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BaseballPCHiker posted:Are the prequels and later sequels worth a read at all?
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Jan 19, 2022 18:37
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Seconding this, unless you really loved the first three, don't bother with the later books.
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Jan 21, 2022 01:30
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Burke posted:A Closed and Common Orbit Oh yeah. I read A Closed and Common Orbit several years ago and it still stands out as one of the most memorable sci-fi novels I’ve ever read and just generally a perfectly told little story. You really want to see that lost little AI to find her place in the world and you really want to see that scrappy clone-girl who grew up in a scrapyard save her robot-buddy, and the way that the backstory and the current story unfurl is just perfect. I read A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet first and really enjoyed it for the disjointed, hippies-in-space road-trip novel that it is, but then A Closed and Common Orbit was a much tighter story. It also made me cry a few times, which is rare. As for books I’ve read recently: Sutree by Cormac McCarthy Yeah! That’s the stuff! A story all about yearning and drifting, with the backdrop of decaying places/i.e. Knoxville Tennessee in the fifties. I have family who live in that area who I’ve visited many times, so in addition to getting all the spiritual-young-person-wandering-the-dark poo poo that Sutree goes through in the book I could relate to some of the actual places and culture. Let me tell you: as comically grotesque as southern fiction gets (Flannery O’Connor being the queen of that poo poo), real life is just as strange and hosed up. I could tell some stories about my grandfather-in-law from west Tennessee and how gross (yet strangely functional and successful) they all were. Also: that passage about the farmer getting angry because someone was loving his watermelons. Some of McCarthy’s best writing. Ace by Angela Chen A nonfiction book. Being a fairly online person I have known quite a few people who identify as asexual and had a vague idea of what that meant, but this book really clarified some things and made me step back and think a lot about how different each of our experiences of the world are. I had just thought of asexuals as people who weren’t interested in sex, and hadn’t really examined how much the entire experience/spectrum of sexual attraction had painted my perspective on life, or on how other people might see things in an entirely different way. I found it a very eye-opening book. Wounds by Nathan Ballingrud Well drat. This is the best horror book I’ve ever read. Technically it’s a short story collection, but it’s one of those collections where each story weaves together to create a world, and what a stark, nightmarish, and wondrous world it is. Hell is real and Hell is longing. Angels are real and they are terrifying. It’s a bunch of stories about people who experience spiritual things bleeding into the real world and it’s all too much for them to bear and leave them forever changed. Beautifully written, too. White Pines by Gemma Amor Really didn’t like this book. It’s got some cool ideas but the prose are really bland, the main character is an unremarkable everywoman, and it really reads like an unedited manuscript. Lots of repetitive poo poo that could have been trimmed. Nothing happens for chapter after chapter, then there are other chapters that feel rushed and incomplete. I couldn’t enjoy it because I kept wanting to hack it with a red editor’s pen.
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Jan 21, 2022 05:45
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Just finished The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin. It started a bit slowly but I got pretty deeply sucked into it. Chapters and storylines did ebb and flow, some of the twists landed better than others, others were predictable. I love the different cultural lens as well but would prefer a few more women with agency. I did not see the climax unfold quite like that though, very well done. Looking forward to the last in the series but first some other books to break it up some while I savor this a bit more.
