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

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Ravenfood: Nov 4, 2011

pseudorandom name posted:

Some might say his last good book.

_{Me. I say that.}

Yeah. It's the high point of Stephenson in pretty much every way. Anathem is great.

# ? Apr 4, 2024 14:24

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# ? May 20, 2024 06:07

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.

Woke Neil writes 'Anathem', spitting on traditional gender values 'Anahim' and 'Anaher'

# ? Apr 4, 2024 14:51

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

Fiasco by Stanislaw Lem - $2.99 (and apparently it's also on Kindle Unlimited? free is the best deal!)
https://www.amazon.com/Fiasco-Stanislaw-Lem-ebook/dp/B008R2J70M

# ? Apr 4, 2024 15:41

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

gurragadon posted:

Just finished reading this. Curious what other people's thought on it are?

I thought that every male character was a split of the authors personality like Horselover Fat. This was until almost the very end when the Rhipidon society visits Sophia on the farm and then looking at the wikipedia. I still lean toward Kevin and David being the author though. David is his devout Catholicism and Kevin is his extreme cynicism. Horselover Fat is his personal religion heavily influenced by Gnosticism, believing in a God based on wisdom and knowledge.

Well, yeah, their names start with the author's initials. I like VALIS a lot, the autobiographical narration helps to make the weirdness stand out but I genuinely can't imagine what reading it as one's first PKD book would feel like.

# ? Apr 4, 2024 17:50

RoboCicero: Oct 22, 2009; "I'm sick and tired of reading these posts!"

Vandermeer is writing a prequel book to the Area X trilogy. sickos.png

I really loved Hummingbird Salamander. Like, the book creates this impressive and bleak mood around a world that centers around people chasing conspiracies that don't matter anymore, missing clues that then expire, the certainty that this is more important when it isn't. It's a marvelously tense and gripping story about things crumbling away as you try and grip on to them.

# ? Apr 4, 2024 18:22

eke out: Feb 24, 2013

he's been posting about writing it for a while i think it's all complete and turned in for edits now (and due to be released in October)

sounds like it heavily concerns prior expeditions to area x before the first book and has a bunch of Whitby POVs that jeff kept posting about they're the most insane and deranged things he's ever written

# ? Apr 4, 2024 18:23

MockingQuantum: Jan 20, 2012

RoboCicero posted:

Vandermeer is writing a prequel book to the Area X trilogy. sickos.png

I really loved Hummingbird Salamander. Like, the book creates this impressive and bleak mood around a world that centers around people chasing conspiracies that don't matter anymore, missing clues that then expire, the certainty that this is more important when it isn't. It's a marvelously tense and gripping story about things crumbling away as you try and grip on to them.

I couldn't even get started on Hummingbird Salamander, which is a bummer because in general I really like Vandermeer's stuff. I don't know if it's kind of impenetrable all the way through but I tried starting it on three different occasions and stalled out pretty quickly each time.

# ? Apr 4, 2024 18:48

pradmer: Mar 31, 2009; Follow me for more books on special!

Perdido Street Station by China Mi�ville - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBFO8C/

The Doomed City by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01F9KHTVI/

Sunshine by Robin McKinley - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OGWASCI/

Clans of the Alphane Moon by Philip K Dick - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008LQ1U5E/

# ? Apr 4, 2024 22:20

Lex Talionis: Feb 6, 2011

A Sneaker Broker posted:

Is anyone reading the Sun Eater Series? I've been seeing it show up on my Book-focused TikTok account and on my YouTube feed, with multiple creators dubbing it the next "epic" space opera.

Slyphic posted:

I read the first book in the before times. It's a pur�e of Name of the Wind, Wheel of Time, and a random Star Wars EU trilogy. I felt no compulsion to read further, but but if you're into any of those things, you'll probably get something out of it.

The "remix" aspect is unusually blatant and hard to really capture in a quick post. There are lots of words used that many of us strongly associate with Book of the New Sun ("lictor", "necropolis", "oubliette"). Other concepts just scream Dune over and over. And the framing of the story is very directly from Name of the Wind, just with a sun killer instead of a king killer.

For a while I still enjoyed it. I can see why music people look down on Oasis as derivative of the Beatles, but the Beatles weren't making more music, so why not? And in this case I felt "Name of the Wind but with a different main character" might actually be a net improvement. It is tough looking at Goodreads reviews and seeing the book praised for things lifted from older books by people who haven't read the older books, but hey, that's life.

