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anilEhilated posted:I don't remember what it's called, but Lem also wrote a parody take on that from the point of view of the aliens, where their invasion is foiled by a village drunk. Oh my  I must find this.
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Feb 15, 2017 01:04
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Nippashish posted:Oh my It's called Invasion from Aldebaran (Inwazja z Aldebarana) e: Invasion from Aldebaran on Google Books ringu0 fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Feb 15, 2017 |
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Feb 15, 2017 01:32
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andrew smash posted:There are plenty of them, they are comparable in quality to other licensed property novels like d&d and star wars. Are any of them the Thrawn Trilogy or Gaunt's Ghosts of the Shadowrun world?
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Feb 15, 2017 02:44
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http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...ontent=20170214 We're getting another trilogy of His Dark Materials.
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Feb 15, 2017 05:32
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TOOT BOOT posted:http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...ontent=20170214 Hasn't he been talking about this project for years now?
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Feb 15, 2017 06:05
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There is a release date now though. According to goodreads I finished reading the original trilogy in 2012 and I remember hearing about the book of dust after. Hope it's worth the wait. The important stuff: quote:The first book of the new series, which will collectively be called The Book of Dust, is set for publication on October 19. Koburn fucked around with this message at 07:49 on Feb 15, 2017 |
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Feb 15, 2017 07:45
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Hell, I remember him mentioning the Book of Dust back before I started High School, which would have been... 2003, maybe? 2004?
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Feb 15, 2017 09:21
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andrew smash posted:Can't really recommend them as anything other than teenage years guilty pleasures but the setting you are describing is Shadowrun. There was a Shadowrun book I read that was really not a bad book and I don't just mean 'not bad for licensed fiction'. Protagonist was a mage who was half American Indian and his mage talents were viewed as shameful because they weren't shamanistic magic. Can't remember the name.
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Feb 15, 2017 10:44
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tonytheshoes posted:I finally made it through the first 1/3 of Anathem by Neal Stephenson--it's been tough sledding because I have a 9-month old, and reading long books is hard when you're falling asleep and waking yourself up when the book falls over in your hands and hits you in the face. Anyway, it seems like the plot is FINALLY starting to ramp up a little, but OH MY GOD it's so slow! Does it continue to be a philosophy textbook, or does it start moving anytime soon? Because honestly, I just don't have time right now to slog through it, or I will have only read 3 books so far this year. Read a different book and come back to it when your kids are sleeping through the night man. I hardly read anything until my kids were sleeping through, it sucked at the time but its temporary, it gets better. Read something like Pratchett that's easy and enjoyable and not too demanding.
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Feb 15, 2017 12:14
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TOOT BOOT posted:http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...ontent=20170214
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Feb 15, 2017 13:05
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anilEhilated posted:Really not sure how to feel about that given the exponentially declining quality of the first three. Your enjoyment of the third book is going to be pretty heavily dependent on how much you enjoy a young adult series devolving into a fevered screed about how the Catholic Church is the worst.
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Feb 15, 2017 13:56
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Inspector_666 posted:Are any of them the Thrawn Trilogy or Gaunt's Ghosts of the Shadowrun world? Probably the trilogy that starts with Never Deal with a Dragon is the best place to start. If you like that keep going, if you don't you probably won't like any of it. I highly, highly recommend the modern CRPG shadowrun trilogy though regardless (dragonfall > hong kong > shadowrun returns IMO).
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Feb 15, 2017 15:54
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I'm looking for some modern Eldritch Horror. Like, some straight Lovecraftian riffs, period and setting doesn't matter. Any suggestions?
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Feb 15, 2017 16:45
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Dragonshirt posted:I'm looking for some modern Eldritch Horror. Like, some straight Lovecraftian riffs, period and setting doesn't matter. Any suggestions? Carter & Lovecraft by Jonathan L. Howard
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Feb 15, 2017 16:47
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Internet Wizard posted:Your enjoyment of the third book is going to be pretty heavily dependent on how much you enjoy a young adult series devolving into a fevered screed about how the Catholic Church is the worst. And the ending of which is "Oh, did we just kill God? I didn't notice."
