Kuang surprises me. I'd have thought her books would be well received in China.
If we were only looking at Babel, that would probably have been fine. But Kuang has been critical of China. And she's very open about how the Poppy Wars trilogy criticizes Mao and Maoism. Very heavy-handedly, even. While the Poppy Wars wasn't up for a Hugo this year, China isn't going to just ignore the past works.
Interzone 277, from, jeez, 2018. Christ but I'm behind on these. They've switched to a new editor, had financial woes and gone digital in the last year or two, which is a dang shame because I hate reading anything but a physical copy. But hey ho. It's the kind of thing I like to exist so supporting it with a subscription is the logical choice.
Standout story is probably Territory: Blank by Aliya Whiteley, a nicely creepy, fractured piece about hallucinations in a VR experiment. No dud stories, happily.
The reviews section I'm less keen on. I don't go a bomb on reviews that are 80% recap, and that seems to be Interzone's house style, but I've discovered decent stuff there a few times. Helen Marshall most recently. Inn this issue Hannu Rajaniemi's Summerland, which promises to cross spy novels and fantasy, sounds tempting. The high bar for that kind of thing is Tim Powers's Declare, which is superb.
I just read Thornhedge, a novella by T Kingfisher. It’s a very sweet fairytale retelling (I mean honestly more of its own fairytale, but it is sleeping beauty adjacent) and nice to read. It’s not as good as Nettle and Bone, but it's very enjoyable. It could be a little shorter (yes I seem to say this about every book I read--but for real some of the exposition is a little meh and some of the interactions between Toadling and Halim are repetitive to no end), but only by like 5 pages.
Blurbs on the back cover: Naomi Novik, Katherine Arden, Peter S Beagle, Juliet Marillier, Tamora Pierce. I feel so called out lol--when have I ever read books by every single blurb-er. (Don't like Katherine Arden's writing but I do like the concept of what she is trying and imo failing to do). Juliet Marillier I loved so much in high school--a retelling of the story of the swan brothers and the girl who has to knit them jackets out of nettle, and then a series set in that world--and want to revisit some day, but I lent out the first book like 15 years ago and have never gotten it back ;_;
I just read Thornhedge, a novella by T Kingfisher. It’s a very sweet fairytale retelling (I mean honestly more of its own fairytale, but it is sleeping beauty adjacent) and nice to read. It’s not as good as Nettle and Bone, but it's very enjoyable. It could be a little shorter (yes I seem to say this about every book I read--but for real some of the exposition is a little meh and some of the interactions between Toadling and Halim are repetitive to no end), but only by like 5 pages.
Blurbs on the back cover: Naomi Novik, Katherine Arden, Peter S Beagle, Juliet Marillier, Tamora Pierce. I feel so called out lol--when have I ever read books by every single blurb-er. (Don't like Katherine Arden's writing but I do like the concept of what she is trying and imo failing to do). Juliet Marillier I loved so much in high school--a retelling of the story of the swan brothers and the girl who has to knit them jackets out of nettle, and then a series set in that world--and want to revisit some day, but I lent out the first book like 15 years ago and have never gotten it back ;_;
Have you tried the Paladin series by the same author?
I found them fun. Though I do love the reader who said 'Two people in love should not be this bad at communicating with each other outside of a TS Elliot novel"
Coming to it two years late by a circuitous route I've now seen this incredible quote from a 'writer' who bangs out books at the rate of one every 7 weeks by using Chat GPT to, you know, do the actual work.
"It’s just words," Lepp told the Verge. "It’s my story, my characters, my world. I came up with it. So what if a computer wrote them?"
She's writing garbage for an audience who want garbage but I still get a strong urge to walk into the sea after reading something like this. A longer article can be found here.
She is now writing two series simultaneously, toggling between the witch detective and a new mystery-solving heroine, a 50-year-old divorced owner of an animal rescue who comes into possession of a magical platter that allows her to communicate with cats.
To be fair, my 11 year old daughter would like to run an animal sanctuary but also solve crime and talk to cats.
In fact, if my walks to and from school through the village are anything to go by, she’d love it if cats would just come to her despite her best efforts.
