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Aw man, the end of Look to Windward Will you be my twin in this? If you will be my mate. That part hit me. Since this was the last Culture book I haven't read, I knew enough of the patterns to kinda guess where it would go, but that did not make it any less enjoyable.
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Jul 6, 2019 23:28
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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. soooold
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Jul 7, 2019 03:54
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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. Seconding this. This book creeped me the gently caress out
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Jul 7, 2019 04:00
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ToxicFrog posted:I think I need to read the poo poo out of this when I finish Children of Ruin. I read this whole trilogy a while back and it was good stuff, lots of alien politics and solving problems with science administration skills. Czerneda works in some kind of subtle jabs at the annoyances of academia but ultimately values and supports her protagonist's skills and capability and makes the aliens and their mystery interesting.
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Jul 7, 2019 04:11
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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. 
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Jul 7, 2019 04:28
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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. Yeah it was good, the Cherryh comparison is spot on. I felt the first half dragged and the romance felt a little forced, but the main alien guy was well developed and the revelations toward the end were suitably creepy/body horror-ish.
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Jul 7, 2019 04:34
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I just finished reading The Outside by Ada Hoffmann, and it's a fairly entertaining read. The Singularity happens...and instead of a non-scarcity society we instead end up with a dozen AI-God's that devour our souls, human ingenuity is based on vacuum-tube computers and oh, yeah, there is Chaos/Cthulhu/The Outside. Little Evianna is a personable child, extremely bright and curious for a three-year-old, quirky but friendly, cheerful, and largely aware of her surroundings. To the untrained eye, almost nothing is wrong. The heresy is not apparent until she begins to tell a story, or to complete a simple perception inventory – and then suddenly it’s everywhere. Stimuli are perceived before they appear, or their prior locations are pointed to interchangeably with present ones. Basic foundations of perceptual cognition, such as occlusion, perspective, scale, even causality are ignored. It is as though she sees everything at once, all the time. She likely does not yet even realize that such perceptions set her in opposition to the Gods, placing her on an inevitable path to the most perilous and destructive heresies. If treatment is successful, perhaps she never will. There is one aspect of Evianna’s case that I admit gives me pause. Children like this are usually overwhelmed into immobility by sheer existence. Evianna is the opposite. Curious, friendly, personable to a fault; her parents dote on her, and even the intake nurses are charmed. I could say that it is a miracle she functions and connects to the world so well, but I think it is really the reverse: she is so connected, so in tune with what is around her that she cannot help but connect in heretical ways too. It is a pity, then, that we will need to beat all of that out of her. FROM THE CASE FILES OF ANIRTHA NAIABRIM,CLINICAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGIST AND SELL-SOUL TO NEMESIS
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Jul 7, 2019 08:59
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occamsnailfile posted:I read this whole trilogy a while back and it was good stuff, lots of alien politics and solving problems with science administration skills. Czerneda works in some kind of subtle jabs at the annoyances of academia but ultimately values and supports her protagonist's skills and capability and makes the aliens and their mystery interesting. As a huge Cherryh fan this sounds so far up my alley it's starting to bore through the wall at the end, so thanks for the recommendation!
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Jul 7, 2019 11:55
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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 read a ton of horror and this was the first book in a long, long time to creep me out. Mind you, it's not particularly scary, but Starling captures the feeling of claustrophobia extremely well. I loved it, best book I've read this year.
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Jul 7, 2019 14:08
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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 So, I picked up the Elder Empire series and probably some of the best KU stuff I’ve read in a minute outside of Shaefer, maybe just as good. Interesting concept having the same story told from two perspectives I thought I would hate but ended up really liking. Everyone is the hero of their own story, indeed. Oh also, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that one character has a chibi Cthulhu as a pet. And it’s adorable. navyjack fucked around with this message at 09:32 on Jul 8, 2019 |
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Jul 8, 2019 09:24
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navyjack posted:So, I picked up the Elder Empire series and probably some of the best KU stuff I’ve read in a minute outside of Shaefer, maybe just as good. Interesting concept having the same story told from two perspectives I thought I would hate but ended up really liking. Everyone is the hero of their own story, indeed. Is that the one where there is two versions of each book?
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Jul 8, 2019 11:31
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navyjack posted:So, I picked up the Elder Empire series and probably some of the best KU stuff I’ve read in a minute outside of Shaefer, maybe just as good. Interesting concept having the same story told from two perspectives I thought I would hate but ended up really liking. Everyone is the hero of their own story, indeed. KU?