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Jan 28, 2022 04:13
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Bilirubin posted:Just finished The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin. It started a bit slowly but I got pretty deeply sucked into it. Chapters and storylines did ebb and flow, some of the twists landed better than others, others were predictable. I love the different cultural lens as well but would prefer a few more women with agency. I did not see the climax unfold quite like that though, very well done. Looking forward to the last in the series but first some other books to break it up some while I savor this a bit more. The second half of The Dark Forest to the end of the series is fantastic. I had a major book hangover after I plowed through it. Good luck finding something just as mind-blowing when you're finished 
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Jan 28, 2022 17:58
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A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. I found it at a used bookstore this past Monday and found it such an interesting read that I could barely put it down. Ignatius J. Reilly is an absurd mix of part Hyacinth Bucket (in terms of being self-deluded) and Chris-Chan (in terms of almost everything else). I would have liked to see his lies and disruptive behavior catch up with him at the end, but F_Shit_Fitzgerald fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Jan 28, 2022 |
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Jan 28, 2022 23:07
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The Sandman (Audible audiobook) By Neil Gaiman, read by a whole bunch of people. If you've read the graphic novels this covers the first three books (I think?) so you know exactly what to expect. If you haven't, this follows the adventures of Dream, a godlike personification of dreams and stories. It starts off with a cult trying to capture Death, Dream's older sister, but accidentally getting him instead. He is imprisoned for several decades which unfolds a series of consequences on the dream realm as well as the real world. The first book is not one of the best in the series (but still decent) and it starts getting progressively better. Now, here's the interesting part. If it was just a regular audiobook I'd tell you to go with the graphic novels but this is the most elaborated audiobook I haver ever listened to. Every single character has a different voice. There is music and sound effects for pretty much everything, even the door of a car opening or the footsteps of a character. It's as close as an audiobook can get to watching a movie. So all in all I think this is a fantastic experience even if you've already read it or if you are not into graphic novels.
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Jan 29, 2022 00:29
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F_Shit_Fitzgerald posted:A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. I found it at a used bookstore this past Monday and found it such an interesting read that I could barely put it down. Ignatius J. Reilly is an absurd mix of part Hyacinth Bucket (in terms of being self-deluded) and Chris-Chan (in terms of almost everything else). I would have liked to see his lies and disruptive behavior catch up with him at the end, but One of my all time favorites. There’s a statue of Ignatius in New Orleans btw.
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Jan 29, 2022 00:36
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LooksLikeABabyRat posted:One of my all time favorites. There’s a statue of Ignatius in New Orleans btw. That's pretty cool! I've read that many people consider the novel to be one of the most accurate depictions of New Orleans and its dialects than almost any other book. There might be symbolism in selections of neighborhoods and places that flew over my head because I've never been down to Louisiana.
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Jan 29, 2022 00:44
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Under The Skin - Michel Faber A woman drives down the A-9 in Scotland, looking for hitchhikers. Not just any. Only a certain kind will do. Male, musclebound, an idealized kind of man. Why? Saying much more would ruin the book, if by some chance you’ve not read it. It’s not going where you think, and it’s thrilling. A grotesque meditation on seeing, being seen, cruelty, emotional distance, self-delusion and vulnerability. From start to end, getting to know the protagonist, who she is, why she does what she does, where she came from, and where she’s going, is enlightening and challenging. Gonna jam the rest in spoiler tags, but if you’ve not read this and you don’t mind disturbing material, just go read it. Don’t look at anything online, don’t google it, don’t even read a back blurb. I knew a bit going in, and it didn’t ruin it by any means, but for the first fifty pages or so, I couldn’t stop marveling at how information revealed itself. An alien from another planet is sent to Earth to drug and send home men of a particular physique. She’s good at it. Most of them are gross. As the book goes on, you start to empathize with her, even, despite her grim occupation. This is probably the best part of the novel, the way it plays with perspective. It’s third person limited, her viewpoint, until it isn’t. Sometimes you get a peak into the minds of the men she picks up. There’s a deftness to these brief little views, something gentle and thoughtful. The plot goes in some directions I anticipated, some that I didn’t. But the plot matters a whole lot less than the interiority of the protagonist’s mind. At times childlike and naive, others cold and distant, others still, yearning and hopeful, she’s an amazing character to get to know. This book understands what the gulf between alien and human culture might actually look like. It spends a lot of time putting the protagonist up against a bunch of other characters, human and not, just to see what happens. It has a whole lot to say about objectification, danger, culture, fear, dehumanization, idealism, even the class divide. It’s honestly shocking so much is addressed in what is, at its heart, a story about a covert alien invasion. But that’s because it’s not about an alien invasion. It’s about human beings and animals, and the porous barrier between them. If you’ve read it, I came away with one big complaint. I knew, before I was ten pages in, that eventually she was going to be assaulted by some kind of predatory hitcher. The premise begs it. What I did not appreciate was her moment of growth hinging on the rape. For a book that really does have a wonderful grasp of power dynamics and gender, and goes out of its way to look at men as capable of good as well as disgusting behavior, I just thought it was narratively pretty loving lame to use that old sawhorse to push her into becoming more sympathetic. And I was moreso annoyed about that because of course she’s got to hear the truth from who? An idealistic male of her own species beforehand. Having her remember the way the guy in the pen underground wrote mercy just as she was about to be raped was some heavy handed bullshit. Fortunately, the rest of the book is so keenly written with a fantastic eye for subtle details in human behavior, I was able to forgive it. But I was pretty pissed off for a while after that bit. Ugh. Sorry for the CIA doc, but I really don’t know how to talk about this book without ruining a bunch of it. The technical aspects of how it unfolds are just as good as the actual story, and I don’t want to risk ruining that experience for anyone, if at all possible. Also, apparently there was a movie made? Anyone see it? It’s such a strange little book, and I have to wonder how it translated.
