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If you've got Amazon Unlimited, you can read the long-gestating 11th issue of Shock Totem magazine for "free" starting today. My story/poem "Plague Rooster" is buried in there with a story by some other nobodies like that guy who wrote Bird Box and an interview with a dude named Henry Rollins. I usually post in this thread about my SF/F sales, but this one is special because it counts as my first pro-rate horror sale AND my first poetry to sale. Very sorry there are no dicks or rocketships in this one, but there are dead birds everywhere and I hear some people are into that. Shock Totem 11
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Dec 26, 2019 23:41
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Captain Monkey posted:I just read the first book today after the recommendation and that is not at all what I got from that scene. Having it work but be horrific is, while inaccurate, a far cry from ‘good’. Nah, it's presented as a dirty business that sometimes you just have to do, and if a badass does it instead of you, you're not responsible. It's basically brushed over because it resolves a particularly knotty plot problem. Maybe I should have said, "torture is necessary" instead of "good" but that's splitting hairs.
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Dec 27, 2019 00:59
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fez_machine posted:Nah, it's presented as a dirty business that sometimes you just have to do, and if a badass does it instead of you, you're not responsible. I still didn't get that message at all. It was a decision that was made, but certainly wasn't meditated on as a necessary evil. It's ok if it turned you off of the book, I just didn't interpret the scene the same way as you.
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Dec 27, 2019 03:26
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I'm reading Cry Pilot and while I'm mostly enjoying it I am kind of getting tired of reading sci-fi where the main character spends a good chunk of the book going through basic training.
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Dec 27, 2019 03:53
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muscles like this! posted:I'm reading Cry Pilot and while I'm mostly enjoying it I am kind of getting tired of reading sci-fi where the main character spends a good chunk of the book going through basic training. I had that exact experience. I feel like the interesting bits of Cry Pilot will be in the sequel to Cry Pilot.
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Dec 27, 2019 04:15
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Dec 27, 2019 09:58
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I burst into the thread and say, "Read Joanna Russ! The Female Man is an underrated classic! It should be as well known as The Left Hand of Darkness!"
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Dec 27, 2019 17:43
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For anyone wanting to try Cry Pilot on the cheap, it's 1.99 on amazon at the moment. https://www.amazon.com/Cry-Pilot-Joel-Dane-ebook/dp/B07KDY6JJZ/
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Dec 27, 2019 20:10
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Missing a ‘Used government assistance, now wants to gently caress over poor people’ for Rowling.
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Dec 27, 2019 20:30
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spoiler tagged for maximum sexual violence, this book is the loving worst okay I've been reading this out of morbid curiosity but here we loving go: Anne Bishop's Black Jewels. It contains, in graphic detail, all in the first volume: watch a man's cock get sawed off for the pleasure of an audience, for that entire sequence to be an illustrative scene that explains why one of the villains is into loving little girls so it's justified in his mind. watch another man be so dosed with a drug he uses his teeth to neuter a woman and this all leads up to the revelation that the heroine, a literal twelve year old, has been sent to a mental asylum since she was five, and it's a known secret to everyone in the city that it's not actually an asylum, but a place where men go to gently caress little girls, and oh yes, they feel the little girls aphrodisiacs. when our hero finds out about this (and he is an adult man who fell instantly in powerful lust with this 12 year old when he met her, and he's a good guy) he freaks out, then instead of rescuing her he goes to her mother instead and threatens her and gives her a day to make this right. y'know. instead of rescuing the 12 year old from the rape factory immediately. our hero! to quote the back of the book: "critically-acclaimed and award winning" e: I don't want to be a prude about violence or graphic content in books but this is way too far, and I have seen way too many reviewers claim that this was their favorite book when they were a teenager, and I have a friend who also read this when she was 14-15 and there was a very real chance I could've read this back then, but holy poo poo, this is darker and more graphic than anything I found in my wild teenage years. And the author is so clearly getting off on it with the way she's writing about it. It's so gross. e2: 30 pages left. A semi-sentient horse just committed suicide and the hero fed it blood to help it pass in peace. I cannot make a single goddamned thing about this book up. e3: Finished it. The climactic final scene was our hero (an adult man) having graphic sex with a twelve year old, after she was raped by several other men. His sex was full of love though so it helped heal her mind. StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Dec 27, 2019 |
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Dec 27, 2019 21:40
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Okay, oh god, I'm reading Cloud Roads now. I need something good after that rapefest. Would not recommend that you read Black Jewels.
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Dec 27, 2019 22:32
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Maybe finished final copy edits on Baru 3 today (don’t do the stupid title joke thread!!) 
