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My Gideon “issue.” They made it clear that the Lyctor process trapped the cavalier’s soul in the necromancer. Naberius fought Ianthe as she tried to use his skill to fight Gideon. When Harrow “eats” Gideon, Gideon’s there for a while but fades? Didn’t really see a clear reason why. Hope it’s addressed in the next.
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# ? Jun 11, 2024 15:55 |
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CaptainCrunch posted:My Gideon “issue.” I think it was willing vs forced. One fights you, one integrates pretty smoothly.
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Gideon: Ianthe ate Naberius against his will, so whatever was left of him was struggling against her. On the other hand, Gideon willingly sacrificed herself for Harrow, and her shadow/soul/whatever was actively helping Harrow.
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It seems likely we're going to get a lot more info on that dynamic in the next book.
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Read through Children of time after seeing it mentioned here. A+ would recommend to others.
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CaptainCrunch posted:My Gideon “issue.” Huge spoilers don’t read this My understanding was that they integrated. Gideon is there briefly, making quips, but they become one soul. Gideon is dead after all
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I started reading A Deepness in the Sky because of recommendations here. I spent a whole month reading it whenever I was trapped somewhere without internet and bouncing off every time. Then like 20% in something just clicked and I binged the rest of the book and also A Fire in the Deep. Some good books just have bad beginnings I guess.
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A Proper Uppercut posted:How do people keep track of the books they want to read? I download samples of the books on Kindle, and put them on my Amazon wishlist if they don't have Kindle versions.
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Anyone have recs for books similar to Gideon in the vein of 'Snarky but not intolerable protagonist on an adventure with a buddy s/he has a complex relationship with?' in sci-fi or fantasy genre? There's lots of snarky intolerable protagonists out there, I know, but so often there's a bunch of sexist jokes, constant male gaze, etc and stuff, so this was a nice change.
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coolusername posted:Anyone have recs for books similar to Gideon in the vein of 'Snarky but not intolerable protagonist on an adventure with a buddy s/he has a complex relationship with?' in sci-fi or fantasy genre? I'd recommend Wilhelmina Baird's Crash Course, Clipjoint and Psykosis which are a cyberpunk trilogy with some mild space opera characteristics. Very queer and very poly-friendly, ahead of its time in a way. Chris Moriarty's Spin State and sequels I also enjoyed, though it's dark and heavy. Oh, and of course the adventures of Miles Vorkosigan and his handsome but bumbling cousin Ivan in Lois McMaster Bujold's wonderful Barrayar novels. Cetaganda, et cetera.
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Finished Children of Time - the sleeper starship story is a bit colour-by-numbers towards the end but I still really enjoyed it overall. Was particularly impressed with how he strings out the narrative tension/readability/whatever you want to call it, constantly switching by chapter between the two storylines and leaving cliffhangers throughout. 600 pages and I burned through it in a few days. I would really, strongly recommend it as a great book to read on a long flight.coolusername posted:Anyone have recs for books similar to Gideon in the vein of 'Snarky but not intolerable protagonist on an adventure with a buddy s/he has a complex relationship with?' in sci-fi or fantasy genre? Haven't read Gideon but I think City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett would fit the bill.
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mewse posted:Huge spoilers don’t read this Ah. I suppose it just didn't come across as "integration" so much as "dissipating/fading." As in, she gone, she gets no afterlife even when Harrow dies eventually. I hope it's at least addressed slightly in the next one. (Also I hate when they kill my favorite character in whatever story I'm consuming. :grump:)
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mewse posted:Huge spoilers don’t read this Yeah, but then her body going missing (along with the Cam's and Corona's (and others?)) was a pretty big hint as to who we might be seeing again in the sequels. And (sequel spoiler) the bit about the "Resurrection Beast" in the prologue for Harrow the Ninth that's online somewhere would seem to be an even bigger one.
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CaptainCrunch posted:Ah. I suppose it just didn't come across as "integration" so much as "dissipating/fading." As in, she gone, she gets no afterlife even when Harrow dies eventually. I hope it's at least addressed slightly in the next one. (Also I hate when they kill my favorite character in whatever story I'm consuming. :grump:) She's still there, like the novel makes a big point that the necro instantly learns swordplay in the manner of their cavalier, it's just that they aren't separate people anymore. I suspect Harrow is going to have Gideon-esque moments in the next book
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coolusername posted:Anyone have recs for books similar to Gideon in the vein of 'Snarky but not intolerable protagonist on an adventure with a buddy s/he has a complex relationship with?' in sci-fi or fantasy genre? Plus it's really fun to read.
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coolusername posted:Anyone have recs for books similar to Gideon in the vein of 'Snarky but not intolerable protagonist on an adventure with a buddy s/he has a complex relationship with?' in sci-fi or fantasy genre? Vlad Taltos and Loiosh?
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What are the best/most horrifying submarine books. Any kind, from contemporary/thriller to hard SF.
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General Battuta posted:What are the best/most horrifying submarine books. Any kind, from contemporary/thriller to hard SF. For nonfiction, Shadow Divers is terrifying (about the investigation of a sunken Nazi submarine by a team of divers) and Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story Of American Submarine Espionage is entertaining as hell. No submarine fiction comes to mind offhand, though.
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General Battuta posted:What are the best/most horrifying submarine books. Any kind, from contemporary/thriller to hard SF. Peter Watts' Rifters series was....certainly something. And underwater.
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Maybe Nathan Lowell's Solar Clipper stuff qualifies? It's essentially merchant marine submarines in space. In theory they sail around under solar sails but in practice they worry an awful lot about oxygen scrubbing and claustrophobic passages and the relief of shore leave and other such things.
