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shrike82 posted:lol never follow authors you like on twitter Maybe don’t encourage people doing the equivalent of: “Well, if MLK were alive he’d...” Edit: Shameless page snipe. I’m working on Daughter of the Empire right now and I’m enjoying it. How’s the rest of the series?
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Jan 31, 2020 02:39
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DreamingofRoses posted:Edit: Shameless page snipe. I’m working on Daughter of the Empire right now and I’m enjoying it. How’s the rest of the series? The thing I liked about the first book was the focus on underdog Mara and her cunning plans, and book 2 delivers more of that; it actually felt like book 2 had two major story arcs back-to-back and would have done ok split into books 2 and 3 of the trilogy, and it concludes the main arc begun in book 1 quite nicely. Book 3 picks up a few years later and has a rather different focus; I found it started out weak and while it did improve over the course of the book and ended strong, I never liked it as much as I did the first two. It feels like the first two books are "the trilogy" and book 3 is more of a coda.
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Jan 31, 2020 02:56
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branedotorg posted:Sebastien de Castell also wrote a fun YA series about an outlaw kid and his talking ferret thing. It was indie published, after greatcoats. It's not great but it's also fun.
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Jan 31, 2020 03:02
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I like the terrible YA Mistborn and Skyward books. I think I might be simple. I'm about 50 pages into Half a King and I know it's my next series. I'm a grown educated man that's 50 pages into a myriad of classic novels, but I get so bored and give up easily.
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Jan 31, 2020 03:28
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Just finished Queen in Hiding by Sarah Kozloff and man, what a delightful book! It's a fast read and covers palace intrigue that leads a queen to flee with her daughter, hide her daughter, and then go off to fight pirates for years. Meanwhile a mining nation to the south has been suffering from plagues so it begins to invade its neighbors, and - yes. Yes this book has epic fantasy-itus, too many povs. But the author handles them well and I enjoyed seeing how history unfolded and the smaller scenes where the princess grows up hidden in a rural village, and the larger sequences where politics hold sway. The book opens with the princess as a small child and ends with her as a young twenty (or so) year old leaving the country, and it covers all the turmoil inbetween and I just enjoyed it a lot. I want the next book. ps yes you can tell the author is a history nerd, she's obviously read so much that you can see where she's been mixing and matching with the various countries. They're original and yet not.
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Jan 31, 2020 03:40
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shrike82 posted:lol never follow authors you like on twitter She isn't wrong, though. One of the people named wasn't even American and wouldn't give two shots about Bernie Sanders.
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Jan 31, 2020 04:17
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She’s a Warren supporter so I think it’s safe to say she has dumb political views
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Jan 31, 2020 04:32
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DreamingofRoses posted:Maybe don’t encourage people doing the equivalent of: “Well, if MLK were alive he’d...” ToxicFrog posted:The thing I liked about the first book was the focus on underdog Mara and her cunning plans, and book 2 delivers more of that; it actually felt like book 2 had two major story arcs back-to-back and would have done ok split into books 2 and 3 of the trilogy, and it concludes the main arc begun in book 1 quite nicely. This about sums it up. The ending of book 3 is really drat obvious too and kinda cheesy.
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Jan 31, 2020 04:42
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shrike82 posted:She’s a Warren supporter so I think it’s safe to say she has dumb political views Supporting any candidate currently running means you have dumb political views.
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Jan 31, 2020 08:37
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Fart of Presto posted:Tor.com released a short story collection for free in eBook format on all major platforms And unlike most of the offers in this thread it's available for Australian's too! Thanks for the heads up
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Jan 31, 2020 08:39
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Knock off the politics chat please. C-SPAM needs your hot takes on politics, not this thread. Attempting to move this thread back on track: -Will Yoon Ha Lee's upcoming 2020 novel manage to avoid being set in a "bizzaro alternate universe Korea" like 95% of YHL's other short stories and novels? -Looks like the posthumous often-delayed Iain Banks "The Culture: Notes and Drawings" collection has been delayed and pushed back yet again(as per amazon uk). -Grabbed some Becky Chambers books from the library (spaceborn few + small angry planet). Never read any of her stuff before, going in blind to them.
