book (quokk.au)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/mop
 

I'm reading this on my lunch breaks:

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[–] 24 points 8 months ago*

Rice Cooker by Russell Hobbs

A classic.

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  • [–] 18 points 8 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    What's this one like? I LOVED the first book but found the second a little disappointing

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago

    It’s weird. I don’t hate it, but the author spends way too much time dealing with “timeline forks” (I’ll call it that to avoid spoilers) in a limited setting with a lot of reiteration and lack of any real plot advancement or character development. It’s not awful, I don’t hate it, but it’s a completely different book than the first or second. If you liked the first and didn’t care for the second you probably won’t like this one at all.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    I'm not the Op, but I found book 3 even more of a let-down than book 2. Just felt a bit more contrived, even though it did add some valuable contributions to the universe, and I'll read book 4 when it comes out.

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  • [–] 17 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    I'm reading Labor's Untold Story. It's about the rise of unions. The latest chapter ended with a capitalist killing themselves, so pretty damn good so far.

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  • [–] 16 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    Off to a great start! It feels a lot faster paced than the first book

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  • [–] 15 points 8 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 13 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    My second attempt.

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Terry Pratchett Men at Arms

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  • [+] 11 points 8 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    Heyyy! I read that one some years back. I liked it. Quite good handling of realpolitik and racism in a fantasy setting. I especially liked that even with a main character that was as committed to positive change as possible, it still was a massive struggle to actually accomplish anything.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    Quite a choice to get back into reading! It’s definitely not the easiest read with its court lingo and endless list of names and titles, but very nice that you enjoyed it nevertheless.

    It’s one of my favourite books in somewhat ‘positive’ fantasy outlook that does not veer into kitsch. Whenever I think back to it I just remember feeling really cozy with the characters, even if it dealt with some real issues.

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago (6 children)

    As per suggestions from here!

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Yup I probably read that 5 times

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

    Nice, any suggestions on what to read next? Ideally from The Culture.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Any of them. I've read a few and none have been connected in any way, so I don't think the order matters. I think I started there and went to Use of Weapons next.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    Right, I know they are all standalone novels. So my mect choice of book in the series either came from a suggestion from somebody or a die roll.

    Being a tabletop gaming nerd and having a spiteful interest in game theory made The Player of Games an easy first choice.

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago (6 children)
  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Great book—really looking forward to the film. Hope they do the book justice!

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago* (1 child)

    Oh it really is, I had to remind myself everytime I have work in the morning to stop reading and go to sleep lol Please suggest me a book for my next read.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    If you liked Project Hail Mary, then you should read the Bobiverse series by Dennis E. Taylor. The premise is as follows:

    Bob is dead. Long live Bob.

    Software engineer Robert Johansen uses his share of the money from the buyout of his company (the rest having been split amongst the employees) to start a trust to support his end-of-life maintenance needs. But Bob's idea of "end-of-life" is being cryogenically frozen until such a time as whatever killed him can be fixed. What he wasn't counting on, however, was getting hit by a car later that day and waking up over a hundred years later. Finding that, not only has he not been revived, but instead digitised, but also that the christofascist government doesn't recognise him as a human or worthy of rights, he is surprised to also be informed that the reason they instantiated his consciousness was to become the guiding intelligence of a Von Neumann Probe, and that Bob is going to the stars... At least, he should be, as long as none of the opposing factions in the government or any of the other countries also building their own probes nuke him first.

    Bobiverse is an example of hard science fiction, with similar limitations to what PHM uses. The primary conceits that go beyond what's currently assumed to be possible are:

    1. the assumption that it is possible to simulate consciousness using electronic media
    2. the existence of some method of interacting with the fabric of reality to warp spacetime through a reactionless drive (here called "subspace theory"). This assumption allows for interstellar travel over reasonable time scales (but not superluminal travel) and, later, communications. Think a combination of the "Ansible" and the Bussard ramjet from "Tau Zero"
    3. the fantasy that most people have comprehensible reasons for their actions.
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  • [–] 10 points 8 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    A few books ahead of you 😁 (wanted to finish over Christmas, but life... you know)

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

    there's an order you're supposed to read them in?

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    Many people follow something like this reading order, or just read by publication date. For the death series I'd argue it's not that important, others depend on each other a bit more. It's definitely not a problem to just go in a random order though, he always tried to make the books stand on their own. In some ways I would argue it's way more fun to go randomly, but if you are easily confused by timelines you might not like it 😊

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  • [–] 10 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    For myself

    With the kiddo

    And theory

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    Oh man Erikson. You are, uhh, in the middle of an absolute leviathan of a series. I've re-read the main ten-book series a number of times and made new connections every time. Most of the side content has done nothing for me, however.

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  • [–] 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

    It's an older anthology but it checks out, sir.

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  • [–] 10 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    I finally started reading it. Saw a review that said "just read it. The less you know the better" so I got it. Haven't read it.

    Went to dinner at cousins place who also heard good things, got the book, and hasn't read it. So I'm reading it for the both of us I guess

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I just read that book. It took me a while to really start enjoying it. I think sticking with it was worth it though. I would definitely recommend it.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    TitleSeeing the diaries labeled December 2011 to June 2012 threw me completely, and the rest of the diaries labeled as such is making me even more confused.

