|
Number Ten Cocks posted:Bravest of the Lamps is some sort of AI, there's no way an actual person can be that tedious yet complex.
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2017 04:29
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2024 11:21 |
|
|
Nakar posted:His citations seemed like a compelling argument for his point, though. You have to filter that through the understanding that BotL is driven by hate to read all sci-fi even though nothing can ever reach the heights of Baudolino or the Egyptian.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2017 04:51
|
|
|
ulmont posted:You have to filter that through the understanding that BotL is driven by hate to read all sci-fi even though nothing can ever reach the heights of Baudolino or the Egyptian. Sci fi is worse than those books
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2017 05:05
|
|
|
ulmont posted:You have to filter that through the understanding that BotL is driven by hate to read all sci-fi even though nothing can ever reach the heights of Baudolino or the Egyptian. I don't think you should assume that Nakar doesn't remember that I always used those books as an appropriate comparison to a different book. Hell, I even mentioned that the best points of reference for HTK are stuff like Gormenghast and ancient mythology. How'd you miss that?
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2017 05:31
|
|
|
So I finished the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe, was very good, I think the unreliable first person narrator is one of my favorite ways of telling a story and I can understand why the series is so well regarded, definitely going on my list of favorite series which I will re-read at some point. Now I will start up the Craft Series I guess which I picked up on the amazon sale? I heard in this thread. So thanks for the poster who linked the free e-book! I really appreciate it and am glad I picked up the series. I also look forward to the new Mark Lawrence book Red Sister, I don't have it pre-ordered though. I think out of the "big-ish" modern fantasy authors, he is probably the one I think has the most promise of continuing to write good books, Scott Lynch kinda flamed out in the Locke series and the delays on Thorns of Emberlain make me think he is going down the dark road of GRRM. Jack2142 fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Mar 31, 2017 |
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2017 07:06
|
|
|
nessin posted:Just got finished reading Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames, and it's a great book. I mean it's not a masterpiece but it's very much like say... Gemmell. It's just a fun read with lots of action that doesn't take itself too seriously while also not being a super simple story or grimdark. The characters all have their own particular problems and conflicts, no teenage angst, and the challenges they face through the story are different/varied enough that it doesn't get tedious as you keep reading. I want more, a lot more. The only two major issues I had were the characters were just flat out overpowered, but not in the John Stu/Mary Sue kind of way, and the ending felt very contrived. Anyway, Greg Egan's new book is out. There's an excerpt (links to buy it are here) if you want to read the opening. The setting may well be Peak Egan. 
90s Cringe Rock fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Mar 31, 2017 |
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2017 07:13
|
|
|
That Egan novel's setting reminded me of Christopher Priest's The Inverted World.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2017 09:11
|
|
|
shirts and skins posted:Authority is particularly good if you've ever worked in a government office. Definitely resonated with my job in some joyously uncomfortable ways. i work in a government office. it did not enhance the experience of the book.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2017 10:23
|
|
|
Does anyone know if L Ron Hubbard is any good.. I know he writes a lot of poo poo, but Battlefield Earth? Is it readable.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2017 11:09
|
|
|
MisterPlastic posted:Does anyone know if L Ron Hubbard is any good.. I know he writes a lot of poo poo, but Battlefield Earth? Is it readable. Jack2142 posted:So I finished the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe, was very good, I think the unreliable first person narrator is one of my favorite ways of telling a story and I can understand why the series is so well regarded, definitely going on my list of favorite series which I will re-read at some point. Now I will start up the Craft Series I guess which I picked up on the amazon sale? I heard in this thread.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2017 11:32
|
|
|
MisterPlastic posted:Does anyone know if L Ron Hubbard is any good.. I know he writes a lot of poo poo, but Battlefield Earth? Is it readable. Sneaking it back onto the shelves and buying it again to boost sales figures, admittedly.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2017 11:57
|
|
|
90s Cringe Rock posted:This was pretty fun and I liked the band themes. I don't remember much about the ending, but... yeah. It's a shame that an interesting idea and 'setting' like this is being written in such a bad style
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2017 12:08
|
|
|
