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biracial bear for uncut posted:Just posting to say that the final Interdependency book by John Scalzi was fun and Kiva Lagos still rules as a character. Spoil it for those of us wary of Scalzi (raises hand, fires off airhorn).
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Apr 17, 2020 20:07
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quantumfoam posted:Spoil it for those of us wary of Scalzi (raises hand, fires off airhorn). Can I spoiler block an image? Reading it on the Kindle app so copy/paste doesn't really work... 
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Apr 17, 2020 20:18
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Bloody Rose (The Band #2) by Nicholas Eames - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074M6KW1X/ Consider Phlebas (Culture #1) by Iain M Banks - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013TX6FI/ Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Fritz Leiber books 3 through 6 - $1.99 each https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J84KVA8/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J84KVG2/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J84KUVI/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J84KUPY/
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Apr 17, 2020 22:27
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Came here to post how on the nose of an analogy for climate change Scalzi’s new book is. Almost such a close match to the real world that it feels repetitive maybe? Still enjoying it so far though. quantumfoam posted:Spoil it for those of us wary of Scalzi (raises hand, fires off airhorn). Wary of Scalzi or weary of Scalzi (not trying to be pedantic just curious why you’d be wary of him)?
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Apr 18, 2020 02:21
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I love The Band series by Eames so much. KOTW has one of my favorite scenes in any book, a smokebomb escape, laced with powdered viagra.
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Apr 18, 2020 05:42
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biracial bear for uncut posted:Just posting to say that the final Interdependency book by John Scalzi was fun and Kiva Lagos still rules as a character. If you don't mind spoiling the gist of it? I usually enjoy Scalzi but found book 2 too mild to bring me back and finish off the series but I am kinda curious how the series resolves.
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Apr 18, 2020 05:48
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Xtanstic posted:If you don't mind spoiling the gist of it? I usually enjoy Scalzi but found book 2 too mild to bring me back and finish off the series but I am kinda curious how the series resolves. I found book 1 super mild, very much "that's it!?"
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Apr 18, 2020 05:55
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Is Lock In worth reading? It’s my last Scalzi book more or less apart from a few random Old Man’s War ones. Also book 3 ended up being decent, it definitely wraps up the story.
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Apr 18, 2020 07:48
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tildes posted:Is Lock In worth reading? It’s my last Scalzi book more or less apart from a few random Old Man’s War ones. I read the sequel, Head On, without reading Lock In and thought it was so poo poo I gave up a third of the way through. For contrast I liked his Old Man's War, Interdependency and even that Red Shirts books he did to varying degrees.
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Apr 18, 2020 09:37
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Xtanstic posted:If you don't mind spoiling the gist of it? I usually enjoy Scalzi but found book 2 too mild to bring me back and finish off the series but I am kinda curious how the series resolves. Grayland sacrifices herself to stop the coup attempts that distract everyone from needing to band together to save as many people as possible before the final collapse, but fucks all of the conspirators over in the process. Marce gains access to all of the Pre-Rupture flow science data Jiyi has via Grayland and discovers a way to put entire habitats into the Flow, but the time to build the devices required means they will have to use evanescent shoals to do it as they won't have time to implement moves before the collapse. Turns out Rachella I is just like Chenovre and has been hiding as Jiyi the whole time, but she is forced out of that hiding by Grayland and Chenovre. Grayland names Kiva as her successor before dying, and Kiva cleans house with Rachella's help and marries Senia. Book ends teasing using evanescent flow shoals to send Marce to the old Earth systems as people move to End and the Nohamapetons get tossed into the same prison cell and immediately start killing each other.
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Apr 18, 2020 13:45
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tildes posted:Is Lock In worth reading? It’s my last Scalzi book more or less apart from a few random Old Man’s War ones. Depends on how much leeway you give the concept of the plot. There was exactly one interesting character in the series so far and it wasn't the protagonist. Definitely Scalzi's biggest turd series.
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Apr 18, 2020 13:49
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Shadow Gate, Crossroads 2 by Kate Elliott: I enjoyed it, but it's a middle book in some of the worst ways. No core plot, lots of meandering, etc. But it had some cool storylines and moments. Last night I was charging through it with intent to finish. Then I got spoiled on a major twist in book 3, and phoof. In book 3, titled Traitor's Gate, there's apparently a traitor in a major way and I was wondering who and how and so on. Now I know who, and how, and why. I... I'm very frustrated. This morning I finished book 2, enjoyed it, and I think I'm going to take a break before I read book 3. I want to see how it all ends and who I care about survives and such, but I don't want to carry this anger into it.
