Anyways. I'm reading the Divine cities Trilogy right now
Kind of turn of the century era colonialism in a world where there used to be supremely magic gods who were killed.
It is so good.
Also, really appreciate how the languages and cultures of the world draw from Slavic and Indian (well, mostly just phonotactics for names tbh) instead of being the 10000th fantasy Britain.
Also also, it's interesting how it's sort of double colonialism - the pseudo slavic culture used to brutally oppress the rest of the world with their living gods as a sort of magic WMDs, until the pseudo-Indian culture killed all the gods with advanced technology and then proceeded to colonize the colonizers.
Some interesting stuff in there about how liberators turn into new imperialists, cycles of violence etc.
Speaking of books with cultures of the non-generic-fantasy persuasion and gods, Daniel Abrahams's The Long Price Quartet is really good. It takes place in a fairly distinctly non-western culture that controls these all-powerful god-like creatures called andat (and are themselves the last remaining colonies of the great empire that first learned to harness those things and ended up imploding in some insane war because of them) and explores the ways in which the existence of the andat shapes their society and those around them and also a bunch of other stuff and it's really good and everyone should read it. First book is A Shadow in Summer.
Just started A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. It's the story of an ambassador for a hinterlands space station assuming her new job at the capital planet of the empire of Space Aztecs. Urbane Space Aztecs, in fact, who are more into poetry than human sacrifice. Promising so far. Anything with Space Ambassadors awakens my hunger for CJ Cherryh-esque close third-person cultural collision psychodrama.
If, like me, you're also into Space Aztecs (urbane or otherwise) you should read Thomas Harlan's In the Time of the Sixth Sun series. Outstanding world building with a high degree of Aztec verisimilitude set in galaxy with existentially dangerous elder/precursor aliens.
I've never been in the situation where I'm not able to read a book I want to because there isn't an English translation of it--because how would I know about that book--but as I finish the Ice Trilogy by Vladimir Sorokin, I'm looking at his wikipedia page, and the translator I like has only translated 2 of his other books (and I read them); his first book was translated by someone else, so I'll probably buy that, and then no one has translated any of his other works into English...am I seriously going to be forced to go onto amazon.ru or whatever and then read with a dictionary on hand? I have read a couple novels in russian before but it's so hard because I am definitely not fluent.
But I might have to, because I am desperate to read everything else by this author!
Steam, LoL: credeiki
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
I've never been in the situation where I'm not able to read a book I want to because there isn't an English translation of it--because how would I know about that book--but as I finish the Ice Trilogy by Vladimir Sorokin, I'm looking at his wikipedia page, and the translator I like has only translated 2 of his other books (and I read them); his first book was translated by someone else, so I'll probably buy that, and then no one has translated any of his other works into English...am I seriously going to be forced to go onto amazon.ru or whatever and then read with a dictionary on hand? I have read a couple novels in russian before but it's so hard because I am definitely not fluent.
But I might have to, because I am desperate to read everything else by this author!
Well, maybe it will increase your fluency. That certainly can't hurt any future background checks, right?
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've never been in the situation where I'm not able to read a book I want to because there isn't an English translation of it--because how would I know about that book--but as I finish the Ice Trilogy by Vladimir Sorokin, I'm looking at his wikipedia page, and the translator I like has only translated 2 of his other books (and I read them); his first book was translated by someone else, so I'll probably buy that, and then no one has translated any of his other works into English...am I seriously going to be forced to go onto amazon.ru or whatever and then read with a dictionary on hand? I have read a couple novels in russian before but it's so hard because I am definitely not fluent.
But I might have to, because I am desperate to read everything else by this author!
Well, maybe it will increase your fluency. That certainly can't hurt any future background checks, right?
pshh, the government already knows I'm a Russian major. The State Department funded a 2-month intensive summer language program for me in Russia 10 years ago! All above board, I have no foreign preference, etc etc
And yeah, my fluency will definitely go up, especially reading something contemporary and interestingly styled instead of the 19th century stuff I read before. And having a phone dictionary is way better than my broken paper one.
