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Mars4523 posted:This sounds horrendously bad from the Goodreads blurb. Dear god, those character names... Haven't read the series in years, they probably don't stand up at all, but I do remember liking how the series goes completely crazy in the last book and space marines invade magic-land because it turns out Earth had been hunting for the source of magic all along and the mages are all really descended from mages of old that fled persecution. Then it's all mages tanks dragons and SPESH MARINES.
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Aug 3, 2015 19:51
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Centripetal Horse posted:You should be making GBS threads on the Darksword trilogy because the third book was terrible. SPESH MARINES.  neongrey posted:Yeah I read that one too. It was... okay? I think? Not good, but eh. I think it was a bit neat that the main character was mute, but that's probably damning with faint praise. Yeah...that one was enough to convince 13 year old me that the "Death Gate Cycle" (which I loved, as naive fantasy/scifi enraptured youth  ) did not need a sequel.
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Aug 4, 2015 07:19
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Famethrowa posted:I've just been burned too often by disappointing endings No spoilers, I've always thought Vernor Vinge wrote some of the best endings: just the right amount of closure, wrap up, villain getting comeuppance and sequel plot threads unresolved. ...well, except for "Children of the Sky". That book was rubbish.
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Aug 10, 2015 17:24
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Velius posted:This makes me very sad. Admittedly, the way Fire is setup makes a sequel to Deepness impossible, or at least hard to justify, but Vinge is so good that the mediocrity of Children is just depressing. He writes one every five years or so, so a stinker makes the wait pretty long. Maybe "rubbish" was too harsh. I excitedly re-read Fire in anticipation of Children and the writing in Children felt really off by comparison. The plot beats were fine, it was the way the characters were written. It was like they were written way younger than their actual age? I get that most of the human population are children from a sleeper ship raised mostly without adults but even the head lady (can't recall the name) felt like she was written as a preteen. Same goes for the tines as well. It was neat to see how the story progressed, and the book definitely did some cool things to further the concept of the tines but I think everyone wanted more Zones of Thought and outside of a brief scene, that stuff was pushed to the background. What the book sets up for the next book does make me excited for where the story will go next. I just hope the wait isn't as long.
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Aug 14, 2015 16:03
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WarLocke posted:This sounds familiar. Protagonist is a wizard dude with magical tattoos? World was broken up into elemental versions (ie, a 'water world', 'fire world', etc)? I think I read one book of this years ago. Ha ha, yes! Man, these were my favourite books as a teen.  They probably don't stand the test of time. I do remember they had a tendency to over explain the entire setting, leaving little to no mystery by the end of the series, something I hate in my scifi fantasy now.
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Dec 5, 2015 20:12
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Speaking of TV pilots, Syfy put up the full pilot of The Magicians. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T0a2B71qs8 Half way through so far, and the aging up of the cast makes the whole thing seem really weird so far. It feels like we're already at the mid-point of the first book before the story even starts. Also not liking the whole Quintin and gang being the "prophesied" ones. The whole point of the first book is that they weren't special, they just happened to go through the right iteration with Jane, that had the "best" results. There had been others, Quintin and co. just happened to work out and Jane Chatwin didn't know that it was all going to work out in advance. EDIT: Finished and woo-wee are we blasting through plot points. I will say that The Beast is more that suitably creepy. Different than the book but still creepy. Still disliking the prophecy angle, and it has a somewhat different tone than the books, but I'll check out the next episode. Snuffman fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Jan 18, 2016 |
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Jan 17, 2016 23:35
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Man, that was both really really good and super depressing.
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Feb 5, 2016 23:40
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pseudorandom name posted:If y'all want happy fun times you should read The Last Policeman by Ben Winters. I skimmed the wikipedia summary and this sounds right up my alley, very Melancholia-esque. Thanks for the reccomendation! 
