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pradmer posted:All Systems Red (Murderbot! book 1) by Martha Wells - $1.99 Sale on Becky Chambers' books, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - $7.99 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZP64F28?notRedirectToSDP=1&ref_=dbs_mng_calw_0&storeType=ebooks
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Jan 27, 2020 23:20
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Age of Myth by Michael J Sullivan - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015BCX0S0/ Can anyone give an opinion on this one? I've heard some good things about his self-published Riyria books, but I don't know anything about this series.
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Jan 28, 2020 00:04
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pradmer posted:Age of Myth by Michael J Sullivan - $1.99 Read the Riyria books first. His first books have some great set pieces and fun mysteries. If you like Sullivan as an author, you’ll enjoy the new series, but it does not stand alone well. It also has one of the most annoying tropes in fantasy series. The series is set in a pre-technological era, and an unusually intelligent character manages to invent a dozen innovations that are ahead of their time. Or invents things that it’s utterly implausible to have not been invented yet. A character invents the wheel, bow and arrow, pocket, and bunch of other stupid poo poo. The series is entertaining, and I’ve grown to really like some of the characters, but I can’t pretend for a second that it’s particularly well-written. It might be the most predictable fantasy series I’ve ever read.
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Jan 28, 2020 03:53
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pradmer posted:Age of Myth by Michael J Sullivan - $1.99 I never read riyria so I'll disagree with the poster above - you can read the new books without knowing the older ones. HOWEVER, I strongly agree on the "smart character invents the wheel" is hackish. I've enjoyed the books and I chipped in for the last kickstarter. Kinda nice supporting an indie(ish?) author. I think he replies to all emails.
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Jan 28, 2020 04:01
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Thanks for the replies. For $2 I'll go for it. Maybe Riyria will be on sale before I get around to starting this one anyway.
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Jan 28, 2020 04:48
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It’s crazy to me that Gibson is in his seventies
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Jan 28, 2020 05:31
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As a contrast I'll say that I couldn't read more than a few chapters of the first Riyria book. It suffered way too much from "bad medieval pastiche" syndrome, much like the Greatcoats series.
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Jan 28, 2020 09:42
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Is Greatcoats any good? I had someone passionately trying to convince me that once I read it I'd realise my previous love for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was all wrong and I'd see that I should be loving Greatcoats instead. He also tried to explain that Strange & Norrell is bad because it doesn't have a well defined magic system.
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Jan 28, 2020 10:31
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cptn_dr posted:Is Greatcoats any good? I had someone passionately trying to convince me that once I read it I'd realise my previous love for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was all wrong and I'd see that I should be loving Greatcoats instead. He also tried to explain that Strange & Norrell is bad because it doesn't have a well defined magic system. I don't *regret* reading Greatcoats but I ain't gonna read it twice. From what I recall it started out as basically a . . . fine . . .Three Musketeers re-skin and then kinda goes off the rails in the later books because it obviously wasn't conceived as a series of that length. JS&N was one of the best books of it's decade though
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Jan 28, 2020 10:42
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cptn_dr posted:Is Greatcoats any good? I had someone passionately trying to convince me that once I read it I'd realise my previous love for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was all wrong and I'd see that I should be loving Greatcoats instead. He also tried to explain that Strange & Norrell is bad because it doesn't have a well defined magic system. I read the first.. two? I think? Of that series, and then it sort of dropped out of my consciousness. It's fine, but there's certainly better things you could spend the time on.
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Jan 28, 2020 11:58
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cptn_dr posted:Is Greatcoats any good? I had someone passionately trying to convince me that once I read it I'd realise my previous love for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was all wrong and I'd see that I should be loving Greatcoats instead. He also tried to explain that Strange & Norrell is bad because it doesn't have a well defined magic system. The first book was like early Sanderson writing flintlock fantasy. I dropped it, but I have a friend who loves it.
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Jan 28, 2020 12:38
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Megazver posted:The first book was like early Sanderson writing flintlock fantasy. I dropped it, but I have a friend who loves it. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Jan 28, 2020 |
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Jan 28, 2020 14:10
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anilEhilated posted:Is it any good, though? It's devastatingly alright. He tries to do the Malazan style I'd say it's slightly better than ICE, but not a patch on SE.
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Jan 28, 2020 17:04
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I don't *regret* reading Greatcoats but I ain't gonna read it twice. From what I recall it started out as basically a . . . fine . . .Three Musketeers re-skin and then kinda goes off the rails in the later books because it obviously wasn't conceived as a series of that length. Didn’t the first book go off the rails in the end when an allied army suddenly appeared out of nothing. At that point I kind lost interest. Also finished the Grim Company series and one can easily say the name was apt. A decent read. Bone silence, the latest Reynolds is also out.