MisterPlastic posted:Does anyone know if L Ron Hubbard is any good.. I know he writes a lot of poo poo, but Battlefield Earth? Is it readable. I also read his "Mission: Earth" decology and it is the worst garbage in the world.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 03:49
|
|
|
I read a biography on elron "bare faced messiah," very interesting. Figured he'd be a tin-foil grade scifi author. First 50 pages of the first mission earth book i remember being very weird.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 04:20
|
|
|
Victorkm posted:I also read his "Mission: Earth" decology and it is the worst garbage in the world. I enjoyed Battlefield Earth as a 12 year old, but...I dunno if it holds up.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 04:45
|
|
|
A human heart posted:It's a shame that an interesting idea and 'setting' like this is being written in such a bad style Permutation City is one of Egan's best in part because he ditches some scientific plausibility in favour of making things more fast moving and fun.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 06:07
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:Permutation City is one of Egan's best in part because he ditches some scientific plausibility in favour of making things more fast moving and fun. I'm not talking about how fun it is or whatever, i'm talking about how its dumb that this guy wrote a book about symbionts that cant see in some directions and they just talk like 21st century humans and the prose is bad
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 08:44
|
|
|
oh god oh god bad prose in my science fiction oh god *hyperventilates*
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 08:49
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:Scalzi hasn't really kept it a secret that this is the first part of a series. Not at all, he leaves it on a massive cliff hanger. He's really turned off with the wring every drop out of his previous universes and the lovely cost of the serials vs the later complete editions. I really liked this one though, more than I expected.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 09:29
|
|
|
Baloogan posted:oh god oh god bad prose in my science fiction oh god well, it would be better if it was good, dont you think?
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 09:39
|
|
|
A human heart posted:well, it would be better if it was good, dont you think? and van gogh painted things that weren't there.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 09:44
|
|
|
Baloogan posted:oh god oh god bad prose in my science fiction oh god I am ashamed to like a genre where bad writing is not only accepted, it's actually nbd. A child's crayon drawing can be clever and perceptive but it's still a child's crayon drawing E: "But it's of a cool space gun I never thought of such a space gun before!" Strategic Tea fucked around with this message at 09:51 on Apr 1, 2017 |
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 09:49
|
|
|
Baloogan posted:oh god oh god bad prose in my science fiction oh god Going to go out on a limb here and suggest that maybe bad prose is bad? IDK tho. Maybe I'm wrong.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 10:57
|
|
|
So I was reading Brave New World and decided I'd like more of that but maybe a different style of writer. I liked the whole engineered a new breed of human and human culture stuff. Could anyone recommend any other books like that? It would appear to be only a sci-fi thing but maybe it can also be done in fantasy, I wouldn't know.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 11:50
|
|
|
I've only read Schild's Ladder of Gregan and I had a similar reaction, it was all a bit normal for such a high-flying notion. I'll still read some more of his books to get at the notions though and see how they're worked out below the level of prose and character.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 12:38
|
|
|
NikkolasKing posted:So I was reading Brave New World and decided I'd like more of that but maybe a different style of writer. I liked the whole engineered a new breed of human and human culture stuff. Could anyone recommend any other books like that? It would appear to be only a sci-fi thing but maybe it can also be done in fantasy, I wouldn't know. You want Iain M. Banks' Culture series. There's a thread in TBB.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 13:36
|
|
|
NikkolasKing posted:engineered a new breed of human and human culture stuff. It's not quite the same.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 13:36
|
|
|
Strategic Tea posted:Hundred Thousand Kingdoms could do with a better comparison than mine against our goons' own Traitor Baru Cormorant. No, Baru gets poo poo done because everyone around her is a loving idiot. The distinction between 100kK and TBC is that the former is a (potentially) good story told badly and the latter is a bad story told well.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 13:59
|
|
|
90s Cringe Rock posted:Frank Herbert's Hellstrom's Hive? Hm, that sounds promising, thank you. I suppose I might also just want to read Herbert's Dune series in general given it's a classic and all and does at least have some of this "engineered human" stuff I think.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 14:07
|
|
|
NikkolasKing posted:I liked the whole engineered a new breed of human and human culture stuff. Could anyone recommend any other books like that? How about some CJ Cherryh, and the Union side of her Union-Alliance books? Maybe start with Cyteen?