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Feb 7, 2016 05:47
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Harrow posted:A friend of mine once lent me The Name of the Wind and I just absolutely could not get into it and never even made it halfway. He and another friend just rave about the series and I felt a bit like it was my fault for not being able to see what was so interesting and never actually finishing the book. I'm feeling a little bit better now that I know I'm not the only one who doesn't see what's so special about it. At the time, I just devoured Name of the Wind, it felt well written enough and I was interested in where I was going. Then I finished the book and realized nothing had actually happened. Not in a first-book-of-the-trilogy sense, but in the "I don't feel like anything actually happened in this story". This was compounded by the sequel, which just spun its wheels plot wise and nothing really did happen. I have no confidence for the last book, but I'm sure I'll read it.  Harrow posted:A friend of mine once lent me The Name of the Wind and I just absolutely could not get into it and never even made it halfway. He and another friend just rave about the series and I felt a bit like it was my fault for not being able to see what was so interesting and never actually finishing the book. I'm feeling a little bit better now that I know I'm not the only one who doesn't see what's so special about it. At the time, I just devoured Name of the Wind, it felt well written enough and I was interested in where I was going. Then I finished the book and realized nothing had actually happened. Not in a first-book-of-the-trilogy sense, but in the "I don't feel like anything actually happened in this story". This was compounded by the sequel, which just spun its wheels plot wise and nothing really did happen. I have no confidence for the last book, but I'm sure I'll read it. Harrow posted:I'm about 20% of the way through The Scar and enjoying it, but poking around for what to read next has me really hyped to read The Fifth Season. I haven't read anything by NK Jemisin except the Amazon preview of that book, but her work seems directly up my alley. I'm a sucker for idiosyncratic narration and shifting points of view, and drat does Jemisin appear to have a gift for language. Langage is a huge thing for me with sci-fi fantasy genre too, especially because the widely recommended stuff is just so clunky and poorly written (I'm looking at you, "Ready Player One" and "The Martian"). Neat enough ideas, but poorly conveyed. If you liked Mieville, you'll probably really like The Fifth Season, so good choice there. I'd also like to toss out a recommendation for Jeff Vandermeer's Ambergris trilogy, which was recommended to me by this very thread when I said I liked Mieville so much (language, weird setting). Snuffman fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Dec 1, 2016 |
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Dec 1, 2016 18:26
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Number Ten Cocks posted:I watched the first season of The Expanse and loved it. What caveats should I be aware of if I start reading the books? How different is the plot, background, characterization? The third book is the bad one, right? Which book will start to outpace/spoil events in the second season? Show is a mish-mash of book 1 and book 2 at the moment. Holden's crew and Millar's story is just past the half way mark of book one as of the end of season 1. Meanwhile, you have Avasarala appearing in Season 1 but she doesn't appear in the books till book 2. So basically, once you're done book 1, you've spoiled a good part of season 2. The plotting and characterization of the show is far better than the books. The books do a better job, obviously, of fleshing out the setting and background. That said, the show has some of the best environmental storytelling I've ever seen in a TV show.
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Feb 10, 2017 17:08
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Remulak posted:Hello all, The Quantum Thief trilogy (Quantum Thief, Fractal Prince, Causal Angel) by Hannu Rajaniemii? I found it to be fun, smart, well written, post-singularity scifi. The last book wasn't quite as good as the first two but still worth a read. Snuffman fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Mar 10, 2017 |
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Mar 10, 2017 22:44
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cowboy elvis posted:Are Expanse 3 and 4 that bad? Like bad enough to read a summary and move on to 5? I'm enjoying book 3 moreso than book 1, so far (halfway through). I like the new characters and the story feels like its actually going somewhere. 
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Mar 13, 2017 19:40
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Baloogan posted:I read vanderemeers trilogy about a haunted lighthouse and the first book was good and crap thereafter. Oh god yes. I enjoyed the first book, slogged through the second and could not get into the third. I swear, I'll try and get through Acceptance one of these days. I absolutely adore the Ambergris books, though. Maybe cause each book is its own thing, that both carries forward the plot and tells its own story in a unique fashion? City of Saints and Madmen was easily one of my top 5 I've read in the last 5 years.
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Mar 30, 2017 17:46
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ringu0 posted:I haven't seen anyone mentioning Vernor Vinge. His two books set in the Zones of Thought universe are very good. There's three books actually, but your quote still works because it wasn't very good.  (Children of the Sky, btw).
