FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

I'll counter the likewarmness with a recommendation. It's fine, funny, and a classic for a reason. Maybe don't go in expecting a propulsive plot, or much logic to it, but you have to admit it starts out with the biggest bang possible.

Yeah. For me, it's been a better book to know about than to read. Yet it is a massively popular book for a reason. I don't begrudge those who enjoy something I fail to spark to.

[Hollow Man]

It's phenom, and worth reading them all, even if they keep sliding in quality (books 2 and 3 not so much, but 4 is definitely a step down).

[maddz]

Originally Posted by Hollow Man

It's phenom, and worth reading them all, even if they keep sliding in quality (books 2 and 3 not so much, but 4 is definitely a step down).

And avoid the Catheryne Valente riff on HHGTTG crossed with the Eurovision Song Contest like the plague.

[ZodWallop]

Incidentally, looks like Hulu is adapting it as a series: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hulu)

I don't think the book is suited for a big budget, slick adaptation. I knew the movie would bomb before I'd seen any clips from it. The radio and cheesy BBC series were likely the best versions.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Incidentally, looks like Hulu is adapting it as a series: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hulu)

I don't think the book is suited for a big budget, slick adaptation. I knew the movie would bomb before I'd seen any clips from it. The radio and cheesy BBC series were likely the best versions.

The movie was terrible. The BBC radio version is excellent and the BBC TV series is good. As for the Hulu series, we'll have to wait and see.

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

I'll counter the likewarmness with a recommendation. It's fine, funny, and a classic for a reason. Maybe don't go in expecting a propulsive plot, or much logic to it, but you have to admit it starts out with the biggest bang possible.

I'd suggest not expecting any logic to it. The whole series is random, illogical and hilarious. Marvin ends up older than the universe but he's somehow still functional? Someone spends a year dead for tax purposes? A band's performances cause planetary catastrophes? A potted plant thinks "Oh no, not again"? (Not all of that happens in the first book.) None of it makes any sense really, but the way it's presented makes you laugh.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The movie was terrible. The BBC radio version is excellent and the BBC TV series is good. As for the Hulu series, we'll have to wait and see.

I was sub-vocalising the dialogue 10 seconds ahead of the soundtrack when we went to see the film. I thought it was quite good although the munchkins at the end were a bit twee.

[Aleron Ives]

I'm not sure if this belongs here or in the thrillers thread, but Neal Stephenson's 'Reamde' is $2:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XVN0WW
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/reamde

[SomeSteve]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

I'm not sure if this belongs here or in the thrillers thread, but Neal Stephenson's 'Reamde' is $2:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XVN0WW
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/reamde

As is his Termination Shock.

https://www.amazon.com/Termination-S.../dp/B08WLWC6GZ

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/termination-shock-1

[salty-horse]

I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane is $2 on Amazon.com.
Locus review by Ian Mond

Dept. of Speculation meets Black Mirror in this lyrical, speculative debut about a queer mother raising her daughter in an unjust surveillance state

In a United States not so unlike our own, the Department of Balance has adopted a radical new form of law enforcement: rather than incarceration, wrongdoers are given a second (and sometimes, third, fourth, and fifth) shadow as a reminder of their crime—and a warning to those they encounter. Within the Department, corruption and prejudice run rampant, giving rise to an underclass of so-called Shadesters who are disenfranchised, publicly shamed, and deprived of civil rights protections.

Kris is a Shadester and a new mother to a baby born with a second shadow of her own. Grieving the loss of her wife and thoroughly unprepared for the reality of raising a child alone, Kris teeters on the edge of collapse, fumbling in a daze of alcohol, shame, and self-loathing. Yet as the kid grows, Kris finds her footing, raising a child whose irrepressible spark cannot be dampened by the harsh realities of the world. She can’t forget her wife, but with time, she can make a new life for herself and the kid, supported by a community of fellow misfits who defy the Department to lift one another up in solidarity and hope.

With a first-person register reminiscent of the fierce self-disclosure of Sheila Heti and the poetic precision of Ocean Vuong, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself is a bold debut novel that examines the long shadow of grief, the hard work of parenting, and the power of queer resistance.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Yeah. For me, it's been a better book to know about than to read. Yet it is a massively popular book for a reason. I don't begrudge those who enjoy something I fail to spark to.

Humor can be like that. If it doesn't work for you then it won't be funny.
I'm that way with most American sit-coms. They're just not funny to me.

But I agree that the latter books were running dry. Adams clearly wanted to write other things but publisher, money.

[salty-horse]

Comeuppance Served Cold by Marion Deeds is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
Novella.

A hard-boiled historical fantasy of criminality and magic, couched in the glamour of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.

Seattle, 1929—a bitterly divided city overflowing with wealth, violence, and magic.

A respected magus and city leader intent on criminalizing Seattle’s most vulnerable magickers hires a young woman as a lady’s companion to curb his rebellious daughter’s outrageous behavior.

The widowed owner of a speakeasy encounters an opportunity to make her husband’s murderer pay while she tries to keep her shapeshifter brother safe.

A notorious thief slips into the city to complete a delicate and dangerous job that will leave chaos in its wake.

One thing is for certain—comeuppance, eventually, waits for everyone.

[GA Russell]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Illustrated Edition

$1.99

https://www.amazon.com/Hitchhikers-G...dp/B000XUBC2C/

[Alastair_S]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

(The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) is a classic and I really like Douglas Adams. But I have DNFed this book several times.

It took me a few times to get past the first few chapters, but I found that the book picked up after Zaphod

Spoiler:

stole the Heart of Gold

(as if that's a spoiler).

Wasn't it Adams's first book? It may have taken him those few chapters to transition from a script writing mentality to that of writing a book.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Alastair_S

It took me a few times to get past the first few chapters, but I found that the book picked up after Zaphod

Spoiler:

stole the Heart of Gold

(as if that's a spoiler).

Wasn't it Adams's first book? It may have taken him those few chapters to transition from a script writing mentality to that of writing a book.

I've gotten a lot further than that. I had a friend that went nuts for the series and I've read at least half of the first book. Perhaps two thirds. I find the ideas funny. It's just the feeling that none of this is really going anywhere that turned me away.

I had more success with Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.