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Cool older article by Walter Jon Williams about writing Aristoi:quote:When I wrote Aristoi I drat near had to teach myself to write all over again. The book was just that different.
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May 13, 2020 21:27
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Dang, that's a list. Half of those are really good, the other half is certainly readable. And he hadn't done Aristoi or Metropolitan yet!
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May 13, 2020 22:16
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anilEhilated posted:I liked Ninefox since it established the whole universal setup of weird calendar magic and half-living ships and playing rock paper scissors with fleets. Both sequels felt seriously idea-starved. and too many characters. I loved the focus in Ninefox
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May 14, 2020 00:19
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https://twitter.com/marthawells1/status/1260707417475756032?s=19
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May 14, 2020 11:50
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OK, I bought The Monster. General B, I have faith in you to deliver a title for the fourth book. Don't let me down.
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May 14, 2020 13:49
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Jedit posted:OK, I bought The Monster. General B, I have faith in you to deliver a title for the fourth book. Don't let me down. General B doesn't owe any of us a single thing.
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May 14, 2020 14:17
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I thought the Tor email that gave away the first book said the third is the conclusion? Or was that another typo?
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May 14, 2020 17:30
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I think that was referring to Scalzi's trilogy, yeah. Somebody forgot to update the copy.
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May 14, 2020 17:33
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Right now I am thinking it will be called The Ends of Baru Cormorant? I dunno.
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May 14, 2020 17:39
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General Battuta posted:Right now I am thinking it will be called The Ends of Baru Cormorant? I dunno. Call it Baru Cormorant 1 to confuse the gently caress outta people like they did with Battlefield and Xbox.
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May 14, 2020 17:45
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Call it The Traitor, or The Traitor Baru Cormorant in the UK.
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May 14, 2020 18:09
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https://twitter.com/TorDotComPub/status/1260973479370936320?s=19 e: april of next year, and it's another novella, 150~ pages StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 18:38 on May 14, 2020 |
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May 14, 2020 18:12
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so I'm reading James White and having a great time and I knew this was coming but what the gently caress:quote:"oh well, misogyny is an allowable neurosis" when earlier they established that racism isn't an allowable neurosis, nor prejudice of any kind did the author have ANY twitch, any recognition of how this is stupid? signs point to no and he's dead so I can't ask, but man! man!!!
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May 14, 2020 18:39
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StrixNebulosa posted:https://twitter.com/TorDotComPub/status/1260973479370936320?s=19 Ugh, I hate having to wait almost a year for about 2, maybe 3 hours of fun reading.
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May 14, 2020 20:19
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Bad lessons I learned from reading KJ Parker's Engineer trilogy 1. Love turns people into amoral sociopaths who believe that no amount of collateral damage is unreasonable. 2. It's okay to be an amoral sociopath. You can rationalize your behavior by saying you "had no choice". 3. A very effective way of manipulating people is to back them into a bad situation where their good intentions will direct them along the path to ruin you've prepared for them. Because you have no choice, why should anyone else? 4. Making yourself a vital part of an organzation is the best way to position yourself to betray everyone in it, thus backing them into a bad situation. Bonus: you can use the inevitable destruction to scapegoat and eliminate those who know too much with minimal personal consequences. 5. The best way to get warring factions to stop fighting is to unite them against a bunch of uncivilized desert dwellers. Like "Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City" (which I devoured in one sitting due to its excellent pace), the ending didn't have a strong conclusion. If that's the way Parker ends all his stories, then I'm not particularly keen on starting any more of them despite the craft he puts into them.
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May 14, 2020 20:39
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anilEhilated posted:I liked Ninefox since it established the whole universal setup of weird calendar magic and half-living ships and playing rock paper scissors with fleets. Both sequels felt seriously idea-starved. Well yeah, the universe is cool, execution was mediocre. Also, the drop in quality was bad enough to kill off any interest in the last one. Follows the usual path of sci-fi/fantasy with being big on ideas, bad at telling a story.
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May 14, 2020 20:53
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Skritch posted:If that's the way Parker ends all his stories, then I'm not particularly keen on starting any more of them despite the craft he puts into them.
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May 14, 2020 21:50
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The nice and accurate ends of Baru Cormorant. I've been re-reading Olaf stapledon and his last and first men and starmaker.hes got such a clear and distinct voice. He reads like an author from the 70's.only , ya know, writing in the 1930's. Where those the first examples of sci fi stories that bridge eons?
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May 14, 2020 23:13
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I just want a space magic tactics game based on 9FG
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May 15, 2020 01:11
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General Battuta posted:Right now I am thinking it will be called The Ends of Baru Cormorant? I dunno. Plural? Colour me intrigued. Also it's going to annoy the UK publisher, who will have to publish a book called "The Ends" or admit they hosed up in the first place. This pleases me.
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May 15, 2020 01:20
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American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennett - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008AS84PM/ Note that The Troupe and The Company Man by him are still $1.99. The Corporation Wars (Dissidence, Insurgence, Emergence) by Ken MacLeod - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DC24GD2/ pradmer fucked around with this message at 02:17 on May 15, 2020 |
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May 15, 2020 02:15
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Baru's Happy Ending 
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May 15, 2020 02:42
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Antifa Poltergeist posted:I've been re-reading Olaf stapledon and his last and first men and starmaker.hes got such a clear and distinct voice. I read one of his books once and his voice had all the liveliness of a wikipedia article, not really a big fan. It's cool that he was an actual philosopher though i guess.
