This is probably old hat to a lot of people here, but I recently discovered Ted Chiang and he is fantastic. Genuinely mind-expanding fiction, in the vein of Borges. A couple of specific recommendations, with links to electronic versions, although you should really just buy this book:
Just finished The Name of the Wind. Lots of great passages, but not enough sweetness and too much bitterness for my taste in fantasy. The retelling of the story by a dispirited hero is an unfortunate format, as we already know that he does not really win in the end.
Hopefully the sequel is better, if I am to believe an Amazon reviewer that “most of the book is about Kvothe having sex and learning how to fight and having sex with people who train him to fight or fight with him.”
Yeah, the second book has some pretty downer aspects. There’s one bit which may particularly interest LW people in that it can be considered n zrgncube sbe jung n ernyyl znyvpvbhf benpyr NV zvtug qb.
I liked both. We don’t know that he doesn’t win in the end, we just know that he’s at a low point in his life in the present (waiting to die). Hopefully the third book will involve this present story more. Rothfuss could end it on a really strong note if Kvothe gains back some of his former awesome.
I would be pretty shocked if he didn’t; there’s no way The Ending will be Kvothe saying “and then I fled the city with my savings, came here, and opened an inn” as he turns away to wash some mugs.
I read it as a compliment. MugaSofer is impressed by the fact that you made an assessment of the similarity between the two novels that is borne out by facts of which you were unaware. It would be like someone listening to a piece of music they haven’t heard before and saying “Sounds like Debussy”, and it turns out it was Debussy.
Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey have many similarities. However, they differ in their treatment of sexuality. The sexual attitude Meyer wants her characters to follow—that is, the attitude the male lead promotes and the female lead complies to—is one whose principles Meyer knows, that is widespread, discussed, and endorsed in a culture Meyer is part of, and that she wishes to portray realistically yet positively. This is because she hopes Twilight will make this sexual behavior—abstinence—more appealing, rather than the reverse. James has no such goal in Fifty Shades, and thus no such need to portray her characters’ sexual behavior, morality, or culture in any way but the one she believes will attract readers.
The sexual attitude Meyer wants her characters to follow—that is, the attitude the male lead promotes and the female lead complies to
That was not at all my reading of it. An ordinary 17-year old girl manages to stand up to her 90-year old (though looking 17) first boyfriend who is much stronger, smarter, richer and more attractive, effectively bending him to her will. Quite unbelievable, actually. As I mentioned before, Bella is the only real magical character in the whole story.
I forgot to post in the August thread, so I’ll do it here. I read Fallout: Equestria over a few days, and it was actually really good. (Way better than the current rationalist MLP fic.)
It is a very well written work, but as befits Fallout, it is grimdark.
There were many parts which seemed like they wouldn’t have been nearly as enjoyable without strong familiarity with the Fallout universe. They cross it with MLP very well- some of the combinations are eh, but several of them make perfect sense, and are very tragic.
I’m not enjoying it as much as I thought I might. It seems basically competent, but the writing doesn’t propel me along. (The rationalist MLP fic does so propel.)
Mm, I would’ve said the exact opposite. Admittedly the first 100 pages or so are slow. (IIRC, quanticle said something similar after reading it per my recommendation. He liked it a lot.)
As gwern states in a sibling post, once Littlepip starts assembling her party, the story starts proceeding along nicely. If you’ve gotten past the introduction of the first two party members, and you still think it’s slow, then I’d suggest skipping it.
I continue re-reading Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series of nautical historical novels set during the Napoleonic wars in early 19th century. These are probably the best historical novels ever written, and I see them as one of the great achievements of 20th century literature.
I read three of these last month, finishing with The Far Side of the World. Every page brings delight, and instills a fuller, richer sense of life than almost any other book I’ve read in years.
I have not yet read any of the novels in that series, but I did see Peter Weir’s film of The Far Side of the World during its theatrical run. If you’ve seen it, would you say it was a good adaptation of the novel?
It was a good movie, but it wasn’t really an adaptation of the novel. It combined several scenes from two different novels in the series, and out of necessity imposed by the format, it wove them into a very straightforward plot with far less complex characters than in the books. I enjoyed the movie, but I enjoyed the books far far more.
Thanks! I’ll have to get hold of the first book and see how I like it—unless there’s a better place to begin reading the series? Does the publication order match the internal chronology?
Yeah, the order is the same. The novels typically include enough background, so you can start at something other than the first one if you particularly want to, but there’s no good reason to do that.
Our protagonist has accepted being cursed into the shape of a horse, taking the place of a wealthy man in exchange for luxuries and lots of monthly cash. The wealthy man dies—and to his horror, our hero finds he is still a horse. Events escalate, secrets are revealed, personal growth happens. While not exactly dedicated to Bayesianism or even just rationality, the climax involves the expression of a sentiment familiar to any reader of HPMoR who’s gotten to the bits about dementors, and seems to express it quite well in terms readers more familiar with fantasy than science-fiction can appreciate, which could form a stepping-stone to dealing with the idea of existential risks in the real world.
Vilcabamba, by Harry Turtledove, link goes to the free to read short story. Similar scenario to The War of the Worlds, excluding the deus ex machina ending.
