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General Battuta posted:Change the K to a C that's it? it was the first thing I thought of but it felt too simple. lmao
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May 25, 2021 09:41
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FPyat posted:Has anyone read The Golden Age by John C. Wright edit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Wright_(author)#/media/File%3AJohn_C_Wright.jpg 90s Cringe Rock fucked around with this message at 09:50 on May 25, 2021 |
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May 25, 2021 09:46
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90s Cringe Rock posted:the author suffers literal brain damage and converts from right-wing extremist galtse.cx atheism to right-wing extremist catholicism mid-series That's a soft recommend, then?
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May 25, 2021 10:31
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Jedit posted:That's a soft recommend, then? so don't pay for it and don't under any circumstances applicable to normal people go on to read some of the poo poo he's had published by vox "theodore "a few acid-burned faces" beale" day"
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May 25, 2021 11:15
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There's way better poo poo out there, And a ton of books you'll never get around to reading
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May 25, 2021 11:16
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90s Cringe Rock posted:it's worse than some of the web serials i read it's also close to that bad, so you're not really wrong
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May 25, 2021 12:04
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Wright is a bit of a difficult case; he has an imagination and some writing skills, but he's also got utterly repellent opinions, and they show up in his work. (Back when he wrote The Golden Age his repellent opinions were those of a Randroid; later he switched them out for some form of ultra-reactionary Christianity.)
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May 25, 2021 12:19
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Groke posted:(Back when he wrote The Golden Age his repellent opinions were those of a Randroid; later he switched them out for some form of ultra-reactionary Christianity.) It's been a while since I've read Wright (thank goodness), but IIRC he was one of the more-Catholic-than-the-Pope types, which is probably where the Wolfe comparison comes in -- although Wolfe was a more mainstream conservative Catholic, and nowhere near as much of a poo poo.
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May 25, 2021 12:42
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Yeah, I think he had one of those things where you almost die and get a religious conversion event out of it. But was a turd before and remained a turd after. (This is the man who wrote a selfrighteous rant about wanting to punch Terry Pratchett.)
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May 25, 2021 13:08
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FPyat posted:Has anyone read The Golden Age by John C. Wright, The Last Legends of Earth by A.A. Attanasio, or the Neverness books by David Zindell? All have lots of enthusiastic and negative reviews, which makes it really uncertain whether I should give them a chance. People throw out Gene Wolfe comparisons a lot, which could either be a good or a bad thing. I really, really like The Last Legends of Earth.
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May 25, 2021 13:19
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FPyat posted:the Neverness books by David Zindell? I read the first one of these in the long-ago and remember it as being pretty good. It's at least different.
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May 25, 2021 14:06
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DACK FAYDEN posted:while I disagree it's that bad (unless you've found some drat good web serials I've missed), dude's a batshit crazy chud and his characters are cardboard cutouts moving around in worlds with a few interesting ideas but no followthrough If he wasn't a chud in any of the many ways he is and has been, id be a fan.
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May 25, 2021 14:21
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nesbit37 posted:I've read a lot of books this past year, several of them SciFi and Fantasy, but I am kind of out of knowing what to read next and would like recommendations. To help, here is some of what I have recently read below and liked in the past. I am well aware not all of these would be considered good books but I read them anyway. Ancillary Justice series! Some of the best sci-fi. Also Raven Tower by Anne Leckie as well.
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May 25, 2021 15:17
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bagrada posted:Consider C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy (starts with Black Sun Rising) and Barb & JC Hendee's Noble Dead/Dhampir books. The first is really good dark fantasy with a touch of horror and sci fi, and the second is vampires + fantasy and was one of my family's next steps after reading too many bad D&D novels. A half-vampire cons peasants by pretending to be a vampire hunter with the help of her elf assassin buddy and their magic fae dog. It's been a long time since I've read them but I've always meant to come back and finish the sequels. Friedman also wrote The Madness Season, in which a vampire is abducted by Earth's alien overlords for medical research. It's fun as hell. Honestly I'd recommend all of her stuff except The Wilding, but TMS seems most in line with what the OP is looking for.
