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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Right -- that author, Judith Tarr, has a whole series of horses-in-speculative-fiction articles on Tor.com. Do they pay her to endlessly ramble on about horses and make obvious points like "well actually you wouldn't have a Lippenzaner horse in a fantasy world because that's a specific breed of horse that exists on Earth." Like wtf is Tor.com
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Jul 1, 2019 18:37
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pseudanonymous posted:Do they pay her to endlessly ramble on about horses and make obvious points like "well actually you wouldn't have a Lippenzaner horse in a fantasy world because that's a specific breed of horse that exists on Earth." Like wtf is Tor.com I'm assuming that this is their way of helping her advertise her books (published by Tor) Thing is there are some people who are horse people and presumably some fraction of those people also read SF&F. So if you google "science fiction horses" you're gonna hit one of her articles and then presumably all of her books.
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Jul 1, 2019 18:41
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I'm assuming that this is their way of helping her advertise her books (published by Tor) quote:Book I of Horses of the Moon You'll note that the author also lives on a horse farm, near Tucson Arizona. This is starting to feel like the Garfield Eats thing, it's making me question my reality.
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Jul 1, 2019 18:46
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pseudanonymous posted:You'll note that the author also lives on a horse farm, near Tucson Arizona. This is starting to feel like the Garfield Eats thing, it's making me question my reality. Point being, tor.com is a source of many amazing things I actually really enjoyed Mari Ness' s recurring feature where she'd do alternating pieces 1) on the history of a particular disney movie, then 2) a detailed breakdown of the history of the source material: https://www.tor.com/tag/disney-read-watch/ see, e.g., https://www.tor.com/2016/01/21/fairy-tale-and-the-other-realm-as-social-commentary-aladdin-and-the-wonderful-lamp/ https://www.tor.com/2016/01/28/i-could-show-you-the-world-but-i-wont-disneys-aladdin/ Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Jul 1, 2019 |
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Jul 1, 2019 19:21
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pseudanonymous posted:Do they pay her to endlessly ramble on about horses and make obvious points like "well actually you wouldn't have a Lippenzaner horse in a fantasy world because that's a specific breed of horse that exists on Earth." Like wtf is Tor.com
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Jul 1, 2019 19:21
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Where else am I going to read in depth about horses in science fiction and fantasy? You can't bring up fantasy horses without a copy of DWJ's Tough Guide to Fantasyland handy: Diana Wynne Jones posted:HORSES are of a breed unique to Fantasyland. They are capable of galloping full-tilt all day without a rest. Sometimes they do not require food or water. They never cast shoes, go lame, or put their hooves down holes, except when Management deems it necessary, as when the forces of the DARK LORD are only half an hour behind. They never otherwise stumble. Nor do they ever make life difficult for Tourists by biting or kicking their riders or one another. They never resist being mounted or blow out so that their girths slip, or do any of the other things that make horses so chancy in this world. For instance, they never shy and seldom whinny or demand sugar at inopportune moments. But for some reason you cannot hold a conversation while riding them. If you want to say anything to another Tourist (or vice versa), both of you will have to rein to a stop and stand staring out over a VALLEY while you talk. Apart from this inexplicable quirk, Horses can be used just like bicycles, and usually are. Much research into how these exemplary animals come to exist has resulted in the following: no mare ever comes into season on the Tour and no stallion ever shows an interest in a mare; and few Horses are described as geldings. It therefore seems probable that they breed by pollination. This theory seems to account for everything, since it is clear that the creatures do behave more like vegetables than mammals. It also explains why the ANGLO-SAXON COSSACKS and the DESERT NOMADS appear to have a monopoly on horse-breeding. They alone possess the secret of how to pollinate them.
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Jul 1, 2019 20:12
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ToxicFrog posted:You can't bring up fantasy horses without a copy of DWJ's Tough Guide to Fantasyland handy: save a horse, ride a dog 
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Jul 2, 2019 00:57
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PupsOfWar posted:save a horse, ride a dog The original cover art is much better imo.
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Jul 2, 2019 02:15
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pseudanonymous posted:The original cover art is much better imo. These?     
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Jul 2, 2019 15:44
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the Vandermeers' Big Book of Fantasy came out today; here's the full TOC.
