A Sign That Something is Written by AI?

[Ben]

I am currently in a limbo waiting for more pleasure reading to be published by my favorite authors, so have been trying to wade through the fake reviews to find some filler stuff. I'm currently into post-apocalypse and military scifi, and there are just a billion mostly self-published authors of this stuff, often with ads for each of their books on Amazon that look like the ads for blockbuster movies.

The writing is generally mediocre, but readable as something to pass the time. I can generally live with the usual self-published stuff like grammar mistakes and missing words and the like on every 10th page or so. What has been bothering me lately is something I'm seeing more and more of, and that I think might be a sign of AI writing, is, as an example, constantly using a character's full name and title. I'm currently reading the "Rise of the Republic" series by James Rosone. I swear that in every third paragraph, he restates a character's full title, as in, "Captain Miles Hunt was called to the bridge". "Captain Miles Hunt took his seat on the Command Deck".

It goes on and on with that kind of stuff for multiple characters, rather than introducing  them with full name and title, then going to "CAPT Hunt" or "Hunt" or "Miles". It's extremely annoying, and my guess is that it might be due to AI writing, or AI assistance in writing, plus poor editing, because some of these authors seem to write a book a month. Which seems difficult to do on their own, versus having an AI write it, then spending some time doing quick edits to make it seem less-AI. I have on occasion asked various AIs to write science fiction short stories, and that too often repeated "full name and title" thing was something that was done numerous times.

Anyways, if it is AI writing, AIs still have a ways to go to be good storytellers, versus "Here's the story you asked for" writers.

[Bogie]

Have you looked at Lawdog's outfit? Lots of short story collections... Some of 'em pretty good.

[Brad Johnson]

Ever read Piers Anthony's "Tyrant" series?

Brad

[Ben]

Ever read Piers Anthony's "Tyrant" series?

Brad

I haven't. Though over the Winter I broke out a couple of bins of scifi paperbacks that I collected through the 70s-80s, so will occasionally break one of those out and reread Asimov, Vance, Tubb, Laumer, etc.

I think there are plenty of good authors currently, but I'm pretty sure they don't use AI, because the authors I really like take a year to get a new book out. 

[lee n. field]

I am currently in a limbo waiting for more pleasure reading to be published by my favorite authors, so have been trying to wade through the fake reviews to find some filler stuff. I'm currently into post-apocalypse and military scifi, and there are just a billion mostly self-published authors of this stuff, often with ads for each of their books on Amazon that look like the ads for blockbuster movies.

The writing is generally mediocre, but readable as something to pass the time. I can generally live with the usual self-published stuff like grammar mistakes and missing words and the like on every 10th page or so. What has been bothering me lately is something I'm seeing more and more of, and that I think might be a sign of AI writing, is, as an example, constantly using a character's full name and title. I'm currently reading the "Rise of the Republic" series by James Rosone. I swear that in every third paragraph, he restates a character's full title, as in, "Captain Miles Hunt was called to the bridge". "Captain Miles Hunt took his seat on the Command Deck".

It goes on and on with that kind of stuff for multiple characters, rather than introducing  them with full name and title, then going to "CAPT Hunt" or "Hunt" or "Miles". It's extremely annoying, and my guess is that it might be due to AI writing, or AI assistance in writing, plus poor editing, because some of these authors seem to write a book a month. Which seems difficult to do on their own, versus having an AI write it, then spending some time doing quick edits to make it seem less-AI. I have on occasion asked various AIs to write science fiction short stories, and that too often repeated "full name and title" thing was something that was done numerous times.

Anyways, if it is AI writing, AIs still have a ways to go to be good storytellers, versus "Here's the story you asked for" writers.

AI generated text that I am able to spot usually just isn't worth reading.  A few facts fluffed out in a meandering text.

If you want something to read, here's a recommendation from Peter Grant: https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/08/saturday-snippet-move-over-hardy-boys.html.  I thought it was quite good.  Technically "post apocalypse", sort of.

"What do you know about other timelines?"

The Bear looked serious.  "'The moving finger writes; and,having writ, moves on: not all they piety nor with shall lure it back to cancel half a line, not all they tears wash out a word of it.'  History can't be altered.  Except once.  Only once, in all the Earth's existence.

"There was a war the destroyed civilization.  The land itself caught fire and burned.  The Sun didn't show his face for years at a time. Humanity was on the road to extinction.  So was most of the other life on the planet.

"I couldn't bear to witness it.  I fled down into the depths of the Tower, deeper than I'd ever gone before.  On the lowest levels, the stone turns into a shadow of itself, and the tunnels look out onto lightless and boundless void. 