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Feb 15, 2017 16:52
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Yeah, not sure about the enjoyment. I'm not a fan of religion in the slightest and it still is a steaming pile of poo poo.Dragonshirt posted:I'm looking for some modern Eldritch Horror. Like, some straight Lovecraftian riffs, period and setting doesn't matter. Any suggestions? Without any more specifics given, I'd suggest giving Laird Barron's stuff a try. Or, if you're in it for the sense of existential dread, there is no one who can write that quite like Thomas Ligotti. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Feb 15, 2017 |
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Feb 15, 2017 17:09
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Dragonshirt posted:I'm looking for some modern Eldritch Horror. Like, some straight Lovecraftian riffs, period and setting doesn't matter. Any suggestions? Red Right Hand by Levi Black. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AGCMNBU/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
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Feb 15, 2017 17:27
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Dragonshirt posted:I'm looking for some modern Eldritch Horror. Like, some straight Lovecraftian riffs, period and setting doesn't matter. Any suggestions? The Fisherman and Lovecraft Country are the two I always see recommended when this gets asked.
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Feb 15, 2017 18:07
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Dragonshirt posted:I'm looking for some modern Eldritch Horror. Like, some straight Lovecraftian riffs, period and setting doesn't matter. Any suggestions? Black Tom by Victor LaValle Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
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Feb 15, 2017 18:22
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flosofl posted:Carter & Lovecraft by Jonathan L. Howard This book is terrible. Between the rape scene played for comic relief (I think, the tone is nonsensical), the ridiculous self-insert protagonist's racism, or rather 'I used to be racist, but now I find a black person attractive', and the terrible prose, it would be waste of two dollars, let alone 12 or 13 or whatever the kindle book costs.
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Feb 15, 2017 18:47
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anilEhilated posted:Yeah, not sure about the enjoyment. I'm not a fan of religion in the slightest and it still is a steaming pile of poo poo.
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Feb 15, 2017 18:55
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Bhodi posted:Same. It's also one of the only books i've ever thrown against the wall in disgust at the ending. I guess we can't be together anymore because it might hurt the universe a little so I guess that's that, goodbye my soul mate, no point in striving for or attempting a workaround or using logic or reason of any kind even though that's the foundation of the entire trilogy, I'll just live my hopeless life in pain and loss forever, trying but unable to ever move on. Just gently caress you forever, Philip Pullman. You think that's bad, try Graham Green's The End of the Affair. Ironically I feel Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy has the same flaws as the Narnia books, or for that matter Lewis's Space Trilogy: a good first book and then a descent into incoherent ideological rambling with only the barest pretense of a plot
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Feb 15, 2017 19:05
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Thanks for the suggestions! I ordered Carter & Lovecraft, Red Right Hand, and Lovecraft Country because I'm a physical book guy.
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Feb 15, 2017 19:48
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:You think that's bad, try Graham Green's The End of the Affair.
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Feb 15, 2017 19:53
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Dragonshirt posted:Thanks for the suggestions! I ordered Carter & Lovecraft, Red Right Hand, and Lovecraft Country because I'm a physical book guy. I like the cut of your jib.
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Feb 15, 2017 19:59
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I just wanted to drop in and say that Alistair Reynolds Revenger is disappointing as gently caress. I really like the ideas behind the setting in the book, but my god its poorly written phoned in trash.
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Feb 15, 2017 20:14
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SubPress is teaming with the Humble Bundle guys again. There are some pretty good titles on offer. https://www.humblebundle.com/books/sub-press-fiction-book-bundle
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Feb 15, 2017 20:58
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Bhodi posted:I was never a Narnia fan; I was more of a "dark is rising" kind of kid. Man, I loved those books.
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Feb 15, 2017 21:11
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Bhodi posted:Same. It's also one of the only books i've ever thrown against the wall in disgust at the ending. I guess we can't be together anymore because it might hurt the universe a little so I guess that's that, goodbye my soul mate, no point in striving for or attempting a workaround or using logic or reason of any kind even though that's the foundation of the entire trilogy, I'll just live my hopeless life in pain and loss forever, trying but unable to ever move on. Just gently caress you forever, Philip Pullman. You too, huh? Those freaking books - the first book held so much promise but they liked killing cool characters and making the reader mad. 
