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Ash: A Secret History is on Kindle sale again in the US, $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/Ash-Secret-History-Mary-Gentle-ebook/dp/B00GU2R3AC/ Some content warning for sexual violence, mostly very early. Well worth powering through.
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Jun 15, 2020 01:24
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PawParole posted:Anyone know of a story where humans are conquered by aliens and it’s set in the aftermath? ( no ai, vampires or weird poo poo). It’s not 100% in the aftermath, but “Footfall” by Larry Niven is all about a plucky group of American Humans fighting off successful alien conquerors. Ok I haven’t read it in 25 years so I can’t vouch for it not having old Sci-Fi author sex weirdness in it. But it does have, to my recollection, WHAM... WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM!
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Jun 15, 2020 04:41
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CaptainCrunch posted:It’s not 100% in the aftermath, but “Footfall” by Larry Niven is all about a plucky group of American Humans fighting off successful alien conquerors. There is a character with some gender and or sex issues in the book, and that character is at least treated with some sympathy.
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Jun 15, 2020 05:46
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Speaking of Peter F. Hamilton... Salvation: A Novel (The Salvation Sequence Book 1) by Peter F. Hamilton - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/Salvation-Novel-Sequence-Book-ebook/dp/B07837SGSY/ It's the first book book of his latest space opera trilogy set in a new universe, and I believe it's the first time it's on sale. I haven't read it yet, so I have no idea if there is creepy-sex in it.
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Jun 15, 2020 11:56
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Search your feelings. You know it to be true. It's a Hamilton, of course there's some lovely sex in it.
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Jun 15, 2020 12:27
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I'm going to be honest, I read that one less than 2 years ago and even after flipping through it for a few minutes just now I can't remember anything about it. Well I did remember it had one cool concept: homes made up of rooms in different places using cheap portal technology
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Jun 15, 2020 12:56
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mllaneza posted:Ash: A Secret History is on Kindle sale again in the US, $3.99 I picked this up a couple of weeks ago, only around a hundred pages into this behemoth but i'm really enjoying it so far, combination of Red Knight style medievil logistics and and alt-historical world building is up my street.
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Jun 15, 2020 14:24
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TheAardvark posted:I'm going to be honest, I read that one less than 2 years ago and even after flipping through it for a few minutes just now I can't remember anything about it. Oh hey I remember that concept/gimmick from Harry Harrison's 1970's themed short story collection One Step from Earth, whose theme was matter transportation/portal devices stories (thank you public library system). Harry Harrison's version of "houses made up of rooms in different places using cheap portal technology" was called A Tale of the Ending, and it's gimmick was strapping two cheap portal devices together as a long-long-long-long ago standardized safety precaution in the far future of humanity with quote marks etched in around "humanity" as the final story teaser. Honestly feel that there is no reason to read Peter F Hamilton work at all, unless you're secretly reading them for the creepy sex scenes or trying to impress people by lugging around the thickness of the physical copies. Instead read Hamilton's unique seeming scifi concepts from their original source, the massive sci-fi back catalogue of Victor Gollancz Ltd. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Jun 15, 2020 |
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Jun 15, 2020 14:34
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How are the later books in Traitor Son Cycle? I'm halfway through The Red Knight, and it's pretty good so far - I like the little slice-of-life vignettes, the characters are kinda broadly drawn but fun, wizard-fights are nicely apocalyptic - but dear god does it take ages to get anywhere. I swear we've had 8 different military sorties during the siege, a dozen tense moonlight meetings with the sexy nun, etc etc.
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Jun 15, 2020 14:49
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quantumfoam posted:Oh hey I remember that concept/gimmick from Harry Harrison's 1970's themed short story collection One Step from Earth, whose theme was matter transportation/portal devices stories (thank you public library system). It turns up in Simmons first two Hyperion books as well. I'm sure it's in other stories as well, it's a fairly obvious implication of such technology.
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Jun 15, 2020 15:11
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Not to mention that calling some minor concept/idea out as being derivative is a bit laughable in scifi. Hamiltons worth a read if you enjoy space opera, just skim/skip the sex stuff (far from the only author that sucks like this of his generation). I did a big re-read of all his main series earlier this year and it was fun for the most part. The possessed in his first trilogy always give me a really bad vibe.
