Earlier tonight, my mother, Anne Rice, passed away due to complications resulting from a stroke. She left us almost nineteen years to the day my father, her husband Stan, died. Below is a statement I posted to her Facebook page moments ago.
Dearest People of Page. This is Anne’s son Christopher and it breaks my heart to bring you this sad news. Earlier tonight, Anne passed away due to complications resulting from a stroke. She left us almost nineteen years to the day my father, her husband Stan, died. The immensity of our family’s grief cannot be overstated. As my mother, her support for me was unconditional — she taught me to embrace my dreams, reject conformity and challenge the dark voices of fear and self-doubt. As a writer, she taught me to defy genre boundaries and surrender to my obsessive passions. In her final hours, I sat beside her hospital bed in awe of her accomplishments and her courage, awash in memories of a life that took us from the fog laced hills of the San …
https://m.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss
Check out about 46 minutes into the recent video and there it will be. Hope that means the rest of the book will follow
Denis Villeneuve has lined up his first post-Dune duology project. Villeneuve will be tackling a film adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s classic 1973 science fiction novel, Rendezvous with Rama.
Set in the year 2130, *Rendezvous with Rama* charts what happens when an apparently huge, rogue asteroid enters the Solar system. A probe flyby reveals that the object is in fact a geometrically perfect cylinder, fifty kilometres long, and clearly of alien origin. The spacecraft *Endeavour* is diverted to intercept the object, which is dubbed “Rama.” Penetrating the interior of Rama, the explorers discover an entire alien world held within a cylindrical construct, apparently devoid of organic life…but that does not mean it isn’t dangerous.
*Rendezvous with Rama* is Clarke’s most acclaimed novel, even moreso than 2001: A Space Odyssey. *Rama* won the Hugo, Nebula and John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel, as well as the Locus, Seiun, Jupiter and BSFA …
So, a few things.
First, it is impossible to write this kind of post without it being self-promoy, since it’s about my writing, so I will just put all of that in a comment below instead of in this piece.
Second, this is not in any way related to the current post about this topic; I had already been planning this for today (which you will understand why in the first sentence).
Finally, I normally write these posts, give them a few days, and edit them before posting. I’ve decided against that this time, and am posting the first draft without me so much as re-reading it. I wept writing this essay, and I’ve decided I wanted this to be read as raw as it feels. So this is going to be rougher than usual, as a stream-of-consciousness (as all of my first drafts are) and I wanted you to know it was deliberate.
Edit: have a cookie for dad today. He loved sweets.
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Mine would have to be the Kingkiller Chronicles!
Edit: For some reason I wish to join you in your painful patience by reading your chosen series
“Dearest People of Page. This is Anne’s son Christopher and it breaks my heart to bring you this sad news. Earlier tonight, Anne passed away due to complications resulting from a stroke. She left us almost nineteen years to the day my father, her husband Stan, died. The immensity of our family’s grief cannot be overstated. As my mother, her support for me was unconditional — she taught me to embrace my dreams, reject conformity and challenge the dark voices of fear and self-doubt. As a writer, she taught me to defy genre boundaries and surrender to my obsessive passions. In her final hours, I sat beside her hospital bed in awe of her accomplishments and her courage, awash in memories of a life that took us from the fog laced hills of the San Francisco Bay Area to the magical streets of New Orleans to the twinkling vistas of Southern California. As she kissed Anne goodbye, her younger sister Karen said, “What a ride you took us on, kid.” I think we can all agree. Let …
Shogun is a gripping, ridiculously ambitious novel with the vast scope and political maneuvering of Game of Thrones and Stephen King’s character growth.
The book has multiple povs and delves deep into 1600 feudal Japan with reasonable historical accuracy. Yet, it stays at heart the story of one man, which is what made me really fall for this novel.
The man in question is John Blackthorne, a driven and bold naval pilot who gets stranded on the coast of Japan and taken captive by the locals. Blackthorne is soon renamed Anjin-san (Mr. Pilot) by the Japanese unable to twist their tongues around the Ls and Rs of his name and he struggles with his sudden lack of freedom and trying to keep his crew safe. Then, he catches the interest of Lord Toranaga, the eponymous Shogun of the book, a brilliant strategist and politician who is on his own quest for power. In deciding Blackthorne could prove useful for his own goals, Toranaga allows him to live and thrive.
There were other great …
I maintain a small social circle, and none of my friends read books that many, or atleast according to my genres.
I was reading The Midnight Library and I found it to be so good! (I know some of you think it’s overhyped, but I’m in a bad place and the book is really helping me to recover).
Anyways, I was so excited halfway through; the story was so creative and I found a lot of inspiration as well. So, since I don’t have have anyone to share this excitement with, I thought I’ll annoy you guys with it :D It’s SOO good!
