SF & F Mega-thread: I had to google 'spock pirate depilatory'

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Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

a foolish pianist posted:

Anyway, I've gotten most of the way through Gideon the Ninth, and it really reminds of me a Gene Wolf story told by one of Stross's Laundry Files protagonists.

This is probably the best review of the book so far, so I guess it goes into the list.

Also, started reading Too like the lightning and authors who think that it is a innovative idea to write in a Jane Austen 17-18th style should be shoot imo.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2019 17:38

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 05:57

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Sibling of TB posted:

I have never read a book before where about half way through I decided that I hated all the characters and wanted to see bad stuff happen to them. Any other books like that?

Bakker?
You also get your wish fulfilled, so there is that.

General Battuta posted:

2Like 2Lightning isn�t written anything like Austen. Aubrey/Maturin is written like Austen. Austen is, among other traits, extremely funny.

It is more the style than the actual author, where the purpose of the text is to be flowery with words instead of using words to drive the story.
Probably the one thing that turned me off Jonathan Strange and Mister Norell.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2019 20:35

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Solitair posted:

Is that always a bad thing? I don't mind utilitarian prose, but sometimes I like when it has a nice aesthetic to it.

Utilitarian and aesthetic prose are not opposites imo, but flowery text for the purpose of flowery text makes me believe the author is a smug wise rear end.

Also, for being a PhD in history, Palmer sure seems to believe that the current premier nations are going to be the same in 500 years.
The paragraph about China, Japan and Korea deciding on a neutral capital in Indonesia is kinda funny, given where for example Korea was less than 100 years ago.
So much sci-fi with respect to Earths politics is going to be dated in 50 years, considering that Nigeria is predicted to be the 3rd most populous country on Earth in the end of this century.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2019 06:55

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Megazver posted:

It was pretty meh. It solidified my decision to not read any more books by Richard K. Morgan.

The only difference between a land fit for heroes and his other series is that fact that the main protagonist fucks men. The macho posture, graphic sex and violence is the same.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2019 06:13

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Orv posted:

This. I did almost no reading for like three years about a decade ago but kept accumulating backlog and finally cleared that up just before reading Gideon the Ninth. I've now accumulated like another two years of books to read already, if I read at the rate I used to when I was younger.

It is a problem.

I don�t see it as a backlog but rather a repository where I can pick the book I feel like reading at that time.

Also, does Too like the lightning actually speed up, cause for now it reads more like a costume drama?

# ¿ Oct 19, 2019 17:30

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

freebooter posted:

I personally found book 3 in this trilogy to be really, disappointingly underwhelming but that's only because the first two are so awesome. He creates this fully realised world in the first book and then tears it apart in a sort of civil war/revolution/apocalyptic event in the second. Some absolutely brilliant setpieces throughout and he's definitely the most talented prose stylist working in modern science fiction. Hugely recommended even though I thought the end of the trilogy kind of sputtered out, and hey, that's just my opinion.

Nah, i second this opinion.
Clearly worth it and McDonald is always good.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2019 12:27

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

StrixNebulosa posted:

Speaking of Simmons I had real trouble with the Terror because my god he had to repeatedly have pov characters obsess over how animalistic and slutty the natives were. Like in the first fifty pages I got to read two different descriptions of a young woman's public hair and how evil and alluring she was. Plus a comparison to how cold and distant this guy's wife was and how he only saw her pubic hair once.

I was so deep into studying this tragedy that I had multiple nonfiction books out about it and I thought the Terror would be a cool supernatural take on it but no! Racism and sexism and pubic hair.

I guess I have a higher tolerance for that after having been exposed to Lovecraft for a long time.
The Terror is easily among the best things Simmons have written, although it (like so many other Simmons books) take a rapid plunge in quality in the latter part of the book.
Also, seconding the TV adaption, which is great so far.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2019 07:01

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

So is the payoff in Seven Surrenders worth it?
Too like the lightning suffered from the usual sci-fi issue ie interesting ideas, bad execution. It was pretty much a pretentious 18th century costume drama disguised as sci-fi without any proper payoff from the first book. The story was meandering, characters bland, the different POVs didn�t add anything to the story and the gender thing was not done in an interesting way.
Still, I found it interesting enough to consider reading the next one.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2019 11:08

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Last 20 years gave us Erikson, Abercrombie and Bakker from the top of my head.
I kinda like the later trend of 19th century mixes with magic that Abercrombie, McClellan and Bennett have been writing lately.
The Chartrand series was pretty good.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2019 15:53

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Larry Parrish posted:

I always rate books based on my attention span. If they take me more than a day or two to read, they're mediocre at best. Like I burned through steel frame in like 8 hours, broken up by work and sleep. Goblin Emperor was good but kind of boring and flowery (although that was the point) so it took me about twice as long.

