|
Riot Carol Danvers posted:I thought the book made it clear through dialogue that they'll see each other in the end, and I don't just mean the "see you on the flip side, sugarlips" bit. Ah... I suppose I missed that, or it didn’t sink in while I was breathlessly reading the end. Thanks.
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 00:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 19:52 |
|
|
CaptainCrunch posted:Ah... I suppose I missed that, or it didn’t sink in while I was breathlessly reading the end. I've read the book twice now and reread those last couple of chapters like 3 or 4 times because I'm a nutball, it's not you!
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 04:09
|
|
|
Larry Parrish posted:anyway the concentration camp thing is whatever. if you need your sci fi author to be vocally anti-concentration camp you pretty much cant read any sci fi published in the last 20 years. theres very little leftist media out there in general, and in sci fi especially the best you can get outside of aforementioned soviet era novels is like, stuff by liberals that think big companies are bad. Have you read any sci fi published in the last 20 years? I can think of 20 writers off the top of my head who are vocally anti-concentration camp and most of them would be common sights in bookstores these days.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 04:41
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:Have you read any sci fi published in the last 20 years? I can think of 20 writers off the top of my head who are vocally anti-concentration camp and most of them would be common sights in bookstores these days. Yeah, most of the authors I've found on Twitter after liking their stories on Analog are left wing if not at least liberal.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 04:54
|
|
|
Ben Nevis posted:Might want to check out Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson. It's a novella about on a group of soldiers for hire guarding a shipment through a dangerous area, so very much classic fantasy there. But the focus is on the relationship between one of the men and the captain. Pretty brief read, but I liked it. If I'm remembering correctly, this one ends with one of the guys suddenly deciding to commit suicide by monster and the other guy once again depressed and alone, right? Because gently caress that gay tragedy poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 05:12
|
|
|
JTDistortion posted:If I'm remembering correctly, this one ends with one of the guys suddenly deciding to commit suicide by monster and the other guy once again depressed and alone, right? Because gently caress that gay tragedy poo poo. Honestly, it's been a couple years and I don't 100% remember how the end shakes out, specifically deciding to commit suicide, I don't recall there being like a ton of choice. While I remember him dying, a quick review of goodreads makes it seem that at least some people found it ambiguous.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 05:44
|
|
|
So is the payoff in Seven Surrenders worth it? Too like the lightning suffered from the usual sci-fi issue ie interesting ideas, bad execution. It was pretty much a pretentious 18th century costume drama disguised as sci-fi without any proper payoff from the first book. The story was meandering, characters bland, the different POVs didn’t add anything to the story and the gender thing was not done in an interesting way. Still, I found it interesting enough to consider reading the next one.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 11:08
|
|
|
Larry Parrish posted:theres very little leftist media out there in general, and in sci fi especially the best you can get outside of aforementioned soviet era novels is like, stuff by liberals that think big companies are bad. Ken McLeod and China Mieville would both like a word.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 11:33
|
|
|
feedmegin posted:Ken McLeod and China Mieville would both like a word. I think Steven Brust is also a trot?
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 12:20
|
|
|
genericnick posted:I think Steven Brust is also a trot? He is but it isn't obvious in his fiction the same way it is with Mieville. Good twitter follow though.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 14:10
|
|
|
Ben Nevis posted:Honestly, it's been a couple years and I don't 100% remember how the end shakes out, specifically deciding to commit suicide, I don't recall there being like a ton of choice. While I remember him dying, a quick review of goodreads makes it seem that at least some people found it ambiguous. I'm pretty sure I remember that it was explicitly stated that he didn't even try to defend himself despite having time to do so. It's ambiguous in the sense that we don't really know if he could have successfully defended himself, but the part where he doesn't even try was framed as being deliberate. I'm also pretty disinclined to give the author the benefit of the doubt. I gave them a second chance and started reading one of their other books; it opened with a guy screaming and trying to throw himself into the sea to follow the ship that was taking his lover away forever. The rest of the book appeared to be flashback stuff about how they fell in love, so I dropped it pretty much immediately and have never regretted it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 14:52
|
|
|
Is there a general Rivers of London thread or would it all be in here? I’m sure I remember an Urban Fantasy thread a few years back that it got caught under but I can’t seem to spot that now.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 14:55
|
|
|
There's no Rivers of London specific thread. Urban Fantasy thread is https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3636466&pagenumber=281#lastpost I liked Rivers of London. Nothing that blew my mind but a good solid read unlike Dresden Files which I found myself slogging through. Both were read long enough ago though that I can't remember why I had those opinions though  .
