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Only that great Victorian thinker Guy N. Smith.
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Sep 18, 2023 14:40
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Olaf Stapledon deserves a pat for managing to figure out that America and China would be the only great powers to remain in the year 2000, despite the laughable improbability of the rest of his imagined 20th century.
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Sep 18, 2023 15:13
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Gaius Marius posted:No other thinker of that time predicted the world ending with crabs I don’t think he mentioned whether they had hit points for massive damage, though.
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Sep 18, 2023 18:38
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Might not be much time to take advantage of this, but Nick Harkaway’s Titanium Noir is on offer for £0.99 for Kindle on UK Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Titanium-Noir-Nick-Harkaway-ebook/dp/B0BB1NVT25/
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Sep 18, 2023 21:50
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Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XL79FFN/ New to me, anyone given it a read? Empire in Black and Gold (Shadows of the Apt #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003GK21XK/ The Black Prism (Lightbringer #1) by Brent Weeks - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003JTHY76/
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Sep 18, 2023 23:19
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pradmer posted:Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee - $2.99
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Sep 19, 2023 00:38
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Runcible Cat posted:Only that great Victorian thinker Guy N. Smith.
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Sep 19, 2023 12:07
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Wungus posted:Untethered Sky is a loving GREAT novella about training rocs and feeling really fuckin sad. I loved it to bits Thanks, I'll add it to my read pile. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C4TJADS/ Fire from Heaven (Alexander the Great #1) by Mary Renault - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DCGJ6Z4/ Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City (Siege #1) by KJ Parker - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078W5M7DB/
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Sep 19, 2023 22:38
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Sixteen Ways To Defend A Walled City is absolute techno porn and competence porn. There's this guy, trying to save this walled city, in this premodern world not unlike ours. All I can do is handflap and point. It's also a good introduction to KJ Parker, although much less grim than many.
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Sep 19, 2023 23:29
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Is that characteristic of Parker’s fiction? I liked The Folding Knife because while there’s some of that, it’s frequently undercut by the protagonist’s own hubris or simply stuff he didn’t consider. By contrast, yeah, 16 Ways was a bit tedious because it was relatively uncut competence porn.
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Sep 20, 2023 07:47
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It's some pretty dark stuff..his Scavengers trilogy and his Two of Swords trilogy both more or less depopulate his Europe
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Sep 20, 2023 12:48
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Okay I'm a quarter through Saint of Bright Doors The line that has stuck out the most so far (it's not exact but close enough): "I'm dying. The doctors will tell you it's cancer. But actually it's disappointment in you." good loving lord
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Sep 20, 2023 13:28
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Almost done with Children of Ruin. It’s worth reading just for the octopi - they’re so drat exuberant, inhumanly passionate. Feel fine never reading book 3.
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Sep 20, 2023 16:10
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FPyat posted:Almost done with Children of Ruin. It’s worth reading just for the octopi - they’re so drat exuberant, inhumanly passionate. Feel fine never reading book 3. The Crown is passionate. The Reach is an engineer that wakes up, slams a mug of coffee, and asks the seven other members on the corp slack "alright, what dumb poo poo does the boss want today?"
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Sep 20, 2023 16:16
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silvergoose posted:The line that has stuck out the most so far (it's not exact but close enough): "I'm dying. The doctors will tell you it's cancer. But actually it's disappointment in you." good loving lord The long story she tells after this is one of my favorite parts of the book. Unlike anything I've read in a long time.
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Sep 20, 2023 18:37
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This is a frequent topic so apologies if this is a repeat question but I'd really like to get into some good sci-fi/fantasy audiobooks during my commute. Some favorites of mine are Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach trilogy and the Three Body Problem trilogy, and on the fantasy side I loved the Stormlight Archives and am currently reading the first book of the Dandelion Dynasty series (thanks to this thread!). I've gotten the impression that there's loads of great audiobook versions out there and frankly I'm getting kind of sick of listening to podcasts all the time. Even if your recommendations are just your personal favorite audiobooks that is definitely enough for me to check out a sample, I've just never really delved into audiobooks so the format itself is still pretty novel to me and I think there's lots I will like about them.
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Sep 20, 2023 21:57
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I mean I never get tired of recommending the Gideon the Ninth etc books because Moira Quirk does a ridiculously good job with em.
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Sep 20, 2023 22:02
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The Spear Cuts through Water by Simon Jimenez - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MPV7Z6Q/ Consider Phlebas (Culture #1) by Iain M Banks - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013TX6FI/
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Sep 20, 2023 22:23
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The Clap posted:This is a frequent topic so apologies if this is a repeat question but I'd really like to get into some good sci-fi/fantasy audiobooks during my commute. Some favorites of mine are Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach trilogy and the Three Body Problem trilogy, and on the fantasy side I loved the Stormlight Archives and am currently reading the first book of the Dandelion Dynasty series (thanks to this thread!). If you like the stormlight archives, you would probably like the series they are derivative of, the wheel of time, which has a best in class audiobook. The first two books have been read by rosamund pike, who is excellent, and the rest are done by a husband and wife team who are also top notch.
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Sep 20, 2023 22:24
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silvergoose posted:I mean I never get tired of recommending the Gideon the Ninth etc books because Moira Quirk does a ridiculously good job with em. yeah they are all fantastic.
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Sep 21, 2023 04:15
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pradmer posted:The Spear Cuts through Water by Simon Jimenez - $1.99 Insta-buy! I've been trying to get to this for ages and kept putting it off because I wanted to read in print but this is a great deal so I guess I'm reading ebook.
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Sep 21, 2023 08:34
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silvergoose posted:I mean I never get tired of recommending the Gideon the Ninth etc books because Moira Quirk does a ridiculously good job with em. of course the person reading those books is named 'Moira Quirk' lol
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Sep 21, 2023 11:49
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Megazver posted:of course the person reading those books is named 'Moira Quirk' lol Collaborating with Dana Fetish?