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 14:53
|
|
|
NikkolasKing posted:So I was reading Brave New World and decided I'd like more of that but maybe a different style of writer. I liked the whole engineered a new breed of human and human culture stuff. Could anyone recommend any other books like that? It would appear to be only a sci-fi thing but maybe it can also be done in fantasy, I wouldn't know. Reynolds' House of Suns has a lot of that.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 16:25
|
|
|
NikkolasKing posted:So I was reading Brave New World and decided I'd like more of that but maybe a different style of writer. I liked the whole engineered a new breed of human and human culture stuff. Could anyone recommend any other books like that? It would appear to be only a sci-fi thing but maybe it can also be done in fantasy, I wouldn't know. I'm going to go out on a limb and say Mockingbird by Walter Tevis, because it's the closest dystopia to Brave New World I've ever read, but much lighter. It's also a little bit like Idiocracy though, so take it with a grain of salt.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 18:22
|
|
|
Valuable research. http://www.tor.com/2017/03/24/how-many-times-does-braid-tugging-and-skirt-smoothing-happen-in-the-wheel-of-time/
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 19:42
|
|
|
Jedit posted:No, Baru gets poo poo done because everyone around her is a loving idiot. The distinction between 100kK and TBC is that the former is a (potentially) good story told badly and the latter is a bad story told well. Why do you think Baru is a bad story?
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2017 20:08
|
|
|
NikkolasKing posted:So I was reading Brave New World and decided I'd like more of that but maybe a different style of writer. I liked the whole engineered a new breed of human and human culture stuff. Could anyone recommend any other books like that? It would appear to be only a sci-fi thing but maybe it can also be done in fantasy, I wouldn't know. Chris Moriarty's Spin series has a rigid clone civilization alongside a normal human nation, though only the second book focuses on them exclusively IIRC.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2017 01:47
|
|
|
Snuffman posted:Oh god yes. I enjoyed the first book, slogged through the second and could not get into the third. I swear, I'll try and get through Acceptance one of these days. Oh man its funny to see this sentiment here by so many users but I completely felt the same way. Annihilation is such a good loving book but Authority completely flips the perspective but is mostly outside of Area X which sucks. I loved the mystery and feeling of uneasiness in the first book. The characters didn't know what they were getting into and were scared. You could easily feel the same emotions as the characters. Acceptance is just really bad imo but it does have a few really creep scenes. There is an adaptation coming out this year by Andrew Garland and its has a pretty good cast. Hopefully it is just the first book and doesn't try to merge the stories of the three together. I know Vandermeer said somewhere that you can read the entire story in one book but the total perspective shifts/tone shifts would never translate to a movie maybe in tv it would work.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2017 02:06
|
|
|
Kalenn Istarion posted:Why do you think Baru is a bad story? Because things happen because they have to in order for the plot to advance. The most memorable example is Baru's induction into the conspiracy. Baru gets in by confessing to a thoughtcrime, and while she's telling the truth the conspirators have no way of knowing it. They accept and trust a foreigner and representative of the enemy with their lives and the lives of thousands of their people on the basis of her unsupported word. And if you think about it they can't even use that as leverage against her. The only way they could try is if they were caught through Baru's treachery, upon which it's their word against the word of the agent who had turned them over to the Empire.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2017 02:52
|
|
|
She also offers them a ludicrous amount of money, wins a public duel against the colonial governor, destroys the colonial currency through inflation, and benefits from an agent already in place - the woman who says her secret's good enough. And the older and more wary members of the conspiracy reject her, remember? She only gets in because Tain Hu acts on her own. Even then, Hu gives her a couple more tests at Welthony, after Baru's already led the tax ships into the trap, which is pretty convincing collateral. Baru isn't trusted until she offers to publicly declare for the rebellion. Once you've massacred several thousand sailors, stolen a ton of gold, and publicly declared for the rebels, it's hard to doubt your commitment. General Battuta fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Apr 2, 2017 |
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2017 16:01
|
|
|
NikkolasKing posted:So I was reading Brave New World and decided I'd like more of that but maybe a different style of writer. I liked the whole engineered a new breed of human and human culture stuff. Could anyone recommend any other books like that? It would appear to be only a sci-fi thing but maybe it can also be done in fantasy, I wouldn't know. Greg Bear's Hull Zero Three has a lot of engineered human stuff in it, and a some cultural stuff as well. I really enjoyed it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2017 16:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 4, 2024 11:21 |
|
|
Number Ten Cocks posted:Valuable research. I'm not going to lie I was expecting it to actually not be that common and just be a collective false memory but gatdamn
|
|
#
?
Apr 2, 2017 19:31
|
|
