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coyo7e posted:I wonder if he had a like, an autistic sibling or something, how he'd feel about someone throwing "retard" around pell-mell. 
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Mar 27, 2016 08:51
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occamsnailfile posted:It'd be useful to link to the whole blog post on that since just using that quote may lead people to think he's arguing a point that he's not. http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.de/2014/12/the-big-three-oh-oh-oh-oh.html This mode of thought is hilarious: the nihilistic reverie of violence is okay, as long as there are enough female voices in it! I can imagine how the response if Jorge was female instead and the story remained mostly the same. Princess of Thorns would be celebrated for challenging norms and standards of what women could do.
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Mar 27, 2016 10:16
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Why criticise Lawrence for hypothetically being a SadPuppy, when it's much easier to criticise his inability to tell a story in a loving straight line? [Bloke] of Thorns was a simple enough story mangled beyond recognition. Jorg's development seemed pretty half-arsed (in the epilogue of Prince he muses "after 33 chapters of raping and pillaging, I think one day I might grow out of all the raping and pillaging") and what little there was got completely obscured by all the pointless time jumps.
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Mar 27, 2016 11:43
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Well, "can't write for poo poo" isn't really a reason to condemn a fantasy author (see: Rothfuss). He has to imply having Wrong Opinions.
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Mar 27, 2016 12:33
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The impression I get is that we're all so desperate for more spaceships/mechs/swordmans that we'll actually put up with any level of bad writing or awful opinions. They're a very scarce resource.
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Mar 27, 2016 13:10
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coyo7e posted:I wonder if he had a like, an autistic sibling or something, how he'd feel about someone throwing "retard" around pell-mell. What's it like to be so consistently wrong about everything?
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Mar 27, 2016 14:37
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TOOT BOOT posted:I wouldn't say fat is equivalent to retard for that matter. Nor would I, because they're not equivalent.
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Mar 27, 2016 16:15
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Strom Cuzewon posted:Why criticise Lawrence for hypothetically being a SadPuppy, when it's much easier to criticise his inability to tell a story in a loving straight line? [Bloke] of Thorns was a simple enough story mangled beyond recognition. Jorg's development seemed pretty half-arsed (in the epilogue of Prince he muses "after 33 chapters of raping and pillaging, I think one day I might grow out of all the raping and pillaging") and what little there was got completely obscured by all the pointless time jumps. Iirc the first two novels were broken up pretty clearly and it was easy to follow. I started out having read the warnings about the over the top grim darkness and for the first half of Prince thought it would be nothing more but was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the middle book in particular a lot.
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Mar 27, 2016 17:31
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I'm like 67% into Perdido Street Station and as far as I can tell China Mieville is just Terry Pratchett except worse and not kidding even a tiny bit. Also disorganized in a weird way where it seems like the book isn't badly-written but is badly-structured. Am I just failing to read some deep dry humor into this book? Because it's ridiculous but feels like it doesn't think of itself as silly. I have like a half-dozen marks on lines that just seem absurd in a way I'd take as humorous in a work I thought wasn't being serious, but not once have I felt like I was supposed to laugh. Also for Mervyn Peake's great disciple I think Mieville didn't get the point of Titus Alone, but perhaps that's not for this thread. Strategic Tea posted:The impression I get is that we're all so desperate for more spaceships/mechs/swordmans that we'll actually put up with any level of bad writing or awful opinions. They're a very scarce resource. It's ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.
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Mar 27, 2016 19:28
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So the feelings of autistic people are more important than those of overweight people. Got it.
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Mar 27, 2016 19:41
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coyo7e posted:So the feelings of autistic people are more important than those of overweight people. Got it. Ornamented Death posted:What's it like to be so consistently wrong about everything?
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Mar 27, 2016 19:50
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coyo7e posted:So the feelings of autistic people are more important than those of overweight people. Got it. So, yes. Fatty.