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Jul 3, 2019 01:26
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The_White_Crane posted:I just finished Velocity Weapon by Megan O'Keefe, per Yoon Ha Lee's recommendation. finished it the other day. just didn't like it. Sci-FI is often a book about ideas but the ideas were confused and a bit silly. sometimes you get a novel about people that just happens to be set in a the future, often in the romance of space detective type genres but it wasn't that either, as I thought the characters were unlikable and shallow and it was pretty boring as an action adventure type thing too. the reveal did genuinely surprise me but then just trailed off into setting up the next book. I read the new Marko Kloos book last night, that's similar in many ways, a multi POV story setting up for a new series. Difference is I liked it, the world building interested me way more ( a multi-planet system 5 years after a huge war with a treaty of versailles vibe), the characters were more interesting to me, especially the POW. My only gripes is that it was essentially just a setup book for a huge story arc, almost like a primer for a game.
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Jul 3, 2019 01:42
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Ornamented Death posted:the Vandermeers' Big Book of Fantasy came out today; here's the full TOC. that's a hell of a lineup. "Jewels" is one of the best Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories. how much do these things normally run?
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Jul 3, 2019 01:46
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my bony fealty posted:that's a hell of a lineup. "Jewels" is one of the best Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories. how much do these things normally run? Yes, holy crap, those Vandermeers know how to pick stories. I read their Big Book of SF when it came out a couple years ago and there was so much diverse cool poo poo in there; I'm so totally getting this one.
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Jul 3, 2019 08:14
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Regarding The Traitor Baru Cormorant:
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Jul 3, 2019 15:40
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branedotorg posted:My only gripes is that it was essentially just a setup book for a huge story arc, almost like a primer for a game. Kloos is largely a Kindle Unlimited author, and long story arcs and series are par for the course there since they're paid by the page turn.
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Jul 3, 2019 18:12
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Current Storybundle is World SF and has some better quality than their usual KJA dregs. Lauren Beukes, Lavie Tidhar, Nalo Hopkinson are all authors I enjoy. I'm reading Pendulum Sun right now and it does a good job of making fae creatures seem very alien and mysterious, unpredictable without being silly monkeycheese. It also approaches the conflicts of Christian religion and 19th century gender roles with this kind of strangeness.
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Jul 3, 2019 22:48
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Khizan posted:Kloos is largely a Kindle Unlimited author, and long story arcs and series are par for the course there since they're paid by the page turn. I think he does a good job at holding my attention. The book is only $5, too.
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Jul 3, 2019 22:56
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I read Player of Games a year ago and thought it was pretty cool, so when I was doing a road trip last weekend I wanted an audio book and thought "ah. Iain M Banks. That will be a nice fun listen" and picked The Algebraist and its turning out to be way more hosed up and complicated lmao I was not expecting this
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Jul 4, 2019 00:53
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Control Volume posted:I read Player of Games a year ago and thought it was pretty cool, so when I was doing a road trip last weekend I wanted an audio book and thought "ah. Iain M Banks. That will be a nice fun listen" and picked The Algebraist and its turning out to be way more hosed up and complicated lmao I was not expecting this I'm listening to that one right now in fact. he really drops you in the poo poo immediately with Luciferous doesn't he. haha
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Jul 4, 2019 01:00
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I think this is the right thread to ask - has anyone in here got any experience with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro? I picked up one of her books at the local used bookstore 'cause it was 2$ and I'm enjoying historical vampire spookiness so far. There seem to be a buttload of other novels in her Saint Germain series, and well, anyone in here read it? Anyone got opinions? (I also obtained another David Drake and the Zombie Survival Guide because it was cheap and I am easy)
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Jul 4, 2019 01:11
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StrixNebulosa posted:I think this is the right thread to ask - has anyone in here got any experience with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro? I picked up one of her books at the local used bookstore 'cause it was 2$ and I'm enjoying historical vampire spookiness so far. There seem to be a buttload of other novels in her Saint Germain series, and well, anyone in here read it? Anyone got opinions? I read Hotel Transylvania a long while ago, and from what I can recall it hasn't aged terribly well since the 1970s. Still, she might have improved in later books.
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Jul 4, 2019 01:33
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Control Volume posted:I read Player of Games a year ago and thought it was pretty cool, so when I was doing a road trip last weekend I wanted an audio book and thought "ah. Iain M Banks. That will be a nice fun listen" and picked The Algebraist and its turning out to be way more hosed up and complicated lmao I was not expecting this
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Jul 4, 2019 01:33
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StrixNebulosa posted:I think this is the right thread to ask - has anyone in here got any experience with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro? I picked up one of her books at the local used bookstore 'cause it was 2$ and I'm enjoying historical vampire spookiness so far. There seem to be a buttload of other novels in her Saint Germain series, and well, anyone in here read it? Anyone got opinions? I had all of the St. Germaine books at one point! And, eh, I got rid of them some years back. The series isn't poorly written but there is a lot of torturing women going on, the plots, as with a lot of series, start getting pretty formulaic, and I was already moving away from horror books in general, so I got rid of them. I would recommend getting them from a library, if you want to read the others.
