Kopijeger posted:

As for worst book, possibly "The Bear and the Dragon" by Tom Clancy. Aside from the infamous "Japanese sausage" euphemism, it seemed ridiculous how easily Russia allied with the US, how absurdly effective the high-tech cluster bombs were, how Ryan put himself at risk on the cruiser rather than allow himself to be evacuated and how the Chinese government was toppled in a bloodless coup just because they put a camera feed from drones on the internet.

The Vosgian Beast posted:

Doesn't Christopher Tolkien just publish his father's library of old notes?

Tiggum posted:

I don't know this to be true, but I think he actually believed that everyone secretly agreed that incest is fine, it was just some cultural taboo that kept us from saying it. It's a common thing in his books that someone reveals that they're OK with incest and everyone else is shocked at first but then realises that there's actually nothing wrong with it, and I think that's what he thought would or should happen in real life.

bringmyfishback posted:

No; Jubal hooks up with Patty, the tattooed snake lady [or was it Dawn Ardent? Someone in the cult compound.].

At one point, Mike gets all kind of sexy fanmail pictures and Jill makes him throw our the dude ones and tells him that homosexuality is bad. At another point, I think he sees some gay dudes and "groks a wrongness." If I remember correctly, Jubal just says "Eh, people are people" to the idea of homosexuality.

HookedOnChthonics posted:

His son, the perspective character of the back half of the series, studied computer science in 1970s Berkeley and puts together a sentient AI whose physical machinery is a planet-sized maze of obsidian circuitry. It is hinted that the cosmic force backing the hand of alt-Camelot and empowering its royalty is a much, much more advanced expression of that basic idea.

Wiggy Marie posted:

For a new contribution (sorry if I missed it), a friend and I hateread the Caine Black Knife series by Matthew Woodring Stover. The first book in the series has an...interesting premise, in that the main characters are Actors who phase into an alternate fantasy-style dimension in order to play out fantasy characters for TV shows back here in reality, where evil Jew producers and SS-style police are the enemy.

This series is hilariously over the top and gets worse as it goes. The violence is excessive in a desperate bid to make it intense, and it comes across as silly. The main character, Hari, is known as the assassin Caine in the TV series, and is the most awesome assassin to ever grace the pages, according to Stover. He's an honorable type of assassin, so he tells you, in stupid painful detail, why he's killing you as you die. Hari/Caine's main enemy in the fantasy dimension is Mael'Koth, who actually is in love with him and builds a giant statue of Caine's face from hundreds of clay bodies of other people. Because Caine is the sum of humanity you see. Mael'Koth eventually ends up as God (not a god, God) of this dimension. This is a bit of a theme.

Characters muse on how they've never been hit as hard as they were by Caine's awesome fists. His life philosophies are so incredibly deep that a religion is started called Cainism. He gets a back injury which paralyzes him from the waist down, which he wills away by his Caine-style awesomeness. He's raped by a lady but it's ok because she's a lady and you can't rape a dude, guys.

I won't even get into how the women are characterized. Suffice to say "poorly." They are ALL bitches who want Caine. His female love interest, Pallas Ril, becomes a god by falling into a river. She is also a bitch. Also you're either beautiful or covered in disgusting warts, you whore.

A HUNGRY MOUTH posted:

Scruffy the Janitor saying, "She walks in beauty, like a pile of rocks and critters," before purposefully licking his fingertip and turning the page of his nudie magazine.

Wheat Loaf posted:

(Anno Dracula is the only "sequel" to Dracula one really needs.)

Tunicate posted:

Nah, it was offsite. Don't recall other details, except the caricature was a malfunctioning transsexual battletank that everyone hated or something.

BioEnchanted posted:

I like to think that they did consult actual historians and got trolled really hard, like they were Zim and the historians were the Tallest:

"That seems a little unlikely..."
"It's not unlikely! It's ~meticulously researched~ :iamafag:"

A Pinball Wizard posted:

Weren't they like 50% of the Sad Puppies too?

outlier posted:

This is a good opportunity to recommend the not-terrible (but pretty odd) "The Last Ringbearer" by Kirill Eskov, which is what happens when a Russian evolutionary biologist reads Lord of the Rings and says, "huh, I just can't understand the economic system or geology of Middle Earth". It assumes that LotR is basically propaganda by the winners, Mordor is a nascent industrial society, the West are superstitious Luddites being lorded over by an oligarchy of wizards and scheming elves.

It's a bit stiff (understandable given the translation from Russian) and wonky in parts but surprisingly entertaining.

