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a foolish pianist
May 6, 2007

(bi)cyclic mutation

90s Cringe Rock posted:

say one thing for the puppies, at least they proved pretty conclusively that there wasn't a pre-existing secret cabal fixing the hugo nominations

And they made Chuck Tingle famous!

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StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Occupy Me by Tricia Sullivan: this is not sci-fi. This is an insane fever dream. She's an angel, who when she manifests can have wings and is super ripped. He's a doctor who has a trained killer who borrows his body without asking. He has a briefcase that contains a hole in reality. They're currently both falling out of the sky from a 747, and now there's a pterosaur after them.

pseudanonymous
Aug 30, 2008

When you make the second entry and the debits and credits balance, and you blow them to hell.

90s Cringe Rock posted:

say one thing for the puppies, at least they proved pretty conclusively that there wasn't a pre-existing secret cabal fixing the hugo nominations

yeah, kind of like Trump did for virtually every NWO, Rothschilds, etc.. theory of who was really running things.

Liquid Communism
Mar 9, 2004


Out here, everything hurts.




Selachian posted:

There was a lot of fighting in the WSFS back in the early 2010s over adding a YA category to the Hugos, driven by the success of Potter and The Hunger Games, among others. It was finally settled by creating a separate award, the Lodestar, which is only open to YA books. The Lodestar has only been awarded since 2018, though.

(If you're curious, this year's nominees for the Lodestar:

Naomi Kritzer, Catfishing on CatNet
Frances Hardinge, Deeplight
Yoon Ha Lee, Dragon Pearl
T. Kingfisher, Minor Mage
Fran Wilde, Riverland
Holly Black, The Cruel King)

Can recommend T. Kingfisher's stuff. That's Ursula Vernon's pen name when she's not doing graphic novels or kids' books, and she always has interesting ideas. The Twisted Ones is her newest work, and while it's solidly horror instead of SF/F, it's worth a read.

pradmer
Mar 31, 2009

Follow me for more books on special!
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel by Susanna Clarke - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003RRXXMA/

Bitter Seeds (Milkweed #1) by Ian Tregillis - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003GWX8JE/

Redemption's Blade (After the War #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky - $0.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D82XDWK

Legacy (Eon #1) by Greg Bear - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J3EU3WE/

Zodiac by Neal Stephenson - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008UX8SNU

The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E6HYNGE/

Mind of My Mind (Patternist #2) by Octavia E Butler - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HALPEK/
Clay's Ark (Patternist #3) by Octavia E Butler - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HALNYC

Lester Shy
May 1, 2002

Goodness no, now that wouldn't do at all!
Does Dune work as a stand-alone novel? It's been on my to-read list forever, but I know most people are unhappy with how Herbert's son finished the story, and I don't feel like jumping into a huge epic series right now anyway.

buffalo all day
Mar 13, 2019

Lester Shy posted:

Does Dune work as a stand-alone novel? It's been on my to-read list forever, but I know most people are unhappy with how Herbert's son finished the story, and I don't feel like jumping into a huge epic series right now anyway.

yes you need not - and in fact should not - read all the dune books. read them until you don’t like one and then quit. You can also just read the first one and be perfectly happy

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA



boooooooks

god I love getting the mail, even if we have to be careful with quarantine and disinfecting things

Here's another trilogy from Kate Elliott with a super cool setting, and it's complete so I can dig in without fear of cliffhangers. Here's the description that sold me on the books: "an Afro-Celtic post-Roman icepunk Regency novel with airships, Phoenician spies, and the intelligent descendants of troodons."

Qwertycoatl
Dec 31, 2008

buffalo all day posted:

yes you need not - and in fact should not - read all the dune books. read them until you don’t like one and then quit. You can also just read the first one and be perfectly happy

"Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife - chopping off what's incomplete and saying: 'Now it's complete because it's ended here.'"

Sarern
Nov 4, 2008

:toot:
Won't you take me to
Bomertown?
Won't you take me to
BONERTOWN?

:toot:

buffalo all day posted:

yes you need not - and in fact should not - read all the dune books. read them until you don’t like one and then quit. You can also just read the first one and be perfectly happy

Yep, this. A lot of people read the first three and stop there. I like stopping after the first one.

Qwertycoatl posted:

"Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife - chopping off what's incomplete and saying: 'Now it's complete because it's ended here.'"

:perfect:

pseudanonymous
Aug 30, 2008

When you make the second entry and the debits and credits balance, and you blow them to hell.

Lester Shy posted:

Does Dune work as a stand-alone novel? It's been on my to-read list forever, but I know most people are unhappy with how Herbert's son finished the story, and I don't feel like jumping into a huge epic series right now anyway.

It does fairly well, in part because it's an artistic failure. Herbert didn't like the Hero's Journey, and he in part wrote Dune to refute the idea, but Dune as a stand-alone is hardly a refutation of that archetype. If you read the whole series of books a larger picture emerges.

