later on in the series and it’s loving fantastic.
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Jan 19, 2019 18:19
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occamsnailfile posted:Author's kids getting involved though, that never seems to work. They either completely gently caress it up (Brian Herbert) or they strangle the estate with overmeddling. This is basically what's happening with Octavia Butler's estate at present, it's hard for anthologies to reprint her stories because her heirs just demand absurd figures for them. Is there some sort of thing i'm missing with regards to Tolkien? Because as far as I can tell Christopher Tolkien has done a fine job with his fathers work.
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Jan 19, 2019 19:38
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MrFlibble posted:Is there some sort of thing i'm missing with regards to Tolkien? Because as far as I can tell Christopher Tolkien has done a fine job with his fathers work. Well, he sold the movie rights which led to the atrocity also known as The hobbit.
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Jan 19, 2019 19:50
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Holy flipflops, Ventus was awesome. I blazed through it in like a week because I couldn't put it down. Time to find out what else Karl Schroeder has written because holy hell he's got it, he's got the ideas and the ability to write a page-turner.
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Jan 19, 2019 20:24
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Neurosis posted:If you can get through the first book you'll be fine as far as how excessively grim it is. It's much less gratuitous from there on. I found those early vaguely juvenile bits bearable because while pretty distasteful it never felt like the author had his dick in his hand while he was writing it. The Red Queen's War trilogy is much better imo, and his newest one, Red Sister/Grey Sister/Holy Sister (not out yet), is a bit like a boarding school story with murder-nuns.
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Jan 19, 2019 21:08
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Angrymog posted:The Red Queen's War trilogy is much better imo, and his newest one, Red Sister/Grey Sister/Holy Sister (not out yet), is a bit like a boarding school story with murder-nuns. The first two murder-nun books were really good.
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Jan 19, 2019 21:25
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Cardiac posted:Well, he sold the movie rights which led to the atrocity also known as The hobbit. I get what you're saying, but most adaptations of fantasy books are garbage, so really we were lucky to get a pretty good LotR trilogy out of the deal. I"m putting Chris selling the movie rights in the win column.
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Jan 19, 2019 21:49
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Proteus Jones posted:There is, in fact, a Regency style romantic farce later on in the series and it’s loving fantastic. There is an extremely detailed reader's guide for A Civil Campaign that covers its connection to actual Regency-era writers like Austen, Bronte, Heyer, and Sayers. I know gently caress all about those writers other than they're very highly respected, and I found the 278 page PDF to be very interesting reading. http://www.dendarii.com/accc.html
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Jan 19, 2019 22:39
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StrixNebulosa posted:Holy flipflops, Ventus was awesome. I blazed through it in like a week because I couldn't put it down. Schroeder is badly underrated. I like him a lot and don't understand why more people haven't heard of him. Check out Permanence, Lockstep and Lady of Mazes. I got to see him on a panel with Vernor Vinge and Charlie Stross at Boskone one year and it was great; they spent most of it making fun of the Rapture of the Nerds (the concept, not the Stross/Doctorow novella).
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Jan 19, 2019 22:52
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Loutre posted:Reading through the Vorkosigan Saga now. On book 3(2? I read falling free first) reading in internal chronological order. Thoroughly enjoying it. That means you're currently reading Barrayar? ...man, to be able to read that for the first time again. Without spoiling anything for those who have not yet read it, let me just say "shopping". Those of you who have read it will know what I mean. One of the finest displays of awesomeness from one of the most awesome characters in SF.
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Jan 19, 2019 23:08
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:Despite the hundreds of books I've read, Bill the Galactic Hero is still my favorite book. That's a hilarious name for a ship.
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Jan 19, 2019 23:16
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Ornamented Death posted:I get what you're saying, but most adaptations of fantasy books are garbage, so really we were lucky to get a pretty good LotR trilogy out of the deal. I"m putting Chris selling the movie rights in the win column. Speaking of fantasy movies, I'm pissed that every year seems to bring a new garbage King Arthur movie while no one has had the balls to do the obvious and make a proper adaptation of The Once and Future King. It wouldn't really work as a film, granted, would have to be at least a ~prestige television~ season or three.
