Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
I finished off Walkaways. Was it recommended here? I can't remember
It reminded me a great deal of Atlas Shrugged in the way it presents an ideology as good and just and all others as evil. Also it has the same magic science machines that solve scarcity
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Man, I'm about 85% of the way through Embassytown, and I have some serious respect for Mieville.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
I finished off Walkaways. Was it recommended here? I can't remember
It reminded me a great deal of Atlas Shrugged in the way it presents an ideology as good and just and all others as evil. Also it has the same magic science machines that solve scarcity
I just couldn't hook into this at all. For me, It felt like him writing a fanfic set in one of William Gibson's worlds. That sounds overly critical, which is unfair. It just didn't do it for me personally.
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
Seven Forges is some generic fantasy trash, but in the best way it can be. It's predictable and shallow and devoid of characterisation and yet I just bought the second book (sadly, not called Eight Forges).
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Man, Annihilation is kind of a weird book. Not sure if I'm going to bother with the sequels.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
I blazed through every Brandon Sanderson Cosmere-connected book (Elantris, Warbreaker, Mistborn series, Wax and Wayne, the three books of The Stormlight Archive, the novellas...) in the last month, and now I just want more huge interconnected stories.
Man, Annihilation is kind of a weird book. Not sure if I'm going to bother with the sequels.
YOU SHOULD AS THEY ARE ALL DIFFERENT
Different subject matter, but same weirdness. I really liked the series, but if he bounced off Annihilation then stopping seems pretty reasonable.
Yup, if you didn't get fully in the tank after book 1, the other 2 will not improve for you. I dug the whole batch, but I think 1 was the strongest standalone experience.
Finished the broken earth trilogy while out in the cottage and it was pretty great. I really enjoy Jemisins writing, and her worldbuilding is incredible. Not too obtuse, but still letting it happen somewhat organically through the book.
And the flashback chapters in the third book were great, getting more and more sinister as they ground towards the inevitable ending.
Finished reading The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, and I have to say that while the setting and characters were pretty neat, the plot and the reveal at the end were kinda eh? I'm still not exactly sure what the reveal was supposed to mean. The author got much too hung up in making a whole new dictionary of terms to remember that the story is what matters.
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
Man, Annihilation is kind of a weird book. Not sure if I'm going to bother with the sequels.
YOU SHOULD AS THEY ARE ALL DIFFERENT
Different subject matter, but same weirdness. I really liked the series, but if he bounced off Annihilation then stopping seems pretty reasonable.
I mean, I didn't bounce, it just didn't really resolve.
I've put the next one on hold, as its a short enough book, and I might as well give it a try. I'm trying to put my finger on what about it bothered me, and I think it might just be that I'm coming to this stuff from a hard scifi kick, and so it feels a little loose.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
If you somehow don't know who that is by now, well you're in for a treat.
Is there anything to his work for someone who is into absurdist humor but not so much into gay erotica? Asking for a friend.
As someone who isn't particularly aroused by gay erotica, his stories are still pretty amusing. I don't know that I would read more than one or two, but Bigfoot Sommelier Butt Tasting was totally worth reading.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
I read the Gardner Dozois collection of best sci-fi short stories from 2016, and these 3 were my favorite if you were, I dunno, maybe a little preoccupied that year Touring with the Alien by Carolyn Gilman Probably the best story in the collection. In the present day, a professional driver takes a mysterious alien and its strange human handler around the US countryside, and she discovers more than she was expecting about the aliens and herself. One Sister, Two Sisters, Three by James Kelly Two sisters sell cookies and trinkets to tourists of the ruins of a long gone civilization, but their lives change when one of them finds a connection with a visiting academic. A beautifully rendered story of sibling rivalry and cultural conflict. Patience Lake by Matthew Claxton A fairly straightforward story, but the execution makes it engaging. Set in near future Canada, a homeless cyborg (and Army veteran) is just trying to survive, but he finds himself obligated to help a family that helped him.