Empire of Silence posted:

In my long life I have known too many palatines, men and women both, who so abused their underlings. There are words for creatures who so abuse their power, but none shall ever be applied to me.

The Name of the Wind posted:

Needless to say, I kept my distance. There are names for people who take advantage of women who are not in full control of themselves, and none of those names will ever rightfully be applied to me.

In the end though I came away dissatisfied not because of the remixing per se but the book just wasn't successful enough on its own terms. The plot gets increasingly contrived and the main character ends up being just too obnoxious. In a totally different way than Kvothe, at least, so maybe in this respect it's original (or maybe I haven't read the antecedent book). It reads like the work of a very young author, and I know that's a pretentious thing to say. I expect and hope he'll improve, but it's harder to accept in this particular book because it constantly reminds you of better books by masters of the genre.

Empire of Silence posted:

Perhaps the Chantry's icona are real. Perhaps those spirits hear our prayers. Perhaps not. I have always considered myself agnostic, but you see, to a peasant, a serf who has never seen the Emperor--to him, our Emperor and those gods are the same. His Radiance's laws still affect the provincial, even when there is no Emperor at all. It is a mistake to believe we must know a thing to be influenced by it. It is a mistake to believe the thing must even be real. The universe is, and we are in it.

Book of the New Sun posted:

We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges. When soldiers take their oath they are given a coin, an asimi stamped with the profile of the Autarch. Their acceptance of that coin is their acceptance of the special duties and burdens of military life�they are soldiers from that moment, though they may know nothing of the management of arms. I did not know that then, but it is a profound mistake to believe that we must know of such things to be influenced by them, and in fact to believe so is to believe in the most debased and superstitious kind of magic. The would-be sorcerer alone has faith in the efficacy of pure knowledge; rational people know that things act of themselves or not at all.

Those two quotes tell the story to me. It's not plagiarism, I guess, but it's the same idea being deployed by two different writers and in two different ways. When Gene Wolfe does it, it's a beautiful, unexpected, and challenging. When Ruocchio does it, he's (accidentally?) reduced it to a completely banal observation. And again: very unfair to ask a twenty-something author to go head-to-head with Gene Wolfe's most famous quote from his best and most famous book...but, like, it was Ruocchio who made me to consider it by echoing the passage so directly!

I know this post is already too long but I can't resist one more.

Empire of Silence posted:

His voice changed suddenly, crackling with a pedagogue's intensity. "Hadrian, name for me the Eight Forms of Obedience."

I did. "Obedience out of fear of pain. Obedience out of fear of the other. Obedience out of love for the person of the hierarch. Obedience out of loyalty to the office of the heirarch. Obedience out of respect for the laws of men and heaven. Obedience out of piety. Obedience out of compassion. Obedience out of devotion."

"Which is basest?"

I blinked, having expected some question more daunting than this. "Obedience out of fear of pain." He only wanted to make me say it, to make me feel the weight of those words.

Gibson smiled. "The law of the fishes. Quite right."

Book of the New Sun posted:

"Severian. Name for me the seven principles of goverance."

It was an effort for me to speak, but I managed (in my dream, if it was a dream) to say, "I do not recall that we have studied such a thing, Master."

"You were always the most careless of my boys," he told me, and fell silent.

A foreboding grew on me; I sensed that if I did not reply, some tragedy would occur. At last I began weakly, "Anarchy..."

"That is not governance, but the lack of it. I taught you that it precedes all governance. Now list the seven sorts."

"Attachment to the person of the monarch. Attachment to a bloodline or other sequence of succession. Attachment to the royal state. Attachment to a code legitimizing the governing state. Attachment to the law only. Attachment to a greater or lesser board of electors, as framers of the law. Attachment to an abstraction conceived as including the body of electors, other bodies giving rise to them, and numerous other elements, largely ideal."

"Tolerable. Of these, which is the earliest form, and which the highest?"

"The development is in the order given, Master," I said. "But I do not recall that you ever asked before which was highest."

Master Malrubius leaned forward, his eyes burning brighter than the coals of the fire. "Which is highest, Severian?"

"The last, Master?"

"You mean attachment to an abstraction conceived as including the body of electors, other bodies giving rise to them, and numerous other elements, largely ideal?"

