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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:The impromptu thread survey question "As to Why people keep reading HH stories if they've read virtually ANYTHING ELSE scifi/mil-scifi, that's the question I've been asking since second 1 of thread creation." answers have been varied but interesting. Small answer base so far, hoping others will chime in. i don't know why I keep reading John Ringo when everything he writes is, at best, somehow boring and kind of annoying at the same time. I guess it's just interesting to see what such an obviously stupid person thinks
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Aug 14, 2019 04:22
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ShinsoBEAM! posted:Going through Analog/Amazing Stories is old hat, now a days the new coolness is dig through Royal Road or Kindle Unlimited, mostly KU for military sci-fi as most of the authors are older. The main issue I have is the vast majority of the ones I run across are okay, they arn't bad and I may read more but I'm not going to recommend them. I'd only recommend Spiral Wars and Poor Man's Fight from that list. NoNostalgia4Grover posted:The impromptu thread survey question "As to Why people keep reading HH stories if they've read virtually ANYTHING ELSE scifi/mil-scifi, that's the question I've been asking since second 1 of thread creation." answers have been varied but interesting. Small answer base so far, hoping others will chime in. I don't read Weber/HH stories anymore: 1 vote
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Aug 14, 2019 05:01
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ShinsoBEAM! posted:nobody wants to read an entire story about supply officers. i do,
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Aug 14, 2019 05:03
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occamsnailfile posted:Seems thread-appropriate: Military Logistics for Fantasy Writers in a similar vein SF authors are lazy and biomes are complete, ICE WORLD, DEATH WORLD, PARADISE GAIA etc. John Barnes once wrote an essay called How To Build a Future that used advanced computer modelling (IIRC the file was 1mb!) to figure out where global economics would be in x years to add realism to his books. You can reread it in this super creepy but excellent short story collection Apocalypses and Apostrophes https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312861476
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Aug 14, 2019 05:16
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Put me down for "I don't read Weber/HH stories anymore". But I will read a Let's Read thread of a recent HH novel, so count that however you like.
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Aug 14, 2019 05:39
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PupsOfWar posted:i do, also I don't read Weber any more but I know I'll end up reading something of his sooner or later, just to yell at it, and to procrastinate on reading good books that I don't feel like I deserve to read yet.
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Aug 14, 2019 07:06
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PupsOfWar posted:i do, 
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Aug 14, 2019 07:10
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I only actually read a single HH novel and realized it was a bad version of Hornblower in Space and stopped.
Jack2142 fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Aug 14, 2019 |
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Aug 14, 2019 07:16
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:The impromptu thread survey question "As to Why people keep reading HH stories if they've read virtually ANYTHING ELSE scifi/mil-scifi, that's the question I've been asking since second 1 of thread creation." answers have been varied but interesting. Small answer base so far, hoping others will chime in. My main reason for keeping up with HH was nostalgia. I had started reading it as a teen and came to accept the Weber-isms, I was also a follower of the Baen Bar(AVOID) where he interacted with his fans and thus came forth...BuShips, BuOrd, and every other awful, fan-based grouping that encouraged David to do his worst with techno-babble. Did you know that On Basilisk Station was only 450 pages long? David Weber clearly doesn't, as he attempts to saw down another forest with his next book. The worst part was I read...A Rising Thunder? I swear, his titles are starting to rival Tom Clancy...at any rate, the book's first couple hundred pages covered the SAME GODDAMN TALBOT CLUSTER REBELS from the previous book, just copy and pasted onto other worlds. That was enough for me. If you cannot get to your next plot point in less words than the first book in the series...shame on me, goddammit.
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Aug 14, 2019 08:25
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Ninurta posted:My main reason for keeping up with HH was nostalgia. I had started reading it as a teen and came to accept the Weber-isms, I was also a follower of the Baen Bar(AVOID) where he interacted with his fans and thus came forth...BuShips, BuOrd, and every other awful, fan-based grouping that encouraged David to do his worst with techno-babble. Did you know that On Basilisk Station was only 450 pages long? David Weber clearly doesn't, as he attempts to saw down another forest with his next book. That's a thing is all the latest books. There's a bunch of copy and paste sections because he has like 4 books dealing with the exact same time frame but from different perspectives, but he keeps having to copy and paste huge chunks because he can't just get the info across in a different scene.
