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Riot Carol Danvers posted: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. Me either, but I could tell it had to be either a line of poetry or scripture and I did know about Google.
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Oct 23, 2019 17:31
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General Battuta posted:What are the best/most horrifying submarine books. Any kind, from contemporary/thriller to hard SF. The Terrible Hours is non-fiction, about the sinking of the USS Squalus (main induction valve stuck open, when they dove water got into the people tube) and the effort to rescue the survivors. Blind Man's bluff has also been mentioned, and I second that. And for as bad as Clancy wound up becoming, HFRO is pretty damned great.
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Oct 23, 2019 18:14
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Apparatchik Magnet posted:Me either, but I could tell it had to be either a line of poetry or scripture and I did know about Google. Hrm yes clearly an author could never come up with some in-universe scripture or poetry and clearly I should spend my time googling that type of stuff instead of enjoying the story. Not sure why you're being rude about that, but okay. If it's because my post seemed rude or something, it wasn't intended to be rude or snarky in any way.
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Oct 23, 2019 18:34
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Riot Carol Danvers posted:Hrm yes clearly an author could never come up with some in-universe scripture or poetry and clearly I should spend my time googling that type of stuff instead of enjoying the story. Yes, it would definitely be a reasonable assumption that in a book whose most notable quips are all stolen from internet pop culture that a touching bit of poetry recited at a climactic death was an original piece. Thus the wise man bowed his head solemnly and spoke.
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Oct 23, 2019 18:49
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Apparatchik Magnet posted:Yes, it would definitely be a reasonable assumption that in a book whose most notable quips are all stolen from internet pop culture that a touching bit of poetry recited at a climactic death was an original piece. Thus the wise man bowed his head solemnly and spoke. you dont have to be an rear end in a top hat your whole life, take one day off
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Oct 23, 2019 19:47
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Everyone chill out and move on or this thread gets timed-out for a day. I mean it. back off-topic: Recently finished Gray Day (non-fiction) and Logan's Run, the original novel that kicked off the Michael York movie. A good 70% of the book elements got re-used or adapted into the Logan's Run movie, which was cool. Meanwhile, published 18+ years after the events that took place in it, Gray Day was more of a mixed bag. The first few chapters were a series of humble-brags about the author being amazing at covert surveillance/driving/computer security/etc, but once it got into the actual titular assignment the book improved massively. Figure part of the reason Gray Day got published was that the book/author's role as Hanssen's underling (that was secretly monitoring Hanssen) explained away some highly classified pre 9-11-2001 STINGRAY style monitoring of Robert Hanssen. Robert Hanssen such being a massive creeper (physically and socially) that it constantly freaked out the author was a running theme of the book. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Oct 23, 2019 |
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Oct 23, 2019 20:20
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Apparatchik Magnet posted:Yes, it would definitely be a reasonable assumption that in a book whose most notable quips are all stolen from internet pop culture that a touching bit of poetry recited at a climactic death was an original piece. Thus the wise man bowed his head solemnly and spoke. yeah if you don't recognize every single reference in a sci fi book you should just not read an incredible self-own of a post
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Oct 23, 2019 20:28
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Just finished Hyperion. It was good, not great, and certainly not what I expected. For some reason I thought it would be a super abstract, Pynchonesque, dark space mystery. Instead it was a pulpy, pop-culture laden universe, almost akin to Futurama or the Hitchiker's Guide in that respect. Not really a bad thing, but I did have a couple issues. - Would've been nice to uh, tell a complete story instead of making me buy the next book. - I love sci-fi world building, but this was a little too ambitious. From the Shrike and Time Tombs, to the Technocore, and the Ousters, too many tantalizing ideas were introduced only to not be explored in any great depth. - In that same vein, I ended up enjoying the smaller scale stories, like the Priest's and the Scholar's. Kassad's adventures in conquering Planet Jihad and Lamia's cyberpunk story verged on the ridiculous at times I am intrigued in how things turn out, if the Time Tombs really are an artifact from the future to aid in a AI/human war and how the Ousters will factor in. But I also remember a thread on here where I think someone said the sequels are total crap, and I could believe it - this feels like a story where mysteries begin but are never really resolved. Are they worth reading anyway?
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Oct 23, 2019 20:34
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:Just finished Hyperion. It was good, not great, and certainly not what I expected. For some reason I thought it would be a super abstract, Pynchonesque, dark space mystery. Instead it was a pulpy, pop-culture laden universe, almost akin to Futurama or the Hitchiker's Guide in that respect. Not really a bad thing, but I did have a couple issues. I think Hyperion is a two part book and isn't counted as a sequels in the "the sequels are crap" statement. I enjoyed the sequel (another two part book) but it was pretty different.
