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Psion posted:Ah, thank you. Not sure why I thought self-pub. I got the impression that she's self-published for Kindle and has Subterranean for print editions. The Penric series is really good though, well worth the money and time to read. Not only is she at the absolute peak of her craft, she's (semi) retired. These are stories she wants to write. And all five gods will affirm that we needed more Five Gods setting stories.
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Oct 11, 2023 05:58
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Psion posted:Oh, absolutely. She was in a class of her own as far as any long-term Baen author (which may be why she's letting them do the publishing here? She's been with Baen since the 80s?) but also I'd argue David Drake wrote solid books. Early Weber was alright also. Then... well. Ryk Spoor, Eric Flint. Flint, at least, was famously not a right-wing CHUD but an old Trotskyite. (See how the real heroes in 1632 were the miner's union people.)
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Oct 11, 2023 06:34
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Where do you start with Liaden?
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Oct 11, 2023 13:30
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Start liaden deez nuts to your chin 
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Oct 11, 2023 13:35
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NinjaDebugger posted:Lackey, at least, was always split among publishers, her output for Baen was a very specific series of urbfant involving racer elves in california or something. Isn't Lackey well known as a "farm writer" as well? As in she writes an outline and someone else does all the lifting and maybe gets a byline credit?
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Oct 11, 2023 16:34
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StrixNebulosa posted:Where do you start with Liaden? Publication order tends to work well in general, so start with the first book in the main series: Agent of Change. Then it's a choice between a prequel (Conflict of Honors, written second) or a sequel (Carpe Diem, written third). I think either will work. Next up is the sequel to Carpe Diem: Plan B, fourth in pub order. After that, you'll probably either love or hate the series and can choose what looks interesting: there are subseries set long in the past that provide background but are their own things (the Crystal duology, basically the origin story of the universe, and the ongoing trade-focused series starting with Balance of Trade), or you could take a half-step to the side with Fledgling -- it's contemporaneous with Plan B and has its own sequels that intertwine with the main series. Alternatively, read the rest of the prequels to the main trilogy to fill out the backstories of a few key characters. Wikipedia's Liaden Universe page has a chart of the timeline and all the details. Note that many of the books are available in omnibus form, afaik in more or less sane arrangements (ie. no Chanur asshattery). As to whether Liaden is worth reading, I'd say that one's opinion on Cherryh's Foreigner series will usually track their opinion on Liaden. The books are competently written, the characters are three-dimensional, the universe fairly original, and I don't recall noticing any red flags, creepiness, or a need for major content warnings. Atmosphere-wise I'd say they're more cozy than average but not anywhere near Becky Chambers cozy. The "... of manners" characterization is fairly apt.
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Oct 11, 2023 17:20
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Macdeo Lurjtux posted:Isn't Lackey well known as a "farm writer" as well? As in she writes an outline and someone else does all the lifting and maybe gets a byline credit? Not as far as I've ever heard. Everything she does is under her own name and there are typically enough of her hallmarks that it's probably not ghost written. The only stuff she shares authorship on are with Larry Dixon, who is her husband and got co-author credit.
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Oct 11, 2023 18:03
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rmdx posted:Publication order tends to work well in general, so start with the first book in the main series: Agent of Change. Then it's a choice between a prequel (Conflict of Honors, written second) or a sequel (Carpe Diem, written third). I think either will work. Next up is the sequel to Carpe Diem: Plan B, fourth in pub order. As someone who has read through Foreigner 3-4 times, uh, gently caress okay thank you!! Time to start reading!
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Oct 11, 2023 18:28
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How can something be like the foreigner series and also "cozy"?
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Oct 11, 2023 18:36
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mystes posted:How can something be like the foreigner series and also "cozy"? Foreigner 1-6 aren't cozy. 7+ onwards become surprisingly cozy, in a weird yet fitting genre shift. e: I will rec Foreigner 1-6 to literally anyone they're some of my favorite sci-fi novels. 7+ onwards are a particular taste that you're either going to love or drop immediately.
