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A Proper Uppercut posted:So I dropped Luminous Dead and picked up Spinning Silver and this is sooooo much better, loving it so far. Yeah I'm a huge fan of Spinning Silver and Uprooted. The napoleonic dragon series is....okay. It has its charms but lacks the edge of those two.
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Aug 29, 2019 00:12
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I probably SHOULD have asked for opinions on David Weber before picking up the first two books in the Safehold series, but I don't venture into Book Barn that much. I suppose the first warning sign should have been the overwrought titles of books in the series. I actually picked it up because a brief description suggested to me that it uses some similar elements to those I'm using in a book I'm writing, so I thought I should take a look at at least the first book. The story was okay until it reached "the present day", and Weber thought it best to introduce the reader to the present day by dropping them into a deep pond of Church Politics, There are seven characters introduced in 5 pages, and two of those pages don't count because they're just describing the church. Also everyone seems to be deathly allergic to the letter "i" and instead spells their names with "y". It's a rare person indeed who doesn't have at least one "y" thrown somewhere into their name. The next chapter switches to a new set of characters, but at least it's still on the same topic of the church politics. They keep talking about a person called Nahrmahn (because "Norman" would be too "normal"), but it's unclear his position in the power struggle. The story MIGHT still possibly turn out to be good, but dumping a lot of names of people and places on me all at once (even with a helpful map) is bogging me down trying to keep everything straight. And the protagonist hasn't even left her secret hiding cave and the book is 70 pages in (although the first 40-50 pages were setup).
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Aug 29, 2019 04:25
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That's one of Weber's flaws as an author. He tends to throw you in the deep end at first, then drop an inappropriately-timed infodump in later to fill things in. It is one of the relatively few criticisms I completely agree with.
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Aug 29, 2019 04:43
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I probably SHOULD have asked for opinions on David Weber before picking up the first two books in the Safehold series, but I don't venture into Book Barn that much. I suppose the first warning sign should have been the overwrought titles of books in the series. I actually picked it up because a brief description suggested to me that it uses some similar elements to those I'm using in a book I'm writing, so I thought I should take a look at at least the first book. I've been reading Absolute Monarchs by John Julius Norwich and it covers the Papacy from St. Paul through Vatican II. Weber could have done a much better deconstruction of the Papacy but he instead decided to grind his ax against Clinton. I am not looking up the proper spelling. Escape while you can, the next...8(Jesus) books are all the same, just with concentration camps because reasons. Pope Nicholas I and the Pornocracy of the 9th and 10th centuries would have been a far better choice.
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Aug 29, 2019 05:02
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Selachian posted:I've heard Ryk E. Spoor is pretty good though, even if he has a name that looks like it was picked out of a Scrabble bag. I keep meaning to read him sometime. He's fun, dude has a genuine enthusiasm about whatever he chooses to write about. Also, not a Nazi.
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Aug 29, 2019 08:41
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awesmoe posted:Yeah I'm a huge fan of Spinning Silver and Uprooted. The napoleonic dragon series is....okay. It has its charms but lacks the edge of those two. I really liked Uprooted, but found Spinning Silver rather mediocre. I think it just dragged. Not any particular section, but the whole thing felt about 25% longer than it needed to be.
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Aug 29, 2019 10:26
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I probably SHOULD have asked for opinions on David Weber before picking up the first two books in the Safehold series Stop Now, friend
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Aug 29, 2019 10:49
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I think I actually picked up an Honor Harrington book once. The back cover mentioned her talking space cat. I put it back.Ninurta posted:I've been reading Absolute Monarchs by John Julius Norwich and it covers the Papacy from St. Paul through Vatican II. Weber could have done a much better deconstruction of the Papacy but he instead decided to grind his ax against Clinton. I am not looking up the proper spelling. Escape while you can, the next...8(Jesus) books are all the same, just with concentration camps because reasons. Believe me, I'm not in this for church politics (the story I'm working on does have some, but not at much depth nor does it need to). This book and the other one I picked up should probably be more than enough to see how the actual thing I'm interested in is handled. If it gets too obnoxious, I'll put them down. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 12:42 on Aug 29, 2019 |
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Aug 29, 2019 12:39
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:The story MIGHT still possibly turn out to be good. Spoilers it never gets good. I finished the whole series and while it's an interesting premise the actual story is dogshit and there's zero tension unless you count what bullshit tech will not fantasy Britain pull out of their rear end to save the day this time as tension.
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Aug 29, 2019 14:21
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I clicked on that Humble Bundle link, saw “Arkad’s World” there, and got all excited thinking that another book in the Exordium series had somehow been published. But of course, it isn’t.