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Oct 23, 2019 20:39
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Fall of Hyperion is decent and offers some closure to the story while also being frustrating and bad in many ways. the Endymion books are...I wish I had not read them. there are some good bits but the story and main character is awful. Raul Endymion is the worst protagonist in science fiction.
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Oct 23, 2019 20:42
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I read Gideon and I liked it quite a lot. I thought it could have used about 5% fewer quips from Harrow but that's the only thing I'd really change. Agatha Christie with skeletons. I'm now reading the Something Baru Cormorant and I'm liking it too (although I picked it next instead of the new Alex Versus because I wasn't in the headspace for that kind of grim realpolitic and....yeah. oops.)
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Oct 23, 2019 20:49
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I thought Fall of Hyperion took everything that was great about Hyperion and made it look bad in retrospect, it just felt like a return to generic sci-fi which wasn't what I enjoyed about the first book. I kinda wish I hadn't read it tbh lol.
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Oct 23, 2019 21:22
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awesmoe posted:(although I picked it next instead of the new Alex Versus because I wasn't in the headspace for that kind of grim realpolitic and....yeah. oops.) Oh, is Alex Verus Baru-like realpolitik? I'd thought it was kind of Dresden-y, but if it's more like Baru I'd be interested.
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Oct 23, 2019 21:32
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cptn_dr posted:Oh, is Alex Verus Baru-like realpolitik? I'd thought it was kind of Dresden-y, but if it's more like Baru I'd be interested. It's Dresden if the White Council periodically alternated between hiring him under the table for secret jobs, trying to assassinate him deniably, issuing official death warrants, and formally appointing him to temporary Council offices, while Dresden was also regularly killing warlocks (and the occasional corrupt Warden) in job lots because they won't leave him alone. And instead of being one of the strongest wizards of his generation, he's one of the weakest but with this One Weird Trick. I still wouldn't consider it grim realpolitik in tone, though. Apparatchik Magnet fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Oct 23, 2019 |
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Oct 23, 2019 21:36
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Apparatchik Magnet posted:It's Dresden if the White Council periodically alternated between hiring him under the table for secret jobs, trying to assassinate him deniably, issuing official death warrants, and formally appointing him to temporary Council offices, while Dresden was also regularly killing warlocks (and the occasional corrupt Warden) in job lots because they won't leave him alone. And instead of being one of the strongest wizards of his generation, he's one of the weakest but with this One Weird Trick. I still wouldn't consider it grim realpolitik in tone, though. yeah realpolitic wasnt the word, this is a good summary. Sometimes he wins battles but it feels like he tends to lose wars - I just don't find it super uplifting or cheery (I do like it a lot tho!!!)
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Oct 23, 2019 21:48
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Oh, that does sound pretty neat. I'll give that a shot (well, add it to the ridiculous TBR list, anyway).
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Oct 23, 2019 23:20
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quantumfoam posted:Everyone chill out and move on or this thread gets timed-out for a day. I know I haven't been around as much lately -- I've gone from working about 35 hours a week to working about 90 -- but please do not lock threads, it'll create a giant headache when everyone freaks out. Just use the report button. Also, this should not need repeating, but to everyone in this thread and every other thread in this subforum: before each post, please consider: "is this post about a book, or about something that is not a book, such as another poster on the forum?" Only one of those categories is on topic! Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Oct 23, 2019 |
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Oct 23, 2019 23:33
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Minority opinion: I loved Fall of Hyperion possibly more than Hyperion. Maybe because I don't read much mil scifi, but I thought there were some truly memorable world-shattering sci-fi setpieces. Endymion is... fine? Good, even? I really liked the whole idea of rafting down this river that runs across multiple post-apocalyptic worlds. Then the only thing I remember about Rise of Endymion is the massive, bloated, boring, hundreds-of-pages-long middle section that takes place on the Not-Tibet planet. I don't think it's a coincidence that it was written in 1997, the same year as Seven Years in Tibet and Kundun came out, and when there seemed to be some kind of fever pitch Western obsession with Tibet. Oh and the other thing I remember is that Simmons seemed to think he'd written a happy ending: We get to spend two years together before you get hauled off to death by torture, but hey, two years is a nice long time!
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Oct 24, 2019 00:14
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Theres plenty of good bits in the Hyperion books but overall I wasnt terribly happy with them once I finished them
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Oct 24, 2019 01:05
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If you read Hyperion, there's a hint as to how Simmons might have preferred to write it, vs. what the publisher forced him into, in Martin Silenus` story. What I liked about the first one was how each person's story was a different genre. From Paul Duré's Lovecraftian horror to Brawne Lamia's cyberpunk noir. Fall of Hyperion didn't really have the same tone, and felt a bit overextended.
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Oct 24, 2019 03:36
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Been reading Luna, I'm a third ish of the way through Wolf Moon. Gotta say there's not enough Moon Facts?? Wanted more of that poo poo. Also what's the deal with the reverse werewolves.