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May 25, 2021 15:53
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How is it possible that I've been reading this thread for several years and never knew that the Goblin Emperor author wrote a Sherlock Holmes pastiche set in an alt-London that has vampires, werewolves, robotic cerberuses, angels that work as basically the guiding/protective spirit of a place and a trans Watson.
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May 25, 2021 16:30
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Groke posted:Yeah, I think he had one of those things where you almost die and get a religious conversion event out of it. But was a turd before and remained a turd after. There is literally no greater evidence on Earth of being a bad person than this. On that note, my Pratchett game is weak. I’ve dicked around with individual books, Morte, Guards! Guards! And Small Gods to name a few. If I needed a dose without feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume, which subseries is the best according to y’all? And why would help, since the topics he covers might influence my level of interest.
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May 25, 2021 17:58
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BurningBeard posted:There is literally no greater evidence on Earth of being a bad person than this. I know you've read Guards! Guards! but the rest of that series, the city watch, is probably the best, most distilled Discworld. Heavily set in Ankh-Morpork and showing off lots of great poo poo about it. Mystery books, fun and some great characters. Alternately, I fully fell in love with Discworld upon reading The Truth, introducing a big concept like printed newspapers in a city.
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May 25, 2021 18:06
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Aardvark! posted:I know you've read Guards! Guards! but the rest of that series, the city watch, is probably the best, most distilled Discworld. Heavily set in Ankh-Morpork and showing off lots of great poo poo about it. Mystery books, fun and some great characters. I concur. Guards! Guards! and it's follow-ups are amazing.
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May 25, 2021 18:17
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BurningBeard posted:There is literally no greater evidence on Earth of being a bad person than this. If you google "terry pratchett reading order flowchart" you'll come up with plenty of Time Cube inspired diagrams that will give you multiple entry points into the series. I think the Watch books are consistently rated the best sub-series. Certainly they're my favorite. They have elements of mystery, conspiracy, social justice and class consciousness.
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May 25, 2021 18:18
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Cool. Watch it is. Thanks.
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May 25, 2021 18:20
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Just don't start at the beginning or the end. Night Watch is a good place to start not starting. You can probably read anything after The Light Fantastic until there, but Night Watch really benefits from at least one watch book first, and the books after it benefit from having some earlier Discworld reading. Don't start with Strata unless you want to confuse yourself.
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May 25, 2021 18:24
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I don't know why, but I started Guards, Guards and didn't find it that funny to be honest. Does it have to ramp up, has Pratchett's humor just become such a touch point that it doesn't feel novel, or am I just broken?
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May 25, 2021 18:31
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Hiro Protagonist posted:I don't know why, but I started Guards, Guards and didn't find it that funny to be honest. Does it have to ramp up, has Pratchett's humor just become such a touch point that it doesn't feel novel, or am I just broken? I can't say the humour was ever the selling point for me.
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May 25, 2021 18:32
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Hiro Protagonist posted:I don't know why, but I started Guards, Guards and didn't find it that funny to be honest. Does it have to ramp up, has Pratchett's humor just become such a touch point that it doesn't feel novel, or am I just broken? I'd give Men at Arms (the second Watch book) a shot and if you don't like it, eh, not for you.
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May 25, 2021 18:41
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Yeah the humor is in my limited experience very much of its original time and place. But even if it doesn’t work for you, Pratchett had some very sharp and insightful commentary on a lot of topics.
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May 25, 2021 18:41
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Pratchett's books aren't side-splittingly funny, it's more like he uses parody as a foundation but keeps building a whole house on top of it.
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May 25, 2021 18:42
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honestly I can't think of any books i would ever describe as "side-splittingly funny" regardless of genre.. The Jeeves and Wooster books maybe?
