[Abyss]

 JPK, on 08 February 2024 - 03:51 PM, said:

I've decided my best big audiobook project is going to be a second visit to Alistair Reynolds' Revelation Space Universe. He's released a couple new books since the last time I read any of these and I decided it's time to start again at the beginning.

I'm really curious how I'm going to react to these a second time though since it's been around 12 years now since I read the first book and it was pretty much the first scifi novel to really grip me and I'd heavily leaned towards fantasy before it. I wouldn't say I'm a scifi expert at this point but I'm definitely better read in the genre now and I'm curious if it'll hold up as well in truth as in memory.

I've been toying w this for a while. I have the series in earbook but have waffled a few times. I wouldn't bother w CHASM CITY because i didn't particularly enjoy it, my main indecision is whether to reread(/ear) REVELATION SPACE before advancing to REDEMPTION ARC for the first time.

[amphibian]

Chasm City is fantastic - but it is a "man on a quest" book as opposed to the galaxy spanning stuff of the other books in that verse. Reynolds's latest Revelation Space book (Inhibitor Phase) works pretty well.

I have yet to read Eversion - will probably get to it in 6 months.

[JPK]

 Abyss, on 08 February 2024 - 07:12 PM, said:

 JPK, on 08 February 2024 - 03:51 PM, said:

I've decided my best big audiobook project is going to be a second visit to Alistair Reynolds' Revelation Space Universe. He's released a couple new books since the last time I read any of these and I decided it's time to start again at the beginning.

I'm really curious how I'm going to react to these a second time though since it's been around 12 years now since I read the first book and it was pretty much the first scifi novel to really grip me and I'd heavily leaned towards fantasy before it. I wouldn't say I'm a scifi expert at this point but I'm definitely better read in the genre now and I'm curious if it'll hold up as well in truth as in memory.

I've been toying w this for a while. I have the series in earbook but have waffled a few times. I wouldn't bother w CHASM CITY because i didn't particularly enjoy it, my main indecision is whether to reread(/ear) REVELATION SPACE before advancing to REDEMPTION ARC for the first time.

I'm planning to just do them all in publication order but I'm enjoying Rev Space again. It's been years worth of lurking for me at this point, but I feel like you read Rev Space before I did and I picked it up on your recommendation. If I'm right about that, I'd say it's been long enough you should probably do Rev Space again as well. Btw, I really enjoy the narrator. John Lee just has one of those voices that I could listen to narrating the dictionary and still enjoy it.

[polishgenius]

 Abyss, on 08 February 2024 - 07:12 PM, said:

I've been toying w this for a while. I have the series in earbook but have waffled a few times. I wouldn't bother w CHASM CITY because i didn't particularly enjoy it, my main indecision is whether to reread(/ear) REVELATION SPACE before advancing to REDEMPTION ARC for the first time.

I'd recommend it tbh- I mostly love the Revelation Space series but Reynolds makes some odd decisions about what parts of the story not to directly tell in a way that, if it's not fresh in your mind, will almost certainly leave you wondering if you've forgotten a significant chunk of plot or character development, or if he just didn't bother including it in the books.


Iirc that's more true between books 2 and 3 (there's a strong argument to make that there's an entire book missing there), but I think you'll still want to have the details down of book 1.

[pat5150]

 Abyss, on 08 February 2024 - 07:06 PM, said:

All good points right down to the scepticism, sadly.

A good publisher could likely do some smart marketing to get the first seven books back out there... just market it as YA and lean in on the resulting outrage and public expressions of horror and disgust . The booktok rage alone would be glorious.

As far as I know, the Overlook Press still owns the rights for Bakker in the USA. Not sure for how long.

Given his treatment, I'm persuaded that they have no desire to publish whatever comes next. So those rights are up for grabs, if there is a manuscript to shop around.

[Abyss]

 pat5150, on 09 February 2024 - 02:45 AM, said:

 Abyss, on 08 February 2024 - 07:06 PM, said:

All good points right down to the scepticism, sadly.

A good publisher could likely do some smart marketing to get the first seven books back out there... just market it as YA and lean in on the resulting outrage and public expressions of horror and disgust . The booktok rage alone would be glorious.

As far as I know, the Overlook Press still owns the rights for Bakker in the USA. Not sure for how long.

Given his treatment, I'm persuaded that they have no desire to publish whatever comes next. So those rights are up for grabs, if there is a manuscript to shop around.

It would be fascinating to see how this would play out were Bakker to complete a bk8 and someone pick up the rights to the entire series and try marketing it. The series is fantastic but the sex/violence/sexviolence/sexviolencecannibalism/sexwithdemonsthenviolenceandalsocannibalismthenbacktothesex
elements are hard to downplay, expecially in the present booktok environment where drawing attention to a series means getting people talking about it onscreen.

[Mentalist]

Finally got around to reading Carlyle's "History of the French Revolution"

Feels timely, somehow.

