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Black August posted:yeah I have no illusions of making writing money unless it's writing the slush trash and smut for a little extra spending. reading more is what I'm trying to work on now, last thing I got through was the excellent Southern Reach trilogy, and that's RIGHT up the alley of stuff I've always enjoyed writing myself. that, and the Three Body Problem books. I enjoyed the Three Body books but there's some stuff in there that would seem downright sad puppy-ish if it came from the western sf scene. For example (major spoilers)Earth is targeted for invasion by an advanced alien species, but devises a mutually assured destruction scheme to keep them from attacking. In response the aliens, under the guise of cultural/scientific exchange, set to work feminizing all of humanity. It gets to the point where someone from our time wouldn't even be able to distinguish men from women, and the only "real men" left were ones who are/had been in cryo-sleep. Eventually it's time to elect a new MAD button presser to take over for the guy who came up with the system and is getting very old. The now-feminized humans elect the hapless female POV character rather than one of a posse of unfrozen Men Who Get Things Done. She fucks up within seconds of assuming the job and the invasion is back on.
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Sep 21, 2020 15:07
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Considering how dire most women are treated in those genres, TBP was pretty bearable to get through despite those weird issues. Southern Reach really did it for me though, the majority of characters expressing different colors of 'exhausted, angry, traumatized, lost' is a perfect mood to capture right now and for the future.
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Sep 21, 2020 15:11
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Barudak posted:Each subsequent Hyperion is less good and by the end it feels like your reading a racist uncles screed. Agreed. Read the first two and call it a day.
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Sep 21, 2020 16:47
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MNIMWA posted:I just finished the first Hyperion (sorry if this was discussed already) and really liked it. Are the rest of them also worth reading? First duology is good. Third book is a neat idea, but the ending is real weak. Forth book is enraging with how bad it is It's the final show down between the physical embodiment of human ingenuity and the AI gods al told through the perspective of a jealous boyfriend
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Sep 21, 2020 17:49
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I just learned that drow is pronounced drow and not drow. I thought it rhymed with row, but it rhymes with row
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Sep 21, 2020 18:01
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Its "drew", named after one of Gary's players who would never chip in for the snacks and was a general rear end in a top hat.
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Sep 21, 2020 18:03
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I'm okay with longer books (weirdly more so if they're like teen-marketed bc then the font tends to be bigger so the wordcount usually isn't as bloated), it just has to be doing something with the length. Just seems like the trend now is 'this is deep and complex because it's long'.
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Sep 21, 2020 18:03
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Barudak posted:Each subsequent Hyperion is less good and by the end it feels like your reading a racist uncles screed. That isn't quite true. Hyperion 1-4 were written before he went batshit. That said, the first is great. The second is a letdown. The third is a huge disappointment. The fourth redeems 2 and 3 but I don't think anyone needs to get that far in unless they're blown away by his writing. Do not read anything else he wrote after 9/11. Really he's one of those authors where it's best to pretend he wrote a single book before getting hit by a meteor. Ohthehugemanatee fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Sep 21, 2020 |
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Sep 21, 2020 19:19
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Ohthehugemanatee posted:That isn't quite true. Hyperion 1-4 were written before he went batshit. That said, the first is great. The second is a letdown. The third is a huge disappointment. The fourth redeems 2 and 3 but I don't think anyone needs to get that far in unless they're blown away by his writing. Song of Kali is supposed to be really good too, and he wrote that before he wrote any of the Hyperion stuff. I dunno anything about Ilium or Olympos though.
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Sep 21, 2020 19:28
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Ilium was just okay. The writing was competent, but it felt bloated and the plot was pretty dumb. I finished it only because of the Shakespeare robots storyline, which I found charming. Never read the second one but I hear it's worse.
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Sep 21, 2020 19:45
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Colonel Cancer posted:Its "drew", named after one of Gary's players who would never chip in for the snacks and was a general rear end in a top hat. I once bought a used D&D book with an “official” pronunciation guide off of eBay to win a bet about how duergar was pronounced (we were both wrong). It was a 3rd ed. book though, so FREE FOR ALL!
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Sep 21, 2020 20:01
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Flared Basic Bitch posted:I once bought a used D&D book with an “official” pronunciation guide off of eBay to win a bet about how duergar was pronounced (we were both wrong). Is it pronounced "Throat-wobbler Mangrove?"
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Sep 21, 2020 20:12
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One of the Hyperion sequels (don't recall which) has a very bad case of "underage girl and adult male protagonist who raised her have relationship but it's ok for a variety of bullshit reasons". I will also wholeheartedly throw in my support for The Library at Mount Char. That book blew me away. edit: I went and looked to see if Scott Hawkins has written anything other than The Library at Mount Char, and it's a bunch of coding books.
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Sep 21, 2020 20:14
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Doyeee-Argh-Arr
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Sep 21, 2020 20:14
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CaptainSarcastic posted:Is it pronounced "Throat-wobbler Mangrove?" Hilariously, I can only remember our two incorrect versions (DWER-ger and DWARE-gar). I’ll look for the book later.
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Sep 21, 2020 20:19
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Flared Basic Bitch posted:Hilariously, I can only remember our two incorrect versions (DWER-ger and DWARE-gar). I’ll look for the book later. I always assumed dwer-ger.
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Sep 21, 2020 20:29
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I always read it how it appears to be intended from a quick search - DEW-er-gahr.