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Jun 15, 2020 15:26
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Okay I have a weird question for Baru's author if he reads this. I'm re-reading Baru Cormorant book 1 and most of the action takes place in Aurdwynn. People live there, but they're never once referred to as "Aurdwynnian", only as the sub-groups (like Maia) that live inside the country. Was that because "Aurdwynnian" sounds awkward and so was consciously avoided, or no sentence was ever constructed that required the term "Aurdwynnian"?
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Jun 15, 2020 18:40
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I think the term 'Aurdwynni' is used, yeah? The setting in general is fond of the -i ending for ethnic groups, Falcresti, Aurdwynni, Oriati, Stakhieczi, so on so forth. There's a lot of ways to say 'people from a place.' Germans are people from Germany, sometimes they're called Germanic people, the English are from England but people from Japan aren't Japanish, Canadians are from Canada not Canadia, Americans are from America not Americia, and what's even up with the Dutch?
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Jun 15, 2020 18:51
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Strom Cuzewon posted:How are the later books in Traitor Son Cycle? I'm halfway through The Red Knight, and it's pretty good so far - I like the little slice-of-life vignettes, the characters are kinda broadly drawn but fun, wizard-fights are nicely apocalyptic - but dear god does it take ages to get anywhere. I swear we've had 8 different military sorties during the siege, a dozen tense moonlight meetings with the sexy nun, etc etc. I really enjoyed the series, and I'd say the pace picked up as it went along. It's been a little while, but I feel it would be fair to say it keeps getting bigger and crazier as it goes on, while retaining the kind of enjoyable vignettes you're talking about. I think it's worth it to keep reading if you end up enjoying The Red Knight
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Jun 15, 2020 18:55
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General Battuta posted:I think the term 'Aurdwynni' is used, yeah? The setting in general is fond of the -i ending for ethnic groups, Falcresti, Aurdwynni, Oriati, Stakhieczi, so on so forth. Literally the same as Deutsch for Germans; it's an Old High German word "diutisc" meaning "the people", and it started being used when the Netherlands and what is now Germany were both part of the Holy Roman Empire.
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Jun 15, 2020 19:07
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drat it, 93% through The Praxis, it gets revealed that the two girls regularly having sex with adults are actually 14 years old because lol surprise we weren't using Earth years.
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Jun 15, 2020 19:50
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TheAardvark posted:drat it, 93% through The Praxis, it gets revealed that the two girls regularly having sex with adults are actually 14 years old because lol surprise we weren't using Earth years. What the gently caress
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Jun 15, 2020 20:20
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Harold Fjord posted:What the gently caress there's a character that talks about having learned a lot about sex from an older married man, who she last saw on her last birthday. A main character asks if she wants to celebrate her birthday, "My birthday was months ago!" "No, your Earth birthday. You're turning 15!" 
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Jun 15, 2020 20:24
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TheAardvark posted:drat it, 93% through The Praxis, it gets revealed that the two girls regularly having sex with adults are actually 14 years old because lol surprise we weren't using Earth years. Science fiction seems like a genre where you can just have some fun and not take things too seriously.
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Jun 15, 2020 20:26
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A human heart posted:Science fiction seems like a genre where you can just have some fun and not take things too seriously. Agreed. Publishers should probably stop letting poo poo like this get away with it so I can continue having some fun and not taking things too seriously.
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Jun 15, 2020 20:31
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McCoy Pauley posted:I really enjoyed the series, and I'd say the pace picked up as it went along. It's been a little while, but I feel it would be fair to say it keeps getting bigger and crazier as it goes on, while retaining the kind of enjoyable vignettes you're talking about. I think it's worth it to keep reading if you end up enjoying The Red Knight Isn’t red knight the book where the protagonist uses magic to sneak in to a monastery and makes out with a bewitched nun?
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Jun 15, 2020 21:15
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TheAardvark posted:Agreed. Publishers should probably stop letting poo poo like this get away with it so I can continue having some fun and not taking things too seriously. Really though, this stuff seems like such an easy editorial fix. It’s never ever actually related to the plot, and basically just involves excising some spotty parts of the book. E: lovely. Some lovely parts of the book.
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Jun 15, 2020 21:28
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The Road by Cormac McCarthy - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OI0G1Q/ Blood of Elves (Witcher #1) by Andrzej Sapkowski - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00276HAEY/
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Jun 15, 2020 22:22
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McCoy Pauley posted:I really enjoyed the series, and I'd say the pace picked up as it went along. It's been a little while, but I feel it would be fair to say it keeps getting bigger and crazier as it goes on, while retaining the kind of enjoyable vignettes you're talking about. I think it's worth it to keep reading if you end up enjoying The Red Knight Agreed, it's longer than I remembered but pretty consistently ramps up without losing the fun. His other series as miles Cameron, masters and mages, has some great world building and ideas but the story and theme are inconsistent.
