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How in the gently caress did the Mass Effect: Andromeda tie in prequel books somehow pull in NK Jemisin and Catherynne Valente as authors? It's just such a weird mishmash of author quality and abandoned video game prequel novels that I still can't wrap my head around it.
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Sep 26, 2022 01:07
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Watching Logen go from being a semi-standard misunderstood barbarian to a monster was kind of cool. Or rather, seeing that he always was that monster despite his narration. Gandalf being Satan was kind of neat too. Maybe it felt more subversive if you came from Drizzt or something. I don't remember the early 2000s fantasy that well, but from what I remember it was ASOIAF, Wheel of Time, and tons of genre pulp. ASOIAF wasn't "genre", nor was WoT, in some ways, so it could have been seen as a subversion of explicitly pulp fantasy, not fantasy as a whole. If you had already found Gene Wolfe or generally better stuff I can see why it fell flat. E: also if you were told it was "subversive" instead of just reading it when it came out. Ravenfood fucked around with this message at 15:40 on Oct 11, 2022 |
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Oct 11, 2022 15:34
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sebmojo posted:Yeah I enjoyed heroes, it's not wildly different from the others though it's just the best version of his thing that I've read. It being relatively self-contained and themed around something like an American Civil War detailed battle plan are both points in its favor.
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Oct 12, 2022 00:51
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PawParole posted:anyone read any good books about parallel universes or generation ships recently?
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Oct 16, 2022 01:32
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FPyat posted:What's the word on Klara and the Sun? I loved it. Never Let Me Go is probably better, and Remains of the Day definitely is, but something about it just really worked for me.
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Nov 1, 2022 13:09
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freebooter posted:Ministry of the Future was good, but still had some moments that were deeply Robinsonian in that they feel like the product of the imagination of a liberal arts professor who has no contact with the real world (which bothers me because I highly doubt Robinson is actually like that). I'm thinking specifically of the people who manage to convince rural Americans across places like Wyoming and Idaho to move to cities and let their lands return to nature for the good of the planet, and don't seem to receive any pushback, whereas in the real world (in America or anywhere) that's not happening and if you force the issue will lead to civil war. The moment in 2312 akin to that is when they convince a bunch of Russian immigrant farmers in Canada that air-dropping shitloads of genetically engineered predators back into their farmland is ultimately good because animals are our "brothers and sisters," which in real life would get you glassed. I just feel like sometimes he glosses over what would be required to actually change a majority of people's thinking to achieve that near-utopia (to be fair I have no clue how we'd achieve it either, and maybe it's impossible). One of the reasons his Mars Trilogy was so good was that the slow societal changes actually felt earned and believable. Also Aurora is amazing.
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Dec 9, 2022 18:18
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anilEhilated posted:. Magical USSR isn't exactly a common setting. Others have named several but I'll throw in a plug for Catherynne Valente' Deathless
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Dec 23, 2022 03:55
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cptn_dr posted:I have such conflicted opinions about Valente. I really liked Deathless, and Killswitch is one of my favourite short stories, but everything else she's written I've found absolutely insufferable. It's weird how those two things can be absolutely 100% my jam, and everything else I bounce off super hard. It might just be that you like her more spartan descriptions compared to something like the orphans tales which gets to be very...I don't know, lush, or the kids books like The Girl Who...series. E: vvv yeah I loved those. They feel very different from Deathless though so I could see how someone liked one and not the other. Ravenfood fucked around with this message at 10:11 on Dec 23, 2022 |
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Dec 23, 2022 09:44
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RDM posted:I bought this pretty much at random. It's grimdark YA Harry Potter written first person where the narrator is the angstiest magic teenager (there is a *prophecy*). I enjoyed the gimmick. It's basically set in a world where something like the Triwizard Cup or the absurd lethality of some parts of HP would make sense. In Harry Potter it's weird that a bunch of middle and high schoolers are wandering around a ton of incredibly lethal potions and dark wizards and creatures, and even weirder that a fun competition between schools throws children at dragons without warning or preparation to see what happens. And it's not like the kids are actually trained to a level where they could be expected to handle a dragon easily; everyone acknowledges that the tournament is dangerous as poo poo. So scholomance just takes that and runs with it pretty far. It's definitely young adult fantasy, but its pretty funny in its own right and like I said, I liked the gimmick. Also similarly enjoyed the bits where the protagonist keeps being annoyed by her affinity for mass death, domination, and destruction spells. It's funny.