Steam, LoL: credeiki
+4
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jakobaggerLO THY DREAD EMPIRE CHAOS IS RESTOREDRegistered Userregular
I've never been in the situation where I'm not able to read a book I want to because there isn't an English translation of it--because how would I know about that book--but as I finish the Ice Trilogy by Vladimir Sorokin, I'm looking at his wikipedia page, and the translator I like has only translated 2 of his other books (and I read them); his first book was translated by someone else, so I'll probably buy that, and then no one has translated any of his other works into English...am I seriously going to be forced to go onto amazon.ru or whatever and then read with a dictionary on hand? I have read a couple novels in russian before but it's so hard because I am definitely not fluent.
But I might have to, because I am desperate to read everything else by this author!
Well, maybe it will increase your fluency. That certainly can't hurt any future background checks, right?
pshh, the government already knows I'm a Russian major. The State Department funded a 2-month intensive summer language program for me in Russia 10 years ago! All above board, I have no foreign preference, etc etc
And yeah, my fluency will definitely go up, especially reading something contemporary and interestingly styled instead of the 19th century stuff I read before. And having a phone dictionary is way better than my broken paper one.
I've never been in the situation where I'm not able to read a book I want to because there isn't an English translation of it--because how would I know about that book--but as I finish the Ice Trilogy by Vladimir Sorokin, I'm looking at his wikipedia page, and the translator I like has only translated 2 of his other books (and I read them); his first book was translated by someone else, so I'll probably buy that, and then no one has translated any of his other works into English...am I seriously going to be forced to go onto amazon.ru or whatever and then read with a dictionary on hand? I have read a couple novels in russian before but it's so hard because I am definitely not fluent.
But I might have to, because I am desperate to read everything else by this author!
Well, maybe it will increase your fluency. That certainly can't hurt any future background checks, right?
pshh, the government already knows I'm a Russian major. The State Department funded a 2-month intensive summer language program for me in Russia 10 years ago! All above board, I have no foreign preference, etc etc
And yeah, my fluency will definitely go up, especially reading something contemporary and interestingly styled instead of the 19th century stuff I read before. And having a phone dictionary is way better than my broken paper one.
>only having one Russian dictionary, smh
I have a second one but it's specifically a mat' dictionary.
...which actually might be useful for these books; they curse a lot.
Steam, LoL: credeiki
+1
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jakobaggerLO THY DREAD EMPIRE CHAOS IS RESTOREDRegistered Userregular
I've never been in the situation where I'm not able to read a book I want to because there isn't an English translation of it--because how would I know about that book--but as I finish the Ice Trilogy by Vladimir Sorokin, I'm looking at his wikipedia page, and the translator I like has only translated 2 of his other books (and I read them); his first book was translated by someone else, so I'll probably buy that, and then no one has translated any of his other works into English...am I seriously going to be forced to go onto amazon.ru or whatever and then read with a dictionary on hand? I have read a couple novels in russian before but it's so hard because I am definitely not fluent.
But I might have to, because I am desperate to read everything else by this author!
Well, maybe it will increase your fluency. That certainly can't hurt any future background checks, right?
pshh, the government already knows I'm a Russian major. The State Department funded a 2-month intensive summer language program for me in Russia 10 years ago! All above board, I have no foreign preference, etc etc
And yeah, my fluency will definitely go up, especially reading something contemporary and interestingly styled instead of the 19th century stuff I read before. And having a phone dictionary is way better than my broken paper one.
>only having one Russian dictionary, smh
I have a second one but it's specifically a mat' dictionary.
...which actually might be useful for these books; they curse a lot.
That sounds extremely cool. My most impressive one is a humongous Russian-Russian one, published in Moscow 1968.
At the moment its main (only) value is in looking cool and convincing visitors I'm a real intellectual.
