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I'm currently two books into Drew Hayes's Super-Powered series. The writing is competent/okay. The characters are a little stereotypical but God-drat it's like Hayes wrote the book on loving Lays potato chips on a Kindle. I was up 'til after 4:30 in the morning last night finishing Book 2 because I just could not make myself stop reading and go the hell to bed.
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Jul 7, 2023 05:20
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D-Pad posted:I get irrationally angry at their list every month and I don't know why I keep going into it every time expecting different. What do you want to see instead?
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Jul 7, 2023 05:20
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D-Pad posted:I get irrationally angry at their list every month and I don't know why I keep going into it every time expecting different. same, although that one isn't the worst
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Jul 7, 2023 05:23
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StrixNebulosa posted:What do you want to see instead? less of this: io9 posted:A Chorus Rises by Bethany C. Morrow but hey people out there want to read that and more power to 'em. it's not like i'm out there writing a monthly release column, let alone writing books that I'd want to read.
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Jul 7, 2023 05:34
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D-Pad posted:I get irrationally angry at their list every month and I don't know why I keep going into it every time expecting different. it's only going to get better edit: lol they corrected the LLM's lies
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Jul 7, 2023 05:35
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MockingQuantum posted:I'm realizing I read very little that came out in 2022 but a friend of mine that reads everything says he thinks the biggest crimes of omission in the nominees are Spear Cuts Through Water and All the Horses of Iceland. I have Spear Cuts etc and have heard I should try to go into it blind, but anybody read All the Horses of Iceland and have opinions on it? It’s very nice. There’s not a huge amount going on in terms of plot but Tolmie does a good job mimicking the stark, matter of fact style of the Icelandic sagas. Makes for a nice voice from the protagonist, he’s this blunt Viking merchant - not a Badass Warrior or anything in that vein - who is neither particularly surprised or phased by any of the fantastical stuff that occurs. RE: Hugotalk, that’s a very weak novel list, though perhaps unsurprisingly. The novellas too are a disappointment. Continues the trend of only Tordotcom novellas being acknowledged to any real degree. They put them out in quantity, they market well, they’ve contributed significantly to the form becoming a going concern again but still, sad to see a single publisher dominate so much:
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Jul 7, 2023 08:11
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Asimov's is still putting out good stuff! Astounding as well Clarke's World! Short science fiction still exists and is still good outside of Tor!
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Jul 7, 2023 08:50
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Nona deserves to win and is, to date, the best book in the series. I think it is neat how Muir has used the trappings of modern SF to trick nerds into reading a multi-book interrogation of faith, doubt, and her personal relationship with religion and the divine. She’s using characters that people love in order to grapple with some fairly big ideas, and I think that if she kept the pov laser focused on the fan-favorites then the series would actually devolve into what it’s detractors claim it already is (low calorie cozy meme nonsense). Like Nona is a Jesus figure right? (I’m way oversimplifying and also there’s a lot more to it but whatever) She’s both human and divine, and she has to die to redeem us/merc John. She’s not just a chimeric cover personality- she’s a person that people loved and losing her is both a gut punch and big part of that “I think I’m mad at god but also I’m not sure what to do with that” theme. . And none of that can happen if it’s just Harrow and Gideon being cute for 300 pages (not that there’s anything wrong with that) Anyway. What are people reading? I’ve got a few things on deck but haven’t started any yet: My Brilliant Friend, Paladin of Souls, and Master and Commander. A Difficult choice
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Jul 7, 2023 11:32
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Armauk posted:The decline has been happening for a while. People have been saying the same since the 60s.
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Jul 7, 2023 12:40
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does the locked tomb series follow the dune rule or does it get better again after harrow (I did not like harrow)
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Jul 7, 2023 13:26
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buffalo all day posted:does the locked tomb series follow the dune rule or does it get better again after harrow (I did not like harrow) Depends on why you didn't like Harrow, really.