However, most people don't want to engage with larger literary ideas and analysis of culture and the myths that drive human stories, and so a lot of people love Dune and dislike the later books, especially books 4-5.

Anyway, the Voidship series is a different, better take on the same idea, so if you like Dune you might also check out The Jesus Incident.

mllaneza
Apr 28, 2007

Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1993-1952




pseudanonymous posted:

Anyway, the Voidship series is a different, better take on the same idea, so if you like Dune you might also check out The Jesus Incident.

Voidship series is better than Dune, change my mind. But start with Destination: Void.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
4 is the best Dune and everything afterwards is crap.

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Okay, just started Cold Magic because why read just one epic fantasy series when you can read TWO and - whoa! It's written in the first person pov! I cannot think of any other epic fantasy series that do this - YA sure, sci-fi sometimes, but apparently I'm going to be in the protagonist's head for three 600+ page books, which is... I hope I like her, because drat, that's a lot of words.

High Warlord Zog
Dec 12, 2012

StrixNebulosa posted:

It's written in the first person pov! I cannot think of any other epic fantasy series that do this

Robin Hobb would like a word

mllaneza
Apr 28, 2007

Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1993-1952




High Warlord Zog posted:

Robin Hobb would like a word

Glen Cook says hi !

Antifa Poltergeist
Jun 3, 2004

"We're not laughing with you, we're laughing at you"



mllaneza posted:

Glen Cook says hi !

Frederick pohl says hello!

Some Pinko Commie
Jun 9, 2009

CNC! Easy as 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣!

mllaneza posted:

Voidship series is better than Dune, change my mind. But start with Destination: Void.

I mean, it's literally the first book in the series.

poo poo gets off the rails in a hurry once the ship fucks off and leaves humanity to its devices in whatever book after people learn to coexist with the aliens on whatever planet.

The Dune series ended with Dune as far as I'm concerned. Frank Herbert fell way too hard in love with his own characters and the eon-spanning incestuous pedophilia was so terrible I don't see how anything his kid did with the property later was any worse.

Selachian
Oct 9, 2012

Antifa Poltergeist posted:

Frederick pohl says hello!

Roger Zelazny says yo. So, unfortunately, does Patrick Rothfuss.

pseudanonymous
Aug 30, 2008

When you make the second entry and the debits and credits balance, and you blow them to hell.

mllaneza posted:

Voidship series is better than Dune, change my mind. But start with Destination: Void.

I agree it’s better than Dune but imo you should read them 2-1-3-4

General Battuta
Feb 7, 2011

This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: you hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the posts from the screams.
Destination Void is pretty insufferable. "Some people locked up in a spaceship try to deduce the basis of consciousness using only the limited knowledge available to Frank Herbert" doesn't make a great book. And I say this as a Jesus Incident liker.

quantumfoam
Dec 25, 2003

Jesus Incident was worse and creepier than Hellstrom's Hive.
Oakes and the scream chamber, hell loving no. The Backpack nuker's dilemma: which one to wipe off the face of the planet, the human-hive or the scream room?

The original Frank Herbert Dune books got weirder and weirder, especially once Herbert's wife died and he started writing out his horniness into the Dune books. Mostly remember the Dune books for as a good illustration of the Nepotism effect, IRL (Brian Herbert) and in-book universe (increasingly less and less stable characters put into leadership roles as the series progressed).

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Huh, more first person pov stuff than I would've thought! I need to read more.

Doktor Avalanche
Dec 30, 2008

High Warlord Zog posted:

Robin Hobb would like a word

and the word is PAIN

Uncle Lloyd
Sep 2, 2019
Just read Sixteen Ways To Defend A Walled City by K.J. Parker and absolutely loved it. It was the first of his books I've read, any suggestions for what to read next by him, or is one as good as another? I guess his other works are lean more grimdark(?), which doesn't really bother me.

I'd recommend Sixteen Ways to anyone who likes Abercrombie, and particularly anyone who wants to like Abercrombie but finds the main characters too bleak.

buffalo all day
Mar 13, 2019

Uncle Lloyd posted:

Just read Sixteen Ways To Defend A Walled City by K.J. Parker and absolutely loved it. It was the first of his books I've read, any suggestions for what to read next by him, or is one as good as another? I guess his other works are lean more grimdark(?), which doesn't really bother me.

I'd recommend Sixteen Ways to anyone who likes Abercrombie, and particularly anyone who wants to like Abercrombie but finds the main characters too bleak.

Read The Folding Knife next. And maybe his short story collection.

Aggro
Apr 24, 2003

STRONG as an OX and TWICE as SMART

anilEhilated posted:

4 is the best Dune and everything afterwards is crap.

