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Rand Brittain posted:I mentioned this while it was on pre-order, but Jenna Moran's new novel, The Night-Bird's Feather, is now available on most platforms, including Kindle, Kobo, and itch.io. I read the sample of this on Amazon and bought it immediately because I chuckled three times in as many paragraphs. Thanks for the tip. I never usually pay full price for ebooks. e: I am poor, not someone who just hates authors or anything
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Sep 23, 2022 10:48
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He's not poor and he hates authors.
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Sep 23, 2022 12:52
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ToxicFrog posted:I checked out Six of Crows based on earlier discussion in this thread and on account of being in the mood for a fantasy heist, and I am...not really digging it? So far it's been less heist-y and more just wildly stabby, and it keeps dragging me out of it by reminding me how young the characters are, which, based on the timelines given, means that Inej became a spy and thief of nearly supernatural skill with something like two years of practice, and Kaz arranged the mortgage of the pub and used the money to dredge and refit the Fifth Dock when he was like 12. It feels like it wants to be Lies of Locke Lamora but with weird magical bullshit taking a more central role, but isn't really pulling it off. Yeah, if you're not digging it, the eventual heist probably isn't going to be worth the investment. I made the mistake of reading the sequel too, and I can barely remember the plot except for the parts that toe a really weird is-this-racist-or-just-horribly-misconceived? line.
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Sep 23, 2022 13:33
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ToxicFrog posted:I checked out Six of Crows based on earlier discussion in this thread and on account of being in the mood for a fantasy heist, and I am...not really digging it? So far it's been less heist-y and more just wildly stabby, and it keeps dragging me out of it by reminding me how young the characters are, which, based on the timelines given, means that Inej became a spy and thief of nearly supernatural skill with something like two years of practice, and Kaz arranged the mortgage of the pub and used the money to dredge and refit the Fifth Dock when he was like 12. It feels like it wants to be Lies of Locke Lamora but with weird magical bullshit taking a more central role, but isn't really pulling it off. This why I always skip anything remotely YA.
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Sep 23, 2022 17:26
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Armauk posted:This why I always skip anything remotely YA. YA isn't automatically lovely. The first Red Rising series was pretty good as was Brandon Sanderson's Reckoners trilogy. But I can understand how that style and those tropes can wear on someone's nerves, especially "this specific child/teenager is somehow the bestest person ever at [insert thing important to the setting]."
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Sep 23, 2022 17:44
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The Sweet Hereafter posted:This sort of thing has been common practice for a while now. At least the Arthur C. Clarke Award is a real thing, rather than all the TIKTOK MADE ME BUY IT crap. I don't think I have ever once been convinced to buy a book based on review quotes, though I think there have been a few times where I have been warned off a book based on who they get pull quotes from. And yeah the first chapter in the item description is idiotic. I don't understand putting either of those before the blurb, it's usually the blurb that pushes me over the edge into buying a book if I'm on the fence. I can understand including that other poo poo for SEO reasons or whatever, but I don't understand why it's put first.
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Sep 23, 2022 18:21
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Everyone posted:YA isn't automatically lovely. The first Red Rising series was pretty good as was Brandon Sanderson's Reckoners trilogy. But I can understand how that style and those tropes can wear on someone's nerves, especially "this specific child/teenager is somehow the bestest person ever at [insert thing important to the setting]." Yeah I've learned that I'll probably never like the vast majority of YA, even if it's good, because I can't get behind most of the common character tropes that even the good YA stuff trends towards. Also the very common, often very twee inner monologue of POV teenager characters, because even the best feel like they come off as a 30-something's idea of how teenagers behave and what they care about. To me, most YA writing feels very... disingenuous, I guess? I can't think of a better way to put it right now.
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Sep 23, 2022 18:24
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Neil Gaiman said that Sunshine is practically perfect but I find it to be a terrible pile of trash. way too many exposition dumps
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Sep 23, 2022 18:28
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The worst part of reading a Wolfe novel is seeing Gaiman's quotes plastered all over it.
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Sep 23, 2022 18:30
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The edition of Sword and Citadel I just read had introduction by Ada Palmer, which was significantly better than Gaiman.
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Sep 23, 2022 20:36
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Everyone posted:"this specific child/teenager is somehow the bestest person ever at [insert thing important to the setting]."
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Sep 23, 2022 21:31
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The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ECE9OD4/ Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury - $1.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C2C637I/ I am a facilitator of author hatred.
