SOME of the short story stuff is cool and witty, the monster hunter viewpoint is actually pretty rare in what I have read. But as soon as the author starts writing about larger scale plots or new characters it becomes mind numbingly boring. (that last book was suffering)
And look I’ve read The Dragonbone chair, I am okay with sitting through a slice of life setup book if it still has relevance to the story and has interesting things happen, but the witcher books honestly make even the action boring and the plot plodding, I think the video games made people fall so in love with the world that even people that barely read picked up the witcher series, without realizing that all of the good to come out of the games is from CD project red, not the author.
People act like if the netflix show adapted the books faithfully it would be better but honestly, I dont think the main story is worth an adaption at all. The games make for a much more compelling story experience.
EDIT: I should …
THE BOOK THAT BROKE THE WORLD is my 17th published novel and the 2nd in The Library Trilogy.
The trilogy starts with THE BOOK THAT WOULDN’T BURN and is a whole new thing not connected to any of my other works - jump in here.
The trilogy is complete, I’ve written another two books since (including my first grimdark for more than 10 years!), and I’m writing two others (a fictional tale about AI & something tangential to the Library trilogy).
You can read all about my work in this handy Guide to Lawrence.
My trilogies vary – a lot – The Broken Empire is the only grimdark I’ve written.
UPDATE - been a long day and it’s midnight here with an early morning tomorrow, so I’m going to bounce. I’ll be back after a sleep to catch up on more questions. Very many thanks for taking part!
In other news the SPFBO finishes at the end of the month and it’s the tightest race we’ve ever had!
On May 10th the 10th annual contest is opening to entries. I’ve been …
Black Gate just released an interview with Cook, where he revealed several massive developments: a new Black Company RPG is coming, he’s already written a new Garrett book and has another planned (Last Metal Romance and Deadly Diamond Daydreams)…
But most importantly, the long-awaited Black Company sequel A Pitiless Rain is now a full-blown sequel series called The Orphan’s Tale AND HE’S ALREADY WRITTEN THREE BOOKS. Lies Weeping, They Cry, and Summer Grass have been drafted, and he’s halfway through a fourth volume titled Darkness Knows.
Absolutely insane news today!
There are stories you can tell using a world with gendered roles and practices, but unless you intend to tell a story like that, making it so women don’t have equal rights doesn’t really add much. Replicating the feel of medieval times doesn’t require you to use the same cultural scriptures as were present in that time period. Quite frankly, having a world in which a given social issue doesn’t exist is a great way to normalize equality and fight stereotypes of who does what.
And another thing. If your world has dragons on every mountain, a completely different currency and calendar than ours, giants and elves roaming the lands, magic everywhere you look, a history literally shaped by fictional gods, and yet women still don’t have the same rights as men or men being effeminate is still seen as taboo… Why? Why is that the only place you feel needs to be like the real world?
When i think of my top ten fantasy books of all time all of them were written over a decade ago (Riyria revalations is the most recent to enter the top ten and thats nearly 15 years old). Are there any newer books that have broke into your top ten recently? or even older books that you have only recently read?
I’m not a big reader and have been trying to be one for the past few months. I had read some of my favorite to begin my reading journey (LOTR trilogy, The Sun Also Rises) and had read Neuromancer by William Gibson and have realized Sci-Fi is my niche. So then I picked up Hyperion, and I have to say, I think that’s my favorite book I’ve ever read, and completely challenged what I previously knew to be a beyond amazing book. It’s revitalized my interest in continuing to read and I can’t speak highly enough of it. Without giving any plot details away, all I’ll say of it is that it has every aspect of Science Fiction I’ve loved and in my opinion had a masterful way of displaying it all.
I’m reading through Scott Pratt’s Joe Dillard series and while I enjoy the books, he’s got some hang up about height and it’s distracting. Every “good guy” is tall and the “bad guys” are all described as short, usually with other stereotypically unattractive features, but always, absolutely positively, without fail, under 6 feet tall. Idk why but it annoys me each time I read his descriptors that mention “6 feet”. Maybe because it takes me out of the story and into my head, already predicting what’s to come and figuratively rolling my eyes. A dumb pet peeve I guess but I was curious if anyone else noticed anything like this in the series they read. Did it ruin the series for you? Have you found a way to ignore it?
Posted on his blog as part of a larger entry:
“The new book? It’s done, barring some tweaks, and it has a title - HALCYON YEARS - which I’m not yet sure is going to be the final one. Beyond that, as I’ve long promised, it’s another standalone entirely unrelated to anything else I’ve done and there won’t be a sequel or prequel or anything. It’s a kind of Chandleresque gumshoe murder mystery set aboard a gigantic starship (the titular “Halcyon”) which is sort of like 1950s Greater Los Angeles rolled up into a tube and sent off into space. Maybe that sounds like your bag, maybe it doesn’t - either way, it’s about as much as I should say right now.”
The first time I encountered “Red Mars”, I abandoned the novel. I was too young for such material.
A decade later I managed to finish the novel, but thought it was dull and confusing. This was largely because I had no idea what each section of the novel was attempting to do, where things were going, and was weighed down by certain preconceptions.
On my third reading of the novel, however, fifteen years after first encountering it, everything suddenly clicked into place. Everything felt purposeful. The pacing mostly felt right. The characters felt deeply fleshed out. And most surprisingly, I found this 1500+ page doorstop to be a quick read. I devoured it in just two weeks, possibly due to reading it on an Ipad (my print copy is heavy and has tiny text).
Some random thoughts: I think the novel is structured as a series of expanding journeys. In the first section, we simply wander around the streets of a city. In the second section, we wander around a ship that is a third …
Absolutely love this book and this universe so far, been working a lot of hours and going to class at night so I haven’t had much of a chance to read it, but I’m definitely hooked.
Just finished up the scene with the Damage game. Imagine seeing this on the big screen? From what I can tell so far, the scope of Banks’ universe would be damn near impossible to translate to film, but man, the visuals in that scene would be absolutely mind blowing! Just picturing the crowd and the players walking in, that would be really something. I remember when I was a kid seeing the cantina in Mos Eisley for the first time and being amazed at all the different aliens and the cool atmosphere….this would be like that but so much better.
Also thanks to everyone that suggested this author to me, earlier this year you guys turned me on to the works of Peter F. Hamilton and he was the best SF author I’d read in years, but if this series keeps up the pacing and characters, we might have a new contender.
I miss when I used to read science fiction or watch a film and experience that youthful awe and wonder. It happens less and less often these days. But just wondering if anyone has any recommendations for a novel to try and recapture some of that? What has stirred you lately to read?
Looking for any and all recommendations. SF can be speculative or scifi, up to you.