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Jul 4, 2019 02:40
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Selachian posted:I read Hotel Transylvania a long while ago, and from what I can recall it hasn't aged terribly well since the 1970s. Still, she might have improved in later books. The two times I tried that one in the library years back I bounced off of it - but I don't recall if that was the writing or my ignorance of that period of history. xcheopis posted:I had all of the St. Germaine books at one point! And, eh, I got rid of them some years back. The series isn't poorly written but there is a lot of torturing women going on, the plots, as with a lot of series, start getting pretty formulaic, and I was already moving away from horror books in general, so I got rid of them. I would recommend getting them from a library, if you want to read the others. Sounds good to me. I'm 60 pages into this one and enjoying it, but not enough to suddenly go out and buy the whole set. One at a time, if I do decide to purchase more, I think. (I'm not sure how much of her my library has yet, either.) Also, time to report on 1632: I'm 180 pages into this and I love it. It's so indulgent. Genuinely good Americans, completely baffled Europeans, the shock of the author not just acknowledging the Jewish history of this era, but also to have a Jewish women as one of the main characters? Is this Baen I'm reading, or am I dreaming? Diversity! Respect for human rights! No automatic assumptions that Muslims are evil! Eric Flint you might just become my new favorite author for having fun and kicking back with a good drink.
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Jul 4, 2019 03:27
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occamsnailfile posted:Current Storybundle is World SF and has some better quality than their usual KJA dregs. Lauren Beukes, Lavie Tidhar, Nalo Hopkinson are all authors I enjoy. This is a really solid bundle. Escape from Baghdad is absolutely bonkers but really good.
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Jul 4, 2019 03:57
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I read half of John Gardner's Grendel last night. It's very well-known so I may not be saying anything new, but it's a really fun retelling of Beowulf from Grendel's perspective. Gardner elaborates on the hints of characterisation we get in the original text well, making Grendel both relateable and monstrous. His depiction of the dragon I won't spoil but is also quite amusing. What're some other good books that explore the mythology of the Germanic tribes? I've got the Book of Loki and have read Gene Wolfe's The Wizard Knight.
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Jul 4, 2019 04:22
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DACK FAYDEN posted:at least you didn't pick Use of Weapons, that one gets hosed up and that's putting it chairitably
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Jul 4, 2019 05:56
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Kesper North posted:and that's putting it chairitably
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Jul 4, 2019 11:47
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As was previously announced, you can find all of Will Wight's individual ebooks free today: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=will+wight&ref=nb_sb_noss_2 The Cradle series is pretty popular, it's basically a Xianxia (Chinese fantasy) adventure, except minus a lot of the shittier/dumber tropes common in the genre. Technically all his fantasy stuff is in a shared universe ala Sanderson, but IIRC there hasn't been any actual cross-over yet.
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Jul 4, 2019 15:44
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StrixNebulosa posted:The two times I tried that one in the library years back I bounced off of it - but I don't recall if that was the writing or my ignorance of that period of history. Just don't read any of his collaborations..
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Jul 4, 2019 15:58
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Neurosis posted:I read half of John Gardner's Grendel last night. It's very well-known so I may not be saying anything new, but it's a really fun retelling of Beowulf from Grendel's perspective. Gardner elaborates on the hints of characterisation we get in the original text well, making Grendel both relateable and monstrous. His depiction of the dragon I won't spoil but is also quite amusing. We did that one as the BOTM a few years ago, the thread might be interesting for you: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3678521
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Jul 4, 2019 16:02
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Enjoy Marillion's seventeen minutes song about it why you're at it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxp5KJOHqmI
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Jul 4, 2019 19:49
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Cicero posted:As was previously announced, you can find all of Will Wight's individual ebooks free today: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=will+wight&ref=nb_sb_noss_2 Cradle is definitely his strongest work, but even his worst stuff bottoms out at 'insubstantial but pretty fun'. You want gleefully OTT anime action sequences, he delivers.