Whereas Kindle Unlimited trash takes me like a a week sometimes, if I dont just set it down forever. The crappier the novel, the more my attention wanders and I take breaks.

Seconding this.
I will binge read a good book, while a mediocre book gets down prioritized in comparison to kids and reading SA forums. As recent example, a little hatred took two days, while too like the lightning took two weeks. And with a reading speed of 150 pages an hour says something about my enjoyment of the latter.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2019 05:42

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

freebooter posted:

I don't think it should be the only factor you rate something by, but it is significant, especially in the SFF genre. Like, the specific book I was referencing which brought this up is supposed to be a YA adventure novel. It should be pretty tightly paced. If my attention is wandering because Philip Pullman has decided he wants to write about an insurance assessor interviewing somebody about a workplace injury (OK, this is a cover story for a spy, but still) then that's a mark against it.

But of course there are many great works of sci-fi and fantasy which are difficult reads. Gormenghast springs to mind.

And this, to me, is crazy and sounds like those people who listen to podcasts at double speed.

I remember binge reading Ghormenghast and Wolfe and can�t actually recall whether they took any longer than usual.
Nowadays with small kids at home, I notice the difference in how much I enjoy a book. A good book will get read in short time, while a less interesting one gets stuck on my desk for longer. The same reading speed applies, just not the motivation.

Someone once explained to me that the difference between fast readers and slower is that the former scan the text lines and the latter goes word by word.

In any case, I have attention issues with podcasts, audiobooks and video clips, cause they are just so slow compared to actually reading a text about the same thing.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2019 05:51

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

StrixNebulosa posted:

Here is a reddit post about the longest fantasy series: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/8u2xj9/longest_fantasy_book_series/

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)

I wouldn�t call Hobb or Pratchett a unified series. And the same applies for bundling esslemont with Erikson.

As for recommendation, I would say the Chartrand voyage, which was a nice series with some novel ideas and with a good storyline.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2019 05:24

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Ornamented Death posted:

Hobb's work is definitely a unified series. But even if you want to be weird with definitions, there are still nine books about one character.

Nah, of the Fitz series, one is a coming of age, second one is tied to the dragons returning and third one is a generational shift away from Fitz. And the two other series have little to do with Fitz.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2019 17:35

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

MockingQuantum posted:

Why not the first book?

First author�s book syndrome.
Perfectly ok to pick it up later.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2019 06:23

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Lester Shy posted:

Was anybody else frustrated by the Broken Earth trilogy? It's probably to complain about a magic system, and I'm not saying every story has to have strict, Sanderson-style rules, but the magic in Broken Earth piles so many different, weird things on top of one another that the whole thing falls apart under its own weight.

So much of the narrative relies on the different supernatural elements interacting, but the systems are never explained in a way that makes intuitive sense, and I got 1/4th through the 3rd book before I just gave up. Does it get any better in the last half of the last book? I want to give it another go, because I like Jemisin's prose and the macro-level plot is really interesting, but the moment-to-moment stuff just became exhausting to read.

Honestly, I see it as one of the really good things in the series.
Don�t bring reality into my fantasy.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2019 20:23

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

So I ordered Gideon the ninth and steel frame based on recommendations here. Let�s see if they hold up.
New books by Jackson Bennett, Reynolds, McClellan and Gibson in the next couple of months as well.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2019 18:29

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

tildes posted:

I am confused where they are getting some of these takes from and I wouldn�t let it color your opinion of the books.

There�s a reason every book in the trilogy won the Hugo for best novel and IMO you�d be missing out if you don�t read it.

Hugo�s aren�t really a mark of quality.
Out of the three, the first one is great, second good and third kinda tedious.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2019 06:28

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

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.

It was ok.
For some reason I felt I had read it before, cause the story seemed familiar.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2019 18:25

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Cythereal posted:

Directive 51 by John Barnes - As someone keenly interested in information theory, the first third or so of this book is fairly interesting. Twenty minutes into the future, the end of the world as we know it comes crowd-funded and locally sourced, its agents recruited and radicalized through discord chats and memes, its weapons built in garages and make-spaces. Unfortunately, a plot has to come along and rip apart that veneer of a vaguely interesting idea to reveal the ultra-right-wing boomer wank over the end of western civilization at the hands of those dastardly liberals. And, unable to give liberals too much credit, the whole thing turns out to be a magic thought-virus from space because aliens.

Sigh. Tricked into reading one of these, though I started skimming by about the halfway point. Barnes feels like a man who understands what modern movements like antifa are angry about, but cannot fathom why.

If you read kaleidoscope country, are you really surprised?

Also, read Gideon the ninth and the initial recommendations for the book itt was stupid as hell. Lesbian necromancers was literally just for sales purposes, it has classic emo protagonist and can only be considered to have witty dialogue if you think teenage dialogue is witty.