I’ve explained to her that cats are jerks. They know that she wants them to come to her, so decide not to.
Just like they know that I have no interest in them, so will periodically bother me.
Back when Harrow the Ninth first came out, I dove into it excitedly on my kindle, having loved Gideon, but for some reason its 2nd-person structure chapters bounced me off the book super hard before I was even halfway though it. Can't even articulate why, mind was just having difficulty processing reading that way.
Had spare audible credits and got back into it, and I'm picking up the narrative way better this way.
I had a similar trouble with it. For me it comes down to the fact that using 2nd Person allowed her to hide certain things from the reader, on purpose.
While I can enjoy a good mystery, obscuring the reality of the world, characters, etc (however deep in fantasy worlds you are) is a non-starter for me. It leads me to conclude that you're not doing this for the enjoyment of the reader but for some other reason that has nothing to do with why books are cool.
I think a good deal more people would have been on board with her expanding the series with a interstitial third book if she had kept up the crazy good writing from the first one.
All opinions are my own and in no way reflect that of my employer.
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webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
I dunno, i loved the 2nd one. Gideon is still the best but i found Harrow fascinating.
I dunno, i loved the 2nd one. Gideon is still the best but i found Harrow fascinating.
I had to work a lot harder to enjoy Harrow, but the last fifty or so pages only worked because of the lead up. But the lead up was tough. Sometimes incomprehensible even!
I dunno, i loved the 2nd one. Gideon is still the best but i found Harrow fascinating.
I had to work a lot harder to enjoy Harrow, but the last fifty or so pages only worked because of the lead up. But the lead up was tough. Sometimes incomprehensible even!
Oh yea, the first time through i really liked it, but only understood maybe half of it. I then re-read Gideon then immediately jumped into Harrow again and it made a mountain more sense.
I’m glad the series is only four books. Having to reread the entire thing in lead up each time is a task. One I’ll gladly do but I’m glad it’s not a dozen books.
I forgot to mention! I did finish audiobook-Harrow, and ended up loving it! Absolutely agree with the points on this page. Was able to guess a fair bit of where the plot goes and the role of the stylistic choices done in it, too, which was really rewarding. I do think it kind of spins its wheels a bit in acts 3-4, but once it gets going again, it gets going.
Immediately started Nona and hoo boy, if you thought Harrow was weird and confusing... But I'm almost near the end of it and I'm starting to put some pieces together, so glad I stuck with that one too.
I just read Ancillary Justice... and then immediately read Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy, and thought they were all great. The main character's strange perspective, and the way characters talk and behave in such a guarded manner really worked for me.
I thought it was really interesting that the plot is about a civil war in a massive empire, but the book seems far more concerned with teaching this rich aristocrat to care about the people around her, improving the living conditions of an underclass and some field workers, helping someone out of an abusive relationship, etc. The BIG PLOT stuff is almost a distraction from what the book is really about: unjust peace.
Really looking forward to Translation State now, see what's going on with the Translators finally.
I just read Ancillary Justice... and then immediately read Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy, and thought they were all great. The main character's strange perspective, and the way characters talk and behave in such a guarded manner really worked for me.
I thought it was really interesting that the plot is about a civil war in a massive empire, but the book seems far more concerned with teaching this rich aristocrat to care about the people around her, improving the living conditions of an underclass and some field workers, helping someone out of an abusive relationship, etc. The BIG PLOT stuff is almost a distraction from what the book is really about: unjust peace.
Really looking forward to Translation State now, see what's going on with the Translators finally.
If you want something similar, check out *A Memory Called Empire*. If you want something in the same universe, Leckie has *Provenance* too.
I just read Ancillary Justice... and then immediately read Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy, and thought they were all great. The main character's strange perspective, and the way characters talk and behave in such a guarded manner really worked for me.
I thought it was really interesting that the plot is about a civil war in a massive empire, but the book seems far more concerned with teaching this rich aristocrat to care about the people around her, improving the living conditions of an underclass and some field workers, helping someone out of an abusive relationship, etc. The BIG PLOT stuff is almost a distraction from what the book is really about: unjust peace.