"it was the beginning of everything, before the Ur-Sun and the Word that spoke it into being.  Something was about to happen.  I could feel it.  I didn't stay down there.  You don't look over God's shoulder when he's working.

"When I returned to the age of Man, everything had changed.  The was wasn't even a memory.  It have been wiped out of existence.

[K Frame]

I'll never not recommend Tony Hillerman's Navajo Tribal murder mysteries.

After his death his daughter picked up the torch and is also doing a very credible job of crafting novels based on her Dad's characters.

[Ben]

I'll never not recommend Tony Hillerman's Navajo Tribal murder mysteries.

Semi-related tangent: I used to look forward to every new book in the Longmire series until about 3-4 books back when I gave up on them, because the dude went crazytown on the native American mysticism, sending Longmire into spirit dream worlds and other nonsense. A far cry from the interesting and humorous/serious small town characters solving crime in Wyoming.

[Hawkmoon]

I'll never not recommend Tony Hillerman's Navajo Tribal murder mysteries.

After his death his daughter picked up the torch and is also doing a very credible job of crafting novels based on her Dad's characters.

I had no idea Tony's daughter was carrying on the series. I think I've read every one of Hillerman's Chee/Leaphorn novels -- most more than once. They were (IMHO) great books.

[Hawkmoon]

Interestingly, on one of the author forums where I hang out when I'm not lurking here there was a very recent discussion about AI content checker apps. A number of members of the forum submitted their own work to the AI checkers, and the results were that the original, non-AI content manuscripts were flagged as containing between 75% and 87% AI-generated content.

So we have an interesting conundrum: AI doesn't write very well, but AI incorrectly flags good writing as having been generated by AI. (The same false positive result occurs when using AI to check for plagiarism.)

[230RN]

Wrong thread.  Sorry.

[dogmush]

It's not "Military" SciFi, it's just "Sci Fi" but if you haven't already read Theft of Fire by Devon Erikson, I really enjoyed it as medium hard sci-fi.  Also he's another independent author that was gatekept out of normal publishing because of politics. He's funny on Twitter as well.

https://x.com/Devon_Eriksen_

https://www.amazon.com/Theft-Fire-Orbital-Space-1-ebook/dp/B0CJHQ4LZN

[K Frame]

Hillerman touched on Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni mythology and religion, but not in the way that the Longmier author apparently did.

Hillerman crafted his stories both inside of the framework of Native American tradition but also blended into the plot line and into the backgrounds of the characters.

I never thought that it was done in a heavy handed manner at all, and it was never the driver of the plot, it was always done in a manner that supported the plot.

[K Frame]

I had no idea Tony's daughter was carrying on the series. I think I've read every one of Hillerman's Chee/Leaphorn novels -- most more than once. They were (IMHO) great books.

100% agree.

I was at Camp Perry for the National Matches when I came across my first Hillerman book on the rack at a drug store. The title -- "A Thief of Time" -- immediately caught my eye because I knew EXACTLY what it was referencing -- archaeological plundering.

Up to that point I'd never heard of Hillerman, but I read that book in less than 2 days and was completely captivated. Like you, I've read most of them multiple times.

[Perd Hapley]

The number of English language novels & short stories must number in the millions by now. There's no need to resort to possibly AI fluff. If you haven't read it, I can highly recommend an English translation of the unabridged Les Miserables.

[MechAg94]

A few authors I have liked.  In looking, I found a couple new books I haven't read yet. 

Ryk Spoor and Dave Freer are pretty good authors.  Both have done collaborations with Eric Flint and others.  Not all SciFi, but entertaining writers.  Dave Freer has a lot of humor in his stories.  His Pyramid Scheme book is very good.  Rats, Bats, and Vats also.

Marko Kloos has Front Lines series that I was reading.  I ran out of books and haven't looked to see what is new in a while. 

Jack Campbell is a very good writer that I always have trouble putting down.  His Lost Fleet series is good. 

Craig Alanson has an Expeditionary Force series that started with a book called Columbus Day.  On book 18 now I think.  A few of the books got pretty slow, but largely entertaining. 

[Ben]

The number of English language novels & short stories must number in the millions by now. There's no need to resort to possibly AI fluff. If you haven't read it, I can highly recommend an English translation of the unabridged Les Miserables.

Something I've been doing ever since I retired is alternating between fiction pleasure reading and "the books every man should read". I alternate between the fun book and the classic literature. The classic stuff can be fun too, but I have to really push through a lot of it.