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ToxicFrog posted:Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story Of American Submarine Espionage is entertaining as hell. Seconding this, it's so good. For fiction, I feel dumb even saying it, but The Hunt for Red October is pretty good, it's Clancy before he became too Clancy, if that makes sense.
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General Battuta posted:What are the best/most horrifying submarine books. Any kind, from contemporary/thriller to hard SF. Glen Cook's Passage At Arms is very Das Boot in space.
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Brian Keene has an underwater base that poo poo GOES BAD in Pressure. Deep Storm by Lincoln Child is an underwater base where weird poo poo happens and it's pretty good.
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Brian Keene has an underwater base that poo poo GOES BAD in Pressure. This is not a very good book, and I say that as someone that is generally a fan of Keene's work. Unrelated, but has anyone read The Black Hawks by David Wragg? It looks interesting but I haven't pulled the trigger yet.
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General Battuta posted:What are the best/most horrifying submarine books. Any kind, from contemporary/thriller to hard SF. A Darkling Sea by James Cambias isn't too bad. Book setting is the briny depths of a Europa style moon, with human scientist explorers and sentient lobster-squid lifeforms and an alien invasion-pirate raid. The book stood out for me because Cambias spent the first few chapters highlighting how unsuited the human body is, even with high-tech, for life at deep sea pressures. That plot point got dropped by the midpoint of the novel though in favor of more and more action scenes. Also surprised no-one has mentioned Frank Herbert's Under Pressure/The Dragon in the Sea yet. Hyper-cold war, beyond PEAK OIL, and psychological pressure are the running themes of Under Pressure/The Dragon in the Sea. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Oct 23, 2019 |
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quantumfoam posted:A Darkling Sea by James Cambias isn't too bad.
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ZekeNY posted:Glen Cook's Passage At Arms is very Das Boot in space. gently caress, how did I forget Passage at Arms?
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CaptainCrunch posted:Ah. I suppose it just didn't come across as "integration" so much as "dissipating/fading." As in, she gone, she gets no afterlife even when Harrow dies eventually. I hope it's at least addressed slightly in the next one. (Also I hate when they kill my favorite character in whatever story I'm consuming. :grump:) I thought the book made it clear through dialogue that they'll see each other in the end, and I don't just mean the "see you on the flip side, sugarlips" bit. “Someday you’ll die and get buried in the ground, and we can work this out then." Then again, I could be reading something into it that isn't really there, and she's just pressing Harrow to stop talking and fight. Also godamn that whole chapter makes my eyes wet.
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General Battuta posted:What are the best/most horrifying submarine books. Any kind, from contemporary/thriller to hard SF. Run Silent, Run Deep is one of the classics of the genre. Maybe not the best (haven’t read it in decades) but probably worth a read.
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The guy who wrote the Johannes Cabal books also wrote a YA submarine thriller on a Russian-speaking colony planet, for maximum Red October. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13533670-katya-s-world It was fun but not exceptional - he's improved his craft since then substantially, I do really like his work - and apparently he's finally writing the third book right now.
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Kesper North posted:I'd recommend Wilhelmina Baird's Crash Course, Clipjoint and Psykosis which are a cyberpunk trilogy with some mild space opera characteristics. Very queer and very poly-friendly, ahead of its time in a way. Unrelated, but thank you for the reminder of Wilhelmina Baird. I had been trying to look up her books for a re-read starting with Crash Course's reality TV analog used to lure the poor and desperate into horrible situations. I was curious to see how the first book and sequels hold up 20 years later. I had read the 4th volume Chaos Come Again about 8 or so years ago and it was very, very different in scope with it's Transhumanism.
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Ninurta posted:Unrelated, but thank you for the reminder of Wilhelmina Baird. I had been trying to look up her books for a re-read starting with Crash Course's reality TV analog used to lure the poor and desperate into horrible situations. I was curious to see how the first book and sequels hold up 20 years later. I had read the 4th volume Chaos Come Again about 8 or so years ago and it was very, very different in scope with it's Transhumanism. I loved it too, I should have included it on the list. I feel like we missed a lifetime of great SF from her. It looks like she published a couple of SF stories back in the 60s (as Joyce Carstairs Hutchinson) then noped the gently caress out for thirty years, which... can you blame her?
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Slo-Tek posted:Peter Watts' Rifters series was....certainly something. And underwater.
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Grim enough it killed his writing career until he gave Blindsight away for free.
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anilEhilated posted:The Bartimaeus books by Jonathan Stroud. Technically YA and the protagonist is really snarky to the point of annoying some readers, but the central relationship is of a djinn and its master which makes for a fairly interesting dynamic. Oh, yeah! I've read this series way back and it's exactly the sort of book set I'm looking for, if you can think of any others like this. Thanks for the other recs too, everyone, it's all on the list!
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(Gideon)Riot Carol Danvers posted:I thought the book made it clear through dialogue that they'll see each other in the end, and I don't just mean the "see you on the flip side, sugarlips" bit. Why does she know Ruth 1:17 if this isn’t a future Earth, he wondered.
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Kalman posted:Run Silent, Run Deep is one of the classics of the genre. Maybe not the best (haven’t read it in decades) but probably worth a read. This is what I was going to suggest.
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Apparatchik Magnet posted:(Gideon) As I've never read a single page of the NIV Bible, I didn't know that was anything other than made up whole cloth.
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Apparatchik Magnet posted:(Gideon)
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# ? Jun 11, 2024 15:55 |
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Qwertycoatl posted:Why does she know Poochie died on the way back to his home planet if this isn't a future earth? Some things span all cultures and are timelessly inherent to the human experience.
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