I’ve been on a bit of an alternate history kick recently. I can recommend both Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan-Behemoth-Goliath young adult steampunk v. biotech alternate World War One trilogy, and Ian Tregillis’ Bitter Seeds-The Coldest War-Necessary Evil demonologists v. bioengineered ubermenchen series. (Neither is rationalist fiction in the sense of having super rational characters, but it is realist fiction in the sense of character’s making mistakes for bias-related reasons.)
Also, I seem to recall seeing Yvain say something on his blog recently about being surprised that many of the people he knew who reference Lovecraft haven’t actually read him. For those who aren’t aware of it, all of Lovecraft’s solo-authored work in chronological order is available as a free e-book here.
You might like Celestial Matters by Richard Garfinkle—ancient Greek metaphysics is true. Greece becomes a world power, and the story is about an expedition to the sun to get elemental fire. Taoist alchemy is also true.
A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. An amazing and hilarious novel. Believe the hype.
(If you’ve ever been annoyed by neoreactionaries, you’ll delight in the main character. “A king? You want a king? Boy, nobody wants a king! Ignatius, are you sure you’re OK?” First noted on Metafilter. I see one neoreaction fan who classifies it as “Red Pill fiction” …)
Just finished Brandon Sanderson’s book “Words of Radiance”. It is the 2nd book in a (projected) 10-book series, and came out last month.
I thought it was a wonderful book. It developed the story from “The Way of Kings”, some parts in obvious ways, but also in some new and unexpected ways. The world that Sanderson developed for this series is clearly huge, with many different actors and sub-stories going on.
Also, one sub-story in particular was very fun for me as an LW’er. I’m talking about: Gneninatvna, naq uvf VD punatvat rirel qnl (rot 13′ed).
Btw, I love Brandon Sanderson’s work. It combines very “realistic” magic systems with awesome characters, and an epic back-story. I highly recommend reading the Mistborn trilogy, I consider it the finest fantasy work around.
It gets worse. Most of his fantasy novels are actually connected into one world (called the Cosmere).
He guesses there will be a total of 30-40 books in this world.
Btw, for anyone that doesn’t know, Brandon Sanderson was chosen as the author of the final Wheel of Time books, the ones that came out after the original author Robert Jordan passed away. So yeah, he knows what happens to people who start 10-book series.
The magic system is basically comparable to him inventing a world with extra laws of physics. The magic is usually well understood, at least eventually, and is basically treated like just more physics.
E.g. (ROT13′d for minor spoiler): Bar bs uvf obbxf pbagnvaf n flfgrz gung, jura crbcyr qevax inevbhf xvaqf bs zrgny, gurl ner noyr gb “ohea hc” gur zrgny gb tnva pregnva cbjref, sbe rknzcyr, gryrxvarfvf. Guvf vf irel jryy haqrefgbbq naq hfrq, lbh haqrefgnaq gur zntvp, gur yvzvgf, vg erdhverf fbzr xvaq bs ryrzrag gb cbjre vg, rgp. Va bgure jbeqf, vg fbhaqf yvxr ryrpgevpvgl jbhyq fbhaq gb fbzrbar jub qbrfa’g xabj nobhg vg.
Guvf vf abg gur xvaq bs zntvp flfgrz jurer enaqbz crbcyr ner noyr gb qb guvatf juvpu lbh arire ernyyl haqrefgnaq, naq gung ner oneryl hfrq. Guvf vf zber n jbeyq jvgu rkgen ryrzragnel sbeprf.
Sanderson’s First Law of Magics: An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic.
Fiction Books Thread
Fiction:
reread R.A. Lafferty’s Fourth Mansions
Harrison’s Light (review)
Also, may I take a moment to strongly recommend Ted Chiang’s short stories?
