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I've never really gotten into to fantasy but my cousin twisted my arm to read The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance and holy hell these are excellent. Until Oathbringer is released, any suggestions that are not A Song of Ice and Fire or doesn't petter off in quality later in the series?
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Jan 26, 2016 18:08
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If you like those, go read more Sanderson. I haven't read much by him, but from what I've heard his books are pretty consistently decent across the board. Some people hate his style, but if you liked those, then you like his style
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Jan 26, 2016 18:11
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gohmak posted:I've never really gotten into to fantasy but my cousin twisted my arm to read The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance and holy hell these are excellent. Until Oathbringer is released, any suggestions that are not A Song of Ice and Fire or doesn't petter off in quality later in the series? In celebration of its sequel dropping today allow me to recommend City of Stairs!
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Jan 26, 2016 19:25
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anilEhilated posted:
Well, at least the characters react in a somehow logical way. In Abaddon's Gate there are a lot of absurd and illogical actions all over the book, and that's perhaps the cause I dislike that one in particular. Come on, you are near the biggest misterious gizmo in mankind history, having watched what the protostuff did in Eros and Venus, and knowing what happened to that belter in the "Y Que" ship, and you go thru the ring carrying a lot of VIPs into an uncharted and dangerous territory, just because there was some action going after Holden; and the MRCN marines, depicted as highly trained and professional, go into panic mode after entering an alien construct to arrest Holden, instead of simply taking the Roci and waiting for him to come out....
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Jan 26, 2016 19:42
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I'd like to think that one was the ship's captain realizing he can bring the solar system a step closer to secular humanism. I mean, when it comes to sending civilians to uncharted, unexplored and probably very deadly areas, it's either priests or insurance salesmen.
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Jan 26, 2016 19:58
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Nemesis Games owns because it finally gives the characters personalities, and because it finally calls both the characters and the setting to account for all the simmering tensions they've been ignoring. Instead of talk about what might happen, maybe, in an abstract sense, poo poo actually goes down. The sociopolitical inequities, secret pasts, and military tensions of the setting and cast reify into apocalyptic oh-poo poo consequences.
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Jan 26, 2016 20:07
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gohmak posted:I've never really gotten into to fantasy but my cousin twisted my arm to read The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance and holy hell these are excellent. Until Oathbringer is released, any suggestions that are not A Song of Ice and Fire or doesn't petter off in quality later in the series? Have you heard the good news about our lord and Traitor Baru Cormorant?
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Jan 26, 2016 20:29
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General Battuta posted:Nemesis Games owns because it finally gives the characters personalities, and because it finally calls both the characters and the setting to account for all the simmering tensions they've been ignoring. Instead of talk about what might happen, maybe, in an abstract sense, poo poo actually goes down. The sociopolitical inequities, secret pasts, and military tensions of the setting and cast reify into apocalyptic oh-poo poo consequences. I think I didn't like Nemesis Games precisely because it felt like an info dump after years of neglect by the previous novels. Maybe that's not a fair criticism 
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Jan 26, 2016 20:59
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My biggest disappointment with Nemesis Games was the new long term villain they set up. Marco features every cheesy Hollywood psychopath stereotype in the book. Ridiculously competent, misjudges nothing, behaves like an rear end in a top hat but only his enemies mind. I can kind of see it if Avasarala and friends are right in saying 'who is this nobody and how did he slip the net?', but if it turns out he actually is just better than everyone then  I guess it annoys me more because these are the guys who wrote Amos, who I think is a really well done character that has a 'villain-designated mental illness' without it turning into some kind of superpower.
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Jan 26, 2016 21:02
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That's a totally fair criticism. It absolutely could have been Book 3. What happened in Abaddon/Cibola that really mattered? Some progress and foreshadowing on the protomolecule metaplot, but nothing worth two books.
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Jan 26, 2016 21:03
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Strategic Tea posted:My biggest disappointment with Nemesis Games was the new long term villain they set up. Marco features every cheesy Hollywood psychopath stereotype in the book. Ridiculously competent, misjudges nothing, behaves like an rear end in a top hat but only his enemies mind. I can kind of see it if Avasarala and friends are right in saying 'who is this nobody and how did he slip the net?', but if it turns out he actually is just better than everyone then I'm hoping he's exactly what the ending made him out to be, a cats paw for the real masterminds on Mars. Otherwise yeah.
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Jan 26, 2016 21:05
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I just finished Baru Cormorant last night. Thank you thread for recommending it and thank you General Battuta for writing it! I think it might be the best book I've read this year! Seriously though, it was really good in really unexpected ways. The hints, man, the hints.
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Jan 26, 2016 21:56
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General Battuta posted:I'm hoping he's exactly what the ending made him out to be, a cats paw for the real masterminds on Mars. Otherwise yeah. According to that ending, those masterminds on Mars are really puppets controlled by some surviving sociopaths from Protogen/Mao, but yeah. I also think Marco is too cartoonish. The bad guy in Cibola is much better.
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Jan 27, 2016 00:40
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CaptainCrunch posted:Seriously though, it was really good in really unexpected ways. The hints, man, the hints. Tell me what hints you picked up on! I'm still hard at work on the sequel so if there's anything you really liked it might stir me to throw more narrative budget behind it.
