|
I liked the new Expedtionary Force book but holy poo poo is the crew of the Flying Dutchman and Earth in general ever going to do anything besides put out fires?
|
#
¿
Dec 17, 2018 08:02
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 22:25 |
|
|
I read about the first paragraph of ritualist and immediately put it down because of the weird Elon musk thing
|
|
#
¿
Feb 1, 2019 04:25
|
|
|
I'm reading the Seekers Tale's books and I cant figure out if the author purposefully designed a world where there's this sparsely populated but official centrally-regulated confederation of planets and a far more populated but almost totally anarchist group of space stations and minor colonies that contains most of the population in the sector that the books take place in. Like did he plan this or did he just realize his first series made the setting sound very... rural
|
|
#
¿
Feb 4, 2019 11:45
|
|
|
The first 6 books mention maybe 8 starships by name and probably only twice get mentioned in passing. During the supposed golden age of interstellar shipping, in a busy trade route. The second series though seems to make a point of talking about how busy all these anarchist freeholds are
|
|
#
¿
Feb 4, 2019 11:47
|
|
|
I read Trans Galactic Insurance, which is part of a two-book series called Adventures of a Jump Space Accountant. It was a pretty decent if not expertly written spy novel, basically. But uh, it takes place in an interstellar colony that didn't have infrastructure to produce interstellar vessels. All the jump-capable ships just left and never came back. So my question is, why the gently caress is this series about a 'jump space accountant' who never enters jump space, but nobody he knows even enters jump space? Makes you wonder if the author just picked a bunch of popular words off a list and hoped people would read the whole book anyway.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 16, 2019 07:03
|
|
|
It's always fun when you pick up one of these garbage books that wasnt labeled as erotica except for one line at the bottom of the description you didnt read, but you figure out it's one before any sex scene because the main character is an annoying piece of poo poo by anyone's standard. And usually gets described as being ugly or hosed up somehow. And yet hes the chosen one and also suddenly chicks dig him but only if they're a space elf It's like how John Ringo almost always had his main character being a squat dwarf guy. It's just weird as poo poo when you can pull up the author's amazon bio and go 'oh this is a creepily accurate self insert'
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2019 16:43
|
|
|
SerCypher posted:The only John Ringo book I've read was his one where the spoiled prince crash lands on a planet and has to fight his way to a spaceport and go back to take back his throne. That's the only actually well written one and it reads far more like a David Weber novel so... but yeah, it is kind of ridiculous that the pampered manchild prince just happens to have the perfect skills to survive the lovely swamp planet. I also kind of liked the Ringo series about making giant battle stations and owning aliens with solar mirror lasers because apparently no alien bothered to do stuff that way, but its poorly written bullshit and gives me vaguely creepy vibes like every Ringo novel Larry Parrish fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Feb 25, 2019 |
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2019 14:42
|
|
|
Also I'm very embarrassed to admit that I didnt read the last Poor Mans Fight for a long time because the cover looked like one of the bullshit litrpg harem ones where it's a normal dude surrounded by mad max villains
|
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2019 14:46
|
|
|
Yeah Small Medium is probably better than Threadbare. I like Andrew Seiple a lot. IDK if anyone ever mentioned the E. M. Foner novels but iirc almost all of them are kindle unlimited. Theres a billion of them in the union station series, which is literally just a slice of life about a diplomat and her family on an alien space station. But it's funny in the way that hanging out with your friends can be funny, if that makes any sense. A lot of KU comedy writing is basically written slapstick but the stuff in this is basically normal situations that are only funny because of context. Or the running joke that the women run every family, especially because a few of the alien species are outright matriarchies and get confused when told humans dont formalize it that way. Anyway E. M. Foner is my boy even though all of his books share a pretty predictable arc.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 11, 2019 21:54
|
|
|
reading worth the candle with the kenshi soundtrack in the background is highly recommended
|
|
#
¿
Mar 13, 2019 09:53
|
|
|