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Sep 23, 2022 22:53
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pradmer posted:The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North - $2.99 A goon gave me this one in a secret Santa, and it is excellent. It's in a bit of a weird place between sci fi and Serious Literature though.
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Sep 23, 2022 22:59
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MockingQuantum posted:I don't think I have ever once been convinced to buy a book based on review quotes, though I think there have been a few times where I have been warned off a book based on who they get pull quotes from. And yeah the first chapter in the item description is idiotic. I don't understand putting either of those before the blurb, it's usually the blurb that pushes me over the edge into buying a book if I'm on the fence. I can understand including that other poo poo for SEO reasons or whatever, but I don't understand why it's put first. I’ve definitely bought books off of pull quotes from authors I like. If it’s a problem I ignore pull quotes from that author in the future, but generally it’s been effective for finding new stuff when I’m just randomly browsing. Particularly in fantasy and sci fi. Can’t imagine caring about review site / publication pull quotes though.
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Sep 23, 2022 23:01
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pradmer posted:The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North - $2.99 Lead out in cuffs posted:A goon gave me this one in a secret Santa, and it is excellent. It's in a bit of a weird place between sci fi and Serious Literature though. Seconding this, it's a good book.
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Sep 23, 2022 23:56
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I hate most of all being in a bookshop and picking up a paperback, turning it over to read the summary, and there are just reviews back there and praise. What's it ABOUT you fucks
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Sep 23, 2022 23:57
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HopperUK posted:I hate most of all being in a bookshop and picking up a paperback, turning it over to read the summary, and there are just reviews back there and praise. What's it ABOUT you fucks Knowing anything about a book other than that it exists is spoilers E you can have the title too I guess
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Sep 24, 2022 00:01
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Everyone posted:YA isn't automatically lovely. The first Red Rising series was pretty good as was Brandon Sanderson's Reckoners trilogy. But I can understand how that style and those tropes can wear on someone's nerves, especially "this specific child/teenager is somehow the bestest person ever at [insert thing important to the setting]." It is also very important that them being the best at that thing has not come up or has not really been a factor in their life until today on page 1.
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Sep 24, 2022 00:05
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withak posted:It is also very important that them being the best at that thing has not come up or has not really been a factor in their life until today on page 1. I will note that that bit was averted in Sanderson's Reckoners series. David Charleston has spent something like the last 10 years (AKA from age 8 to the present) learning as much as he could about various Epics and ferreting out their weaknesses, because 10 years prior an Epic murdered his father. David is still fallible on this and other fronts.
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Sep 24, 2022 00:17
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Katniss in the Hunger Games is well-presented on that front too. Archery was her means of sustenance and survival for years. It's interesting what copycat authors will absorb from a popular book and what they'll ignore.
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Sep 24, 2022 00:18
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Captain Monkey posted:Seconding this, it's a good book. Thirded. Read it in one sitting on a Europe>Australia flight, it's very engaging and readable.
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Sep 24, 2022 00:54
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reckoners is easily the worst thing sanderson has ever written
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Sep 24, 2022 02:21
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The third Scholomance book by Naomi Novik is out - the Golden Enclaves - and I thought it was Pretty Good and a fairly satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. Because it moves out into the proper world it has to throw a lot of detail out fast on stuff that had been more ambiguous in the early books and introduce a number of characters who come and go very quickly. I wonder whether it would have benefitted from being two books instead. But it wraps everything up quite neatly (I suspect some people will think too neatly) and it’s obvious in retrospect how much she was seeding in books 1 and 2 as many disparate things turn out to be more connected than perhaps they appeared early on. (Being super vague as I guessed two of the major revelations shortly before they were spelled out and I wouldn’t want to deprive others of the same satisfaction). I’m happy enough and would enjoy it if she writes a 10 years later second trilogy or something. It was a fast fun read. One non specific spoiler re the plot: El being so powerful throughout - verging on omnipotent - even against groups of expert adult wizards I felt was a weak point, even though we are given a solid explanation for why. It felt like it turned much of the book into her just moving from place to place and waving her hand to fix the relevant issues. It completely lacked the tension from the first two in terms of her being a survivor. I think I wasn’t too bothered by it as clearly the author just didn’t want to spend the story on that stuff - it was all discovery and revelation. Which was OK in terms of answering questions reasonably satisfyingly and wrapping stuff up but did leave the book a bit weaker as a stand alone.
