The Science Fiction and Fantasy Thread: Read the OP, Bridge of Birds, and Murderbot

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The Science Fiction and Fantasy Thread: Read the OP, Bridge of Birds, and Murderbot

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Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Yeah, Gone-Away World is one of my favorite books. It's got a lot of heart.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2016 03:42

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 01:13

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

fritz posted:

The guns forum is doing a John Ringo read-along: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3751991

So I read a Tom Kratman book once. It was insane: openly fascist, racist and sexist to an almost unbelievable degree.

I'm on page 6 of this thread and it is sooooo much worse. I didn't think there was another level to this madness but there is, and John Ringo is thriving there like a cancerous tumor.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2016 05:32

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Ornamented Death posted:

I haven't read anything by Ringo, but I have heard him speak at conventions about Ghost. He claims that it started as a joke, that he was trying to write like the caricature liberal and liberal-leaning folks make him out to be. Then his fans started digging it and he said "gently caress it" and rode the money train to a new car or some more guns or whatever he spends his money on.

He could have been lying, of course, but the few times I've heard Ringo speak, he's seemed fairly aware of himself and is dismissive of his more overzealous fans.

It doesn't matter if you're doing it ironically, if you're putting this kind of hateful poo poo. These words are making the world a worse place and to profit off that is shameful. gently caress you forever John Ringo.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2016 09:08

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Are the other Rifters books as good as Starfish? (Peter Watts)

# ¿ Dec 28, 2016 17:05

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Autonomous Monster posted:

Going back to this for the second. You can real books as cheap as ebooks now???

I don't think that's going to beat the sheer convenience of going from "I want to buy a book" to reading in less than a minute for me, but if somewhere's selling books for �2~�3 apiece I want to know about it.

Some bookstore opened up in my hometown a while back (2nd and Charles) that buys used books and sells them for actual reasonable prices. I picked up a copy of Hyperion for $2.30 or so the other day. They also sell new stuff. The place was pretty cool, it was like the GameStop style of store without the rip-offs or pushy salespeople. Not sure how much they give when you sell books back to them though. Apparently it's a chain, but I haven't heard of it before. Probably the only way physical stores can compete with Amazon and ebooks now.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2017 05:56

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Someone mentioned this short story in either this or the horror thread. Anyway I was curious and it looks like the author has it free on his website. I really enjoyed it. 400 Boys by Marc Laidlaw.

http://www.marclaidlaw.com/online-fiction/400-boys/

# ¿ Jan 10, 2017 20:17

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Nice. I think Virtual Light is one of Gibson's best.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2017 07:56

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

I didn't completely hate the Talons short story, but my god can we talk about how bad the "The Thing" story is? It's a shame because there was a cool central idea to it, but it's completely overshadowed by the two lead characters being secretly gay. Is this someones slash fiction?

# ¿ Feb 22, 2017 05:03

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

uberkeyzer posted:

Interesting. Any reason you suggest TDM over Stars my Destination? I recently finished both for the first time - both are clearly similar and great, but Stars felt much more alive and vibrant to me. Both are clearly products of their time (especially as relates to women in the novels) of course. Maybe I'm just a sucker for the Count of Monte Cristo.

The Stars My Destination had me in it's grip from the beginning with the insane survival scenario the protagonist has to endure. I was engrossed until the part when I realized how much of Monte Cristo was in it's DNA. That really weakened it's hold on me. I felt like the story could have gone so many places and the tribute stuff was absolutely the weakest part of the book and felt very unnecessary compared to the otherwise cool themes and ideas already present. Overall I thought it was decent at the end.

If you haven't read it, don't have the impression that it's a straight up remake with sci-fi trappings. It's not. Still, I was left a little cold by it. I'll need to check out the Demolished Man.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2017 03:58

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

NikkolasKing posted:

So I was reading Brave New World and decided I'd like more of that but maybe a different style of writer. I liked the whole engineered a new breed of human and human culture stuff. Could anyone recommend any other books like that? It would appear to be only a sci-fi thing but maybe it can also be done in fantasy, I wouldn't know.

Greg Bear's Hull Zero Three has a lot of engineered human stuff in it, and a some cultural stuff as well. I really enjoyed it.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2017 16:34

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

I'm a huge fan of 1960s era Transistorpunk, personally

# ¿ Apr 23, 2017 03:34

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

He ignored his destiny for ten years and decided to fight monsters instead. Unbeknownst to him, his destiny was actually to become king of the monster fighters. Fate will not be denied!

# ¿ May 2, 2017 11:57

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Victorkm posted:

Guess I should come out from under my rock with all the litrpg I read on Kindle Unlimited.