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Apr 18, 2020 14:29
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biracial bear for uncut posted:Depends on how much leeway you give the concept of the plot. There was exactly one interesting character in the series so far and it wasn't the protagonist. Definitely Scalzi's biggest turd series. team overhead smash posted:I read the sequel, Head On, without reading Lock In and thought it was so poo poo I gave up a third of the way through. For contrast I liked his Old Man's War, Interdependency and even that Red Shirts books he did to varying degrees. Hm ok sounds like I should finish the one or two remaining old man’s war books and skip this one
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Apr 18, 2020 17:53
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War Dogs Trilogy (War Dogs, Killing Titan, Take Back the Sky) by Greg Bear - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073ZLSQMG/ Patternmaster (Patternist #4) by Octavia E Butler - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HALOPA/ The Way of Shadows (Night Angel #1) by Brent Weeks - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E0V112 This has been on sale a lot recently for some reason.
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Apr 18, 2020 18:52
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tildes posted:Hm ok sounds like I should finish the one or two remaining old man’s war books and skip this one Don't get me wrong, the world the story takes place in and even the story itself is interesting. The protagonist just sucks. Literally a rich kid trying to be a detective.
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Apr 19, 2020 04:23
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tildes posted:Is Lock In worth reading? It’s my last Scalzi book more or less apart from a few random Old Man’s War ones. I liked Lock In when I first read it, way more than The Collapsing Empire. Then again, there might have been enough of a gap between me reading the former and the latter that my tastes have changed and I just don't like Scalzi's writing anymore. Solitair fucked around with this message at 15:02 on Apr 19, 2020 |
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Apr 19, 2020 14:59
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Best Scalzi book is The Android's Dream. He's mostly coasting these days. None of his stuff is bad but the only two books of his that are genuinely recommend-to-your-friends-good are Old Man's War and Android's Dream. I think he's prioritizing quantity over quality. Interdependency, Redshirts, Lock-in, the latter Old Man books, they're all decent but generic pulp with very little real originality to them. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 15:06 on Apr 19, 2020 |
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Apr 19, 2020 15:03
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iirc Scalzi has a multi-book contract that would definitely favor quantity over quality
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Apr 19, 2020 16:31
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Best Scalzi book is The Android's Dream. I don't know, I'd put Agent to the Stars up there with Android's Dream. All of his protagonists are the same flavor of know it all smartass though.
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Apr 19, 2020 16:42
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Clark Nova posted:iirc Scalzi has a multi-book contract that would definitely favor quantity over quality Most authors' contracts are for multiple books - imagine writing a trilogy and selling it one book at a time... Even if that weren't true, this post is still a non sequitur.
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Apr 19, 2020 18:58
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tildes posted:Wary of Scalzi or weary of Scalzi (not trying to be pedantic just curious why you’d be wary of him)? It's pretty much everything that has been mentioned about Scalzi in the past 2 days plus the Acknowledgements screen grab BBFU posted (the non-highlighted stuff). -Scalzi switched to quantity over quality after signing a 13 book/multi-million dollar contract with TOR 5 years or so ago. -Scalzi tends to write the same style main character narration (know it all smartass pov) over and over and over and over again in his stories. -Scalzi's big thing immediately after signing the TOR contract was switching to serialized episodic content to maximize productivity. -Scalzi's hyped episodic content ended up being written at the deadline rough draft efforts that badly needed editing and a few more draft attempts. -the characters and clever dialogue that used to be a Scalzi strength in the Scalzi episodic content were ultimately 1-ply toilet paper deep and one note respectively (needed more drafts and more editor feedback). -the past few published Scalzi books that have not been compilations of https://whatever.scalzi.com/ blogposts were those same written at the deadline rough draft episodic content bundled up into novel form with the book editing reduced to adding page headers, chapter markings, etc. -at least of one or more of these hastily compiled episodic content -> novels was put up for Hugo/Nebula/etc awards + WON. -sometime in the past decade John Scalzi morphed into Isaac Asimov 2.0, and no one really noticed (this is my own personal opinion, un-backed by facts). Want to double down on people reading 2000 AD's back catalog of work. Not all of it is good, but when it hits, it hits HARD.
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Apr 19, 2020 18:59
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quantumfoam posted:-at least of one or more of these hastily compiled episodic content -> novels was put up for Hugo/Nebula/etc awards + WON.
