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Megazver posted:Gaiman's Sandman, a little bit. Yeah, in looking around, a lot of people say that. It's been years since I read Sandman, maybe it's worth another read. I actually found a reddit post from the man himself where he was recommending books like mount char and he listed Planetary and The Invisibles. He also said William Hope Hodgson is a major inspiration, specifically the novella The Night Land, but unless you wanna read 100 year old New England Weirdo Lit, doesn't seem like a lot out there outside of comics.
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Apr 23, 2023 01:42
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Megazver posted:Gaiman's Sandman, a little bit. If you want to go a little bit, there's also Gaiman's American Gods, but The Library at Mount Char is very much its own thing. It's highly original so you really are not going to find a bunch of stuff "just like it."
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Apr 23, 2023 04:31
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I felt like the game Hades matched the tone of Library at Mount Char. It made me read a bunch of Greek mythology that was pretty dull, but Circe also matched pretty well.
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Apr 23, 2023 06:30
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zoux posted:Yeah, in looking around, a lot of people say that. It's been years since I read Sandman, maybe it's worth another read. I actually found a reddit post from the man himself where he was recommending books like mount char and he listed Planetary and The Invisibles. He also said William Hope Hodgson is a major inspiration, specifically the novella The Night Land, but unless you wanna read 100 year old New England Weirdo Lit, doesn't seem like a lot out there outside of comics. You might also want to look in to the tabletop RPG Nobilis by Jenna Moran and the fiction surrounding it (of which there's quite a bit). Mount Char's cosmology and vibe are extremely resonant with Nobilis - I made a post about this a while back, so I'm going to just quote myself here: Kestral posted:Since there's definitely an overlap between "people who post in the TBB SF/F thread" and "people who might be interested in tabletop roleplaying games," I'm compelled to mention that if you enjoy The Library at Mount Char and also have any interest in RPGs whatsoever, you owe it to yourself to check out Jenna K. Moran's Nobilis: the Game of Sovereign Powers. It's available on DriveThruRPG in several editions, I'm not sure which of them is currently regarded as the go-to but I can vouch for the nigh-legendary second edition through actual play. There's a 4th Edition coming out in the nearish future as well. Nobilis is the closest thing we're ever likely to see to a Library at Mount Char RPG, and they are both singular and weird and beautiful in many overlapping ways. The Library and Father are basically one-to-one a Chancel and an Imperator, the Librarians are the Nobilis of various domains, and the myriad weird and terrifyingly powerful and ancient beings that are all over Mount Char are the sorts of things Nobilis protagonists spend a lot of their time conducting diplomacy or making war against.
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Apr 23, 2023 07:27
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Velius posted:I think Hamilton is more an idea guy than a “what are the actual moral consequences of this idea” guy. I guess what I want is “The Overly Indulgent Space Opera (with) Baru Cormorant”, what can I do to make this happen? I love Hamilton to pieces, but reading his books is entirely about the characters and worlds he builds. He does not have a single *great* ending. It’s almost as if he panics at book 2.5 when he realises he has 40 stories to close off as well as the main storyline in 15 chapters. As for the Night’s Dawn trilogy the main plot point people haven’t mentioned is the implied “hell” of the returnees. It’s mentioned numerous times that there’s an element of choice to the afterlife. Those that return are those that didn’t choose to move on and that’s partly to do with how fulfilled they were when they died. Some great general setup, with zero follow-through in the last few chapters of the book. If you do like how Hamilton writes, the Commonwealth saga and Dreaming Void saga are far better written. Stay far away from his recent series which was confused at best, poorly considered and executed at worst.
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Apr 23, 2023 08:44
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I think some of Tim Powers' stuff touches on similar notes as library at mount char. Anubis Gates or Last Call maybe?
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Apr 23, 2023 11:20
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Hades, Last Call, and Anubis Gates as potential similarities? I gotta read this thing, clearly.
