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The annoying thing about Scalzi is he can write, he just chooses not to. His first few books have genuine comedy in them and are well-plotted with engaging characters. Then once he got the big contract he seems to only write well by accident, just first drafts getting churned out like McNuggets. But yeah he seems like a decent guy and I can't blame him for playing the capitalism game, it's just sad. I wonder what books we would have from him if he took more pride in his work.
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Jun 26, 2023 13:20
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:
i dont think hes a bad person, its not like he's deprived us of some great insight into the human condition, but i can definitely blame him for sucking up oxygen/attention away from authors who are actually trying
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Jun 26, 2023 13:26
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It's absolutely loving unbelievable that Love Death and Robots managed to look at short science fiction and fantasy (a field full of women), say "we should find the best of this and adapt it", and end up with somewhere between two and zero women writers per season. I'd say 'you can't do that by accident' but they probably did it by accident, just without thinking.
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Jun 26, 2023 13:44
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General Battuta posted:It's absolutely loving unbelievable that Love Death and Robots managed to look at short science fiction and fantasy (a field full of women), say "we should find the best of this and adapt it", and end up with somewhere between two and zero women writers per season. I'd say 'you can't do that by accident' but they probably did it by accident, just without thinking. If they were trying to find the best you'd think they'd be reading the Dozois anthologies but there's very little overlap and you'd probably get far more women writers represented (at least Nancy Kress). Instead a bunch of the first season comes from a collection called "SNAFU: Survival of the Fittest"
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Jun 26, 2023 13:52
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Old Man's War had some of the worst dialogue I've ever read. The most contrived banter.
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Jun 26, 2023 14:36
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mllaneza posted:LD&R was misogynistic garbage. Every story* just absolutely poo poo on women having any agency or existence outside of the context of their man. It all clicked for me when in the episode about the farmers fighting aliens with giant mechs, al the conventionally attractive women were tradwives who got in the bunkers with the kids, while the only woman to participate in the defense was old, ugly, and unpopular. I persevered. Then I got to "Good Hunting" and gently caress me, they absolutely poo poo all over the female character, ultimately leaving her literally sexually objectified. Apparently there are four seasons of this show. The whole thing reminded me of why I stopped reading SFF almost entirely for about the entire 2000s. That poo poo was so prevalent and I was sick to death of the misogyny Jedit posted:You got six episodes further than I did before drawing the same conclusion. It's a loving vile show. I can’t even remember how far I got in season one before I was totally done with this vile poo poo General Battuta posted:It's absolutely loving unbelievable that Love Death and Robots managed to look at short science fiction and fantasy (a field full of women), say "we should find the best of this and adapt it", and end up with somewhere between two and zero women writers per season. I'd say 'you can't do that by accident' but they probably did it by accident, just without thinking. I kept thinking this is exactly the SFF scene the Sad Puppies wanted to preserve, and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if someone on the show’s creative team turned out to be quietly on their side and that it’s intentional, at least at the top level—who’s picking the stories and whatnot. Current SFF publishing has moved so far beyond that, you’d have to be willfully blind to ignore all the stories published by women and poc in the last decade
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Jun 26, 2023 15:32
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I am also reading Paradise-1 and I'm nearing the halfway point, I'm finding it spooky and propulsive. I actually like it better than The Lastronaut, which kind of fell apart after they solved the mystery of what the thing was
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Jun 26, 2023 15:42
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If you can enjoy Paradise-1 more power to you, I found the purposefully stripped down prose and rote thriller chapter construction super annoying. It was like diet Nick Cutter. It did get better once they got off their ship and started doing Mass Effect side missions, but I felt like the biggest a-ha-I-get-it moment was the afterword some publisher-side people came up with the story and characters and brought David Wellington into write it, like a book-packaging deal I'll still read the sequel 
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Jun 26, 2023 15:59
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Do you think that as a pro writer you see some of the moving parts, so to speak, that we lay readers might not notice? Like I imagine a film director can get distracted by technique and stuff that audiences aren't even aware of. More generally for the thread: favorite space (not cosmic) horror novels? Ship of Fools and The Gone World are two I've recently enjoyed. zoux fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Jun 26, 2023 |
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Jun 26, 2023 16:05
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I honestly am not very good at being a critical reader. I'm still there to get sucked into readers' trance and have a good time. I felt like Paradise-1 was way too obvious with its machinery though: here we're setting up some sexual tension, here we're ending the chapter on a cliffhanger cause we need a cliffhanger every X words, here we're breaking to the comedy robot to give the reader a break, here we're diving into the character's past to set up a conflict they need to resolve in the present. So on and so forth. So yeah, maybe, I dunno. I guess that threshold will be different for every reader. I think The Last Astronaut used all the same tricks, there was just a lot more meat on the skeleton so the knobs and processes weren't all so visible and poky. Poked by the knobs of narrative...
