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ShutteredIn posted:I'm not seeing it as available on the .com site either. Strange. Neither am I.
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Jun 20, 2013 22:40
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Xik posted:I'm looking for a change of pace from Space Opera, something where the main character(s) are thief's, pirates or something along those lines. If it's fantasy then something where they pick locks, break into rich folk homes etc. If it's science fiction then perhaps ~space pirates~ or something similar to Firefly. I'm honestly not really sure what I'm looking for and am pretty open to suggestions, I'm mostly just after something where the main character goes around robbing poo poo. Can anyone recommend me something? You probably want The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.
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Jun 20, 2013 22:41
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TOOT BOOT posted:What about it is a waste of time if it's well-written? This conversation strikes me as absurd, it's like saying 'The major labels release far too much quality music for me to listen to anything released on an indie.' This is a bad analogy because indie bands still generally sign with record labels, they are just smaller, independent record labels - I mean, that's what 'indie' is short for. If you want to draw that comparison, you need to talk about authors that are printed by small, independent publishers, not self-published authors. It's really loving hard for a musician or band to foot the entire bill to produce their music in a manner analogous to self-published authors because there's a great deal more overhead. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but when someone says "hey check out this indie band" they are almost always going to be talking about someone signed with an independent label.
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Jul 9, 2013 04:35
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Kiernan's short stories are phenomenal and SubPress needs to get off their asses and release her collections as ebooks.
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Jul 20, 2013 02:49
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He's supposed to be working on a sequel, so hopefully he revisits some of the abandoned plot hooks you mentioned. I do agree that the ending fell apart a bit, but drat it was a great journey getting there.
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Jul 26, 2013 03:46
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fritz posted:Oh in other news related to Jemisin, did y'all see that SFWA kicked out Vox Day/Theodore Beale this week? Good.
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Aug 16, 2013 01:59
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General Battuta posted:I've read it, it's real. You can believe in it. I imagine you're under a NDA, but can you make a relative comparison completely devoid of any plot information? Like, "It is as good as the second book," or something?
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Aug 18, 2013 00:27
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Joramun posted:Not really, because history often gets distorted in the telling over the years, decades and centuries, and is always an interpretation of whomever recorded it and passed it along, so history tests probably don't reflect the real history very or entirely accurately. So if you'd go check for yourself what the correct answer is, you'd be correct in terms of the actual history and truth, but still might get an F on the test because is not the "correct" answer according to the answer sheet, due to the history and telling of it getting distorted since the original event happened. You do know that was a Bill & Ted joke, right?
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Aug 18, 2013 12:59
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Apropos of nothing, but I was so excited by the first edition A Darkness at Sethanon I picked up this weekend that I almost missed the fact that the copy of Shadow of a Dark Queen I grabbed was signed by Feist. I almost feel bad for paying a buck each for those. Almost.
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Aug 20, 2013 04:54
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Blog Free or Die posted:^^^How much can you flip it for on ebay, though Probably enough to cover the cost of all the books I bought at the sale, but generally speaking I don't buy books to flip them.
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Aug 21, 2013 05:01
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Datasmurf posted:Oh, and something with elves, where the elves are evil and malign, and again, no D&D or such. I read "The Guardian Cycle" by Julia Gray 11-12 years ago, and it was great and first put me on track for elves that weren't always "good" or "neutral", but just plain evil (like the drow in D&D). You might dig Chris Evans' Iron Elves series.
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Aug 25, 2013 12:48
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Fried Chicken posted:Counter-Counter: Writing is a business, and money and sales can come before the creator's wishes and prohibit them telling the story the way they want. Stephen King being the best example, but there are a few others like Charles Stross, Ken MacLeod, Joe Abercrombie, and Terry Prachett who have later gone back and added books at different points in a particular series to alter the flow of the narrative to make it what they wanted, after initial sales proved successful. I'm not saying your point is (necessarily) wrong, but at least one of your examples is. All of Abercrombie's work matches with regards to publication and internal chronology. I'm also drawing a blank on Stross, but he has more books out so its possible I'm forgetting one.
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Sep 2, 2013 12:26
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Anyone that gets upset over who did or did not win a Hugo is dumb because the award (as it exists today) has less to do with the quality of a book than it does with how well the author can market him- or herself. It's a popularity contest, and that's why someone like Scalzi, with tens of thousands of Twitter followers, wins with a weak book.
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Sep 4, 2013 04:32
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Dark Eden is phenomenal and everyone should read it.
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Sep 4, 2013 23:20
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Fart of Presto posted:I'm not really sure if this fits the thread, but the Kindle edition of Year Zero: A Novel by Rob Reid is on sale at Amazon for $0.99 It's tries to be the Hitchhiker's Guide for millenials and fails. It's an alright read, especially at that price, just don't expect anything approaching Adams.
