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I'm 7% of the way through Network Effect and I'm about to loving quit. I can't stand these parentheticals. There are parentheticals that last full pages and contain their own parentheticals and they are immediately followed by more parentheticals. It's horrendously annoying. Somebody please tell me this lets up.
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Jun 7, 2020 03:56
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Nondescript Van posted:I'm 7% of the way through Network Effect and I'm about to loving quit. I can't stand these parentheticals. There are parentheticals that last full pages and contain their own parentheticals and they are immediately followed by more parentheticals. It's horrendously annoying. It lets up. The pacing in that book sucks, but it lands all the emotional beats.
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Jun 7, 2020 04:00
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quantumfoam posted:Ploiscene Saga you're doing this to enrage me aren't u
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Jun 7, 2020 04:34
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PawParole posted:Just give me a first contact a theology and I’ll shut my dumb face What on earth do you mean? sebmojo posted:you're doing this to enrage me aren't u I think he's doing it to enrage me, actually.
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Jun 7, 2020 04:35
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TBH if anyone is looking to do a let's read, THE PLIOCENE SAGA by Julian May would be a good candidate. It's brisk, pulpy, and entertainingly berzerk.
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Jun 7, 2020 04:37
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tell me more about the plasticine saga
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Jun 7, 2020 04:45
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PawParole posted:Just give me a first contact a theology and I’ll shut my dumb face Theological first contact you say? Try Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow.
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Jun 7, 2020 06:28
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Ninurta posted:Theological first contact you say? Try Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow. The book is about the first-contactee, a Jesuit priest with obvious PTSD, going through one big long therapy session that leads to the relevation he was mutilated by aliens to be a better sex slave. It's a book fascinated with faith, and part of that involves going through the meticulous destruction of one man's faith and it hurts to read. SurreptitiousMuffin fucked around with this message at 09:04 on Jun 7, 2020 |
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Jun 7, 2020 08:50
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Just a quick check: is the line justification in The Monster Baru Cormorant meant to be occasionally hosed? Don't explain why if so, I still have 100 pages to go, but it keeps coming up in my (UKpb) edition and it's annoying the piss out of me.
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Jun 7, 2020 09:04
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Jedit posted:Just a quick check: is the line justification in The Monster Baru Cormorant meant to be occasionally hosed? Don't explain why if so, I still have 100 pages to go, but it keeps coming up in my (UKpb) edition and it's annoying the piss out of me. Yes, that's correct. I'm not sure it gets explicitly explained, but you can infer something about it fairly easily.
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Jun 7, 2020 09:23
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Hedrigall posted:tell me more about the plasticine saga Yes, we must know more about the playdoh saga.
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Jun 7, 2020 11:05
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Would Eifelheim count as theological first contact?
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Jun 7, 2020 11:22
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CS Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet 
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Jun 7, 2020 11:29
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buffalo all day posted:CS Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet Perelandra was better. And That Hideous Strenght was much, much worse.
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Jun 7, 2020 12:26
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My brother's birthday is upcoming and while I have some gifts lined up for him, it never hurts to check: are there any cool books about dragons? And I mean: dragons as main characters, dragons as badasses, dragons as a central focus. He doesn't mind if they're evil, but he wants them to be cool alien-esque scaly winged badasses who influence the plot. One of his favorites is Deathwing from the warcraft universe, for an example. General background: he doesn't read much but he has read both This Alien Shore by CS Friedman and Hyperion and he loved them both.
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Jun 7, 2020 12:52
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Maybe Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series would fit? Admittedly, haven’t read them but they’ve come up in the thread and someone probably can comment how strongly they come up as characters in the plot.
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Jun 7, 2020 14:03
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Lunsku posted:Maybe Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series would fit? Admittedly, haven’t read them but they’ve come up in the thread and someone probably can comment how strongly they come up as characters in the plot. Nope, he never got excited about that one - I've owned an omnibus of it for years now and shown it to him. Nice try though, it has really baller cover art.
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Jun 7, 2020 14:07
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StrixNebulosa posted:My brother's birthday is upcoming and while I have some gifts lined up for him, it never hurts to check: are there any cool books about dragons? And I mean: dragons as main characters, dragons as badasses, dragons as a central focus. He doesn't mind if they're evil, but he wants them to be cool alien-esque scaly winged badasses who influence the plot. One of his favorites is Deathwing from the warcraft universe, for an example. The Earthsea books, Michael Swanwick's dragon trilogy, Barbara Hambly's Dragonsbane, and, if you want to wind him up, a Pern book.
