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I liked seveneves and reamde. I get that it’s basically pulp sci fi and will not be enjoyed by everyone E: oh I just remembered the thing that has annoyed me the most about Stephenson was the end of cryptonomicon where it was like he ran out of pages mewse fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Jun 13, 2019 |
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Jun 13, 2019 19:02
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Finished Gnomon. It's pretty wack, and in ways that are hard to explain to someone who hasn't read it. 
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Jun 14, 2019 00:30
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So you liked it? I personally love each new book from Harkaway. You can see him becoming a better writer in each, and he seemingly builds upon himself rather than sticking to the usual stuff.
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Jun 14, 2019 00:51
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I liked seveneves, though it was pretty uneven. Responding to other posts, I liked Gnomon, though I don’t really understand what happened.
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Jun 14, 2019 01:48
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The back third of Seveneves is a really cool setup for a tabletop RPG sci-fi setting. The first two-thirds is a decent disaster movie.
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Jun 14, 2019 01:53
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I loved Gnomon. Are the author's other books any good?
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Jun 14, 2019 01:53
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DACK FAYDEN posted:I loved Gnomon. Are the author's other books any good? I think so. Even better is that he tries different things in each.
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Jun 14, 2019 02:11
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I recently reread the Diamond Age and it's depressing how far Stephenson has gone down from his best days especially when I think of Gibson and the Peripheral.
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Jun 14, 2019 03:44
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papa horny michael posted:So you liked it? I personally love each new book from Harkaway. You can see him becoming a better writer in each, and he seemingly builds upon himself rather than sticking to the usual stuff. I liked it and even predicted a few of the twists!
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Jun 14, 2019 04:07
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papa horny michael posted:Neal Stephenson's latest thing Fall; or, Dodge in Hell is a worse version of Greg Egan's works. The most laughable portion has been how societies problems are directly solved within tech conferences moderated by Stephen Pinker analogues. You'd think it's parody, except for the treatment. It's predecessor ended with a 300 page gun battle between the evil terrorists and All American survivalists. Does The Fall also drop all pretence of actually being about things and dial up the puplyness to 11?
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Jun 14, 2019 04:21
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Chiming in on the Harkaway love. I love all his books; he scratches the Secular Humanist GK Chesterton itch in a way that Pratchett was the master of, and he does it in ways that speak interesting and difficult truths about our times. He does also tend to get better with each book. Gnomon represents such a level of improvement of craft that it really feels like a departure even though it still has all those things within it. The trick with Gnomon was fitting all those stories into a single book, instead of a series, which is what most writers would do.
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Jun 14, 2019 04:58
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Kesper North posted:Chiming in on the Harkaway love. I love all his books; he scratches the Secular Humanist GK Chesterton itch in a way that Pratchett was the master of, and he does it in ways that speak interesting and difficult truths about our times. I don't really feel like it would work as a series, this was exactly the right level of disorienting.
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Jun 14, 2019 05:15
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LCQC posted:Any thread thoughts on Ian McDonalds Luna: Wolf Moon? Found it pretty good (didn't read the first one). McDonald is always good. Finished the third and last book of the series last week, and while being the weakest book in the trilogy, it still wrapped up the series in a good manner.
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Jun 14, 2019 05:24
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Weber has named a character McAnally 
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Jun 14, 2019 05:38
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High Warlord Zog posted:It's predecessor ended with a 300 page gun battle between the evil terrorists and All American survivalists. Does The Fall also drop all pretence of actually being about things and dial up the puplyness to 11? it's just as bad but he apes john milton instead of tom clancy
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Jun 14, 2019 06:24
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General Battuta posted:Weber has named a character McAnally quote:The Meroa Resistance Movement is the opposition that includes Gottfried McAnally, his wife, Seiko, and Michael van Wyk. Belinda McCleskey is Gottfried’s aunt. Uncle Leopold had died in the Argo III Incident of 1898 when miners protested the lack of safety equipment. why was this done apparently it is a real name????? quote:Vice Admiral John Henry Stuart McAnally CB LVO (born 9 April 1945) is a former Royal Navy officer who became Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies. PupsOfWar fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Jun 14, 2019 |
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Jun 14, 2019 06:25
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General Battuta posted:Weber has named a character McAnally
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Jun 14, 2019 07:03
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Finished John Brunner's anthology The Compleat Traveller in Black. It's an older book (the stories it collects are from the '60s and '70s) about an agent of the creator-deity in a fantasy world tasked with reducing a primordial chaos to a predictable realm governed by quantifiable rules (which is depicted as being on the whole a good thing but not entirely unambiguous). His primary mechanism for doing so is granting wishes in a way which leads to just deserts for all concerned. Quite humorous, some clever scenarios playing out, and some interesting fantastical imagery here and there. Good fantasy in a non-Tolkien tradition.