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Jan 29, 2022 05:54
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Under the Skin is one of those books that I think is very good, if heavy handed, that I never want to read again. Some of the scenes still haunt me when I can’t sleep at night.
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Jan 29, 2022 17:17
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remigious posted:Under the Skin is one of those books that I think is very good, if heavy handed, that I never want to read again. Some of the scenes still haunt me when I can’t sleep at night. Yeah the main point of the book isn’t really subtle at all, but the spaces in between where you get a good look at the way characters think things through, that’s where I think the good poo poo is. Its moralism and political angles don’t really do it any favors and there are some really cringe passages when she’s talking about her species supremacy and Faber just says “well of course they’re not human, they don’t have *insert made up sci-fi- word here* and so on.” I said, out loud, Oh come on!” It’s so amateurish and lame as compared with all the keen observational stuff in the book. Also, big lol that Faber isn’t even a vegetarian. I mean, still a good book, but I gotta say that makes it feel a wee bit contrarian/devil’s advocate. Probs an unfair critique but it kinda annoyed me when I found out. unattended spaghetti fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Jan 29, 2022 |
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Jan 29, 2022 18:26
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BurningBeard posted:Under The Skin - Michel Faber It wasn't translated at all. The movie is a piece of poo poo with the name of the book bolted on to sell tickets. It doesn't even have the wit to follow the same themes in a different way; in fact, it takes every theme that was in the book and reverses it.
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Jan 29, 2022 19:01
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I've heard very good things about the movie, but nothing comparing it to the book. I'm curious to experience both, because I've seen people compare the Annihilation movie unfavorably to the book, but I much prefer the movie.
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Jan 29, 2022 22:16
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Shamrock: The World’s Most Dangerous Man by Jonathan Snowden. Best wrestling/MMA book in years and years. Up there with Bret Hart’s book. If you want to hear tons of wild stories about Japan and early UFC and then WWF, this has it all.
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Feb 1, 2022 06:18
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Truman, by David McCullough. Pulitzer well-earned. The sections before and after his presidency come off the page more.
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Feb 2, 2022 22:32
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FPyat posted:Truman, by David McCullough. Pulitzer well-earned. The sections before and after his presidency come off the page more. Oh yeah that’s a good read. I liked how he answered phones at his own presidential museum.
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Feb 5, 2022 06:10
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Just finished Strange Hotel by Eimear McBride, which was a Secret Santa gift this year. A beautiful slow burn. A meditation on loss, regret, and how to go on after... In part hiding from ones self and emotions, and rediscovery of both. Written in an indirect, semi stream of consciousness, sometimes clinically distant, other times intimately personal. Fabulous.
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Feb 6, 2022 05:28
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Fernando Arrabal's Baal Babylone (Viva la Muerte). After learning my lesson with another book in the series, I read the foreword last. The story hit even harder when I learned that it's at least partly autobiographical. It's weird to read a novel with so much repetition but still didn't get boring. Helps that it's way less than a hundred pages, of course. It's kinda poetic but obviously I have no idea how it reads in the original French. Too bad his other novels haven't been translated into Finnish. Apparently his plays caused a fracas in other countries, including Sweden, but not in Finland. 8/10. 
