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[sitnspin]

Just finished reading "Storm of Locust" by Rebecca Roanhorse. It's the sequel to "Trail of Lightning". The books are set on Diné land after an event called the Big Water, a series of natural disasters that ravaged and flooded much of the world's surface. Through a combination of magic and engineering, the Diné managed to raise an enormous wall all around their territory, protecting it from the damage done everywhere else. Monsters and Heroes from legend once again walk the land.  The stories follow Maggie Hoskie, a monster hunter cursed with supernatural powers of strength and speed, feared and hated by the very people who rely on her services, one of a handful of people touched with powers associated with their clans.

[pwhodges]

Ged like Get, not Jed like Jet.

Yeah... s'what I meant.

Ged (in the UK certainly) is pronounced like Jet.

Not according to the OED, which has an entry for Ged as a Scottish and Northern English name for the pike (fish) - pronounced with a hard g, not a j.

[Theta9]

Having read the book, the Prime show was mildly disappointing, especially since American Gods was such a riot - although to be fair, I haven't read that book.

(click to show/hide)

Also, I might be misremembering, but isn't the book's ending completely different from the show's ending?

Does Good Omens end with the season? My Amazon menu lists it as "Season One".

[LTK]

Yes, it's a relatively short book. Amazon Prime apparently has no way of indicating that it's finished after six episodes.

[TheEvilDog]

Also Neil Gaiman announced that he won't be back if Amazon renews the show, stating that he hasn't written a novel since 2013's "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" and that he would like to getting back to being a novelist. I would also imagine that helping to produce Good Omens was difficult for him, considering how he and Terry Pratchett were such good friends.

[Theta9]

Also Neil Gaiman announced that he won't be back if Amazon renews the show....

...which reminds me that HBO has renewed Big Little Lies for a second season, despite the entire book story having been covered in the first. 

[Tova]

Well, you know. The first season of The Handmaid's Tale covered the entire book as well, and we've had three seasons so far...

[Theta9]

Well, you know. The first season of The Handmaid's Tale covered the entire book as well, and we've had three seasons so far...

I don't know that, actually. I stalled in my reading of The Handmaid's Tale and still haven't finished it.

[hedgie]

It's a bit too close to reality right now for me to give it another go.

[Theta9]

It's a bit too close to reality right now for me to give it another go.

Off topic, but I saw a Venn diagram a couple days ago with four overlapping circles labeled:
Fahrenheit 451
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Brave New World
The Handmaid's Tale

...and in the center where all four overlap: YOU ARE HERE

[sitnspin]

This is why I don't read stuff like that. I have enough darkness in my life without having in my entertainment as well. I don't need a dystopian allegory to make me aware of how fuck up the world is and how much more fucked up it could be. I am painfully aware.

[Thrillho]

This is why I don't read stuff like that. I have enough darkness in my life without having in my entertainment as well. I don't need a dystopian allegory to make me aware of how fuck up the world is and how much more fucked up it could be. I am painfully aware.

This is how I have felt about such fiction for a while.

I feel like I already live in a dystopia, I don't need to read about one that doesn't actually sound too much worse.

[Theta9]

sitnspin and Thrillho - That's fair.

[sitnspin]

Just finished reading "The Tiger's Daughter" and now I am reading "The Phoenix Empress". The books are about too girls in a fantasy analog of  East Asia, one the crown princess and the other the daughter of the chieftain of the nomads of the steppes. Both of whose mother were famous warriors in their youths with a deep and undying friendship forged in war and trauma. The daughters, Shefali and Shinzuku are born under auspicious signs that foretell their lifelong bond and their own great destinies. The first book is told from the perspective of Shefali, the nomadic rider and archer, the eponymous Tiger's Daughter. The second is told from the pov of Shizulu, the princess/Empress of an empire slowly going to rot as an ancient evil takes root spreading sickness and demons across land.

The first book is a sweeping epic that follows them from birth until they are 17. It has action, humour, horror, and romance. The characters are rich and full and wholly believable in all their messy intricacy. The story is deeply engaging and keeps you hooked in. The romance is a long slow burn that takes its time to develop in a believable way.

I'm only a few chapters into the second book, but it is proving to be as enjoyable as the first so far.

If you are in the mood for a low fantasy epic with a side of sweet queer romance, I highly recommend.

[LeeC]

Just finished Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life by Gary John Bishop. Its very direct and being that I listened to him narrate it via audio-book, it came off as quite the pep-talk. I found it to be quite helpful.

