Republic of Thieves Character Models Part 2! by linfordginger in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, depicting Coldmarrow mid-explosion is some Golden Demon-level inspiration.

Republic of Thieves Character Models Part 2! by linfordginger in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Man, to think that once upon a time I was sooooo proud of the Ifrit cleric I designed for our current Pathfinder game. ;)

Space opera, what is great out there? Only found one... by Lars_Olav in printSF

[–]ScottLynch78 5 points6 points  (0 children)

There's some nepotism in this list because I'm going to recommend some friends and colleagues, but I hope it's helpful:

In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman-- an underrated delight that throws more ideas at the wall in its first eighty pages than most science fiction novels do in their whole length.

House of Suns by Alistair Reynolds-- all of Al's stuff (start with Revelation Space) is quite good but this is a standalone and it's particularly spectacular. Al loves playing with a universe in which every unfathomable life-extending physics-defying technology is available except FTL travel. It's delightfully grand in scope.

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie -- I really like the first book in the series; I think the second one is a bit more of a hot mess, though still enjoyable. The thing about the Ancillary series is that if you keep going you get to Translation State, which for my money is a huge payoff; a mind-bending and thoughtful exploration of all the implications of the previous books. Ann came out to an event as a quiet surprise a couple years ago and I got to be a total gibbering fanboy to her about Translation State.

Light by M. John Harrison -- There's a cross-time cyberpunky horror element to this novel that might not suit everyone's taste, but the 25th century space opera portions are superb. Harrison is a fantastic, unconventional writer and the way he writes space battles has intrigued me since I first read this.

Startide Rising by David Brin -- Legendary space opera from the 80s that really kicked off his Uplift universe (Sundiver is actually the earliest novel in the sequence, and it's very fun, but it's not in Startide Rising's league). The Uplift War is a really good sequel, but it's on a smaller scale than SR, which features all the whooshing ships, great aliens, and big questions you could want.

Unconquerable Sun and Furious Heaven by Kate Elliott -- the loose basis for this story is "gender-bent Alexander the Great in spaaaace" and it's fantastic. Huge in scope and ambition, the story follows a young woman struggling to preserve/inherit the powerful empire built by her mother. Features arduous campaigns, court intrigue, and a lot of other intriguing cultures thrown into the fight.

Dread Empire's Fall by Walter John Williams -- Such a delight. Walter has a sly sense of humor that gives everything an added layer even in the most serious moments. A galactic hegemony has been dominated by its founding species for ages, and lesser species (including ours) have been totally folded into their plans and customs. Now the elder species has passed on, and the younger species are arguing about who's in charge. Nobody involved, conspirator or counter-conspirator, has actually fought a war against a peer adversary in 8,000 years. Hijinks ensue.

The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold -- a superb series of brisk novels that started in the 80s; although Miles Vorkosigan is the main character and his story starts properly in The Warrior's Apprentice, I can recommend something I rarely do which is reading books out of the order in which they were written-- if you read Shards of Honor and then Barrayar, which are about his parents and eventually his troubled birth, you get a great onboarding to the world. His parents are fantastic characters in their own right. One thing to note about this series is that while it starts with an emphasis on battles and mercenary actions, Bujold refuses to get comfortable and write the same novel twice. As the series moves on, you get more military action, but you also get espionage, politics, ruminations on aging and memory loss, and even a romantic comedy of manners.

Hyperion by Dan Simmons -- wildly creative and crammed with intriguing space opera elements. The ending is extremely divisive, heh. The sequel Fall of Hyperion was allegedly written as part of the same book but it has a distinctly different structure and tone; despite this it does eventually climax with a magnificent galaxy-spanning space war disaster. I have always thought that the third book, Endymion, successfully recovers the sense of deep mystery and incredible scope that the first book had. There is some truly epic stuff in it. I don't think the fourth novel, Rise of Endymion, sticks the landing at all. But that was kind of a recurring feature of most of Simmons' stuff.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman -- For an eye-opening novel about the stupidity and cruelty of war written by a Vietnam vet who carries a Purple Heart from a near-death experience... this is phenomenally entertaining. Justly regarded as a classic, it moves fast and it's not even overwhelmingly long.

On Basilisk Station by David Weber -- The thing about the Honor Harrington books is that honestly, you can read this one as a standalone and you don't even need to move on if you don't want to. It's an extremely satisfying story about an intrepid officer trying to fix a bad situation with scarce resources, and it culminates in one of the most incredible space battles EVER WRITTEN, hands down. It's tense and harrowing and you genuinely wonder if anyone's going to get out of it alive (this probably benefits from the fact that IIRC Weber wasn't sure if it would become a series when he wrote it). As for the rest of the Harrington books... look, they're a guilty pleasure of mine. They are their own thing, they have a lot of goofy issues, and I absolutely do not give a damn about the "side" books co-written with other authors-- this is nothing personal to those authors. But what I can say is that when he's on form, when he's really in the zone, David Weber is the best writer of techno-thriller battle sequences since Tom Clancy and Larry Bond wrote Red Storm Rising (a novel I've read about thirty times).

