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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Maybe I'll give it another shot. I went ahead and bought https://www.amazon.com/Ursula-K-Guin-Hainish-Stories/dp/1598535374 I have this, it’s great
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Nov 10, 2023 01:35
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Maybe I'll give it another shot. I went ahead and bought https://www.amazon.com/Ursula-K-Guin-Hainish-Stories/dp/1598535374 I saw that collection when I got the Earthsea volume, was quite spendy at over 80 CDN but was still very tempting
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Nov 10, 2023 02:27
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Finished Rocannon's World. It was good! Lots to think about in a prime directive sense, especially for such a short novel. I was really only wanting for more detail on one or two occasions where it felt like it was being purposefully sped along, which again is impressive for being so short. I still have four more stories in the collection from the library so I'm going to go ahead and read the rest. Planet of Exile, City of Illusions, The Left Hand of Darkness, and The Word For World Is Forest in that order.
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Nov 12, 2023 15:55
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Just started Rocannon's World (well, the Worlds of Exile and Illusion volume) with the opening short story The Necklace. Beautiful story, it really sets the scene to come, shows how the various species interact. Also heartbreakingly sad.
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Nov 13, 2023 04:52
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Maybe I'll give it another shot. I went ahead and bought https://www.amazon.com/Ursula-K-Guin-Hainish-Stories/dp/1598535374 That was the best purchase you have ever made.
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Nov 15, 2023 20:06
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PeterWeller posted:That was the best purchase you have ever made. I also just bought the Absolute Sandman boxed set and the complete short works of Roger zelazny boxed set I have the Aubrey / Maturin box set too but frankly I prefer reading those in ebook format now
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Nov 15, 2023 20:12
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I've been reading these hainish novels and I have to say that these older sci-fi books hit differently than newer ones. I think it's because they still go for all the important philosophical issues but allow you to draw your own conclusions based on the story told. Newer books seem to just hit you over the head with it and don't allow you to draw your own conclusions. I finished Rocannon's, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusion. Starting Left Hand of Darkness next (which I hear is one of her best).
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Nov 16, 2023 01:24
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No there was a ton of garbage back then too, Le Guin is just really good. In 50 years nobody will remember the garbage from now and will only remember the good stuff. So it goes. Left Hand of Darkness is probably my favorite of her longform stuff, it'll give ya a big ol  about a lot of stuff
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Nov 16, 2023 01:27
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And done. That was good, short and sweet, kind of fun as an archetype that clearly influenced a lot of other sci fi.
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Nov 16, 2023 06:47
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I also just bought the Absolute Sandman boxed set and the complete short works of Roger zelazny boxed set Yup. I'm sticking with what I said. 
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Nov 17, 2023 16:52
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I'm just starting Part 2 of Rocannon's world now, things are pretty interesting. Its a nice mix of scifi and fantasy in one book. Meanwhile, please start providing suggestions for December's BotM. Something evoking falling snow, warm fireplaces, and family I think would be in order? Families can be dysfunctional of course. Its the holidays!
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Nov 17, 2023 20:20
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Bilirubin posted:I'm just starting Part 2 of Rocannon's world now, things are pretty interesting. Its a nice mix of scifi and fantasy in one book. Just come out and say you think it should be The Left Hand of Darkness.
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Nov 17, 2023 21:19
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I'm planning on starting The Terror next, seems like a good winter one I also want to finish the year with Heretics of Dune but it would be rude to make other people do that too
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Nov 17, 2023 23:16
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Murder on the Orient Express
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Nov 17, 2023 23:41
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I’ve got Moon of the Crusted Snow on my list. It’s promises snow.
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Nov 18, 2023 00:01
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Just finished Rocannon's World. How very bittersweet.
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Nov 21, 2023 03:21
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I'm now into Planet of Exile and its another alien world and like with Rocannon's World it treats the relative passing of time in space as this ever present, wistful, thing. Makes the League really more an idea than an actual thing without Star Trek instantaneous non relativistic travel
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Nov 24, 2023 05:14
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Bilirubin posted:I'm now into Planet of Exile and its another alien world and like with Rocannon's World it treats the relative passing of time in space as this ever present, wistful, thing. Makes the League really more an idea than an actual thing without Star Trek instantaneous non relativistic travel This is explored in various ways in the other books too. It's one of the best parts of the series.
