SF & F Mega-thread: I had to google 'spock pirate depilatory'

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Sibling of TB: Aug 4, 2007

Danhenge posted:

I preordered Exordia like a year ago and my plan is to use my sick leave tomorrow for any time not taken up by unskippable meetings. I've come down with an incurable case of being a nerd.

Oop. It was just delivered to my app. Now should i start or finish this shadow and sea book first?

Also was happy to see Blacktongue thief has a sequel, sad to see it's not out yet. Book was much lighter than i expected after between two fires.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 06:20

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# ? Jun 13, 2024 03:05

uber_stoat: Jan 21, 2001; Pillbug

Sibling of TB posted:

Also was happy to see Blacktongue thief has a sequel, sad to see it's not out yet. Book was much lighter than i expected after between two fires.

prequel, it's about young Galva.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 07:11

Jedit: Dec 10, 2011; Proudly supporting vanilla legends 1994-2014

zoux posted:

Same thing for Clavell. It's been ages since I read Shogun (I read everything he wrote when I was in college, even Noble House and Whirlwind) but to my memory he definitely admires East Asian cultures.

That's a heck of a take considering Clavell was captured and severely mistreated by the Japanese in World War II. His first novel, King Rat, was written as catharsis to get over PTSD so serious that for years he had to constantly carry a snack in his pocket or he'd start desperately rooting in dustbins for food at the slightest hunger pang. It was only after that when he began researching the local culture in detail to find out why they did it.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 11:33

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

35% done with Exordia and it's safe to say that the General has dropped another banger

# ? Jan 23, 2024 11:40

GhastlyBizness: Sep 10, 2016; seashells by the sea shorpheus

Read the preview for Exordia and got a real kick out of the bit where the stuff that makes humans unique is defined as

- good long distance runners
- really inbred, like wow

and that�s pretty much it. Too much exposure to weird and irritating �humanity gently caress yeah� online nonsense on my part made this like a soothing balm.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 12:14

branedotorg: Jun 19, 2009

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

I remember discovering the Ninja through the Mr T Saturday morning cartoon. Yes.

Good question. Possibly Shogun if that counts. Ninja figure prominently and there was the early 80s miniseries. Don't think there's any explicit magic tho. Historical fiction.

It's a very readable brick but I probably wouldn't read the rest of his "asian saga" series, about noble Anglo Saxons making a poo poo load of money in Hong Kong from the 1840s to the 1980s.

He was a prisoner of war, held by the Japanese and has some (to the modern reader) Interesting takes, one of the books King Rat is clearly semi auto biographical as it's set in the horrifying changi pow camp.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 12:34

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Starfish was pretty good, how's the rest of the trilogy? Not as good as Blindsight, obviously, but good.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 13:34

General Battuta: Feb 7, 2011; This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: you hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the posts from the screams.

DACK FAYDEN posted:

Starfish was pretty good, how's the rest of the trilogy? Not as good as Blindsight, obviously, but good.

I wouldn't keep going. They get really depressing and rapey.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 14:10

genericnick: Dec 26, 2012

DACK FAYDEN posted:

Starfish was pretty good, how's the rest of the trilogy? Not as good as Blindsight, obviously, but good.

I liked them, but they're a good bit less cheery than the books he wrote when rare flesh-eating bacteria tried to devour his legs.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 14:18

Milkfred E. Moore: Aug 27, 2006; 'It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.'

General Battuta posted:

I wouldn't keep going. They get really depressing and rapey.

Yeah, pretty much. There's some interesting bits in each one, but Starfish is the only one of the three I get the urge to revisit.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 14:41

General Battuta: Feb 7, 2011; This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: you hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the posts from the screams.

Hello thread. My first book in four years is out today. It is called EXORDIA.

quote:

This is a story about Anna meeting an alien in Central Park. No one else can tell Ssrin's an alien, but Anna can. Anna can't make the rent, so Anna asks the alien to be her roommate.

For a few weeks, Anna is happy. She can afford good weed to smoke while Ssrin explains how the universe was created, why morality is real, and where she'll go when she die. Ssrin's entire species is objectively, measurably damned to hell. Ssrin's on Earth looking for a way to change that. On the run from her own people, who want to drat all creation in revenge.

This is why Anna is happy, because she knows she's going to hell too. For what she did. She was seven years old when the Iraqi genocidaire put the pistol in her hand and offered her a bargain: for each member of her own family she shot in the head, the Iraqis would spare part of her village from extermination. What could Anna do? She saved them all.

So it's good that she's going to hell. She deserves it.

Then the bombs start to fall.

