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Leper Residue posted:I finished Fire Upon the Deep a few days ago, and really enjoyed it. If what I enjoyed most of it was the interaction of humans with an entirely alien society (the way they move, think, behave as individuals and groups) and that it really focused on the aliens themselves as 'people,' would I enjoy A Deepness in the Sky? Pham Nuwen really didn't do much for me in the book but if it's got more crazy alien stuff than I can put up with him. Or any other books that do it. You'll love Deepness, the Spiders are just as strange and well thought out. If you want more Tines, there's the direct sequel to Deepness: "Children of the Sky". No one really does aliens as good as Vinge, the closest I've come across were the aliens in Blindsight.
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Jun 22, 2013 20:03
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General Battuta posted:You aren't wrong about any of that, but I just don't think there's much value to found in a purely subjective hugbox discussion. 'I liked it. Sorry to hear you didn't! Have you tried X? May I recommend Y?' makes for a much less interesting forums thread than real critical engagement. Which, I know, I should try to present an exemplar of; I've just finished Connie Willis' alternately frustrating and brilliant Blackout/All Clear and want to do a post about it. I liked the history part of The Doomsday Book but the "modern future" part of the story verged on absurd. Do they not have answering machines or voicemail in the future? From what I recall the entire modern day storyline was people trying to track down other people and missing phone calls. I mean, yeah, the book was written in 1993 but answering machines were pretty ubiquitous at that point. But the middle ages stuff? Solid.
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Jul 10, 2013 02:15
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Slo-Tek posted: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. And maybe I totally mis-read Iron Council, but I found it fairly satisfying that all the way through the book the dissidents go on and on about how much better New Crozubon will be when they're in control but after they kill the mayor, things get significantly worse. Not stating that "yeah, the rebels were WRONG, the old guard were AWESOME" but that "Yeah, the rebels just don't have any idea where to go once they achieved their goals and civil change doesn't happen overnight I really want him to write another Bas-Lag book in the style of The Scar, exploring all the weird corners of Bas-Lag. Railsea did scratch that itch really well though. God, I loved Railsea. Totally unrelated to China Mieville: I'm almost done Felix Gillman's "Rise of Ransom City". Not quite as good as "Half-Made World" but still a really good Western-style fantasy. Has there been any word on the third book? As I understand it, Gillman was aiming for a trilogy. Snuffman fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Jul 13, 2013 |
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Jul 13, 2013 20:16
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mdemone posted:You know, it's somebody's actual job to put together these book covers. Sometimes I wonder just how much they're getting paid. Man, that cover is tragic. The paperback copy I have had a pretty good cover. I love James Morrow, he's like a preachy Douglas Adams. I'm still waiting for his books to go ebook, I've been meaning to read "Towing Jehova".
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Jul 17, 2013 15:20
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So is Felix Gillman going to write any more stories in the "Half Made World" setting? I just finished "Rise of Ransom City" and I liked it (wasn't as good as Half-Made) but I still feel like I've missed something. Half Made World teased the super weapon the Folk promised the general to beat the Gun and the Line, Rise seemed to resolve this in the background with Harry simply relaying that the forces of the Republic have something "like" the Ransom process that can kill both Gun and Engine but we never really finish Creedmore or Liv's story. I mean, their stories finish but they all seem to happen off screen. The story finishes the saga of The Gun and The Line but it feels so drat unsatisfying. Please tell me he has another book planned. I really like the setting. 
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Aug 2, 2013 00:27
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Vinterstum posted:Then again I have a weakness for SF novels set in cyberspace/VR, and unfortunately good ones are hard to come by post-Gibson. Otherland was decent enough, but too drawn out and had a weak ending. Stephenson's are probably as close as it gets. Actually that reminds me, I really liked Otherland (I had the same complaints though, one book too long and the ending was weak). Is Tad Williams' fantasy stuff on par or better?
