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Haven't read Abercrombie since The Heroes, but Best Served Cold is a favorite, and I still have fond memories of First Law (and also I liked The Heroes). Excited for the new stuff.
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Sep 19, 2020 18:24
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Black Griffon posted:Haven't read Abercrombie since The Heroes, but Best Served Cold is a favorite, and I still have fond memories of First Law (and also I liked The Heroes). Excited for the new stuff. I re-read all Abercrombie's stuff before beginning A Little Hatred (which I'm finding a little clunky) and it held up well. There were certainly a lot of minor details I hadn't noticed the first time around. In fact, I realized there were at least three recurring characters that I originally failed to spot, because I am an idiot.
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Sep 19, 2020 18:49
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quantumfoam posted:
This is amazing, and LOTR will never be the same for me again.
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Sep 19, 2020 19:03
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Corin Tucker's Stalker posted:Red Country is worth checking out. It's quite good as a fantasy western in its own right, and you'll check in on some familiar faces who are around a decade older. I've had a plan to re-read the first trilogy for a long time, and I think I might just do what you did and re-read all if it before starting Red Country and the most recent trilogy. I miss Glokta, that hosed up old rear end in a top hat.
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Sep 19, 2020 19:20
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quantumfoam posted:-1986 SFL people continue debating Tolkien lore throughout April 1986 into early June 1986 and gradually come to the conclusion that GANDALF IS ILLITERATE (note that doesn't mean he can read Westron, or whatever the Hobbits write in, or any other language other than whichever of Q/S that is on the door)
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Sep 19, 2020 20:59
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DACK FAYDEN posted:...Isn't he the one that reads the Elvish script on the door into Moria? Or is that someone else and he just speaks friend and enters? https://isleyunruh.com/open-letter-twitter-defamatory-claim-gandalfs-illiteracy/
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Sep 19, 2020 21:09
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DACK FAYDEN posted:...Isn't he the one that reads the Elvish script on the door into Moria? Or is that someone else and he just speaks friend and enters? What HA posted, plus Gandalf being unable to read correctly got mentioned in my SFL Archives Vol 11 readthrough update 03 too.
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Sep 20, 2020 00:03
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I am just astonished at the idea that a wizard could somehow be illiterate. I suppose you could pick up some magic through an apprenticeship, but you wouldn't be able to develop it further without being able to read.
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Sep 20, 2020 02:55
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Tokamak posted:I am just astonished at the idea that a wizard could somehow be illiterate. I suppose you could pick up some magic through an apprenticeship, but you wouldn't be able to develop it further without being able to read. Wizards in Tolkien are angels that give up some of their power to walk among us and act as a check on fallen angels and their agents like Sauron. They aren't nerds who study for their abilities, everything they do is as innate to them as breathing
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Sep 20, 2020 03:25
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Worked my way through another 9% of SFL Archives Volume 11, and it's up on the off-site blog. That 9% was heavy Tolkienian lore debates, but I still found a bunch of interesting things, like where/who Peter Molyneux ripped off the idea for Populous 1 from. And I hope I found another unique take on Tolkienian lore.
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Sep 20, 2020 05:52
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Just finished Baru 3 and holy poo poo that was incredible.
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Sep 20, 2020 06:00
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DACK FAYDEN posted:...Isn't he the one that reads the Elvish script on the door into Moria? Or is that someone else and he just speaks friend and enters? Gandalf does read the script, but he fucks up the translation. He misreads it as Speak, friend, and enter and spends hours trying to figure out the password before realising it actually reads Say "Friend" and enter.
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Sep 20, 2020 16:15
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Zore posted:Wizards in Tolkien are angels that give up some of their power to walk among us and act as a check on fallen angels and their agents like Sauron. They aren't nerds who study for their abilities, everything they do is as innate to them as breathing Yep. Which makes it ironic that the inspiration for A Wizard of Earthsea was LeGuin wondering how Gandalf learned his magic. Although I suspect Gandalf's fireworks craftsmanship is learned rather than innate. Middle-Earth has a lot of unknown areas beyond the edges of the map; perhaps one of them is a China equivalent...
