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mellonbread posted:Even the bad Laundry books have cool moments. I liked the duel between Angleton and the max level vampire. The scene with the Secret Service agent and the gimp suit guys in the Wal Mart in Labyrinth Index was also cool. That was the last one I read. I also suspect that Stross being British and fairly, uhm, unsubtle about his political leanings may have had an impact on how the setting has progressed. He did, after all come up with two extra Case Nightmare scenarios for his blog: Case Nightmare Blonde, which was Boris Johnson becoming a government minister, and Case Nightmare Tweed, aka Brexit. God only knows how he's doing now. e: Terrible page-snipe. Have a link to the side-story. Down on the farm TLM3101 fucked around with this message at 06:07 on Jul 11, 2023 |
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Jul 11, 2023 06:01
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I hadn't read Down on the Farm before and it reminds me why I liked the Laundry files so much. I'm just not finding the New Management as much fun. I guess that's always a problem, the main characters being on top of the power curve.
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Jul 11, 2023 11:52
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TLM3101 posted:e: Terrible page-snipe. Have a link to the side-story. Down on the farm
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Jul 11, 2023 12:48
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anilEhilated posted:The phrase "carnal pleasures of the flesh" physically hurts me. Whatever you do, do not read Equoid. Unless you enjoy stories that make most people reach for the brain-bleach.
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Jul 11, 2023 17:58
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TLM3101 posted:Whatever you do, do not read Equoid. Unless you enjoy stories that make most people reach for the brain-bleach. It's more the redundancy. What do you think 'carnal' means?
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Jul 11, 2023 18:06
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Darth Walrus posted:It's more the redundancy. What do you think 'carnal' means? It's more that, apart from the absolute squick in the main story in Equoid, he also does a reasonable imitation of HP Lovecraft, so if 'carnal pleasures of the flesh' hurts you...
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Jul 11, 2023 20:02
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I've actually read (and enjoyed) it and I feel the wording would work much better there since it's part of the parody.
anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 02:26 on Jul 12, 2023 |
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Jul 11, 2023 22:28
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anilEhilated posted:The phrase "carnal pleasures of the flesh" physically hurts me. As an English major from long ago, me too.
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Jul 12, 2023 00:57
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anilEhilated posted:The phrase "carnal pleasures of the flesh" physically hurts me. ouch
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Jul 12, 2023 15:28
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Resident Schaefer fanboy, and I finished up The Wise Men of Gotham, the sequel to The Hungry Dreaming. I'm gonna say it: this trilogy is the Ted Lasso of urban fantasy. Seelie Rose just wants to bring out the best in everyone around her, no matter how much poo poo she takes, including (especially?) the bad guys. In the first book we had a main antagonist who wasn't evil, just confused, upset and misguided, and the fate of the human race was decided with an ART CONTEST. This time, our big bad has an apocalyptic, world-shattering plan and...it kinda makes perfect sense, though it would hurt a ton of innocent people in the name of protecting the majority. The core struggle isn't good versus evil, it's "we disagree about the right way to protect people, so let's see whose idea works best." Princess Dergwyn shows up to remind us of Schaefer's femdom kink, but also, for as deeply lovely as she is, she might be Seelie's best ally. There's a fun early bit where she casually breaks a deal, pointing out that Seelie gullibly trusted her and can't do anything to make her hold up her end, and frames it as "there are worse monsters than me out there, so toughen up before you face them." When she shows up again at the end of the book it's clear she's deliberately positioning herself as Seelie's murder-fairy-godmother. I suspect the final book is going to have a lot of Seelie wrestling with her moral code, which already takes a massive hit by the end of this installment when she realizes her "let's save everyone, even the bad guys" philosophy doesn't and can't work all the time, no matter how badly she wants it to. It's almost like as if Steven Universe had good writers. Also, Seelie finally gets a face-to-face showdown with her rear end in a top hat father. It is loving brutal. I hoped for a snarky quip-fest like we'd get in a Daniel Faust book, and Seelie would shut him down effortlessly. What we get is a traumatized transgender teenager trying desperately to make a connection with the only family member she has left, and failing utterly becuase her father is a sociopath with no concept of human empathy. Also there is a loving kaiju in this book, and a witches-versus-monster battle in the skies over the dreamscape of Manhattan. I liked it.
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Jul 19, 2023 21:59
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How queer is it and how horny is it, because that sounds wonderful
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Jul 20, 2023 02:55
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Soonmot posted:How queer is it and how horny is it, because that sounds wonderful The author is trans, if that's any indication. No real sex in it, but it's a great book.
