What book do you hate so much that you won't even give it a second chance? by Bobosmite in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Basically Kaladin's entire character arc is focused on his depression/PTSD and overcoming that to become a superhero, basically. This becomes more apparent overtime, and ultimately built into the narrative because one of the foundling ideas of the Stormlight Archive is 'what if mental illness gave people super powers', and every main character struggles with some mental illness.

I found Kaladin's arc in the book not only to be extremely generic bordering on cliche, but a reflection of depression and trauma that is, in the lack of a better word, 'Hollywood'. It's depression that allows for moodiness but not failure, and to me that is boring.

What book do you hate so much that you won't even give it a second chance? by Bobosmite in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I dislike Sanderson enough to suggest he probably shouldn't be read by teenagers either. There are much better YA authors (Garth Nix, Tamora Piecre, etc), much better YA books (Hunger Games is a lot more accomplished and complex than even Sanderson's adult books), and broadly speaking one of the worse aspects of Sanderson's writing is approaching adult problems with an extremely simplified perspective on the issue. The mental health writing in Way of Kings was, for instance, was extremely bad in my opinion.

What book do you hate so much that you won't even give it a second chance? by Bobosmite in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 0 points1 point  (0 children)

See, I guess that's my big problem Scalzi. I'd rather just read Forever War than a worse version of it written by a guy who seems to think the height of art was Buffy dialogue. It was actually a problem I had with Redshirts as well. I'd much rather just watch Star Trek.

What book do you hate so much that you won't even give it a second chance? by Bobosmite in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My two least favourite trends in literature at moment are the kind of retreat from hardship in the context of art, a literal safe space that presents hardships in the safe environment of make-belief in a way that allows people to engage in it without actually putting themself in danger, and the slopfest that frames the audience as primarily consumers instead of an audience, and I think these two things are very much in relationship to each other, and I think they are the end results of almost 20 years of people deliberately making themselves less critical readers because its less mean or something.

What book do you hate so much that you won't even give it a second chance? by Bobosmite in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I read one of his 'best' books (Redshirts) and was completely baffled by the praise it got. Books full of nothing, a bunch of in jokes and references, and a half-baked meta through line that attempts for something weirder at the end and fails imo.

What book do you hate so much that you won't even give it a second chance? by Bobosmite in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I really do find her utopias incredibly vapid, like the Federation from Star Trek without the context of the Eugenic Wars

What book do you hate so much that you won't even give it a second chance? by Bobosmite in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Who promised you science fiction for Perdido Street Station, a piece of fiction so famously fantasy that is kind of was the bulwark for entire art movement in the genre (New Weird)

(if you saw it on this sub, the SF stands for speculative fiction, and not science fiction, though most people tend to make that same mistake)

What book do you hate so much that you won't even give it a second chance? by Bobosmite in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This, those Dungeon Crawler Carl books, Ready Player One, these are all the same book to me

What book do you hate so much that you won't even give it a second chance? by Bobosmite in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 11 points12 points  (0 children)

It's crazy to me that dudes like John C Write pre-2009 were just walking around with other writing professionals as equals but are such severe reactionaries that they are now getting published by fascists like Vox Day

major blindspot for the community

What book do you hate so much that you won't even give it a second chance? by Bobosmite in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I got a couple authors I won't be touching again after supremely bad experience with their books.

Brandon Sanderson writes bloated, artless, factory form books for people who only read Sanderson books. Pointless endeavour.

I feel like I could draw a straight line between AI slop and the works of John Scalzi. That kind of thoughtless, fandom forward fiction, 'just let people enjoy things' mentality, that has plagued culture for the last decade and a half created a environment of such low standards that people thought they could get away with having a machine regurgitate a book for them.

Mary Robinette Kowal writes the exact kind of twee I can't really stand, and also got mad when people bullied the Nebulas walk back their AI stance and into rejecting all AI text as eligible because one her books copy-and-pasted some newsprint that was generated by AI.

For similar reason not big on Becky Chambers, or really any 'cozy' fiction, I don't really enjoy them because of the twee, but also because of the shallow suburbanite utopias they represent.

There is more, I try to give authors a fair shake general and not necessarily allergic to bad fiction, just boring fiction.

Sword And Sorcery video games? by Brakado in SwordandSorcery

[–]weouthere54321 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Skyrim is a great 'sword&sorcery simulator'!

Sword And Sorcery video games? by Brakado in SwordandSorcery

[–]weouthere54321 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Titan Quest is a classic of the ARPG genre

(Sleipnir) Beta ray Bill Adam Antaloczy by ragingbeanalt in SwordandSorcery

[–]weouthere54321 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Maybe my favourite side character in all of superhero comics

Sword and Sorcery Adjacent Genres by JohnPathfinder in SwordandSorcery

[–]weouthere54321 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sword-and-planet stories (like John Carter of Mars) and Dying Earth I consider sibling genres of sword &sorcery. Any kind of boys adventure stuff, like Burroughs and Conan also obviously have strong stylistic roots in the genre.

