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jammu posted:With those prices, I just grabbed them all. Four book series for 4$ and another three book series for 4$. (for kindle) Thanks for mentioning this, you got me to look them up and I'm going to grab a few as well. Xenogenesis trilogy for $4, Patternist series for $2.51! Though they're each only ~750 pages, so the price isn't really much better than the other Amazon books on sale.
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Dec 3, 2013 01:46
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Pyroclastic posted:That's exactly what happened to me. Time Ships was one of the first scifi books I ever read. I loved The Ring and it's still one of my favorite Big Dumb Objects (and I think it's still the Biggest). I like the universe and how hosed up it is (Humans get stepped on by a couple different Big Bad Alien species and after throwing them off get a big-rear end chip on their shoulder and keep picking fights with the Xeelee who are ridiculously powerful and really don't give a poo poo about humanity one way or another), read Manifold:Space and liked it, Manifold:Time and thought it was OK. I read Titan somewhere in there and was horribly disappointed, and Manifold:Origin just turned me off completely. I have a copy of Vacuum Diagrams that I don't think I've read, but I haven't been able to bring myself to read it. Vacuum Diagrams is really really good. Personally I liked it much more than the full Xeelee Omnibus. I thought Flux and Raft were pretty boring and inconsequential (like actually literally inconsequential in the scope of the universe), while Vacuum Diagrams had a lot more interesting stuff (and the boring parts, like excerpts from Flux and Raft, were much shorter!). I just looked it up and realized there's a ton more written in the same Xeelee universe. If I'm going to go for either the Manifold books or Destiny's Children books, which is better? Unless I get really burned out on them, I'll probably do both, anyways.
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Jan 14, 2014 17:21
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syphon posted:I read the aforementioned boring Xeelee books (Flux and Raft, and one other I think) a few years ago and gave up. Where would you guys recommend I try to restart with the Xeelee sequence? Vacuum Diagrams hooked me enough to slog through the 1/2 to 2/3 of the Xeelee Omnibus that bored me. You get a lot of the crazy scope of the universe and lots of interesting ideas, without Baxter spending 300 pages exploring the (boring) consequences of one little physics tweak. Ring was cool, but without Vacuum Diagrams, I don't think I would have appreciated it much. The short stories give you some context that the longer stuff can fit into.
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Jan 14, 2014 21:21
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It isn't just sex. There's also a ton of really dumb wacky stuff. Reality Dysfunction had some cool potential, but was like at least 3/4 terrible. Also one of the dumbest endings, after 3000+ pages of setup.
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Jan 24, 2014 03:19
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Peel posted:Lem wrote in Polish and I understand the translations are considered quite choppy. I still got a lot out of him though. Whatever translation of Solaris I got through Kindle was great. If you want contemplative or literary or whatever the right term is, I'd definitely recommend it. I didn't notice any poor or stilted writing. I also recently read Gateway by Pohl and it was quite good too. Interesting ideas, funny at times, and well written. I'm working through some classic scifi I never got around to reading and those are two of the best so far (Babel-17 and Last and First Men were both OK and interesting in their own ways, but not nearly as good).
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Feb 16, 2014 03:26
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Nevvy Z posted:Holy poo poo I really like The Quantum Thief. Besides Stross, where can I find more cool poo poo like this? The Fractal Prince? 
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Feb 20, 2014 18:26
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Authors should be compelled to use s pseudonym. That way they can do whatever they want publicly under their real name without worrying about some fascist reader trying to avoid buying their books by having any knowledge about the author. Otherwise, we'll never escape this Fahrenheit 451-style dystopia we find ourselves in today.
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Feb 21, 2014 15:04
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How is it weird? Here's what will happen: 1. Recommended book list is made 2. List consists of extremely subjective standard (as it must) of what is (for example) good. So you have everyone from Isaac Asimov (obvious) to Rajaniemi (some feel his work not as deep as it appears). 3. Much gnashing of teeth and arguing about who is on the list and why and why not they should be there. 4. THE LIST comes to overshadow the books themselves. The existing system works fine. If you're really concerned that you might accidentally read a terrible book, then look up some reviews, ask a question here, and then get it from the library. THE LIST is just going to create a bunch of drama and potentially hurt some undeserving (read: bad) author's sales.