Really looking forward to Translation State now, see what's going on with the Translators finally.
If you want something similar, check out *A Memory Called Empire*. If you want something in the same universe, Leckie has *Provenance* too.
I actually read Provenance first, because that's what was available in the library.
And A Memory Called Empire was brilliant, I loved it. The sequel was good, but less good, in large part because it seemed to take half the book just to get everyone into position before the story could start.
Finished this omnibus of short stories I got for Christmas, I had read a few of them in compendiums and enjoyed the characters enough to be excited to read the collected works. The title characters are a mercenary artillerist and a sorcerous papier mache and wood puppet whose job it is to banish specific interdimensional beings from their world.
Reading the first omnibus of Savage Sword of Conan. Barry Windsor-Smith’s art is by now beautiful, his figure work alive and served well by the move to black and white. Wonderful. John Buscema's work is also oddly more striking in black and white.
There’s some overlap with the CtB omnibuses, though, as time pressures made them reprint some SSoC in that when they were running late. And they didn’t need to put the Frost Giant’s Daughter in this omnibus twice, even if that’s what the original issues contained.
I had a bit of a rough start with The Traitor Baru Cormorant. I thought it was Scifi, I was surprised it was fantasy. I thought Baru was a male name, I was surprised she's female. The book has a map, but none of the places it talks about in the book are on the map, and the map only names the duchies within the land, not the land itself, so I had a hard time figuring out the geography.
But the book is excellent and the first thing I did when I finished was put a hold on the sequel at the library, so now I have to wait impatiently for that to be ready. I enjoy reading about smart people doing politics at each other, and this was a good one of those.
My first reaction to the Falcresti homophobia was that it made them too cartoonishly evil. How can you talk about balancing the good their sewerage and healthcare has brought when they're so over-the-top homophobic? It felt to me like the author put a big neon sign saying 'these are the bad guys', rather than playing in a grey area. But on reflection... it's a pretty realistic trait for a historical society, and there are probably plenty of people who would cheer it on today, so maybe they're not cartoon villains, they're just garden variety villains? I was taken out of the book a bit at the beginning by thinking the author made them too evil, but maybe that's unfair, maybe he made them just evil enough.
This ramble is inspired by me learning the library lists this book, and the last 3 books I read, under 'Queer Fiction'. I thought queer fiction would be... queerer.
I've complained before that the empire in Baru Cormorant is just kind of a hodgepodge of the very worst aspects of like a dozen different colonizing states from different times, which makes them a very simple villain that's always doing the worst possible thing to everyone at all times. Which ironically means they don't really look anything like the real life empires they're drawing from, cuz if there's one thing empires had to figure out to succeed it's that you can't keep pissing off everyone all the time and not have things go to hell. Also Baru's economics don't make sense.
For a couple of similar (and also queer) books, Memories of Empire and The Jasmine Throne both have a lot more subtlety in how they approach ideas about empire.
Granted usually when I complain about Baru most people disagree with me, so it's a minority opinion.
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.
I've complained before that the empire in Baru Cormorant is just kind of a hodgepodge of the very worst aspects of like a dozen different colonizing states from different times, which makes them a very simple villain that's always doing the worst possible thing to everyone at all times. Which ironically means they don't really look anything like the real life empires they're drawing from, cuz if there's one thing empires had to figure out to succeed it's that you can't keep pissing off everyone all the time and not have things go to hell. Also Baru's economics don't make sense.
For a couple of similar (and also queer) books, Memories of Empire and The Jasmine Throne both have a lot more subtlety in how they approach ideas about empire.
Granted usually when I complain about Baru most people disagree with me, so it's a minority opinion.
I think maybe the empire was meant to be obviously the villain, but with enough positive traits to make us understand why some people being colonised would accept them.
Leaving aside the plague, which they may have intentionally caused but it may be an accident, they didn't conquer Taranoke violently. They traded, which brought wealth, and helped them in their rivalry with the plains people. After a few decades the islands were dependent on the wealth trade brought them. Without the plague I would expect it to take a few generations, not decades, but with the plague it felt like a realistic account of colonialism to me.
