[amphibian]

polishgenius, on 05 November 2016 - 09:31 AM, said:

Seveneves has an awesome start but a slightly disappointing end. The Three-Body Problem is a parade of inexcusably stupid ideas which really put me off it.

Seveneves is the other way around - the beginning love letter to Neil deGrasse Tyson is fucking stupid and then the rest of the book is great with one stumble near the end.

Quote

That said, our Baco really likes Three-Body, and if you have a higher tolerance for scientific inaccuracy than me you might too because there is fun to be had in it, I just couldn't look past the casual disregard for fundamentals in a book that was pretending to be hard-SF (the writing style of the translated Liu is actually quite similar to Stephenson in the way it's constantly diving into exploration of ideas).

The point of 3 Body Problem wasn't to truly be hard science fiction. It was to bend the porting of Western/alien ways into Chinese culture in an interesting way. It's interesting in terms of metaphors and yet Liu makes things oddly flat for me in terms of having a relatable protagonist.

[JPK]

amphibian, on 05 November 2016 - 05:16 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 05 November 2016 - 09:31 AM, said:

Seveneves has an awesome start but a slightly disappointing end. The Three-Body Problem is a parade of inexcusably stupid ideas which really put me off it.

Seveneves is the other way around - the beginning love letter to Neil deGrasse Tyson is fucking stupid and then the rest of the book is great with one stumble near the end.

So Seveneves is typical Stephenson - it is overall a very strong read but has a couple of moments that require a strong suspension of disbelief that would otherwise take away from the overall story. Or that's what I'm getting from you two.

I'm going to go with this one for now based off of the stronger recommendation from PG. The fact that it's a stand-alone instead of a series is helping me favor it as well.

[polishgenius]

amphibian, on 05 November 2016 - 05:16 PM, said:

The point of 3 Body Problem wasn't to truly be hard science fiction.

Maybe, but in many ways it comports itself like a hard-SF novel, where it'll go into great detail about ideas and high-concepts. Problem being that most of these ideas are nonsense, and not in the Neal Stephenson way where it will go to some odd places but always has some kind of thought-out basis to it, but in that it completely fucks up basic science and then continues on from there. This is exemplified by the fact that

Spoiler

there isn't actually a three-body problem in it.

The actual Chinese-culture stuff was quite interesting when it came about but often felt sidelined.

Really, though, in the end my biggest problem with it is

Spoiler

the idea, central to the plot, that scientists will start to kill themselves en-masse if they find things that don't fit with their current understanding. The more I think about that plot point the more offensive I find it.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 05 November 2016 - 07:35 PM

[amphibian]

It's totally an n-body problem and I was irritated by that at first. Then once the suicide impetus was given, I just threw up my hands and said to myself that this book isn't hard science fiction at all. It's magical realism more than anything.

Those who call it hard science fiction likely don't read true hsf.

[Baco Xtath]

I don't remember too much about Three-Body Problem. The Dark Forest and Death's End were what made the trilogy so great for me. I suspend belief when it comes to most of my reading, except when it deals with human interactions and behavior, so if it is magical realism, fantasy, science fiction...etc. I don't get bothered if they push the boundaries of possibilities. Hell, China Mieville is one of my favorite authors and the City and the City is ludicrous, but I still enjoyed it. There were a couple moments in the Dark Forest and Death's End that are amongst my favorite parts of any book. Those, "holy shit" moments. A year later and I still think about some of its parts.

[Abyss]

I Got Crabs, on 04 November 2016 - 08:18 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 04 November 2016 - 05:43 PM, said:

Abyss, on 04 November 2016 - 05:34 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 04 November 2016 - 12:50 PM, said:

AHSOKA by E.K. Johnston... page 115....oh my gods, if you are a fan of Ahsoka, READ THIS BOOK.

In fact, if you can manage it, get the audiobook (I'm reading the dead tree variety myself as I didn't know this when preordering it) as Ashley Eckstein herself reads it!

Anyways. What a fantastic bridging novel about Ahsoka post-Order 66, pre-REBELS...

Damn you QT.
DAMN YOU.

*sighs, opens audible*

The sample on Audible shows me that Eckstein does a great job!

You are sheep. Spending yalls $ and going to get burnt again at some point. BAHWWW. Haha

If it's good, how can we get burnt?
...unless you mean in a "boohoo my precious books aren't canon anymore" way, in which case, I'm utterly safe from caring about that.