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Sep 21, 2023 11:51
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Megazver posted:of course the person reading those books is named 'Moira Quirk' lol If you are of a certain age and nationality you may already know Mo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvaqPO3v8LI NmareBfly fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Sep 21, 2023 |
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Sep 21, 2023 14:26
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The Clap posted:This is a frequent topic so apologies if this is a repeat question but I'd really like to get into some good sci-fi/fantasy audiobooks during my commute. Some favorites of mine are Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach trilogy and the Three Body Problem trilogy, and on the fantasy side I loved the Stormlight Archives and am currently reading the first book of the Dandelion Dynasty series (thanks to this thread!). Check out the audiobooks for the locked tomb series!
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Sep 21, 2023 14:41
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I just listened to Moira do the line WE DO BONES MOTHERFUCKER last night and it was everything i hoped
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Sep 21, 2023 14:46
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World War Z had a big cast and was pretty good
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Sep 21, 2023 14:48
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The Cradle series has a nice set of audiobooks if you want a good straitforward story about punchwizards.
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Sep 21, 2023 16:21
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so do people find The Mote in God's Eye good in this neck of the woods? it sounds somewhat interesting to me
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Sep 21, 2023 17:09
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Interesting with all the usual old sci Fi caveats. I've often thought the first book would be perfect for a modern adaptation
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Sep 21, 2023 17:17
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Really appreciate everyone's suggestions, thanks y'all!silvergoose posted:I mean I never get tired of recommending the Gideon the Ninth etc books because Moira Quirk does a ridiculously good job with em. This is probably where I'll start, but... Harold Fjord posted:World War Z had a big cast and was pretty good this is super tempting because I first read it as a teenager and loved it, it would be so cool to hear it from a huge cast in audiobook form.
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Sep 21, 2023 18:00
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Mokelumne Trekka posted:so do people find The Mote in God's Eye good in this neck of the woods? Probably the least problematic Niven/Pournelle collaboration. I haven't read it in ages but it's a classic first contact story, and worth reading.
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Sep 21, 2023 19:11
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Definitely support reading Mote.
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Sep 21, 2023 20:36
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"least problematic" does not mean "unproblematic" Its a story of the problem of the seething barbarian masses outbreeding the civilized peoples.
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Sep 21, 2023 20:47
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Also the seething barbarian masses are humanoid but brown and ape-like. And they're led by a master caste of manipulative, genetically distinct (white rather than brown) puppetmasters. And just in case anyone might the parallel, the most antagonistic human character is explicitly a rich, treacherous merchant who uses his wealth to secretly fund sedition and rebellion against the (presented as legitimate) government. And their evil plan is to intentionally conceal their species's violent nature and history in order deceive the civilised humans into naively opening up trade and communication with them, so that they can begin immigrating into the territory of the 'civilised' society, after which they'll be able to quickly take it over via outbreeding them. Also, the civilised humans came from Earth and have spread among the stars but retain elements of modern-day cultures and nationalities, but mysteriously the only cultures that actually comprise their society are white European ones (in the narrative we see mainly space-irish, space-russian, and space-neo-roman). I will never tire of saying "larry niven sucks" whenever anyone mentions Larry Niven's work. Larry Niven sucks. In the second book the civilised humans 'save' the filthy, primitive savages by forcibly sterilising the majority of the species and then implementing a eugenics program to control their population. this is presented as an unambiguously good act that benefits their society by uplifting them out of their barbaric ways. a computing pun fucked around with this message at 21:56 on Sep 21, 2023 |
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Sep 21, 2023 21:53
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The Artificial Kid by Bruce Sterling - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PDDKVWQ One of the only old Sterling books I've never read Edit: And there's a bundle of 36 books by L.E. Modesitt, Jr on Humble Bundle https://www.humblebundle.com/books/le-modesitt-collection-tor-publishing-group-books Fart of Presto fucked around with this message at 22:59 on Sep 21, 2023 |
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Sep 21, 2023 22:04
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NmareBfly posted:If you are of a certain age and nationality you may already know Mo. I don't know this person, but she seems cool; glad she gets work and apparently does it with aplomb.
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Sep 21, 2023 23:10
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Fart of Presto posted:Edit: And there's a bundle of 36 books by L.E. Modesitt, Jr on Humble Bundle I'm always in the market for huge fantasy series, what are people's thoughts on Modesitt?
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Sep 22, 2023 00:22
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fez_machine posted:I'm always in the market for huge fantasy series, what are people's thoughts on Modesitt? I've enjoyed his stuff and found it engaging. Nothing spectacular, but nothing I regretted reading either. But it's worth noting that: a) He is probably a bit too into "great man theory"/ highly-competent almost-Mary Sue protagonists. I think this works OK if you're treating his books like airport schlock. I don't *think* it goes too far into problematic territory, although it's been a while since I've read one. b) He tends to be very descriptive about his worlds. You may end up learning a bunch about carpentry or potato farming or whatever in the process of reading one of his books. c) While ostensibly fairly progressive politically, he is from another era, and this does reflect in his work. e.g. I can't recall a single LGBTQ character, there is little to no racial diversity, and, while there is often an equally-competent wife, the main character is always male.
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Sep 22, 2023 00:54
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fez_machine posted:I'm always in the market for huge fantasy series, what are people's thoughts on Modesitt? Like literally even though I read a ton of his books, I hadn't even thought of him in like 20 years before I read your post, whereas even other series that looking back were pretty dumb I do usually do still think about from time to time. I think all his books were basically the exact same thing over and over again, too. mystes fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Sep 22, 2023 |
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Sep 22, 2023 01:16
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