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Oct 11, 2013 21:50
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:The series about the guy who can't be in sunlight is pretty badass and weird. Same with a few of his other books. Once he got into the dog years though, the quality loving tanked. There was a dog in the Moonlight Bay books. One of Koontz's genetically-engineered super-smart dogs, in fact.
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Oct 15, 2013 04:11
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Or it's worth what you paid 20 years ago. That's also not the Easton Press edition, it was published by Gramercy Press. In fact here it is for <$20. Do your research, guys; don't trust the first eBay auction that shows up.
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Oct 22, 2013 00:57
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field balm posted:I'm looking for some gothic influenced sci fi - as in, inspired by traditional gothic lit and ideas rather than a pulpy space-gothic aesthetic. Philip K Dick is something that comes to mind, but googling just gives me loads of nu-Frankenstein (which makes sense, being both gothic and proto sci fi) and random space vampire poo poo. Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds might be what you're looking for.
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Dec 4, 2013 04:26
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coyo7e posted:Coldfire was interesting however it was pretty far from what I'd consider to be really great writing. The vampire guy was pretty much Sparkly Vampire long before Twilight was a thing, although the backstory on his genesis was darker than I'd expected and the worldbuilding as a whole was pretty interesting. The ending was dumb, too. Dude murdered his whole family to turn into a vampire, then reigns in terror for god only knows how long on the planet, then when things change he gets reborn as a human who looks nothing like he did, so he's free to live a normal life. This post is not very accurate. As far as Tarrant goes, comparing him to vampires in Twilight is pretty unfair; I don't recall Edward making a deal with a woman to feed off of her over the course of a several-months-long journey, and in the process causing enough emotional and psychological trauma that she kills herself literally as freedom is in sight. Regarding the ending, Tarrant is being hunted by that planet's version of Satan because he (Tarrant) broke one of the rules of the pact he made. He outsmarts the devil by letting Gerald Tarrant, the sorcerer, cease to exist and literally becoming someone else. It actually fits perfectly with the character.
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Dec 19, 2013 01:35
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Caustic Chimera posted:Take what you can get I guess? If you do read it, tell me how it was, okay? Its back story for Tarrant. It was alright.
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Dec 19, 2013 18:41
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:I already asked this in the recommendation station, but could someone point me at books similar to Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and More? I blazed through it today and was disappointed to hear he hasn't published more collections. Well there's The Lifecycle of Software Objects.
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Feb 2, 2014 01:33
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^^ SurreptitiousMuffin posted:Has anybody read The Iron Druid Chronicles? Both Goodreads and Amazon keep recommending them to me, but the blurbs are giving me this really creepy quasi-erotica feel and I don't want to buy them if it's some weirdo stealth paranormal 50 Shades of Grey or something. The first three books are decent fun, the next two are garbage, and the sixth starts to move back towards fun but has a lot of ground to make up. The next few posts are probably going to start bitching about the books being full of lolcats, but that is literally two lines in one book so ignore those people. That said, Hearne does love his pop culture references perhaps a bit too much.
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Feb 8, 2014 03:26
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Slo-Tek posted: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. He's concentrating more on gallery work than book covers. He still does a cover occasionally (Words of Radiance has a Whelan cover), though. His covers are always accurate because he won't do a cover for a book he hasn't read, even if it's just an early draft.
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Feb 9, 2014 19:26
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andrew smash posted:Oh yeah? I don't follow this drama particularly, fill us in. It's pretty much the same debate that's been going on since the summer (longer?) with maybe some new names involved.
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Feb 18, 2014 04:48
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Dropping this here because I only found out about it today: Robin Hobb is writing another trilogy about Fitz.
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Mar 4, 2014 02:23
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UK goons, you need to read Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell. Holy poo poo it's good.
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Apr 10, 2014 05:20
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Shameless posted:I'm about halfway through it and you're not wrong. Really enjoying it so far. The narrator has a great voice for the story, it's really quite funny in places. It's the best fantasy book (let alone fantasy debut) that I've read in a while. And good news, apparently he's nearly finished with the sequel and is prepping to send it in for copy editing. Seriously, read Traitor's Blade you English bastards!
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Apr 19, 2014 02:36
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:The only exceptions are when they are completely bigoted asshats, like Card. I'd argue that anyone that organizes a vote drive for Vox Day falls squarely into that category.