Runner Up: Checkerboard Planet by Eleanor Arnason A few painful cliches aside (the lengthy description of the protagonist's embedded AI hacking the interwebs was severe "what year is it?"), this was a neat idea about investigating a planet with a very strange ecology.
Man, Annihilation is kind of a weird book. Not sure if I'm going to bother with the sequels.
YOU SHOULD AS THEY ARE ALL DIFFERENT
Different subject matter, but same weirdness. I really liked the series, but if he bounced off Annihilation then stopping seems pretty reasonable.
I mean, I didn't bounce, it just didn't really resolve.
I've put the next one on hold, as its a short enough book, and I might as well give it a try. I'm trying to put my finger on what about it bothered me, and I think it might just be that I'm coming to this stuff from a hard scifi kick, and so it feels a little loose.
Yeah if you're looking for full resolutions and explanations you'll probably be disappointed by the series.
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Man, Annihilation is kind of a weird book. Not sure if I'm going to bother with the sequels.
YOU SHOULD AS THEY ARE ALL DIFFERENT
Different subject matter, but same weirdness. I really liked the series, but if he bounced off Annihilation then stopping seems pretty reasonable.
I mean, I didn't bounce, it just didn't really resolve.
I've put the next one on hold, as its a short enough book, and I might as well give it a try. I'm trying to put my finger on what about it bothered me, and I think it might just be that I'm coming to this stuff from a hard scifi kick, and so it feels a little loose.
Yeah if you're looking for full resolutions and explanations you'll probably be disappointed by the series.
I mean, The City & The City left the operation of the Cities and the Breach somewhat in question, but the story itself at least had a solid resolution. We'll see, I'll at least read Authority.
I really wish my library had the 3rd Ninefox Gambit book in e-book format.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
knitdanIn ur baseKillin ur guysRegistered Userregular
Picked up Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse, and Missoula by Jon Krakauer.
The first one because it’s been getting a lot of buzz around these parts, and the second one because I’m interested in the subject matter (the long term coverup by Missoula police of sexual assaults connected to the University of Montana football program). It came out in 2015 but somehow I missed it on my radar.
“I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
edited July 2018
Apparently I missed that there was a new Expanse novel (came out the end of last year, just didn't catch it), I am excite.
No holds on the eBook, today is coming up aces.
And my library finally got an e-copy of Revenant Gun for me to request.
Brody on
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
I looked up a book of Christina Rossetti poems with a fantastic cover illustration that caught my eye a while back, only to find out that it's out of print:
But then I thought to check Amazon, and they had a relatively inexpensive used version, in "very good" condition, so I got that.
Finished reading The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, and I have to say that while the setting and characters were pretty neat, the plot and the reveal at the end were kinda eh? I'm still not exactly sure what the reveal was supposed to mean. The author got much too hung up in making a whole new dictionary of terms to remember that the story is what matters.
It's more of an old dictionary, really. Lots of Russian philosophy and cosmism going on. But at least in that book I could understand most stuff, things in The Fractal Prince got even more obscure.
Finished reading The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, and I have to say that while the setting and characters were pretty neat, the plot and the reveal at the end were kinda eh? I'm still not exactly sure what the reveal was supposed to mean. The author got much too hung up in making a whole new dictionary of terms to remember that the story is what matters.
It's more of an old dictionary, really. Lots of Russian philosophy and cosmism going on. But at least in that book I could understand most stuff, things in The Fractal Prince got even more obscure.
does that deeper background into the ideas associated with the terminology give you a better inside into what's happening? Is Gogol much more than a name drop?
the series deal with enough stuff I haven't really seen much before that i didn't mind the jargon too much. but I used to be a serious weab. that's water off a duck's back.
For me it did a decent enough job describing the stuff that that the events and motivations were something i felt i had a good handle on the second time through. and I freaking love posthuman world building.
Finished reading The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, and I have to say that while the setting and characters were pretty neat, the plot and the reveal at the end were kinda eh? I'm still not exactly sure what the reveal was supposed to mean. The author got much too hung up in making a whole new dictionary of terms to remember that the story is what matters.
