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[Book]: Rhymes With

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Posts

  • KaputaKaputa Registered User regular
    edited August 2021
    I loved The Book of the New Sun. It is cryptic, which is part of what I love about it. I think it's the only science fiction/fantasy series that I've reread in full, and I enjoyed it even more the second time through. I love the atmosphere of the world, it's (ironically) so alien and strange. And of course Wolfe's prose is excellent. I can see why someone might not dig the characters; they are not exactly relatable, especially Severian (the protagonist). For me the characters were interesting, but you will not develop strong emotional connections with them.

    I agree on the treatment of women in the story being poor, though.

    Kaputa on
  • BrodyBrody The Watch The First ShoreRegistered User regular
    I wasn't particularly a fan when I tried Perdido Street Station (although it might have been I just didn't have the attention to spare at the time), and also Gravity's Rainbow (probably the same issue, I might try one or both again later), which I both think fall under the same umbrella? But I also just could not give a fuck about the first New Sun book, even after getting a fair ways in. It just felt very dry? I guess? Idk, I wish I had paid more attention in like, critical reading classes and stuff, or could find a book club to work on those skills, but I just couldn't find what other people enjoyed so much about it.

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

    The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson

    Steam: Korvalain
  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    edited August 2021
    knitdan wrote: »
    I read through all of Book of the New Sun but ultimately didn’t enjoy it because it made me feel stupid for not “getting” it.

    You see, this is probably why I enjoyed it: I was very likely too dumb to know I wasn't "getting" it.

    dennis on
  • KanaKana Registered User regular
    edited August 2021
    Book of the New Sun was clever, but I never had any love for it, it's too much puzzle and not enough like, actual story.

    I adore the first half of Book of the Long Sun though, mostly because of how very small but noble the protagonist's goals are.

    It does still have a problem with its female characters but its not AS bad

    Kana on
    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.
  • AutomautocratesAutomautocrates Registered User regular
    edited August 2021
    I think I'm going to give it a shot, keeping in mind what's been said here(especially re: female characters). It helps that my coworker can loan me their copy when I see them today and save me a couple dimes/library trips.

    Thanks for the various view points everyone :)

    As for Perdido Street Station, I honestly bounced right off it the first two times I attempted to read it. I didn't have that problem with any of his other novels, but yeah. I do recommend trying again because when I did finish it I did enjoy it. My main take away from Mieville is that I like his ideas enough to over power the way he writes them.

    Automautocrates on
    The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of the pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes.
    -John Stuart Mill
  • KaputaKaputa Registered User regular
    edited August 2021
    Kana wrote: »
    Book of the New Sun was clever, but I never had any love for it, it's too much puzzle and not enough like, actual story.

    I adore the first half of Book of the Long Sun though, mostly because of how very small but noble the protagonist's goals are.

    It does still have a problem with its female characters but its not AS bad
    Long Sun is awesome. It's a fairly normal story compared to New Sun; there are some mysterious aspects to the world but most become clear gradually, and there aren't nearly as many scenes that make you say "the hell was that about" as in New Sun. Silk is a much more human and likeable character than Severian, and in general I fiund the characters and their interactions more relatable. And the story itself is just really cool. I'd actually recommend Long Sun to anyone who found New Sun to be too obscure, it's a much more straightforward read.

    Kaputa on
  • GrudgeGrudge blessed is the mind too small for doubtRegistered User regular
    I did enjoy New Sun - to me it felt occasionally disjointed and unnecessarily cryptic (in a somewhat pretentious Literature with a capital L way), but it was also quite enjoyably weird and imaginative, and reminded me a lot of the Dying Earth stories, which I love. It was a more "difficult" read than I'm normally used to in the sense that it's a bit dense and you sometimes need to read (and re-read) parts very closely to figure out what exactly is happening. Sometimes very important things are described in a very casual and off-hand way and it's easy to miss out on crucial stuff if you're not paying attention. But in the end I'm happy I read it.

    The Long Sun was ok, but not as enjoyable as the New Sun, maybe because it wasn't as weird. Also, I couldn't bring myself to care very much about the main character. He just kept making weird, random decisions that didn't in the end have much to do with what was actually happening around him.

