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I thought it was beautiful.
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Jul 30, 2015 11:16
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I just finished the hotly-anticipated The Dinosaur Lords. It was...not good. The Dino fights were decent at least, but that's all the good I have to say about it. Shame, really.
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Jul 30, 2015 12:02
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navyjack posted:I just finished the hotly-anticipated The Dinosaur Lords. It was...not good. The Dino fights were decent at least, but that's all the good I have to say about it. Shame, really. I read a (fairly positive) review and it sounded pretty derivative.
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Jul 30, 2015 13:33
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It seems to me that the book is mainly famous as a result of its pretty dope cover art...which 
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Jul 30, 2015 15:02
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My mother always said not to judge a book by its cover. Why didn't I listen?
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Jul 30, 2015 15:39
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Mars4523 posted:Could you go into detail? I'll try to put something more substantive up today.
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Jul 30, 2015 18:37
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I picked up Archivist Wasp because of a glowing Tor.com review and a fairly high rating on goodreads, but halfway through it's very mediocre. It's semi-YA, and I can't help but compare it to Railsea and The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, both of which are similar in certain respects but are much better.
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Jul 30, 2015 22:17
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regularizer posted:I picked up Archivist Wasp because of a glowing Tor.com review and a fairly high rating on goodreads, but halfway through it's very mediocre. It's semi-YA, and I can't help but compare it to Railsea and The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, both of which are similar in certain respects but are much better. I liked archivist wasp quite a bit but i couldn't shake the feeling that it reminded me of a video game. I'm not sure which game, or if that's a bad thing, but that feeling has stuck with me a couple of weeks after i finished it.
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Jul 30, 2015 22:56
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Thanks for the recs, I have a list now. I started with Rainbow's End and it's pretty awesome so far. I'm really interested in augmented reality so it's perfect for that. As for Hardwired, it's among my favorites already. I forgot to mention it in my first post. I also love Voice of the Whirlwind. I've read it three times. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes semi-realistic space stuff, badass zen warrior bullshit, and something of the cyberpunk ethos threaded throughout.
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Jul 31, 2015 02:26
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chrisoya posted:Do you mind ridiculous levels of action? The Mirrored Heavens by David J Williams. Daniel Keys Moran's Continuing Time series - the first book has a prologue that doesn't represent the rest of the series, mind. Emerald Eyes is the first book, the second (The Long Run) has more of a focus on crime. And I haven't read Effinger, no.
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Jul 31, 2015 02:29
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I really enjoyed Rainbows End, and it's sad that people don't like it.
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Jul 31, 2015 03:00
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Junkenstein posted:This is quite the long, boring epilogue Aurora has.... First KSR novel eh?
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Jul 31, 2015 04:11
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People don't like Rainbows End? Why? Is it because the protagonist is a total rear end in a top hat for like 99% of the book? I loved it. Kinda surprised there wasn't a sequel because, iirc it's been like 6 years since I read it, the ending is left open enough for one. It's the only Vernor Vinge book I've read because his other post-singularity books seemed a little too out there for me.
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Jul 31, 2015 04:32
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0 rows returned posted:It's the only Vernor Vinge book I've read because his other post-singularity books seemed a little too out there for me. Deepness and Fire are great books, too. Having read those first and then going into Rainbows was a bit of a shock to my expectations since it was so...moderate and conservative, relatively.
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Jul 31, 2015 04:50
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Martello posted:And I haven't read Effinger, no.
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Jul 31, 2015 05:38
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0 rows returned posted:It's the only Vernor Vinge book I've read because his other post-singularity books seemed a little too out there for me. Deepness is an explicitly pre-singularity story.