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Feb 9, 2022 12:45
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Just finished Midnight In Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster. Really enjoyed this book overall. The author Adam Higginbotham conducted a lot of interviews with remaining survivors. Went into a lot of detail about how the reactor design was fundamentally flawed and how the Soviet governments dysfunction led to multiple mistakes. I wish he had spent a bit more time on the aftermath, how the site is now, he does devote a little bit to it but not much. Really looking forward to watching the miniseries on this now that I've finished reading the book. Also cant wait for my Kobo to come in the mail!
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Feb 9, 2022 14:56
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Just finished “A long way to a small, angry planet” I wasn’t a big fan of this “wrinkly headed alien” Sci-fi romp. The whole thing had a lot of fan service to the characters. None of the conflicts or issues the author presented had any feeling of peril to them, since the characters basically just fixed everything and won really quickly. And the characters, for all they were different in quirkiness, all spoke with basically the same voice. The author didn’t really think too deeply about the scale of space, inter species relations, evolution or anything really. There was a big case of “star trek ship flies itself” with a long haul ship perilously short staffed with 1 mechanic and 1 pilot. I learned at the end that the book was part of a kickstarter and edited partially by fans, which kinda explains the heavy fan service in it.
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Feb 9, 2022 16:09
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I just finished Ardulum: First Don by J.S. Fields. The premise immediately captured my attention, because it's sort of like Firefly in some of the way it handles the characters, but still manages to have its own feel. The world building is not the best I've ever read, but it does a decent job - and I like that the focus isn't on some generic human in space, which admittedly is only a slight twist, but it carries it off well. There's a few things that I think are a little unexplored, or could've been a bigger focus, but it's possible that they'll be brought up later on in the series (I haven't finished the whole thing yet). I also happened to look up the author on Twitter, and the first thing I saw them post was about a dildo being used as a murder weapon in the newest novel that they're working on - so that's something to look forward to. Dobbs_Head posted:Just finished “A long way to a small, angry planet” Maybe consider checking out the above instead? BlankSystemDaemon fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Feb 9, 2022 |
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Feb 9, 2022 16:49
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The Comics, Before 1945 and After 1945 by Brian Walker. I've been a big comic strips fan since I was a kid, and as a matter of fact, the ongoing comics thread in BSS is one of the things that drew me to SA. These two massive hardcover volumes cover all of the history of the comics, from their beginning in 1896 Hearst papers all the way to just after 9/11. Along the way are samples of strips - some I had never heard of, some old favorites (like Calvin and Hobbes) and some I was aware of because of the comics thread here on SA. One of the coolest book purchases I've made recently.
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Feb 10, 2022 16:29
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BlankSystemDaemon posted:something she calls cozypunk
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Feb 10, 2022 18:43
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I just finished cyclonopedia. I say finished and not "read" because I have no clue what the gently caress was going on towards the end. And for a lot of the rest of it. I just wanted to say I've finished 6 books in 6 weeks but at what cost
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Feb 12, 2022 02:59
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Just finished In the Cafe of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano. A nice quick read. Does a great job making a character out of 1950s Paris. The first book of his I read. Overall I'd recommend it even if its normally not the sort of thing I read. On to the EarthSea trilogy next.
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Feb 12, 2022 15:16
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Eisenhower in War and Peace, by Jean Edward Smith was mostly quite fine, though I noticed that the book failed to write about Ike's reaction to the Holocaust. It has a photo of him visiting Buchenwald, but neglects to actually mention the visit in the text!
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Feb 13, 2022 00:03
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Bilirubin posted:Just finished Strange Hotel by Eimear McBride, which was a Secret Santa gift this year. A beautiful slow burn. A meditation on loss, regret, and how to go on after... In part hiding from ones self and emotions, and rediscovery of both. Written in an indirect, semi stream of consciousness, sometimes clinically distant, other times intimately personal. Fabulous. Snapped this up based on your synopsis and the back blurb. Pretty stoked to dig in.
