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I like them both; they hit different notes despite the similarities but yea I liked Wexler more. New Powder Mage book out soon (or within the past month). I think he's got a lot of potential for growth as a writer so looking forward to it
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Mar 12, 2017 03:15
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I don't read much sci-fi. But I just saw kong, there was a preview for Alien Covenant before, and Congo was on when I get home. What should I read for that exploration, action-y, big monsters vibe?
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Mar 14, 2017 00:50
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Blastedhellscape posted:When I read the Black Company and Dread Empire books, Glenn Cook’s prose always seemed wildly inconsistent to. Those books sort of lurch from chapters that have really poignant moments and read as really polished, to chapters that read like they’re just barebones rough drafts. His short stories are a bit better. And then there are the company's wizards. Who primarily use their magic for pranks. I kind of want to re read the series just because the fantasy India poo poo and everything else toward the end is so weird and different but I find the journal entry style to be dull and routine
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Mar 18, 2017 18:04
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Nevvy Z posted:So do the greatcoats get better or just sort of stay the same because I'm like three chapters in the first one and it's so incredibly mediocre I didn't enjoy it and didn't get much of a "musketeers" vibe from it. None of the characters were interesting, the setting was generic, and the great coat itself is incredibly lame for how often it's a key item
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Mar 23, 2017 11:36
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Finished the third Rogues of the Republic book, the Paladin Caper last night. It was okay. Honestly the first one is the only one I really enjoyed because it went with a stronger humor vibe and it had a good heist/con job/oceans eleven vibe. The other two were more straight forward save-the-world fantasy.
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Apr 4, 2017 11:54
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coyo7e posted:I went all the way down the rabbit hole that is B.V. Larson's Undying Mercenaries series because it turns out that he wrote five more since I forgot about how bad they were. It's got the standard progression where the protagonist levels up to a new rank each book, and I'm proud to say that there actually is a female character who he never has sex with (it was in Metal World - the commander of the other mercenary troops.) I really like the basic concept of "alien overlords force every world to have one unique export- earth's is war" but literally everything else about the series is bad. I only read the first two but yea, obnoxious characters and loads of obligatory (even tho it shouldn't be!) weird military sci fi sex
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Apr 29, 2017 17:26
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I remember when that story was first shared in this topic, pretty cool story. One passage I really liked was about how they were eventually fighting the war on a purely theoretical level or something along those lines
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May 4, 2017 00:21
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Yes we know, literary quality
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May 6, 2017 17:09
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ToxicFrog posted:I read the first two of those (and the first short story collection) earlier this year, and I'm still not sure what I think about them or whether I'll go back to them. Like, the situations they find themselves in, and their solutions to those situations, are often hilarious, but the characters themselves are a group of terminally unfunny assholes who probably deserve to spend several books being hosed around by a vengeful wizard god, and that drags it down pretty heavily for me. Yea, I also found the protagonists really obnoxious but it was still fairly funny overall. I would like to see a similar stab at the concept but have the protagonists take full advantage of their meta knowledge "in game", to poke fun at tabletop tropes. Break the economy, abuse rules loopholes, etc. dumb stuff like the commoner rail gun or whatever
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May 7, 2017 22:47
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Portal fantasy; I remember reading "Orcs!" when I was in high school. The orcs open up a portal to our world and get their hands on military weapons and a soldier who trains them, then they wreck the elves using machine guns and Huey helicopters. I stopped reading because there was some unnecessarily long and explicit orc on orc sex scenes. I stopped reading fantasy for several years after that The other one is "Caverns of Socrates" by Mckiernan, which is about a group of rpg gamers who test out a virtual reality version of their game and get trapped in it. Not at all like a litrpg with stat blocks or whatever. I really want this to come out on ebook cause I'm curious to re read it but I don't want to get a physical copy (I move a lot so I'm big on no clutter)
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May 8, 2017 23:49
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Velius posted:It's actually "Grunts!" by Mary Gentle. It was actually pretty decent as a genre parody. The premise isn't that a portal opens to our world exactly, but rather that a Dragon hoarded treasures from various worlds it accessed by portals. In its stash are a bunch of M-16s, marine uniforms and other gear - All cursed to make those who loot them take up traits of the former owners or something. The overarching joke being that Orks aren't very different from marines. Oh yea that's right. I mean, it was funny, to be fair, I just got weirded out. How did the human end up in their world? Did they summon him?
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May 9, 2017 01:22
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ShinsoBEAM! posted:I still got to read this book some day if only for it's great description. Don't smoke demon weed, friends
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May 9, 2017 10:15
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Actually you break things down to simple, easy step by step processes to facilitate learning and memorization. I think that's not unique to the military.
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May 14, 2017 22:47
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Sounds like repairman jack. Rugged libertarian hero who is completely off the grid; not even a ssn or bank account. Decided to become, essentially, a gun for hire as a teen after he secretly killed the punks that were ruining his neighbor's yard. I wouldn't have minded all that rubbish but the plot itself was utterly dull and the monster he was hunting was not interesting. I didn't finish the first book.