For the last six months, I've been doing a method that is supposed to help keep old brains in shape and slow cognitive decline, which is reading multiple books at the same time. I set aside an hour every evening to read. So for instance while I'm reading this Rise of the Republic series, I'm also continuing to slog through The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, currently on book four. I'll read a chapter a day of Decline, then read 2-3 chapters of the fun book, then, the last reading of the night is a chapter from the Bible.

Or "a" bible. I finally read the Bible from cover to cover last year (Douay Rheims version - a tough one), and have gotten interested in the different translations, so have been reading through doing comparisons, plus reading through a German version as well. I also started reading the Quran, which is actually what got me to finally read the whole Bible. I was interested in it from a "know thine enemy" perspective, plus wanting to see how the actual text lines up (or not) with how terrorists seem to interpret it, but then I thought that it was only right that I read the religious text of my people before I read that. So generally right now I juggle around four books at a time. 

[lee n. field]

Something I've been doing ever since I retired is alternating between fiction pleasure reading and "the books every man should read". I alternate between the fun book and the classic literature. The classic stuff can be fun too, but I have to really push through a lot of it.

For the last six months, I've been doing a method that is supposed to help keep old brains in shape and slow cognitive decline,

REbuilding attention span is on my list of retirement things to do.

which is reading multiple books at the same time. I set aside an hour every evening to read. So for instance while I'm reading this Rise of the Republic series, I'm also continuing to slog through The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, currently on book four. I'll read a chapter a day of Decline, then read 2-3 chapters of the fun book, then, the last reading of the night is a chapter from the Bible.

Maybe do Augustine's "City of God", for a first hand Roman citizen's take on that.  He was writing early fifth century as decline in the West was ramping up.  About a lot more too, and hard going.  Re-reading that is on my list.

Or "a" bible. I finally read the Bible from cover to cover last year (Douay Rheims version - a tough one), and have gotten interested in the different translations, so have been reading through doing comparisons, plus reading through a German version as well. I also started reading the Quran, which is actually what got me to finally read the whole Bible. I was interested in it from a "know thine enemy" perspective, plus wanting to see how the actual text lines up (or not) with how terrorists seem to interpret it, but then I thought that it was only right that I read the religious text of my people before I read that. So generally right now I juggle around four books at a time. 

If you want to "just read", this is my favored reading Bible: https://www.amazon.com/Readers-Bible-Cloth-Board-Timeless/dp/1433544148.  English Standard Version Reader's Bible.  Almost all the distracting apparatus is stripped out.  Note, this particular edition doesn't hold up physically super well.

As far as fiction, here's an oddball thing I read recently: Father Elijah, an Apocalypse.  An end times novel, but from what I assume is a traditionalist Roman Catholic perspective.  It and it's sequel are pretty good.

(My problem with doing this is, if I set it down and it sits for a while, Dearest Wifey will sweep it up and put it "somewhere", I won't realize it for a while, and loose track.)

[Perd Hapley]

Something I've been doing ever since I retired is alternating between fiction pleasure reading and "the books every man should read". I alternate between the fun book and the classic literature. The classic stuff can be fun too, but I have to really push through a lot of it.

For the last six months, I've been doing a method that is supposed to help keep old brains in shape and slow cognitive decline, which is reading multiple books at the same time. I set aside an hour every evening to read. So for instance while I'm reading this Rise of the Republic series, I'm also continuing to slog through The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, currently on book four. I'll read a chapter a day of Decline, then read 2-3 chapters of the fun book, then, the last reading of the night is a chapter from the Bible.

Or "a" bible. I finally read the Bible from cover to cover last year (Douay Rheims version - a tough one), and have gotten interested in the different translations, so have been reading through doing comparisons, plus reading through a German version as well. I also started reading the Quran, which is actually what got me to finally read the whole Bible. I was interested in it from a "know thine enemy" perspective, plus wanting to see how the actual text lines up (or not) with how terrorists seem to interpret it, but then I thought that it was only right that I read the religious text of my people before I read that. So generally right now I juggle around four books at a time. 

Sounds good. I just made the mistake of thinking Le Mis counted as pleasure reading.

I really need to read more classics, but I am really stuck on reading scripture and history right now. I've been reading the Bible 2 or 3 times a day lately, just a chapter or half-a-chapter at a time. I have also been reading a book called "Love and Hate in Jamestown." Soap opera chick lit title, but it's really just a narrative history of the Jamestown colony.

Speaking of attention spans, CS Lewis (who read everything) advised against forcing yourself to read straight through every book. His advice was to read the parts you want to read, move on to something else, and then come back for the rest later.