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Bump now that this one is open for business. Nice title, by the way.
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Oct 3, 2019 14:48
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 02:24 |
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I've posted the Book Barn Secret Santa thread; pop over to sign up! https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3903265
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Nov 7, 2019 16:40
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Neurosis posted:A long shot here but are there any fantasy books with much in common with the setting for King of Dragon Pass and Runequest, ie Glorantha? I'm not even going to try to explain it to those not familiar with it because it's too hard to do so without writing a thousand words. Greg wrote a novel, "Prince of Sartar", about Argrath. Otherwise, what aspect of Glorantha?
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Nov 15, 2019 09:45
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Big news.Neurosis posted:Will check that out - funny since recent stuff iirc says Argrath was actually a bunch of different people who were aggregated into one in the histories. So would it be fair to say "really weird and imaginative secondary-world fantasy, preferably with lots of magic and well-thought-out cultures"?
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Nov 15, 2019 14:48
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Safety Biscuits posted:I've posted the Book Barn Secret Santa thread; pop over to sign up! https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3903265 If you're interested in this, please decide quickly whether or not you want to take part. Signups close in about 24 hours!
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Nov 19, 2019 14:30
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quantumfoam posted:First story in Space Beagle is my favorite, the 3rd story in Space Beagle is so good Hollywood stole it and made an entire blockbuster movie franchise (w/ comic and video-game spinoffs) from it. Isn't the one Hollywood ripped off the first story in the book? It also inspired a D&D monster.
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Jan 11, 2020 09:16
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quantumfoam posted:Right the displacer beast, at least visually. And the salt-monster from Star Trek: TOS I think. I was sure the Alien was the first story. Huh.
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Jan 12, 2020 06:22
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Also "The Lady who Sailed the Soul" by Cordwainer Smith. And one by James Tiptree, Jr., I think.StrixNebulosa posted:In a vacuum, it wouldn't be weird. In the context of writing a story that is titled after the most famous transphobic meme and the text of the story is riddled with TERF beliefs.... It's pretty weird in itself. Even Thomas Pynchon's biography is longer than that.
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Jan 12, 2020 15:13
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cptn_dr posted:Take care, General B. Hope things look up soon. But don't share anything you don't feel comfortable sharing, look after yourself.
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Jan 13, 2020 14:34
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Evil Fluffy posted:Catelyn Stark. Her arrogance and stupidity directly lead to the Red Wedding because she thought some guest rules were an unbreakable shield against retribution. That's not stupidity; that's living by your culture's rules. fritz posted:This is his fourth nebula nomination (2014/15/16) for those series, seems a little weird. When I was younger I got the impression that the Nebulas were more literary than the Hugos; these days I think they're more insular.
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Feb 21, 2020 17:50
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Samuel R. Delany got a $1000 advance for his first novel in 1960, and the same for his long Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders in 2012. That blog post looks reasonable to me vOv. It's all anecdotal anyway.
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Mar 2, 2020 12:19
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quantumfoam posted:Today would have been Harry Harrison's 95th birthday. RIP creator of the 'Soylent Green is people' meme. "Soylent Green is people" is from the film, not the novel; it's named after what it's made from. VVV Didn't mean to sound like a jerk, just pointing it out. Safety Biscuits fucked around with this message at 06:18 on Mar 14, 2020 |
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Mar 14, 2020 04:14
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freebooter posted:I did read that bit by Watts and it didn't strike me as wrong, exactly, but it was weird that he was writing coronavirus off as being weak because the death toll is around 1%. In the USA alone that's 3.3 million people dead. In context, that's weak compared to the worst-case scenario or figures that had already been reported, and "measly" was clearly hyperbole.
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Mar 16, 2020 03:21
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Gnoman posted:So, I've suddenly developed an interest in two very different types of setting, and was hoping somebody would have an idea of where I might find them. You want The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick, first part of an extremely loose trilogy. It is exactly what you're looking for. Maybe Metropolitan by Walter Jon Williams (cyberpunk, but it's fantasy), too.
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Mar 23, 2020 15:02
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grassy gnoll posted:Was Mother as much of a non-stop misery grind as Daughter? I haven't read it yet. StrixNebulosa posted:Mary Gentle's Ash has you covered! Really good book, although, as noted, some grim stuff happens.