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Jul 31, 2015 06:37
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Since the first page hints said including detail was important. Welll... I'm sorry in advance. Warriors , written by Erin Hunter, is a great long rear end saga of books! I'm gonna explain Warriors in detail, mostly because I find it one of the weirdest premises on it own, without adding in its fantasy elements. Warriors focus on four clans of feral cats.vnamely focusing on Thunderclan. These cats had a honor code, etc. Every six books would end a major story arc, and then the next series would focus on the next generation of warrior cats. The books fantasy elements came from Starclan, where all the cats spirits went when they died. They gave leaders of the Clans nine lives, and prophecies future events It was by the third/fourth series, that the fantasy elements became the main focus. Three cats were born, and they were reincarnations of cats from another spiritual focused society. A blind medicine cat who could see beyond time and space, literally going back in time, possessing his previous life. A warrior cat who could never be harmed in battle. A she-cat who's hearing was so great, she can hear what is occurring in the after life. Not to mention evil warrior spirits were plotting ot nvade both StarClan and reality to conquer both. As ghost cats. Warriors already was chaotic enough with the internal Clan politics. But by the last series of book, the dead were literally rising to go to war! How did a story about feral cats, become... well what I'm describing? But yeah, the warriors books go beyond the main series at this point. Their one-books for expanding the setting of the world. Their comics that can be read to connect to the main stories. Warriors has literally become a saga, and apparently the writers are still adding new stories into the Warrirors timeline. It would take a lot to read EVERYTHING. However ignoring the fantasy, and the complicated Clan politics, you got some pretty decently well written characters. These books go places emotionally, that some MOVIES or TV Show's, never achieve. I mean everything involving the tragic downfall of Leafpool and the actions she took..... it's just so cold. She never gets her deserved happy ending. But yeah, that's my obscure "fantasy" book series. If you curious on the books, just ask me. I'm probably the only guy who read the books at all. .......Man I have no life.
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Jul 31, 2015 15:00
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Logical1234 posted:a great long rear end saga of books! a great long rear end story of books!
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Jul 31, 2015 15:08
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Cats are pretty cute
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Jul 31, 2015 15:13
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Maybe start reading actual sagas like Brennu-Njáls Saga or Grettis Saga before you start throwing around words you don't actually know what they mean, just a thought.
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Jul 31, 2015 15:13
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I need a saga. What's the saga? Songs for the deaf. You can't even hear 'em!
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Jul 31, 2015 15:19
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The Warriors books aren't obscure, they just aren't read by adults. As a librarian I can tell you that preteens read those books by the cartload. It's just a next generation redwall, of lower quality.
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Jul 31, 2015 15:57
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Robotnik posted:As a librarian I can tell you that preteens read those books by the cartload. I looked at the wikipedia page and yeah that's the kind of thing that if they had been out when I was a kid I'd have been all over it.
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Jul 31, 2015 16:49
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corn in the bible posted:Cats are pretty cute
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Jul 31, 2015 17:18
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Great Joe posted:Maybe start reading actual sagas like Brennu-Njáls Saga or Grettis Saga before you start throwing around words you don't actually know what they mean, just a thought. A good idea. And if you want something that's like a saga but also within the SF/fantasy field, there's Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword.
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Jul 31, 2015 19:48
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navyjack posted:I just finished the hotly-anticipated The Dinosaur Lords. It was...not good. The Dino fights were decent at least, but that's all the good I have to say about it. Shame, really. It was not a good book. In fact, I would say it was actively bad. It started off over-emphasizing the dinosaurs. Everything leather tells you what dinosaur speciies the leather came from, everything that could be referenced to a dinosaur was, it started off with a strong feel of HEY GUYS THIS BOOK HAS DINOSAURS DID YOU KNOW THAT LOOK DINOSAURS? The dinosaurs felt very hamfisted, and the high moment of actual dinosaur combat was handled in the first few chapters; after that one battle you could replace the dinosaurs with regular animals and keep the same exact feel. The political intrigue storyline was awful and lacking in intrigue. The gist of it is that the emperor is a wind vane who just goes where the wind is blowing, so none of the manipulations of him had to even try. They're just like "Hey, emperor! This is a terrible idea, we should totally do it" and he responds with "gently caress yeah! I love terrible ideas!" and does it every loving time. The princess is a sulky spoiled princess who basically does nothing for the story except serve to point out that this is a culture where a bikini can be overdressing and who gets raped by the bad guy to prove how evil he is. The bad guy also doesn't WANT TO be a bad guy but every time he tries to not be a bad guy somebody goes "But what about doing some evil poo poo, don't you want to do evil poo poo?" and he goes "Well, I dooooo love me some evil poo poo..." The storyline with the actual knight battles followed "Jaume", who is the prettiest and greatest knight and the prettiest and greatest poet, and his Companions, which is his personal knightly order of pretty gay knight-artists. (pretty in the beauty sense, not the 'this is pretty gay' sense, seriously, there is a "You must be at least this pretty" requirement to joining them. They're also pretty gay, though, in the sense of "this is a knightly order comprised almost entirely of artistic gay men"). Anyways, it follows them on the path to war as they try to restrain the rest of the religious zealots and and noble scumbags that are in their army. This is played off pretty badly, as they're basically the sensitive gay guys trying to rein in the brutes they have to work with. The only storyline that was remotely interesting was that of the mercenaries in the north, and that was pretty stock. Cynical guy is cynical, broody guy is broody, stupid clients are stupid, etc. This one could have been promising if it had been built up more, but far too much time was spent on the previous two appallingly bad storylines to do anything with it. This book was pretty loving awful and it replaces Queen of Fire as my "Worst book of the year", which is something that, frankly, I didn't think was possible. Returned it immediately after finishing it, and I only finished it so that I could properly tell other people how bad it was. Ugh.