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Jul 7, 2023 13:27
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Gato The Elder posted:Anyway. What are people reading? I’ve got a few things on deck but haven’t started any yet: My Brilliant Friend, Paladin of Souls, and Master and Commander. A Difficult choice I’ve been on a big Fantasy kick recently, so I’m currently reading through Unsouled by Will Wight and 16 Way to Defend a Walled City by KJ Parker, and audiobooking The Thousand Names by Django Wrexler. 16 Ways is easily the best of the bunch, though I’m not that far into Unsouled yet so that could change. fritz posted:People have been saying the same since the 60s. Yeah, claiming something good is now declining is like an ever-present state of humanity. That said, I definitely used to look to the Hugo nominees as a reliable list of things I should read but it hasn’t been that way for me now for at least the last five years. Not entirely sure why, but could just be the current works the SFF community deems as award worthy aren’t appealing to me anymore. Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi fucked around with this message at 13:42 on Jul 7, 2023 |
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Jul 7, 2023 13:31
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I'm making myself read Seveneves as his only book I didn't finish. On to part three then back to the backlog of Lem stuff.Ravenfood posted:Depends on why you didn't like Harrow, really.  Nona is as different from the other two as Harrow is from Gideon Harold Fjord fucked around with this message at 13:50 on Jul 7, 2023 |
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Jul 7, 2023 13:33
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Nona has multiple characters who aren't giant assholes
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Jul 7, 2023 13:39
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fritz posted:People have been saying the same since the 60s. The Epic of Gilgamesh has a bit about the good old days when things were more awesome...
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Jul 7, 2023 13:49
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Harold Fjord posted:Nona is as different from the other two as Harrow is from Gideon Yeah that's a better way to put it than I did. It isn't like you could read Harrow and Nona and think they were written by different authors, so rhey do have some similarities. If you didn't like Harrow because you didn't like being in Harrow's head, Nona might be great but if you didn't like Harrow because it wasn't Gideon 2: the Gideoning, I'm not sure Nona would be better.
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Jul 7, 2023 13:53
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Gato The Elder posted:Nona deserves to win and is, to date, the best book in the series. I think it is neat how Muir has used the trappings of modern SF to trick nerds into reading a multi-book interrogation of faith, doubt, and her personal relationship with religion and the divine. She’s using characters that people love in order to grapple with some fairly big ideas, and I think that if she kept the pov laser focused on the fan-favorites then the series would actually devolve into what it’s detractors claim it already is (low calorie cozy meme nonsense). Like Nona is a Jesus figure right? (I’m way oversimplifying and also there’s a lot more to it but whatever) She’s both human and divine, and she has to die to redeem us/merc John. She’s not just a chimeric cover personality- she’s a person that people loved and losing her is both a gut punch and big part of that “I think I’m mad at god but also I’m not sure what to do with that” theme. . And none of that can happen if it’s just Harrow and Gideon being cute for 300 pages (not that there’s anything wrong with that) just a really good post, and totally agree. it's interesting going back because gideon is easily the weakest of the 3 so far, it's just gideon is such a charming character you don't notice/mind.
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Jul 7, 2023 13:53
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Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:I’ve been on a big Fantasy kick recently, so I’m currently reading through Unsouled by Will Wight and 16 Way to Defend a Walled City by KJ Parker, and audiobooking The Thousand Names by Django Wrexler. 16 Ways is easily the best of the bunch, though I’m not that far into Unsouled yet so that could change. I really need to dig into more of Will Wight's stuff, I got the traveler's gate series for free years ago via an amazon promotion and really enjoyed it as a fun romp
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Jul 7, 2023 13:53
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buffalo all day posted:does the locked tomb series follow the dune rule or does it get better again after harrow (I did not like harrow) harrow is better than gideon and nona is (\.-./.-.\.-) as good as harrow
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Jul 7, 2023 13:54
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I frequently find that I like the first book in a series better than later books because in the first book there's all kinds of cool stuff that's mysterious and then later books in the cool mysterious stuff is revealed and is actually kind of lame. I didn't think Harrow was like that but I could see how other people could not enjoy Jod and the expanded setting Nona is a fresh protagonist and totally different solar system
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Jul 7, 2023 14:05
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sebmojo posted:just a really good post, and totally agree. making my book stronger by taking out the compelling characters and replacing them with a ship full of annoying ones Harold Fjord posted:
Helpful, thanks!
