|
Those are fantastic covers. Would have convinced me to get a physical copy even if there were a kindle version.
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2014 02:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 04:08 |
|
|
regularizer posted:e: Has anyone read The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August? It's next on my reading list. I thought it was fantastic. It reminded me of Life After Life by Kate Atkinson in some ways but it actually had a single over-arching plot that tied the novel together much better, in my opinion. I also liked the narrative voice and the framing device of the novel (which pays off quite nicely). This was a book I blasted through very quickly; I found it very engrossing.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2014 03:07
|
|
|
Fried Chicken posted:
Nah, I just preordered it through my regular Swedish scifi store and it arrived at my doorstep last Tuesday after being sent out on Friday. I typically have a long list of books on preorder just to have stuff delivered as it comes out.
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2014 06:17
|
|
|
Cardiac posted:Nah, I just preordered it through my regular Swedish scifi store and it arrived at my doorstep last Tuesday after being sent out on Friday. I typically have a long list of books on preorder just to have stuff delivered as it comes out. I am so tempted to ask for a minor spoiler about Bob and Mo. Somehow I have developed an emotional investment in the marital health of an IT necromancer spy and occult warrior musician field agent. It's me, I'm the ur-goon
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2014 14:55
|
|
|
bonds0097 posted:I thought it was fantastic. It reminded me of Life After Life by Kate Atkinson in some ways but it actually had a single over-arching plot that tied the novel together much better, in my opinion. I also liked the narrative voice and the framing device of the novel (which pays off quite nicely). This was a book I blasted through very quickly; I found it very engrossing. I'm about a quarter of the way through, and I just got to the part where Vincent accidentally reveals himself to Harry as a fellow immortal. I can already tell this is going to be one of my favorite books.
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2014 16:04
|
|
|
Just finished a book I can't recommend highly enough; it may turn into my next "Bridge of Birds"-style universal recommendation. Harm's Way by Colin Greenland. One of the most charming female-viewpoint fantasy/sf picaresques I can remember ever reading. Setting is vaguely steampunk, basically wooden ships in outer space. All the characters are empathetic, even the villains; the final villain is masterfully horrible at the same time. Just a great book all around and one I'm amazed I hadn't heard of before. Apparently Colin Greenland is Susannah Clarke's "life partner", which surprises me not at all.
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2014 16:15
|
|
|
regularizer posted:I'm about a quarter of the way through, and I just got to the part where Vincent accidentally reveals himself to Harry as a fellow immortal. I can already tell this is going to be one of my favorite books. One thing I really enjoyed about the book is that you know from the get-go that it's going somewhere definite based on the epigraphs if nothing else and when you figure out where that is, it was definitely an "oh poo poo!" moment for me.
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2014 16:34
|
|
|
Fried Chicken posted:I am so tempted to ask for a minor spoiler about Bob and Mo. Somehow I have developed an emotional investment in the marital health of an IT necromancer spy and occult warrior musician field agent. Not spoiling anything, but here are some hints. The Bob-Mo relationship is a minor part of the book actually, but Stross leaves it at a cliffhanger. Also one of Bobs old exes shows up and Stross have no problems with killing his darlings. In contrast to Apocalypse Codex with Modesty Blaise/Bashful Incendiary and Willie Garvin/Johnny Prince, the latest book was a step up. The introduction of multiple POVs was also a refreshing twist and it felt more like a classic spy thriller. From the story it is pretty obvious that Nightmare Green is approaching and the book felt more like one book in a larger series, in contrast to prior books. MOD EDIT: This kind of thing still counts as spoilers to some people apparently. Please don't make me go behind you and add in spoiler tags thanks! Somebody fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Jun 27, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2014 20:54
|
|
|
gently caress I need to wait until the next one is out for the resolution? Since it takes place during the last week of this one I was hoping I'd get it resolved now. Be Tuesday already dammit
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2014 21:42
|
|
|
For anyone interested in The Rhesus Chart, you can read the first chapter right now by getting a sample from Amazon or the iTunes book store. I'm really looking forward to it, especially since Stross now seems quasi-permanently tied up in the Merchant Princes series thanks to his apparent obsession with it and/or the dread magic of publishing contracts and Snowden went and published the next Halting State book before Stross could write it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2014 22:44
|
|
|
Captain Mog posted:How does everyone feel about Ursula le Guinn? I'm currently halfway through Rocannon's World and, while creative, I'm finding it a bit dated. The character development seems non-existent and there are weird time jumps that occur in single sentences. I think the book would've benefited much more from more character interaction or more description of characters because I'm getting them mixed up and that literally never happens for me. I also have a difficult time picturing this weird place; it reads like someone describing the colors of a tree but never saying what shape the tree is or what kind or what the leaves look like. I almost feel bad saying this because she's a fabulous writer and the plot was surely creative for its time but I honestly don't know what to think. It's like one of the very first books she ever published. She was still working out the setting, storytelling, etc. There's two other early novels that follow Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile and City of Illusions. Not as good as her later stuff, but still interesting. As mentioned prior, her big books SF books are The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness. They're pretty much required reading, if you want to look at serious science fiction. Also they're super good!