drat Hard Luck Hank is pretty good actually. The third book was pretty depressing though, until the out of left field happy ending.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2019 21:20
|
|
|
I reread part of the thread and uh the wandering inn isn't what I'd call bloated. It's a slice of life that ended up getting overarching plots, too. Unfortunately the plots are interesting but since it's mainly a slice of life if you can't enjoy both you have to read 300 pages of daily life between battles or whatever. The part explaining how pisces and the half elf know each other was good though. Depressing in a realistic way. I usually hate web novels, but I like that one, mostly because it's only boring on purpose if that makes any sense
|
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2019 13:52
|
|
|
Theres a reason that most people avoid litrpg like the plague. 99% of them are objectively garbage. Sort of entertaining is kind of the best you can say about poo poo like dodge tank or ritualist etc
|
|
#
¿
Apr 9, 2019 22:25
|
|
|
That's funny because my take on galaxy's edge was it was about how endless police action wars are toxic to society and especially to the people involved. Nearly every character is a Legionary or at least a soldier of some kind, and none of them are better for it. In fact literally the older they are, the more brain-rottingly violent and lost. Everyone's trapped in this cycle of death and they cant see any way out but killing. So I didnt take it as like, saying that mindset is good like a John Ringo or Clancy novel. The characters think it's good but the books seem to make it obvious that the characters are wrong
|
|
#
¿
Apr 11, 2019 02:35
|
|
|
I assume most of them haven't played any games, yeah. I'm reading cradle and it's pretty good for a wuxia but boy does my man Wei Shi Lindon have a habit of getting locked in ancient ruins and forced to train to escape
|
|
#
¿
Apr 11, 2019 20:52
|
|
|
you needed a footnote to explain why he didnt want to mix his drinks? that's more of a, uh, biological thing than a cultural one.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2019 07:53
|
|
|
it wouldn't bother an alcoholic to do it, it's a casual drinker thing. but I guess if you never drink at all its not obvious, I guess
|
|
#
¿
Apr 12, 2019 20:05
|
|
|
lot of serious authors did it so now it's a way to make you look like you dont write stuff so bad that you cant even really call them airport novels
|
|
#
¿
Apr 18, 2019 12:59
|
|
|
Victorkm posted:I've read a few of those... pretty sure its hack//sign that's ripping off. but I dont really know Larry Parrish fucked around with this message at 23:43 on Apr 18, 2019 |
|
#
¿
Apr 18, 2019 23:40
|
|
|
John Ringo has one of those 'it's basically fantasy but in the ultra future' kind of books where explosive forces are impossible, but its because after a previous humans vs AI war, there's a few still kicking around that fought with the humans, including one that by the time of the setting is so massive and complex that it oversees the entire solar system. the people who control it's superuser access keys are a defacto world government, and after some of them got assassinated in a handful of brutally terrorist attacks they used the super intelligence to enforce a pressure limit in all man-made reactions. but it's such an ultra future that they straight up have teleportation and microwormholes and matter creation and all that jazz. the laws of physics weren't altered, the AI just follows the law and bleeds off energy exceeding the limit off into interstellar space.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2019 08:23
|
|
|
John Ringo completely sucks but I sometimes like his concepts for a setting. That book in particular goes off on a uh, very bad tangent with an otherwise good setting because its after he decided it was ok to write his jack off stuff
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2019 08:24
|
|
|
The biggest fantasy part of your average mil scifi is that the corrupt and sadistic but well connected officer ever faces punishment. In these books they always slip up and get court martialed but in real life they retire a 4 star
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2019 00:34
|
|
|
ulmont posted:This book - There Will Be Dragons? Looks like it's free, which is about the right price for me to take a flyer. Yeah, uh. Have fun with that. I warned you
|
|
#
¿
Apr 21, 2019 17:04
|
|
|
The new E. M. Foner novel came out. It's sort of but not really an EarthCent sequel. Its set on Flower instead of Union Station so it's basically the same type of book. Anyway I dunno if anyone else reads these but it was good. I like his books, they're feel good slice of life without dragging on or ridiculous melodrama. And it's cool that unlike many of these kinds of books, stuff has changed over the series, but much like real life it's slow enough that something that was new a book or two ago is just part of the routine now.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 25, 2019 11:31