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 15:29
|
|
|
team overhead smash posted:There's no Rivers of London specific thread. Urban Fantasy thread is https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3636466&pagenumber=281#lastpost Oh hey, thanks! I think I got as far as ‘The Dresden Files’ in the title and kept scrolling.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 16:29
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:He is but it isn't obvious in his fiction the same way it is with Mieville. Good twitter follow though. It's pretty explicit in several of his Taltos books.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 17:24
|
|
|
This is what Michael Moorcock had to say about Bester's Tiger! Tiger! (i.e. The Stars My Destination):quote:6. Tiger! Tiger! by Alfred Bester I read it in maybe 2002, and it remains one of my favorite SF works.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 17:45
|
|
|
It’s good but I’ve been leery of rereading it because iirc it contains a seemingly obligatory never-remarked-upon sexual assault by the protagonist. That doesn’t make it Forever Attainted In All Eyes, just makes me uneager to go back.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 20:11
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:He is but it isn't obvious in his fiction the same way it is with Mieville. Good twitter follow though. This is my periodic reminder to the thread that Steven Brust was kicked out of the 4th Street writers workshop for stalking and sexually harassing female writers. gently caress that guy.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 21:01
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:It’s good but I’ve been leery of rereading it because iirc it contains a seemingly obligatory never-remarked-upon sexual assault by the protagonist. That doesn’t make it Forever Attainted In All Eyes, just makes me uneager to go back. The Demolished Man is the better Bester anyway!  Really should just read both again, I don't think I've touched them this decade.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 21:14
|
|
|
Kesper North posted:This is my periodic reminder to the thread that Steven Brust was kicked out of the 4th Street writers workshop for stalking and sexually harassing female writers. gently caress that guy. Yeah, I didn't know if this had made the rounds yet, but he had to be pretty decisively ejected for his conduct. Whether or not that alters your reading (it does mine) it's worth knowing he's a sex pest.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2019 23:50
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:It’s good but I’ve been leery of rereading it because iirc it contains a seemingly obligatory never-remarked-upon sexual assault by the protagonist. That doesn’t make it Forever Attainted In All Eyes, just makes me uneager to go back.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2019 00:53
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:It’s good but I’ve been leery of rereading it because iirc it contains a seemingly obligatory never-remarked-upon sexual assault by the protagonist. That doesn’t make it Forever Attainted In All Eyes, just makes me uneager to go back. Don't blame you. Alfred Bester's work aged badly in that regard. Read Bester's Demolished Man instead. Sexual assault and main characters having massive mental breakdowns/psychotic breaks with reality are in almost all of Alfred Bester novels (Demolished Man, Golem 1000, Tiger Tiger/Stars My Destination, Computer Connection, Rat Race). Which makes sense because IRL Bester had a massive mental breakdown, so he wrote what he knew I guess. The one Bester book, The Deceivers, where the main character doesn't mentally snap is so hackneyed and terribly written, the person reading it is likely to have a psychotic break instead. Overall, I'd rate Demolished Man as the best Alfred Bester novel, with Stars My Destination/Tiger Tiger taking 2nd place. All other Bester novels have a steep dropoff in story/writing/coherence quality. Kesper North posted:This is my periodic reminder to the thread that Steven Brust was kicked out of the 4th Street writers workshop for stalking and sexually harassing female writers. gently caress that guy. Brust is the obsessed with Alexandre Dumas cosplaying creep right? Tried getting into Brust's books/stories a few times but always found the writing repellent.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2019 01:02
|
|
|
Just finished The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters and enjoyed it a lot. It's about a cop trying to solve a suicide he suspects is really a murder when there's only six months to go until life on earth is wiped out by an incoming asteroid. More of a detective novel than a scifi novel, but still a good amount of worldbuilding as to how society would react if we knew there was six months left and there was nothing we could do about it. One thing which would have been better was if the suicide did, in fact, turn out to be a suicide and being convinced it was a murder was just the protagonist's own way of coping, by finally getting to be a proper detective on a proper case. Which is where I thought it was going to go for a bit, but it doesn't.