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Mar 23, 2020 17:26
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biracial bear for uncut posted:Reminder that Mike Carey wrote the original Lucifer comic books, which spawned the loosely-related Lucifer TV show (which featured in the hilarious TV Crisis event), which is hilarious. He also wrote Hellblazer for a bit, and that's a better comparison; the mystery aspect was quite strong. The first one was good, but I didn't read the rest.
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Mar 24, 2020 15:32
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How do you read them? I've opened them with Winzip and now can't even see a file format. If you liked that you might enjoy the Urth list, which is discussion of Gene Wolfe, and occasionally other writers - it dates back to 1996, so hardly early internet, but hey. All readable online still: http://urth.net/
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Mar 25, 2020 06:14
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quantumfoam posted:Open them with Notepad++ or something similar. The files are mostly raw text with Unix style formatting. Notepad++ worked. I'm currently reading about Russians angry about SALT II say Battlestar Galactica is US Propaganda, the horrors of D&D, and whether Asimov's ever came out.
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Mar 25, 2020 15:47
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Black Griffon posted:Does it work as a standalone novel? No, and yes, respectively. I'm still reading the digests; it's 1980, The Empire Strikes Back has just come out, and people are speculating about the prequel trilogy. Imagine waiting 16 years for Jar Jar... And apparently Samuel R. Delany reviewed Star Wars. He liked it: https://sockrotation.com/2015/12/18/samuel-r-delanys-1977-review-of-the-original-star-wars/
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Mar 26, 2020 06:10
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:I am doing one last poke, because nominations close tomorrow; after this I Noted, and good luck!
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Mar 30, 2020 05:18
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to never self-promote in the thread again.
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Surreptitious Muffin, I hope you didn't pay anything for this "advice"...A human heart posted:It's interesting that plenty of award winning literary fiction books are being put out by small presses these days, but the prestigious sci fi awards are absolutely dominated by giant publishers. Seems like something someone should look into in more detail. The "prestigious" sf awards are mostly voted for; the lesser known ones tend to be juried and have more exciting lists. It's that simple.
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Apr 8, 2020 11:23
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I thought you would have ignored them anyway!Poldarn posted:That's dumb, people are stuck at home with nothing to do. You may have noticed that there's a massive worldwide health crisis happening...
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Apr 10, 2020 06:43
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Clark Nova posted:iirc Scalzi has a multi-book contract that would definitely favor quantity over quality Most authors' contracts are for multiple books - imagine writing a trilogy and selling it one book at a time... Even if that weren't true, this post is still a non sequitur.
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Apr 19, 2020 18:58
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StrixNebulosa posted:Why can't we call out assholes? I don't want nazis in this cool thread. Me neither. But calling out assholes online isn't the same as IRL. Posting about bad posters doesn't stop them posting; it just turns the thread away from its purpose. Reporting terrible posts lets mods probate or ban the person who posted them, which does keep them out of the thread. I don't see reports, so please PM or email me as well if something's really urgent. Also, quoting someone's racist post means everyone has to see it again; please think before you do that. (Edit: the logic behind this is the same reason "ironic" racism is bannable; why you're seeing the racism crap doesn't matter. You can link to that stuff if necessary. Also, Drone Jett's post history is a big yikes from me and I'm talking to the mod about it.) - quantumfoam posted:That is where the Isaac Asimov 2.0 comparison comes into play for me. Asimov's hardly the only sf dinosaur to win awards he didn't deserve... Anyone who hasn't read Jo Walton's old Tor.com posts about the Hugos is missing out: https://www.tor.com/features/series/revisiting-the-hugos/ I'm the Book Barn IK. Feel free to PM me or email bookbarnsecretsanta@gmail.com if I can help you with anything. Safety Biscuits fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Apr 20, 2020 |
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Apr 20, 2020 05:09
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General Battuta posted:I’m 100% certain my second book would never have sold as a stand-alone on its own merits, but the great thing about having been published once is you’re (sort of) your own marketing. People will buy Scalzi 11 on the strength of Scalzi 1 and that means it’s financially worth it for a publisher to pursue even middling sequels to successful books. I see what you mean, but I'm enjoying it a lot more than the first one so far. On a serious note: If anyone sees Drone Jett posting, let me know so I can probate him again. Thanks. Safety Biscuits fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Apr 20, 2020 |
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Apr 20, 2020 06:23
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Safety Biscuits posted:Asimov's hardly the only sf dinosaur to win awards he didn't deserve... Speaking of dinosaurs, here's something to discuss. Who is the oldest currently active sf writer? I'm referring to their careers, not the number of candles on their cake. Michael Moorcock was first published in the late 50s, but doesn't seem to have published anything since 2015. Samuel R. Delany's first novel was in 1960, and he published a novella in 2018, which seems like it counts, and Larry Niven (first published in 1964) has, according to Wikipedia, a co-authorship credit on a book this year, but you don't know how much he wrote... Can you think of anyone else from the 60s who's still active?