|
|
|
those were all right but I kind of felt like they never went anywhere. and it's a lot of a weird nerd talking to himself and making dilbert esque jokes. The dude has good book ideas but he just sucks at writing even by KU standards
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2019 06:32
|
|
|
I read Path of the Necromancer. It's a LitRPG, technically, but more in the style of Space Knight. Magic is just highly developed and systematic. And, accordingly, necromancers in our protagonist's kingdom are less about raising armies of undead and are more like intelligence agents that can bring people back to life, or watch their last moments, etc. The first book is a little rough, but decent. The second book so far is about tracking down a serial killer and its pretty good. Unique use of the concept of necromancy, I like it. Although the litrpg concepts basically dont need to exist and the books would probably be better for it. Not sure why the author felt the need to do it. Maybe he thinks they're more popular than regular fantasy novels? Whatever. Anyway I'd recommend it, and usually I can barely stand these piece of poo poo novels do thats saying something. It's no dominion of blades though.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2019 19:01
|
|
|
Victorkm posted:Wait is that good or bad?. Bad, but only because Dominon of Blades was the only one of these types of novels where I was like 'oh it's actually got good characters that I care about who change and adapt' instead of at best, merely not being annoying like most of these
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2019 06:41
|
|
|
Victorkm posted:Sorry, that was probably me. I liked it but mostly because it was decently competent at bringing the feeling of Nethack to the LitRPG genre. Yeah that's a pretty good comparison. Well, except for that movie sucked.
|
|
#
¿
May 2, 2019 14:51
|
|
|
good on you for powering through that kind of garbage i guess. my standards are insanely low and they're higher than that kind of lovely novel
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2019 22:53
|
|
|
Seven Hundred Bee posted:Yay this thread! I love me some Kindle Unlimited trash, particularly science fiction and fantasy trash. It's a great escapism. Some 'favorites' include the Ember War series (although I'm not caught up with the latest offshoots), Crimson Worlds, and Warp Marine Corp, which I think is a legitimately interesting setting even though it's a clear WH40k rip. Their combo novel, another Posleen War spinoff set in Panama, features a world war two destroyer receiving a bimbo AI, a born again Christian Posleen, and an afterword that is completely insane and basically says the GRU engineered the USSR's collapse so they could infiltrate the UN and EU to bring about a one world government. I'm deadly serious. It sounds like a schizophrenic wrote it ofc. Also yeah the warp marine corps series is another series featuring the ultra competent commander archetype but it's pretty creative for one of these novels, especially considering he straight up lifted the idea of the warp from 40k nearly wholesale. It has interesting ideas. It could be read as ultra-patriotic but all the older characters who remember pre-genocide earth hate the gently caress out of the insanely martial and domineering culture that rose out of the ashes of the USA (since the US got lucky and actually had some industrial capacity left after the world got owned by some aliens). I'd recommend it if you dont hate war novels Larry Parrish fucked around with this message at 10:12 on May 11, 2019 |
|
#
¿
May 11, 2019 10:08
|
|
|
I read Ascend Online and it was alright, I guess. It's funny reading yet another book written by a liberal where the real world setting is in the 2080s and hard AI exists, nanotech etc but for some reason literally everyone just watches reality TV all day despite having UBI and public housing and stuff. Maybe it's to explain why someone would play a video game literally 24/7 but so many of these litrpg novels where its literally a video game have this kind of set up. You think they could come up with something better than Guy Playing Game Dominion of Blades has the trapped in the game hack//sign twist, and theres that one where the game world is actually the real world and Earth is just a purposefully boring and painful simulation, but those are the only two I can think of this type of litrpg that are even slightly original. And the second one sucks, badly
|
|
#
¿
May 14, 2019 21:34
|
|
|
Theres a new New Game Minus book. I liked it, but as with many of these books, it's mostly more of the same. Theres some cool background about the why of what's going on in the books but it doesnt change anything that happens unfortunately.