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Apr 23, 2023 11:31
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Pinball Jizzard posted:
Is that the Salvation Sequence series? I haven't got around to that yet and I was thinking of reading it.
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Apr 23, 2023 11:42
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I read Char for the first time this past fall finally after years of hearing all the praise and recommendation. I quite liked it but find it a bit overrated. That could just be the effect of hearing about it so long before trying it. The ending was dragged out and I wasn’t impressed by there being not one but two “all according to plan” moments. There’s an originality to it I don’t find often in my picks and for a first novel it’s drat impressive.
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Apr 23, 2023 14:24
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Okay, at 140~ pages into Shapechangers by Jennifer Roberson, I can't. I've owned this book since I was a teenager - always kept it on the shelf, thought of reading it one day. Then a few years back I figured I'd complete the Cheysuli set and read them, and bought the books and... didn't read them. This week I decided that no, damnit, I'd at least finish this book as it's only 200 pages and I hear the rest of it is good. A fantasy family saga with shapeshifters and magic and fun stuff. I'd even heard this one wasn't so good, but it opened the way for better stuff. Unfortunately it's one of the worst books I've had the misfortune of reading. Summary In generic fantasy kingdom 1, the king has only managed to have one heir: a girl! Oh no! Fine. She's been given an arranged marriage to another kingdom, for peace and prosperity. But she hates the guy, and instead runs off with the king's most trusted retainer, a cheysuli. In this setting, cheysuli are a race of brown-skinned, yellow-eyed, magical people who are one with the land, can talk to animals and transform into them, and other things. Yeah they're bad Native American stereotypes. Anyways, because she ran off with him, the king said "gently caress it" and declared genocide on all cheysuli, everywhere. That's the backstory. It's bad. Now the story, it's worse: one day, sweet innocent croft-girl Alix is out meeting the king's prince (the king found another wife) in secret, because they're in love. But now they've been kidnapped by evil cheysuli! Oh no! The cheysuli explain there's a prophecy, Alix is actually half-Cheysuli as she's the daughter of the princess, she's Important. They also try to rape her, and only stop because it's revealed that they're actually half-siblings. But don't worry! Rape will be threatened a LOT by basically everyone, especially Alix's love interest. Alix, as much as I want to root for the heroine of a fantasy novel, is the least likable lead I've ever met. She is not consistent. "The cheysuli are demons and I hate them, I want to go with you," she tells the prince in one scene. "Maybe the cheysuli are cool and I want to know more, I want to stay with you," she tells the cheysuli in the next scene. "No actually you're demons and I want to go with him," she says in the next scene. This repeats... basically all the time? "Tell me about this prophecy already or I won't go with you. I promise I'll go once I hear it." -> "oh I hate that prophecy! I'm not going with you!" -> "I love you so much I will do anything to guarantee we can get married, including getting pregnant right now" -> "You have a prior flame that you didn't realize you still had feelings for? I hate you so much!" -> "I love you!" -> "I hate you!" This does not get better at any point. The leads get fed up with her, and at one point the love interest actually cuts off her hair to make sure she can't go back on her choice of rejecting him. (This is hosed up!) Anyways she goes back on her choice of rejecting him and tries to seduce him. The prophecy is also bad, alongside the way the genocide is used: there's a prophecy that says the cheysuli will win and good things will happen IF the right babies are had. So Alix has to get pregnant. But also! Because of the genocide, their numbers are low, so it's absolutely OK for cheysuli to impregnate as many women as possible. Apparently they've been kidnapping and raping women to survive. hosed up. If this were treated with literally any gravitas it could be interesting and devastating- I have never read a book from the perspective of someone suffering from a genocide outside of the holocaust, so it could be, y'know... harrowing. Especially with how fantasy loves to go hard for eugenics. That could be interesting, in a hosed up way. Instead it's just... badly written, rude as gently caress, and rape rape rape rape. All that, in 140 pages. Christ. I'm not reading more. I checked out the first few pages of the second book in case it improved, as reviews said it did, but it opens with the prince being pals with the guy who first tried to rape Alix, so OK yeah goodbye I expected better of you author.