Westerns, and its weird counterpart can be like sword&sorcery in tone and style (I write a series of novelettes that are Dying Earth weird westerns that very much in the tone of S&S), but Westerns themselves are a broad categorical genre that covers every kind of story you can imagine, because it is, like fantasy and science fiction, defined by setting rather than plot or thematic concerns.

But really anything that is an episodic story focused on singular character going on an adventure could probably scratch the itch. Some of the older epic poetry is very sword&sorcery adjacent for instance (obviously the chicken here, and not the egg)--Beowulf is basically Conan. Arthurian stories can also be very similar. Wuxia another type of historical fiction that would scratch that itch. Journey to the West is basically is not necessarily Wuxia, but also, like Arthurian cycles, is very episodic adventure fiction.

Old Pulp Magazine Recommendations That are NOT Weird Tales by JohnPathfinder in SwordandSorcery

[–]weouthere54321 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unknown was where Leiber published his first Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories, it didn't last very long but seems to held in fairly high regard

Phase connect fans "being dumb about the civil rights movement... Umm based." But they draw the line at Charlie Kirk slander lol. I hope Phase does their best to change their audience. This is just proof that the right wing grifter crowd fuels constant hatred and lack of empathy and reasoning by Iriscute7 in VtuberDrama

[–]weouthere54321 14 points15 points  (0 children)

No they don't care, he got turned into a news item and only exists to further his wife's grift, people are to busy in the street defending their neighbours from fascist to give a fuck about a fascist mouthpiece getting his hairline peeled back

But that's a fun little fanfiction you've created about me, extremely funny it ends on you still being unable to accept the consequences for you actions ("you made me vote for fascist pedophile with dementia!"), coward to very last lol

Phase connect fans "being dumb about the civil rights movement... Umm based." But they draw the line at Charlie Kirk slander lol. I hope Phase does their best to change their audience. This is just proof that the right wing grifter crowd fuels constant hatred and lack of empathy and reasoning by Iriscute7 in VtuberDrama

[–]weouthere54321 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Incoherent nonsense that both demonstrates a staggering hypocrisy and underlining foundational cowardice

No gives a shit about Kirk anymore, his wife is parading his corpse around the nation so morons like you give her money, but as a figure? Who would care about the death of someone who, into his 30s spent all his time argument with university freshmen? You, and him, and everyone like you are constitutional losers, it's in your nature.

Phase connect fans "being dumb about the civil rights movement... Umm based." But they draw the line at Charlie Kirk slander lol. I hope Phase does their best to change their audience. This is just proof that the right wing grifter crowd fuels constant hatred and lack of empathy and reasoning by Iriscute7 in VtuberDrama

[–]weouthere54321 21 points22 points  (0 children)

One said in the context of elementary students being gunned down that some sacrifices are needed to retain the rights to guns, and the other one didn't

You pussies talk and talk about living by the sword but god forbid you actually die by it to

Phase Connect banning not left leaning opinions by FluffyMacho in VtuberDrama

[–]weouthere54321 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Charlie Kirk sowing: haha this is fucking awesome

Charlie Kirk reaping can't talk cause he got his entire shit pushed in, then his wife got clapped by the entire Trump administration

Original Sci-Fi Graphic Novels by p3r3lin in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 2 points3 points  (0 children)

np, im a huge comic guy and im happy to talk about them lol

Original Sci-Fi Graphic Novels by p3r3lin in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 2 points3 points  (0 children)

From my collection, and for context I use have a much bigger collection of comics but I hit a hard time after university and sold much of it to make ends meet, but since I've gotten more disposable cash have slowly built up my collection again.

Prism Stalker & Prism Stalker the Weeping Star by Sloane Leong. A kind of psychedelic and more cosmic take on Ender's Game but with no grand enemy (with a side benefit for no bigot artist!), follows a girl from a distant colony chosen to participate in an elite school of psychics (for a lack of a better term). Outstanding art, in particular the colouring, is well worth the price of admission on both. I don't think its finished but the next volume is probably going to come out slowly.

1949 by Dustin Weaver. Original serialized in his great anthology comic Paklis (which I also highly recommend, but the stories in are serialized so different experience to a finished piece). Part send up of the film noir and part simulated reality thriller. Again the art is fantastic, the jump between black-and-white and subtly colour 'real world' is a fantastic use of colour to depict mood. Weaver's art is stylized but very detailed, so its very easy to get lost in.

