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Get into the van and don't ask questions
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Mar 23, 2024 23:59
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thotsky posted:Where to start with "New Weird"? For Mieville you should probably start with Perdido Street Station though I personally slightly prefer The Scar. I don't know VanderMeer's New Weird work as well. Annihilation and its two sequels are great but came after the New Weird moment and feel different to me, so although I haven't read either of these, I'd guess probably City of Saints and Madmen and then, for short fiction, probably Jeff and Ann VanderMeer's anthology The New Weird.
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Mar 24, 2024 00:01
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Zorak of Michigan posted:I found Into the Drowning Deep engaging but ultimately frustrating. Various characters make a lot of bad choices, and while any individual instance can be explained by ignorance, greed, or other commonplace human failings, the story requires a lot of people to make bad choices all at once, and eventually it interfered with my suspension of disbelief. Yeah.. I think the novella had this problem but even worse.
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Mar 24, 2024 00:02
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you see this list general? https://fivebooks.com/best-books/the-best-science-fantasy-vajra-chandrasekera/
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Mar 24, 2024 00:06
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I had not, thank you.
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Mar 24, 2024 00:10
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thotsky posted:Where to start with "New Weird"? Steph Swainston's Castle series is pretty good once you've exhaused Mieville and VanderMeer
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Mar 24, 2024 00:43
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This week I have finished one book and added like 10 from this thread to my To Read list 
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Mar 24, 2024 01:10
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Lex Talionis posted:Kind of like cyberpunk with Gibson and Sterling, there were other authors vaguely associated but I think most of the hype around "New Weird" really was powered by two authors: China Mieville and Jeff VanderMeer. If you like what they're doing, you can follow up with deeper cuts like Steph Swainston and whatnot. I didn't like Mieville, but I did like the Control videogame and would like to explore some stuff in that vein without going to SCPs or Charles Stross.
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Mar 24, 2024 01:21
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thotsky posted:I didn't like Mieville, but I did like the Control videogame and would like to explore some stuff in that vein without going to SCPs or Charles Stross. Just read Annhilation and even more especially Authority, the sequel, which is about as close to control as it gets IMO
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Mar 24, 2024 01:22
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Tarnop posted:This week I have finished one book and added like 10 from this thread to my To Read list always be building your backlog. i always think i have done this too much and then i end up finishing a series and not wanting to read anything in my first 50 unread. and then one i bought from this thread in 2021 makes me go, well HMM and suddenly I'm 5 books in to a new author. #trustthesystem
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Mar 24, 2024 02:00
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No TBR list has ever gotten shorter.
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Mar 24, 2024 02:02
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thotsky posted:Where to start with "New Weird"? If you want to get a sense of what this genre niche is doing and where it came from, I can't recommend this essay, "Nothing Beside Remains: A History of the New Weird," by Jonathan McCalmont enough.
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Mar 24, 2024 03:33
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do you folks write your list down. mine is always incomplete because I forget to add every book I want to read to it and when I decide to start a new book half the time I forget to even check the list anyway
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Mar 24, 2024 03:46
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I use goodreads, my to-read list is around 850+ at the moment. Plus I have lots of graphic novels/comic collections on there, audiobooks too, it could be over 1000 but I'm keeping off some later volumes for after I start a series. One thing that's funny is re-ordering the list at this point takes a minute to load, and you have to do it on the webpage. The app won't even let you mess with re-ordering it. I do enjoy tinkering with it.
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Mar 24, 2024 03:48
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I add books to my wishlist for my Kobo ereader and then forget about them until pradmer posts a sale and I check if anything they posted is on my wishlist.
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Mar 24, 2024 03:50
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cptn_dr posted:I'm reading My Brother's Keeper at the moment, Tim Powers' latest. It's about the Brontë siblings and werewolf hunters, it's... Not as good as Declare, by any stretch of the imagination, but it's pretty fun if you like Regency literature and/or werewolves. Please tell me the Brontë book contains references to Glass Town, Gondal and Angria and I'll snap it up immediately. And I agree. Actually I think Last Call was better than Declare by some distance.
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Mar 24, 2024 03:59
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Thanks to this thread by Kindle purchase history looks like the stereotypical goon Steam account. Quite possibly more books than I can read in this lifetime, and all of the ones I wasn’t sure about were purchased on sale, because Iove books and want to support authors but just am not rich enough to randomly buy full-price books. Can somebody that knows publishing talk about royalties for on-sale Kindle books? Please tell me it’s not a Columbia Record Club scam where sure, you get 12 CDs for a dollar but the artists don’t get paid ever because it’s ‘promotional’. Yes, I am old to remember that, yet young enough to never be held accountable because I was too young to engage in a contract to buy a record a month. And I got the Clash’s first album from a discount page of that record club and it loving changed my life.