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Aug 14, 2019 09:59
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I stopped reading Weber with the whole Vampires vs Aliens book Out of the Dark. No. It's way worse than it sounds. I know the premise sounds cool, trust me. It's real bad. Except for the most recent HH one, which I read out of morbid curiosity after reading a wiki to catch up the missing volumes. Dropped Ringo entirely about the time he started writing those terrible zombie books. But I'd already bounced of those Troy Rising books after the first one, and I've never touched the poop that is Paladin of Shadows.
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Aug 14, 2019 11:19
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All new survey question answers have been added to the rankings. As survey questioner/vote counter, did not vote -personal vote would have been "gently caress you read anything else". Double extra credit goes to Larry Parrish, whose answer was so smug-stupid-one-upmanship-laden and off-topic it was the perfect distillation of the GIP subforum posting ethos given life. Larry Parrish, you are now the golden child/can-do Sunken cost factor: 2 votes (Narsham, Kchama) Nostalgia: 3 votes (ShinsoBEAM!, occamsnailfile, Ninurta) Convenience: 3 votes (jng2058, Aerdan, shovelbum) Battered person syndrome: 4 votes (Narsham, Kchama, 90s Cringe Rock, Deptfordx) I don't read Weber/HH stories anymore: 0 votes (Remains at zero, because missing the first polling cutoff created a new answer category) Didn't realize "I don't read Weber/HH anymore was a valid answer": 4 votes (branedotorg, mllaneza, 90s Cringe Rock, Jack2142) Actually I read John Ringo instead: 1 vote (Larry Parrish)
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Aug 14, 2019 12:29
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Nahh I have a broken nostalgia gland, nostalgia that would be my friend who actually rereads the old ones, I just don't have any more options and Weber is better on average than random KU mil-scifi. Convenience is probably more accurate.Deptfordx posted:I stopped reading Weber with the whole Vampires vs Aliens book Out of the Dark. Out of the Dark was hilarious, it was a giant shitpost in book form, filled with stupid in-jokes, I can't believe it actually got published.
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Aug 14, 2019 14:58
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Deptfordx posted:I stopped reading Weber with the whole Vampires vs Aliens book Out of the Dark. so was it like blindsight?
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Aug 14, 2019 15:00
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It might have been OK if I'd read it in short story form, but whoa did that loving novel need an editor. Or an author willing to write something more than a short story with more words crammed in the gaps. It could have been a good shitpost with a better author!
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Aug 14, 2019 15:00
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shovelbum posted:so was it like blindsight?
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Aug 14, 2019 15:02
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90s Cringe Rock posted:No, draculas. tey should put this in a museum, next to blindsight, with the sign "VAMPIRES VS ALIENS"
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Aug 14, 2019 15:09
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:The impromptu thread survey question "As to Why people keep reading HH stories if they've read virtually ANYTHING ELSE scifi/mil-scifi, that's the question I've been asking since second 1 of thread creation." answers have been varied but interesting. Small answer base so far, hoping others will chime in. I started reading it because I was in high school, they were free, and I wanted some SF to read that was about bigass fleet battles but wasn't Star Wars. And I'd already read the Conquerors trilogy twice. I stopped reading them somewhere around book 6 or 7, I think, because they were getting increasingly boring to me. Empire from the Ashes held my interest slightly longer -- I'm a total sucker for "tiny group of people with hyper-advanced technology are stranded on a populated but low-tech world and need to get home" stories, which occupies most of the second book -- but I haven't cracked it open in the better part of a decade now and should probably donate that, too. And these days, even when the craving for deep-space fleet actions involving hundreds of missiles and ships dying heroically in the blackness of space etc etc gets unbearable, there are other options that are better than Weber. shovelbum posted:tey should put this in a museum, next to blindsight, with the sign C.S. Friedman did it better.
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Aug 14, 2019 17:05
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Anyone would have done it better. Honestly, no. Don't think it might be entertaining nonsense. I'll check it out. It's genuinely terrible. Edit: For those curious. The aliens invaded. Their superior technology made them unstoppable. Humanity is ROFLstomped. But they made one mistake. They pissed of Count Dracula! He and a few vampire buddies kills them all. Effortlessly. The end. Think one of Webers one-sided missile massacres where the designated bad guys are helpless to resist. Only substitute Vampires for missiles. Also these are less vampires than superheroes. They are powerful enough to board the alien space ships by clinging to the exterior of their hypersonic transports as they ascend into orbit for example. As I said, substitute vastly superior magical powers for vastly superior tech and it's basically a HH battle. Deptfordx fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Aug 14, 2019 |
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Aug 14, 2019 17:39
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At least you can get some satisfaction out of Kratman. Don't read the bad space vampire book.