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Aug 30, 2013 15:11
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Fart of Presto posted:It seems like The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is on sale for $0.99 at all ebook retailers according to Random House (select eBook format for links to Amazon, iBooks, Google Play etc.) Amazon isn't reflecting the sale yet... Perhaps it'll be up later? I hope so, I really want to read that book and 0.99 is impossible to beat. Snuffman fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Sep 18, 2013 |
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Sep 18, 2013 00:45
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So I just finished "Inverted World" by Christopher Priest and I really really liked it. I just loved how the strange setting was revealed layer by layer. I know Priest also wrote "The Prestige", I guess what I'm asking is where do I go next with him? Is "The Prestige" a good next stepping stone?
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Nov 12, 2013 05:04
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fookolt posted:I'm very excited for Jeff VanderMeer's new series. Excited (already preordered the ebook) but somewhat apprehensive? Apparently the series going to be released sort of episodically over this year? I'm interested to see how that works. That reminds me I still need to read Veniss Underground. Is Wonderbook worth checking out? I know it's more of a writers guide.
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Jan 15, 2014 17:31
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Still excited for The Magician's Land.  (I did really like The Magicians and The Magician King, though).
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May 24, 2014 02:27
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Sorry, just to direct briefly back to the Gene Woolfe chat: If I loved "Book of the New Sun" and "Fifth Head of Cerberus", will like enjoy "Lands Across"? The premise sounds like something I'd enjoy... For the record, I also liked Ghormengast, so I don't mind my prose dense.
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Jul 13, 2014 04:03
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Revelation 2-13 posted:Hey sci-fi/fantasy discussing goons. I'm coming off a three year university stint where I've read a million non-fiction books and haven't had time to read for pleasure/leisure at all, I'm looking for a recommendation for either fantasy or sci-fi to read, and I was hoping some of you geniuses might be able to help. Sounds like we have very similar tastes (loved the Hyperion Cantos and Gene Wolfe). I'll echo what others are saying, check out Jeff Vandermeer's Ambergris trilogy, China Mieville (start with Perdido Street Station). I'm reading the last book in Jean Le Flambleur trilogy and absolutely loving it. I'll throw in a vote for that trilogy (Quantum Thief, Fractal Prince, Causal Angel). Hannu Rajaniemi's post singularity solar system definitely feels like something Gene Wolfe would write.
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Oct 26, 2014 21:50
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Grimwall posted:Everyone here loves this book. The Auri novella has torn apart the Rothfuss thread apart! 
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Dec 23, 2014 23:06
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Smeef posted:Dunno if it's been brought up in this thread (checked a few pages back), but Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem is phenomenal and only recently released in English. Best sci-fi I've read in as long as I can remember, and one of the best books I've read in recent memory. So, and I don’t mean this in the offensive sense, sell it to me. Why is it so good? Is the translation good? Most importantly: What's it about?
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Dec 28, 2014 04:44
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Speaking of Paolo Bacigalupi, has there been any word of him writing something that isn't a tween book? I loved The Windup Girl and Pump Six and I'm super bummed that all he's done lately are tween books.
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Jan 6, 2015 21:01
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Just finished City of Stairs and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I guess I still like it. I started out loving it, the setting was pretty novel and well realized and l liked the characters at first (  Sigrud ) but somewhere around the end of the book I just kind of...lost interest?Shara turns into a Harry-Potter-spell-slinging-Deus-Ex-Machina with her miracles. "Oh no!, how will we get out of this one? OH! I KNOW A MIRACLE THAT WILL RESOLVE THIS!". I get that she's the most learned person regarding the history of the continent, but it was a bit much at the end. I also wasn't a huge fan of the ending. I get that it started as a standalone book, so I suppose its to be expected that everything is wrapped up neatly, but I like SOME mystery still left in my fantasy-scifi-trash. Vernor Vinge is still the master of the good-ending (ignoring "Children of the Sky", which was rubbish). I'm kind of curious where the author can take the setting, since everything wrapped up so neatly. I suppose delving into the one remaining mystery where the Divinities come from. Also, more of a nag why the hell didn't Shara open the briefcases as soon as she got them? You're trying to solve the murder and here's closest you have to a lead and you IGNORE it until its convenient? I suppose she's being loyal to her Aunt and Saypur, but I just didn't buy it. . I was all excited at first, cause I loved the setting, mystery and characters. Not happy with how it turned out.