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Mar 27, 2016 19:52
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Holy gently caress please stop. Between nonfiction I've been on a David Brin kick lately! I went back to late-80s eco-epic Earth and it holds up surprisingly well, Brin's gee-whiz slang aside. He predicted ecological devastation, massive backlash against banks and intelligence agencies, and the rise of the Internet as a hub of political and social talk (he even uses 'twittering' to describe the volume of commentary!) The deeper Gaia hypothesis poo poo is a bit, uh, overwrought, but it was fun to go back to a childhood favorite and find some solid worth. The book also has an amazing elevator pitch! While searching for a black hole they accidentally dropped into Earth's core, a team of scientists realizes their data only makes sense if there's a second singularity already down there...and in just a few months it'll be large enough to tear the planet apart.
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Mar 27, 2016 20:02
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Nakar posted:I'm like 67% into Perdido Street Station and as far as I can tell China Mieville is just Terry Pratchett except worse and not kidding even a tiny bit. Also disorganized in a weird way where it seems like the book isn't badly-written but is badly-structured. I like PSS for ideas and imagery but it's a pretty hard sell as a novel. He got a lot better with The Scar. Well, either that or his editor put their foot down and forced him to actually read through the thing again.
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Mar 27, 2016 20:15
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I started Canticle For Liebowitz. It's cool.
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Mar 27, 2016 20:15
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General Battuta posted:Holy gently caress please stop. I read that quite a lot of years ago, but I remember he depicted very precisely a web browser (an hyperlinked multimedia console), and the internet trolls (IIRC there are groups that randomly send political content to people known to dislike it). I remember also something similar to the Google glasses, which is used by everyone and has made the crime to go away (everything is recorded by someone, including the government doing bad things). I'll put it on my "reread" queue.
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Mar 27, 2016 20:48
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TheWhiteNightmare posted:Is the community so massively starved for drama? What on earth is all this garbage? Outrage culture. Making those anthills into mountains.
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Mar 27, 2016 20:48
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anilEhilated posted:PSS is really, really rough and yeah, Miéville generally takes himself pretty seriously (Literature is politics. Everything is politics. Politics is important.). If you want to see him non-serious, try Kraken.
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Mar 27, 2016 20:54
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I'm a huge mieville fan but I'd be the first to admit that PSS is pretty weak. The scar is technically a much better book (though I subjectively was annoyed by it, one of the major characters is widely adored but I found him irritating). Embassytown was amazing,one of the best sci fi novels of the last couple of decades IMO.
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Mar 27, 2016 21:15
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Nakar posted:I'm like 67% into Perdido Street Station and as far as I can tell China Mieville is just Terry Pratchett except worse and not kidding even a tiny bit. Also disorganized in a weird way where it seems like the book isn't badly-written but is badly-structured. This... is not the comparison I'd make. He does take himself very seriously. You might enjoy The Scar more. coyo7e posted:So the feelings of autistic people are more important than those of overweight people. Got it. Out of idle curiosity, how obese are you?
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Mar 27, 2016 21:20
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Amberskin posted:I read that quite a lot of years ago, but I remember he depicted very precisely a web browser (an hyperlinked multimedia console), and the internet trolls (IIRC there are groups that randomly send political content to people known to dislike it). I remember also something similar to the Google glasses, which is used by everyone and has made the crime to go away (everything is recorded by someone, including the government doing bad things). It came out in 1990, which was well into the 'people being asses on usenet' era.
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Mar 27, 2016 21:25
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andrew smash posted:I'm a huge mieville fan but I'd be the first to admit that PSS is pretty weak. The scar is technically a much better book (though I subjectively was annoyed by it, one of the major characters is widely adored but I found him irritating). Embassytown was amazing,one of the best sci fi novels of the last couple of decades IMO. Personally think PSS is his magnum opus.
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Mar 27, 2016 21:34
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shrike82 posted:Personally think PSS is his magnum opus. I remember an interview where he said Iron Council was his best Bas-Lag book (yet) and that he was baffled by its reception.
