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General Battuta posted:I just checked out an ARC for an upcoming Tor debut called THE BLACKTONGUE THIEF. It wasn't really my speed, but if you like Abercrombie-style low fantasy with a bit more fun and a lot less bleak it might be your thing! No idea if it's going to get a big PR push but it's from the same editor who acquired THE BAND by Nicholas Eames, which I think did pretty well for Orbit. I saw a thing for that recently, it's not my fav genre but was mildly interested till I read ... 'and a one-eyed rescue cat'. Gave me David Webber vibes. Glad to hear there's more to it
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Apr 21, 2020 13:43
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I was actually surprised Bova is that old generation. Probably because until 2018 there were zero Finnish translations of his work, having not read anything from him I had mentally placed him with twenty years or so younger writers.
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Apr 21, 2020 13:53
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DOWNLOAD MURDERBOT 2 TODAY e: poof StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Apr 21, 2020 |
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Apr 21, 2020 17:24
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StrixNebulosa posted:
Um, technically, this is warez; don't say it
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Apr 21, 2020 17:32
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Um, technically, this is warez; don't say it He meant he'll share the download link with you so you can legally download it from Tor.
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Apr 21, 2020 17:55
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Um, technically, this is warez; don't say it Gone, sorry about that. pseudanonymous posted:He meant he'll share the download link with you so you can legally download it from Tor. I'm a girl and ehhh I mean yeah sure. ANYWAYS, BOOKS I've been made a fool: I bought Cry Pilot by Joel Dane last year and figured I'd hold onto it until the sequels dropped, and today I learned that the sequels will NEVER drop. They are only coming out as ebooks, and as a physical book reader I am screwed. 
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Apr 21, 2020 18:29
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Tales from Earthsea (Earthsea #5) by Ursula K LeGuin - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003ZX86BO/ The Other Wind (Earthsea #6) by Ursula K LeGuin - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004H1U22E The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PI181JI/
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Apr 22, 2020 00:45
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Safety Biscuits posted:Yes, Gunn was published earlier, but Bova's had a more recent publication (a novel in 2019), so I'm awarding him the arbitrary wreath for now. Congrats Jedit. Do we get to count posthumous publications? Because Heinlein (only counting novels) was first published 1947 (Rocket Ship Gaileo) and had a novel come out last month (The Pursuit of the Pankera, an alternate version of The Number of The Beast).
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Apr 22, 2020 01:46
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ulmont posted:Do we get to count posthumous publications? Because Heinlein (only counting novels) was first published 1947 (Rocket Ship Gaileo) and had a novel come out last month (The Pursuit of the Pankera, an alternate version of The Number of The Beast). Ehhhh.....lots of scifi authors who grew up reading Heinlein have done authorized (and many more unauthorized) rewrites of Heinleins stories, Spider Robinson, John Scalzi, Charles Stross, John Barnes, etc. For scifi authors/scifi fans of Heinlein of a certain age, rewriting Heinlein is catnip similar to how Xenophon & Belisarius are catnip to mil-scifi /mil-fiction writers of all ages. DACK FAYDEN posted:Pringles cans are coming out every day, Gene Wolfe should count as permanently active. And if you use that comparison, you have got to count Doc EE Smith as permanently active too. EE Smith was a food scientist, his Phd thesis was about wheat and worked on donut recipe stuff. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 07:28 on Apr 22, 2020 |
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Apr 22, 2020 06:43
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quantumfoam posted:Ehhhh.....lots of scifi authors who grew up reading Heinlein have done authorized (and many more unauthorized) rewrites of Heinleins stories, Spider Robinson, John Scalzi, Charles Stross, John Barnes, etc. For scifi authors/scifi fans of Heinlein of a certain age, rewriting Heinlein is catnip similar to how Xenophon & Belisarius are catnip to mil-scifi /mil-fiction writers of all ages. And David Gerrold, who has published takes on Starship Troopers, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, and the Heinlein Juveniles in general.
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Apr 22, 2020 07:12
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pradmer posted:
Get this, it owns.
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Apr 22, 2020 08:29
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Groke posted:Get this, it owns. Totally forgot that existed and I wanted to read it at some point.