"Yes, Master."

"Of what kind, Severian, is your own attachment to the Divine Entity?"

I said nothing. It may have been that I was thinking; but if so, my mind was much too filled with sleep to be conscious of its thought. Instead, I became profoundly aware of my physical surroundings. The sky above my face in all its grandeur seemed to have been made solely for my benefit, and to be presented for my inspection now. I lay upon the ground as upon a woman, and the very air that surrounded me seemed a thing as admirable as crystal and as fluid as wine.

"Answer me, Severian."

"The first, if I have any."

"To the person of the monarch?"

"Yes, because there is no succession."

"The animal that rests beside you now would die for you. Of what kind is his attachment to you?"

"The first?"

There was no one there. I sat up. Malrubius and Triskele had vanished, yet my side felt faintly warm.

I have read Book of the New Sun several times and each time I come to this scene I find it thought-provoking. The words are clear yet the meaning is ambiguous. Very thought-provoking.

Ruocchio is impressed enough to, uh, be "influenced" into including a similar scene. The writing is several steps down ("crackling with a pedagogue's intensity", "I did"). But worst of all, it's again become banal: it's bad to scare people into obedience. Great, thanks. Then the passage goes on, Rothfuss-style, to congratulate the main character for disappointing his father by being a better leader than this. Sigh.

Lex Talionis fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Apr 4, 2024

# ? Apr 4, 2024 23:24

Horizon Burning: Oct 23, 2019

idk, i've seen a few excerpts from ruocchio's work that make me wonder why it isn't decried as plagiarism because there's a few that are way more egregious than that, from memory

# ? Apr 5, 2024 00:17

A Sneaker Broker: Feb 14, 2020; Daily Dose of Internet Brain Rot

Sword of Kaigen, Green Bone Saga, and more are now accessible with Kindle Unlimited, FYI. After I just bought them all not even 3 weeks ago.

# ? Apr 5, 2024 02:50

0 rows returned: Apr 9, 2007

finally went back and finished the black company books after taking a long break after the fifth book, i think the glittering stone books make up for what i hated in the middle books but i still felt the big explanation for why everybody spent 6 books making the most braindead decisions was a bit weak and i never thought the lady was sympathetic or likable

one eye and croaker turning goblin into a nuclear missile to kill a goddess felt alright though

# ? Apr 5, 2024 03:36

fez_machine: Nov 27, 2004

A Sneaker Broker posted:

Sword of Kaigen, Green Bone Saga, and more are now accessible with Kindle Unlimited, FYI. After I just bought them all not even 3 weeks ago.

Good, KU is evil

# ? Apr 5, 2024 05:10

Gaius Marius: Oct 9, 2012

Buy or Steal, never rent.

# ? Apr 5, 2024 05:16

voiceless anal fricative: May 6, 2007

Gaius Marius posted:

Buy or Steal, never rent.

what about libraries

# ? Apr 5, 2024 08:46

Inexplicable Humblebrag: Sep 20, 2003

hailing a taxi and immediately grand theft autoing the driver

# ? Apr 5, 2024 10:17

Stuporstar: May 5, 2008; Where do fists come from?

Biffmotron posted:

Buy these books. The Bruner stories are fantastic proto-cyberpunk. Sheep is one of the bleakest books I�ve ever read in a good way. Schismatrix is my absolute favorite novel, Heavy Weather smells like the future, and Islands is weird but good in an early 90s end of history way.

I grabbed all of these. Thanks for the cyberpunk recs, everyone!

I�ve also started into Burning Chrome, and I�ve read about half these stories in other anthologies, but they�re great to read again.

The one co-written with John Shirley reminded me to check on the Eclipse series again, since I read an excerpt in Mirrorshades a while back and thought he was one of the few writers with authentic punk in his cyberpunk. But they�re still not available as ebooks and been a pain to track down since they�re out of print :negative:

# ? Apr 5, 2024 14:56

gurragadon: Jul 28, 2006

anilEhilated posted:

Well, yeah, their names start with the author's initials. I like VALIS a lot, the autobiographical narration helps to make the weirdness stand out but I genuinely can't imagine what reading it as one's first PKD book would feel like.

I missed that, but it makes sense. Especially because Horselover Fat becomes independent and is able to "send postcards to the author" kind of like how Kevin is independent enough to recommend the movie VALIS.