That said, I read it in one day due to it being a haunted house story, cool imagery with necromancy and flowing storyline. Given the ending, I have some doubts that the sequels will be as good.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2019 06:47

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

90s Cringe Rock posted:

That's science fiction, not fantasy.

Well, the difference between fantasy and sci-fi is whether a wizard or a scientist/alien did it so.........

# ¿ Dec 4, 2019 19:48

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

So raven Tower by Leckie was good.
Although she cheats a bit by applying a second person view on the main protagonist, thus avoiding having flesh out the protagonist.
Is her other work similar in style to this, even though it is sci-fi?

# ¿ Dec 20, 2019 21:44

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Xenix posted:

NK Jemisin's The Broken Earth series has certain viewpoints told in second person, if that's what you're looking for. The first book uses the different viewpoints in an interesting way, though the second and third do not (the second person viewpoint does continue on, however).

When I meant style, I didn�t mean the second person viewpoint but rather the story. Unless leckie for some reason writes everything in second person?
Jemisin, who i have read, is a good comparison to The raven tower, due to similarities in how they setup their stories.

Also, batuta, your description (on the physical book) of the Raven Tower saying it was a mix of Le Guin and Sanderson is perhaps not the best description.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2019 11:14

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

General Battuta posted:

Yeah but it makes nerds want to buy it

I am guessing due to the Sanderson comparison and not Le Guin.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2019 22:04

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

SurreptitiousMuffin posted:

In 2018 I set a rule that I'd only read SFF by women and holy poo poo, do it, it was an awesome year where I discovered a ton of awesome and underappreciated writers.

I just found it easier to not give a poo poo about the gender of the author.
Why limit yourself?

# ¿ Dec 24, 2019 18:42

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

freebooter posted:

But I got the strong impression it's set with Clinton winning because he simply couldn't be hosed rewriting it, and The Peripheral was the most enjoyable thing he'd written in ages, so hopefully it's good.

It is sci-fi, who cares if it has anything to do with reality.

As was pointed out here before, trying to write near future sci-fi based on current events have been harder than usual due to the volatility. I guess it should be somewhat similar to what sci-fi writers experienced from 1989 and onwards.
The peripheral was good so I already have preordered The Agency.

In other news, the final Powder mage book by McClellan was a fun read. I kinda like the mix of gunpowder, magic and ancient gods. Although his books are kinda repetitive in their storyline in terms of setup.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2020 13:20

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

90s Cringe Rock posted:

Steel Frame has a few horror elements, since you mentioned the Expanse and may not need full-on horror. It's a neat book about mechs and giant rusting battleships.

Steel Frame is one of the best books of my recent reads. A good self contained story with a nice flow and cool setup.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2020 19:24

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

mewse posted:

I don't even understand how those two are so completely dogshit at writing

Well, Kevin J Anderson seems to have Sanderson qualities in churning out books at least. The only series by him I read I finished mostly out of curiosity how the train wreck would end.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2020 21:25

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

pseudanonymous posted:

Is he good like they are? I really like both those writers, but I'm worried that you're comparing them on the axis of "doesn't excessively world build" but I'm worried that on the "prose is good" axis you're not saying anything.

Prose is average, first book is basically black company analogue.
Second and third is Harry Potter meets Minecraft in the most boring way.
Oh, and Saunders is self published.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2020 15:39

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

pseudanonymous posted:

God that review is loving insufferable.

Agreed.
The number of times I see Saunders pushed here makes me wonder if he is a goon or friend to a goon.
Why else would a self-published author get promoted here? Especially since there is a reason for why an author is self-published.
This is especially obvious in the March North, which would have benefited from an editor.

A comparison can be made with Library of Mount Char, which was published, was very much a first author book and there are no more (non-computer) books published by Scott Hawkins.
I would guess this is not from lack of trying, but rather how hard it is to write a second book and get it out.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2020 18:13

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

I don't *regret* reading Greatcoats but I ain't gonna read it twice. From what I recall it started out as basically a . . . fine . . .Three Musketeers re-skin and then kinda goes off the rails in the later books because it obviously wasn't conceived as a series of that length.

JS&N was one of the best books of it's decade though

Didn�t the first book go off the rails in the end when an allied army suddenly appeared out of nothing. At that point I kind lost interest.

Also finished the Grim Company series and one can easily say the name was apt. A decent read.

Bone silence, the latest Reynolds is also out.

# ¿ Jan 28, 2020 17:13

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Junkenstein posted:

Talking of Reynolds, has anyone had a chance to check out the new Revenger? I wasn't enthralled by the first two but enjoyed them well enough. Hopefully this final volume dives headfirst in the mysteries previously teased at.

It is the same style and fairly enjoyable. Pretty grim as well.
Probably not going to resolve all mysteries, on the other hand that setting deserves further explorations. Something which really was not possible for revelation space in the same way.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2020 19:32

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Apparatchik Magnet posted:

Donaldson's Gap series?