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Apr 23, 2023 14:47
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General Battuta posted:There are no books like it. Hasn’t he written a bunch of technical Linux books as well? I always imagined him as a one good book author. Which to be fair is perfectly ok given that this book comes back all the time in this thread. pradmer posted:The Boy on the Bridge (Girl with All the Gifts #2) by MR Carey - $2.99 A sequel to Girl with all the gifts is a little bit odd, given how the first ended. Also, is not The last of us basically the first book? Haven’t seen the TV series but the synopsis sounded similar enough.
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Apr 23, 2023 14:52
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Follow-up post: there is an entire reread blog series on tor.com about the cheysuli novels.
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Apr 23, 2023 14:59
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So, CJ Cherryh. Ages ago I read 40k in Gehenna, which I vaguely remember, and Downbelow Station , which I don't at all beyond the title and that I liked it. Where should I start with her in general?
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Apr 23, 2023 16:10
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Ravenfood posted:So, CJ Cherryh. Ages ago I read 40k in Gehenna, which I vaguely remember, and Downbelow Station , which I don't at all beyond the title and that I liked it. Where should I start with her in general? Pride of Chanur! What do you like best about her stuff? Do you like fantasy or sci-fi or both?
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Apr 23, 2023 16:22
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StrixNebulosa posted:The Cherryh fangirl has logged on All of this still holds true!
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Apr 23, 2023 16:23
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StrixNebulosa posted:Pride of Chanur! I like both pretty evenly. What I thought was most memorable of 40k in Gehenna was how the alien species felt like something alien and not "randomly inscrutable" or "humans with one personality trait monolithically exaggerated and maybe with bits stuck on their face". E ^^^ yeah that's perfect. Thanks!
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Apr 23, 2023 16:27
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Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003RRXXMA/ The Wandering Earth by Cixin Liu - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QGMTFNW/ Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XD75HGV/ The Illustrated Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NHZVF5T/
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Apr 23, 2023 16:27
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So what sci-fi or fantasy books have exceptionally good/interesting treatments of religious faith? I’ve read The Sparrow, The Book of Strange New Things and am nearing the end of Ship of Fools. I’ve also read Curse of Chalion but have not read the sequels. I feel like scifi tends to do better in this area because of its close relation, or its ability to be closely related, to our world. So I think that would be my preference. But either way, to one extent or another I’ve loved all of these books for their relatively nuanced positions on the matter.
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Apr 23, 2023 17:07
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I was going to recomend BOOK OF STRANGE NEW THINGS because it takes the unusual (and, in my opinion, admirable) step of being about someone who's just kind of a mediocre dumbass, as most of us are. But you've already read it. A CASE OF CONSCIENCE maybe? Bit of a throwback but... Also maybe OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET?
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Apr 23, 2023 17:11
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BurningBeard posted:So what sci-fi or fantasy books have exceptionally good/interesting treatments of religious faith? I think the Coldfire trilogy by CS Friedman does it interestingly at least, but it's also fantasy with some tendencies to purple prose. I'd call it maybe good genre fantasy, maybe.
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Apr 23, 2023 17:26
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General Battuta posted:I was going to recomend BOOK OF STRANGE NEW THINGS because it takes the unusual (and, in my opinion, admirable) step of being about someone who's just kind of a mediocre dumbass, as most of us are. But you've already read it. Man is he ever a dumbass. The slow destruction of everything dear to him because of his obsession and single-mindedness was a bit hard to read. I liked Strange New Things less than Under The Skin but that bit of it was wild and affecting. I’ll look into the other two. It now occurrs to me A Canticle For Leibowitz impacted me pretty strongly a long time ago, but it’s been so many years that I think I should probs revisit it. If I don’t find something new that’s probably what I’ll end up doing.