It's more of an old dictionary, really. Lots of Russian philosophy and cosmism going on. But at least in that book I could understand most stuff, things in The Fractal Prince got even more obscure.
Ah, that is why it sounded like Greek to me. I got some of the references, like Gogol, but it took some work. Maybe if I read it and saw the words, it might have helped more, instead of listening to it on audiobook. I'm still not sure what happened in the finale:
with the bullets and the memories of people that weren't actually people (maybe they were created AIs? I'm not sure) and Jean's "double" but not actually his double in the needle. Was he the "real" Jean and the Jean we were following throughout the book a copy? I was super confused by this.
So, if you're up for it, I'd be grateful for any explanations.
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
Finished reading The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, and I have to say that while the setting and characters were pretty neat, the plot and the reveal at the end were kinda eh? I'm still not exactly sure what the reveal was supposed to mean. The author got much too hung up in making a whole new dictionary of terms to remember that the story is what matters.
It's more of an old dictionary, really. Lots of Russian philosophy and cosmism going on. But at least in that book I could understand most stuff, things in The Fractal Prince got even more obscure.
Ah, that is why it sounded like Greek to me. I got some of the references, like Gogol, but it took some work. Maybe if I read it and saw the words, it might have helped more, instead of listening to it on audiobook. I'm still not sure what happened in the finale:
with the bullets and the memories of people that weren't actually people (maybe they were created AIs? I'm not sure) and Jean's "double" but not actually his double in the needle. Was he the "real" Jean and the Jean we were following throughout the book a copy? I was super confused by this.
So, if you're up for it, I'd be grateful for any explanations.
Been a while and no promises I really understood it perfectly but:
The bullets were linked to the Time storage devices of his friends. Firing them totally erased all the memories and converted those people, who were Jean's friends when he was around Mars the first time, into Quiet and they would never return to being people. The important thing to understand is that those memories only exist in the mainframe equivalents. Firing them basically erases the people who were his friends completely. Jean is not really a nice guy despite how much the book makes you like him.
"Real" Jean is going to get into huge problems. It isn't really clear in QT but it looks like Jean is sorta like the Sobernost but on a much smaller scale. He has been copied many times and versions exist of him all over. There are probably thousands of him still in the Dilemma prison for example. The "other" Jean in QT was another branch of him that had established himself as the secret ruler of Mars awhile ago and the "real" Jean that we follow was split from him or at least those memories before that happened.
What the "real" anyone is in the book is an open question since so many folks have been copied/edited or outsource their memories. Well except for Meili until the end of the book.
MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
I needed something light and fun to take my mind off the endless hopeless doom, and I found a book by Catherynne Valente, Space Opera.
Think of it as Douglas Adams does Space Eurovision. That kinda gives you the idea. After the terrible catastrophic war that wiped out planets and species and nearly destroyed intergalactic civilization, the only way the disparate survivors could figure out to come together and resolve their differences was by over-the-top music competitions. Thus, the way for newly discovered species to join is to not come in last place in the competition - shows that they're compatible enough with everyone else. Fail, and the species is entirely erased to prevent another war and allow some other organism from their world a chance to not be as terrible in a few million years.
And so, just after First Contact, it's time to sing for the survival of the human race.
I needed something light and fun to take my mind off the endless hopeless doom, and I found a book by Catherynne Valente, Space Opera.
Think of it as Douglas Adams does Space Eurovision. That kinda gives you the idea. After the terrible catastrophic war that wiped out planets and species and nearly destroyed intergalactic civilization, the only way the disparate survivors could figure out to come together and resolve their differences was by over-the-top music competitions. Thus, the way for newly discovered species to join is to not come in last place in the competition - shows that they're compatible enough with everyone else. Fail, and the species is entirely erased to prevent another war and allow some other organism from their world a chance to not be as terrible in a few million years.
And so, just after First Contact, it's time to sing for the survival of the human race.
I needed something light and fun to take my mind off the endless hopeless doom, and I found a book by Catherynne Valente, Space Opera.
