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Amazing.
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Jul 1, 2014 04:55
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ravenkult posted:Wendig is a loving idiot and loves talking poo poo about selfpub authors and Howey in particular. I don't know about his stances on other things (and quite frankly I can't really bring myself to care about bad things said about self publishing) but that writeup sounded good to me. I mean, I use Amazon a lot but dang that petition really makes me cringe. It's really embarrassing.
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Jul 13, 2014 17:44
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Caerulius posted:The thing that bothered me about it is that an intelligent space ship that can rip holes on space time, interpret a thousand points of view at once, and practically read the thoughts of its crew based in their vital signs, and whose primary purpose is interacting with foreign cultures should probably be better at decoding gender. I enjoyed the book, but the gender thing felt contrived to make it ~unique~. This is the very first time I have seen something concrete about the book besides the gender stuff. Like, I heard a lot of good things about it all over the place but the only thing it seems people would talk about is the gender-language in the book!
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Aug 18, 2014 16:14
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anathenema posted:I think it's like any other fetish: you either get it or you don't. This is probably the best way to describe those books.
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Aug 26, 2014 22:07
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YA has exploded so much these days that it's basically a marketing term more than anything. But that said, to me it's kinda in the same area as self-publishing. I'm sure there's stuff that isn't terrible simply because there's so much of it, but damned if I want to take the time and effort to find it.
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Sep 13, 2014 18:42
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Darth Walrus posted:On the topic of YA, I tend to have a better time selling China Mieville's young adult books to a broader audience. The mega-freaky body-horror stuff and the rather grim and cheerless atmosphere can be major turnoffs, so it's good to have a more friendly and accessible way to give people a taste of that fantastic imagination of his before they dive into the seriously heavy poo poo. On the other hand, The City & The City doesn't have any body horror or whatever and it rules. I usually recommend that as the go-to book for people who want to stick their toe in the Mieville pool.
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Sep 15, 2014 20:47
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Until the Hugo discussion in this thread a little while back literally the only thing I had heard about Ancillary Justice was the gender stuff.
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Oct 3, 2014 00:10
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PupsOfWar posted:Requires Only That You Hate used to be very good at spotlighting cool-but-unheralded writers who are genuinely limited by the male-dominated industry establishment. I would not know about Aliette de Bodard or Yoon Ha Lee if it weren't for her, for instance. One time I clicked her twitter (that is to say the one linked on that blog) when it was still public and saw rants about things like how the Thailand publishing industry is terrible because they publish translations of popular books like Harry Potter instead of publishing works by Thai authors (which is a terrible argument that's made even funnier knowing she was trying to get published during that time). And also a rant about how people who can't speak Thai without an accent should "get the gently caress out of Thailand" Yep.
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Oct 14, 2014 14:48
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I'd pull up the specific article so we could actually talk about it directly but she's taken them all down so oh well. Going from memory her criticisms seemed technically valid but very superficial, written more to generate pageviews from RAGE and CONTROVERSY than anything else. Mountains out of molehills. I recall she was really mad about R Scott Bakker's stuff at one point and admitted she only read 5 pages of one of his books before putting it down (The book in question was his first, which iirc mentions that a rape happened but doesn't go into any detail? I think that's why she hated it). That's not even enough to say anything particularly interesting about the book, you're just screaming in rage if you're going on just a few pages. Like yeah if you find yourself immediately repelled by the author's writing style then sure, by all means put it down and don't look back. But if you want to go into any detail when talking about an author be they good or bad, you kinda have to read at least a little more than that! Srice fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Oct 14, 2014 |
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Oct 14, 2014 20:00
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genghis.khan posted:Well there is some very detailed tentacle rape later on in that trilogy of Bakker's so if she thought there would be more where that came from she was right. Yeah but that feels like she's right more in the stopped clock kind of sense, y'know? (Same in guessing that rape would be handled terribly since it's a fantasy novel; the odds are definitely in your favor on that one)
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Oct 14, 2014 20:33
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neongrey posted:The sff community can't deal with the idea that we should accept Lovecraft was a racist. You can't post in this thread that you don't buy Card or Wright without getting nerds coming out of the woodwork saying that they have done nothing bad enough to warrant individuals choosing not to purchase their books. I am waiting to see what happens when she unprotects. I think regardless of what happens, she is fully entitled to still have a career. That is all. Man I am pretty sure that most of the time the opposite happens in this thread. Like I remember a few people legit wanted someone to write up a list of sci-fi/fantasy authors that shouldn't be supported due to terrible views.
