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StrixNebulosa posted:Ah wanted to reply to this one, I've read the Melanie Rawn books and they have dragons in them but they're basically fancy animals and it's more a fantasy romance with some politicking instead of anything dragon-centric. Which is fine, I enjoyed them and would go for a reread, but they're not what my brother wants. I think. I can always pull them out and ask him what he thinks, since he's living here due to covid. There's some stuff about dragons and dragon lords in the original Riftwar Saga books, though they don't really spend a huge amount of time in the dragons mind or anything like that. I really don't remember if the Pern books are any good I read them when I was 12. In retrospect, I appreciate that people actually wore straps and had dragon harnesses, it drives me nuts when people just climb in a giant firebreathing lizards scaly back and go swooping around in the air and don't fall off, but it's a "gritty realistic fantasy world". Also, there's the Hobbit.
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Jun 7, 2020 19:02
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pseudanonymous posted:
Eeeehhhhhhh. There's some good stuff *in* them but the sexual politics are all hosed up.
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Jun 7, 2020 19:08
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StrixNebulosa posted:To the malazan liker: I've read the first three malazan books and they contain zero badass dragons in them, so like, come on, try again. I want something I'll actually feel good about reccing to him, not something where he has to read 500000 pages to get to the good bits. Anyhow, as far as actual recs go, Tooth and Claw seems to be an obvious option? e: gently caress me, how did I forget this: get him The Dragon Griaule by Lucius Shepard. The titular lizard is more of a metaphor than a character but it's got a very malevolent presence with all the classic attributes of greed, selfishness, hunger... and inspiring them in humans. Regarding Murderbot an emotion, the whole "unfeeling machine caring for its humans" is basically Murderbot being in denial. Which happens a lot. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Jun 7, 2020 |
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Jun 7, 2020 19:40
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HopperUK posted:Eeeehhhhhhh. There's some good stuff *in* them but the sexual politics are all hosed up. Pern's politics in general are all hosed up. Dragonsong is alright. The alright Pern book: Dragonsong.
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Jun 7, 2020 19:50
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To be fair, the first Pern story was published in 1967. Things have changed a bit. For one thing, most of us here were born since then. As a product of their time the original three (or six if you include the Harper books) novels really aren't that bad.
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Jun 7, 2020 21:21
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There is also Dragon charm that I am reading now based on recommendations in this thread. Someone described it as watership down with dragons (and not rabbits). It is ok and I think the rabbit version is better.
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Jun 7, 2020 21:58
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I forget how dragonchat started, but dragons play heavily in The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C Wrede. It's genre- and gender- bending YA that has a strong female protagonist and is in general an excellent piece of YA fantasy
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Jun 7, 2020 23:25
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StrixNebulosa posted:To the malazan liker: I've read the first three malazan books and they contain zero badass dragons in them, so like, come on, try again. There's at least seven dragons in the first book, or at least were-dragons - the five Tiste Andii sent to delay the Tyrant by Anomander Rake, Rake himself, and Adjunct Lorn's demon.
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Jun 7, 2020 23:46
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Jedit posted:There's at least seven dragons in the first book, or at least were-dragons - the five Tiste Andii sent to delay the Tyrant by Anomander Rake, Rake himself, and Adjunct Lorn's demon. the gently caress, I thought Tiste Andii were like magic elves or something
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Jun 7, 2020 23:58
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Cardiac posted:There is also Dragon charm that I am reading now based on recommendations in this thread. Someone described it as watership down with dragons (and not rabbits). It is ok and I think the rabbit version is better. I grew up reading this book, it’s fun
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Jun 8, 2020 00:14
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There's that Rage of Dragons book, I haven't read it yet but I heard it was decent?
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Jun 8, 2020 00:15
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StrixNebulosa posted:the gently caress, I thought Tiste Andii were like magic elves or something I didn't remember the details myself so I googled it and some of the dark elf types were "soletaken" that shapeshifted into black dragons for fights in the first book. Anomander did have a true red dragon buddy though, the "elaint" Silanah. I needed a monster manual with visuals for that series. I think that's why my brother liked it so much, he kept figuring out new things on subsequent rereads.
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Jun 8, 2020 00:44
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bagrada posted:Anomander did have a true red dragon Anomander Rake is a ridiculous anime pretty-boy whose eyes change colour and has a dragon for a girlfriend. (I fuckin love him and most everything else about Malazan, but it's important to remember that it's filled with ridiculous bullshit, which is half the fun)
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Jun 8, 2020 00:54
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team overhead smash posted:I got the exact opposite impression from Murderbot, that it's very emotional but also introverted and doesn't show it easily. It can be very calm in the face of danger like the initial scene in the first novella where it's complaining about rescuing someone from some alien beastie, but it can have very strong emotions towards people even if it then has trouble processing or showing those emotions. It gets more obvious the further you go throught he books as Murderbot develops more attachments to people. For instance, in the fifth book it thinks its ship friend has died and goes on a bit of a berserker rampage and is traumatised over it. Yeah, that’s Murderbot’s whole thing. People shooting guns at it? No problem. People having feelings at it? Brings up all kinds of stuff it doesn’t know how to handle.