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Oct 11, 2023 18:51
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Oh! I can't believe I didn't mention Lee and Miller's Liaden series, which are the only books I still buy from Baen. The best description I can come up with is "space opera of manners". Liad is a society of exquisitely defined manners, and people from off-Liad are fair game. You get exactly what you specify in a deal, and if it turns out to your disadvantage? Your fault. Our heroes are a family which is at the top of the power structure, but also is considered weird by everybody else on Liad. Spy stuff happens, swashbuckling (minus swords) happens, interstellar trade happens. People are described as doing bows "from a junior partner to a Head of House" and talking in High Liaden, Low Liaden, and the trade speech everybody else uses. i'm beyond salvation, having read most of the main series. the jethri gobelin ones are more interesting to me right now than the goings on in korval clan. mllaneza posted:They published Susan R. Matthews too. Her stuff is 100% the author's fetish, but she's good at it and the worldbuilding is oddly compelling in an awful sort of way. yeah, these are very very readable Psion posted:Oh, absolutely. She was in a class of her own as far as any long-term Baen author (which may be why she's letting them do the publishing here? She's been with Baen since the 80s?) but also I'd argue David Drake wrote solid books. Early Weber was alright also. Then... well. i think baen gave her a chance when she needed one so she stuck with them out of gratitude or something like that
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Oct 11, 2023 20:20
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I was left with the impression that he had a lot of contempt for his reader. it's been a long time since I read those but my understanding was book three was extremely delayed and when it finally arrived felt desperately like "author has no idea how to end this, just swipes from the classics" -- was it the Inferno? maybe??? I didn't read that as contempt so much as absolutely no clue how to create, much less stick, the landing. Did I miss something? e: it sure was bad enough to destroy any interest in a re-read, though! Psion fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Oct 11, 2023 |
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Oct 11, 2023 20:21
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mystes posted:How can something be like the foreigner series and also "cozy"? Never said that -- just that typically the same people who like the one seem to like the other too. Maybe it's the frequency of competent characters sitting together, discussing fraught things in a very civilized manner (while furthering the plot and solving their various problems), and drinking tea. And like Foreigner, Liaden gets more so in the later books.
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Oct 11, 2023 20:31
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Psion posted:it's been a long time since I read those but my understanding was book three was extremely delayed and when it finally arrived felt desperately like "author has no idea how to end this, just swipes from the classics" -- was it the Inferno? maybe??? Well, that and "gotta make sure the teenage girl fucks to stick it to CS Lewis".
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Oct 11, 2023 20:42
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The final books in The Final Architecture ($5.99) and Children of Time ($4.99) trilogies are both on sale, and don't require Amazon Prime.
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Oct 11, 2023 21:15
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His Dark Materials is possibly the only ending involving 'now thou must leave this world of wonder / adventure / beauty' that I can tolerate without flinging the book. I think it's because it's thematically consistent at least - you can't stay a child and you can't stay a lovestruck teenager either and all of that is okay, and in fact the people that would trap you there are monstrous Poor Will though, became a hosed over NHS doctor presumably and never saw anything more exciting than a gap year ever again 
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Oct 11, 2023 21:37
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StrixNebulosa posted:As someone who has read through Foreigner 3-4 times, uh, gently caress okay thank you!! Time to start reading! I adore every cherryh book but somehow have never read a foreigner, time to foreign
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Oct 11, 2023 21:39
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Northern lights is like an absolute stone classic of the genre, and it goes downhill from there. The two prequels are p decent though with some uh problematic elements (lyra really gets put through the wringer in book 2)
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Oct 11, 2023 21:57
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Strategic Tea posted:His Dark Materials is possibly the only ending involving 'now thou must leave this world of wonder / adventure / beauty' that I can tolerate without flinging the book. That one bothered me more than most because it didn't feel organic it felt like the author sat down to think about every possible loophole and how to close them. I liked how Un Lun Dun did it "Oh I have to leave this world of wonder do I? I don't think so I found two ways into it in a week, I'll be visiting you all the time"
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Oct 11, 2023 22:18
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Strategic Tea posted:I think it's because it's thematically consistent at least - you can't stay a child and you can't stay a lovestruck teenager either and all of that is okay, and in fact the people that would trap you there are monstrous Yeah I agree with this completely. My "contempt for his protagonist" comment was more about how Lyra goes through all of that trauma and heartbreak and then experiences a moment of happiness only for it to be immediately taken from her. Then she goes back home to no one. Will at least still has his mother. Hell even Malone happens to live in Will's Oxford. Also presumably the Magisterium still wants her very, very dead. Sending her back to the college seems like a bad idea, but where is she supposed to go? Edit: sebmojo posted:The two prequels are p decent though with some uh problematic elements (lyra really gets put through the wringer in book 2) Welp. I appreciate the heads-up, in any case. Mak0rz fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Oct 11, 2023 |
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Oct 11, 2023 22:46
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Doktor Avalanche posted:i'm beyond salvation, having read most of the main series. the jethri gobelin ones are more interesting to me right now than the goings on in korval clan. Jethri is absolutely cool, though.