Edit: Just woke up and saw all the messages. That’s a lot! I won’t be able to reply to all, but dm me if you wanna read something together!
Finally had a chance to read Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep - totally blown away by how many interesting ideas it weaves together into one amazing story!
Fire is set in an interconnected, multi-species galaxy. A colony of humans starts tinkering with an old artifact, and naturally, they awaken an ancient power. The reborn AI sets off on a reign of destruction, and soon is killing even other AI deities.
The key to saving the universe is on a primitive, medieval world populated by doglike aliens called Tines. The Tines are pack beings joined by telepathic communication, allowing 4-8 singletons to function as a single individual. That unique biology has all kinds of wild implications, making them some of the most interesting aliens in all of sci fi.
Then there are the Scroderiders - essentially trees riding segways. Their mounts also give them short term memory, and they periodically unplug to take a break and exist in the moment. As such, they’re an incredibly …
We’re going on an adventure
Some minor to major spoilers ahead.
First off I just want to say that I absolutely loved this book, almost as much and maybe even a little more than the first book. Some of the Octopod sections were a little tedious to get through, but all in all it had grand ideas and it implemented them very nicely. I await the sequel with as much patience as I’m physically able to muster
But the thing that really sealed the deal for me was, well, the Thing. The lifeform seemingly hellbent on consuming and becoming every single thing in the universe. We’ve all seen it before, all consuming hostile Hive Minds are a staple in SF and this one isn’t any different in that aspect. But out of all the SF I’ve consumed I have never once came across a Hive Mind that was “defeated” through sheer reasoning and philosophy and the thing actually agrees with them and stops consuming everything. They even become fucking friends with it at the …
This was my first Culture as well as my first Iain Banks book so I had no expectations going in other than very favorable recommendations from this sub and scifi lists.
As I went through the story I liked it but I wasn’t understanding why it was on so many scifi fans’ must-read lists. It was fine. I found it to be a story of adventure following a guy named Horza who had unique abilities. Ok, that’s cool. He has lots of adventures, using his shapeshifting, cunning, and bravery (or stupidity) to barely escape death several times. He was on a mission to recover an artificial mind that might change the course of the war for the Idirans.
Along the way:
He met a woman of a different feather-covered species, ended up having feelings for her, and got her pregnant which he thought was impossible
A girl named Fal ‘Ngeestra from The Culture was able to better predict complicated outcomes better than artificial minds with practically infinite more data to work from. …
Thanks to a recommendation here, I started reading the Wayfarers series.
A Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet (#1) was good, if seeming to follow a familiar template. Good enough for me to jump straight to A Closed and Common Orbit.
THIS book really enthralled me. At first I was a little disappointed at the absence of my favorite characters from the first book, but I was soon captivated by the new story. I enjoyed the format of jumping back and forth between the stories of Pepper at each ‘end’ of her character arc.
Anyone interested in the interaction between humans and AI would be well-served to give this a read. I was surprised to find how invested I was in one of the AI characters by the end.
I don’t often write reviews or expound upon my reaction to books, but I felt compelled to tell SOMEONE about this one.
Judging by Goodreads reviews, it looks like book #3 dips a little in quality but book #4 finishes strong. I’ll find out soon!
The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories is an anthology of weird fiction edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer.
“Weird fiction” is a hard genre to define or describe, but that’s kind of the point? This huge anthology has been a great side-read when I’m between books or want a short creepy interlude before bed. Compiled by VanderMeer(s) of Annihilation/Southern Reach fame, so definitely up your alley if you’re a fan of Jeff.
Let me repeat: it’s huge. I’m still early on but I really enjoy the chronological ordering so you can see the genre evolve. My favorites so far are The Willows and Sredni Vashtar.
With the Hugo’s being announced this Saturday, I thought I’d put out my rankings of all the nominees (excepting the one novella I haven’t read yet). I also have links to where you can read all the short stories and novelettes online. I’d love to hear what people thought of the different nominees, and what you think should win.
Note: Please limit comments to thoughts on the specific works nominated, or specific works that you feel should have been nominated but weren’t. If you would like to discuss the demographics of nominees/winners, or the general validity/utility of the Hugo’s, please make your own post to do so.
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Novels:
This book is a wonderful, bizarre, puzzling gem of a book. It is among the best books I’ve ever read. I hope that Susanna Clarke is able to continue writing. The less you know before reading it, the better.
Our first …
I’m watching tropic Thunder again after not seeing it for at least 5 years. The opening of the movie has to be one of the best character introductions I’ve ever seen. It feels exactly like a cold open but played like movie trailers and I think this was a genius way to introduce the characters!
Any other movie out there that has an awesome opening?