|
Clark Nova posted:the feeling of being trapped in a situation you barely understand and can’t control is much of the point of the series
|
#
?
Sep 19, 2019 11:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 6, 2024 04:27 |
|
|
fritz posted:That's basically the point of all Cherryh's books. Exhausted, confused, up to your neck in poo poo creek... yes.
|
|
#
?
Sep 19, 2019 11:48
|
|
|
Clark Nova posted:Heh, maybe “cozy” isn’t the word for it, since the feeling of being trapped in a situation you barely understand and can’t control is much of the point of the series but after reading several it doesn’t feel like Bren or his bodyguards are ever in any real danger of dying anymore, and that first book is far and away the most gruesome I would say it becomes cozy but it definitely doesn't start out cozy. From the vantage point of like book 9 it's hard to remember how terrifying being invited to dinner with Ilisidi is in book 1.
|
|
#
?
Sep 19, 2019 12:07
|
|
|
I'm really enjoying the on the ground story of industrialization and labor politics Abercrombie is giving me.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 02:01
|
|
|
Nevvy Z posted:I'm really enjoying the on the ground story of industrialization and labor politics Abercrombie is giving me. That part was good, besides that the new Abercrombie was kinda predictable. Still a very good read.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 06:51
|
|
|
Finished up Gideon tonight, and honestly, surprisingly good book. I went into it just sort of expecting it to be twee trash like RPO, but nope. It was actually pretty good. Couldn't help but think how if this takes place in THE FAR FLUNG NECROMANTIC FUTURE (or just, some weird galaxy with space faring necromancers), boy cell phones would have solved like 98% of the problems in the book. Got a lil teary eyed at the ending, not gonna lie. It's not my usual go to reading material, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna pick up the sequel. For anyone wondering how lesbiriffic it is, the main character is gay, and she appreciates how other women look, but that's basically as gay as it gets. I know some people get squicky about sex in books or sex in books that's just written horribly, so no danger in this one. Now, if I don't have to read the word "skeletons" for the next month or two, it'll be too goddamn soon.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 10:30
|
|
|
Clark Nova posted:Heh, maybe “cozy” isn’t the word for it, since the feeling of being trapped in a situation you barely understand and can’t control is much of the point of the series but after reading several it doesn’t feel like Bren or his bodyguards are ever in any real danger of dying anymore, and that first book is far and away the most gruesome As someone who has spent his life working overseas immersed in foreign cultures, I love love love these books. They perfectly capture that feeling of “oh holy poo poo no” when you realise that someone with no local knowledge or sensitivity whatsoever has just blundered in and created a massive problem out of nothing, and hasn’t realised it yet and doesn’t trust you because you’re too close to the local way of thinking.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 12:40
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:
I also felt this thought as I was reading through it, but the scene with the guns largely explained this for me--very clearly the Necrolord Emperor Peace Be Upon Him or whatever had limited certain technologies when he created the weird hierarchical semi-feudal houses thing that was going on in the solar system. I doubt the book will explain why specifically, because otherwise the plot wouldn't work and that would be no fun.. But in any case I am also looking forward to the sequel. I hear about a lot of books that sound kind of cool and maybe I want to read them but I almost always wait a while due to money/time/etc and I am glad I did not this time, despite now having to wait a million years for Harrow.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 14:44
|
|
|
occamsnailfile posted:I also felt this thought as I was reading through it, but the scene with the guns largely explained this for me--very clearly the Necrolord Emperor Peace Be Upon Him or whatever had limited certain technologies when he created the weird hierarchical semi-feudal houses thing that was going on in the solar system. I doubt the book will explain why specifically, because otherwise the plot wouldn't work and that would be no fun.. But in any case I am also looking forward to the sequel. I hear about a lot of books that sound kind of cool and maybe I want to read them but I almost always wait a while due to money/time/etc and I am glad I did not this time, despite now having to wait a million years for Harrow. I got the impression that the Ninth and First Houses were especially reduced-tech / mothballed-tech due to being a low population backwater that was not really intended to exist beyond an initial mission of sealing a tomb and shuttered for thousands of years while the Necrolord is out there Necrolording with the fleet, respectively. I'm curious to maybe see a bit more of the other houses, at least some of whom are perhaps more tech'd up (and somebody has to be out there publishing Gideon's porn and comics) as well as what's up with the ongoing war (expansionism? implacable alien menace? something else entirely?) the Necrolord's been busy with.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 17:01