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Jan 28, 2020 17:13
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Greatcoats is fun. There are some enormous gaping holes in it and Ethalia is loving terrible. It's not a great book but it's a fun book.
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Jan 28, 2020 17:17
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anilEhilated posted:I'd say this is a bit of disservice to Greatcoats - the author knows how to pace the story, making it a pretty entertaining romp if nothing special. It's nowhere near as bad as your average Sanderson. GrandmaParty posted:Greatcoats is fun. There are some enormous gaping holes in it and Ethalia is loving terrible. These are similar to my feelings on it, I found it entertaining and entertaining enough to read them all. It's been long enough that I can't remember anything specific other than I enjoyed it. Edit: Also Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel is amazing and I love it.
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Jan 28, 2020 17:21
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I just finished Unnatural Magic by C.M. Waggoner. And boy howdy, it was bad. Here's the deal: There are two races, humans and trolls. Humans are humans in a pseudo-victorian era, trolls are great rich wizards who have two roles that aren't defined by gender and also resemble really muscular blue people and their sexual organs are their dimorphism. Otherwise they've got male torsos. There are two main characters: a female wizard-to-be and a nobleman. The wizard-to-be gets to be apprentice wizard to the greatest wizard in the world and the nobleman falls in love with a troll and they fall in love. The author tries to shoehorn in a murder mystery that she doesn't have the skills to write. Save yourself the money.
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Jan 28, 2020 17:29
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I really liked greatcoats 
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Jan 28, 2020 17:37
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GrandmaParty posted:I just finished Unnatural Magic by C.M. Waggoner. It felt like it she started writing three different novels, didn't finish any of them, half-assedly crammed them together into a single work, and then tacked on a happily-ever-after chapter at the end to wrap up all the loose ends. It didn't deliver on any of of the individual stories' potential, the murderer was obvious from the moment he was introduced, and none of the conflict felt real.
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Jan 28, 2020 21:14
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Prosper's Demon by KJ Parker arrived in the mail! It's a slim little volume, one of the smallest novellas I've picked up yet - starts on page 11, ends on 101.
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Jan 28, 2020 22:54
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StrixNebulosa posted:Prosper's Demon by KJ Parker arrived in the mail! It's a slim little volume, one of the smallest novellas I've picked up yet - starts on page 11, ends on 101. Yeah, for all the hate Murderbot gets around here for being short, Murderbot (All Systems Red) is 50% longer than Prosper's Demon.
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Jan 28, 2020 23:03
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cptn_dr posted:Is Greatcoats any good? I had someone passionately trying to convince me that once I read it I'd realise my previous love for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was all wrong and I'd see that I should be loving Greatcoats instead. He also tried to explain that Strange & Norrell is bad because it doesn't have a well defined magic system. Is your friend by any chance fond of having stats for fictional characters regardless of whether they come from an RPG property?
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Jan 28, 2020 23:08
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ulmont posted:Yeah, for all the hate Murderbot gets around here for being short, Murderbot (All Systems Red) is 50% longer than Prosper's Demon. 12 US dollars for something I'm going to read in like an hour or less.... I'm having flashbacks to when I bought Inuyasha volumes new. Those went by just as quickly and were priced about the same.
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Jan 28, 2020 23:30
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cptn_dr posted:Is Greatcoats any good? I had someone passionately trying to convince me that once I read it I'd realise my previous love for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was all wrong and I'd see that I should be loving Greatcoats instead. He also tried to explain that Strange & Norrell is bad because it doesn't have a well defined magic system. Like I said it's a bad medieval pastiche. Dialogue was mainly Whedonesque quipping as I remember it. I dropped it shortly after the opening act, where the protagonist's wife is raped to death like 3 pages after she's introduced to provide motivation. To make sure I wasn't misremembering this and unfairly accusing the author, I looked up some reviews and aside from that apparently later there's also a magic sex nun (hello Rothfuss) who rapes the protagonist to heal him and then becomes the love interest. Probably just go read The Three Musketeers or watch a Errol Flynn movie instead I guess?
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Jan 28, 2020 23:32
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First three books from the Magic 2.0 series by Scott Meyer - $0.99 each Off to Be the Wizard - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EF8Z32I/ Spell or High Water - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HVF7OJM/ An Unwelcome Quest - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MRADM1K/ Looks like lighthearted humor fantasy. Usually I'd assume they're probably terrible, but other mentions on SA are surprisingly positive.