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Aug 29, 2019 14:46
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I think I actually picked up an Honor Harrington book once. The back cover mentioned her talking space cat. I put it back. What is the actual thing you're interested in?
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Aug 29, 2019 15:04
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ToxicFrog posted:What is the actual thing you're interested in? Highly advanced technology being perceived as works of actual gods. But not with a modern-day setting. The timeline in my (not-Earth) world is at about approximately Earth around the year 1900. (And the view that the creators of that were gods is not universally held and in dispute.) Are there any good books using that trope which might be worth looking at? Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 15:50 on Aug 29, 2019 |
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Aug 29, 2019 15:46
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Highly advanced technology being perceived as works of actual gods. But not with a modern-day setting. The timeline in my (not-Earth) world is at about approximately Earth around the year 1900. (And the view that the creators of that were gods is not universally held and in dispute.) have you read Zelazny's Lord of Light
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Aug 29, 2019 15:53
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my bony fealty posted:have you read Zelazny's Lord of Light Or his Isle of the Dead Both are far-future settings though, not modern or historical, but generally speaking there's no author doing "far future technology as theology" better than Zelazny.
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Aug 29, 2019 15:59
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my bony fealty posted:have you read Zelazny's Lord of Light No, but I can give that a look. Thanks.
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Aug 29, 2019 16:15
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For Church politics you can take a look at Glen Cook's The Tyranny of the Night , which takes place in an analogue of Europe during the Dual Papacy. It also has a take on religion that he's used before: everything anyone believes in is real and gods lose power when they lose worshippers. Then some mortal accidentally kills a major supernatural power and figures out how to repeat the exercise (9-lber brass cannon loaded with a mix of iron-rich gravel and silver coins).
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Aug 29, 2019 16:33
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Highly advanced technology being perceived as works of actual gods. But not with a modern-day setting. The timeline in my (not-Earth) world is at about approximately Earth around the year 1900. (And the view that the creators of that were gods is not universally held and in dispute.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_Universe Sadly the author died before completing the story arc, but the series is an entertaining read nevertheless. Its a future setting but maybe you will like it? IDK you have a very narrow set of preferences
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Aug 29, 2019 19:26
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Highly advanced technology being perceived as works of actual gods. But not with a modern-day setting. The timeline in my (not-Earth) world is at about approximately Earth around the year 1900. (And the view that the creators of that were gods is not universally held and in dispute.) Book of the Long Sun
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Aug 29, 2019 20:08
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Bilirubin posted:Its a future setting but maybe you will like it? IDK you have a very narrow set of preferences It's not that I have a narrow set of preferences. It's that the baseline level of technology affects a society's culture, and the higher the baseline, the less likely a member of the society is going to see advanced technology and think "that could only have been done by the hand of God" or something similar. I'm writing a story where the society is at a level where they're still a bit in-between "that could only be done by god" and "eventually we'll have enough knowledge to understand this". Even our society is largely into "we'll understand that eventually". The level of advanced technology in my story isn't so advanced that a baseline society traveling among the stars would go "WOAH, how'd they do THAT"?
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Aug 29, 2019 21:03
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:It's not that I have a narrow set of preferences. It's that the baseline level of technology affects a society's culture, and the higher the baseline, the less likely a member of the society is going to see advanced technology and think "that could only have been done by the hand of God" or something similar. No I get it, I have my own story that uses the technology as magic hook. But a sufficiently advanced technology will still seem unfathomable to even an advanced technological society. Anyway, read it or not, whatevs
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Aug 30, 2019 02:12
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Okay I finally finished The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and it was... alright. It seemed a lot longer than it needed to be but oh well I guess I already read it. If anyone's read the sequels, does the pacing get any better? It started to pick up by the end but I dunno. Now it's time to read Ash: A Secret History, which finally arrived in the mail from the UK!
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Aug 30, 2019 03:52
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Megafonzie posted:Okay I finally finished The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and it was... alright. It seemed a lot longer than it needed to be but oh well I guess I already read it. If anyone's read the sequels, does the pacing get any better? It started to pick up by the end but I dunno. We have a whole Brandon Sanderson thread with a lot of goons who have read all his stuff. The sequels are basically the same with pacing, although Kaladin's depressive episodes are less front-and-center
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Aug 30, 2019 04:10
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Anyone else enjoy R. F. Kuang's novels? The Dragon Republic came out a few weeks ago, a sequel to last year's The Poppy War. They draw heavily from Chinese history, and I love the mashup of angst, psychedelics, and geopolitics. Audiobooks are stellar too, narrated by the always-great Emily Woo Zeller. Any recommendations for stuff that's similar?
