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nessin posted:Anyone know of at least some passable campy high action space opera books/series that have come out in the past few years? I really crave a new Star of the Guardian/Deerstalker/Star Wars-ish kinda book. Fire with Fire by Charles E Gannon might what you're looking for. e: Oh and Embers of War by Gareth L Powell.
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Nov 11, 2019 15:32
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| # ¿ May 20, 2024 02:45 |
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Okay so for the first time in weeks my brain is letting me stuff that isn't UF, so I'm into Jo Clayton's Diadem from the Stars - so far weirdly dark, kind of a planetary romance kind of feel, as our heroine is psychic and powerful and living in a terrible, terrible sexist society. She's looking to escape and I'm rooting for her. I'm also starting up Bright of the Sky by Kay Kenyon and mm this opening section about a sapient AI basically shutting down an entire space station so it can think about parallel universes. Good stuff!
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Nov 11, 2019 20:27
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https://twitter.com/marthawells1/status/1193936037850107904 yooo preordered. I've been waiting to get this as a mass market paperback!
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Nov 11, 2019 20:40
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MockingQuantum posted:I'm looking to start a long(er) fantasy series for the holiday season because that's when I'm simultaneously my most mentally taxed at work and have the most free time. What are some good longer fantasy series that aren't Discworld, Wheel of Time, or LE Modesitt? Doesn't need to be the greatest books ever known to humankind, just something engaging and fun that'll keep me busy for a while. Here is a reddit post about the longest fantasy series: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/8u2xj9/longest_fantasy_book_series/ quote:Series with between 3.5 million and 4 million total words: Obviously not all of those series are good, but you should look at Michelle West/Sagara's works, Shadows of the Apt, The Wars of Light and Shadow by Janny Wurts, and CJ Cherryh's Fortress in the Eye of Time series (not as long but good)
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Nov 11, 2019 21:06
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90s Cringe Rock posted:You ever read any Janny Wurts? I keep telling myself I'll start her giant epic fantasy series one day. If you don't want to start Wurts giant series, try reading her To Ride Hell's Chasm instead! It's a standalone book about a missing princess and the captain of the guard who gets sent to find her. It reads like a thriller and I devoured it in under a week. 
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Nov 11, 2019 21:08
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What I expected from Jo Clayton's Diadem from the stars: sci-fi planetary romance where she has psychic powers and wild adventures and gets a way off of this barbaric planet. What I got: rape, rape, mental rape, suicide, our heroine's mind breaking, and by the end of the book she's pretty well convinced she's a curse to everyone around her. And she's given birth to a baby she's taking into space while telling not-Han Solo that she doesn't want another kid, so they can't have sex. He has secret plans to sell her into sex slavery, just in case he needs money.  e: So many old sci-fi/fantasy works written by women involve rape, from Serpent to Floating Worlds to Cyteen to Diadem. What the gently caress was going on back then?!
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Nov 12, 2019 05:12
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MockingQuantum posted:Anybody have strong opinions on Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series? A very light sci-fi/fantasy book club that I might be joining is doing it for their next book and I'm trying to decide if I'll join or tell them I'll wait until the new year (which I might do anyway, given my schedule). I like space opera but have always kind of given "big space battles, also some story" kind of books a pass, I can't tell if this falls in that category or not though. The story is, in a future where one group of humanity is at war with another group of humanity, and they've been at war for centuries, Captain America falls into the ocean and gets frozen for a century, and when he wakes up he's immediately drafted into the Avengers and... ahem Early in the war, a dude's ship gets blown up so he gets into an escape capsule and frozen for a century+. When he's found and revived, he discovers he's been turned into a living legend, kind of a saint. Due to the war grinding away and killing all of their tacticians and smart people, he is now the ONLY person in the entire fleet who understands strategy on a level beyond "throw more people at their front line". Naturally the admiral of the fleet gets killed and our poor hero is put in charge of a fleet that is stranded behind enemy lines. He has to beat military discipline and strategy and tactics into his fleet, endure their endless bickering, fight his way home, and get into a stupid love triangle. Oh, and find out why the war got started in the first place, because no one knows. The series is great popcorn reading, light with fun space battles, some of the best I've read in the genre. The character work is ehhhhh, the romance is stupid, but I enjoyed the worldbuilding and all the details of how lovely their ships are because, well, the war basically destroyed their ability to make GOOD ships since they get destroyed so often. The hero going "why are you all suicidal" is great, especially when they're all "FOR VICTORY, OR ARE YOU A COWARD" back at him. If this sounds like fun, go for it! Do not expect anything more complicated or deep than what I just described. The sequel series kind of dips in quality, so I haven't finished it. e: Oh something else I liked is that the first series - the first six books - are almost entirely about getting the fleet home. There's an endgoal and they fight for it and then you can stop and it's a very satisfying read. I get sick of some series where there's a goal and then five hundred books later they still haven't done it. StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Nov 12, 2019 |
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Nov 12, 2019 22:21
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 The mail is here!!
