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Today I learned something, thanks. I still hate that cover and I'm stunned that a Baen cover could be better, but here we are. Fortunately the contents are good - I'm really enjoying the convergence of the three teams on the central mystery.
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Feb 17, 2019 20:11
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StrixNebulosa posted:Today I learned something, thanks. I still hate that cover and I'm stunned that a Baen cover could be better, but here we are. That's because Jack Chalker is fantastic and makes you like walking into his magical realm.
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Feb 17, 2019 20:31
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NinjaDebugger posted:That's because Jack Chalker is fantastic and makes you like walking into his magical realm. Eh. I read a bunch of his books a few decades back and consider him on par with Alan Dean Foster. Decent enough schlock, if you're in the mood.
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Feb 17, 2019 20:42
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What I enjoyed most about Demons at Rainbow Bridge (the first of this trilogy) is the sheer confidence of the author to spend 200+ pages on essentially three short stories that functioned as a prologue to the main plot. The Blue team got their whole soap opera, the Gold team got to show off how terrifying psychic religious nuts are, and the Red team got a short but effective setup - a team of greenhorns from a meritocracy taken to ridiculous extremes. It was only at the very end of the book that we got to the titular demons - and then it just ended with a cliffhanger. I really respect that - I'm an impatient person and if I'd written the story I would've started with the teams arriving to investigate the teams, then done flashbacks or learned about the teams while they were on the job.
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Feb 17, 2019 20:48
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StrixNebulosa posted:Fortunately the contents are good - I'm really enjoying the convergence of the three teams on the central mystery. How many forced gender transformations are there.
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Feb 18, 2019 01:22
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar was The Two getting schooled and it owned. I remember the early Leiber FF & Gm stuff fondly, because these fuckers were GRIEVING at first and had to work to kill people that didn't wanna be killed. And it was a Big Deal when they triumphed, for them and the reader. First intro (Ill Met In Lankhmar I think) they were both happy and had interesting companions that indicated interesting backstories, but the Thieve's Guild had other ideas. World building was world-class. Later, like all the genre, they later dispatch hundreds while quipping and get women fridged constantly. But that's what happen when people need to crank this poo poo out to pay the bills. And I have NO IDEA which book it was from but drat I still remember the Snow Snake.
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Feb 18, 2019 01:41
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Well, I finished reading Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski. I quite enjoyed it, despite being a little thrown-off initially; since it's set around the time of The Last Wish, but I remember reading on several sites prior to SoS' release that stated it would take place after the main series. Aside from that, it was quite enjoyable; although I went in without expecting much, I feel that it's probably the weakest book in the series - but is still definitely worth a read. (Especially if like me, you love the Witcher universe as a whole) The problem is though, I've finished it too soon!  I still need to wait a few days until Vita Nostra gets here, and I want to start that next.Oh well, such is life! It's hardly the biggest problem in the world, heh
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Feb 18, 2019 02:04
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fritz posted:How many forced gender transformations are there. Zero! I thought this was a thing with him, but so far, nope. e: Wait wait wait. One of the starfish(?) aliens has a backstory where they were once female, and molted and became a dude. It comes up precisely once and is never explored. StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 02:09 on Feb 18, 2019 |
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Feb 18, 2019 02:06
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StrixNebulosa posted:Zero! I thought this was a thing with him, but so far, nope. Body swapping is his thing, not transformation, generally. Transformation happens sometimes, changing to a new body happens all the time.
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Feb 18, 2019 02:40
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NinjaDebugger posted:Body swapping is his thing, not transformation, generally. Transformation happens sometimes, changing to a new body happens all the time. People getting transformed into sex-addicted barely sentient quadrapeds, with the same happening ultimately to the guy who first started doing it, comes up in at least two different series. That demon series was his last iirc, and he either mellowed a bit or got a better editor at career's end.
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Feb 18, 2019 02:54
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Thranguy posted:People getting transformed into sex-addicted barely sentient quadrapeds, with the same happening ultimately to the guy who first started doing it, comes up in at least two different series. It really makes me wonder what his output would have been like if he'd been born in this era, with the internet in full bloom. Would there be more fetish stuff... or less?