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Jan 27, 2016 02:08
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General Battuta posted:Tell me what hints you picked up on! I'm still hard at work on the sequel so if there's anything you really liked it might stir me to throw more narrative budget behind it. IHNJ, IJLS "narrative budget".
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Jan 27, 2016 02:11
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You may have no joke, but I do, the joke is my inability to write a first act under a hundred thousand words  Also I just started The Folding Knife, my first KJ Parker. I assume everyone is going to continue to be as much of an rear end in a top hat as they are in the first fifty pages.
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Jan 27, 2016 02:27
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gohmak posted:I've never really gotten into to fantasy but my cousin twisted my arm to read The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance and holy hell these are excellent. Until Oathbringer is released, any suggestions that are not A Song of Ice and Fire or doesn't petter off in quality later in the series? If you like Stormlight you'll probably like his earlier Mistborn series. It takes place in a fantasy world 1000 years after the "Hero of the Ages" saved the world from a great disaster.
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Jan 27, 2016 02:29
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General Battuta posted:Tell me what hints you picked up on! I'm still hard at work on the sequel so if there's anything you really liked it might stir me to throw more narrative budget behind it. holy poo poo. I have not read the book yet but now I reaaaaally need to.
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Jan 27, 2016 02:44
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Could Baru spend a few pages laughing and playing with a puppy? Also don't kill the puppy.
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Jan 27, 2016 02:58
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Please put a Bas-Lag reference in, Battuta, I don't care how obscure/veiled 
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Jan 27, 2016 03:03
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General Battuta posted:You may have no joke, but I do, the joke is my inability to write a first act under a hundred thousand words KJ Parker is definitely the best person to read when you're depressed. Everyone gets screwed over, no one gets what they want. Killing everyone off like GOT is one thing, his character's fates are usually more tortuous.
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Jan 27, 2016 03:05
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holocaust bloopers posted:Could Baru spend a few pages laughing and playing with a puppy? Hard mode: don't have the puppy be part of anyone's Master Plan.
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Jan 27, 2016 03:12
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Combed Thunderclap posted:Hard mode: don't have the puppy be part of anyone's Master Plan. And not a sad puppy.
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Jan 27, 2016 03:19
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Kesper North posted:And not a sad puppy. But put it in early. So we wonder about the significance of that puppy for the rest of the damned book. Twist: It was just a puppy. A wriggly, joyous puppy that actually makes her smile.
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Jan 27, 2016 03:45
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flosofl posted:But put it in early. So we wonder about the significance of that puppy for the rest of the damned book. If a puppy appears in the first act, it must poop on the carpet in the third.
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Jan 27, 2016 03:50
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Puppy spoilers: It's a failed experiment to make adorable dogs Clarified. Puppy responds only to pets and treats. General Battuta, you can go ahead and just give me credit in the thanks section.
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Jan 27, 2016 03:56
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I've been reading Baru Cormorant for the last couple of weeks under the mistaken impression that it was a sci-fi novel
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Jan 27, 2016 03:57
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TheWhiteNightmare posted:I've been reading Baru Cormorant for the last couple of weeks under the mistaken impression that it was a sci-fi novel it is, kinda
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Jan 27, 2016 04:26
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andrew smash posted:it is, kinda It does take place in an alternate universe where women are naturally good at math, after all.
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Jan 27, 2016 05:02
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I'm about a 3rd of the way through after picking it up from Amazon and I agree with whatever sentiments have been shared, good book so far General Buttaco.
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Jan 27, 2016 05:38
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Steely Glint posted:It does take place in an alternate universe where women are naturally good at math, after all. hilarious
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Jan 27, 2016 05:53
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Steely Glint posted:It does take place in an alternate universe where women are naturally good at math, after all. Yeah, some of it was nonsense and the "bad" guys had a few good if underdeveloped ideas, but it was still an excellent book.
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Jan 27, 2016 05:57
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Thankfully nobody I know has actually taken the Masquerade's pseudoscience at face value. Also, the term I use to describe it to people is mundane fantasy. It works well enough.
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Jan 27, 2016 06:31
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Yeah, uh, if it's not clear Steely Glint is riffing on the joke someone made earlier in the thread about taking the gender ideology at face value (instead of as, well, ideology).
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Jan 27, 2016 06:42
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I can totally see a review along the lines of "A thought provoking read where a stern but benevolent empire is undermined by an ungrateful foreigner..." :trump:
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Jan 27, 2016 07:46
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General Battuta posted:Also I just started The Folding Knife, my first KJ Parker. I assume everyone is going to continue to be as much of an rear end in a top hat as they are in the first fifty pages.
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Jan 27, 2016 08:13
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TheWhiteNightmare posted:I've been reading Baru Cormorant for the last couple of weeks under the mistaken impression that it was a sci-fi novel I actually bought it under the impression that Baru's planet would be annexed by a space empire and she was going to end up as a sector governor or something.
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Jan 27, 2016 13:24
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Darkrenown posted:I actually bought it under the impression that Baru's planet would be annexed by a space empire and she was going to end up as a sector governor or something. I actually thought this as well and realized like 30% in that it wasn't going that way
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Jan 27, 2016 13:25
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angel opportunity posted:I actually thought this as well and realized like 30% in that it wasn't going that way
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Jan 27, 2016 14:31
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chrisoya posted:They're grooming her to lead their war against the Buggers.
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Jan 27, 2016 14:37
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