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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Ok I went and read scholomance there are no original ideas; ergo everything is fanfic; ergo naomi novik is a really good writer
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Mar 22, 2024 21:08
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StrixNebulosa posted:there are no original ideas; ergo everything is fanfic; ergo naomi novik is a really good writer See the ultimate problem is that she absolutely butchered the Temeraire series by turning Patrick O'Brian + Dragons fanfic into dragon romance 2: dragon babies; she did a marvelous job of turning an adult fantasy concept into YA fanfic, and the end result is like watching someone carve Carrera marble into into novelty lawn flamingos, it's just a sad waste OTOH "what if Wicked, but Harry Potter, while . . . Communism?" Turns out to be a marvelous concept for a YA novel, and she doesn't gently caress it up by making it YA since it's already that. I could've read four more books in a row. Just good poo poo all through.
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Mar 22, 2024 21:14
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Exordia posted:Nothing ate the Canadians yesterday. Why are we discussing this book under SF instead of in the horror book thread? That's terrifying.
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Mar 22, 2024 21:21
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What are you, some kind of Canadian sympathizer?
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Mar 22, 2024 21:36
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Well if nothing ate them, what’s the problem???
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Mar 22, 2024 21:38
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The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MPV7Z6Q/ The Martian by Andy Weir - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EMXBDMA/
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Mar 22, 2024 22:32
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Ok I went and read scholomance also a valid if rude take on her fairy tale novels Spinning Silver is probably my favorite thing she's written even though I'm a big Scholomance fan. General premise: what if we set up half a dozen vaguely eastern European fairy tales and have them all crash into each other. Uprooted is the other one. Creepy-ish wizard keeping evil magic forest contained requires a tithe of one teenage girl every 10 years or so. It's not for sex reasons, he's just a goon who can't cook or socialize. not spoilering because you find out early and also it really gives the wrong impression if you just have the first sentence Temeraire is a disappointment yes, but it's her first major work, who cares
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Mar 22, 2024 22:45
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pradmer posted:The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez - $1.99
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Mar 22, 2024 23:03
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I also don't think Temeraire is bad? Like the big issue is that she pulled the concept out way too far and the more we learn about the setting the more incoherent it becomes. The first book or two are perfectly functional, if not exceptional, and I think it would be remembered a lot more fondly if it had wrapped up there or in a much tighter trilogy rather than trying to show off how everywhere in the world but Europe was wildly divergent while Europe was somehow almost identical to the real world.
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Mar 22, 2024 23:12
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anilEhilated posted:PSA: this is a really good book. Probably my favorite resd of last year. It owns.
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Mar 22, 2024 23:35
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Zore posted:I also don't think Temeraire is bad? Like the big issue is that she pulled the concept out way too far and the more we learn about the setting the more incoherent it becomes. The first book or two are perfectly functional, if not exceptional, and I think it would be remembered a lot more fondly if it had wrapped up there or in a much tighter trilogy rather than trying to show off how everywhere in the world but Europe was wildly divergent while Europe was somehow almost identical to the real world. She might be one of the most creative fantasy writers for how to start a book, but she cannot land them (spinning silver excluded)
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Mar 23, 2024 02:05
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pradmer posted:The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez - $1.99 I also just finished this. Saw it recommended here a lot so I bought it on sale last year. Wasn't really in the mood for whatever it was until now, and I wish I hadn't waited. The framing narrative is unique and a very cool way to impart information during the story. The story itself had a sort of a fairy tale feel to it. Maybe an epic poem in some places? I don't know anything about the background. It really felt like this was a story of historical events embellished over generations. I thought it dragged a bit about two thirds in but picked right back up for the last part of the story. Really enjoyable and it'll stick with me.
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Mar 23, 2024 02:07
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Goatse James Bond posted:also a valid if rude take on her fairy tale novels Also after their tour of duty, all the young women insist that it wasn't a sex thing, they just kept their lord's house for him, but none of the town folk believe them because you can't trust silly girls and clearly its a sex thing. Goatse James Bond posted:Temeraire is a disappointment yes, but it's her first major work, who cares Temeraire was clearly her meal ticket for a while and you can't fault somebody for that.