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Oct 15, 2014 01:25
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Heck, I've read stuff by authors who have had shittier attitudes. It'd be possible to convince me to give one of her books a shot but the main reason I'm hesitant is simply because I remember all of her complaints and they were more focused on being mad than actually having anything insightful to say. Just seemed like it boiled down to "this element is in this book and this element is bad, therefore book bad" (but in a much angrier way). Or in other words, basically what Hieronymous Alloy said earlier: Hieronymous Alloy posted:I just have a vague memory of that blog having lots of low-hanging-fruit rage performance articles on subjects like "If you like Tolkien, you're a racist, because orcs are black people and dwarves are Jews," or (and maybe I'm remembering this wrong?) how Paolo Bacigalupi's Wind-up Girl was evil cultural appropriation because Bacigalupi isn't of Thai or East Asian origin. If that's the sort of criticism coming out from someone then it doesn't give me any faith about the quality of their stuff!
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Oct 15, 2014 15:16
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Darth Walrus posted:As mentioned, her criticism can get a bit more nuanced and intelligent than that beneath all the rage (see all the 'yeah, she was actually kind of right about Bakker' posts in this thread), but it's worth remembering that her acrackedmoon persona was a troll in the classic sense, adopting a provocative, confrontational attitude in order to rile up people and get them to reveal very ugly things about themselves and their assumptions. Slating Tolkein may be low-hanging fruit, but the primary purpose was to see who and what came crawling out of the woodwork to defend his tendencies towards racism and sexism and how they decided to do it. Eh, when someone spends that much time like that, the "haha I was just trolling" excuse really rings hollow to me. Plus the Bakker stuff was about him as a person and while yeah he's a weird dude, I'm more interested in hearing criticisms about the work itself! I'd be down for seeing any of her criticism that you do think is legit good though! I never saw any from her but heck, I'm open to the possibility. The internet archive saved all her stuff so it shouldn't be too hard to use it to find any.
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Oct 15, 2014 15:43
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ravenkult posted:Ah yes, I too, create personas in order to attack my peers and accuse them of being racists. With Tumblr making that sort of angry ranting more out there than ever I wonder how many more people are going to be put in a similar position in the next say, 5 or so years.
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Oct 20, 2014 20:44
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It might be crazy but I feel like people gotta do more than just say dumb, misguided things on the internet to be considered a "terrible human being".
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Oct 30, 2014 02:21
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:http://www.literature-map.com/ I put in Haruki Murakami and I think it's closer to a "people who like this author also like" thing than particular writing styles. Not a terrible tool but the goal feels different than intended!
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Nov 1, 2014 00:46
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I forget if I mentioned it last time, but with the revelation that at the time she was an author trying to get published, it made one particular thing she whined about ages ago rather funny; she was really upset that Thai publishers would "publish translated books instead of books by Thai authors". Guess she was really bitter about some early rejections before finally getting published?
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Nov 6, 2014 16:13
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DrProsek posted:
They're what, 200-300ish pages each and has been going on since the 80s? Kinda like Discworld, if Discworld had a lot of humor removed and was written by a creeper. The fact that he's a creeper doesn't bug me since I don't really take personal views into account most of the time but from what little I remember he loves really terrible puns and dang, he aims to be funny but it was actively unfunny which is a pretty big crime when you're writing something meant for laffs Srice fucked around with this message at 01:49 on Nov 30, 2014 |
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Nov 30, 2014 01:47
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Are these all short stories or is that seriously a series that's almost as many pages long as Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus ?
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fritz posted:No, seriously, go read that avclub article, it's not "personal views", it's the actual text of the stories that are creepy as hell. Oh I know the actual text is too.
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Nov 30, 2014 02:33
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RndmCnflct posted:Anyone else feel like the fantasy category on goodreads is a loving joke? Hey now there are also a lot of teens using it! But if you fall outside of those demographics it's tough to get good stuff on it that's for sure.
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Dec 5, 2014 23:11
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Daggerpants posted:I think a Hugo is slightly more recognized by peers in the industry than the best vampire fisting scene of 2014 but I digress. This entire discussion is subjective. My statement wasn't intended to say that greater volume = greater product, only that there are more people that primarily read fantasy would disagree with your statement than would agree. I've tried multiple times to get into Discworld because everyone loving loves Pratchett. Initially I didn't know much about it so I figured I'd start from the beginning and read The Colour of Magic, then I posted here for a suggestion and the masses cried "Oh no don't read that one start with Guards Guards". I did, I liked it better but still not really my cup of tea. Someone suggested I read Roger Zelazny earlier in the thread, I responded that I had tried one of his books and didn't care for it. That being said if someone really thought I should try another title he'd written I'd give it a go. The point i'm trying to make is I don't come into a discussion thread and poo poo all over something as empirical fact when it's entirely subjective. Just say I don't really like book X because blah blah and move on. Although conversely I could just take my own advice and ignore you. Hugos might not have been the best example there because they're kinda a joke for actual quality. Because of how voting works with them it's more about being able to market yourself and having a social media presence that people like, that sorta thing. Plenty of awards can and will be popularity contests too.
