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I've gone through about three periods of trying to find John M. Ford books after reading The Last Hot Time, so I'm super thrilled to hear the old stuff is coming back and some new stuff published for the first time. It occurs to me that The Last Hot Time's opening, which I found gripping, will have less impact on younger readers who never had a Casio digital watch with that block typeface and won't quite understand what it is meant to look like when the time changes to RAGE and FEAR. Although I guess they can still write 80085 on a calculator to get a similar effect.
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Nov 15, 2019 16:17
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quantumfoam posted:This is Emma Newman's 2015 story Planetfall you're talking about, correct? I have a probably-unfair intense dislike of Planetfall because it was pitched to me as a Big Dumb Object story and it really loving isn't. GreyjoyBastard posted:The poster who posted this Wait! I advice you to think more carefully and lurk more, before you post this!
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Nov 15, 2019 16:55
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Bhodi posted:It broke a lot of people's brains. RIP Dan Simmons, Orson Scott Card, tons of others OSC's brain was kiiiiinda pre-broken, I guess. I mean, the cliché about the most vocal homophobes actually being self-hating closeted gays isn't exactly 100% accurate but in his case... on the one hand he's this deeply religious Mormon dude, married with children, arguing not only against the legalization of gay marriage but against the legalization of gay sex itself; then on the other hand he writes stuff like Songmaster which is less heterosexual than some actual gay porn.
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Nov 15, 2019 17:00
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Neurosis posted:A long shot here but are there any fantasy books with much in common with the setting for King of Dragon Pass and Runequest, ie Glorantha? I'm not even going to try to explain it to those not familiar with it because it's too hard to do so without writing a thousand words. It might not be large enough in scope for what you're looking for but Earthsea has a similar kind of tone and LeGuin approached her work from an anthropological background. Glorantha is such a unique case of wolrdbuilding though--the authors basically skipped the 'writing novels' part and just (continually) wrote the world. Still are writing it from time to time.
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Nov 15, 2019 17:19
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Groke posted:OSC's brain was kiiiiinda pre-broken, I guess. I mean, the cliché about the most vocal homophobes actually being self-hating closeted gays isn't exactly 100% accurate but in his case... on the one hand he's this deeply religious Mormon dude, married with children, arguing not only against the legalization of gay marriage but against the legalization of gay sex itself; then on the other hand he writes stuff like Songmaster which is less heterosexual than some actual gay porn. Don't forget the entire Homecoming Saga, which includes a gay character marrying a woman and having children for the good of society.
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Nov 15, 2019 17:28
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Groke posted:OSC's brain was kiiiiinda pre-broken, I guess. I mean, the cliché about the most vocal homophobes actually being self-hating closeted gays isn't exactly 100% accurate but in his case... on the one hand he's this deeply religious Mormon dude, married with children, arguing not only against the legalization of gay marriage but against the legalization of gay sex itself; then on the other hand he writes stuff like Songmaster which is less heterosexual than some actual gay porn. Dude wrote columns and opinion pieces trying to explain to poor deluded kids who thought they were gay that no, really, every normal straight man feels love for men and contempt for women, and that normal straight people have a duty to find a wife they can tolerate and force themselves to have a sex with a few times while wishing they were hanging out with the men they love, but it's definitely platonic. The devil and your hormones are just confusing you. Like I'm not even exaggerating here. "Oh, homophobes are just closeted gay people" is often wrong and more than a bit homophobic itself, but Card was very clear that he was a normal straight man who like all normal straight men wanted to gently caress and date other men. 90s Cringe Rock fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Nov 15, 2019 |
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Nov 15, 2019 17:48
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90s Cringe Rock posted:You're looking at subtext, which is for cowards. A friend of mine who is an ex-Mormon has a personal conspiracy that Card is explicitly, definitely gay but that a big contingent of his sales are to Mormons so he chooses to put up the party-line front so as to not alienate them, but I have no idea if there's any credence to it, or if it matters in the long run. Regardless of who the guy is or what his sexuality is, he's certainly flat-out said a lot of hateful homophobic things so it's hard to reconcile that through any kind of theorizing.
