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StrixNebulosa posted:Some good recs in this post but this line is wrong, Pattern Recognition is one of the best books Gibson's written. It's a fascinating look at the internet of 2000 and how that affects culture and it's not sci-fi but it's really really good. General Battuta posted:And this is drat true, the Blue Ant trilogy is probably Gibson's best. I'm glad other people think this because I really enjoyed the blue ant trilogy, pattern recognition in particular. I thought the general opinion was that Gibson didn't write anything worthwhile past neuromancer (maybe it still is in literary circles)
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May 17, 2020 00:06
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StrixNebulosa posted:My brother's birthday is upcoming and while I have some gifts lined up for him, it never hurts to check: are there any cool books about dragons? And I mean: dragons as main characters, dragons as badasses, dragons as a central focus. He doesn't mind if they're evil, but he wants them to be cool alien-esque scaly winged badasses who influence the plot. One of his favorites is Deathwing from the warcraft universe, for an example. 2nding Hambley's Dragonsbane. I read it recently because Brandon Sanderson cited it as one of his formative inspirations, it's a very interesting take on that type of story.
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Jun 8, 2020 15:07
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Funny to have Peter F. Hamilton come up in the thread again, I'm still trudging through A Naked God which is the third book of the night's dawn trilogy. I'm upset I'm still reading it instead of better books (still haven't cracked open the new murderbot), I'm just forcing myself to finish it out of spite. I don't think I read books out of spite that often. All the creepy white guy sex stuff is true. The book bores me to sleep, often.
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Jun 12, 2020 14:41
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uber_stoat posted:let us know what you think of the ending. I finished it finally. Spoilering discussion of the ending of The Reality Dysfunction It's literally deus ex machina, which I expected. It was nice to have him finally wrap up all the plot lines though. My biggest complaint is I feel like this possession thing should have been solved in the first book. It's a magic problem with a magic bullet solution and he stretched it into a drat trilogy with plot lines like Al Capone coming back to life, or Sexy Marie Skibbow trying to take control of a space station or Sexy Marie Skibbow's dad going insane, none of which I gave a poo poo about. I think I kept reading because there was no resolution at the end of the first book, but I didn't expect them to be so drat long. I spent 2 months reading these books and now I'm four books behind on my yearly reading challenge, THANK YOU PETER F HAMILTON
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Jun 13, 2020 16:35
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TheAardvark posted:https://twitter.com/tordotcom/status/1300796947800961024?s=19 Will either be really good (vindicates their work on GoT) or really bad (doubles down on their awful final seasons of GoT). If they're playing it as a giant space epic it would be nice if they got brit actors like they did for GoT, but the source material should have them casting a lot of asians (and one stereotypical american iirc). Westworld filmed their most recent season in Singapore and it was pretty striking visually.
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Sep 2, 2020 00:36
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Black Griffon posted:I don't think I could read a fraction of what I've read on kindle on a tablet or smartphone. It works for some people, I know, but I'm extremely not one of them. Same af
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Sep 2, 2020 23:56
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Happiness Commando posted:I think I found this here, but reposting. A bunch of fans were angry that the Animorphs ending was kind of brutal and KAA wrote an open letter in response. It's a pretty hardcore sentiment for a YA series and an excellent philosophical position, IMO Having never read animorphs or the end of animorphs, it seems like the fans were saying "this ending wasn't entertaining" and the author's response was "WAR isn't entertaining!!"
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Sep 3, 2020 18:11
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tildes posted:I think it’s more that the ending was *really* not a happy ending. If you were hoping the series would end with everyone in a place where they’d be happy and things would be tied up neatly, that super wasn’t what you got which is rare for a children’s series. I actually think KAA did a pretty good job with the ending- I think it definitely was entertaining, just not feel good at all. Fair enough. I have seen interactions with authors that were basically "you shouldn't have killed that character!!" "well, that was the story, I'm sorry you didn't like the story"
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Sep 3, 2020 18:41
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Confession time I actually enjoyed reading the notorious Ready Player One a while ago. So I finished Harrow the Ninth over the weekend and started on Armada by Ernest Cline a couple days ago. Aside from giving me whiplash - going from the dark and baroque plot of Harrow to YA for man-children of Armada, I finally understand why people can't stand this guy. I've only read a few chapters but the love interest was just introduced and of course her most desirable trait is that she understands all the 80s references the self-insert protagonist cares about. I might stop reading this crap if it keeps making me angry, I've had enough hate-reads this year after the Peter F. Hamilton bullshit I waded through
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Sep 8, 2020 17:27
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If I've learned anything from world of warcraft it's that compelling dragons to do whatever you want is very legal and very cool
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Sep 8, 2020 22:12
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This chinese author who hasn't been disappeared is somehow holding opinions that align with the chinese government??????????????? Truly a mystery
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Sep 9, 2020 21:55
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I think Ernest Cline might be a straight up moron. I just came across this section in Armada where he tries to explain to the reader what "gallows humor" is:quote:“Stay frosty, everyone,” my father said. “And may the Force be with you.”