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Apr 20, 2014 04:17
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Wolpertinger posted:Maybe I've read too much modern fantasy but The Traitor's Blade was completely not grimdark at all, and while bad stuff happened it was nowhere near torture/misery porn. Despite the bad poo poo that happened it was too idealistic at it's core - it's using a trend common in modern fantasy where everything may have gone to poo poo and be dark, the main characters scrabble to make the world a better place in some way and actually succeed. In a grimdark misery porn book, idealistic characters make no notable difference, possibly make everything worse, and will probably die horribly or have their hopes and dreams crushed. The fact that the idealism of the king and the main characters pays off and is rewarded in the end, even if they struggled to get there, makes me think of it as non grimdark. This is absolutely correct. If we start calling every fantasy book wherein bad things happen grim dark, the term loses whatever marginal utility it currently has and becomes meaningless.
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Apr 22, 2014 21:46
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Neurosis posted:No, the reason I'm not going to stop reading his work is because he writes entertaining stuff, not because his hate speech isn't directed at me, dickhead. Then have the courage to admit that your need to be entertained outweighs any compunction you may have against giving bigots a soapbox, because every single time you pick up one if their books, whether you paid for it or not, you are telling that bigot, "Say whatever hateful poo poo you want, just make sure I'm entertained first." Most authors are not in it for money, they want to share their ideas with you, so reading but not paying for a hatemonger's book doesn't accomplish anything because you are still remaining receptive to some of their ideas. That makes them think you're receptive to all their ideas.
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May 8, 2014 19:51
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Srice posted:But what about cases where said views aren't being worn on the author's sleeve in their works? Not every SFF book is explicitly pushing an author's agenda. Obviously there are a lot of exceptions but it's not a rule that's set in stone. In my view, it has less to do with what any individual work is saying and more to do with the height of the soapbox an author's body of work builds. OSC would be just another loon ranting about gays if he hadn't sold millions of books. But because he has, he gets to spew his vile opinions on any number of prominent outlets.
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May 8, 2014 20:12
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RVProfootballer posted:I guess you don't like the Game of Thrones books? I think in his personal life GRRM isn't in favor of child murder or rape, he just tends to write about things like that. Or is it OK for authors that are decent human beings to write about hateful stuff? Is it only what the author doesn't write about that you're leaving yourself receptive to when you read a book? I don't think you could have missed my point any harder if you tried.
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May 8, 2014 20:20
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Neurosis posted:So, to be morally sound you have to vet every musician, actor, director and producer for distasteful opinions in order to avoid being morally complicit, whether or not it appears in said person's work, because by consuming his or her works you add to his or her fame? No, but once they start using their fame to spread their horrible opinions, you should probably feel morally compelled to stop contributing to that fame. Or keep at it, after all you're only looking for a bit of entertainment, it doesn't matter (to you) where it comes from!
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May 8, 2014 21:49
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Neurosis posted:The harm you allege, even if extant in a given case, is so diffuse and indirect as to be de minimis, so I'm not going to feel bad about reading things I enjoy, sorry. Whatever helps you sleep at night.
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May 9, 2014 12:01
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Neurosis posted:Everyone who has ever read Heart of Darkness should gouge out their eyes because they have read something with offensive opinions. OD has shown me the way. The amusing part of this discussion is that, for a forum dedicated to reading, several people have shown they have absolutely no reading comprehension.
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May 9, 2014 16:05
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coyo7e posted:I'm kind of curious how you would consider any of Correia's work to be Hugo nominee-worthy material. Did he start writing groundbreaking and interesting new fiction? I thought he just wrote about werewolves and ex-Marine Texans with gun fetishes. You know that the nomination process is, in a lot of ways, nothing more than a glorified popularity contest, right? Correia spent a lot of time and effort on a troll campaign to get his book on the list.
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May 16, 2014 22:07
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Fried Chicken posted:Dresden is significantly better than Iron Druid Yeah, it's not even a contest. Rivers of London series? Arguably better than Dresden. The Rook? It certainly has the potential, but you can't pass judgement after only one book. Ditto for London Falling. But the Iron Druid series? Hahahahaha no.
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May 17, 2014 20:35
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regularizer posted:Everyone who gave this series a neutral or bad review is objectively wrong and I can't wait for the next one. I feel like the problem most people have is that they equate weird fiction with horror and while there is a great deal of overlap, especially in the last decade or so, they are still two distinct genres. Vandermeer is writing a weird fiction trilogy, not a horror trilogy; there are certainly parts that are horrifying, because what we find find weird we may also find scary, but his goal is to be weird and I think he's knocking it out of the park.
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May 27, 2014 23:54
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Stravinsky posted:The joke is that anyone would read any part of that and think, yeah this is some great writing and worth my time. I tip my fedora to you, good sir.
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Jun 1, 2014 22:21
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Since people are posting about ARCs they've gotten/are getting, I just found out I'll be getting one for Fool's Assassin.
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Jul 2, 2014 00:52
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