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Jun 8, 2020 01:39
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cptn_dr posted:Anomander Rake is a ridiculous anime pretty-boy whose eyes change colour and has a dragon for a girlfriend. Yeah, these are books told from the perspective of (mostly) ordinary people who hang out with literal worldbreaking demigods and occasionally kick their arses for them. It levels up in ways that anime can only dream of, but at the same time it doesn't make its powerful entities perfect or all knowing. It isn't everyone's cup of tea, though.
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Jun 8, 2020 01:40
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I've been enjoying Sam Sykes' Seven Blades Black. No dragons, but the protagonist is also very anime and she rides a murderbird.
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Jun 8, 2020 03:26
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PawParole posted:Just give me a first contact a theology and I’ll shut my dumb face first contact and theology, you say? eifelheim
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Jun 8, 2020 07:26
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Happiness Commando posted:I forget how dragonchat started, but dragons play heavily in The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C Wrede. It's genre- and gender- bending YA that has a strong female protagonist and is in general an excellent piece of YA fantasy Seconding this one, I loved it when I was a kid.
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Jun 8, 2020 09:53
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StrixNebulosa posted:My brother's birthday is upcoming and while I have some gifts lined up for him, it never hurts to check: are there any cool books about dragons? And I mean: dragons as main characters, dragons as badasses, dragons as a central focus. He doesn't mind if they're evil, but he wants them to be cool alien-esque scaly winged badasses who influence the plot. One of his favorites is Deathwing from the warcraft universe, for an example. The red knight by miles Cameron. Mediaeval fantasy, lots of sword fights and some dragons, especially as the series progresses. Dragons are mystical, absurdly powerful and detached from the main plot. Cardiac posted:There is also Dragonlance. If you think he'd like it, the 'legend of huma' is a spin off about a (later legendary) knight who befirends then falls in love with a woman who turns out to be his dragon mount in human form. It's a stand alone and very big on knights and dragons. Set 100s of years before the main stories.
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Jun 8, 2020 10:19
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Talking about dragons and nobody brings up Jane Yolen's YA Dragon books? SMDH what is the world coming to?
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Jun 8, 2020 11:51
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biracial bear for uncut posted:Talking about dragons and nobody brings up Jane Yolen's YA Dragon books? SMDH what is the world coming to? Everyone has correctly assumed that both me and my brother have read them!
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Jun 8, 2020 12:17
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StrixNebulosa posted:Everyone has correctly assumed that both me and my brother have read them! Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton?
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Jun 8, 2020 12:45
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biracial bear for uncut posted:Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton? That'd be a good candidate if it contained dragons in it. (Which, technically, it does but they're so... not draconic)
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Jun 8, 2020 12:47
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StrixNebulosa posted:That'd be a good candidate if it contained dragons in it. (Which, technically, it does but they're so... not draconic) What is a dragon?
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Jun 8, 2020 12:57
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pseudanonymous posted:What is a dragon? Someone recommend Wheel of Time before the moment passes.
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Jun 8, 2020 13:10
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I seem to remember some fantasy story from the POV of dragons raising a human child, and it turned out that human was St. Micheal and the whole "St. Micheal slays the dragons" was a con job. But I can't remember the original title or who wrote it. I read it back in high school so it was probably another YA novel circa late 1980s/early 1990s because it was a well-worn paperback.
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Jun 8, 2020 14:00
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StrixNebulosa posted:My brother's birthday is upcoming and while I have some gifts lined up for him, it never hurts to check: are there any cool books about dragons? And I mean: dragons as main characters, dragons as badasses, dragons as a central focus. He doesn't mind if they're evil, but he wants them to be cool alien-esque scaly winged badasses who influence the plot. One of his favorites is Deathwing from the warcraft universe, for an example. Of Bone and Thunder by Chris Evans might fit the bill.
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Jun 8, 2020 14:19
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StrixNebulosa posted:My brother's birthday is upcoming and while I have some gifts lined up for him, it never hurts to check: are there any cool books about dragons? And I mean: dragons as main characters, dragons as badasses, dragons as a central focus. He doesn't mind if they're evil, but he wants them to be cool alien-esque scaly winged badasses who influence the plot. One of his favorites is Deathwing from the warcraft universe, for an example. 2nding Hambley's Dragonsbane. I read it recently because Brandon Sanderson cited it as one of his formative inspirations, it's a very interesting take on that type of story.
