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I have mostly fond memories of the Diamond Age; those memories lack even a trace of a sex computer. Might have to check my paperback copy to see if those pages were secretly razor bladed out by my guardian angel.
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Dec 14, 2023 02:07
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 07:53 |
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pradmer posted:The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard #1) by Scott Lynch - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JMKNJ2/ 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. Might not be as great now that “I wrote a novel about our d&d campaign” has gotten more popular these days.
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Dec 20, 2023 19:20
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DurianGray posted:Things I didn't like: felt too long sometimes, too many times/too long each time when the brothers were waxing on about their personal philosophy/theology, not enough of the turnip farmer Agreed on all counts, but the book did give us maybe 100 words regarding the Road Popes, a bit I intend to steal whole cloth when I form my motorcycle gang.
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Dec 21, 2023 01:03
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Read GRRM's Tuf Voyaging, which was a $2 deal posted by pradmer a couple weeks back. It was great! It's a collection of short stories about Haviland Tuf and his ecological engineering adventures... with cats! Imagine Doctor Who, but replace the Doctor with Varys from GoT and the TARDIS with a centuries-abandoned supership. I mean, maybe just imagine a short season of Doctor Who, in book form; each chapter is like a 90-minute read. One cool bit I learned after reading: the stories are in chronological order, but GRRM wrote like Chapter 4 in the 70s, then worked backwards and forwards in the 80s to give Tuf a more meaningful origin story and a conclusion. Also, I guess Tuf voyages through GRRM's sci-fi universe? I didn't know he had one.
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Jan 13, 2024 00:08
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This thread turned me on to og novels by George “Rail Road” Martin. Tuf Voyaging was some good old short form sci-fi, but Fevre Dream might be one of my favorite books ever. I honestly went into the book not giving two shits about steamboats, which feature prominently both on the cover as well as in between them, but every time Abner started waxing poetic about them… I was hooked. It probably doesn’t help that I’m of a certain age and the older I get, the more I like trains (and apparently other forms of transport). I’m slightly disappointed that I spoiled the second chapter or so by reading a blurb on the cover like “A fresh new take on the vampire novel by Martin.” I’m kind of glad it didn’t spawn a GRRM steamboat cinematic universe with an HBO series and Sour Billy Tipton Funko Pops. Great little world with a great little story all wrapped up in one book with a bow on it.
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Mar 27, 2024 21:53
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StrixNebulosa posted:Oh fascinating, I thought those were the best parts of the book and could have happily jettisoned the other POVs. I liked the concepts in 3bp and the unusual cultural povs but I have a hard time recommending it as a Good Book. On the other hand, I adore the spider guy books. I think of Greg Egan’s Permutation City along the same lines as 3bp: I didn’t love the book but I feel like my brain changed for the better having read it. I’d put thread favorite Blindsight up there, too.
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Mar 28, 2024 17:55
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 07:53 |
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The prose in 3bp is often as alien as the concepts, which kind of made reading them like finding a pulp paperback that fell through a portal from one of the Fringe parallel universes. Then again, I thought the best part of Blindsight, by far, was the appendix. YMMV
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Apr 26, 2024 22:12
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