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[Book]: Rhymes With

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  • redxredx I(x)=2(x)+1 whole numbersRegistered User regular
    Anyone read Jade City?

    They moistly come out at night, moistly.
  • PhillisherePhillishere Registered User regular
    Looks like Jim Butcher is milkshake ducking himself all over social media today - going from coronavirus denier to outright racism. Can't say I'm too shocked after he remained silent during the Sad Puppies bullshit. They used him as their standard bearer, and his only response was that he thought his book deserved to win the award.

    I liked the Dresden Files, but I really don't want to give the dude any more money.

  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    He’s always been like this, he just focused most of his regressive attitudes into his writing

    It’s part of the reason i outgrew the Dresden Files

    But at least now it’s out in the open where it might affect book sales

    “I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
    -Indiana Solo, runner of blades
  • A Dabble Of TheloniusA Dabble Of Thelonius It has been a doozy of a dayRegistered User regular
    Wait, where did he get outright racist?

    Don't get me wrong. That is a dumb Corona take. I'm just missing the racist post I guess

    vm8gvf5p7gqi.jpg
    Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    He’s got some weird ideas about racial susceptibility to the virus

    “I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
    -Indiana Solo, runner of blades
  • A Dabble Of TheloniusA Dabble Of Thelonius It has been a doozy of a dayRegistered User regular
    Ah. Ok yeah, not great bob

    vm8gvf5p7gqi.jpg
    Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
  • PowerpuppiesPowerpuppies drinking coffee in the mountain cabinRegistered User regular
    Can somebody link where he said something racist

    sig.gif
  • KanaKana Registered User regular
    I was expecting something way, way worse from the way you were characterizing it

    A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
  • KanaKana Registered User regular
    redx wrote: »
    Anyone read Jade City?

    I just started it actually, since it was on sale for 2 bucks. It's definitely interesting. I feel like by the halfway point it's either going to hit its stride or just fall flat on its face, but I'm not sure which yet.

    A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    Interzone 266 had a couple of absolutely corking stories, including an excellent one about test pilots encountering something unpleasant that reminded me of the Apollo Quartet. Now on Kate Wilhelm's Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, which is about clones and the collapse of society due to climate change, viruses and social instability.

    Tsk, this science fiction, always talking about totally made up stuff that could never happen.

  • DecomposeyDecomposey Registered User regular
    Mojo_Jojo wrote: »
    For various reasons I am now rereading the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb. I do not usually reread things but she's written another trilogy or five and I can remember almost nothing about the setting.

    It is going to take me a while to get to those new ones.

    Fixed that for you. Except not exactly five trilogies, because the 4th set of books is a quadrilogy.

    But I do advise reading them, I found them very enjoyable.

    Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
  • Mojo_JojoMojo_Jojo We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourse Registered User regular
    Decomposey wrote: »
    Mojo_Jojo wrote: »
    For various reasons I am now rereading the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb. I do not usually reread things but she's written another trilogy or five and I can remember almost nothing about the setting.

    It is going to take me a while to get to those new ones.

    Fixed that for you. Except not exactly five trilogies, because the 4th set of books is a quadrilogy.

    But I do advise reading them, I found them very enjoyable.

    Yeah but I know I've read at least three of them

    Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    Bogart wrote: »
    Interzone 266 had a couple of absolutely corking stories, including an excellent one about test pilots encountering something unpleasant that reminded me of the Apollo Quartet. Now on Kate Wilhelm's Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, which is about clones and the collapse of society due to climate change, viruses and social instability.

    Tsk, this science fiction, always talking about totally made up stuff that could never happen.

    I just spent the best part of £60 on John Julius Norwich's works. Should I start with Popes or Byzantium or Shakespeare's Kings?

  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    Haven’t read the Shakespeare one. I’d say start with the Popes.

  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    This may seem like a weird rec, but I've rereading the animorphs series since February and um, they're good. It also feels relevant to recommend in the light of JK rlRowling going fully radicalized TERF. Like hey, here's a YA author from my childhood who isn't a garbage human.

    I just finished the David story arc around the midpoint and we have crossed firmly into "shit gets real" territory. But as a medium for schoolastic book fair sales, these books honestly shouldn't be as good as they are, dealing with trauma, PTSD, everything that comes along with being a child soldiers in an intergalactic war, body horror that puts cronenberg to shame. the different POV characters all have specific voices which makes each book distinctly theirs.

    I'm not sure how far I read as a kid. I know conceptually that I'm getting close to where I stopped so the whole back half of this read is going to be completely new to me.