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May 25, 2021 18:43
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Hiro Protagonist posted:I don't know why, but I started Guards, Guards and didn't find it that funny to be honest. Does it have to ramp up, has Pratchett's humor just become such a touch point that it doesn't feel novel, or am I just broken? Think of them more as books about humanism that use humor as a vehicle to do a lot of meta-reflection and subversion. You can’t do things like “have your characters try to shoot an arrow while blindfolded and standing one legged in a bucket of water so the odds of hitting are a million to one” in a serious novel, it’d break the reader’s trance. You can do that in Discworld because that kind of reflexivity is part of the contract with the rrader. But they’re still ultimately books that try to say something meaningful and serious; they’re not the Scary Movie of fantasy novels.
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May 25, 2021 18:44
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Aardvark! posted:honestly I can't think of any books i would ever describe as "side-splittingly funny" regardless of genre.. The Jeeves and Wooster books maybe? Disco Elysium isn’t a book but it has induced some genuine lollin
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May 25, 2021 18:45
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The Guards and the Witches book are great. There are some dips but pratchets worst is still better than average.
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May 25, 2021 18:45
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I'm trying to remember if I've ever laughed at loud at a book as an adult. Grinned, for sure. Cried a few times. But nothing remotely close to the stitches I was in as a teenager when a friend brought over Monty Python and the Holy Grail when I'd never seen anything like it before. Hitchhiker's Guide and Robert Asprin's MYTH-Adventures and Phule's Company were probably closest as a teen.
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May 25, 2021 18:54
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Aardvark! posted:honestly I can't think of any books i would ever describe as "side-splittingly funny" regardless of genre.. The Jeeves and Wooster books maybe? I thought Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers was hilarious when I read it, aged 14. I haven't reread it in a long time though.
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May 25, 2021 18:58
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I probably laughed out loud when I read George Carlin's books.. but I don't think you can really count that. Though reading novels, I've laughed out of sheer joy plenty of times when good things happen since I get overly emotionally invested in characters.
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May 25, 2021 18:59
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Jerome K Jerome is so funny. I honestly laughed out loud at the German professor singing a sad song scene.
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May 25, 2021 19:05
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Sarah Caudwell's books are just about the funniest things I've ever read.
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May 25, 2021 19:08
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fritz posted:I read the first one of these in the long-ago and remember it as being pretty good. It's at least different. I’ve read them all and would say the first one is the best. It’s also a standalone. I liked the followup books well enough but Neverness is the only one I’ve felt like re-reading. My recommendation would be check out Neverness if you like weird as gently caress settings and a weird as gently caress spin on the monomyth, then go for the follow ups if you liked Neverness so much you want more and not quite as good is acceptable
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May 25, 2021 19:17
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:Jerome K Jerome is so funny. I honestly laughed out loud at the German professor singing a sad song scene. Everyone should read Three Men in a Boat; the loving thing is 132 years old and still fresh & sharp.
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May 25, 2021 19:17
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I think most, but not all, of the Discworld books gave me at least one solid chuckle. That's still fewer solid jokes in 35+ books than in one comedy special. Mostly they're interesting and enjoyable and make me smile.
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May 25, 2021 19:28
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Groke posted:Everyone should read Three Men in a Boat; the loving thing is 132 years old and still fresh & sharp. God yeah. Those books are hilarious. I've had a chuckle or two out of Dickens too but I wouldn't tell anyone to read em for the humour.
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May 25, 2021 20:11
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General Battuta posted:Think of them more as books about humanism that use humor as a vehicle to do a lot of meta-reflection and subversion. You can’t do things like “have your characters try to shoot an arrow while blindfolded and standing one legged in a bucket of water so the odds of hitting are a million to one” in a serious novel, it’d break the reader’s trance. You can do that in Discworld because that kind of reflexivity is part of the contract with the rrader. But they’re still ultimately books that try to say something meaningful and serious; they’re not the Scary Movie of fantasy novels. They also (the City Watch books at least) have genuinely exciting action setpieces. The assassination attempt/sewer chase/high noon showdown in Men at Arms and the werewolf hunt in The Fifth Elephant are unforgettable.
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May 25, 2021 21:44
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