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Jun 7, 2020 14:16
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Finally finished The Devils Blade. Fantastic, highly recommend. Bi sexual opera singer who makes a deal with the devil and has to murder a group of nobles before Halloween. The devil is trying to screw her over to get her soul while at the same time support her as part of the deal. And he gets those sweet sweet noble souls.
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Jun 7, 2020 14:20
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Safety Biscuits posted:The Earthsea books, Michael Swanwick's dragon trilogy, Barbara Hambly's Dragonsbane, and, if you want to wind him up, a Pern book. If you really, really want to wind him up, Eragon. There's also The Shadow of his Wings by Bruce Fergusson. Strictly speaking the Erseiyr isn't exactly a dragon, but it's close enough that the cover art of one edition depicts it as one.
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Jun 7, 2020 14:24
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Murderbot chat has sunk back a bit, and anyway I was lukewarm about the first novella which is the only one I've read, but I remember people talking about how they generally loved the vibe of this unfeeling AI which nonetheless dedicates itself to protecting "its" humans. And I was just discussing Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora with someone and remembered that this was the aspect of that novel I really loved the most. They're totally different kinds of stories, but if you liked Murderbot and liked the idea of an emotionless yet benevolent and powerful AI that develops a duty of care to human beings, check Aurora out.A Proper Uppercut posted:Would Eifelheim count as theological first contact? Yes. Bless Eifelheim. I'm diving into the author's space opera book shortly even though I'd never heard of him before last year, purely on the strength of Eifelheim.
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Jun 7, 2020 14:38
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Safety Biscuits posted:The Earthsea books, Michael Swanwick's dragon trilogy, Barbara Hambly's Dragonsbane, and, if you want to wind him up, a Pern book. wait Earthsea has dragons in it??? Swanwick: I assume that includes the Iron Dragon's Daughter? I'll swing it by him but I don't know if he'll bite as it's more about being a teenager in a messed up fantasy world than cool dragons Dragonsbane: ... I think I owned this book and gave it away and if so I'll be mad at myself. Gonna check it out, thanks! Pern: hahahahahahahahahhahaha Jedit posted:If you really, really want to wind him up, Eragon. Eragon: when it came out it was so much my brother's style that for his birthday he was gifted TWO hardback copies of it. I think he actually liked it back in the day, enough to get the sequels Shadow of his Wings: never heard of it, and drat that looks cool. Thanks!
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Jun 7, 2020 14:40
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StrixNebulosa posted:wait Earthsea has dragons in it??? They're around but they don't play a huge role.
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Jun 7, 2020 15:39
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Patrick Spens posted:They're around but they don't play a huge role. They do in the later books.
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Jun 7, 2020 15:40
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Jedit posted:If you really, really want to wind him up, Eragon. There is also Dragonlance.  Which I do think have dragon protagonists.
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Jun 7, 2020 15:50
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Guys, I LIKE my brother
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Jun 7, 2020 15:55
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freebooter posted:Murderbot chat has sunk back a bit, and anyway I was lukewarm about the first novella which is the only one I've read, but I remember people talking about how they generally loved the vibe of this unfeeling AI which nonetheless dedicates itself to protecting "its" humans.
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Jun 7, 2020 16:13
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My brother's favorite series Malazan has some "badass" dragons that might suit a warcraft fan. Deathgate Cycle by Weiss & Hickman (the Dragonlance peeps). Loved it in my teens and 20s, haven't reread it since then but the covers still have some awesome dragon art. E.E. Knight has a dragon series I've seen recommended a few times, Age of Fire. I read his Vampire Earth series back in the day, still have six of them. Vampire Earth was serviceable but pretty forgettable post apocalyptic sci fi with human special forces carrying out ops against an alien vampire occupying force. Age of Fire starts with Dragon Champion and looks to follow the adventures of three dragon siblings in a fantasy world. Each of the first three books covers one sibling and is stand alone. One to possibly avoid is the urban fantasy/horror/romance series The Dragon de la Sangre by Alan Troop, about a modern day dragon in human form who grew up on his own among the humans. It kicks off with him accidentally eating his girlfriend when he smells a dragonlady in heat nearby.... Critical reviews dislike it but it has tons of fans on amazon. I think the first book is him trying to woo said dragonlady while her evil rich family disapproves of his human respecting ways and the sister of his human victim hunts him for revenge.
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Jun 7, 2020 16:14
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Dragon adjacent but there's a dragon in the Fred series by drew hayes. There's a specific book in the series that has him having to deal with being attacked by another dragon that doesn't like him. The whole dragon idea is that they are like, god tier powerful. He's an interesting character who's true form is this gigantic dragon, but he's sticking to a 9 year old boys form cause he likes the daughter of some important shapeshifter dude and doesn't wanna scare her, but does wanna protect her. Since it needs to be said because of the completely hosed up possibility, no there is no weird child sex poo poo in the book nor is it alluded to or anything.
