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I met both Sanderson and Abercrombie at comic cons ages ago and both were very pleasant. I really liked Way of Kings back then and showed Sanderson some fan art and he was very effusive in his praise. For those who are split on both of the above I highly recommend Christopher Buehlman. He writes some amazing horror that can also qualify as fantasy (Between Two Fires, The Necromancer’s House) and has his first full fantasy book coming out in May. He’s got the things I love about Abercrombie with some elements of the high fantasy of Sanderson and is better at prose than either. Case in point, Sanderson and Abercrombie don’t really experiment with their style much, even though they do try to write in different settings and sub-genres (like how Red Country is fantasy but as a western.) Buehlman varies his style massively between books, very consciously altering it to fit the subject matter and tone. And it’s great every time.
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Apr 22, 2021 01:41
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I read Mistborn and the Stormlight books recently. He doesn’t know what to do with the middle of his books but I genuinely think he makes some cool worlds. I’ve read a lot worse.
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Apr 22, 2021 02:03
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Brandon is cool but he has a total disregard for prose. I like the story being told for the most part, and the fantasy world and magic stuff is consistently engaging. His characters in Stormlight are mostly stock PoV, and when he tries something different (Shallan, Venli) they can be annoying. But I can't imagine being an audiobook narrator being confronted with something like this passage: (spoilers for Rhythm of War)Kaladin hesitated, spear held toward Moash’s throat. He could end the man. Should end the man. Why did he hesitate? Moash … had been his friend. They’d spent hours by the fire, talking about their lives. Kaladin had opened his heart to this man, in ways he hadn’t to most of the others. He’d told Moash, like Teft and Rock, of Tien. Of Roshone. Of his fears. Moash wasn’t just a friend though. He was beyond that a member of Bridge Four. Kaladin had sworn to the storms and the heavens above—if anyone was there watching—that he’d protect those men. Kaladin had failed Moash. As soundly as he’d failed Dunny, Mart, and Jaks. And of them all, losing Moash hurt the most. Because in those callous eyes, Kaladin saw himself. Also, every chapter begins identically. Open any chapter of any Sanderson book and 80% of the time the format of the first sentence is "PoV character strode/walked/ran toward/away from something." The other 20% of the time it's "PoV character verbed something, thinking about something. In text form I can skim, but it's unlistenable in audio. This isnt even Goodkind-level prose.
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Apr 22, 2021 02:06
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Phenotype posted:But then (and this is just the story I heard) apparently the publishers came back to the author and said "hey, this is great, we want more books" and the author said "well, I've already run through the entire game in the first book, I'll write more but it's gonna be completely original from here on out." And so the next three books are his own fairly-interesting story about how the Doom marine heads to earth to find out that the demons have already attacked and the governments of the world capitulated, and he helps the resistance and eventually goes back to space to meet up with friendly aliens and take the fight to the demons, and a lot of cool sci-fi poo poo happens. They were a lot of fun and surprisingly weighty and well-thought-out for a book series about a video game entirely about shooting monsters. I still remember them fondly so I'd prefer not to know Dafydd ab Hugh was a secret sex criminal or something. Based on a recommendation that I thiiiink was from this thread years ago, or an earlier iteration of it, I read the book Crysis: Legion, which did a surprising job of sidelining the "shooting aliens" core of the game and made it more a story about consciousness and body horror. There was a really clever scene in which the protagonist realizes he can hear the heartbeat of every other living thing around him, but he can't hear his own. Not an A-list book but a solid B-tier, worth a read.
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Apr 22, 2021 02:51
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BananaNutkins posted:Brandon is cool but he has a total disregard for prose. I like the story being told for the most part, and the fantasy world and magic stuff is consistently engaging. His characters in Stormlight are mostly stock PoV, and when he tries something different (Shallan, Venli) they can be annoying. But I can't imagine being an audiobook narrator being confronted with something like this passage: (spoilers for Rhythm of War)Kaladin hesitated, spear held toward Moash’s throat. He could end the man. Should end the man. Why did he hesitate? The thing I don’t understand is don’t these big authors have a ton of beta readers and special attention from editors for feedback? If I posted that passage to a writing crit group I would get flagged immediately for repetition and lack of flow. Surely one of his beta readers has an ear for sentence rhythm and would ask to consider rewording. Unless he has one of those rules with his readers that they’re allowed to give feedback on plot/character/logic but not prose.
