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C.M. Kruger posted:Isekai fiction has some distinct differences from portal fantasy though. Primarily portal fantasy generally uses a framing of at least some sort of two-way travel between the worlds, even if it's just a "get back to earth" end goal. Isekai almost always have the protagonist die and be reincarnated in that world, with no real hope of return, and often no desire to do so because it's some power fantasy for teenagers/depressed otaku where they're the hero now despite being a loser in their previous life or slavery is legal or whatever. That's a fairly recent development, though. In the '90s, the early isekai shows like Inuyasha and El-Hazard still had back and forth travel without the death and reincarnation angle. For that matter, one of the most popular recent versions Sword Art Online goes back and forth as well.
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Jan 1, 2021 08:22
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Ah, Chronicles of Narnia, the classic isekai series.
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Jan 1, 2021 08:39
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jng2058 posted:That's a fairly recent development, though. In the '90s, the early isekai shows like Inuyasha and El-Hazard still had back and forth travel without the death and reincarnation angle. For that matter, one of the most popular recent versions Sword Art Online goes back and forth as well. Sure, and ones like Re:Zero are still popular, but traditional "portal fantasy" style isekai stories have largely been supplanted by the reincarnation stories. SAO on the other hand is what would be called litRPG now, one of the most garbage subgenres of fantasy, the pathetic power fantasies of late capitalism where you're not going to another world and becoming cool, but just playing a video game. And not like, getting good at a fighting game or being a master strategist, but grinding in some lovely MMO.
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Jan 1, 2021 08:52
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navyjack posted:Ooh maybe it’s time for my periodic Heroes Die reread Awww yeah. Heroes Die really soared through the eye of the Venn Diagram, as it has just the right mix of awesome and dumb and interesting.
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Jan 1, 2021 08:55
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Sinatrapod posted:Awww yeah. Heroes Die really soared through the eye of the Venn Diagram, as it has just the right mix of awesome and dumb and interesting. I found the second a bit of a slog but the third and fourth have the dumb/interesting mix working again.
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Jan 1, 2021 13:33
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Megasabin posted:What are people's thoughts on Too Light The Lightning? Minority opinion, but I bounced off it hard and it's one of only a handful of books in the past ten years I've given up on reading after starting it. Felt like sophomoric Enlightenment cosplay.
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Jan 1, 2021 13:35
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Just finished Baru 3 and while I was satisfied in general, there were for sure parts that just seemed like it dragged on for too long. A lot of it just seemed to be problems for the sake of adding to the page count, but as stated, generally liked it. The epilogue was wild and apparently there is going to be a 4th book in the series to fully wrap things up. Anyway, I am going to read something silly next because all 3 Baru books were heavy and dense.
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Jan 1, 2021 16:18
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navyjack posted:Ooh maybe it’s time for my periodic Heroes Die reread Do it, and make a thread so I can read along with you. That was a great series.
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Jan 1, 2021 19:32
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*heavy sigh* The discount baru cormorant (it's $2.99)
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Jan 1, 2021 19:53
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General Battuta posted:*heavy sigh* The discount baru cormorant (it's $2.99) Are we to take it, then, that the authors aren't consulted on these Amazon sales?
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Jan 1, 2021 19:56
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The City of Brass (Daevabad #1) by SA Chakraborty - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06VXWPMV5/ The Wee Free Men (Discworld #30) by Terry Pratchett - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000R33QWY/ Seveneves by Neal Stephenson - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LZWV8JO/
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Jan 1, 2021 20:12
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jng2058 posted:Are we to take it, then, that the authors aren't consulted on these Amazon sales? Honestly I'd be surprised if they were even notified.
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Jan 1, 2021 20:16
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Megasabin posted:What are people's thoughts on Too Light The Lightning? It is a 19th century costume drama without a story that tries to be modern sci-fi.
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Jan 1, 2021 20:22
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jng2058 posted:Are we to take it, then, that the authors aren't consulted on these Amazon sales? I think he's groaning about the wordplay.