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Nov 15, 2019 18:36
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Soooo one of the guys in my scifi book club made a mistake. We're currently reading Cat Scratch Fever by Tara K Harper. It looks like this: He got Cat Scratch Fever by Jodi Redford. It looks like this:  He was too embarrassed give us a call and ask if the main characters should be loving up their real estate deals by jacking off publicly, so he read the whole book club assignment, five chapters.
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Nov 15, 2019 19:07
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The wolf standing on a dick really makes that cover.
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Nov 15, 2019 19:22
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tbf I'm not really sure why you'd read the other book either
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Nov 15, 2019 19:37
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tokenbrownguy posted:Soooo one of the guys in my scifi book club made a mistake. We're currently reading Cat Scratch Fever by Tara K Harper. It looks like this:  Well what else did he have to say about it, how's it read, ahahahahah
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Nov 15, 2019 19:55
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tokenbrownguy posted:He was too embarrassed give us a call and ask if the main characters should be loving up their real estate deals by jacking off publicly, so he read the whole book club assignment, five chapters. Lol, your buddy clearly has no experience in real estate.
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Nov 15, 2019 20:02
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MockingQuantum posted:tbf I'm not really sure why you'd read the other book either um, why would you not just read both
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Nov 15, 2019 20:09
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The obvious solution to this situation is to continue exactly as you are right now, and the follow up with all of you reading the Jodi Redford version while he reads the Tara Harper version.
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Nov 15, 2019 20:13
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Drone posted:um, why would you not just read both an equally valid approach, i have to admit
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Nov 15, 2019 20:21
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I started reading China Mountain Zhang yesterday. Right now I'm only up to the first perspective change, but man I'm liking this thing so far.
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Nov 15, 2019 20:23
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StrixNebulosa posted:
My dude is insanely polite, he was just trying to break the news to us that he got a porn book without actually describing the furious were-cat-wolf masturbation. Drone posted:um, why would you not just read both 
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Nov 15, 2019 20:28
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This reminds me that I have some late-70s pulp sci fi novel that I'd never heard of and never read sitting on my shelf at home, somebody gave it to me in a gift exchange as a joke and I can't decide if it's going to be terrible or wonderful when I get around to reading it. I wish I could remember the name because the cover is a sight to behold.
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Nov 15, 2019 20:31
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There's more than a few books from that era where the cover is the best part.
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Nov 15, 2019 20:40
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quantumfoam posted:This is Emma Newman's 2015 story Planetfall you're talking about, correct? Yeah the 2015 one. That slow reveal was fine for me, except I really didn’t like the ending and it feels like it would need to be a longer book or advance the plot faster to avoid an ending which felt rushed to me. Maybe there’s an ending I’d have found satisfying which they could’ve arrived at with that same pacing beforehand, but it’s hard for me to imagine. That said I totally agree that the main character’s development/reveal was really good throughout and the spoilered bit you mention was excellent.
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Nov 15, 2019 20:48
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MockingQuantum posted:This reminds me that I have some late-70s pulp sci fi novel that I'd never heard of and never read sitting on my shelf at home, somebody gave it to me in a gift exchange as a joke and I can't decide if it's going to be terrible or wonderful when I get around to reading it. I wish I could remember the name because the cover is a sight to behold.