[Slow Ben]

Tiste Simeon, on 05 November 2016 - 09:19 AM, said:

Onto the second Mistborn book, I enjoyed the first and I'm still loving the magic system. Don't know where they're going to go from here now the Lord Ruler is dead but the second one has started right in the middle of a war between father and son do that's nice. Going to miss Kelsier I think...

Think?

THINK?!?!

[Salt-Man Z]

Abyss, on 06 November 2016 - 07:03 PM, said:

If it's good, how can we get burnt?
...unless you mean in a "boohoo my precious books aren't canon anymore" way, in which case, I'm utterly safe from caring about that.

By caring about characters who will never see the light of day ever again, for one.

[Abyss]

Salt-Man Z, on 07 November 2016 - 03:02 AM, said:

Abyss, on 06 November 2016 - 07:03 PM, said:

If it's good, how can we get burnt?
...unless you mean in a "boohoo my precious books aren't canon anymore" way, in which case, I'm utterly safe from caring about that.

By caring about characters who will never see the light of day ever again, for one.

But isn't that every finished series ever?

[Salt-Man Z]

The EU was never finished. It was cancelled. That's a huge difference. There was, for example, a Jaina Solo trilogy forthcoming; her story was obviously not "finished". And now never will be in any official capacity.

Obviously, as multimedia serial storytelling, the EU would never have properly "finished" anyway, but given a few extra years' time, I'm sure some semblance of closure would have been attempted. And it would have been one thing if Star Wars tie-in fiction had disappeared altogether for a time, only to relaunch, say, five or ten years later. But the insult-to-injury was that not only was the EU abruptly cancelled without closure and with stories still in the pipeline, but it was also immediately replaced with something else, something fundamentally incompatible (at least post-RotJ). It would be like if Marvel, when they launched the Ultimates universe, had axed all the non-Ultimates books at the same time.

I understand why LFL did it, and I loved TFA, but I also understand why EU fans remain upset.

[Macros]

Finished The Free last night.
Not completely satisfied with the ending, could have been a bit of a grimmer finish I think, would have been more impactful.
But still a thoroughly enjoyable read.

[acesn8s]

I finished Wexler's The Price of Valor (Shadow Campaigns #3). Great book, great series. I see there are 2 short stories. Does anyone know if there is a book 4 on the horizon?

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 07 November 2016 - 05:14 AM, said:

Salt-Man Z, on 07 November 2016 - 03:02 AM, said:

Abyss, on 06 November 2016 - 07:03 PM, said:

If it's good, how can we get burnt?
...unless you mean in a "boohoo my precious books aren't canon anymore" way, in which case, I'm utterly safe from caring about that.

By caring about characters who will never see the light of day ever again, for one.

But isn't that every finished series ever?

I for one prefer the New Canon approach. Even though I enjoyed a fair number of the EU books, I always knew that they weren't really canon, never really fit, and felt dead-horse beaten after a long while. There was always a part of me that wanted to believe that this is what happened after ROTJ...but the more time went on and the more stories they told...the worse it got. It was a convoluted mess by the end. Cancelling it was the best thing that they could have done. It was time. It had outlived its relevancy. Hell, by the end they had issues getting separate authors to agree on things...and no one to tell them what was accurate and what should be.

The New Canon not only gives us fresh stories (from a myriad of viewpoints; AKA not just surrounding Luke, Leia, and Han), but keeps a cohesion to the entire franchise that I can respect.

Case in point: I know reading AHSOKA that things mentioned about say Darth Maul...or Rex...are canon-accurate that will line up (for the most part) with all other media about them.

Do I wish that attention to detail and cohesion had occurred with the old EU? Sure. But let's not forget that Lucas himself treated the old EU in a rather dismissive way (at least till the prequels came out and he needed to keep certain characters for himself to use) vocally never considering it canon to his existing films. That always bothered me. It felt like the creator calling it glorified fan-ficiton...while everything that has come out in the New Canon since the purchase by Disney, down to the lowliest mobile video game, fits into the narrative and is treated with the same level of respect.

That to me is much more important overall to the franchise.

[polishgenius]

There was a time when I had attachment to the oldcanon, but I disowned it myself when they did what they did to Jacen Solo, so the ejection didn't hurt me.

