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Kalenn Istarion posted:So, I actually started out thinking that - something like 'oh gently caress he's gone and made it mundane', but I keep going back to the point about the fallible narrator. I'm hoping that the next book can bring it back and will give it a shot whenever he gets around to publishing it. I also find the world itself intriguing so would probably put up with some stupid fluff now that I'm invested. He skipped sweet pirate adventurers so he had more space for the sex elf and manmothers, as well as gooning out over Denna. gently caress Rothfuss.
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Jul 1, 2013 19:52
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Hedrigall posted:Can I get a goonsensus on why I should avoid Ilium and Olympos by Dan Simmons? I remember there being a reason people don't like them but I can't remember what it was and I'm hearing great things about it on another forum. And I love the idea of posthumans recreating the Trojan war on Mars. It sounds loving awesome. I'm really enjoying The Terror by Simmons so far, and Hyperion will be the next book of his I tackle, but I'm wondering why people say stop there. Olympos is the not as good one, I liked Ilium. It's the same deal with The Fall of Hyperion, Simmons is just not good at sequels. Piell fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Jul 7, 2013 |
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Jul 7, 2013 16:49
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KomradeX posted:So this is from a bunch of pages back, but why the hate for Red Shirts? It was the first Scalzi book I read and loved it. I'm sure it isn't ground that hasn't been tread before but I enjoyed the light story of the main novel and loved the three epilogues and thought what he did with this was rather witty. Ender's Game is best read as a teenager, but it still mostly holds up afterwards. Also the Ender-Hitler thing is dumb and overreaching for something to slam Card over for no reason. I mean, he's a piece of poo poo in real life and you can read his stuff there and see it, there is no reason to go grasping at straws in Ender's Game.
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Jul 17, 2013 11:24
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Can't wait for the arc repeated for three seasons where he has to pay a crazy amount of money for tuition and then has to borrow it, and oh no he isn't going to have enough to pay it back, but gets enough at the last minute.
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Jul 19, 2013 17:55
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Eddings wrote the same series/book five times, just crossing out the names. That doesn't mean the books are bad or anything - they're decently written and interesting enough. But it's still the same story/characters, every time.
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Jul 22, 2013 14:19
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colonel_korn posted:If you liked the Rama concept then the sequels (Rama II, Garden of Rama and Rama Revealed) might be worth looking into based on your comments. The style is quite different and they spend a lot more time on character development than the first one, following the same core of characters throughout, I think primarily due to the fact that they were mostly written by Gentry Lee with Clarke sort of consulting on them. Also yeah, the characters who make bad decisions often end up paying for them. There are pros and cons (Lee's writing is a bit trashier and he's prone to including fairly gratuitous sex scenes) but overall I enjoyed them, though it's been a while since I read them. Maybe give Rama II a try and see if you like it. The Rama sequels are pretty lovely, I recommend not reading them.
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Jul 29, 2013 16:28
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Wolpertinger posted:This is honestly a really good way of describing why I like Sanderson - I just hadn't put it into words in such a way - he sets up some simple premises with the mechanics of his fantasy world, and all the plot twists and big reveals just click into place perfectly and suddenly everything makes sense, especially a lot of small niggling bits you hadn't realized were significant until now. Then, if you read it again you realize how everything was really leading inevitably up to that conclusion and how did you not see it before. This is known as the "Sanderson Avalanche".
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Sep 12, 2013 10:42
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The first three are all pretty good - the latest one gets confusing and weird.
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Jan 2, 2014 05:37
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BrianWilly posted:Piers Anthony I swear to loving god. Piers Anthony literally wrote a story where a man had sex with a five year old girl and during the trial the jury said he wasn't morally guilty because she wanted it. Also he wrote this in the author's note Piers Anthony posted:It may be that the problem is not with what is deviant, but with our definitions. I suggest in the novel that little Nymph was abused not by the man with whom she had sex, but by members of her family who warped her taste, and by the society that preferred to condemn her lover rather than address the source of the problem in her family. No one should ever read Piers Anthony.
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Jan 3, 2014 16:35
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Walh Hara posted:Okay, everybody should read The Red Knight (Miles Cameron), it's easily one of the best fantasy books I've ever read. Great intricate story, fantastic action scenes (apparantly the author is a military veteran and historian with expertise in medieval combat), good pacing and plenty of intrigue/mystery. I think the best comparison to his style is Joe Abercrombie. Nope, the second book isn't out for another couple months.
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Jan 19, 2014 00:38
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drat foreigners!
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Jan 19, 2014 14:58
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There are lots of non-racist/non-sexist authors out there who write good books, so I prefer to support them with my purchases over racist/sexist authors. This hand-wringing over GOING TOO FAR is just dumb.
