|
Has anyone read Michael Stackpole's fantasy books? Personally don't know why they'd pick him of all authors to write a Dark Souls novel.
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 02:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 18:28 |
|
|
He kicked rear end on the xwing series. Can't imagine a dark souls book though. Maybe a CYOA where 99% of the choices lead to a page where it just says YOU DIED or GitGud.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 05:22
|
|
|
FPyat posted:Has anyone read Michael Stackpole's fantasy books? Personally don't know why they'd pick him of all authors to write a Dark Souls novel. Talion: Revenant is an adequate fantasy novel to turn your brain off and enjoy.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 08:24
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:He kicked rear end on the xwing series. greydon saunders writes the dark souls of fantasy and i mean that unironically because you have to construct all meaning yourself from random details and even then it's largely up to interpretation lol. anyway i don't read licensed fiction because it's always, always bad, so here's hoping the author gets paid on time or whatever. i guess.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 08:32
|
|
|
great post
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 08:52
|
|
|
moonmazed posted:great post, Graydon
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 10:06
|
|
|
greatdon postders
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 10:34
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Okay I'd love to read more time travel isekai. That sounds so ridiculously self-indulgent and fascinating. ... But not Guns of the South, that one is NOT my jam. John barnes wrote the timewars trilogy about an Athenian based civilization with portal access to alternate world's fighting an evil group across timelines, there's Patton's spaceship (book 1), Washington's dirigible (book 2) and the best concept but weakest of the 3 Caesar's bicycle. I love the concept of the legions using bikes to improve the already incredible marching ability
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 10:49
|
|
|
fritz posted:Top Gun 2 literally just came out. Whataboutism in the Book Barn? Take it to D&D.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 11:26
|
|
|
branedotorg posted:John barnes wrote the timewars trilogy about an Athenian based civilization with portal access to alternate world's fighting an evil group across timelines, there's Patton's spaceship (book 1), Washington's dirigible (book 2) and the best concept but weakest of the 3 Caesar's bicycle. Not to be confused with the 12-book Time Wars series by Simon Hawke, which is about a far future society that has achieved peace in its time by fighting its wars in the past, infiltrating soldiers into historical conflicts and using the casualty statistics to arbitrate disputes. That's just the backdrop, though; the books themselves are about the special ops missions that are required when someone traveling to the past accidentally - or deliberately - changes history. It also has the interesting conceit of having a variety of literary classics be based on true events, probably inspired by Dumas openly admitting that his d'Artagnan Romances were based on a fictionalised memoir of the real Count d'Artagnan.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 11:43
|
|
|
John Birmingham is great. He also wrote a fun but simultaneously absurd and overwrought series about America getting eaten by an energy dome and the geopolitical fallout of that. And a worlds collide series about a redneck fighting an orc invasion. He also has something in common with the redwall author in that he describes everyone’s meals in detail. His science fiction book is great too and I think might have been discussed here before. Basically space nazis vs the bad human civilisations in the culture books + Minds. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43093526-the-cruel-stars
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 12:11
|
|
|
Cacto posted:John Birmingham is great. He also wrote a fun but simultaneously absurd and overwrought series about America getting eaten by an energy dome and the geopolitical fallout of that. In this book he managed to completely forget about Puerto Rico, which was well outside the dome and contained the vast majority of American citizens after the event but somehow was never politically relevant.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 12:29
|
|
|
Around halfway through Robin McKinley's Sunshine due to some recs here, and I do like it quite a bit, but there's so much internal monologue and exposition I find myself skipping paragraphs at a time.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 13:38
|
|
|
Cacto posted:John Birmingham is great. He also wrote a fun but simultaneously absurd and overwrought series about America getting eaten by an energy dome and the geopolitical fallout of that. And a worlds collide series about a redneck fighting an orc invasion. Also wrote a famous autobiographicalish novel about share houses in Australia in the 80s and early 90s called 'he died with a felafel in his hand'. I liked the first cruel stars more than the second that came out this year, looking forward to see how he brings the stories together in the next book.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 13:46
|
|
|
