|
anilEhilated posted:You started with the worst book in the series. It's even worse he wrote them out of order from the internal chronology of events so there isn't a clear answer to what comes after what
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 00:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 18:05 |
|
|
And some of the books have two or more storylines in them that are taking place at different times in the chronology, despite being in the same book.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 01:00
|
|
|
I always skip Teckla too. It’s too hard reading Vlad and Cawti falling apart
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 01:15
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Groundties by Jane Fancher! It's very, very Cherryh-esque in that it's more about the people and less about the sci-fi. I'm enjoying this early concept of the internet, and the lurking hints of aliens in the background. So I decided to finally check out Groundties and now I'm confused as gently caress. It looks like the original trilogy (Groundties, Uplink, and Harmonies of the Net) is no longer available. Fancher has updated and expanded versions of all three, titled NeXuS, WildCards, and ColdFusion respectively, available on Closed Circle. They are numbered #3, #2, and #4 in the series (i.e. the rewritten Uplink comes first, followed by the rewritten Groundties and Harmonies). Book #1 is actually two books, Partners and Of Mentors and Mimetrons. For added confusion, the prefaces in the free samples of both NeXuS and WildCards say that they're rewritten versions of Uplink. I assume one of them is wrong. So...do I start with the original #1 (NeXuS), the new #1 of the rewritten original trilogy (WildCards), or the new new #1 (Partners)? Hieronymous Alloy posted:It's even worse Khizan posted:And some of the books have two or more storylines in them that are taking place at different times in the chronology, despite being in the same book. And most of the books have references and foreshadowing pointing in four directions: - to stuff that happened earlier and that you've already read about; - to stuff that happened earlier, but in a book yet to be written; - to stuff that will happen in the future to the characters, but which you've already read, and - to stuff that will happen in the future in a future book. It's great.  I've actually been thinking that once it's done, I'd want to read the whole thing in publication order, wait a few years, and then read it again in whatever the least inaccurate approximation of chronological order I can come up with is. navyjack posted:I always skip Teckla too. It’s too hard reading Vlad and Cawti falling apart Apparently Brust's marriage was disintegrating in much the same way IRL when he was writing it. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 01:28
|
|
|
ToxicFrog, I got Groundties from a used bookstore and legit have no idea what the new ebook versions are doing. I got #2 from the same used bookstore and will buy #3 via used amazon books. Uh, buy the trilogy used? Or go in blind and let me know how the ebooks are? It feels like Fancher needs an editor, honestly. She writes well but her website, phew.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 01:41
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:he wrote them out of order from the internal chronology of events so there isn't a clear answer to what comes after what Should you read this series in chronological order? I can't think of anything off the top of my head that was improved by reading it out of publication order. You miss out on how the author develops the series over the course of many years, how their interests change, and how they develop as a writer. I also enjoy not having everything told up front and feeling like there is stuff going on in the universe that isn't fully explained. Often when a later book fills in a gap, it is often surprising and isn't at all what you expected. Maybe it's just me though.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 01:44
|
|
|
Tokamak posted:Should you read this series in chronological order? I can't think of anything off the top of my head that was improved by reading it out of publication order. You miss out on how the author develops the series over the course of many years, how their interests change, and how they develop as a writer. I also enjoy not having everything told up front and feeling like there is stuff going on in the universe that isn't fully explained. Often when a later book fills in a gap, it is often surprising and isn't at all what you expected. Maybe it's just me though. Definitely read them in publication order.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 02:00
|
|
|
