|
Cicero posted:Even on the progression fantasy subreddit it's a common mistake. The SimAnt and SimEarth manuals represent most of my current knowledge about ants and earth so I'd also read a fantasy novel by that Will Wright. Probably learn how tapirs work as a side plot.
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 00:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 02:35 |
|
|
The White Gold Score (Daniel Faust) by Craig Schaefer - Free https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C86LWS2/ Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor #1) by Mark Lawrence - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IAUG6R2/
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 00:36
|
|
|
FPyat posted:The Heroes is supposed to be very cool and I am willing to push through four books of questionable quality for that praise. Yeah I enjoyed heroes, it's not wildly different from the others though it's just the best version of his thing that I've read.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 00:45
|
|
|
sebmojo posted:Yeah I enjoyed heroes, it's not wildly different from the others though it's just the best version of his thing that I've read. It being relatively self-contained and themed around something like an American Civil War detailed battle plan are both points in its favor.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 00:51
|
|
|
Silver2195 posted:Snow Crash, I think. Also Stephenson's The Big U, which was a sort of first draft of using those ideas in Snow Crash.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 01:23
|
|
|
FPyat posted:Is there any fiction inspired by The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind? Bruce Sterling’s Distraction, maybe.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 01:33
|
|
|
team overhead smash posted:The noble savage is not actually noble. Gandalf is actually evil. The secret heir to the throne is not actually the heir to the throne and is generally a poo poo and while he eventually progresses to not a poo poo it ends up not mattering. The unbelievably skilled warrior gets Zerg rushed, tortured and crippled. The sensible intelligent officer who can actually get things done has a streak of inner violence, betrays his kingdom and dies of magic leprosy. The romance storyline running through the books ends up in misery. Battles are scary and violent. Everyone ends up unhappy except the biggest bastard. This does sound pretty cool tbf. I guess my problem with the series ultimately is just that it's slow as gently caress. There's no reason in my mind why a 200k novel should be all setup and no payoff.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 03:46
|
|
|
Subverting the notion of books having payoffs
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 04:32
|
|
|
fritz posted:'Between the Rivers' by Harry Turtledove http://bactra.org/reviews/between-the-rivers/ You know, overall I enjoyed the concepts and story in this book, and there have been a couple of gigantic forum CYOAs inspired by it, but the sex was icky. There are two sex scenes. They both involve the protagonist sexually assaulting women. They are both treated as super casual and incidental, by the protagonist and the author. It's not the worst in the field, but it's also not a book I would recommend to anyone with a history of sexual trauma.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 05:04
|
|
|
Sailor Viy posted:This does sound pretty cool tbf. I guess my problem with the series ultimately is just that it's slow as gently caress. There's no reason in my mind why a 200k novel should be all setup and no payoff. For me I enjoyed the writing. It was flavourful and the characters interesting enough that I enjoyed the journey. If that doesn’t apply to you then there’s not much point slogging through just to experience some plot twists involving characters you don’t care about.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 06:38
|
|
|
The main standout thing for me in the Abercrombie books ended up being the first time I'd really read a mainstream fantasy novel where they said gently caress a lot. I think there was a sex scene with Logan that was funny but I honestly can't recall much from the books. I remember the big overall themes and feeling bad for the glokta? dude. But yea, basically it was the first big mainstream fantasy where they said gently caress a lot. To me, anyway.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 07:38
|
|
|
Nomnom Cookie posted:Abercrombie insists on extinguishing hope and accurately depicting the bleakness of existence in an uncaring universe populated by flawed humanity and ruled by its most monstrous people. I do not read fiction to learn about worlds that are like mine so I do not enjoy Abercrombie. Yeah, this is my problem with him. It's not just the blood and guts and depressing violence (which isn't even that bad by a lot of standards). It's that whenever something hopeful or noble rears its head it has to be immediately stomped into the mud. Better things aren't possible, you fool, you absolute clown. Also the bit where one character thinks "The fight in the market place seemed so long ago, but so little had changed" and then the next chapter another character thinks "the fight in the market place seemed so recent, but so much had changed" was so annoyingly cute it made me want to hurl my kindle out the window.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 10:19
|
|
|
after re-reading the golden enclaves: lol poor chloe, just straight up ghosted I like it, nice conclusion to the series, I really like the author (aside from temeraire which is just ok)
