What are you reading in 2025?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, “you were all pissing me off so I dropped a mountain on you and then went and sulked for a few centuries” is far from ideal divine behaviour.

Honestly, that makes it more realistic for me.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

When we ran the DL modules the prevalent theory was that the Good gods had lost a massive series of bets with the Evil gods. Because the evil Gods cheat at poker

Well, Chris de Burgh was popular at the time…

 

[jian]

Honestly, that makes it more realistic for me.

Sadly, many real-world religious texts also contain many examples of far from ideal divine behaviour, at least by the standards of D&D alignments. If you’re a LG god you should probably have some idea what that means.

 

[Clint_L]

Thinking more on Anathem, and it is really striking to me how much of a throwback sci-fi novel it is in terms story structure. When you read old sci-fi stories, like from Amazing Stories in the 1920-30s, they are often super didactic and often the tale is told from the perspective of Scientist A, who is a bit naive, having things illuminated for him by Scientist B, who is on the cutting edge (often right off the edge, frankly). Basically, Socratic dialogues, used to explain some mysterious phenomenon through new-fangled science. That's Anathem, to a T.

It's kind of a clunky narrative mode in that it heavily relies on telling rather than showing, and indeed I am finding it tedious. But it is not without its charm, especially in a historical context, which ties it to the faux-historical content of the novel. It's a bold and clever choice, executed well, and I can admire it, even if it's not working very well for this particular reader. Stephenson is an interesting writer even when the novel isn't my favourite.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Sadly, many real-world religious texts also contain many examples of far from ideal divine behaviour, at least by the standards of D&D alignments. If you’re a LG god you should probably have some idea what that means.

Gygax thought that Lawful Good paladins should be killing orc children and babies. I suspect by early TSR standards (along with Weis & Hickman's religious upbringings), the Cataclysm was within the bounds of divine behavior.

Today's standards, obviously, are very different.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm still reading Anathem. I can admire the complex world-building and ambition, but...man. There is so much exposition, and that's not even counting the literal dictionary entries that are a significant part of the text. In a way, it's very old school sci-fi, with a bunch of scientists and technocrats arguing and explaining to each other (I like the way Socratic dialogue is acknowledged). I just wish more happened. Thankfully, things seems like they are about to pick up, as our narrator just got assaulted and now the conflict with the mysterious space travellers has begun.

But it's a slog. Maybe I should have finally checked War and Peace off my list, instead.

I do like reading dictionaries and studying philosophy, so I may be too much of thr intended target audience...but once the mysterious space traveller thing picks up, ooh boy.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Finishing up "The Folded Sky", the third of Elizabeth Bear's Whitespace novels. I've found I've enjoyed them a lot more than I would have thought, and its kind of interesting hitting a series that's set in a common setting but otherwise not strongly interconnected.

 

[prabe]

Finishing up "The Folded Sky", the third of Elizabeth Bear's Whitespace novels. I've found I've enjoyed them a lot more than I would have thought, and its kind of interesting hitting a series that's set in a common setting but otherwise not strongly interconnected.

I didn't realize there was a third. I liked the first two quite a lot--and they seemed like standalones that shared a setting, not a series--so I'll have to see if my local library of choice has (or gets) it in.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I didn't realize there was a third. I liked the first two quite a lot--and they seemed like standalones that shared a setting, not a series--so I'll have to see if my local library of choice has (or gets) it in.

Its been out since March, but I don't think I heard of it myself until about June.

 

[prabe]

Its been out since March, but I don't think I heard of it myself until about June.

They have it, I might swing by and grab it. Thanks.