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Oct 24, 2019 06:25
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They turn into a moon when they see a wolf?
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Oct 24, 2019 07:08
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The Moon turns into a wolf when it sees them, that's why it's called Wolf Moon.
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Oct 24, 2019 07:54
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Moon comes out and you just turn inside out and get to lay there as a pile of meat for the evening.
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Oct 24, 2019 12:44
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Reverse werewolf is a swearwolf, obvs
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Oct 24, 2019 13:13
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Reverse werewolf is a swearwolf, obvs That's a supersymmetric werewolf counterpart, but that theory is bunk. So we're safe from sdraculas and szombies, thankfully.
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Oct 24, 2019 13:57
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Reverse werewolf is a swearwolf, obvs No, the reverse is a Therewolf.
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Oct 24, 2019 14:01
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Reverse werewolf is a swearwolf, obvs In D&D, there's a creature called a wolfwere, a wolf that can turn into a human.
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Oct 24, 2019 14:06
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Cryptozoology posted:Been reading Luna, I'm a third ish of the way through Wolf Moon. Gotta say there's not enough Moon Facts?? Wanted more of that poo poo. For real though: they do explain it in the books but basically it's bipolar disorder that through medication and culture is synchronized with the phases of the earth.
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Oct 24, 2019 14:09
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When does the Black Company become bad? I'm finishing up book 2 and will get book 3, but is that a good place to stop?
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Oct 24, 2019 15:05
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Mr Hootington posted:When does the Black Company become bad? I'm finishing up book 2 and will get book 3, but is that a good place to stop? Just keep reading until you stop liking it. Or keep reading and finish it if you like the characters. The first three books are pretty self contained
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Oct 24, 2019 15:32
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Mr Hootington posted:When does the Black Company become bad? I'm finishing up book 2 and will get book 3, but is that a good place to stop? When I initially read Shadow Games all those horrid eons ago I was very, very much not a fan and didn't revisit them, despite loving 1-3, for a long time. I reread them recently and happily went through the whole shebang. Now fully granted, it does get worse as it goes on, for a variety of reasons, but the "read until you don't want to" methodology applies real well here.
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Oct 24, 2019 15:51
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Absurd Alhazred posted:If you read Hyperion, there's a hint as to how Simmons might have preferred to write it, vs. what the publisher forced him into, in Martin Silenus` story.
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Oct 24, 2019 15:59
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Absurd Alhazred posted:That's a supersymmetric werewolf counterpart, but that theory is bunk. So we're safe from sdraculas and szombies, thankfully. One might think the existence of pzombies might imply the existence of pwerewolves and pdraculas, but a pdracula is just a regular dracula and some care with housetraining can take care of pwerewolves easily.
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Oct 24, 2019 16:43
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Philistines https://youtu.be/rF9Z6Hvmf5M
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Oct 24, 2019 17:16
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Selachian posted:In D&D, there's a creature called a wolfwere, a wolf that can turn into a human. One pops up in The Belgariad. At least Garion asks his grandad WTF when Belgarath offhandedly mentions that his wife was a wolf who learned to shapeshift into a human after watching Belgarath shapeshift into a wolf (and they met when Belgarath was a wolf).
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Oct 24, 2019 17:20
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Proteus Jones with the obviously superior reference. 
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Oct 24, 2019 17:21
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SSJ_naruto_2003 posted:Just keep reading until you stop liking it. Or keep reading and finish it if you like the characters. Orv posted:When I initially read Shadow Games all those horrid eons ago I was very, very much not a fan and didn't revisit them, despite loving 1-3, for a long time. I reread them recently and happily went through the whole shebang. Thanks. I've been thinking about stopping at 3. I might try 4 and 5 to see if they catch my attention.
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Oct 24, 2019 18:20
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anilEhilated posted:Yeah, I'm not sure about that. It's a pretty stereotypical story of Artist Held Back By Tasteless Plebeian Market; granted I have no idea what Simmons was going through back then but he's showed himself to be enough of an rear end in a top hat for this analogy to be at least suspicious. Simmons already had tendencies toward this, but 9/11 drove him insane for at least a few years. He wrote muslim suicide bombers that imploded the whole planet, and then jew-murdering muslim robots into one of his novels not long after 9/11, and then later, he wrote Flashback, which is pretty much just rightwing anti-liberal strawman, the novel: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/151112848
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Oct 24, 2019 22:22
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I know I haven't been around as much lately -- I've gone from working about 35 hours a week to working about 90 -- but please do not lock threads, it'll create a giant headache when everyone freaks out. Just use the report button. what if it is about the posting of General Battuta, world-renowned leading author of accountancy fiction
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Oct 24, 2019 22:32
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