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Nov 15, 2019 21:39
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MockingQuantum posted:This reminds me that I have some late-70s pulp sci fi novel that I'd never heard of and never read sitting on my shelf at home, somebody gave it to me in a gift exchange as a joke and I can't decide if it's going to be terrible or wonderful when I get around to reading it. I wish I could remember the name because the cover is a sight to behold. I've got a few of these. Death Dolls of Lyra is my favorite lovely 70s assembly-line scifi novel: 
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Nov 15, 2019 21:40
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ToxicFrog posted:I have a probably-unfair intense dislike of Planetfall because it was pitched to me as a Big Dumb Object story and it really loving isn't. I usually go into new2me books blind outside of their book leaf notes. When books don't live up to their "this book sounds interesting" book leaf notes that made me grab them in the first place, is where I get angry and disappointed (Quantum Thief/Children of Time). professor metis posted:😬 Finished the Poppy War. The Poppy War setting was definitely an alternate universe China where the gods were real and magic never went away, with as china the nikara empire and the murgen empire as japan and possibly korea. Overall, for me The Poppy War was a weird mashup of Ender's Game mixed with china's historical fuedal era, with the author having every terrible event and real-life warcrime inside the totally horrific "Japan At War: An Oral History" non-fiction book going down in front of the main character, especially Unit 731. BTW, No one should lightly walk into reading Japan At War: An Oral History". It is a dark, DARK book. The story in Poppy War seems complete to me, feel that any sequels for it are going to be Deathwish style revenge fantasies, with any amount of rakes being stepped on SideShow Bob style by the main character to extend out the story until the author runs out of historical chinese events to crib from.
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Nov 15, 2019 23:21
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MockingQuantum posted:tbf I'm not really sure why you'd read the other book either Because Tara K Harper books are uniquely their own thing. I'm not a huge fan of her wolfwalker stuff, but Lightwing remains one of my favorite light SF books. It reads fast and the aliens feel alien without being octavia butler, arthur clarke, or adrian tchaikovsky.
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Nov 16, 2019 01:01
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Neurosis posted:A long shot here but are there any fantasy books with much in common with the setting for King of Dragon Pass and Runequest, ie Glorantha? I'm not even going to try to explain it to those not familiar with it because it's too hard to do so without writing a thousand words. You want Joy Chant's The Grey Mane of Morning. While it's not Glorantha-based, it's the story of a plains-dwelling nomadic barbarian tribe slowly becoming aware of the bigger world around them, and it feels very much like KODP. Chant's other Vandarei books (Red Moon and Black Mountain and When Voiha Wakes) are well worth seeking out too.
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Nov 16, 2019 01:59
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fritz posted:Haven't read the book but in this world 9/11 was enough motivation for real people to want to commit real genocides and actually get a start on same Absolutely true, but just because things can and did happen in real life doesn't mean that when they happen in a book it's necessarily well written. Like, I get the logic, but in this book it was not good. (In my opinion etc etc) That's basically what the book was to me -- "this happened in real life! and now it's in this book! isn't that AWFUL" Drone posted:I started reading China Mountain Zhang yesterday. Right now I'm only up to the first perspective change, but man I'm liking this thing so far. now this, this is a Good Book
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Nov 16, 2019 03:12
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Gideon the Ninth fuckin rules, and the old co-host of GUTS is a really good narrator for the audiobook.
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Nov 16, 2019 03:15
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quantumfoam posted:I usually go into new2me books blind outside of their book leaf notes. That's often the case for me, but in the case of Planetfall I only got it in the first place because I asked for BDO recommendations and at least two people -- in this thread, I think, or one of its precursors -- recommended it in that vein.
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Nov 16, 2019 03:41
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Selachian posted:You want Joy Chant's The Grey Mane of Morning. While it's not Glorantha-based, it's the story of a plains-dwelling nomadic barbarian tribe slowly becoming aware of the bigger world around them, and it feels very much like KODP. Chant's other Vandarei books (Red Moon and Black Mountain and When Voiha Wakes) are well worth seeking out too. Thanks, will check those out. Selachian posted:You want Joy Chant's The Grey Mane of Morning. While it's not Glorantha-based, it's the story of a plains-dwelling nomadic barbarian tribe slowly becoming aware of the bigger world around them, and it feels very much like KODP. Chant's other Vandarei books (Red Moon and Black Mountain and When Voiha Wakes) are well worth seeking out too. Perhaps this part of why they've managed to avoid modernising the moral sensibilities of the cultures they write about. People of all cultures are probably pretty bad at really convincingly writing moral mindsets that are too different, but focusing on them from an external and descriptive point of view rather than getting wrapped up in writing characters you sympathise with and will probably put some of your identity into likely helps. (Except that one Western nation which is way too idyllic.)