[LeeC]

I suppose it would be best to post this here rather than anywhere else. As mentioned before, I had read Good Omens fairly recently, but my wife had me wait to watch the show until after our child was born (old world superstition) so we finally watched it. I couldn't help but compare it to the book the entire way through and I must say I like the book better, however the show is also good.  They add new scenes to give the book readers something new to see instead of beat by beat the same story. The ending is essentially the same thing but they go about it differently after the climax. My two biggest complaints about the show 1) the Narrator's pacing (I felt the audio-book had better pacing regarding the narration, and the show narration just seemed rushed) 2) The story seemed rushed. It could be that to me it seemed like it took the entire last week of earth to get through everything whereas the show makes everything happen over the course of the last 3ish days. Now I must admit these are nitpicks and that is one advantage the book will have over any TV show or book is plenty of time to delve into everything. There were many more nit picks I had, but they are just nit picks because I like the book and YMMV.  The show was still great and the new things they did, they did well.

[LeeC]

Started "Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian: The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus" by Robert E. Howard and compiled by Finn J. D. John. So far its pretty interesting. After the author's notes the first few stories has nothing to do with Conan. The first one is a Kull story (Shadow Kingdom) and the 2 following are Solomon Kane stories (Red Shadow and Rattle of Bones), followed by an Essay Howard wrote explaining the Hyborean age where Conan takes place. Finn J.D. John did this to help show Howard's evolution in writing and it does help you get a taste for what you're in for. The Conan stories are then presented in the order they are published so it leaps from different points in his life. For example, the first Conan story "The Phoenix on the Sword" takes place when Conan is now king of Aquilonia (like a mix between the Roman Empire and Carolingian Empire) so he's a bit older than his other adventures. I've only now gotten to this story but so far its pretty good. A lot of cloak and dagger game of thrones stuff going on.

[LeeC]

I finally read Fahrenheit 451. It was required reading in high school but I didn't read it. Go figure.
Reading it now with the gusto of wanting to read, just wow! It was a great story that I don't think my younger self would have appreciated.  Everyone likes to cite that its about book burning and censorship, but thats just what you get from reading the back of a book and maybe the bit of the beginning. Its about so much more than that! Dumbing down media for something thats easier to consume, keeping people happy/distracted at all times, growing apathy in society, and the dumb persecuting the intellectual because they feel inferior.  God this feels relevant today as I am sure it was back in the 50s when it was written.

I swear I work with someone that is just like Montag's wife.   

[dutchrvl]

Currently reading Bryson's "The body: a guide for occupants"

It's in the same vein as "A short history of nearly everything' and "At home: a history of private life".

So far it's quite entertaining and a fascinating read, although I don't think it comes close to 'history of nearly everything'.

[Thrillho]

I got a book called Wild Irish Women, about innovative Irish women funnily enough, from one of my partners' mums, and I stopped reading because like many history books I like it refers to a bunch of shit it expects you to have heard of.

Sadly, I am grossly uneducated in Irish history; this partner, by the way, is Irish.

So I've paused. I'm going to read the Irish equivalent to Sixth Form set text on history, then get myself some heavier duty Irish potted history book, and then head back on to Wild Irish Women once I can appreciate just how special they really were.

I've rattled through a bunch of other books recently. I am currently reading American Caesars. I'm also reading Redshirts by John Scalzi, which I've barely started but am enjoying. It is seemingly set up as a Star Trek parody of sorts, but the friend who recommend it to me says it is much more than that.

I also read The Vietnam War by Max Hastings. If you are remotely interested in that war, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It goes into phenomenal depth, not just considering The American War, as it's known by many in Vietnam itself, but also covering extensively the disastrous French efforts to keep it as a colony after World War II. I never cease to be amazed by the depths that the 'heroes' of our history will sink to when the enemy isn't so easily 'evil' in capital letters like Hitler is. I would say the most gripping part of the book was the French segment, but that may be because it's the part I knew the least about.

[Gyrre]

Terra Incognita by Ruth Downie

It's a murder mystery set in the time of Ancient Rome (pre-holy empire) in what would become northern England.

[hmm]

I see some people in this thread have mentioned The Expanse series. I didn't see anyone mentioning the audiobooks, which are read by a Tony-winning actor. He's very good. He sounds like he's having so much fun reading the dialog of Avasarala, a character who sadly doesn't show up until the second book.

If you're OK with sci fi that has weirder premises than The Expanse, try This Is How You Lose The Time War, which I liked very much. I'd definitely recommend it to people who liked Ninefox Gambit and vice versa.