PS. btw I took home all the Vladimir Sorokin books I could from the library. Opritchnik (in Danish), Blizzard and Ice trilogy in English. Pretty excited to get into it.
BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
Every e-book I've tried to checkout from the library has been on hold, and I'm starting to get really annoyed. Its a digital medium, there is no reason to limit the number of copies loanable. It doesn't actually do anything besides annoy people who can't afford to buy your shitty e-books anyways.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Sadly not translated (yet) into any other languages, but I'm currently reading "Wijvenwereld" by Jelle Haemers, Andrea Bardyn and Chanelle Delameillieure (editor).
It's a non-fiction book about women in Medieval times that is based on Flemish court cases and other official documents from 1250-1550. The book is written to address the false idea that women in Medieval times were only there to cook and raise children. It shows women who were running their own businesses, were engaged in politics and so on. It's not all positive, but it shows a more diverse image of the Middle Ages than is given in most fiction (and probably some non-fiction as well). It also shows how fragile most of our rights are, small changes in government had widespread consequences for the poorest and most vulnerable and rights once given were easily taken away. The main point of the book is to illustrate that constant vigilance is needed to protect our rights.
Recommended to anybody should it ever get a translation.
Every e-book I've tried to checkout from the library has been on hold, and I'm starting to get really annoyed. Its a digital medium, there is no reason to limit the number of copies loanable. It doesn't actually do anything besides annoy people who can't afford to buy your shitty e-books anyways.
It stops the library from being a 1:1 substitute for actually purchasing the book.
I do wish borrowing times could be longer. It could be hard before, buy with a baby, it's super hard to finish a book in three weeks, and there's no option to get one more auto checkout after that, it's just the back of the multi week line to you!
Every e-book I've tried to checkout from the library has been on hold, and I'm starting to get really annoyed. Its a digital medium, there is no reason to limit the number of copies loanable. It doesn't actually do anything besides annoy people who can't afford to buy your shitty e-books anyways.
It stops the library from being a 1:1 substitute for actually purchasing the book.
The limited check outs combined with one at a time check outs and the huge fees for library e-copies are really double dipping on publishers part.
Was it last year that Tor or Orbit refused to sell Sci-Fi ebooks to libraries to see how it impacted sales? I wonder how that turned out.
Every e-book I've tried to checkout from the library has been on hold, and I'm starting to get really annoyed. Its a digital medium, there is no reason to limit the number of copies loanable. It doesn't actually do anything besides annoy people who can't afford to buy your shitty e-books anyways.
It stops the library from being a 1:1 substitute for actually purchasing the book.
The limited check outs combined with one at a time check outs and the huge fees for library e-copies are really double dipping on publishers part.
In what way is it double dipping?
Was it last year that Tor or Orbit refused to sell Sci-Fi ebooks to libraries to see how it impacted sales? I wonder how that turned out.
That is interesting. If you were a publisher, it definitely sounds like an experiment worth running though.
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
I do wish borrowing times could be longer. It could be hard before, buy with a baby, it's super hard to finish a book in three weeks, and there's no option to get one more auto checkout after that, it's just the back of the multi week line to you!
I wish there was an option to turn in books you've finished. Or that books that hadn't been opened in a week automatically returned. At one point I had three finished books on my device, and probably would have had more if I wasn't waiting for other peoples holds to expire.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
I do wish borrowing times could be longer. It could be hard before, buy with a baby, it's super hard to finish a book in three weeks, and there's no option to get one more auto checkout after that, it's just the back of the multi week line to you!
I wish there was an option to turn in books you've finished. Or that books that hadn't been opened in a week automatically returned. At one point I had three finished books on my device, and probably would have had more if I wasn't waiting for other peoples holds to expire.
The library I use allows for readers to return books early. I think it’s just a local policy/software issue.