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Sep 12, 2020 17:01
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Happy to share the misery, comrade
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Sep 12, 2020 17:27
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Arcsquad12 posted:That's not even an example of gallows humour, Ernest, unless you consider even the slightest hint of physical violence to be super dark black comedy. Yeah that's what struck me about it. The bubblegum line from They Live is not gallows humour, even if it's in Chinese and before a major battle. He comes back to the gallows humour thing twice including this gem, when the main char is on hold with the most famous scientists in the world: quote:That was when Cruz caught a glimpse of my QComm screen, which was now divided into over half a dozen windows, each with a different person’s face, just like the opening of The Brady Bunch—so he decided to belt out an impromptu parody of the opening line of the show’s theme song: “This is the story, of an alien invasion, by some fuckheads from Europa who are—” That's not gallows humour either, Ernest Cline you loving idiot
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Sep 12, 2020 19:37
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cptn_dr posted:The Spaceship Baru Cormorant 
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Sep 22, 2020 01:38
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StrixNebulosa posted:me, on discord: "Hmm, finding it fascinating how I'm bouncing between/arguing with the harder sci-fi / fantasy / horror novels. Wherein I like the idea of reading them, but they tend to be long and you have to focus on them, and phew." Like fantasy in the vein of hard sci-fi? There's a series of novels called the accursed kings by Maurice Druon that GRRM cites as being "the original game of thrones". They're more accurately described as historical fiction rather than hard fantasy, but I think their existence proves the point that you can have dramatic, warring noble houses fantasy and leave out the magic & dragons part. e: does this mean Robin Hood is hard fantasy? crap mewse fucked around with this message at 20:09 on Sep 23, 2020 |
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Sep 23, 2020 20:07
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The idea of a writer violently and repeatedly sabotaging their own career is entertaining me so much right now
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Sep 29, 2020 17:54
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General Battuta posted:I'm in this post and I don't like it Lol sorry buddy, I'm reading Baru 3 right now and enjoying it, any harm to your psyche through my posting is non-intentional
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Sep 29, 2020 18:26
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Simone Magus posted:I just wanna say the full cast production of Dune is absolutely mental. Every character is voiced perfect The new film?
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Oct 3, 2020 20:59
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Mark Lawrence "The Impossible Times" trilogy on sale at amazon (I haven't read these books but I enjoyed the prince of thorns trilogy from the same author) One Word Kill $0.99 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C24V3SD Limited Wish $0.99 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H4FTJ7T Dispel Illusion $1.99 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QRTQ2K3
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Oct 5, 2020 22:38
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cptn_dr posted:I'm still in the middle of my re-read, but the "Baru ruins the Llosydanes' day" segment is one of my favourite bits in any fantasy novel. I've forgotten most of Baru 2 and I'm currently reading Baru 3 but yeah I agree that was a wonderful part of 2's story
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Oct 12, 2020 04:10
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Finished Baru 3 As a boxing guy, I appreciated the Aminata fight scene, specifically breaking the opponent's fist with her skull and finishing with a guillotine choke. I feel the burnout in the afterword -- maybe writing some silly YA stuff would work as a palate cleanser? I know Sanderson is inhuman but he seems to alternate between his epic fantasy and smaller stuff that he kinda dashes off
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Oct 13, 2020 15:36
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Megasabin posted:I just finished the 3-Body-Problem. I thought it was ok. I'm not sure I understand the high praise. It's been a while since I read the trilogy but the trisolarians are incapable of deception, right? So the whole trilogy becomes about the chinese characters playing the long, long, long game and all the other humans being bumbling oafs (American General's plan being "bomb bomb bomb
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Oct 20, 2020 02:09
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Reddit? No thanks, I'll stay on SA where nothing bad has ever happened
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Oct 21, 2020 17:54
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I enjoyed the prince of thorns trilogy from Lawrence (via audiobook). It was sort of grimdark for the sake of being grimdark though.
