|
House Louse posted:I thought that revelation showed Yag's cultural differences from the New Crobuzoners (there's something similar with the city garuda, and the cactusfolk, I think), though I'm not sure how it ties into the book's other concerns, or his character. Yag's thing was one of my favorite bits. When Isaac decides to stand in judgement over him and took away the possibility of becoming a real(ish) Garuda again, he took an interesting alternative. Yag was, and remained a really bad Garuda. Bad both morally and physically. However, he turned out to be pretty much a big drat hero, or at least big drat anti-hero by criminal/interstitial-human standards, so in the end he decided to live as a human. Almost a happy ending. Sort of.
|
#
¿
Jul 6, 2013 21:59
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 2, 2024 08:09 |
|
|
Iseeyouseemeseeyou posted:
Well, Moon was written before the internet filled up with 15 year old white basement libertarians, so the idea wasn't quite as poisoned as it is with modern sophomores and republicans.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2013 00:13
|
|
I don't know how anybody can enjoy that book
|
02-6611-0142-1 posted:I don't like Heinlein's writing, but I can't dislike him because this letter always makes me go There is another along the same lines. Theodore Sturgeon writes to Heinlein for help with a crippling case of writers block. Heinlein writes back with 26 story ideas, and a check for next months rent. http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/10/help-from-heinlein.html
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2013 02:39
|
|
.
|
muike posted:Hey, I'm in the middle of Mote in God's Eye and I was hoping someone could clear something up for me. There's a whole bunch of weird stuff where the only female character talks about human gender relations and how she thinks very little of women who take birth control pills or whatever. Is this poo poo supposed to be just the way the culture of the Empire is, or are Pournelle and Niven just kinda weird old dudes? Niven and Pournelle are exactly weird old dudes, with a side order of trust-fund libertarianism. Niven inherited oil money. Niven is one of the best at aliens, however writing in Pournelle's boring-rear end universe with both of their one dimensional characters makes for a lot of dullness. Seriously don't bother with the sequel. For my money, Niven's solo-effort at smarter-than-you ancient aliens in "Protector" had a lot more interesting ideas. Wasn't written well either, but it is blessedly short and idea-dense.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 12, 2013 23:24
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:I think you need to warn anyone starting mieville that they're going to find a lot of marxism in the mix. I didn't think so. It certainly doesn't paint capital in a flattering light, but none of it is prescriptive in the usual lovely "everything would be awesome if you chowderheads would vote my way (and by the way, the villain is Rob S. Pierre)" sci-fi. The organizers are portrayed as sympathetically as anybody in the book is....which is not very. So, by "a lot" you mean, "any, at all", and not like it does them any good? Slo-Tek fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Jul 13, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Jul 13, 2013 19:50
|
|
|
Venusian Weasel posted:I had a chance to read a few books here in the last couple weeks. The thing about Clarke, to me is that he had really good ideas that are short-story length. When he was writing short stories they were punchy, interesting, and sent your mind going down interesting paths. But why write 15 short stories, and sell them as one book, when you can write a short story worth of idea lard it up with dull characters having dull thoughts at a novel length tome, then have a ghost write three sequels to your short-story sized idea....Then go back to your back catalog, and re-sell all your old short story ideas as novels too. The Sentinel (what would eventually be larded out into 2001 et. al) was punchy and interesting, and about 15 pages long. Same with Childhood's End, and I'm pretty sure Rama was originally a pretty good short story as well. Pick up a copy of "Tales from the White Hart" if you want some uncut Clarke 50's-ness.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 29, 2013 04:26
|
|
|
Rurik posted:I got Perdido Street Station a few days ago and it's really, really good. The best book I probably read this year. I imagine him as a slightly grizzlier Bunk Moreland from the Wire.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 17, 2013 20:15
|
|
|
Lowly posted:I think it's successful because it's a geeky wish-fulfillment book for guys. My poorly written geekish wish fulfillment for the shy young man choice is the Cross Time Engineer series by Leo Frankowski. Written at about an 8th grade level, with lots of recaps in every volume it is about the Modern Day (circa 1988) engineer transported back to 1300's Poland 10 years before the Mongol invasion. Piled with a number of advantages by his time travelling uncle, and plain old smarter-than-you-ism, he invents steam engines, titty bars, and breech loading cannons, and aircraft. Kills the mongols, becomes the most powerful, beloved, and important person in the history of eternity, and bangs a _lot_ of totally it's ok because it is the middle ages 14 year old girls. And also spends a lot of pages describing a brand new metric system...so if you ever want to know a whole lot more about how somebody else thinks we should count time, or measure bushels of wheat...there you drat go.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2013 01:17
|
|
|
Cardiac posted:Is Redshirts any good? No, pretty clearly an award for having the right enemies. People voting "Thank you for having a good blog, and pushing through new anti-creeper convention policy, and for being the adult in the room when the dirty old creepers pushed back", rather than "I sure am glad I read a one-line joke padded out into a novel, with three codas"
|
|
#
¿
Sep 2, 2013 17:22
|
|
|
Tony Montana posted:Ok sci-fi thread, I really love me some Robert A. Heinlein. Those are pretty much the strong ones. I really like his juveniles. Citizen of the Galaxy and Tunnel in the Sky are both very much of-their-time, but still good reads.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 6, 2013 10:34
|
|
Have Stranger in a Strange Land in the order too, never seen it but apparently it's really good.
