Third Perpetual Book Thread
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Uprooted and Spinning Silver were what got me to look more at her stuff. Those were really well done.
Seanan McGuire. Ran into some of her short fiction over at Uncanny, and enjoyed it. Then read Middlegame and it held up. The premise of Be Sure is “what’s next after a portal fantasy”.
Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing:
The setting is a military academy for training dragon riders. The lady protagonist is a scrawny, weak, librarian wannabe.
At which point the book guns its engine towards the ramp in front of the shark tank.
See the academy has a 25% survival rate, and the reason the she is entering is because her mother fucking said so. Then comes the selection of dragons, and she ends up, not only with the biggest baddest dragon, but a second dragon as well. Add in some superfluous sex scenes (1 attempt, 2.5 full, complete with destructo nookie) with a commanding officer, a best friend who doesn’t apparently use his darn eyes or brain and it’s well on the way to jumping the shark.
Sadly it doesn’t even stick the landing. The entire story is told in 1st person limited from the protagonist’s point of view. The final fucking chapter is written in a different point of view as our protagonist is recovering from poisoning.
Verdict: Go read a good dragon rider book and leave this one for the Thread.
The setting is a military academy for training dragon riders. The lady protagonist is a scrawny, weak, librarian wannabe.
At which point the book guns its engine towards the ramp in front of the shark tank.
See the academy has a 25% survival rate, and the reason the she is entering is because her mother fucking said so. Then comes the selection of dragons, and she ends up, not only with the biggest baddest dragon, but a second dragon as well. Add in some superfluous sex scenes (1 attempt, 2.5 full, complete with destructo nookie) with a commanding officer, a best friend who doesn’t apparently use his darn eyes or brain and it’s well on the way to jumping the shark.
Sadly it doesn’t even stick the landing. The entire story is told in 1st person limited from the protagonist’s point of view. The final fucking chapter is written in a different point of view as our protagonist is recovering from poisoning.
Verdict: Go read a good dragon rider book and leave this one for the Thread.
Jim Hines Terminal Alliance. Book 1 of the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse
Disclaimer: if you don’t like the Almighty Janitor trope, poop humor, or sanitation engineering in general, this one may not be your cup oftea.
Backstory is that there was a plague that resulted in mindless feral humans with a lower body temperature. Then the aliens came. They developed a cure, and found a useful, tough-to-kill ally. Enter our plucky group of protagonists serving aboard the EMC Pufferfish, as sanitation technicians. Yeah, EMC ships are named after really dangerous Earth wildlife.
Things happen: anyone not in biohazard suits gets exposed to something, the alien bridge crew dies, and the human crew all go feral. Leaving our protagonists with the task of avoiding violent mindless humans, finding out what caused this, and avoiding being permanently decontaminated.
Along the way, we see the power of fixing things, blackmail with fluid lines, and the adage of the E1 in general
Solid humor science fiction.
Disclaimer: if you don’t like the Almighty Janitor trope, poop humor, or sanitation engineering in general, this one may not be your cup of
Backstory is that there was a plague that resulted in mindless feral humans with a lower body temperature. Then the aliens came. They developed a cure, and found a useful, tough-to-kill ally. Enter our plucky group of protagonists serving aboard the EMC Pufferfish, as sanitation technicians. Yeah, EMC ships are named after really dangerous Earth wildlife.
Things happen: anyone not in biohazard suits gets exposed to something, the alien bridge crew dies, and the human crew all go feral. Leaving our protagonists with the task of avoiding violent mindless humans, finding out what caused this, and avoiding being permanently decontaminated.
Along the way, we see the power of fixing things, blackmail with fluid lines, and the adage of the E1 in general
Solid humor science fiction.
You can tell a book is going places when it starts:
“I’m pretty much fucked.
That’s my considered opinion.
Fucked.”
“I’m pretty much fucked.
That’s my considered opinion.
Fucked.”
That was an adventure (and by adventure, I mean a disaster that the protagonist somehow survived)!
Good solid story. I appreciated the moments when Mark (who is a bit of a potty mouth) rages in despair, stops, and comes back with his frustration dampened. And the continuous MacGyvering.
That was an adventure (and by adventure, I mean a disaster that the protagonist somehow survived)!
Good solid story.
Nah. I’ve got Kingfisher (paladin with a dead god) and McGuire (post-portal fantasy) checked out.
The series went downhill? It didn't have a hill to start from.
I ban hammered Jordan after book 2 of WoT. I don't like figuring out the entire conclusion at halfway through and then watch as the author gets lost for 100 pages only to give me that exact conclusion.
On a more positive note, I just finished Leviathan Wakes (Book 1 of The Expanse). I will continue reading this series and would recommend in.
It was very different from the TV series, with a much more limited perspective (literally 1st person limited perspective on Holden and Miller). That means that larger system-wide narratives (OPA terrorism, Earth-Martian potshots) are all news information read by those two characters. As a result, it's a lot more personal story.
I understand why the TV series made the choice to include the other perspectives, as it means that they system-wide events could be "shown, not told".
As to the great question, "Is the show better than the book?" It would say they are near equals. Which is saying something, because with the exception of two (The Princess Bride and Stardust), I've always found the books to be better than the show.
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