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May 2, 2017 18:51
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ringu0 posted:For some reason I thought it was someone else who wrote Children of the Sky, and it was the main reason why I didn't read it. But, yeah, the opinion is it's not worthy of the first two books. Honestly? Thinking back on it I wonder if someone else did ghost-write that one. I did a re-read of Deepness in anticipation of Children, it'd been years since I'd read Deepness and it was just as good as I remembered. Children just felt...off somehow. The characterizations felt less well defined and I recall the leading-lady being really weirdly written, in that she was supposed to be 30-35 but was written like she was a teenager. It was neat to revisit the setting, though. I went searching, and I can't find any word on a sequel. Annoying because Children was very much a middle-of-trilogy book. EDIT: On a totally unrelated note, I noticed my Kindle just downloaded City of Miracles. Been looking forward to that one, even if I didn't think City Of Blades was as good as City of Stairs.
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May 2, 2017 19:21
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There was a short story posted here I'm trying to track down, but I can't remember the name. It starts out as a generic sci-fi space marine ooh-rah romp where Earth is fighting these unknowable lizard aliens. The main character, as he rises through the ranks gets more and more "disassembled". At one point he's just a head piloting a ship (he'll get his body back when the war is over), then just a brain in a jar. The further he moves up the ranks the more the war gets extrapolated further and further to the point where the real war is against these vast intelligences manipulating thousands of species. The main character is now in charge of vast armies, including lizard aliens, fighting a race called humanity. I seem to recall a title like "Only War" or "War!".
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May 3, 2017 23:52
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Snuffman posted:There was a short story posted here I'm trying to track down, but I can't remember the name. occamsnailfile posted:You might be thinking of Scales by Alastair Reynolds. You rock! Snuffman fucked around with this message at 16:45 on May 4, 2017 |
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May 4, 2017 16:41
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Someone posted earlier in the thread about "I Don't Even Own A TV" podcast's takedown of "Ready Player One" and I just wanted to thank you. I listened to their teardown of "Dragons of Autumn Twilight" and it was also very funny. Its a shame they don't do more awful fantasy/scifi but I can see why they don't.
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May 9, 2017 17:06
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Mr Chaos posted:I want to start the third "City of ___" book. I've read the past 2 and really enjoyed them, but I don't know if it's something about the author, but I can't remember the details of the last few chapters of either book. Can someone spoil the ending of them for me so I've got the details down for the third one. Close. The Trickster god merged with another god, trapped in a mirror and was basically bonkers (from being trapped in a mirror and merged). The Ex was part of a cult that knew about the mirror and wanted to bring the god back but I don't think they knew about the other god they'd merged with? With those two gods dead, mirror related miracles stopped working. Also it was revealed that the one remaining goddess is still very much alive but in hiding. quote:City of blades ended with the main character finding a former coworker who everyone thought was dead in the dead world pretending to be the war god? Then she took up the mantle and told the dead to come back home and not conquer earth? Is that right? 100% correct. Snuffman fucked around with this message at 19:54 on May 9, 2017 |
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May 9, 2017 19:49
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C.M. Kruger posted:Anybody got thoughts on Dave Hutchinson's "Europe in Autumn" series? I saw a review on Strange Horizons a while back for the second book and thought it sounded interesting. Just so this doesn't get lost, I'd love to know this too. They sound very "The City and the City"-ish.
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May 23, 2017 17:23
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my bony fealty posted:My fav. is Vinge's galaxy-wide future Usenet that is apparently the #1 way to communicate breaking news I love the Galactic Usenet in Fire Upon the Deep. Connie Willis' Doomsday Book stuck with me, not only because of the cool "trapped in Medieval Times and here comes the Plaque!" storyline but also the  modern day storyline that seems entirely build around the fact that:- Cellphones don't exist in Future-Oxford (I'll give a pass on this one, they weren't a huge thing when the book was published in 1992) - Answering Machines don't exist in Future-Oxford. My memory is hazy but I recall the modern storyline revolving around trying to track down a specific character and they keep missing one another and it all seems weirdly out-of-date for a near-future setting. I give Neuromancer a pass on the RAM size because I imagine its some kind of fancy future-RAM that comes in smaller sizes. EDIT: Seriously though, ignore my complaint cause The Doomsday Book is an awesome time-travel story. Read it! Snuffman fucked around with this message at 23:51 on May 30, 2017 |
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May 30, 2017 23:48
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:It really can be amazing how ludicrously bad Asimov's writing can get when he's trying to write novels. Compare "Nightfall" the short story, which is amazing, possibly the greatest SF short story of all time, with Nightfall the novel, which is actively painful to read. I really liked the short story, one of those stories that really sticks with you, so I'm afraid to ask how they could have possibly spun it out into a full novel.