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Apr 22, 2020 10:56
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Safety Biscuits posted:Speaking of dinosaurs, here's something to discuss. Who is the oldest currently active sf writer? I'm referring to their careers, not the number of candles on their cake. Michael Moorcock was first published in the late 50s, but doesn't seem to have published anything since 2015. Samuel R. Delany's first novel was in 1960, and he published a novella in 2018, which seems like it counts, and Larry Niven (first published in 1964) has, according to Wikipedia, a co-authorship credit on a book this year, but you don't know how much he wrote... I was gonna say CJ Cherryh, who's rad, but she didn't actually start publishing until the late 1970's.
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Apr 22, 2020 13:39
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Murderbot 3 is free today, go go go! https://ebookclub.tor.com/ (yes I will be posting a reminder for 4 tomorrow)
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Apr 22, 2020 14:15
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quantumfoam posted:And if you use that comparison, you have got to count Doc EE Smith as permanently active too. EE Smith was a food scientist, his Phd thesis was about wheat and worked on donut recipe stuff. 
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Apr 22, 2020 14:48
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The man (EE Smith) was heavy into eugenics and worked on donut recipes. Any number of 'donut/cream filled donut/cream filling' jokes spring to mind. Poul Anderson's Three Hearts Three Lions is pretty good, and never seems to go on sale, sadly. Three Hearts Three Lions was heavily mined for it's content when TSR created Dungeons & Dragons. Alignment debates that regularly crop in up Traditional Games + the Order of the Pointed Stick threads can be directly blamed on Poul Anderson, and Gary Gygax/Dave Arneson.
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Apr 22, 2020 16:09
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Just finished reading Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City. Thanks for the thread for mentioning it. It was on sale a few weeks ago and I finally got around to reading it. It hit a scratch I didn't realize I wanted to hit. It kinda reminded me of The Goblin Emperor. Anyway, I think someone else asked a while back if any of his other work is similar if I'm hoping for more of the same or something similar but I can't seem to find the post. Anyone have any recs? e: nvm found it: buffalo all day posted:Read The Folding Knife next. And maybe his short story collection. StrixNebulosa posted:Murderbot 3 is free today, go go go! I appreciate this. Xtanstic fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Apr 22, 2020 |
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Apr 22, 2020 16:38
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Xtanstic posted:I appreciate this. e: For the KJ Parker recs, I find his books to be very samey, but I liked the Engineer trilogy the most. It's all depressing as hell, of course. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Apr 22, 2020 |
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Apr 22, 2020 16:51
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Xtanstic posted:Just finished reading Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City. Thanks for the thread for mentioning it. It was on sale a few weeks ago and I finally got around to reading it. It hit a scratch I didn't realize I wanted to hit. It kinda reminded me of The Goblin Emperor. Anyway, I think someone else asked a while back if any of his other work is similar if I'm hoping for more of the same or something similar but I can't seem to find the post. Anyone have any recs?  As for your question, maybe have a look at his Sharps? I started it, then got hit in the face by the stress of the pandemic and couldn't continue it, but it seemed promisingly dark, and it's a standalone to boot. Fencing, politics, and horrible death!
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Apr 22, 2020 16:51
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General Battuta posted:I just checked out an ARC for an upcoming Tor debut called THE BLACKTONGUE THIEF. It wasn't really my speed, but if you like Abercrombie-style low fantasy with a bit more fun and a lot less bleak it might be your thing! No idea if it's going to get a big PR push but it's from the same editor who acquired THE BAND by Nicholas Eames, which I think did pretty well for Orbit. This sounds interesting but it doesn't come out until May of 2021 unfortunately. Unless you know how I can get an ARC. I just finished rereading Abercrombie's A Little Hatred. Still good! My favorite part is the wizards buzzing around on the sidelines, exercising so much influence while the protagonists hardly pay them attention and think they're annoying, and can't seem to get while everyone from the previous generation is so afraid of them.