I haven't read any of Phillip K. Dicks books before reading VALIS, although I have seen Blade Runner. It reads as a book written by an author known for science fiction writing, but not really a science fiction book. Beside the token reference to VALIS possibly having other worldly origins, it's a reflection on religion, especially Gnosticism. The only reference that really took me out of it was the Richard Nixon tie in. I can see how it was the important event when he was writing the book but it seems trivial compared to the other topics, and kind of ruins the timeless feeling of the book.

He's a good writer, even in this weird format. He made it very clear that Horselover Fat was him but kept it ambiguous enough with the other personalities to keep me interested.

# ? Apr 5, 2024 15:38

Awkward Davies: Sep 3, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Anode posted:

I think Nick Harkaway�s Titanium Noir was written to that exact brief, sans cyberspace. I�m not sure I would recommend it exactly, but it hit the spot.

I�ve enjoyed all of his books so I picked up Titanium Noit based on this glowing review. Enjoying it so far, waiting for the shoe to drop.

# ? Apr 5, 2024 16:36

pradmer: Mar 31, 2009; Follow me for more books on special!

The Fifth Season (Broken Earth #1) by NK Jemisin - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H25FCSQ/

Babel-17 by Samuel R Delany - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HE2JK4Y/

The Peripheral (Jackpot #1) by William Gibson - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00INIXKV2/

# ? Apr 5, 2024 17:35

pradmer: Mar 31, 2009; Follow me for more books on special!

The Devil You Know (Saloninus #2) by KJ Parker - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016VCHZ0S/

The Gold Coast (Three Californias #2) by Kim Stanley Robinson - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H6E6AJ8/

Pacific Edge (Three Californias #3) by Kim Stanley Robinson - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H6E6AYI/

# ? Apr 6, 2024 18:03

pradmer: Mar 31, 2009; Follow me for more books on special!

Three posts in a row? That's bad news.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot #1) by Becky Chambers - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08H831J18/
CIRCE by Madeline Miller - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074M5TLLJ/
Uprooted by Naomi Novik - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KUQIU7O/
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FHBV4ZX/
Parable of the Sower (Parable #1) by Octavia E Butler - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZHT26LV/
Recursion by Blake Crouch - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HDSHP7N/
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JVQ6DHK/
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton - $2.24 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CP8YXH3/
Skyward (#1) by Brandon Sanderson - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BJLB5LY/

# ? Apr 7, 2024 18:14

pik_d: Feb 24, 2006; follow the white dove

TRP Post of the Month October 2021

everyone is too busy reading the books you've got us buying

# ? Apr 7, 2024 18:20

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.

pradmer posted:

CIRCE by Madeline Miller - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074M5TLLJ/

Really liked this book, the audiobook was a delight. Couldn't get into Song of Achilles but this one did it for me!

# ? Apr 7, 2024 18:27

Major Ryan: May 11, 2008; Completely blank

General Battuta posted:

Really liked this book, the audiobook was a delight. Couldn't get into Song of Achilles but this one did it for me!

Between Miller and Pat Barker, Greek re-tellings are getting amazing things done to them at the moment. And Emily Wilson's translations of the Iliad and Odyssey are grand if you want the 'official' story too.

# ? Apr 7, 2024 19:04

AARD VARKMAN: May 17, 1993

I'm still working through Exordium, on book 4. It's fluctuated between good and fast, good and slow, and boring and slow several times now but still on the positive overall I think.

# ? Apr 7, 2024 19:38

ZekeNY: Jun 13, 2013; Probably AFK

I'm always glad to encounter another Exordium reader; there aren't enough of us around. The updated 2011 version of the first book was a huge improvement over the original IMHO, I wish it had sold well enough to justify the same treatment for the rest of the series

# ? Apr 7, 2024 19:47

AARD VARKMAN: May 17, 1993

ZekeNY posted:

I'm always glad to encounter another Exordium reader; there aren't enough of us around. The updated 2011 version of the first book was a huge improvement over the original IMHO, I wish it had sold well enough to justify the same treatment for the rest of the series

Aren't the other 4 all revised versions as well? Sherwood Smith's website refers to them all as revised between 2011 and 2015

# ? Apr 7, 2024 19:55

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

Exordium is a series with so much going on and so many little details that I reread it every few years. It's a rewarding experience every time.