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Nov 12, 2019 22:41
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MockingQuantum posted:Okay this (and the posts above...) lead me to believe that it's probably not my cup of tea for a variety of reasons, I think I'm gonna pass on this one. A good choice. I enjoyed the series but it isn't something I can recommend unless you want that niche. Meanwhile, goddd it's hard figuring out which books to start in my new pile. Dawnhounds and Drowning Girl are staring at me...
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Nov 12, 2019 23:15
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tokenbrownguy posted:Soooo one of the guys in my scifi book club made a mistake. We're currently reading Cat Scratch Fever by Tara K Harper. It looks like this:  Well what else did he have to say about it, how's it read, ahahahahah
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Nov 15, 2019 19:55
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nessin posted:Is there a primer or cliff notes to reading Ninefox Gambit? I'm 1/3rd of the way through the book and still nothing makes sense in any way about the world. I feel like I'm reading a dairy of someone from an alternative universe where the rules of reality are totally different. That's because you are. Treat it like fantasy: people can do magic only if their society sticks to a strict set of rituals on their calendar.
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Nov 18, 2019 22:12
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To completely derail things - I brought this up in the UF thread but I think you guys would have something to say here too - I'm reading Anne Bishop's Others series and Black Jewels trilogy. Two uh... interesting things about both series: The Black Jewels features magic golden cockrings of obedience on at least two main characters so far, and they're brought up pretty often. The Others opens with a prologue note explaining that in this version of Earth, there are no native peoples anywhere but in Europe, and instead there are were-critters and vampires and elementals who regularly eat humans, to the point that settling America featured a lot of Europeans getting eaten. Of course, this is a super light and fluffy universe compared to how it actually went down...and I'm still super confused at how a book that got published in the 2010s could get away with just wholesale erasing all native americans like it's no biggie. e: And oh don't worry, none of the werewolves are native americans, our hot sexy werewolf lead is named Simon StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Nov 19, 2019 |
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Nov 19, 2019 17:18
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Orv posted:I mean, how sure are we that they're actually magical? They can sense a man's disobedient thoughts if he tenses up too much, and cause pain as punishment, so....
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Nov 19, 2019 18:30
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GreyjoyBastard posted:Oh man I completely forgot the Black Jewels series existed and I read it You're welcome, I guess. How was it?
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Nov 21, 2019 01:25
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AGGGGH BEES posted:Recommending the Black Jewels series to anyone is a very mean thing to do. There is quite a bit of very The friend who introduced them to me was very clear about how I probably wouldn't enjoy them. She loves them but is very aware of how they're uh, flawed. She brought them up in the context of there being a new book in the series dropping next year and how she's afraid of it. Thing is, I'm too curious for my own good. I have only myself to blame.
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Nov 21, 2019 14:18
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stuff in there.
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pseudanonymous posted:This is not the lit rpg thread They're not that bad, be nice
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Nov 24, 2019 23:38
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Obligatory warning: Girl with All the Gifts is a good book, but it's hardcore horror with child abuse in it, so read at your own risk.
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Nov 29, 2019 19:22
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It might be too hard (science, topics) for her but Cherryh's Foreigner series is 80% talking about alien politics over tea and it gets cozier over time. Either way, score! Getting a reader to branch out and have a good time is the best.
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Dec 1, 2019 04:58
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Yeah okay, Cry Pilot's been on my wishlist since before it came out. If they'd put the bit about terraforming monsters and using AI-made squid mechs against them on the back cover I would've bought it a lot sooner. Gimme gimme gimme!
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Dec 1, 2019 17:52
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It may help to know that the four Murderbot novellas are basically one big book carved into four chapters.
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Dec 4, 2019 21:00
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Hiro Protagonist posted:I got half way through the first murderbot novella and, despite how short it is, I don't know if I'm going to finish it. It feels like the entire thing is just "look at how QUIRKY the main character is!" I think that might just be Martha Wells' writing style, and if it's not for you, that's okay.
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Dec 4, 2019 22:30
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https://twitter.com/scalzi/status/1202303321547169795
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Dec 5, 2019 03:42
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By the way I appreciate the sales posts in this thread. I don't do ebooks but I share them with my non-goon bookchat and they're all over 'em.
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Dec 16, 2019 23:56
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gently caress. Thanks for letting me know.
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Dec 20, 2019 02:26
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Dust by Elizabeth Bear takes the concept of a generational ship and then goes bonkers with it, you should check it out!
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Dec 20, 2019 16:52
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gently caress off, transphobe
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Dec 20, 2019 18:55
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To turn this into a good thing: I know of two trans authors off the top of my head: Yoon Ha Lee and Caitlin R Kiernan. Are there any others out there? I've got money and a need for more books to hoard.
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Dec 20, 2019 19:34
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To indiebound, thank you! And since I really enjoy romance it sounds like All the Birds in the Sky will be my jam.
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Dec 20, 2019 19:56
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Hiro Protagonist posted:I hadn't heard of Yoon Ha Lee. I looked up his work and it looks interesting. Is Dragon Pearl good? It looks like it's YA, but Korean Space Opera sounds awesome. I've only read Ninefox Gambit by Lee and adored it as dark magical space opera with one great heroine. Haven't touched Dragon Pearl yet!