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Aug 30, 2019 22:25
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i alternated listening to the baru cormorant books and the poppy war books, and they were similar. i thought baru is a better written character than rin as well. killer crane fucked around with this message at 04:23 on Aug 31, 2019 |
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Aug 31, 2019 04:20
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sparksbloom posted:Anyone else enjoy R. F. Kuang's novels? The Dragon Republic came out a few weeks ago, a sequel to last year's The Poppy War. They draw heavily from Chinese history, and I love the mashup of angst, psychedelics, and geopolitics. Oooh poo poo amazing, I totally forgot that the sequel was coming out! I really liked the poppy war. You might like Jade City by Fonda Lee. It’s sort of like a magical Godfather in an Asian culture inspired setting, and also has a “drugs give you magic power” thing. Having just now bought the Dragon Republic, I realize you maybe have already read this since Fonda Lee wrote the cover blurb, but it’s probably the closest analogue! (It is also, imo, very good) E: for general geopolitics I would second at least the first Baru Cormorant book. Maybe City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett? Also has the geopolitics + not just Europe vibe. (His newest book Foundryside is better imo but not really related). tildes fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Aug 31, 2019 |
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Aug 31, 2019 21:13
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Seconding Foundryside was really good, and I'm looking forward to the sequel.
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Sep 1, 2019 13:50
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Steel Frame by Andrew Skinner is, so far, the mecha anime military sci-fi novel I've been dreaming of.  I'm 70~ pages in, megacorps are awful and also make giant robots, and this region of space has gravitational tides and I love it a lot
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Sep 2, 2019 02:44
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A Memory Called Empire was a pretty good read but I don't know if I'll remember it a year from now.
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Sep 2, 2019 02:55
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I don't often reread but I felt like picking up A Fire Upon the Deep again and man, it's exactly as good as I remembered.
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Sep 2, 2019 03:07
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tildes posted:E: for general geopolitics I would second at least the first Baru Cormorant book. The Baru Cormorant books as well as the City of Stairs books are both well worthy of recommendations. And reading. Read those.
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Sep 2, 2019 03:43
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Self plugging a story that's out today at Flash Fiction Online. It's my first pro sale since The Third Martian Dick Temple. Together We Will Burn Forever Only 2000 more words to go until I'm eligible for a SFWA membership!
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Sep 2, 2019 03:53
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BananaNutkins posted:Self plugging a story that's out today at Flash Fiction Online. It's my first pro sale since The Third Martian Dick Temple. That was really good. Solitair posted:A Memory Called Empire was a pretty good read but I don't know if I'll remember it a year from now. I'm about half way through and that's pretty much how I'm feeling about it so far. It's decent but I'm not sure it's going to stick with me once I'm done.
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Sep 2, 2019 05:56
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Solitair posted:A Memory Called Empire was a pretty good read but I don't know if I'll remember it a year from now. I can't determine whether or not you're clever enough for that to be a wry joke.
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Sep 2, 2019 06:32
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BananaNutkins posted:Self plugging a story that's out today at Flash Fiction Online. Not bad at all!
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Sep 2, 2019 07:03
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Good stuff !
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Sep 2, 2019 08:18
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A Proper Uppercut posted:So I dropped Luminous Dead I did finish that but found it ultimately somewhat disappointing. Author shows promise though. Went on to plow through The Fated Sky which was very nice. And have now just started on Elizabeth Bear's Dust, which is a pretty wild ride from the get-go. (Bear is an author who should really be up my alley on paper, but I realized I'd never actually read anything by her, so decided it was time to rectify that.)
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Sep 2, 2019 09:44
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Just read Imperator by Gav Thorpe, a Warhammer 40,000 novel set entirely within (ok, occasionally on) a giant stompy robot. There are heretics trying to steal the giant stompy robot for Chaos. The protagonists are a big strong black woman from the lower decks and a non-binary techpriest, so it has some nice one star reviews. It's a fun read with a lot of made-up words and fighting and weird cyborg nerds puffing out incense as they jack in to the noosphere, and has an extended scene where someone is desperately moving around trying to find that one spot where they had a decent wifi connection for a split second but lost it when they moved.
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Sep 2, 2019 10:18
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DACK FAYDEN posted:I don't often reread but I felt like picking up A Fire Upon the Deep again and man, it's exactly as good as I remembered. I've just finished a (virtual) stack of new stuff and decided to cleanse my pallette with a little Lord of Light.
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Sep 2, 2019 10:54
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The last five: Spaceside by Michael mammay Bright steel by miles Cameron Empress of forever by Max Gladstone Cry pilot by Joel Dane Cavaliers and Roundheads by Christopher Hibbert
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Sep 2, 2019 10:59
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branedotorg posted:The last five: Tell me about Cry Pilot
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Sep 2, 2019 13:51
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