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Jun 8, 2020 15:07
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Ornamented Death posted:Of Bone and Thunder by Chris Evans might fit the bill. Oh that looks neat, I'll check it out! mewse posted:2nding Hambley's Dragonsbane. I read it recently because Brandon Sanderson cited it as one of his formative inspirations, it's a very interesting take on that type of story.  honestly I hate this thread, I've spent way too much money thanks to it
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Jun 8, 2020 15:14
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Nobody mentioned Tea with the Black Dragon, which is a 1983 urban fantasy fiction story by R.A. Macavoy. The only reason I know it exists is from stumbling across it in a used bookstore and being charmed by the story/characters in it. from wikipedia quote:Martha Macnamara is called west to San Francisco by a message from her daughter Elizabeth, a computer programmer. When she arrives, however, Elizabeth has disappeared. Mayland Long, an Asian gentleman who is skilled in both human and computer languages — and who may be a transformed 2,000-year-old Chinese dragon —aids Martha in her search for her daughter. As they search for clues to Elizabeth's disappearance, they discover hints that Elizabeth is involved in a dangerous crime. The sequel, Twisting the Rope, pisses away all the interesting things from the first book unless you are deep into folk music and touring band drama. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Jun 8, 2020 |
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Jun 8, 2020 16:51
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I finished GNOMON by Nick Harkaway. I think I liked it a lot. I'm not sure how well it hung together for me in the end (probably because I stretched the reading process out for months), but it was, with perhaps a couple short exceptions, always a pleasure to read on the scene by scene level, and full of fascinating ideas. I'd rather have indulgent and ambitious than the opposite. As a commercial exercise I try to reduce books to the simplest possible hooks, but that's very hard for Gnomon. Uh: It is a book about the death of Diana Hunter, who expires while under memory-scan interrogation by London's near future surveillance state, and about Mielikki Neith, the detective who must relive her memories to determine if a murder occurred. But Mielikki finds the memories of other (fictional?) people stored in Hunter's mind — an Ethiopian artist who can walk through walls, a Greek tech bro who is haunted by a shark-god which manifests as the numeral 4 cruising through stock tickers, and an ancient Carthaginian alchemist called in to investigate the death of a Roman in a sacred Chamber of Isis which cannot possibly exist (because she forged the myths describing it). poo poo proceeds to get weird.
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Jun 8, 2020 16:59
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I liked Gnomon a lot, even if it does get a lot more ambitious than it could deliver. A lot of the references (character names) are really on the nose but it doesn't detract from being a really enjoyable read.
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Jun 8, 2020 17:07
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I own The Gone Away World by Harkaway but could never get through it. Something about the prose grated on me, like someone trying to do an impression of Douglass Adams and failing.
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Jun 8, 2020 17:47
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Tea with the Black Dragon is interesting because it's basically urban fantasy before "urban fantasy" was a thing (see also: Emma Bull's War for the Oaks).
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Jun 8, 2020 18:28
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Selachian posted:Tea with the Black Dragon is interesting because it's basically urban fantasy before "urban fantasy" was a thing (see also: Emma Bull's War for the Oaks). Charles de Lint also sits in this pre-Urban Fantasy category.
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Jun 8, 2020 18:50
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General Battuta posted:I finished GNOMON by Nick Harkaway. I think I liked it a lot. I'm not sure how well it hung together for me in the end (probably because I stretched the reading process out for months), but it was, with perhaps a couple short exceptions, always a pleasure to read on the scene by scene level, and full of fascinating ideas. I'd rather have indulgent and ambitious than the opposite. I think there was a lot of talk about it in the thread some time ago but it's been a while. Super ambitious, and once I got into it (say, once I got to the first chapter with the alchemist) I really got into it. The prose is quite good, if memory serves, and the ideas are interesting. Definitely worth a read.
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Jun 8, 2020 18:58
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Yeah it was great. I found it a bit of a slog until I got to the first sub-story and then I was hooked until the end
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Jun 8, 2020 20:28
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quantumfoam posted:Nobody mentioned Tea with the Black Dragon, which is a 1983 urban fantasy fiction story by R.A. Macavoy. I was going to suggest it, but decided not to purely because of how bad the sequel is.
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Jun 8, 2020 20:30
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anilEhilated posted:I liked Gnomon a lot, even if it does get a lot more ambitious than it could deliver. Agree with this. Also agree with GB that I'd rather go for novel and ambitious than not. Super solid book, and I'd like to see more like it.
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Jun 8, 2020 21:50
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If nothing else I loved the shark substory. I'm a huge sucker for books with multiple semi-connected stories, though. I loved the first 2 Hyperion books.
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Jun 8, 2020 22:02
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