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Sep 24, 2022 02:38
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Blamestorm posted:The third Scholomance book by Naomi Novik is out - the Golden Enclaves You motherfucker. 
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Sep 24, 2022 03:16
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Captain Monkey posted:Seconding this, it's a good book.
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Sep 24, 2022 03:20
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ulmont posted:You motherfucker. Oh weird - Amazon delivered it here in Oz last week.
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Sep 24, 2022 03:22
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ulmont posted:You motherfucker. Blamestorm posted:Oh weird - Amazon delivered it here in Oz last week. Looks like some weird trad pub decisions to me! Paperback was released in Australia on on 20 September 2022, but the hardcover is bizarrely coming out 27 October 2022 which makes no sense, whereas it looks like in the US the ebook, hardcover, and audiobook are getting simultaneous release on 27 September 2022, with no paperback.  I'm sad either way because there's 7 other people ahead of me on the reserve list at my library.
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Sep 24, 2022 04:00
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Leng posted:
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Sep 24, 2022 04:16
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Horizon Burning posted:reckoners is easily the worst thing sanderson has ever written Maybe, but it still isn't unreadable. Here's a YA series that should provoke a slap fight: The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir. It's really really good, but it's also still very much YA.
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Sep 24, 2022 05:50
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I think the only YA thing I've read in the last decade that didn't fall into Trope Hell pretty much immediately was the Bloody Jack series, but then again I am violently biased toward anything that involves florid descriptions of sails and/or cannon operation. The series isn't perfectly free of them, but iirc the MC is just pretty clever and plucky without ever being The Chosen One Reborn or innately great at picking up skills. I guess it may help that the existence of midshipmen gives a historical precedence for putting 12 year olds in harm's way at sea so they've got something to stand on. Started into Nona the Ninth and it's very good and exciting so far, though I think I may need to put on the brakes and either reread Harrow or find a Cliff's notes or something. Between my exceptionally smooth brain and the previous books' convoluted narrative I feel absolutely lost as gently caress.
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Sep 24, 2022 05:53
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Armauk posted:This why I always skip anything remotely YA. Usually I do the same but I've found Frances Hardinge to be very good, especially the Mosca books.
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Sep 24, 2022 06:47
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pradmer posted:The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North - $2.99 can fourth this one, it's excellent
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Sep 24, 2022 06:50
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PupsOfWar posted:I was thinking they were Around in book 1, but remained just sort of mysterious apocalyptic wasteland monsters and weren't revealed as a caliphate bio-weapon until book 2 They weren't a Caliphate bioweapon. The Voynix were robots from an alternate dimension that the global caliphate pulled over and reprogrammed to hunt jews. I know way too much about Illium/Olympos, like how the Islamophobia manages to directly intrude into the main plot and derail one plotline entirely with "And then this main character got radiation poisoning from a caliphate boomer filled with black holes and dies".
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Sep 24, 2022 14:08
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I haven't read a single YA series I haven't thought sucked tbh
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Sep 24, 2022 14:59
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Patricia Wrede’s Enchanted Forest series is one of the best fantasy series ever written and it’s YA. Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen Thief to a lesser extent as well.
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Sep 24, 2022 15:06
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Doktor Avalanche posted:Usually I do the same but I've found Frances Hardinge to be very good, especially the Mosca books. Yeah, Hardinge and Ursula Vernon/T Kingfisher are the best ways to scratch a Diana Wynne Jones/Joan Aiken juveniles-shaped itch.
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Sep 24, 2022 15:35
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ShutteredIn posted:Patricia Wrede’s Enchanted Forest series is one of the best fantasy series ever written and it’s YA. Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen Thief to a lesser extent as well. I'm considering taking a crack at Leigh Bardugo's "Grishaverse" stuff because her The Ninth House was really good.
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Sep 24, 2022 15:37
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Larry Parrish posted:I haven't read a single YA series I haven't thought sucked tbh Earthsea.
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Sep 24, 2022 15:57
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ShutteredIn posted:Patricia Wrede’s Enchanted Forest series is one of the best fantasy series ever written and it’s YA. Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen Thief to a lesser extent as well. I love dealing with dragons! Diana Wynne Jones has some really good ones too.
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Sep 24, 2022 16:12
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Enchanted Forest is middle grade not YA, right?
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Sep 24, 2022 16:48
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