Is Sturgeon's Law fractal? Is 90% of everything crap at every conceivable resolution? Does that mean that 90% of the good 10% is also crap? Is it sturgeons all the way down?
Is Sturgeon's Law fractal? Is 90% of everything crap at every conceivable resolution? Does that mean that 90% of the good 10% is also crap? Is it sturgeons all the way down?
So I'm going through The Prince of Nothing and I got to say that Scott Bakker loves him some Umlauts. He also love him some rape. I was unsuspecting how prevalent it would be in this series.
HAHAHAHAHA....No. You see, the 10% is calibrated to include "So bad it's good." Sturgeon's Law ONLY allows for things truly awful and beyond redemption to enter the Forsaken Ninety. Like the Sword of Truth series.
Sturgeon's law doesn't apply to medieval high-fantasy fiction. 99.999% of it is crap, not 90%.
Doesn't have to be medieval or high fantasy. I'd settle for some far-future fiction where nerds telepathically control clouds of nanites that take the shape of dragons because why the hell not. Or Mesopotamian steampunk dragons. Or a child having a fever dream with political subtext wherein his stuffed dragon comes to life and teaches him right from wrong.
Really, I just like things that kind of look like larger-than-average reptiles that also fly somehow and may or may not breathe various substances. No particular reason. And it's not like not having them is a dealbreaker or anything.
So I was thinking about seeing The Town this weekend but never got around to it. Just found out that is was based off of Chuck Hogan's novel "Prince of Thieves". Has anyone read this? I will probably give it a shot sometime soon as I didn't get around to seeing the movie this weekend, and have a packed weekend coming up next.
larger-than-average reptiles that also fly somehow and may or may not breathe various substances.
Check out Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett, it sounds like your jam. On top of dragons that fly and breathe, there may or may not be dragons that asplode.
You might check out the "Myth" series by Robert Asprin, it involves dragons to some degree but aren't really dragon books. They're also quite funny, unless you absolutely hate puns. Other wise browse and look for anything with a dragon on the cover, it'll be bad but it will be a dragon book most likely. Edit: Glancing around amazon I ran into this which looks to be a dragon book and I'd suggest by virtue of liking the authors other books: Dragons Wild
I third this recommendation as well as everything else by Terry Pratchett. After finishing up The Laundry books I picked up Small Gods again for a quick read. that book so much.
God damn, did I ever just discover Gene Wolfe recently. Oh my goodness.
He writes smart, subtle, deeply skillful unreliable-narrator first person fantasy and sci-fi and it's kinda mind-bending. I read The Book of the New Sun first, which I guess was his first major published work, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around whether it was sci-fi with a heavy dose of Clarke's Law, or fantasy, or just really unreliable. It's fascinating, though.
Not light, easy reads. The text isn't impenetrable, but if you don't take it slow and digest everything, you will miss stuff. He often mentions things only once or even leaves parts of the story up to your inference, but it's done in a deliberate manner. He expects the reader to be intelligent. I really like that.
Working on the Wizard Knight right now. It's fantasy - his take on Faerie, Norse myth, and the Arthurian world - and thematically different, but still really striking.
Go get Gene Wolfe books. Read them. Holy crap, y'all.
Go get Gene Wolfe books. Read them. Holy crap, y'all.
Fact: Gene Wolfe was an engineer who helped invent developed the machine that forms and cooks Pringles properly so that they can be inserted into those magnificent chip-filled tubes.
About a week and a half ago, I finished reading Khaled Hosseini's debut book: The Kite Runner. All I have to say is "...wow." This is an amazingly heartrending and beautifully written novel. This is one of those books that everyone should read, because it's hard to not get sucked in and engrossed by the text. The story of two boys who are as close as brothers, who get separated in the late 70s due to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan (later to be occupied by the Taliban), hits you really hard with the unflinching and constant realism it presents to you. If you cannot handle intense stories that might disturb you on some level, then this book is not for you.
I finished The Cat Who Walks Through Walls this morning and am still shaking my fist at the ceiling over the ending. Also, I gave myself a deserved black eye for not realizing until part three that the protagonists are named Richard and Gwendolyn.
I finished reading Quicksilver, the first book of the Baroque Cycle. I'll read the next two eventually, but for now I'm reading the InSpectres rpg.
At the risk of making a No True Scotsman, I don't think an instruction book for a role-playing game really counts as reading a book (even though it is by definition a book).
At the risk of making a No True Scotsman, I don't think an instruction book for a role-playing game really counts as reading a book (even though it is by definition a book).
Nah, we're geeks. That shit counts. Have you seen the sheer amount of fluff a company like White Wolf can pack into a single book?
Nah, we're geeks. That shit counts. Have you seen the sheer amount of fluff a company like White Wolf can pack into a single book?
I sure hope it counts 'cause I have been cramming my brain full of Dark Sun to get ready to GM a game for the first time in years. If RPG stuff doesn't count then I haven't read for a couple weeks, since I finished Gene Wolfe's Wizard Knight books. Those were good, though. Didn't like 'em as much as the New Sun, but they were good.
Comic Books: Re-read TPBs 1-3 of The Walking Dead last night in anticipation of the premiere on the 31st. Also just got a copy of PS238 Volume VI from Amazon today. Regular Books: Been working my way through some fluff reading, EVE: The Empyrean Age. It's based around EVE Online and it's a hell of a lot better than the game ever was. Also just got in a book on learning to play the tin whistle (and a tin whistle to go with it) and a copy of Assholes Finish First by Tucker Max to go on the "to read" stack. Next actual books up on the reading list are the full Space Odyssey series by Clarke as a re-read. It's been at least 20 years since I read through the full series and I'm past due for another go through them.
Damn, that last sentence made me feel older than dirt. o_O
Comments
Really, I just like things that kind of look like larger-than-average reptiles that also fly somehow and may or may not breathe various substances. No particular reason. And it's not like not having them is a dealbreaker or anything.
Check out Vimes' lighter:
Edit: Glancing around amazon I ran into this which looks to be a dragon book and I'd suggest by virtue of liking the authors other books: Dragons Wild
He writes smart, subtle, deeply skillful unreliable-narrator first person fantasy and sci-fi and it's kinda mind-bending. I read The Book of the New Sun first, which I guess was his first major published work, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around whether it was sci-fi with a heavy dose of Clarke's Law, or fantasy, or just really unreliable. It's fascinating, though.
Not light, easy reads. The text isn't impenetrable, but if you don't take it slow and digest everything, you will miss stuff. He often mentions things only once or even leaves parts of the story up to your inference, but it's done in a deliberate manner. He expects the reader to be intelligent. I really like that.
Working on the Wizard Knight right now. It's fantasy - his take on Faerie, Norse myth, and the Arthurian world - and thematically different, but still really striking.
Go get Gene Wolfe books. Read them. Holy crap, y'all.
The man is a Saint of Geekdom.
Not that I don't love Neal Stephenson.
Regular Books: Been working my way through some fluff reading, EVE: The Empyrean Age. It's based around EVE Online and it's a hell of a lot better than the game ever was. Also just got in a book on learning to play the tin whistle (and a tin whistle to go with it) and a copy of Assholes Finish First by Tucker Max to go on the "to read" stack. Next actual books up on the reading list are the full Space Odyssey series by Clarke as a re-read. It's been at least 20 years since I read through the full series and I'm past due for another go through them.
Damn, that last sentence made me feel older than dirt. o_O