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Dec 26, 2022 17:59
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RDM posted:Y'all are making me reconsider not reading the rest of the series. There is a lot of "this system is hosed where the wealthy get a comparatively easy route out of this pure hellhole", yes, and it does kind of beat you over the head with that, but that wasn't a particularly bad thing, imo.
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Dec 26, 2022 18:46
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NinjaDebugger posted:Just in case you didn't get the message in the first and second books, the third book has literal commuter wage slaves and magical dwellings built on the eternal suffering of a single child Yeah. I didn't read teenage angst into the books, but if you did, I dont think that will change in later books. E: completed series spoilers: the Omelas enclaves aren't objectively better, either, just easier to make so they can set up more of them. Ravenfood fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Dec 26, 2022 |
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Dec 26, 2022 19:56
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Leng posted:The funny thing is Scholomance wasn't intended to be YA. Novik is on record as saying that she thought the people who would enjoy it the most are those in their 30s (though I can't find that particular interview right now) but the first book got nominated for a YA awards and now everybody thinks it's YA. Would it be fair to describe it as YA written for adults?
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Dec 26, 2022 22:57
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Kalman posted:Also, El’s not precisely “overpowered.” She’s really really good at murder magic and struggles with literally everything else. Well until she somehow is powerful enough to do something as murderous and evil queen-like as creating the golden enclaves, even with help from a circle and chanting. There is some handwaving that she has the ability to channel huge amounts of power as well as an innate affinity for mass murder, but it felt a bit unearned compared to her general combat prowess, where it was clear where her talents lay. Even the bits where she gets incredibly good at defending herself seemed a bit too much to me, like when she shields herself and Orion from the entire Shanghai contigent. She starts out with a set of skills and affinities (and i thought her constantly trying to get basic cleaning spells and instead getting a summon for a giant acid vat or something was funny as hell) but by the end she is somehow able to do something very much not in line with her supposed affinity, and to be the only one able to do it in centuries.
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Dec 29, 2022 22:57
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Everyone should read Piranesi. For that matter, just read everything Susanna Clarke writes.
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Jan 9, 2023 17:37
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caspergers posted:Fellas...first off I wanna apologize for the pretentiousness here. But I'm looking for fantasy that's more literary, at least to the extent that either leaves you with a sense of better understanding of the world or with a deeper conviction/love for life; in other words, fantasy that deals with the "human condition". Piranesi, Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell, Buried Giant, Book of the New Sun, Earthsea Cycle, Deathless, and obviously, without question, the shining star of literary prowess, the Name of the Wind. Less so but imo still great is the Orphans Tales, so maybe check it out. There are some more that aren't coming to me this second though, I'll throw some more in. Less fantasy, but add the Name of the Rose in there. Would also second the Years of Rice and Salt.
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Jan 17, 2023 00:27
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caspergers posted:I'll give it another shot, and to be honest I gave up on it because of one tiny thing, which was something like Do not give it another shot, it is very bad. I was being facetious.
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Jan 23, 2023 22:00
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You can read the book as an indictment of fascism and the society presented but it wasn't written as one.
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Jan 29, 2023 17:27
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StrixNebulosa posted:What’s the best historical fantasy that isn’t by GGK? Strange and Norrell, easily.
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Feb 1, 2023 23:23
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Fate Accomplice posted:After reading “The Wandering Earth” and being thoroughly entertained by both movies and massively disappointed by sci-fi’s Ascension, I want to read books taking place on colony/generational ships. Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora
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Feb 16, 2023 03:12
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pradmer posted:The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke - $4.99 I love this book. Well worth a read.
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Mar 1, 2023 23:59
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It stays like that through Gideon, but it also stopped bothering me really, really quickly for whatever reason. The tittymag comment had ne pause for a second but I kept reading and was really glad I did.
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Mar 8, 2023 13:20
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grassy gnoll posted:I haven't gotten to Swordheart itself, but Ursula Vernon, the human behind the Kingfisher pen name, is one of the few humans I would trust to write seemingly-saccharine junk and still have it come out well-written and meaningful. She's real good. Oh poo poo, is that what she has been doing since Digger? I need to check that out.