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Apr 19, 2020 19:46
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So that Harrowhark the Ninth first act is not going places I expected of this book.
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Apr 19, 2020 23:09
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Drone Jett posted:So that Harrowhark the Ninth first act is not going places I expected of this book. I don't know what the statute of limitations is on your embarrassing racist outburst in this thread's antecessor, but it must be weird to know the author of a book you're reading (and I guess enjoying?) would personally despise you for your beliefs.
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Apr 19, 2020 23:39
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Are you just playing thread sheriff here of do you actually care whether or not an author would like you?
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Apr 20, 2020 00:16
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I loving hate Nazis man.
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Apr 20, 2020 00:36
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Patrick Spens posted:Are you just playing thread sheriff here of do you actually care whether or not an author would like you? Last thread that dude posted: quote:
So yeah I think it’s cool for GB to run him out of town
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Apr 20, 2020 01:04
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Hooo boy. Little taste of straight up  and eugenics to start the day off.
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Apr 20, 2020 01:55
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Liquid Communism posted:Hooo boy. Should pair nicely with the evening dose you get if you watch the daily campaign briefing
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Apr 20, 2020 01:58
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wtf is going on. As the thread OP, can I request that we keep this thread focused on escapist scifi and fantasy story discussion and not about the horrendous poo poo going down everywhere in IRL? Read the harrowhawk the 9th teaser, and it was weird-good. Personally I think the unexpected three syllables are: GOD drat IT
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Apr 20, 2020 02:06
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quantumfoam posted:wtf is going on. Why can't we call out assholes? I don't want nazis in this cool thread.
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Apr 20, 2020 02:27
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SF is best when it’s not escapist which is why the left hand of darkness is the best SF book. 
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Apr 20, 2020 02:30
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Where is everyone getting the Harrowhawk teaser from?
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Apr 20, 2020 02:40
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Captain_Person posted:Where is everyone getting the Harrowhawk teaser from? https://publishing.tor.com/harrowtheninthactone-tamsynmuir/9781250774385/
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Apr 20, 2020 02:44
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Cheers!
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Apr 20, 2020 02:50
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StrixNebulosa posted:Why can't we call out assholes? I don't want nazis in this cool thread. Report the assholes. Report and call them out in the threads where they post rear end in a top hat nazi/chud/racist/vile content. This post.... "So that Harrowhark the Ninth first act is not going places I expected of this book." ..........did not scream out "this poster is a Nazi or rear end in a top hat or Chud" to me, which is why I posted quote:wtf is going on. Back on topic Fart of Presto posted:You can't really blame Scalzi for this one though, except blaming him for writing it in the first place. That is where the Isaac Asimov 2.0 comparison comes into play for me. A middling to mediocre story gets nominated for awards and wins.... wins because the voters voted for the famous genre author name Remember people being incredulous in the 2nd scifi+fantasy thread (link to it is in the thread OP) about Scalzi's terrible The Collapsing Empire being nominated for multiple awards in 2018, and winning one award versus the much stronger competition.
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Apr 20, 2020 02:53
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Yeah I was so unimpressed with The Collapsing Empire that I haven't touched a Scalzi book since, and I'd been a fan for over a decade. It was just... A nothing book.
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Apr 20, 2020 03:43
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General Battuta posted:I don't know what the statute of limitations is on your embarrassing racist outburst in this thread's antecessor, but it must be weird to know the author of a book you're reading (and I guess enjoying?) would personally despise you for your beliefs. Not at all. I’m a kind person who has given alms to deranged people. Their ravings don’t effect me in the least, just like your coping mechanisms in this thread. If screaming at me suppresses your demons even a little, please feel free. quantumfoam posted:Read the harrowhawk the 9th teaser, and it was weird-good. Well, I agree that it started with the letter “G,” presumably three that amusingly appear only once in this excerpt, and not in the actual text. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Apr 20, 2020 04:25
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The Collapsing Empire would never ever make it out of a slush pile, it’s bonkers that Scalzi got that crazy deal.
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Apr 20, 2020 04:47
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ShutteredIn posted:The Collapsing Empire would never ever make it out of a slush pile, it’s bonkers that Scalzi got that crazy deal. His early stuff sold and was reasonably competent, and when even the trash like Redshirts is winning awards it must have seemed like a good bet on the demonstrated tastes and buying habits of the public.
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Apr 20, 2020 04:53
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