+1
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
I do wish borrowing times could be longer. It could be hard before, buy with a baby, it's super hard to finish a book in three weeks, and there's no option to get one more auto checkout after that, it's just the back of the multi week line to you!
I wish there was an option to turn in books you've finished. Or that books that hadn't been opened in a week automatically returned. At one point I had three finished books on my device, and probably would have had more if I wasn't waiting for other peoples holds to expire.
The library I use allows for readers to return books early. I think it’s just a local policy/software issue.
Oh, hey, it looks my library does now too. Now to just think hard enough at these other people that maybe they will return one of the books I have on hold.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
So, if you read these forums you're going to love The Traitor Baru Cormorant.
If you read these forums it's likely you need to read The Traitor Baru Cormorant.
Tell someone you love to read The Traitor Baru Cormorant.
I bought that for Kindle but haven't read it yet... I just finished Anathem by Neal Stephenson and was waffling about what to read next. So thanks for the post
Started Black Leopard, Red Wolf. It feels almost Gene Wolfian in the way it combines the familiar and the unfamiliar. In the way it makes me feel like I’m missing something, like there’s a grand allegory below the surface that I’m too stupid to understand.
Or maybe it’s just that it’s set in a culture I’m wholly unfamiliar with.
just finished the first section and it's totally reminding me of gene wolf too
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jakobaggerLO THY DREAD EMPIRE CHAOS IS RESTOREDRegistered Userregular
I've been tricked.
Old Man's War was good but now, logging it in Goodreads, I find out it has a billion sequels. Had thought I could knock this fairly short and breezy story out quickly and then get back to the Sorokin pile (an Oprichnik's Day was...something. Fascinating and disgusting? And weirdly comedic).
So anyway: how worth it are the Old Man's War sequels? I enjoyed the first one well enough, but maybe not so much that I feel compelled to immediately inhale 4 more books.
Old Man's War was good but now, logging it in Goodreads, I find out it has a billion sequels. Had thought I could knock this fairly short and breezy story out quickly and then get back to the Sorokin pile (an Oprichnik's Day was...something. Fascinating and disgusting? And weirdly comedic).
So anyway: how worth it are the Old Man's War sequels? I enjoyed the first one well enough, but maybe not so much that I feel compelled to immediately inhale 4 more books.
His ‘Collapsing Empire’ books are:
a) good
b) short
c) not a million of them
Might be worth a look if you can’t face six OMW books.
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
They are two seperate trilogies, not 1 large set of stories. of the first three books, I'm a fan of Old Man's War and the third book, The Last Colony. the middle one is fine and it sets stuff up so it's worth reading, but I never go back to it.
You could end there and be completely fine, but I enjoyed the next set of books as well.
The Human Divison and The End of All Things are both great. I loved how the format of multiple short stories really let Scalzi show off the larger universe a lot more.
I should check out his other stuff. I liked the first couple entries in to Old Man’s War, but the third one was mediocre to me and I barely got anywhere in the fourth.
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BrodyThe WatchThe First ShoreRegistered Userregular
@Quid Have you read Redshirts? Its an amusing look at the Star Trek red shirts trope.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
Old Man's War was good but now, logging it in Goodreads, I find out it has a billion sequels. Had thought I could knock this fairly short and breezy story out quickly and then get back to the Sorokin pile (an Oprichnik's Day was...something. Fascinating and disgusting? And weirdly comedic).
So anyway: how worth it are the Old Man's War sequels? I enjoyed the first one well enough, but maybe not so much that I feel compelled to immediately inhale 4 more books.
So did you like the Sorokin book? Yeah there are some scenes in it that are...graphic. He writes about all sorts of physicalities in a vivid and explicit way. The scene in the sauna with all the chekists and heir bioluminescent organs is just...I legit laughed out loud reading it.
I found that in addition to his 1983 book (ochered’/ The Queue) which exists in English translation, there is one more recent book by him as well as a collection of short stories that exist in Italian translation, so I’ll probably buy those because reading without a dictionary is pretty key. I really don’t want to be bogged down taking forever to finish a book in Russian...