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Aug 1, 2015 00:40
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Khizan posted:This book was pretty loving awful and it replaces Queen of Fire as my "Worst book of the year", which is something that, frankly, I didn't think was possible. Returned it immediately after finishing it, and I only finished it so that I could properly tell other people how bad it was. I admire your effort. Personally, I feel comfortable and secure in making GBS threads on a book if I didn't like it after, like, ten pages.
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Aug 1, 2015 00:43
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I'm loving red Mars...it feels like I'm actually on Mars watching it be terraformed and colonized
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Aug 1, 2015 02:54
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angel opportunity posted:I'm loving red Mars...it feels like I'm actually on Mars watching it be terraformed and colonized It's amazing the sense of knowing Mars as a real place you get from the books. He really does manage to make the planet a character.
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Aug 1, 2015 03:40
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drat straight! I think his motto must have been 'do it perfectly or don't do it at all'.
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Aug 1, 2015 03:55
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I can't not think of Mars whenever I hear or read "escarpment."
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Aug 1, 2015 07:35
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0 rows returned posted:People don't like Rainbows End? Why? Is it because the protagonist is a total rear end in a top hat for like 99% of the book? I think people maybe find it kind of boring because it's low conflict? I liked it as a depiction of a society on the upwards curve towards the Singularity.
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Aug 1, 2015 08:12
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Low conflict? the bad guy invents universal mind control and the protagonist ends up sacrificing his limbs to save his grand daughter from molten lava. And that's after he poisons his daughter-in-law in order to cripple the dystopian extrapolation of Homeland Security. Meanwhile there's a soft takeoff Singularity going on in the background
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Aug 1, 2015 08:17
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navyjack posted:I just finished the hotly-anticipated The Dinosaur Lords. It was...not good. The Dino fights were decent at least, but that's all the good I have to say about it. Shame, really. wow shocking
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Aug 1, 2015 10:28
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OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG THE NEW DANIEL FAUST BOOK IS OUT AND ON KINDLE UNLIMITED Christ this dude writes FAST. The last book came out in January I think. Anyway, http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Floor-Blues-Daniel-Faust-ebook/dp/B01358M5XS Go forth and get it.
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Aug 1, 2015 12:03
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pseudorandom name posted:Low conflict? the bad guy invents universal mind control and the protagonist ends up sacrificing his limbs to save his grand daughter from molten lava. And that's after he poisons his daughter-in-law in order to cripple the dystopian extrapolation of Homeland Security. Meanwhile there's a soft takeoff Singularity going on in the background My memory is that this is condensed into a very small number of pages and most of the book is relatively uneventful. It has been a while.
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Aug 1, 2015 15:55
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG Awesome, thanks for the heads up.
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Aug 1, 2015 16:34
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG And it looks like between Daniel Faust and Revanche we'll also be getting a Harmony Black series, which is cool. Well, I like her.
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Aug 1, 2015 16:38
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pseudorandom name posted:Low conflict? the bad guy invents universal mind control and the protagonist ends up sacrificing his limbs to save his grand daughter from molten lava. And that's after he poisons his daughter-in-law in order to cripple the dystopian extrapolation of Homeland Security. Meanwhile there's a soft takeoff Singularity going on in the background Here's how much impact that part of the plot had on me: I literally can't remember any of that other than the faint signs of the impending Singularity. In fact without googling for the plot I'm half inclined to thing you're joking, because I certainly don't remember any rescue from lava. The only thing that made a lasting impression on me from that book was the giant pulper-digitizer machine they were using on the library.
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Aug 1, 2015 16:57
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG I have no idea who this is, but: I notice it JUST came out and has only one review right now. Amazon weights reviews, so the first ten reviews are the most important to the overall ranking (and thus, sales) so if you really like this guy, leave him a five-star review as fast as you can and it will boost his initial ranking a lot.
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Aug 1, 2015 18:07
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