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Feb 13, 2022 00:36
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Elevation by Stephen King. Yet another in his seemingly endless line of books that can be summarised as “A weird thing happens, normal events, the end”
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Feb 13, 2022 06:28
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Dobbs_Head posted:Just finished “A long way to a small, angry planet” Yeah. Even though I liked the book I agree with everything in this post. Small Angry Planet is really rough around the edges and filled with moments where I found myself thinking “Yep, this is definitely a first novel.” It’s also less a novel and more of a series of vignettes of varying quality. I think the reason it’s so popular is just that no one else had ever thought to write a hippy road-trip story that takes place in a grand, space opera background. It’s a really novel idea. Also I enjoyed it just because I liked most of the vignettes and characters. In my opinion (and as I’ve said in previous posts) the sequel (A Closed and Common Orbit) is a thousand times better, and I always recommend that people read that book first. All of the Wayfarer’s books are designed to function as standalone stories, so people won’t miss out on much by reading them out of order anyway. Closed and Common Orbit also benefits from being an extremely tight narrative focusing on a couple of characters and their overall (and in my opinion wonderfully done) arcs. As for books I’ve read recently: Negative Space by B. R. Yeager Wow. There’s a review on Goodreads for this that just says “This book will gently caress you senseless and make you believe in God,” and that sums it up for me. I’ll just add that this is now my favorite horror novel of all time, and that I don’t often reread books, but I’ll probably pick this one up again a few times in the future. Oh, and also that the book is essentially a giant 350+ page trigger warning. Suicide is a major theme (at least for the first half of the book, before it gets more metaphysical), along with every type of self-destructive behavior a person can imagine. I really and strongly would not recommend it to anyone who’s experienced strong suicidal ideations. A bit like how The Stars are Legion by Camron Hurley was a book I enjoyed tremendously, but at the same time is a book I’d hesitate to recommend to anyone, because it’s one of the most intentionally gross things ever written. Negative Space is also really gross. And beautiful.
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Feb 15, 2022 04:15
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F_Shit_Fitzgerald posted:The Comics, Before 1945 and After 1945 by Brian Walker. I've been a big comic strips fan since I was a kid, and as a matter of fact, the ongoing comics thread in BSS is one of the things that drew me to SA. These two massive hardcover volumes cover all of the history of the comics, from their beginning in 1896 Hearst papers all the way to just after 9/11. Along the way are samples of strips - some I had never heard of, some old favorites (like Calvin and Hobbes) and some I was aware of because of the comics thread here on SA. One of the coolest book purchases I've made recently. If you liked that, or if you like the sound of it but think it's a heavy read, you might want to look at The Comic Book History of Comics by Fred van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey. It covers much the same ground, but in the form of a comic strip using illustrations in the style of whatever it's currently discussing.
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Feb 15, 2022 11:28
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The Anatomy of Victory: Battle Tactics 1689-1763 by Brent Nosworthy. As I thought it would have been better to read this one first, but it was still very interesting. The book focuses primarily on the development of the Prussian and French armies, which would synthesize into the Napoleonic "Impulse" system. One key difference between the two states was the unification of all military and civilian decision making in the person of Frederick the Great in a way that wasn't done even under Louis XIV, much less Louis XV. While Frederick did a lot to advance the system of linear warfare he was only able to go so far because of ideological limitations. He wanted to keep as much of his army's functions under his control as possible which meant that while he made some great improvements such as training his cavalry so that they went from being the worst in Europe to the standard all armies imitated or creating the first system that could be called a 'doctrine' for his officers, this was all done to ensure that his officers behaved exactly how he wanted them to, or to make his soldiers operate as formations instead of individuals so they would enact his plans as he envisioned them. This also lead him to not adopt reforms he himself pioneered, such as faster methods of deploying the army from columns into lines before battle, because it would require greater initiative and independence among his officers. There're a lot of diagrams at the end of the book, and I would have preferred more of them, and for them to be integrated into the chapters. He spends more time going into the specifics of maneuvers and formations than in With Musket, Cannon and Sword but uses a worse formatting than that book which did include diagrams in the relevant chapters, along with definitions of all the terms, which makes me think he learned how to make reading the book more convenient.
