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Gorefiend posted:PG13 Abercrombie is dead on, but I'm stubborn and ended up finishing it. The sequel was one of the worst things I've ever read, and randomly introduced an entirely different villain in the last chunk. Ok yes gently caress it, time to look for a new audiobook to listen to. Good thing it was only 3 bucks.
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Jan 17, 2021 16:57
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Queer Salutations posted:I mean, she's also getting dunked on because she defended her position by saying anyone who liked fanfiction were pro-capitalist shills who were happy when Amazon warehouse workers died. She didn't say that, twitter user Kevin James said that. She said working conditions at Amazon warehouses were obviously a much more pressing social justice issue in publishing than criticisms of fanfic, and yet criticism of fanfic consistently elicits more outrage.
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Jan 17, 2021 17:05
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"Why are you complaining about my hot takes when there are starving children in Africa?" is always lame.
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Jan 17, 2021 17:25
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I learned a lot of good prose skills from fanfiction. That said I think they are not as good for teaching structural skills. If only we could set the discourse gauge to somewhere in the middle.
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Jan 17, 2021 17:30
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I just find fanfiction difficult to read. Fairly or unfairly it always feels . . . . paint-by-numbers. I want to be surprised when I read and I rarely have confidence that a given work of fanfic is going to be surprising. For better or worse when I see the label "fanfic" I expect it to be pure fanservice and that turns me away.HopperUK posted:I know Naomi Novik did and her work is excellent these days. The Temeraire series was so painful and disappointing. It starts out with a great concept but by about three books in none of the characters felt like believable people any more, just ludicrously modern sentiment generators swanning about the landscape. OTOH I've read plenty of "derivative works" (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, etc) that were excellent; one of my favorite books is A Night in the Lonesome October. Either the label "fanfic" is biasing me, or there's a set of modern conventions which conventionally get labelled "fanfic" and that set of conventions just isn't to my taste. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Jan 17, 2021 |
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Jan 17, 2021 17:40
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The Temeraire series was so painful and disappointing. It starts out with a great concept but by about three books in none of the characters felt like believable people any more, just ludicrously modern sentiment generators swanning about the landscape. Yeah I hear that, I dropped off that series too. But 'Uprooted' is really good.
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Jan 17, 2021 17:46
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I read her latest, A Deadly Education, and it was easy to read although I did not find any of the characters outside of the main two very well drawn. It mostly got by on having everybody constantly in danger which made the pacing brisk.
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Jan 17, 2021 18:05
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A lot of fanfic is bad because a lot of everything is bad, 80/20 rule and all that. Fanfic is somewhat unique in this regard in that we all get access to the slush pile instead of it being curated by publishers. Also, this is a rad article about a bunch of authors experience with their time writing fanfic, including N.K. Jemisin. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/10/how-fanfiction-improves-writing/599197/
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Jan 17, 2021 18:12
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The Burning God (Poppy War #3) by RF Kuang - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084VP8KNB/ The Girl and the Stars (Book of the Ice #1) by Mark Lawrence - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VJBBFN6/ The Relentless Moon (Lady Astronauts #3) by Mary Robinette Kowal - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X17XSPS/ The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TD6GJNT/ The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085C71YG5/ The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Singing Hills Cycle #1) by Nghi Vo - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VH6Y4JD/ Some less discussed authors today. Anyone have any recommendations?
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Jan 17, 2021 19:07
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pradmer posted:The Girl and the Stars (Book of the Ice #1) by Mark Lawrence - $1.99 I really, really enjoyed his previous series Book of the Ancestor set in the same world, but the new one turned out to be a disappointing drag. If that counts as a recommendation.
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Jan 17, 2021 21:14
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Also kind of a coincidence but I started KJ Parkers The Company, which seems like a much better "getting the band back together" story, at least so far. Are you familiar with Parker, or is this your first?
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Jan 17, 2021 21:41
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I just find fanfiction difficult to read. Fairly or unfairly it always feels . . . . paint-by-numbers. I want to be surprised when I read and I rarely have confidence that a given work of fanfic is going to be surprising. For better or worse when I see the label "fanfic" I expect it to be pure fanservice and that turns me away. As someone who writes and reads fanfic: god there's so much garbage fic out there. Even with a rec list in a fandom I like with pairings I like it can still be a crapshoot if a fic will actually be, y'know, well-written. That said here's my favorite response to the fanfic drama on twitter: https://twitter.com/lanzhanstan/status/1350570263004520453
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Jan 17, 2021 21:48
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russian oligarchs can stop you, by buying livejournal!