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May 15, 2020 07:05
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mewse posted:Baru's Happy Ending Wouldn't that be something like "The Satisfied Baru Cormorant"?
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May 15, 2020 16:20
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I tried reading the first book when Tor offered it as a giveaway and I'm having trouble getting past all the "Lesbians are unnatural!" poo poo. Does it get better?
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May 15, 2020 16:28
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biracial bear for uncut posted:I tried reading the first book when Tor offered it as a giveaway and I'm having trouble getting past all the "Lesbians are unnatural!" poo poo. That's just the villains being villainous, and isn't borne out by the story; if you mean it's unsubtle, yes, the Masquerade in general is Evil. mewse posted:Baru's Happy Ending We've already had that in The Monster  A human heart posted:I read one of his books once and his voice had all the liveliness of a wikipedia article, not really a big fan. It's cool that he was an actual philosopher though i guess. Yeah, Last and First Men and the beginning of Star Maker are pretty dry, but the second one is more exciting towards the end, I thought. I think his other books are more like normal novels. Nice read, thanks. Jedit posted:OK, I bought The Monster. General B, I have faith in you to deliver a title for the fourth book. Don't let me down. This is either bloody rude or some very poorly chosen words, please be a bit more careful. I'm the Book Barn IK. Feel free to PM me or email bookbarnsecretsanta@gmail.com if I can help you with anything. Safety Biscuits fucked around with this message at 17:03 on May 15, 2020 |
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May 15, 2020 16:53
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biracial bear for uncut posted:I tried reading the first book when Tor offered it as a giveaway and I'm having trouble getting past all the "Lesbians are unnatural!" poo poo. Well, no, that sticks around because that's a large part of what Baru's fighting against as she herself is a lesbian raised by bisexuals. If Falcrest was suddenly not super messed up about a whole load of things, there wouldn't really be much of a plot. You did get that the "Lesbians are unnatural" was presented as the thing the bad guys thought, right?
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May 15, 2020 17:22
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team overhead smash posted:Well, no, that sticks around because that's a large part of what Baru's fighting against as she herself is a lesbian raised by bisexuals. If Falcrest was suddenly not super messed up about a whole load of things, there wouldn't really be much of a plot. Unless Baru is also a bad guy and I just haven't read far enough to find out otherwise, it seems to be a belief everyone holds, including Baru (she just doesn't believe the girl that the instructor is trying to molest should be punished for it).
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May 15, 2020 17:26
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biracial bear for uncut posted:I tried reading the first book when Tor offered it as a giveaway and I'm having trouble getting past all the "Lesbians are unnatural!" poo poo. Not in the short term. The books are about colonialism (including internalized oppression) and women's bodies are a major target of colonial processes. Baru has severe double consciousness and doesn't really start realizing how deeply she's internalized Falcrest's ideology until the second and third books.
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May 15, 2020 17:29
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The bad guys believing that women are intrinsically better at math doesn't make it true either, for example.
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May 15, 2020 17:32
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But I am definitely in favor of not reading books you won't enjoy.
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May 15, 2020 17:45
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Baru is a book series I respect a lot but cannot read because it's too drat dark. Depicting colonialism as well as you do... well, it's awful and difficult to read. Good luck with the final volume, and I hope you have many sales.
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May 15, 2020 17:47
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General Battuta posted:The bad guys believing that women are intrinsically better at math doesn't make it true either, for example. What about the phrenology?? 
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May 15, 2020 17:50
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I remember the first time I read a post recommending Baru that it was a bit bleak and that I should have a fun cozy read lined up after as a "chaser". I think I followed up Baru with Goblin Emperor or Becky Chambers.
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May 15, 2020 18:03
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Xtanstic posted:I remember the first time I read a post recommending Baru that it was a bit bleak and that I should have a fun cozy read lined up after as a "chaser". I think I followed up Baru with Goblin Emperor or Becky Chambers. Yeah, I read The Goblin Emperor immediately afterwards and that was a good choice. Definitely have something warm and cozy lined up.
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May 15, 2020 18:55
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A buddy in my writing group wrote what may be the seminal work in the penispunk genre. It's military SF, but all the tech is penis-based. It's called ASSAULT ON BALL'S DEEP, and it's free for two days. I thought it was hilarious: https://www.amazon.com/Assault-Ball...89566091&sr=8-1
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May 15, 2020 19:14
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What
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May 15, 2020 19:16
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I am close friends with the author of 'Adventures of the Detachable Penis' and I so seldom get a chance to brag about it.
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May 15, 2020 19:23
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BananaNutkins posted:seminal work 
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May 15, 2020 19:30
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StrixNebulosa posted:Baru is a book series I respect a lot but cannot read because it's too drat dark. Depicting colonialism as well as you do... well, it's awful and difficult to read. Good luck with the final volume, and I hope you have many sales. It seemed like very light imperialism to me. Like, the way Falcrest takes over Baru's homeland seems so much more modern-day technocratic and less bloody than historical imperialism.
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May 15, 2020 20:38
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