Tokamak posted:Should you read this series in chronological order? I can't think of anything off the top of my head that was improved by reading it out of publication order. You miss out on how the author develops the series over the course of many years, how their interests change, and how they develop as a writer. I also enjoy not having everything told up front and feeling like there is stuff going on in the universe that isn't fully explained. Often when a later book fills in a gap, it is often surprising and isn't at all what you expected. Maybe it's just me though. Publication vs. chronological order is one of the classic debates in genre fiction and the answer is almost always to read it in publication order. The problem is there are a few weird series (the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell springs to mind) where the author had the whole drat thing in his head from the start and just wrote them out of order, so you really are better off reading in chronological order instead. And the problem is I don't know which one the Vlad Taltos books are. I've read a bunch of them but it was umpteen many years ago and I don't remember them at all.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 02:33
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Publication vs. chronological order is one of the classic debates in genre fiction and the answer is almost always to read it in publication order. The problem is there are a few weird series (the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell springs to mind) where the author had the whole drat thing in his head from the start and just wrote them out of order, so you really are better off reading in chronological order instead. Personally I lean toward read in publication. I think more often than not, it feels like a deliberate choice in the series in how he weaves in references, foreshadowing, and reveals. It certainly adds some tension and depth to the overall narrative.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 02:52
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Publication vs. chronological order is one of the classic debates in genre fiction and the answer is almost always to read it in publication order. The problem is there are a few weird series (the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell springs to mind) where the author had the whole drat thing in his head from the start and just wrote them out of order, so you really are better off reading in chronological order instead. With Taltos he definitely has at least a high-level idea of where the whole series is going and where each book fits into that, but they are definitely meant to be read in publication order.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 03:15
|
|
|
couple of things i've been reading: (1) almost done with majestrum by mattew hughes. fun detective story/dying earth mashup. not much to say about this, it's a quick and enjoyable read, there are some clever bits. the protagonist has some interesting stuff going on. his intuition has split off into a separate personality in his head when he went through an anomaly (it's a manifestation of a coming universal change towards magic), whereas our main character is the logical component. only real flaw is more of a personal predilection issue; i prefer the hard science dying earth type settings to the more fantastical stuff, and this is pretty light on science. will read the other ones he has written. (2) halfway through nightwings by robert silverberg. surprised no one i've seen here has recommended it in dying earth discussions, given it won the best novella hugo in 1969 and is pretty solid. it's three connected stories following an old man going to rome, paris then jerusalem. standard dying earth type stuff, mutants, ancient technology, earth has risen and fallen and things on the planet are strange. earth was also locked into a static guild-based social structure for quite some time. the protagonist is a watcher, the guild of whom was tasked with watching the stars for signs of incoming invasion, but it's been so long everyone views them as parasitic jokes. of course, as it turns out, an invasion is imminent and we get to see that and the protagonist's travels after. what i'm liking, strangely enough given that it's shorter-form fiction and dying earth, which tends to be very heavy on cool worldbuilding, is the characters. silverberg's a dab hand at showing us this old man struggling with questions of purpose in life as he questions his function having any purpose at all, then fulfills it. the supporting characters are economically well-drawn, as well. recommended.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 03:41
|
|
|
On T-A-L-T-O-S talk, now that Vallista provides a bit of Devera background, are there any big remaining biographical mysteries other than Tukko? Keeping in mind that Orca taught us there are biographical mysteries we don’t know exist.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 04:09
|
|
|
ToxicFrog posted:Maybe your friends all have terrible taste in books. It does not help that the couple books that were translated and published here gave absolutely no indication of the order they came in. I ended up re-discovering the series when it was talked about here, with a vague memory of "wait, I have seen this somewhere before" which eventually turned into "oh, yeah, I started with Taltos because that is the hero's name and bounced off that pretty hard..." What I'm saying is I can't believe I'm the only one who was not held off the series by there being ten books labeled by elven gibberish. For what it's worth, I think I prefer the publication order to the chronological one - Vlad often alludes to his other adventures so it's nice to see when something clicks together. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 09:34 on Oct 23, 2017 |
