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Strom Cuzewon posted:HH books look pretty short, but a couple other books get close to their wordcount (I can only find the first 47 books, 5.3 million). The LotR trilogy is about as long as an average Malazan and vastly more influential. And I say that as someone who read the Malazan series three times (LotR 5 times but then Jackson ruined everything)
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Sep 3, 2020 20:44
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mewse posted:Fair enough. I have seen interactions with authors that were basically "you shouldn't have killed that character!!" "well, that was the story, I'm sorry you didn't like the story" I mean there's always fanfiction if one needs a different headcanon that much.
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Sep 3, 2020 20:52
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Blood of Elves (Witcher #1) by Andrzej Sapkowski - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00276HAEY/
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Sep 3, 2020 22:51
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Happiness Commando posted:So, you don't like the way our little fictional war came out? You don't like Rachel dead and Tobias shattered and Jake guilt-ridden? You don't like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you'll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents. This feels super prescient in retrospect considering she wrote it in the summer of 2001 and a whole bunch of kids who grew up reading Animorphs in the '90s would shortly be shipped off to die in Afghanistan and Iraq
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Sep 3, 2020 23:56
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freebooter posted:This feels super prescient in retrospect considering she wrote it in the summer of 2001 and a whole bunch of kids who grew up reading Animorphs in the '90s would shortly be shipped off to die in Afghanistan and Iraq There's really no point in American history where it wouldn't have been prescient.
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Sep 4, 2020 01:27
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The 2000s was probably the roughest of the last half-century, though
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Sep 4, 2020 02:22
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Black Griffon posted:Screen too shiny, light too bright, distractions too many, battery life too poor! Dim the screen? Unless you're reading for like 40+ hours straight I don't see the battery being an issue either. StrixNebulosa posted:If we're going by wordcount, Malazan and Discworld remain the kings of "too many words": I always forget just how goddamn many words in total all the Riftwar books are. Hopefully his Firemane books don't try to get cosmic because while the Riftwar books have their ups and downs, the more cosmic and deeper in to the mysteries of reality he tried to go, the worse it got. freebooter posted:The 2000s was probably the roughest of the last half-century, though I'd take a repeat of the 00s over the last 4-5 years in a loving heartbeat, to say nothing of the next 4-5 if Trump gets a second term.
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Sep 4, 2020 02:41
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The 00’s directly led to the past 4-5 years.
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Sep 4, 2020 07:43
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Black Griffon posted:Screen too shiny, light too bright, distractions too many, battery life too poor! https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Adam-Pat-Frank-ebook/dp/B088R3DN8X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=mr.+adam&qid=1593644569&sr=8-1&tag=jamenicorevi-20 From the same author who wrote Alas, Babylon. If you don't prefer to line Jeff Bezo's pockets you can find additional links and a review here from James Nicoll's. https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/in-an-awful-mess
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Sep 4, 2020 07:58
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Evil Fluffy posted:Dim the screen? Unless you're reading for like 40+ hours straight I don't see the battery being an issue either. The characteristics of the screen are fundamentally different though, and the battery life makes it easier to keep around for all sorts of circumstances. It really isn't the same. Selachian posted:Funny, James Davis Nicoll reviewed it a couple months ago (his verdict: "mostly harmless"). If you really want to read it, it's available free on Gutenberg Canada. Ninurta posted:https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Adam-Pat-Frank-ebook/dp/B088R3DN8X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=mr.+adam&qid=1593644569&sr=8-1&tag=jamenicorevi-20 Neat, thanks!