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Sep 21, 2020 20:32
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Do 'er Garf F is silent
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Sep 21, 2020 20:44
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PetraCore posted:I'm okay with longer books (weirdly more so if they're like teen-marketed bc then the font tends to be bigger so the wordcount usually isn't as bloated), it just has to be doing something with the length. Just seems like the trend now is 'this is deep and complex because it's long'. I feel like I've read more good chunky books now than in previous decades. Like I just knew a 800 page fantasy opus form 1997 was going to be a slog, but now it might be decent. This does no extend to scifi which seems to be deep into a longer=shitter dive these days. HelloIAmYourHeart posted:One of the Hyperion sequels (don't recall which) has a very bad case of "underage girl and adult male protagonist who raised her have relationship but it's ok for a variety of bullshit reasons". She's not underaged when they start the sexual/romantic relationship, but she did use relativity to jump forward to her early 20's before seducing him and it's all very "its cool because she's legally an adult and she started it, right?"
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Sep 21, 2020 21:46
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Flared Basic Bitch posted:I once bought a used D&D book with an “official” pronunciation guide off of eBay to win a bet about how duergar was pronounced (we were both wrong). I've been saying doo' er gar, but I'm clearly not to be trusted I remember back in the Usenet days seeing multiple people arguing over how to pronounce Drizzt. periodically someone would chime in that they'd asked Salvatore and they'd speak what he said, but that would only cause more arguments
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Sep 21, 2020 21:53
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The problem with the longer books is there is almost always tons of filler. If you got a 350 page book and an 800 page book but the 800 page book maybe has 400 pages worth of actual stuff going on you're better off going with the 350 page book. I've never read A Song of Ice and Fire though I started the first book and GRRM's style came off as generic fantasy to me when I'd been sold on it being "gritty" (I ended up getting what I was looking for in Abercrombie) but I've heard the last book or so is mostly wheel spinning.
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Sep 21, 2020 22:22
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Been going thru a Discworld marathon since earlier this year, about 15 books in, can only recommend.
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Sep 21, 2020 22:26
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Colonel Cancer posted:Been going thru a Discworld marathon since earlier this year, about 15 books in, can only recommend. I've been meaning to check those out for most of my life. gotta get to 'em.
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Sep 21, 2020 22:28
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Empty Sandwich posted:I've been meaning to check those out for most of my life. gotta get to 'em. They're great, but I probably wouldn't start with the very first book. Not going to pretend that they are some sort of high literature but I can definitely say that these novels got me through some dark times in my youth lol
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Sep 21, 2020 22:34
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Where is the best place to start? I've wanted to get in to them too and have heard "Guards, Guards" is a good first read?
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Sep 21, 2020 22:41
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I personally love all the Death centric novels (Mort and Reaper Man) and all the witch ones too, but Guards Guards is absolutely a good place to start.
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Sep 21, 2020 22:43
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MNIMWA posted:Where is the best place to start? I've wanted to get in to them too and have heard "Guards, Guards" is a good first read? mort
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Sep 21, 2020 22:55
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MNIMWA posted:Where is the best place to start? I've wanted to get in to them too and have heard "Guards, Guards" is a good first read? Small Gods is probably the best since it was written later but is completely disconnected from any of the running storylines. The only thing you need to know is that there's a magical librarian who was turned into an orangutan (he shows up for one scene that is kind of confusing if are unaware of this.)
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Sep 21, 2020 23:04
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Yeah small gods are solid.
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Sep 21, 2020 23:05
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As long as you don't start with Colour of Magic you'll be fine.
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Sep 21, 2020 23:44
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SirSamVimes posted:As long as you don't start with Colour of Magic you'll be fine. the second one is a sequel to it
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Sep 21, 2020 23:47
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I started with colour of magic and I turned out okay. But with hindsight I agree that it’s not the best one to read first.
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Sep 21, 2020 23:55
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I enjoyed both Colour and Light Fantastic but he hadn't gotten really comfortable in his shoes yet. Everything between Mort and Thud! is gold including the YA stuff. Carpet People is fun and I've re-read Strata as often as any of the main Disc stuff.
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Sep 21, 2020 23:55
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Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic aren't bad, they're just a more standard fantasy parody and very different to most Discworld.
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Sep 21, 2020 23:57
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The bones are already there. He even gets most of the characterisation straight out of the gate with the few that do reappear in the later books. I think the only bits he had to retcon were Fat Vetinari and Vengeful Death.
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Sep 22, 2020 00:05
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SirSamVimes posted:Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic aren't bad, they're just a more standard fantasy parody and very different to most Discworld. yeah
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Sep 22, 2020 00:10
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Uncle Lloyd posted:Have I got a loving book for you, it’s called “The Library at Mount Char” by Scott Hawkins and it is a really really good standalone novel. Hard to describe, vaguely similar setting as American Gods (centered around deities of a sort in contemporary America), but way more off the wall and way better. Just read this and enjoyed it thoroughly thanks
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Sep 22, 2020 06:00
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 Small Gods and Guards! Guards! are two of my favorites, so I always recommend those. Personally, I read (and am still reading) the books all out of "order," so go wild.
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Sep 22, 2020 06:05
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Rags to Liches posted:Song of Kali is supposed to be really good too, and he wrote that before he wrote any of the Hyperion stuff. I dunno anything about Ilium or Olympos though. Song of Kali is great and creepy but it is quite racist, but I guess that it mostly just the point of view of the racist protagonist.
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Sep 22, 2020 06:10
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Thanks to this thread I found out Kender exist and me and my wife had a pretty intense discussion on how to make them workable. Long story short, make them a society of quasi-monastic hobbits who give out and accept things freely, since they have no concept of ownership but realize that other people do. Everyone else likes them not because they're cute or whatever but because they're genuinely nice and good people. You can still have the thieving griefer Kender but make it so that they got kicked out by the other Kender and are widely disliked by everyone.
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Sep 22, 2020 19:49
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