I did finish the Ice trilogy by Sorokin, which went all over the place and was quite compelling, this super interesting mix of human+personal and alienated+alienating+anti-humanist almost, and then the last couple pages included this extremely bizarre religious epiphany that’s like...a feature of Russian lit but also sort of came out of nowhere.
Then I ran out of books again until I make an order so I am rereading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell because I love it and it was on my shelf.
Old Man's War was good but now, logging it in Goodreads, I find out it has a billion sequels. Had thought I could knock this fairly short and breezy story out quickly and then get back to the Sorokin pile (an Oprichnik's Day was...something. Fascinating and disgusting? And weirdly comedic).
So anyway: how worth it are the Old Man's War sequels? I enjoyed the first one well enough, but maybe not so much that I feel compelled to immediately inhale 4 more books.
Personally I’d say read the second one and leave it at that. Scalzi writes neat war stuff but they refocus after that and get dull IMO.
@quid You really should check out The human Division at least. It goes back to the somewhat more military setting, and focuses on a bunch of different characters rather then just being from one characters POV. And the fourth book is probably skippable for most people here, Scalzi pretty much wrote it for his teenage daughter and it didn't work very well for me at least. But it was not meant for me!
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Descendant XSkyrim is my god now.Outpost 31Registered Userregular
So, if you read these forums you're going to love The Traitor Baru Cormorant.
If you read these forums it's likely you need to read The Traitor Baru Cormorant.
Tell someone you love to read The Traitor Baru Cormorant.
I’m reading it right now. It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a book this much.
Garry: I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time I'd rather not spend the rest of the winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!
Posts
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
edit: whoops never mind, found it.
Semiosis.
Speaking of books with cultures of the non-generic-fantasy persuasion and gods, Daniel Abrahams's The Long Price Quartet is really good. It takes place in a fairly distinctly non-western culture that controls these all-powerful god-like creatures called andat (and are themselves the last remaining colonies of the great empire that first learned to harness those things and ended up imploding in some insane war because of them) and explores the ways in which the existence of the andat shapes their society and those around them and also a bunch of other stuff and it's really good and everyone should read it. First book is A Shadow in Summer.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
If, like me, you're also into Space Aztecs (urbane or otherwise) you should read Thomas Harlan's In the Time of the Sixth Sun series. Outstanding world building with a high degree of Aztec verisimilitude set in galaxy with existentially dangerous elder/precursor aliens.
I've never been in the situation where I'm not able to read a book I want to because there isn't an English translation of it--because how would I know about that book--but as I finish the Ice Trilogy by Vladimir Sorokin, I'm looking at his wikipedia page, and the translator I like has only translated 2 of his other books (and I read them); his first book was translated by someone else, so I'll probably buy that, and then no one has translated any of his other works into English...am I seriously going to be forced to go onto amazon.ru or whatever and then read with a dictionary on hand? I have read a couple novels in russian before but it's so hard because I am definitely not fluent.
But I might have to, because I am desperate to read everything else by this author!
Well, maybe it will increase your fluency. That certainly can't hurt any future background checks, right?
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
pshh, the government already knows I'm a Russian major. The State Department funded a 2-month intensive summer language program for me in Russia 10 years ago! All above board, I have no foreign preference, etc etc
And yeah, my fluency will definitely go up, especially reading something contemporary and interestingly styled instead of the 19th century stuff I read before. And having a phone dictionary is way better than my broken paper one.
>only having one Russian dictionary, smh
I have a second one but it's specifically a mat' dictionary.
...which actually might be useful for these books; they curse a lot.
That sounds extremely cool. My most impressive one is a humongous Russian-Russian one, published in Moscow 1968.
At the moment its main (only) value is in looking cool and convincing visitors I'm a real intellectual.