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Jun 14, 2019 09:38
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Hey guys maybe the answers somewhere in the thread but forgive me because I'm somewhat in a rush. Need to get my dad something for Father's Day and he really liked 'The Martian' by Andy Weir, I know 'Artemis' exists, but are there any books by different authors you'd recommend if someone enjoyed that novel? Thanks.
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Jun 14, 2019 10:52
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That's the problem with recommendations. I just skimmed a few reading lists and boy are people bad at "if you liked THIS you'll like THAT" recommendations. "Hey, Red Mars, Martian Chronicles and The Expanse also take place on Mars, you'll love it!" Yeah, no, gently caress you. I'd personally go with We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor. Very similar voice and focus on problem solving. Megazver fucked around with this message at 11:47 on Jun 14, 2019 |
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Jun 14, 2019 11:45
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Megazver posted:That's the problem with recommendations. I just skimmed a few reading lists and boy are people bad at "if you liked THIS you'll like THAT" recommendations. "Hey, Red Mars, Martian Chronicles and The Expanse also take place on Mars, you'll love it!" Yeah, no, gently caress you. Yea it's why i came here because googling that just gives you so much nonsense. Thanks, your recommendation actually looks really fun, I might grab it because i think the fact that The Martian was quite light hearted and therefore a bit easier to get into than Hard Sci-Fi was one of the reasons he enjoyed it. Plus it actually looks like something i'd read so i can pinch it off him if he doesnt like it.
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Jun 14, 2019 12:12
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Fall has some weak spots and I haven't read much, possibly any Egan so if he does this better what books should I be picking up? I'm gonna post some general Fall spoilers up to about 80%: Dodge dies shortly after thinking about the norns/fates, spinners and cutters of threads of life. Turns out he has a will that's super old and requires that he be preserved until such a time as he can be uploaded and use his money to help make it happen. Meanwhile, the internet is destroyed by a massive hoax nuclear attack on US soil and they change how things work with the internet. Now you don't have passwords, AI's know who you are because they can tell. Then comes the part where Dodge is uploaded. He starts by experiencing visual static. Eventually his brian constructs a whole artificial world, because it's wired to receive certain kinds of input so it just starts faking them. But since it's all digital, it's as real as it can be for him and other uploaded people come to his world because that's easier than bootstrapping a new universe to fit the expected sensory inputs. Eventually there are digital and real world struggles over who gets what power and who pays for the quantum computing as the number of digital souls goes up by orders of magnitude. So fall and gnomon actually share this idea in common of a general brainprint being used as your identifier. Gnomon, unless I'm still confused, is about them trying to use the victims connectome to access the System and various false identities/stories she uses to mask or reshape her connectome to no longer fit in the keyhole. Fall hasn't really much with the idea so far but it's there.
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Jun 14, 2019 13:55
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Just finished Children of Ruin last night - I wish they would have ended the book with a better discussion on how the Nod parasites would actually integrate with society instead of *jump cut* now everybody is friends and there's FTL! And Crow-men? Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Jun 14, 2019 |
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Jun 14, 2019 15:56
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90s Cringe Rock posted:Butcher has a Big Deal pub in the Dresden Files named McAnally's, after its owner, McAnally. But that requires reading the Dresden Files. I got given the first one for free with a magazine, and don't know why anyone would read them if they could read Felix Castor or Rivers of London.
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Jun 14, 2019 16:39
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Jedit posted:But that requires reading the Dresden Files. I got given the first one for free with a magazine, and don't know why anyone would read them if they could read Felix Castor or Rivers of London. The first one is kinda poor imo. As someone who also enjoyed Rivers of London I'd recommend reading on.
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Jun 14, 2019 17:55
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Neurosis posted:Finished John Brunner's anthology The Compleat Traveller in Black. It's an older book (the stories it collects are from the '60s and '70s) about an agent of the creator-deity in a fantasy world tasked with reducing a primordial chaos to a predictable realm governed by quantifiable rules (which is depicted as being on the whole a good thing but not entirely unambiguous). His primary mechanism for doing so is granting wishes in a way which leads to just deserts for all concerned. Quite humorous, some clever scenarios playing out, and some interesting fantastical imagery here and there. Good fantasy in a non-Tolkien tradition. "As you wish, so be it." Yeah, I always liked that one too.
