|
History is also much more optimistic and absurd and boring than most books. History has the full dynamic range, it’s not tonally coherent.
|
#
?
May 18, 2019 20:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 29, 2024 12:39 |
|
|
So I recommended The Gone World by Sweterlisch to a friend and he absolutely loved the way time travel worked in it and the style and tone. Anything else that's similar that I can send him to?
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2019 20:49
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:History is also much more optimistic and absurd and boring than most books. History has the full dynamic range, it’s not tonally coherent. Case in point, Romance of the Three Kingdoms: most of this chapter has been political maneuvering and Cao Cao wrangling his many, many foes. And then: quote:[...] shot Xiahou Dun in the left eye. Bellowing in pain, Xiahou Dun plucked out the arrow; the eyeball had stuck fast to the point. "The essence of my parents cannot be thrown away!" he cried, and swallowed the eye. Is this part of the historical part of the novel, or made up? I have no idea. I choose to believe it's true, because it's too bizarre to be false.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2019 22:19
|
|
|
Well I finished Monster Baru Cormorant this morning. The last 25% was really good, and then it was over. I am glad to see that it shouldn't be too much of a wait for the next one though, so I'm hype for that. Now to move onto Children of Time.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 03:42
|
|
|
Pretty good albeit depressing climate change SF short by Paolo Bacigalupi - https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613349/a-full-life/
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 03:52
|
|
|
Yikes. Read the kindle preview of Chapter 1 of David Webers new book and watch him go full 'Facebook Grandpa who watches too much Fox News'. https://www.amazon.com/Gordian-Protocol-David-Weber-ebook/dp/B07R8K4395/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 08:39
|
|
|
pospysyl posted:Those of you who like Children of Time and/or Children of Ruin, I strongly recommend Planet Lion, a short story by Catherynne Valente. It's a super ambitious animal uplift story that really goes for trying to describe an animalistic psychology. This story was my first taste of Valente and I absolutely love it.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 09:02
|
|
|
Deptfordx posted:Yikes. Oh boy. This is like the next-generation update of the marine vs. atheist professor scene.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 18:22
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:Oh boy. This is like the next-generation update of the marine vs. atheist professor scene. The description of that novel boils down to the Chud in the high castle.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 18:43
|
|
|
Deptfordx posted:Yikes. no , i don't gotta you can't make me no
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 18:47
|
|
|
Still not as bad as Kratman
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 18:50
|
|
|
Deptfordx posted:Yikes. you know you're in for a treat when the blurb is 500 words long, e: 500 words that don't even cover why there's some sort of time-travel organization stealing texts from hellenistic egypt PupsOfWar fucked around with this message at 19:42 on May 19, 2019 |
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 19:29
|
|
|
I know right. I read the blurb, clicked to the prologue and was WTF is this out of left field opening?
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 19:52
|
|
|
We live in the bad timeline and the key to the good timeline was Germany conquering Russia - this book, apparently.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 20:15
|
|
|
since it's co-authored, id like to say these notions are coming mostly from the other guy, w/ weber's name just stamped on by the publisher the prose style is too distinctly Weber for it to not be mostly him though PupsOfWar fucked around with this message at 20:28 on May 19, 2019 |
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 20:17
|
|
|
Yeah, normally the unknown co-writer does 90%+ of the actual writing in this situation but it's Weber. There's no way he lets anyone else take the wheel in a book he's involved with.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 21:09
|
|
|
I got the impression he stopped caring 10 or 15 years ago.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2019 21:35
|
|
|
Deptfordx posted:Read the kindle preview of Chapter 1 of David Webers new book and watch him go full 'Facebook Grandpa who watches too much Fox News'. Surely the only surprise is it took this long.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 02:11
|
|
|
Weber has been a lost cause for at least a decade unless you were into his very specific writing style. Baru book 1 was ok, not great. The main character being the clever-ist pre-teen/teenager alive was slightly annoying, while the rest of the book was obviously (to me at least) a thinly novelized custom Crusader Kings 2 session, complete with character stats. Read Arthur Machen's 1895 story The Three Imposters. Definitely groundbreaking and semi-scandalous for it's time period, it was a decent read for being 124 years old. The multiple stories within stories mechanic worked pretty good, while the 2 hipster idiots/designated goodguys of the story were the framework Machen used to tie everything together from beginning to end.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 03:38
|
|
|
I've never played CK2.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 04:24
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:I've never played CK2. Be honest, you watched an LP on Youtube, didn't you?