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May 30, 2017 02:47
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The dragon stuff would be cool if, like the other magic/supernatural stuff, we got to see how this completely changes everyone's perception of the world and their beliefs. I mean, we get some of that, with people worshipping Dany and flocking to her cause, but we also get some unnecessarily detailed descriptions of diarrhea
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Jul 4, 2017 23:15
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PLease don't engage with NTC my friends. Check the rap sheet, nod to yourself in understanding, and just keep scrolling On topic though, I finished the most recent Shadow Campaign book, not realizing the next isn't out until 2018. gently caress, it really ended on a cliffhanger.
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Aug 5, 2017 22:08
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NoneMoreNegative posted:What did I read last year where magic was controlled by swallowing a small sample of a pure metal, different metal for different power? That was light fun, though obv. not enough for me to remember the title California Bones was going to be my guess before I noticed your edit has the answer. More of an urban fantasy book; people use fossils for magic.
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Aug 22, 2017 03:21
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MockingQuantum posted:I didn't listen, and I tried reading Ready Player One despite all the negative opinions I've seen. I don't get the appeal of the book, and I think I'm gonna drop it about half way through. I've had people tell me it's great if you get the references or love 80's culture, and both of those things are true of me, but it's just not a good book. Oftentimes the references feel like they're there to meet a quota. One dimensional characters and a pretty bare story don't help. I'm on the "wasn't impressed" bandwagon as well but I have to say the first movie trailer was kind of interesting.
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Aug 23, 2017 19:50
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I finished the fourth Johannes Cabal book last night. Was not impressed, it essentially took some loose plot threads from the previous books and tightened them up to set the stage for the next book. I did like book one and three but I don’t know if I’ll continue with the series.
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Nov 12, 2017 21:02
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Finished reading Tantamount which was centered around Spelljammer esque “sail ships in space”. Always liked the concept even though I’ve never played a Spelljammer game and this is the first book I’ve read that uses the principle. The plot centers around the crew of the titular merchant ship who get caught up in a war between two planets. I liked it but there were two incredibly obnoxious characters who fought every time they were together. Now I’ve started Gemmell’s Legend and I’m finding it’s old school flavor incredibly refreshing after a lot of darker, more complex modern fantasy I’ve read recently
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Jan 16, 2018 01:25
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Strom Cuzewon posted:The books also did the thing where they summon the reincarnation of an ancient and legendary heroine, and their first act with her is to go and join the circus. I will forever look upon it with nostalgic fondness because it was the first fantasy I read after LOTR as a kid but I never read the last three books and I probably never well.
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Oct 3, 2018 16:18
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Wow I fell behind by six months on this thread because I just haven’t been reading much sff. I just finished The Aching God by Mike Shel. I picked it up because multiple reviews likened it to a D&D adventure, which I agree with, in a good way. Meaning it’s fairly self contained and focused on a small group of characters going on a macguffin quest without any sprawling plot lines and overbearing world building/magic system minutiae. The general synopsis is the protagonist is a former adventurer who comes out of retirement for “one last mission” for an adventuring league to return an artifact to an ancient temple. It’s a quick read, very direct without many tangents or sidetracking. Again, no tedium with the world building, just what’s relevant and what is presented I enjoyed; you see how the empire is crumbling from within through corruption and you learn about the ancient, demon and dead god worshipping civilization whose ruins the party is delving. It can be violent, without getting grimdark, but overall there is a positive tone and sense of camaraderie. There are some well written scenes of tension and gloom that really impressed me. I will say that despite the small cast not all are as well fleshed out as the protagonist, who is, refreshingly, a rather insightful, polite, and even mindful person. Looks like it’ll be a trilogy but this story is self contained and I believe the next book just features some minor characters doing their own thing (not sure when it will release). Definitely recommend for anyone looking for a quick read or anyone who’s tired of hearing about “the next GoT!” FastestGunAlive fucked around with this message at 07:32 on Feb 13, 2019 |
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Feb 13, 2019 07:08
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branedotorg posted:I liked it and read it but it wasn't the deepest thing - it didn't leave a huge impression even, it is the one about dungeon crawling in a huge post magic continent from a previous civilisation? Sounds about right although I think it’s all in the same continent. I mean yea, it’s not reinventing the genre or doing anything brand new, it is very much a casual read which is what I’ve been looking for recently
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Feb 14, 2019 01:13
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Looked up the author and learned the last book in that trilogy is titled 90 Trillion Fausts
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Feb 17, 2019 20:03
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Finished Below by Lee Gaiteri. Reading the afterword, he cites Rogue as his primary influence, along with Nethack and DCSS. Thought that was interesting. (It’s not a litrpg, just a dungeon crawl.) Basic premise is this world has massive underground ruins of a long dead civilization that adventurers delve. The protagonist is a small time thief who has never been to the ruins but is trying to sell a fake treasure map so he can go clean. A crimelord, unaware the map is a fake, takes it and forces him to come on the expedition. I thought it was good and delivered what I’ve been after recently: a stand-alone fantasy adventure. No attempts to reinvent the genre or launch a massive series
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Feb 24, 2019 19:15
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