A Proper Uppercut posted:Around halfway through Robin McKinley's Sunshine due to some recs here, and I do like it quite a bit, but there's so much internal monologue and exposition I find myself skipping paragraphs at a time. Yeah, my main crit of the book (besides the fact that there’s no sequel) is that it is very indulgent with the inner monologuing. It does feel very true at some points to what someone’s internal thoughts might actually sound like if you could listen in, but that doesn’t necessarily make for a good read.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 14:12
|
|
|
FPyat posted:Has anyone read Michael Stackpole's fantasy books? Personally don't know why they'd pick him of all authors to write a Dark Souls novel. Yep. He wrote a bunch of fantasy in the 90s/early 2000s that was fun and serviceable. Dark Glory War and Talion Revenant and A Hero Born are all good standalones I have no problem recommending.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 14:56
|
|
|
Larry Parrish posted:Practice Effect by David Brin op. There's also Destroyermen which I never finished because there's like 15 of them. Destroyermen actually concluded. I rather liked it, there were a couple of books that dragged a bit, but poo poo got tied up well enough in the end.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 15:23
|
|
|
I should revisit some Stackpole stuff, he always seemed a cut above the standard extremely prolific sci/fi-fantasy author doing licensed work.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 16:01
|
|
|
Wireless by Charles Stross - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002AU7MEK/ The Menace from Farside (Luna) by Ian McDonald - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PXYDYYB/
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 17:42
|
|
|
Groke posted:Destroyermen actually concluded. I rather liked it, there were a couple of books that dragged a bit, but poo poo got tied up well enough in the end. That's good, I think I gave up at book 6 as it was hard to keep up with the release schedule and everything else I had going on, now I can just barrel through them to the end when free. My only real complaint is he should have had more weirder things come through the portals than just humans from different earths, especially since they were on a different Earth with not humans. I see there is already a prequel series
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 19:50
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:He kicked rear end on the xwing series. Not a patch on Aaron Allston and his novelized West End campaign.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2022 22:42
|
|
|
habeasdorkus posted:I should revisit some Stackpole stuff, he always seemed a cut above the standard extremely prolific sci/fi-fantasy author doing licensed work. He wrote the Fiddleback trilogy for Dark Conspiracy while the game was still being put together. It kind of rocked. I don't recall it perfectly and don't have the book to hand but I recall one scene where a black member of the main protagonist group and family are getting harassed by white supremacists/nazis. The black guy starts loading up on guns to take care of that poo poo in a permanent but a white male member object to his intentions. Black Guy: What, you think I can't pull it off. White Guy: Of course you can do it. That's not the question. Black Guy: Then what is your problem. White Guy: If you do it, it plays into their stupid race-war narrative. Let me do it instead. Black Guy: Why? White Guy: Because if I do it, it's just pest control.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 03:38
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Okay I'd love to read more time travel isekai. That sounds so ridiculously self-indulgent and fascinating. ... But not Guns of the South, that one is NOT my jam. Or it's all isekai if you theorize the existence of a prologue chapter where Jack Ryan is a lonely CoD playing shut in who's se t into the game by the spirit of Ronald Reagan after he killed by a careless bisexual college professor in his way to teach a course in critical race theory.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 04:37
|
|
|
Macdeo Lurjtux posted:Or it's all isekai if you theorize the existence of a prologue chapter where Jack Ryan is a lonely CoD playing shut in who's se t into the game by the spirit of Ronald Reagan after he killed by a careless bisexual college professor in his way to teach a course in critical race theory. Clancy's axes are older than that. He was most mad at Ted Kennedy. (At least he changed the name there.) And mad enough at Bill Clinton that he put him in Sum of All Fears as, of all things, a junior FBI agent who does very little but is positioned to get a lethal dose of radiation by the end of the book. Then we have the last book before he died, in which, after that world has had a mass casualty nuclear terrorism event, a decapitation strike on the US government, and a deliberately engineered plague, somehow when 9/11 happens its a massive national trauma. Write thrillers long enough and they turn into alternate history eventually.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 05:00
|
|
|
branedotorg posted:I really like Richard Swan's justice of kings, published this year. Traveling judge and small staff dispense justice in a low fantasy world empire that's less than a generation from unification. Checking in out, thanks!
