|
Jedit posted:There used to be readings of The Eye of Argon at SF cons that evolved into contests to see who could read it aloud for the longest time without laughing. Yeah, and that's the key to The Eye of Argon's appeal. It's not bad in the sense of being unreadable, it's bad in the sense of being unreadable without laughing. This sets it apart from a lot of other supposedly so-bad-it's-good writing, at least IMO; I find My Immortal unreadable, for instance. It's a basically coherent story, just with a very cliched setting, lots of purple-prose turns of phrase, and lots of use of not-quite-the-right-word. Silver2195 fucked around with this message at 14:09 on Oct 13, 2020 |
#
?
Oct 13, 2020 14:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 16, 2024 18:57 |
|
|
shelley posted:The Eye of Argon. The main character’s name is Grignr. Groke posted:Also, it's arguably nowhere near actually being the worst fantasy story. It's short and has a plot that moves at a decent pace, the only really noteworthy thing is the rather heterodox use of vocabulary. Eye of Argon is a step above most of the fan submissions sent into and published in the quasi fanzine/wargaming marketing rag THE GENERAL. *cough*Both Jerry Pournelle and Gary Gygax started their professional writing careers by submitting dozens of articles to Avalon Hill's THE GENERAL newsletter. *cough* For professionally published F&SF books that had print runs of over 50k, I'd rank everything Gord the Rogue as worse written/plotted than Eye of Argon. I would also nominate the exceptionally terrible Space Relations by Donald Barr as being 5x times worse than Eye of Argon in every category you can think of.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2020 14:28
|
|
|
I'm about 60% into the first of KJ Parker's Scavenger trilogy, Shadow. Gotta say this is a big step down from The Folding Knife and his short stories. Thing happen, but there's a general aimlessness around the whole plot's progression. There's a lot of hooks, what the with the main character possibly being a god, being pursued by some master swordsman, and constantly getting into scrapes, but the characters all sort of wander around each other's notice all the time, and you've got to read through a lot of descriptions of a pretty drab world just waiting for one character to come across anther in a way that could actually advance the plot. I cant really imagine reading through two more of these.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2020 15:15
|
|
|
Finished Baru 3 As a boxing guy, I appreciated the Aminata fight scene, specifically breaking the opponent's fist with her skull and finishing with a guillotine choke. I feel the burnout in the afterword -- maybe writing some silly YA stuff would work as a palate cleanser? I know Sanderson is inhuman but he seems to alternate between his epic fantasy and smaller stuff that he kinda dashes off
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2020 15:36
|
|
|
pseudorandom name posted:I finished To Ride Hell's Chasm by Janny Wurts. I found the prose very good, didn't see the "people jumping to wrong conclusions" at all, and enjoyed the chase sequence to bits, so this might be a case of - to use tvtropes I'm sorry - ymmv. I love this book, and my biggest response to this post is: for the love of god don't read anything else by her, you'll hate her stuff. The prose remains great (imho) and the central conceit of her Wars of Light and Shadow mega-series is that neither side understands the other and paints the champions of each in a really wrong light.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2020 15:36
|
|
|
Ccs posted:I'm about 60% into the first of KJ Parker's Scavenger trilogy, Shadow. Gotta say this is a big step down from The Folding Knife and his short stories. Thing happen, but there's a general aimlessness around the whole plot's progression. There's a lot of hooks, what the with the main character possibly being a god, being pursued by some master swordsman, and constantly getting into scrapes, but the characters all sort of wander around each other's notice all the time, and you've got to read through a lot of descriptions of a pretty drab world just waiting for one character to come across anther in a way that could actually advance the plot. I cant really imagine reading through two more of these. I just finished up this trilogy the other night. I didn't enjoy it as much as Parker's other works I've read, but it was solid enough. The aimlessness is intentional I'm pretty sure.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2020 00:58
|
|
|
Telsa Cola posted:I like this in concept but unless this is really really really fleshed out I will be disappointed as I can't mindlessly see how geckos/platypus/emus are doing in 2049 or whatever. Mutant/extinct/mutant fyi
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2020 06:25
|
|
|
Query: does anyone in here know of books that take place while the status quo is being shaken up? Part of why I'm trying the UF series Darkfever again is because it apparently covers Earth going from normal w/ fae masquerade to post-apocalyptic fae nonsense everywhere. I'd like to see more series covering the transitions - hopefully UF but doesn't have to be.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2020 16:58
|
|
|