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Mar 23, 2024 02:23
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I remember assuming Victory of Eagles was the last Temeraire novel when I finished it. It just seemed like a natural stopping point, I wasn't hooked into the online discussion of it or anything. I didn't even know about the fanfic thing until fairly recently. I've liked pretty much everything Novik has put out, post-Temeraire, but I really liked the Scholomance trilogy. I put off reading them for a long time, but I bought my brother A Deadly Education for Christmas because I couldn't think of anything better. I borrowed it from him not much later and was worried he hadn't liked it when he turned it over so easily. But, by the time I had read it and returned, he had bought and read the two sequels already! I ended up reading those end to end in a single weekend, they're real page turners.
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Mar 23, 2024 03:50
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You do know she's one of the founders of Archive of Our Own, right? I am blown away by how good Exordia is. Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Mar 23, 2024 |
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Mar 23, 2024 07:07
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I did - but I only found out after I'd read everything of hers.
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Mar 23, 2024 07:59
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Tiny Timbs posted:Empty Man was a crazy surprise. So good. Is empty man a novel? All I get searching is a film and a graphic novel.
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Mar 23, 2024 08:57
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pradmer posted:The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez - $1.99 i bounced off this. got about 2/3rds through, realised i actively disliked it, and returned it. couldn't tell you why though, but it's probably because my brain is small and unsophisticated and i only consume slop
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Mar 23, 2024 11:50
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team overhead smash posted:Is empty man a novel? All I get searching is a film and a graphic novel. It's a movie, very underrated imo.
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Mar 23, 2024 12:21
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A Proper Uppercut posted:It's a movie, very underrated imo. Very good movie, can confirm. It completely went under the radar because it got lost in the shuffle when the studio who produced it got bought, after it wrapped but before it was released. Also imo it suffered from having a poster, name and trailer that made people think of The Bye Bye Man (awful) and Slenderman (feels wrong to bad mouth him here but the media it generated was generally bad)
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Mar 23, 2024 12:48
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Did the Goons who did that Slenderman web series get royalties for those movies? How much of the lore was crowd sourced? I remember the thread as it was happening but not clearly remembering what came from where
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Mar 23, 2024 13:11
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Whale Vomit posted:Did the Goons who did that Slenderman web series get royalties for those movies? How much of the lore was crowd sourced? I remember the thread as it was happening but not clearly remembering what came from where I don't think so, they didn't come up with it, it was Eric Knudsen (a different Goon) who made Slenderman and holds the copyright, but it looks like the adaptation rights might be in limbo right now because they got passed around between companies and the one that had them last folded or something.
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Mar 23, 2024 13:21
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A Proper Uppercut posted:It's a movie, very underrated imo. Super underrated. It was based on a comic series but when I tried to track it down after watching the film, I found a ton of reviews pointing out that they've got practically nothing to do with the movie.
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Mar 23, 2024 14:08
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I like big butts and I cannot die. Four thousand mortal years have I Watched the ends of men who end, and tried and wept and tried To chase the thing that glides—to go outside Born Merneith by the Nile, in a land of rear end beyond denial We packed our dead with natron Our pharaohs and our matrons Oh, reader - pity the mummy The flattened dummy I should have died in Akhmim Where the fever sent me an awful dream Oh, you who fear to perish The truth is more nightmarish— We can't die, we cannot die Life is a noose you can't untie! But each of us alone Watches others go to bone We live, while All the people who beguile The eyes of a callipgyphile Go to their exile Die! The mind once made can't fade to black It's a quantum fact So, reader! (no—) Reader! (no—!) Do you understand you're trapped? You'll watch me finally die — (it can't be) Finally die! (it can't be!) But in another world I'll go on — Life is a trap! Death is all around us but we cannot end! Death is all around us but we cannot end! (So please—while our timelines are still married— Before you see me burn, and I see you ferried— would you turn around and bend?)
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Mar 23, 2024 15:36
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  ... when's the album? I'd listen to that album.