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2014 23:00
|
|
|
Someone asked this earlier, but it didn't get a response. Besides Lynch, Abercrombie, Gaiman and Martin are any of the other stories in the rouges anthology worth reading?
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2014 23:25
|
|
|
Combed Thunderclap posted:For anyone interested in The Rhesus Chart, you can read the first chapter right now by getting a sample from Amazon or the iTunes book store. I'm really looking forward to it, especially since Stross now seems quasi-permanently tied up in the Merchant Princes series thanks to his apparent obsession with it and/or the dread magic of publishing contracts and Snowden went and published the next Halting State book before Stross could write it. I finished the merchant princes during the break between Laundry books. It's actually pretty interesting, albeit not very marketable apparently. Is he writing more of them now or something? I just remember him complaining about bad sales or something.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 00:02
|
|
|
I really don't know what Stross is thinking there. The plot (well, "plot") for the Laundry series is finally starting to go somewhere, characters are developing and starting to be more than one-note jokes and what does he do? Rip it completely apart to focus on characters I don't know or care about. I mean, I don't expect too much out of him, but that's just stupid.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 00:22
|
|
|
What he said in his blog is that he's worried Bob Howard is kinda topping out in terms of character/power progression and so he wants to move him into the sort of role that Angleton had earlier in the series.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 00:24
|
|
|
Yeah, I'm aware, I just think it's lousy writing and  . Writing yourself into a corner so badly you need to jump ship to a new main character, without even really trying to come up with a better solution, is just really sloppy.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 00:59
|
|
|
Velius posted:I finished the merchant princes during the break between Laundry books. It's actually pretty interesting, albeit not very marketable apparently. Is he writing more of them now or something? I just remember him complaining about bad sales or something. It's certainly an interesting premise, but for whatever reason I've tried the Merchant Princes series over and over again over the years and they're just really not to my taste at all, to put it nicely. He's spent a ton of time rewriting the series into a series of three books while also working on Merchant Princes: The Next Generation, I think? Cardiovorax posted:The plot (well, "plot") for the Laundry series is finally starting to go somewhere, characters are developing and starting to be more than one-note jokes and what does he do? Rip it completely apart to focus on characters I don't know or care about. Hmmm. That doesn't sound promising, but I'll see what it ends up reading like. I was pretty ready for Case Nightmare Green to really hit the fan for the entirety of the last book (despite greatly enjoying the Black Chamber sequences) — but as always, hope springs eternal. In other news I finally, finally finished Ancillary Justice, and while goddrat does it drag — I picked it up twice over the last six months and abandoned it each time — the third time was the charm. If you somehow haven't picked it up, do so. Pick up a box of tea on the way, though, because you're going to really want some tea to relax with as you ease into this book. (They also talk about tea all the time, so just get some chamomile or something now or you'll be craving it.)