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Feb 16, 2022 07:14
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Dresden Files - Peace Talks and Battleground It's been so many years since the series stopped (and Butcher doesn't exactly have a talent for memorable descriptions) that I forgot the vast majority of incidental characters. Which is unfortunate, since this is their time to shine, for all those various flavors of magic and supernatural to come together in an ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny. But before that happens, we need a book full of anemic and disappointing setup. Harry's brother tries to assassinate the king of a supernatural race, and Harry - a super powerful wizard detective prodigy, white council guardian, winter knight, fae protector, commander of vast hosts, friend or confidant to some of the most knowledgeable \ powerful entities in the setting - decides "yeah, someone must have compelled him to do so. Guess it's going to have to remain a mystery, since I'll put precisely zero effort into figuring out who or why". Sure, figuring out the mystery would have rendered half the plot moot, but that doesn't mean your characters shouldn't bother trying. Butcher had about 20 books to get over his weird hangups, but this really feels like book 1 dumb goon the author thinks is soooo cool Harry. Also, Butcher still can't write women and the only LGBT representation are hooooooot bi-babes for the reader to drool over. But what else is new? ... After a book where nothing much happens for no reason (hostilities are declared, but instead of calling in any favors for the upcoming conflict, Harry is still dealing with personal issues that he couldn't be bothered to investigate), we finally get the big showdown. 20 books worth of good, neutral, and miscellaneous characters* come together to defend the center of the wizarding world... Chicago. Better than New York, I guess. * Except the guy who can summon infinite combat-ready clones. He'd be too OP in a full-scale battle, so the characters forget about him. It's... pretty neat. There are so many flavors of supernatural stuff involved, that some of the combat scenes pretty much have to end up cool just by law of averages. It's fairly Avenger-ey, insofar as the enemies are a fairly homogenous blend of bad guys, sub-types A-B-C, while the heroes actually get to show their individual quirks in dedicated scenes... but the formula is there because it works. A decent but not overwhelming number of main characters drop dead, but there's never even the slightest chance of the heroes actually losing or children dying on screen. Enjoyed it overall. Shame the whole "the masquerade is broken, now mortals know about the supernatural" thing will probably be backtracked in the future. And even if it's not, it won't have the impact it would have back when Harry was an actual private investigator mingling with the muggles. Then things actually end with "hey, wasn't it hella stupid of Harry not to investigate anything in the last book?". Suuuuuuuuuure was. As an aside - I don't expect Butcher to
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Feb 16, 2022 11:44
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Blastedhellscape posted:A bit like how The Stars are Legion by Camron Hurley was a book I enjoyed tremendously, but at the same time is a book I’d hesitate to recommend to anyone, because it’s one of the most intentionally gross things ever written. Yeah I’ve been reading Carmen Gimenez-Smith’s “Milk and Filth” and both The Stars are Legion and that book have this sort of grotesque feminist tone that I loving love. For instance, chosen at random:  
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Feb 16, 2022 18:16
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Reprieve by James Han Mattson Billed as a horror on a lot of sites, but that doesn't seem like a fair description of it. It's more of character driven thriller set in the 90s with a weird spooky house story woven in. The timeline of the story is pretty diced up and the chapters have kind of three distinct types (Character Backstory, House Challenge, Trial.) and it sorta weaves between those three until the story all comes together at the end. A lot of convoluted ways to make it all come together but it all comes together satisfying enough. Good minority representation, tries to tackle the complexities of your presentation as a person, who you want to be as a person and also how you ultimately cannot really escape the expectations your race puts upon you. Feels a little heavy handed at times, but I guess sometimes you need to be heavy handed because people seem to miss subtle. General reaction to the story around the web is about a 3.5/5 and that's about where I'd put it. It has its moments but it also drags in points and again, the heavy handedness can kind of make you roll your eyes in parts. Also, like every character is kind of lovely in their own way, which while probably realistic may make you stop caring.
