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MeccAnon, in The year is 2030, astronauts have for the first time landed on Mars, they found a cave with human skeletons, and a message written on the wall. What does it say?
@MeccAnon@kbin.social avatar

"Fuck Spez"

Fermiverse, in Can you recommend me a book?

If you have a lot of time and an urge to read:

  • Peter F. Hamilton - void trilogy - space opera
  • Brandon Sanderson - the stormlight archives - epic fantasy
  • Adrian Tchaikovsky - children of time series - sci-fi

Check if you can get your hands on an ebook reader, if you don't have already. The reading experience from the eye view side is similar to reading books and in addition you can increase the font size. It is superior to reading on a screen.

glittalogik,
@glittalogik@kbin.social avatar

I'm currently halfway through Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series and I'm enjoying the plot but finding his writing style a bit tedious at times - excessive rehashing of events that happened like two chapters ago, overembellished emotional dramatics, and painstakingly spelling out every single character's internal monologue like it's a Jane Austen novel.

I know CoT was written later, so I'm wondering if his tone/style has developed a bit? He has cool ideas, I'm just wishing he'd trust the reader enough to get a bit more 'show, don't tell' with his writing...

Fermiverse,

I am not familiar with the Apt series but CoT was the first book I read from this author and was blown away.

Although the first part started slow and monologues still happen frequently but the idea and the plot pulled me forward. While I didn't felt he recapped much.

My other suggestion, Peter F. Hamilton is the totally oposite direction when it comes to jumping between places / characters. Sometimes between paragraphs and not at chapters end or page ends.

Still after one sentence you know exactly where you are in the plot. Even when his books throw different characters at you like popcorn.

glittalogik,
@glittalogik@kbin.social avatar

Good to know, thanks!

beta_tester, in Can you recommend me a book?
PugJesus, in Can you recommend me a book?
@PugJesus@kbin.social avatar

Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World - Nonfiction, Political Science

Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire - Nonfiction, History

Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials - Fiction, Compendium of illustrations and descriptions of notable aliens from literature

The Ciaphias Cain series - Fiction, Warhammer 40,000 Sci-Fi/Comedy

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain - Alt-History/Time Travel/Isekai

A Witch Shall Be Born (or any other Conan short story) - Fantasy

corrupts_absolutely, in Can you recommend me a book?

the black arrow a tale of two roses by robert louis stevenson

Nemo, in Can you recommend me a book?

My favorite book is Galactic Pot-Healer by Philip K Dick. Themes include:

  • The need for satisfying work
  • Theology
  • The individual vs the collective
sharkfeek, in Can you recommend me a book?
@sharkfeek@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Ready Player One is a great read, especially if you grew up with 80’s 90s media.

Mexican Gothic was a fun thriller.

Persephone Station is full of flaws and unanswered questions/plot points, but it painted a good cyberpunk world that got me into reading more cyberpunk titles.

leraje, in Can you recommend me a book?
@leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I’d recommend the Aubrey/Maturin series (Wikipedia link) by Patrick O’Brian to everyone.

When they were first suggested to me, I was very unsure - a series of books set during the Napoleonic Wars, set mostly on ships sounded pretty dull. But when I started reading them, they swallowed me whole. They are adventurous, fascinating and very detailed but also full of heart, life and often very, very funny which was a surprise (pun intended for those who’ve read them).

You don’t need to know anything about the Royal Navy, sailing or the time period, all will be laid out to you - it’s the same as realising you don’t need to be a medical expert to enjoy ER or House - and really, although ship-life is vividly portrayed, the cornerstone of the series of books is the unlikely friendship between Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin.

As I read in a literary review of the series: “There are two types of people in the world: Patrick O’Brian fans, and people who haven’t read him yet.”