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2019 06:32
|
|
|
I just finished the sequel, and yeah, it's one of those rare KU books that's actually good. Its no gene Wolfe where it approaches real literature, but it's a top 10 fantasy novel for sure. Reminds me of a less grim dark Amercrombie novel
|
|
#
¿
May 29, 2019 16:41
|
|
|
The new Union Station novel is out, and it's good like always. I forgot how funny Baa is though. I love that magic exists in all of E. M. Foner's settings, but except for the one-off fantasy novel it's almost entirely used to be a couch potato all day instead of getting a job
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2019 19:29
|
|
|
Oh theres also a new Expeditionary Force novel, following the guys on Paradise.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 10, 2019 17:05
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:I've been linked to this and if I have to suffer so do you everything this author made sucks, and everything his rear end in a top hat friends wrote sucks RangerKarl posted:Is Expeditionary Force any good? I read through the Odyssey One series a couple of weeks back on someone's recommendation. It was alright for schlock, but I ended up wishing for more fighter jock stuff. I like it. The 'mainline' novels get a bit old. Somewhere earlier in the thread makes fun of the typical plot and frankly after reading the same sort of situation ten times I'm a little over it. But the... spin offs following the Paradise guys dont have this problem and in general the books are good. Larry Parrish fucked around with this message at 10:45 on Jul 27, 2019 |
|
#
¿
Jul 27, 2019 10:43
|
|
|
meditate upon how shockingly bad arand is even by the standards of KU, and then reach true nirvana when you realize hes actually talented compared to the people mass producing monster girl harem fiction with a focus on anime themes
|
|
#
¿
Jul 30, 2019 12:28
|
|
|
I cant remember the book because it sucked really bad but I do remember one where a king had invented slave bond things and literally everyone who had a government job had one. But it was at least obviously bad, and not a variation on 'drat what a compassionate and kind slavemaster'
|
|
#
¿
Aug 6, 2019 18:08
|
|
|
For your viewing pleasure: the worlds most honest lovely KU author bio, from Shane Walker I'm just a dude in my mid-thirties who wanted to take a shot at writing LitRPG and Fantasy novels. I think they suck, but most of you seem to enjoy them so I guess I'll keep it up for awhile. I have at least half a dozen story ideas floating around in my head at any point in time, so I've got plenty more books in me still!
|
|
#
¿
Aug 11, 2019 16:49
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 22:25 |
|
|
Ok, heres one for y'all: the Dungeon Lord series. I'm like halfway through the second book. Im tired of reading complete dogshit KU books, so I haven't read any for a while. Tonight I shrugged and picked the least terrible looking of a bunch of suggestions and was pleasantly surprised. Its yet another LitRPG isekai thing featuring a gamer being transported to another world. This time, though, he isnt scrawny or comically overweight, isnt a sociopath/the book wasnt written by a sociopath who doesnt realize how horribly unsettling it is to write internal monologue that way, and doesnt make constant nerd references like a Big Bang Theory character. Also, more importantly, the book is capable of being actually funny when it wants to be, and actually horrifying when it wants to be, instead of insanely melodramatically or by complete accident like most of these kinds of books. By the standards of KU, it's a 10. Nothing even vaguely racist or sexist in it either, which is an accomplishment. I'm gonna start burning down Fulfillment Centers if I read one more piece of poo poo KU book where the author truly believes women are too weak to do anything physical By normal standards? Eh, 7/10, entertaining, and its free
|
|
#
¿
Sep 24, 2019 06:48
|
|