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Leng posted:The Empire Trilogy is amazing. I never finished the Riftwar Saga (I can't even remember which book I tapped out on) but I reread the Empire Trilogy time and time again. Strong female protagonist (and not in the Strong Female Character type of way), lots of very well done political intrigue, beautiful worldbuilding and Janny Wurtz prose (though it's toned down from how she would normally write since it's a collaboration with Feist). It may be easiest to just check out the material Raymond Feist ripped off when writing the Empire Trilogy. Extreme amounts of the worldbuilding and political intriguing are taken directly from Tekemul RPG.
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Feb 21, 2021 00:27
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Are you in the US? Not on Kindle for me. I’m in Australia but use US Amazon store - some kind of weird loophole I guess! Usually it works the other way.
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Feb 21, 2021 03:48
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muscles like this! posted:I just got a real weird Kindle deal from Amazon where I got a $5 discount on either of the two Dreamblood novels by NK Jemisin (which are $10 each,) except the discount doesn't work on the collected version (which is $12 total.) So yeah, I could save money in the short term but if I wanted both books in the series I would pay more. Every time I've gotten one of these discount mails, there is a link to the books in question, and I've been able to apply the discount to each of the books listed, but not to eg. other books in the same series, as they were not part of the discount. Case in point, the latest discount mail I got, was for 6 books in a long running series. I used the discount on 3 of them. The discount was automatically applied to each purchase.
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Feb 21, 2021 15:35
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I just got past the tournament part in Between Two Fires. This book is awesome.
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Feb 21, 2021 21:08
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ptkfvk posted:I just got past the tournament part in Between Two Fires. This book is awesome. I think that whole section is my favourite bit. The sense of growing unease is unforgettable. I’m reading his vampire book “The Lesser Dead” right now and it’s good. It’s from a first person POV which wasn’t the case in Between Two Fires or The Necromancers House but it’s brought off well. There’s a lot of time periods he has to capture since the vampires live so long, but specifically the 1920s and 1970s. I buy the depictions, and the character is progressive for his time so there’s not too much jarringly racist or sexist stuff. The descriptions of drinking blood and the specific arteries and veins really gross me out though, more than any violent battle descriptions in grimdark fantasy. I hate being reminded that veins are everywhere in the body. The ending of the book is a real gut punch. The narrator even tells you not to read it. In the Coda, it’s revealed that the whole book was just one of the characters practicing his “voice” for the next person he will appear to be in the next city. He bases it on the person the reader thinks is the protagonist, but who actually dies instead of being rescued. And many of the events are subtly different than how they appeared to play out in the narrative. It’s clever, and it explains why a character who doesn’t read yet is writing in the first person would be such a good writer. It’s very reminiscent of horror movies where everything seems to have worked out for the main characters before a final twist and they’re all murdered. Except we did see the murder, it was just edited and then retroactively reset. Even the title itself is a twist. Ccs fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Feb 22, 2021 |
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Feb 21, 2021 23:32
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Ended up finishing Skullsinger by Rey S Morfin and it was surprisingly good. Sword and sorcery but with guns instead of only swords. I picked this up based on your overview, and I'm not disappointed, but why does the author keep calling the outdoors ground "the floor"? Was this originally in a different language? Edit - I did a Google, author is from London UK, so even weirder that he continually describes dirt ground outside as "the floor" and that his editor didn't catch it. I have no idea why this bothers me so much. Silly Newbie fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Feb 22, 2021 |
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Feb 22, 2021 03:39
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Forests have floors. I mean, it is a thing.
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Feb 22, 2021 05:27
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Foundryside (The Founders #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077RG422Z/
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Feb 22, 2021 05:45
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pradmer posted:Foundryside (The Founders #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett - $2.99 It's Bennett trying to do aggressively commercial cyberpunk fantasy, and imo it mostly works. Fun if you know what you're in for.
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Feb 22, 2021 06:19
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Silly Newbie posted:I picked this up based on your overview, and I'm not disappointed, but why does the author keep calling the outdoors ground "the floor"? Was this originally in a different language? I've heard people do it in conversation in the US sometimes but it's not exactly common in my experience
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Feb 22, 2021 06:44
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Silly Newbie posted:I picked this up based on your overview, and I'm not disappointed, but why does the author keep calling the outdoors ground "the floor"? Was this originally in a different language? No idea, my dude. I'm reading his vampire pr firm book and holy gently caress is it lazy editing. I'm talking "got thrown through a plate glass window, sent to building for bandages, let's ignore that completely and never mention it again" level of "wait, what the gently caress?". It's not bad, but holy poo poo this dude needs a better editor or at least a beta reader with a stick to smack him with. Weirdly enough, he gets his gun stuff mostly right for a British dude. I'd honestly have thought he was an american until the whole "floor" thing you mentioned. That was odd. Figured it was a British thing I wasn't aware of.
