[QuickTidal]

Macros, on 19 August 2016 - 02:13 PM, said:

About 100 pages into City of Stairs.

Its ok, but does the overarching background theme change at all or is the whole novel just a thinly veiled dig at islam and its " outmoded, narrow minded way of life". You could change the window dressing but so far this reads like AMERICA FUCK YEAH!!! GONNA SHOW THESE SILLY RELIGIOUS MADMEN THAT CAPITALISM RAWKS, AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!!!

Exchanging You ess and A with an indian (possibly) generic physical make up

I could be wrong, but I THINK Bennet is very much a flag-waver and POSSIBLY a moderate conservative...so that would make sense. It's why I've always been little leery of his work. Let me know how you make out with it in the end, I'm curious if it's worth it.

[Andorion]

QuickTidal, on 19 August 2016 - 02:25 PM, said:

Macros, on 19 August 2016 - 02:13 PM, said:

About 100 pages into City of Stairs.

Its ok, but does the overarching background theme change at all or is the whole novel just a thinly veiled dig at islam and its " outmoded, narrow minded way of life". You could change the window dressing but so far this reads like AMERICA FUCK YEAH!!! GONNA SHOW THESE SILLY RELIGIOUS MADMEN THAT CAPITALISM RAWKS, AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!!!

Exchanging You ess and A with an indian (possibly) generic physical make up

I could be wrong, but I THINK Bennet is very much a flag-waver and POSSIBLY a moderate conservative...so that would make sense. It's why I've always been little leery of his work. Let me know how you make out with it in the end, I'm curious if it's worth it.

I have read both City of Stairs and City of Blades and I loved both of them. I did not get the Islam - America vibe at all, rather it seemed to be more about colonialism and its problems. As the book progresses, quite a few certainties are called into question.

[End of Disc One]

I haven't read any Bennet books yet but I have read a few of his blog posts. He seemed very liberal to me, but I could be wrong.

[polishgenius]

QuickTidal, on 19 August 2016 - 12:54 PM, said:

She's on my Won't-Read list due to her online personality. She also seems to think she's bloody Neil Gaiman....but she's not even close (though I've only read one book of hers, but it was horrible).

Imo, she's at least as good at Neil Gaiman.


Deathless is one that's more to admire than love- it's awesomely written, but lacks Gaiman's warmth- but it might be a good introduction as her most 'normal' adult book, and it is really good. Her other books have a bit more feel to them for me, but are much weirder. Palimpsest is about a sexually transmitted city.

I do really like the Fairyland books too. They are a bit Gaiman, although I think she's less drawing on him than drawing on the same sources of inspiration.



On City of Stairs- I didn't get the Islam/America thing at all. Apart from anything else, right from the start I didn't get the impression that the supression of the religions was being presented authorially as A Good Thing and the empire seems to have much more in common to me with the Soviets than with the US.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 19 August 2016 - 03:21 PM

[amphibian]

QuickTidal, on 19 August 2016 - 02:25 PM, said:

Macros, on 19 August 2016 - 02:13 PM, said:

About 100 pages into City of Stairs.

Its ok, but does the overarching background theme change at all or is the whole novel just a thinly veiled dig at islam and its " outmoded, narrow minded way of life". You could change the window dressing but so far this reads like AMERICA FUCK YEAH!!! GONNA SHOW THESE SILLY RELIGIOUS MADMEN THAT CAPITALISM RAWKS, AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!!!

Exchanging You ess and A with an indian (possibly) generic physical make up

I could be wrong, but I THINK Bennet is very much a flag-waver and POSSIBLY a moderate conservative...so that would make sense. It's why I've always been little leery of his work. Let me know how you make out with it in the end, I'm curious if it's worth it.

Bennett is not a blind flag-waver or conservative. He's quite funny and very much into progressive causes, yet tempered with more caution than most progressives due to being somewhat dour about political solution timelines.

City of Stairs and City of Blades are amazingly well done. He works superbly with colonialism, self-determination, cool fantasy/magic, the nature of religion, and personal motivations. Plus his main characters are mostly incredibly strong-willed women and he does a great job with them.

[Salt-Man Z]

QT: Dismisses an author for her online persona, then immediately follows that up by completely misreading another author's online persona.

?

[Salt-Man Z]

Finished Blake Crouch's Dark Matter last night. I didn't mean to, but I couldn't stop. Fantastic book. Jason is a happily-married college professor who was once making strides in quantum mechanics/many-worlds theory research, but gave it up to start a family. One night he's abducted at gunpoint by a masked stranger and wakes up in a world that's not his own. The first half is a taut sci-fi thriller that I read in one sitting (as I did the second.) After that things start to get crazy, and the last quarter of the book just goes absolutely nuts. Very very good.