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 09:31
|
|
|
I think I mentioned it before in the thread, but I initially didn't bother reading em because I thought it was a weird vampire romance series. Part of it was the names of the books and the other part was the dude's name being Vlad.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 14:31
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I think I mentioned it before in the thread, but I initially didn't bother reading em because I thought it was a weird vampire romance series. Part of it was the names of the books and the other part was the dude's name being Vlad. edit: So y'all should overcome your reservations because the series is actually really good and it leads into the Paarfi books which are effing amazing.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 16:27
|
|
|
Syzygy Stardust posted:On T-A-L-T-O-S talk, now that Vallista provides a bit of Devera background, are there any big remaining biographical mysteries other than Tukko? Keeping in mind that Orca taught us there are biographical mysteries we don’t know exist. Tukko is Iceflame, but also Chaz, and maybe Dzur Mountain.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 17:14
|
|
|
wiegieman posted:Tukko is Iceflame, but also Chaz, and maybe Dzur Mountain. The virgin Tukko vs. the Chaz Tukko.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 18:18
|
|
|
navyjack posted:I always skip Teckla too. It’s too hard reading Vlad and Cawti falling apart I'm now reading through in publication order and so far Teckla is the overall best book
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 19:03
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:I'm now reading through in publication order and so far Teckla is the overall best book All Taltos books should be ranked by their chapter titling scheme. This is surprisingly correlated with the quality of the novel itself. (Teckla good, Athyra bad. Real bad.)
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 19:09
|
|
|
Which one has the laundry list? e: Also, is Athyra the one that's not from Vlad's point of view? I kinda liked that one.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 19:11
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:Which one has the laundry list? Pretty sure Teckla has the laundry list. Athyra and Orca are the two that use non-Vlad POVs. Orca is great Athyra is painfully boring. Vallista is definitely a top three for chapter title quality.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 19:14
|
|
|
Syzygy Stardust posted:Athyra and Orca are the two that use non-Vlad POVs. Orca is great Athyra is painfully boring. Tiassa has Khaavren/Daro/Cawti POV sections, IIRC.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 19:28
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:I'm now reading through in publication order and so far Teckla is the overall best book It’s a good book, just a hard read.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 19:46
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:(1) almost done with majestrum by mattew hughes. fun detective story/dying earth mashup. not much to say about this, it's a quick and enjoyable read, there are some clever bits. the protagonist has some interesting stuff going on. his intuition has split off into a separate personality in his head when he went through an anomaly (it's a manifestation of a coming universal change towards magic), whereas our main character is the logical component. only real flaw is more of a personal predilection issue; i prefer the hard science dying earth type settings to the more fantastical stuff, and this is pretty light on science. will read the other ones he has written.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 21:28
|
|
|
I've got an Audible credit burning a hole in my pocket, any recommendations for recent audiobooks that are well done? Recent being the last 3 years or so, I don't keep up with sci-fi/fantasy releases that closely. I was thinking about Too Like the Lightning or Ninefox Gambit, not sure what's good in recent fantasy stuff.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 21:32
|
|
|
Too Like the Lightning is very good, Ninefox is not good.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 21:36
|
|
|
Patrick Spens posted:Too Like the Lightning is very good, Ninefox is not good. Ninefox is some interesting and fun milscifi. Give it a look
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 21:52
|
|
|
Khizan posted:Tiassa has Khaavren/Daro/Cawti POV sections, IIRC. Shameless fan service, and a lot of fun to read. And after Vallista, the silver tiassa is of undoubted importance.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 21:55
|
|
|
Patrick Spens posted:Too Like the Lightning is very good, Ninefox is not good. I've heard there's a lot of (figurative) switching of languages in TLtL, would much of the presentation of the book get lost in audiobook format?