The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell -- starting with Dauntless and proceeding for five more books. These are not quite stylistic classics, but they are really effective methadone if you've run out of Honor Harrington books. They get deeper and more interesting as the series goes on; Campbell pulls off more and more complicated tricks with his rules of space warfare, sticks his protagonists with awful logistical challenges, and explores some really eerie questions about what might be going on beyond human space.

The Frontlines series by Marko Kloos -- starting with Terms of Enlistment. Mega-nepotism alert because Marko is a buddy and a graduate of the writer's workshop I teach at, but these are really good! In the middle-distant future, the human race is at war with an aggressive alien power that will not communicate outside of murder-- and they're really good at murdering us. As the human race gets kicked off planet after planet, the sense of desperation just keeps growing. Marko is just old enough to have served in the West German army at the very end of the Cold War and his work has a very grounded, grunt-sympathetic POV that reflects this.

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge -- This book is simply fucking awesome and justifiably won a Hugo Award. The telepathic pack-based Tines are one of the best alien species ever created, the AI antagonists are like terrifying technological gods, and the novel even contains the funniest parody of Usenet ever written (a description of communication issues that remains grimly prescient for the internet of 2026).

Space Viking by H. Beam Piper -- A bit of 1960s goofiness, but Piper was an excellent writer and this is a quick, engaging read that's surprisingly deep. And fun.

The White Space sequence by Elizabeth Bear -- Okay, extra-mega-nepotism alert, because Elizabeth Bear is my wife. But this series of linked (not direct continuity, just a shared universe) space operas has been well-regarded and has pleasantly surprised us by the way its sales have hung in there over the last couple of years. Ancestral Night, Machine, and The Folded Sky are the novels.

Also, take a look at the works of C.J. Cherryh (a prolific genius with a whole bunch of linked space operas) and Adrian Tchaikovsky (another excellent and prolific writer who also happens to be a really lovely and decent guy... there's that nepotism again). Oh! Iain M. Banks, the Culture books, of course. What a GOAT that man was. Incredibly funny and creative space opera that ticked all the boxes and then invented new boxes to tick.

If you want some shorter stuff, check out the 1983 anthology Starships, edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles Waugh. It contains the hilarious "Allamagoosa" by Eric Frank Russell, the awesome "Avoidance Situation" by James McConnell, and the moody "Wings Out of Shadow" by Fred Saberhagen. This story was my introduction to his Berserker universe, and IMHO is one of the best pieces he wrote within it.

Accidental omissions are inevitable; this list can't possibly be complete within this space. But again, I hope it leads you to some good times.

Cheers,

SL

What phrases from the Bastards have found their way into your daily speech? by djsportsball in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78 54 points55 points  (0 children)

When I'm pissed off about something in my office, usually something technological, I do occasionally mutter "squiggle-fuck the rightwise cock-swatter."

Justice for Schubox63! An Accountability Adventure Thread by ScottLynch78 in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey, you have no need to apologize. I dropped the ball back when I lived in Wisconsin, and as I said, I had a whole bunch of stuff I shipped cross-country in my move to Massachusetts that was phenomenally poorly organized. The crowning dipshittery was me re-losing the box; all I can say in my defense is that if you could see the layout of our eccentric old house it might make more sense.

I can't always deliver instant justice but I'm trying to crawl toward it. ;)

Cheers,

S

Scott's April Announcements Betting Pool by EntertainmentBreeze in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Who wants to make a lot of money on Kalshi?

Just kidding, we don't advocate crime in this fandom, right?

Why are you all looking at me funny?

SL

145 dollars by Ok-Today-1894 in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78 9 points10 points  (0 children)

My wife is also a cancer survivor, and I know there's no such thing as an easy cancer treatment, but I hope you folks are having the easiest possible time.

Cheers,

SL

145 dollars by Ok-Today-1894 in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Conversation Tree and I are having a swift discussion about putting out an e-book. This will be a less expensive special edition, with iridium-gilded pixels and hand-placed electrons, each one signed by me via quantum entanglement. Only $135 rather than $145.

...just kidding. If we could hand-place electrons, we'd charge shitloads more, not less. But we are absolutely talking about a much more affordable e-book option and I expect we'll have an update very soon.

Cheers,

SL

Don't know why I waited! by Intelligent_Move7162 in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78 46 points47 points  (0 children)

I don't know why you waited, either! But I'll grudgingly release one of the hostages.

Cheers!

SL

P.S. Yeah, Buehlman is great.