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 20:01
|
|
|
Ambercrombie definitely got better with plotting payoffs for each book as he evolved as a writer. First book does have the contest though and the big final conflict as they race to get the quest started. Books 2 and 3 have more substantial climaxes though
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 20:11
|
|
|
The fauxbercrombie passage is loving incredible and i'd bet the author would love it if he's read it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 20:32
|
|
|
Johannes Cabal the Necromancer (#1) by Jonathan L Howard - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002DOSBL6/ The Thousandfold Thought (Prince of Nothing #3) by R Scott Bakker - Free https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MXDLDC3/ Cross Fire (Exo) by Fonda Lee - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0756KV6RR/
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 22:09
|
|
|
Thanks for these still, I do end up looking at many books I haven't heard of as they come up here! I'm not sure if this is the right place for it as it's extreeeeemely minor fantasy in the scope of it but I just read the Blackwater series, the entire Caskey family by Michael McDowell and loved it. Slight bits of supernatural horror and as someone who grew up in the south it captured its essence and all the really messed up family stuff that I've seen and known there. Anyone have recommendations of the author's other work that's exceptionally good, or other kind of creepy but atmospheric as hell supernatural stuff? I enjoy fully creepy weird too so am up for whatever is suggested, The Stars Are Legion was pretty great.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 22:27
|
|
|
pradmer posted:The Thousandfold Thought (Prince of Nothing #3) by R Scott Bakker - Free Still far too expensive.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 22:37
|
|
|
Nyxtlla posted:Thanks for these still, I do end up looking at many books I haven't heard of as they come up here! My main criticism of Blackwater, which is otherwise a fantastic book, is the use of rape to either humanise the victim and/or allow the perpetrator to be eaten which I felt was dealt with in a very heavy handed way. In terms of books like it, it is hard to recommend a fantasy book like it as you could strip out the fantasy elements from it and still have a great book; they’re not really at the heart of it. You can try looking up Southern Gothic writers like William Faulkner if you’re happy to read similar stories without the fantasy elements.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 22:40
|
|
|
habeasdorkus posted:Still far too expensive. What's the thread's general opinion on Bakker? I have the first book on my shelf but haven't read it. I went on a deep dive through the fan wiki and the series seems to be an equal admixture of awesome poo poo and 
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 22:53
|
|
|
just read the second Zoey Ashe novel in pretty much a day i'd say its drat good liked it a bit more than the first novel
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 23:13
|
|
|
team overhead smash posted:My main criticism of Blackwater, which is otherwise a fantastic book, is the use of rape to either humanise the victim and/or allow the perpetrator to be eaten which I felt was dealt with in a very heavy handed way. Yeah I could see that as a criticism, I think I wasn't as bothered by it as it was written in the 80s so I was expecting far worse treatment of women really. But those people definitely should have been eaten before that happened as they were already terrible jerks.  I usually find fiction without some supernatural/fantasy/sci element to them to be very boringly mundane but it's been a while since I've tried, so I'll check out Faulkner and see if anything clicks in the meantime! Thanks.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 23:16
|
|
|
Sailor Viy posted:What's the thread's general opinion on Bakker? I have the first book on my shelf but haven't read it. I went on a deep dive through the fan wiki and the series seems to be an equal admixture of awesome poo poo and The admixture is not equal. There is some awesome poo poo, but the end I think the yikes outweighs the awesome poo poo. If you go in understanding that the author believes that men are biologically programmed to be rapists, and want to read about nonstop rapes, and therefore everyone (I think literally every character in the series?) will be raped, then I dunno, maybe you can...tolerate...it? There's not a single major female character in the first trilogy who is not a prostitute, sex slave, or sex crazed alien horror pretending to be a woman. I think by this point everyone's opinion of Bakker is pretty much 'lol, dude, cmon'. Don't read Neuropath, it's genuinely detestable.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 23:20
|
|
|
awesmoe posted:after re-reading the golden enclaves: lol poor chloe, just straight up ghosted Yeah, I quite enjoyed The Golden Enclaves as well. I reminder wondering at the end of book 2 how the heck Naomi would keep the last book on track despite the obvious difference in setting, but she really pulled it off. Either way, if I notice myself thinking "drat, too bad this book was so short, it was a bit too fast" then that's usually a good sign (certainly better than the opposite) and that was really the case here.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2022 23:28
|
|
|