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Sep 20, 2020 16:17
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He presumably learned it from the Dwarves of Dale, who make fireworks. I just picked up the Patternmaster omnibus; are the books better in published or chronological order?
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Sep 20, 2020 16:31
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I dunno, it's not quite that simple. All the Wizards we see are implied to have studied and learned. Gandalf who once knew all the spells of opening in all the languages of Middle Earth (I'm paraphrasing from memory), Radagast's lore of the animals and, most significantly, Saruman's study of ringcraft which led to his ruin. It seems power came to them naturally but they learnt its forms just as to the Elven lords and ladies. Le Guin's thoughts (I really need to read Earthsea) makes sense though. Gandalf's and the other Istari's divine nature is in the Silmarillion and letters, reading Lord of the Rings alone I can see the logic.
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Sep 20, 2020 16:34
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If Gandalf is illiterate, then how did he read the journal page Isildur left in Gondor?
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Sep 20, 2020 17:11
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xcheopis posted:If Gandalf is illiterate, then how did he read the journal page Isildur left in Gondor?
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Sep 20, 2020 17:15
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The Last Policeman series by Ben H Winters - $1.99/$2.99/$2.99 The Last Policeman - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0076Q1GW2/ Countdown City - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B6OV90E/ World of Trouble - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HXYHVNU/
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Sep 20, 2020 17:55
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Another one I know has come up in the thread steadily, but I canot recall if it's good or bad. Good or bad?
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Sep 20, 2020 18:00
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xcheopis posted:If Gandalf is illiterate, then how did he read the journal page Isildur left in Gondor? https://youtu.be/vQX14-zHaCo
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Sep 20, 2020 18:01
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Black Griffon posted:Another one I know has come up in the thread steadily, but I canot recall if it's good or bad. Good or bad? Good, but depressing.
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Sep 20, 2020 18:31
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Kalman posted:Good, but depressing. Seconded.
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Sep 20, 2020 20:00
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pseudorandom name posted:Seconded. Thirded. I rather admire the author for ending things the way he did.
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Sep 20, 2020 20:10
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EdBlackadder posted:Le Guin's thoughts (I really need to read Earthsea) makes sense though. Gandalf's and the other Istari's divine nature is in the Silmarillion and letters, reading Lord of the Rings alone I can see the logic. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with the idea, it's just ironic. The next two Earthsea books, The Tombs of Atuan and The Furthest Shore, both also have an "education of a fantasy archetype" aspect to them, but despite probably being better books than Wizard on the whole, they get a bit less out of this element. In the case of The Furthest Shore this is because the education of Aragorn is a more well-trodden subject than the education of Gandalf (there's plenty of bildungsroman-type fantasy with magic-using protagonists, of course, but that's not the same as stories where the protagonist becomes a Gandalf-style semi-passive sage). In the case of The Tombs of Atuan this is because the archetype (the evil priestess who lives in a spooky underground complex full of traps) is a harder one to take seriously - though it's interesting to note that LeGuin actually wrote the novel before D&D even existed, so some of the sillier associations wouldn't have existed at the time. Edit: I just had a bit of a brainstorm about Tombs of Atuan and realized that it's even more interesting than I thought. I'll probably write a bigger post about it soon. Silver2195 fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Sep 20, 2020 |
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Sep 20, 2020 20:14
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Piranesi, by Susanne Clark. Norrel and Strange has been sittiong on my kindle for a long time due to length. This was a nice way to get a quick taste of what to expect. I honestly don't have much to say, it was a quick read. It's set on a world that's fun to read about, the characters develop nicely enough. Plenty of questions don't get answered, not a negative thing, but if that's what you are looking for you'll get disappointed.
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Sep 20, 2020 22:20
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Black Griffon posted:Another one I know has come up in the thread steadily, but I canot recall if it's good or bad. Good or bad? Very, very good. I ranked the trilogy third out of all the books I read last year: https://grubstreethack.wordpress.com/2019/12/30/top-10-books-of-2019/
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Sep 20, 2020 23:54
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Black Griffon posted:Another one I know has come up in the thread steadily, but I canot recall if it's good or bad. Good or bad? My thought was that the author wasn't much of a mystery writer, and that the real star of the series was the well-crafted progressive end of civilization rather than the plots that nominally drove each novel.