In Aurdwynn I agree that they are too aggressive in pissing people off, they should probably hold off on their eugenics programs and religion suppression... but on the other hand, they're trying to provoke a revolt, so maybe it's reasonable.
The economics didn't all make sense, but I thought it was a much better attempt than most fantasy. It acknowledges the cost of keeping a standing army (and the fact that most deaths are caused by disease and attrition), and it shows the damage just moving an army causes to the land around them. The more rural duchies didn't produce enough food to feed themselves, which was backwards, it's towns and cities that don't produce enough food. Vultjag's food insecurity should have lead everyone to subsistence farming, not to mining and crafts to trade for food, that only makes sense if food is available and reliable.
Searching for Memories of Empire only returns A Memory Called Empire, is that what you meant? I loved that book, and the ambivalence towards the empire in it. And my library has The Jasmine Throne, so thanks, I've put that on hold.
Coming to it two years late by a circuitous route I've now seen this incredible quote from a 'writer' who bangs out books at the rate of one every 7 weeks by using Chat GPT to, you know, do the actual work.
"It’s just words," Lepp told the Verge. "It’s my story, my characters, my world. I came up with it. So what if a computer wrote them?"
She's writing garbage for an audience who want garbage but I still get a strong urge to walk into the sea after reading something like this. A longer article can be found here.
She is now writing two series simultaneously, toggling between the witch detective and a new mystery-solving heroine, a 50-year-old divorced owner of an animal rescue who comes into possession of a magical platter that allows her to communicate with cats.
I'm building an ivory tower tomorrow.
a "writer" saying "it's just words" is profoundly repulsive. an absolute sociopath.
"it's just meat," she says cheerfully, soaked to her arms in gore, cheerfully hewing at her third victim with a hatchet. "who cares what shape it's in?"
Coming to it two years late by a circuitous route I've now seen this incredible quote from a 'writer' who bangs out books at the rate of one every 7 weeks by using Chat GPT to, you know, do the actual work.
"It’s just words," Lepp told the Verge. "It’s my story, my characters, my world. I came up with it. So what if a computer wrote them?"
She's writing garbage for an audience who want garbage but I still get a strong urge to walk into the sea after reading something like this. A longer article can be found here.
She is now writing two series simultaneously, toggling between the witch detective and a new mystery-solving heroine, a 50-year-old divorced owner of an animal rescue who comes into possession of a magical platter that allows her to communicate with cats.
I'm building an ivory tower tomorrow.
a "writer" saying "it's just words" is profoundly repulsive. an absolute sociopath.
"it's just meat," she says cheerfully, soaked to her arms in gore, cheerfully hewing at her third victim with a hatchet. "who cares what shape it's in?"
Well if you justify your theft, you don't have to feel bad about it! It's great!
I've complained before that the empire in Baru Cormorant is just kind of a hodgepodge of the very worst aspects of like a dozen different colonizing states from different times, which makes them a very simple villain that's always doing the worst possible thing to everyone at all times. Which ironically means they don't really look anything like the real life empires they're drawing from, cuz if there's one thing empires had to figure out to succeed it's that you can't keep pissing off everyone all the time and not have things go to hell. Also Baru's economics don't make sense.
For a couple of similar (and also queer) books, Memories of Empire and The Jasmine Throne both have a lot more subtlety in how they approach ideas about empire.
Granted usually when I complain about Baru most people disagree with me, so it's a minority opinion.
I think maybe the empire was meant to be obviously the villain, but with enough positive traits to make us understand why some people being colonised would accept them.
Leaving aside the plague, which they may have intentionally caused but it may be an accident, they didn't conquer Taranoke violently. They traded, which brought wealth, and helped them in their rivalry with the plains people. After a few decades the islands were dependent on the wealth trade brought them. Without the plague I would expect it to take a few generations, not decades, but with the plague it felt like a realistic account of colonialism to me.
In Aurdwynn I agree that they are too aggressive in pissing people off, they should probably hold off on their eugenics programs and religion suppression... but on the other hand, they're trying to provoke a revolt, so maybe it's reasonable.