Nyxtlla posted:Thanks for these still, I do end up looking at many books I haven't heard of as they come up here! I feel like I always recommend this series, but maybe the Charlie Parker series by John Connolly. Not strictly all Southern Gothic, but one major character is from the south and some time is spent down there in creepy small southern towns. It’s got a good creepy but not overwhelming supernatural vibe. The first book is rough, but it picks up after that.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 01:12
|
|
|
Nyxtlla posted:Thanks for these still, I do end up looking at many books I haven't heard of as they come up here! John Honor Jacobs writes in the Southern Gothic supernatural area. Southern Gods and a Lush and Seething Hell in particular. In SG, the protagonist is wandering around post-WW2 south trying to track down a record that is making people go insane by a blues player “Travelin John Hastur.” It’s good.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 01:37
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:The admixture is not equal. This is, if anything, kind. The characters are all supergeniuses or gods of war or both (who are almost universally rapists) unless they're women who are clearly incapable of being those things (and are also getting raped regularly). Unless they're the elf analogue, in which case they're supergenius gods of war who rape even harder. It's a loving garbage pail ulitmate edgelord universe that has the sole advantage of being solidly written. And I'm not exactly squeemish about that stuff, I really enjoyed Richard Morgan's A Land Fit For Heroes trilogy which has a protagonist at one point organize a goddamned gangrape. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Oct 13, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 03:30
|
|
|
It inspired some EXTREMELY niche shitposting thoughquote:Deep within the halls of Ishual I oversaw the birth of the latest Candidate. From the scents and issues of the pregnancy I had determined the sex of the boy. But when the child slid from the whale-mother it was at a time unanticipated by the evidence, and beneath the natal filth he wore a robe of thick cloth. Improbably, the child spoke. "Look here," he burbled, "buncha nerds so cloistered they think a clitoris is a property of the soul's will to become self-moving. Hey! You! You spend twenty years studying how passions move peeled-up faces?" And I saw in his bloodied face the words 'and yo cock so little they call you the Death of Girth.' I fell into the Probability Trance to explore the causal origins of this event, but everywhere I turned I saw a man with nimil-jeweled teeth hooting "They say an Anasurimbor will come at the end of the world, so I guess the Second Apocalypse goes down after three pumps". And I felt the Absolute escape me forever.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 04:00
|
|
|
The Lady Astronaut author has a murder mystery set on an interplanetary liner that just came out. https://www.amazon.com/Spare-Man-Mary-Robinette-Kowal/dp/1250829178 quote:Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and an heiress, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between the Moon and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and the festering chowderheads who run security have the audacity to arrest her spouse. Armed with banter, martinis and her small service dog, Tesla is determined to solve the crime so that the newlyweds can get back to canoodling―and keep the real killer from striking again. Apparently it is a takeoff of The Thin Man.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 04:07
|
|
|
William Powell and Myrna Loy are that franchise. I can't imagine it's as well done in text
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 04:10
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:It inspired some EXTREMELY niche shitposting though Dammit you're gonna make me hot back and read the Iliad
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 04:27
|
|
|
Sailor Viy posted:What's the thread's general opinion on Bakker? I have the first book on my shelf but haven't read it. I went on a deep dive through the fan wiki and the series seems to be an equal admixture of awesome poo poo and I don't know about the general opinion but I noped the gently caress out after the first book. Like someone else said, too edgelordy. newts posted:I feel like I always recommend this series, but maybe the Charlie Parker series by John Connolly. Not strictly all Southern Gothic, but one major character is from the south and some time is spent down there in creepy small southern towns. It’s got a good creepy but not overwhelming supernatural vibe. The first book is rough, but it picks up after that. I've been following the series for the last ten years and it's brilliant. Even the weaker books are great. If you like it, check out Connolly's Bad Men as well - it's got the same vibe.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 08:30
|
|
|