Not exactly that, but your description there reminds me of Sean Stewart's Galveston and Night Watch. Not a series, but I'd say loosely connected in that they're both set in cities where magic came flooding back in unexpectedly and caused not a little chaos. Together, they present a few different ways that people deal with it. I should say, that neither is set primarily during the transition. They're both sort of in later transitions after people have been living with it a little. Still within a lifetime of the main upheaval though.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2020 17:19
|
|
|
Random Acts of Senseless Violence takes place during the collapse of the US but it's not really SF. Great though.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2020 19:05
|
|
|
Ben Nevis posted:Not exactly that, but your description there reminds me of Sean Stewart's Galveston and Night Watch. Not a series, but I'd say loosely connected in that they're both set in cities where magic came flooding back in unexpectedly and caused not a little chaos. Together, they present a few different ways that people deal with it. That's a name I haven't heard in a while! Those are great. There's another one, also loosely connected but I think chronologically earlier.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2020 21:34
|
|
|
Blood of Elves (Witcher #1) by Andrzej Sapkowski - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00276HAEY/ The Road by Cormac McCarthy - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OI0G1Q/ The Lord of the Rings: One Volume - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007978OY6/ The Way of Shadows (Night Angel #1) by Brent Weeks $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E0V112/ The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DDGX4KY/
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2020 22:16
|
|
|
dreamless posted:That's a name I haven't heard in a while! Those are great. There's another one, also loosely connected but I think chronologically earlier. Probably Resurrection Man. Not at all in line with the request, but A Perfect Circle and Mockingbird are both also very good.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2020 22:52
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Query: does anyone in here know of books that take place while the status quo is being shaken up? Part of why I'm trying the UF series Darkfever again is because it apparently covers Earth going from normal w/ fae masquerade to post-apocalyptic fae nonsense everywhere. It feels like a weird recommendation, but the first novel in the Babylon 5 tie-in Psi Corps trilogy (Dark Genesis) is all about the period of time where Earth discovers proof that telepaths are living in their midst and how the world changes, people get hurt, politicians take advantage, and so on. It's got very little to do with the TV series (it's set like one-hundred years before) but it really is one of the few SF/F books that I can recall dealing with that idea of the status quo getting absolutely shaken up and actually exploring the ramifications.
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2020 23:51
|
|
|
Going to post the first page and half of Space Relations tomorrow once I rescue it from my "donate-to-charity" bookpile. Also the SFL Archives just started discussing Jack Vance's Cadwal Chronicles books, and I am just groaning and wishing, unironically, for the return of filksong chat or Star Trek: The Next Generation discussion. If anyone decides to start reading Jack Vance, the Cadwal books can safely be skipped. Why? Because the good guy heroes in the Cadwal are literally rebadged white South African authority figures enforcing apartheid rule on the lesser classes (palette swapped black South Africans) that do everything for them
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 04:49
|
|
|
quantumfoam posted:Going to post the first page and half of Space Relations tomorrow once I rescue it from my "donate-to-charity" bookpile. quote:According to his own account, Sax Rohmer decided to start the Dr. Fu Manchu series after his Ouija board spelled out C-H-I-N-A-M-A-N when he asked what would make his fortune.[1] During this time period, the notion of the "Yellow Peril" was spreading in North American society. quote:Following the release of Republic Pictures' serial adaptation of Drums of Fu Manchu (1940), the United States Department of State requested the studio make no further films about the character, as China was an ally against Japan during World War II. Likewise, Rohmer's publisher, Doubleday, refused to publish further additions to the best-selling series for the duration of World War II once the United States entered the conflict. BBC Radio and Broadway investors subsequently rejected Rohmer's proposals for an original Fu Manchu radio serial and stage show during the 1940s. quote:Rohmer's work was banned in Nazi Germany, causing Rohmer to complain that he could not understand such censorship, stating "my stories are not inimical to Nazi ideals".[8]
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 10:27
|
|
|
Thank you that’s a perfect collection of quotes
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 10:40
|
|
|
Last year I embarked on the "Hyperion" quartet, and I finished the last one (The Rise of Endymion) a few weeks ago. A gripping and enjoyable series that truly went places. I've moved on to more Dan Simmons -- I'm currently reading his suspense/horror novel Summer of Night. Re the second half of the Hyperion books (Endymion and Rise of Endymion) I found a central character in both books (who is also the voice of the narrator) to be obnoxious and unlikeable but the grand story told through those two books is awesome.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 11:11