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Sep 4, 2020 10:45
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Only started reading this thread recently and haven't posted in it yet, but I love the SFL Archives and ended up going back and reading more of the thread just to read more of the archives. I've been reading a lot of pulp magazines and older novels that spun out of the pulp magazines lately which has been getting me caught up with a lot of the older big name books and authors who I'd seen referenced a lot but never really read their stuff much, it's nice to see them get mentioned in passing in some of those posts.quantumfoam posted:Yes. The Asimov stuff in SFL Archives Volume 10 is legitimately unsettling. I got a MZB book from a used bookstore recently that had a Gorn on the cover (with some other scifi guys), it is basically the movie Predators except with expy scifi novel franchise characters, then googled the author to find out why I hadn't really heard of her and wow was not expecting that revelation. StrixNebulosa posted:I literally can't bring up the series ANYWHERE on the internet without being warned about the porn so yeah I know. I'm looking forward to it!!! I really like Merry Gentry too, LKH writes really good character drama and mixes it with horror and noir stuff excellently. There are a bunch of Laurell K Hamilton posts in r/hobbydrama which are fun reads. When the Anita Blake books were getting big I was living in Missouri and as she's from St. Louis they had tons of free copies of like the first third of one of her novels they were giving away at different bookstores, I think I ended up with three or four copies
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Sep 4, 2020 12:41
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Evil Fluffy posted:I'd take a repeat of the 00s over the last 4-5 years in a loving heartbeat, to say nothing of the next 4-5 if Trump gets a second term. any other context obviously agree
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Sep 4, 2020 16:53
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The Lastronaut was pretty good. Kind of an airport thriller Blindsight, which I guess is what I was looking for. There's just one very literal plot hole I can't figure out, an actual hole of relevance to the plot why the heck did oumuamua 2: the wormening have airlocks? which were easily operable by people? Narratively I like the way this seems to point towards a friendly alien first contact, but practically speaking I can't figure out the reasons for them. Maybe they're just for scooping up rocks, comets, assorted snacks? About forty times less bad than Hull Zero Three, ugh.
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Sep 4, 2020 18:37
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Anyone read Lindsay Ellis' Axiom's End? I really like her as a person, especially because she's distanced herself so clearly from the sludge of failure that was Channel Awesome, but I've no idea if she can write.
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Sep 4, 2020 19:24
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Black Griffon posted:Anyone read Lindsay Ellis' Axiom's End? I really like her as a person, especially because she's distanced herself so clearly from the sludge of failure that was Channel Awesome, but I've no idea if she can write. We had some unfavorable reviews in this subforum when it came out but I haven't heard anything since.
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Sep 4, 2020 19:28
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Black Griffon posted:Anyone read Lindsay Ellis' Axiom's End? I really like her as a person, especially because she's distanced herself so clearly from the sludge of failure that was Channel Awesome, but I've no idea if she can write. Sarern posted:We had some unfavorable reviews in this subforum when it came out but I haven't heard anything since. I thought it was fine enough. It’s not outstanding, it’s a little hamfisted in a couple places, but it was an enjoyable enough read for me.
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Sep 4, 2020 20:12
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My kindle is here, calibre owns, and I can sit in my backyard in full sunlight and read what I want, this is AWESOME. So much more comfortable than using my phone outside!
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Sep 4, 2020 20:39
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StrixNebulosa posted:My kindle is here, calibre owns, and I can sit in my backyard in full sunlight and read what I want, this is AWESOME. So much more comfortable than using my phone outside! legitimately, congratulations. it was life changing for me. it's also dim enough at night you can read it with other people sleeping in the room. I think my "physical books are still better.." period lasted like, 3 hours.
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Sep 4, 2020 20:41
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I'm hoping that I can use this kindle to prevent me from buying more physical books and that way I can read through my hoard while also getting access to new stuff. ... And books I couldn't get because of prices / weren't available in physical form. So far I'm thrilled, this is everything I wanted from this device.
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Sep 4, 2020 21:03
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Rogue Protocol (Murderbot #3) by Martha Wells - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0756JSWGL/ The Bone Ships (Tide Child #1) by RJ Barker - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MPW3GMX/
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Sep 4, 2020 22:07
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My kindle got a tiny crack in the digital ink screen under the plastic screen so the light seeps out if the brightness is more than 20%. So it's now only as good as the original kindles that didn't have backlit screens. There are tales on the internet of the digital ink repairing itself over time and since I can't send it in for repair I'm just hoping that'll happen.