[polishgenius]

Kalyna the Soothsayer, by Elijah Kinch Spector. Never heard of this book at all, but it popped up in my kobo recommends and I liked the sample so I got it. Good decision- it's delightful. The youngest daughter in a line of soothsayers hasn't got the gift herself, but has to fake it to keep the family fed. She does it well enough to get 'hired' (pressganged) by a prince's spymaster to help him keep his king alive, and shenanigans and skullduggery ensue from there.

It's not a light book, but it's delivered with a light touch. Tons of fun.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 11 February 2024 - 02:23 PM

[pat5150]

 Abyss, on 09 February 2024 - 06:52 PM, said:

It would be fascinating to see how this would play out were Bakker to complete a bk8 and someone pick up the rights to the entire series and try marketing it. The series is fantastic but the sex/violence/sexviolence/sexviolencecannibalism/sexwithdemonsthenviolenceandalsocannibalismthenbacktothesex
elements are hard to downplay, expecially in the present booktok environment where drawing attention to a series means getting people talking about it onscreen.

I don't think that anyone, Bakker included, ever expected to books to continue to be bought/read down the line. And yet, both series are still talked about by new and old fans, which might prompt a smaller SFF imprint to perhaps be willing to give the final arc a shot. It's not like Angry Robot Saga, Tachyon, etc, are releasing bestsellers. Bakker could probably become their top seller if the series was ever written.

[amphibian]

Unfucking the series by buying it out, reviving sales, getting the author back into writing the end of the series etc is a value proposition.

I strongly suspect that Bakker is 1) not super interested and 2) enough of a challenging time that it's not yet worth it for a fantasy experienced publisher to understand the challenges.

[pat5150]

Having been in touch with Scott at the time, I know that he was mad/disillusioned about the whole thing.

Haven't been in touch since, but his royalty statements must be surprising/encouraging. The more interest there is, the better the odds that SFF imprints might be willing to give the final series a shot.

But until there is an actual manuscript, even an unfinished one, to shop around, the point is moot.

[Cause]

I read the dark imperium trilogy from the 40k universe.

I only knew about the setting and it’s lore from the video game dawn of war and the extensive fan wiki. I know off the tabletop game but have never played or known anyone who has. The last year or so 40k content has been coming at me hard on YouTube and sometimes I listen to it as background noise while I clean the apartment.

I have always thought it’s a great setting. I understand it’s primary purpose is to provide a reason to play the war game and sell miniatures and so the lord by nature is stagnant but it seems the last five years they actually had a major shake up to boost hype with the fan base and refresh the model line. The setting took a step forward although the status quo of perpetual warfare remains the same.

I thought maybe an endless supply of popcorn fiction is just what I need. I chose the dark imperium because it has a clash between the returned primach and a daemon primarch. Big stuff as far as stories in 40k fomo though.

No idea if it’s above or below average as far as these books go but it’s not good. Up untill now I always avoided them assuming they would be low rate, tie-in trash. Not as bad as I could have feared but by no means good. In 3 books that could have been sold as 1 there is not a moment of what I would consider character growth or even character development. Characters just are. The plot advances at a rate that is inconsistent both afrom a story telling perspective as well as from an in universe meta perspective. The books foreword actually explains that this second edition has retconned the entire Domitus crusade from taking place over a hundred years to just ten. A war has been fought to reclaim literally half the galaxy in ten years! Planetary sieges take place over months while alternatively shock an awe sees them taken in a day.

Also the sense of scale is bewildering. Fewer people might be killed in a planet sized war with actual wmds than died in WW2. The vaunted, elite and rare space marines die by the bucketload to make stakes seem high but makes me feel that they just fight and die the way any regular soldier might. Also while melee combat has and always will be apart of the 40k setting reading someone besiege a star fortress with the literal same tactics by which medieval castle might be besieged just lacks imagination.

I guess I’m not surmised by the level of the novels but it’s a shame. I would have enjoyed having these books to read if they were just even slightly less formulaic.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Knocked off all 3 books of Novik's Scholomance in quick succession. They were pretty cool!

[Abyss]

 pat5150, on 11 February 2024 - 05:29 PM, said:

 Abyss, on 09 February 2024 - 06:52 PM, said:

It would be fascinating to see how this would play out were Bakker to complete a bk8 and someone pick up the rights to the entire series and try marketing it. The series is fantastic but the sex/violence/sexviolence/sexviolencecannibalism/sexwithdemonsthenviolenceandalsocannibalismthenbacktothesex
elements are hard to downplay, expecially in the present booktok environment where drawing attention to a series means getting people talking about it onscreen.

I don't think that anyone, Bakker included, ever expected to books to continue to be bought/read down the line. And yet, both series are still talked about by new and old fans, which might prompt a smaller SFF imprint to perhaps be willing to give the final arc a shot. It's not like Angry Robot Saga, Tachyon, etc, are releasing bestsellers. Bakker could probably become their top seller if the series was ever written.

 amphibian, on 11 February 2024 - 08:17 PM, said:

Unfucking the series by buying it out, reviving sales, getting the author back into writing the end of the series etc is a value proposition.