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Feb 18, 2019 03:13
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Remulak posted:I remember the early Leiber FF & Gm stuff fondly, because these fuckers were GRIEVING at first and had to work to kill people that didn't wanna be killed. And it was a Big Deal when they triumphed, for them and the reader. I think only the original 2 love interests get fridged/all the other love interests of GM & FF get tired of their eternal bro-mance situation + bail out until the Rime Isle stories. Have 2 of the hardcover FF &GM collections. Stardock had the Snow Snake pet. Honestly there's much less quipping in the FF & GM than you recall and when it does happen it's usually the GM being cocky-as-gently caress. Leiber wrote good internal monologues which were absurd/engaging that probably felt like quips though. dispatching hundreds of enemies: Swords of Lankhmar started with the Two facing off versus 60+ creditors/collection agents + triumphing, then morphed into something really good that the Vermintide games really never captured. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 03:21 on Feb 18, 2019 |
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Feb 18, 2019 03:19
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Thranguy posted:People getting transformed into sex-addicted barely sentient quadrapeds, with the same happening ultimately to the guy who first started doing it, comes up in at least two different series. I tried reading Changewinds and that involved a teenaged girl being transformed into an uber-sexed up big tiddy body and just barely avoiding the potion that would have made her sex-addicted and barely sentient so she could be sold as a custom sex slave. Then she decided she wanted to be a sexed-up big tiddy hooker, just not a brainwashed one and her lesbian best friend would be her pimp and muscle. The interesting premise at the start of the story was long out of sight by then and I put the book down for good.
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Feb 18, 2019 03:31
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Thranguy posted:People getting transformed into sex-addicted barely sentient quadrapeds, with the same happening ultimately to the guy who first started doing it, comes up in at least two different series. Sure, but then there's the wonderland gambit.
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Feb 18, 2019 03:32
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I was the kid who was really into fantasy as a concept, but couldn’t get into reading Tolkien because it felt like reading the Bible. Then I discovered the Ffard and Grey Mouser stories and it was a big revelation, because here were some stories about a pair of hustling assholes trying to get by in a world full of magical adventure, and I could actually picture what their sword-fights looked like and what was going on. Those stories will always have a place in my heart, and were really inventive and fun. You definitely have to look back on them with as products of their time and place, though. I also read those Quintara Marathon books by Chalker around the same time, so this is an interesting trip down memory lane. I remember really enjoying all the ideas and psychic stuff being thrown around in the books, then gradually starting to think: “Uh…this guy is slipping his wank fantasies into the story, isn’t he?” as the series went on. Though, as I recall, The Quintara Marathon isn’t as bad about that as other stuff Chalker wrote. It also gets wild and psychedelic towards the end, in (as I remember –haven’t read the books sense I was 12 or so--) a fun way. Chalker’s a weird character. I think that he put a lot of his kinks into his fiction, but he was also being pretty thoughtful at the same time, and ruminating about the nature of consciousness and the sort of technology that may be able to interact with people’s minds, so what he wrote doesn’t come off as *entirely* skeezy fantasies. Oh. It also helps that the Quintara Marathon books were the only ones of Chalker's that I read, and it sounds like they were his most restrained. Glad for that. Just from reading some of the descriptions I think I would have totally noped-out of the Changewind and Well of Souls books. Blastedhellscape fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Feb 18, 2019 |
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Feb 18, 2019 05:47
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Blastedhellscape posted:Oh. It also helps that the Quintara Marathon books were the only ones of Chalker's that I read, and it sounds like they were his most restrained. Glad for that. Just from reading some of the descriptions I think I would have totally noped-out of the Changewind and Well of Souls books. I've read both the Lords of the Diamond series and the Rings of the Master, and I don't remember much in the way of weird kings (okay some people do get transformed to animal people I guess) but I never really read any of his other stuff.
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Feb 18, 2019 06:18
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If anyone here is a fan of the Bill the Vampire series, there's a new book out by the author that's a sequel series opener to it. I read it tonight, and it's pretty good. Obviously it contains major spoilers for the first series. All of them (new and old) are on KU though, so check it out if you like non sparkly vampires and a nerd humor. https://www.amazon.com/Bill-Vampire-Things-Mourning-Holier-ebook/dp/B00H8P60NQ 4 book collection. He's got another series out that's pretty good as well.
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Feb 18, 2019 08:11
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pseudanonymous posted:I've read both the Lords of the Diamond series and the Rings of the Master, and I don't remember much in the way of weird kings (okay some people do get transformed to animal people I guess) but I never really read any of his other stuff. Love the Four Lords of the Diamond books. Those great covers where Carroll is in the background slowly waking from nightmare are so cool. I wonder if they could do an HBO prestige series, with all 4 of the stories going at once.