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Apr 22, 2020 16:52
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Ccs posted:This sounds interesting but it doesn't come out until May of 2021 unfortunately. Unless you know how I can get an ARC. To obtain ARCs: - make a blog - post reviews for books - make a netgalley account - request books Apparently it's surprisingly easy and you won't get everything you request, but you will get some books and as your percentage builds you'll get more. Source: my friends and their blogs. They are not goons but they're cool people who read way too much, and keep trying to tempt me into getting ARCs as well, but I'm too much of a mood reader to get ARCs. https://blackforestbasilisks.home.blog/ https://keikiieatsbooks.wordpress.com/ https://otherworldsreviews.wordpress.com/
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Apr 22, 2020 16:55
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Will Wight has finished his Elder Empire series, last book(s) come out on Friday, and in celebration he is making the first 4 books available for free and each of the new books will be $3 each. I haven't started reading this series yet since I was waiting for him to finish but his Traveler's Gate and Cradle series are both fun reads so looking forward to it. An interesting thing about this series is he releases two books at a time and they cover the same time frame and basic subject but from different perspectives, ie the protagonist from book 1a becomes the antagonist in book 1b.
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Apr 22, 2020 18:23
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https://twitter.com/KateElliottSFF/status/1253015055643205633 ToxicFrog didn't like it, I'm halfway through the first one and loving it, for this price you should pick up this epic fantasy trilogy and tell us what you think. The first is 2$, the second is 4$, the third 5$.
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Apr 22, 2020 19:02
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StrixNebulosa posted:To obtain ARCs: I really want to do this mainly due to two specific authors (Tamsyn Muir and Marko Kloos), but I don't know if I have the energy to write reviews of every book I read beyond a couple of sentences. Oh, well. I'll just have to wait with the rest of the non-ARC proletariat. Edit: I do want to say thanks to everyone who contributes to this thread, because you've suggested some good books to read and that always makes my day when I find a new book I enjoy. Riot Carol Danvers fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Apr 22, 2020 |
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Apr 22, 2020 22:40
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Someone several weeks ago suggested Dragon's Egg by Robert Forward and I threw it on my list. Just finished it last night and thought it was pretty good; I enjoy "big scale" stories about the rise and fall of empires. ("Big" being a relative term here since the aliens are practically microscopic.) I thought all the sections with humans were unbearably plodding and slow with cheesy, overexplained dialogue that didn't use enough contractions--but about halfway through I started wondering whether that was a deliberate style choice for contrast. I don't think I'm going to check out the sequel unless someone promises that it's really awesome though; it seems unnecessary and I've got other stuff I want to read. Started I Am Legend by Richard Matheson this morning because despite seeing multiple movie adaptations I've never read the original.
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Apr 22, 2020 23:01
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I read the original back in high school (so 20+ years ago), and I've been disappointed in the adaptations. I'm sure I don't remember any problematic bits anymore, but the overall story was very good, and at the time the ending surprised me (in a good way).
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Apr 23, 2020 00:58
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You can also just buy ARCs if you really want to. It's not a whole lot better than piracy as neither the author nor the publisher see anything from such sales, but you can assuage your guilt by also buying a copy of the book when it's actually released. That said, an ARC of something like Harrow is going to cost you because everyone wants to read it early.
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Apr 23, 2020 01:05
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Ornamented Death posted:You can also just buy ARCs if you really want to. It's not a whole lot better than piracy as neither the author nor the publisher see anything from such sales Unless you buy from Baen, which has an impressive markup on electronic ARCs.
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Apr 23, 2020 03:31
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Glen Cook: is he still writing? From my googling it looks like his Instrumentalities series was left permanently unfinished(?) due to low sales.
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Apr 23, 2020 03:41
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StrixNebulosa posted:Glen Cook: is he still writing? From my googling it looks like his Instrumentalities series was left permanently unfinished(?) due to low sales. Instrumentalities got an  ending that could have been picked up later if interested had ever piqued.Then Cook wrote an interquel (in between books 1 and 2) to the Black Company that was at best ok and at worst gross. Cook's about to turn 76 so I wouldn't get my hopes up for anything new.
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Apr 23, 2020 04:01
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FYI Harrow the Ninth’a whole first act is available on Amazon for free. Note that at the halfway point it is not very happy and has invited way more questions than I will have answered until it’s out in the fall.