[hmm]

From Bacteria to Bach and Back, by Daniel Dennett.

I'm taking notes on my phone on pretty much every single page, so it's slow going. But it's a great book

Oh, nice. I'm in book group that just finished BtB&B. I'm happy to share our groups thoughts about it, maybe in a separate thread. We've now moved on to The Information by James Gleick.

[sitnspin]

"A Memory Called Empire"

The new ambassador to a galaxy-spanning empire arrives at her new post only to find that her predecessor is dead and no one will admit that it wasn't an accident or that she might be next. Now she must solve the mystery of his murder while keeping herself alive and protecting her home world from the ever expanding empire.

[MrEnglishTeacher]

Just started "Life A Users Manual" by George Perec. It's a tour of 1975 Paris frozen within a single moment in time.

[cybersmurf]

I see some people in this thread have mentioned The Expanse series. I didn't see anyone mentioning the audiobooks, which are read by a Tony-winning actor. He's very good. He sounds like he's having so much fun reading the dialog of Avasarala, a character who sadly doesn't show up until the second book.

I got the books after watching season two I think, and I ran through them all quite fast. Mind you, I read 5 hem in English, which isn't my native language, but still nothing stopped me running through them all. Gotta love f*cking Avasarala though, that woman has no brain/mouth filter.

Anyone got a Sci-fi or Fantasy recommendation for me? Looking for something new to read. Can be a classic, as (re-) reading in English might be reason enough for me

[sitnspin]

"A Blade So Black" - A modern "Alice in Wonderland" about a young black woman fighting and slaying Nightmares trying to breach their way into the human world from Wonderland, the manifestation of the dream of the human collective unconscious.

[Theta9]

"A Blade So Black" - A modern "Alice in Wonderland" about a young black woman fighting and slaying Nightmares trying to breach their way into the human world from Wonderland, the manifestation of the dream of the human collective unconscious.

That sounds a little bit like the comic book Return to Wonderland, which is kind of a Wonderland-meets-Lovecraft horror series.

[sitnspin]

This is decidedly non-Lovecraftian. More, return of the once defeated dark sorceress than unfathomable eldritch monsters from beyond time and space.

[Wingy]

I just finished Ignition! by John D. Clark.  More about rocket fuels than you'd ever want to know, and howlingly funny in spots.  I was pushed a little bit to remember my high school and freshman college chemistry, but those weren't really necessary.  The funny bits were the examination of chem-geek culture and the anecdotes of ... er ... um ... experiments, yeah, experiments gone wrong.  I'm not sure how you'd turn it into a movie, but it would sure have enough explosions...

[hmm]

Anyone got a Sci-fi or Fantasy recommendation for me? Looking for something new to read. Can be a classic, as (re-) reading in English might be reason enough for me

Does any of the sci-fi already in this thread appeal to you? There are some pretty good suggestions on the previous pages.

What sci fi and fantasy have you recently read (in addition to The Expanse) that you liked?

(I suppose this slightly duplicates the "Recommendations" thread, though I see that contains a lot of tv and movies and this is a very reading-specific thread)

[cybersmurf]

I recently read Altered Carbob, on which the Netflix show of the same name is based on. Weird, how you can change "just a little bit" and end up redoing so much. But hey, that's Hollywood.

Started Dune the other day. Or like re-started it for the fifth time, because never got far, for whatever reason.

As far as Sci-fi goes, I guess I have a thing for man/machine intrrwction, digital consciousness.
I don't need some thought out recommendations, just fire something at me.

[Case]

As far as Sci-fi goes, I guess I have a thing for man/machine intrrwction, digital consciousness.
I don't need some thought out recommendations, just fire something at me.

Whelp, the Sprawl-trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive ) by William Gibson is probably the Cyberpunk classic, along with Neal Stephenson's stuff from the 90s.

I also liked Ramez Nam's Nexus trilogy and it's a bit less dated than Gibson & Stephenson.

The weirdest and best I've read recently is Anne Leckie's Imperial Radch series - fair warning, though: It's not about Razorgurlz, and she uses two very potent 'Verfremdungseffekte'. If you go to the respective German Amazon pages, you'll find tons of Krautians bitching about it (they're idiots, though - it's glorious once your brain adapts to it.)

Read the English version, though - I cannot imagine that it'd work in a German translation.

(click to show/hide)

The society of the protagonist is ... 'gender-agnostic', you could probable call it. They are (mostly) standard-plan humans, and they know that gender exists, they just don't care. Like at all. Consequently, their language lacks any possibility to specify gender (pretty much the opposite of German), and there's several scenes where the protagonist worries about getting the gender of members of other cultures right, because specifying gender is a concept they just can't get their head around.

