|
I just finished the 2nd in Becky Chamber's "Wayfarers" series, "A Closed and Common Orbit". It was...fine? I liked it less than book 1, and less than "A Psalm for the Wild Built" and "A Prayer for the Crown Shy". I was much more interested in Jane 23's story than Sidra's. Sidra's just felt a little...whiney? She just kind of mopes around for a while. Also kind of hard to square the "AI aren't people in this universe" thing with "constantly mopey robot". I also felt that there was some big stuff that was either unexplained, or hand wavey. Jane turned into Pepper? How? When? Why? What was that like? Jane breaks into that tower for the fuel and meets Blue and then suddenly he's giving her fuel and it's just...fine? I just came off reading most of the Murderbot series (up till Network Effect), and this Becky Chambers book felt a bit soft at the edges in comparison.
|
#
¿
Jun 18, 2023 15:38
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 8, 2024 21:32 |
|
|
Kestral posted:Started in on the Silo books after being frustrated with the excruciating pace of the show, and... I think I might like the show better? The show does not resemble the books in any way beyond stealing some names to attach to people who are completely different characters, and the vague concept of "there is a Silo, people are in it and don't know why, and if you get sent outside you're dead" - if I was a fan of the books, I would be furious about this, because it doesn't seem to have any respect for the books. On the other hand, the show conveys the claustrophic feel of this closed society so, so much better than the first book does, and its characters feel and sound like people (even if they are terribly frustrating people, I'm looking at you Juliette), and the experience of the story isn't being held up by Hunger Games-tier prose. I read the first Silo book a while back and it ruined my faith in Amazon reviews permanently.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 19, 2023 05:33
|
|
|
Groke posted:Actually a popular opinion in here already. Hell, people were saying the same thing on rec.arts.sf.written back in the 90s. That's how I discovered them. As a huge Aubrey-Maturin fan (if my username hadn’t given that away) who hasn’t heard this argument before I’m extremely curious.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 22, 2023 01:45
|
|
|
ulmont posted:Read Babel. The interesting bit in Babel is how magic relates to colonialism, which is given a fairy sophisticated portrayal. Annoyingly, there is now a tool for judging reading level called “Hemingway”. Seems that his work is judged to be between 4th and 6th grade level tho.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 22, 2023 17:33
|
|
|
I thought old man’s war is a decently imaginative and unique take on military sci fi, in an extremely frothy and non-serious way. It’s a perfectly fine, forgettable read. Kaiju was really bad though.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 26, 2023 01:19
|
|
|
I will confess that I got in a twitter spat with scalzi once and it ended amicably with him venmoing me a dollar.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 26, 2023 01:39
|
|
|
I liked Ancillary Justice. The emperor at war with their own strands of consciousness was neat. There are books that are popular, and there are books that are high quality. Popularity gets mistaken for quality. I think the Expanse series is medium, quality wise, but they're extremely accessible and extremely popular. I think Andy Weir ranges from medium quality to bad (The Martian medium, PHM bad), but he attracts legions of fans. The Bobiverse books are terrible (IMO), but are frequently recommended to people who like Weir and the Expanse. Blindsight is high quality, but it's not particularly accessible. I think The Forever War is less accessible as well, but frequently held up as a sci fi classic. The broadly popular works can lead people into the higher quality ones, hopefully.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 29, 2023 16:05
|
|
|
Khizan posted:I feel like fake swearing in books is almost always a bad choice. Either the cadence is off so it doesn't sound like an expletive, the meaning is off so it doesn't actually sound like it's actual swearing, or it's a frak/frell/frag/etc type thing that mostly draws attention to the fact that you're not actually swearing. I’m so sick of fantasy characters going “Saints!” when they’re upset. Becky Chambers “Stars!” is kinda grating also.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 2, 2023 04:11
|
|
|
Everyone posted:I thought "frak" worked pretty well in BSG because you could actually conjugate it like "gently caress." "Were you frakkin' her?" It worked a lot better than "felgercarb" "storming" or "karabast." “Feth” from the Gaunt’s Ghosts 40k novels almost works, but it doesn’t have enough consonants
|
|
#
¿
Jul 2, 2023 04:15
|
|
|