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Jan 1, 2021 20:25
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Fiasco by Stanislaw Lem - $2.99 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B008R2J70M for once I get to be the one posting a deal 
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Jan 1, 2021 20:55
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Speaking of Isekai and portals, has anyone read a good book about travel between parallel worlds recently? I just finished Robert Charles Wilson’s Last Year, and while I didn’t particularly care for the time period it was set in, the idea of a post-global warming future America interacting with one in the 1800’s was pretty interesting.
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Jan 1, 2021 21:31
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Patrick Spens posted:I think he's groaning about the wordplay. Yes I'm just sighing at The One Joke that takes over the thread every time the book is mentioned. Although it is true that authors are not consulted or notified about these sales, usually. But that's okay, in my opinion.
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Jan 1, 2021 21:33
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DACK FAYDEN posted:Fiasco by Stanislaw Lem - $2.99 V. good book. Buy, read.
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Jan 1, 2021 21:36
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Star Trek Voyager is an isekai.
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Jan 1, 2021 21:43
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MockingQuantum posted:I loved Too Like the Lightning and absolutely couldn't get into Seven Surrenders, though I don't remember why. I remember why I bounced off the second one. I picked it up, started reading, said "Oh god, not these pretentious assholes again," and put it down. Too many people that oh, everyone loves so and so ! Or two public enemies who are secretly best friends, or vice versa. The world would be in a bad state if that much power was in the hands of such pretentious flops, and it is. None of them are going to grow up and act like adults with responsibility. Once you get past the baroque trappings there no center to the books.
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Jan 1, 2021 21:52
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Leng posted:Bought this on sale when it was recommended earlier in the thread but I've been putting off reading it because...reasons. Anyway, I decided I would finish it before 2020 and... Yeah his short stories are great. Academic Exercises is my favourite work of his I’ve read. I still do like The Folding Knife though. It’s just so different from most fantasy.
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Jan 2, 2021 00:12
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PawParole posted:Speaking of Isekai and portals, has anyone read a good book about travel between parallel worlds recently? I just finished Robert Charles Wilson’s Last Year, and while I didn’t particularly care for the time period it was set in, the idea of a post-global warming future America interacting with one in the 1800’s was pretty interesting. Adrian Tchaikovsky’s The Doors of Eden is a decent one that came out recently Tom Sweterlitsch’s The Gone World is one of my all time favorite books
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Jan 2, 2021 00:27
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C.M. Kruger posted:Isekai fiction has some distinct differences from portal fantasy though. Primarily portal fantasy generally uses a framing of at least some sort of two-way travel between the worlds, even if it's just a "get back to earth" end goal. Isekai almost always have the protagonist die and be reincarnated in that world, with no real hope of return, and often no desire to do so because it's some power fantasy for teenagers/depressed otaku where they're the hero now despite being a loser in their previous life or slavery is legal or whatever. The kind you talk about is in fact very new and isn't even all that iconic. Hell the genre is named after the Tenchi spinoff where it's a portal fantasy type. The originator in Japan for the genre is Aura Battler Dunbine, which is distinct because there's both back and forth travel and also the fantasy world the protagonist is sent to is the afterlife. And Earth is the afterlife of the fantasy world. It has a cool arc where the militaries of both sides gets sent to Earth and they slug it out in a battle, discovering that their fantasy mecha and ships are actually immensely more powerful on Earth, akin to slugging it out with nukes. Kchama fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Jan 2, 2021 |
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Jan 2, 2021 01:02
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PawParole posted:Speaking of Isekai and portals, has anyone read a good book about travel between parallel worlds recently? I just finished Robert Charles Wilson’s Last Year, and while I didn’t particularly care for the time period it was set in, the idea of a post-global warming future America interacting with one in the 1800’s was pretty interesting. The Merchant Princes series by Stross? I petered out somewhere in the middle, but it's right up the alley you've described
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Jan 2, 2021 02:09
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My dad was doing some remodeling and gave me a couple of my old Dragonlance books which rekindled a huge nostalgia surge in me. Since I don't actually read anymore and had some audible credits sitting there, I grabbed Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Winter Night, and Spring Dawning by Weiss and Hickman. I haven't read these since probably the early 90's, but I remember these three being really fun as well as the Time of the Twins trilogy. Am I setting myself up for disappointment?