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Mar 24, 2024 04:05
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That's cool to hear. I'm a Ramones guy myself, I can relate to the musical journey there.
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Mar 24, 2024 04:17
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Remulak posted:Can somebody that knows publishing talk about royalties for on-sale Kindle books? Please tell me it’s not a Columbia Record Club scam where sure, you get 12 CDs for a dollar but the artists don’t get paid ever because it’s ‘promotional’. I will preface this with trad pub probably has a different deal because they (the Big 5 or whatever number it was back then) all cut private agency deals with Amazon when they launched. So what I am about to say will apply to trad pub, but in all likelihood less restrictively, like how trad pub books in Kindle Unlimited don’t have to be exclusive to Amazon. Anyway the big thing was moving to an agency arrangement where instead of specifying a RRP and then offering Amazon a wholesale discount (which is still how print copies work), Amazon wanted none of that. They wanted publishers to set the price and then they take an agent’s cut. This means the publisher controls pricing, and when you get a drop in the pricing, everybody gets paid less, but you’re betting that you make more sales to make up for the drop in price and get people who were on the fence about the book to give it a shot. Remulak posted:Thanks to this thread by Kindle purchase history looks like the stereotypical goon Steam account. Quite possibly more books than I can read in this lifetime, and all of the ones I wasn’t sure about were purchased on sale, because Iove books and want to support authors but just am not rich enough to randomly buy full-price books. You can always try requesting it through your local library. The extra visibility at your library helps authors because who knows who might stumble across their book and also they actually get paid more by libraries for ebooks via OverDrive, etc.
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Mar 24, 2024 06:34
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Yaoi Gagarin posted:do you folks write your list down. mine is always incomplete because I forget to add every book I want to read to it and when I decide to start a new book half the time I forget to even check the list anyway I use a Word doc with headings and subheadings. Sites like goodreads have never been able to make reliably good recommendations for me, this thread has a way higher hit rate, so I'd rather keep everything local rather than face the inevitable day when the site goes down or suffers terminal enshittification.
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Mar 24, 2024 07:07
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Hobnob posted:Please tell me the Brontë book contains references to Glass Town, Gondal and Angria and I'll snap it up immediately. Not sure if you're into graphic novels but if you are you should check out DIE
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Mar 24, 2024 09:00
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thotsky posted:Where to start with "New Weird"? You’ve got good recs already but I’d also push the anthology, The Weird, edited by Jeff and Ann Vandermeer. It’s sort of their case for a broad, wide ranging definition of the genre, not just the New Weird, which fits into what Jeff was angling for in that McCalmont article. Moreover though, it’s just a massive and brilliant anthology with pieces from about a hundred authors. One of those books that can spin you off into exploring the works of your new favourite authors very easily. Also Michael Cisco, he’s brilliant and considerably more out there than Vandermeer or Mieville. His The Narrator could be a good place to start. Had the trappings of a military fantasy but considerably stranger.
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Mar 24, 2024 09:24
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tiniestacorn posted:If you want to get a sense of what this genre niche is doing and where it came from, I can't recommend this essay, "Nothing Beside Remains: A History of the New Weird," by Jonathan McCalmont enough. This is a pro click, thank you.
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Mar 24, 2024 12:01
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I don't think I've seen In Ascension mentioned here any time recently, but I recently read and enjoyed this take on first contact with a very unknowable something. It's a very reflective piece that isn't easy with answers for what's going on, but I thought it did a good job of being a complete story by the end. And it's beautifully written, really one of the most pleasurable things to read I've read in a while.
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Mar 24, 2024 12:49
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GhastlyBizness posted:You’ve got good recs already but I’d also push the anthology, The Weird, edited by Jeff and Ann Vandermeer. It’s sort of their case for a broad, wide ranging definition of the genre, not just the New Weird, which fits into what Jeff was angling for in that McCalmont article. Yeah, the Narrator is weird. I like it a lot but I had to focus more on everything and pay a lot more deliberate attention than with Mieville or Vandermeer. Would highly recommend but I found it harder than either of those authors.
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Mar 24, 2024 13:17
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When it comes to new weird, you gotta mention the Viriconium stories by M. John Harrison as a very good precursor to the genre.