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Jul 20, 2023 03:02
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Soonmot posted:How queer is it and how horny is it, because that sounds wonderful I would rate Schaefer's books as 1) super loving queer and 2) actually not that horny (almost all her sex scenes are setup and then fade-to-black, and there aren't ANY sex scenes in the nyc books iirc) That said, she's 10000% into femdom bdsm (not an assumption, I mean, she jokes about it on social media and owns it) and that's pretty steady background radiation. StonecutterJoe fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Jul 21, 2023 |
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Jul 20, 2023 04:08
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xsf421 posted:The author is trans, if that's any indication. No real sex in it, but it's a great book. Hell yeah, I'm aroace so low hornt content is my jam. Sexualoty and romance are normal expressions of human behavior and can be good character motivation or whatever, I just don't dig having extended or graphic descriptions, especially because it's way harder to skip those in audio book form than a real book lol Soonmot fucked around with this message at 13:59 on Jul 20, 2023 |
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Jul 20, 2023 13:57
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Soonmot posted:Hell yeah, I'm aroace so low hornt content is my jam. I am not an audio book fan; I generally read faster than a narrator would speak so I find them slow and frustrating. But awhile back someone suggested thinking of them like a radio play which piqued my interest. So I asked what their favorite book was, and they named a romance novel that they loved because of the way the reader acted out the sex scenes with moans and whimpering. Um. No, thank you. If I wanted to hear someone enthusiastically describing sex acts in between their idea of sexy porno sounds, I would time travel back to my thin-walled college dorm.
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Jul 20, 2023 14:16
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wheatpuppy posted:I am not an audio book fan; I generally read faster than a narrator would speak so I find them slow and frustrating. But awhile back someone suggested thinking of them like a radio play which piqued my interest. So I asked what their favorite book was, and they named a romance novel that they loved because of the way the reader acted out the sex scenes with moans and whimpering. Um. No, thank you. If I wanted to hear someone enthusiastically describing sex acts in between their idea of sexy porno sounds, I would time travel back to my thin-walled college dorm. Go listen to Moira Quirk's reading of Gideon the Ninth and thank me later.
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Jul 20, 2023 14:56
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wheatpuppy posted:But awhile back someone suggested thinking of them like a radio play which piqued my interest. If this is a thing that interests you, the Sandman audio dramas that Audible did are really good.
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Jul 20, 2023 18:39
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I'm not a fiction audiobook fan, but that's the best way to enjoy Rivers of London imho
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Jul 20, 2023 18:54
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Junkenstein posted:I'm not a fiction audiobook fan, but that's the best way to enjoy Rivers of London imho I think the author agrees. He treats Kobna Holdbrook-Smith like a collaborator and listening to them discuss the books/stories together is a treat.
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Jul 20, 2023 20:48
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Khizan posted:If this is a thing that interests you, the Sandman audio dramas that Audible did are really good. Thrilling Adventure Hour has a series called Beyond Belief which is a supernatural version of Nick and Nora. Paul F Tompkins and Paget Brewster playing a couple who love each other slightly more than they love booze, and they just wish the world would leave them alone to enjoy their booze.
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Jul 20, 2023 21:55
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/\/\/\ omg i had forgotten about those!wheatpuppy posted:I am not an audio book fan; I generally read faster than a narrator would speak so I find them slow and frustrating. But awhile back someone suggested thinking of them like a radio play which piqued my interest. So I asked what their favorite book was, and they named a romance novel that they loved because of the way the reader acted out the sex scenes with moans and whimpering. Um. No, thank you. If I wanted to hear someone enthusiastically describing sex acts in between their idea of sexy porno sounds, I would time travel back to my thin-walled college dorm. So, I got into audiobooks with the Deathlands series, which is a really trashy post apoc setting. The Graphic Audio versions of those books were fully voice acted with sound effects and music and were very much a radio play, they were amazing. Except for the sex scenes which were cringe af. I'm so glad those were phased out as the series moved on lol. ConfusedUs posted:Go listen to Moira Quirk's reading of Gideon the Ninth and thank me later. Literally what I was going to suggest. If you've read any of Seannan McGuire's books, the audio versions of those are great as well. I'm going through the the Fred the Vampire Accountant books and those are good, although had I known graphic audio had done those as well, I'd have gone with them from the start.
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Jul 21, 2023 02:13
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Junkenstein posted:I'm not a fiction audiobook fan, but that's the best way to enjoy Rivers of London imho Same, but also, James Marsters is Jim Butcher, thems the rules.
