[Baco Xtath]

If I let people's politics effect what I read or watched, i'd probably never watch another movie as I disagree with basically all of Hollywood....hell, I even disagree with my wife. I don't let politics or religion effect any of my social interactions. Then again, I'm a post-Marxist realist with Zizekian/Lacanian philosophical leanings and a pessimistic dread of human social evolution.




Edit: Marxist as in the Marxist theory of the Material Dialectic - I'm not a communist, I'm a realist......just wanted to clear that up before I get blacklisted on here.

This post has been edited by Baco Xtath: 03 April 2016 - 02:08 PM

[Macros]

Human evolution has stopped baco, we're sliding into the abyss, the route is greased with the tears of 15 year olds snubbed by facebook friends

[worry]

The route is actually lined with the fur of starving polar bears, but point taken.

[Nicodimas]

It's annoying when you realize a sequal comes out to a book you thought was a stand alone..and you didn't hear know this was happening.

..Schwab. Book 2--gathering of shadows


Vicious was a really fun stand alone too


Oh well now im psyched..just another series.../gah

This post has been edited by Nicodimas: 04 April 2016 - 07:09 AM

[acesn8s]

Stalker, on 03 April 2016 - 01:37 PM, said:

Macros, on 03 April 2016 - 01:28 PM, said:

Didn't Jon Ringo write those cringe worthy bdsm wish fullfillment novels?
I recall a 'oh jon ringo no!' Thread or something like that a while back

Yeah, he did. That was his Paladin of the Shadows series. I read the first before I knew what I was in for. The rest of his books are ultra conservative, less bdsm, but still follow his right wing ideals.


That said, I still enjoyed his military scifi back when it was the Posleen war and Through the Looking Glass series. Now he's writing doomsday prepper stuff, I think.

Wait, someone else pulled a John Norman? That Sleen!

[T77]

yuna_anomander25, on 02 April 2016 - 04:13 AM, said:

hello everyone,, it's been ages since i last posted here,, since my new job so it's been slow going for my reading,, this is the books i finished since then,,

The Red Wolf Conspiracy
The Chronicles of the Black Company:
-Shadow Linger
-The White Rose
The Books of the South:
-Shadow Games
-Dreams of Steel
-The Silver Spike (i'm beginning to love this series as much as i love Malazan)

If you haven't already, make sure to read Cook's Dread Empire and Instrumentalities series since you're a Black Company fan. Both are great.

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 03 April 2016 - 01:29 PM, said:

It wasn't till after I read THE TERROR that I heard about his politics and as such he is also on my boycott list now. He's a right wing nut job. A list which also includes Neal Asher who is a vehement climate change denier.

Huh... didn't know that about either of them.

Asher i care less because climate-change denial isn't advocating for mass murder. It's stupidity, but an sf author isn't going to change the mind of anyone who matters or cares to inform themselves. I can separate the author from the viewpoint andf still enjoy his work... and i do enjoy his work.

To the extent that i read/skimmed it, Simmons' piece might generously be interpreted as a cautionary note about radical/fundamentalist Islam, which isn't quite the same as pro-genocide, but it skitters close. Not having read anything of his aside from Hyperion... dunno, would have to think about that. I hadn't read any OSCard is years, but when his anti-gay pov came out i wrote off even considering it.

Stalker, on 03 April 2016 - 01:37 PM, said:

Macros, on 03 April 2016 - 01:28 PM, said:

Didn't Jon Ringo write those cringe worthy bdsm wish fullfillment novels?
I recall a 'oh jon ringo no!' Thread or something like that a while back

Yeah, he did. That was his Paladin of the Shadows series. I read the first before I knew what I was in for. The rest of his books are ultra conservative, less bdsm, but still follow his right wing ideals.


That said, I still enjoyed his military scifi back when it was the Posleen war and Through the Looking Glass series. Now he's writing doomsday prepper stuff, I think.

I stopped reading Ringo's stuff since he barfed out the Paladin of Shadows crap. It's just so utterly anti-women it's kind of sick. His right wingydingyisms didn't bother me, i;ve seen worse, but this was just Wrong.