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Mar 27, 2016 21:54
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Megazver posted:I remember an interview where he said Iron Council was his best Bas-Lag book (yet) and that he was baffled by its reception. i agree with him on this
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Mar 27, 2016 22:01
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Iron Council is a goddamn underappreciated masterpiece. The Scar is also a masterpiece but it's at least properly recognised.
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Mar 27, 2016 22:11
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Neurosis posted:Iirc the first two novels were broken up pretty clearly and it was easy to follow. Oh plot-wise they were easy enough to follow, but it was frustrating having to re-evaluate Jorg's motivation (beyond the simplest "get A, go to B") when it jumped to so many different time periods, and I don't think he manages to pull off a steady character arc when the fictional chronology is so out of whack with the textual chronology - the Jorg at the end of the flashbacks in Emperor is the same Jorg as the beginning of the forwards chronology in King, but sure as hell doesn't feel like it. It feels like a gimmick for the sake of a gimmick - especially the salami-slicing revelation of his memories in King. It's a very enjoyable series in spite of that though, Jorg's wonderfully poetic even when he's being a right bastard.
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Mar 27, 2016 22:17
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Nakar posted:There seems to be no shortage of spaceship/mech/sword books full of bad writing and bad opinions. Wouldn't say there's any risk of scarcity, save of good books written well. I was being a little sarcastic, but you're right about the need for a knife. It feels like there's a point where people run out of good *curiously specific technology* books, and then settle for total garbage rather than leave it for a few new ones to come out.
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Mar 27, 2016 22:18
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holocaust bloopers posted:I started Canticle For Liebowitz. It's cool. Yes. Yes it is. I salute your life choices.
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Mar 27, 2016 22:26
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Megazver posted:This... is not the comparison I'd make. He does take himself very seriously. That said, I'm also not sure I find him all that weird in execution, but it may just be this book. andrew smash posted:I'm a huge mieville fan but I'd be the first to admit that PSS is pretty weak. The scar is technically a much better book (though I subjectively was annoyed by it, one of the major characters is widely adored but I found him irritating). Embassytown was amazing,one of the best sci fi novels of the last couple of decades IMO. I get the sense he would be a much better writer in a more grounded setting, weird but not outright fantastical. A lot of the Bas-Lag stuff just makes me kind of go "Really?" but there are parts that are fine as well. Does someone take a scalpel to his descriptions in later books? I'm not saying I want them all gone but it's a little excessive. Strategic Tea posted:I was being a little sarcastic, but you're right about the need for a knife. It feels like there's a point where people run out of good *curiously specific technology* books, and then settle for total garbage rather than leave it for a few new ones to come out.
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Mar 27, 2016 23:23
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Cardiac posted:And a dude that fucks almost every woman he meets. Something that I completely missed when reading this the first time (hey, it was more than a decade ago, I was basically still a kid) is how much romance stuff gets slid in between all the calculor porn and feather-haired bird people stuff and orbiting weapon satellite civil war stuff. I mean, it's not Vorkosigan levels of sap, but nearly every major character is enmeshed in this web of hookups that constantly cross each other. Also it somehow manages to be a post-apocalyptic story set in Australia without me automatically trying to think of it as Mad Max.
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Mar 27, 2016 23:37
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Nakar posted:A friend recommended starting with The City & The City, and I probably should've, but someone basically spoiled the whole thing for me so I thought I'd start with something I didn't know anything about so I didn't have tainted expectations. I considered Embassytown as a start point but didn't for whatever reason.
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Mar 28, 2016 01:56
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holocaust bloopers posted:I started Canticle For Liebowitz. It's cool. It's a very good book with the small exception of the author's weirdo rant out of left field at the very end. Still gave it 4 stars on Goodreads. Hope you enjoy it!
