So yeah, I’ve never read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation books before this which is embarrassing for a fan of science-fiction. I’ve read plenty of his short stories and even one or two his Robots novels but never any of the Foundation books themselves. I’ve inevitably absorbed some of what it’s about through cultural osmosis but I suppose it’s high time that I actually read them for myself.
So I decided to pay a bit more attention at what happens at the Hugo and Nebula Awards every year. Browsing through the list of nominees, I noticed this among the novellas, a work by a relatively new Singaporean writer JY Yang that is sometimes described as being in the ‘silkpunk’ genre. It was published together with the second book of the series Red Threads of Fortune as a bit of an experiment though each is short enough that I wonder why they didn’t just sell it as a single book. I only bought this one first to check it out however.
This is a novel that I would never have known about if not for the recommendation in What Makes This Book So Great. It was successful enough to spawn sequels but author George Alec Effinger died before a fourth book could be completed and the series never seemed to have won any major awards. Apparently a supplement for this setting was made for the pencil and paper role-playing game Cyberpunk 2020 which I do own.
After being overwhelmed by the sophistication of Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, I approached this earlier novel by Samuel Delany with some trepidation. In retrospect, I needn’t have worried as it is a much shorter and simpler work. Though it is thematically rich with plentiful references to mythology, contemporary events at the time of the novel’s writing, art and much more, I think the plot is a little too straightforward and I’m not sure that its central theory on the relationship between people and the work they holds up well.
When I wrote my post about The Fifth Season I said I would be onboard for the next book and so here I am. Even so I am a little miffed that both books won Hugo Awards and the third book is similarly on track to do so. The rest of the nominees are no better, being novels that are part of a series by the same authors who win year after year. It’s honestly rather boring so it’s no wonder why Liu Cixin’s win in 2015 was such a breath of fresh air even if I didn’t like the book very much.
So Iain Banks has been dead for a few years now and I’ve only now gotten around to reading this, considered the first book of his Culture series. I’ve read short stories set in this universe before but never any of the novels. I always knew I was going to have to read this one day and perhaps it is appropriate to do so now as this novel is apparently going to be adapted for television.
It’s been a while since I wrote a post on the web serials I’ve been reading so here’s an update. Do check these out if you’re looking for something to read.
Out of the three serials in my last post, this is the only one that I’m still following. It’s all the way at the end of book three now with the scope of the story growing in line with Catherine’s personal power. She also gains her own entourage of Named and gains some authority of her own independently of the Tower. The writing and characterization is as good as ever, though it does get a little silly how Catherine always solves problems using brute force.
Perhaps my favorite thing about the newer chapters is that there are a lot of interludes featuring different characters, vastly expanding the world. In the third book for example, we actually spend quite a bit of time in the Free Cities and get to know new characters like the Tyrant of Helike and Anaxares of Bellerophan. We also get to see the Calamities in action in the Free Cities and in particular how the Black Knight’s plans are much more calculated and intricate than those of Catherine.
This is a LitRPG that was posted on a forum that I read through only recently. It was written by the same person who wrote the excellent Dire Worm fanfiction for Worm and seems to have been completed within an astonishingly short time. This story is indeed complete though the author says that there will be a sequel.
LitRPGs are usually groan-worthy to me. To those who don’t know what that means, it refers to a whole genre of fiction in which one or more characters run on RPG mechanics and are aware of it. Usually it’s only the main character and the genre is very popular at the moment. I think that’s because of the Korean comic The Gamer though I haven’t read it at all. It’s an interesting way to make a character measurably more powerful over the course of a story and to make readers feel like the stakes keep raising without the author having to work too hard at it I think.
This one has the whole world running on RPG mechanics. The main character is a teddy bear, brought to life by his creator’s animate golem spell. His owner is a little girl, his creator’s daughter. After surviving multiple household mishaps, he is brought along with a few adventures. The main plot starts when the big bad attacks and kidnaps the girl and so Threadbare has to gather his friends and save his little girl, no matter what it takes and no matter where it takes him. Though a little predictable and on the simple side, it makes no mistakes and is highly entertaining. I like how Threadbare’s increasing intelligence directly impacts his perception of the world.
This one is also a LitRPG though the mechanics are most blatant at the beginning and tapers off as the story goes on. This is also a guilty pleasure as it very definitely has an X rating due to its explicit sex scenes. However this is not erotica as the sex scenes are not meant to arouse but to make you laugh instead as they are horribly over the top and usually result in horrific injuries that would kill any normal person many times over.
The protagonist is an ordinary mimic, yes the monster that you find impersonating treasure chests, who is spawned in a dungeon. Though quite stupid at first and relying almost entirely on instincts, the creature manages to survive and eats several adventurers. Eventually he becomes smart enough and powerful enough to break out of his dungeon and takes on a name, the perfectly appropriate Boxxy T. Morningwood. In addition to his mimic class, he also adds on the warlock class, allowing him to bind and summon demonic familiars, every one of which is female. Indeed it accumulates an entire harem of monster-girls of every imaginable but it’s all good as Boxxy is completely asexual and cares only whether or not something is tasty, as in good to eat, or shiny, as in good to add to its treasure hoard.
Reading it, I laughed and had fun but kept thinking of it as a joke that can go only so far. Luckily the author has a much richer imagination than me and manages to outdo himself in going over the top. Boxxy manages to gain the favor of a very irreverent god, get involved in a major war and pretty much bamboozles everyone. It’s fantastic.
Lately, I’ve also started reading quests on forums. These are games in which a questmaster narrates a story and invites players to participate in the decisions of the main character by voting. There are game mechanics, dice rolling and tracking of inventory to make it all feel like a real game. The more ambitious of such quests involve taking control of nations or even star-spanning civilizations, necessitating a degree of effort which frightens me.
So far I’ve only been an active participant in this one, a xianxia-themed quest about Ling Qi, a young street waif who is drafted into a sect to practise cultivation when it is discovered that she has some talent. Less than a year has passed in-game and Ling Qi has gone from a mortal commoner to one of the most promising students in the Outer Sect as everyone prepares for the end of year tournament.
I like this mostly because it invokes the best bits of xianxia, the arts, the spirits, the fantastic items but actively works against the worst tropes. The very fact that the main character is female, as voted by thread participants, is great. The worldbuilding is fantastic with plenty of cool details but most importantly there is a great sense that everything is laid out in a way that makes sense. It feels real and not merely a thin shell that revolves solely around the protagonist as in so much of actual xianxia fiction. Not bad for a guy who doesn’t actually speak Chinese.
The game mechanics seemed pretty cool when the quest started out but is starting to feel very unwieldy now. I understand that there will be a major mechanics rework after the current quest ends with the tournament. I did like how much work the QM put into developing all these arts with evocative names and descriptions but as the number of dice has increased, the sheer number of arts seem to make individual ones seem less significant.