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Jan 21, 2015 16:43
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Trampus posted:I read the Death Gate Cycle books a bunch of times too. Let me know if they're any better. Ohhhhh....I remember loving the Death Gate books when I was a teenager. I don't think I could read them now for fear of ruining my rose tinted glasses and seeing how awful they really are.  I do remember the various elemental worlds and magic system being really creative (moreso than Dragonlance). I also remember everything being over explained in footnotes and essays at the end of each book. I've grown to prefer ambiguity in my sci fi fantasy. Yeah no. I'll leave the Deathgate Cycle and Dragonlance to nostalgia and memory. Didn't Weis and Hickman have another series where everyone was mages, and to be born without magic was to be born dead? Deathsword? I remember it ending with them being invaded by the armies of the "dead" space marines from Earth with laser rifles and such. Ahh...memories.
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Jan 28, 2015 05:53
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There was that one cool scene where the Space Pope is going to die and the priests kill him again so they can get the Pope they want. That sounded dumb but I remember it being cool. And the FTL ships that killed the crew every time they jumped.
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Feb 8, 2015 19:46
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Mister Kingdom posted:I guess I'm the only one who liked them. True, they weren't as good as Hyperion, but they weren't as bad as some would have you believe. I just hated how the story went and retroactively ruined a lot of the cool established aspects of the setting via unreliable narrator. I did like seeing the Hegemony post-collapse through a 
Snuffman fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Feb 9, 2015 |
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Feb 9, 2015 15:09
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Slavvy posted:And Neuromancer + sequels. Those books read like an 80's movie script. They're still making a Neuromancer movie! I'm pretty sure Vincenzo Natali of Cube, Cypher and Splice fame, is directing still. If you've seen Cypher, you will believe!  Cypher is a good cyberpunk/spy movie.
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Feb 13, 2015 02:05
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systran posted:I'm sure there is a Chinese novel somewhere about knights in a not-quite-England setting, and they probably get all kinds of poo poo 'wrong', but if the plot is good and the world feels real, does it matter at all? If anything, seeing another culture not familiar with Christian theology inadvertently mixing it with their own cultural standards is interesting to read. Not a novel, but I'm playing through Valkryia Chronicles (steam sale woo!), and it's the NOT-European WW2 fronts through a bizarre anime lense. Its utterly surreal and quite refreshing. But yeah, not a book. Early in, and I get the feeling the NOT-Jews (ohhhh...its there!) aspect might become somewhat...what's the tumblr word? Problematic. EDIT: Sorry for not reading books. Neil Gaiman's new short story collection is p.good so far! I've always thought Gaiman was a better short story author than full novel writer. I did like Neverwhere and American Gods, but his short story collections always stuck with me moreso.
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Feb 20, 2015 02:10
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Prop Wash posted:That said, Kameron Hurley does not like Gaiman's use of the term trigger warning and although my brain is telling me she's right, I just can't bring myself to care about misuse of the term "trigger warning." Oh! I like this! For the record: No problem with the title of the short story collection. Or the intro, even. I feel like article and Gaimen are getting it right. I agree with both. "Trigger Warning" is a coop-ed term. Rape? War and serious trauma? Certainly a thing. 100%, no disagreement. SERIOUS trauma can warrant a warning.. Tumblr (forgive me, it's not just tumblr but a subset of the Internet) has decided that ANYTHING disagreeable (spiders, poor font choice, bad html, for example) is worthy of a "trigger warning". That's what Neil is touching on in his intro. That dumb poo poo is being "tagged". He fears a world where people avoid stories and literature that might "trigger" them. A Harrison Bergerac world. He argues that the average person needs trauma (in the form of a scary story, perhaps?) and that fiction is a "safe space". Is that not what fiction is? A place where one, through the hands of a skilled writer, experience something one might not experience? Even if extremely unpleasant? It's safe...I mean. You can stop reading. Should you be warned? Is the onus on the writer to warn you of anything you might find traumatic? The article says Neil is disrespecting the term, but I think it misses the point: the "internet" disrespects the term. Is Neil wrong for pointing this out, in his trivializing of the term? I don't think so. Someone has to point this out. The article and Neil are ships passing in the night. They're both right. Snuffman fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Feb 20, 2015 |
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Feb 20, 2015 05:25
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anilEhilated posted:Would that be this one? Anyway, could someone put nametags on the people above? The only one I recognized is Miéville. He looks so huggable in this picture, like someone's friendly grandpa! 