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Sep 4, 2020 22:10
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Teddybear posted:I thought it was fine enough. It’s not outstanding, it’s a little hamfisted in a couple places, but it was an enjoyable enough read for me. Same, basically.
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Sep 5, 2020 02:59
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StrixNebulosa posted:I'm hoping that I can use this kindle to prevent me from buying more physical books and that way I can read through my hoard while also getting access to new stuff. ... And books I couldn't get because of prices / weren't available in physical form. Your nearest medium to large library likely offers online only library cards and access to Overdrive or a similar app that you can check books out with for free too. Without leaving your backyard.
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Sep 5, 2020 03:20
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Captain Monkey posted:Your nearest medium to large library likely offers online only library cards and access to Overdrive or a similar app that you can check books out with for free too. Without leaving your backyard. Yeah I was given an ereader as a gift years ago and never would have used it if not for library ebook collections. I don't like the idea of spending money on intangible books, but Overdrive is great - you can flag titles as TBR, place holds on them if a few other people have them checked out and get email alerts when they're available, and recommend books the library doesn't have for purchase. It can be a bit hit or miss as to how much your local library network embraces it though. My local library network in Melbourne is next to useless, but I still have my library cards from when I lived in Perth and London, and virtually every library in the state of Western Australia has pooled their ebook access together, plus about half the boroughs of London. So that's very useful.
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Sep 5, 2020 03:31
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Ccs posted:My kindle got a tiny crack in the digital ink screen under the plastic screen so the light seeps out if the brightness is more than 20%. So it's now only as good as the original kindles that didn't have backlit screens. There are tales on the internet of the digital ink repairing itself over time and since I can't send it in for repair I'm just hoping that'll happen. This happened to my Paperwhite and over time it fixed itself. Not back up to 100%, but enough so I didn't notice the damage unless I was looking for it. That or I just adapted to it and stopped noticing it, but that's really just as good imo.
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Sep 5, 2020 04:22
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Black Griffon posted:Anyone read Lindsay Ellis' Axiom's End? I really like her as a person, especially because she's distanced herself so clearly from the sludge of failure that was Channel Awesome, but I've no idea if she can write. Do you want to read an awkward mash-up of Twilight, Transformers, Arrival and Bumblebee but without any of the interesting parts of those texts and that reads like it came right off fanfiction.net? If so, Axiom's End is the book for you. Otherwise, it's very obviously a work that was snapped up by a publisher so they could flip it to her pre-existing audience on the cheap and there's clearly very little editing done to it. It sucks, but I think it reflects more on the publisher than Ellis' ability. But it's still pretty bland and banal and riddled with tautologies, redundancies, etc. It's also ridiculously cliche which is kind of ironic given her career as a media critic.
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Sep 5, 2020 04:54
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New Abercrombie is out (in Sweden/UK).
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Sep 5, 2020 05:55
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Milkfred E. Moore posted:Do you want to read an awkward mash-up of Twilight, Transformers, Arrival and Bumblebee but without any of the interesting parts of those texts and that reads like it came right off fanfiction.net? If so, Axiom's End is the book for you. Otherwise, it's very obviously a work that was snapped up by a publisher so they could flip it to her pre-existing audience on the cheap and there's clearly very little editing done to it. It sucks, but I think it reflects more on the publisher than Ellis' ability. But it's still pretty bland and banal and riddled with tautologies, redundancies, etc. It's also ridiculously cliche which is kind of ironic given her career as a media critic. Lol, well, I'll skip it.
