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General Battuta posted:You should read Startide Rising which is a book I adore. Humans are the only naturally evolved species in an eons-old galactic civilization of patrons and clients — the patrons uplift client species to intelligence in exchange for thousands of years of indentured servitude, and the clients become patrons themselves. Struggling to hold on to their independence, the humans send out a scoutship crewed by uplifted dolphins, chimps, and a couple people — and stumble on a fleet of moon-sized starships so mysterious that every major patron species starts hunting their ship across the galaxy. Yes, I liked David Brin's Uplift books a ton. Startide Rising is a wonderful book. I also love how all the other Patron races are miffed that humans automatically enter the galactic stage as Patrons, since we already "uplifted" two species prior to contact (Dolphins and Chimps).
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Jun 11, 2016 07:21
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WarLocke posted:I thought these books were pretty good when I read them as a teen. Wonder if they hold up. I'll have to see if I can dig these out. I've got them somewhere in a box in the attic. One thing I remember being delighted about, is that while technologically inferior humans were just about peerless when it came to combat and waging war. Humanity is described (in comparison to other races), as moving lightening quick, having very dense musculature, and a willingness to commit violence bordering on psychotic. I think there was a feline-based society that were the preeminent warriors, but they were not quite as physically adept and our ability to work towards a common goal in cooperative groups was unique as well (that last bit may be me filling in something that wasn't the case, it's been almost 20 years). It was different from all the "humanity is weaker, dumber, and more primitive than everyone else, but we're just plucky enough to operate on their level as peers". In these, WE were the boogeyman in terms of how dangerous we were.
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Jun 26, 2016 19:34
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Zorak of Michigan posted:Are the ebooks purely downloadable files or do they actually let you get Kindle-format titles through Amazon, with Whispersync working and everything? If they're like other TOR free offerings, I think it's DRM free PDF, Epub formats as a downloadable file.
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Jul 14, 2016 16:15
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Chairman Capone posted:Really? Is there a lot of controversy over it? Again, I'm still in the middle of it, but it doesn't seem like something that would really cause people to get angry over. Someone came in and dropped a "why you are a cretin because you don't love it unconditionally." post in the thread. I think he put a "Today I saw the West die." in there as well. It was weird. I more or less liked TBP and TDF, but at the same time I felt there were some definite weaknesses that should have kept TBP from being on the short-list for awards, let alone winning any.
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Aug 2, 2016 19:25
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WarLocke posted:I think only the one book is out so far, and for a first novel it's not that bad. I can't honestly say that it stood out to me as great, but I enjoyed the read. It's mostly self-contained, although there's a hook at the end for the author to continue the story. Indomitable was published a couple months ago, if you're interested. I just bought Unbreakable, so I can't comment on it yet.
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Sep 22, 2016 23:29
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Libluini posted:Wait, Safehold is over? I seriously didn't think this was possible. To an extent. There's still the aftermath to deal with: Unifying the planet and massively ramping up R&D for tech advances. And for the end-game, there's still the existential threat in the alien race that caused them to ditch all tech and hide in the first place.
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Nov 25, 2016 19:20
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Internet Wizard posted:If Taken was about revenge and not protection, why did he stop as soon as he got his daughter back, instead of taking apart more of the organization? I'd say it's more about escalating retaliation in the pursuit of his daughter.
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Dec 17, 2016 14:49
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Kesper North posted:I will say this for Baen: They were the first SF publishing house to double down hardcore on ebooks at a time when no one else would consider it. It led to me reading a lot of regrettable poo poo, but it worked. Eric Flint was behind that as well. He convinced Jim Baen to not only offer DRM-free ebooks at a time when everyone was locking them up, but he also got a "Free Library" going there. Basically, the earlier works or the first in a series were offered free to get people to buy ebooks from them.
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Jan 8, 2017 01:11
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Jack2142 posted:Is the Expanse book series any good and how faithful is the show to the books? I went and watched the Show because I was happy Sci-Fi was actually making a loving (Space) Sci-Fi show again and it was pretty good. Not Stargate or Battlestar level good, but better than some of their more recent productions. They've shuffled around some plot points, changed some of the characterization and motivations of some of the principles, but it's "true" to the book. The books authors (Corey is a pseudonym for two authors) are writers for the show and have come out and stated that the show is how the story should have been told in hindsight.
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Jan 12, 2017 06:03
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Collateral posted:Or The Jimmy Boys, according to the fat fucker's blog. If 4 just faded away from their plans, I'd be OK with it. They also have more books planned and they are good at keeping to a release schedule of one every year or so. They also have the character background novellas to mine as well. There will be plenty of material to use for some time I'd guess.
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Jan 13, 2017 19:18
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gohmak posted:Not yet if ever. you could make the argument the proto-molecule gestalt is one
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Jan 15, 2017 08:59
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ROFLburger posted:I finished Caliban's War, the second Expanse book last night and I'm a little hung up on one point. Everyone's afraid of Venus and treating it like a growing apocalypse, why not just, uh, shoot it? There are several references to these battleships being capable of "destroying planets" so why did they all wait around for this Cthulhu thing to emerge instead of bombing the planet to hell? The PM is able to gently caress with space-time at a fundamental level, as evidenced by its behavior on Eros. So I imagine any conventional attacks would do gently caress-all other than piss it off. And base on what little they know of it, the uncertainty of bombing the poo poo out of it falls under "DO NOT PISS IT OFF". That's not even taking into account the balancing act the UN, MCRN, and OPA have going. If the UN and/or MCRN were to focus their big guns on Venus, it might embolden one or all of the others to kick off system wide war.
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Apr 10, 2017 16:52
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