|
|
|
Going to join in in the "just finished Gideon" crowd and echo that it is very good, but with one complaint - the central mystery being built on the premise of magic theorems the readers gets told gently caress all and cannot figure out on their own. That feels cheap and lowers the impact of the twists and revelations. Also cringed at the died on the way to home planet reference but hey, it was just the once. Can't wait for the next one. Also, as a (the?) resident don't-want-to-read-about-sex guy, I can officially confirm it's perfectly fine in that regard.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 17:04
|
|
|
I'm currently going through the Cthulhu Casebooks of Sherlock Holmes series by James Lovegrove but once I finish the third book, I'm definitely going to read Gideon the Ninth based on what everyone here has posted.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 18:00
|
|
|
Finished Police Patrol 2000 A.D., it ended up better than I expected. Hit 2 of three of the Mack Reynoldsisms I predicted beforehand. It was an odd mix of Universal Basic Income examples, Deathwish, credit card fraud, Catch Me if you Can, and credit card fraud remediation. e: Also the main characters name in Police Patrol 2000 A.D. made for a great food=based pun that never arrived in-book. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Sep 21, 2019 |
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 18:39
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:It's not my usual go to reading material, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna pick up the sequel. For anyone wondering how lesbiriffic it is, the main character is gay, and she appreciates how other women look, but that's basically as gay as it gets. I know some people get squicky about sex in books or sex in books that's just written horribly, so no danger in this one. Far as I can tell, one feature of the necromantic space future is that it doesn't seem as if being gay is such a big thing. At least, at one point early in the book Gideon is chided a bit by an authority figure for having porn magazines, but it doesn't seem as if her preference in porn matters much.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 21:05
|
|
|
Yea, no one gives a gently caress about it, honestly. You don't come across those kinds books too often.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 21:19
|
|
|
Ninefox, Ancillary, the Expanse, the Culture, Memory Called Empire — it's pretty common.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 21:30
|
|
|
I mostly read urban fantasy or just regular fantasy. Still kinda rare there.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 21:41
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:Ninefox, Ancillary, the Expanse, the Culture, Memory Called Empire — it's pretty common. also (subtly, kinda), Cherryh's Cyteen. If I remember right. But to be clear, while it's becoming common in these genres, it's still not there. Finding a good UF/PNR with gay romance means you're digging through the trash bin in kindle unlimited.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 21:47
|
|
|
It's just, most of the other stuff I've read with that kind of enlightened don't-give-a-gently caress attitude about sexuality have had settings which felt, I dunno, a bit more open-minded and free in general. Not some sort of repressive militaristic necro feudal horrorshow. (Not that we've seen much of what normal life for normal people is like, so far. Assuming there are normal people somewhere. I mean, Gideon grew up in what's basically a monastery at the rear end end of civilization. But at least someone somewhere is making porn magazines and trashy comic books, and some of these somehow end up in Gideon's hands at the rear end end of civilization.)
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 21:56
|
|
|
Agreed, it's a bit weird to say "Boy that monastery and those nuns didn't give a gently caress about that gay chick" and actually mean it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 22:18
|
|
|
The more I think about it (and think about rereading it which I absolutely never do without intervening years) the one word review for Gideon is "Refreshing."