PS. btw I took home all the Vladimir Sorokin books I could from the library. Opritchnik (in Danish), Blizzard and Ice trilogy in English. Pretty excited to get into it.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
If you read these forums it's likely you need to read The Traitor Baru Cormorant.
Tell someone you love to read The Traitor Baru Cormorant.
It's a non-fiction book about women in Medieval times that is based on Flemish court cases and other official documents from 1250-1550. The book is written to address the false idea that women in Medieval times were only there to cook and raise children. It shows women who were running their own businesses, were engaged in politics and so on. It's not all positive, but it shows a more diverse image of the Middle Ages than is given in most fiction (and probably some non-fiction as well). It also shows how fragile most of our rights are, small changes in government had widespread consequences for the poorest and most vulnerable and rights once given were easily taken away. The main point of the book is to illustrate that constant vigilance is needed to protect our rights.
Recommended to anybody should it ever get a translation.
It stops the library from being a 1:1 substitute for actually purchasing the book.
The limited check outs combined with one at a time check outs and the huge fees for library e-copies are really double dipping on publishers part.
Was it last year that Tor or Orbit refused to sell Sci-Fi ebooks to libraries to see how it impacted sales? I wonder how that turned out.
In what way is it double dipping?
That is interesting. If you were a publisher, it definitely sounds like an experiment worth running though.
I wish there was an option to turn in books you've finished. Or that books that hadn't been opened in a week automatically returned. At one point I had three finished books on my device, and probably would have had more if I wasn't waiting for other peoples holds to expire.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
The library I use allows for readers to return books early. I think it’s just a local policy/software issue.
Oh, hey, it looks my library does now too. Now to just think hard enough at these other people that maybe they will return one of the books I have on hold.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
I bought that for Kindle but haven't read it yet... I just finished Anathem by Neal Stephenson and was waffling about what to read next. So thanks for the post
Nintendo ID: Incindium
PSN: IncindiumX
just finished the first section and it's totally reminding me of gene wolf too
Old Man's War was good but now, logging it in Goodreads, I find out it has a billion sequels. Had thought I could knock this fairly short and breezy story out quickly and then get back to the Sorokin pile (an Oprichnik's Day was...something. Fascinating and disgusting? And weirdly comedic).
So anyway: how worth it are the Old Man's War sequels? I enjoyed the first one well enough, but maybe not so much that I feel compelled to immediately inhale 4 more books.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
His ‘Collapsing Empire’ books are:
a) good
b) short
c) not a million of them
Might be worth a look if you can’t face six OMW books.
That said, I need to read those.
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
Thanks, I realize now that might actually be the most important question.
Anyway, guess I'll file under 'maybe some day if I get a huge and sudden craving for competent if unspectacular military sf'
You could end there and be completely fine, but I enjoyed the next set of books as well.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
The Lock In/Head On books are interesting but much more detective novels.
So did you like the Sorokin book? Yeah there are some scenes in it that are...graphic. He writes about all sorts of physicalities in a vivid and explicit way. The scene in the sauna with all the chekists and heir bioluminescent organs is just...I legit laughed out loud reading it.
I found that in addition to his 1983 book (ochered’/ The Queue) which exists in English translation, there is one more recent book by him as well as a collection of short stories that exist in Italian translation, so I’ll probably buy those because reading without a dictionary is pretty key. I really don’t want to be bogged down taking forever to finish a book in Russian...
I did finish the Ice trilogy by Sorokin, which went all over the place and was quite compelling, this super interesting mix of human+personal and alienated+alienating+anti-humanist almost, and then the last couple pages included this extremely bizarre religious epiphany that’s like...a feature of Russian lit but also sort of came out of nowhere.
Then I ran out of books again until I make an order so I am rereading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell because I love it and it was on my shelf.
Personally I’d say read the second one and leave it at that. Scalzi writes neat war stuff but they refocus after that and get dull IMO.
I’m reading it right now. It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a book this much.