If I know this thread, even though I have recommended these before, I'd recommend against them overall. Theres like 6 or 7 total books and before you reach a satisfactory conclusion it gets REALLY sexist and rapey.

So probably not really worth getting deep into if you find that sort of writing distasteful.

This is one of my favorite LitRPG series. Its very true that some fans get really anal about the stat blocks and quest rewards not being consistent over the whole 5 books so far (?!?!?) though I don't really give a poo poo. If there's anything I could recommend about this series its to read the author's novel "The Beginning: Dark Paladin vol 1" as it does a better job showing the way the author thinks and sees the world than nearly anything in the first 4.95 books of Way of the Shaman. Otherwise the reveal at the end of book 5 is very jarring.

As for other recommends in LitRPG, I'd recommend Awaken Online: Catharsis and Awaken Online: Precipice by Travis Bagwell, and Continue Online (5 book series) by Stephan Morse which is complete. Both of these series have a lot to do with the implications of Artificial Intelligences and the self-improvement of the featured characters.

Viridian Gate Online (2 books so far) by J.A. Hunter which is about a humanity-ending cataclysm that is somewhat allayed by a company which has invented an MMORPG which humans can possibly transfer their consciousness into to live beyond the asteroid impact. Unfortunately, not everyone is starting off on an even footing as the company has taken bribes to set up some users as god kings able to enslave the rest of the users.

Crucible Shard by Skyler Grant which I guess has 4 books. I've only read the first 2. The world it is set in is a hunger games like world where gamers are celebrities. The main character has been shanghaied into a scheme by his brother and his brother's friends to invade a game world and become rich and famous, but end up in a sort of UR-game that exists behind and below the rest of the games. The main character has impulse control issues and ends up solving most problems by having sex with horrifyingly powerful or just horrifying women (the goddess of fire and lust, a queen of spiders and venom, etc.) They are pretty fun romps and involve a lot to do with AI.

World of Ruul by J. A. Cipriano which are about a guy who has his brain placed into a jar by a shadowy government conspiracy to be immersed in a game and try to take down a sentient virus that is threatening the entire world. Not sure about the recommend here as its full of "jokes" that aren't as funny as the author seems to think, but still kinda fun.

This "genre" sounds abysmal.

# ¿ May 8, 2017 16:32

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Can we group write a litrpg? Maybe we'll even get it published!

"The princess cast me a smouldering look from across the room. I knew I've have a chance to bone her but only if I got my Charisma score past 13 to meet her check. I downed my brandy and set off to find an attribute boosting piece of headwear..."

# ¿ May 8, 2017 18:14

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Chairchucker posted:

If you think that's his biggest reason for shame you have missed this little takedown: http://hradzka.livejournal.com/392471.html

Let's put Piers Anthony and John Ringo on a boat together and send it out to the middle of the sea and have them knife fight to the death.

Afterwards we napalm the boat

# ¿ May 10, 2017 08:04

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

General Battuta posted:

Gibson impresses me because he started out good and didn't stop growing. I'm reading The Peripheral and it's so good. I love how Gibson is always so specific about manufactured items: countertops, coffees, everything, he's got a texture and a material and a source.

It's something I love about Gibson. Makes the world so much more immersive.

# ¿ May 13, 2017 03:06

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Runcible Cat posted:

That's the way I look at it. I pick up cheap 2ndhand copies of books I love to lend out.

Same, usually dirt cheap used paper backs. They have character, damnit. And there's a certain unique pleasure in giving someone a good book and when they really enjoy it, letting them keep it. I changed one of my best friend's favorite books from Harry Potter to The Postman that way.

It's an advantage physical copies have over ebooks.

drat I should read The Postman again.

# ¿ May 24, 2017 16:01

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

General Battuta posted:

I loved The Peripheral but it's not really a time travel book so much as a book about the future and the power of information. If that doesn't make any loving sense don't worry, it will!

Thematic spoilers ��The 'time travel' in the context of the novel isn't deployed the way most SF might deploy it ��there are no paradoxes, questions of free will, strenuous efforts to alter the past to avert a future catastrophe. Rather, the exchange of information allows Gibson to explore how automation and AI are going to alter the near-future into the far-future: for example, the 'present' economy is transparent and manipulable to the algorithms of the 'future', which allows them to buy out political power. This isn't speculation about time travel, it's speculation about how the rise of algorithmic investment will compromise political process.

The Peripheral has one of my favorite weapons in sci-fi: Conner's Hellcube. I think the relevant quote was something about it being created by a tortured society in service to a depraved mind.