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Feb 18, 2019 09:06
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Blastedhellscape posted:I was the kid who was really into fantasy as a concept, but couldn’t get into reading Tolkien because it felt like reading the Bible. Read The Hobbit. It is still unfathomable to me that somebody capable of writing the most tediously self-indulgent book of all time in Lord of the Rings was somehow also capable of putting on one of the most pitch perfect authorial voices for a wonderful little grandfather-by-the-fireplace adventure book for the whole family.
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Feb 18, 2019 10:53
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EdBlackadder posted:I finished The Monster Baru Cormorant (ok it's the UK edition so the title was shorter but I'll be damned if I'll use it) earlier today. Needless to say in really enjoyed it. Since then I've found myself mulling over the title of the next book. but now that I've said it, even if it ever was that, GB will make sure it won't be
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Feb 18, 2019 14:55
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freebooter posted:Read The Hobbit. It is still unfathomable to me that somebody capable of writing the most tediously self-indulgent book of all time in Lord of the Rings was somehow also capable of putting on one of the most pitch perfect authorial voices for a wonderful little grandfather-by-the-fireplace adventure book for the whole family. I mean, the obvious answer is that he wrote one for himself, and the other for his kids.
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Feb 18, 2019 15:06
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DACK FAYDEN posted:I'm expecting The Emperor Baru Cormorant (to fit the previous two names despite the gender issue there) with all that connotes It was gonna be Tyrant but now that the series is 4 books not 3 I want to save that one for last. I'm still kinda stumped on book 3, gotta get one of those 2 syllable words that fits the themes...
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Feb 19, 2019 00:53
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General Battuta posted:It was gonna be Tyrant but now that the series is 4 books not 3 I want to save that one for last. I'm still kinda stumped on book 3, gotta get one of those 2 syllable words that fits the themes... Idling?
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Feb 19, 2019 00:57
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The Publisher-Mandated Baru Cormorant
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Feb 19, 2019 01:14
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Jokester?
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Feb 19, 2019 01:29
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The Haunted Baru Cormorant idk e: Jerkface! StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Feb 19, 2019 |
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Feb 19, 2019 01:38
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The Grooveback Baru Cormorant
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Feb 19, 2019 01:43
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The Really Just An All Round Disaster Baru Cormorant
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Feb 19, 2019 01:48
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General Battuta posted:It was gonna be Tyrant but now that the series is 4 books not 3 I want to save that one for last. I'm still kinda stumped on book 3, gotta get one of those 2 syllable words that fits the themes... Too bad has to be 2 syllables. The Calamity Baru Cormorant sounds 
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Feb 19, 2019 01:55
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General Battuta posted:It was gonna be Tyrant but now that the series is 4 books not 3 I want to save that one for last. I'm still kinda stumped on book 3, gotta get one of those 2 syllable words that fits the themes... The Patient Baru Cormorant
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Feb 19, 2019 01:55
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The Long Way to a Small, Angry Baru Cormorant fake e: The Callous Baru Cormorant?
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Feb 19, 2019 02:11
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The Cormorant Baru Cormorant a wizard turns her into a bird
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Feb 19, 2019 02:27
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Xtanstic posted:The Long Way to a Small, Angry Baru Cormorant Perfect.
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Feb 19, 2019 02:36
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General Battuta posted:gotta get one of those 2 syllable words that fits the themes... The Shitshow Baru Cormorant The Baru Comorant who mistook her wife for a hat. The Sinister Baru Cormorant (get it?)
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Feb 19, 2019 02:56
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The Demon Baru Cormorant Of Mice and Baru Cormorant
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Feb 19, 2019 03:05
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The Daughter Baru Cormorant
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Feb 19, 2019 03:15
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just do what videogames do when they reboot a long running series Book 3: Baru Cormorant (2019) Book 4: Baru Cormorant 2 easy
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Feb 19, 2019 03:18
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Tokamak posted:just do what videogames do when they reboot a long running series
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Feb 19, 2019 04:34
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The Sidetracked Baru Cormorant The Subtle Baru Cormorant The Mastermind Baru Cormorant Read Robert Jackson Bennett's City of Stairs/Blades/Miracles trilogy over the weekend. Enjoyed the first book, second book and third book suffered from diminishing returns (especially the third book)but were still readable/enjoyable.
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Feb 19, 2019 04:35
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Chiming in during Baru chat to complain once again that there's no sign of a kindle version of The Monster Baru Cormorant showing up on Amazon in Australia, regardless of whether browsing from the .com or .au addresses  I've tried the tricks previously mentioned in the thread involving US based addresses, incognito mode, and VPNs, but none of them have let me see a kindle version to buy. Does anyone know if there are any other kindle compatible options for buying an ebook version of it?
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