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Nov 16, 2019 03:59
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I really loved the Helliconia series, and I’d recommend any of Aldrisses books for any goons who like worldbuilding. Does anyone have a recommendation for a book about settling a new planet? I tried reading the Coyote series, but the ending was weird as hell.
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Nov 16, 2019 05:21
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So the third Zone War book is out, and it ends the series. Its decent, I guess. But in traditional military sci fi fashion (especially the current day/near future kind) theres a completely out of left field dig on filthy socialists and a bunch of prepper insanity at the end. The first book was way better than the last two. Its weird how many writers are like 'capitalism is bad, unless the board of directors are survivalist guys who can shoot good'
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Nov 16, 2019 07:28
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Larry Parrish posted:So the third Zone War book is out, and it ends the series. Its decent, I guess. But in traditional military sci fi fashion (especially the current day/near future kind) theres a completely out of left field dig on filthy socialists and a bunch of prepper insanity at the end. The first book was way better than the last two.
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Nov 16, 2019 07:55
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darthbob88 posted:It's because a lot of them actually believe in "meritocratic" hierarchies like capitalism, they just disagree about who should be at the top of the pile. nah, i think a lot of these guys genuinely believe in some sort of military command economy or fascist public-private partnership arrangement they just writie paeans to capitalism because this is still somewhat impolitic even in their own circles and because the united states has evolved a form of state capitalism w/r/t the military industrial complex that is at least vaguely compatible with their ultimate vision
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Nov 16, 2019 09:07
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Has anyone read This Is How You Lose the Time War? Seen it on a few 2019 best of lists and picked it up for 99p on Kindle, has goon favorite Max Gladstone as part-author.
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Nov 18, 2019 15:20
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ed balls balls man posted:Has anyone read This Is How You Lose the Time War? Seen it on a few 2019 best of lists and picked it up for 99p on Kindle, has goon favorite Max Gladstone as part-author. Yes, and it is good.
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Nov 18, 2019 15:39
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Ben Nevis posted:Yes, and it is good. Concur. Romantic epistolary novel, lovely language, good read.
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Nov 18, 2019 16:44
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Has anybody else read Steel Frame and felt like it's kind of weirdly written? Not badly, just... I feel like there are sections of the book where I'm flat out missing information or narration, or actions are happening that aren't fully explained, to the point where it's very occasionally hard to follow what's going on. Maybe it's just me, and it's not really negatively affecting my enjoyment of the book, but I feel like I occasionally have to re-read the same passage a couple of times to parse what's going on.
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Nov 18, 2019 17:12
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Yes. I found the prose very strange in a way I can't quite describe. I think it felt almost as though it had odd pacing on a very small scale; like sometimes it would skip back and forth between describing events in great, image-heavy detail and summarising fairly large movements or actions in a few words.
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Nov 18, 2019 17:23
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The_White_Crane posted:Yes. Oh good, I'm glad it wasn't just me, I've never really experienced this reading a book before (at least, other than books that are doing it intentionally for one reason or another) and was worried I was having some sort of brain problem.
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Nov 18, 2019 17:31
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ed balls balls man posted:Has anyone read This Is How You Lose the Time War? Seen it on a few 2019 best of lists and picked it up for 99p on Kindle, has goon favorite Max Gladstone as part-author. It was ok. For some reason I felt I had read it before, cause the story seemed familiar.
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Nov 18, 2019 18:25
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