For Algorithmic Reasons, it's important for newly published novels to get to about 50 reviews on Amazon so the machine starts to advertise them to new readers. For that reason I'm going to post the Amazon link, but grab the book however's best for you. It's just the review that matters, not how you buy it.

Here are some blurbs/reviews from other authors the thread likes.

quote:

"Magnificent. . . . A science fiction action juggernaut."―Tamsyn Muir, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Locked Tomb series

"Seth! Jesus f***ing christ, Seth, you can't loving keep doing this to me, I have a kid who's going to get up at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning no matter how late I stayed up reading, again, it's been days, I can see time."―Max Gladstone, co-author of the New York Times Bestselling This is How You Lose the Time War

"Exordia is an avalanche: an inevitable, overwhelming, pell-mell landscape-scale transformation of a book. Dickinson uses science fiction as an ethical scalpel, and the results are breathtaking: viciously funny, vivid to the point of horror, and entirely profound."―Arkady Martine, Hugo Award-winning author of A Memory Called Empire

"Violent, vivid, vicious―this is an innovative military, sci-fi thriller that is equal parts action and introspection. It�s conceptually profound and touches upon many ethical and metaphysical subjects. . . . Authentic and thought-provoking."―Library Journal

"Exordia is a comprehensive taxonomy of violence at every level, from the subcellular to the intergalactic, as well as every possible scrap of pain, pleasure, and connection that might result from it. It's an apocalyptic chanson de geste, with a dizzyingly fractured Round Table who experience damnation not just spiritually but literally, formally, communally and visibly, as well as a comprehensive study of natural history, moral lessons, spiritual and cultural translation, and the hierarchy of all possible passions. There's a deeply original spiritual order in this universe that sharpens the significance of every moment, and I found myself wrung out and exhilarated as I came unwillingly to the end of it."―Daniel M. Lavery, author of The Merry Spinster

"Beautiful, introspective, and unbelievably tense. It feels like being in a hospital waiting room in the best and worse sense, the suspended moment right before you find out what's going on."―Cassandra Khaw, USA Today bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth

"Conceptually mindblowing. Viscerally horrific. Hofstadter meets Lovecraft during a really bad acid trip, but better written.�―Peter Watts, Hugo Award winner

If you pick it up I hope you enjoy it. There is some goon poo poo in there I am sure you will spot.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 15:03

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

General Battuta, I hope your new book makes you filthy rich. I'm gonna pick it up real soon.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 15:18

buffalo all day: Mar 13, 2019

StrixNebulosa posted:

General Battuta, I hope your new book makes you filthy rich. I'm gonna pick it up real soon.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 15:23

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

I can't remember if I've asked you this before, but with those author blurbs, do they actually read the whole thing

# ? Jan 23, 2024 15:47

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

StrixNebulosa posted:

General Battuta, I hope your new book makes you filthy rich. I'm gonna pick it up real soon.

I hope your royalties per copy are high and reviews continue to remain positive, insofar that "Jesus Christ Seth what the gently caress are you doing to me!" is positive lol

I assume the algo can work amazon.ca reviews into the overall metric? the dot com hates my geographic location when it comes to kindle sales

# ? Jan 23, 2024 15:54

mewse: May 2, 2006

General Battuta posted:

Hello thread. My first book in four years is out today. It is called EXORDIA.

Congrats, looking forward to reading it

# ? Jan 23, 2024 17:01

mllaneza: Apr 28, 2007; Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1993-1952

I'll do an Amazon review when I'm done, I promise!

But goddamn, you just fall into Anna's head like a bad idea into an open wound. I've never read anything quite like this.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 17:18

DurianGray: Dec 23, 2010; King of Fruits

mllaneza posted:

But goddamn, you just fall into Anna's head like a bad idea into an open wound. I've never read anything quite like this.

If my copy wasn't already in the mail this alone would have gotten me to buy it.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 17:38

OptionalPirate: Aug 31, 2008

General Battuta posted:

Hello thread. My first book in four years is out today. It is called EXORDIA.

GB - I noticed that Amazon UK doesn't like me searching for Exordia. It auto-corrects to Exodia and just gives Yu-Gi-Oh crap, you're not even on the page. Hope somebody gets fired for this blunder.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 17:47

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

General Battuta posted:

Hello thread. My first book in four years is out today. It is called EXORDIA.

For Algorithmic Reasons, it's important for newly published novels to get to about 50 reviews on Amazon so the machine starts to advertise them to new readers. For that reason I'm going to post the Amazon link, but grab the book however's best for you. It's just the review that matters, not how you buy it.

Here are some blurbs/reviews from other authors the thread likes.

If you pick it up I hope you enjoy it. There is some goon poo poo in there I am sure you will spot.