On the reading front i'm still crusing along thru Belcher's BROTHERHOOD OF THE WHEEL. It's a fun book, i just don't have a lot of free eyetime lately, hence the slow go.

Have blasted through most of Thurman's CAL LEANDROS series on earbook, now on book 7 DOUBLETAKE. The series has its flaws but as popcorn listening during commute or boring tasks, it's been pretty fun. Repetitious at times but not horribly so.

[Macros]

Onto book 3. I must have a streak of self loathing a mile wide to continue with this.

[Mentalist]

I have a few series I bought in my early book-buying days that I'd hesitate to re-read now. I'm seriously considering donating them to the library, just so that I never have a sick urge to re-read them myself. Also to free up shelf space.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 04 April 2016 - 03:57 PM

[Andorion]

Mentalist, on 04 April 2016 - 03:57 PM, said:

I have a few series I bought in my early book-buying days that I'd hesitate to re-read now. I'm seriously considering donating them to the library, just so that I never have a sick urge to re-read them myself. Also to free up shelf space.

Library donations are usually a good idea unless you know an interested kid maybe?

Out of curiosity, which books?

[Mentalist]

Andorion, on 04 April 2016 - 04:05 PM, said:

Mentalist, on 04 April 2016 - 03:57 PM, said:

I have a few series I bought in my early book-buying days that I'd hesitate to re-read now. I'm seriously considering donating them to the library, just so that I never have a sick urge to re-read them myself. Also to free up shelf space.

Library donations are usually a good idea unless you know an interested kid maybe?

Out of curiosity, which books?

Keys of power trilo, John Marko's "tyrants and Kings" trilo. S.L. Farrel's first cloudmages book, Russel Kirkpatrick's "Across the face of the world". Ian Irvine "Shadow in the Glass".
In the maybe pile are Mark C Newton's "Nights of Villjamur", Peter Orullian's "The Unremebered", and David Anthony Durham's "Acacia". All 3 are first books of series I felt were not very good and I don't think I'm likely to pursue, unless I can find them REALLY cheap.

[polishgenius]

Abyss, on 04 April 2016 - 02:31 PM, said:

Asher i care less because climate-change denial isn't advocating for mass murder. It's stupidity, but an sf author isn't going to change the mind of anyone who matters or cares to inform themselves. I can separate the author from the viewpoint andf still enjoy his work... and i do enjoy his work.

Yeah, I'm with you on this one more or less - I've never got into Asher's books in any case, but unless he's behaving like Michael Crichton (who, when called up on his climate-change stupidity by a journalist, wrote said journalist, real name and all, into his next book as a pedophile) did I don't think climate change denial is enough to turn me off an author by itself.

Quote

To the extent that i read/skimmed it, Simmons' piece might generously be interpreted as a cautionary note about radical/fundamentalist Islam, which isn't quite the same as pro-genocide, but it skitters close.

This is certainly what it's pretending to be, and I wish I could actually read it that way but when you combine the massive over-statement of how many Muslims are radical (even now, when Simmons is probably looking at the refugee crisis thinking it proves him right, Europe is not even remotely in danger of being taken over by fundamentalist Islam) with the repetition of 'you weren't ruthless enough' it's hard to read it as anything else, and him saying it was just a character in his story saying it and not him is in my opinion a weaselly attempt to deflect responsibility.


OSC is certainly another one on my boycott list.





As for my reads, having finished The Dread Wyrm I've gone back to do a re-read of the Red Knight. I should probably have done that in the other order but ah well. It's kind of funny - to further the Malazan comparison there's several of what in Malaz-world we know as GotMisms, where the first book has a slightly different approach to its magic systems- complete with a completely different word for one of its major concepts at least early on- and also at least one character (and I gather there are more although I've not spotted them yet) undergoes a name change.

Kind of stuck on what new to read. I've got a few books in my e-reader but not really feeling any of them right now.

