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name_here
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Post by name_here » Mon Aug 06, 2012 4:14 pm

Re-read John Ringo's Through The Looking Glass series. It avoids most of the traditional problems with his books by being mostly set in space and having relatively little politics, although he does slip in his inexplicable hatred of the French. But mostly it is cool alien races, cool tech (there is a blue-white supergiant solar system that is a Precursor Concert Hall that uses the sun to power a laser light show), shooting, and coauthor provided actual and imaginary particle physics.
Admittedly, book three might have used the entirety of the stupid quotient claiming France was a liability to its allies in WWI. Which is crazy and stupid enough all by itself to confirm it wasn't ghostwritten.

> DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.

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Ancient History
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Post by Ancient History » Fri Aug 17, 2012 6:23 pm

My copy of the Codex Seraphinianus arrived.
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Maxus
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Post by Maxus » Sun Aug 26, 2012 3:36 am

I've been reading Preacher.
Holy hell.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Cynic
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Post by Cynic » Sun Aug 26, 2012 3:46 am

Preacher is one of those excellent examples of what the British comic invasion can produce. Garth Ennis' snarky violence and John Mcrea's awesome art make it wonderful.

> Ancient History wrote:We were working on Street Magic, and Frank asked me if a houngan had run over my dog.

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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin » Sun Aug 26, 2012 12:50 pm

Humperdidooooo!
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Maxus
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Post by Maxus » Sun Aug 26, 2012 4:25 pm

> angelfromanotherpin wrote:Humperdidooooo!

My favorite so far is any time Cassidy says "Jaysis!"
Or anytime the Saint of Killers acts all plain folks on people. For reasons unknown to me, I get a kick out of it when he says "Howdy".
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Josh_Kablack
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Post by Josh_Kablack » Wed Sep 05, 2012 5:28 am

I'm currently slogging through Faulkner's The Light in August.
It's truly bizzaire reading a book which is in many ways condemning the blatent and overt racism and sexism of its characters, but which also reveals the author's own more subtle and covert racism and sexism via descriptions made within the third person omniscient narration.
If Faulkner had been the sort of hipster who did that "ironicly" in order to make the reader look for their own unseen prejudices instead of just at the proverbial mote-in-the-eye that is bias within a fictional context, it would actually be rather cool.
Sadly, he's not and he's blissfully unaware where he's writing racist and sexist paragraphs.
The racism and sexism combines with the utter alieness of the setting to my experience to make the book a rather painful read. It's truly amazing that the early 20th Century American Southern Small Town is further from my experience than so many settings further away from me in both geography and history.
Last edited by Josh_Kablack on Wed Sep 05, 2012 5:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
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Maxus
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Post by Maxus » Wed Sep 05, 2012 6:33 am

I'm -trying- to read Perdido Street Station.
Lot of cool stuff in the setting. I like the Remade and the Garuda, conceptually.
But I can't get up much enthusiasm for the plot or the characters, and I'm about two hundred pages in, and I normally like this stuff. Weird settings, weird cultures. It's a reason I own all the Nightside books. But this? I dunno. Something's lacking.
Last edited by Maxus on Wed Sep 05, 2012 6:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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ckafrica
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Post by ckafrica » Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:47 am

Meville's works seem to all be like that. The Scar and The City and the City were much the same. He seems to be a conceptual writer more than a narrative one. But that is the same with many great scifi authors so I forgive him.
As for Preacher, the special "good ole boys" was quality.
Apparently Ennis' current title "The Boys" is supposed to be pretty good
The internet gave a voice to the world thus gave definitive proof that the world is mostly full of idiots.
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Post by K » Wed Sep 05, 2012 9:07 am

Melville should be writing RPG setting books and not novels.
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Ancient History
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Post by Ancient History » Wed Sep 05, 2012 9:43 am

Meiville needs to learn how to write endings and back cover copy that don't make me want to punch him repeatedly in the face.
Deep Cuts In A Lovecraftian Vein
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sabs
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Post by sabs » Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:22 am

just finished reading The Passage by Justin Cronin.
It was amazingly good writing.
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Maxus
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Post by Maxus » Wed Sep 05, 2012 5:19 pm

> ckafrica wrote:
> As for Preacher, the special "good ole boys" was quality.

Good Ole Boys was a riot. Jody going along with the plot of an action movie because he likes trolling the "Cop on the edge"? Awesome.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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RobbyPants
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Post by RobbyPants » Wed Sep 05, 2012 5:36 pm

> Maxus wrote:I've been reading Preacher.
> Holy hell.

I read those quite a while ago. Now I want to go back and re-read them all.
I made a Saint of Killers desktop a while back after I read that. Two memorable pics were him shooting out someone's spine and kicking a tank to make it stop.
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Maxus
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Post by Maxus » Wed Sep 05, 2012 5:59 pm

> RobbyPants wrote:

> > Maxus wrote:I've been reading Preacher.
> > Holy hell.

> I read those quite a while ago. Now I want to go back and re-read them all.
> I made a Saint of Killers desktop a while back after I read that. Two memorable pics were him shooting out someone's spine and kicking a tank to make it stop.

Still got it?
The Saint of Killers just sort of turns your brain off the first time.
I feel sorry that I was a bit insulated--there's an explicit Saint of Killers ripoff character in one of the Nightside books, called the Walking Man. He dresses like a cowboy, uses a pair of revolvers with similar properties (although Razor Eddie could block the bullets. He would also cut them in half). Kinda wish I could have gotten the full deal before I got the watered-down version.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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RobbyPants
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Post by RobbyPants » Wed Sep 05, 2012 6:05 pm

> Maxus wrote:

> > RobbyPants wrote:

> > > Maxus wrote:I've been reading Preacher.
> > > Holy hell.