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 07:22
|
|
|
 Just found this, laughed, thought I'd share. I'm wondering how often this gets brought up to either author.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 08:55
|
|
|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:
I wonder if King ever signed Koontz sober.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 08:57
|
|
|
Larry Parrish posted:greydon saunders writes the dark souls of fantasy and i mean that unironically because you have to construct all meaning yourself from random details and even then it's largely up to interpretation lol. I read the first three books in his Commonweal series. Good fun, but definitely of the “creates an interesting world and magic system” rather than “has a plot”.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 11:27
|
|
|
it's definitely has a plot. it's just that the main character is the polity of the second commonweal, not any of the actual characters the books follow. but there's a reason it's basically my new definition for niche title.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 12:53
|
|
|
Finished Empire Games by Stross and thought it was a slog. Main impression was that Stross wanted to shoehorn Project Orion into a trilogy at all costs. Otherwise the most incredulous wasn't the whole paratime but rather how competent everyone appeared to be and how there are seldom any actual danger. His later books in any series also have more exposes on technology in new settings than making a good story. There is definitely a clear Scalzi warning on him if it continues like this, especially as he keeps to his known settings. The Laundry series is basically dead in the water and is pretty far from the Cold War meets Lovecraft that made it interesting in the beginning.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 14:22
|
|
|
Cardiac posted:The Laundry series is basically dead in the water and is pretty far from the Cold War meets Lovecraft that made it interesting in the beginning. If that's your bag (maybe not Lovecraft but dark fantasy/horror meets the Cold War) go check out Declare by Tim Powers.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 14:46
|
|
|
Cardiac posted:Finished Empire Games by Stross and thought it was a slog. I recall a bunch of people dying in that trilogy, but maybe I'm confusing it with the original Merchant Prince's trilogy. I personally found the series enjoyable but not his best work. I also rather liked that the two paratime USA's weren't complete idiots and willing to actually engage in diplomacy with one another. I also thought that Dead Lies Dreaming was an excellent first novel in his new, Laundry adjacent series but Quantum of Nightmares didn't catch me the same way. The Laundry Files proper just had a novella released this year. Stross has been pretty open about how the failing health and death of his parents + covid has knocked his writing process very far off track. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 15:01 on Jun 20, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 14:58
|
|
|
Larry Parrish posted:Practice Effect by David Brin op. There's also Destroyermen which I never finished because there's like 15 of them. I have. And was pleasantly surprised by the books taking a firm stance against "This entire species/culture is naturally evil and must be destroyed."
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 16:08
|
|
|
In the last few months someone brought up a novel that consists of several stories set in 2054, looking at different projected climate change outcomes and how they'd affect the same characters. I can't find it. Edit: It's Our Shared Storm by Andrew Hudson
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 16:13
|
|
|
The Stand by Stephen King - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001C4NXKM/ The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07M77XW56/ Leviathan Wakes (Expanse #1) by James SA Corey - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0047Y171G/ The Jasmine Throne (Burning Kingdoms #1) by Tasha Suri - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08F4YZZ84/ When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain (Singing Hills #2) by Nghi Vo - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087P4CSJF/ The Past Is Red by Catherynne M Valente - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GZW6KF3/ Three Charles Stross books Escape from Yokai Land (Laundry Files #12) - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08JK7TVXS/ Saturn's Children (Freyaverse) - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013A1IYI/ Glasshouse - $4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001161L6O/ Kings of the Wyld (The Band #1) by Nicholas Eames - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KT7YTXW/ The Last Policeman series by Ben H Winters The Last Policeman (#1) - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0076Q1GW2/ Countdown City (#2) - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B6OV90E/ World of Trouble (#3) - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HXYHVNU/
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 17:38
|
|
|
It looks like Lud-in-the-mist is finally out of copyright in the USA, and there's a very nice ebook up on Standard Ebooks.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 17:48
|
|
|
Are those Last Policeman books any good? Premise is interesting but I'm hesitant to jump into a trilogy
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 17:57
|
|
|
Rand Brittain posted:It looks like Lud-in-the-mist is finally out of copyright in the USA, and there's a very nice ebook up on Standard Ebooks. Niiice!
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 18:07
|
|
|
Chilling Effect: A Novel by Valerie Valdes - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H4YJ6DN/
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 18:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 18:28 |
|
|
Opopanax posted:Are those Last Policeman books any good? Premise is interesting but I'm hesitant to jump into a trilogy Yes, and you can just stop after one (or two) and still feel like you got a satisfying experience.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2022 18:29
|
|