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Feb 21, 2014 15:40
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General Battuta posted:Huge-rear end Blindsight spoilers, but if I had to boil the book down into one As good a time to ask as any. I reread it recently and one specific thing confused me when they're testing the two scramblers: they try to ask "what do you see" and the scrambler only says Rorschach, which is wrong because it can also see the other scrambler. They realize it took the question as "what are you aware of." But they had just gotten done working through the realization that the scramblers have no self-awareness. Was it that they asked "what has awareness," and if so, why would Rorschach be the correct answer? Did I misread that? Does anyone else remember this part? I'll try to find a page and exact quote, but it confused me.
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Feb 26, 2014 19:59
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On their inbound flight, the humans saw the giant mass without seeing anything else. Eventually they put out some drones on different trajectories and they pick out Rorschach, the ship. I remember them talking about this cloaking, but quite sure it is different than either the scrambler's moving during saccades or the strong "hallucinogenic" magnetic fields generated by Rorschach.
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Mar 3, 2014 20:25
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nucleicmaxid posted:That's weird because I entirely disagree with you on this topic. I find Sanderson's magic systems to be far more interesting because they actually have rules and are understandable. It gives limitations that aren't almost entirely arbitrary from moment to moment, and I prefer that. This would be fine if he let the reader discover the magic system as the story went on, rather than writing tutorial chapters. It's super lazy and reads like a D&D manual.  Don't worry, he also shows off Lashings 2 and 3 in the next couple pages, as well as how much mana, err, stormlight, each Lashing uses!
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Mar 10, 2014 02:29
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Clark Nova posted:This right here has to be one of the best fantasy sex scenes I've ever read. More please! You reached level 2! You learned "Full Lashing" (19 mana to cast, casting time 6 seconds, 2 mana/second upkeep to maintain).  (Not quite as sexy, unfortunately  )
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Mar 10, 2014 17:47
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nucleicmaxid posted:Oh my God people like different things?!?!!???! I was unaware of this previous to finding this thread here. Apparently so were the rest of you. Not sure why you're freaking out about it. It is neither a novel nor uncommon complaint about Sanderson. Mistborn had a similar issue of course, though I only read the first and don't remember it being as egregious as the tutorial chapter in The Way of Kings.
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Mar 10, 2014 18:25
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Raistlin cast magic missile at the troll. The troll gritted his teeth and seemed to focus his will, shrugging off the magic projectiles as if they were mere sparklers. Raistlin prepared to fire his magic missiles again, knowing that he only had one more chance: miss with this shot and he would have to rest and doodle in his journal before being able to cast the spell again. If he beat the troll, his magical prowess might increase, meaning next time he would have three or even four volleys of magic missiles to fire before needing to rest again. Raistlin fired his missiles again, this time catching the troll in a moment of lapsed attention! The troll yet stood, though. Sighing, Raistlin unsheathed his staff +1.
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Mar 10, 2014 19:42
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Lowkin posted:I've been reading malazan the book of the fallen and I lost interest with it because it just seemed to explode in terms of what was going on and who was gaining what powers. Will I regret not sticking with it? If you feel that way, I would stop now. I read 9 out of 10 and regret it mostly for the things you mention: people kept hitting new super saiyan levels and the huge cast of characters that seemed only vaguely related to each other meant I didn't care much about any of them. I liked a few of the books more than the others, like the second and maybe Midnight Tides, I think. But there was way too much, "here is the most bad rear end god, whoa a fire cracker killed him! Here's an even badder assier god, whoa he got punched in the face and exploded!!" There's not really a payoff for putting up with that kind of stuff, if you don't like it you won't like the series.
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Mar 11, 2014 13:44
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Zola posted:I understand your point. You don't like magic systems that explain everything. You're completely missing what he said. Of course every magic system will have limits. The point is that if the only way the author can get the reader to understand the limits is to do an infodump a la Sanderson, they are doing a really poor job. Cardiovorax said this, "My point is, the author obviously needs to have a clear idea of what their characters are capable of, but they shouldn't have to tell us that. It should be implicit in what they show the character actually doing." He's talking about writing well vs writing poorly, not what kind of magic he thinks is cool. sourdough fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Mar 12, 2014 |
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Mar 12, 2014 20:55
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syphon posted:I don't think this is necessarily true, and would flip the statement around. One sign of bad fantasy writing (IMO) is when there are no obvious or implied limits to what magic can and can't do, so it's used inconsistently to solve problems. The trope/meme 'A wizard did it' came about for a reason, after all. It's just like any other thing the author could explain. Don't write, "Bob met Joe. Joe was super strong, liked to drink beer, always saw the bright side to a situation, and was good with swords." That is a bad way to write. Instead, have Bob and Joe do some stuff, where Joe lifts a beer barrel to pour beer into his mouth, has cheery retorts when something bad happens, fights people with a sword, etc. Sanderson can have a super rigid magic system and that's fine, but if literally the only way he can get the reader to understand the system is to write, "the magic system has spells called Lashings, it has mana called stormlight, doing x uses more stormlight than doing y," that is poor writing. That is all anyone is objecting to, that I can see. Preferring mysterious or rigid magic systems is just a preference, but neither type of system excuses bad writing.
