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Remulak posted:I just read, in total incredulity, Stephenson’s Termination Shock, so the floor is pretty low. I liked the part in Termination Shock where Neal turns to the camera and say "I don't like Elon anymore. We need an even richer billionaire to save us."
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Oct 17, 2023 14:12
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Gaius Marius posted:That's actually a pretty odd opinion. Usually people who read the whole solar cycle either rather New or Short as the tops and almost universally rate Urth and Long the lowest. I find Long to be the most inconsistent, Silk is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction and the whole scenario and plot are great but stretches of the novels can be a huge drag. Dragging through Long was worth it for some amazing payoffs in Short, imo.
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Nov 4, 2023 16:00
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fischtick posted:Fantastic debut novel. I’ve bought a half dozen copies to hand out as gifts over the years. The sequels suffer from constant comparison to the first novel; they’re pretty good in isolation, but pale when compared to the original… but I think I feel that way about pretty much every book series. I really wish the sequels would come out.
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Dec 21, 2023 03:20
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Arsenic Lupin posted:If for some reason you haven't read Pratchett, Guards! Guards! is acknowledged as one of his best.
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Dec 29, 2023 21:04
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Antifa Poltergeist posted:Yeah guards,guards is like a ideal entry point to discworld, along with reaper man. Maybe mort if you want to start at the first “proper” discworld novel. I read them all in publication order because I MUST approach any series that way, and "Guards!" was the point where I went "I like this series" to "I REALLY like this series".
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Dec 31, 2023 00:06
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Boob Cop posted:Use of the word "Cyclopean" in A Tale of The Malazan : Book of The Fallen necessitates that Homer's Odyssey also existed in the world created by author Steven Erikson. In this paper I will give There was a Star Wars novel that used "dopplering" as a verb and I was like "Hey doesn't this take place in the past?"
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Jan 4, 2024 15:53
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I'm 80% through Shogun and if I stop now I'll never start again, but then I'm reading Exordia next because I hate skipping spoilers.
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Jan 31, 2024 18:26
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Groke posted:I'm just 2% into Exordia. This is going to be a weird loving ride, isn't it?
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Feb 4, 2024 21:54
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thotsky posted:The series starts out as good but simple cloak and dagger stuff focusing on Vlad and then gets more experimental and pretentious as the series shifts focus to the long-lived Dragereans, at one point adopting a Three Musketeers like style. If you're a literary sort you might love that, but it was not my thing. The Musketeers one is an in-universe historical retelling of events you-the-reader are already familiar with, written by a character who was neither there nor interested in an accuracy. It's fun.
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Feb 23, 2024 04:17
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Milkfred E. Moore posted:barumeter
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Feb 28, 2024 13:00
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BastardySkull posted:I'm trying to power through the first 20 to 30 percent of Cryptonomicon. Is it worth it? I've loved every other book of his I've read (and I've read a few) but I'm struggling. Cryptonomicon grabbed 15 year old Poldarn by the hair on the first page and didn't let go, so I'm sad to read you didn't have the same experience. I think it stays pretty consistent throughout.
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Feb 29, 2024 11:29
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pradmer posted:The Two of Swords: Volume Two by KJ Parker - $1.99 If you all want some bleakness, this series is it.
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Mar 1, 2024 07:04
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shirunei posted:The Gap cycle by Steven Donaldson is a nice palette sensitizer. You monster. The Gap Cycle is Content Warning: The Series.
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Mar 1, 2024 11:10
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Benagain posted:I want a resurgence of the wodehousian cozy farce, where everyone's a giant idiot except for one or two designated smart people and somehow it works out. A buddy of mine lent me some of his Wodehouseses as character prep for a tabletop RPG we were running. I called 'em "low stakes shenanigans". Very fun and readable.
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Mar 2, 2024 07:08
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The problem with Donaldson (minus the rape) is when stuff happens in his books it's fun, but in between stuff happening every character introduced so far feels the need to tell you what they think about what just happened, which really bogs down the back half of any series.
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Mar 3, 2024 08:59
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StrixNebulosa posted:Help me, thread! I woke up with a weird and very specific desire: starship fights. Where can I go to read the good ones? Cherryh of course, SN Lewitt too, and the RTS-esque joy of the Lost Fleet series, but... where else? Where can I get ship to ship combat? I don't care if it's dogfighting or carrier battles or whatever, I want to read about starships fighting! +1 for Passage at Arms. The Culture novels have some pretty interesting space fights, but its not a huge feature of the series. The STARFIST series also has some interesting space battles and how they would pave the way for an invasion of landing troops, but those are all in the back-half of the series.
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Mar 10, 2024 03:44
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StumblyWumbly posted:It's not what I'd recommend someone who's looking for a great space battle, but I really liked the bit in Surface Detail where The ship knows there's someone following them, so they put their human occupant in all sorts of safety gear and offer to give them a projection of what's happening. At one point when the fighting has started, the ship says "This is my favorite part". It turns out the fight took around 12 seconds and the ship just slowed it down so they could show off to the passenger. Agree w/r/t great space battles, I think that that space battles that do occur are very interesting. StumblyWumbly posted:It's not what I'd recommend someone who's looking for a great space battle, but I really liked the bit in Surface Detail where The ship knows there's someone following them, so they put their human occupant in all sorts of safety gear and offer to give them a projection of what's happening. At one point when the fighting has started, the ship says "This is my favorite part". It turns out the fight took around 12 seconds and the ship just slowed it down so they could show off to the passenger. I forget which one, but its a few books later and there are a some Minds that have been in battles, and they're all off on their own comparing notes with the other Minds thinking that group is a bunch of goobers.
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Mar 10, 2024 07:02
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branedotorg posted:has anyone read Tad Williams recently? someone was talking about Memory, Sorrow & Thorn the other day and i realised i only read the first one Dragonborn Chair. I remember the Otherland quadrology being good when I was a teenager, if someone says its still good I'll re-read it.
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Mar 13, 2024 12:29
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StumblyWumbly posted:Thematically, I'll recommend Against a Dark Background. It's a space adventure set in a single, non-Earth solar system, but by the end you realize this system has re-invented space travel at least 3 times, they've advanced and fallen back, and are now mining garbage dumps from a thousand years ago, all because they are a solar system way outside the galactic ring. They can't see other stars or go anywhere, so they are just trapped in their own multi-planet world, getting slowly claustrophobic. The twist made me feel real feelings when it was revealed, which is a sign of good writing, I guess. It also is the opposite of everything else Banks wrote for space settings.
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Mar 17, 2024 15:42
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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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MockingQuantum posted:how do you feel about a dozen or so Aubrey-Maturin books taking place in a magical world where 1813 is about 30ish months long So I'm reading the AM series for the first time and I'll probably start #15 a little later tonight. I'm really enjoying O'Brian's introductions where he was to tell British Naval sweaties "yes, if this sounds familiar, I'm totally ripping off another battle and another guy. Deal with it. Also yes, we're in 1812b right now, the last novel was in 1812a."
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Apr 19, 2024 00:32
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