> > I read those quite a while ago. Now I want to go back and re-read them all.
> > I made a Saint of Killers desktop a while back after I read that. Two memorable pics were him shooting out someone's spine and kicking a tank to make it stop.

> Still got it?

The series or the desktop pic?
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Maxus
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Post by Maxus » Wed Sep 05, 2012 6:10 pm

Desktop pic.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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PoliteNewb
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Post by PoliteNewb » Wed Sep 05, 2012 6:19 pm

Let's see...
1.) Read Starbound by Joe Haldeman; fairly decent read. Didn't realize it was the middle book of a trilogy, though. So I followed up with Earthbound, which was actually pretty sucky. I'll probably go read Marsbound (the 1st book) when I can find it.
2.) Read 11/22/63 by Stephen King. Excellent read. I'm really glad King didn't let himself get pigeonholed as a horror writer, because a lot of his later stuff is really good.
3.) On that time travel note, I started The Little Book by Selden Edwards. All right so far; kinda weird, very flowery prose.
On my "to read" list:
--Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.
--Time and Again by Jack Finney.
I am judging the philosophies and decisions you have presented in this thread. The ones I have seen look bad, and also appear to be the fruit of a poisonous tree that has produced only madness and will continue to produce only madness.
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believe in one hand and shit in the other and see which ones fills up quicker. it will be the one you are full of, shit.
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RobbyPants
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Post by RobbyPants » Wed Sep 05, 2012 6:39 pm

> Maxus wrote:Desktop pic.

Yeah, I can get it for you later.
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MGuy
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Post by MGuy » Thu Sep 06, 2012 4:56 am

Can anyone tell me about some science + fantasy novels. Bonus points if its steampunk, Triple points if they go into detail about how magic mixes with technology. Looking to read something to inspire my setting. Suggestions for Steampunk focused books (or other media) would also be welcomed.
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Maxus
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Post by Maxus » Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:00 am

There's one series called the Parasol Protectorate. Author is Gail Carriger. Some steampunk in there, also has vampires and werewolves in Victorian London. First book is a romance plot. It's better than it sounds, trust me. The society's believable--both the vamps and the weres are considered a sort of nobility. People apply to join them, because immortality's not a bad deal. Other bits of rational reasoning-out.
Ilona Andrews also did a series set some thirty years in the future, with magic coming back and crushing out science. The first book is Magic Bites. It comes and goes in waves. So there's stuff like cars that have engines that run off enchanted water which have to be started with a fifteen-minute chant. There's a lot of details--like how normal lights won't work when the magic's up, so people have found alternates--like glass filled with enchanted air that glows when magic's nearby. Indoor lighting.
There's also a book called Ministry of Peculiar Occurances: The Phoenix Rising. It works Steampunk more, but has flashes of fantasy. Forget the authors, but you could google.
The Nightside books--by Simon Green--have a lot of magic and superscience.
If you want to check YA, Artemis Fowl has some flashes of magic + science = awesome.
As for settings, Dragonmech could have been something. Instead, they set up a thing where magic and the steampunk are at odds thanks to cliques and shit, and because they felt it was more "interesting" to try to have a conflict between New Ways and Old Ways, rather than sit down and invest some brainsweat into thinking how New + Old = Awesome. I used to check their forums. They were kinda "Wait, what?" when I suggested a mech's boiler being run, not off coal, but by a metal plate with a single square of Wall of Fire permanently cast on it. Possibly on a command word.
Last edited by Maxus on Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
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Post by erik » Thu Sep 06, 2012 6:02 am

I think that Greg Keyes' Age of Unreason series would qualify.
Alternate History with a young Benjamin Frankiln magitech inventor as the protagonist. Newton discovers how to do magic with science, others also follow suit. Shit ensues.
Plenty of detail with magic tech where they use affinities, aether, philsopher's mercury/alchemy and what-not.
I thought the series started out nicely but was just okay by the end. Don't remember what my specific gripes were. Maybe just because I'd read his Briar King series and it was better.
Brent Weeks' Prism Trilogy which is currently just one book (tho the 2nd book will be published next week) is basically a fantasy setting where their main technologies are magic-based it seems, and they go into some detail of their somewhat unique magic system. People's eyes do funny stuff, and use colors to create different magical effects, reds explode stuff, greens manifest objects, and some people can do multiple colors. Not steampunk at all tho.
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Ancient History
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Post by Ancient History » Thu Sep 06, 2012 12:45 pm

I didn't care for the Age of Unreason. It got really weird.
More on the industral fantasy vibe: Harry Turtledove's The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump (excellent), and his Darkness series (less excellent, fantasy WWII with dragons, blood magic, etc.); and Randall Garrett's "Lord Darcy" series (exceptional, Victorian-era).
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Post by Taishan » Thu Sep 06, 2012 1:14 pm

Read Ready Player One. Many nerdgasms were induced. Its not the best writing but its entertaining as hell.
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name_here
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Post by name_here » Fri Sep 07, 2012 1:26 am

Dragonmech actually does have some pretty cool magic/tech interactions, like the spell engine and it's evil cousin the blood engine. Look at the stuff in the Steam Powers chapter for that sort of thing.
Alloy Of Law has magic and guns as fully accepted and known things in the setting. There's stuff like enhancing the speed of bullets or deflecting them off-course via metal telekinesis.

> DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.

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