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Jan 31, 2020 09:38
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quantumfoam posted:-Will Yoon Ha Lee's upcoming 2020 novel manage to avoid being set in a "bizzaro alternate universe Korea" like 95% of YHL's other short stories and novels? In any case, it's a refreshing break from bizarro alternate universe Europe.
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Jan 31, 2020 10:38
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quantumfoam posted:-Grabbed some Becky Chambers books from the library (spaceborn few + small angry planet). Never read any of her stuff before, going in blind to them. Not that it matters a ton, but those are #3 and #1 of a series respectively, in publication order at least. The books are independent enough that you can read them in any order without much impact but you may want to pick up #2 (A Closed & Common Orbit) while you're at it. (#2's premise has plot spoilers for events late in #1, but as anyone will attest the books are more about character relationships than plot.)
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Jan 31, 2020 12:16
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Kesper North posted:Gibson usually seems like he's making fun of or outright critiquing liberal centrist boomerism to me. Yeah, and I doubt anyone who finishes Agency will think it's some #resistance fantasy.
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Jan 31, 2020 19:27
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Finished Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky. Like the book it's a prequel to, the book is rather long yet feels like it had a shorter, simpler plot when I recall it in my head. The aliens didn't capture my imagination like the other book's Tines did, just superficially too much like 1950s Americans. And yes, I am aware of the metatextual angle that explains it.
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Jan 31, 2020 20:55
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FPyat posted:Finished Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky. Like the book it's a prequel to, the book is rather long yet feels like it had a shorter, simpler plot when I recall it in my head. The aliens didn't capture my imagination like the other book's Tines did, just superficially too much like 1950s Americans. And yes, I am aware of the metatextual angle that explains it. A fire upon the deep set the bar so high it’s hard for Vinge.
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Jan 31, 2020 21:35
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Kesper North posted:Gibson usually seems like he's making fun of or outright critiquing liberal centrist boomerism to me. Nah, like I said, don’t read his Twitter. It’s the worst of boomer succdem mindset
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Jan 31, 2020 22:57
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Fart of Presto posted:Tor.com released a short story collection for free in eBook format on all major platforms Thanks for pointing this out. That's a lot of good authors and I'd far rather read on a reader than in a browser window.
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Jan 31, 2020 23:05
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Lock In by John Scalzi - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IHCBE1C/
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Jan 31, 2020 23:26
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Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HE2JK4Y I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XB49BG4/ Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00338QF1E Looks like a less serious Dresden Files.
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Feb 1, 2020 21:22
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This should be clear and obvious to everyone, but if you haven't read I Am Legend and your only experience with the work is the various adaptations, it's a classic that cannot be missed. I read it after picking it up on a whim on a class trip to London years ago, consumed it on the tube, at chip shops and at museums. I treasure it dearly.
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Feb 1, 2020 22:17
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pradmer posted:Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey - $1.99 Sandman Slim is decidedly more grimdark than Dresden, but it's also significantly better.
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Feb 2, 2020 00:09
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quantumfoam posted:
That's too bad, I'm looking forward to this one. Thinking about setting off on a re-read of the Culture books, probably in production order (not like there's any other order that makes sense, though). It's been a few years since I went through them, especially the older ones.
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Feb 2, 2020 03:03
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Anyone familiar with Tyche's Flight? It's rated suspiciously high on goodreads. Is it really that good? https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/41955494-tyche-s-flight
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Feb 2, 2020 03:11
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Jedit posted:Sandman Slim is decidedly more grimdark than Dresden, but it's also significantly better. The only downside is Sandman Slim casually destroys everything he fights. Also he's kinda boring in general (the other characters are more interesting).
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Feb 2, 2020 03:35
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pmchem posted:Anyone familiar with Tyche's Flight? It's rated suspiciously high on goodreads. Is it really that good? I got kinda bored with it about a third of the way through and never finished, but ymmv
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Feb 2, 2020 05:15
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Jedit posted:Sandman Slim is decidedly more grimdark than Dresden, but it's also significantly better. It's also hilarious. quote:I'm steel-toed boots in a ballet-slipper world.
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Feb 2, 2020 07:36
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sandman slim is okay if you can handle the protagonist being canonically the baddest dude in the galaxy
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Feb 2, 2020 08:48
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pradmer posted:Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney - $1.99 Read the good book. Sandman Slim is better than Dresden Files but that means it's still bad.