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Jan 17, 2021 22:33
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Are there any other books or series with habitats similar to the Orbitals from The Culture? I like the idea of massive million km stations, and loved the one book where the girl was designing continents for fun on one.
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Jan 17, 2021 22:33
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Groke posted:Are you familiar with Parker, or is this your first? The only other one I've read was 16 ways to defend a walled city. Uhhh why? Should I be expecting something bad?
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Jan 17, 2021 22:43
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The fanfic drama is dumb but I’ve read several of Benedict’s stories and though she’s not what you’d call prolific by any means, she actually is a super talented writer, much better than most of the Fanfic Defenders losing their poo poo at her imo. I think her takes were unnecessarily incendiary in their phrasing and not the most clear but I don’t think she deserves to be dogpiled just for making a bunch of Big Name Fans uncomfortable.
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Jan 17, 2021 22:54
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General Battuta posted:If only we could set the discourse gauge to somewhere in the middle. This is the dream.
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Jan 17, 2021 23:06
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It just seems like fanfiction is it's own thing, and a lot of people end up getting good at writing fanfiction, which isn't necessarily the same as getting better at writing.
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Jan 17, 2021 23:12
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pradmer posted:The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow - $3.99 I’m tempted to get this one. I almost made it to the end of her previous book which was well written but didn’t quite grab me as much as I hoped it would given the praise.
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Jan 17, 2021 23:20
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A Proper Uppercut posted:The only other one I've read was 16 ways to defend a walled city. Parker varies between "actually not all that awful apart from some mass murder and a bit of a sharp twist at the end", which is where you started, through to "oh god no please don't let this be as awful as I think - oh wait it's worse". Awful, in this context, does not mean badly written. Parker is a pretty good writer in everything I've read of his, and I still can't quite believe he's actually Tom Holt.
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Jan 17, 2021 23:52
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A Proper Uppercut posted:The only other one I've read was 16 ways to defend a walled city. Bad as in "badly written", no. Bad as in "bad things happen", well, I've read most of Parker's novels and 16 ways was... the second-closest to a happy ending, so far.
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Jan 18, 2021 00:10
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The Sweet Hereafter posted:Parker varies between "actually not all that awful apart from some mass murder and a bit of a sharp twist at the end", which is where you started, through to "oh god no please don't let this be as awful as I think - oh wait it's worse".
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Jan 18, 2021 00:33
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Marshal Radisic posted:It's a lot easier to see the connection if you look at his historical fiction. I'd personally recommend The Walled Orchard duology (Goatsong, The Walled Orchard). They're the memoirs of an Athenian comic playwright that focus on his experiences in the Peloponnesian War and the collapse of Athens. There's less in the way of violence than in the books he wrote under the Parker name (well, save for the depiction of the Syracuse campaign in the second book), but that rueful humor in the face of human folly is still there. That last sentence was very artfully put, I like it.
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Jan 18, 2021 00:47
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There is a similar fan fiction debate going on in SFL Archives 1993. Only it's Mercedes Lackey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro going berserk over fanfiction getting published that over-writes novels/short stories that they already had in the pipeline and editors supposedly then shitcanning everything because of the fanfiction seeing print first. Copyright Infringement lawsuits, NDA's being required for Lackey & MZB fanzines, etc are being discussed.
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Jan 18, 2021 01:22
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pradmer posted:The Burning God (Poppy War #3) by RF Kuang - $3.99 The Burning God massively pissed me off as the ending to an +1500 page trilogy because it was despressing grimdark poo poo, but if you’ve read the others and are prepared for depressing grimdark poo poo, go for it I’ve only read The Lady Astronaut and I’m still on the fence about getting the rest so I’m reading them from the library instead. Again, probably only worth it if you’re completing the series Ken Liu’s short fiction is always great. I bought that one sight unseen I’ve only read The Doors of January by Alix E Harrow and it was really good, but I haven’t read this one. I know at least one person who absolutely loved it, but I’m thinking of waiting for the library for this one myself Not sure at all about Empress of Salt and Fortune, when it’s described as a “gut punch,” after getting burned (it’s about fire magic lol) reading the Poppy War
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Jan 18, 2021 01:26
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Groke posted:Bad as in "badly written", no.