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Apr 23, 2020 05:05
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ulmont posted:Instrumentalities got an That's...frustrating, but thank you for the info. I wish authors didn't get old like that. The next time I'm in the mood for dark stuff I should take another gander at the Black Company, maybe try the Dread Empire. Hmm.
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Apr 23, 2020 05:14
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Velius posted:FYI Harrow the Ninth’a whole first act is available on Amazon for free. Note that at the halfway point it is not very happy and has invited way more questions than I will have answered until it’s out in the fall. I didn't think Harrow the Ninth would be as good as Gideon the Ninth given the way Gideon the Ninth wrapped up, and the sample chapter released a few months back didn't do anything to change that opinion, but this first act is really something.
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Apr 23, 2020 06:00
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ulmont posted:Instrumentalities got an IIRC what happened with Instrumentalities was while he was writing the penultimate book the publisher said they were canceling the series after the next book, so finish it up. StrixNebulosa posted:That's...frustrating, but thank you for the info. I wish authors didn't get old like that. Dread Empire is rougher but more epic fantasy in feel than Black Company if that helps any.
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Apr 23, 2020 09:43
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wizzardstaff posted:Someone several weeks ago suggested Dragon's Egg by Robert Forward and I threw it on my list.... For me the specifics of the sequel undercut the possibilities and sensawunda of the original's ending, so I support this lack of completionism.
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Apr 23, 2020 10:00
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pseudorandom name posted:I've read four of the six best novel nominees (The City in the Middle of the Night, Gideon the Ninth, A Memory Called Empire, and The Ten Thousand Doors of January), and I'd be happy with any one of them being the winner, although I think I'm leaning towards The Ten Thousand Doors of January. Or maybe Gideon the Ninth. OK, I've read the other two Best Novel nominees -- Middlegame is also excellent, and The Light Bridage is fine. It isn't great, but I don't regret the time I spent reading it, its just that if somebody asked me to recommend a book to read it'd never even occur to me to mention it. The bootcamp sequence at the beginning is boring and way too long, but the prose was adequate enough that I stuck with it until I got to the meat of the story, unfortunately the time travel gimmick that makes the story actually interesting doesn't make any sense at all. The Ten Thousand Doors of January > Gideon the Ninth > Middlegame > A Memory Called Empire > The City in the Middle of the Night >>> The Light Brigade, although I think maybe the first two could be reversed? Gideon the Ninth has a voice that is delightful in a way that I don't think I've ever encounter before. The Ten Thousand Doors of January is a WOC middle-finger-to-the-british-white-supremacist-patriarchy wish fulfillment fantasy that is very satisfying. A Memory Called Empire is a great scifi detective political thriller. The City in the Middle of the Night is definitely the most literary, but I'm not in this for literary works and it is the kind of downer that I really don't want in 2020's hellworld. pseudorandom name fucked around with this message at 10:26 on Apr 23, 2020 |
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Apr 23, 2020 10:20
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wizzardstaff posted:Someone several weeks ago suggested Dragon's Egg by Robert Forward and I threw it on my list. Just finished it last night and thought it was pretty good; I enjoy "big scale" stories about the rise and fall of empires. ("Big" being a relative term here since the aliens are practically microscopic.) I thought all the sections with humans were unbearably plodding and slow with cheesy, overexplained dialogue that didn't use enough contractions--but about halfway through I started wondering whether that was a deliberate style choice for contrast. I liked the sequel just fine but it's not awesome and isn't necessary.
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Apr 23, 2020 13:33
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Murderbot 4 is live, go get it! https://ebookclub.tor.com/ C.M. Kruger posted:IIRC what happened with Instrumentalities was while he was writing the penultimate book the publisher said they were canceling the series after the next book, so finish it up. Publishers who cancel series in the middle should rot  God I'm so frustrated over what happened to Kate Elliott's Black Wolves, the publisher did her poorly and that universe is just left hanging in the wind.
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Apr 23, 2020 14:17
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StrixNebulosa posted:That's...frustrating, but thank you for the info. I wish authors didn't get old like that. Well it's preferable to the alternative, I think 
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Apr 23, 2020 16:23
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General Battuta posted:Well it's preferable to the alternative, I think All of my favorite authors are supposed to live on as immortal cyborgs at the peak of their skills.
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Apr 23, 2020 16:53
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