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Mar 8, 2023 21:18
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fez_machine posted:Isn't that The Moon is a Harsh Mistress? I haven't read it but I think that's the plot. Not really. The moon is already a libertarian society culturally, just one that starts off with being a colony. The AI is what allows them to successfully revolt and continue on their way being libertarian. The story is about the revolution, not the aftermath or the society. That is, the AI doesn't enforce the NAP, the society does (incoherently). I think the AI does also handwave away the resource scarcity though. Ravenfood fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Mar 11, 2023 |
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Mar 11, 2023 14:58
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Everyone posted:Which is (presumably unintentionally) hilarious. Haven't actually read it, but I'm guessing the general vibe is "We are the People of the Moon! We are an island unto ourselves who need nothing and no one (except a semi-omnipotent artificial intelligence who provides the food/water/oxygen/etc. that allows us to claim all of this super-duper self-sufficiency)!" Kinda. Resource extraction is important to the start of the revolution, but the AI doesnt create them, just prevents someone from unfairly controlling eg the oxygen. The Loonie society isn't particularly critically examined other than explanations of how parts of it are and that it is good. One thing the AI does well for the story is make it clear that just because a societal organization is marginalized and exploited doesn't mean it is inferior. It also solves the libertarian problem of how a weak/diffuse state can defend itself against a larger, centralized state bent on exploiting it, so that part is pretty handwavy.
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Mar 11, 2023 16:41
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CaptainCrunch posted:I mean yes? I never claimed to be a being of pure logic and reason. I'll die no matter what I do, I can't change that. But I can avoid stepping into any transporters and dying then. Discussions like this always make me feel as if I'm being peer pressured into sci-fi transporter suicide. From the perspective of the "you" that would hypothetically be teleported, these conditions are identical, barring the heart transplant (which also isn't necessary for the hypothetical). From the perspective of you, now, they also seem the same to me. Your current consciousness will end on induction of the anesthesia. I'm really not seeing how they are different at all without there being some core essence that isn't just an emergent property of neurons and hormones. I don't know, maybe there is more to consciousness than that. Like...would you be somehow ok with this process taking place over days, with parts of you physically existing in both locations until enough of your new brain wakes up? You would have some degree of physical continuity there.
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Mar 14, 2023 15:10
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CaptainCrunch posted:I've been through that, twice. And yes, I have struggled with the question of if I'm still the same "me" after each one. The fact that my brain is still "on"--there were wires glued to my head to prove it!--is what let me sleep at night afterward. Depending on how deep they were trying to put you, the wires weren't monitoring you being "on", but actually that you were deep enough. I've definitely seen EEGs so suppressed they were identical to a dead person's. I'm not saying that an EEG is the only (or even a good) measure of consciousness, but it is a measure of brain electrical activity, and thats as near to "off" as I can think of. Their brain tissue was preserved (as the isoelectric EEG was medication induced) and they were able to recover without issue. So, yeah. Don't know what that means for you, or what your monitoring was or what your sedation goal was. E: Stuporstar posted:And in the case of brain upload, it’s not even close. No-one talks about how much the PNS and other non-neural parts of the body also affect someone’s feelings and personality. Futurist bros only think about the brain and how liberating it would be to shed their “meat” but what that might do to the mind could be totally horrific Ravenfood fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Mar 14, 2023 |
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Mar 14, 2023 16:36
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CaptainCrunch posted:What? As in zero/zip/nada? That's a bit terrifying. It wasn't a 100% jump cut for me. They did the "count down from 10" each time. My memories stop at six-ish and then there's a discontinuity, a gap. The waking up doesn't butt up against that "six" perfectly, I'm aware that something happened in between, but not what. If it was a perfect cut, I'd be more worried about me-ness. The weird gap makes it feel like I was still there, even if the brain was off for all intents and purposes. Sure. To clarify, that is with monitoring equipment measuring electric brain activity. The monitors are not perfect and it is possible that there is activity that is not detected with our current systems (both in research and in clinical practice). For instance, you can clearly see increased amplitude if leads are placed over an area where someone had part of their skull removed and a skin flap placed over it. The skull attenuated the signal, and sensitivity can only be increased so much before it picks up so much noise as to be worthless. So, not perfect. Also, this is only measuring brain electrical activity and so may not be in any way indicative of some kind of "consciousness". Also, in medically induced isoelectric EEGs in the context I was looking at, we were not trying to elicit responses, so there may be a response we did not see. We're getting way out of my depth, but I'm pretty sure anesthesiologists cool and sedate patients to a level that produces electrocerebral silence to protect your brain cells during types of cardiac bypass surgery. Do I think a patient in medically induced state like that has a brain identical to a dead person's? No, not at all, because the former process is reversible. Death is not.
