SF & F Mega-thread: I had to google 'spock pirate depilatory'

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > SF & F Mega-thread: I had to google 'spock pirate depilatory'

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

Anyone read the sequel to The Sparrow? I went through it a few months back and it was heavy enough that I wanted to digest it before thinking about moving forward with the next one. I'm still on the fence about continuing although I almost feel obligated to...almost.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2020 22:20

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 17:48

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

Black Griffon posted:

I was just gonna ask about The Luminous Dead and The Collapsing Empire. I seem to remember the first one being mentioned when we talked about sci-fi horror, and I thought the second one seemed interesting. Any impressions?

The Collapsing Empire is somewhat decent "popcorn" lit but the last book's ending is some of the worst trash imaginable.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2020 03:08

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

eke out posted:

i just looked up what this was and it's totally wild that OSC was doing a whole act making fun of evangelical preachers in the 80s

when exactly did his brain completely break, was it 9/11?

The Homecoming saga was in the early 90's so if anything the seeds were already planted long before that.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2020 20:37

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

jng2058 posted:

So....Sanderson.

Personally, I'm mixed on his writing. I think he did as well as anyone could have with the nearly impossible task of finishing Wheel of Time, and almost certainly better than the other candidate for the job, George R.R. Martin, would have. For one thing, he actually got the books written, which is more than we can say for George in the last several years. There are things I quibble with in his WoT writing choices, and he's admitted that he had trouble getting some of the characters right, especially in The Gathering Storm, but on the whole he did a good job and gave us a satisfying ending. Certainly better than if WoT had just stopped at Knife of Dreams!

It's his writing on his own projects that gives me trouble. I bounced off The Way of Kings hard the first time I tried to read it years ago, and when I picked up the audiobook this year, I got farther into it but still stalled and ended up listening to other things. It's still there on my phone, taunting me every time I open Audible.

But for all that, I don't see any reason to dislike the man himself. Have you seen his YouTube channel? He's giving away an entire college class in writing fantasy and science fiction for free to anyone who wants to watch it. Sure beats paying a couple hundred bucks to Masterclass for that kind of education!

So yeah, he seems like a chill dude who works hard and is generous with his time. That I'm having trouble with some of his work doesn't mean I should dislike the guy.

Naw he is a legit good dude. Shame about his writing being utter trash but there are some good bits here and there. By trash I mean digestible shlock as I look at Sanderson kinda how I look at the marvel movies. I will say I disagree about the impossibility of finishing WoT as tons of it was already complete with copious notes. I feel like any published writer could have finished it and honestly someone who understands characterization would have been a far better pick.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2020 21:17

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

buffalo all day posted:

this is a case of your brain working as intended

i remember enjoying way of kings well enough, then when i read the second book a couple years later I finished it but had mixed feelings, then i got about fifty pages into the third book two years after that, had no idea what was going on, and haven't come back since. there's no way I'm re-reading any of this

Yeah it seems like these books are great if you are really into the whole Sanderson universe. You get all these cool epiphanies and tangential lore but someone who's trying to read it like the Wheel of Time might be a little lost. I tapped out mid way through book 4 for much the same reason as you in three. Maybe when it's a complete series it will be something to work on but I'll pass until then.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2021 18:06

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

Dragonshirt posted:

Are there any new, good "adventuring party" style sword and sorcery books? WotC don't publish anything without Drizzt on the cover.

Kings of the Wyld is basically exactly that and is fairly new.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30841984-kings-of-the-wyld

# ¿ Feb 17, 2021 02:16

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

Invalid Validation posted:

Guess I�m looking for something more that tone but newer? Fantasy preferred.