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Apr 22, 2021 03:41
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pseudanonymous posted:His books are fun. lmao lazy people who make money from nerds should be praised
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Apr 22, 2021 07:59
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kaworu posted:Kinda random but while I never read the Doom novelizations, I totally freaking ADORED the trilogy of Myst books that came out in the '90s, I thought those were freaking brilliant and as far as "books based on video games" go is more or less my gold standard. The novelisation for Crysis 2 is extremely good. Probably because it's written by (yes that) Peter Watts.
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Apr 22, 2021 13:03
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Ccs posted:The thing I don’t understand is don’t these big authors have a ton of beta readers and special attention from editors for feedback? If I posted that passage to a writing crit group I would get flagged immediately for repetition and lack of flow. Surely one of his beta readers has an ear for sentence rhythm and would ask to consider rewording. Nobody is able to read as much text as he can type in a day
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Apr 22, 2021 13:32
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EXCUSE ME are you forgetting the best videogame adaptation of all times ?
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Apr 22, 2021 13:57
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Deptfordx posted:The novelisation for Crysis 2 is extremely good. Probably because it's written by (yes that) Peter Watts. This is the one I mentioned a few posts above. You were probably the person who recommended it to me originally 
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Apr 22, 2021 16:34
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Well it is my sole topic of conversation. "Hello my name's John pleased to meet you. What's your name?" 'HAVE YOU READ CRYSIS:LEGION BY PETER WATTS, IT'S PRETTY GOOD" 
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Apr 22, 2021 17:56
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Kuiperdolin posted:EXCUSE ME are you forgetting the best videogame adaptation of all times ? Never played the game but the trailer for this that used "Ain't No Sunshine" as the soundtrack was some pretty inspired marketing.
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Apr 22, 2021 18:33
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Kuiperdolin posted:EXCUSE ME are you forgetting the best videogame adaptation of all times ? You joke, but I read the comic book adaptation of that game, and was inspired to read the original poem.
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Apr 22, 2021 23:01
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lifg posted:You joke, but I read the comic book adaptation of that game, and was inspired to read the original poem. I never read the poem, but I assume the part in the game where you're standing on the head of a giant penis and Cleopatra's breasts have vaginas that are birthing razorblade titty babies you kill with burning crosses is completely faithful to the source material.
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Apr 22, 2021 23:23
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A HORNY SWEARENGEN posted:I never read the poem, but I assume the part in the game where you're standing on the head of a giant penis and Cleopatra's breasts have vaginas that are birthing razorblade titty babies you kill with burning crosses is completely faithful to the source material. Best part of the game
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Apr 23, 2021 04:04
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Kuiperdolin posted:EXCUSE ME are you forgetting the best videogame adaptation of all times ? I'll always be amused by how edgy the Dante's Inferno game is as depicted by the fact that the red fabric cross on Dante's torso is sewn directly onto Dante's massive Rob Leifeld chest muscles. 
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Apr 23, 2021 04:04
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Odd that George Martin hasn't weighed in on the Hugo nominations yet. So odd.
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Apr 23, 2021 04:07
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He'll show them up next year when Winds win best novel. That and not acknowledging the attack is, genuinely, the best play he can make and he's been around long enough to know it.
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Apr 23, 2021 06:20
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Woodpile posted:Odd that George Martin hasn't weighed in on the Hugo nominations yet. So odd. What's happening with them this year?
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Apr 23, 2021 08:52
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Woodpile posted:Odd that George Martin hasn't weighed in on the Hugo nominations yet. So odd. GRRM has never really responded to direct call outs like that. Perhaps its a benefit from living his life largely pre-internet and more pointedly, pre-twitter. For better or worse he's largely had the aplomb and restraint to just keep his mouth shut and not try to directly clap back at people lest it turn into a disaster like all internet spats tend to.
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Apr 23, 2021 10:04
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God, GRRM on Twitter is the meltdown we deserve right now. It really loving is.
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Apr 23, 2021 11:55
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Cavelcade posted:What's happening with them this year? A Very Sweary Essay About George R.R. Martin Is Nominated For A Hugo Award posted:An essay titled “George R.R. Martin Can gently caress Off Into the Sun” has been nominated for a Hugo Award—and unlike most rageblogs about him, it isn’t actually about how he's taking his sweet time with A Song of Ice and Fire, or the backlash to the Game of Thrones finale.