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Feb 25, 2015 20:22
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:I also added The Windup Girl, as I've read good things about it (I know it's not exactly what I described, but I think she'll like it) As much as I loved the story and setting, the brutal and graphic rape scene mid way through the book always makes Windup Girl a tricky recommendation.
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Mar 3, 2015 14:51
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:She's looking for: It's a bit longer than the requested length but I think "Jonathan Strange and Mr.Norrell" by Suzannah Clarke hits all the other request marks. Edit: also sans strong female protagonist...sorry. Snuffman fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Mar 3, 2015 |
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Mar 3, 2015 15:39
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Iron Lung posted:I think this is the right thread, has anyone read the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer? I read a few articles about them and got really excited so I picked up the first one and was just unimpressed. I get what it was going for, I just really didn't care at any point while I was reading it what was happening. Is the rest of the trilogy worth it or should I just move on? Preface: I have not read the last book. I loved Vandermeer's Ambergris trilogy and the Southern Reach sounded amazing. In practice, not so much. I feel like he was going overboard on the ~mystery~ without revealing anything. I get it, I really do. Whatever the audience can come up with in their mind is probably scarier than anything he can put to paper, but he pushed it waaay too far with the mundane-but-slightly-off atmosphere (I'm thinking more of the second book here). The second book will not grab you if the first book doesn't. For the record, I preferred the first book. EDIT: Ok...I'll give you, the scene at the end of Authority where the zone suddenly expands was pretty cool but what a slog that book was. Acceptance is better? Snuffman fucked around with this message at 15:40 on Mar 5, 2015 |
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Mar 5, 2015 15:38
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General Battuta posted:Acceptance was cool because it didn't go for 'whatever you can come up with in your head will be better', it actually managed to answer a number of core questions in interesting ways that didn't deflate the tension. It was also a lot less emotionally detached than the first two books in the trilogy. Well! Now I guess I have to read Acceptance, seeing as it addresses my complaints. Pshh, I was going to read it anyway eventually. 
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Mar 5, 2015 17:22
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BigRed0427 posted:I recently finished the audiobook of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I enjoyed it. Does the series keep the quality up as it goes along? Anything I should know if I want to keep going? Stick with just Hitchhiker's and Restaurant. Maybe "Life"...but the series goes downhill "Life" onwards. I stand by this.
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Mar 30, 2015 00:24
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fritz posted:#GaimanGate Awesome.  I'm about to finish Trigger Warning and I definitely didn't like it as much as his other short story collections.
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Apr 1, 2015 15:35
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General Battuta posted:Some pseudonyms are purely for market purposes, and exist only to fool bookstore algorithms! Everyone knows Mira Grant is Seanan McGuire, for instance. Also to trick unwary book buyers. When I worked in a bookstore, I noticed how all the authors shelved near or around Dan Brown suddenly had covers that looked eerily similar to the DaVinci Code. Also known at the video store "Transmorphers" effect. 
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Apr 20, 2015 22:31
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Hedrigall posted:http://www.tor.com/blogs/2015/04/cover-reveal-all-the-birds-charlie-jane-anders Huh...that DOES sound really interesting. Definitely getting a Magicians vibe from the description.
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Apr 21, 2015 15:27
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Speaking of Ebook availability, I noticed James Morrow's stuff is available finally! I loved "This is How The World Ends" and "Only Begotten Daughter". So excited to finally read "Towing Jehovah". 