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Jun 15, 2020 22:38
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TheAardvark posted:drat it, 93% through The Praxis, it gets revealed that the two girls regularly having sex with adults are actually 14 years old because lol surprise we weren't using Earth years. makes u think
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Jun 16, 2020 02:52
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Wtf is that Praxis by Walter Jon Williams? I have that and was looking forward to reading it  The sex stuff in Great North Road isn't awful so far, it's mostly just the depraved sex lives of space billionaires and the people who infiltrate their mansions posing as harem girls to exact revenge for one thing or another I'm only halfway through though so maybe it gets sexweirder
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Jun 16, 2020 03:01
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Hedrigall posted:Wtf is that Praxis by Walter Jon Williams? I have that and was looking forward to reading it I don’t remember creepy sex in Praxis. I will warn you that those books are completely devoid of tension. It’s weird because it’s got really good ideas, and the characters are flawed and well realized; I think I was just really disappointed the setting seemed almost self-sabotaging.
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Jun 16, 2020 03:36
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Velius posted:I don’t remember creepy sex in Praxis. I will warn you that those books are completely devoid of tension. It’s weird because it’s got really good ideas, and the characters are flawed and well realized; I think I was just really disappointed the setting seemed almost self-sabotaging. It's not "creepy sex" in the style of Peter F. Hamilton, there is very little sex in the book period. But... When Gredel first meets Caro, Caro tells her about how she learned all about sex from Sergei, basically the husband of someone from the same clan. At this time we are told they're like 17 or 18, but also told that these aren't Earth years. Gredel is likewise in a sexual relationship (with a 25 year old) before she meets Caro. At one point they have a threesome, that lasts I believe half of a sentence. and then randomly at the very end of the book Gredel mentions that it's about to be Caro's 15th "Earthday", the same age Gredel is. It's so weird because if he'd said "it's your 24th Earth birthday" or something it would have fit the character's life far better too. I guess Gredel could have been lying or something? It's just bizarre AARD VARKMAN fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Jun 16, 2020 |
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Jun 16, 2020 03:50
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Random sale on KJ Parker, mostly book 3 of trilogies. All $1.99 The Escapement (Engineer #3) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010SEMLE/ The Proof House (Fencer #3) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B3VX3UE The Two of Swords: Volume 3 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y5K2CK2/ Sharps - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005WK2ZXS/
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Jun 16, 2020 04:14
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Velius posted:I don’t remember creepy sex in Praxis. I will warn you that those books are completely devoid of tension. It’s weird because it’s got really good ideas, and the characters are flawed and well realized; I think I was just really disappointed the setting seemed almost self-sabotaging. i don't either. i think my favourite book is the resistance one, quite a bit later in the sequence
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Jun 16, 2020 06:02
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Hedrigall posted:Wtf is that Praxis by Walter Jon Williams? I have that and was looking forward to reading it It does! Not as creepy as some apparently, but I found it pretty distracting coming from a bunch of books with zero sex weirdness.
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Jun 16, 2020 10:04
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TheAardvark posted:It's not "creepy sex" in the style of Peter F. Hamilton, there is very little sex in the book period. But... (The Praxis) Gredel is absolutely lying, and even thinks that she is. It's an excuse for her to administer the drug overdose, knowing that Caro is too stupid to work it out for herself.
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Jun 16, 2020 11:27
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TheAardvark posted:Agreed. Publishers should probably stop letting poo poo like this get away with it so I can continue having some fun and not taking things too seriously. Given the number of sci fi writers who 'accidentally' put this sort of thing in their books, don't you think there's a chance that the publishers might like having it in there because it sells, or might even mandate having it in the books.
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Jun 16, 2020 11:40
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So, reading about The Praxis I came across what might be, without hyperbole, the most hilariously insipid review I have ever read https://www.tor.com/2009/05/26/aliens-spaceships-and-fun-walter-jon-williamss-dread-empires-fall/ quote:Walter Jon Williams is a terrific writer, and whatever he does, he does very well.