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Jul 7, 2023 14:08
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Gato The Elder posted:Anyway. What are people reading? I’ve got a few things on deck but haven’t started any yet: My Brilliant Friend, Paladin of Souls, and Master and Commander. A Difficult choice Paladin and M&C are both solid gold. I'm re-reading the Exordium series on Kindle with the cut from print material. It's a super complicated plot and an absolutely baroque setting. I'll  about it later.
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Jul 7, 2023 14:11
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can't wait for ortus the ninth wheres ortus, is what I am always asking
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Jul 7, 2023 14:28
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pseudorandom name posted:it's only going to get better a list of books that don't exist, but if you like the blurb, click the link and feed it money, it generates it on demand 
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Jul 7, 2023 14:35
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90s Cringe Rock posted:can't wait for ortus the ninth when ortus isn't in the room everyone should be askin
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Jul 7, 2023 15:01
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Ty for whoever mentioned the new Gareth Hanrahan novel the Sword Defiant! It was good! I can definitely see the similarities in writing and vibe of the world with the gutter prayer series. Fellowship post victory is a super apt description. I was worried it would feel it would feel too much like a Tolkien fan fiction/rely on people knowing about Middle Earth to understand this world, but that was totally off base. He did a really good job building up the world in interesting ways so even though you can clearly tell what inspired it it felt interesting and new.
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Jul 7, 2023 15:09
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90s Cringe Rock posted:can't wait for ortus the ninth
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Jul 7, 2023 15:12
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Gato The Elder posted:Anyway. What are people reading? I’ve got a few things on deck but haven’t started any yet: My Brilliant Friend, Paladin of Souls, and Master and Commander. A Difficult choice I finished Temeraire and now have to wait for my holds for the next books to come through so I'm searching for my next book. I was trying Priory of the Orange Tree, but I kinda bounced hard off the high fantasy artifice.
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Jul 7, 2023 16:07
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Beachcomber posted:Oh yeah, I loving hate Eric so much I memory-holed it. My big issue with Eric was that it was a novella that I was paying full novel price for, if I recall. Haven't read it in decades though.
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Jul 7, 2023 16:10
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Gato The Elder posted:Anyway. What are people reading? I’ve got a few things on deck but haven’t started any yet: My Brilliant Friend, Paladin of Souls, and Master and Commander. A Difficult choice I just started the Aubrey–Maturin series recently. First book was fantastic and I am half way through Post Captain right now. I need to figure out what I am going to read next as well, since I do like to take a bit of break between each book in a series.
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Jul 7, 2023 16:20
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feedmegin posted:My big issue with Eric was that it was a novella that I was paying full novel price for, if I recall. Haven't read it in decades though. It's not terrible as a book unto itself, but it's hands-down the most forgettable Discworld novel I've read to date by a wide margin which makes it stick out in Discworld at large. Mostly it's just boring, nothing substantial happens and a lot of the humor is a bit ho-hum, I'm not sure why it's such a miss in a string of fairly solid books (though I didn't like Pyramids or Moving Pictures much either). I've been reading the Discworld novels in release order and I feel like Pratchett doesn't entirely figure out the winning formula until around Witches Abroad or Small Gods, so maybe Eric was the downswing on figuring out what worked well.
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Jul 7, 2023 16:33
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I read the first book at the urging of the dude I was leading a squad with in a milsim group. I found it completely forgettable, but by then I had already read dozens of mil-SF books that probably ripped it off.