The economics didn't all make sense, but I thought it was a much better attempt than most fantasy. It acknowledges the cost of keeping a standing army (and the fact that most deaths are caused by disease and attrition), and it shows the damage just moving an army causes to the land around them. The more rural duchies didn't produce enough food to feed themselves, which was backwards, it's towns and cities that don't produce enough food. Vultjag's food insecurity should have lead everyone to subsistence farming, not to mining and crafts to trade for food, that only makes sense if food is available and reliable.
Searching for Memories of Empire only returns A Memory Called Empire, is that what you meant? I loved that book, and the ambivalence towards the empire in it. And my library has The Jasmine Throne, so thanks, I've put that on hold.
I think I've read Memories of Empire but dang if I can remember anything about 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.
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SummaryJudgmentGrab the hottest iron you can find, stride in the Tower’s front doorRegistered Userregular
Coming to it two years late by a circuitous route I've now seen this incredible quote from a 'writer' who bangs out books at the rate of one every 7 weeks by using Chat GPT to, you know, do the actual work.
"It’s just words," Lepp told the Verge. "It’s my story, my characters, my world. I came up with it. So what if a computer wrote them?"
She's writing garbage for an audience who want garbage but I still get a strong urge to walk into the sea after reading something like this. A longer article can be found here.
She is now writing two series simultaneously, toggling between the witch detective and a new mystery-solving heroine, a 50-year-old divorced owner of an animal rescue who comes into possession of a magical platter that allows her to communicate with cats.
I'm building an ivory tower tomorrow.
a "writer" saying "it's just words" is profoundly repulsive. an absolute sociopath.
"it's just meat," she says cheerfully, soaked to her arms in gore, cheerfully hewing at her third victim with a hatchet. "who cares what shape it's in?"
Well if you justify your theft, you don't have to feel bad about it! It's great!
Fuckers.
I can't really say that it's stealing, unless every new author who finds their voice after synthesizing all of their lives favorite authors is also a thief?
And if it's shit, then it's shit, and there's nothing to worry about. But I've a feeling the prose is hewing a bit too close to, say, the Murderbot books for comfort.
Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.
I think it's pretty easy to prove we're more than just sophisticated woodchippers. In order to remix one or more works into a "new" story, there has to be something original to remix. It can't be remixes all the way down or you'd never have anything to remix. And it's pretty clear that the literature and artwork of today is quite different from (to pick an arbitrary time) 200 years ago. So there has to be creativity in there.
That's one of the big flaws in our current generative AI models. There's nothing in the code to create actual new art (in part or whole). It really is just a sophisticated woodchipper. Just so sophisticated that it tricks our brain into thinking it's new. But the way the code works isn't a big mystery, so with the expertise to understand it you can pry open the machine and see the chopping blades.
It’s less that it’s theft (though the fact that AI art doesn’t function without imbibing a metric ton of someone else’s copyrighted work is obviously important), and more the fact that the person doesn’t seem to understand what writing is.
The way she’s talking about writing is like she thinks the work of writing is the least important part of the art. All that matters is that she has ideas. It’s a depressingly philistine, lazy viewpoint that obviates everything that makes writing interesting and moving.
I mean, does she think the ideas she’s having are even interesting? Oh a supernatural detective and a teenage witch holy shit what irreplaceable ideas and brilliance! Her ideas are maybe the least interesting and most derivative part of her books. Her own writing might elevate those cliches but we’ll never know because she can’t be bothered to actually write the fucking book.
I don't know who Colleen Hoover is but if NPR is to be believed her romance/thriller books are massively popular in prisons. Which is just enjoyable trivia I need to share.
I've complained before that the empire in Baru Cormorant is just kind of a hodgepodge of the very worst aspects of like a dozen different colonizing states from different times, which makes them a very simple villain that's always doing the worst possible thing to everyone at all times. Which ironically means they don't really look anything like the real life empires they're drawing from, cuz if there's one thing empires had to figure out to succeed it's that you can't keep pissing off everyone all the time and not have things go to hell. Also Baru's economics don't make sense.
For a couple of similar (and also queer) books, Memories of Empire and The Jasmine Throne both have a lot more subtlety in how they approach ideas about empire.