|
Stuporstar posted:Can anyone recall any stories that use the premise "man turns out to be a spaceship" or vise versa? Plenty of brain-in-a-jar spaceships, it was A Thing in the 70's. I can't think of all that many that were big reveals. There is a Larry Niven story I liked where he was writing in Fred Saberhagen's Berzerker universe. A formerly-human now-computer-inhabiting AI has beef with a Berzerker. called "A Teardrop Falls" McCaffree's "The Ship Who Sang" is probably the biggest, though unlikely the best. One of the annoyingly formatted and sold John Scalzi shorts also has brain in a jar ships. Slo-Tek fucked around with this message at 06:08 on Nov 10, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Nov 10, 2013 06:05
|
|
|
Did Michael Whelan price himself out of the market? I remember in the 80's he had a pretty strong handle on story-accurate main character portrait against story-not-hosed-up background.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 9, 2014 18:48
|
|
|
Is there anybody who regularly gets called out for their repellant personal/political opinions where it isn't reflected and amplified in their works? An awful lot of Sci-Fi is less exploration of other ways of organizing society and other ways of thinking, and is straight up wish-fulfillment for the author insert. If I'm going to read somebody elses fantasy, I'd prefer it to be somebody who fantasizes about things I like, rather than things I really really don't. The only one I can think of who gets regularly, and I think unjustly, poo poo on is Robert Heinlein. People read a bit of Starship Troopers, and decide he is a fascist dickhole. Or Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and decide he was a libertarian kook, or Stranger, and decide he was a proto-hippy. That he could write plausibly on all of those different ideas on society I think speaks well of him, and it is possible that he'd be ok living in any of those constructed societies, but dude had several, rather than the same one again and again. His own personal work with the socialist End Poverty in California program doesn't reflect any of his big three 'political' books. Some of his writing definitely reflects a somewhat 40's and 50's dirty old man view of the world, but some of it also attempted to explore very different from 40's and 50's ideas on sex and sexuality (also dirty).
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2014 07:05
|
|
|
The Gunslinger posted:Since we're talking Blindsight anyway, some spoilery discussion that has always bothered me: They are small numbers in incredibly important positions. And they are smarter than we are. Presumably vamps run all the security apparatus, so they program/can reprogram the drones, they own the comms network/run the economy. Since they are small in number, it is very likely that most meat-people don't really notice. Siri's dad is connected and in a position to _know things_. But Joe Dole Prole just collecting his food yeast and watching his soap operas? how is he even going to know that the orders are coming directly from the vamps, rather than generated by vamps for humans, then from humans? Point is, it isn't like the vamps said "Hah, silly humans, we are in control now!" they just started changing society through their inherent position and power to better suit them, which means higher birth rates, and humans not in a position to have vamps genocided anymore for not working toward non-vampire ends. It isn't that far-fetched as a plot, it is what a goodly portion of humanity has believed at some level or another forever, that the Illuminati/1%/Jews/Bohemian Grove/etc. are up to some poo poo behind our backs.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 27, 2014 20:34
|
|
|
corn in the bible posted:I've been reading Honor Harrington novels, for whatever reason. At one point, the author just straight up does the teen film thing where she gets a haircut and is suddenly beautiful and everyone wants to get with her 24/7. Also Space France has a revolution led by "Rob S Pierre" and there is an anti-slavery activist called WEB DU HAVEL. David Weber is a goddamn moron You really need to stop, and read C.S. Forester's Hornblower series. It is pretty much the prototype for all angsty self-doubting hypercompetent hero stuff for the last 50 years. It is wet navy, not space navy, but honestly all the chatter about rigging and carronades and the care and feeding of the lower decks is just as good as chatter about hyperdrive shunts and cryo-fuses.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2014 03:43
|
|
|