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Sep 21, 2020 04:22
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<reposted from off-site SFL Archives readthrough blog> SFL Archives Vol 11 readthrough update 05 43% completion, 140 bookmarks 21 items of interest. <reposted from off-site SFL Archives readthrough blog> quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Aug 29, 2021 |
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Sep 21, 2020 07:09
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quantumfoam posted:-the TUCKER AWARD, an award for SF convention goers gets mentioned. Not sure if the TUCKER AWARD is a grifter scam, partially real, or a one-off SF award that quickly died off due to lack of interest. (2020 note: Not going to waste the time internet-searching it since no-one has responded about it.) Was curious about this so I looked a bit and dollars to donuts it's named for this guy, Wilson Tucker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson_Tucker . Dude was like the ur-sci fi geek. Started a zine in 1932 and was still publishing it at random intervals when he died in 2006. Coined the term 'space opera' and a ton of other genre terms, won awards for his fanfics and then moved on to actually selling his stories. He participated in so many sci fi cons in various capacities that people have given up trying to list them all, which is saying something given your average sci fi fan's love of making lists.
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Sep 21, 2020 09:00
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quantumfoam posted:-Someone tries to critique and tear down how the fog of war & situational awareness affected real life battles like Waterloo 1815, the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, and General Sherman's 1864 March to the Sea. Only by the 3rd paragraph it's clear that Avalon Hill wargaming rulesets and ONLY Avalon Hill wargaming rulesets are being used for the critiques of these IRL battles. It is hilarious to read, especially when other SFLers respond back. Oh god, you have to show this to the milhist thread.
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Sep 21, 2020 09:07
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quantumfoam posted:-Someone tries to critique and tear down how the fog of war & situational awareness affected real life battles like Waterloo 1815, the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, and General Sherman's 1864 March to the Sea. Only by the 3rd paragraph it's clear that Avalon Hill wargaming rulesets and ONLY Avalon Hill wargaming rulesets are being used for the critiques of these IRL battles. It is hilarious to read, especially when other SFLers respond back. Absolute dogshit brain. I love it.
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Sep 21, 2020 10:26
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quantumfoam posted:-Stanislaw Lem's work starts getting discussed, with people being amazed by how good (usually) the translations of Lem's stories into other languages go, usually.
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Sep 21, 2020 11:25
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In the middle or the new Abercrombie and am enjoying it quite a bit. Gotta say though, I never figured him to be the kind of author to get misogynistic fucks up in arms about powerful women in books. Kind of a pleasant surprise.
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Sep 21, 2020 11:53
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A Proper Uppercut posted:In the middle or the new Abercrombie and am enjoying it quite a bit. He's always been a good egg on twitter and such, grimdark but cool about it.
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Sep 21, 2020 13:03
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Anyone know if any good short stories or books about generation ships came out this year?quantumfoam posted:<reposted from off-site SFL Archives readthrough blog> from a few post of yours back, but what’s your beef with Stephen Brust? I know he’s a trot but that’s not the worst political view to have.
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Sep 21, 2020 13:17
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all Science Fiction Fantasy MegaThread 3: 1 kg = 2.2 lb = .157 stone knows to do is talk about baru, ask about generation ships and LIE
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Sep 21, 2020 13:25
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Lem Is Excellent.
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Sep 21, 2020 14:13
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quantumfoam posted:-A few SFL Star Trek fans ask "Why don't any of the official Star Trek episodes have female captains, it is sexism or worse?" (2020 take: Yes and Yes. Gene Roddenberry applies heavily to both Yes answers.)
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Sep 21, 2020 19:43
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Black Griffon posted:all Science Fiction Fantasy MegaThread 3: 1 kg = 2.2 lb = .157 stone knows to do is talk about baru, ask about generation ships and LIE I really like generation ships and first contact scenarios. I’m into the sociology of sci-fi far more than the whiz-bang technology.
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Sep 21, 2020 19:50
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PawParole posted:I really like generation ships and first contact scenarios. I’m into the sociology of sci-fi far more than the whiz-bang technology. Same! That's why I love the Alliance-Union stuff by CJ Cherryh so much. All about people, and the people things they do, in space.
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Sep 21, 2020 20:16
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