Granted usually when I complain about Baru most people disagree with me, so it's a minority opinion.
why doesn't it make sense?
and yeah, empires are vile. The british empire alone was cartoonishly evil in so many ways. I don't know if that makes them a 'simple villain.'
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Also it's looking like heavenly Tyrant might get delayed to 2025, because fuck them for speaking up about genocides, apparently.
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If we were only looking at Babel, that would probably have been fine. But Kuang has been critical of China. And she's very open about how the Poppy Wars trilogy criticizes Mao and Maoism. Very heavy-handedly, even. While the Poppy Wars wasn't up for a Hugo this year, China isn't going to just ignore the past works.
Standout story is probably Territory: Blank by Aliya Whiteley, a nicely creepy, fractured piece about hallucinations in a VR experiment. No dud stories, happily.
The reviews section I'm less keen on. I don't go a bomb on reviews that are 80% recap, and that seems to be Interzone's house style, but I've discovered decent stuff there a few times. Helen Marshall most recently. Inn this issue Hannu Rajaniemi's Summerland, which promises to cross spy novels and fantasy, sounds tempting. The high bar for that kind of thing is Tim Powers's Declare, which is superb.
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Blurbs on the back cover: Naomi Novik, Katherine Arden, Peter S Beagle, Juliet Marillier, Tamora Pierce. I feel so called out lol--when have I ever read books by every single blurb-er. (Don't like Katherine Arden's writing but I do like the concept of what she is trying and imo failing to do). Juliet Marillier I loved so much in high school--a retelling of the story of the swan brothers and the girl who has to knit them jackets out of nettle, and then a series set in that world--and want to revisit some day, but I lent out the first book like 15 years ago and have never gotten it back ;_;
Have you tried the Paladin series by the same author?
I found them fun. Though I do love the reader who said 'Two people in love should not be this bad at communicating with each other outside of a TS Elliot novel"
She's writing garbage for an audience who want garbage but I still get a strong urge to walk into the sea after reading something like this. A longer article can be found here.
I'm building an ivory tower tomorrow.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
In fact, if my walks to and from school through the village are anything to go by, she’d love it if cats would just come to her despite her best efforts.
I’ve explained to her that cats are jerks. They know that she wants them to come to her, so decide not to.
Just like they know that I have no interest in them, so will periodically bother me.
The dicks.
I had a similar trouble with it. For me it comes down to the fact that using 2nd Person allowed her to hide certain things from the reader, on purpose.
While I can enjoy a good mystery, obscuring the reality of the world, characters, etc (however deep in fantasy worlds you are) is a non-starter for me. It leads me to conclude that you're not doing this for the enjoyment of the reader but for some other reason that has nothing to do with why books are cool.
I think a good deal more people would have been on board with her expanding the series with a interstitial third book if she had kept up the crazy good writing from the first one.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
I had to work a lot harder to enjoy Harrow, but the last fifty or so pages only worked because of the lead up. But the lead up was tough. Sometimes incomprehensible even!
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Oh yea, the first time through i really liked it, but only understood maybe half of it. I then re-read Gideon then immediately jumped into Harrow again and it made a mountain more sense.
I’m glad the series is only four books. Having to reread the entire thing in lead up each time is a task. One I’ll gladly do but I’m glad it’s not a dozen books.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Immediately started Nona and hoo boy, if you thought Harrow was weird and confusing... But I'm almost near the end of it and I'm starting to put some pieces together, so glad I stuck with that one too.
Even though I'm pretty sure Mike has read several other Reynolds' books with hyperpigs in them.
Really looking forward to Translation State now, see what's going on with the Translators finally.
If you want something similar, check out *A Memory Called Empire*. If you want something in the same universe, Leckie has *Provenance* too.
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
I actually read Provenance first, because that's what was available in the library.
And A Memory Called Empire was brilliant, I loved it. The sequel was good, but less good, in large part because it seemed to take half the book just to get everyone into position before the story could start.