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Mar 12, 2014 21:20
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nucleicmaxid posted:Not really. Numinous systems, by definition, are simplistic in terms of how they work. 'The power of love' or 'The beauty of the elves' or whatever else is just as wishywashy and ill defined as your DBZ power level. Do you mean like how former enemies could work together, using strategy and sacrifice, to overcome a more powerful alien invader? That kind of actual reasoning? 
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Mar 13, 2014 19:36
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gatz posted:I finished Frederik Pohl's Gateway and very much enjoyed it. Pohl's writing-style is mediocre, but the universe he created and the depth he gave Robinette was what made the novel spectacular. The pop-psychoanalysis stuff was pretty dumb but whatever. A lot of authors never realize that psychology has moved on without much of Freud long ago. I read those parts as comedic, not Pohl thinking Freud and psychoanalysis are awesome. How everything came together in a Freudian way was perfect (he wants wieners in his butt because the only time his mom showed her love was when he was sick and had a thermometer up there made me lol). I guess I read Pohl's tone as being much less serious about those parts, though I don't know anything about the author so I could be wrong.
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Mar 14, 2014 18:33
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Thanquil Darkheart
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Apr 9, 2014 01:32
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Joramun posted:Maybe it's just me but I really wish this thread was more about the actual books rather than writers' politics and awards gossip for pages on end. Yeah, that last half page of a 93 page thread was pretty overwhelming. I could barely stand reading almost a dozen posts about the authors and books nominated for a sci-fi/fantasy award and their merits in the sci-fi/fantasy thread.
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Apr 20, 2014 17:58
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Popular Human posted:Good on you, BotNS is my favorite novel. Don't be too concerned if very little makes sense when you start - the second read is even better than the first. (and the third is better than the second!) I quite liked it when I read it a few months ago, but I've come to appreciate the more modern style with a comprehensible, overarching plot line. BotNS and a few other older fantasy books I've read lately (Viriconium comes to mind) have been good and interesting, but I rarely had any idea what the next stop in the story would be. Stuff just happens and leads to the next interesting vignette. I don't know exactly how to describe it better than that except by contrast. For example, even when something unexpected happens in, say, ASoIAF, it is understandable and fits some overall plot: everyone tries to gently caress over everyone else to get more power, the various separate groups are each working towards a somewhat more specific goal, that kind of thing. Does that seem like a reasonable description of the difference in style when it comes to plot or did I really miss some big plot hints in BotNS?
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Apr 22, 2014 02:35
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BigSkillet posted:My understanding of the Book of the New Sun is that there is a big overarching plot which most of the events are a part of, the books are just narrated by a pawn in that plot who's too dim to ever realize it. There are a handful of thesis-length books written about what's actually going on in the series, but I don't think they're necessary to enjoy it. Ok, that is good to know! I might actually look into Solar Labyrinth if I have the urge to reread the books, as it's only $4 on Kindle.
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Apr 22, 2014 03:54
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Ornamented Death posted:Then have the courage to admit that your need to be entertained outweighs any compunction you may have against giving bigots a soapbox, because every single time you pick up one if their books, whether you paid for it or not, you are telling that bigot, "Say whatever hateful poo poo you want, just make sure I'm entertained first." I guess you don't like the Game of Thrones books? I think in his personal life GRRM isn't in favor of child murder or rape, he just tends to write about things like that. Or is it OK for authors that are decent human beings to write about hateful stuff? Is it only what the author doesn't write about that you're leaving yourself receptive to when you read a book?
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May 8, 2014 20:12
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Ornamented Death posted:I don't think you could have missed my point any harder if you tried. Haha, I tried!
