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ToxicFrog posted:Good to know, especially since I am a sucker for good footnotes and wished more authors used them -- in fiction especially the only examples of good footnote use that come to mind are Pratchett and Cuppy. To be precise, I got this edition: ISBN-10: 7119005901  Size comparison with the PNR I'm also reading. They are endnotes, my bad, but they're split up by book so you don't have to have the whole set with you - just flip to the back of whatever volume you're reading and there they are. They're well-written and help provide context and so on. This edition has typos in it (about one or two per chapter. Not bad but not great), and the paper's pretty thin, but since I just wanted a reading copy in paperback it's perfect for me. Easy to carry around and read. This was the novel purchase guide I used, after a lot of googling. I could've spent a lot more on a set that has even more maps and notes, but the appeal of paperback is very strong, haha. From what I can tell, your other translator choices are either super dated, or abridged. Moss Roberts is the only dude who hits that balance between being readable and translating the whole dang thing. e: Oh and for completeness' sake, I spent about 12$ + shipping on my set on ebay - full four volumes, listed as "acceptable" quality, no box. Again, as I was just looking for a reading copy that was perfect and I'm very happy reading this thing. StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 13:57 on May 12, 2019 |
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May 12, 2019 13:54
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ToxicFrog posted:Good to know, especially since I am a sucker for good footnotes and wished more authors used them -- in fiction especially the only examples of good footnote use that come to mind are Pratchett and Cuppy. Susanna Clarke, David Foster Wallace, Robert Grudin
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May 12, 2019 14:08
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Safety Biscuits posted:Yes. Inconveniently, they're actually endnotes, so you have to have both books open to use them... Oh for gently caress's sake  quote:Note that these are editors' and translator's footnotes, not part of the actual novel. I'll take what I can get, and I do appreciate a well-footnoted translation as well. StrixNebulosa posted:To be precise, I got this edition: ISBN-10: 7119005901 Aggravatingly, it looks like Moss also did an abridged translation, which makes searching occasionally tricky. So thanks for the ISBN! It also looks like the abridged version might be available as an ebook, but the full version is hardcopy only?
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May 12, 2019 20:00
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less laughter posted:Susanna Clarke, David Foster Wallace, Robert Grudin Those first two were exactly what I thought of immediately. Also, Jeff Vandermeer's Shriek: An Afterword makes good use of footnotes. The book is a biography if fictional historian Duncan Shriek, written by his sister Janice. The footnotes are Duncan's commentary on the manuscript. I guess I would describe it as "mushroom horror"?
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May 12, 2019 21:16
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Anyone else excited for the sequel of Empire of Silence, The Howling Dark? I really liked Empire of Silence -- clearly closely inspired by Dune, but still a well written coming of age scifi story.
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May 12, 2019 21:45
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The latest Kencyrath book... did not do it for me. "Rote" and "perfunctory", are the words I'd use. A shame too as Sea of Time was a great romp and Gates of Tagmeth was... solid. This is also one of those fantasy series which insists on recapping every previous plot point at the beginning of every book. Not in, like, a short "previously on" bit, but scattered throughout the opening third in awkward little asides and expository fragments. Only it was just the first third this time, because this is book nine and Jesus loving H Christ Hodgell just let it go already, four fifths of the book is choking to death under the weight of this poo poo and half of it isn't even relevant this time.
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May 13, 2019 00:50
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less laughter posted:Susanna Clarke, David Foster Wallace, Robert Grudin george macdonald fraser
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May 13, 2019 02:04
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Seven Hundred Bee posted:Anyone else excited for the sequel of Empire of Silence, The Howling Dark? I really liked Empire of Silence -- clearly closely inspired by Dune, but still a well written coming of age scifi story. yes! preordered it the day it became available.
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May 13, 2019 02:36
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KOGAHAZAN!! posted:The latest Kencyrath book... did not do it for me. "Rote" and "perfunctory", are the words I'd use. A shame too as Sea of Time was a great romp and Gates of Tagmeth was... solid. I'm so disappointed with the series that I don't think I made it past book six (six, ffs!). The ridiculous covers aren't helping.