“Understand”
“72 Letters”
“Hell is the Absence of God”
“Story of Your Life” (see also Lagrangians, Principle of Least Action, Greg Egan’s “The Infinite Assassin”, and Qualia the Purple)
“Liking What You See: A Documentary”
“The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling”
I’ve been on a bit of an alternate history kick recently. I can recommend both Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan-Behemoth-Goliath young adult steampunk v. biotech alternate World War One trilogy, and Ian Tregillis’ Bitter Seeds-The Coldest War-Necessary Evil demonologists v. bioengineered ubermenchen series. (Neither is rationalist fiction in the sense of having super rational characters, but it is realist fiction in the sense of character’s making mistakes for bias-related reasons.)
Also, I seem to recall seeing Yvain say something on his blog recently about being surprised that many of the people he knew who reference Lovecraft haven’t actually read him. For those who aren’t aware of it, all of Lovecraft’s solo-authored work in chronological order is available as a free e-book here.
Thanks a million. I’ve been looking for a Lovecraft omnibus for ages.
You might like Celestial Matters by Richard Garfinkle—ancient Greek metaphysics is true. Greece becomes a world power, and the story is about an expedition to the sun to get elemental fire. Taoist alchemy is also true.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_Matters
A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. An amazing and hilarious novel. Believe the hype.
(If you’ve ever been annoyed by neoreactionaries, you’ll delight in the main character. “A king? You want a king? Boy, nobody wants a king! Ignatius, are you sure you’re OK?” First noted on Metafilter. I see one neoreaction fan who classifies it as “Red Pill fiction” …)
Counter-recommendation: I found it vastly overrated and OK at best. (Review)
I think the Internet could still do with “oh, my valve!” as a meme.
Too much contamination with Steam and Half-Life and Portal and...
It’ll be Valve Soon™ before everyone understands that one...
Just finished Brandon Sanderson’s book “Words of Radiance”. It is the 2nd book in a (projected) 10-book series, and came out last month.
I thought it was a wonderful book. It developed the story from “The Way of Kings”, some parts in obvious ways, but also in some new and unexpected ways. The world that Sanderson developed for this series is clearly huge, with many different actors and sub-stories going on.
Also, one sub-story in particular was very fun for me as an LW’er. I’m talking about: Gneninatvna, naq uvf VD punatvat rirel qnl (rot 13′ed).
Btw, I love Brandon Sanderson’s work. It combines very “realistic” magic systems with awesome characters, and an epic back-story. I highly recommend reading the Mistborn trilogy, I consider it the finest fantasy work around.
Is he high?! He already knows what happens to people who start 10-book series.
It gets worse. Most of his fantasy novels are actually connected into one world (called the Cosmere).
He guesses there will be a total of 30-40 books in this world.
Btw, for anyone that doesn’t know, Brandon Sanderson was chosen as the author of the final Wheel of Time books, the ones that came out after the original author Robert Jordan passed away. So yeah, he knows what happens to people who start 10-book series.
What does “realistic” magic systems mean?
What I meant by that was:
The magic system is basically comparable to him inventing a world with extra laws of physics. The magic is usually well understood, at least eventually, and is basically treated like just more physics.
E.g. (ROT13′d for minor spoiler): Bar bs uvf obbxf pbagnvaf n flfgrz gung, jura crbcyr qevax inevbhf xvaqf bs zrgny, gurl ner noyr gb “ohea hc” gur zrgny gb tnva pregnva cbjref, sbe rknzcyr, gryrxvarfvf. Guvf vf irel jryy haqrefgbbq naq hfrq, lbh haqrefgnaq gur zntvp, gur yvzvgf, vg erdhverf fbzr xvaq bs ryrzrag gb cbjre vg, rgp. Va bgure jbeqf, vg fbhaqf yvxr ryrpgevpvgl jbhyq fbhaq gb fbzrbar jub qbrfa’g xabj nobhg vg.
Guvf vf abg gur xvaq bs zntvp flfgrz jurer enaqbz crbcyr ner noyr gb qb guvatf juvpu lbh arire ernyyl haqrefgnaq, naq gung ner oneryl hfrq. Guvf vf zber n jbeyq jvgu rkgen ryrzragnel sbeprf.
Sanderson’s First Law of Magics: An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic.