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Evil Fluffy posted:I'll check that out. Stuff like Misenchanted Sword and Unwilling Warlord are the equivalent of comfort food for reading which is a nice break at times. I'll happily shill for the Nero Wolfe books. Archie is just such a compelling voice and I want to eat dinner with Fritz. Those and Wodehouse are probably my most common comfort reading.
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Oct 5, 2019 00:38
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RJB's Foundryside likely counts, but so far only 1 book in the proposed series is out.
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Oct 7, 2019 23:17
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StrixNebulosa posted:Stupid problem: I'm enjoying the Bone Ships by RJ Barker, yeah?   ?No! 
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Oct 10, 2019 15:05
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ToxicFrog posted:I mean, I would still wholeheartedly recommend TGE, just not for the specific query of "I'm looking for Big Gay Epic Fantasy". I don't think Land Fit for Heroes series by Richard K Morgan was mentioned. It probably counts, and is definitely lgbt friendly. Looking at this, I don't think I ever read the third. Huh.
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Oct 10, 2019 17:32
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The consequences of elf banging does seem to be a pretty big plot point.
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Oct 10, 2019 23:31
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People who enjoyed Djinn City might want to check out The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by the same author. It's a novella and unlike Djinn City actually has an ending, all while being in the same "universe" as it were.
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Oct 16, 2019 23:02
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A Proper Uppercut posted:How do people keep track of the books they want to read? Library website. I can log in and add a book to "My list" if the library has it. Then when I want them I just put them on hold and unless they're checked out, it's an easy pickup the next day. Then I wind up checking out something that looks cool from the new book display up front and it all gets out of whack and the backlog just keeps growing. Still, it's nice and easy.
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Oct 21, 2019 17:01
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Kalman posted:Run Silent, Run Deep is one of the classics of the genre. Maybe not the best (haven’t read it in decades) but probably worth a read. This is what I was going to suggest.
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Oct 23, 2019 14:49
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Just a reminder that there's plenty of time to (re)read A Night In the Lonesome October before Halloween.
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Oct 25, 2019 14:44
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Absurd Alhazred posted:This is my third time and second year in a row I've managed to read it day-by-day I wanted to but it was checked out. Clearly I just need my own copy.
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Oct 25, 2019 15:18
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tinaun posted:are there any "classic feeling" fantasy adventure books where the protagonist is explicitly a gay man Might want to check out Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson. It's a novella about on a group of soldiers for hire guarding a shipment through a dangerous area, so very much classic fantasy there. But the focus is on the relationship between one of the men and the captain. Pretty brief read, but I liked it.
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Oct 25, 2019 21:54
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JTDistortion posted:If I'm remembering correctly, this one ends with one of the guys suddenly deciding to commit suicide by monster and the other guy once again depressed and alone, right? Because gently caress that gay tragedy poo poo. Honestly, it's been a couple years and I don't 100% remember how the end shakes out, specifically deciding to commit suicide, I don't recall there being like a ton of choice. While I remember him dying, a quick review of goodreads makes it seem that at least some people found it ambiguous.
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Oct 26, 2019 05:44
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Just finished Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It's a fantasy set in 1920s Mexico where a young woman working as a servant for her extended family stumbles across a deposed god of the underworld and must help him regain his throne. Story is decent, and decently paced, but the draw here may well be the Mayan mythology. It delves a lot into Xibalba, the Land of the Dead, as well as other demons, spirits, etc all while travelling across a Jazz Age Mexico from a tiny village to a resort in Tijuana. If you're one of those who enjoys fantasy that draws from other traditions, this might be a good one for you.
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Nov 6, 2019 16:13
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Reading speed indirectly plays into my rankings. Mostly because when I'm enjoying a book, I tend to pick it up for another couple of pages whenever I have a moment. If I'm not enjoying it as much, I tend go for the phone instead. So a pages per day number goes up because I'm reading more often.
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Nov 7, 2019 15:54
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tokenbrownguy posted:He was too embarrassed give us a call and ask if the main characters should be loving up their real estate deals by jacking off publicly, so he read the whole book club assignment, five chapters. Lol, your buddy clearly has no experience in real estate.
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Nov 15, 2019 20:02
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ed balls balls man posted:Has anyone read This Is How You Lose the Time War? Seen it on a few 2019 best of lists and picked it up for 99p on Kindle, has goon favorite Max Gladstone as part-author. Yes, and it is good.
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Nov 18, 2019 15:39
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Anyone read Witchmark? I just finished last night and am a little conflicted.