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Oct 11, 2023 22:46
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The Fall of Númenor: And Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth by JRR Tolkien - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1DVP4J3/ Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by RF Kuang - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MD95S5V/ Night Angel Nemesis (Kylar #1) by Brent Weeks - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3X6B6Z2/ The City of Brass (Daevabad #1) by SA Chakraborty - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06VXWPMV5/ The City We Became (Great Cities #1) by NK Jemisin - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MFKQDJM/
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Oct 11, 2023 23:06
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NinjaDebugger posted:Not as far as I've ever heard. Everything she does is under her own name and there are typically enough of her hallmarks that it's probably not ghost written. The only stuff she shares authorship on are with Larry Dixon, who is her husband and got co-author credit. I knew I had heard it, but the accusation is 30 years old and more centered around Lackey and Jim Baen and her "mentor" program signing inexperienced writers to unfavorable contracts. https://youtu.be/hYQOslFoecg?si=nK1_Burq1jJOuyIG
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Oct 12, 2023 00:10
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Mak0rz posted:Yeah I agree with this completely. My "contempt for his protagonist" comment was more about how Lyra goes through all of that trauma and heartbreak and then experiences a moment of happiness only for it to be immediately taken from her. Then she goes back home to no one. Will at least still has his mother. Hell even Malone happens to live in Will's Oxford. Yeah I hated the way that series ended as a kid and I still think it's a bit needlessly cruel but the themes might justify it... The prequel book is good and the sequel book is promising, although it pissed a lot of people off. I'm looking forward to seeing how he eventually concludes that story. It is a good counterpoint to His Dark Materials. Basically Pullman mistrusts anyone who is certain about anything, whether that be religious zealots or secular scholars. But scholars don't make for great threats so the Magisterium is still around to cause trouble.
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Oct 12, 2023 00:34
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The new BEHOLD, HUMANITY! book is out. Haven't read it yet, just saw the listing for ku.
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Oct 12, 2023 04:35
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Strategic Tea posted:His Dark Materials is possibly the only ending involving 'now thou must leave this world of wonder / adventure / beauty' that I can tolerate without flinging the book. Yeah as a kid I hated it but as an adult I'm like haha nice 
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Oct 12, 2023 06:47
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Same. The whole independent intelligent cyberbpeople plotline leaves me completely cold, and more of the damned things pop up every book. If I felt like having an argument, I'd suggest that the whole ball of wax could have stopped after everybody got to Surebleak. Mostly agree, I wish they'd sideline the cyberpeople and Tinsori Light etc stuff already, but I like the society-building on Surebleak and I guess there are some ancient secrets there still left to uncover... And yeah Jethri's entirely fine.
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Oct 12, 2023 11:28
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Sounds like the Bill Watterson Soulsborne is out!?
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Oct 12, 2023 15:12
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rmdx posted:I like the society-building on Surebleak and I guess there are some ancient secrets there still left to uncover... A new Sebastien de Castell Greatswords book is coming out in December! Crucible of Chaos: A Novel of the Court of Shadows seems to be a standalone in the overall world. Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Oct 12, 2023 |
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Oct 12, 2023 16:12
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Arsenic Lupin posted:A new Sebastien de Castell Greatswords book is coming out in December!
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Oct 12, 2023 16:27
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General Battuta posted:Sounds like the Bill Watterson Soulsborne is out!? It's pretty excellent. Short, simple, and dark.