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Aug 14, 2019 17:45
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you forgot to mention the best part of the vampires vs. aliens book, which is that david weber and his wife are characters in it really PupsOfWar fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Aug 14, 2019 |
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Aug 14, 2019 18:28
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Deptfordx posted:Anyone would have done it better. This all sounds like the back-half of Peter Watts Echopraxia, especially that out-of-nowhere vampires clinging to the outside of the hypersonic transports as they New results of the survey will be up in about 20 hrs or so. Larry Parrish is still ranked thread golden boy, while Toxic Frog's answer was the realest no-bullshit answer I've seen.
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Aug 14, 2019 18:37
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PupsOfWar posted:you forgot to mention the best part of the vampires vs. aliens book, which is that david weber and his wife are characters in it Welp. If it's good enough for Clive Cussler. 
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Aug 14, 2019 18:58
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ToxicFrog posted:I started reading it because I was in high school, they were free, and I wanted some SF to read that was about bigass fleet battles but wasn't Star Wars. And I'd already read the Conquerors trilogy twice. Are you me? except I just kept reading them
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Aug 14, 2019 19:30
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:The impromptu thread survey question "As to Why people keep reading HH stories if they've read virtually ANYTHING ELSE scifi/mil-scifi, that's the question I've been asking since second 1 of thread creation." answers have been varied but interesting. Small answer base so far, hoping others will chime in. Honestly, because they were there. Free, essentially. Read through to...uh, past the one where she was a privateer, past the one where she escaped from the prison. Somewhere around there. Kind of got too busy to read in general, didn't bother getting them when switching over to audiobooks.
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Aug 14, 2019 19:50
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Look dude, I was dumb enough to enlist. Theres no need to keep pointing out how stupid I am, I already know I dont have much further to sink
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Aug 14, 2019 20:01
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Larry Parrish posted:Look dude, I was dumb enough to enlist. Theres no need to keep pointing out how stupid I am, I already know I dont have much further to sink Sadly the internet is forever, especially re-quotes. If it makes you feel better I enlisted too, probably into a infinitely stupider MOS than you picked going in, so that's one thing in your favor. Not much can top the stupidity of going 0311 in the marines.
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Aug 14, 2019 22:20
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veterans of the posting wars
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Aug 14, 2019 22:37
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:Watts loves writing misery-porn fiction. No loving poo poo, lmao at Rifters
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Aug 15, 2019 00:01
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:Sadly the internet is forever, especially re-quotes. Say what you will about Command Post/1C3, it didnt do anything besides make my sleep problems worse
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Aug 15, 2019 00:05
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PupsOfWar posted:veterans of the posting wars Larry Parrish posted:Say what you will about Command Post/1C3, it didnt do anything besides make my sleep problems worse Exactly. So when I say as a former 0311, that Bill the Galactic Hero was the first book I stumbled across, in an ocean of mil-fiction Starship Trooper knockoffs, to actually portray enlisted military life in all its absurd pettiness and that book was Anti-war/Anti Military-Industrial-Complex too, AND it also managed to be FUNNY....it was goddamn life-altering amazing. I know that Marko Kloos has written a similar "enlisted life sucks actually" series, but Harry Harrison's Bil (two L's are for officers) will always remain the first and foremost mil-scifi series in my heart. Mainly because Bil had realistic life goals such as A) Stay alive until his contract was over B) Never volunteer/get noticed by officers C) get blackout-drunk as long as possible to block out being in the military D) avoid the try-hard frenemy Bgr who kept getting him into adventures E) get a replacement foot for the one he shot off to get med-vaced off a deathworld prison planet. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Aug 15, 2019 |
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Aug 15, 2019 05:16
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i feel a lot of mil-SF writers sorta start out making a decent critique of military hierarchy and the MIC, it's just that they then develop the wrong conclusions about why it's bad and get sidetracked from there like, the fuckups are accurate their analysis of why the fuckups happen is inaccurate PupsOfWar fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Aug 15, 2019 |
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Aug 15, 2019 05:25
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from Book 2 chapters 1 + 2 of Bill the Galactic Heroquote:chapter 1 quote:chapter 2
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Aug 15, 2019 05:29
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On the topic of more comedic stuff I think I've recommended Mechanical Failure by Joe Zieja once or twice in the regular thread, it's a fairly Spaceballs-esque novel by a ex-USAF officer. (And in looking up the correct spelling of his name it turns out he writes for the satire site Duffelblog too.)quote:“Admiral!” someone shouted from the corner of the bridge. Rogers hadn’t spent that much time on the bridge to know everyone, but he thought it was the defensive array tech. “Something’s wrong with my system.”