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Mar 24, 2024 15:54
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Ravenfood posted:Yeah, the Narrator is weird. I like it a lot but I had to focus more on everything and pay a lot more deliberate attention than with Mieville or Vandermeer. Would highly recommend but I found it harder than either of those authors. Completely accurate, Cisco’s a more ‘difficult’ and consciously experimental author than either, by some margin. And tbh The Narrator is considerably more conventional than works of his like Unlanguage (which rules but is more horror) or The Great Lover. I’d also say that The Narrator gave me strong Viriconium vibes in its approach to voice and worldbuilding.
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Mar 24, 2024 16:55
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What you would consider a good entrance point to Cisco? Looking at my reader, it seems I've bought The Divinity Student a long time ago and never got to reading it, is that a good start?
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Mar 24, 2024 17:09
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anilEhilated posted:What you would consider a good entrance point to Cisco? Looking at my reader, it seems I've bought The Divinity Student a long time ago and never got to reading it, is that a good start? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco_certifications
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Mar 24, 2024 17:12
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The Aeronaut's Windlass (Cinder Spires #1) by Jim Butcher - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TY3ZKFY/ Dust (Silo #3) by Hugh Howey - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088TCNVGJ/
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Mar 24, 2024 17:22
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anilEhilated posted:What you would consider a good entrance point to Cisco? Looking at my reader, it seems I've bought The Divinity Student a long time ago and never got to reading it, is that a good start? The Divinity Student is good, gives a good idea of his style, but it's his first novel so is maybe a little shaggier. Worth a look but I'd probably recommend The Narrator (Vandermeer wrote some high praise here: https://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2011/01/06/seven-views-of-michael-ciscos-the-narrator/) or The Tyrant as a starting point. I've also heard high praise for his covid-era short story collection, Antisocieties though I've not read it myself.
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Mar 24, 2024 18:08
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General Battuta posted:I had not, thank you. drat look at you up there with Susanna Clarke. Could not be prouder to know you even as slightly as posters on this forum know each other.
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Mar 24, 2024 18:37
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Read the first couple of pages of Last Call and yup, this is the poo poo. Thanks! Another request for suggestions: I've been really enjoying the video game Pacific Drive, where you drive a station wagon through the pacific northwest of the USA with a kind of Stalker / Annihiliation vibe with all anomalies and weird hazards and science and that. I like the southern reach trilogy a lot and spent a weekend once totally obsessed with Mystery Flesh Pit National Park, so I guess I really like stories about navigating through fantastical worlds in kind of a mundane way? Any good recommendations?
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Mar 24, 2024 21:48
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occluded posted:I guess I really like stories about navigating through fantastical worlds in kind of a mundane way? Any good recommendations? It's not 100% there, but the Blackwing series has some of this? Most of the time its urban fantasy noir pastiche in an early gunpowder era realm. But, the big wizard slap fight in the background blew a huge The Zone style wound in reality, and they have to go mess around in it and try not to die messily a few times per book, including an extended sequence as the opener for the first book. Kind of airport pulp, but first thing I'm dredging up that isn't 'read roadside picnic again'
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Mar 24, 2024 21:58
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Ceebees posted:It's not 100% there, but the Blackwing series has some of this? Most of the time its urban fantasy noir pastiche in an early gunpowder era realm. But, the big wizard slap fight in the background blew a huge The Zone style wound in reality, and they have to go mess around in it and try not to die messily a few times per book, including an extended sequence as the opener for the first book. oh yeah, i quite liked those although they are of the 'world is falling apart and everything is getting worse' sub genre of fantasy (RJ Barker-esque). Have you read the Redwinter ones?
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Mar 24, 2024 22:08
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No, I hadn't, thanks for the heads up. I'll definitely grab those if I see them on sale, at least.
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Mar 24, 2024 22:18
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occluded posted:Read the first couple of pages of Last Call and yup, this is the poo poo. Thanks! Jack Vance - The Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel's Saga. May not be the original one man's adventure through a strange land but still amazing. Kameron Hurley - The Stars Are Legion. Has an extended section in the middle where they explore the inside of a planet that should fit the bill.
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Mar 24, 2024 23:35
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occluded posted:Read the first couple of pages of Last Call and yup, this is the poo poo. Thanks! The Wolf Road doesn’t get mentioned here much but might fit the bill; it’s about a girl fighting her way through a post apocalyptic Pacific Northwest. Solid prose.
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Mar 24, 2024 23:40
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I dearly wish reading Roadside Picnic would scratch that STALKER itch, but it’s mostly Being Sad And Russian And a Scumbag and less about exploring the weird place.
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Mar 24, 2024 23:55
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occluded posted:stories about navigating through fantastical worlds in kind of a mundane way? Any good recommendations? All of Simon Stalenhag's narrative artbooks have this vibe, but particularly The Electric State.
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Mar 25, 2024 00:23
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