I guess you could say that the Radch (the name of the society and their Empire) are 'linguistically non-binary' - there's no indication whatsoever that they are non-binary individually, but they couldn't express the concept in their language if they wanted to. The Radch is also the dominant human society, and ... it's not really a nice empire (though they think of themselves as highly ethical). There's several scenes where the protagonist's struggles with gendered languages leads to subtle expressions of dissent from members of colonized cultures, which I took as a subtle reminder for cisfolk to imagine how we'd feel if non-binary folk where the default and insisted on reminding us of our minority status all the time (dissent with the Radch is ... forcefully discouraged, you could probably say).

The experience is ... vexing at first - I spent the first 100 pages or so compulsively browsing back, trying to look up the gender of certain characters, until my brain just gave up and accepted the ambiguity. For example: The protagonist of three novels, Breq, is mostly female to me, though there are scenes where my brain pictures them as male.

I don't know whether my compulsion/vexation is due to the fact that my German native language doesn't allow you to not gender everything, but it took some getting used to until I shook my trained compulsion to gender characters unambigously. I found it rewarding, though.

I won't spoiler the other Verfremdungseffekt - it's more subtle, and methinks it should be right up your alley.

[sitnspin]

I second both the Nexus trilogy and the Radtch series. Both are absolutely phenomenal for different reasons.

[hedgie]

I do wonder if in a non-gendered society, what would happen with individuals who desired to express one would be treated like that one lady was in that TNG episode.[1]
Or would contact with other cultures create a broader social movement a la Cheery Littlebottom and other Ankh Morpork dwarfs who in Discworld have a mono-gendered society.

[1] IIRC, Jonathan Frakes was rather disappointed that they chose a woman to act in that role, feeling like that those responsible for casting didn't really "get it".

Edit:  I must admit, that I haven't read much, if any cyberpunk in years.  It kinda stopped being fun for me once it started becoming reality.

[cybersmurf]

Edit:  I must admit, that I haven't read much, if any cyberpunk in years.  It kinda stopped being fun for me once it started becoming reality.

When fiction becomes reality, it loses its appeal. Also applies somewhat to societal change.

Read the English version, though - I cannot imagine that it'd work in a German translation.

That's something I keep trying. Once you realise how much gets lost in translation, you go original whenever possible.
Thanks for your recommendations!

[hedgie]

Except for Kant.  For the love of all that is good and decent in the world, and if one doesn't want to plunge into the depths of Lovecraftian madness, read him in English, if at all.

[sitnspin]

I do wonder if in a non-gendered society, what would happen with individuals who desired to express one would be treated like that one lady was in that TNG episode.[1]
Or would contact with other cultures create a broader social movement a la Cheery Littlebottom and other Ankh Morpork dwarfs who in Discworld have a mono-gendered society.

Gender expression is largely a social construct. And, as i recall, it isn't as though everyone in The Radtch looked, dressed, and acted exactly the same way, they just didn't ascribe gender to those differences. To them, seeing someone in a dress would be no different than seeing someone in pants. A person with what we called "feminine" characteristics and would be seen the same as someone with "masculine" features. They would just see them, and themselves, as "human'. The Radtch language didn't even contain words to describe gender.

[Case]

I do wonder if in a non-gendered society, what would happen with individuals who desired to express one would be treated like that one lady was in that TNG episode.[1]
Or would contact with other cultures create a broader social movement a la Cheery Littlebottom and other Ankh Morpork dwarfs who in Discworld have a mono-gendered society.

Gender expression is largely a social construct. And, as i recall, it isn't as though everyone in The Radtch looked, dressed, and acted exactly the same way, they just didn't ascribe gender to those differences. To them, seeing someone in a dress would be no different than seeing someone in pants. A person with what we called "feminine" characteristics and would be seen the same as someone with "masculine" features.

Yup.

Proper mindf**k. Glorious! 

They would just see them, and themselves, as "human' Radchaai.

"To be Radchaai is to be civilised ..." 

(click to show/hide)

In the Radchaai's language, 'Radchaai' simultaneously refers to citizens of the Empire as well as 'the state of being civilized/virtuous'. They even have this moral aphorism (see above) that linguistically amounts to a tautology - it only makes sense if you accept the conceits of Radch society (*). In some scenes, Breq points out that the literal translation would be 'To be civilised is to be civilized' or 'To be Radchaai is to be Radchaai' - but the other Radchaai don't seem to see the obvious.