Think of it as Douglas Adams does Space Eurovision. That kinda gives you the idea. After the terrible catastrophic war that wiped out planets and species and nearly destroyed intergalactic civilization, the only way the disparate survivors could figure out to come together and resolve their differences was by over-the-top music competitions. Thus, the way for newly discovered species to join is to not come in last place in the competition - shows that they're compatible enough with everyone else. Fail, and the species is entirely erased to prevent another war and allow some other organism from their world a chance to not be as terrible in a few million years.
And so, just after First Contact, it's time to sing for the survival of the human race.
I bought this thinking it'd recapture the magic of Adams, but I only got about a quarter of the way through it (I think it was where the aliens first showed up and described their Eurovision contest). I think it may be just my mood, but I just couldn't get into it, especially since it was highly recommended from several sources. I dunno, I might give it another chance later this summer.
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
Alex Thomson’s ‘Death of a Clone’ is rather fun - a eco-fi murder mystery with some nuanced thoughts on cloning, and the risks people will take for access to resources. The central mystery is well constructed and an explicit callback to Christie-style tropes, but there’s some poignantly constructed emotional work here too.
Reading The Vagrant by Peter Newman. I've never read any Cormac McCarthy, but this is how I imagine the tone is in both Blood Meridian and, more relevant, The Road. The book is very much in the same vein as The Road, except instead of a father and a son it's a mute man, a baby and a goat. It's not big on dialogue.
Reading The Vagrant by Peter Newman. I've never read any Cormac McCarthy, but this is how I imagine the tone is in both Blood Meridian and, more relevant, The Road. The book is very much in the same vein as The Road, except instead of a father and a son it's a mute man, a baby and a goat. It's not big on dialogue.
The Vagrant and other books in the series gave off a real Warhammer 40k vibe although slightly more optimistic.
Posts
It reminded me a great deal of Atlas Shrugged in the way it presents an ideology as good and just and all others as evil. Also it has the same magic science machines that solve scarcity
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Also, as I recall from all the drama around Cons and such, kind of a sexist dickhole.
I just couldn't hook into this at all. For me, It felt like him writing a fanfic set in one of William Gibson's worlds. That sounds overly critical, which is unfair. It just didn't do it for me personally.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
YOU SHOULD AS THEY ARE ALL DIFFERENT
Different subject matter, but same weirdness. I really liked the series, but if he bounced off Annihilation then stopping seems pretty reasonable.
Yup, if you didn't get fully in the tank after book 1, the other 2 will not improve for you. I dug the whole batch, but I think 1 was the strongest standalone experience.
And the flashback chapters in the third book were great, getting more and more sinister as they ground towards the inevitable ending.
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/chuck-tingle-books
If you somehow don't know who that is by now, well you're in for a treat.
I mean, I didn't bounce, it just didn't really resolve.
I've put the next one on hold, as its a short enough book, and I might as well give it a try. I'm trying to put my finger on what about it bothered me, and I think it might just be that I'm coming to this stuff from a hard scifi kick, and so it feels a little loose.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Is there anything to his work for someone who is into absurdist humor but not so much into gay erotica? Asking for a friend.
As someone who isn't particularly aroused by gay erotica, his stories are still pretty amusing. I don't know that I would read more than one or two, but Bigfoot Sommelier Butt Tasting was totally worth reading.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
Touring with the Alien by Carolyn Gilman Probably the best story in the collection. In the present day, a professional driver takes a mysterious alien and its strange human handler around the US countryside, and she discovers more than she was expecting about the aliens and herself.
One Sister, Two Sisters, Three by James Kelly Two sisters sell cookies and trinkets to tourists of the ruins of a long gone civilization, but their lives change when one of them finds a connection with a visiting academic. A beautifully rendered story of sibling rivalry and cultural conflict.
Patience Lake by Matthew Claxton A fairly straightforward story, but the execution makes it engaging. Set in near future Canada, a homeless cyborg (and Army veteran) is just trying to survive, but he finds himself obligated to help a family that helped him.