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Feb 2, 2020 14:56
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I read Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream collection this week. It wasn't great. I dont know why rape figures so predominately in so many stories, or why women who have sex are always repulsive whores while simultaneously being impossibly attractive. I cant remember all the titles of the stories, but Eyes of Dust sucked. So did the one about the guy in the circus with the telepath who saves the girl only for her to be ungrateful. That seems to be a theme. The one about psychic alien ants and rape was dumb. The protag saves the girl with the broken legs from being raped for the second time and she is also bitter about being saved. There's a lot of prose shenanigans--Harlan's attempt to class up pretty shallow stories with concepts/plots that are just passable. The titular I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream was maybe an evolution of the archetype of "evil computer overlord" taking over, but I never felt like the AI antagonist was developed enough for impact, and the slut shaming seemed pointless. I guess I summary I didnt like anything Ellison wrote save for the story about a ghost trapped in a slot machine, which would be just passable if Stephen King had written. MartingaleJack fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Feb 2, 2020 |
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Feb 2, 2020 17:25
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The sex stuff in IHNMIMS (boy that's not more elegant) was weird to me the first time I read it too, probably more than fifteen years ago. The whole monologue about hate is still just an exceptionally fun piece of writing, but the story is pretty weird when viewed through a contemporary lens.
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Feb 2, 2020 18:02
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Yeah, the LP of the game I watched.... on someone's channel was better than the story, in my opinion.
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Feb 2, 2020 19:51
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BananaNutkins posted:I read Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream collection this week. It wasn't great. I dont know why rape figures so predominately in so many stories, or why women who have sex are always repulsive whores while simultaneously being impossibly attractive. I cant remember all the titles of the stories, but Ellison was/is the god-father of the "incel" movement similar to how Cordwainer Smith was/is the god-father of the "furry" culture. Old scifi can be very extremely terrible, and ages worse than topical comedy. Finished Becky Chambers "long way to a small angry planet" yesterday. Mostly enjoyed it, most of the characters got nicely developed. I did like that Becky Chambers avoided the "..and then stockholm syndrome set in" plot resolution that C. J. Cherryh always used in her Alliance-Union/Company Wars stories, and the first few Chanur series books I read.
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Feb 3, 2020 00:55
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Riot Carol Danvers posted:I got kinda bored with it about a third of the way through and never finished, but ymmv Thanks, anyone else? Tyche’s Flight?
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Feb 3, 2020 00:59
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quantumfoam posted:Ellison was/is the god-father of the "incel" movement similar to how Cordwainer Smith was/is the god-father of the "furry" culture. Dude, the sequel to that, "a closed and common orbit" is an amazing follow up. Talk about character development. It follows the Lovelace AI and dives deep into Pepper's backstory, and I'm not ashamed to admit there were several near-tear inducing moments in it. I'm surprised at how much I enjoy scifi books about interpersonal drama and basic coming of age in crazy settings. You'd think apocalyptic conflict was necessary, but it really isn't.
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Feb 3, 2020 02:06
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Are Jonathan Strahan's Best Science Fiction of the Year collections worth getting?
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Feb 3, 2020 04:20
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biracial bear for uncut posted:I'm surprised at how much I enjoy scifi books about interpersonal drama and basic coming of age in crazy settings. You'd think apocalyptic conflict was necessary, but it really isn't. You have no idea how reassuring it is to hear people say this. I wish there was more scifi like Becky Chambers’
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Feb 3, 2020 04:27
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There's some fantasy in the same vein. EVeryone should read Ithanalin's Restoration by Lawrence Watt-Evans.
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Feb 3, 2020 04:39
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biracial bear for uncut posted:Dude, the sequel to that, "a closed and common orbit" is an amazing follow up. Talk about character development. Check out "Up Against It" by MJ Locke. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004K1ERZO/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
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Feb 3, 2020 05:25
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Solitair posted:Are Jonathan Strahan's Best Science Fiction of the Year collections worth getting? I've always found him to be a reliable anthologist. I've usually bought his themed ones though, rather than the yearly ones.
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Feb 3, 2020 12:04
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