Agreed. I loved the setting and the entire concept of the Golden Path, though I admittedly thought this when I was in high school and haven't read it since.

Uncle Lloyd posted:

Just read Sixteen Ways To Defend A Walled City by K.J. Parker and absolutely loved it. It was the first of his books I've read, any suggestions for what to read next by him, or is one as good as another? I guess his other works are lean more grimdark(?), which doesn't really bother me.

I'd recommend Sixteen Ways to anyone who likes Abercrombie, and particularly anyone who wants to like Abercrombie but finds the main characters too bleak.

Thanks for the recommendation -- I'm a huge Abercrombie fan, and the series I'm reading now (Malice by John Gywnne) just isn't doing for me.

DACK FAYDEN
Feb 25, 2013

Bear Witness

buffalo all day posted:

Read The Folding Knife next. And maybe his short story collection.
Second these two.

Some Pinko Commie
Jun 9, 2009

CNC! Easy as 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣!

quantumfoam posted:

Jesus Incident was worse and creepier than Hellstrom's Hive.
Oakes and the scream chamber, hell loving no. The Backpack nuker's dilemma: which one to wipe off the face of the planet, the human-hive or the scream room?

The original Frank Herbert Dune books got weirder and weirder, especially once Herbert's wife died and he started writing out his horniness into the Dune books. Mostly remember the Dune books for as a good illustration of the Nepotism effect, IRL (Brian Herbert) and in-book universe (increasingly less and less stable characters put into leadership roles as the series progressed).

More like Oakes and the rape chamber.

pradmer
Mar 31, 2009

Follow me for more books on special!
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC130E/

Arglebargle III
Feb 21, 2006

Eagles did Barad-dur.

Antifa Poltergeist
Jun 3, 2004

"We're not laughing with you, we're laughing at you"



Arglebargle III posted:

Eagles did Barad-dur.

Title of your...sex...tape?


Is there any good sci-fi or fantasy from the pov of the evil empire? And not " caracther works for evil but ultimately sees the light and helps the heroes"

I've been listening to Dio's Magicka and there's a lyric there that is "even evil has its heroes" and that kinda tickled my curiosity.

Also everyone should listen to Dio's Magicka it's a kickass fantasy album.

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Antifa Poltergeist posted:

Title of your...sex...tape?


Is there any good sci-fi or fantasy from the pov of the evil empire? And not " caracther works for evil but ultimately sees the light and helps the heroes"

I've been listening to Dio's Magicka and there's a lyric there that is "even evil has its heroes" and that kinda tickled my curiosity.

Also everyone should listen to Dio's Magicka it's a kickass fantasy album.

You can argue that the Black Company's first volume is about this.

mllaneza
Apr 28, 2007

Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1993-1952




Grunts by Mary Gentle is exactly this, played for humor.

ToxicFrog
Apr 26, 2008


Antifa Poltergeist posted:

Is there any good sci-fi or fantasy from the pov of the evil empire? And not " caracther works for evil but ultimately sees the light and helps the heroes"

The Sundering by Jacqueline Carey for a serious take on the concept, The Dark Lord of Derkholme by DWJ for a comedic one.

Velius
Feb 27, 2001

mllaneza posted:

Grunts by Mary Gentle is exactly this, played for humor.

With liberal amounts of USMC hijinx. Hooah! I like that book, but it does drop off in the second act.

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

mllaneza posted:

Grunts by Mary Gentle is exactly this, played for humor.

Velius posted:

With liberal amounts of USMC hijinx. Hooah! I like that book, but it does drop off in the second act.

Obligatory warning that the comedy is absolutely black. It's one of the crudest books I've ever read, and intentionally so - she doesn't pull any punches. I believe she wrote it while recovering after a car crash, too.

PawParole
Nov 16, 2019

Uncle Lloyd posted:

Just read Sixteen Ways To Defend A Walled City by K.J. Parker and absolutely loved it. It was the first of his books I've read, any suggestions for what to read next by him, or is one as good as another? I guess his other works are lean more grimdark(?), which doesn't really bother me.

I'd recommend Sixteen Ways to anyone who likes Abercrombie, and particularly anyone who wants to like Abercrombie but finds the main characters too bleak.

the engineer trilogy was absolutely golden. I wish I had amnesia so I could read it again ( no monkey paw poo poo, plz)

pradmer
Mar 31, 2009

Follow me for more books on special!
Dune by Frank Herbert - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B7NPRY8

The Mechanical (Alchemy Wars #1) by Ian Tregillis - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IRIR85M/

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L2Z4DBK/

Selected Stories of Philip K Dick - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008P96TI0/

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie - $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DHJT92Q

pradmer fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Apr 13, 2020

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pseudorandom name
May 6, 2007

ToxicFrog posted:

The Sundering by Jacqueline Carey

I've been trying to remember what this series was called for years, thank you.

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