Runner Up: Checkerboard Planet by Eleanor Arnason A few painful cliches aside (the lengthy description of the protagonist's embedded AI hacking the interwebs was severe "what year is it?"), this was a neat idea about investigating a planet with a very strange ecology.
Yeah if you're looking for full resolutions and explanations you'll probably be disappointed by the series.
I mean, The City & The City left the operation of the Cities and the Breach somewhat in question, but the story itself at least had a solid resolution. We'll see, I'll at least read Authority.
I really wish my library had the 3rd Ninefox Gambit book in e-book format.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
The first one because it’s been getting a lot of buzz around these parts, and the second one because I’m interested in the subject matter (the long term coverup by Missoula police of sexual assaults connected to the University of Montana football program). It came out in 2015 but somehow I missed it on my radar.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
No holds on the eBook, today is coming up aces.
And my library finally got an e-copy of Revenant Gun for me to request.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
-
I looked up a book of Christina Rossetti poems with a fantastic cover illustration that caught my eye a while back, only to find out that it's out of print:
But then I thought to check Amazon, and they had a relatively inexpensive used version, in "very good" condition, so I got that.
It's more of an old dictionary, really. Lots of Russian philosophy and cosmism going on. But at least in that book I could understand most stuff, things in The Fractal Prince got even more obscure.
does that deeper background into the ideas associated with the terminology give you a better inside into what's happening? Is Gogol much more than a name drop?
the series deal with enough stuff I haven't really seen much before that i didn't mind the jargon too much. but I used to be a serious weab. that's water off a duck's back.
For me it did a decent enough job describing the stuff that that the events and motivations were something i felt i had a good handle on the second time through. and I freaking love posthuman world building.
cool article
however I recommend both blood meridian and the sisters brothers >:[
Ah, that is why it sounded like Greek to me. I got some of the references, like Gogol, but it took some work. Maybe if I read it and saw the words, it might have helped more, instead of listening to it on audiobook. I'm still not sure what happened in the finale:
So, if you're up for it, I'd be grateful for any explanations.
I really liked Slaughterhouse-Five.
I'm down with all those
Ain't nothing wrong with reading ALL the books
Been a while and no promises I really understood it perfectly but:
"Real" Jean is going to get into huge problems. It isn't really clear in QT but it looks like Jean is sorta like the Sobernost but on a much smaller scale. He has been copied many times and versions exist of him all over. There are probably thousands of him still in the Dilemma prison for example. The "other" Jean in QT was another branch of him that had established himself as the secret ruler of Mars awhile ago and the "real" Jean that we follow was split from him or at least those memories before that happened.
What the "real" anyone is in the book is an open question since so many folks have been copied/edited or outsource their memories. Well except for Meili until the end of the book.
Think of it as Douglas Adams does Space Eurovision. That kinda gives you the idea. After the terrible catastrophic war that wiped out planets and species and nearly destroyed intergalactic civilization, the only way the disparate survivors could figure out to come together and resolve their differences was by over-the-top music competitions. Thus, the way for newly discovered species to join is to not come in last place in the competition - shows that they're compatible enough with everyone else. Fail, and the species is entirely erased to prevent another war and allow some other organism from their world a chance to not be as terrible in a few million years.
And so, just after First Contact, it's time to sing for the survival of the human race.
wasn't this a rick and morty episode
I bought this thinking it'd recapture the magic of Adams, but I only got about a quarter of the way through it (I think it was where the aliens first showed up and described their Eurovision contest). I think it may be just my mood, but I just couldn't get into it, especially since it was highly recommended from several sources. I dunno, I might give it another chance later this summer.
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Yeah I got my threads turned around there! (Although there are some moments in Death of a Clone which are...wrenching).
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
The Vagrant and other books in the series gave off a real Warhammer 40k vibe although slightly more optimistic.
Yeah, I'm a third through it and it definitely has some 40k vibes set on some backwater shithole of an Empire planet, but less over the top.