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Jan 19, 2019 23:18
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my bony fealty posted:Speaking of fantasy movies, I'm pissed that every year seems to bring a new garbage King Arthur movie while no one has had the balls to do the obvious and make a proper adaptation of The Once and Future King. This years "The Kid who would be King" looks charming enough. Not my thing, but seems better than the gritty one I saw advertised last year.
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Jan 19, 2019 23:46
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Proteus Jones posted:The first two murder-nun books were really good. Yeah, I'm looking forwards to the last one. I do like the science fantasy slant to his settings, too.
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Jan 20, 2019 00:26
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Kesper North posted:Schroeder is badly underrated. I like him a lot and don't understand why more people haven't heard of him. Check out Permanence, Lockstep and Lady of Mazes. Will do, thank you! ...drat, I'm still bowled over by how Ventus handled nanotechnology and how it might work on a massive scale.
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Jan 20, 2019 01:00
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StrixNebulosa posted:Holy flipflops, Ventus was awesome. I blazed through it in like a week because I couldn't put it down. The Virga is also a fantastic ride in addition to what the other the guy recommended. Schroeder is probably among my favorites, he's ambitious and clever and always has good pacing.
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Jan 20, 2019 01:01
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StrixNebulosa posted:Holy flipflops, Ventus was awesome. I blazed through it in like a week because I couldn't put it down. Karl Schroeder is a pretty much a massively improved Tim Powers 2.0, without Powers's fixation on historical figures and making the plots hinge on secret backstories of those historical figures in his books. Re-read Gibson's Neuromancer. Had more sympathy for Armitage on the re-read, cyber-decking was still semi-interesting, the Panther Modems/Moderns(?) street-gang hijinks was a nice changeup in the book.
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Jan 20, 2019 02:02
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my bony fealty posted:Speaking of fantasy movies, I'm pissed that every year seems to bring a new garbage King Arthur movie while no one has had the balls to do the obvious and make a proper adaptation of The Once and Future King. Disney’s Sword in the Stone is an adaptation of the first book out of the four. I wonder if they still have the rights?
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Jan 20, 2019 04:08
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Huh. I didn't know that romance authors could write sci-fi, but here we are:quote:Award-winning author Linnea Sinclair brings her special sizzle to science fiction with this action-packed blend of otherworldly adventure and sexy stellar romance. . . .
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Jan 20, 2019 12:06
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StrixNebulosa posted:Huh. I didn't know that romance authors could write sci-fi, but here we are: it's a huge market. it's not sci fi. be careful with what even looking at it will do to your amazon recommendations
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Jan 20, 2019 12:17
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branedotorg posted:it's not sci fi. Why not?
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Jan 20, 2019 12:45
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Because everything set in space isn't science fiction? SF depends more on the writing than the content.
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Jan 20, 2019 13:26
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Romance novels use other genre trappings frequently, but they are still Romance novels. There's loads of western, fantasy, Victorian England, whatever themed Romance books. It is amusing to go to a book store and look at Romance book covers, they're all the same big muscular half naked dude and vulnerable admiring woman in a variety of costumes and settings.
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Jan 20, 2019 18:07
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fritz posted:Why not? Speculative Fiction starts with some initial assumptions, extrapolates outward to determine the societal ramifications, and then tells a story about some characters within that society. And I say speculative fiction because your assumption can just as easily be "what if people can make pacts with demons?" as it can be "what if faster than light travel was possible?". Merely slapping some robots and ray guns and space aliens on your story doesn't make it speculative fiction, that's why space opera exists as a separate genre.
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Jan 20, 2019 18:24
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pseudorandom name posted:Speculative Fiction starts with some initial assumptions, extrapolates outward to determine the societal ramifications, and then tells a story about some characters within that society. Initial assumption is that space mercenary Gabriel Sullivan has a great big hog. Extrapolate from there.