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Jul 21, 2023 03:57
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Thanks for the recs! I literally just learned about Graphic Audio format like, a week ago, and had been wondering how it differed from standard audio book. Sounds like it is definitely more up my alley.
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Jul 21, 2023 04:00
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wheatpuppy posted:Thanks for the recs! I literally just learned about Graphic Audio format like, a week ago, and had been wondering how it differed from standard audio book. Sounds like it is definitely more up my alley. They're half radio play (full cast dialogue, added music and sound effects), half audio book (the general narration of a book) originally marketed towards long haul truckers but now diversifying into other audiences.
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Jul 21, 2023 14:14
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ConfusedUs posted:Go listen to Moira Quirk's reading of Gideon the Ninth and thank me later. Thirding this recommendation Then join us https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3937069
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Jul 21, 2023 14:32
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newts posted:Mine is an urban fantasy, but it is also very, very gay (less necromancy, more gay sex). And was actually free on Amazon until today. So, I picked this up on a whim and had a pretty good time with it! Not too horny, while still being horny *enough*, and - praise be - actually manages, in my opinion, to do 'tragic backstory' without being whiny about it. Also, the magic is interesting and not overexplained in every detail.
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Jul 24, 2023 20:52
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Another one for the list then!
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Jul 25, 2023 15:41
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TLM3101 posted:So, I picked this up on a whim and had a pretty good time with it! Not too horny, while still being horny *enough*, and - praise be - actually manages, in my opinion, to do 'tragic backstory' without being whiny about it. Also, the magic is interesting and not overexplained in every detail. Thanks for reading! I’m glad you liked it. I’m working on the sequel right now 
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Jul 28, 2023 22:48
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newts posted:Thanks for reading! I’m glad you liked it. I’m working on the sequel right now I'll definitely pick it up when it's available!
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Jul 29, 2023 17:19
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Because the topic came up recently, I just created a goon authors thread, feel free to message me or post in it or whatever to add more. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4039078
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Aug 11, 2023 14:00
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Got through Legends & Lattes, man, those were some loooooow stakes that I absolutely stayed up two hours past my bedtime finishing. Read the author's notes that it was a NaNoWriMo and yep, that tracks.
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Aug 18, 2023 03:20
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Deathlove posted:Got through Legends & Lattes, man, those were some loooooow stakes that I absolutely stayed up two hours past my bedtime finishing. Read the author's notes that it was a NaNoWriMo and yep, that tracks. It is a genuinely lovely and comfortable book that is carried quite well through the characters. It's also a perfect counterpoint to some more serious and grim fantasy, like Abercrombie. Was genuinely disappointed when there wasn't another to pick up.
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Aug 18, 2023 19:29
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NerdyMcNerdNerd posted:It is a genuinely lovely and comfortable book that is carried quite well through the characters. It's also a perfect counterpoint to some more serious and grim fantasy, like Abercrombie. Was genuinely disappointed when there wasn't another to pick up. “Bookshops & Bonedust” is out in early November.
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Aug 18, 2023 19:38
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xsf421 posted:“Bookshops & Bonedust” is out in early November. hell yeah. gently caress yeah. going only by that title, gideon and harrow open a dang bookstore together.
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Aug 18, 2023 19:42
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xsf421 posted:“Bookshops & Bonedust” is out in early November. I will buy it immediately. Adding to my wishlist as soon as possible so I don't forget. Would also read more in a similar vein if anyone has any recommendations.
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Aug 18, 2023 19:44
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If you like audio books, the author Travis Baldree, is pretty prolific, he narrates a lot of LitRPG novels.
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Aug 18, 2023 22:00
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Cradle by Will Wight just wrapped up its 12th and final book earlier this year, and they are all voiced by Baldree. It's my favorite series in a very long time. The genre isn't the same down-to-earth cutsie feel as Legends and Lattes (it's basically a Wuxia, a kind of dragon ball z-esque power escalation fantasy), but the characters are all great and Baldree does a phenomenal job with them (especially Dross, Eithan, and Orthos).
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Aug 18, 2023 23:35
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i'm on a quest to read every decent cozy fantasy / scifi story ever. need to actually compile a spreadsheet so I don't have to rebuild a list every time this comes up. didn't realize there was a new Legends & Lattes coming out, that's great news.
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Aug 22, 2023 00:11
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tokenbrownguy posted:i'm on a quest to read every decent cozy fantasy / scifi story ever. Tracking books is what Goodreads is for.
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Aug 22, 2023 01:26
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I thought GoodReads was for bullying authors and complaining that the book you just read didn't contain enough of the tropes you like.
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Aug 22, 2023 02:04
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