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Dec 20, 2019 20:28
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Well put, Battuta.
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Dec 20, 2019 20:44
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PST posted:(Actually, some sort of 'these are good people to buy' list would be good in general) I asked for and received the names of trans authors above in this very thread, definitely buy their stuff!
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Dec 21, 2019 00:45
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my bony fealty posted:I don't understand any of this but it makes "fandom" seem like a real no fun zone One of the good things about AO3 is that it doesn't do censorship. One of the bad things about AO3 is that it doesn't do censorship. e: By the way, since I've posted stuff there, be sure to address me as a hugo-award winning author, thanks. 
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Dec 22, 2019 00:16
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Kefahuchi_son!!! posted:Hi all!! I haven't really followed fantasy ouside the more famous stuff these past few years but i was looking for recommendations on books/series. While i normally like smaller scale and/or weirdeir stuff i'm in the mood for something epic. Kate Elliot's Crown of Stars series is a massive dark fantasy series about medieval europe vs itself vs demons vs the church. Warning for rape/slavery/intense trauma in the first book - note that she does escape her rapist, but the sequence getting there is brutal. Janny Wurts' To Ride Hell's Chasm is a rare 1-volume epic fantasy about a castle guard captain trying to find a missing princess; she has another series that is a bazillion books long and one volume away from being finished. It's about two princes landing in a fantasy world and they promptly get cursed to hate each other to the point of trying to kill each other. Naturally this leads to them hooking up with the local fantasy nations and basically creating civil war in the course of trying to kill each other. Kameron Hurley's dropping the final book in her Mirror Empire trilogy about a world being invaded + parallel universes + multiple countries having politics Michelle West/Sagara's main fantasy universe has a duology, a six book epic series of chonkers, and an eight book sequel/side-quel series of chonkers on top of that. It's the Essalieyan universe and is about demons and warfare and such. She also has a more urban fantasy-styled series called Elantra and it's about a cop in a fantasy world versus all kinds of magical disasters. Despite it being UF there's no romance, and the focus of the books has been more... basically sci-fi in tone as the heroine gets crash-courses in different cultures/species. Solving a murder for cat people versus stopping a crazy magic zone out of control in a dragon empire are very different plots, after all. Brian Stableford's Genesys trilogy is one of the weirdest things I've ever read, as it's set on a planet where everything rots quickly, and the humans who colonized it bio-engineered themselves so their teeth wouldn't rot and such. But their original tech did rot, so it's... medieval fantasy, but with science stuff to keep things fresh. The first book starts slow but then you hit the ant alien colonies and things go straight to weird. CS Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy is about another colony world humans colonized, but this time things went radically wrong because the world itself reacts to human thoughts and dreams. Think up a demon and it's real. Get enough people to believe in a God, and poof, there he is. The main plot is about a sorceress getting kidnapped by demon-things and a priest-sorcerer going on an epic quest to rescue her...but things get sidetracked quickly because there's also a damned vampire lord who's going to tag along, and the church ain't happy about anything.
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Dec 23, 2019 02:05
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To get on my soapbox for a mo - once I started looking there is so much good genre fiction written by women, and when I look in reclists on reddit or elsewhere they almost never come up, nevermind that they've been around for the same amount of time and are as good as the dude-written stuff or better. And that ticks me off! Okay thank you, I needed to get that off my chest.
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Dec 24, 2019 01:11
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 sigh
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Dec 24, 2019 16:36
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Cardiac posted:I just found it easier to not give a poo poo about the gender of the author. You've missed the point entirely.
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Dec 24, 2019 19:04
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my bony fealty posted:Reddit rec threads are like 75% Sanderson and Abercrombie and Erikson, even when the OP mentions they've already read those lol Yeah, it's a problem. And it's so frustrating because like, I enjoy some Malazan, I'd like to read some Abercrombie and such - but please god stop recommending the same ten authors over and over again. As for your request lemme look at the table o' contents - wait, since when did Tolstoy write genre fiction? Also the ER Eddison oughta be good.
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Dec 24, 2019 19:07
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branedotorg posted:Marketing guff. I enjoyed the first chapter - the writing inside the book is good. I'm just astounded at how terrible the marketing for this book is. Comparing it to Star Wars isn't doing it any favors with me. Also I'm suffering (again) from too many books syndrome. I should put some of what I've got away, but I want to read everything I've got...
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Dec 24, 2019 22:56
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ToxicFrog posted:Start with The Pride of Chanur, it's accessible, fast-paced, and stands fine on its own but also has four sequels if you want more stuff in the same setting after finishing it. With that as a baseline, the Merchanter books are in the same wheelhouse (but set in human space) while Foreigner is more slower-paced, relaxing, and political. God I need to read Trouble and Her Friends, I own it, I could start it now, but.... backlog.... Anyways thank you for Six Wakes, I somehow missed that one entirely.
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Dec 25, 2019 19:53
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| # ¿ May 20, 2024 02:45 |
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Dated cyberpunk is the best kind of cyberpunk imo, as long as it's actually punk. I love it when sci-fi uses "~modern tech~" like tapes or floppies or what have you.
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Dec 25, 2019 23:33
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