Another favorite Gibson weapon is the Chunker which is briefly mentioned in Virtual Light.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2017 09:33

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Man I just did not enjoy the latest Laundry Files novel at all. Not funny and not scary. What a mess of a book. Books 1 through 4 are really solid but I just don't like the directions Stross has been taking the series in. Like, super heroes, elven invaders, and a goddamn kaiju start showing up and no one seems to give much of a gently caress (even if I think all of those things were dumb things to bring into the Laundry universe).

Also this book retroactively makes a few of the others worse.

I'm pretty much done with the series unless the next one can seriously sell itself to me.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2017 08:37

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

BobMorane posted:

To continue the Delirium Brief discussion, I just finished the book and it left me quite confused, I feel like I skipped a chapter or two :

- Since when is The Mandate the avatar of the Black Pharaoh ? In Annihilation Score he was merely a secondary villain with strong political ambitions and jedi mind tricks, Mo's crew had no particular difficulty dealing with him. Now he effortlessly snuffs out the Sleeper's operation, deus ex machina-style !
- It seems that the SA has been aware of Iris' extracurricular activities all along. Was she acting as an undercover of sort ? What was even the point of that, to have a back channel to the Black Pharaoh ?

All in all I liked the first part with everyone forced to deal with the consequences of the Nightmare Stacks and public exposition, the second half less so... I'll still read the next one, 'cause I really want to see how Stross is going to dig himself out of this.

1 I dunno it almost feels like a retcon or something. I remember him basically being a joke in Mo's book. I thought he was just a guy with a super strong glamour spell and charisma.

2 The other thing that got me about this was, since when do Nyarlathotep and the Sleeper have a beef, and for what reason? They're both mentioned in Fuller Memorandum as in the same hierarchy, but the Sleeper not being anywhere as powerful as the Black Pharoah. Also, wasn't the entire point of unleashing the Sleeper being that he's needed to eventually free the Black Pharoah himself?

# ¿ Jul 28, 2017 10:32

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Koburn posted:

I've had surprisingly good fortune picking books based on a cool title. Unfortunately my most recent gamble, which also had great cover art - didn't pay off:

I'm upset that you're telling me this is bad, because gently caress it looks good.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2017 21:10

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

I'd even caution against buying The Stars My Destination. It's got some really cool ideas hidden demonic facial tattoo that shows when excited, just about everyone can teleport, and the opening sequence when Foyle is marooned is truly harrowing, but... I really feel like the book was hurt by being such an "homage" of a better story (The Count Of Monte Cristo). It really took me out of it when those elements started to show themselves.That story's been retold and copied enough.

I still liked the writing enough that I at least want to check out The Demolished Man.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2017 20:55

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

andrew smash posted:

Okay another peripheral question; this may also be due to audiobook listening in the car (not the best place in terms of attention I can pay to the book); what did Conner's cube actually do?

They don't mention a ton of what it can do (which makes it cooler and more mysterious) but they mention Conner training by making it leap, land on a point, and spin really fast, poo poo like that. Personally I imagine this big red cube bouncing around like a pinball and punching holes through walls and floors and then suddenly and gracefully coming to a stop.

One cool thing I liked in the Peripheral is how there's less social media and TV in the future (and basically none in the way future).

# ¿ Aug 31, 2017 07:06

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Amazon has The Forever War for $1.99 due to Labor Day. Also being offered is fantasy classic HEAVEN IS FOR REAL by TODD BURPO.

# ¿ Sep 4, 2017 17:43

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Yep a kid who's like 5 has a near death experience and went to heaven and rode magic horses with Jesus. Because children definitely never make poo poo up, nor do unscrupulous parents try to market their kids.

I remember when I was 5 I knocked over an indoor planter and ground potting soil into our off white carpets. Then I got some packs of dental floss and strung it all around my parents bedroom. If only my mom would have believed my assertion that a strange bad man broke inside and did it we could have had a best selling true crime book!

# ¿ Sep 4, 2017 19:39

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Hyperion ends so well that I've never felt the need to seek out the sequels.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2017 21:13

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

General Battuta posted:

the short story where Dan Simmons meets his future self traveling back in time to warn how the ground zero mosque will usher in global sharia

Authors including themselves in books will forever be the worst thing.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2017 13:23

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

NoNostalgia4Grover posted:

ters around the time Bob got promoted to Mahogany Row/External assets

Thoughts on Delirium Brief: It was interesting to read Stross's feeling about UK government services privatization, and the FYGM mentality of UK politicians;
really could have gone without Stross novelizing his fetishes...again.

While I HOPE Stross's fetishes don't include segmented alien worms hiding in women's vagina's and snapping off dude's dicks I too found the sex stuff tiresome. (I think that's what you were referring to?)

