rolling fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction &c. thread

naive = but it's a bildungsroman! of course he's naive!

portentous = well, the whole thing is his autobiography of "how my destiny was to save the throne", so of course it's portentous! it's literally about the nature of *signs* and *portents*. he spends the first chapter talking about how a coin he received as a boy symbolizes his entire life!

no, no, i'm sorry, i should shut up, i realize it's not your cup of tea

Bx V sbetrg gur qrgnvyf. Qbrf ur bssre bar bs gur cryrevarf va gur pnzc pynj naq gurl fnl 'jungrire, yby'? Rvgure jnl vg whfg frrzf gb crgre bhg. Rira vs n dhrfg qbrfa'g ghea bhg yvxr gur ureb cynaarq gung fubhyq or na vzcbegnag guvat, n erfbyhgvba, va vgfrys, vafgrnq vg srryf yvxr Jbysr vf onfvpnyyl fnlvat gb gur ernqre 'gung guernq lbh'ir orra sbyybjvat sbe gur jubyr obbx? lrnu vg qvqa'g znggre'. V fnl vg srryf gung jnl, V xabj gur pbapvyvngbe fgvyy nyyrtrqyl unf znwbe vzcbeg vs lbh qryir vagb gur uvqqra gurzrf bs gur obbx - ohg nf sbe gubfr, lrrrrrrnu v ernyyl qba'g tvir n fuvg nobhg nal bs gung. N znwbe cneg bs guvf vf PUEVFGVNA NTRAQN, abguvat vf yvxryl gb ghea zr bss n obbx zber. Juvpu, fher, vf zl ceboyrz, ohg vg frrzf gb zr guvf obbx pna'g or rawblrq ba gur fhesnpr yriry nybar, gurer ner fvzcyl gbb znal dhrfgvbaf naq chmmyrf naq bofphevgvrf.

lol, i feel like i'm in my own crappy sf/f novel, speaking like this.

yeah basically we're just expecting and getting different things out of this; it's not for me but i can see what you could get out of it.

has anyone else been to the British Library exhibition on SF?

No! Maybe i'll try and fit it in tomorrow.

o damn, i made plans to that fell through and forgot to do anything about it. i am annoyed that i missed george clinton and nona hendryx talking there, too.

Hey, has anyone else read Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series? To my surprise, it is as engaging as his Harry Dresden novels (if a little heavy-handed at times)

Are the Harry Dresden novels worth it if I have a low tolerance for sexism? I know nothing about them other than they are popular and a friend whose opinion I semi-distrust (due to his high tolerance for sexism) keeps telling me I should read them.

I don't think they're sexist, or perhaps more accurately I don't think they're problematically sexist.

There are a lot of gender archetype things going on that definitely can scan as sexist, but one thing Butcher does with a good chunk of his cast is to flesh them out and have characters grow across books. It is actually very rare for a book to end without some major change impacting the lives of the main characters.

Really, his biggest weakness is the near-infallibility of Harry and his crew; after about six or seven books it starts to strain credibility a little bit that Harry and his crew can consistently own whatever mystical threat rolls through Chicago. However, Butcher is very smart about he deals with that in how he both adds allies to bolster the "good guys" (note: not all the good guys are actually good guys, which is another interesting thing) and in how the cost paid for each victory escalates. In fact, the most recent books up the scale significantly and really puts the entire cast through the wringer, only to set the stage for a wholly new, semi-terrifying status quo rife with story potential.

Harry as a character is chivalrous to a fault but he also tends to surround himself with awesome, extremely competent allies, both male and female. I think if you go in knowing that some noir stylings are going to occur, you'll be fine.

Awesome. That is a really helpful response. Thank you!

has anyone else been to the British Library exhibition on SF?

I went! I didn't have enough time to really get into it. Exhibitions of books aren't very skimmable.

I had to go to it three times to get it all.

oh ffs i was up near the euston rd on sat, heading for regents park when it started raining, and i was thinking "what can i do nearby that's indoors?"

I just downloaded a bunch of free epub books, jumped into one already and wish I were reading it right now:

Blindsight by Peter Watts, which I'm about 2/3 through and there's quite a lot about neurology and math and topics that I don't even know enough about to know what to call them, but I feel like I'm learning shit? Also it's exciting and mysterious. I'm a sucker for plot.