Seconding this, although it makes the others seem like happy fun time stories.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2020 18:55

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Velius posted:

Okay, sure, Thomas Covenant has rape in the first book, and the Gap series has rape in the first book, but the Mordant�s Need books just have coercion, manipulation, and lack of consent. poo poo, and off-screen rape in the sequel. Never mind.

I do actually quite like the Mordant�s Need books, but they�re really rape-adjacent.

From Wikipedia:
The books deal with themes of reality, power, inaction and love in the context of a fantasy adventure. This series is much lighter in tone than Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever or The Gap Cycle.

Damning with faint praise?

# ¿ Feb 7, 2020 20:58

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Black Griffon posted:

What's your favorite "scientist sci-fi"? By this I'm talking about sci-fi that takes a scientific, exploratory approach to the plot, in either characters, writing style or both. It would probably involve discovery (see earlier Big Dumb Object discussion), but not necessarily always.

In my opinion, what makes a good story in this style is that it conveys the joy and excitement, or even better, terror of scientific discovery without turning into a fictional textbook or writing so dry it'd self-combust. It gives answers willingly, while leaving unexplained mysteries with compelling reasons for why they can't be explained. Blindsight, one of my favorite books and also mentioned in the BDO discussion, is the candidate I can come up with right now.

Given that science is extremely tedious and repetitive, none. Also, the grant application process is amiss so no immersion for me.

As example, Reynolds doesn�t write sci-fi in a particularly scientific manner despite being an actual scientist by training.

Speaking of Reynolds, the Revenger series ended in a good way and I consider it one of his better series. I prefer the first book since the bauble hunting parts really brings out Reynolds strongest sides, especially as this part is reminiscent of Diamond dogs, one of his best works. Given the end of the series Reynolds have made it easy for him to get back to this universe and I would easily read an anthology about different bauble hunters and their adventures.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2020 21:21

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Gnoman posted:

Since when are (monolithless) cavemen sci-fi anyway?

2001?

# ¿ Feb 13, 2020 05:55

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Gnoman posted:

Those were not monolithless.

My bad, I thought it referred to Jondalars penis.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2020 18:47

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Aggro posted:

The entire trilogy is outstanding and might be my favorite completed fantasy series of the last decade. The ending is profoundly emotional and feels well-earned.

Foundryside is mediocre YA shlock :/

So far I think foundryside started in a better way than the cities series.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2020 17:38

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

SurreptitiousMuffin posted:

Mate, I'd stab me first.

All I'll say is: book very good

Given that Gideon at its core was a hunted house mansion story and how it ended, I have a hard time seeing Harrow will be anything like it.
Either the series devolves into into some form of relationship drama ( given that Gideon had way too many characters) or it turns into space opera.
I am happy to proven wrong though.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2020 06:37

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Junkenstein posted:

The blurb on Amazon suggests it'll possibly have a similar sort of feel, for whatever that's worth.

She answered the Emperor's call.

She arrived with her arts, her wits, and her only friend.

In victory, her world has turned to ash.

After rocking the cosmos with her deathly debut, Tamsyn Muir continues the story of the penumbral Ninth House in Harrow the Ninth, a mind-twisting puzzle box of mystery, murder, magic, and mayhem. Nothing is as it seems in the halls of the Emperor, and the fate of the galaxy rests on one woman's shoulders.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, last necromancer of the Ninth House, has been drafted by her Emperor to fight an unwinnable war. Side-by-side with a detested rival, Harrow must perfect her skills and become an angel of undeath � but her health is failing, her sword makes her nauseous, and even her mind is threatening to betray her.

Sealed in the gothic gloom of the Emperor's Mithraeum with three unfriendly teachers, hunted by the mad ghost of a murdered planet, Harrow must confront two unwelcome questions: is somebody trying to kill her? And if they succeeded, would the universe be better off?

So Harry Potter then?
This was a pretty generic blurb that went through all the common archetypes for a fantasy sci-fi story.
At least it was not lesbian necromancers, which btw was one of the least accurate descriptions of Gideon.

Cardiac fucked around with this message at 10:16 on Feb 21, 2020

# ¿ Feb 21, 2020 10:13

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 05:57

Cardiac: Aug 28, 2012

Groke posted:

Well it wasn't all that inaccurate, it's just they were way too busy with other stuff to get around to any overt lesbianing.

It is more that it was used as a selling point for the series, when it at best was a minor plot detail.
I mean, after a while in this thread the description �haunted space mansion with necromancers� was made which is more accurate and also a much better selling point.
And in this regard, Gideon was a highly enjoyable read.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2020 17:34

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > SF & F Mega-thread: I had to google 'spock pirate depilatory'

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