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Jun 26, 2023 16:09
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Lucky 13 was pretty good.
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Jun 26, 2023 18:40
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zoux posted:More generally for the thread: favorite space (not cosmic) horror novels? Ship of Fools and The Gone World are two I've recently enjoyed. I also loved The Gone World. According to my Kindle I have read Ship of Fools, but for the life of me I can't remember doing so. Not sure if it is because I marked it "read" on accident or if it just made that little impact on me. As for my favorite, it would probably be Blindsight by Peter Watts. I know it gets discussed in this thread quite a bit. But I would also love to hear if anyone else has any recommendations.
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Jun 26, 2023 19:50
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Screaming_Gremlin posted:I also loved The Gone World. According to my Kindle I have read Ship of Fools, but for the life of me I can't remember doing so. Not sure if it is because I marked it "read" on accident or if it just made that little impact on me. Ship of Fools was republished under the name "Unto Leviathan". I don't think you would've read it and not remembered it lol The Gone World is really, really good. Not only a good, scary plot but good characters and good concepts.
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Jun 26, 2023 19:54
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zoux posted:Old Man's War had some of the worst dialogue I've ever read. The most contrived banter. is the scene where the pansy-rear end senator tries to make peace and gets shot literally hundreds of times for his efforts not supposed to be a somehow-nearly-verbatim Heinlein thrown in there as a loving joke
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Jun 26, 2023 20:39
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zoux posted:
This one stuck with me for a while after finishing it. I hope a sequel is written.
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Jun 26, 2023 21:01
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I read The Gone World and The Gone Away World at around the same time and I can't remember which title belongs to which book. I liked them both, but the one with the ninjas is better.
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Jun 26, 2023 22:00
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Against a Dark Background by Iain M Banks - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002CT0TXK/ Kiki's Delivery Service by by Eiko Kadono - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZC78XZF/ Skyward (#1) by Brandon Sanderson - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BJLB5LY/ The Keeper's Six by Kate Elliott - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XL7RKSS/ Shadow and Bone (#1) by Leigh Bardugo - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007NKMQGQ/
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Jun 26, 2023 22:50
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Poldarn posted:I read The Gone World and The Gone Away World at around the same time and I can't remember which title belongs to which book. I liked them both, but the one with the ninjas is better.
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Jun 27, 2023 00:07
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The Gone-Away World is wonderful (READ GNOMON drat IT)
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Jun 27, 2023 00:16
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Wungus posted:Same, and the one with ninjas is Gone Away World, and it's unquestionably a more good radder book imo Not really horror tho, more like if Martin Amis wrote a post apocalyptic novel
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Jun 27, 2023 01:48
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zoux posted:Not really horror tho, more like if Martin Amis wrote a post apocalyptic novel That's an outstanding analogy 
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Jun 27, 2023 04:14
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Kesper North posted:The Gone-Away World is wonderful (READ GNOMON drat IT) Gnomon loving rules. What a cool book about stories, motifs, and technology. Speaking of Harkaway, how is Titanium Noir / Tigerman?
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Jun 27, 2023 05:32
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RoboCicero posted:Gnomon loving rules. What a cool book about stories, motifs, and technology. Speaking of Harkaway, how is Titanium Noir / Tigerman? Tigerman is better than Titanium Noir in terms of depth and characterization, but they're both mostly about Harkaway having fun writing textual comic books. Don't go in expecting to have your mind loving blown out the back and you'll be fine. I thought Titanium Noir was too short and too... pat? It had no room in it, like a Titan in too small a room. Big idea, very cool, but we get like a tenth of the way through exploring them and then the book just stops, mystery abruptly wrapped up. If you want Nick Harkaway's unbridled id in a seemingly unedited stream of consciousness, check out his pseudonym, Aiden Truhen, who writes about an ethical, fair-trade cocaine kingpin who uses his misbegotten wealth and assembled supervillain team of unlikely characters to rob impregnable Swiss banks of their Nazi gold.
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Jun 27, 2023 06:45
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I'd echo that about Titanium Noir - it felt like an escape piece for Harkaway, can almost imagine him writing it as a snack between something much bigger and more involved. It was a fun read (And actually refreshingly brief as far as I was concerned), but it's got nothing of the massive scope that Gnomon has. Would absolutely recommend, just know what you're getting. And, sort of goes without saying, if you don't like noir then you are getting it undiluted here so maybe look somewhere else?
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Jun 27, 2023 06:53
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Redshirts is fine, but the ending/solution to the mystery is terrible.