habeasdorkus posted:This is, if anything, kind. The characters are all supergeniuses or gods of war or both (who are almost universally rapists) unless they're women who are clearly incapable of being those things (and are also getting raped regularly). Unless they're the elf analogue, in which case they're supergenius gods of war who rape even harder. I'm gonna flip the otherway and say you're being a but unkind here. The books don't say that women are incapable of being those things, it's that the incredibly misogynistic world of Earwa doesn't allow them to be. I think Esmenet is actually a really good portrayal of someone who is naturally very intelligent but has been denied even a basic education. Part of Achamians attraction to her is that the dude loving loves tutoring people, and she's a voracious learner. It felt a lot more natural and realistic than say, Mistborn, where an uneducated street urchin somehow manages to invent the principle of statistical significance. I also think a lot of people decide that the books are somehow endorsing the creation of eugenically-created cult-educated supergeniuses, when it's clear from the begining that Kelhus is an absolute monster. One of the things I think Bakker does well is setting up all the philosophy of the Dunyain/Unmoved Soul and then yanking the rug out from under it and saying, no wait, that's absolute bullshit you maniacs. Serwe and the unrelenting sexual violence....yeah I'm not even gonna try and defend that.I get that the Inchoroi/Sranc need to be viscerally repulsive and irredeemably evil, but jesus dude, just make em cannibals.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 10:22
|
|
|
I’ve finally gotten around to reading Goon Favourite Blindsight and I have a question I was hoping I could ask without being spoiled: Can someone describe what Ben is in relation to Rorschach? I think that Ben is an asteroid that the cloaked Ror is orbiting and using as a fuel source? Also, how did humanity know to focus on this moving body and know they would find aliens? Im on page 117 but my reading has been broken up, so the details are fuzzy.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 12:24
|
|
|
Big Ben is a planet, a gas giant without a star that happens to be not-that-far from our solar system. Or maybe it technically orbits the sun, but at such an extreme distance and angle it hasn’t been discovered yet, I forget. Rorschach is “mining” it, using Ben’s resources to build itself up from something tiny to its present size. I forget why Ben came up on their radar, but Theseus’s original mission was a suspicious asteroid that entered the solar system. It self-destructed, and so they got the new mission while the crew were all on ice. Edit: https://vimeo.com/297931965 I've had a hi-res version of the shot at 00:25 as my desktop background for like eight years now. Kazzah fucked around with this message at 13:30 on Oct 13, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 12:35
|
|
|
Re: Bakker, when I was younger and more naive about what a good book was, I liked The Second Apocalypse a lot. Frankly, I still think the first trilogy holds up well as a set of fantasy books. There is definitely a lot of cringey poo poo in there and Bakker's treatment of women in particular is bad and I wouldn't recommend to friends on that basis alone, however - don't be afraid to throw them in a fire if you're repulsed by the content, but I still think there is a lot of grimdark awesome stuff in the first few books. I would read up to The Thousandfold Thought and then forget the second series exists and bemoan what a shame it is that Bakker never got around to finishing the saga. because the Judging Eye has some decent moments as a weird fantasy pastiche of Blood Meridian, but every book afterwards becomes progressively worse up until the crescendo of terribad that was The Unholy Consult
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 12:50
|
|
|
like a lot of others I read Bakker years ago and yeah, it does have some really interesting stuff in it, but I can not recommend reading it because Having Really Interesting Stuff doesn't make up for all the edgy poo poo the concept of Impossibly Smart Manipulative Jesus is cool, some of the lore is cool, but there's only so far the issues can be carried
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 15:32
|
|
|
Tosk posted:Re: Bakker, when I was younger and more naive about what a good book was, I liked The Second Apocalypse a lot. Frankly, I still think the first trilogy holds up well as a set of fantasy books. There is definitely a lot of cringey poo poo in there and Bakker's treatment of women in particular is bad and I wouldn't recommend to friends on that basis alone, however - don't be afraid to throw them in a fire if you're repulsed by the content, but I still think there is a lot of grimdark awesome stuff in the first few books. I would read up to The Thousandfold Thought and then forget the second series exists and bemoan what a shame it is that Bakker never got around to finishing the saga. I can sort of see that, but at the same time there's plenty of good fantasy stuff that doesn't do that. I just finished Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead. Alexander Denovo is a vile, abusive, misogynistic piece of filth but no graphic "onscreen" rapes are required to get that point across. At some point the whole edgelord/grimdark "I'll rape toddlers to death with puppies!" stuff goes past gross into dullness and a clear lack of imagination and creativity.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 15:34
|
|
|
I think we all agree Bakker is terrible, and when his writing is bad it’s really bad I can smell your cunny. However, he has some amazingly written passages that really shine, especially mid-series. Oh, and Neuropath is the worst.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 16:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 02:35 |
|
|
You guys don't think you could develop body language recognition akin to telepathy from examining the facial muscles of flayed victims as they emoted in agony?
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 16:35
|
|