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Jan 20, 2019 18:52
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Clark Nova posted:Initial assumption is that space mercenary Gabriel Sullivan has a great big hog. Extrapolate from there. You haven't given me enough to work with. Is this great big hog the result of pre-conception genetic engineering? Is he an alien-human half-breed and is great big hog is the normal result of such a pairing? Did he have his normal hog cloned and genetically altered to grow great and big and then surgically replace his existing hog? Is his hog cybernetically augmented? Is he an android and bought his great big hog at the hog store? Does he live in a virtual environment and can change the size of his hog at will? Can he go into a maintenance trance and drag the hog slider all the way over to great big and then wait a couple months for it to grow into its new size? All of these possibilities have different implications for society as a whole. And I've only touched on the mechanisms that can produce great big hogs, how do other people in society feel about the situation? Does genetically engineering for hog size go against God's will while surgically replacing your hog after the fact is A-OK? Do biological men hate android men because of their hog size? Are the immortal great big hogged VR men politically dominating the real world from beyond the grave? Are great big hogs outmoded and tiny hogs in vogue? Are there angry political or religious groups that still gets murderously mad if women have great big hogs? If a women goes off to Beta Colony and buys a fully functional great big hog, does he now inherit his family's titles of nobility by the rules of primogeniture? Can Miles, Ivan and Byers stun the assailants before they cut off the great big hog with a vibraknife? pseudorandom name fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Jan 20, 2019 |
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Jan 20, 2019 19:56
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fritz posted:Why not? Because it was written by and largely for  , of course. Same reason Diana Galbadon spent decades being both the best selling and least talked-about writer in the genre.
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Jan 20, 2019 20:23
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I still can't get over "this book, which is set in space, has a sci-fi thriller plot, and genetic engineering, isn't a sci-fi." Like, wow. What planet do you come from?
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Jan 20, 2019 20:43
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Outlander probably fits better in historical fiction than sci-fi/fantasy, honestly.
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Jan 20, 2019 20:44
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Are all the Romance novels where the lady fucks the buff made-up European prince historical fiction? Are the ones where she fucks the hot cowboy westerns?
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Jan 20, 2019 20:51
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StrixNebulosa posted:I still can't get over "this book, which is set in space, has a sci-fi thriller plot, and genetic engineering, isn't a sci-fi." Like, wow. What planet do you come from? If you can swap out all the nouns ("aliens" → "the Spanish", "ray guns" → "flintlocks", "prison planet" → "penal colony", "starship" → "galleon", etc.) and still tell the same story, then those words are just set dressing and you're not telling a speculative fiction story, you're telling a space opera. It's hairsplitting, but the point of SF is "The Big Idea", i.e. here is something that has never happened before, how would humanity react to this unprecedented situation?
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Jan 20, 2019 20:55
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:BIG NEWS Go Set a Wheel
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Jan 20, 2019 20:55
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pseudorandom name posted:If you can swap out all the nouns ("aliens" → "the Spanish", "ray guns" → "flintlocks", "prison planet" → "penal colony", "starship" → "galleon", etc.) and still tell the same story, then those words are just set dressing and you're not telling a speculative fiction story, you're telling a space opera. I'm kind of curious how you can square this with the long, long history of genre books that are really nothing more than the classics retold in space/a fantasy setting/whatever.
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Jan 20, 2019 21:00
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I've about halfway through Beyond Redemption by Michael R Fletcher, and wow, it is really drat good. Grim and grimy as all hell, but with interesting characters, a fascinating magic system, and excellent prose. Anyone read him? I've also got my eye on The Gutter Prayer which just came out for some more grimdark fantasy once I'm done.
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Jan 20, 2019 21:14
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The main reason I posted that book summary here was because 98% of the romance novels I've seen have featured either historical settings or fantasy/paranormal settings. He's a vampire hunter, she's a pirate, they make love, blah blah. I'm genuinely thrilled to see romance push out in a new direction, because lo!: sometimes there are good ones! The number of actually satisfying romances in "proper" sci-fi novels is in the single digits and I would love to see more. And for the record, that list of satisfying romances off the top of my head is like, Bujold's Shards of Honor, Cherryh's Cyteen, the Jani Killian series by Kristine Smith, and maybe? a sequence in Fire Upon the Deep by Vinge. Now if I have to get my fix of satisfying romances by going into "Science Fiction Romance" (as Goodreads calls the subgenre) - I'll do it. I'm happy it exists, even if it continues the trend of putting shirtless men everywhere.
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Jan 20, 2019 21:18
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pseudorandom name posted:If you can swap out all the nouns ("aliens" → "the Spanish", "ray guns" → "flintlocks", "prison planet" → "penal colony", "starship" → "galleon", etc.) and still tell the same story, then those words are just set dressing and you're not telling a speculative fiction story, you're telling a space opera. This sounds like Gatekeeping to me. In other words: a bunch of bullshit
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Jan 20, 2019 21:44
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