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Mar 14, 2023 18:07
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Everyone posted:Honestly this seems like a different topic than teleportation. This is "What if death was no longer a thing?" What if Tain Hu's drowned, rotted bones could be regrown into a body who's brain's normal electrical functions was restored? It relates because the "star trek teleporter" nominally relies on disassembling someone and reassembling them elsewhere. And...yeah, death requires the continuation of death, because death is a process. You can easily enter transient periods that are congruous with death, but the key difference is the continuation of that. Is death the cessation of heartbeat? Sure, you couldd define it that way, but we don't really act like everyone who had an asystolic cardiac arrest, even for extended time periods, as dying. Brain death definitions vary (because it is a legal definition) from place to place, but as far as I know they all require determination of an irreversible state. So yeah, I line up fully on "if we disintegrate someone and then reassemble them, they never died". Ravenfood fucked around with this message at 11:22 on Mar 15, 2023 |
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Mar 15, 2023 11:15
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Groke posted:There is, of course, A Game of Thrones. Although that puts the big surprises at the end of book 1. Yeah same. I read it just before Storm of Swords came out and it had no real cultural awareness yet. It's just so clear that Ned is going to the Wall and will have a reconciliation with Jon there and together they will save the world and also somehow be vindicated in the south too. Oops.
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Mar 19, 2023 15:00
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Wheres the lie tho I don't think there is a lie so much as it's a lovely article without a point that meanders way too much and also makes the author look bad. Seriously, you almost cried because a kid salted their yakisoba? And you did cry because you had to watch a movie you didn't like? Wow. Nobody has ever claimed Sanderson writes good prose. He does pump out a ton if genre fiction though.
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Mar 24, 2023 14:45
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buffalo all day posted:The author is a fan though, who’s read like 17 Sanderson novels! And he interviewed a bunch of fans about what appealed to them about the work, which he tells you about! Depends on how old he was when he read them. I know I read an ungodly amount of Terry Goodkind before I realized how loving terrible it was because I honestly just didn't stop to think about it and it was the age where I had to read absolutely anything voraciously. E: vvv yeah. So, so many Drizz't's too. Ravenfood fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Mar 24, 2023 |
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Mar 24, 2023 18:32
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MockingQuantum posted:On the subject of Susanna Clarke, how is The Ladies of Grace Adieu?
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Apr 6, 2023 15:29
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zoux posted:After much reflection I have decided not to read the Saunders oeuvre. But thank you all for your explanations. There is essentially no connection between the two. Events from PSS are briefly referenced in the Scar, but not in a way that feels like you missed something. I think they can be read independently and do not think re-reading PSS is particularly necessary beforehand.
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Apr 14, 2023 21:55
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Yeah but I love wandering poo poo just focusing on the weirdness. Give me a travelog that just goes around a weird place and tell me about it. gently caress plot or characters. Ok not all the time, but PSS is a perfect example of catering to that. The Scar is genuinely a better book in almost every way, PSS just scratched a specific itch.
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Apr 14, 2023 22:26
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So, CJ Cherryh. Ages ago I read 40k in Gehenna, which I vaguely remember, and Downbelow Station , which I don't at all beyond the title and that I liked it. Where should I start with her in general?
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Apr 23, 2023 16:10
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StrixNebulosa posted:Pride of Chanur! I like both pretty evenly. What I thought was most memorable of 40k in Gehenna was how the alien species felt like something alien and not "randomly inscrutable" or "humans with one personality trait monolithically exaggerated and maybe with bits stuck on their face". E ^^^ yeah that's perfect. Thanks!
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Apr 23, 2023 16:27
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BurningBeard posted:So what sci-fi or fantasy books have exceptionally good/interesting treatments of religious faith? I think the Coldfire trilogy by CS Friedman does it interestingly at least, but it's also fantasy with some tendencies to purple prose. I'd call it maybe good genre fantasy, maybe.
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Apr 23, 2023 17:26
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Ny2142 features the pseudo-Utopian ending "what if we didn't gently caress up a repeat of a global financial crisis" without really laying the groundwork for it, imo. I found it one of the weaker of his novels. Also polar bear blimp was just weird.
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Apr 27, 2023 20:24
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mllaneza posted:The Lady Astronaut is very good, and the series keeps getting better, that third one is an absolute banger. At $1.99 to get into the series, there's no excuse not to. Also, by the same author but the Spare Man is a ton of fun. It's basically a mystery in the vein of the Thin Man movies.
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May 7, 2023 23:53
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Haystack posted:The physics behind why FTL enables paradoxes is a pretty fundamental outcome of relativity. It took me a long time to wrap my head around the idea. It was a random reddit reply that laid it out clearly enough for me to understand: A good post. In other news, I just read Library at Mt Char thanks to this thread and hot drat it was good and weird.
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May 9, 2023 21:41
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