With everyone being damned from the start, how can we be sure you are not a pseudonym for Bakker?

# ? Jan 23, 2024 18:04

Quinton: Apr 25, 2004

General Battuta posted:

If you pick it up I hope you enjoy it. There is some goon poo poo in there I am sure you will spot.

The first quarter or so has been fantastic. Hard to put down.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 18:05

GhastlyBizness: Sep 10, 2016; seashells by the sea shorpheus

General Battuta posted:

Here are some blurbs/reviews from other authors the thread likes.

lol that Daniel Lavery blurb is such a Daniel Lavery blurb. Well done General!

# ? Jan 23, 2024 18:11

Zore: Sep 21, 2010; willfully illiterate, aggressively miserable sourpuss whose sole raison d�etre is to put other people down for liking the wrong things

Yeah I don't think I've slammed the buy button so fast. That synopsis is entirely my jam.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 18:13

buffalo all day: Mar 13, 2019

OptionalPirate posted:

GB - I noticed that Amazon UK doesn't like me searching for Exordia. It auto-corrects to Exodia and just gives Yu-Gi-Oh crap, you're not even on the page. Hope somebody gets fired for this blunder.

Amazon US did the same for me, FYI.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 18:16

Gaius Marius: Oct 9, 2012

Lmao

# ? Jan 23, 2024 18:17

Clark Nova: Jul 18, 2004

Cardiac posted:

With everyone being damned from the start, how can we be sure you are not a pseudonym for Bakker?

I read the entire blurb and nobody was cuckolded so it's probably safe

# ? Jan 23, 2024 18:22

silvergoose: Mar 18, 2006; IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS

Battuta, have you read Ishmael? I showed the blurb to my wife and she said it reminded her of that book.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 18:24

ToxicFrog: Apr 26, 2008

Reading The March North and I think Blossom just made chlorine trifluoride? She asked for a bunch of salt and fluorite, did some spooky magic poo poo, and produced something that's hypergolic with stone, sand, water, and enemy wizards, so...

I'm really liking this premise of "20th century knowledge of chemistry and physics coupled with advanced magic".

Runcible Cat posted:

I like Jessica Amanda Salmonson's Tomoe Gozen series, with the obvious caveat of it not being written by a Japanese person.

This just triggered a childhood memory -- we had that on the shelves growing up (along with Shogun and The Paladin) and I thought it looked interesting but never got around to reading it. Had no idea it was a whole series.

StrixNebulosa posted:

It's hosed up but handled masterfully. I never thought I could care about a book so much.

I just finished a reread of Cyteen (in tandem with a friend who had never read any Cherryh before, and loved it) and it's so good. And so hosed up! But so good.

sebmojo posted:

It's good, it's fine, it's more Morgaine. Worth a read for sure.

Cool, thanks. It's been more than a decade (wtf?) since I read either Morgaine or Chanur in their entirety, so both are on the slate for this year.

Zore posted:

Yeah I don't think I've slammed the buy button so fast. That synopsis is entirely my jam.

I hadn't read the synopsis, but I had read the(?prototype) short story "Anna Saves Them All".

I actually preordered Exordia, and got the ARC, and haven't gotten around to reading it because work is a tire fire lately and I want light escapist stuff instead. And then I ended up rereading Cyteen, so who the gently caress knows what's going on in my brain? Not me, that's for sure.

Anyways, Battuta, I hope Exordia is a success and I look forward to reading it.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 18:27

Antifa Poltergeist: Jun 3, 2004; "We're not laughing with you, we're laughing at you"

So i finished "The traitor Baru Cormorant"
And i had a lot of words written about how the concept of "power" , or the understanding of power as shown through Baru's eyes is extremely flawed.
She can certainly wield it, but she does not understand all the facets of what power really is, and how that neatly ties in with Tain Hu, and the power she wields at the end from an act that Baru could not, would not be able to do herself.
But then i realized that all those words would basically be "Three concepts of power: Foucault, Bourdieu, and Habermas", so go read that.

I really enjoyed this book; Baru the character is going to stay with me for a awhile

# ? Jan 23, 2024 18:27

Kalman: Jan 17, 2010

ToxicFrog posted:

Reading The March North and I think Blossom just made chlorine trifluoride? She asked for a bunch of salt and fluorite, did some spooky magic poo poo, and produced something that's hypergolic with stone, sand, water, and enemy wizards, so...

It�s never confirmed explicitly but yeah, that was my assumption as well.