Rough Lobster fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Oct 17, 2017

# ¿ Oct 16, 2017 03:05

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Ramrod Hotshot posted:

- A story set in the medium-distant future on Earth. I guess this is almost by definition cyberpunk. I haven't read much cyberpunk other than the beginning of Neuromancer which seemed kind of goofy and dated, like an 80s flick without the charm. Are there any books with this setting that aren't cyberpunk? I'm much less interested in computers and robots than an exploration of how culture, social conventions, and politics might evolve.

Actually read all of Neuromancer sometime, though.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2017 18:23

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

I reread Chasm City since it's been a few years. drat what a good book. I'm a sucker for stories where the main character slowly unravels his past. (spoilered for plot elements) Makes me want to read Angel Heart again.

How's the rest of the Revelation Space series? This is the only one I've read and at no point did I feel like I was missing stuff, which was nice. Are the other ones suitably stand alone, or is there an overarching plot that ties in? If so, is the overarching plot actually good or does it disappoint?

# ¿ Nov 29, 2017 22:36

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

DACK FAYDEN posted:

Narnia is so hit-or-miss for me. Like, even when I read it for the first time (we're talking single digit age here) I didn't get why they spent fifty pages talking about how they couldn't see the sun undeground and I didn't get why random people were condemned to die when the world ended rather than being saved like their family members

and then suddenly turns out it's Christian apologia and C.S. Lewis actually believed all of that!

but Voyage of the Dawn Treader was fantastic and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was obviously also great.

So I would absolutely have a kid read it but I would also not bother buying them the last three books in the series because man was it ever ham-handed even if I had never smelled a metaphorical pig in my life at that point

I still like the Magician's Nephew too, if only for the imagery of a sweet peaceful wood with dozens of portals to other worlds, Narnia and England being only two of them.

# ¿ Nov 30, 2017 18:35

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

I'm not prepared to call him a racist against like, humans (because lol), but in 95% of instances if you were a fox, weasel, stoat, or rat you were irredeemably evil. I can only remember one time in which a vermin creature turned good and stayed that way

# ¿ Dec 1, 2017 05:25

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

I think Hieronymous Alloy is referring to the fact that it's more of a "jesus war sucks, gently caress glory, I just want to do my time and go home" type of milscifi rather than "gently caress yeah bug hunters lets smash some space commies motherfuckers!" type of milscifi.

I personally wouldn't call it left wing.

e: Old Man's War is really good btw

# ¿ Dec 7, 2017 06:56

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Hahaha, I too have confused Old Man's War (never read it!) with Forever War. So Forever War is the one I should have recommended in my last post.

e: all I had to do was turn my head and look at my bookshelf too

# ¿ Dec 8, 2017 09:48

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

I became aware of just how close Karana's face was to mine. She was beautiful, even though her hair was matted with demon blood. I decided to take my chances and see if she'd favor me with a kiss. I leaned in close...

"I'm sorry," she breathed, face flushing. "You haven't passed this Charisma check."

# ¿ Dec 18, 2017 10:20

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Can anyone recommend some good Harlan Ellison anthologies or collections? The man's written a lot, and I'd like to get the most bang for my buck in two or three purchases.

Also open to novels (I've only ever written his shorter fiction).

# ¿ Jan 3, 2018 23:57

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

Thanks for the recommendations, folks. Looks like they are as varied as I feared. I think I'll scout around and see what's cheap. Either way from your posts it looks like I really can't go wrong.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2018 09:06

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

NoNostalgia4Grover posted:

Echopraxia was outright described in the closing pages of Blindsight.
The best in hindsight thing about Echopraxia for me was Siri Keaton's "normal human friend" from the 1st book being the Doctor Mengele monster/lynch-pin fuckup responsible for unleashing safety-interlocks-disabled vampires back into the world, the solar station transmissions go two ways reveal was my 2nd favorite thing in Echopraxia.

Can you clue me in to the significance of your spoiler? It's been ages since I've read Echopraxia last and I've been as confused as most people each time. Seconding that it's much less focused than some of his other work. And man is that one character who speaks in run-ons ever annoying.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2018 17:27

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

StrixNebulosa posted:

Haha - I think the coolest thing about fandom is that it encourages kids to write. It might be terrible fanfiction, but migod, they're writing. Engaging in the creative process is so important and worthwhile and I'm thrilled that so many teenagers are trying it.

I'll back you up on this. I mean the vast majority of ADULTS I know haven't even read a book in years.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2018 15:44

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 01:13

Rough Lobster: May 27, 2009; Don't be such a squid, bro

GreyjoyBastard posted:

for a moment i confused The Half-Made World with The Gone-Away World and got real excited

You should stay real excited because Harkaway's Gone-Away World is real good and it's good to hear he's got another book out.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2018 19:55

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The Science Fiction and Fantasy Thread: Read the OP, Bridge of Birds, and Murderbot

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