gatz posted:Are there any sci-fi novels that are about or predict surveillance technology similar to surveillance drones? I seem to remember that there was a fair bit of evading a satellite and drone-based panopticon in "The Man Who Never Missed" by Steve Perry. It is action-adventurey, rather than a deep musing on the subject, but worth reading if you like superpowered rebel assassins against corrupt bureaucracy. 80's vintage.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2014 00:38
|
|
|
David Brin's Existence also deals with a near-future hyper-connected panopticon, but it isn't a very good book.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 17, 2014 01:51
|
|
|
Fried Chicken posted:I always found it very odd that vampires had their own language. They are modified humans, enhanced with a very old package of genes. That weren't pulled from the past with time travel. They should have no distinct culture or language anything. To the extent there ever was a vampire culture and language it died out 10,000 years ago with them. They would be using the mainline culture stuff, at most you would get something akin to gay subculture where they are an offshoot of the main rather than an assimilated distinct group (and even that is iffy given how we are told vampires get along as well as any group of serial killers do - it rapidly descends into violence). If I were waving sci-fi hands about it, I'd suggest that their vampire clickiness allows them to move more information faster. It is a pretty standard sci-fi trope. 'battle languages' and codes and so on. Any ghettoized group is going to generate their own slang and it will evolve into a language, both to enforce group membership, and also to gently caress with the five-oh. Yiddish being the most notable example, but African American Vernacular English is the same idea. Internet shorthands being another example. LOL, GMTA, OMFG, etc.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 25, 2014 21:55
|
|
|
Amberskin posted:Hello, Eh. It's not like they are slow going. But no, I don't think they improve, writing wise. The Plot Thickens, and we discover that the human league, or whatever the gently caress they are called is up to some considerably shady poo poo. Our heroes continue to be dad-joke snarking everymen who just happen to be better at everything. The Human Division ends on an annoying (but very large and set-piece) cliff hanger, which was really annyoing if you were suckered into paying 99c a chapter or whatever it was, but apparently there will be a Human Division: The Divisioning that will continue our exciting tale.
|
|
#
¿
May 16, 2014 21:01
|
|
|
Amberskin posted:Well, I guess my english is not good enough to catch that in the first book. Even when the main character has his faith crisis after killing those lilliputian mini-men just stepping on them, his comrades easily dismiss it, apparently with success since the issue does not come back the rest of the book. Well, the later books do address some of your concerns. As far as the military experience goes...says in the same page that previous military experience don't mean poo poo. Literally inapplicable. Even assuming a colonel had an uncommon grasp of small unit tactics, it would be for weak-rear end baseline humans, fighting against other weak-rear end baseline humans, so he'd be starting from roughly the same place as an ad-guy in terms of dealing with augmented humans against all the weirdness of the universe. And, at least in the initial books, we are dealing with very small squads very low on the strategic totem pole, with very high turnover rates in personnel, on account of the being eaten, so nobody much cares what you knew about soldering 40 years ago on Earth, don't get eaten for 10 years in the Galaxy, and we'll discuss your more relevant experience. The later books also do explore Earth's relationship with the Colonial Union, and it is kinda interesting. Though the mains continue to be smarter than everybody else.
|
|
#
¿
May 16, 2014 23:47
|
|
|
holocaust bloopers posted:Hhmmm alright. So I like Game Of Thrones. Haven't read the books, but am caught up on the show. What fantasy series is up there with GoT that would be worth reading? You specifically after low-magic swords and nobles being lovely and gritty? China Mieville's Bas-Lag stuff is goddamn interesting. It is short of knights and dragons in ye olde pretende europe, and long on cactus-men and puissance. So much puissance.
|
|
#
¿
May 23, 2014 04:36
|
|
|
holocaust bloopers posted:I'm open to trying new genre stuff. I'd give it a shot, it is a bit literary in spots. But full of crazy interesting ideas. Perdido Street Station was his big breakout 'this changes the way we think about fantasy writing' book, but has some first book pacing issues. The Scar is the second in the universe, and I think is a stronger story. I'd probably give PSS a shot, and if you don't love it, then you don't need to read The Scar. But if you do, The Scar is better. There is a China Mieville thread, but it is exceedingly spoilery.