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Apr 23, 2021 13:45
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Amazing
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Apr 23, 2021 18:11
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While gurm is an absolute fucker and I'm sure his hosting was atrocious, surely that blog post is not really worthy of any awards even though the criticism is more than valid? I mean, this is more like the hugo guys congratulating themselves for agreeing with her that gurm was lovely but not really taking much responsibility in the fact that when you book Gurm to do this sort of thing you are not doing so because he's a good host or even a guy who knows how to pronounce names or how not to be insensitive, you book him cause he's an author with a famous name who agreed to do it.
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Apr 23, 2021 18:27
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It’s in the same category as the Jenny Nicholson brony on documentary so I don’t think it’ll win.
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Apr 23, 2021 18:28
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its like when a movie about hollywood wins an oscar
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Apr 23, 2021 18:28
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jsoh posted:its like when a movie about
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Apr 23, 2021 22:09
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I'ma be optimistic and think that the rest of the industry is as sick of GRRM as the rest of us.
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Apr 23, 2021 23:49
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When someone is nominated for an an oscar for making a five minute video blog about this guy who wasn't good at hosting the oscars, but instead of the oscars with their popularity and high production values it's this niche award this guy hosted over zoom while trying to show off all of his nerdy collectibles and name drop famous dead people.
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Apr 24, 2021 05:28
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emanresu tnuocca posted:When someone is nominated for an an oscar for making a five minute video blog about this guy who wasn't good at hosting the oscars, but instead of the oscars with their popularity and high production values it's this niche award this guy hosted over zoom while trying to show off all of his nerdy collectibles and name drop famous dead people. sounds pretty masturbatory... so appropriate for an awards show.
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Apr 24, 2021 08:40
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emanresu tnuocca posted:While gurm is an absolute fucker and I'm sure his hosting was atrocious, surely that blog post is not really worthy of any awards Dude, beyond a Stanley Cup or Super Bowl trophy, there are very few "awards" that are not big bags of bloated nothingness. Who actually purchases books because they saw a Hugo award mentioned?
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Apr 24, 2021 16:35
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Hasselblad posted:Dude, beyond a Stanley Cup or Super Bowl trophy, there are very few "awards" that are not big bags of bloated nothingness. Who actually purchases books because they saw a Hugo award mentioned? Sometimes. If I’m in the mood for a book in a genre I don’t read much of, I’ll sometimes just look up recent winners of their niche award and pick whatever looks good.
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Apr 24, 2021 17:14
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It's true I haven't had a single irl interaction talking about the Hugo Awards where I didn't have to take a minute to explain to the listener what the Hugo Awards were.
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Apr 24, 2021 17:19
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Ok, I'll bite. What's a Hugo award?
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Apr 24, 2021 17:25
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A HORNY SWEARENGEN posted:Ok, I'll bite. Not much, what's Hugo award with you?
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Apr 24, 2021 17:32
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GRRM losing a Hugo to Harry Potter still makes him angry 20 years later so lmao he can go to hell.
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Apr 24, 2021 17:39
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Look, all I'm saying is that asking this guy to zoom host your small time award show and then a year later nominate a low-effort blog post calling out how lovely and low effort the hosting last year was mostly because that guy sucks at hosting and pronouncing names is kinda cunty, even if the blog post is 100% on point. If you felt gurm's hosting in your show was that bad just don't invite him to host next time! there are other ways to acknowledge that gurm's hosting was low effort and even insensitive in a way that isn't this weird passive aggressive callout that kind of serves to belittle the other nominees in the category, or w/e. That's just what I'm saying.
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Apr 24, 2021 17:55
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I mean, yeah you're right, but these chucklefucks went ahead and did it already so I'm gonna take a silver lining in that it's a worthy target.
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Apr 24, 2021 18:04
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They gave a Hugo Award for an acceptance speech of a Hugo Award. That's pretty much all I'll ever need to know about what a Hugo Award is.
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Apr 24, 2021 18:08
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Hey at least we’re all talking about the hugo awards now. When’s the last time we did that other than making fun of grrm hosting them?
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Apr 24, 2021 18:11
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