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Jun 7, 2020 16:30
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Crimpolioni posted:Perelandra was better. And That Hideous Strenght was much, much worse. What, you didn't like two cool planetary adventures followed by an extended metaphor for the moral perils of industrialization ?
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Jun 7, 2020 16:43
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Re: Dragons. The Heartstriker Books by Rachael Aaron
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Jun 7, 2020 16:47
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What about that Melanie Rawn series with the Whelan romance covers that sure seemed to involve dragons heavily? Different comedy option, old Shadowrun novels with heavy dragon participation, there were at least a few. Drone Jett fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Jun 7, 2020 |
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Jun 7, 2020 17:12
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bagrada posted:My brother's favorite series Malazan has some "badass" dragons that might suit a warcraft fan. I wouldn't really recommend Malazan to someone looking for dragons. They're there, but with the exception of Gardens of the Moon, they don't really do anything except as humanoids, which I assume is not the point of the request. Plus Malazan is a huge waste of 3 million words.
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Jun 7, 2020 17:14
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Most of the main cast in Martha Wells' Raksura are dragons. Or, at least, Raksura: dragon-type shapeshifter people. I dunno if they'd qualify as "badass"- by default they just want to sit around and vibe, though an awful lot of dragon violence ends up happening anyway. I kinda like these books better than Murderbot and I wish they got more attention
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Jun 7, 2020 17:25
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navyjack posted:Re: Dragons. The Heartstriker Books by Rachael Aaron I was going to recommend this one! I like a few of her series, but this is the dragon-heavy one. Nice Dragons Finish Last is the first entry. It is.. Not necessarily 'dragons are badass', though. As you can tell by the name, the main character is basically an uncharacteristically non-terrible dragon, but it's a lot of him navigating a world of bigger and stronger family members. I dunno! They're fun, and they have a cool world that she explores in those five books and then a follow up series in the same world a bit later. They're enjoyable.
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Jun 7, 2020 17:42
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Xenix posted:I wouldn't really recommend Malazan to someone looking for dragons. They're there, but with the exception of Gardens of the Moon, they don't really do anything except as humanoids, which I assume is not the point of the request. Plus Malazan is a huge waste of 3 million words. True, except the last sentence of course, but one of best scenes by far is when a dragon attacks a city with Malazans in it.
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Jun 7, 2020 18:07
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freebooter posted:Murderbot chat has sunk back a bit, and anyway I was lukewarm about the first novella which is the only one I've read, but I remember people talking about how they generally loved the vibe of this unfeeling AI which nonetheless dedicates itself to protecting "its" humans. And I was just discussing Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora with someone and remembered that this was the aspect of that novel I really loved the most. They're totally different kinds of stories, but if you liked Murderbot and liked the idea of an emotionless yet benevolent and powerful AI that develops a duty of care to human beings, check Aurora out. I got the exact opposite impression from Murderbot, that it's very emotional but also introverted and doesn't show it easily. It can be very calm in the face of danger like the initial scene in the first novella where it's complaining about rescuing someone from some alien beastie, but it can have very strong emotions towards people even if it then has trouble processing or showing those emotions. It gets more obvious the further you go throught he books as Murderbot develops more attachments to people. For instance, in the fifth book it thinks its ship friend has died and goes on a bit of a berserker rampage and is traumatised over it.
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Jun 7, 2020 18:17
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To the malazan liker: I've read the first three malazan books and they contain zero badass dragons in them, so like, come on, try again. I want something I'll actually feel good about reccing to him, not something where he has to read 500000 pages to get to the good bits. which is, incidentally, why I haven't asked him to read the Elantra series by Michelle Sagara - it contains some of the coolest dragons I know but to get to them it takes like five books and they spend a lot of time in human form. To the other recs: I'm looking stuff up and making notes, thank you very much!
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Jun 7, 2020 18:29
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Drone Jett posted:What about that Melanie Rawn series with the Whelan romance covers that sure seemed to involve dragons heavily? Ah wanted to reply to this one, I've read the Melanie Rawn books and they have dragons in them but they're basically fancy animals and it's more a fantasy romance with some politicking instead of anything dragon-centric. Which is fine, I enjoyed them and would go for a reread, but they're not what my brother wants. I think. I can always pull them out and ask him what he thinks, since he's living here due to covid.
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Jun 7, 2020 18:34
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Michael J Stackpole wrote a really pulpy series that should fit. The dragon crown cycle. It's not super literary but the dragons gently caress a lot of poo poo up and it's fun.
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Jun 7, 2020 18:59
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