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Apr 20, 2020 16:24
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Some really good replies here, guys, good work. I didn't realise there were still so many writers from the 60s about. I admit I thought I'd won with Delany, but while this was a good try:quantumfoam posted:James E Gunn. - published 1949-2017, which is about the third longest career I can think of, after Jack Williamson and Fred Pohl - and this came very close: Lunsku posted:Norman Spinrad is pretty OG. Short story in Analog last year, as far as I can see from database started in 1963. the winner's got to be: Jedit posted:Ben Bova has been active since 1959. Yes, Gunn was published earlier, but Bova's had a more recent publication (a novel in 2019), so I'm awarding him the arbitrary wreath for now. Congrats Jedit.
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Apr 21, 2020 05:13
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General Battuta posted:Promo for the (sadly delayed) launch of book 3, I expect. Tor’s current strategy is to promote book 1 in a series hard. I tried to pre-order this, but couldn't. Would this be because of the launch delay, or just publishing weirdness?
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Apr 29, 2020 17:38
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General Battuta posted:Are you US or somewhere else? Might be a regional thing... UK, so that might be it.
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Apr 30, 2020 02:07
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William Gibson's Desert Island Discs interview is online, and you should be able to listen to it wherever you are. Even if you're not, check out his choice of luxury for a desert island. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00941v7 E: Snype bonus: Here's a funny article about Hugo ceremony disasters: http://www.jophan.org/mimosa/m14/glyer.htm Safety Biscuits fucked around with this message at 12:50 on May 3, 2020 |
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May 3, 2020 12:43
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Prism Mirror Lens posted:I’m subbed to several SF/fantasy magazines but it’s driving me nuts that at least one of these (usually more) turns up in every single issue: Which ones do you read? I'm going to subscribe to Interzone now I realise they do ebook subscriptions. You might also find this amusing, it's Strange Horizon's old list of stuff they don't want to see again: http://strangehorizons.com/submit/fiction-submission-guidelines/stories-weve-seen-too-often/
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May 4, 2020 16:52
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Prism Mirror Lens posted:Haha yes I was trying to find that earlier! I’m subbed to Asimov’s and SF&F atm. I was subbed to Analog but too much of it seemed to be not-actually-stories. I’d be thinking “oh, cool setting, wonder what’ll happen?” and the piece would just end. The ones based on a feeling like puberty/depression metaphors are bad for the same reason: there is nowhere to go narratively because a feeling is not a story, so the protagonist just floats around feeling a bit funny for a while and the piece ends. It gets really frustrating reading things like that. Ugh, it's like being a teenager all over again. Anyway, this inspired me to check out the recent Hugo and Nebula awards for short fiction, and according to the Hugos, the best magazines are Uncanny and Tor.com; plenty of markets have nominees, but those are the ones that stand out. For what that's worth.
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May 5, 2020 14:32
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tildes posted:E: are jack Vance novels any good? Curious since they seem to have inspired d and d, but I am skeptical of most fantasy which is that old. Don't read Vance if you're expecting Dungeons and Dragons, that's a terrible idea. You're probably thinking of the Dying Earth books, which are exotic and baroque adventures of con men, thieves, and wiseacres. Warning, sometimes they're really bad people. His other big fantasy series was the Lyonesse trilogy. He also wrote a ton of sf - adventure (stuff like Big Planet or, I think, the Demon Princes books), space opera (including a book called Space Opera about an opera in space) - again, weird and abstruse settings with exciting stories, some very convuluted dialogue, and vivid description.