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Feb 15, 2017 22:54
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Doorknob Slobber posted:I just wanted to drop in and say that Alistair Reynolds Revenger is disappointing as gently caress. I really like the ideas behind the setting in the book, but my god its poorly written phoned in trash. I was let down by it too. I liked the "pirates and salvage crews making a living in a decrepit space society built on the ruins of a mysterious fallen alien empire" premise and setting, I just wish he wasn't using it for his try at a young adult series. Also, invented substitute words, slang and terminology for a secondary world setting don't usually bother me, but "lung stuff" for "air" really bugged the hell outta me, and iirc, wasn't even internally consistent with some of the other vocab that was or wasn't switched out with a new, in-universe word or phrase, lending credence to your assertion that this was phoned-in and half rear end.
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Feb 16, 2017 01:43
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Biplane posted:Coast Guard are literally the only branch of the american military who actually protect and save american lives on the reg and they deserve your respect unlike the rest of the armed forces.
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Feb 16, 2017 02:20
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StrixNebulosa posted:You too, huh? Those freaking books - the first book held so much promise but they liked killing cool characters and making the reader mad. I'd read a Wheel of Time-sized stack of books of just the polar bears doing polar bear stuff
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Feb 16, 2017 03:48
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I guess I'm the only person who thought the whole trilogy was alright. I read it over a decade ago, though.
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Feb 16, 2017 07:01
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you from over a decade ago was a different person
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Feb 16, 2017 08:12
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Solitair posted:I guess I'm the only person who thought the whole trilogy was alright. I read it over a decade ago, though. I REALLY liked the His Dark Materials series when I read it, also ten or fifteen years ago. I'm hesitant to go and reread it on the chance that it ruins my memory of it.
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Feb 16, 2017 08:27
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Drifter posted:I REALLY liked the His Dark Materials series when I read it, also ten or fifteen years ago. I'm hesitant to go and reread it on the chance that it ruins my memory of it. That's basically what happened to me when I tried to reread "The Deathgate Cycle" and the "Dragonlance" books. I absolutely loved them when I was a kid but wow do they ever not hold up reading them as an adult. Kind of wished I hadn't of even tried reading them again.
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Feb 16, 2017 09:37
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I had the same reaction to the Shannara books. I enjoyed the ones I read when I was younger quite a bit but as new books came out over the past couple decades I enjoyed them less and less and I find it hard to tell if that's just because the later books are worse rehashes of the earlier books or if it's just my perspective that's changed
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Feb 16, 2017 10:05
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Joining in to mention Anne Mccaffrey: she wrote a bunch of books with really cool premises, and as I grew older I realized her writing was boring, which was painful as it was always married to some interesting ideas. His Dark Materials, at least, has a rock-solid first book that I reread a few years ago (as opposed to a decade ago) and looooved it. Then I kept reading and lost interest, again.
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Feb 16, 2017 10:09
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Drifter posted:I REALLY liked the His Dark Materials series when I read it, also ten or fifteen years ago. I'm hesitant to go and reread it on the chance that it ruins my memory of it. I'm willing to give that a shot when I can find enough time. Unlike, say, Redwall, it might not be a huge letdown. I think part of the reason the dogmatic stuff didn't bother me is because I conflated it with fictional fantasy worldbuilding, not really understanding at the time that real life, non-geeks took matters like Christianity and atheism very seriously and differentiated it from all of the other, plus there was enough actual worldbuilding like Lyra's trip to the underworld and the new form of existence departed souls take after she lets them out that I still think is pretty neat.
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Feb 16, 2017 10:39
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Ornamented Death posted:SubPress is teaming with the Humble Bundle guys again. There are some pretty good titles on offer. As someone who's read almost nothing by any of the authors here, I wondered if anyone could quickly review some of the books in this bundle? Have you read any that are really good, or really bad?
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Feb 16, 2017 12:57
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