Finished this omnibus of short stories I got for Christmas, I had read a few of them in compendiums and enjoyed the characters enough to be excited to read the collected works. The title characters are a mercenary artillerist and a sorcerous papier mache and wood puppet whose job it is to banish specific interdimensional beings from their world.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
There’s some overlap with the CtB omnibuses, though, as time pressures made them reprint some SSoC in that when they were running late. And they didn’t need to put the Frost Giant’s Daughter in this omnibus twice, even if that’s what the original issues contained.
I mean, just look at this stuff.
And these faces!
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
But the book is excellent and the first thing I did when I finished was put a hold on the sequel at the library, so now I have to wait impatiently for that to be ready. I enjoy reading about smart people doing politics at each other, and this was a good one of those.
This ramble is inspired by me learning the library lists this book, and the last 3 books I read, under 'Queer Fiction'. I thought queer fiction would be... queerer.
For a couple of similar (and also queer) books, Memories of Empire and The Jasmine Throne both have a lot more subtlety in how they approach ideas about empire.
Granted usually when I complain about Baru most people disagree with me, so it's a minority opinion.
I think maybe the empire was meant to be obviously the villain, but with enough positive traits to make us understand why some people being colonised would accept them.
In Aurdwynn I agree that they are too aggressive in pissing people off, they should probably hold off on their eugenics programs and religion suppression... but on the other hand, they're trying to provoke a revolt, so maybe it's reasonable.
The economics didn't all make sense, but I thought it was a much better attempt than most fantasy. It acknowledges the cost of keeping a standing army (and the fact that most deaths are caused by disease and attrition), and it shows the damage just moving an army causes to the land around them. The more rural duchies didn't produce enough food to feed themselves, which was backwards, it's towns and cities that don't produce enough food. Vultjag's food insecurity should have lead everyone to subsistence farming, not to mining and crafts to trade for food, that only makes sense if food is available and reliable.
Searching for Memories of Empire only returns A Memory Called Empire, is that what you meant? I loved that book, and the ambivalence towards the empire in it. And my library has The Jasmine Throne, so thanks, I've put that on hold.
a "writer" saying "it's just words" is profoundly repulsive. an absolute sociopath.
"it's just meat," she says cheerfully, soaked to her arms in gore, cheerfully hewing at her third victim with a hatchet. "who cares what shape it's in?"
Well if you justify your theft, you don't have to feel bad about it! It's great!
Fuckers.
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Google tip: put things in quotes for exact matches. Searching for Memories of Empire fails, but "Memories of Empire" will get you what you need.
https://www.google.com/search?q="Memories+of+Empire"
I think I've read Memories of Empire but dang if I can remember anything about it.
I can't really say that it's stealing, unless every new author who finds their voice after synthesizing all of their lives favorite authors is also a thief?
And if it's shit, then it's shit, and there's nothing to worry about. But I've a feeling the prose is hewing a bit too close to, say, the Murderbot books for comfort.
...Is it? Jury is still out on our being just sophisticated woodchippers.
I'm a lawyer; I get the impression that we're all just buggy-whip manufacturers. But people will still write for pleasure and art after we're sorted.
That's one of the big flaws in our current generative AI models. There's nothing in the code to create actual new art (in part or whole). It really is just a sophisticated woodchipper. Just so sophisticated that it tricks our brain into thinking it's new. But the way the code works isn't a big mystery, so with the expertise to understand it you can pry open the machine and see the chopping blades.
The way she’s talking about writing is like she thinks the work of writing is the least important part of the art. All that matters is that she has ideas. It’s a depressingly philistine, lazy viewpoint that obviates everything that makes writing interesting and moving.
I mean, does she think the ideas she’s having are even interesting? Oh a supernatural detective and a teenage witch holy shit what irreplaceable ideas and brilliance! Her ideas are maybe the least interesting and most derivative part of her books. Her own writing might elevate those cliches but we’ll never know because she can’t be bothered to actually write the fucking book.
Her attitude seems despicable to me.
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Look, someone went to see Police Academy 6.
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It doesn't have to be you!
why doesn't it make sense?
and yeah, empires are vile. The british empire alone was cartoonishly evil in so many ways. I don't know if that makes them a 'simple villain.'