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 23:35
|
|
|
Groke posted:It's just, most of the other stuff I've read with that kind of enlightened don't-give-a-gently caress attitude about sexuality have had settings which felt, I dunno, a bit more open-minded and free in general. Not some sort of repressive militaristic necro feudal horrorshow. Read Ninefox! Also Ancillary I guess.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2019 23:40
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Now, if I don't have to read the word "skeletons" for the next month or two, it'll be too goddamn soon. In the Acknowledgements at the end of the book, Tamsyn Muir writes: quote:... Finally but most importantly, I acknowledge the ongoing contributions of Matt Hosty, who mopped blood, brewed tea, and corrected drafts with the patience of Griselda. Two more books and then I'll never mention bones again, I swear to God.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2019 01:59
|
|
|
I finished Gideon and liked it a lot, but it was kinda weird that in a pretty cute and character-driven book, she killed the loving poo poo out of almost all of the cute characters while promising a sequel
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2019 06:05
|
|
|
Wrote a longer review of Eifelheim (the first contact book set in medieval Germany) and posted to my blog - https://grubstreethack.wordpress.com/2019/09/22/book-review-eifelheim/. It's the best sci-fi book I've read all year, I'm pretty sure. Thoroughly recommended.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2019 14:26
|
|
|
I finally got around to reading thread-recommended The Luminous Dead. It's about a lesbian space spelunker and her 'handler' and her journey up and down and up and down and up and down inside a dangerous space cave. That was my only problem, really, is that it was too long, and about 2/3's of the way through I was hoping it would start wrapping things up. But it kept up the suspense and fear of being alone and possibly trapped, and I like the 'did I just hear footsteps I heard footsteps oh god is someone else here' tension a lot.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2019 19:19
|
|
|
graventy posted:I finally got around to reading thread-recommended The Luminous Dead. It's about a lesbian space spelunker and her 'handler' and her journey up and down and up and down and up and down inside a dangerous space cave. That was my only problem, really, is that it was too long, and about 2/3's of the way through I was hoping it would start wrapping things up. But it kept up the suspense and fear of being alone and possibly trapped, and I like the 'did I just hear footsteps I heard footsteps oh god is someone else here' tension a lot. How did that end, anyway? I think I dropped it at at 2/3rds point because all the atmospherics couldn’t make up for the fact that nothing was happening.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2019 20:32
|
|
|
graventy posted:I finally got around to reading thread-recommended The Luminous Dead. It's about a lesbian space spelunker and her 'handler' and her journey up and down and up and down and up and down inside a dangerous space cave. That was my only problem, really, is that it was too long, and about 2/3's of the way through I was hoping it would start wrapping things up. But it kept up the suspense and fear of being alone and possibly trapped, and I like the 'did I just hear footsteps I heard footsteps oh god is someone else here' tension a lot.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2019 20:36
|
|
|
navyjack posted:How did that end, anyway? I think I dropped it at at 2/3rds point because all the atmospherics couldn’t make up for the fact that nothing was happening. If I'm remembering right more weird poo poo and ghosts and stuff continue to happen, they discover the last spleunker is still alive and mad is who stole her supplies that went missing, there's an alien attack, the main character makes it out minus an arm but plus some psychological trauma after the handler comes down and it's never clear if the spooky stuff was ghosts, aliens, psychological trauma, hallucinogenics form those mushrooms or something else. I really liked it and didn't at any point feel that nothing was happening.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2019 23:59
|
|
|
freebooter posted:Wrote a longer review of Eifelheim (the first contact book set in medieval Germany) and posted to my blog - https://grubstreethack.wordpress.com/2019/09/22/book-review-eifelheim/. It's the best sci-fi book I've read all year, I'm pretty sure. Thoroughly recommended. after your last post i looked for him in the kindle store, no luck but did find a nice short about Algonquin warriors turning up in medieval Ireland that was a great little idea.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2019 01:31
|
|
|
Yeah I think it's out of print, I got mine from Abebooks. Why any author/publisher in any genre would not have put their entire backlist out as ebooks by now is baffling to me. It's just money you're leaving sitting on the table.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2019 02:20
