Never read anything by him. Is he any good? What do you suggest? Particularly interested in stuff that can be used as inspiration for games.
Perdido Street Station:
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perdido_Street_Station)
QuoteIsaac Dan der Grimnebulin is an eccentric scientist living in the city of New Crobuzon with girlfriend Lin. While Lin, an artist, is commissioned to create a sculpture of mob boss Mr. Motley, Isaac is offered a unique challenge. Yagharek is a member of a flying species, whose wings have been cut off, and who asks Isaac to restore them. Isaac is sparked by the seemingly impossible nature of the task, and gathers various flying animals to study in his lab – including a multicolored, unidentifiable caterpillar. Once Isaac learns that the caterpillar only eats a hallucinogenic drug called "dreamshit", he begins to feed it, unwittingly stimulating its metamorphosis into a giant and incredibly dangerous butterfly-like creature which feeds off the subconscious of sentient beings, leaving them as catatonic vegetables. It is revealed that dreamshit is in fact secreted by such creatures, of which four have been sold to Mr. Motley, and "milked" to produce the drug. When these other larvae transform and escape they plague the citizens of New Crobuzon until Isaac can find a way to stop them.
Well, there's something.
JG
Quote from: The Butcher;618517Never read anything by him. Is he any good? What do you suggest? Particularly interested in stuff that can be used as inspiration for games.
I read a collection of his short stories and was unimpressed by the writing. Nothing really useful for gaming that I could see.
He can clearly write, but he can be very verbose. The jury's out as far as I'm concerned. I couldn't finish The City and The City.
He likes human-bug sex. Not my cup of tea.
Quote from: danbuter;620239He likes human-bug sex. Not my cup of tea.
I never read that bit in his works, and I am very glad.
Quote from: danbuter;620239He likes human-bug sex. Not my cup of tea.
Reminds me of William S. Burroughs.
JG
Quote from: danbuter;620239He likes human-bug sex. Not my cup of tea.
Perdido is deliberately grotesque from that much of it I've read. Again it's intensely verbose. Not really sure the plot excites me.
If it's any consolation she's only a bug...upstairs. From the neck down, it's sexytimes! HTH!
Not Kraken! I find it ridiculous and I couldn't get past page 100.
Quote from: danbuter;620239He likes human-bug sex. Not my cup of tea.
But is that just alluded to, or very clearly described? Because Clark Ashton Smith sometimes eliptically suggests that a protagonist has gone on to entertain romantic liasions with really, really inhuman things, which I'm... tolerant of (can't in all honesty say "fine with") because I'm spared the graphics.
But if it's any more explicit than this... ew.
It's probably been discussed already but if you want a fantasy universe that's well suited to gaming why not start with Steven Eriksson's Malazan books?
Quote from: kraz007;620645It's probably been discussed already but if you want a fantasy universe that's well suited to gaming why not start with Steven Eriksson's Malazan books?
I've heard good things about it but I'm not really crazy about multi-book-spanning sagas. I also want to awe and surprise my players at the game table with new and weird vistas; do you feel the Malazan books a good source of inspiration for this sort of thing?
Read The Scar it is far and away his best book. Kraken is okay, Perdido was kind of boring, but its got some great setting detail, and some cool freaky stuff that makes it worth the time, I think, and no the bug sex is not graphic, at least not to my memory. Iron Council is boring and preachy, as well as being not terribly well constructed or structureed. I never got past the first few pages of The City.
But The Scar is really great. I recommend it without reservation, even to people who dislike his other work.