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Jan 2, 2021 05:38
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Yes but not as much as you’re afraid of.
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Jan 2, 2021 06:37
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mllaneza posted:I remember why I bounced off the second one. I picked it up, started reading, said "Oh god, not these pretentious assholes again," and put it down. Too many people that oh, everyone loves so and so ! Or two public enemies who are secretly best friends, or vice versa. The world would be in a bad state if that much power was in the hands of such pretentious flops, and it is. None of them are going to grow up and act like adults with responsibility. Once you get past the baroque trappings there no center to the books. Also I remember now that I flipped to the end of the book where the author had a postscript about her "physical pain" from "the intensity of wanting to write so much." Eye roll.
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Jan 2, 2021 09:56
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freebooter posted:Also I remember now that I flipped to the end of the book where the author had a postscript about her "physical pain" from "the intensity of wanting to write so much." Eye roll. Ada Palmer has physical disabilities.
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Jan 2, 2021 10:50
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Yeah her disabilities are such that like, I can believe her when she says that.
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Jan 2, 2021 10:56
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rmdx posted:Ada Palmer has physical disabilities. Causes/exacerbated by a mental desire to write? Big if true.
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Jan 2, 2021 15:01
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Soonmot posted:My dad was doing some remodeling and gave me a couple of my old Dragonlance books which rekindled a huge nostalgia surge in me. Since I don't actually read anymore and had some audible credits sitting there, I grabbed Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Winter Night, and Spring Dawning by Weiss and Hickman. I haven't read these since probably the early 90's, but I remember these three being really fun as well as the Time of the Twins trilogy. Am I setting myself up for disappointment? Don't expect great writing. It's basically a D&D session transcript, and if you approach it like that it's a lot of fun! Also I hope you like Raistlin.
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Jan 2, 2021 15:35
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https://twitter.com/HNTurtledove/status/1345216419365941248
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Jan 2, 2021 15:43
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Aw man. Not really a big fan of his books but he's by all accounts not a bad dude.
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Jan 2, 2021 16:33
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Drone Jett posted:Causes/exacerbated by a mental desire to write? Big if true. Personally, I read it as "I wrote so much that I was in pain and still wanted to write more". Although for sufferers of chronic pain (which I believe Palmer is), the symptoms are generally worsened by stress.
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Jan 2, 2021 17:01
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StrixNebulosa posted:Don't expect great writing. It's basically a D&D session transcript, and if you approach it like that it's a lot of fun! Also I hope you like Raistlin. To add to this, the "Session Transcript" aspect declines as the series goes on, because it becomes less of a direct tie-in to the adve tures being pubkished. Unfortunately, you start getting more of the obnoxious aspext of the setting - Kender, Gully Dwarves. Gnomes also show up more, which some people find annoying for some reason.
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Jan 2, 2021 17:48
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I'm already disliking tasselhoff more than I did as a kid and find myself empathizing with Tanis. Having the rest of the party Leroy Jenkins into battle instead of following the plan we *just* came up with!!
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Jan 2, 2021 18:26
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The Fifth Season (Broken Earth #1) by NK Jemisin - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H25FCSQ/ The Blade Itself (First Law #1) by Joe Abercrombie - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TOT9LDK/ The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ECE9OD4/
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Jan 2, 2021 19:36
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Oh man I’m on a KJ Parker roll now. Finished Academic Exercises overnight and am halfway though 16 Ways to Defend a Walled City. Both in the same fun tone, reminds me of a cross between Cudgel’s Saga, Eric Frank Russell, and the good parts of Stephenson (the joyous nerditry).
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Jan 2, 2021 20:50
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If you want some quality siege engineering porn, Parker is your man. Or other classical/pre-modern tech porn.
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Jan 2, 2021 23:45
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I really really enjoyed First Fifteen Lives.
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Jan 3, 2021 00:48
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