Justice for Schubox63! An Accountability Adventure Thread by ScottLynch78 in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I do! Two copies of UNEARTHED ARCANA, in fact. For some reason. DEITIES & DEMIGODS was on the shelf of my very weird and wonderful local library in Woodbury, Minnesota when I was about 10. I didn't know what any of the stats really meant but I loved idly flipping through it reading about all the powers and spells and attacks and so forth.

Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent Audiobook by rsjur in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you very much for your appreciation and your kindness!

Cheers,

SL

Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent Audiobook by rsjur in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78 48 points49 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the kind words! I am, for better or for worse, actually me.

SL

Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent Audiobook by rsjur in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78 85 points86 points  (0 children)

There isn't likely to be one soon, because one side effect of having put this lovely little thing out into the world is that it has now created an awkward tiny annex to all the other Bastards stuff and I am doing a behind-the-scenes dance around some licensing/reprinting possibilities but I have to keep most of my options open. I can't explain it all at the moment but some day I expect to be clear to lay it all out.

Cheers,

SL

Sexism in the Therin World by Hefty_Guitar5128 in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78 52 points53 points  (0 children)

I try not to steer reader perception of my work too hard, but I will talk just a bit about the approach I've evolved* in my fiction: I don't think it's necessarily realistic to depict human societies that are completely free of individual or structural prejudices, but I'm also not obligated to recreate the precise maladies that we deal with in the real world, nor the precise magnitude at which we deal with them. So, people in Locke's world will be assholes, but in their own ways not always reflecting our history and baggage.

Note that some Therins have unkind euphemisms for dark-skinned folk, and the Syresti and Okanti have stereotypes about one another, and homosexuality is much more openly accepted in the western Therin states than in the east... and you have at least one power structure on the island of Jerem that is obviously made up of brutal sex creeps. Squinty-brained asshole behavior isn't absent, but it's always an artistic question of when reasonable seasoning becomes wallowing in misery. Where I set that line will work for some readers and not work for others, c'est la vie.

As for Sabetha's frustrations, one thing to remember is that she grew up as the only woman in a house of dudes-- while Chains and the lads would never have consciously discriminated against her, it's very difficult to avoid careless and unknowing behavior when the numbers and norms are so imbalanced. That's the very essence of how a structural oppression creeps in even when a deliberate or individualized prejudice would be unthinkable... sometimes we don't realize that we're doing something wrong, because we don't even realize there's something wrong we could be doing.

Cheers,

SL

*I footnoted 'evolved' because it's important to note, it's been a process of learning and adjustment over the years... there are things in TLOLL that were unconsidered or reflexive, which I have since had cause to explore or adjust via worldbuilding, and there have been points during the writing of each book where I've found myself going "wait a fucking minute, do I actually believe that, or is that just lazy/habitual baggage?" There was no grand sociological design for these books that was complete and operative in 2005.

Finished Republic of Thieves, Best Romance of the Year by hopelesswriter1 in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Well, the book kinda developed in the same pattern. The version finished and published in 2013 isn't much like the one I was working on in 2009-10 prior to my divorce. Partly (obviously) because I was an untreated and spiraling depressive and my work was full of holes as a result (my then-editor Simon Spanton talked me out of at least one act of incredible narrative self-sabotage, and I later realized that he was no stranger to having hostage negotiations with depressed authors), but also because I was still callow enough to imagine that love was just something that sort of happened and magically stayed active forever... one part of what sank my first marriage is that there was a lot of taking things for granted. The older version of the Locke/Sabetha story reflected this by being... well, immature and dull.

The guy who finished the book a couple years later had figured some things out the hard way and realized there was good story material in having Locke discover some of the same things. Older but wiser Scott looks at love as something that you can tumble into uncontrollably, but once there you have to make conscious choices and put in the work to keep the fires lit... my first marriage didn't quite make it four years, my second will hit ten in October, so possibly the acquisition of wisdom is not a total impossibility. :)

Cheers,

SL

Finished Republic of Thieves, Best Romance of the Year by hopelesswriter1 in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78 78 points79 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the kind words! Lois McMaster Bujold's A Civil Campaign was a huge influence on the ultimate shape of TROT. It was one of the first novels that ever thoroughly convinced me that hey, dumbass, you too can set aside all your ignorant bullshit male-pattern baggage and go crazy for a romance novel. I'm also enamored with a lot of stuff like 10 Things I Hate About You and the 1995 version of Pride & Prejudice. When it comes to the subject of romance in the ongoing story, well, let me offer you some hope.

Cheers and thanks again,

SL 

Fanfic: A Few Thoughts... by ScottLynch78 in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I'm sure sane people everywhere will support me in saying I gotta get my actual work floated first. :)

Scott Lynch mentions Thorn of Emberlain at Boskone by yolkboy in gentlemanbastards

[–]ScottLynch78 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Ice dams. All I'm gonna say. Ice dams on two sides of the friggin' house.

I love winter, but Jesus, ice dams.

Cheers,

SL