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Feb 17, 2022 16:23
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Just finished Death's End by Liu Cixin. An avalanche of ideas from the frontiers of science cap this trilogy. Was nice to have a fully formed female character, even if she tended to lack full agency, being dragged along by events. Mostly tragic events followed by thrilling victories in alternating pattern, I'd say it was uneven but instead it exemplified the impermanence of all things espoused by some philosophies. Leaves a lot to think about.
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Feb 19, 2022 05:06
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Bilirubin posted:it exemplified the impermanence of all things espoused by some philosophies. Leaves a lot to think about. The only thing that lasts forever is that nothing lasts forever.
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Feb 19, 2022 07:32
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Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data by Charles Wheelan A good enough primer to stats for an average goober on the street. Uses a few real world examples in most chapters and tries to sell the good and bad of statistics. The author attempts to be neutral on certain issues, but definitely seems to have some bias on display here and there, though it is hard not to when you're brushing so close to social issues. Probably not going to give you much new information if you're dealing with stats on a daily basis or took a couple stat classes in the last decade. Though it does read pretty easy, so you won't lose much time giving it a shot!
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Feb 24, 2022 17:24
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Starve Better: Surviving the Endless Horror of the Writing Life by Nick Mamatas. The book is a collection of essays by Mamatas on the subject of being a writer, not just of fiction but of non-fiction too. As the title suggests the advice he gives is about how to make a living as a writer, not how to become the next Stephen King or J. K. Rowling, so along with telling you how to write there's advice on how to submit to publishers and to lower your standards of success so you have a realistic idea of what living like a writer entails.
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Feb 26, 2022 22:18
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| # ? May 20, 2024 06:32 |
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The first two Wolfhound novels. Like the link says - in the 1990's, as censorship collapsed, the Russian market was flooded with garbage pulp fantasy. And I'm not saying that as a snooty outsider - Russian fantasy readers look down on most 90's \ 2000's fantasy to this day.  So one of the more regarded \ relatively accepted heroes from that era is Wolfhound, a "Russian Conan" with some twists: specifically, he's very religious \ superstitious, taking care to honor the gods in a way that feels truer to the era than standard fantasy "clerics pray for their spells, nobody else gives a poo poo except for the oppressive church" (though everyone still worships via prayer and obeying commandments rather than offering proper sacrifices). That's kinda cool. The hero hails from a matriarchal society, respects women, and is still a virgin. Also cool. He deals with his ques for revenge for his murdered parents and destroyed blah blah blah in the very first chapter, and has to figure out what meaning his life should have (ideally, a wife and family in some peaceful village, but who needs a rugged super warrior in a peaceful village) for the rest of the series. Neat. There's an ostensible pacifist angle, with the people who taught Wolfhound his superpowers believing that every death diminishes someone in the world (but he's constantly forced to murderize bad guys, woe) - ostensibly interesting (and kinda pays off in the end). But! The first book drew me in, and I read it without any breaks (which I basically never do these days). And as it ended... I realized not a single named positive character died. Turns out? You kinda need that. The hero may be an invincible super warrior, but you should at least be mildly concerned about his companions and charges. Every single one of them, including those who were trying really hard to throw their lives away and had every reason to die by genre law, makes it to the end of the book. The gods are real in this setting, and they apparently work very hard to reward everyone as they deserve (as long as they're onscreen. Offscreen atrocities are fine) Now I kinda understand people who were somewhat disappointed by the Trails in the Sky series. Also, while the first book was basically "Here are our characters. Got to know them? Good, here's a main quest that's going to take the rest of the book, and here are the villains who are trying to stop it", the second is "our heroes are travelling... somewhere. And experience a bunch of adventures along the way", which is way less tense or exciting.
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Feb 27, 2022 12:26
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