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May 11, 2020 11:10
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Silver2195 posted:The funny thing is that the main thing D&D took from The Dying Earth - the "Vancian magic" system where wizards memorize spells and forget them upon casting them - only really comes up in the first two stories of the first book (The Dying Earth/Mazirian the Magician), and at the end of the second book (The Eyes of the Overworld/Cugel the Clever). Rhialto and his frenemies mainly play pranks on each other using magical artifacts and genie-like beings rather than memorized spells. Yes - it's more similar to the early Discworld book with the great spell that scares all the other magic out of Rincewind's head. quote:(I love how thanks to the Vance Integral Editions, a lot of Jack Vance books and short stories have two different titles, at least one of which is poorly chosen. My favorite example is the absurdly long VIE title for Assault on a City.) I am a servant of the Wankh!
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May 11, 2020 19:05
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biracial bear for uncut posted:I tried reading the first book when Tor offered it as a giveaway and I'm having trouble getting past all the "Lesbians are unnatural!" poo poo. That's just the villains being villainous, and isn't borne out by the story; if you mean it's unsubtle, yes, the Masquerade in general is Evil. mewse posted:Baru's Happy Ending We've already had that in The Monster  A human heart posted:I read one of his books once and his voice had all the liveliness of a wikipedia article, not really a big fan. It's cool that he was an actual philosopher though i guess. Yeah, Last and First Men and the beginning of Star Maker are pretty dry, but the second one is more exciting towards the end, I thought. I think his other books are more like normal novels. Nice read, thanks. Jedit posted:OK, I bought The Monster. General B, I have faith in you to deliver a title for the fourth book. Don't let me down. This is either bloody rude or some very poorly chosen words, please be a bit more careful. I'm the Book Barn IK. Feel free to PM me or email bookbarnsecretsanta@gmail.com if I can help you with anything. Safety Biscuits fucked around with this message at 17:03 on May 15, 2020 |
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May 15, 2020 16:53
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Cyberpunk recommendations: try Michael Swanwick's Vacuum Flowers, which is about a woman with different personalities for different functions, like the Gang in Blindsight. I think one of Pat Cadigan's novels has a similar premise. Something of a disrecommend, Mirrorshades is quite uneven and has a lot of not-at-all-cyberpunk stuff in it.
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May 17, 2020 04:24
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He was also Sun Yat-sen's godson, and iirc his dinner party trick was downing glasses of hydrochloric acid (he had digestive trouble).Hieronymous Alloy posted:https://www.tor.com/2020/05/19/download-a-free-ebook-of-tooth-and-claw-by-jo-walton-before-may-23/ This is a fun little book, I remember enjoying it; should be a good quarantine read. Her columns were also interesting.
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May 19, 2020 16:22
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I think the only complete collection of Cordwainer Smith's stories is the NESFA Press edition from 1993 (?).StrixNebulosa posted:M John Harrison's Centauri Device: can someone who is more versed in the sci-fi scene of the era explain to me what is meant by these lines in these reviews of the novel? It's a grotesque and callous parody of/attack on likeable, humanistic, optimistic space opera, which was itself influential on later sf. (Check out the list of ship names at the end of the second blogpost, for instance.) Is this what you're asking?
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May 20, 2020 16:58
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As a group, they look a bit like the ironic, whimsical, and/or allusive names of ships in the Culture series; that's all. E: If you want an example of the stuff Harrison was reacting to, read something like Babel-17 by Delany and then compare its strangeness, charm, and beauty to the disgusting world of The Centauri Device, and its emphasis on the characters' development to Harrison's ideological emptiness. Safety Biscuits fucked around with this message at 17:31 on May 20, 2020 |
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May 20, 2020 17:24
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 02:24 |
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StrixNebulosa posted:Ironically the one book I kept comparing Centauri to while reading it was Babel-17, because they share almost the same space. Short 200~ page book with vivid sci-fi settings and a focus on the characters with excellent prose. Bizarre. I only picked Babel-17 because I've just read it. (Incidentally, the ship in that is Harrisonishly called Rimbaud.) Prism Mirror Lens posted:Just realised Harrison wrote Nova Swing, which really read like he’d seen Dhalgren, Babel-17 and Roadside Picnic and decided to write a really boring version to point out how crap it would all be in real life. There’s even a character very similar to one in Babel-17, the kind of genetically altered lion fighter dude, except in this book he dies and gets flushed down a drain early on, which may be a direct gently caress you to Babel-17, I don’t know The kite fight at the beginning of China Mountain Zhang has always struck me as a bit of a tribute to the wrestling scene in Babel-17. tildes posted:I genuinely can’t tell if minks is a typo here or not given the context Do you think an army of insane psychic sinks would make more sense?
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May 21, 2020 06:43
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