Nckdictator posted:

Also, guess who published the book? Theodore "Vox 'huge rear end in a top hat' Day" Beale.

muscles like this! posted:

I started to read the book but didn't get very far. IIRC there wasn't really much to the whole thing as Custer didn't realize he was dead/ever conversed with the Native guy. It was just the Native guy had a bizarre stream of consciousness ramble of Custer's thoughts in his head.

Klaus88 posted:

I'm grateful society has moved past making movies out of Michael Crichton books. Even if Jurassic park was more entertaining as a movie then as a book.

A Pinball Wizard posted:

9/11 broke some people's brains in a way they never recovered from. See also Orson Scott Card and that guy that draws the aardvark comic.

The Iron Rose posted:

Haha. Reading the winning entry and then Watts' was a pretty big hoot.

Link, for the lazy:

https://seat14c.com/future_ideas/37D

grittyreboot posted:

A terrible hot take on a classic book:

https://fee.org/articles/the-leftist-apparitions-who-terrorized-scrooge-for-money/

Whybird posted:

I genuinely can't tell whether or not she means this as a criticism of it.

Winter Stormer posted:

*10,000 words about how actually the 'Eye of the Needle' was just a gate in Jerusalem that was a bit tricky to negotiate with a fully laden camel and therefore it's just tricky for a rich man to get into Heaven, not, heh, impossible, like the loony left would have you believe*

Cornwind Evil posted:

He takes them off when he becomes Captain Amazing.

Tunicate posted:

even his bad stuff was still pretty good


my favorite short story of his is unicorn variations, because the entire story is a mashup of elements written so he could get paid for the same story in four different themed anthologies

BravestOfTheLamps posted:

Screaming Idiot posted:

maybe she wanted some snus but didn't wanna risk jaw cancer

muscles like this! posted:

Yeah, I was going to say, it reads like a bad parody of Sandman Slim.

Zamboni Rodeo posted:

This feels like it belongs here. Do yourself a favor and click through to the thread itself.

https://twitter.com/erinscafe/status/1088958995677638656

AlbieQuirky posted:

Mr. Stirling (above) is called Stephen Michael, he is originally Canadian and now lives in New Mexico, and to the best of my knowledge was raised mildly Anglican.

I think you can blame Harry Turtledove rather than Joseph Smith for his fascination with brokedown North America.

SUPERMAN'S GAL PAL posted:

There’s a group that’s breaking down The Mists of Avalon; never read that series nor gotten into the reviews (das sporking does ridiculous indepth work, with the community founder spending 6+ years breaking down Twilight) but apparently Marion Zimmer-Bradley was a pedophilia apologist who covered up abuse by her husband and just wrote a lot of NOPE that influenced a lot of fantasy work going forward. Every time terrible books get on the subject of super-creepy relationships I wonder how much this series influenced/upheld an already hosed up power structure in fantasy and pagan lit circles.

chitoryu12 posted:

I actually had an idea for an RPG campaign set in the Harry Potter universe, but based around street kids in 1970s New York. Basically The Warriors with magic.

Pastry of the Year posted:

I've got to thank you for this recommendation; this thread has been an incredibly satisfying read (so much so that I've neglected my duties a bit!) and I'm nowhere near finished with it.

The Let's Read for Unintended Consequences sounds grand, but I ended up discovering it was in Archives and I'm dang sure not spending any money on the site (nor am I asking anyone to, either; I am spoiled for choice w/ good reads right now).

I did discover yesterday that there's an in-group term for that genre of fiction that basically exists to congratulate fretting white supremacists and doomsday preppers: SHTF Fiction. And there is a god damned lot of it.

Djeser posted:

Yeah that could have been a perfectly average Piers Anthony book title.

Arivia posted:

oh is sanderson going to have to step in after another fantasy author dies before finishing their epic

Groovelord Neato posted:

Game of Thrones cut out a major character from the books whose actions probably would make the same ending make sense in the books.

uvar posted:

It's not accidental or particularly subtle; the author describes it as "a nod to the late Arthur C. Clarke". I left it out because my description was already cluttered enough, but the AI is named Jason (JCN - two letters on from HAL, after IBM) and recites a nursery rhyme in its last conversation.

Honestly, now I'm thinking about it again, it's basically a slasher-film version of 2001, complete with the girl-versus-killer faceoff at the climax (she's in her late 30s but thinks she's 19 due to the amnesia) and dumbass cliffhanger. Maybe I'm being too harsh just because it's not what I wanted it to be.