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Jul 7, 2023 16:38
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All of the Discworld novels make fun of "one thing". The early ones just choose Conan and contemporary fantasy rather than, like, hooliganism or computers or whatever.
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Jul 7, 2023 16:41
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Just finished the second book of goon favourite Graydon Saunders’ Commonweal series, A Succession of Bad Days. Definitely niche in its appeal though what I enjoyed more than the weirdly hard sci-fi approach taken to a military fantasy setting with socialist/egalitarian themes - which is all cool - was the language. Opaque, awkward, difficult, all pretty reasonable I think but in fairness Saunders seems to be stretching his legs with it, even compared to the terseness of the first book. It’s like this is the opposite, lots of interesting stream of consciousness stuff, elisions, emic descriptions of characters’ emotions as seen by the awkward, fatalistic, mildly curious narrator. Maybe sometimes hard to tell the difference between repeated odd quirks and genuine stylistic experimentation? I think it’s conscious and cool, just maybe not sustained over c.500 pages, like it sometimes comes off as a tic even if it’s deliberate. Occasionally blurs the lines between character voices too, unfortunately. Overall though I like it. Prob not the first person to say this on SA but it’s fun to have something that could be so staid and conventional - self-published military fantasy with detailed magic stuff - actually work out as pretty weird in its themes and style.
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Jul 7, 2023 16:55
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thotsky posted:All of the Discworld novels make fun of "one thing". The early ones just choose Conan and contemporary fantasy rather than, like, hooliganism or computers or whatever. Yeah, he shifts from outright parodies of sword & sorcery novels or rock biopics to broader satires about war or revolutions or the media, and is better for it.
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Jul 7, 2023 17:00
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Gato The Elder posted:Anyway. What are people reading? I’ve got a few things on deck but haven’t started any yet: My Brilliant Friend, Paladin of Souls, and Master and Commander. A Difficult choice I'm reading Galatic Patrol by Doc EE Smith, part of the Lensman series. It's the first thing I've read by him and it's a weird combination of quaint old-timey tropes and language ('"Blinding blue blazes!" Kinnison exclaimed') and extreme violence - so far the protagonists have started a close-combat brawl where they bashed the bad guys' brains in, murdered a bunch of space-pirates while they're knocked out and unconscious, killed hordes of otherwise-innocent mind-controlled slaves, genocided a race of evil aliens, and grounded a spaceship then machine-gunned its entire crew. And I'm not even halfway through yet! Crashbee fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Jul 7, 2023 |
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Jul 7, 2023 17:26
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Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:Yeah, claiming something good is now declining is like an ever-present state of humanity. That said, I definitely used to look to the Hugo nominees as a reliable list of things I should read but it hasn’t been that way for me now for at least the last five years. Not entirely sure why, but could just be the current works the SFF community deems as award worthy aren’t appealing to me anymore. Now it's back to like one or two good nominees and a bunch of nominees cause "well it wasn't *bad*, and the author has a lot of twitter followers....". Everyone posted:I'm currently two books into Drew Hayes's Super-Powered series. The writing is competent/okay. The characters are a little stereotypical but God-drat it's like Hayes wrote the book on loving Lays potato chips on a Kindle. I was up 'til after 4:30 in the morning last night finishing Book 2 because I just could not make myself stop reading and go the hell to bed.
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Jul 7, 2023 17:33
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RDM posted:The hugos were pretty good in the mid-2010s (like 2014-2019) no they weren't
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Jul 7, 2023 17:41
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I thought last year's Hugo selections were pretty good overall, but then I really liked A Desolation Called Peace and the other novel finalists that I read. Although based on the weak selection this year, maybe that is more of an outlier?
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Jul 7, 2023 18:57
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Wasn't Eric originally an illustrated extravaganza like The Last Hero that's now always published without the illustrations?
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Jul 7, 2023 19:49
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