  • The Zombie PenguinThe Zombie Penguin Eternal Hungry Corpse Registered User regular
    I read the entire series. I will say it's worth not putting all the praise on applegate - a lot of the later books were extensively ghostwritten, but even then everything you say is true. (I will, however, complain that the cliff hanger ending is some hot bullshit)

    Ideas hate it when you anthropomorphize them
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  • M-VickersM-Vickers Registered User regular
    Speaking of things that are bad... I've been listening to The Three-Body Problem. After the first 25% I thought, "Well, this isn't very good but maybe I'm being swayed by the nature of translated Chinese prose" but the further it got the worse it was. The ending, which I was given to understand was the best part, is next to gibberish. The science is so fucking bad. Like I get that it's science fiction but it's "I sort of skimmed some physics wikipedia articles for buzzwords" levels bad physics. The characters are barely there and almost uniformly unbelievable. The plot wavers between "meh" and nonsense. Usually when I don't enjoy a book that's won a bunch of awards I can at least see why other people would have thought highly of it despite it not being my jam. I have no idea why anyone would give this thing an award.

    I read this a few days ago, as it popped up on my kindle unlimited recommended list.

    Its definitely weird reading a translated book, but I liked the concept enough to stick to out.

    A lot of the science doesn't hold up, being almost fantasy more than scifi, but I liked it enough to start the second book.

    I think I'm just really looking forward to the baddies getting their face kicked in by the humans, because they're really pissing me off.

  • credeikicredeiki Registered User regular
    NK Jemisin is such a good author; the first book of the Inheritance trilogy was a fun read. And her first novel! It did not read like a first novel--although I think there are some ways that it is, in that in the interview with the author afterwards it's mentioned that the protagonist is a bit of a self-insert, and she gets to fuck a character that NK Jemisin thinks is super hot--but that totally works, and it's a really cool book with compelling images and a story that somehow feels both small scale and personal but large in scope, which I seldom see.

    The whole book takes place in one big palace (which I love--see also: The Goblin Emperor), but some extremely momentous, universe-changing shit happens, but also it feels just as important as the main character's grief about her mom, and her fear of dying in a few days, and her new friendship with the only guy in the palace who seems like a decent person, and all this other really personal stuff.

    Also so notable, to have a character in a fantasy book be like 'o shit I'm going to die in a week when The Big Event happens'--and then for her to be really sad and scared about it, and like just spend a day crying and then be like oh fuck I just spent one sixth of my remaining life crying, this is bad. Usually fantasy protagonists are just stupidly stoic about that sort of thing and I never really like that. I also like that the gods are really quite inhuman
    but just human enough...to bone...

    I'm reading the second one now and I'm really intrigued. NK Jemisin is also great at hooking you *immediately*, no waiting for a buildup or a whole bunch of setup/establishing shots--you just care as soon as you start reading.

    Steam, LoL: credeiki
  • jakobaggerjakobagger LO THY DREAD EMPIRE CHAOS IS RESTORED Registered User regular
    I also love palace intrigue books please @ me if you discover more. I have already read and loved Inheritance and Goblin Emperor.

  • KanaKana Registered User regular
    I finished Jade City, it was really good! It's like... Triad gang war urban fantasy? Basically it's a yakuza/triad family drama set on a hong kong-esque post colonial island, but having jade on you lets you do wuxia superpower stuff. 20 or however many years ago the country's jade-wearing warriors staged a guerilla war against their occupiers, and those resistance networks of loyalty evolved into the semi-governmental competing ruling families. Except for the magic-power giving jade the rest of the world is basically just a normal modern setting, though it doesn't have any 1:1 analogues to real places. But Lee is extremely creative in mapping out the many ways that jade ends up shaping the whole society, from like policing to sports to schooling, politics and family relationships it's all really fully realized.

    Its multiple pov, following members of the Kaul family, one of the two most powerful families on the island, as tensions grow with their rival clan, and I surprisingly really liked every PoV character. Lan is a kind and decent man who might be a little too kind and decent to be respected as the head of a warrior clan, Hilo his younger brother is his charismatic but violent younger brother who's the family's head enforcer, Shae is the younger sister who gave up the jade warrior lifestyle to go overseas and get a university education, and now she's back on the island trying to stand on her own as an independent working woman without her family's influence. Anden is their mixed race adopted brother, a gay teenager deeply embarrassed by his mixed heritage and uncomfortable with his acceptance in the family. They all have really interesting strengths and weaknesses and the plot flows well based on those.

    I haven't started book 2 yet, it's apparently gonna be a trilogy.

    A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
  • BrodyBrody The Watch The First ShoreRegistered User regular
    Who's the author?

    "I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."

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  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    The thing i like about Goblin Emperor is how most people are trying their best and acting with honor, and this is not portrayed as a weakness or stupidity like certain grimdark fantasy series would have people believe.

    I’ve occasionally seen complaints or criticism of this, to which i say if you want to be miserable and jaded then go read Joe Abercrombie and leave me to my hopepunk.

    “I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
    -Indiana Solo, runner of blades
  • KanaKana Registered User regular
    Brody wrote: »
    Who's the author?

    Fonda Lee

    A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    I wonder if me picking up the animorphs book again a few months back was just me being unconsciously manipulated by the cultural movement

    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/heat-vision/animorphs-movie-works-scholastic-picturestart-1299013?__twitter_impression=true

  • Solomaxwell6Solomaxwell6 Registered User regular
    credeiki wrote: »
    NK Jemisin is such a good author; the first book of the Inheritance trilogy was a fun read. And her first novel! It did not read like a first novel--although I think there are some ways that it is, in that in the interview with the author afterwards it's mentioned that the protagonist is a bit of a self-insert, and she gets to fuck a character that NK Jemisin thinks is super hot--but that totally works, and it's a really cool book with compelling images and a story that somehow feels both small scale and personal but large in scope, which I seldom see.

    I loved that series. I actually liked it way more than the Broken Earth trilogy (which I thought was kinda "meh").

  • redxredx I(x)=2(x)+1 whole numbersRegistered User regular
    Broken Earth is just so freaking cruel, it's hard to read. And The City We Became wasn't my jam, but I'm liking the Inheritance Trilogy a bunch.

    They moistly come out at night, moistly.
  • DrovekDrovek Registered User regular
    I read the Broken Earth trilogy in like 2 weeks total. I really liked it.

    I think I got started with Inheritance soon afterwards because I loved BE too much, but I think I didn't even make it past the first book. Not because it was bad, but because I can't take that much fantasy in such a short span. I should pick it back up, come to think of it.

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  • SeptusSeptus Registered User regular
    Yeah, I tore through Broken Earth, and I liked Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, but couldn't muster the interest to continue. I thought the characterization and the world were so much more compelling.

    PSN: Kurahoshi1
  • PowerpuppiesPowerpuppies drinking coffee in the mountain cabinRegistered User regular
    Huh. I inhaled inheritance but had to execute willpower to keep reading broken earth.

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  • Mojo_JojoMojo_Jojo We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourse Registered User regular
    credeiki wrote: »
    NK Jemisin is such a good author; the first book of the Inheritance trilogy was a fun read. And her first novel! It did not read like a first novel--although I think there are some ways that it is, in that in the interview with the author afterwards it's mentioned that the protagonist is a bit of a self-insert, and she gets to fuck a character that NK Jemisin thinks is super hot--but that totally works, and it's a really cool book with compelling images and a story that somehow feels both small scale and personal but large in scope, which I seldom see.

    I loved that series. I actually liked it way more than the Broken Earth trilogy (which I thought was kinda "meh").
    I may well check this out then. For some reason I assumed the Fifth Season was regarded as her best work and I found it to be a 80% of one really excellent book followed by a dramatic decline.

    I'm about at the end of the second Robin Hobb Assassin book. I'd forgotten how fucking miserable her writing gets. Still I'm really hooked and having to work hard to stop reading so I can get some sleep.

    Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang was rather good. Now reading The Essex Serpent, which is utterly delightful so far.

  • credeikicredeiki Registered User regular
    Mojo_Jojo wrote: »
    credeiki wrote: »
    NK Jemisin is such a good author; the first book of the Inheritance trilogy was a fun read. And her first novel! It did not read like a first novel--although I think there are some ways that it is, in that in the interview with the author afterwards it's mentioned that the protagonist is a bit of a self-insert, and she gets to fuck a character that NK Jemisin thinks is super hot--but that totally works, and it's a really cool book with compelling images and a story that somehow feels both small scale and personal but large in scope, which I seldom see.

    I loved that series. I actually liked it way more than the Broken Earth trilogy (which I thought was kinda "meh").
    I may well check this out then. For some reason I assumed the Fifth Season was regarded as her best work and I found it to be a 80% of one really excellent book followed by a dramatic decline.

    I'm about at the end of the second Robin Hobb Assassin book. I'd forgotten how fucking miserable her writing gets. Still I'm really hooked and having to work hard to stop reading so I can get some sleep.

    I think that the Broken Earth has the best writing--it's just really good stylistically and punches hard emotionally and just has really intense plot and feelings--but I liked the Dreamblood Duology better because I liked the characters better and it was just like...a very cool book about moon assassins in fantasy ancient egypt, followed by a very sweet book about the first female magic doctor against the backdrop of a revolution. And I like the Inheritance Trilogy better as well so far because it is an easier read. But I just think that Broken Earth is *fantastic* in quality, whether I like it as much or not.
    knitdan wrote: »
    The thing i like about Goblin Emperor is how most people are trying their best and acting with honor, and this is not portrayed as a weakness or stupidity like certain grimdark fantasy series would have people believe.

    I’ve occasionally seen complaints or criticism of this, to which i say if you want to be miserable and jaded then go read Joe Abercrombie and leave me to my hopepunk.

    Yes! I love that Maia is just trying his best to be a good leader and a good person. It's really touching! And there's still plenty of intrigue and drama and interesting feelings--it's not like it makes it a boring book!

    Steam, LoL: credeiki
  • nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    Mojo_Jojo wrote: »
    credeiki wrote: »
    NK Jemisin is such a good author; the first book of the Inheritance trilogy was a fun read. And her first novel! It did not read like a first novel--although I think there are some ways that it is, in that in the interview with the author afterwards it's mentioned that the protagonist is a bit of a self-insert, and she gets to fuck a character that NK Jemisin thinks is super hot--but that totally works, and it's a really cool book with compelling images and a story that somehow feels both small scale and personal but large in scope, which I seldom see.

    I loved that series. I actually liked it way more than the Broken Earth trilogy (which I thought was kinda "meh").
    I may well check this out then. For some reason I assumed the Fifth Season was regarded as her best work and I found it to be a 80% of one really excellent book followed by a dramatic decline.

    I'm about at the end of the second Robin Hobb Assassin book. I'd forgotten how fucking miserable her writing gets. Still I'm really hooked and having to work hard to stop reading so I can get some sleep.

    The world shits on FitzChivalry is kind of an entire genre

  • VanguardVanguard But now the dream is over. And the insect is awake.Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    I just stated my 2nd attempt at The Fifth Season. Need something more extended after months of reading short stories and comic books.

  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    I finished Devil in the White City

    If you made a movie about H.H. Holmes there are a good half-dozen aspects of the story that I feel like audiences would reject as being unrealistic, and yet all of it apparently really happened.

    “I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
    -Indiana Solo, runner of blades
  • AntoshkaAntoshka Miauen Oil Change LazarusRegistered User regular
    Well, I finished my reading goal for the year earlier this week. 120 novels completed. It turns out if I'm forced to work from home, I can compensate for the lack of my usual bus reading time.

    Anyway, there was a lot of middle of the road stuff, but some recommendations for anyone who's interested. Trying to avoid giving any plot, however, so I'm not sure how useful they'll be for anyone.

    This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: Genuinely on of the most refreshingly different things I think I've read this year - it's not particularly long. If you haven't read it, kindly do so.

    Middlegame, Seanan Mcguire: it's well written, the characters & world are fantastic, and it actually concludes. Definitely stood out.

    Foundryside, Robert Jackson Bennett: Interesting world, really intriguing main PoV. Fundamentally about social class in a steam-punky industrial revolution.

    Rage of Dragons, Evan Winter: Has been recommended here before, but repetition makes sense. Has a significantly different cultural background throughout the narrative, with a primary PoV of a very unusual sensibility.

    The Anubis Gates, Tim Powers: Magic, Time paradoxes, Egypt, and a lot of weird occurances in between.

    Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir: A story that I expected to be much, much more prosaic than it was . It certainly been mentioned before, but its genuinely well worth reading.

    Honestly, list of titles, these are the ones that stood out most, for me, and if you haven't read one of them, I'd recommend giving it a go - they are all, at the least, very interesting.

    n57PM0C.jpg
  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    If you liked Foundryside, the second book Shorefall is also out

    “I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
    -Indiana Solo, runner of blades
  • CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    Middlegame by McGuire was pretty good. There was nothing really surprising but it was a fun enough ride. Children of Time was also good. I think I've heard the sequel wasn't as great? Unliked the recently mentioned Fifth Season, I was interested enough at the end of Children to want to read another. I have the second and third Broken Earth books and can't summon the interest to actually crack the second.

    PSN,Steam,Live | CptHamiltonian
  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    knitdan wrote: »
    I finished Devil in the White City

    If you made a movie about H.H. Holmes there are a good half-dozen aspects of the story that I feel like audiences would reject as being unrealistic, and yet all of it apparently really happened.

    i don't know... anything post 2020 should be easily believed by audiences.

    Also i remember liking that book when i read it forever ago. I got the newer one about nazis with a name i'm blanking on not too long ago but haven't gotten to reading it yet. I just really liked that style of historic narrative

  • knitdanknitdan In ur base Killin ur guysRegistered User regular
    In the Garden of Beasts

    “I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
    -Indiana Solo, runner of blades
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