A Land Fit for Heroes, the trilogy by Richard K. Morgan might work

# ¿ Apr 9, 2021 06:20

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

Sheriff Falc posted:

My personal favourite was Bakkers 'elves' (ie Nonmen), which [spoiler]

Which is funny because that bit is a complete rip off of Viriconium.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2021 15:09

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

The commonweal is like gardens of the moon, in that you have no idea what the gently caress is going on but if you go back after 5 books everything is understandable. Only it is 10 times worse in that regards compared to the first malazan.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2021 18:45

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

Kesper North posted:

Alternatively please don't because Brust is a loving creep who got tossed out of the 4th Street writers group for stalking and harrassing a friend of mine (and others)

sorry about your friend, but im still going to read his books. since where else can i find disgustingly gratuitous descriptions of feasts? im too old for redwall i think

# ¿ Aug 13, 2021 05:12

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

This is about the only place I even hear anything about women genre writers. Publicity and word of mouth seem pretty important, and it seems like they just don't get much spotlight. If someone has a good resource to rectify that I'm all ears, but just saying read women author's isn't that helpful imo.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2021 17:54

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

SEX HAVER 40000 posted:

so i am 100% going to read gormenghast, but wpuld love to speed through something a little less dense first. i'm a huge fan of moorcock's novels, black company, and the book of the new sun. recently finished and greatly enjoyed canticle for leibowitz. any recommendations?

i also recentoy read mistborn and it was too quippy for me--i've never liked "cool" modern dialogue in fantasy.

The Gap Cycle by Donaldson is an easy and lighthearted space romp.

# ¿ Sep 18, 2021 04:15

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

Cardiac posted:

Too bad all that fluff is in a book which is utterly boring. It is like the author thought that a storyline is not needed compared to world building, making Sanderson appear as Dostoyevsky in comparison. I have read RPG manuals with better stories.

Oh, and the amount of effort put into promoting a self published author here is fascinating.

Having a reasoned discussion about a series of books that are infamously hard to parse isn't promotion. You might just be a dick!

# ¿ Oct 15, 2021 21:21

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

darkgray posted:

I've only made it through three arcs so far, but could you pretty please tell me if the staring ever lets up?

There's literally a dozen "stared" every chapter, sometimes reaching over 30, and it's, well, a little grating after a while.

Yes, but only in the last year or so has stuff like that improved. She started doing work days before releasing instead of just vomiting up 30k words in a binge that could be edited down to 15k.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2021 22:53

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

fez_machine posted:

There's two threads for this type of poo poo. Take it to the place where people want to read about it.

?

It may be based on a web serial, but it is is being published as a fantasy book series now. Doesn't look like it is available through kindle unlimited, so it wouldn't belong there either.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2021 00:09

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

Cicero posted:

The degree of hateboner some people have for Sanderson will never cease to amaze me

It�s worse than that. He answered it in detail. What kind of monster would do such a thing?

Not really hate but his epic doorstop series is the only one where each novel becomes more and more incomprehensible. The callouts to other works of his seem to increase exponentially volume by volume to the point that I didn't even bother finishing RoW. Not telling a story in the actual book I'm reading is a point I'm not willing to cross.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2021 13:48

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

Aardvark! posted:

can anyone recommend some lesser known one-offs or series that feature aliens, preferably not just being murdered by humans?

I'm reading the Damned trilogy by Alan Dean Foster right now and I really like everything with alien culture differences but I'm meh on the humans being the Only Ones Barbaric Enough To Wage War stuff

I've read a lot in the category, my favorite sci-fi series of all time is the Culture books, for example, hence trying to find less known stuff. Thanks!!!!

E: To try and think of some I've read that others probably haven't, one that comes to mind is John Scalzi's The Android's Dream, which I liked better than his Old Man's War stuff but never see mentioned anywhere.

No one ever reads Shikasta.

Fifth Head of Cerebus by Wolfe is one of my better reads on the topic of "aliens" as well.

shirunei fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Jan 25, 2022

# ¿ Jan 25, 2022 02:22

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

BlankSystemDaemon posted:

Are there any scifi books (or preferably series) that start out with hard science fiction and build on it with the people inventing things that build on hard science fiction principles but get more and more far-future with everything from FTL and/or wormholes?

Literally the_expanse.txt

# ¿ Mar 31, 2022 20:17

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

SSJ_naruto_2003 posted:

He got a lot better at writing as time went on and stuff like Running With the Demon, which is the pre apocalypse of his world, I remember liking.