|
|
|
Man, I used to like Dan Simmons until his brain broke after 9/11 and then that made all his older stuff retroactively worse. The actual breakpoint was between Ilium and Olympos. Never been more disappointed in a sequel.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 11:23
|
|
|
Exactly. Those Sax Rohmer FU MANCHU references should clue people into how braindead and racist/apartheid state everything is in Jack Vance's Cadwal Chronicles series. As promised, the first page and half of Donald Barr's SPACE RELATIONS === Part One Naked, wincing, waiting, John Craig lay on his back on the cold examination table, his knees raised, his feet on either side of the big pedals, his hands palm-up beside him, in a thicket—no, it was a Gorgon’s chevelure—of wires: green wires, white wires, cerise wires, black wires, yellow wires: wires leading from probes tamped into every orifice of his body, from electrodes sucking at his pallid skin in thirty-one places, from catheters threaded along four arteries and two veins, to a sleek, gray cabinet, the terminal. “Medusa loves me, hardening my flesh,” Craig quoted in a mumble around two fat white wires; he gagged. Four kilometers away, in Bethesda, the Health Executive’s North American computer retrieved the thirty-eight-year record of John Craig’s physiology. Back to back with the gray, a large, blue cabinet rattled, briefly and, like an idiot belching and sticking out his tongue, pushed forth several inches of paper. MD8 Krause, scuttling back and forth in the traditional white smock of his guild, glanced at the paper, checked the anal and urethral probes with a plastigloved finger (“Son of a bitch,” mumbled Craig), said heartily, “We're on the line. Relax, John,” peeled off the plastiglove, slid a brace of plump, gray earphones over Craig’s damp, sandy hair and a single white one over his own white bristles, ran a thumb over the soft inside of Craig’s left forearm and peered with a half smile at the “MS43985" neatly branded there, keyed digits into the PSB on the cabinet and pressed the blue “Start Program” button. “Oh, I’m wholly relaxed,” mumbled Craig. “Breathe in,” said the earphones in a warm, female voice. “Hold your breath.. Release your breath. Breathe naturally. In. Out. In. Expel all your breath: force it out. Stop breathing. Breathe naturally. Place your feet on the pedals. Begin pedaling...” The LHVM series lasted four minutes. Krause pressed the green “Continue Program” button. “You will now experience,” said the warm female voice, “a series of mild stimuli from some of the electrodes on your skin. Please do not be alarmed. They will be very mild, like a momentary tickling. Please do not try to suppress your reactions. Please do not scratch or try to remove the electrodes...” The NRN series was, as promised, like being teased with a huge, invisible feather; it lasted a minute and a half. When it was over, Craig raised his eyes expectantly to Krause, but the physician shook his head, held up a warning hand, turned to the gray cabinet, keyed four digits into the PSB, pressed the blue “Start Program” button, and turned back again with a countenance totally blank of expression. Craig’s eyes narrowed. === quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 14:55 on Oct 15, 2020 |
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 14:51
|
|
|
Please do not try to suppress your reactions.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 15:06
|
|
|
Groke posted:Man, I used to like Dan Simmons until his brain broke after 9/11 and then that made all his older stuff retroactively worse. (which book had the rape scene where the 20th century professor glamoured himself into Paris and hosed Helen of Troy?)
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 16:06
|
|
|
I think that was Revenge of the Nerds
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 16:23
|
|
|
Groke posted:Man, I used to like Dan Simmons until his brain broke after 9/11 and then that made all his older stuff retroactively worse. The Terror came after that and is legitimately great survival horror. The Prime TV series captured the scenario well. But yeah, Olympus was bad and disappointing especially since I really enjoyed the Moravecs.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 17:14
|
|
|
Ben Nevis posted:Not exactly that, but your description there reminds me of Sean Stewart's Galveston and Night Watch. Not a series, but I'd say loosely connected in that they're both set in cities where magic came flooding back in unexpectedly and caused not a little chaos. Together, they present a few different ways that people deal with it. HopperUK posted:Random Acts of Senseless Violence takes place during the collapse of the US but it's not really SF. Great though. Milkfred E. Moore posted:It feels like a weird recommendation, but the first novel in the Babylon 5 tie-in Psi Corps trilogy (Dark Genesis) is all about the period of time where Earth discovers proof that telepaths are living in their midst and how the world changes, people get hurt, politicians take advantage, and so on. It's got very little to do with the TV series (it's set like one-hundred years before) but it really is one of the few SF/F books that I can recall dealing with that idea of the status quo getting absolutely shaken up and actually exploring the ramifications. *slams recs on TBR* This is perfect, thank you!