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Dec 27, 2019 22:49
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StrixNebulosa posted:I enjoyed the first chapter - the writing inside the book is good. I'm just astounded at how terrible the marketing for this book is. Comparing it to Star Wars isn't doing it any favors with me. I think the comparison to Star Wars seems like at least partially a desire on behalf of the author.
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Dec 27, 2019 23:13
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StrixNebulosa posted:okay I've been reading this out of morbid curiosity but here we loving go: Anne Bishop's Black Jewels. I only know this book from weirdos on usenet and also an IDEOTV episode and I'm sorry but : 
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Dec 27, 2019 23:20
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StrixNebulosa posted:Would not recommend that you read Black Jewels. I don't remember those thankfully but I saw them recently on a communal family bookshelf. I guess that's another series to lock away with the later Anita Blake books. All the new generation are on Harry Potter and Captain Underpants at the moment. Only a matter of time before they get curious and raid Nana's library. My sister asked me where the Xanth books were because she wanted to start my nephew on them and I was like nooooooooooooo…. Give him the Drizzt books instead, he can start on those like my brother and I did.
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Dec 27, 2019 23:54
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Captain Underpants is legit good and cool. Same for the Dog-Man spinoff.
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Dec 27, 2019 23:57
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bagrada posted:I don't remember those thankfully but I saw them recently on a communal family bookshelf. I guess that's another series to lock away with the later Anita Blake books. All the new generation are on Harry Potter and Captain Underpants at the moment. Only a matter of time before they get curious and raid Nana's library. My sister asked me where the Xanth books were because she wanted to start my nephew on them and I was like nooooooooooooo…. Give him the Drizzt books instead, he can start on those like my brother and I did. I read a bunch of Xanth books when I was a kid, maybe 11 years old. I kinda can’t believe, now that I’m an adult, that Anthony got away with those.
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Dec 28, 2019 00:01
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I thought black jewels was good horror with an interesting deconstruction of societal expectations regarding gender when I read it forever ago but as with all Anne bishop books could never decide if she had intended the horrifying reaction or not. So yes it is in all ways hosed up and does not apologize or look away from it at all, do not let your fragile friends (ie most friends) read it, but if you want a very hosed up book series about violent matriarchial empire in decline here you go. FWIW as I recall the end of the series is in line with the reader reaction and absurdly violent as well. For kids meet generic fantasy the eddings are dead and stories about blue rocks are as generic as you get. Tolkien’s hobbit and feist’s magician are also good.
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Dec 28, 2019 00:07
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The Color of His Jumpsuit
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Dec 28, 2019 00:07
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(it’s orange)
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Dec 28, 2019 00:07
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Anias posted:I thought black jewels was good horror with an interesting deconstruction of societal expectations regarding gender when I read it forever ago but as with all Anne bishop books could never decide if she had intended the horrifying reaction or not. So yes it is in all ways hosed up and does not apologize or look away from it at all, do not let your fragile friends (ie most friends) read it, but if you want a very hosed up book series about violent matriarchial empire in decline here you go. FWIW as I recall the end of the series is in line with the reader reaction and absurdly violent as well. I mean if I want to read a matriarchial empire in decline I just read anything by Kameron Hurley or arguably Cyteen. I can kind of see the appeal if you were reading fantasy back in the mid 90s, but also like, ehhhh Cherryh had already written a billion books by then, Janny Wurts had stuff out, and so on.
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Dec 28, 2019 00:11
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Cyteen is good, but it's basically just people preparing for and undertaking meetings and listening to voice mail, Space Genetic Horror edition. I like most of her other books a lot more because stuff actually happens. Also morgaine is a cracking love story.
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Dec 28, 2019 01:20
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For some reason the age-inappropriate thing I ran into as a kid was Illuminatus! I'm not all that sorry about it, really?
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Dec 28, 2019 01:27
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Kesper North posted:For some reason the age-inappropriate thing I ran into as a kid was Illuminatus! Libertarian propaganda is not appropriate for any age.
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Dec 28, 2019 01:30
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muscles like this! posted:I'm reading Cry Pilot and while I'm mostly enjoying it I am kind of getting tired of reading sci-fi where the main character spends a good chunk of the book going through basic training. lol I'm reading Cry Pilot as well and had the same reaction. Thank you any mil scifi author who does training off page.
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Dec 28, 2019 02:47
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Absurd Alhazred posted:Libertarian propaganda is not appropriate for any age. When I read Illuminatus I recall Hagbard Celine coming off as a "not someone to emulate" type but maybe I was just projecting my own beliefs  It's a fun read regardless and not just straight up Rand-style right wing apologetics at least!