Mars Girl by Jeff Garrity

My Own Kind of Freedom, Steven Brust

Star Dragon, Mike Brotherton

Wikipedia says Blindsight is about "the nature of identity and consciousness." Also it involves explanations of the Chinese Room scenario and other smarty-pants turing/AI stuff.

That could either be right up my street, or the kind of thing I would end up throwing across the room in disgust.

Where did you get it from? Going on 3 week hol soon, need to gather reading material.

I don't know where it's from, I use the Aldiko reader for droid phones and when I search for things it just sends me to a "store"? But I only download free books from that "store."

http://www.manybooks.net/titles/wattspother06Blindsight.html

great, thanks. think that site might be hidden in my delicious bookmarks somewhere.

That could either be right up my street, or the kind of thing I would end up throwing across the room in disgust.
--ledge

if i hate it, you'll buy it? ;)

my ultimate reaction will probably be "meh, s'ok"

Um, no:)

Blindsight is great, second time round was rewarding too, His Rifters trilogy also available free online is pretty astounding too. He's my favourite modern SF writer.

Yeah, BLindsight is fantastic. All his novels and almost all of his short stories are downloadable from his website: http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm

If you read Blindsight, the multimedia presentation he did about the vampire science is great fun: http://www.rifters.com/real/progress.htm

Hey, has anyone else read Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series?

Read the first and have the second queued up. These were recommended to me before I came across the Dresden stuff (which I quickly devoured), but something in the first chapters of the first book put me off them initially (can't remember what, possibly the slave girl schtick)

http://greatsfandf.com/apologia.php

what a peculiar website.

peculiar = unreadable?

90% finished with book of the new sun, get ready for the reading club thread

i would recommend reading that, it is pretty smart

the sf and f website or new sun?

i think it is definitely unreadable in the sense that it wasn't designed to be read on any monitor that wasn't 4:3 and at most 800x600

yeah i meant unreadable in that sense i didnt even try to look @ the words

sf and f website

i particularly enjoyed his thoughts on setting

bacigalupi's windup girl definitely fits that SF-and-F paradigm we were talking about upstairs a little, where you're all impressed with the author's plotting and world-building, and then some deeply gratuitous and unpleasant sexual thing happens, that makes you distrust everything you had previously thought about the author

I know. I was the most let down by the parts involving the otherwise-nice engineer guy who is clearly Our Hero. Maybe it was supposed to make him "complex" and "flawed" or something but fuck that.

And then the rapey angle that is all the other "sex" in that book. Vom.

I probably should have taken the title as a warning instead of skipping over it p much.

Read the first and have the second queued up. These were recommended to me before I came across the Dresden stuff (which I quickly devoured), but something in the first chapters of the first book put me off them initially (can't remember what, possibly the slave girl schtick)

I was about to say "what are you talking about...?" but then I remembered the whole infiltration ruse

although the way that whole situation played out and what happened with that character subsequently pretty much erases that entire gambit IMO

the liveship trilogy ftw, nasty nasty nasty

ha yes, those books were some evil shit

too bad Hobb's Forest Mage trilogy was too fucking gross for me to finish, seems like it was being set up for a similar level of heartbreak

although the way that whole situation played out and what happened with that character subsequently pretty much erases that entire gambit IMO

Yes, agreed! I finished the second one on the weekend. Taking a short break with some steampunk Civil-War-never-ended with zombies Cherie Priest (Dreadnaught), then queuing up the 3rd codex alera.

will always rep for the farseer trilogy though

lol I just blasted through all of the Codex Alera books, am currently on #6

I should really go back and finish off the Black Company books someday

also agree re: Farseer Trilogy

what sort of nastiness are you guys talking about?

eh

No, i'm gonna decline to answer that tbh.

I really recommend reading the trilogy, explaining it spoils the impact a little (actually even hinting at it probably spoils it a little but hey) It's not like super gory or anything like that, more tied into human behavior.

The Forest Mage stuff is gross food porn tho, I don't mind spoiling that at all because it was just nasty.

Is anyone else anticipating the new Vernor Vinge (Childern of the Sky, sequel to A Fire Upon Deep)?

oh shit

I am now

I know! Have pre-ordered, can't wait