The first book in the series is Master & Commander (the movie that was made about the novels with Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany took its name from this first book). I urge you to do yourself a favour and give it a try.

readbeanicecream, in Can you recommend me a book?
@readbeanicecream@kbin.social avatar

Just a few different options:

  • Project Hail Mary (Scifi)
  • Red Planet Blues (Scifi)
  • Dresden Files (Fantasy)
  • Gunslinger (Fantasy)
  • Sigma Force Series (Action/Historical Fiction)
indigojasper, in Is KBIN dying? Srs Question: Is there any further development or support being done for Kbin.Social Keep getting the error page when trying to block users, create posts, view notifications. Been going on for weeks now.
@indigojasper@kbin.social avatar

I haven't been having any of those problems, but the lack of a mobile app has led me to using kbin as my PC place and my lemmy-based accounts on Jerboa as my mobile place. I still just don't like the overall interface and limitations on functions of Lemmy, but need a mobile access point.

Gordon_Freeman,
@Gordon_Freeman@kbin.social avatar

but the lack of a mobile app

just install the website like if it were an app. it works

indigojasper,
@indigojasper@kbin.social avatar

i used to do this but i've been trying to de-google

readbeanicecream,
@readbeanicecream@kbin.social avatar

You can do this with firefox, too. It how I run it on my mobile.

indigojasper,
@indigojasper@kbin.social avatar

Oh nice, the more ya know. Thanks I'll give it a try.

Arotrios, in Is KBIN dying? Srs Question: Is there any further development or support being done for Kbin.Social Keep getting the error page when trying to block users, create posts, view notifications. Been going on for weeks now.
@Arotrios@kbin.social avatar

Why did you repost this? @ernest replied to you on the thread you deleted. He has a full answer here.

Gordon_Freeman,
@Gordon_Freeman@kbin.social avatar

It's not the second, but the third time they post this...

Arotrios,
@Arotrios@kbin.social avatar

Yeah - I think it's the operator of one of the spambot networks that Ernest shut out awhile back. Sad smear campaign.

downpunxx,
@downpunxx@kbin.social avatar

it's not, it's just me being a fucking idiot. my appologies. i had two domains blocked, and in doing so, triggered a bug which kbin users sometimes run into, that being specifically not seeing comments if they have any domains blocked, i had two, i deleted the blocks on the domains, and presto, like magic i can see comments. no spam, just stupidity, mine.

cacheson, (edited ) in Is KBIN dying? Srs Question: Is there any further development or support being done for Kbin.Social Keep getting the error page when trying to block users, create posts, view notifications. Been going on for weeks now.
@cacheson@kbin.social avatar

The list of "pull requests" for the kbin project is here. A developer makes a pull request when they've made some changes to their copy of the code, and are requesting that those same changes be made to the original main code of the project.

If you look at the list of "closed" pull requests, the ones with the purple icon are the ones that have been approved. This is a good way to check how active a project is.

downpunxx, in Is KBIN dying? Srs Question: Is there any further development or support being done for Kbin.Social Keep getting the error page when trying to block users, create posts, view notifications. Been going on for weeks now.
@downpunxx@kbin.social avatar

hey y'all i can't see anyone's comments under any of these multiple posts i've made today, my appologies to the universe for the reposting, i'll stop doing that now. still can't see any comments under this one, but i'll leave it up, just so there isn't yet another broken thread. earnest sent me a note, which is how i now know this has been addressed, pretty much since my first post this morning. i'm all in on kbin, and appreciate the alternative space here to lemmy. k tnx bi

OurTragicUniverse, in Can you recommend me a book?
@OurTragicUniverse@kbin.social avatar

If you want something fun, weird and easy to read (scifi/fantasy):

Life, Liberty And The Persuit Of Sausages by Tom Holt


Fun even weirder (scifi/fantasy):

Shades Of Grey by Jasper Fforde


Fascinating and thinky scifi:

Beggars In Spain by Nancy Kress


Beautifully written feminist scifi:

Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin

--

The top two have a very British sensibility baked into the text and won't be as funny if you don't get the cultural references.

MaiteRosalie, in Can you recommend me a book?
@MaiteRosalie@kbin.social avatar

I'm currently reading this book "Smart Thinking Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, Second Edition (Writing & Journalism)" it has been interesting so far

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