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Jun 27, 2023 12:41
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I liked The Last Astronaut but I really got the feeling that every single one of the author's decisions was based on the single question of 'what will make this book translate better into a 100-minuteish sci-fi horror-thriller movie?' and it kind of bothered me. But not enough not to finish it. Tempted to try Paradise-1. I have a high tolerance for that kinda schtick as long as they deliver me some space horror.
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Jun 27, 2023 14:10
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Sally Sprodgkin posted:I liked The Last Astronaut but I really got the feeling that every single one of the author's decisions was based on the single question of 'what will make this book translate better into a 100-minuteish sci-fi horror-thriller movie?' and it kind of bothered me. But not enough not to finish it. LOTS more horror in the latter. thotsky posted:Redshirts is fine, but the ending/solution to the mystery is terrible. Mostly I think because there isn't really a story there just an amusing premise.
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Jun 27, 2023 15:18
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I thought Redshirts was a really good novella that was stretched far beyond the ability of the premise to support. The first half is probably my favorite Scalzi work, but the second half just drags on and on. Like, I get the plot twist and it was done well, but there isn't really anything left to explore afterwards so why is the book still going on?
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Jun 27, 2023 16:25
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I read Blake Crouch's new book, Abandon. It is just a boring bog standard thriller told in two times, all of the blurbs made it sound like another SF or supernatural thing. I am here to tell you not to bother, it's an extremely long book with no real payoff.
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Jun 27, 2023 16:35
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AARD VARKMAN posted:I read Blake Crouch's new book, Abandon. It is just a boring bog standard thriller told in two times, all of the blurbs made it sound like another SF or supernatural thing. I am here to tell you not to bother, it's an extremely long book with no real payoff. I read Dark Matter by him years ago and hated it. He wrote himself into a corner and put in a really dumb ending with that book.
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Jun 27, 2023 17:28
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mewse posted:I read Dark Matter by him years ago and hated it. He wrote himself into a corner and put in a really dumb ending with that book. I thought Dark Matter and Recursion were both "ok" and quit Wayward Pines part way into book 2. I just need to stop reading this author, I am never better than disappointed
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Jun 27, 2023 17:33
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just remembered and randomly want to plug the Nexus trilogy by Ramez Naam. I went on a scifi thriller kick after reading Blake Crouch's stuff and the Nexus trilogy is the only one I remember lots about a few years later  also the one about the remotely controlled motorcycles with swords because a billionaire hacker set up a worldwide virus to change the world, but I can't remember the name of that one for the life of me
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Jun 27, 2023 17:58
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AARD VARKMAN posted:just remembered and randomly want to plug the Nexus trilogy by Ramez Naam. I went on a scifi thriller kick after reading Blake Crouch's stuff and the Nexus trilogy is the only one I remember lots about a few years later I believe that would the two book Daemon/Freedom series by Daniel Suarez
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Jun 27, 2023 18:40
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Crouch has really neat ideas that he somehow writes a complete poo poo story about. It's roughly about halfway through each book that something just clicks and you go "wait, that was dumb as gently caress, and can't happen/makes no sense" and the rest of the book just doesn't get any better. I forget which one it was where he had some virus that rewrote DNA to enable genes to make people superhuman but then someone does it twice (which is like trying to turn a light switch on again after you've already turned it on) and becomes the superest superhuman villain. Fairly decent book up to that part and then it just went completely to poo poo. I used to get jazzed when he had a book coming out (no, I have no idea why) but now I just get kinda sad cause all it means is he probably hosed up another perfectly good idea.
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Jun 27, 2023 19:50
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Scalzi was never good.
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Jun 27, 2023 19:52
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unattended spaghetti posted:Scalzi was never good. I really liked The Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City: Prologue.
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Jun 27, 2023 21:09
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scalzi is generally ok qualitywise, meets deadlines, gets people into the genre (or so i'm told), and is pretty much scandal free, so it makes sense he'd get the ginormous contracts, that's a great package deal there, even if most of us are not going to be particularly interested in his work
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Jun 27, 2023 21:40
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Infinity Gate (Pandominion #1) by MR Carey - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B38STG6T/ The Mechanical (Alchemy Wars #1) by Ian Tregillis - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IRIR85M/ Eden by Stanislaw Lem - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008533D44/
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Jun 27, 2023 22:49
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Read Night in Lonesome October, because I happened on it in my reader. Pretty gripping actually though extremely horny in the slasher flick way and quite a list of issues that made me wonder why I remembered it being so highly recommended. Anyway, I was missing an A at the start and it wasn't the one written by Zelazny. Guess I have more books to read.
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Jun 27, 2023 23:11
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unattended spaghetti posted:Scalzi was never good. I enjoyed Old Man's War, but Red Shirts was just non-stop quips. Reminded me of the worst kind of Joss Wheden script.
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