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Nov 22, 2019 19:01
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Stuporstar posted:I have, and I’m looking forward to the sequel even though the first did have a few first novel problems. Disclosure: I know the author Should have guessed you'd have. The relationship felt sorta yucky. Miles first two big realizations of how much he liked Tristan were under the influence of magic and then morphine. I feel like PTSD as possession has some issues as well. That's the two big "conflicts" I think. Plotwise, I don't think I understand how a bound highborn secondary can be a witch. That seems like that should have resolved almost immediately when it comes out Mathy knows he's an heir of the chief family. Non-spoilery, I thought the non-Miles characters were sorta flat. That being said, I did enjoy it, and will almost certainly read the 2nd. I enjoyed the questions of agency and class. It was an enjoyable book, and maybe I'm nitpicking a little in response to the awards and general very favorable reviews.
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Nov 23, 2019 02:44
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Not SFF, but I just finished Rocket to the Morgue by Anthony Boucher. I post here, because while it's a mystery, it's suspects are all members of the Mañana Literary Society and are thinly disguised versions of sci-fi authors of the early 40s. You've got Heinlein, Hubbard, and others masquerading in a murder story. People interested in those authors and a bit of the LA scene surrounding the golden age of sci-fi might enjoy it in mystery form.
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Nov 27, 2019 16:14
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Stuporstar posted:I would actually read an sff book all about the tea trade, no lie A couple years back I read For All the Tea in China by Sarah Rose, it's a pop history of Britain's efforts to learn to how process tea and smuggle tea plants out of China that could grow in British territories in India. It has some issues, but is pretty interesting nonetheless.
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Dec 5, 2019 16:57
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I did not love All the Birds in the Sky. It's not bad, but it sort of has that "unprofessional" vibe I get from something like Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore. For short stories Daniel Mallory Ortberg (Written and probably sold as Mallory, has since transitioned to Daniel) had The Merry Spinster which are sort of weird dark retellings of fairy tales, often (unsurprisingly) focusing on gender roles. There are some stories I found to be real misses, but generally, I liked it. More historical fiction but Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg which recasts the famous crook Jack Sheppard as a trans man. Also it's about the academic who discovered a manuscript that revealed this. It's a complicated thing, but the big overarching theme is rewriting history and also identity. I could swear there's another couple I had floating around.
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Dec 20, 2019 20:13
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MockingQuantum posted:Heh same, I would be completely fine with scifi/fantasy authors just kind of giving up on romance plots for the most part. That's more a personal preference than some sweeping statement on the genre, though. But they can gently caress right off when it comes to sex scenes, I don't think I've read any genre book with a sex scene that didn't make me cringe or roll my eyes at least once. Abercrombie's Heroes has my favorite fight scene, and also does pretty well with characters. It's a standalone in the same world as his doorstopper trilogy, but I read it without having read the series, so it can be done.
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Dec 20, 2019 20:16
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MockingQuantum posted:Which one was your favorite, out of curiosity? I just read this, and I will agree that in general Abercrombie does a better job than most, in part because he does a good job of depicting how much of a hosed up mess actual fights are (or inevitably become). I probably should have specifically said battle scene, I suppose. It's the one where it jumps from character to character with each dying in turn and culminating in Whirrun's death. It was quite well done, I thought, and gave you a little bit of a lot of things and did show what a mess it actually all is. Ben Nevis fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Dec 20, 2019 |
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Dec 20, 2019 21:30
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90s Cringe Rock posted:
Just finished this one up as well. It's a fun little book, I thought.
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Jan 2, 2020 17:53
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Happiness Commando posted:Vita Nostra by the Dyachenkos. It might be a little like The Nevernight Series by Jay Kristoff, which I liked a great deal. It might not be, but someone here recommended it, so I'll give it a try. I read this last year. I found it to be very interesting and very readable, but I the end left me with some questions. Now I don't quite remember what they were, but I anxiously await a review
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Feb 12, 2020 17:23
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Not sure I get the critique of Foundryside being YA.
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Feb 17, 2020 17:18
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For UF, I'll toss in my characteristic recommendation of Kate Griffin's Matthew Swift books. It's a good 4 book series. The associated Magicals Anonymous is not as good, but still pretty solid and fun.
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Feb 18, 2020 17:08
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buffalo all day posted:Nebula award finalists announced: Other than Gideon, I read Gods of Jade and Shadow. It's a competently done book and good read, mostly notable for being a fantasy drawn from Mayan myth and being set in Mexico during the depression. That being said, I don't think I'd say unmissable.