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Jun 1, 2017 16:58
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Nevvy Z posted:https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=sr_aj?node=6165851011&ajr=0 Thanks for this, I've been wanting to read it after skimming the discussion over the last few pages.
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Jun 14, 2017 19:29
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Wizgot posted:Hey guys. Looking for recommendations. I want SF based on future earth where people live like they are in medieval times but find artifacts like toasters and Ray guns and poo poo. People have recommended the dying earth series to me and book of the new sun. Anything else? "The Fifth Season", sort of? Closer to Post-Apocalyptic, less Dying Earth, "Canticle for Leibowitz"?
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Jul 19, 2017 23:08
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my bony fealty posted:The Endymion books are very 'author writing fanfiction sequel to his own book' and its kind of impressive that they are competent readable novels at all, shame that theyre total garbage. Gotta admit, the crazy suicidal cruciform space-christians, killing themselves with every hyperspace jump and getting resurrected on the other side were pretty cool. Actually...that was the only cool thing that happened in those books.
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Aug 1, 2017 22:04
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TOOT BOOT posted:The explanation for the weird sphynx things in Hyperion was loving terrible. Author sets up a cool mystery and the explanation ends up being that he's a bigot IRL. The Time Tombs? I don't remember the explanation being offensive... They were being sent back in time from a war between the AI TechnoCore and the Outsters/Humans, the Shrike being the tool that whatever faction was present when the tombs open would use to change timeline and win the war. Also the lady ageing in reverse had to be a baby so she could grow up be the messiah's assistant or something. Also the messiah was the to-be-child between the hard-boiled dwarf detective and the AI clone of Jonathan Keats. The only stuff I remember in Hyperion that was ~problematic~ was the weird middle east planet in the Soldier's backstory, that went on a jihaad after the hypergates fell, so they didn't get far. In retrospect, the first two Hyperion books were Dan Simmons brain really broke post 9/11, like a lot of authors. As I understand it, his really offensive stuff shows up in the Illium books and Flashback. The Terror was pretty alright expect for the weird ending. Which had a bit of native fetish-ism in that they were right and know that the ice caps are going to melt from climate change so they use the monster to scare away/eat crews and the one guy stays with the Inuit lady. I didn't find it all that offensive, just weird. Snuffman fucked around with this message at 03:55 on Aug 4, 2017 |
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Aug 4, 2017 03:43
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Neurosis posted:Hannu Rajaniemi's Summerland has been delayed almost a year, until June 28 2018. gently caress! Aww man, I was wondering why I couldn't find it on Amazon after Goodreads told me it was coming out this month. Number Ten Cocks posted:https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/3/16091448/ex-machina-alex-garland-annihilation-jeff-vandermeer-release-date This, on the other hand, is exciting!
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Aug 4, 2017 20:06
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ElGroucho posted:It doesn't figure too much. Iron Council, however, is way too heavy on Marx, even for a straight up leftist like me. I dunno, there was something somewhat satisfying about the element of self awareness (note: I do not mind Marxist stuff) In that the revolutionaries get what they want, they topple the evil government, but that makes everything worse. The true revolution can never reach New Crozubon and must remain trapped in a Time Golem I'd love for him to revisit the Bas-Lag setting, but I understand his reluctance to do so...though apparently "This Census Taker" might be set in the Bas-Lag setting, as some keener eye'd readers than I, have pointed out.
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Sep 22, 2017 22:05
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Cythereal posted:The UED was envisioned as being a bigger deal than it ended up being in the series - it was meant to be a fully fledged fourth race as advanced or more so than the Protoss, but time and money constraints forced the development team to axe all of that and justify the UED using the same units as the regular Terrans plus a couple of new ones as being an expeditionary force specifically equipped with antiquated technology to eliminate the possibility of anyone capturing or reverse-engineering their tech. Sorry to drag BIDEO-JAMES chat into book chat, but where can I read more about this? Found it, here's the article if someone else is curious. Snuffman fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Jul 17, 2018 |
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Jul 17, 2018 18:43
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