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Dec 28, 2019 02:47
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my bony fealty posted:When I read Illuminatus I recall Hagbard Celine coming off as a "not someone to emulate" type but maybe I was just projecting my own beliefs Yeah, when I read it as a teen the libertarian stuff went over my head so I was mostly taken aback by the sex stuff.
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Dec 28, 2019 02:50
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my bony fealty posted:When I read Illuminatus I recall Hagbard Celine coming off as a "not someone to emulate" type but maybe I was just projecting my own beliefs I have no idea how they’re going to make the TV series work.
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Dec 28, 2019 03:48
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Absurd Alhazred posted:Yeah, when I read it as a teen the libertarian stuff went over my head so I was mostly taken aback by the sex stuff. I read the Shroedinger’s Cat trilogy and I recall it being wildly leftist rather than libertarian, with stuff like UBI and dismantling the military-industrial complex and yes weird sex stuff and conspiracy ranting. It was very strange and I have no idea why our small town library had it.
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Dec 28, 2019 04:04
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Absurd Alhazred posted:Libertarian propaganda is not appropriate for any age. Illuminatus! is Wobbly propaganda. The Libertarians decided to adopt it because they liked the anarchism and it sounded like a billionaire industrialist was the good guy if you didn't read closely. occamsnailfile posted:I read the Shroedinger’s Cat trilogy and I recall it being wildly leftist rather than libertarian, with stuff like UBI and dismantling the military-industrial complex and yes weird sex stuff and conspiracy ranting. It was very strange and I have no idea why our small town library had it. This guy gets it.
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Dec 28, 2019 06:16
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Has anyone read the Donovan series by W. Michael Gear? I want to know if it’s worth checking out
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Dec 28, 2019 16:10
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Kesper North posted:Illuminatus! is Wobbly propaganda. The Libertarians decided to adopt it because they liked the anarchism and it sounded like a billionaire industrialist was the good guy if you didn't read closely. I had the good luck to come across Illuminatus! as a teenager, a couple of years before I read loving Atlas goddamn Shrugged. Made reading the latter a... less intolerable experience.
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Dec 28, 2019 21:36
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Groke posted:I had the good luck to come across Illuminatus! as a teenager, a couple of years before I read loving Atlas goddamn Shrugged. Made reading the latter a... less intolerable experience. Realizing that that inexplicable 30 page sequence in the middle of the second book was an Atlas Shrugged parody retrospectively works almost as well as in the other order.
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Dec 28, 2019 21:44
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Are there any worthwhile Star Wars books outside the Thrawn Trilogy? I'm looking for some light reading right now.
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Dec 28, 2019 22:42
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Alec Eiffel posted:Are there any worthwhile Star Wars books outside the Thrawn Trilogy? I'm looking for some light reading right now. "Tales From Jabba's Palace", "Tales From The Mos Eisley Cantina", "Tales Of The Bounty Hunters". They're short story anthologies set in the Star Wars universe written between 1995 and 1997. Basically a bunch of SF authors with names you might know - Barbara Hambly, Daniel Keyes Moran, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and of course Timothy Zahn, among many others - wrote short stories about the random characters you see in the background of big scenes. A lot of the shorts are really good, and some of them went on to inform at least Dave Filoni's work on Clone Wars, etc. I also enjoyed L. Neil Smith's Lando Calrissian Adventures and Brian Daley's Han Solo adventures, too. Those were published well ahead of the Thrawn trilogy and kind of come from a different era, but you'll still see a lot to recognize. The Lando Calrissian Adventures show a game of sabacc for the first time anywhere and do a really good job with it. I liked Chuck Wendig's recent Star Wars books but haven't read much further. James S. A. Corey did one and it actually was awful, to my surprise? At least I thought it felt very flat. Kesper North fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Dec 28, 2019 |
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Dec 28, 2019 22:52
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Most of the X-Wing series isn't bad, although Corran Horn is kind of annoying.
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Dec 28, 2019 23:05
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Wraith squadron best squadron.
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Dec 28, 2019 23:29
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Alec Eiffel posted:Are there any worthwhile Star Wars books outside the Thrawn Trilogy? I'm looking for some light reading right now. Kieron Gillen's Darth Vader comic was quite good.
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Dec 28, 2019 23:47
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I've never read any non-Thrawn Star Wars, but the Warhammer novel Double Eagle by Abnett is rather Star Warsy (being Battle of Britain in space).
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Dec 29, 2019 00:52
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Some smatterings of the EU stuff are okay for what they are, any license genre fiction is inevitably gonna be rich in low quality nonsense with occasional standouts. Just, avoid the Yuuzhan Vong.
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Dec 29, 2019 01:52
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