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Seriously, Alastair Reynolds is great - even awesome - if you just accept expecting lovely endings for every single one of his stories. He has never ended a story in any conceivably decent way.
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Aug 7, 2014 17:37
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Actual good books: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin also Isle of the Dead by Roger Zelazny (do not read his Amber books they are bad) Also the other stuff mentioned above -- Canticle for Liebowitz, Stars My Destination, Neuromancer, etc. If you want freaky weird awkward sex scenes: quote:Titanides come in two sexes, male and female. Both sexes have a rear vagina and uterus, and a large penis in the position where a horse's penis would be. Both sexes also possess humanoid breasts and can thus give birth to and suckle young. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanide_(Gaea_trilogy) Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Aug 7, 2014 |
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Aug 7, 2014 18:00
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:
by john varley author of "overdrawn at the memory bank" 
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Aug 7, 2014 18:21
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Can anyone recommend some good military scifi other than like forever war/ forever peacr/ old mans war poo poo by scalzi
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Aug 7, 2014 18:41
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glove of darth vader.
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Aug 7, 2014 19:00
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lomokome papers obvs
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Aug 7, 2014 20:47
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Aug 7, 2014 20:47
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marrow by robert reed has weird sex, check it out op
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Aug 7, 2014 20:52
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only things by gays non whites or womens ie Olivia Butler Ursula K Le Guin Samuel R Delany bonus points for checking more than one box
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Aug 7, 2014 21:10
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Waroduce posted:Can anyone recommend some good military scifi other than like forever war/ forever peacr/ old mans war poo poo by scalzi Black Company is the only other really good sci fi/fantasy war book I know.
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Aug 7, 2014 21:10
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avoid peter f Hamilton unless you really like genetically enhanced children with adult bodies loving
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Aug 7, 2014 21:17
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nomadologique posted:Black Company is the only other really good sci fi/fantasy war book I know. Read dat poo poo was great. Highly recommended
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Aug 7, 2014 21:22
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I really didn't enjoy the first two culture novels, do they get better
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Aug 7, 2014 22:37
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WEEDLORD CHEETO posted:I really didn't enjoy the first two culture novels, do they get better probably not, though use of weapons does some fun narrative tricks
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Aug 7, 2014 22:41
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Just casting another ballot for the Void trilogy by Peter F Hamilton. It is technically in the same universe as Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained but it can be read as an independent trilogy. The best is if you can get your hands on the audiobooks narrated by John Lee. I actually looked forward to my daily commutes when I was listening to these.
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Aug 7, 2014 22:58
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Philip K. Dick's short story The Faith of our Fathers is awesome btw
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Aug 7, 2014 22:59
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Technocrat posted:Old Man's War, it's got geriatric super-soldier plant-people sex. Old Man's War has my two favorite moments in a sci-fi novel. When they're eavesdropping in on alien broadcasts and it turns out they're watching the ET equivalent of Julia Child. The other is when they invade a planet of Lilliputians like aliens and proceed to Godzilla their way through a major city until the main character has a nervous breakdown because Jesus Christ this is so hosed.
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Aug 7, 2014 23:14
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girth brooks part 2 posted:Old Man's War has my two favorite moments in a sci-fi novel. When they're eavesdropping in on alien broadcasts and it turns out they're watching the ET equivalent of Julia Child. The other is when they invade a planet of Lilliputians like aliens and proceed to Godzilla their way through a major city until the main character has a nervous breakdown because Jesus Christ this is so hosed. I liked when they were invading some ape furry planet or something and these aliens fell back to like a central bowl thing and started to sing, and one of the main characters squadmates was a senator or some type of politican when he was young, he was a bit of a rear end in a top hat too. Hes like they are singing they are trying to surrender to save their people and he just runs into the aliens stadium thing that he describes as a church and is all like "My name is Senator X im Here to negotiate lets save your people" and than he gets shot full of scifi weapon.
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Aug 8, 2014 00:29
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Fandyien posted:Forever War is one of the best sci fi novels ever written this and slightly less for cities in flight it's been a while since I read it.
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Aug 8, 2014 00:39
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Old Man's War is one of those funny (not very uncommon) novels where, apparently, only Americans exist in space.
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Aug 8, 2014 00:43
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nomadologique posted:Black Company is the only other really good sci fi/fantasy war book I know.
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Aug 8, 2014 00:47
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:
Tumblr.. in space!
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Aug 8, 2014 00:59
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WEEDLORD CHEETO posted:I really didn't enjoy the first two culture novels, do they get better
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Aug 8, 2014 01:12
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old man's war was a more shallow, more entertaining starship troopers it was good. hyperion was good.
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Aug 8, 2014 01:23
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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Aug 8, 2014 01:25
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I'm surprised no one's mentioned Gateway by Fred Pohl. It's a great read. I'm really not a huge fan of any of his other books, but he really hit the spot with Gateway. It won the Hugo in 1978, so it's likely this isn't just a product of my own feverish tastes in lit. I'd also like to put in another vote for VALIS by Phillip K. Dick. I don't really consider it sci-fi, but it would count as speculative fiction. It really transmits the crazy-that-is-PKD in a fantastic way, since it's a fictionalized autobiography,and has all sorts of neat bits about gnostic ideology in it which is interesting in itself.