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 04:29
|
|
|
All the estates, duchies, and provinces clearly make it a game of Dominion.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 04:37
|
|
|
what the heck was up with baru's Twilight Imperium game acainst Farrier
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 07:17
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:We live in the bad timeline and the key to the good timeline was Germany conquering Russia - this book, apparently. Have you been watching Supergreatfriend play Titanic? Because that's a thing there.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 09:29
|
|
|
So Apex magazine released its last issue and now I need a cool monthly SF&F mag centering diverse authors. Anything y'all like? Hopefully one I can get on my Kindle.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 22:40
|
|
|
apophenium posted:So Apex magazine released its last issue and now I need a cool monthly SF&F mag centering diverse authors. Anything y'all like? Hopefully one I can get on my Kindle. I recommend Lightspeed. You can start with their special issues highlighting women/queer/POC authors: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/special-issues/
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2019 23:32
|
|
|
apophenium posted:So Apex magazine released its last issue and now I need a cool monthly SF&F mag centering diverse authors. Anything y'all like? Hopefully one I can get on my Kindle. Apex no  I always felt like they were particularly good at publishing more international SFF which wasn't always easy to find otherwise. Reading the EIC's comments, it seems like the right choice. Lightspeed is good, so are Clarkesworld and Uncanny. Galaxy's Edge is good but leans more towards...hmm, how to phrase it? 'Nostalgic tastes' SF? It's not bad stuff, it just favors that style. 
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2019 01:30
|
|
|
NoNostalgia4Grover posted:Weber has been a lost cause for at least a decade unless you were into his very specific writing style. Yeah, I read the Honor Harrington books like 20 years ago and they were fun, but the later ones are terrible. Just seeing Patrick O'Brian mentioned in that book's blurb made me gag a little.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2019 01:57
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:I've never played CK2. On another subject, read Arthur Machen's 1917 story The Terror. It meandered around telling the story and could have been trimmed down to 1/2 the length easily, but for a story published 102 years ago it wasn't too bad. The main twist of the plot was semi-underwhelming to a modern-day reader, simply due to the sheer amount of movies+ that have used that concept since the Terror was published, but for a reader of that era, the Terror twist was dark and messed up. +Just off the top of my head, thinking of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), Cujo (1983), and Arachnophobia(1990)...definitely left out other similarly themed movies.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2019 00:23
|
|
|
You...do know that Crusader Kings 2 is based on history, right?
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2019 00:48
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:You...do know that Crusader Kings 2 is based on history, right? So the winner's lies, then?
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2019 02:13
|
|
|
The Baru series doesn't have nearly enough incest to be CK2.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2019 09:06
|
|
|
baru is EUIV if anything
PupsOfWar fucked around with this message at 10:31 on May 22, 2019 |
|
#
?
May 22, 2019 10:19
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:We live in the bad timeline and the key to the good timeline was Germany conquering Russia - this book, apparently. Nope, book takes place in an alternate time-line where Hitler/WW2/Holocaust never happened, protagonist eventually realizes he has to save Hitler in order for him to start WW2 and lose and be on our current timeline(which is the good timeline). It's basically hey you know that if you could go back in time and kill Hitler as a baby would you? spun into an entire book. Overarching plot was Webers idea, and I assume so was most of the more...longer info dumps that occurred...I've been reading Holo since his first book, and his issue is normally in the opposite direction.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2019 15:14
|
|
|
ShinsoBEAM! posted:Nope, book takes place in an alternate time-line where Hitler/WW2/Holocaust never happened, protagonist eventually realizes he has to save Hitler in order for him to start WW2 and lose and be on our current timeline(which is the good timeline). Huh, that's an old idea. There was an adventure for the Champions RPG in the 80s that ran off this premise (it was recalled very shortly after release because of that plot and so is rather hard to find now, though I'm not sure if that was over actual complaints or second thoughts / timidity over the general anti-RPG hysteria of the 80s).
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2019 17:39
|
|
|
Children of Time Kindle is $2.99 right now.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2019 22:11
|
|
|
I hope some people read the first Monarchies of God book and fell in love because I really want to post with some cool bros who loved that series 
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2019 23:42
|
|
|
Drone Jett posted:Children of Time Kindle is $2.99 right now. This is good and the new book is good. I really enjoyed the resolution it was very neat.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2019 01:58
|
|
|
I'm about 30% into Children of time and I just don't know how much I'm actually feeling it. I think I am spite reading at this point. Recently the shuttle crashed on to the terraformed planet and its inhabitants got swarmed by giant killer ants only to be sort of rescued and I just want to know if how it is going so far is sort of just the way it is or if the action ever really picks up. I don't really know where I want it to go or what I think I need out of it, just that it isn't scratching my itch. I loved the initial premise but IDK.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2019 02:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 29, 2024 12:39 |
|
|
KKKLIP ART posted:I'm about 30% into Children of time and I just don't know how much I'm actually feeling it. I think I am spite reading at this point. Recently the shuttle crashed on to the terraformed planet and its inhabitants got swarmed by giant killer ants only to be sort of rescued and I just want to know if how it is going so far is sort of just the way it is or if the action ever really picks up. I don't really know where I want it to go or what I think I need out of it, just that it isn't scratching my itch. I loved the initial premise but IDK. It never speeds up. That's one of the most action packed bits in the whole thing. I say this as someone who loves it: don't force yourself. e: The spiders get progressively cooler stories as they get more advanced but like, if you weren't already into them when Portia snuck into an ant hive, I doubt you'd enjoy plague/social revolution/spoilers/spoilers.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2019 03:55
|
|