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May 13, 2019 13:38
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Seven Hundred Bee posted:Anyone else excited for the sequel of Empire of Silence, The Howling Dark? I really liked Empire of Silence -- clearly closely inspired by Dune, but still a well written coming of age scifi story. I have literally never read a more derivative book than Empire of Silence. I can only wonder how many more almost word-for-word passages I could have spotted if I'd read Dune more than once a few years back.
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May 13, 2019 14:37
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pretty sure those plagiarism checkers you ran your stuff through in school would flag that as completely unacceptable sue em Pat lol
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May 13, 2019 15:20
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May 13, 2019 16:53
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The_White_Crane posted:I have literally never read a more derivative book than Empire of Silence. Googled the book and the term “ the next Rothuss “ came up. I guess damning with faint praise is an apt description. Back when I still had the time to browse bookshops, my criteria for an interesting book was based on having the description contain as few stereotypical fantasy/sci-fi descriptions as possible. This one manages to fill in the stereotypical ones with a rather impressive amount. Btw, latest Luna book by McDonald is out.
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May 13, 2019 17:32
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Hell yeah this and the new Guy Gavriel Kay book coming out on the same day is cool
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May 13, 2019 18:12
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Cardiac posted:Googled the book and the term “ the next Rothuss “ came up.
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May 13, 2019 20:10
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Would the Dune books be good to read if I've never read them before? I mean like how people watch Aliens today and think it's boring because every other action movie afterward copied it.
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May 14, 2019 07:04
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Tokelau All Star posted:Would the Dune books be good to read if I've never read them before? I mean like how people watch Aliens today and think it's boring because every other action movie afterward copied it. I don't know if anything has copied Dune as thoroughly as that.
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May 14, 2019 07:11
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Tokelau All Star posted:Would the Dune books be good to read if I've never read them before? I mean like how people watch Aliens today and think it's boring because every other action movie afterward copied it. The first book is a messianic coming of age ecology adventure. The other ones are other things entirely.
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May 14, 2019 07:26
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The Dune books are still fairly unique -- they've never really been copied successfully by anything except maybe Star Wars -- but the one rule is, keep reading till you don't like the series any more, then stop, it will never get better. Different people argue over which is the "last good Dune book" but nobody thinks they don't get progressively worse.
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May 14, 2019 07:28
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The Dune books are still fairly unique -- they've never really been copied successfully by anything except maybe Star Wars -- but the one rule is, keep reading till you don't like the series any more, then stop, it will never get better. Different people argue over which is the "last good Dune book" but nobody thinks they don't get progressively worse. I don't think they get progressively worse, I just think they are talking about something totally different than the first book. Herbert had some philosophical ideas and ideas about how the human mind works he was exploring, the same themes are in the voidship book and the Planet trilogy. It's just most people aren't into that kind of stuff. And in the end, Dune is kind of like when you hear a single from a band you think is really neat, and then you buy the album and nothing else in the album is anything like the single.
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May 14, 2019 08:04
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StrixNebulosa posted:To be precise, I got this edition: ISBN-10: 7119005901 I got the same set a few years back and the box is just a flimsy cardboard case so you're not missing out on anything. Also note the "Printed in the People's Republic of China. Not for sale in North America" bit on the first page.  There's similar compact editions from the same publisher for some of the other Chinese Classics if you ever get interested in them: Water Margin/Outlaws of the Marsh, Journey to the West, and Dream of the Red Chamber, though I can't comment on the translation qualities since I don't have them.
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May 14, 2019 08:23
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xcheopis posted:I'm so disappointed with the series that I don't think I made it past book six (six, ffs!). The ridiculous covers aren't helping. The Book Barn › The SF&F Thread: so disappointed with the series I didn't make it past book 6
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May 14, 2019 08:53
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Tokelau All Star posted:Would the Dune books be good to read if I've never read them before? I mean like how people watch Aliens today and think it's boring because every other action movie afterward copied it. A) Those people are nuts, Aliens still rocks. B) There still aren't really any works like Dune. A modern audience is much more likely to have a political problem with Dune than an aesthetic one.