# ? Apr 7, 2024 19:58

voiceless anal fricative: May 6, 2007

pradmer posted:

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JVQ6DHK/

This one piqued my interest when it came out, has anyone read it?

General Battuta posted:

Really liked this book, the audiobook was a delight. Couldn't get into Song of Achilles but this one did it for me!

Agree, much better than Song of Achilles!

# ? Apr 7, 2024 20:55

Whale Vomit: Nov 10, 2004; starving in the belly of a whale
its ribs are ceiling beams
its guts are carpeting
I guess we have some time to kill

voiceless anal fricative posted:

This one piqued my interest when it came out, has anyone read it?

It's a reimagining of the Dr Moreau story, but with the PoV of a new daughter character instead of Prendick, as well as Montgomery. It harps too much a on a love triangle that drags and ends predictably. The central story revolves more around aspects of colonialism and class hierarchy more than Moreau's transgressions against nature. It's not one I strongly recommend, but it's written well enough if that sounds like something you'd be interested in.

# ? Apr 8, 2024 00:22

branedotorg: Jun 19, 2009

Major Ryan posted:

Between Miller and Pat Barker, Greek re-tellings are getting amazing things done to them at the moment. And Emily Wilson's translations of the Iliad and Odyssey are grand if you want the 'official' story too.

i enjoyed Kate Elliott's Unconquered Sun too, space opera version of Alexander the great

# ? Apr 8, 2024 01:36

ZekeNY: Jun 13, 2013; Probably AFK

AARD VARKMAN posted:

Aren't the other 4 all revised versions as well? Sherwood Smith's website refers to them all as revised between 2011 and 2015

They were revised, but not nearly as thoroughly, IIRC

# ? Apr 8, 2024 01:39

Awkward Davies: Sep 3, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Awkward Davies posted:

I�ve enjoyed all of his books so I picked up Titanium Noit based on this glowing review. Enjoying it so far, waiting for the shoe to drop.

Finished it. Liked it. The ending felt a little too neat? But whatever. Harkaway is good at imagining weird poo poo. Like a mellowed China Mieville.

# ? Apr 8, 2024 05:18

frogbs: May 5, 2004; Well well well

I�m a a few chapters (about 25%) into Greg Egan�s Permutation City. I like it so far but I�m really not sure I fully understand what�s going on. I�m considering starting over and taking notes. Is that crazy? I�m reading just before I go to sleep so maybe I�m just forgetting stuff.

# ? Apr 8, 2024 05:49

ClydeFrog: Apr 13, 2007; my body is a temple to an idiot god

Empire of the Vampire is a good, fun book. I like the conceit wherein the main character is interviewed by a vampire and although a little clunky at the start it really goes places. It also allows the second book Empire of the Damned to go completely bonkers and is extremely gripping. The author has a real flair for showing the horror of the world, and the terror and misery vampires have brought. It's essentially medieval, the sun goes dim, poo poo gets bad. I also enjoyed how well the fights and battles were written. It was very easy for me to keep track of who was where and doing what in the middle of some very fraught and exciting scenes. Very much looking forward to the third.

I've just read Exordia. The Anfal Genocide and its ramifications permeate every part of the book - it's not set dressing - it's how and why we end up with these characters in this situation, behaving as they do.

Anna is a character I've thought about a lot since I finished it. She is is complex, infuriating, angry, funny and above all unbelievably stubborn and quite irked with much of the situation. Here is a woman who has been shaped by extreme trauma but refuses to let it define her - and not in a conscious "I won't let this beat me" way. It is presented as "well this is the way I am, of course I am like this, I am just doing my best with all of it wtf leave me be" and it makes for a very compelling viewpoint, even surprising Ssrin who at times has not considered Anna's essential humanity is actually at the core of how she responds and reacts. To an alien mind, shooting a man chained to a radiator seems like a trifle for someone that had to kill her own family, but this demonstrates that Ssrin does not understand that Anna's worst day was motivated by dire necessity rather than a cool utilitarian calculation based on achieving a preferable outcome. I saw serendure as a uniting of fate and outcome, rather than lockstep in word and deed.