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Apr 23, 2023 17:35
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The thing I remember most about Mount Char is that it got to a place where I thought, ok, that's the ending. But there was like 3/4ths of the book left and usually when that happens it's a very bad sign. But no, it sticks one landing and then does a triple gainer and sticks the landing again.
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Apr 23, 2023 18:32
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I finished Char a few weeks ago. I describe my glowing realization of the plot as "The Emperor from WH40K is my boss, and suddenly I have to be acting manager."
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Apr 23, 2023 19:21
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General Battuta posted:I was going to recomend BOOK OF STRANGE NEW THINGS because it takes the unusual (and, in my opinion, admirable) step of being about someone who's just kind of a mediocre dumbass, as most of us are. But you've already read it.
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Apr 23, 2023 20:13
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StrixNebulosa posted:All of this still holds true! Great write up, but I would put morgaine close to the top. Excellent, gritty fantasy with an incredibly slow burn love story.
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Apr 23, 2023 20:36
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Kestral posted:You might also want to look in to the tabletop RPG Nobilis by Jenna Moran and the fiction surrounding it (of which there's quite a bit). Mount Char's cosmology and vibe are extremely resonant with Nobilis - I made a post about this a while back, so I'm going to just quote myself here: People who enjoy Jenna Moran's prose should definitely read her RPG books, if only for the incredible fake book quote flash fiction she writes in the margins. Basically, like all modern RPG books, Moran's books are filled with pretentious quotes from obscure authors, all of whom are completely made up and written by Moran herself. Here is a random sample from the middle of "Glitch", my favorite game of hers:          
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Apr 23, 2023 20:36
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BurningBeard posted:So what sci-fi or fantasy books have exceptionally good/interesting treatments of religious faith? I've recommended it like a billion times already, but one more won't hurt: The Book of the Dun Cow.
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Apr 23, 2023 20:53
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It's not a book but if you haven't watched it in a minute, Deep Space Nine still has some very thoughtful commentary on faith and tolerance, both the beauty of religion and how it can be misused as a tool of oppression and bigotry. I had a glance at The Book of Strange New Things once but - is that the one where the guy is sitting in an airport or something at the start and thinks moodily to himself about how everyone is probably JUDGING HIM because he has a BIBLE with him? Because I got exactly that far and my eyes rolled out of their sockets and away down the street. Probably unfair, I'm sure it's good, and I've liked that author in other books, but ugh.
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Apr 23, 2023 21:00
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sebmojo posted:Great write up, but I would put morgaine close to the top. Excellent, gritty fantasy with an incredibly slow burn love story. Morgaine and I just haven't clicked, sadly - but then I'm not a huge fan of her earliest works. I think the only set in that "era" that I like are the Fallen Sun novels, as the rest are just too much for me.
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Apr 23, 2023 21:06
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HopperUK posted:It's not a book but if you haven't watched it in a minute, Deep Space Nine still has some very thoughtful commentary on faith and tolerance, both the beauty of religion and how it can be misused as a tool of oppression and bigotry. That sounds about right. Him being a knob is kinda part and parcel of his character though. You’re definitely meant to roll your eyes at a lot of his behavior. I’d say it’s worth another try if you are interested in the subject matter. Though as I said, I think Under The Skin was a far better book. Selachian posted:I've recommended it like a billion times already, but one more won't hurt: The Book of the Dun Cow. Oh this looks neat. I normally don’t go in for alagorical type things, but I’m interested. unattended spaghetti fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Apr 23, 2023 |
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Apr 23, 2023 21:07
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drat this first Mistwraith book is a brick. I'm not finding the prose too much, I read poo poo like this all the time because I'm unbearable, but the actual quality of the printing in this mass market paperback is appalling. So blurry.
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Apr 23, 2023 21:08
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Cardiac posted:A sequel to Girl with all the gifts is a little bit odd, given how the first ended. It's not a sequel, it's a prequel about what happened to the Rosalind Franklin. On the subject of Mike Carey: I just finished his latest novel Infinity Gate. Won't go into much detail, but it's a hard recommend unless you really hate cliffhangers - in which case wait until next year for the other half of the story. I got to the end and it stopped just short of revealing the identity of the narrator, which is likely to be rather important. I had up to a point assumed it was a certain character, but the last chapter makes it absolutely clear that it isn't.