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Feb 22, 2021 07:26
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I had to abandon Between Two Fires. (fwiw kindle says I made it to 39%). I think I get why its fans here like it, the whole Lone Wolf & Cub thing is always fun, and from a very genre perspective doing sword & wizard fantasy poo poo in a no-kidding Catholic context does seem like it should be a fresh perspective when the alternatives are limited to a spectrum from Tolkien to ancient Rome. What mildly irritated me was the sense that the Catholicism never felt more than skin deep. What brought me to my knees was the endless loving quipping. IMHO historical fiction needs to balance two opposing forces: characters must be simultaneously human and relatable, but also by virtue of existing at such remove, alien and unknowable. This book tried to solve the former with banter and didn't bother with the latter. 'Whedonesque' or 'fanfictiony' are probably too harsh, but what's a milder word in that general direction?
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Feb 22, 2021 08:37
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Silly Newbie posted:Edit - I did a Google, author is from London UK, so even weirder that he continually describes dirt ground outside as "the floor" and that his editor didn't catch it. I have no idea why this bothers me so much. No idea what book this is but this would seriously bother me too
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Feb 22, 2021 09:29
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Cacto posted:I’m in Australia but use US Amazon store - some kind of weird loophole I guess! Usually it works the other way. Me too, same loophole, appeared on my kindle a couple of days ago.
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Feb 22, 2021 10:09
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pradmer posted:Foundryside (The Founders #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett - $2.99 Fwiw I didn't like it much, good magic system, YA story and dialogue. Certainly nothing like city of stairs.
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Feb 22, 2021 10:14
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branedotorg posted:Fwiw I didn't like it much, good magic system, YA story and dialogue. This was my feel, too. Some fun concepts presented with absolute C-grade prose and entirely forgettable characters. Which is a bummer, because the author is certainly capable of writing fun, interesting, decently memorable characters. Instead they just putted and stirred a shot of Rogue From The X-Men juice into a glass of Katniss and said "Eh, good enough." Don't try to outshoot Sanderson at the game of Cardboard People, Cool Magic, he's got that niche wrapped up. I'm not even against books that are interesting concepts wrapped around thin characters. I read a lot of sci-fi, that's kind of the standard and I'm at peace with it. But your concepts gotta be ZINGERS, not just "yeah that's cool".
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Feb 22, 2021 13:18
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Sinatrapod posted:This was my feel, too. Some fun concepts presented with absolute C-grade prose and entirely forgettable characters. This book and his other pre-City of Stairs book have significant editorial issues. I had issues with the plot in one of the books because it randomly switched to a different mood for a character’s inner dialog, and I thought it was implying something about the larger plot. But it wasn’t, it was just really badly edited in a misleading way. They’re not bad from a plot standpoint, just kind of flat in affect otherwise.
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Feb 22, 2021 13:58
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Zoracle Zed posted:I had to abandon Between Two Fires. (fwiw kindle says I made it to 39%). I think I get why its fans here like it, the whole Lone Wolf & Cub thing is always fun, and from a very genre perspective doing sword & wizard fantasy poo poo in a no-kidding Catholic context does seem like it should be a fresh perspective when the alternatives are limited to a spectrum from Tolkien to ancient Rome. What mildly irritated me was the sense that the Catholicism never felt more than skin deep. What brought me to my knees was the endless loving quipping. IMHO historical fiction needs to balance two opposing forces: characters must be simultaneously human and relatable, but also by virtue of existing at such remove, alien and unknowable. This book tried to solve the former with banter and didn't bother with the latter. 'Whedonesque' or 'fanfictiony' are probably too harsh, but what's a milder word in that general direction? Huh, I felt it was extremely light on quips compared to authors like Abercrombie or Parker. Can't really think of anything quippy aside from Thomas giving Delphine bullshit answers when she tries to find out about his past.
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Feb 22, 2021 15:20
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branedotorg posted:Fwiw I didn't like it much, good magic system, YA story and dialogue. I thought the "magic system" (ugh) was pretty dreary - magic as a literal computer language (or even a legal code) does not evoke the sense of mystery and wonder that City of Stairs did, with its vast alien gods. But I also dislike Sanderson's "here are the rules to my gamebook" wing of the genre, so if you're into that you might enjoy it more than I did!
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Feb 22, 2021 15:40
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https://twitter.com/TorDotComPub/status/1363852064212865024
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Feb 22, 2021 16:02
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I bounced straight off Nophek Gloss. It went from 0 to 60 with all the character descriptions/backgrounds into the first planet and more cultural/race descriptions I just immediately forgot everything that had happened and lost all interest. Worth another try?
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Feb 22, 2021 17:16
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It wasn't that great IMO.
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Feb 22, 2021 18:16
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ed balls balls man posted:I bounced straight off Nophek Gloss. It went from 0 to 60 with all the character descriptions/backgrounds into the first planet and more cultural/race descriptions I just immediately forgot everything that had happened and lost all interest. Worth another try? nah.