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Jan 9, 2015 02:09
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XBenedict posted:I wouldn't normally post this sort of thing, but in this case, there are books of value in the sale, if you have a Kindle. Not a whole lot of interesting stuff up there but if nothing else people should take advantage of snagging Brave New World for cheap if they've never read it.
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Apr 7, 2015 01:31
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Ornamented Death posted:Haha, Wright's "Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus" was disqualified from the Best Novelette category because he self-published it on his website in 2013 and now the various flavors of puppies are losing their poo poo because Scalzi serialized Old Man's War on his blog years before it was formally published, but he still made the Best Novel ballot in 2006. That....sounds like a legit complaint to me?
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Apr 15, 2015 23:04
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Fart of Presto posted:Edit: Are the Gentlemen Bastards #2 and #3 really that bad? I'm currently reading The Lies of Locke Lamora and really enjoying it and would love to read more. People have mixed opinions about those two but I'd say that nearly everyone agrees that the first book is the best by far. What soured me about #3 was that there was a huge delay due to stuff that came up with the author. Which I completely understand, but all the same it's a bit rough when after so many years the end result was a book that felt like its main purpose was setting up plot points for the next book. I think #2 is alright. It's enjoyable, but not as thrilling as the first one.
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Apr 26, 2015 13:35
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The blog Ferretbrain has slowly been attempting to read everything Moorcock over a period of many years, so that might be helpful for finding suggestions. http://ferretbrain.com/themes/59 Reading those articles eventually really shows how utterly convoluted the multiverse stuff in his books can get.
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May 20, 2015 11:01
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When I told a pal about all that Hugo kerfuffle he didn't know about the awards, so I told him how the vote and he said "Oh it's the kid's choice awards but for genre books" and, well, I wish I came up with that.
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May 25, 2015 20:59
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Kalenn Istarion posted:Hunger games isn't sci fi? They have a massive stadium with dynamic weather and significant amounts of genetic mutation; to the point where the bad guy sends mutated animals custom designed with Katniss's friends' faces on them to psych her out. The arenas are surrounded by force fields. I don't get it. Yah sci-fi is a broad umbrella, so much that any argument about a thing not being sci-fi is a bad conversation, imo.
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Jun 12, 2015 14:15
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coyo7e posted:I've been throwing around feelings and ideas and poo poo with friends, and have started to wonder if we should just treat strongly-held beliefs (in terms of employment, equality, etc, etc) like disabilities - if you must be given a role you're unfit to physically/mentally/theologically perform, then you get an assigned caregiver, just like the quadriplegic and autistic guy who used to pick up the recycling bins at my old office. I mean a ton of the peolpe who've been whining about affirmative action want to be considered as special snowflakes so sure, stamp them 
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Jul 4, 2015 15:34
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Magical Realism, is good.
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Jul 25, 2015 21:14
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The Slithery D posted:I always assume the large percentage of SFF fans who are also into anime are in denial about what this indicates for their own buried desires, so they project and furiously attack more obvious manifestations of the things in their other hobby. 
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Jul 26, 2015 17:40
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I've been reading through The Martian as well, and while I like the stranded on Mars stuff the Earth parts really drag and can get real dumb. Like the scene with the strawman media reporter who doesn't understand that there's no air on Mars so the protag can't take off his helmet to pose for a shot.
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Sep 3, 2015 15:45
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It kinda comes off as being written by someone who treats science like a religion, if that makes sense?
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Sep 3, 2015 15:46
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ToxicFrog posted:So I was in the bookstore the other day and decided to see if I could find a copy of The Martian to read the first chapter or so and see if it's something I might enjoy. And I did, and it is, but it took me an unreasonably long time to find it, because it was filed under Literature instead of Science Fiction. That makes it sound more like the spot on the shelf that they put popular books on.
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Sep 10, 2015 01:37
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Any anger over that sort of stuff always comes across as real dumb to because it always comes off as genre folks having one heck of a persecution complex.
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Sep 10, 2015 01:38
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Peel posted:Supernatural romances can't be in the Grumpy Goon Rides A Zombie Dinosaur genre, they're too pandering. lol
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Sep 10, 2015 17:27
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TheWhiteNightmare posted:Is the community so massively starved for drama? What on earth is all this garbage? Outrage culture. Making those anthills into mountains.
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Mar 27, 2016 20:48
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my bony fealty posted:Is Sanderson an author who takes pains to have his magical fantasy explicitly explained and internally consistent? Like it has to follow a well-defined rules system? Not only that but it's not hyperbole to say that a a large chunk of the plot in his books tends to be directly linked to said rules.
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Nov 30, 2017 17:24
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Bhodi posted:I agree, but best if you stop reading the series now or prepare for some disappointment and some really stereotypical gender views "Stereotypical gender views" definitely undersells how hella rapey it gets and how it decides that actually it's really easy to get over the trauma of being violently raped.
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Dec 16, 2017 21:11
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