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Feb 20, 2020 19:13
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Kestral posted:You really, really do. Anyone who's played FreeSpace needs to play Blue Planet. I've read Three Hearts and Three Lions and found it to be pretty decent and not really libertarian or anything. It suffered a little bit from being "basic" but it sort of founded the genre, so of course you'll have seen some of it's tricks before. I thought it was worth reading.
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May 5, 2020 21:50
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anilEhilated posted:I liked Gnomon a lot, even if it does get a lot more ambitious than it could deliver. Agree with this. Also agree with GB that I'd rather go for novel and ambitious than not. Super solid book, and I'd like to see more like it.
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Jun 8, 2020 21:50
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StrixNebulosa posted:Otherland: The prose is solid, good but not great, and I'm digging the future setting - when's the last time you read a sci-fi book set in Africa? I'm going to chip at this. It being insanely long isn't a bad thing because boy do I need distractions right now. I read Otherland about 20 years ago. As I recall, the first book is the best. It's interesting, there's some cool mystery and some cliffhangers. And the next book isn't quite as good, and so on, until you finish book four confused, disappointed, and wondering where it all went wrong and what happened to the last 4000 pages of your life. It's not actively bad, but it squandered most of the promise of book 1, and it took a long time doing it. Ben Nevis fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Jun 20, 2020 |
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Jun 20, 2020 03:07
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Is Artemis by Andy Weir any good?
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Jul 7, 2020 17:34
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StrixNebulosa posted:To address this kind of rec in a more general way - I'm not a fan of people dissuading people from series because of later books not being good. You've essentially tossed out two good books because the third one is bad. I see this over in the urban fantasy thread too where Anita Blake books 1-5 have no sex and are fantastic horror/noir outings but because orgies happen in later books they're all bad. It bugs me. This is a fair point, but reading Nero Wolfe is almost always good advice.
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Jul 15, 2020 01:52
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Thom and the Heads posted:I'm finishing Blood Meridian and would like some...lighter fare. Light and time travel is pretty much To Say Nothing of the Dog. Less light, but not real heavy might be All Our Wrong Todays. Not light: The Gone World. Light but not very good (but written by a local librarian I know) - Time and Tenacity by Hannah Vale. I thought I read more time travel stuff, but it's all escaping me.
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Jul 29, 2020 15:22
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No. No more dancing! posted:I liked this book quite a bit, but I wouldn't really call it light. Lighter than Doomsday Book though! I left it off my list for the same reason. Also nixed Shining Girls and How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe. And Doomsday Book, natch. You know, not really time travel by The Oracle Year might be an option.
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Jul 29, 2020 15:31
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I just finished The Innkeeper's Song by Peter Beagle. It's early 90s fantasy and sort of an oral history of a big wizard battle, told by people who might fairly be considered pawns on one wizard's side. Most of the action is focused on an inn a bit outside a big trading town. There are secretive women trained by the wizard, a girl raised from the dead, her childhood sweetheart, a stable boy, a fat cantankerous innkeeper, a fox and some assassins. In some ways it's a little dated, mostly with the trend of having a fairly normal seeming setting and the rare atypical creature that's always italicized. That being said, it's refreshingly free of sexual violence and a lot of other grossness. It also came together real well, and was a good story, neither Pollyanna or grimdark. Would recommend.
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Aug 13, 2020 16:43
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Bort 3, The Color of her Cormorants, is the next book up. Should start by Friday and I'm excited.
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Sep 2, 2020 19:33
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Ben Nerevarine posted:I'm reading Ringworld Engineers and Larry Niven apparently cannot stop having his characters gently caress everything. I'd always thought that's why it was called Ringworld.
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Sep 14, 2020 22:43
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So I'm almost done with Baru 3: Too Many Cormorants and while there's a lot going on my two favorite and least consequential items are the beginning of chapter 20, which I assume is taking a shot at audio book pronunciation issues and also imagining GB trying to research circumstances in which might sunburn their balls. Which is not to say the rest is not good. I'm hoping to finish tonight.
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Sep 15, 2020 17:14
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GladRagKraken posted:I'm trying to find a book I found out about here, and I've skimmed through the thread and I couldn't find it again. It was this future dystopia where there were all sorts of enhanced fabrics, and the protagonist was a tailor. Is that ringing any bells? Can someone remind me of the title? I have no idea if this matches, since I've not read it, but I've got The Carpetmakers on my list. Someone rec'd it and that seems at least fabric related, so maybe that's it.
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Sep 30, 2020 15:59
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