(*) That they are civilized by default, rather than trying to match their actions to an ethical standard they try to live up to. A lot of those actions are ... 'civilized' more in the sense that an Imperial Roman Legate would have approved of

Except for Kant.  For the love of all that is good and decent in the world, and if one doesn't want to plunge into the depths of Lovecraftian madness, read him in English, if at all.

Omg Kant ... I can't manage more than two pages of the Critique of Pure Reason before going cross-eyed (and very, very cranky ...). Even his interpunctuation and word-order seem odd to me; I could very well be missing something, but I have doubts whether he fully understood how to properly mark the beginning and end of subclauses - or what is and what isn't a subclause to begin with.

TL;DR - I doubt that it's easier for us native speakers. The man was simply a very, very bad writer (and German provides bad writers with a lot of tools to use badly).

[hedgie]

German always did strike me as the Perl of human languages.

[Theta9]

The weirdest and best I've read recently is Anne Leckie's Imperial Radch series - fair warning, though: It's not about Razorgurlz, and she uses two very potent 'Verfremdungseffekte'.

I've read the first two of those (third wasn't out yet) and now it's been so long I'll have to start over.

Wasn't going to mask this but Case did so I'll follow suit:

(click to show/hide)

With the narrator only using she/her pronouns for everybody, at first I thought that all the characters encountered so far were actually female. Then when they went to a non-Radsch world she still said "her" about a character that the natives called "him" and I started to understand that the Radsch calls everybody she/her. That was disorienting to me at first; then as I got used to it I just decided I didn't care, which may have been the author's intent.

[Theta9]

Omg Kant ... I can't manage more than two pages of the Critique of Pure Reason before going cross-eyed (and very, very cranky ...). Even his interpunctuation and word-order seem odd to me; I could very well be missing something, but I have doubts whether he fully understood how to properly mark the beginning and end of subclauses - or what is and what isn't a subclause to begin with.

TL;DR - I doubt that it's easier for us native speakers. The man was simply a very, very bad writer (and German provides bad writers with a lot of tools to use badly).

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant who was very rarely stable.

[TheEvilDog]

Been listening to the Siberian Incident by Greig Beck, something of a cross between The Thing From Another World style horror and a Russian Mafia story.

It's.....a book. Honestly, its two genres that shouldn't really mix. Its like making a sandwich and using chocolate and tuna as a filling.

Still going to finish it though.

[cybersmurf]

A Nutella tuna sandwich? A... Tunella? I'll show myself out.

With my mind working some weird angles at times, I kinda like things that shouldn't work but actually do.

[Tova]

With my mind working some weird angles at times, I kinda like things that shouldn't work but actually do.

You should become a software engineer.

[cybersmurf]

With my mind working some weird angles at times, I kinda like things that shouldn't work but actually do.

You should become a software engineer.

... I currently work in Software QA, a.k.a. Tester. And I have plans to "switch sides" and do coding, so I guess I'm kinda already there?

[Tova]

Oh, you are going to have a fine time indeed. 

[Thrillho]

READING READING READING

God I love reading

When my brain works

I am mainly beta-reading chapters for a person I follow on Twitter who is writing a novel. It's a feminist-themed neo-noir set in Toronto, and I am loving every second of it.

I was reading Wyrd Sisters, but sadly I got a bit cold on it and abandoned it. I've still got my place marked, and am visiting my mother this weekend so plan on burning through it.

I recently burned through what I think is the 19th Gaunt's Ghosts novel, The Warmaster. I kinda went back to it for completion's sake, expecting it to be a bit of a light snore of a read, and was kinda aghast to find that Dan Abnett has grown substantially as a writer since I last read one of these books (years back). It has fucking feminism in it. The word 'patriarchal' is used. I was low-key astonished. It was great fun to read - still light, but more absorbing than I expected. It's nice to spend time with these characters again. One of them - Major Rawne - I was a big fan of as a kid and used to use his name as an online handle in a few places.

[sitnspin]

I just started reading "The Unspoken Name". It's about a young orc girl, destined to be sacrificed to her god on her fourteenth birthday. The unexpected arrival of a wizard at her priory provides her with a choice: follow through with act she has been raised her entire life to fulfill and die alone in the dark, or forsake her god and strike out on a new life as a thief, spy, and assassin in the service of a powerful mage. But gods remember, and if you live long enough all debts come due.

[Gyrre]

The Drifter's Wheel

I'm not sure if some of it counts as being purple prose or just very descriptive, but other than tht it's not too bad so far.