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Jul 8, 2019 11:34
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I'm guessing Kindle Unlimited
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Jul 8, 2019 11:35
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Proteus Jones posted:Is that the one where there is two versions of each book? Yes, still one more double book to go, don't know if it'll be be finished though.
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Jul 8, 2019 12:37
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branedotorg posted:Yes, still one more double book to go, don't know if it'll be be finished though. He seems to write fairly fast, though the Elder Empire series is seeming to take longer, he tends to churn out the Cradle books at a decent rate. He is also fairly active on his subreddit and blog with updates. He posted a couple weeks ago that he was vanishing to focus on Elder Empire.
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Jul 8, 2019 15:57
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Read The Luminous Dead yesterday on the recommendation of this thread and greatly enjoyed it, also gently caress cave diving forever. I like that neither you nor the characters ever really figure out everything that's going on down there but my personal theory is the cave is super loving haunted. I mean it could be alien brain spores but that wouldn't explain all the people who presumably did not decide that opening their helmet/drinking the spore-water was a great idea.
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Jul 8, 2019 16:34
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Read 120~ pages of Sarah Zettel's Reclamation and dropped out after she swapped povs for the fifth time and it began to look like she wanted to spend more time with the magical humans on a backwards planet than in the interesting sci-fi universe she'd constructed. If you want me to get invested in a plot, maybe don't change it every 20-40 pages? Maybe? Now I'm trying her Playing God as it's much more up my alley and I cannot wait for this plan to self-destruct - "let's put this entire population of aliens recently out of multiple civil wars into orbital colonies while we humans fix up their planet from plague and ecological disaster" sounds good, but I'm waiting for the shoe to drop. Also just bought Species Imperative #2 by Julie E Czerneda and I'm excited to see more of this salmon researcher, I almost wish I'd splurged for fast shipping, but... no, no. I will be calm. I will finish at least one more book before it arrives...
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Jul 8, 2019 16:40
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I ordered Wheel of Time 2 from ebay, as a paperback. .. I got the trade paperback, it's bigger than my house I swear to god. Sellers should put warning signs on these massive things.
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Jul 8, 2019 19:30
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StrixNebulosa posted:I ordered Wheel of Time 2 from ebay, as a paperback. The Swedish translation of WOT had every English book divided and released as two books.
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Jul 8, 2019 19:55
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I was at an antique store recently and saw a massive Brandon Sanderson paperback and thought, it must be uncomfortable to tote that thing around, and to read it Better thick paperbacks with a small footprint than those that are like a foot long tho
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Jul 8, 2019 20:33
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Girth over length in all things.
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Jul 8, 2019 20:41
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my bony fealty posted:I was at an antique store recently and saw a massive Brandon Sanderson paperback and thought, it must be uncomfortable to tote that thing around, and to read it Amen, even if the small paperbacks are fat as hell. My Von Bek omnibus is a fat little thing but it still fits into my pockets and is easy to read while walking my pooch. WoT 2 meanwhile is going to be a read-at-home book, which is...fine, but annoying.
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Jul 8, 2019 20:43
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StrixNebulosa posted:I ordered Wheel of Time 2 from ebay, as a paperback. He insisted until near his death that which was broken up into three books would be one book, it turned out to be about a million words. He kept saying they'd need to invent new printing technology.
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Jul 8, 2019 21:16
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StrixNebulosa posted:Read 120~ pages of Sarah Zettel's Reclamation and dropped out after she swapped povs for the fifth time and it began to look like she wanted to spend more time with the magical humans on a backwards planet than in the interesting sci-fi universe she'd constructed. If you want me to get invested in a plot, maybe don't change it every 20-40 pages? Maybe? My favorite of hers is Fool's War. I liked it much better than those other two. It's an interesting plot, in an interesting setting, with interesting characters. It's got a good twist and a lot of neat ideas. I particularly like "Ship's lawyer" being an important role for a trading vessel.
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Jul 8, 2019 21:36
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Apologies as I'm sure this has already been discussed somewhere in this thread, but can those who have read James Islington's Licanius series (Shadow of What Was Lost, Echo of Things to Come) let me know what you thought? He's compared a lot to Jordan and Sanderson, and Sanderson recommended the series.
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Jul 9, 2019 01:04
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Cardiac posted:The Swedish translation of WOT had every English book divided and released as two books. This is not unusual. Translations tend to end up significantly longer than the original text, in any case; so books that are already long as hell often exceed the limit of sanity.