    I was planning to go the cinema today. Movie is starting in 30 minutes, but this chapter is throwing me out, I'm staying to keep reading

    Only Part 1 spoilers above

    Love the recommendation of going in as blind as possible. You learn as you read

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    The reason it's best not to know much about this book is because it's like a puzzle game. The events and setting are kind of surreal and don't immediately make sense, and it's a lot of fun to be constantly thinking about possible hows and whys of everything.

    I read White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link about the same time I read Piranesi, and I think they go well together as surreal fiction which is neither "lol random xD" nor pretentious.

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  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago

    The brand new translation of LOTR.

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  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Post-apocalyptic tale of tech-priests, kind of. It starts slow, and then you get used to it.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago* (2 children)

    It only starts slow if you don't appreciate the unique humour of a world that has forgotten itself completely misinterpreting archeological artifacts in hilarious ways. This is one of my favourite books ever, in large part because of the description of Brother Francis' reactions and reasoning upon reading the words "fallout shelter", and other such examples of the beautifully dry and matter-of-fact humour present throughout the book.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah, I'm also enjoying that. I've been working my way through Catch 22 as well, and the humor has a bit of the same dryness, but I wonder if this book has a little more humanity to it.

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  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Miss so much reading to my kids, different happy times now but still miss that. They love books because we put the time to read them and they saw us reading, all winning all around.

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  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Does this count?

    PIC18(L)F2X/4XK22 Data Sheet

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago* (2 children)

    Nice, that's a beast you got there. Some of those 8 bit pics don't have enough flash for printf.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    What's funny is we're coding something fairly simple in assembly at my university, so even this PIC's resources are overkill for us (PIC18F45K22)

    Having more instructions would be nice, though. Any loop other than a simple decfsz-goto loop requires some ingenuity

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    Nice. Asm probably has an advantage here. C's stupid integer promotion rules can sneak up on you and also blow up flash use. To avoid it, you need to cast everything in every math expression.

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  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago

    The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

    Adrian Tchaikovsky - Pretenders to the Throne of God

    The fifth installment in the "Tyrant Philosophers" series, the fantasy series takes inspiration from the european independence movements of the 1840s. It is based in a world where magic isn't just real, but where hundreds of different magic systems all come together and clash, as each different culture has several ways that things are done. From helliers calling demons through contracts to work the industrial mills, to the leftovers from thousand-year-dead necromantic empires that locked themselves away in their tombs, to a city that has actually figured out utopia, and can work any miracle (but the city has a hard population cap) to minor gods who actively manifest and can do miracles, to the keepers of a mysterious forest that seems to allow people to move between realities... For a price.

    Between them all (or, rather, surrounding them), we have the Palleseen: a new imperial power swiftly taking over the world. Strictly "rational", abhorring all gods, woowoo, and mumbo-jumbo, the Palleseen are all-business, exporting their "perfection" (in the form of absolute bureaucracy) to the rest of the world by diplomacy, and, failing that, the underside of an iron-shod army-regulation boot. From a Pal-occupied city turning into a powderkeg of rebellion, to the front lines of one of the Palleseen's ever-present wars, to a country facing the Pal's more diplomatic face, to a city under siege, we see this world the Pals seek to "perfect" through the eyes of the weirdos, the outcasts, and those whose livelihoods rely on the messy inefficiencies of human life (those whom the Palleseen philosophically reject, and yet rely on as integral parts of civilisation) we explore the perspectives, flaws and beautiful rube-goldberg collision of these weirdos, both those fighting against and as part of the Palleseen engine.

    This series examines the inescapable fallacy of a system which claims to be perfect, and how systems that work require the flexibility afforded by diversity of thought. Through every crack we glimpse as the imperialist war machine plods implacably forward, we glimpse the inevitable fall of such a machine, and have to ask "at what point is there hope in standing against an unbeatable foe? Should you stand against it anyway?"

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I loved his children of time series. This sounds amazing and I definitely will check it out. Thanks for sharing.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    Definitely! Start with "City of Last Chances", then work your way through the rainbow (each successive book has a different accent color on the cover, in rainbow order)

    • City of Last Chances - Red
    • House of Open Wounds - Orange
    • Days of Shattered Faith - Yellow
    • Lives Of Bitter Rain - Green
    • Pretenders to the Throne of God - Blue

    Even the cover art is perfect. Every cover contains about ten references to the events, characters, and locations in the book.

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    The Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman. I'm half way through book 7 and excited for book 8 to come out in a few months.

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago* (1 child)

    Audiobook while I drive, but still

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago

    Enshittification by Cory doctorow

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I just finished The Lamb Will Slaughter The Lion, a queer anarchist horror novella about a trans travelpunk hunting a demon with a group of anarchists whose commune is about to go to shit. It's a pretty fun read, I am looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I enjoyed this and the sequel "The Barrow Will send what it May."

    And everything else the author has written.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    I do plan to read that one and "the immortal choir holds every voice" as well, but it seems to not be available from their site or patreon so I requested both it and the sapling cage from my local bookshop and am currently waiting on that

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Book 7 of " Dungeon crawler Carl " series by Matt Dinniman.

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (1 child)
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