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Aug 8, 2014 01:37
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Waroduce posted:Can anyone recommend some good military scifi other than like forever war/ forever peacr/ old mans war poo poo by scalzi If you liked that, you'll like Starship Troopers by Heinlein. It's not all that much like the movie, so don't think it's ruined it for you or anything. I'm not a huge fan of his other stuff, since it gets progressively weirder as he ages, but I really enjoyed that book. Tons of the ideas in forever war are 'borrowed' pretty much rote from Starship Troopers.
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Aug 8, 2014 01:41
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Benito Hitlerstalin posted:Old Man's War is one of those funny (not very uncommon) novels where, apparently, only Americans exist in space. If space if good enough for Jesus it's good enough for USA.
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Aug 8, 2014 01:43
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Talas posted:Warning, only read the first trilogy. The series goes progressively bad after that. oh yeah it gets really rad bad, holy moly
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Aug 8, 2014 01:47
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BodineWilson posted:I'd also like to put in another vote for VALIS by Phillip K. Dick. I don't really consider it sci-fi, but it would count as speculative fiction. It really transmits the crazy-that-is-PKD in a fantastic way, since it's a fictionalized autobiography,and has all sorts of neat bits about gnostic ideology in it which is interesting in itself. i actually "recommend" the VALIS trilogy to people not as a form of fiction or scifi but as a direct experience of progressive psychosis, which is something that's hard to find. i love three stigmata.
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Aug 8, 2014 01:48
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Omi-Polari posted:Pretty sure I remember an American flag on the moon. there were non americans, in fact the only characters whose nationality was actually mentioned at all were not americans. the rest just...spoke english? haha holy poo poo http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/08/05/syfy-old-mans-war/
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Aug 8, 2014 01:49
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Does Gravity's Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon) Count as Sci-fi? Because sex stuff doesn't get much weirder. It got rejected from getting a Pulitzer because some of the committee thought it was too perverse. For other books, I was a big fan of "Counting Heads" by David Marusek, but the sequel didn't do much for me. I haven't read much sci-fi recently but I am going to look at some of the suggestions here.
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Aug 8, 2014 01:53
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Stoic Commie posted:there were non americans, in fact the only characters whose nationality was actually mentioned at all were not americans. the rest just...spoke english? This may be going into spoiler territory but aside from some poor generic browns in the beginning and a single named South American character I'm drawing blanks All other characters read (to me at least) as obviously and quintessentially American Granted, it was a while since I read it e: I'm not saying it's bad thing. Just something I noticed. Maybe in the future American cultural hegemony is actually a thing and everybody wears blue jeans, chews copenhagen and is named some variation of Bob-Billy-Bob Brown poo poo man idk Cake Smashing Boob fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Aug 8, 2014 |
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Aug 8, 2014 02:05
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BodineWilson posted:I'd also like to put in another vote for VALIS by Phillip K. Dick. I don't really consider it sci-fi, but it would count as speculative fiction. It really transmits the crazy-that-is-PKD in a fantastic way, since it's a fictionalized autobiography,and has all sorts of neat bits about gnostic ideology in it which is interesting in itself. nomadologique posted:i actually "recommend" the VALIS trilogy to people not as a form of fiction or scifi but as a direct experience of progressive psychosis, which is something that's hard to find. I read Valis right after taking a class about the writing of the New Testament and it's historical context. This was a lucky coincidence because while it make some of PKD's common misconceptions about early Christianity stick out like a sore thumb, it also meant I knew exactly what he was talking about with all his gnostic ideology. Reading it made be feel really sympathetic for PKD and it was really kind of a sad experience. At the same time it was such an engrossing read I definitely want to read more of it.
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Aug 8, 2014 03:20
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Snak posted:Reading it made be feel really sympathetic for PKD and it was really kind of a sad experience. At the same time it was such an engrossing read I definitely want to read more of it. I have a whole shelf of Dick (  ) but if I hadn't read a biography (Divine Invasions) very early on I would've lost patience with him a long time ago. Being able to read PKD's books and ideas in context with his real life has allowed me to get past the glaring flaws in a lot of his stuff - the vicarious neuroses, the terrible writing, wondering on which page he is going to comment on a female character's breasts....
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Aug 8, 2014 03:31
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Spacely posted:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy I can't believe no one said that already haha
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Aug 8, 2014 03:53
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Spacely posted:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is also fantastic, unless, of course, you are referring to all five (six) books in the 'trilogy'. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a decent read as well, but I'm not sure it qualifies as science fiction.
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Aug 8, 2014 17:43
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BodineWilson posted:If you liked that, you'll like Starship Troopers by Heinlein. It's not all that much like the movie, so don't think it's ruined it for you or anything. It can be successfully argued that Starship Troopers (the book) has influenced the U.S. Military more than any other work of fiction. Hell, DARPA has been working on powered armor for several years now. Starship Troopers was on the reading list for OCS for the Marines, the Navy and the Army if I remember correctly.
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Aug 8, 2014 17:47
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Snak posted:Yeah, I agree with both of these statements. It's not science fiction, but it's like, raw insight into the mind of a science fiction writer. Dunno if by valis you mean the book or the trilogy but if the former then read all three, Timothy archer is like a million times sadder than valis.
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Aug 8, 2014 19:31
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Cuntpunch posted:Corey's Expanse Trilogy, starting with Leviathan Wakes, is amazing. Just finished it last night. Best scifi I've read since Banks died. Glad to see someone else post this, I recently finished as well and totally dug it. I'd pretty much figured all the good sci-fi had already been written but he really knocks it out of the park.
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Aug 9, 2014 01:41
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