[Macros]

I'm at the 175 mark.
Maybe I was a bit to broad with my strokes of my impressions so far, I get the idea of where you draw soviet comparisons with the ministry and the like, and oppressive (i forget the word, tip of my tongue, basically cutting out stuff so people forget it) twisting of peoples history and the like. You could take their being liberated from the continentals as throwing of the shackles of nobility... but eh, I still see the march of capitalism so far. Maybe this will change.

City of Stairs - possible spoilers, mid way through novel

Spoiler

im 1/3 - 1/2 way through. It still screams to me a take on the wests involvement in the east. Yes the wests (saypur) involvement (the blink, the War) in the east (continent) caused a massive shit storm for the peoples there, destroyed their way of life. but its their silly oppressed religion and its fanatics that are holding them back. The most backward place on the continent just happens to be the place that clings most to its past and religion? other areas are doing well because they've embraced the more "modern" saypur ways? Maybe I'm misreading the intent here but so far it's the traditional western government and their cronies are corrupt, but if the silly natives would get over their god awful religion and move on, well hell, wouldn't we all just be better off? the background is just setting the stage, I can only assume it becomes more relevant and the novel changes direction to line up with what you guys have seen in it

[QuickTidal]

Salt-Man Z, on 19 August 2016 - 03:30 PM, said:

QT: Dismisses an author for her online persona, then immediately follows that up by completely misreading another author's online persona.

?

I did say "I could be wrong".

I was going mostly off what I saw as an extremism in his twitter feed (back when I had twitter and used it often; so a few years ago). If it leaned more liberally then that's cool. It still leaned into the nutty arena for me as far as I recall. I do recall unfollowing him after a few tweets or retweets I very much thought were muck-raking? It is what it is. EDIT: I should add that I left twitter behind as it was pretty much a cesspool of trolling, vitriol, infighting, abuse, and unease and it didn't matter who I had in my feed, I saw it left right and centre...so it didn't take much for me to unfollow people. This was also when I had the review blog, and the circles that meant my feed ran in was FILLED to nearly brimming with assholery and infighting (author VS author, author VS publishers, fans VS reviewers, ect.). Not saying Bennet was a part of that...just that during that time, if I clipped him from my feed, it was because I was getting fed up and the offences didn't have to be much to send me packing.

Full disclosure: I basically have a list of authors who I saw on social media (again, back when I used it for the review site) and didn't care for opinion-wise who now populate a no-buy list in my head. Each one has a varied reason for being on that list. Not saying it makes sense, but it is what it is.

Also, Bennet was never on my no-buy list, as unfollowing him seemed enough for me. I'm still happy to read his work if it's well received.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 19 August 2016 - 04:14 PM

[Andorion]

polishgenius, on 19 August 2016 - 03:18 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 19 August 2016 - 12:54 PM, said:

She's on my Won't-Read list due to her online personality. She also seems to think she's bloody Neil Gaiman....but she's not even close (though I've only read one book of hers, but it was horrible).

Imo, she's at least as good at Neil Gaiman.


Deathless is one that's more to admire than love- it's awesomely written, but lacks Gaiman's warmth- but it might be a good introduction as her most 'normal' adult book, and it is really good. Her other books have a bit more feel to them for me, but are much weirder. Palimpsest is about a sexually transmitted city.

I do really like the Fairyland books too. They are a bit Gaiman, although I think she's less drawing on him than drawing on the same sources of inspiration.



On City of Stairs- I didn't get the Islam/America thing at all. Apart from anything else, right from the start I didn't get the impression that the supression of the religions was being presented authorially as A Good Thing and the empire seems to have much more in common to me with the Soviets than with the US.

Sexually...transmitted... city... Ok.... Somehow I don't think a condom can stop that one

[Andorion]

Salt-Man Z, on 19 August 2016 - 03:38 PM, said:

Finished Blake Crouch's Dark Matter last night. I didn't mean to, but I couldn't stop. Fantastic book. Jason is a happily-married college professor who was once making strides in quantum mechanics/many-worlds theory research, but gave it up to start a family. One night he's abducted at gunpoint by a masked stranger and wakes up in a world that's not his own. The first half is a taut sci-fi thriller that I read in one sitting (as I did the second.) After that things start to get crazy, and the last quarter of the book just goes absolutely nuts. Very very good.

Another one for the TBR

[Andorion]

amphibian, on 19 August 2016 - 03:20 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 19 August 2016 - 02:25 PM, said:

Macros, on 19 August 2016 - 02:13 PM, said:

About 100 pages into City of Stairs.

Its ok, but does the overarching background theme change at all or is the whole novel just a thinly veiled dig at islam and its " outmoded, narrow minded way of life". You could change the window dressing but so far this reads like AMERICA FUCK YEAH!!! GONNA SHOW THESE SILLY RELIGIOUS MADMEN THAT CAPITALISM RAWKS, AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!!!