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Feb 22, 2021 22:01
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https://twitter.com/TorDotComPub/status/1363911433638064130 Seems like some cool books are coming out this year
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Feb 22, 2021 22:08
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Sounds cool, I forget where I dropped off with Shadows of the Apt but the first 4 or 5 were good iirc
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Feb 22, 2021 22:47
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Sins of Empire (Gods of Blood and Powder #1) by Brian McClellan - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KT7YTV4/ The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy #2) by Douglas Adams - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001ODEQCU/ Bloody Rose (The Band #2) by Nicholas Eames - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074M6KW1X/ Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004VMV3U4/
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Feb 22, 2021 23:34
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pradmer posted:Sins of Empire (Gods of Blood and Powder #1) by Brian McClellan - $2.99 This is the powder mage guy's 2nd trilogy, highly recommend if you like Sanderson at all
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Feb 22, 2021 23:51
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Reading the synopsis reminds me a lot of Abercrombie’s Red Country. I feel like a lot of fantasy authors are on a similar track: write their main series at the center of their fantasy world, write some more about things happening on the frontier, return to the center of their fantasy world as things modernize and move into a sort of industrial or steampunk age, etc. Happens in Mistborn, Bas Lag, and Discworld too.
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Feb 23, 2021 03:19
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ed balls balls man posted:I bounced straight off Nophek Gloss. It went from 0 to 60 with all the character descriptions/backgrounds into the first planet and more cultural/race descriptions I just immediately forgot everything that had happened and lost all interest. Worth another try? Agree, I grinded through the rest of it and it didn't get any better.
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Feb 23, 2021 03:20
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BurgerQuest posted:Agree, I grinded through the rest of it and it didn't get any better. Honestly you can tell it's going to be insufferable by this intro - Essa Hansen is an author, swordswoman, and falconer.
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Feb 23, 2021 03:38
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The less I know about the authors of the books I read the better, as a general rule.
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Feb 23, 2021 04:21
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I finished Banks's Excession after having bounced off it a decade ago. I love Player of Games, but the decision of having the Culture front and center in Excession just seems kind of self-indulgent. There's already too many humanoid characters, never mind the sprawling roster of ships. Trying to parse their messages for conspiracies and allegiances is pretty annoying. There was some pretty fun stuff in the book though. It managed to hold my attention.
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Feb 23, 2021 06:20
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Captain Monkey posted:Honestly you can tell it's going to be insufferable by this intro - Essa Hansen is an author, swordswoman, and falconer. What's insufferable about this?
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Feb 23, 2021 06:21
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tiniestacorn posted:What's insufferable about this? It’s twee bullshit with the exact same energy as this meme.  If she’d just said ‘likes to LARP and is an amateur falconer’ (or led with her actual cool as hell job) it wouldn’t be twee bullshit.
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Feb 23, 2021 15:33
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Are we doing the thing where being a woman makes you an amateur and a dilettante? If you're a licensed falconer and you've studied some sword chopping stuff I think that counts as being 'a falconer and a swordswoman', you don't need to make your full time living off those things to put them in your author bio.
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Feb 23, 2021 15:59
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She reminders me of Christian Cameron who does reenactments, which could be really cool OR really lame: quote:In 2011, Cameron, with the help of Greek reenactor Giannis Kadaglou, put on the 2500th anniversary of the Battle of Marathon in Marathon, Greece[6] with over 100 reenactors from all over the world and thousands of Greek spectators. In addition to recreating the life of an early 5th-century Plataean Hoplite, Cameron also runs a group dedicated to the role of rangers and Native Americans in the American Revolution, and participates in tournaments as a knight of the late 14th century. One such tournament is the Deed of Alms, an annual HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) charity tournament hosted in Toronto to combat homelessness. And honestly, as I'm reading his Red Knight, I can tell that he has some experience with what this kind of armor and weaponry feels like as there's extra attention paid to those details as his knights gear up and such. It's cool.
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Feb 23, 2021 16:22
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I think it’s not entirely unusual or bad for a fantasy author to put those things on a bio but come on. Men get made fun of for stuff like that all the time. Unless that poster has a history of rolling their eyes at female authors for no reason I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt before getting my pitchfork out.
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Feb 23, 2021 16:58
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Some quick googling shows that she practices Kendo and Kenjutsu, which are actual swordfighting sports, not LARPing.
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Feb 23, 2021 17:14
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General Battuta posted:Are we doing the thing where being a woman makes you an amateur and a dilettante? If you're a licensed falconer and you've studied some sword chopping stuff I think that counts as being 'a falconer and a swordswoman', you don't need to make your full time living off those things to put them in your author bio. No and it’s weird you went there. If a male author put that in his bio I’d feel the same way. No one is a swordsperson in this day and age, it’s twee bullshit. SimonChris posted:Some quick googling shows that she practices Kendo and Kenjutsu, which are actual swordfighting sports, not LARPing. And if a guy put ‘is a swordsman’ in their bio because they took kendo classes I’d also roll my eyes. Yngwie Mangosteen fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Feb 23, 2021 |
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Feb 23, 2021 17:24
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she seems pretty serious about falconry (warning there are some gory pics in this thread that i did not quote) https://twitter.com/EssaHansen/status/1080139147719790592 https://twitter.com/EssaHansen/status/1080143806480056321
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Feb 23, 2021 17:27
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