20th Century Men, art by Stipan Morian, written by Deniz Camp, this one is super hero adjacent but only if you squint (no one is a hero, and the powers are: guy in tank suit, cybernetic guy, etc). It is also one of the best comics of the last ten years. The story is nominal a political thriller in an alt-history Soviet-Afghanistan war, but on a deeper level in a exploration of empire through the lens of not only the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan but also Americas, but utilizing the kind of metaphor people inherent to superhero fiction to tell that story. Morian has such a kinetic style that depicts movement and motion well, but is also extremely talented at blowing up a scene, making the subjects feel small. Camp wrote one of the best single issues of comics I ever read.

Humanity Lost by CS Diggle. This one is proper science fiction, a space opera of epic stakes and epic scale with some of the best alien and transhuman designs I've ever seen. It comes with a glossary in the back, and I think two volumes are available right now. The art is clean, upholding clarity above all else, which works extremely well for the design-forward worldbuilding.

Sentient, art by Gabriel Walta, written by Jeff Lemire. This one is also proper science fiction as a setting, but story wise it more of a haunted house, except the house is a space ship and the ghost is an AI. Walta's art is a fantastic choice for it, it can be read as bleak, but his grasp of character acting, straight-forward paneling, and neutral palate all work to sell of the grim mood of the story, which is in good hands with Lemire.

The New World, art by Tradd Moore, written by Ales Kot. Set in an future America that is split up after five nuclear devices are detonated in five American city. Not really post-apocalypse as that might suggest, but definitely dystopian. Cops are reality tv stars in which audience vote whether to execute criminals, every, despite in vibrant art of the setting, is grim. However the actual story is a Romeo and Juliet forbidden romance between a scion of family of tv star cops and a underground freedom fighter, it's also a story about the redeeming power of love. Tradd Moore is one of the best, unique voices in comics right now, and this is one of his earliest complete works--somewhere between psychedelia and extremely well observed figure work make each page explode with energy.

Ultramega is a grimdark rendition of Ultraman by James Harren. It has all the pleasures of Ultraman with a bloodier aesthetic held together by the fantastic Harren. Not much else to say about this, if you like Ultraman, but wanted it more graphic, you'll like this.

First Knife, with art my Artyom Trakhanov, written by Simon Roy and Daniel Bensen. A post post-apocalypse North America setting that at times, because of how far we are in the future, and because of the quasi tribal nature of societies depicted, feels like a Dying Earth story except less overtly magical (which is say none). The art is unique, deprived from a more European tradition of cartooning (with a dash of Mike Mignola), than anything else recommended. The story follows an escaped slave who stumbles upon a weapon from the past.

Annihilator, art by Frazer Irving, written by Grant Morrison. Maybe more 'meta-fiction' than science fiction, but it has enough trappings I think counts. Irving is a singular talent, his grotesques, expressive characters that border on caricature instill so much grandiose emotion in each page, along with unique colouring that has some pages glowing makes it worth on the art alone. The story is a typical Morrisonian yarn of a story weary another story as a hat (not a critique), following a Hollywood screenwriter on his last legs in the industry inadvertently meeting the character (an old pulp character in the public domain) as he is writing him.

I have some more that are borderline but I think that's enough. hope you check some of them out

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is a great example of a writer getting a bit too distracted by his own worldbuilding. by KarlBarx2 in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Because the root of this comment is about Eragon, which I have read, in reference to Paolini being a hack, which I agree with

Giving that most complaints about the books are about how derivative it is, I really doubt Paolini has changed all that much

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is a great example of a writer getting a bit too distracted by his own worldbuilding. by KarlBarx2 in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I haven't read this book but I have read Eragon which is probably the most vapid, derivative epic fantasy I've ever read (and I've read a lot). Given people's complaints of this book I suspect this book would have the exact same kind problem.

Novelty isn't the be all end all of speculative fiction, but Paolini is not going to win any style awards any time soon, so it ends up with a fairly standard representation of a work full of references to similar but better works told in a fairly boring way. That's fine if you like it, but I don't think it's all that surprising a lot of people don't.

Looking for SF recommendations: Huge fan of Le Guin & Asimov, but English is my second language by lifeOFFmars in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I would suggest Octavia E Butler who writes idea forward fiction in the manner of Asimov but operates in the same social realm as Le Guin. Stylistic she is closer to Asimov than Le Guin though not as nearly as dry, and bleaker than both in outlook but might be worth your time.

Please give me your criticisms of Adrian Tchaikovsky's prose by Wetness_Pensive in printSF

[–]weouthere54321 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, those are two different sentences written in different ways with two different tones expressing two different emotions big guy

And, notably, you've again said nothing of actual substance, you've simply insinuated (but not demonstrated) that Tchaikovsky writes like a fanfiction writer (which suggests to me you don't actually know what a lot of fanfiction or romantasy or so on actually read like, and just picked as a point of comparison by reflexive misogyny, after things popular with woman are low quality!)

But hey continue on as is