�Mostly the water in the air� never fails to make me laugh when I reread TMN.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 19:00

Stupid_Sexy_Flander: Mar 14, 2007; Is a man not entitled to the haw of his maw?; Grimey Drawer

I think I vaguely remember trying to read that ninja book back in the day. Had some weird poo poo in it. Iirc the bad guy was a heroin dealing/smoking? pedophile ninja who raped the protagonist with some kind of ninja art, mind controlled some other girl with ninja sex and I vaguely recall something about some secret technique that only true ninja could use to hit people to it make seen like they got hit by a car.

It just kept getting weirder and weirder, and not in a good way.

I don't recall finishing it but I remember being mad it sucked cause there was actually very little ninja style movie fights with all the neat weapons and lasers that only true ninja use, there was just some bit about a magic ninja necklace.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 19:02

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

I'm a bout a third of the way into it and they just introduced a black cop side character who speaks....in dialect and he drops a hard 'r' right away so for now I'm reading They Thirst.

quote:

Vegas' face looked pained. "Sheeit!. Sure, I could make a bundle, takin' my part of the grease each month. Only trouble is, you sawed-off sonovabitch, those fuckers don't allow no black man in on the big time scam, you dig?
"Well, Vegas I sure as hell don't kwon whether Finnigan would want you either."
"You know he's an okay motherfucker when it comes to skin, Jack. Wassamatter, don't you wanna work with me?"
Croaker laughed. "I sure as hell would love it but right now the old man ain't too pleased with me".
"poo poo! That ain't no big thing. You know how he is. Next time you land a big one an' the mayor hands him another bronze pin, he'll be back kissing' yo' white rear end."
Croaker grinned. "Maybe so. Maybe so."
"Ain't know two ways about it, Jack.
....
Vegas gave him a wide grin. "I dig, I dig." He got up, towering over Croaker. "You lay it on him an' we'll see what pops up. Meanwhile, this is one n****r that's got to hit the streets again. Sallyson's given us all quotas to fill, dig?" Sheeit!" He turned an waved. "Later."

zoux fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Jan 23, 2024

# ? Jan 23, 2024 19:16

Slyphic: Oct 12, 2021; All we do is walk around believing birds!

Kalman posted:

It�s never confirmed explicitly but yeah, that was my assumption as well.

It was confirmed explicitly in the nuked google group that it was one of the substances from Things I Will Not Work With, but I can't recall if it was FOOF or CF⁴

# ? Jan 23, 2024 19:20

Danhenge: Dec 16, 2005

General Battuta posted:

Hello thread. My first book in four years is out today. It is called EXORDIA.

For Algorithmic Reasons, it's important for newly published novels to get to about 50 reviews on Amazon so the machine starts to advertise them to new readers. For that reason I'm going to post the Amazon link, but grab the book however's best for you. It's just the review that matters, not how you buy it.

Here are some blurbs/reviews from other authors the thread likes.

If you pick it up I hope you enjoy it. There is some goon poo poo in there I am sure you will spot.

Is the bit about how Anna is surprised the that the Alien translator didn't call it destiny a crack about your old gig?

# ? Jan 23, 2024 19:50

Hieronymous Alloy: Jan 30, 2009; Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!; Morbid Hound

mllaneza posted:

I'll do an Amazon review when I'm done, I promise!
.

I thought I was nearing the climax and apparently I am

One fifth of the way into the text?

Unless there is a significant appendix my review may not be posted today

# ? Jan 23, 2024 19:59

Kestral: Nov 24, 2000; Forum Veteran

I dearly need someone to do fanart of Ssrin so I can picture what they actually look like, preferably with one head stuck in a bottle of shampoo. I very rarely laugh at books, but that loving got me.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 20:00

cptn_dr: Sep 7, 2011; Seven for beauty that blossoms and dies

I just started reading Lavie Tidhar's The Circumference of the World and was finding it brilliant and compelling, but sorry Lavie, outta the way! I accidentally read the first few pages of Exordia and now I can't stop

# ? Jan 23, 2024 20:06

General Battuta: Feb 7, 2011; This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: you hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the posts from the screams.

Danhenge posted:

Is the bit about how Anna is surprised the that the Alien translator didn't call it destiny a crack about your old gig?

No.

# ? Jan 23, 2024 20:17

General Battuta: Feb 7, 2011; This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: you hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the posts from the screams.

Kestral posted:

I dearly need someone to do fanart of Ssrin so I can picture what they actually look like, preferably with one head stuck in a bottle of shampoo. I very rarely laugh at books, but that loving got me.

They actually commissioned some Julie Dillon art which I don't mind

# ? Jan 23, 2024 20:19

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# ? Jun 13, 2024 03:05

RoboCicero: Oct 22, 2009

hot dog, that rules

# ? Jan 23, 2024 20:28

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > SF & F Mega-thread: I had to google 'spock pirate depilatory'

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