Exchanging You ess and A with an indian (possibly) generic physical make up

I could be wrong, but I THINK Bennet is very much a flag-waver and POSSIBLY a moderate conservative...so that would make sense. It's why I've always been little leery of his work. Let me know how you make out with it in the end, I'm curious if it's worth it.

Bennett is not a blind flag-waver or conservative. He's quite funny and very much into progressive causes, yet tempered with more caution than most progressives due to being somewhat dour about political solution timelines.

City of Stairs and City of Blades are amazingly well done. He works superbly with colonialism, self-determination, cool fantasy/magic, the nature of religion, and personal motivations. Plus his main characters are mostly incredibly strong-willed women and he does a great job with them.

This was basically my take as well. I mean the way he problematizes political authority, and raises a few rather nifty questions about modernization... I was very impressed with City of Stairs, but Blades was IMO even better.

[Andorion]

polishgenius, on 19 August 2016 - 03:18 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 19 August 2016 - 12:54 PM, said:

She's on my Won't-Read list due to her online personality. She also seems to think she's bloody Neil Gaiman....but she's not even close (though I've only read one book of hers, but it was horrible).

Imo, she's at least as good at Neil Gaiman.


Deathless is one that's more to admire than love- it's awesomely written, but lacks Gaiman's warmth- but it might be a good introduction as her most 'normal' adult book, and it is really good. Her other books have a bit more feel to them for me, but are much weirder. Palimpsest is about a sexually transmitted city.

I do really like the Fairyland books too. They are a bit Gaiman, although I think she's less drawing on him than drawing on the same sources of inspiration.



On City of Stairs- I didn't get the Islam/America thing at all. Apart from anything else, right from the start I didn't get the impression that the supression of the religions was being presented authorially as A Good Thing and the empire seems to have much more in common to me with the Soviets than with the US.

Seems I am going to be giving Valente a whirl then.

As for Bennett, my take was more authoritarian Victorian England than Soviet

[QuickTidal]

Andorion, on 19 August 2016 - 04:25 PM, said:

Salt-Man Z, on 19 August 2016 - 03:38 PM, said:

Finished Blake Crouch's Dark Matter last night. I didn't mean to, but I couldn't stop. Fantastic book. Jason is a happily-married college professor who was once making strides in quantum mechanics/many-worlds theory research, but gave it up to start a family. One night he's abducted at gunpoint by a masked stranger and wakes up in a world that's not his own. The first half is a taut sci-fi thriller that I read in one sitting (as I did the second.) After that things start to get crazy, and the last quarter of the book just goes absolutely nuts. Very very good.

Another one for the TBR

SMZ, this sounds BREACH-like...is it that kind of book or something more cerebral?

[polishgenius]

Andorion, on 19 August 2016 - 04:22 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 19 August 2016 - 03:18 PM, said:

Deathless is one that's more to admire than love- it's awesomely written, but lacks Gaiman's warmth- but it might be a good introduction as her most 'normal' adult book, and it is really good. Her other books have a bit more feel to them for me, but are much weirder. Palimpsest is about a sexually transmitted city.

I do really like the Fairyland books too. They are a bit Gaiman, although I think she's less drawing on him than drawing on the same sources of inspiration.

Sexually...transmitted... city... Ok.... Somehow I don't think a condom can stop that one

I would say it's as weird as it sounds but in truth it's a whole lot more weird than that.

[Salt-Man Z]

QuickTidal, on 19 August 2016 - 04:28 PM, said:

SMZ, this sounds BREACH-like...is it that kind of book or something more cerebral?

I'd liken it more to Runner, or maybe Peter Clines's The Fold. It's got more of an emotional heft to it, though.

[Salt-Man Z]

polishgenius, on 19 August 2016 - 04:41 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 19 August 2016 - 03:18 PM, said:

Palimpsest is about a sexually transmitted city.

I would say it's as weird as it sounds but in truth it's a whole lot more weird than that.

FYI, the Kindle edition is on sale at Amazon (US) for $1.99, if anyone wants to check it out. (I grabbed it a couple days ago.)

[QuickTidal]

Salt-Man Z, on 19 August 2016 - 05:34 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 19 August 2016 - 04:28 PM, said:

SMZ, this sounds BREACH-like...is it that kind of book or something more cerebral?

I'd liken it more to Runner, or maybe Peter Clines's The Fold. It's got more of an emotional heft to it, though.

Cool, sounds like it's up my alley and I trust your judgement. I'll throw it on my list to check out.

[Salt-Man Z]

Let's just say when I finished it at 2:30 this morning, I immediately rolled over in bed and snuggled up as close and as long as I could to my wife.

[worry]

I've discovered exclusive video of QT editing his list of forsaken authors. Disclaimer: It is shocking to say the least.

Spoiler