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2019 03:55
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:My review of Steel Frame by Andrew Skinner: Just finished this and anyone not currently reading it is Making A Mistake. I have no idea why a centuries-old, rusting space dreadnought is such a satisfying setting.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2019 01:45
|
|
|
Hahahahaha. Dean Ing's Single Combat: Quantrill, Book 2 is available as an audio-book apparently. Wondering how horrified or professional the narrator stayed during the exceptionally WTF "obese not-Diane Sawyer newscaster/secondary series villain trying to seduce an 600+ kilogram mutated russian boar" subplot when narrating Single Combat.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2019 04:53
|
|
|
freebooter posted:Just finished The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters and enjoyed it a lot. It's about a cop trying to solve a suicide he suspects is really a murder when there's only six months to go until life on earth is wiped out by an incoming asteroid. More of a detective novel than a scifi novel, but still a good amount of worldbuilding as to how society would react if we knew there was six months left and there was nothing we could do about it. The next two are good but it stays really bleak
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2019 06:12
|
|
|
quantumfoam posted:Hahahahaha. They were paid in Vodka. Lots, and lots of Vodka. And Percocet.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2019 06:51
|
|
|
navyjack posted:The next two are good but it stays really bleak I rather admire the way he chose to end the series.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2019 08:56
|
|
|
Those are still in my TBR list. Just finished up The Sleep Experiment by Jeremy Bates, and while it was ok, it wasn't fantastic. I dunno, I just had high hopes since it's one of my favorite creepypastas out there. All in all not really much horror or action until like the last 20 pages of the book. I'd rank it firmly a 3 star. Not bad, not great, but readable. Weird, and has a decent take on the whole sleep experiment outcome and reasons, but still just not that terrific of a read. He's got some "WORLD'S SCARIEST" something or other books, like places? I think, where it's about campers at that russian mountain pass, or the japanese haunted suicide forest. Oh yea, the island of the doll heads as well. Might give one of those a shot to see if the action kicks off a bit faster. Currently reading Mythical : Stone Soldier by C.E. Martin. It's not fantastic but it's kinda... sort of like David Conyers' Harrison Peel series meets The Arcadian series by Greig Beck. Only about a third of the way into the book and he's already zapped a kid in the head with a tazer to take out a telepath, so it's at least entertaining.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2019 09:07
|
|
|
withak posted:Just finished this and anyone not currently reading it is Making A Mistake. Endorse, it’s good, folks.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2019 12:30
|
|
|
Ninurta posted:They were paid in Vodka. Lots, and lots of Vodka. And Percocet. Not even that would be enough. Because, uh, that subplot is fully carried through in Single Combat and the obese not-Diane Sawyer's plan works. It works too well. shudder. Maybe the narrator got an amazing contract extension or won a workplace grievance with his job and was given the "narrate Single Combat" assignment in revenge. Narration suddenly changing to a text2speech robot voice, or that subplot being edited by the narrator on-the-fly is possible I guess. That subplot is made worse or somewhat dumbly hilarious because it includes multiple pov narratives from the boars viewpoint too. Started reading Mack Reynolds Of Godlike Power, and I can tell it's going to be super-preachy terrible in that special way Mack Reynolds wrote. Haven't actively disliked the main characters of a book this much since Children of Time and less recently, Cryptonomicon.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2019 15:57
|
|
|
Picked up the first two Murderbot books. Holy moly. Both look to be about 100 pages, if that. One was softbound for $15, and the other hardcover for $16. WTF.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2019 18:02
|
|
|
Philthy posted:Picked up the first two Murderbot books. Holy moly. Both look to be about 100 pages, if that. One was softbound for $15, and the other hardcover for $16. Yeah, I bought the first one, but I'm waiting for some kind of collection to get any more.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2019 18:08
|
|
|
Philthy posted:Picked up the first two Murderbot books. Holy moly. Both look to be about 100 pages, if that. One was softbound for $15, and the other hardcover for $16. That's about what I paid. Expensive but totally worth it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2019 18:22
|
|
|
The best thing about Andrew Skinner's Steel Frame is that the characters regularly refer to "Christs" (one one occasion expounding "both of them) when cursing, showing that Skinner was prescient about Kanye's recent developments and where they're going to end up.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2019 18:36
|
|
|
Steel Frame was way better than I thought it would be.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2019 20:21
|
|
|
Larry Parrish posted:Steel Frame was way better than I thought it would be. It came across as a Luminous Dead-style recommendation, but it's actually quite good and not disappointing at all.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2019 20:26
|
|
|
Apparatchik Magnet posted:It came across as a Luminous Dead-style recommendation, but it's actually quite good and not disappointing at all. I don't see why that's a bad thing, as I loved Luminous Dead too. e: More clearly, I adored Luminous Dead and I'm not bothered that you folks weren't into it. I write my reviews based on how I feel about a book, and hopefully if I love a book you'll love it too, and if not, welp, hope it wasn't too expensive. StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Oct 29, 2019 |
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2019 20:33
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:I don't see why that's a bad thing, as I loved Luminous Dead too. Luminous Dead is very much a chick book, for both good and ill. Not my kind of thing.
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2019 20:36
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 19:52 |
|
|
Apparatchik Magnet posted:Luminous Dead is very much a chick book, for both good and ill. Not my kind of thing. What does chick book mean? I'm confused here, like... it features women? It features emotions? What?
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2019 20:39
|
|