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Jan 29, 2020 00:19
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pradmer posted:First three books from the Magic 2.0 series by Scott Meyer - $0.99 each I read some of it and if you read its premise and think "hmm, this would make a fun rationalfic" you'll be very frustrated. The hero is given great power and is a dumbass with zero imagination with it.
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Jan 29, 2020 01:04
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C.M. Kruger posted:
Curse of Capistrano is in the public domain so a free download
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Jan 29, 2020 01:10
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pradmer posted:First three books from the Magic 2.0 series by Scott Meyer - $0.99 each Not necessarily well written, but a light fun read anyway.
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Jan 29, 2020 01:11
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I'm hoping to be done with my short overview for myself of the 2019 Analog stories etc, just in time to vote for the AnLabs on Friday. Then I will see if I can give you a rundown of notable works this year. There were so many short stories.... so many.
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Jan 29, 2020 02:08
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To the goon looking for horror/sci-fi novels, B&N put up a short list of scary sci-fi novels.
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Jan 29, 2020 13:15
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StrixNebulosa posted:To the goon looking for horror/sci-fi novels, B&N put up a short list of scary sci-fi novels. Six Wakes looks interesting, has anyone read that one?
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Jan 30, 2020 01:32
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DeadFatDuckFat posted:Six Wakes looks interesting, has anyone read that one? Very good locked ship murder mystery that goes beyond that initial premise in the resolution - worth your time to read.
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Jan 30, 2020 01:57
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DeadFatDuckFat posted:Six Wakes looks interesting, has anyone read that one? I thought the initial premise was great but wasn't a huge fan of how it all wraps up. In other news, Yoon Ha Lee has a new book coming out! Phoenix Extravagant which is set in a fantasy version of Korea during the Japanese occupation. quote:Gyen Jebi isn’t a fighter or a subversive. Just an artist. One day they’re jobless and desperate; the next, Jebi finds themself recruited by the Ministry of Armor to paint the mystical sigils that animate the occupying government’s automaton soldiers. But when Jebi discovers the depths of the Razanei government’s horrifying crimes—and the awful source of the magical pigments they use—they find they can no longer stay out of politics. What they can do is steal Arazi, the ministry’s mighty dragon automaton, and find a way to fight. Out in June in the US and UK. I'm a big fan of Lee and loved the whole Machineries of Empire series.
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Jan 30, 2020 03:19
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DeadFatDuckFat posted:Six Wakes looks interesting, has anyone read that one? Six Wakes was pretty good and worth checking out. If you're unfamiliar with Mur Lafferty's writing style/hesitant about blind-buying, track down a library copy of it if possible. Also, if people were disappointed in William Gibson's latest book Agency, and wanted something more like Gibson's first two book series (Sprawl + Bridge trilogies), check out Zachary Mason's Void Star. Void Star is very early-stage William Gibson-ish, even down to the 3 main characters being Gibson's stock character archetypes (the Hacker, the Protector-Badass, the Lead Character That Needs Protecting), with rogue Artificial Intelligences and taking place mostly in the San-Francisco bay area.
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Jan 30, 2020 05:29
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cptn_dr posted:Is Greatcoats any good? I had someone passionately trying to convince me that once I read it I'd realise my previous love for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was all wrong and I'd see that I should be loving Greatcoats instead. He also tried to explain that Strange & Norrell is bad because it doesn't have a well defined magic system. Sebastien de Castell also wrote a fun YA series about an outlaw kid and his talking ferret thing. It was indie published, after greatcoats.
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Jan 30, 2020 05:50
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I really loved both greatcoats and the spellslinger series. It's not art, but he does a great job of pacing stories, and they're fun to read. He's also really responsive to talking to fans about stuff, and I appreciate that from authors.
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Jan 30, 2020 17:41
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Tor.com released a short story collection for free in eBook format on all major platforms https://www.tor.com/2020/01/29/some-of-the-best-from-tor-com-2019-is-out-now/ In the comments of the article, there are also links to Google Play and Kobo store. All stories have previously been published on the Tor.com web site.
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Jan 30, 2020 21:10
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lol never follow authors you like on twitter https://twitter.com/nkjemisin/status/1178063798743244800?s=20
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Jan 31, 2020 00:08
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lol who does she support then, Elizabeth "capitalist to my bones" Warren? at least she doesn't have a terminal case of liberal centrist boomerism like William Gibson and Jeff Vandermeer seem to
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Jan 31, 2020 01:36
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my bony fealty posted:at least she doesn't have a terminal case of liberal centrist boomerism like William Gibson and Jeff Vandermeer seem to Gibson usually seems like he's making fun of or outright critiquing liberal centrist boomerism to me.
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Jan 31, 2020 02:02
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