His mid-career stuff really isn't too terrible, but I couldn't get past anything he has put out in the last 10 or so years.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2022 02:43

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

HopperUK posted:

I'm not dragging you here - a *lot* of people say his prose is really good and I think it's godawful. Is there an example of a bit you thought was really well written? I am not trying to be a dickhead. I haven't read the whole book. I dipped after a chapter or two because I could not get into the writing.

That's because the people saying that only read scifi/fantasy, so when they get hit by his purple garbage they think to themselves "Wow, never seen anything like that!!!!!"

# ¿ Aug 28, 2022 20:13

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

Drakyn posted:

I can't believe the slanderous inaccuracy of this nonsense.
The robots forced her to have a hysterectomy _{and threw her baby off a roof}

These may or may not have been some of the earliest books I hazily realized were Not Good even as I read them.

Yeah there is definitely this crystal clear moment where when I was reading one of those fail-son sequels that the fact of no longer having to read a book just because I started it flashed as an immutable truth in my mind. So, not a complete waste of time if you are a literal 10 year old I guess.

# ¿ Sep 2, 2022 03:14

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

leekster posted:

Is there a website that is good for recommendations or a list of recommendations somewhere? I want to start reading some SFF that is preferably good and not schlock. Most lists you get from googling seem to be filled with some very boring stuff.

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3900237&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=2

# ¿ Sep 18, 2022 19:17

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

Kestral posted:

Sci-fi fans, any suggestions for books that prominently feature encounters with / survival in profoundly alien ecosystems? I've started watching Scavengers Reign, which I can only describe as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind meets Akira as drawn by Moebius, and I'm now craving some literary depictions of seriously weird and hostile ecosystems that aren't just set dressing to human drama, but which actually drive the story.

Any length is fine too! Novel, novella, short story, whatever works.

Chtorr

# ¿ Nov 2, 2023 02:49

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

mllaneza posted:

I love these books. There are, however, big huge major content warnings that should get slapped all over it. The whole world is legitimately mentally ill, including the protagonist. People die in horrifying ways and in even more horrifying quantities. Some legitimately wrong sexual things happen. The end of the world and of Homo sapiens as a species is on the horizon and terrifyingly close.

That said, it's one of the finest pieces of world building work ever done with an honestly compelling plot.

The biggest reason to beware these books is that the series will never be finished.

Yeah thanks for adding that!

The Genocides by Thomas M Disch also needs a big content warning, for I think gross sex stuff, but again it's compelling if you can roll with the depravity of an apocalypse.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2023 17:22

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

Like 20 percent through Exordia and it's like Bakker but irl. Without the rapey crap so far! Whether being like Bakker is an insult or compliment I'll leave to your discretion.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2024 17:27

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

Confusedslight posted:

With everything going on *gestures broadly at the world
I'm after a very light read. Can be sci fi or fantasy but the main thing I'm after is something not heavy at all. If anybody has any recommendations that would be very much appreciated!!

The Gap cycle by Steven Donaldson is a nice palette sensitizer.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2024 07:35

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

Just finished Europe in Autumn based on the thread's recommendation. Really enjoyed the first two-thirds, but the plot twist kind of left me feeling cold. I would have much rather been toasty just having the protagonist rolling around getting into courier hijinks while exploring brokeurope. I'm guessing the rest of the series leans in even heavier on the ending premise?

# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 05:25

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 17:48

shirunei: Sep 7, 2018; I tried to run away. To take the easy way out. I'll live through the suffering. When I die, I want to feel like I did my best.

AARD VARKMAN posted:

I also finished this yesterday. As far as espionage goes I thought the pre-SF twist stuff was sometimes good when it was about pure spy craft, but also kinda dragged for me. possibly because my limited knowledge of German and Polish geography/politics meant the setting may as well have been a real life generic 60s european spy setting

then the twist happens, but the twist is more like the first pages of a completely different series. It definitely changes the stakes, so I started the second book to see how or if it ties it all back to the spy stuff in a satisfying way

I got through a bit of the second book and it definitely helps how disconnected it feels from the first while you still kind of understand the broad strokes of what's happening. Gives it room to breathe life into the "twist". Super recommend this to anyone who needs a good series(so far!)to burn.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 23:23

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > SF & F Mega-thread: I had to google 'spock pirate depilatory'