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Jun 16, 2020 16:12
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Jedit posted:(The Praxis) Unfortunately that doesn't really math out. Gredel knows she's lying about today being her 15th Earthday, not it being her 15th. The end of the book goes on to confirm that they are using a time system where their ages translate to younger ones in Earth terms. e:Considering the characters' lives and everything, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the author, having referred to them at 17/18 early on, wrote them as late teens/young adults well before he did the math that showed that Caro was 14 years old at the end AARD VARKMAN fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Jun 16, 2020 |
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Jun 16, 2020 16:15
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Mel Mudkiper posted:So, reading about The Praxis I came across what might be, without hyperbole, the most hilariously insipid review I have ever read I keep waffling between being sad that this is what one of the biggest publishers in the field is putting up in the way of criticism and feeling at times that this one in particular is kind of refreshing, in that it's not trying to put lipstick on a pig. Do you like <genre>? This is of <genre> and does the needful. MilSF never pretends to be great in any way other than giving its readers the kind of Mack Bolan with laser guns style of writing they crave. This reviewer says, "yes, it's present". And yet, "And they’re my favourite favourite kind of thing. There are aliens, and spaceships, and planets with funny names. There’s a space navy. There are great characters. The background all makes sense as it comes into focus." "The only thing I can find to say that’s even mildly negative about these books is that there aren’t any real surprises." I miss when people like James Blish and Damon Knight and Algis Budrys were providing insightful reviews (though I admit that I'm not up on the state of reviewing in the current magazines).
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Jun 16, 2020 21:05
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I tried to read stuff on the Tor website but it's just such fluff. Might as well be reading press releases. Some places like Strange Horizons have meaty reviews, even if they sometimes go down strange paths like suggesting every book set in a medieval time period should be written in a medieval voice. I think that would be realistic and would also do a lot to alienate most readers. I'm also not convinced that people in the past thought as different to modern humans as a reviewer like this supposes: http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/reviews/the-name-of-the-wind-by-patrick-rothfuss-and-the-children-of-hurin-by-j-r-r-tolkien/
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Jun 16, 2020 21:27
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I was thinking of just that review when I was trying to bring to mind modern SF/fantasy reviewers with more depth than the usual plot summation style of "review" Mel linked above. it's too bad that he seems to have decided to focus on tentpole film releases instead afterwards. His stance on fantasy prose isn't an original one--it goes back to Ursula Le Guin in the mid 70s--but it's something I really agree with, if only because the modernistic writing tone used by 99% of people today isn't a choice so much as a default, and really does help suck a sense of the fantastic out of the stories, through a consistent sameness in language, tone, and character. That doesn't mean writing in Chaucerian or High Elizabethan, but an attempt to capture a different mindset through your writing aside from the usual dry omniscient listing of social variance--i.e. worldbuilding. Even grabbing an old book like The Victorian Frame of Mind: 1830-1870 or whatever to help try and convey what a different society might value, think and speak like, rather than merely look like. There's a lot of good books on mentalities out there that I wish authors would read, and that could translate to better (or at least, thankfully different) prose as well as better "worldbuilding": time spent on imagining the inner life and working on the prose is more likely to create something fantastic compared to exploring the in-depth mechanics of the magic system. Xotl fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Jun 17, 2020 |
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Jun 16, 2020 22:03
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A human heart posted:Given the number of sci fi writers who 'accidentally' put this sort of thing in their books, don't you think there's a chance that the publishers might like having it in there because it sells, or might even mandate having it in the books. I don't think you are being genuine when you argue that Sci-fi publishers mandate child porn in their books. If you are going to push an idea like that, please have something to back it up, because it's completely insane. It's super hosed up when it comes up, and I think this thread tends to agree with that, and have the same opinion on books that do that that you do. Acting like it's something that this thread approves of is half a step from calling people ITT pedophiles. So back it the gently caress up, please.
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Jun 16, 2020 22:16
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Ccs posted:I tried to read stuff on the Tor website but it's just such fluff. Might as well be reading press releases. It's because they are fluff press releases Just going to quote my post from the 2nd SF&F thread about TOR.COM "reviews" because it is just as valid and applicable today as when it was originally posted 15 months ago. quantumfoam posted:
For the 2nd part of your post, that Strange Horizons review is 13 yrs old. Regardless of that, think of all the poo poo in scifi & fantasy stories from 10 yrs/20 yrs/30+ yrs ago that don't fly today. And the furor that these Mindset lists usually invoked before November 2016 happened. https://themindsetlist.com/lists/ That reviewers point was valid at the time of writing, not sure what they would say today in 2020. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Jun 16, 2020 |
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Jun 16, 2020 22:20
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