[Mentalist]

I'm gonna play the pusher and tell you to try Stross' "Merchant Princes"

[polishgenius]

It's definitely on the list. I'm a little wary coz I didn't get into Glasshouse and I think I tried Accelerando too, but it sounds up my street. May have to hold off for a little while though since I'm currently doing a bit of saving up for hols and they're relatively expensive on Kobo.

[Mentalist]

Just started "The End of All Songs" the last book in the Dancers at the End of Time omnibus, and I can already hear the penny spinning in the air. So fa it seems poised to tie together "Nomad in the Time Streams", the Jerry Cornelius stuff and the End of Time books, at the very least. And it's pretty funny, just as the other books in this omnibus.

[JPK]

I just finished MEN AT ARMS.

Spoiler

I'm really quite upset at the death of Cuddy. The interactions between him and Detritus really made this one for me. The whole scene where they were chasing the man with the gonne and Detritus was just counting everything in sight... Priceless.

I feel like I've finally hit the Golden Period of Discworld. Every book since PYRAMIDS have been 4.5 to 5 stars for me easily.

Now I think it's time to finish out THE DAGGER AND THE COIN with THE SPIDER'S WAR.

[Chance]

Went through the Annhilation Score and while it gripped my interest it was the least entertaining Laundry book yet, probably largly because after the tenth page about administration rather then adventure it gets grating. The only thing saving it from being a total loss was occational brilliant secondary characters, but a remarkably dull book for a Lundary style superhero novel.

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 04 April 2016 - 05:55 PM, said:

Abyss, on 04 April 2016 - 02:31 PM, said:

Asher i care less because climate-change denial isn't advocating for mass murder. It's stupidity, but an sf author isn't going to change the mind of anyone who matters or cares to inform themselves. I can separate the author from the viewpoint andf still enjoy his work... and i do enjoy his work.

Yeah, I'm with you on this one more or less - I've never got into Asher's books in any case, but unless he's behaving like Michael Crichton (who, when called up on his climate-change stupidity by a journalist, wrote said journalist, real name and all, into his next book as a pedophile) did I don't think climate change denial is enough to turn me off an author by itself.

You can add to the climate change denial, he ticker-tapes his social media with "climate change debunked" stuff, and doesn't like being challenged about it. And yet he offers no science to support any of the nonsense he spews.

My aversion to reading his books stems from me not wanting to read science fiction written by an idiot who doesn't appear to put "science" into a very high respect.

Is he hurting anyone? Well, if younger readers of his buy into his crap denialism, then he kind of is hurting people by making them stupider.

[Abyss]

Chance, on 05 April 2016 - 02:15 PM, said:

Went through the Annhilation Score and while it gripped my interest it was the least entertaining Laundry book yet, probably largly because after the tenth page about administration rather then adventure it gets grating. The only thing saving it from being a total loss was occational brilliant secondary characters, but a remarkably dull book for a Lundary style superhero novel.

Yep. Not my favorite either. There was a great book buried inside a good book and struggling to break out.

[Mentalist]

"End of All Songs" is getting really good now. It's all the same cast, but Moorcock just keeps shuffling them in and out. I wonder if this time

Spoiler

The universe (at least this one) will end, and then restart

If I was to rate Moorcock's non-fantasy works (so, NOT Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon, Erekose, Von Beck or Kane), I'd say:

1) Nomad of the Time Streams- b/c airships and alt-histories! And it's nivcely self-contained.
2) Ice Schooner- really neat story with a good twist
3) Jerry Cornelius (At least the Quartet. haven't read the Calendar yet)
4) The End of Time- "Dancers" is phenomenal so far, and "Tales" fill in the gaps nicely.

The other big sci-fi works- "Sundered Worlds" "Wrecks of Time", Winds of Limbo", "Shores of Death" "The Black Corridor" are dated and can get too existential. politically/philosophically/psych-inclined readers are likely to be able to look past the dated-ness and still appreciate them, but I wouldn't endorse those for everyone.

But the top 4, they are great.