I've not read, watched or played anything from the newcanon EU yet, though. I will be pleased if they bring back some of the better parts of it- it's too late for Jacen and Jaina, probably, but Thrawn's back already, Mara Jade might happen in some form... I'd like to see elements of the Yuuzhan Vong in some manner, even though we're not going to get anything like NJO-proper, and I'd really like to see Vergere in original, ambiguous form (not holding my breath on that one but am crossing my fingers).

[QuickTidal]

polishgenius, on 07 November 2016 - 06:25 PM, said:

There was a time when I had attachment to the oldcanon, but I disowned it myself when they did what they did to Jacen Solo, so the ejection didn't hurt me.

I've not read, watched or played anything from the newcanon EU yet, though. I will be pleased if they bring back some of the better parts of it- it's too late for Jacen and Jaina, probably, but Thrawn's back already, Mara Jade might happen in some form... I'd like to see elements of the Yuuzhan Vong in some manner, even though we're not going to get anything like NJO-proper, and I'd really like to see Vergere in original, ambiguous form (not holding my breath on that one but am crossing my fingers).

I think that Mara Jade will happen in some form...though what form that takes remains to be seen. She's super popular, and could be inserted into either a pre-rebellion timeline (like REBELS era) like Thrawn was (it would make sense to do the Emperor's Hand bit honestly, have her be an Inquisitor even....or she could come in where she's supposed to and be love interest for Luke post-ROTJ...and have her just been killed off in the time between ROTJ and TFA...something they could handle in interim periphery material...though I feel like she'd have merited a mention in Claudia Gray's BLOODLINE if that were so. She could also be introduced as Rey's mother, which I admit would be cool.

[Mentalist]

Wrapped up Lovegrove's "Age of Godpunk" yesterday.

It's a collection of 3 novellas.

"Age of Anansi" sees a lawyer team up with the spider-god to take on all the other trickster gods in a winner takes all contest. It gets real dark, real fast.

"Age of Satan" reads as a protracted suspense thriller with a surprising ending.

"Age of Gaia" is kinda disturbing. There's a fossil energy magnate who falls for an eco-journalist, and then it gets real sexual as a metaphor for "man plundering the Earth". The ending is probably not what you'd expect.

Overall, each one's a departure from Lovegrove's staple "mil-fic with Gods" in interesting ways. Worth a look, but primarily in a "what else can he he with the idea" type of way. Way less action than in your typical "Age of X".

Next, in light of the recent events it feels appropriate to go back to Colonel Pyat and his chronicle of the world's slide towards fascism in early 20th century. So next in commute is "The Laughter of Carthage", volume 2 of Moorcock's Colonel Pyat Quartet.

[QuickTidal]

Finished AHSOKA by E.K. Johnston and thoroughly enjoyed. Thoughts in ded-thread.

Needed some humour and whimsy in my life after the last couple of days events...so I started into WINTERSMITH (Tiffany Aching #3) by Terry Pratchett. Gods, there really is nothing like Pratchett to cheer a person up is there?

[Andorion]

Reading the new Safehold - almost finished it - I think there will be at most 2, maybe one more book in the series.

Edit: Finished it. I think this might actually conclude the series. The major arc is done after all.

This post has been edited by Andorion: 10 November 2016 - 02:31 PM

[Andorion]

Briar King, on 10 November 2016 - 05:41 PM, said:

Andorion, on 10 November 2016 - 01:45 PM, said:

Reading the new Safehold - almost finished it - I think there will be at most 2, maybe one more book in the series.

Edit: Finished it. I think this might actually conclude the series. The major arc is done after all.

I was reading 4. There was a 5 on 3 naval battle going on for an entire chap and it was a long chap....thing is it took me all day to read it. It was awesome and tense but I was reading it over the course of the tensest 2 hrs of election night. I'd read a section stop , watch, repeat.

Last night I damn near shed an actual tear at a family reunion I thought wouldn't actually happen. I feared a certain traveling was going to get intercepted.

The books stay at a pretty good quality throughout. They never really slow down again, things are always happening.

Stay on this series BK. Its worth it.

[End of Disc One]

On Shadows of the Apt book 7. While I generally agree that the books get better as they go along, I'm finding this one to be a step down. I just don't care about what's going on in the Commonweal. Give me more Kanaphes stuff, please.