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Mar 28, 2016 02:53
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WarLocke posted:Something that I completely missed when reading this the first time (hey, it was more than a decade ago, I was basically still a kid) is how much romance stuff gets slid in between all the calculor porn and feather-haired bird people stuff and orbiting weapon satellite civil war stuff. I mean, it's not Vorkosigan levels of sap, but nearly every major character is enmeshed in this web of hookups that constantly cross each other. So like real life single people that don't have crippling social anxiety like most goons
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Mar 28, 2016 03:36
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So in my question to find books on tape (well audible) similar to Weston Ochse's Seal Team 666. I got a book by John Ringo called Into the Looking Glass...which seems to fit my desires for a "Modern Techo Thriller" married to Sci-Fi. I also got on the previous recommendations of this thread The Atrocity Archive. Just wanted to get people's take on John Ringo's works. Seems like a similar style of writing, which is exactly what I was looking for. Also goddamn it was hard to wade through the five billion zombie or societal collapse post apocalypse series...I mean I don't even have anything in principle against them...but Jesus like there must be five dozen multibook series on the subjects each clocking in at about 12 to 15 hours. Keep in mind these are only the ones they have audiobook versions of them. I mean I just don't get how you can crank stuff out like that.
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Mar 28, 2016 03:46
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Ringo's work is dumb as all hell, and often quite creepy. But he can write fun action scenes.
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Mar 28, 2016 03:54
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gfanikf posted:So in my question to find books on tape (well audible) similar to Weston Ochse's Seal Team 666. I got a book by John Ringo called Into the Looking Glass...which seems to fit my desires for a "Modern Techo Thriller" married to Sci-Fi. I also got on the previous recommendations of this thread The Atrocity Archive. Just wanted to get people's take on John Ringo's works. Seems like a similar style of writing, which is exactly what I was looking for. Consider googling the phrase "oh john ringo no" because you will laugh a lot. John Ringo caters to, uh, very specific tastes. Check out Myke Cole's work! He is a vet, a really hard worker, and he's got a number of paranormal/military thrillers. Also if you're willing to read paranormal intrigue instead of paranormal technothriller, check out 'Declare' and 'A Colder War'.
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Mar 28, 2016 03:56
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Down in TFR somebody's doing a Let's Read of some John Ringo books. It's, uh... something else. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3751991
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Mar 28, 2016 04:06
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General Battuta posted:Consider googling the phrase "oh john ringo no" because you will laugh a lot. John Ringo caters to, uh, very specific tastes. It's about the series with the "repressed rapist" who spies on women at University of Georgia right? Ghost something? I seem to recall reading about the in his wiki bibliography. You have to understand after going through 40 pages of audible listings and 35 pages of Zombie/Survivalist 12 book series...the description for Looking Glass jumped right out at me as oh god it's something different. That said I tend to avoid books with sex scenes as they tend to be awful and awkward to read and I just skip it (not out of morality, more just this is bad). I learned that lesson after reading Eric L Harry's Invasion (ludicrous dumb fun...but well yeah bad sex scenes). There was one other series, but the problem was I read the symopsis for the 4 book and I'm look well why do I want to read the others. Forget the title by Bronson Pinchot narrated it. quote:Check out Myke Cole's work! He is a vet, a really hard worker, and he's got a number of paranormal/military thrillers.[quote] One thing is I limit myself to audiobooks (some exceptions like the last Seal Team 666 as a function of my job where I can play audiobooks all the time), so if it seems I only want audiobooks, there is a logic to it. Khizan posted:Down in TFR somebody's doing a Let's Read of some John Ringo books. It's, uh... something else.  How did I miss that.
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Mar 28, 2016 04:13
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Khizan posted:Down in TFR somebody's doing a Let's Read of some John Ringo books. It's, uh... something else. Wow
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Mar 28, 2016 04:16
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As I posted in TFR, apparently the Ghost books all have audiobook editions.
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Mar 28, 2016 04:19
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