The Kiwifarms Unofficial Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Club

WanderingFarmer said:
Please come back after you finish his story.
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-Silenus still sucks, him acting like his stupid poem is influencing the course of events and not the Shrike presaging events through him is retarded. He's a dickhead to best-girl Lamia. I hope the Shrike gives him an extra painful eternal torment. Also for the sequel they used a different VA for him, not as good acting, still every bit as hate-able.
-Sol's story makes me very sad. I think his motives are purest and I like his wish best with Kassad's quest for Shrikussy via Moneta being my second favorite.
-Lamia might be my favorite character out of the crew. I found it kind of funny her artfag boyfriend died of AIDS2. I was also happy to learn the Lamia was an intentional reference to the snakemonsters by Simmons.
-The consul seems kind of confusing to me. Him and his family seem to just be inclined to betray everyone for no real gain.

There's a lot of Jew-ish stuff in the book. Hebron, Sol, in the sequel they say the government house is shaped like the Star of David. Mein Kampf makes sense because Sol also mentions both Holocausts at one point. Final note, the audiobook is fucking with me in pronouncing Hegemony. It says it like "heh-jimminy" and I've always heard it as "hedge-em-on" from people I assumed would know the correct way to say it.
 
BelUwUga said:
-Silenus still sucks, him acting like his stupid poem is influencing the course of events and not the Shrike presaging events through him is retarded. He's a dickhead to best-girl Lamia. I hope the Shrike gives him an extra painful eternal torment. Also for the sequel they used a different VA for him, not as good acting, still every bit as hate-able.
-Sol's story makes me very sad. I think his motives are purest and I like his wish best with Kassad's quest for Shrikussy via Moneta being my second favorite.
-Lamia might be my favorite character out of the crew. I found it kind of funny her artfag boyfriend died of AIDS2. I was also happy to learn the Lamia was an intentional reference to the snakemonsters by Simmons.
-The consul seems kind of confusing to me. Him and his family seem to just be inclined to betray everyone for no real gain.

There's a lot of Jew-ish stuff in the book. Hebron, Sol, in the sequel they say the government house is shaped like the Star of David. Mein Kampf makes sense because Sol also mentions both Holocausts at one point. Final note, the audiobook is fucking with me in pronouncing Hegemony. It says it like "heh-jimminy" and I've always heard it as "hedge-em-on" from people I assumed would know the correct way to say it.
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Heh-jemmeny is how you pronounce hegemony.

Hedge-em-on is how you pronounce hegemon.
 
Just finished Kassad’s story, pretty rad and I’m very interested to see what he does down the line. The Ousters are such a cool threat, people who’ve lived in space so long and altered themselves so much that they are debatably still human. I always like in sci-fi when the humans may as well be aliens.
The combat parts were great, and did a lot for the worldbuilding with all the context Kassad provided because it’s his area of expertise. That’s how you explain your world, not just random text dumps like Fatrick.
Him piping down this woman every chance he gets may be odd for some people, but I get the vibe that the interplay of sex and violence is a theme his character will explore and we’re all adults here anyways. But the Shrike, every time that thing shows up I’m more more intrigued because what the hell is it and what does it want?
Love it all so far, straight banger.
 
I don't have much to add, but I just wanted to say that the single reason I ever even gave Simmons a try is because of how captivating the idea of the Shrike was to me. And after reading the Priest's story, then I was truly hooked!

And rest assured guys that was no fluke from Simmons. I still have a lot of catching up to do, but having so far read Hyperion 1 & 2, Summer of Night, Illum, Olympus and The Terror, I rate these books (in no particular order) somewhere from a 7 to a 9.

Except The Terror. That one is an actual 10. It's not for everyone, but it is the single book I recommend everyone should give it at least a try... just make sure to take your time when doing so.

If it isn't your thing, no biggie. At worst you "wasted" one afternoon. But if it is, well then, prepare to get so enthralled you'll call in sick at work at least once, I guarantee.
 
Finished this morning. I forgot it ended where it did. I'm glad this was chosen for the read this month and I've added The Terror to my October list.
Even mentioning Fatrick in discussion of this book is laughable. He probably can't wrap his head around the preface due to a lack of pepperoni or other foods or a sufficiently strong and diverse female lead or obvious Trump or Elon analog displayed. The mention of beer and steak would've come too late in the reading for him.
After reading, and being greatly disappointed by, Children of Strife it was refreshing to go back to a good SciFi novel. I'd give more of a review or my thoughts but they're spoiler laden, I'll hold off till the next poll goes up.

Looking forward to the next read!
 
WanderingFarmer said:
Even mentioning Fatrick in discussion of this book is laughable.
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It really is. I still have to check out how many of you managed to finish his "work" when it was the book of the month. I mean, I've been a devoted Patposter for almost 6 years now, downloaded ALL of his books and yet NEVER went past page 10... on any of them!

The man just plain sucks! Mostly as the heir to old Tommy "the Vacuum Clown" Tomslinson's gas station gloryhole ofc, but also as a writer.