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Jul 4, 2019 19:55
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:We did that one as the BOTM a few years ago, the thread might be interesting for you: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3678521 Cool, thanks. I was starting to realise Gardner was riffing on a pretty wide ranging set of philosophy ideas beyond just existentialism, then read the bit where Hrothwulf's mentor was going on with the idea that all politics and revolutions are just brute power and nothing more and it became obvious. Gardner making fun of that idea by having Hrothwulf then say 'But some societies are more free than others even if that's true' and the mentor pausing and dismissing this obvious problem with his thinking with a glib 'Well, be that as it may' made me chuckle. Also I get a smile as I think of how peevish the dragon was. That Gardner really disliked amoral worldviews and literary works came through in amusing ways. Moving on now to a retelling of the Mabinogian by a lady whose name escapes me at the moment Neurosis fucked around with this message at 06:10 on Jul 5, 2019 |
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Jul 5, 2019 06:07
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Neurosis posted:
Evangeline Walton! That one's great
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Jul 5, 2019 12:40
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Finished Julie E Czerneda's Survival, first book of her Species Imperative trilogy last night and holy moly this book is so much fun. It's about a salmon researcher in an utopian future earth who spends at least half the book not wanting to get dragged into the sci-fi thriller taking place around her, because salmon! She wants to stay on earth and study fish! This is written to be (thankfully) hilarious instead of frustrating, and I was genuinely saddened when we left the salmon behind to get into alien business...but my sadness lifted quickly because it turned into a very Cherryh-esque "adapt to the aliens via understanding and suffering" sequence, capped with our poor salmon researcher being trapped on a starship full of aliens who don't understand that humans need water to survive. The book ended after a rollercoaster of events and emotions, and it was a clear pause point, and I'm very hungry for the next book in the sequence. Naturally I have 1 and 3, not 2, so I'm going to have to be patient... God it feels so good to be reading really indulgent, fun books. 1632, Survival - I've been reading a lot of downers lately and this is a very welcome change of pace. Not that Survival is precisely upbeat and jaunty, but it's just... good. It's about future humans coexisting peacefully with aliens and trying to solve a big mystery and I loved it a lot.
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Jul 6, 2019 11:03
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I ended up reading the Hugo-nominated short stories and it was a much better slate than I expected, especially in terms of comedy. The best one is P. Djeli Clark's teeth story, but I think all of them except for Sarah Pinsker's are worth a look.
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Jul 6, 2019 15:16
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StrixNebulosa posted:Finished Julie E Czerneda's Survival, first book of her Species Imperative trilogy last night and holy moly this book is so much fun. It's about a salmon researcher in an utopian future earth who spends at least half the book not wanting to get dragged into the sci-fi thriller taking place around her, because salmon! She wants to stay on earth and study fish! This is written to be (thankfully) hilarious instead of frustrating, and I was genuinely saddened when we left the salmon behind to get into alien business...but my sadness lifted quickly because it turned into a very Cherryh-esque "adapt to the aliens via understanding and suffering" sequence, capped with our poor salmon researcher being trapped on a starship full of aliens who don't understand that humans need water to survive. I think I need to read the poo poo out of this when I finish Children of Ruin.
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Jul 6, 2019 15:53
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Caitlin Starling’s THE LUMINOUS DEAD completely blindsided me, it’s very good and has been ruining my sleep schedule. A woman does the stupidest worst thing ever and agrees to go into a cave. But it’s not just a regular-rear end cave it’s on an alien planet and you have to wear a suit to prevent you from emitting any heat or air or anything because there’s something in these caves that murders anyone it detects. Her employer also has total control over her suit, including the ability to edit what she sees. Said employer is also cagey about exactly what she wants our hero to do and exactly how many people have died trying to do it. Their evolving relationship is really the heart of the book, but the rest of the book’s organs are made of pure cave terror. The technical caving details are very convincing too, which is uncomfortable because it reminds me that there are people who actually want to do this. gently caress caves and ever going into them.
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Jul 6, 2019 16:51
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General Battuta posted:Caitlin Starling’s THE LUMINOUS DEAD completely blindsided me, it’s very good and has been ruining my sleep schedule. A woman does the stupidest worst thing ever and agrees to go into a cave. But it’s not just a regular-rear end cave it’s on an alien planet and you have to wear a suit to prevent you from emitting any heat or air or anything because there’s something in these caves that murders anyone it detects.  I loved that book so much, gently caress caves forever. I would not have believed that the author could pull off the main character only talking to like, one other character for most of the book, but lo! It works, it's disturbing and I loved watching their relationship evolve.
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Jul 6, 2019 17:01
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