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Sep 5, 2020 10:38
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Leviathan Wakes (Expanse #1) by James SA Corey - $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0047Y171G/
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Sep 5, 2020 19:01
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Alright, a offsite blog to start archiving all the SFL Archive readthrough posts has been created. Started reposting all my SFL Archive summaries posts/reponse SFL Archives clarification posts (with minor editing) wholesale to the offsite blog. The minor editing is mostly spelling corrections to author names and/or book titles I got wrong (*cough* The Sacred Locomotive Flies *cough*), along with experimenting in Red text to highlight author names. Since the Barn Barn is not behind the SA paywall anymore (is anything behind the SA paywall right now?), I haven't bothered redacting any SA usernames. On a related note, congratulations jng2058; your notMad posts about Roger Zelazny not stealing from Philip Jose Farmer are getting immortalized. The end of January 1986 is coming up in my SFL Archives Volume 11 readthrough and that means: the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_gallery_2437.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster Circa late 1980(SFL Vol 02)/early 1981(SFL Vol 03), a few SFLers made a bunch of shoddy construction/"picking up space shuttle tiles from the beach after each launch" jokes about the Space Shuttle program....and welp I am hoping 1986 SFLers kick those fuckers teeth in hard, multiple times.
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Sep 5, 2020 21:39
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quantumfoam posted:I am hoping 1986 SFLers kick those fuckers teeth in hard, multiple times. Why? First off, the jokes you're talking about were years before the disaster. Second, the Challenger explosion was caused, IIRC, by seal failure in one of the SRBs so the jokes weren't even about the actual cause of the accident. Columbia's the one that suffered a catastrophic failure due to damaged insulation tiles.
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Sep 5, 2020 22:54
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Milkfred E. Moore posted:It's also ridiculously cliche which is kind of ironic given her career as a media critic. Is that really so ironic? Roger Ebert's movie wasn't exactly well-received, after all... Huh, just looked it up, and apparently Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is considered good now. Still, how many critics have been legitimately good artists in the field they criticize? T.S. Eliot is the only one who comes to mind: a great poet who also wrote influential but terrible criticism.
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Sep 6, 2020 04:08
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It was always my issue with Leg Friedman's books. They always felt like he just going through a list of things he knew critics wanted to see in a novel.
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Sep 6, 2020 06:02
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Silver2195 posted:Is that really so ironic? Roger Ebert's movie wasn't exactly well-received, after all... Edgar Allen Poe was like 85% critic.
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Sep 6, 2020 12:17
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The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ECE9OD4/ The Forever War by Joe Haldeman - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PI184XG/ I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XB49BG4/
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Sep 6, 2020 18:16
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So following this thread's recommendation I got Perdido Street Station and... I didn't really like it. My biggest gripe, I think, was the prose. Way too many adjectives everywhere, I never really felt like the scene was set even though he described things extensively. After dropping it, at around 25%, I switched to City of Stairs and read for like 3 hours before falling asleep, much more my poo poo. Now maybe you'll tell me that Mieville's prose is objectively better, richer, but I don't know, maybe because I'm ESL, I like simpler, straight to the point prose that just flows when I read it. Loving it so far.
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Sep 6, 2020 18:29
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orange sky posted:Now maybe you'll tell me that Mieville's prose is objectively better, richer, but I don't know, maybe because I'm ESL, I like simpler, straight to the point prose that just flows when I read it. Loving it so far. Nah, this is a very fair and common criticism of Mieville (especially in that series) and it's not really any better even if english is your first language. some of his other standalone novels don't really affect that style, but Bas-Lag books definitely take a big swing with the weird language and I can understand anyone who doesn't like them. eke out fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Sep 6, 2020 |
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Sep 6, 2020 18:37
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Discworld question. I've only read the Rincewind and Death books and I decided to finally read more of the series so I picked up the Night Watch series. Liked the first book but really was kind of meh on the second, and I think a large part of that was I don't like Carrot (just too much of a normal book hero for Discworld) and he definitely took over as the main character in the second book. The third book looks like that continues and I'm wondering how true that is? Not sure I want to continue on in that case.
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Sep 6, 2020 19:11
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Carrot stays a major character but he gets a bit more meta in the later books. Vimes starts being the protagonist again along about Jingo or Fifth Elephant.
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Sep 6, 2020 19:16
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pradmer posted:I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - $2.99 One of the best books ever written, which I will continue to point out. Dunno anything about the other two.
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Sep 6, 2020 19:23
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