eXXon posted:I think I'm going to quit on the Goblin Emperor halfway through. It reminds me of the godawful second Imperial Radch book (Ancillary Sword) which inexplicably turned a compelling main character and space opera plot into Victorian household drama. I'm not really sure what the appeal is here because there are better slice-of-life stories (Monk and Robot), light historical fantasy (Guy Gabriel Kay must have written at least one unexpected inheritance novel), inheritance stories with actual relevant fantasy elements (Inheritance Trilogy), so I guess the confluence thereof is what swayed reviewers? FWIW I liked the sequels better. They are only tangentially related to the Goblin Emperor, and definitely less household intrigue stuff.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 3, 2023 03:10
|
|
|
Kalman posted:Best thing Stephenson ever wrote. This is one of the few Stephenson books I haven’t read, purchased
|
|
#
¿
Jul 4, 2023 01:15
|
|
|
StumblyWumbly posted:Hmm, both these reviews can't be right... After the protagonist describes riding his bike through an intersection in Boston: quote:“Pedestrians and winos applauded. A young six-digit lawyer, hardly old enough to shave, cruised up from ten cars back and shouted out his electric sunroof that I really had balls. I said, “Tell me something I didn’t know, you loving android from Hell.”” I feel like Elon musk would think this book is really cool
|
|
#
¿
Jul 4, 2023 06:24
|
|
|
My hold for "Temeraire" finally came up so I abandoned Zodiac for it. I really love the Aubrey-Maturin series, and I love speculative fiction so this is like crack to me. English navy + dragons? gently caress yes. I'm regretting not putting holds on all the books. I'm speeding through this one and then I'm going to have to wait a long time to read the sequels.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 5, 2023 16:46
|
|
|
A Proper Uppercut posted:Like the Dune books, stop reading if you are no longer enjoying them. They won't get better. But they are good up until whatever point that is for you. At what point in the series did that happen for you? I guess that is true of most series. In the aforementioned Aubrey-Maturin the quality definitely declines as Patrick O’Brian got older and then died, leaving the last book unfinished. I still enjoy them, but they last five or so are definitely not as good.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 5, 2023 19:06
|
|
|
I know we just did a Scalzi thing, but how the gently caress
|
|
#
¿
Jul 6, 2023 14:43
|
|
|
Beachcomber posted:Nona was just so, so, frustrating to me. All I wanted was Gideon back. And more Harrow. The series is ascending in frustration. Gideon was a bit confusing, Harrow more confusing, Nona very confusing. I love the universe and the characters and I'm along for the ride, but man.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 6, 2023 22:01
|
|
|
tima posted:Every new book + a reread makes previous books better though, so there is that. I hosed up when Nona came out and just read it and was confused. Next time I’ll do a reread first.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 6, 2023 22:37
|
|
|
Gato The Elder posted:Anyway. What are people reading? I’ve got a few things on deck but haven’t started any yet: My Brilliant Friend, Paladin of Souls, and Master and Commander. A Difficult choice I finished Temeraire and now have to wait for my holds for the next books to come through so I'm searching for my next book. I was trying Priory of the Orange Tree, but I kinda bounced hard off the high fantasy artifice.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 7, 2023 16:07
|
|
|
Wow there’s baseball in the book?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 14, 2023 12:17
|
|
|
I went back to Zodiac after reading Temeraire. It’s kinda wild to read a book about a militant eco activist from 1988. Interesting that his focus is so much on toxic pollutants, whereas now it would be climate focused. It feels like corporate power has grown so much in the intervening time.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 14, 2023 15:09
|
|
|
I almost said terrorist, but ST doesn’t seem to believe in violence per se, even if it’s more of a savvy PR stance. And yeah, I wonder if the post 9/11 world kinda destroyed any ability for that sort of activism to even be discussed. I mean you look at the militaristic response to the Standing Rock protests for example.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 14, 2023 17:42
|
|
|
Zoracle Zed posted:Did you see How to blow up a pipeline? No! Looks interesting. I’ll check it out.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 15, 2023 02:55
|
|
|
Finally finished Zodiac. Honestly pretty good, as Stephenson goes. Fairly tight, moved well. Kicked into sixth gear with a lurch at a certain point. Feels very Snow Crash-y. Wasn’t a billion pages long.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 18, 2023 02:26
|
|
|
Good lord
|
|
#
¿
Jul 18, 2023 16:33
|
|
|
Fate Accomplice posted:red rising book 1 is the second worst book I've ever finished. I thought book 1 was fine, definitely required some skimming. Book 2 I didn’t get through.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 18, 2023 18:27
|
|
|
Did the Roman’s even have our conception of sexuality though? I thought our ideas of sexuality were modern, and the Romans and Greeks thought of things quite differently (something about how topping was fine but bottoming was not?).