|
|
#
¿
May 23, 2014 04:45
|
|
|
zoux posted:Two books summaries were posted in the GBS "space thread": The High Crusade is a 1960 juvenile written by Poul Anderson that is quite readable. Aliens scouts land on a small hamlet in England and proceed to get their poo poo pushed in by knights in shining armor and stalwart yeomen, who then end up riding back to alien homeworld to set up their own feudal empire among the stars. It is cute and not rapey, which is two hurdles cleared already.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 7, 2014 01:13
|
|
|
Dean of Swing posted:Finished reading Blindsight by Peter Watts. Anyone know some scifi of similar '2spooky4me' caliber. Watts' Rifters/Starfish stuff is considerably Watts-y. Spooky and horrible and everything turns out bad forever-y.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2014 01:45
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Germline is the one with the clone women soldiers? You may also be getting some Ancillary Justice mixed up in there. That has lots of gender ambiguity and ship/brain/zombie weirdness.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 23, 2014 02:00
|
|
|
I didn't hate it. Had some interesting ideas, I read the whole thing. There wasn't anything else on the slate that I liked better for the award. In terms of crap books that get awards for annoying the right people, I think awarding anything to Redshirts was worse.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 3, 2014 00:21
|
|
|
jax posted:The gutterspeak was always amazing, though. Indeed, I've always wished for more opportunities to say "Kill you filthy! Vorga!"
|
|
#
¿
Oct 27, 2014 03:11
|
|
|
Could be when I grew up, but I always liked Micheal Whelan's covers, and having owned a coffee table book of same, I feel like he has to have put a ton more effort into the covers, up to, and including reading the book, which is clearly not the norm. Zoomy spaceships against a Red-Blue binary star is a pretty decent fallback position, I think.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 3, 2014 01:48
|
|
|
Darth Walrus posted:I disagree. It captures Miles's appearance and personality pretty well. I don't hate it, though the colors are all wrong. Should be dress _Greens_ and also, purple spaceships? Probably not that. I don't mind the slightly warped looking dude on the cover with a "I have been caught in the midst of some very deep bullshit and I'm smiling because the alternative is screaming" smile, because it is in keeping with.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 3, 2014 20:33
|
|
.
|
Kraps posted:Is Zoe's Tale just a rehash of The Last Colony, just from Zoe's perspective? I like the series a lot, is it worth delaying getting The Human Division for it? Not in the least. A lot of Human Division is crap too, but it does move the universe forward. Zoes Tale is straight up YA playtime for babies. Does do a little patchwork on some glaring "did you forget something?" loose ends in Last Colony. But you'd have to really want to re-read some 8th grade tween romance and wisecracking. The actual space parts, where you see something you didn't see in Last Colony are spare and undertold.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2014 03:32
|
|
|
If I were a spy scribbling a map, I'd probably go with a stick and balls model. Big circles for big things, small circles for small things, and lines arrows etc. Denoting relationships. Because what shape the harbor is probably doesn't matter, but that these two are connected by a tunnel does, and do on. Kinda like the maps of Bujolds wormhole nexus, or the codex sepheroth.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 14, 2014 19:57
|
|
|
RoboCicero posted:Count me as the one person who disliked Bridge of Birds, but that's because I'm pretty touchy about a dude taking Chinese Mythology 101 and wrapping it up in a Indiana Jones story to sell to audiences looking for their fix of the Ancient Orient. That being said, I can totally see how it's a solid romp of a story for anyone looking for one and who doesn't have similar concerns. I'm not sure I buy that. Don't think that the background was treated with disregard or cheap exoticism, and the actual story was original. Unless we also resolve that you can't write a Viking Adventure without being a Norseman, or tell a Knights in Shining Armor story without some Frankish credentials. I feel like it probably isn't cutting into sales of the Di Gong An too much. Not to say you have to like it. Slo-Tek fucked around with this message at 04:32 on Feb 19, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Feb 19, 2015 04:23
|
|
|
Decius posted:I'm having one issue with the movie: For some reason I imagined Watley as African-American. Which Matt Damon very much isn't. Otherwise it looks really good (which isn't a surprise given Ridley Scott). I just listened to the audiobook the other day, almost certainly should have gone with the print version, because a lot of the list-formatted stuff was really really annoying in a measured speaking tone. As far as the imagined race of our hero, I feel like the entire "Pirate ninjas" section of random goofy guy stuff (also almost certainly more insufferable spoken than as text) was whiter than swim team. Though now I am also cringing at the concept of slightly AAVE inflected narration, to go with the other accented portions for Kapoor and Ng. Slo-Tek fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Jun 9, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Jun 9, 2015 19:02
|
|
|
What is the sci-fi short about the (modified?) giant squid with nukes that decides to hold it's creator nation hostage, and the human negotiator who was also a psycho? Having a hard time finding it, even though there are several "squids in sci-fi" lists on the internet, I'm not finding the one I mean.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2019 22:56
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 2, 2024 08:09 |
|
|
That the one, thanks guys. The article about the Beluga whale in a military harness showing up bothering Norwegian fishing boats rather brought it to mind. Pretty sure surplus biological weapons systems pursuing solo careers is a giant blinking billboard that we are living in a sci-fi dystopia.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2019 23:08
|
|