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May 14, 2019 09:00
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C.M. Kruger posted:I got the same set a few years back and the box is just a flimsy cardboard case so you're not missing out on anything. Also note the "Printed in the People's Republic of China. Not for sale in North America" bit on the first page. For Journey to the West the definitive version is this four-volume unabridged version translated by Anthony C. Yu. Though I'll note that having read it I can see why it's usually abridged. Every Chapter posted:Tripitaka: "Look Wukong, an innocent woodcutter in need of our help!"
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May 14, 2019 09:42
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C.M. Kruger posted:I got the same set a few years back and the box is just a flimsy cardboard case so you're not missing out on anything. Also note the "Printed in the People's Republic of China. Not for sale in North America" bit on the first page. I totally missed that "not for sale" thing, oh my goodness. Oh China. I'm tentatively curious in the other Chinese classics, but since I'm on page 194 out of 2000+, it'll be a while before I get to them! The_White_Crane posted:For Journey to the West the definitive version is this four-volume unabridged version translated by Anthony C. Yu. I mean, I'm not going to lie, I can see why the abridged versions of Ro3K abridge what they do - "and then Lu Bu forced Cao Cao to flee for his life, again, and Cao Cao regrouped and figured out a new scheme" - and it's like, would you two stop. Thank you for the ideal translation though, I'll mark that down for when I get to it!
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May 14, 2019 12:08
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Ted Chiang's story "Exhalation" is real cool. It's about argon pressure powered robots who discover that their source of power is losing pressure. I'm only disappointed there wasn't a group of them that decided to depressurize even faster. I call them exhalerationists
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May 14, 2019 12:19
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Nevvy Z posted:Ted Chiang's story "Exhalation" is real cool. It's about argon pressure powered robots who discover that their source of power is losing pressure. I'm only disappointed there wasn't a group of them that decided to depressurize even faster. I call them exhalerationists Writing a post just to post a pun is bad and you should feel bad.
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May 14, 2019 13:26
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Megazver posted:Writing a post just to post a pun is bad and you should feel bad. It was a good pun.
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May 14, 2019 13:46
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The Dune books are still fairly unique -- they've never really been copied successfully by anything except maybe Star Wars -- but the one rule is, keep reading till you don't like the series any more, then stop, it will never get better. Different people argue over which is the "last good Dune book" but nobody thinks they don't get progressively worse. He means stop at God Emperor of Dune.
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May 14, 2019 14:48
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Time to post about my favorite fantasy series that nobody has read: The Monarchies of God by Paul Kearney. It's a flintlock fantasy series (even though they use matchlocks) set in a Western Europe equivalent, where the Muslims are doing much better in the circa 1500s religious wars. The book begins with the destruction of the equivalent of Vienna, and in the vacuum the Western church uses the chaos to start purging magic users (which they see as violating the precepts of their religion). It's a pretty expansive military series, which also includes a fairly cool magical world, journeys of exploration to new continents, naval battles, pikes and flintlock guns!). Anyone else read this?
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May 14, 2019 23:45
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Seven Hundred Bee posted:Time to post about my favorite fantasy series that nobody has read: The Monarchies of God by Paul Kearney. I'd never even heard of this and apparently it came out during the period when I read all kinds of fantasy, even horrible dumb poo poo like Forgotten Realms novels. Anyway I've marked it as something to check out, thanks!
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May 15, 2019 00:57
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Seven Hundred Bee posted:Time to post about my favorite fantasy series that nobody has read: The Monarchies of God by Paul Kearney. I read the first one when it came out - was it the one with the fleeing ship heading to north america in a st brennan / mayflower ish journey? i hadn't thought of it since but i've just bought the first one for 3.49 on the kindle. Thanks!