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 02:31
|
|
|
Recently finished: Ex-Purgatory, the fourth book in the Ex-Heroes series. Found this to be one of the weaker books in the series; dragged a lot in the middle and the final battle was short and weak. Still highly recommend this series; standard zombie apocalypse scenario but in a world with super heroes. Light, quick, fun books. I'm not at all a fan of the zombie genre but I like comics and super heroes. Authority, second book in the Southern Reach series. I liked the narrator but I did not enjoy how the plot evolved. I was expecting some answers (but not all, which is good) to what happened in the first book- those I got weren't very interesting. Still looking forward to the next book. The Crimson Campaign, second book in the Powder Mage series. Great, large scale battles in this book along with some more world building. My biggest issue- multiple characters are threatened with (but at least not actually victim to) rape. Like most I find rape to be inappropriately handled in fantasy, its basically a tool to make your world seem more grimdark. I hope this doesn't deter people from checking out the series though, I really enjoy the characters, despite their stupid names, and setting. Its been described as "flintlock fantasy" and has a great magic system. If you like military fantasy/scifi or the 17th century combat this book as plenty of bayonet charges, line infantry, and dragoons. Way too many series there. I'm gonna catch up on my historical reading. Also, I caught the new Three Musketeers show on BBC this past Sunday, got me pumped for some swashbuckling. Of course I've already read most of Dumas' works. Any good fantasy buckle swashing out there? I've read Locke Lamora.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 02:41
|
|
|
Cardiovorax posted:Yeah, I'm aware, I just think it's lousy writing and Is Prachett a sloppy writer for benching Rincewind so he could tell the stories he wanted with the watch or the witches or death? How about Tolkein? CS Lewis? Authors create worlds and do different arcs with different characters all the time. That you don't like change doesn't make it "sloppy", it means they were done with that bit and wanted to work a different angle.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 04:39
|
|
|
FastestGunAlive posted:Any good fantasy buckle swashing out there? I've read Locke Lamora. Try The Queen's Necklace, Theresa Edgerton.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 04:46
|
|
|
fritz posted:Try The Queen's Necklace, Theresa Edgerton. Goblin Moon ($2.99 in the kindle store right now) and The Gnome's Engine by her are also good, and probably fit the bill, too.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 04:50
|
|
|
Just finished the Third Law trilogy, by Joe Abercrombie (The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings). I know they've been talked about endlessly on this thread, I'm just here to reinforce some notions. I can't recommend them enough if you want gritty, but not necessarily depressing fantasy which is for once character-driven and has great prose. You don't even have to like fantasy as a genre to enjoy it, so well rounded and memorable are the characters. Can't wait to sink my teeth into the follow-up novels, Best Served Cold and The Heroes. Joe also has a new series coming out real soon, if it's not already out, called Half A King. Definitely check him out if you haven't yet. Also, in case you plan to listen to the audible version of the First Law trilogy, I can't recommend it enough. The narrator, Steven Pacey, is hands down the best I've ever listened to, and it's uncanny how he brings the characters to life - you can literally recognize each and every one of them from his impersonation alone. Best Audible credits spent ever. Also finished Infernal Devices by KW Jeter, which is the novel that gave birth to the term "steampunk". A thoroughly enjoyable read told in 1st person, replete with self-deprecating dark humor, fishmen, apparatuses, doomsday devices, you name it. Started listening to the sequel, Fiendish Schemes in audiobook form but was put off by the fact that a) it's narrated by a woman, even though the story's told by a man, also in 1st person, and 2) she reads everything, regardless of the author's intention, in a violent whisper that's sometimes hard to understand (maybe because I'm not a native English speaker, but somehow I don't think so). As much as I love China Mieville, I did not enjoy Kraken. Maybe because I'd placed my expectations elsewhere. Maybe urban, current-time fantasy isn't for me. Anyway, trademark gothic convoluted juicy prose aside, it's a mess of a plot boasting some great secondary characters, your typical annoying bumbling protagonist, and lots of stuff that I guess was supposed to be funny and tongue in cheek but fell flat for me. It has nothing on the New Crobuzon novels - China truly shines when he's world building. It felt way too Neil Gaiman / Terry Pratchet-ish for me to enjoy; I think he needs to stick to his gritty, octopi-shaped guns.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 08:40
|
|
|
Fried Chicken posted:Is Prachett a sloppy writer for benching Rincewind so he could tell the stories he wanted with the watch or the witches or death? Sorry, everything Cardiovorax posts is always objectively correct. Surprised you didn't know this really.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 16:11
|
|
|
Just finished Gun, with Occasional Music, by Jonathan Lethem. If you like noir mysteries, you're in for a treat. While it's excellently written, the plot was so intensely focused on the mystery that the various mysteries and quirks of the sci-fi setting ended up seeming incidental, as though the sci-fi surrealism was really just a way to get the core mystery to stand out in a publisher's mail room. The work itself is still fun and well-written, but it's best filed under "American Literature" than "Science Fiction". (Unsurprisingly, Lethem has since entirely removed himself from the world of sci-fi, although he sometimes just can't resist dropping in the occasional sci-fi elements to make his storytelling Extra Quirky.) I did really enjoy the Brave New World-flavored dystopia Lethem chooses, and the worldbuilding is solid — if too dependent on Huxley and Chandler — but he just doesn't really choose to explore it that much, keeping noir's laser-like focus at the expense of throwing away the bigger picture questions. Now that I think about it, the book strongly reminded me of Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey, which I loved, and which I think is a better example of work that blends mystery and dystopic surrealist sci-fi without sacrificing the core qualities of either. On the whole, recommended to anyone who enjoys surrealism and mystery to go along with their sci-fi, but low expectations are recommended for maximum enjoyment.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 16:40
|
|
|
Are the sequels to Hyperion any good? I just finished the first one and really enjoyed it, more importantly the story isn't close to wrapped up yet. But, I feel like I have heard from a few places that the sequels are pretty bad. Is this a Dune situation or should I keep reading?