|
|
#
¿
Jul 18, 2023 19:09
|
|
|
Stuporstar posted:Yeah, the Greeks and Romans were far more concerned with masculinity and sexuality had little to do with it. Romans in particular had different standards for citizens vs. non-citizens and slaves—basically it was considered undignified for a citizen to be the “passive” partner, so that role was generally relegated to inferiors. But for young men (pre-beard-growing age basically) they could do whatever the gently caress they wanted. It was only mature male citizens that got looked at askance for bottoming, but if you were beyond reproach like Hadrian, who had what we would consider a pretty firm gay romantic partner, rumors of being passive couldn’t harm your reputation all that much, it was just considered a slightly unsavory vice. Super interesting, thank you
|
|
#
¿
Jul 18, 2023 20:40
|
|
|
Around the 3rd or 4th book I started to feel like maybe the problem was Holden. Like, you can just go home my dude, how do you keep getting involved in this poo poo.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2023 12:17
|
|
|
Really enjoying Fine Structure by qntm. I picked it up bc it was mentioned in this thread recently, but I’m not sure by who. Thank you, whoever that was.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 20, 2023 03:28
|
|
|
Groke posted:Yeah! Glad to be of service. Just finished it. God that was wild. Really really enjoyed it. Slightly dragged in the late middle and the abrupt changes in every chapter were tough, but bearable. I read a review that said something like “a few chapters in I decided this was a book of short stories. It isn’t”. I had the same experience. So interesting and imaginative. Thanks for recommending.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 21, 2023 03:38
|
|
|
The second Temeraire book became available on Libby. Seems pretty clear that Novik has read Aubrey-Maturin so I googled it and found this NPR article. “Not to mention her not-so-secret love of Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin series, whose profound bond between its main characters, Captain Jack Aubrey and his ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin, bears a reverential resemblance to the friendship of Laurence and Temeraire.” https://www.npr.org/2016/06/14/481391755/temeraire-and-laurence-at-peace-at-last-in-league-of-dragons Traveling to china with the Chinese prince reminded me strongly of traveling with Fox to Pulo Prabang in the 13 gun salute. Though they haven’t left harbor yet so I don’t know how things turn out
|
|
#
¿
Jul 22, 2023 13:48
|
|
|
Poldarn posted:Hey, I'm on Book 2 right now! The series was recommended to me by a friend who is REALLY into the British Empire, so I was putting it off because....I don't care. I'm glad I picked these up, the series is not the love letter to British Expansionism that I thought it would be. Re: his interests and knowledge I’ve always thought the description of him on Wikipedia was amusing: quote:He is polite, formal, and erudite in conversation, an erudition that Horowitz said could be intimidating. He learned from those who worked with O'Brian that the erudition did not go unnoticed, while they remained friends.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 22, 2023 19:40
|
|
|
Poldarn posted:I'm certainly putting the book down to google things more than usual. Have you found the companion sites? There’s one that lists and explains all of the literary allusions. Of course I’m having trouble finding it at the moment. Someone else wrote an entire companion book to the series called “A Sea of Words”. Might buy it for my next read through. I have them all in physical copies now, it would be nice to have the companion as well.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 23, 2023 02:05
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:We do have a wonderful ongoing A/M thread: Sorry! Wrong thread. Excited to have located the friendly book side of SA that I didn’t previously know about.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 23, 2023 03:01
|
|
|
Finished Throne of Jade (Temeraire #2). That may be where I leave off in the series. Surprisingly little happens for most of the book. It didn’t make any sense to me that the British would be like “oh sure you can have our powerful and extremely rare dragon in the middle of a war where we were almost invaded and this specific dragon is the only reason we stopped the invasion”. They got rid of them so quickly solely to aid the plot I guess, but it felt thin. The antagonism from Prince Yongxing and the clash with the diplomat Hammond all felt pretty rote. The attack at the end by the gang felt random, though I guess obviously orchestrated by Yongxing (I was skimming at this point). Also they kill scores of people and destroy a palace and everyone’s just like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯? The end gets wrapped up too neatly. Yongxing’s death felt too easy, and incidental. Also it feels like Temeraire’s intelligence is confusing. He’s super smart when required to be, but then sometimes seems to be clueless? I guess he’s smart without wisdom, being so young, but something feels off about the way it’s handled. I read the excerpt from the next book and the overland journey does sound more interesting. Maybe I’ll get it from the library and see how it goes. Anyway, then I read Valuable Humans in Transit, which was very good. Lots of the stories left me with the desire to get to spend more time in the universe described.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 27, 2023 13:01
|
|
|
Kchama posted:Statholme is my favorite Classic dungeon. Deadmines baby
|
|
#
¿
Jul 28, 2023 02:15
|
|
|
Is Ministry of the Future good? I love KSR and have read a good portion of his books. Something about the cover saying it was a favorite of Obama’s is turning me off. Also climate fiction may hit too close to home at the moment.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 28, 2023 03:39
|
|
|
pseudorandom name posted:It's a decent idiot liberal "fixing global warming" wish fulfillment fantasy that glosses over the fact that the same characters run the Ministry of the Future for like 30 years straight. I read the first chapter with the heatwave right before bed last night. Pretty horrifying. C.M. Kruger posted:It's a extremely optimistic book that ends up being depressing because we're in the real world and people don't agree to "just fix everything" and there are no UN black ops death commandos. An issue I have with his books is that he overestimates people’s ability to all band together to do huge things. Maybe I’m too cynical but I don’t think things work that way.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 28, 2023 13:30
|
|
|
Ravenfood posted:Ministry for the Future might be this, and the Mars Trilogy eventually gets this way after Red and most of Green Mars being dystopian as gently caress, but I'm pretty sure Aurora is just quietly horror. The prion part, yeah.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 28, 2023 14:42
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 8, 2024 21:32 |
|
|
habeasdorkus posted:
It’s not really the politics of it, I’m just not sure that an Obama endorsement indicates a sci fi book I want to read? Like it implies that it’s very important to read or something, which activates my innate knee jerk “nah” feeling. I’m looking for escapism at the moment, not something that someone might say is “relevant and timely”.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 29, 2023 02:43
|
|