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May 8, 2014 20:24
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Ornamented Death posted:The amusing part of this discussion is that, for a forum dedicated to reading, several people have shown they have absolutely no reading comprehension. There's a lot of hyperbole and talking past the other side, which isn't unusual. I do think it's a little silly that you think pirating an author's ebook (thus giving them no money) and reading it will make the author think they have more power or something. I guess that relies on you then talking about the book and/or recommending it to others (like here, with John C Wright in the past page or two)? So admittedly that can happen, but one can also read terrible genre fiction in solitude and filled with shame, as is proper. Also I'm sure this is old news to everyone here, but I never read or saw anything about John C Wright til now, and holy poo poo he's perfect: 
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May 9, 2014 16:47
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Tornhelm posted:Do you know why he thinks that? Or did you take that one line out of context and base your argument off of it? Try actually reading the article (or even the section) I mentioned before starting to spew your verbal garbage. Lol. I'm not a bigot for publicly supporting someone who thinks
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May 22, 2014 16:05
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fookolt posted:Hm yeah I think Vox Day is really being unfairly maligned here: No, we all agree Vox Day is bad. But publicly supporting and recommending someone with those views is actually good. You actually are literally Vox Day if you don't think people should support Vox Day. It's simple really. Unless you're a bigot like Vox Day.
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May 22, 2014 16:11
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Hitler was a great artist (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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May 22, 2014 16:41
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lol, I change my mind, this dude owns. correia45 posted:Uncle Timmy is no racist. His crime was reposting jokes that would have been okay to laugh at if they’d been told by a comedian on TV. One lone ANONYMOUS jackass threw a fit so Archon tossed him. His books look really good  No fedora in sight, haters 
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May 22, 2014 17:06
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holocaust bloopers posted:Kindle tells me I'm 30% into American Gods. I'm finding it to be fairly unengaging. Does it pick up or continue developing at a fairly slow clip? Meh, I remember it being pretty slow.
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Jun 4, 2014 19:08
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Menses at Work posted:Thanks! Grim and dirt are my thing for sure. Looking into Bujold now. lmgtfy  http://www.rtklive.com/new/index.php, obviously
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Jun 19, 2014 15:02
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Fried Chicken posted:wait how did you get it? It isn't out for another week HOW DARE YOU, THE WORLD DOESN'T REVOLVE AROUND THE US OF A, SOMETIMES EUROPE GETS THINGS FIRST
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Jun 21, 2014 16:49
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coyo7e posted:He does good space marine stuff, Naked Dragon was good until it all turned into one man's quest to gently caress a cheerleader through time and space. Yeah, that's when it got great!
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Jun 30, 2014 16:25
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Stross is cool. He hangs out with Krugman. I've always meant to read Stross, and finally got the chance with him putting Accelerando up for free. I like it a lot, about 2/3 of the way through. Which of his other books come recommended? His Laundry Files stuff doesn't really sound like my thing. Are the Saturn's Children books good?
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Jun 30, 2014 19:04
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Riveting 
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Jul 1, 2014 04:28
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Thanks for the Stross help! It's nice to hear there isn't really anything to avoid. For some reason I had the impression some of his books were poorly regarded, not sure why though.
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Jul 1, 2014 04:49
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fookolt posted:Hahaha, what is that from? This, I think: corn in the bible posted:I went to the bookstore today and found a self published novel. Timgs because lovely cellphone photos.
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Jul 1, 2014 18:40
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corn in the bible posted:Bystander. It can be yours for only thirteen dollars: http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/luke-thrythlind-green/bystander/paperback/product-18745374.html Haha, you never told us: author Luke "Thrythlind" Green
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Jul 1, 2014 20:43
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fookolt posted:http://www.amazon.com/Bargain-Books/b/ref=xs_gb_rss_A2LADH9XPND5LT/?ie=UTF8&node=9630953011 I'm not seeing them free, unfortunately. Anyone else seeing them as free for Prime users? I'd be interested in grabbing some for free, like the Mongliad books, but I haven't even read the first so I'm not going to actually spend money on them now. E: I'm dumb, I was looking at physical book and whispersync (or something), not the standard Kindle edition. But yeah, looks like Mongoliad 2 and 3 are $2, not free. "Read for free" just means you can get them in the Kindle lending library, I guess. sourdough fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Jul 10, 2014 |
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Jul 10, 2014 03:32
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