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Nov 24, 2023 05:30
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Exile is a core theme of just about all the Hainish stories, and it's pretty brilliant that Le Guin built their universe on a device that makes every interstellar traveler and journey essentially an exile. And then she has a dude go into exile to invent the technology that allows all these exiles to communicate in real time. And then she has one of the dudes who helps invent instant space travel, completely altering our relationship with space and time, use it to time travel back to the life he regretted leaving behind.
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Nov 25, 2023 21:01
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Semly's Necklace is such a good prologue, it's just so interesting how it throws you into this world by telling you a story that is very familiar to any child but that is laid perfectly onto a very, very sci-fi framework We're coming up on the end of the month, what's everybody think about it? Have you gone on to read more Le Guin?
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Nov 28, 2023 00:17
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I kept reading the collection I got. Finished Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, City of Illusion, and I'm probably going to finish Left Hand of Darkness tonight. The last one in the collection is The Word For World is Forest. I've been enjoying them quite a bit. I'll probably look for a collection with the rest of the Hanish Cycle in a few months.
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Nov 28, 2023 01:10
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I also got the three book collection and yeah I'll finish it, but probably next year I had too many other things I wanted to get to
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Nov 28, 2023 01:24
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McSpankWich posted:I kept reading the collection I got. Finished Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, City of Illusion, and I'm probably going to finish Left Hand of Darkness tonight. The last one in the collection is The Word For World is Forest. I've been enjoying them quite a bit. I'll probably look for a collection with the rest of the Hanish Cycle in a few months. I also got the 3 volume collection and am now into City of Illusion
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Nov 28, 2023 01:25
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I liked Planet of Exile more than Rocannon’s World (which I still liked) and am excited to move to the next one. Maybe around the holidays… though I find LeGuin to be a pretty fast read usually so maybe sooner.
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Nov 28, 2023 02:06
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I completed the collection of short stories as well. All of them were really good, but I think I liked Planet of Exile the best. Definitely has made me interested in moving on to Left Hand of Darkness. Probably in the beginning of the new year, since I just started the new Murderbot and have a few other books I want to knock out first.
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Nov 28, 2023 04:30
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This months book will be Love, by by Hanne Ørstavik (Translated from Norwegian by Martin Aitken) quote:In this perfectly poised Norwegian novella, Vibeke and her young son Jon have recently moved to the far north of Norway. The book follows them through one long evening and into the dead of night, as the cold and dark press in. The first thing we learn about Vibeke is that she uses books to escape reality: “She wishes she could read all the time, sitting in bed with the duvet pulled up.” She drifts through the hours, thinking about her new job, cooking dinner, heading out to the library. Dreams of new clothes and the possibility of romance sustain her as she ekes out life’s small excitements. “Normally she keeps the library until Saturday, and today’s only Wednesday.”
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Dec 1, 2023 14:23
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Just about finished with the 3 book Le Guin set from last month and will be launching into Love. Funny thing, I picked it up from Archipelago, and was charged $25 shipping and handling. To download an epub  To their credit, they refunded that back to me immediately, no questions.
Bilirubin fucked around with this message at 06:26 on Dec 18, 2023 |
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Dec 9, 2023 22:24
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30% in so far, and the difference in the two narratives (in terms of the characters internal lives) is quite something. Very well written so far ___ On another topic, from the general discussion thread... rollick posted:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_in_public_domain Looks like there are some excellent potential future BotM in that list Bilirubin fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Dec 13, 2023 |
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Dec 13, 2023 05:56
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I’m about 20% of the way in and enjoying it, even though the most that has happened so far is a boy selling some raffle tickets. Which is odd because I gave up on Janny Wurts’s Mistwraith at this point because it was moving too slowly, and way more had happened there. I guess I can only deal with extremes, where if a book is going to move slowly, it better barely move at all. The switching between perspectives paragraph-by-paragraph is easy enough to follow along with because Orstavik always identifies either Vibeke or Jon within the first few words of the paragraph. In contrast to the book I’m reading along with the 372 Pages podcast, where there’ll be a disorienting half page of dialogue followed by “said Darbie.” Also I appreciate Orstavik for giving me tacit approval to use comma splices because I noticed her doing it in several places.