Ugh, heaps of exposition in a vague point of view ladled at the beginning and throughout. This is far below Turtledove’s usual style. It’s also pretty heavy-handed. (Why do two characters stop pondering a diplomacy problem to say “My, the main themes of this story are colonization and doomed resistance!”?)
Stories of occupation, colonization, and life after defeat are always interesting and we need more of those. This story shows cultural assimilation really well. (The star above the left shoulder!)
On the one hand, I really like that the empire plot is done with aliens, who usually prefer mass murder to conquest. On the other hand, I can’t see what this adds; the Krolps are just humans in funny suits. Possibly it’s to make invasion of the US plausible. Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with soft SF.
The end keeps within the theme, but I find it unsatisfying, as if he tried to write a tragedy arc in a style that calls for suspense or something along those lines.
I’m not sure how they’d count on a rationalism-o-meter, but I’ve enjoyed Kadrey’s Sandman Slim novels tremendously.
Premise: a man is taken alive into Hell, and put to fighting in the arena. Every injury makes an invulnerable scar. He escapes to LA to get revenge on his fellow magicians who sent him to Hell and killed his girlfriend.
As might be predicted, he has a wiseass sense of humor.
Violence, confrontations, metaphysics, and snark—if that’s what you want, there are four medium-large novels worth of it. The first three are one story arc, and the fourth is a complete story.
Fiction Books Thread
This is probably old hat to a lot of people here, but I recently discovered Ted Chiang and he is fantastic. Genuinely mind-expanding fiction, in the vein of Borges. A couple of specific recommendations, with links to electronic versions, although you should really just buy this book:
The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate—The best time travel story ever!
Exhalation
Just finished The Name of the Wind. Lots of great passages, but not enough sweetness and too much bitterness for my taste in fantasy. The retelling of the story by a dispirited hero is an unfortunate format, as we already know that he does not really win in the end.
Hopefully the sequel is better, if I am to believe an Amazon reviewer that “most of the book is about Kvothe having sex and learning how to fight and having sex with people who train him to fight or fight with him.”
Yeah, the second book has some pretty downer aspects. There’s one bit which may particularly interest LW people in that it can be considered n zrgncube sbe jung n ernyyl znyvpvbhf benpyr NV zvtug qb.
V nyfb sbhaq n irel fgebat fvzvynevgl jvgu n znyvpvbhf naq gehgushy Obkrq NV jura ernqvat gur rkcynangvba bs Onfg. Gur nanybtl vf abg cresrpg, ohg vg jnf irel vagrerfgvat naq cnffviryl nevfvat.
I find that gur Pgurnu vf fb nofheqyl cbjreshy gung V pna’g uryc ohg srry gung gur fgbel vf nyernql bire. Gurl’er cynlvat jvgu n tbq urer, naq guvf vfa’g fbzr Terrx tbq shyy bs uhzna sbyyvrf; vg’f n gehyl nyvra, znyribyrag, naq bzavfpvrag orvat. Nsgre gung, jung pna cbffvoyl unccra? Gur Cngevpx Ebgushff jvyy unir gb onpxgenpx gb znxr gur fgbel zrnavatshy; vagebqhpr fbzr bgure cbjre gung gur Pgurnu pnaabg cerqvpg, be tvir vg uvqqra zbgvirf bgure guna cher znyribyrapr.
Jr qba’g xabj npghnyyl xabj ubj cbjreshy Pgurnu vf. Jr whfg xabj jung pregnva tebhcf guvax bs vg. Vg znl ghea bhg gung vgf novyvgl gb znavchyngr vf zber yvzvgrq guna crbcyr guvax. Tvira gung gur erfcbafr bsgra hfrq vf gb xvyy nalbar jub unf nal pbagnpg jvgu vg ng nyy, gur ahzore bs npghny grfgrq riragf sbe vgf orunivbe znl or fznyy.
I liked both. We don’t know that he doesn’t win in the end, we just know that he’s at a low point in his life in the present (waiting to die). Hopefully the third book will involve this present story more. Rothfuss could end it on a really strong note if Kvothe gains back some of his former awesome.
I would be pretty shocked if he didn’t; there’s no way The Ending will be Kvothe saying “and then I fled the city with my savings, came here, and opened an inn” as he turns away to wash some mugs.
We have a prediction!
Oh good grief. Fine: http://predictionbook.com/predictions/8135
Started 50 Shades of Grey. So far it reads like Twilight, only Bella is 21 and Edward is a tycoon.
IIRC, 50 shades started life as Twilight fanfic.
Ah, thanks, should have checked Wikipedia first. It explains a lot.
Says a lot about your literary criticism skills, though.
Not sure what this cheap shot was for.
I read it as a compliment. MugaSofer is impressed by the fact that you made an assessment of the similarity between the two novels that is borne out by facts of which you were unaware. It would be like someone listening to a piece of music they haven’t heard before and saying “Sounds like Debussy”, and it turns out it was Debussy.
I meant it as a compliment, yes. Sorry if I was unclear :-(
Finished… A rather unexpected ending for me, even in retrospect. Hope they make a movie out of it.