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 21:56
|
|
|
MockingQuantum posted:I've heard there's a lot of (figurative) switching of languages in TLtL, would much of the presentation of the book get lost in audiobook format? I have absolutely no ear for audiobooks, but I suspect it would work quite well. The whole book is presented in a pseudo memoir format. As long as the reader is good it would probably be awesome. And also Ninefox kicks rear end and the sequel was even better.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 22:03
|
|
|
MockingQuantum posted:I've heard there's a lot of (figurative) switching of languages in TLtL, would much of the presentation of the book get lost in audiobook format? I honestly don't know how the would verbalize the changes in languages, but Mycroft tends to explicitly say what language people are speaking in when it is relevant.
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2017 22:17
|
|
|
Alehkhs posted:Technically not a new book, but Gary Burley's extremely gorgeous, fully hand-illustrated edition of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea has reached its Kickstarter funding for a limited second run. For disclosure, I've got a couple of the first-run copies (and am probably going to throw in for one of the second-run copies and some artprints), and this book is incredible to actually see. The fact that it's the result of a 27-year passion project by Mr. Burley is very evident. Late and all, but thank you for posting this. I backed to get a hardcover copy shipped to South Korea because, well, my god, it looks amazing. I've been slowly collecting books just for my personal collection, signed editions and the like, and this looks like something that would just be so amazingly unique that I couldn't resist. He mentions that he updated/fixed up some issues with the first edition. Since you have a first edition, did you notice anything glaring?
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2017 07:07
|
|
|
DACK FAYDEN posted:The other two are also pretty light on science but still good in a sort of light popcorny not-Sherlock-Holmes way. For what it's worth, the bit he mentions about the demon from earlier is a short story that I had read years back and not realized was ever followed up by novelizations and it's also probably worth reading... but I can't tell you where the hell I ever read it. thanks. will come back to these; it was good but definitely lighter fare. i thought he could've done a bit more with the interesting intuition vs rationality personality split thing which would've elevated it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2017 09:25
|
|
|
Ok I'm not sure which of these Taltos books I've read before and which I haven't but I definitely was not expecting marxist revolution as a major theme and I was not expecting Book 7 to be about the murder of Donald Trump
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2017 16:14
|
|
|
Orca? Definitely one of my favorites. The whole "Vlad arrives in a smaller community only to discover there is something horribly wrong with it" scheme usually results in a lot of fun. I honestly think Brust is at his best with politics and intrigue on smaller scale; the books that deal with the overall mythology of the world, magic, gods and so on somehow always end up pretty boring. Unless it's Paarfi doing them, obviously. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Oct 24, 2017 |
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2017 17:05
|
|
|
My fav I think is going to be Iorich, which deals with real politick between the Empress, various Houses, and Teckla/Easterner coalitions in the aftermath of a Draegarian My Lai. The Epilogue also has to be one of the unexpectedly funniest things I've read. Also, Vlad manages to pull a Kragar on Kragar
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2017 18:54
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Ok Oh good, the realities are leaking again.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2017 21:59
|
|
|
midway through Book 9 now, Issola why do perfectly good fantasy noir series always insist on mucking everything up with World Shaking Epic Magic and Gods and not just staying focused on small scale gritty crime stories Dresden should have stayed a detective and I liked Taltos as a mob boss a lot better than whatever he is now
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2017 21:38
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:midway through Book 9 now, Issola On the plus side, you're halfway through what I believe is universally acknowledged as the worst book in the series. e: On a non-related topic, I'm working my way through Vance and it's been fun so far - Tales of the Dying Earth is the omnibus edition for that setting, right? It's got everything? anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Oct 25, 2017 |
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2017 22:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2024 18:05 |
|
|
anilEhilated posted:. This is exactly why Issola sucks - from what I've seen, Brust just can't do high fantasy in any interesting way and whenever he heads there it ends up being mediocre at best. Thankfully the books get back on track. I think he kinda needed to rationalize why all those high and mighty elves hang out with a common human assassin but the Chosen One bullshit pretty much never works. Hahah, ok then It's not bad it's just . . . these gods seem exceptionally mundane. I guess it just goes to show that nobody but Zelazny was Zelazny.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2017 22:06
|
|