|
|
|
freebooter posted:Yeah I think it's out of print, I got mine from Abebooks. I'm wondering why R.A. Lafferty's books in particular are mostly unavailable as ebooks.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2019 02:32
|
|
|
branedotorg posted:after your last post i looked for him in the kindle store, no luck but did find a nice short about Algonquin warriors turning up in medieval Ireland that was a great little idea. I found it here: https://www.amazon.com/Eifelheim-Michael-Flynn-ebook/dp/B000V770AK/ and have the free sample I grabbed after reading freebooter's review sitting on my kindle now.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2019 02:34
|
|
|
branedotorg posted:after your last post i looked for him in the kindle store, no luck but did find a nice short about Algonquin warriors turning up in medieval Ireland that was a great little idea. freebooter posted:Yeah I think it's out of print, I got mine from Abebooks. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000V770AK/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 Edit: It doesn't appear to be available on Kindle in the UK, but physical copies are pretty cheap. Solitair posted:I'm wondering why R.A. Lafferty's books in particular are mostly unavailable as ebooks. Literary estates can be incredibly difficult to deal with.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2019 02:35
|
|
|
Quinton posted:I found it here: https://www.amazon.com/Eifelheim-Michael-Flynn-ebook/dp/B000V770AK/ thanks but should have been clear, i'm in australia and kindle book availability is quirky. I can see it but not buy it due to publisher's licencing.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2019 05:58
|
|
|
Solitair posted:I'm wondering why R.A. Lafferty's books in particular are mostly unavailable as ebooks. Gaiman organized a Best Of collection earlier this year: https://www.sfgateway.com/titles/r-a-lafferty/the-best-of-r-a-lafferty/9781473213456/
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2019 11:40
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:Literary estates can be incredibly difficult to deal with. But all they're accomplishing is less money for themselves and less of the work in question being read by as many people as possible, which presumably the author would have wanted. Unless there are still Luddite holdouts who don't understand economics and think offering an ebook version for $2.99 will cost them sales, which... actually, of course plenty of those people still exist, never mind.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2019 12:08
|
|
|
freebooter posted:But all they're accomplishing is less money for themselves and less of the work in question being read by as many people as possible, which presumably the author would have wanted. Unless there are still Luddite holdouts who don't understand economics and think offering an ebook version for $2.99 will cost them sales, which... actually, of course plenty of those people still exist, never mind. Also a certain amount of rights battles between heirs going on. For a lot of older authors ebook rights were never in their contracts because ebooks didn't exist yet, so everything has to be renegotiated. If there is bad blood between heirs . . .
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2019 12:39
|
|
|
Plus some authors are embarrassed by their earliest work/earliest literary influences and don't want to see that poo poo republished again while they are alive, especially in ebook form. M John Harrison falls in that category. Some of his early work is good, some is godawful. It would be cool if more coldwar russian sphere scifi authors (living and dead) got republished in ebook editions.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2019 13:36
|
|
|
freebooter posted:But all they're accomplishing is less money for themselves and less of the work in question being read by as many people as possible, which presumably the author would have wanted. Unless there are still Luddite holdouts who don't understand economics and think offering an ebook version for $2.99 will cost them sales, which... actually, of course plenty of those people still exist, never mind. Do you understand the tax implications of putting a bunch of books you control back in print? Neither do literary heirs most of the time. A huge reason many provide is they're not sure how to and they're (understandably) concerned about potential costs. Then there's all the stuff HA mentioned.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2019 13:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 6, 2024 04:27 |
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:Do you understand the tax implications of putting a bunch of books you control back in print? Neither do literary heirs most of the time. A huge reason many provide is they're not sure how to and they're (understandably) concerned about potential costs. What kind of "tax implications" are you talking about? There are no tax implications unless there's some revenue, and guess what, the revenue will be more than the taxes.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2019 15:49
|
|