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 17:20
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1316717703139385348 Saw this floating around today, usually these lists don't get a reaction from me but uhh this one did.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 21:04
|
|
|
I dunno, list articles are list articles, and discussing inclusions and omissions isn't generally that worthwhile IMO, but I do always like seeing stuff that I feel is often overlooked, like Sofia Samatar's A Stranger in Olondria, or Susan Cooper's old A Dark is Rising series being namedropped here. Maybe someone will pick them up.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 21:49
|
|
|
I think the biggest issue with roundup lists like that is the titles. Saying something like "Best Ever" is always going to be hyperbolic and pretty useless. That said, there's definitely some good stuff on the list, and it's interesting to me just how many of the picks are pretty new (published within the last 5, maybe 10 years or so?). Definitely got reminded of a few titles I've been considering checking out too.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 21:57
|
|
|
hyperbolic titles and blatantly obvious omissions are intentional, to drive hate-clicks
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 22:01
|
|
|
This one got me by putting Half Blood Prince in the list but not The Hobbit.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 22:28
|
|
|
I can't decide what's worse, the exclusion of Steven Erikson or the inclusion of All the Birds in the Sky.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 22:36
|
|
|
Cardiac posted:The Terror came after that and is legitimately great survival horror. The Prime TV series captured the scenario well. Haven't read the book but IMO The Terror's one of the best and most criminally overlooked TV series of the past decade. Fantastic writing, acting, cinematography, soundtrack, set design - one of those things where every aspect of the production is just knocking it out of the park.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 23:21
|
|
|
The Ninth Layer posted:https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1316717703139385348 Honestly surprised they only listed Name of the Wind. Was expecting all of the Kingkiller garbage to be listed there.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2020 23:58
|
|
|
Ben Nerevarine posted:I can't decide what's worse, the exclusion of Steven Erikson or the inclusion of All the Birds in the Sky. To be fair, if you're looking to escape grim reality, Erikson might not be your cup of tea.
|
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2020 01:32
|
|
|
Just got done with my Way of Kings / Words of Radiance / Edgedancer / Oathbringer reread in advance of Rhythm of War and I am looking for something fun. I don't really wan't a series, so a standalone would be awesome. I read The Dungeoneers a few years back and that was fun enough, Critical Failures was juvenile but I read them anyway and can't remember what book I was on. Something I can just turn my brain off would be wonderful.
|
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2020 02:43
|
|
|
KKKLIP ART posted:Just got done with my Way of Kings / Words of Radiance / Edgedancer / Oathbringer reread in advance of Rhythm of War and I am looking for something fun. I don't really wan't a series, so a standalone would be awesome. I read The Dungeoneers a few years back and that was fun enough, Critical Failures was juvenile but I read them anyway and can't remember what book I was on. Something I can just turn my brain off would be wonderful. Goblin Emperor was amazing. Empress of Forever was good. Redshirts was decent. Seveneves was bad but some people like it. Freeze frame Revolution was good and not as weighty as some of Watts’ other books. If you haven’t read all of Sanderson, warbreaker was decent. If you’re ok with fun, no thought series, Cradle is decent and Bobiverse starts off decent then gets worse with each book.
|
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2020 03:42
|
|
|
I'll check those out, thanks! E: See that Empress of Forever is by one of the authors of This Is How You Lose a Time War which I loved! KKKLIP ART fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Oct 16, 2020 |
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2020 03:55
|
|
|
I think there's like 2 or 3? sequels to the Dungeoneers. All pretty good iirc. Critical Failures is up to book 8 I think. Great standalone that's fun but not fantasy(ish, meaning elves, etc) is Carpet Diem by Justin Lee Anderson. Standalone, but hilarious. One of the few that had me actually laughing out loud.
|
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2020 04:34
|
|
|
KKKLIP ART posted:Just got done with my Way of Kings / Words of Radiance / Edgedancer / Oathbringer reread in advance of Rhythm of War and I am looking for something fun. I don't really wan't a series, so a standalone would be awesome. I read The Dungeoneers a few years back and that was fun enough, Critical Failures was juvenile but I read them anyway and can't remember what book I was on. Something I can just turn my brain off would be wonderful. The Barbed Coil by J.V. Jones. Standalone heroic fantasy. Delightfully imagined and conveyed process for the magic the characters performed - really good balance between system-y and ambiguous. Leans into the gruesome during the action scenes but in a fun way.
|
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2020 06:44
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 16, 2024 18:57 |
|
|
KKKLIP ART posted:I read The Dungeoneers a few years back and that was fun enough, Critical Failures was juvenile but I read them anyway and can't remember what book I was on. Something I can just turn my brain off would be wonderful.
|
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2020 12:39
|
|