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Jun 14, 2019 18:05
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Neurosis posted:Finished John Brunner's anthology The Compleat Traveller in Black. It's an older book (the stories it collects are from the '60s and '70s) about an agent of the creator-deity in a fantasy world tasked with reducing a primordial chaos to a predictable realm governed by quantifiable rules (which is depicted as being on the whole a good thing but not entirely unambiguous). His primary mechanism for doing so is granting wishes in a way which leads to just deserts for all concerned. Quite humorous, some clever scenarios playing out, and some interesting fantastical imagery here and there. Good fantasy in a non-Tolkien tradition. Interesting thanks I've been meaning to read more Brunner.
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Jun 14, 2019 18:12
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Neurosis posted:Finished John Brunner's anthology The Compleat Traveller in Black. Just bought this: it sounds intriguing. Thanks!
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Jun 14, 2019 20:01
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General Battuta posted:Weber has named a character McAnally now I'm thinking of The Stars My Destination... *beavis and butthead laughing* Jiz huh huh huh.
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Jun 14, 2019 20:13
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how do u pronounce McAnally anyway im sure that with scottish dialect magic it ends up not sounding how youd think like how MacLeod is pronouced McCloud
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Jun 14, 2019 20:48
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PupsOfWar posted:how do u pronounce McAnally anyway Like "McAnnually" with the "u" I believe. At least that's how I do it. I guess it could also be "maca Nally" or something.
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Jun 14, 2019 20:52
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muh-can-uh-lee I assume.
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Jun 14, 2019 20:53
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PupsOfWar posted:im sure that with scottish dialect magic it ends up not sounding how youd think And how Laoghaire from the Scotpunk novel series Outlander is pronounced Leeree.
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Jun 14, 2019 20:53
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Macka Nally. edit: beaten like a potato farmer in Victorian Britain. tooterfish fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Jun 14, 2019 |
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Jun 14, 2019 20:59
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Is there a Wheel of Time thread? I got tricked by some friends into finding my copy of the first volume and making it through the incredibly slow first section and while I'm still not sure if I'll read any more of it, I'd be down for looking at some goon summaries of the series. I find it fascinating how so far the first fifty pages are profoundly generic, but in a comforting way? Almost nothing happens except for scene-setting and loving descriptions of farms. I'd almost say it reminds me of LotR, except that LotR filled its "slow" opening section with a hilarious British class comedy, in a way that almost no fantasy has replicated since. That scene where the relatives steal the silverware... 
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Jun 14, 2019 21:07
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StrixNebulosa posted:Is there a Wheel of Time thread? I got tricked by some friends into finding my copy of the first volume and making it through the incredibly slow first section and while I'm still not sure if I'll read any more of it, I'd be down for looking at some goon summaries of the series. I'm sure if you go to page 10 or something of the book barn there is an old thread. Its been six years and the series didn't leave a lot of unanswered questions.
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Jun 14, 2019 21:17
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StrixNebulosa posted:Is there a Wheel of Time thread? I got tricked by some friends into finding my copy of the first volume and making it through the incredibly slow first section and while I'm still not sure if I'll read any more of it, I'd be down for looking at some goon summaries of the series. Generally WoT discussion happens in the Brandon Sanderson thread now.
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Jun 14, 2019 21:25
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Just Chamber posted:Hey guys maybe the answers somewhere in the thread but forgive me because I'm somewhat in a rush. Need to get my dad something for Father's Day and he really liked 'The Martian' by Andy Weir, I know 'Artemis' exists, but are there any books by different authors you'd recommend if someone enjoyed that novel? Thanks. He might also like Alan Dean Foster's Sentenced to Prism and James Alan Gardner's The Expendables for problem-solving, generally upbeat protagonists in dangerous environments. occamsnailfile fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Jun 14, 2019 |
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Jun 14, 2019 21:49
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Just Chamber posted:Hey guys maybe the answers somewhere in the thread but forgive me because I'm somewhat in a rush. Need to get my dad something for Father's Day and he really liked 'The Martian' by Andy Weir, I know 'Artemis' exists, but are there any books by different authors you'd recommend if someone enjoyed that novel? Thanks. Scalzi is probably similar enough stylistically to Weir and 'Old Man's War' is about as dadly as books get.
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Jun 14, 2019 22:45
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:All this talk makes me realize Hull Zero Three was Greg Bear's second take on doing a generation ship story, and Hull Zero Three still failed to match up with Aldiss's first published novel/one-off story Non Stop (@1958). I will usually talk poo poo about Brian Aldiss's work, but Non Stop was legitimately good with a memorable plot twist ending. Non Stop is one of those books that turns up in classic science fiction lists all the time and I absolutely hate it + can't even get halfway through it, but can't figure out why.
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Jun 14, 2019 22:50
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