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Aug 15, 2019 08:46
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Sometimes, editors willing to pare back jokes are your friend. Example: that "Mechanical Failure/Joe Zieja" extract C.M. Kruger posted is a like a stand-up comedian getting nervous and running through their entire 5 minute set in 70 seconds. It's ok to wait 2 or 3 pages/minutes for a joke payoff. Duffelblog posts always rate a sensible chuckle reaction though. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sensible-chuckle And Danger 5 itself always entertains.
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Aug 15, 2019 17:00
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Theres a lot of books in Mechanical Failure's style and I hate them all tbh. Obviously somebody thinks they're funny because they keep getting written, but I cant stand it
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Aug 15, 2019 18:26
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something mildly tongue-in-cheek like Poor Man's Fight is probably the best mil-SF comedy you can get short of Harrison, unfortunately i find Dread Empire's Fall very funny but a lot of people seem not to
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Aug 15, 2019 18:41
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I have an ulterior motive for posting these extracts. Here's page 2 of book 2/chapter 1 of Bill the Galactic Hero. quote:The pilot mashed them with 15G when they landed (he also knew he had no brass on this run), and while they were popping their dislocated vertebrae back into position and squeezing their eyeballs back into shape so that they could see, the hatch swung open. Not only was it night, but it was raining too. A Second-class Passenger Handler’s Mate poked his head in and swept them with a professionally friendly grin. If enough people buy an ebook copy of Bill the Galactic Hero (hint hint), the direct Bill book sequel written by Harry Harrison + the lesser ghost-written Bill books have a greater chance of getting ebook editions too. Bill the Galactic Hero book # 2 is worth skimming, the other 5 Bill sequels can be skipped. Bill the Galactic Hero #2 aka ..."on the Planet of Robot Slaves" has more absurd pettiness of the military/officer seniority-games, hordes of metallic dragons + robot slaves locked in their own versions of the MIC, a perfect parody of Barsoom/John Carter of Mars, lesser parodies of King Arthurs court + the roman empire, a female lead that is taller, stronger and 3x smarter than Bill and more. Bill # 2 kicks off the series running gag of "insanely crappy replacement foot" , which in this book is an huge mutated chicken foot able to claw through ferro-concrete. Bill book #3 is a bizzare mashup of Star Trek and Star Wars, dimensional time-travellers, a planet of disembodied intelligences desperate for physical bodies like the villain from the recently finished season of Agent of Shield. Replacement foot is an mutated alligator foot Bill book #4 is a parody mashup of the golden age of pulp scifi. Only redeeming feature in it was the 4 page mashup HERETICS IN HADES aka "Gilganosh Meets Two Pulp Fiction Writers". Replacement foot is an satyr "mood-foot". Bill book #5 is a mashup of Aliens (1986) with Mutiny of the Bounty(1962) featuring parodies of other action/comedy movie characters. Replacement foot is an elephant foot that loves smashing alien critters. Bill book #6 is a mashup of hippies, Nazi's, time travel, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, and so on. Replacement foot is an 12 toed foot that gets replaced asap in Bill book #5 . Bill book #7 is the final book of the series and is a direct parody of Gulf War 1 featuring lots of super-dumb but kind of hilarious stuff. Replacement feet are an Swiss Army foot, a human fist (call-back to bill's replacement left arm), and finally the metal robo-foot from the ending of Bill #1 book .
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Aug 16, 2019 03:16
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Larry Parrish posted:Theres a lot of books in Mechanical Failure's style and I hate them all tbh. Obviously somebody thinks they're funny because they keep getting written, but I cant stand it Your post has failed and must reboot.
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Aug 16, 2019 08:34
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Larry Parrish posted:Theres a lot of books in Mechanical Failure's style and I hate them all tbh. Obviously somebody thinks they're funny because they keep getting written, but I cant stand it They read like someone tried to turn a TV sketch show into a novel, and that humor often only barely lands even with the help of some goofy overacting. In book form I find it grating.
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Aug 16, 2019 14:49
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