I strongly suspect that Bakker is 1) not super interested and 2) enough of a challenging time that it's not yet worth it for a fantasy experienced publisher to understand the challenges.

 pat5150, on 11 February 2024 - 08:26 PM, said:

Having been in touch with Scott at the time, I know that he was mad/disillusioned about the whole thing.

Haven't been in touch since, but his royalty statements must be surprising/encouraging. The more interest there is, the better the odds that SFF imprints might be willing to give the final series a shot.

But until there is an actual manuscript, even an unfinished one, to shop around, the point is moot.

The 'mad/disillusioned' part came through very clearly from the few public statements he made. It was also very clear he had no interest in the self-publishing route.

I'd like to believe he's seeing royalties, but there's a decent chance the upsurge reflects people who bought/read way back and are happy to connect and rave, and pirates. The r/bakker sub has barely 200 members and low activity. The fact that bk 7 cliffhangs and no bk 8 in sight can't help.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

 TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 31 January 2024 - 11:21 AM, said:

 Whisperzzzzzzz, on 30 January 2024 - 03:23 PM, said:

The Priory of the Orange Tree

Be interested to hear what you think of this - it's been recommended to me a couple of times recently.

I thought it was fun! Nothing too deep or surprising, but the characters were interesting, the plot had some nice turns, and it was a cool world. I do think the last 1/4 of the book went by too quickly, especially the final battle. Worth a read!

After enjoying Scholomance, I decided to give Novik's Temeraire books a try. I'm just envisioning Laurence as Russell Crowe in Master & Commander, and it's a good romp so far. I had always assumed "Temeraire" was the name of the land, and not the dragon. It sounds more like a geographical location, not a character's name. I wonder why that is...

This post has been edited by Whisperzzzzzzz: 12 February 2024 - 10:44 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

 Whisperzzzzzzz, on 12 February 2024 - 06:11 AM, said:

Knocked off all 3 books of Novik's Scholomance in quick succession. They were pretty cool!

One of my top series from the past few years. Great fun.

[Abyss]

 Cause, on 11 February 2024 - 10:17 PM, said:

I read the dark imperium trilogy from the 40k universe....I guess I'm not surmised by the level of the novels but it's a shame. I would have enjoyed having these books to read if they were just even slightly less formulaic.

Not far from my experience w the HORUS HERESY books. They opened well, establish the setting, the wider conflict to reform the empire, the characters w their various stakes in the future... and then it all falls apart story-wise into bad archetypes and the bluntest of tropes. It's as tho the author realized he was doing too good a job and decided the thing to do was make the books dumber. People go evil because evil. Trust is betrayed bcs betrayal. Good characters flee because fighting is hard. Meh. I picked up a huge set on a Black Library Humble Bundle a while ago, i managed about six books, i doubt i'll ever get back to the rest in this lifetime.

[Abyss]

In brighter news, coming off the fantasy fun of MALEVOLENT SEVEN and not quite ready for the scifi deep dive of REVELATION SPACE, i decided to have a go at Seanan McGuire's short EVERY HEART A DOORWAY, bk 1 in her Wayward Children series that's been hanging in both my eTRP and TLP for a while now. The books average around 4-5hrs so this seemed like a good break between fantasy and massive sf epic... yeah, i should have known better.

1 hr into EVERY HEART and i'm pretty sure i'm going to marathon this series now. The entire concept of a boarding school for kids who were taken away to fantasy lands and thrown back to the real world, the 'system' of worlds, the variety of backstories... my brain is in exactly the right space for this.

[Tiste Simeon]

 Abyss, on 13 February 2024 - 03:04 PM, said:

In brighter news, coming off the fantasy fun of MALEVOLENT SEVEN and not quite ready for the scifi deep dive of REVELATION SPACE, i decided to have a go at Seanan McGuire's short EVERY HEART A DOORWAY, bk 1 in her Wayward Children series that's been hanging in both my eTRP and TLP for a while now. The books average around 4-5hrs so this seemed like a good break between fantasy and massive sf epic... yeah, i should have known better.

1 hr into EVERY HEART and i'm pretty sure i'm going to marathon this series now. The entire concept of a boarding school for kids who were taken away to fantasy lands and thrown back to the real world, the 'system' of worlds, the variety of backstories... my brain is in exactly the right space for this.

Well now I have to get this too, thanks a bunch.

[JPK]

Abyss, I'm around halfway through listening to Revelation Space and I will reinforce that it's definitely the right choice to reread this one. That said, it's definitely one that takes a bit more active listening because sometimes the author will abruptly change POVs throughout a chapter and it can be easy to miss the transitions if you're not careful.

I'm also working my way through Red Rising on ebook during the evenings. I'm avoiding searching anything due to spoilers, but I feel like I remember this series being well regarded around here. Is this a "it gets stronger with book 2" scenario?

This post has been edited by JPK: 16 February 2024 - 05:21 PM