    Also there is a thing that afterwards make a lot of sense, but that I wasn't aware of when reading the books and which may have caused some of the "friction" I felt in regards to the characters:
    Both series employ an unreliable narrator, which is revealed only towards the end if I remember correctly. It paints a lot of the actions of the characters in a new light, which afterwards makes sense, but at the time of reading were pretty off-putting. Anyway, I understand the reason, but it actually took away from my enjoyment of the stories.

  • AutomautocratesAutomautocrates Registered User regular
    Mid way update!

    I'm about 150 pages into Shadow of the Torturer. Aaaand about 300 open tabs into Merriam-Webster.com.

    Certain words unknown may have illicited a sharp "Now you're just fucking with me." response.

    So far every post here has been correct about this book. I will continue the toil.

    PS Severian is a wet fart wrapped in a moist towelette with PeRfeCT MeMoRy.

    The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of the pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes.
    -John Stuart Mill
  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Mid way update!

    I'm about 150 pages into Shadow of the Torturer. Aaaand about 300 open tabs into Merriam-Webster.com.

    Certain words unknown may have illicited a sharp "Now you're just fucking with me." response.

    So far every post here has been correct about this book. I will continue the toil.

    PS Severian is a wet fart wrapped in a moist towelette with PeRfeCT MeMoRy.

    So one thing with Book of the New Sun is that it uses a ton of archaic terms to give you a general impression of what the thing in question is without using the actual modern word for it because it is not actually specifically that thing.

    eg - A destrier is not a horse. But it is horse-like.

  • AutomautocratesAutomautocrates Registered User regular
    edited August 2021
    shryke wrote: »
    Mid way update!

    I'm about 150 pages into Shadow of the Torturer. Aaaand about 300 open tabs into Merriam-Webster.com.

    Certain words unknown may have illicited a sharp "Now you're just fucking with me." response.

    So far every post here has been correct about this book. I will continue the toil.

    PS Severian is a wet fart wrapped in a moist towelette with PeRfeCT MeMoRy.

    So one thing with Book of the New Sun is that it uses a ton of archaic terms to give you a general impression of what the thing in question is without using the actual modern word for it because it is not actually specifically that thing.

    eg - A destrier is not a horse. But it is horse-like.

    Theyre not archaic terms, theyre fancy terms! But yes I caught that. It also seems to work, for me, to blur the line between those terms which are in fact invention and which are not. But I was joking more than anything, it's been interesting so far.

    Automautocrates on
    The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of the pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes.
    -John Stuart Mill
  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    I don’t think any of the terms Wolfe uses in the books are invented by him. Some are incredibly obscure but none are just made up.

  • BrodyBrody The Watch The First ShoreRegistered User regular
    I don't recall coming across anything I didn't recognize, but I also read a lot of scifi and fantasy, so I've come across a lot of weird archaic words.

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

    The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson

    Steam: Korvalain
  • nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    Mid way update!

    I'm about 150 pages into Shadow of the Torturer. Aaaand about 300 open tabs into Merriam-Webster.com.

    Certain words unknown may have illicited a sharp "Now you're just fucking with me." response.

    So far every post here has been correct about this book. I will continue the toil.

    PS Severian is a wet fart wrapped in a moist towelette with PeRfeCT MeMoRy.

    Severian is unreliable at best

  • AutomautocratesAutomautocrates Registered User regular
    edited August 2021
    Bogart wrote: »
    I don’t think any of the terms Wolfe uses in the books are invented by him. Some are incredibly obscure but none are just made up.

    I just dug a little deeper on the few words that I came across, which I can recall, that I thought were invention and so far it seems you're right. I suppose I need to dig a bit deeper before assuming. The closest I could find to my statement being true is that one of the coins is an orichalc/k, but that's clearly a derivative of orichalcum.
    Brody wrote: »
    I don't recall coming across anything I didn't recognize, but I also read a lot of scifi and fantasy, so I've come across a lot of weird archaic words.

    There is certainly a ton I recognize via general fantasy but now and then I hit something like "lambrequin" or "Domnicellae" and I cant say my reading has ever taken me near it. I also cant say my reading just yet is very broad but I'd definitely like to include more literature that is. I'll need suggestions for when I finish this :)

    Severian is unreliable at best

    I dont know what you mean. His memory is perfect, he told me himself, multiple times! He cant possibly be unreliable!

    Automautocrates on
    The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of the pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes.
    -John Stuart Mill
  • credeikicredeiki Registered User regular
    I just finished a collection of David Foster Wallace essays (A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again); the title essay and a couple other ones (the county fair; the ones about tennis) are phenomenal; there are a couple in there that were originally published in more academic journals and it's sort of unclear why they're in an essay collection for a general audience. The writing is of course technically superb (the mix of high and low style always delightful) but the key is something about the tone of it that is so intimate and conspiratorial, like you are always just being drawn into conversation and confidence with the author. There's definitely another few collections of essays out there and I should try to get my hands on them (this one was free from one of those little free library hutches).

    Now I'm reading William Gibson's Agency and there's something fundamentally disconcerting about the fact that he can write about the present in his particular way (not even the present! now it's 5 years ago!), or maybe it's disconcerting that he chose to. I read an interview or two he gave about it when it came out, where he talked about how he hadn't originally intended to write it, but he felt he needed to. It's pretty cool so far; a shame that of the Wilf and Flynne duo we keep Wilf, although I do like watching him be sort of helplessly dragged along as events proceed, so maybe I'm not put out by it much at all.

    Steam, LoL: credeiki
  • dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    edited August 2021
    Echo wrote: »
    Finished Lockdown Tales, a short story collection by Neal Asher. Based on the foreword and some stuff inbetween stories where he mentions a bit about how he came up with them, he apparently wrote this inbetween two books he's writing for Tor, his regular publisher. This collection was published by NewCon Press.

    And the editing is just... awful. Lots of missed spaces, missing punctuation, occasional wrong words used, but no typos because I guess the spell checker actually caught those.

    And then there's this one story where they apparently just published the damn draft? Editing-wise it's just laughably bad.

    r2t8nszdk73h.png

    Most of the stories are set an unknown amount of time post-Polity, where the Polity is gone - they became post-human, sublimed into virtual realities hosted inside neutron stars, started a great diaspora to other galaxies, or otherwise buggered off and no longer exists as it was known in the Polity novels. Except not everyone left, and the stories are about those people and/or Golem, war drones, and black AIs.

    Just got around to reading it, because I had so many books that weren't written by giant douchebags. But then I caved because I do love his Polity work. On the plus side, the ebook didn't have this level of horrible proofreading. It did have more than it's fair share of proofreading errors, though. But not catastrophically bad.

    The standouts to me were the castaway and the hooder stories. I would have loved to see the former expanded into a much longer work. The world felt like the Polity, but also so different. One of the Polity series' weaknesses (in a way) is that it seems like just about everything happens on about three different planets. It's small, much in the way Star Wars has made itself feel small. If it's not happening on Masada, Spatteryjay or ... actually, make that two planets. If it's not happening on them, be prepared for a generic world you'll probably never hear about again and won't be able to name as soon as you put down the book.

    Compare that to Ian Banks, who rarely revisited the same world or people and thus made the galaxy seem as huge as it was. Or Alastair Reynolds who did revisit worlds, but because those worlds were linked through a larger story that then encompasses an entire future history that really felt expansive.

    But this world (from the castaway story) actually felt real. Though I have to admit I can't remember the name of it now. Maybe it's just me.

    Now I'm spoilt for choice (of people who aren't assholes, even), and am torn between picking back up with Murderbot now that I have books 3-6, or diving into The Galaxy and the Ground Within. Tough call!

    dennis on
  • AbsalonAbsalon Lands of Always WinterRegistered User regular
    edited August 2021
    If someone wants a tense and harrowing horror mystery tale that doesn't overuse gore or nastiness but still keeps you scared and emotionally invested, I ardently recommend The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward. Intelligent, tender and perfectly paced despite biting off so much with so many narrating characters. Efficient and balanced prose too, with no unnecessary exaggerations or tropes.

    There are like three dozen blurbs from people like Joe Hill, Stephen King, Jo Spain and Paul Tremblay hyping it up before you get to the first page but it's actually justified.

    Absalon on
  • nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    credeiki wrote: »
    I just finished a collection of David Foster Wallace essays (A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again); the title essay and a couple other ones (the county fair; the ones about tennis) are phenomenal; there are a couple in there that were originally published in more academic journals and it's sort of unclear why they're in an essay collection for a general audience. The writing is of course technically superb (the mix of high and low style always delightful) but the key is something about the tone of it that is so intimate and conspiratorial, like you are always just being drawn into conversation and confidence with the author. There's definitely another few collections of essays out there and I should try to get my hands on them (this one was free from one of those little free library hutches).

    Now I'm reading William Gibson's Agency and there's something fundamentally disconcerting about the fact that he can write about the present in his particular way (not even the present! now it's 5 years ago!), or maybe it's disconcerting that he chose to. I read an interview or two he gave about it when it came out, where he talked about how he hadn't originally intended to write it, but he felt he needed to. It's pretty cool so far; a shame that of the Wilf and Flynne duo we keep Wilf, although I do like watching him be sort of helplessly dragged along as events proceed, so maybe I'm not put out by it much at all.

    Consider the Lobster was DFW second essay collection. Never read it so I can't vouch for its qualitty

  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    So is Douglas Coupland a giant knobhead or what? I’ve just read his frankly terrible defence of Elon Musk (Guardian article) and is everything he writes this dumb?

  • flamebroiledchickenflamebroiledchicken Registered User regular
    Bogart wrote: »
    So is Douglas Coupland a giant knobhead or what? I’ve just read his frankly terrible defence of Elon Musk (Guardian article) and is everything he writes this dumb?

    It's been a long time, but I remember enjoying Generation X and Microserfs. He seemed to have a good handle on a sort of Silicon Valley zeitgeist, especially at a time (late 80s/early 90s) when nobody besides Wired was really writing about or even paying attention to stuff like that. Wouldn't be surprised at all if that translated to bad opinions nowadays though.

    y59kydgzuja4.png
  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    Reading “Children of Earth and Sky” by Guy Gavriel Kay.

    Pretty good so far, I liked his China books that took place in ersatz Tang Dynasty then revisited the area hundreds of year later in an ersatz Song Dynasty, and this seems to be a similar take on his Sarantium books, revisiting the same areas shortly after the fall of ersatz Constantinople.

    One thing that keeps getting me a bit with his books is that they are obviously loosely based on historical events but he still uses made up names for the places and characters (and fairly obvious ones, even if you aren’t familiar with the Turkish language you probably aren’t going to have much trouble figuring out who the Osmanli empire is supposed to be). I understand why he does it because he doesn’t want to be bound to the historical timeline, but on the other hand its a bit weird and I keep stumbling over place names that are almost but not quite the same as real life.

    So this and other mention of this book combined with my library having a copy in lead me to reading this. I'd read Kay's Sailing to Sarantium a few years ago so this was oddly familiar. There are a couple places I'm fairly sure are callbacks to that book but it's been too long for me to say how.

    I really enjoyed this story. It is a wonderful mix of big sweeping events that never loses the focus on very human and personable stories. I really should make an effort to seek out more of Kay's works.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • ShadowhopeShadowhope Baa. Registered User regular
    Reading “Children of Earth and Sky” by Guy Gavriel Kay.

    Pretty good so far, I liked his China books that took place in ersatz Tang Dynasty then revisited the area hundreds of year later in an ersatz Song Dynasty, and this seems to be a similar take on his Sarantium books, revisiting the same areas shortly after the fall of ersatz Constantinople.

    One thing that keeps getting me a bit with his books is that they are obviously loosely based on historical events but he still uses made up names for the places and characters (and fairly obvious ones, even if you aren’t familiar with the Turkish language you probably aren’t going to have much trouble figuring out who the Osmanli empire is supposed to be). I understand why he does it because he doesn’t want to be bound to the historical timeline, but on the other hand its a bit weird and I keep stumbling over place names that are almost but not quite the same as real life.

    So this and other mention of this book combined with my library having a copy in lead me to reading this. I'd read Kay's Sailing to Sarantium a few years ago so this was oddly familiar. There are a couple places I'm fairly sure are callbacks to that book but it's been too long for me to say how.

    I really enjoyed this story. It is a wonderful mix of big sweeping events that never loses the focus on very human and personable stories. I really should make an effort to seek out more of Kay's works.

    A few years ago IIRC, Brandon Sanderson said that Pratchett and Kay were the greatest living fantasy writers. I agree, and it’s a damn shame Kay hasn’t gotten more mainstream recognition. With that said, he does have a certain formula. Kay takes a piece of history, tweaks it just a bit, fills the world with complex and sympathetic characters, then has a person quite knowledgable and competent in their field but not so in all ways wander into a situation and inadvertently act as the catalyst and/or observer for a turning point in history; the end is then always bittersweet, a combination of mourning for what’s ended and hope for what is to come.

    A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine was totally a Guy Gavriel Kay novel set in space.

    Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
  • Mojo_JojoMojo_Jojo We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourse Registered User regular
    Bogart wrote: »
    So is Douglas Coupland a giant knobhead or what? I’ve just read his frankly terrible defence of Elon Musk (Guardian article) and is everything he writes this dumb?

    I skimmed that and was amazed at how it was so long but didn't address why people don't like Musk at all

    Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
  • Jealous DevaJealous Deva Registered User regular
    Shadowhope wrote: »
    Reading “Children of Earth and Sky” by Guy Gavriel Kay.

    Pretty good so far, I liked his China books that took place in ersatz Tang Dynasty then revisited the area hundreds of year later in an ersatz Song Dynasty, and this seems to be a similar take on his Sarantium books, revisiting the same areas shortly after the fall of ersatz Constantinople.

    One thing that keeps getting me a bit with his books is that they are obviously loosely based on historical events but he still uses made up names for the places and characters (and fairly obvious ones, even if you aren’t familiar with the Turkish language you probably aren’t going to have much trouble figuring out who the Osmanli empire is supposed to be). I understand why he does it because he doesn’t want to be bound to the historical timeline, but on the other hand its a bit weird and I keep stumbling over place names that are almost but not quite the same as real life.

    So this and other mention of this book combined with my library having a copy in lead me to reading this. I'd read Kay's Sailing to Sarantium a few years ago so this was oddly familiar. There are a couple places I'm fairly sure are callbacks to that book but it's been too long for me to say how.

    I really enjoyed this story. It is a wonderful mix of big sweeping events that never loses the focus on very human and personable stories. I really should make an effort to seek out more of Kay's works.

    A few years ago IIRC, Brandon Sanderson said that Pratchett and Kay were the greatest living fantasy writers. I agree, and it’s a damn shame Kay hasn’t gotten more mainstream recognition. With that said, he does have a certain formula. Kay takes a piece of history, tweaks it just a bit, fills the world with complex and sympathetic characters, then has a person quite knowledgable and competent in their field but not so in all ways wander into a situation and inadvertently act as the catalyst and/or observer for a turning point in history; the end is then always bittersweet, a combination of mourning for what’s ended and hope for what is to come.

    A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine was totally a Guy Gavriel Kay novel set in space.

    Yeah its definitely a formula, but its a good formula and since I tend to read his books as they come out every few years it never gets too old.

    There are definitely some callbacks to the two Sarantine Mosaic books, to the point that it may be worth a reread.

  • CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    Recently read King's new book, Bobby Summers. It was a good book but didn't really feel like a King novel. I mean, the ending wasn't even terrible!
    The randomly haunted cabin overlooking the site of the Overlook felt like King sat down one morning and thought, "I've written two hundred pages and there isn't a single ghost or reference to my own writing. Better do something about that."

    T. Kingfisher's The Twisted Ones is great. The prose isn't as over-the-top as Gideon the Ninth but has a similarly modern feel to it.

    Having read the first novella of the Apollo Quartet a while ago I finally got around to the second one, The Eye With Which The Universe Beholds Itself. I think I just don't get what the author is doing or trying to do with these stories. At the end I was thinking, "Okay. I'm intrigued. Where does this go next?" and apparently the other two stories in the Quartet are completely unrelated. I guess this one, at least, is just a character portrait? I dunno. It just felt completely unsatisfying. Like seeing a trailer for a movie that looks cool and then finding out that no, there is no movie; they only made the trailer. Also I have no idea what the author has against quotation marks but it drives me nuts.

    Currently partway through Tchaikovsky's Shards of Earth. It's alright, so far, but feels very different from what I was expecting out of him after Children of Ruin/Time and Doors of Eden.

    PSN,Steam,Live | CptHamiltonian
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    Currently partway through Tchaikovsky's Shards of Earth. It's alright, so far, but feels very different from what I was expecting out of him after Children of Ruin/Time and Doors of Eden.

    You had me at Tchaikovsky. *buys blindly*

  • CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    Echo wrote: »
    Currently partway through Tchaikovsky's Shards of Earth. It's alright, so far, but feels very different from what I was expecting out of him after Children of Ruin/Time and Doors of Eden.

    You had me at Tchaikovsky. *buys blindly*

    I did the same thing on seeing he had a new book out. I certainly wouldn't anti-recommend it but so far there's a total lack of detailed descriptions of species' or cultural evolution, which feels weird. Seems like more of a standard space opera type deal.

    PSN,Steam,Live | CptHamiltonian
  • StraygatsbyStraygatsby Registered User regular
    Reading Hail Mary by Andy Weir. It's fun but fluffy. I'd say it'd be a great book on a plane or by poolside. No heavy lifting here despite the narrative.

    Every main character he writes sounds like the same 14 year old boy (including Jasmine from Artemis, somehow), but it's a minor gripe in a largely entertaining read.

  • BrodyBrody The Watch The First ShoreRegistered User regular
    I loved The Martian but really didn't care for Artemis. Not that Artemis wasnt bad, it just didn't feel nearly as interesting/realized? I feel like maybe it just could have used a similar 5 year proofing and editing period like The Martian had. How is Hail Mary?

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

    The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson

    Steam: Korvalain
  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User regular
    Brody wrote: »
    I loved The Martian but really didn't care for Artemis. Not that Artemis wasnt bad, it just didn't feel nearly as interesting/realized? I feel like maybe it just could have used a similar 5 year proofing and editing period like The Martian had. How is Hail Mary?
    I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed The Martian and more than Artemis.

    8i1dt37buh2m.png
  • CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    Brody wrote: »
    I loved The Martian but really didn't care for Artemis. Not that Artemis wasnt bad, it just didn't feel nearly as interesting/realized? I feel like maybe it just could have used a similar 5 year proofing and editing period like The Martian had. How is Hail Mary?

    Hail Mary is the Martian sequel people were hoping for which Artemis was not. It's not actually a sequel in any fashion but it's very obviously "Okay, okay, I wrote more of The Martian."

    PSN,Steam,Live | CptHamiltonian
  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    I think my biggest issue is that I didn't need more "The Martian". Even by the end of that book I though the world was shitting on Watney, and am glad for the things the movie cut out.

    Steam ID: Webguy20
    Origin ID: Discgolfer27
    Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
  • BrodyBrody The Watch The First ShoreRegistered User regular
    webguy20 wrote: »
    I think my biggest issue is that I didn't need more "The Martian". Even by the end of that book I though the world was shitting on Watney, and am glad for the things the movie cut out.

    I'm more just worried about something that feels like it got rushed out because suddenly he's famous.

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

    The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson

    Steam: Korvalain
  • Fuzzy Cumulonimbus CloudFuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud Registered User regular
    Reading Hail Mary by Andy Weir. It's fun but fluffy. I'd say it'd be a great book on a plane or by poolside. No heavy lifting here despite the narrative.

    Every main character he writes sounds like the same 14 year old boy (including Jasmine from Artemis, somehow), but it's a minor gripe in a largely entertaining read.
    I just got the audiobook and am requesting a refund because the narrator is so grating. I'll have to read that one.

  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User regular
    edited August 2021
    Continuing my Hugo nominee reads, FINNA by Nino Cipri, is a humorous little adventure story about diving through wormholes in a notIKEA with your queer ex. It has a very contemporary voice and sense of humor, and I found myself laughing at some of the turns of phrases and descriptions of the corporate banality of modern life. “Our boss always said that we were family, but that just meant I had to put up with constant bullshit.” That sort of thing. It was brisk, if a bit predictable, but it’s fun light snack reading. I dug it.

    The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo is exotic, with layers of storytelling that feels less high fantasy/sci-fi and more ancient, like Scheherazade. I’m not sure if it is really my bag, but it has evocative prose and world building in notAsia. “Angry mothers raise daughters fierce enough to fight wolves” just sounds truthy and inscrutable.

    Both stories have They/Them pronoun protagonists in them, which is cool.

    Hahnsoo1 on
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  • CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    Reading Hail Mary by Andy Weir. It's fun but fluffy. I'd say it'd be a great book on a plane or by poolside. No heavy lifting here despite the narrative.

    Every main character he writes sounds like the same 14 year old boy (including Jasmine from Artemis, somehow), but it's a minor gripe in a largely entertaining read.
    I just got the audiobook and am requesting a refund because the narrator is so grating. I'll have to read that one.

    Ray Porter? Or Rosario Dawson for Artemis? Or Whil Wheaton, the for-some-reason replacement narrator for The Martian?

    PSN,Steam,Live | CptHamiltonian
  • SummaryJudgmentSummaryJudgment Grab the hottest iron you can find, stride in the Tower’s front door Registered User regular
    edited September 2021
    I finished The City we Became after my second crack at it and I'm curious what she intends for the trilogy.

    I was -- intentionally on Jemisin's part, I think -- pretty off put as a left-voting white guy reading it. Some discussion I had seen was that "hey, as a PoC, this is what it felt like to read pretty much everything for a long while" so I do think it's valuable in that representational sense.

    I do think she kind of skews NYC to do it -- not one protagonist is Jewish (barely any characters at all? Jess from the art gallery?), she glosses entirely over the now-passing-white Italian population throughout the city and in Jersey (when that sure as hell wasn't always the case. Lovecraft fucking hated Italians and Jews, for one. And yet here we are, subsumed into his white Staten Island.)

    and a quick Wikipedia search says Staten Island is as of 2018 only 60% non-Hispanic white now, and the growing 40%+ Hispanic and POC population are excluded the sake of the book's lily white S.I.

    SummaryJudgment on
    Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.
  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    Anthony Beevor's history of the invasion and resistance of Crete was superb. Tons of delicious detail, everything brilliantly clear and even-handed. I mean this is par for the course with Beevor but still, it bears repeating.

    Favourite details include the old German soldier visiting the cemetery there thirty years later, running into and recognising one of the caretakers as the man from whom he had hid in a bush after parachuting on to the island. Also the Cretan habit of recognising German stooges sent into their villages to pretend to be British airmen and flush out resistance fighters. The done thing was to thrash them within an inch of their life and hand them over to the Germans with a smile, saying look we've caught a British soldier for you, knowing the Germans could do little more than say thank you.

  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    Anyway now I'm catching up with Interzone and starting Deathtrap Dungeon, probably the best FF book, and certainly one which works within the format better than most of the others.

  • AutomautocratesAutomautocrates Registered User regular
    Book of New Sun stuff, spoilered for lengths but I dont think there are any real spoilers herein.
    I finished Shadow of the Torturer and Claw of the Conciliator, and though I very much enjoy these books I think I'll take a breather before finishing up the final two. I've been mentally consumed by these novels since I started, and I feel if I keep going I'll burn out on it. Dont want to ruminate too much. I cant pretend to have any idea where this whole affair is going but that's what I like about it. Like chasing a snake through the woods.

    Now despite the jests in my previous posts I've had a great time hunting down the meanings and origins of the various words that Wolfe employed. Coming to terms with the terms. Many I could certainly elucidate the general definition of, though many I could not, and so had fun diving a little deeper. In Shadow I was hunting down 5 or more words a chapter at times, and in Claw that dropped down a bit to maybe 1 or 2 on the low end. Some words that I searched for, funnily enough, had old PA topics in their top results. "Vingtner" for instance, the third result is a topic here from 2009. I imagine when I'm done I'll be picking up a copy of Lexicon Urthus for my shelf as well, looks fun.

    I had quite a sensible chuckle when I reached the appendices at the end of Shadow and was informed that no terms were invented and that a destrier is like a horse but not a horse. ;)

    I have so little fondness for Severian that it appears almost as if I have none at all. Fancy that! Cant say however that I had high expections of a fellow that flays for a living. Love the flay but hate the flayer? No that doesn't seem quite right... Love the play but hate the player?

    I think these books will stick with me for a long time. It stokes a little fire in me. It's the kind of writing that makes me want to resume little projects which have been collecting dust for too long.

    Sooo while I let my brain settle I'm hoping to read something a bit less dense. I found a copy of Adrift by Rob Boffard in a bargain bin, looks to be a tropey little space affair and probably won't have me racking my noggin quite so hard. I've also got a copy of Time Pressure by Spider Robinson, which from a cursory glance seems to be about a time traveler appearing at a commune in Nova Scotia? I have no idea where that'll go.

    Maybe I'll tackle The Empress of Salt and Fortune first since it's short, I'm now curious, and the sequel is out. The sequel to A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik comes out at the end of the month and I've loved her works, so I'd like to have all these titles and BotNS cleared off my reading list by then.
    A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine was totally a Guy Gavriel Kay novel set in space.

    Be still my heart. I guess I'll be reading Kay come October.

    The dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of the pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes.
    -John Stuart Mill
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