And don't worry Pat you never saw a penny from the books. Apparently you can get them for free!."Enjoy flogging. That's how you chose to get keelhauling, pirate." yeah yeah... We know
 
femoralcanal said:
I still have to check out how many of you managed to finish his "work" when it was the book of the month.
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I listened to a poorly generated AI reading of his book. The voice was supposed to be Snoop Dog. Set at 1.5 x speed it was funny enough that I tortured a poor computer to produce this that I was able to knock it out fairly quick during my commute.
I wasn't going to go through to trouble of putting it on my e-reader or phone so that sufficed.
It was as good or better than The Kaiju Preservation Society which somehow made Patrick look fairly competent and knowledgeable of at least rudimentary concepts in the sciences. That one was only possible thanks to a 14 hour commute and running out of MATI archives to listen to.
 
Currently reading Hyperion. Currently going through the Priests story, specifically the Journal.

Being a Christian must be so heartbreaking in this setting, at least that's the vibe in getting from it so far.

Edit: so I don't double post

One might be tempted to describe the round faces of the Bikura as cherubic until, upon closer inspection, that impression of sweetness fades and is replaced by another interpretation—placid idiocy. As a priest, I have spent enough time on backward worlds to see the effects of an ancient genetic disorder variously called Down’s syndrome, mongolism, or generation-ship legacy. This, then, was the overall impression created by the sixty or so dark-robed little people who had approached me—I was being greeted by a silent, smiling band of bald, retarded children.
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It's wild seeing the word retarded in a book after how pussified our society has gotten over the course of two and a half decades
 
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Read Azure Bonds, Forgotten Realms tie-in from '88. It is my first time actually reading DnD tie-in after falling asleep after like 2 chapters of the first Drizzt book, and why the fuck was it that bad by '88 already? Shots fired at impractical armour, copyright-upholding wizard, completely irreverent tone and jokes in absolutely retarded places...wtf, this is not normal fantasy.
 
I re-read the Hyperion series a few months ago and just finished and really enjoyed The Iron Garden Sutra by AD Sui which was just published this year. I wrote something about both in another thread, all mostly great things that haven't already been said here. To keep the religious themes going I'm thinking of reading A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M Miller again. I remember it being great, but I was just a kid the last time I read it so I hope it's not going to age badly (1959) like a lot of Asimov etc
 
Seeing people discover and read Hyperion for the first time makes me really happy. Absolutely love that book.

Skelboen said:
I'm thinking of reading A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M Miller again. I remember it being great, but I was just a kid the last time I read it so I hope it's not going to age badly (1959) like a lot of Asimov etc
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I think it's still great.
 
I have no idea where to start here. I just finished with a book club meeting of terrible people and I Really want to cleanse my palette with something decent instead of SJW slop. I've read a shit ton of Warhammer 40K books, I think like 75% of the Criton novels, some Frank Herbert and a bunch of random stuff. But I'm thinking about grabbing "A Canticle For Leibowitz."
 
Frag Tag Mini 3 said:
I have no idea where to start here. I just finished with a book club meeting of terrible people and I Really want to cleanse my palette with something decent instead of SJW slop. I've read a shit ton of Warhammer 40K books, I think like 75% of the Criton novels, some Frank Herbert and a bunch of random stuff. But I'm thinking about grabbing "A Canticle For Leibowitz."
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“A Canticle For Leibowitz” feels like what a bad ending to Anathem would have looked like…

…that is, one of the endings that Fraa Jad reviewed and “pruned”. 😎
 
Professor Donger said:
It's wild seeing the word retarded in a book after how pussified our society has gotten over the course of two and a half decades
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That's the euphemism treadmill for you; from the context you can tell the word choice wasn't even derogatory or edgy for its time. 70 years from now someone will read a SJW book that used "neurodivergent" and feel scandalized to encounter such a naughty word.
 
Reading Consider Her Ways And Others by John Wyndham. His setups are always a lot better than his endings, something I especially noticed in The Kraken Wakes and Web. It's unfortunate that these short stories chose fairly weak material; the first two are
time travel
stories. I haven't gotten to the reveal about what 'Oh, Where, Now, Is Peggy MacRafferty?' is about, but it was really funny that the movie producer's name is George Floyd.
 
I keep meaning to participate on these, maybe I'll join in on what wins (not Scalzi).

However, I often try and shill one of the best new Sci-fi I've encountered which is The Lost Fleet Series by Jack Campbell, edit: and it's from the 2010s. The best fleet space combat writing in any book I've encountered. The latter series stretches the premise a bit too far, and I haven't been able to get into the spin off series, but I really recommend the first set.
 
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I've been slacking on my reading goals lately and excusing it by telling myself work has been busy, but a lot of these books are on my reading list for the year, so I might as well get off my butt.
 
The name of the wind has a shit cover, I am not reading anything by Sanderson, or by Adrian. Scalzi is a hack.
I guess I'm going with Mieville and Blindsight.
Everything else looks to be a part of a series (a shit trend of modern book publishing).
I guess I'll put Minecraft as #3.

Another thing of note, Mieville seems kinda interesting. He is a marxist and a rather vocal one, which massively influences his takes, due to which he seems to have a very different conception to fantasy when lined up against the entire Tolkien derivative branch of fantasy, which is why I've been eyeing him as he seeks to pull fantasy from being comfort food of literature to a piece of marxist propaganda, in the positive sense of the word.
 
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