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May 14, 2015 02:01
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Autonomous Monster posted:(I know I shouldn't, but I got hung up on picking apart the trailer trying to work out how closely it followed the text. Not a lot, I think?) Looks like it followed the text pretty well? Except for the headmaster being Simon from Battlestar Galactica. And Brakebills looking like a "real" university. I always pictured it as a Victorian-style sprawling mansion, but I've been known to mis-read things. I unno, I'm pretty excited? Speaking of book-to-screen adaptations, the BBC production of "Johnathan Strange and Mr.Norrell" is cpmpletely spot on and amazing so far. Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of the book. Snuffman fucked around with this message at 02:35 on May 19, 2015 |
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May 19, 2015 02:30
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Alhazred posted:Just finished The Iron Dragon's Daughter. Have to say that after reading Harry Potter it was refreshing to read about students at a magical university that are more concerned about loving and doing drugs than saving the world. It was also kinda neat how it showed that living in an eldritch society would probably suck (the prom queen is burned for example). Is this book still not available as an ebook anywhere? The sequel is, but the original book eludes me. I really don't want another physical book, and really really would prefer an ebook. Also, read The Magicians. Similar idea. I liked it.
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May 22, 2015 00:06
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Benny the Snake posted:I've been making the rounds on the Urban Fantasy thread and right now I'm growing restless in the genre. I would really appreciate some really good contemporary cyberpunk. For reference, I'm a huge fan of Daniel O'Malley's "The Rook", American Gods, and the Rivers of London Series. I know they're two disparate genres but if I can get something within the same tone or feel, it'd be really awesome. Any recommendations? Thanks a bunch. "The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi Very cyber-punk but more focused on the modern concerns of climate change, bio-modification and genetic manipulation gone wild. EDIT: Oooohhh shiiiit...I just noticed my Kindle downloaded "The Water Knife". Hows that for a coincidence!
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May 26, 2015 14:56
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syphon posted:If you're referring to the character I think you are (Julia, the victim of said rape), the storyline for that particular character moves forward dramatically in book 3, particularly at the ending of the series. For the record, I loved The Magicians, the entire series, but the resolution to the plot point you mentioned Julia's rape was one of the weakest points of The Magician's Land. I was psyched by the twist when Azmodeus got the knife to kill a god at the end of the heist. The resolution being entirely "off screen" and Julia offhandedly mentioning, yeah Reynard got what was coming to him.. Major cop out. The weakest part of the last book, which I otherwise felt finished off the series quite nicely. Excited for the TV series, sure to disappoint. The Magicians is not a series for everyone.
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Jun 3, 2015 03:19
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Coca Koala posted:The first book explicitly lays this out; at graduation, the Dean takes everybody into the basement and basically says that you become an adult when you learn that wishing doesn't make it so. "Tell me this: can a man who can cast a spell every really grow up?" Excellent point about the Dean. Quentin notices this about the Dean too when he returns to Breakbills as a teacher in the Magician King.
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Jun 4, 2015 17:04
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Rusty posted:I haven't seen anything like that in Kindle or iBooks. Kobo's certainly have them.
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Jun 7, 2015 15:06
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XBenedict posted:In other news, Shrike. An "event" (mini series?) series is the best way to adapt this. Man...it films itself, each episode is a character telling their story. Then it all falls apart for season 2.
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Jun 11, 2015 02:35
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I'm in the mood for some super-dense Scifi-Fantasy Lit so where do I go next with Gene Wolfe? I love "Book of the New Sun" and "Fifth Head of Cerberus". Clearly, there's a lot of his stuff I haven't read. I've heard mixed things about his newer stuff, is "Lands Across" any good? The idea of a Gene-Wolfe not-spy-he-is-a-spy story appeals to me and the description sounds very "The City and The City". Feel free to steer me towards his stuff I haven't mentioned too! The guy is a prolific author. EDIT: Wooooaaaahhh...he's got a new book coming out in October! "A Borrowed Man". Amazon Sez posted:It is perhaps a hundred years in the future, our civilization is gone, and another is in place in North America, but it retains many familiar things and structures. Although the population is now small, there is advanced technology, there are robots, and there are clones. Emphasis mine. Oh, Gene.
Snuffman fucked around with this message at 19:03 on Jul 24, 2015 |
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Jul 24, 2015 18:55
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