I also enjoy books where the science of the situation is laid out in a way that is challenging yet understandable. I'm reading along going "oh cool, so that is happening because of that and this also means that - WOW". It doesn't matter a bit that 30 minutes later the most I could summon up mentally is like "so er black holes and death masts are kinda scary". It's the flow in the moment that counts (and no I don't care that much of it is made up, internal consistency is all I require to enjoy it). It is a very specific talent to take complex topics and use them to create narrative propulsion. It's also gratifying to be treated as an intelligent reader. The sections where the entire world were throwing anything and everything at a tiny plot of land in the vain hope it could lead to a anything useful were very exciting. Having the main cast representing an actual global population instead of the tired trope of "western group of scientists are here to save the day" made for some very enjoyable interplay between them. I also really appreciated the moments of dark humour which read as very realistic responses to an extremely hosed up situation without veering into annoying quippage.

The aliens are indeed very alien. Ssrin's motivations for the final act are almost unimagineable to everyone OTHER than those who have (either willingly or not) stared down the barrel of a real life trolley problem and found a way to live with having pulled one of the levers. Of course Ssrin would let Earth get obliterated for a chance to further a goal (that soul eating drive made me shudder) that meant everything to her and billions of others.

Clay and Eric are initially positioned as standard archetypes of hard men making hard choices before we realise that this is a shallow and surface reading, Clay is an absolutely irredeemable bellend but an interesting one. Eric is so desperate to not be dumped in the same category it's made him almost comically boy scout-like, as if this slavish devotion to now doing the right thing is scrubbing the stains away. Two very different and interesting forms of vanity on view here who stopped treating Rosamaria as a real person long ago, instead creating an almost totemic creature that could absolve them if only she could absorb the knowledge of what they did and understand it. I enjoyed the part where she tells them she needs to stop talking as she wants to spend her last remaining time with the people she knows and loves now. It makes clear to the reader that this is a real woman who has moved on healthily and is very different from the avatar of her that has literally been summoned into being. Both of these men show how dangerous it is to embrace a worldview where you have appointed yourself as the arbiter of what constitutes the greater good

Chaya and Li Aixue kick rear end. No notes. Superb. A wonderfully complementary pair who are immediately accepting of each other and see each others flaws as interesting facets rather than problems to be solved. Quite frankly Eric and Clay should be taking notes.

Khaje's anger and sadness for her daughter and family are expressed beautifully - both in word and (many) deeds. You can see much of her character in Anna, the pragmatic practicality, the determination and steely core. The problems of every mother/daughter relationship but threaded through with unimaginable tragedy and horror. After all, if your mother irritates you but you also had to shoot your father and siblings well, you are going to be slightly on the back foot when it comes to trying to create some healthy boundaries....

Davoud was a delight. His appreciation for aircraft above everything else made him very enjoyable to spend time with as he grapples with transformation.

God there better be a sequel.

ClydeFrog fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Apr 8, 2024

# ? Apr 8, 2024 10:17

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

frogbs posted:

I�m a a few chapters (about 25%) into Greg Egan�s Permutation City. I like it so far but I�m really not sure I fully understand what�s going on. I�m considering starting over and taking notes. Is that crazy? I�m reading just before I go to sleep so maybe I�m just forgetting stuff.

it is not crazy, although depending on where you are it may become clearer later in the plot

also the ending of that book absolutely goes places and it's great

# ? Apr 8, 2024 13:51

A Proper Uppercut: Sep 30, 2008

General Battuta posted:

Really liked this book, the audiobook was a delight. Couldn't get into Song of Achilles but this one did it for me!

Good to hear, I need a new audiobook shortly.

Currently listening to The Tainted Cup and it's great. Holmes and Watson style mystery set in a fantasy world that's under constant threat from some kind of bug kaijus. Narration is very good too.

# ? Apr 8, 2024 15:04

Harold Fjord: Jan 3, 2004

I just finished the dark profit trilogy.

After reading exodia my brain was feeling very burnt out and this seemed nice and light.

It is, but it is also unexpectedly poignant regarding economics,politics, racism , and fascism.

Good metaphor, good puns, good books

# ? Apr 8, 2024 15:30

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# ? May 20, 2024 06:07

Groke: Jul 27, 2007; New Adventures In Mom Strength

DACK FAYDEN posted:

it is not crazy, although depending on where you are it may become clearer later in the plot

also the ending of that book absolutely goes places and it's great

Greg Egan has a tendency to take his stories to really bonkers yet logical conclusions, I love that.

# ? Apr 8, 2024 16:36

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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