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Dec 14, 2023 18:57
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I'm approaching halfway finished and its getting more uncomfortable as I recognize more and more of myself in Vibeke  (its building to something quite sad I suspect)
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Dec 15, 2023 17:45
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You're slightly ahead of me, and I didn't even read the book description because I like to go in completely blind, but I expect all good books to be sad. Only characters in trash books get to be happy, which is why I'd rather be a pulp writer than a great writer because they seem a happier lot. A good drinking game for this book would be to take a shot whenever Vibeke smokes a cigarette. And a misleading excerpt to entice people to read the book: "He closes the door. At this very moment in time, someone, somewhere, is being tortured. Maybe there’s a torture room in this house. Maybe someone’s a prisoner here and it’s his job to find them and get them out." A secret agent with amnesia a la Jason Bourne, or a nine-year-old boy looking for a bathroom a la Calvin & Hobbes, who can tell?
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Dec 15, 2023 21:49
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Just finished it. That ending. I get now why The Guardian review called it "devastating". Really good little book
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Dec 17, 2023 23:56
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I’ve just started Love, two chapters in. It’s really good at putting you right there in their heads. Looked up a couple of the products mentioned so far that would be familiar to Norwegians and now I want a Märklin train set too. Read a bit of Planet of Exile too, I may go on a Le Guin binge in the new year, and I was amused that the titular planet is orbiting Gamna Draconis because that’s also the name of a graphic novel I recently bought and also haven’t read yet.
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Dec 18, 2023 00:48
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Bilirubin posted:Just finished it. That ending. I get now why The Guardian review called it "devastating". Really good little book Yeah, no kidding. I just finished too. I kept waiting for something dreadful to happen during the book and kept thinking that the characters were awfully cavalier about the cold. I ultimately figured everything would be all right as I neared the end though... Glimpse posted:I’ve just started Love, two chapters in. It’s really good at putting you right there in their heads. Looked up a couple of the products mentioned so far that would be familiar to Norwegians and now I want a Märklin train set too. My library actually had it in Norwegian and I almost grabbed it until I thought I might miss out on some nuance. Did they mention Märklin in the English translation? They just called it "train set" in the Swedish translation. Märklin definitely was a thing when I was a kid though. I had a bit of a hard time with Vibeke initially, but warmed to her towards the end. Jon was a great little weirdo. What was the deal with his eyes? I might have missed something in the beginning.
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Dec 18, 2023 06:47
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ovenboy posted:My library actually had it in Norwegian and I almost grabbed it until I thought I might miss out on some nuance. Did they mention Märklin in the English translation? They just called it "train set" in the Swedish translation. Märklin definitely was a thing when I was a kid though. Yeah, in chapter 2 Jon is thinking about a Märklin train set. Jon thinks about trains a lot. In the same chapter Vibeke muses on the efficacy of Spenol moisturizer.
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Dec 18, 2023 14:49
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Oh, I just returned the book otherwise I would have checked. I don't recognize Spenol either. They might just have dropped the brands, which feels like a pretty swedish thing to do. I might also just have missed it, or forgot, which seems like a me thing to do.
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Dec 18, 2023 17:29
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Sorry if this isn't cool to ask, but does anyone happen to have an epub of this one? I should have time to read it before the end of the month but I can't actually find a copy anywhere, other than on the kobo store where it's $12 for a 2-3 hour novella which I'm not going to do
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Dec 18, 2023 18:47
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I read up to chapter 10 last night and didn’t notice any more so it’s not like a recurring thing. I do like it as a bit of scene setting, this could be anywhere, but it’s not, it’s a specific place.
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Dec 18, 2023 18:57
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Opopanax posted:Sorry if this isn't cool to ask, but does anyone happen to have an epub of this one? I should have time to read it before the end of the month but I can't actually find a copy anywhere, other than on the kobo store where it's $12 for a 2-3 hour novella which I'm not going to do I also can't find this book. Apparently, the entire central NJ library consortium has zero copies...
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Dec 19, 2023 18:07
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Done with Love, that was a really tense read. Real sense of dread as all the characters and situations seem a bit off (except maybe Tom of Finnmark).
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Dec 21, 2023 22:39
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