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Oct 21, 2020 20:12
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team overhead smash posted:Can't believe they would spoil the title of the fourth book like that. My fav is still Spaceship Baru Cormorant
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Oct 22, 2020 16:30
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tokenbrownguy posted:Just finished The Tyrant Baru Cormorant. Echoing the praise, and that Monster was a bit of half-book. Looking forward to the Empress Baru Cormorant next! Aminata
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Oct 29, 2020 20:57
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Maybe for RP2 he'll have an editor that can explain to him what gallows humour is
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Nov 2, 2020 18:24
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Qwertycoatl posted:I'd somehow never heard of this before but it certainly reinforces my vague view that Harlan Ellison was a gigantic arsehole Went down the rabbit hole a bit on this, what a douchebag. Just off the top of my head I'm pretty sure GRRM has organized compilations and he wouldn't do something like delay the project for 45 years and then die before releasing it, what a monumentally lovely thing to do to colleagues
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Nov 17, 2020 20:35
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grassy gnoll posted:The upholstery over the stuffing was the color of a television tuned to a dead channel. Blue
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Dec 21, 2020 19:13
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tiniestacorn posted:Have you read A Memory Called Empire? I've also been starved for books so I'm going to check this out, thank you General Battuta posted:The next one is actually going pretty well! Fair Trade Baru Cormorant
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Jan 4, 2021 05:11
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They put gideon the ninth in the stack but it was published sept 2019 
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Jan 4, 2021 16:47
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freebooter posted:like, above and beyond typical sci-fi author incel nerdiness I know there are much worse, but my benchmark for this has become Peter F Hamilton when his straight white male hero visits a deliberately anachronistic pastoral planet and gets visited by the house matriarch in the middle of the night - who makes him promise he'll leave her naive sheltered daughter alone if he fucks her. Anyway he fucks her then he fucks and impregnates the daughter
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Jan 8, 2021 23:05
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pradmer posted:Dark Matter by Blake Crouch - $2.99 freebooter posted:This is an easy-read airport mystery (you know the kind of writing style I mean) but is a super fun, engaging and creative sci-fi thriller that I highly recommend going into without knowing anything about it. Respectfully disagree, it felt like the most hackish novel I've read in at least 2 years. It's like "what if michael crichton were stupider" or "what if dan brown thought he wrote sci-fi"
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Jan 22, 2021 16:37
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I have no quarrel with you if you enjoyed Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, it's just for me personally the plot drove me up the wall. I'm going to spoiler what I remember about the plot and the ending so BIG SPOILER WARNING I don't remember how long the intro is but the plot kicks off with the protagonist being abducted and I think thrown into a different universe. He discovers he was abducted BY HIMSELF because in the alternate universe he actually pursued his QUANTUM SCIENCE career and built a universe traveling machine (the infinite universe trope is basically the same as from rick and morty). He finds the machine but can't figure out how to get home so through plot magic he figures out how to get home, he finds his wife, but now because of the infinite number of branches in infinite universes there are now an infinite number of copies of him who have also returned home to find his wife. At this point in the novel I figured the author had written themselves into a corner and the only way to resolve it was to have the protagonist+wife abandon their own universe, and that's what ends up happening. He loving flees the infinite copies of himself by using the timey wimey quantum universe hopping machine to go somewhere else. The end. I went on a rant similar to what I just wrote to my family and they said "actually that book sounds fun" and I'm like NO! IT'S STUPID!
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Jan 23, 2021 08:45
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Brian McLellan has put up a free powder mage novella for his birthday, available here: https://www.brianmcclellan.com/ebook-store/ghosts It's free until tomorrow, you have to enter an email+shipping address to "checkout" the free purchase
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Jan 26, 2021 00:58
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Pennsylvanian posted:Kept hearing about Brandon Sanderson for years, so I picked up Way of Kings because it was a series-starter and on the top of the list when I searched for him. I really liked it. It's the first fantasy book I've finished in about ten years. A few thoughts: Yeah, way of kings was Kaladin's book. Book 2 is Shallan and book 3 is Dalinar. quote:-I'd say the story's pacing was inconsistent up until maybe the last 2/3rd of the book. Internet nerds have created a term for that - the Sanderlanche. He's gotten better in recent years. quote:-As is usually the case with fantasy, the humor is mostly a miss (for me). I'm not really fond of humor being limited to clever wordplay, which is how most humor seems to be handled in fantasy. This is why a lot of people don't like Shallan's character because she's constantly described as extremely clever and she exhibits it through "witty" banter quote:-The only sections I outright didn't like were Szeth's, mainly because of how Brandon wrote his fight scenes. There were all this unnecessary "he lashed to the ceiling" and then "grabbed the blade with both hands," and then "lashed one leg up on the ceiling and another onto the end table," lines that dragged out the fight and just made it feel like I someone transcribed a Pong match. It got a little ridiculous to read, and felt absent of pathos. As absurd as the shardbearer fights could get with everyone "spinning" into groups of Parshendi, Brandon at least tied the fight scenes to Dalenar's inner turmoil when it came to slaughtering Parshendi. The last part of Szeth's story was a really well-handled reveal, though. The intro to Way of Kings with all the bindings and lashings and gravity manipulation was probably intended to be an exciting intro to the series & magic system but it's sort of an up front "in these books everything works like a video game" kind of thing. It's easy to see where that criticism comes from. Leng posted:Come join us in the Sanderson thread! Please do, everyone there is usually extremely careful with spoilers.
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Feb 2, 2021 15:26
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I'm catching up on a couple pages back but I finished A Memory Called Empire from a suggestion in this thread and I enjoyed it a lot. I guess it did drag at the beginning but it pays off. Some of it stretched belief - what nation would send an ambassador with no support staff? But the conflicts and plot were very good
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Feb 16, 2021 08:25
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Mauser posted:I am now about 150 pages in and it's picked up quite a bit so I've preordered the second one. As someone who is terrible at remembering names, all the empire people having the naming convention of [Number + Object] is really difficult. If Ten Pearl goes off and does something else for 20 pages, there is no way I am going to remember who the hell that is  It got to the point where I was confusing the names of the ambassador's assistant and their friend while they were in the same scene and extended to their pet names for each other
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Feb 16, 2021 16:29
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pradmer posted:Sins of Empire (Gods of Blood and Powder #1) by Brian McClellan - $2.99 This is the powder mage guy's 2nd trilogy, highly recommend if you like Sanderson at all
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Feb 22, 2021 23:51
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