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Jan 18, 2021 01:38
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Relentless moon was a pretty fun locked room mystery in the lady astronaut world. No idea what it’s like to have the specific psychological issue anorexia the main character struggles with but it “felt” real - couldn’t recall another book I read from that perspective. Had no idea the third poppy war book was out but the second one was so relentlessly miserable I have no desire to re-engage.
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Jan 18, 2021 02:15
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Doctor Faustine posted:I think her takes were unnecessarily incendiary in their phrasing and not the most clear but I don’t think she deserves to be dogpiled just for making a bunch of Big Name Fans uncomfortable. Hmm I wonder why somebody who hosts a fairly low-numbers podcast with a Patreon attached to it would tweet out a deliberately controversial take
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Jan 18, 2021 03:40
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buffalo all day posted:Had no idea the third poppy war book was out but the second one was so relentlessly miserable I have no desire to re-engage. This is wise Third one is even worse Edit: I probably should have known better tbh. I mean, I expected after the end of book one with the rape of Nanking and magical Hiroshima to go uphill not downhill? Silly me to imagine three books of non-stop war might lead to something worth it! Stuporstar fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Jan 18, 2021 |
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Jan 18, 2021 03:55
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PsychedelicWarlord posted:started Murderbot, find it delightful I enjoyed all of them, keep reading.
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Jan 18, 2021 03:59
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I'm glad I had no compulsion to finish the series after reading the Poppy War then.
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Jan 18, 2021 04:01
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New Super Metis posted:I'm glad I had no compulsion to finish the series after reading the Poppy War then. That's where I am now, but I did buy the second book awhile ago. I guess I'm safe just pushing it way down the reading list for now. A little disappointing but it's not like I'm going to run out of stuff to read. Thanks for the opinions everyone.
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Jan 18, 2021 05:32
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freebooter posted:Hmm I wonder why somebody who hosts a fairly low-numbers podcast with a Patreon attached to it would tweet out a deliberately controversial take extremely vapid take
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Jan 18, 2021 06:45
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Aren’t all WH40k/Warcraft novels essentially fanfic?
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Jan 18, 2021 06:51
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Cardiac posted:Aren’t all WH40k/Warcraft novels essentially fanfic? what's your point
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Jan 18, 2021 07:04
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Cardiac posted:Aren’t all WH40k/Warcraft novels essentially fanfic? More licensed fanfic like Star Wars EU. Have you considered that KJA stories are hot derivative garbage, and exercises in how to shoehorn the most ridiculous deus ex contrivance into 1000 chapters of flimflam. Who came out of the star wars EU fanfic mill. Has any ex EU writer become big in their own right?
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Jan 18, 2021 07:44
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Collateral posted:More licensed fanfic like Star Wars EU. Zahn's still truckin'.
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Jan 18, 2021 07:46
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jng2058 posted:Zahn's still truckin'. Zahn had already published half a dozen books by the time he did Star Wars, and while he wasn't a big name by any stretch, he was a solid mid-lister.
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Jan 18, 2021 08:28
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quantumfoam posted:There is a similar fan fiction debate going on in SFL Archives 1993. Only it's Mercedes Lackey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro going berserk over fanfiction getting published that over-writes novels/short stories that they already had in the pipeline and editors supposedly then shitcanning everything because of the fanfiction seeing print first. Copyright Infringement lawsuits, NDA's being required for Lackey & MZB fanzines, etc are being discussed. I remember this drama from the time, and also how many years later the fan MZB was talking about came forward and made a very plausible claim that the true story was MZB was trying to rip her off instead.
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Jan 18, 2021 09:05
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Collateral posted:More licensed fanfic like Star Wars EU. Judy Blundell looks like the only real case for that. Wrote a lot of EU under the pseudonym Jude Watson then had success writing YA/MG under her real name. Otherwise it's people with careers entirely in novelization and media tie-ins, or already recognizable genre authors dipping in to write a few SW books like Zahn, Hambly, Kube-McDowell, etc.
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Jan 18, 2021 09:12
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