I don’t think Meyer is portraying abstinence wrong in Twilight.
What do you mean?
Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey have many similarities. However, they differ in their treatment of sexuality. The sexual attitude Meyer wants her characters to follow—that is, the attitude the male lead promotes and the female lead complies to—is one whose principles Meyer knows, that is widespread, discussed, and endorsed in a culture Meyer is part of, and that she wishes to portray realistically yet positively. This is because she hopes Twilight will make this sexual behavior—abstinence—more appealing, rather than the reverse. James has no such goal in Fifty Shades, and thus no such need to portray her characters’ sexual behavior, morality, or culture in any way but the one she believes will attract readers.
That was not at all my reading of it. An ordinary 17-year old girl manages to stand up to her 90-year old (though looking 17) first boyfriend who is much stronger, smarter, richer and more attractive, effectively bending him to her will. Quite unbelievable, actually. As I mentioned before, Bella is the only real magical character in the whole story.
I forgot to post in the August thread, so I’ll do it here. I read Fallout: Equestria over a few days, and it was actually really good. (Way better than the current rationalist MLP fic.)
My opinion, as posted earlier:
I’m not enjoying it as much as I thought I might. It seems basically competent, but the writing doesn’t propel me along. (The rationalist MLP fic does so propel.)
Mm, I would’ve said the exact opposite. Admittedly the first 100 pages or so are slow. (IIRC, quanticle said something similar after reading it per my recommendation. He liked it a lot.)
As gwern states in a sibling post, once Littlepip starts assembling her party, the story starts proceeding along nicely. If you’ve gotten past the introduction of the first two party members, and you still think it’s slow, then I’d suggest skipping it.
I continue re-reading Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series of nautical historical novels set during the Napoleonic wars in early 19th century. These are probably the best historical novels ever written, and I see them as one of the great achievements of 20th century literature.
I read three of these last month, finishing with The Far Side of the World. Every page brings delight, and instills a fuller, richer sense of life than almost any other book I’ve read in years.
I have not yet read any of the novels in that series, but I did see Peter Weir’s film of The Far Side of the World during its theatrical run. If you’ve seen it, would you say it was a good adaptation of the novel?
It was a good movie, but it wasn’t really an adaptation of the novel. It combined several scenes from two different novels in the series, and out of necessity imposed by the format, it wove them into a very straightforward plot with far less complex characters than in the books. I enjoyed the movie, but I enjoyed the books far far more.
Thanks! I’ll have to get hold of the first book and see how I like it—unless there’s a better place to begin reading the series? Does the publication order match the internal chronology?
Yeah, the order is the same. The novels typically include enough background, so you can start at something other than the first one if you particularly want to, but there’s no good reason to do that.
Recommendation: the novel ‘Spur’, by Phil Geusz
Our protagonist has accepted being cursed into the shape of a horse, taking the place of a wealthy man in exchange for luxuries and lots of monthly cash. The wealthy man dies—and to his horror, our hero finds he is still a horse. Events escalate, secrets are revealed, personal growth happens. While not exactly dedicated to Bayesianism or even just rationality, the climax involves the expression of a sentiment familiar to any reader of HPMoR who’s gotten to the bits about dementors, and seems to express it quite well in terms readers more familiar with fantasy than science-fiction can appreciate, which could form a stepping-stone to dealing with the idea of existential risks in the real world.
Discovered through this review. Available through Lulu or Amazon for $15, or as a PDF or HTML ebook for $6.
(I think you missed copying the title of the story!)
Vilcabamba, by Harry Turtledove, link goes to the free to read short story. Similar scenario to The War of the Worlds, excluding the deus ex machina ending.
If you want something more sophisticated on the subject, try William Tenn’s “The Liberation of Earth”.
Review:
Ugh, heaps of exposition in a vague point of view ladled at the beginning and throughout. This is far below Turtledove’s usual style. It’s also pretty heavy-handed. (Why do two characters stop pondering a diplomacy problem to say “My, the main themes of this story are colonization and doomed resistance!”?)
Stories of occupation, colonization, and life after defeat are always interesting and we need more of those. This story shows cultural assimilation really well. (The star above the left shoulder!)
On the one hand, I really like that the empire plot is done with aliens, who usually prefer mass murder to conquest. On the other hand, I can’t see what this adds; the Krolps are just humans in funny suits. Possibly it’s to make invasion of the US plausible. Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with soft SF.
The end keeps within the theme, but I find it unsatisfying, as if he tried to write a tragedy arc in a style that calls for suspense or something along those lines.
Overall, nice plot, not too well handled.
I’m not sure how they’d count on a rationalism-o-meter, but I’ve enjoyed Kadrey’s Sandman Slim novels tremendously.
Premise: a man is taken alive into Hell, and put to fighting in the arena. Every injury makes an invulnerable scar. He escapes to LA to get revenge on his fellow magicians who sent him to Hell and killed his girlfriend.
As might be predicted, he has a wiseass sense of humor.
Violence, confrontations, metaphysics, and snark—if that’s what you want, there are four medium-large novels worth of it. The first three are one story arc, and the fourth is a complete story.