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Feb 19, 2014 21:40
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You can entertain without being racist/sexist though. You can write good novels without being bigoted, the two things are mostly unrelated!Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:At risk of causing a huger derail, what did John Ringo do? Besides being a super right-winger, the main character in the Ghost series of novels is basically John Ringo turned up to 11, with similar lovely views. (see here and here). Quick highlights: John Ringo posted:[Referring to John Scalzi] As president instead of, oh, I dunno, working to get better generalized terms for new authors, ensuring contracts are upheld with publishers, maybe, someday, getting a loving health care insurer for all us authors who don't have health insurance, he'd been concentrating on IMPORTANT matters like making sure all characters were called s/he and women weren't being harassed at cons Piell fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Feb 20, 2014 |
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Feb 20, 2014 06:37
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Literally no one is calling for a blacklist of authors who are never allowed to be published again or to demonize authors who made a couple bad jokes. What some people are interested in is a list of authors who are extremely racist/sexist, so that individual readers can choose not to support those authors, voluntarily. This CENSORSHIP SLIPPERY SLOPE UNDERGROUND RACIST RAILROAD panic is weird as hell.
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Feb 21, 2014 14:30
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Some people don't want to support racist or sexists even tangentially, but nobody is talking about forcing people to do anything.
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Feb 21, 2014 20:56
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Definitions of words change, sorry for your sperg buddy
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Mar 3, 2014 16:22
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Didn't she just freak out about the possibility that a Hugo host might call her fat recently? That name looks familiar. Here's a pretty good summary of what happened.
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Mar 7, 2014 19:20
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:It's not like the dude is going to hop down off the podium and kidnap you for a rape dungeon. On the other hand he might start dry-humping you.
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Mar 7, 2014 20:04
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Altered Carbon, maybe?
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Mar 7, 2014 20:46
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Darth Walrus posted:That was kind of obvious from literally the first few chapters. I mean, poo poo, the prologue was named 'Yomi', and then a vaguely sinister-looking character named Izanami showed up. Sure, not everyone has even the slightest of passing familiarities with Japanese mythology, but that's entry-level, like if the book started with a prologue entitled 'HELL' that had some dude moping about how God's a douchebag and he wants out, and then introducing a friendly, slightly off character called Satan Lucifer. I get that goons have a violently antipathic reaction to anime (with good reason), but you were warned well in advance, and this poo poo only qualifies as 'anime' by dint of coming from the same country and showing up in an inherently nerdy subgenre. It's almost literally Event Horizon with a different national mythology. I mean, I'd get what you were complaining about if you were talking about, say, the Grand Central Arena series, because jesus christ Ryk Spoor tone it down, but this is basically 'OH MY GOD IT WAS JAPANESE I GOT JAPANESE ON ME GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF'. It would be just as dumb if it was a Navajo ghost with a tomahawk.
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Apr 15, 2014 16:18
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Cardiovorax posted:Jesus. If you can still tolerate anything by that guy after reading this, you need a punching in the face. He stops like this short of outright calling He actually doesn't stop short! "Vox Day posted:Further evidence in support of my time-to-civilization hypothesis. At this point, the debate competitions may as well bring in gorillas from the zoo and distribute the "debate" awards on the basis of which primate was able to throw the most fecal matter. That "alternative-style" of debate is no less dialectically legitimate than hip-hop, spoken-word poetry, and appeals to “nigga authenticity”. Piell fucked around with this message at 12:35 on Apr 20, 2014 |
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Apr 20, 2014 12:31
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RisqueBarber posted:Can anyone shed some light on whether or not to read The Fell Sword by Miles Cameron? The reviews seem vastly mixed. I loved the Red Knight but what I loved was the fast pace of it, and I hear The Fell Sword is very slow. I thought it was a pretty big letdown from the first book.
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May 15, 2014 21:37
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Bringing this over from the Dresden Files thread since it fits better hereTornhelm posted:You do realise that the entire reason he suports them is to annoy the far-left? I mean gently caress, his fans got John Ringo a Fan's Choice Romance Award for Ghost. Which is equally amusing/horrifying and is something that GBS/Reddit would do out of boredom. Hey Tornhelm it's not cool to support racist and sexist pieces of poo poo like Vox Day, even if it's just to annoy "the far-left!" You don't have to be far-left to think Vox Day should be repudiated by literally everyone. Piell fucked around with this message at 13:56 on May 22, 2014 |
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May 22, 2014 13:54
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When the guy that Correria is championing is saying stuff like this, you don't get to claim that he's not racist/homophobic.Vox Day posted:Further evidence in support of my time-to-civilization hypothesis. At this point, the debate competitions may as well bring in gorillas from the zoo and distribute the "debate" awards on the basis of which primate was able to throw the most fecal matter. That "alternative-style" of debate is no less dialectically legitimate than hip-hop, spoken-word poetry, and appeals to “nigga authenticity”. You don't get to hang out in the KKK and watch as other people are burning crosses and then claim you're not racist just because you didn't actually set it on fire yourself.
