[polishgenius]

Chance, on 01 April 2025 - 03:41 AM, said:

Can only really see Jean le Flambeur-serien being comparable for weird sci-fi.

If you've not read it before, Elizabeth Bear's Jacob's Ladder trilogy might be something you enjoy.

Also the standalone Faith, by John Love, from years ago.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 01 April 2025 - 03:59 PM

[Abyss]

polishgenius, on 01 April 2025 - 03:56 PM, said:

...
Also the standalone Faith, by John Love, from years ago.

Brilliant book!

...shame the follow-up was the opposite of that.

[Chance]

polishgenius, on 01 April 2025 - 03:56 PM, said:

Chance, on 01 April 2025 - 03:41 AM, said:

Can only really see Jean le Flambeur-serien being comparable for weird sci-fi.

If you've not read it before, Elizabeth Bear's Jacob's Ladder trilogy might be something you enjoy.

Also the standalone Faith, by John Love, from years ago.

Might try Jacob's Ladder the premise sounds interesting.

Faith I did read a long time ago and while it was decent enough sci-fi it wasn't for me that much I remember. Was it that it was a bit too seriously over maximized grimdark can't remember.

I think something that is quite unique for Jean le Flambeur and Ninefox Gambit is how playfully bizarre both technology and civilization becomes while at the same time being rather human, positive, uplifting stories playing with high concept sci-fi ideas on the edge of technology becoming magic. They are both stories that if they had been written in a different way could have been rather grim but instead they are often beautiful and occasionally hilarious. Hard to put into words but they are up there with giants like Banks for me.

This post has been edited by Chance: 02 April 2025 - 05:23 AM

[QuickTidal]

Currently...THE GIRL & THE MOUNTAIN by Marky Mark Lawrence, the 1st of his name.


Deeper thoughts in red-thread....

[Hammerhead88]

Re-reading Dresden and just finished Grave Peril which is where the series really gets going. Absolutely fantastic book.

[worry]

Finished The Spear Cuts Through Water -- this book is a masterpiece. No notes, wouldn't change a single thing. It gets even more playful with the meta stuff than I expected, without robbing a single iota of immersion in the core story. In fact it just reinforces the folkloric elements in a way that's very resonant as a fantasy reader, and layers more meaning into the actions of the main characters. And that core story: it stays horrifying, it stays beautiful, it stays heart-wrenching, it stays wondrous. I might be in love with this book.


Now gonna read book 2 in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. The first was complete unapologetic popcorn, in a good way. It's not without gravity, and Carl has at least a little Dresden DNA in him that gives him backbone and keeps him motivated through the insanity, but it's mostly just a goofball tale being told well enough. I have no interest in LitRPG as a genre, but the first book really is fun and integrates the gamey conventions in a mostly palatable way. Like an RPG meets The Running Man (movie) or something.

[HoosierDaddy]

worry, on 04 April 2025 - 11:08 AM, said:

Finished The Spear Cuts Through Water -- this book is a masterpiece. No notes, wouldn't change a single thing. It gets even more playful with the meta stuff than I expected, without robbing a single iota of immersion in the core story. In fact it just reinforces the folkloric elements in a way that's very resonant as a fantasy reader, and layers more meaning into the actions of the main characters. And that core story: it stays horrifying, it stays beautiful, it stays heart-wrenching, it stays wondrous. I might be in love with this book.


Now gonna read book 2 in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. The first was complete unapologetic popcorn, in a good way. It's not without gravity, and Carl has at least a little Dresden DNA in him that gives him backbone and keeps him motivated through the insanity, but it's mostly just a goofball tale being told well enough. I have no interest in LitRPG as a genre, but the first book really is fun and integrates the gamey conventions in a mostly palatable way. Like an RPG meets The Running Man (movie) or something.

That's the worst book in the series by far, and it's a fun read! It gets so much better.

[Abyss]

Abyss, on 31 March 2025 - 07:30 PM, said:

polishgenius, on 31 March 2025 - 05:55 PM, said:

Abyss, on 31 March 2025 - 05:37 PM, said:

Next up... not sure... maybe feeling some scifi.

Chance, on 27 March 2025 - 08:36 PM, said:

Starting up Ninefox Gambit haven't read it in several years and I wanted something delightfully bizarre.

Chance giving you advice clairvoyantly before you even posted.
...

...free w Audible+.... weeeEEEEEeeeeeellllll thennnnnn.....

Started NINEFOX, loved the opening, was intrigued by the worldbuilding.... unfortunately a randon reddit review flipped me over to DRAGON DAY by Bob Proehl. It's an audible original, and i kid you not, it's an absolutely shameless rip of World War Z, only with dragons instead of zombies, and even the dragons are largely pulled right out of the REIGN OF FIRE movie. Seriously, the extent to which this is ripping off the (near perfect) WWZ audiobook is shocking...,. celebrity narrators, stories that rotate through repeating characters with one-shots, tracking the start of the infestation through its stages as a retrospective spoken history, it's truly not even pretending otherwise. That said, 2hrs into a 7hr earbook, it's great! The author to their credit isn't afraid to go really dark, he's got baby dragons attacking a summer camp early on and it is viscerally uncomfortable and the voice actors just nail the delivery. I am reminded of ROBOPOCALYPSE, which was supposed to be WWZ robots but turned into some weird sexbot AI liberation thing i barely finished, but am cautiously optimistic this can stick the landing better.
THEN i'll go back to the Hexagon people and their weird calendars.