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Apr 23, 2023 21:11
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Kestral posted:You might also want to look in to the tabletop RPG Nobilis by Jenna Moran and the fiction surrounding it (of which there's quite a bit). Mount Char's cosmology and vibe are extremely resonant with Nobilis - I made a post about this a while back, so I'm going to just quote myself here: In addition to this recommendation (which is solid), she's also written a bunch of fiction that isn't part of Nobilis but has similar vibes: - Hitherby Dragons, an online collection of short stories; - Magical Bears in the Context of Contemporary Political Theory, a collection of short fiction, some original and some reprints from Hitherby - The Night-Bird's Feather, a novel Ravenfood posted:So, CJ Cherryh. Ages ago I read 40k in Gehenna, which I vaguely remember, and Downbelow Station , which I don't at all beyond the title and that I liked it. Where should I start with her in general? This is normally the part where I grab you and start shoving books down your throat, but it looks like StrixNebulosa already beat me to it. 
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Apr 23, 2023 21:32
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just read Babel-17 and it was good but it put me in the mood for Space Pirates. any space piracy recommendations?
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Apr 23, 2023 22:18
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HopperUK posted:drat this first Mistwraith book is a brick. I'm not finding the prose too much, I read poo poo like this all the time because I'm unbearable, but the actual quality of the printing in this mass market paperback is appalling. So blurry. The Kindle edition had a ton of problems, like typos and and weird formatting errors. Apparently the 2nd book is even worse per the Amazon reviews; in some cases entire sentences are cut off. It's a real shame I get why physical books can have problems because it's a physical process with a lot of moving pieces. I've purchased a lot of One Piece over the years and I feel like I could reasonably guess which books came from the same printers due to the similarities in the imperfections but why aren't ebooks just... patched like a video game? is it really that hard, technically or legally? It's just so unprofessional and kind of embarrassing that publishers let their ebooks look like trash forever
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Apr 23, 2023 22:39
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It probably doesn't pay. If there's only one ebook version, people are going to buy it anyway so there's nothing in it for the publisher.
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Apr 23, 2023 23:08
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RDM posted:This book is notable for the stupidity of a key revelation 90% of the way through that underpins every aspect of the plot I really like it, it worked for me.
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Apr 23, 2023 23:33
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HopperUK posted:It's not a book but if you haven't watched it in a minute, Deep Space Nine still has some very thoughtful commentary on faith and tolerance, both the beauty of religion and how it can be misused as a tool of oppression and bigotry. People we don’t like or wouldn’t get along with can still be interesting to read about. I like that book for really committing to a protagonist who’s sort of dim and very committed to a form of Christianity most of us (myself included) probably find frustrating, but he’s still trying to be a good person in the best way he thinks he can.
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Apr 23, 2023 23:36
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 FREE AVRAM DAVIDSON BOOKS GIVEAWAYAvram Davidson is one of my favourite SF/F authors ever and very likely your faves' fave. To celebrate 100 years since his birth the current licensee, his godson Seth, is giving away several of his books for FREE for the next 5 days: The Avram Davidson Treasury: A Tribute Collection His best of collection with a bunch of fore and afterwords to each story from notable SF writers including Ursula Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, Gene Wolfe, William Gibson and more. The Boss in The Wall: A Treatise on the House Devil One of my favourites and genuinely unsettling horror story fez_machine fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Apr 23, 2023 |
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Apr 23, 2023 23:45
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BurningBeard posted:So what sci-fi or fantasy books have exceptionally good/interesting treatments of religious faith? Walter M Miller's short stories collected in The Dark Benediction are very good for this as well, especially the title story.
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Apr 23, 2023 23:50
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