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May 22, 2014 14:31
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The important part of the quote is :Correia posted:The thing is, even if what these people say about Vox is true,(and I personally think it is as grossly exaggerated as anything else these people decide to attack) He thinks Vox Day is being exaggerated out of proportion, and therefore he is saying what Vox Day is saying isn't really that bad. But it is! It's some hateful vile homophobic racist poo poo, which I literally showed a few posts up. Vox Day is a sexist racist homophobic rear end in a top hat, and so is anyone who goes out of their way (as Correia did) to support him. Nobody is saying that Vox Day shouldn't be allowed to write books. Nobody is suggesting that his books be censored or taken off the shelves and burnt. What people are suggesting is that if you don't want to support racist homophobic sexists, don't buy Vox Day's books or the books of anyone who goes out of their way to support huge racist sexist homophobes like Vox Day. See, here's the thing about those political claims. Those against racism, sexism, and homophobia are both more often left-wing and are also actually correct. Those who openly support racism, sexism, and homophobia are more likely to be right-wingers, and are also factually wrong and human garbage. Piell fucked around with this message at 15:31 on May 22, 2014 |
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May 22, 2014 15:25
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zoux posted:Two books summaries were posted in the GBS "space thread": The first one is The Road Not Taken
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Jun 6, 2014 04:24
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Darth Walrus posted:Should I mention here the Aldenata collab with Tom Kratman that featured the heroic SS? To be fair, that's more Kratman than Ringo. Ringo is just a creepy right win nut, Kratman is the literal fascist.
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Jun 9, 2014 19:29
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The cover is a ludicrous abomination, yes, that's the one. To be fair, if you're gonna draw a sex robot protagonist for a book cover . . . Man, you can't say that and not post it! 
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Jul 1, 2014 15:53
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mdemone posted:The more time goes by, the more I wonder just how the hell George Lucas even managed to make the first trilogy as good as it was. Was he once a competent and imaginative writer/director, and then his talent fell down a mountain? Or did they succeed despite his mediocrity, simply because he'd happened to catch lightning in a bottle by creating such a worthwhile universe? And if the latter is true, then how could he have fumble-hosed the prequels so badly? He was surrounded by people who were willing to tell him "that's dumb as gently caress George, do something else."
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Jul 2, 2014 15:08
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T. C. McCarthy
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Jul 23, 2014 09:30
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It's included in the book but it doesn't ever actually matter at all, it's just there and explained that "oh I don't know how to tell the difference between the sexes" half a dozen times throughout. You could pull it out and have the exact same story.
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Aug 19, 2014 15:39
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The new Humble Book Bundle has Bujold's Curse of Chalion and Gaiman's American Gods, both of which are really awesome and you should get them if you haven't read them already!
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Aug 21, 2014 06:06
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Chairchucker posted:Some astronomical whatsits still officially consider it a planet. Only the dumb ones.
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Sep 27, 2014 16:42
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Chairchucker posted:Why? The definition of planets is made up by humans. A different group of humans can choose to use an entirely different definition if they want. There is no possible definition of "planet" that includes only the eight planets plus Pluto other than "these are the ones that we called planets in the olden days."
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Sep 27, 2014 17:07
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The cover has nothing to do with the book but it is a pretty sweet book
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Nov 3, 2014 16:35
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I read the book and I agree with Darth Walrus.
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Nov 6, 2014 19:12
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HIJK posted:Haven't heard of this before but "anti-grimdark" sounds awesome. I'm about 1/4 of the way through the third book and "anti-grimdark" totally does not describe the series at all. Overall it's pretty good, though not nearly as flavorful as his Twenty Palaces series.
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Dec 19, 2014 17:38
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Megazver posted:I still didn't get around to reading The Way Into Chaos but the Black Gate review seems very promising. Speaking of Connolly's kickstarted books I actually liked A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Remark a lot more than the Great Way series, which I thought was kinda mediocre The ending is super deus ex machina and comes from nowhere with little buildup. A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Remark is basically a much less grimdark version of his Twenty Palaces series and was pretty good IMO. Piell fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Dec 24, 2014 |
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Dec 24, 2014 03:00
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ravenkult posted:Are they basically the same plot over and over again like Twenty Palaces was? Nah, it's a solid trilogy, it (spoilers for ending)just goes to poo poo when the REAL BAD GUYS show up 3/4 of the way through the final book and they're the dudes who possibly a single page beforehand if you put all their appearances together. And then the two main characters don't even fight them, 95% of the way through they meet the gods and fight them instead.
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Dec 24, 2014 14:35
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:There's a lot of choices, but it's a toss up between the Daniel Faust series by Craig Schaefer (they all rocked), or Wolf Hunt 2 by Jeff Strand. Both authors are great guys as well. Woah, I didn't know Wolf Hunt had a sequel out, I'll have to pick that up.
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Dec 24, 2014 18:41
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