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Mar 23, 2024 19:00
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Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y5L7H71/
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Mar 23, 2024 19:56
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Naomi Novik's schtick is very much about putting an interesting spin or inversion on common tropes, and she does it really well. But the more she tries to stretch that out the thinner the concept gets and the more the narrative has to be written in service of the concept, rather than the other way around. That's why imo her best novels are her standalone ones. However she's also just a really engaging writer so it's not like her weaker stuff is bad. I still read all the temeraire books. It's definitely a weird series. They reminded me of comic books or serialised novellas, but instead each one is a full length novel. The biggest crime they commit is spending 8 or 9 or however many books building towards this big climax and then the big final showdown all happens off screen. Like she literally skips the final battle with Napoleon where they defeat him. She just documents their preparations and does a few scenes where the characters are taking breaks from fighting, and then skips to the end. It's genuinely one of the least satisfying conclusions to a series that I've read.
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Mar 23, 2024 20:04
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That got me a little pumped for Exordia 2
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Mar 23, 2024 21:19
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General Battuta posted:Declare is so fuckin good Enough of you recommended this so I picked it up and didn’t out it down until I finished it a few days later. Holy poo poo that was good; are all the rest of his books like this?
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Mar 23, 2024 21:47
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I'm reading My Brother's Keeper at the moment, Tim Powers' latest. It's about the Brontë siblings and werewolf hunters, it's... Not as good as Declare, by any stretch of the imagination, but it's pretty fun if you like Regency literature and/or werewolves. As far as his other books go, I think Last Call is as good as Declare, and I go back and forth on which I like more.
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Mar 23, 2024 21:50
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pradmer posted:Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant - $2.99 I read this and enjoyed it. It’s a bit weird there’s a prequel novella that I didn’t enjoy. They’re both the same premise (mermaids are real) but the novella fell flat for me. I guess as a duo they’re fine?
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Mar 23, 2024 21:52
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occluded posted:Enough of you recommended this so I picked it up and didn’t out it down until I finished it a few days later. Holy poo poo that was good; are all the rest of his books like this? No. His early stuff is good (The Stress of Her Regard, On Stranger Tides, and The Anubis Gates (for completely different reasons)), but Declare is a huge outlier in his modern decline. At some point he completely lost the ability to sustain willing suspension of disbelief and instead of writing stories about people discovering that the world is filled with unseen mysterious dangerous esoterica, he started writing stories about people doing a bunch of arbitrary nonsensical bullshit.
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Mar 23, 2024 21:57
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occluded posted:Enough of you recommended this so I picked it up and didn’t out it down until I finished it a few days later. Holy poo poo that was good; are all the rest of his books like this? Last Call, Stranger Tides, Anubis Gates, and Stress of Her Regard are all great, agree that Last Call is probably closest to Declare. You’ve got some great books ahead.
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Mar 23, 2024 22:08
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mewse posted:I read this and enjoyed it. I found Into the Drowning Deep engaging but ultimately frustrating. Various characters make a lot of bad choices, and while any individual instance can be explained by ignorance, greed, or other commonplace human failings, the story requires a lot of people to make bad choices all at once, and eventually it interfered with my suspension of disbelief.
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Mar 23, 2024 22:42
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occluded posted:Enough of you recommended this so I picked it up and didn’t out it down until I finished it a few days later. Holy poo poo that was good; are all the rest of his books like this? I particularly like The Drawing of the Dark and On Stranger Tides*. Do NOT miss The Anubis Gates. Not at all like Declare, but very good weird fantasy. * The Disney movie has nothing in common except the title and the puppeted pirates. e: Stress of Her Regard is good iff you are extremely familiar with the Romantic poets and wish to become more so.
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Mar 23, 2024 22:47
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if you like tim powers and RPGs, the Nights Dark Agents campaign 'the zalozhny quartet' by (the wonderful) Gareth hanrahan covers some similar ground.
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Mar 23, 2024 22:56
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General Battuta posted:I like big butts and I cannot die.  Love it!Still haven't forgotten the banger you posted here in 2022 about circumcision, by the way. Keep up the great work.
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Mar 23, 2024 23:30
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pradmer posted:Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant - $2.99 Not a fan, was predictable and not that interesting, only made it about halfway.
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Mar 23, 2024 23:36
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Where to start with "New Weird"?
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Mar 23, 2024 23:51
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Just read The Scar by Mieville.
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Mar 23, 2024 23:53
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