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Jul 9, 2019 01:04
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I had a paperback copy of Perdido Street Station that just barely fit in my ACU trouser's cargo pocket when I was going through combat lanes in prep for Iraq. The spine split three ways. Someone found a loose page on the range. I didnt fess up, but I enjoyed the total bafflement on their face watching them read it. Hopefully it was one of the brothel scenes.
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Jul 9, 2019 01:36
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mllaneza posted:My favorite of hers is Fool's War. I liked it much better than those other two. It's an interesting plot, in an interesting setting, with interesting characters. It's got a good twist and a lot of neat ideas. I particularly like "Ship's lawyer" being an important role for a trading vessel. Excellent, I have that and Quiet Invasion by her as well. Assuming I'm still in the mood for her stuff when I finish Playing God I'll move onto Fool's War.
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Jul 9, 2019 01:57
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occamsnailfile posted:I read this whole trilogy a while back and it was good stuff, lots of alien politics and solving problems with science administration skills. Czerneda works in some kind of subtle jabs at the annoyances of academia but ultimately values and supports her protagonist's skills and capability and makes the aliens and their mystery interesting.
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Jul 9, 2019 12:07
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theblackw0lf posted:Apologies as I'm sure this has already been discussed somewhere in this thread, but can those who have read James Islington's Licanius series (Shadow of What Was Lost, Echo of Things to Come) let me know what you thought? The first one is the most generic book in the world. It might be okay if you’ve never read a fantasy book before. I got about a hundred pages in before giving up.
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Jul 9, 2019 12:10
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I've been enjoying Seven Blades in Black by Sam Sykes. He's also a top tier shitposter on Twitter.
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Jul 9, 2019 14:27
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Literally the only man alive (well, him and Chuck Wendig, through the same thread) to get a movie deal for his tweets.
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Jul 9, 2019 20:00
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Went to my used bookstore and got WoT 3-5 and a few other things, primarily The Seer by Sonia Orin Lyris. A standalone high fantasy written recently by a lady? Sign me up. Also, surprisingly for Baen, the cover is baller: 
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Jul 9, 2019 20:11
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General Battuta posted:Literally the only man alive (well, him and Chuck Wendig, through the same thread) to get a movie deal for his tweets. And it was a really bad movie.
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Jul 10, 2019 00:21
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Totally forgot that Migration was the first in that series. I was surprisingly non-big on the overarching plot, since it seems like it would push all my buttons.
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Jul 10, 2019 00:21
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Does anyone here have a resource or recommendations for fantasy books that are written by non-westerners or have been translated to English? Specifically, my book group was wanting to read more things that have been translateds to English/are from a non-Euro/American perspective. Zafon was the only author that came to mind for translated works but doesn't quite fit the non-euro category.
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Jul 10, 2019 01:11
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Teh Madd Hatter posted:Does anyone here have a resource or recommendations for fantasy books that are written by non-westerners or have been translated to English? Specifically, my book group was wanting to read more things that have been translateds to English/are from a non-Euro/American perspective. Zafon was the only author that came to mind for translated works but doesn't quite fit the non-euro category. Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic. Not strictly fantasy genre but it contains a lot of elements of fantasy and is... ... ....damnit! Serbia is Western! And so is Germany, so there goes my other rec. ... Read any Vampire Hunter D? Surprisingly fun/creepy horror novels by a Japanese novelist.
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Jul 10, 2019 01:18
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Teh Madd Hatter posted:Does anyone here have a resource or recommendations for fantasy books that are written by non-westerners or have been translated to English? Specifically, my book group was wanting to read more things that have been translateds to English/are from a non-Euro/American perspective. Zafon was the only author that came to mind for translated works but doesn't quite fit the non-euro category. everything in the Witcher series can't remember what language Stanislaw Lem wrote in
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Jul 10, 2019 01:33
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Lem was Polish too. read Cyberiad. not exactly "fantasy" but it isn't hard sci fi.
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Jul 10, 2019 01:36
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StrixNebulosa posted:Read any Vampire Hunter D? Surprisingly fun/creepy horror novels by a Japanese novelist. I remember reading one several years back because I really liked the second movie (which is unironically a good movie by non-anime standards and has a minimum of annoying animu stuff -- probably helps it was written in English which would've minimised awkward translations). My memory is that there was some cool stuff mixed in with things that seemed embarrassingly juvenile. Probably some of it was the translation and that what I read was one of the early books.
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