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 16:40
|
|
|
Bold Robot posted:Are the sequels to Hyperion any good? I just finished the first one and really enjoyed it, more importantly the story isn't close to wrapped up yet. But, I feel like I have heard from a few places that the sequels are pretty bad. Is this a Dune situation or should I keep reading? Read it, enjoy it, just realize it's several notches below the standard set by the first book(s). It doesn't fall off a cliff the way the Dune sequels did.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 16:51
|
|
|
House Louse posted:Sorry, everything Cardiovorax posts is always objectively correct. Surprised you didn't know this really.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 17:37
|
|
|
FMguru posted:Hyperion/Fall Of Hyperion was a single book, just published as two for size and binding and sales reasons. Endymion/Rise of Endymion is the sequel (same thing, single manuscript broken into two books). It's not as good as Hyperion, but it's not bad, and is worth reading to see how it all turns out. The main character is a kind of a dummy who just keeps barreling forward like Bruce Willis in Twelve Monkeys, the core plot is very funny (giant armadas of starships scramble to stop the main characters who are traveling...by raft, like Huck Finn), and I liked the conclusion a lot. There are a couple of cameos by characters from the first book, and they're very welcome. The story really does sag in several parts (there's an iced-over planet with an ecology that should have collapsed in weeks, not still be going after a century) and it doesn't compare well to H/FoH. But then, few books do. To offer a counter opinion, two main characters are different robot clones of John Keats, the poet who died in 1821.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 17:48
|
|
|
Every time this comes up, it becomes clear that everyone either loathes Endymion or thought they were kind of okay. I'm in the former boat. Fall of Hyperion has an ending, and the story makes sense. Endymion retcons absolutely everything, ruins the Shrike, and has some seriously creepy pedo vibes.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 22:01
|
|
|
Bold Robot posted:Are the sequels to Hyperion any good? I just finished the first one and really enjoyed it, more importantly the story isn't close to wrapped up yet. But, I feel like I have heard from a few places that the sequels are pretty bad. Is this a Dune situation or should I keep reading? If you are thinking about Endymion, in my opinion, no. It does not compare with the Hyperion saga. And the way the history is corrupted, I mean, continued does not do any favor to that Universe. On the other hand, they are lighter than Hyperion and not a terribly bad read, if you don't compare them with Hyperion. In other news, I have just finished Accelerando. My first Tross book. I have enjoyed it, even considering it is quite irregular (If i'm not wrong Accelerando is a collection of stories, not a "whole" novel). I really hate cyberpunkish things, and there is some of that in Accelerando, but it is compensated by the awe and the scale of the whole history. And the treatment of the singularity is refreshing. I liked it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2014 22:13
|
|
|
Any recommendations on a thriller/mystery/horror book where a crew discovers an alien ship? I've already read ship of fools, so I'm looking for something in that vein. Note: I'm the only person who doesn't like blindsight. Falloutboy fucked around with this message at 22:24 on Jun 29, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 22:21
|
|
|
Falloutboy posted:Any recommendations on a thriller/mystery/horror book where a crew discovers an alien ship? I've already read ship of fools, so I'm looking for something in that vein. Blindsight. (EDIT: Me neither, bro.) Rendezvous with Rama. Broken Angels. Eon by Greg Bear. One could argue that Solaris and Roadside Picnic kinda sorta fit. Also: http://spacearchaeology.org/?p=31 http://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/tgc0q/are_there_any_books_similar_to_rendezvous_with/
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2014 22:27
|
|
|
There's a book that's been talked about a few times here in the past month or so. It's post-apocalyptic (or similar genre) that's about someone wandering the world. There may have been some creature stuff in it. Supposedly it's kind of horror-y. It's not the Wool series or The Road. Sorry that's all I remember from it. Edit: It's Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach Trilogy!!! bloops fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Jun 30, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 03:06
|
|
|
Anyone know of a good summary for Blue Remembered Earth? Don't want to read it again but I'm having a tough time remembering what happened for the sequel.
Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Jun 30, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 03:22
|
|
|
GENDERWEIRD GREEDO posted:Anyone know of a good summary for Blue Remembered Earth? Don't want to read it again but I'm having a tough time remembering what happened for the sequel. I read the sequel without reading the first book. Actually have to say I managed to do pretty well but probably missed out on the significance of some scenes!
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 07:35
|
|
|
bonds0097 posted:One thing I really enjoyed about the [The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August]is that you know from the get-go that it's going somewhere definite based on the epigraphs if nothing else and when you figure out where that is, it was definitely an "oh poo poo!" moment for me.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 09:57
|
|
|
UK cover for the new Peter F Hamilton book: It's really film-postery and I love it! Reminds me, I really should get around to reading the Commonwealth duology. edit: synopsis posted:When images of a lost civilization are ‘dreamed’ by a self-proclaimed prophet of the age, Nigel Sheldon, inventor of wormhole technology and creator of the Commonwealth society, is asked to investigate. Especially as the dreams seem to be coming from the Void – a mysterious area of living space monitored and controlled because of its hugely destructive capabilities. With it being the greatest threat to the known universe, Nigel is committed to finding out what really lies within the Void and if there’s any truth to the visions they’ve received. Does human life really exist inside its boundary? Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 14:00 on Jun 30, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 13:58
|
|
|
GENDERWEIRD GREEDO posted:Anyone know of a good summary for Blue Remembered Earth? Don't want to read it again but I'm having a tough time remembering what happened for the sequel. I read it back when it first came out too, but I will do a lazy bullet point summary: -Protag is the one who has the elephant poo poo going on that really doesn't matter to the story. He is somewhat an heir of his grandmother, who is meant to be living on an asteroid in some space palace, but actually that's just an AI and the grandmother is actually on a ship made with alien technology found on phobos, and the ship has been travelling for a long time. -Protag's sister (I think?) lives on the dark side of the moon, which is the only place where the aug doesn't function and people are free from surveillance and behavior control. Keep in mind though that the aug is portrayed more as utopic than as some kind of dystopia thing. -Protag finds clues that his grandmother wants him to find something, so he goes on a scavenger hunt across the solar system. -His cousins try to block his progress for some reason; I think they are really into money/business and he's just into his elephants. -Protag goes to the stupid underwater nation and it's a really goofy scene and idea that has little to no point in the story. Meets the giant whale lady who is actually his grandma's best childhood friend (you find that out later). Whale lady also funded the super telescope that is used to look at Grandma's ship at the end of book. -Protag goes to Mars and sees the cool evolution battle pit thing. -Protag goes near Uranus I think where the vault with the thing from Phobos is locked up? I can't remember this part clearly other than it's where they find out all the relevant poo poo. The vault has some kind of laser defense, and it kills one of the cousins who has come around to the protag's side. No one seems too upset that the cousin is killed or that the Grandma set a laser defense up that accidentally killed one of her grandsons. -Surprise reveal is that the Grandma is still alive and it is hinted that this new propulsion system is going to CHANGE THINGS.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 14:07
|
|
|
Hedrigall posted:UK cover for the new Peter F Hamilton book: You really shouldn't. Also, the synopsis sounds horrible. The Commonwealth series was OK, I guess, but the Void series was a real disappointment. I read everything else by Hamilton, but I am getting fed up with the Commonwealth/Void universe.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 14:30
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 04:08 |
|
|
There is a stupid evil magic alien threat led by Al Capone and Genghis Khan, can zero-g sex god Peter Hamilton stop them?
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2014 14:58
|
|