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May 15, 2019 01:14
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branedotorg posted:I read the first one when it came out - was it the one with the fleeing ship heading to north america in a st brennan / mayflower ish journey? Yes -- one of the kings gathers many of his magic users and sends them on a ship to a fabled new continent. (I won't spoil what happens, but it is not what you'd expect) There's a couple 'main' POV characters: * A soldier who fled the sack of his city by the foreign invaders and continues fighting against them * The soldiers wife who is captured, enslaved, and becomes part of the sultan's harem * A monk who is located in the Western religion's religious capital and is doing research * A ship captain/pirate who is fleeing the religious wars to find a new continent * A mage who travels with him and is trying to find sanctuary * A leader of the Western faith who sees the religious wars as a way to seize power * A young king who wants to free his country from the yoke of religious authority The setting also has some interesting conflicts between magic, which represents 'older' technology, and the growth of religious faith/modernism and how they come into conflict. One thing I especially like is the exploration of the religious conflict is sophisticated and nuanced, and isn't just "Christianity-equivalent good! Muslim-equivalent bad!" and that most people involved in large scale conflicts are simple, uneducated peasants who don't really give a poo poo about political boundaries, and how their experiences are different than professional soldiers. The specific military technology is flintlock pistols and pikes, with cannons and primitive mortars. here's the first omnibus (first 2 books) for $5.38 https://www.amazon.com/Hawkwood-Kin...=gateway&sr=8-1 and the second (last 3 books) for https://www.amazon.com/Century-Sold...0Z9X74E7RWM4ERX $5.38 as well Seven Hundred Bee fucked around with this message at 01:34 on May 15, 2019 |
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May 15, 2019 01:26
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Jedit posted:The Book Barn › The SF&F Thread: so disappointed with the series I didn't make it past book 6 For me, this is true for so many books I wouldn't admit to reading in polite company.
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May 15, 2019 22:34
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Jedit posted:The Book Barn › The SF&F Thread: so disappointed with the series I didn't make it past book 6 This would be a good GRRM thread title.
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May 15, 2019 22:45
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Jedit posted:The Book Barn > The SF&F Thread: so disappointed with the series I didn't make it past book 6 Make that series > author and book > chapter(or honestly 'page' if it's a Brust book) and that's extremely accurate for me. Anyway, Bauchelian and Korbal Broach + Emancipor Reese remain the most re-readable Malazan series stories for me. Something about those gay murderhobos, the three stooges of murder, the marx(ed for death) brothers of demonic-necromantic hijinks, whose deaths will be epic and quite deserved, etc. HBO is doing a Chernobyl series. Adam Higginbotham's Midnight in Chernobyl was pretty good and covered the underlying issues with Russian command economy, the two dueling Russian nuclear power programs, and the selection + construction process that had 4 nuclear power plants half-assedly built 10 kilometers away from the village of Pripiat.
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May 15, 2019 23:28
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ah yes, that fantasy classic Midnight in Chernobyl
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May 15, 2019 23:41
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Kinda was, if you read the book and get to the USSR fantasy command economy vs USSR economic reality, then all the nuke reactor technical specs + advisories for the 4 reactors at Chernobyl being locked down in ultra-secret clearances that nobody at the Chernobyl power complex ever knew existed (or even saw until the 1987 Chernobyl trials). Luckily most of that is mentioned in the first 70 pages of the book if you just wanna watch the HBO series instead of reading the rest of the book.
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May 16, 2019 01:29
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:Kinda was, if you read the book and get to the USSR fantasy command economy vs USSR economic reality, then all the nuke reactor technical specs + advisories for the 4 reactors at Chernobyl being locked down in ultra-secret clearances that nobody at the Chernobyl power complex ever knew existed (or even saw until the 1987 Chernobyl trials). Luckily most of that is mentioned in the first 70 pages of the book if you just wanna watch the HBO series instead of reading the rest of the book. I'm okay with this category creep if it means we can talk about Red Plenty in here and hell why not the book it was based on which I can't remember the title of but was a nonfiction study of Soviet planning from 1948 - 1963 or thereabouts ^^
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May 16, 2019 09:46
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Neurosis posted:I'm okay with this category creep if it means we can talk about Red Plenty in here and hell why not the book it was based on which I can't remember the title of but was a nonfiction study of Soviet planning from 1948 - 1963 or thereabouts ^^ No idea what Red Plenty is, honestly. Do know, however, that Mack Reynolds wrote a bunch of short stories in the scifi genre where the official USSR command economy statistics were taken at face value, and therefore feel very 'what-if?'-ish or cartoony for a modern reader. Mack Reynolds as I've stated before (in this thread) was one of the earliest scifi authors/literal hardcore socialist badasses to feature socialism/racism/class conflict in any nuance during the Cold War era, which makes it sad that no-one really remembers Mack Reynolds existed.
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May 16, 2019 12:54
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