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Oct 12, 2023 17:49
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I know there was some discussion a few pages back about Red Rising #6 Light Bringer, but I hadn't started it yet. Just finished it. I thought it was great, which was a relief because I really did not enjoy book 5 very much. A real return to form and probably my second favorite book in the series behind the second. The author is at his best when he's writing frantically paced page turning chaos with twist after twist. I know a lot of people in this thread couldn't make it past the first book, but the series really opens and up becomes much more than a Hunger Games pastiche. For most of its run it's actually a weird jumble of space opera + 40K + heavy focus on interpersonal dynamics of the characters in the same vein as The Locked Tomb/Harry Potter/whatever other series has that comf vibe of you-enjoy-just-hanging-out-with-the-characters.
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Oct 12, 2023 19:59
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I'm currently reading Hild by Nicola Griffith, now that the sequel has come out, and it's an incredible historic fiction novel about the Anglo-Saxon and sub-Roman British kingdoms and the coming of Christianity. I see she's written a few fantasy novels too, anyone read them, have any recommendations?
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Oct 12, 2023 20:53
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branedotorg posted:I'm currently reading Hild by Nicola Griffith, now that the sequel has come out, and it's an incredible historic fiction novel about the Anglo-Saxon and sub-Roman British kingdoms and the coming of Christianity. HILD is great and if you like it you should read THE WINTER KING (not by her but sort of slightly adjacent)
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Oct 12, 2023 20:59
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One Human Minute by Stanislaw Lem - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008R2JSME/
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Oct 12, 2023 22:50
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General Battuta posted:HILD is great and if you like it you should read THE WINTER KING (not by her but sort of slightly adjacent) Yeah I read those Cornwell books, might be time for a revisit- the sequel to Hild is out btw, it's why I finally picked it up.
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Oct 13, 2023 07:09
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branedotorg posted:I'm currently reading Hild by Nicola Griffith, now that the sequel has come out, and it's an incredible historic fiction novel about the Anglo-Saxon and sub-Roman British kingdoms and the coming of Christianity. Hild fuckin rules. Just gold standard for historic fiction that fantasy fans would love and should read, alongside the Bernard Cornwell Arthur trilogy and (imo) Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and sequels. Currently reading that sequel you mention, Menewood and hey, it rules too. I do have to keep checking back to see who this or that minor character with an Old English or Welsh name is but still. Good politicking, good case of an intelligent person in a world on the cusp of great changes - the spread of Christianity, the use of writing, the consolidation of kingdoms - observing it all and cleverly adapting to it to survive. And just beautiful writing from someone that pays attention to the world and language. Griffith’s other stuff is cool too, would certainly recommend them. Spear is her Arthurian novella, more explicitly fantasy than Hild. It’s more lightweight imo, a lot of fun and good mythical stuff, more joyfully adventurous (and maybe more obviously/uncomplicatedly gay in a sense?), just not as amazing as Hild. Deserves the praise though, seems to have been a wider hit. Would also recommend Ammonite, which is kind of Griffith doing Le Guin style anthropological sci-fi, with a corporate-sponsored ethnographer visiting a remote human colony world which for some reason is now entirely populated by women, who have a sort of steppe nomad society. It’s very much a homage to Left Hand of Darkness, with that thoughtfulness that’s the hallmark of both author’s work. I think she’s an amazing author and am looking forward to digging more into her back catalogue.
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Oct 13, 2023 08:18
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I have ammonite, just haven't got around to it, it's getting a priority now, thanks!
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Oct 13, 2023 09:54
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https://bsky.app/profile/aptshadow.bsky.social/post/3kbmjtvczk527Adrian Tchaikovsky posted:My son is not a book lover. Very few authors have resonated with him. Thus far the winners are Wynne Jones (Homeward Bounders), Reeves (Railhead), MacDougal (Mars Evacuees) and Hardinge (just about everything) I trust his kid and will check out the two authors I'm not familiar with.
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Oct 13, 2023 10:53
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FPyat posted:https://bsky.app/profile/aptshadow.bsky.social/post/3kbmjtvczk527 I don't know MacDougal but the other three are 24carat.
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Oct 13, 2023 11:39
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