|
HeroOfTheRevolution posted:Try The Entire and the Rose! The first book is called Bright of the Sky. I really liked it (just finished the fourth and final book couple weeks ago), but I haven't seen any other love for it in this thread. I'm enjoying the series so far. It reminds me a lot of The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell.
|
| # ¿ Jan 21, 2011 04:47 |
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 24, 2013 22:21 |
|
|
Lyon posted:I'm looking for a fantasy series with a really in-depth magic system and a "coming of age" story. Some examples off the top of my head are Wheel of Time, Elminster: Making of a Mage (I don't want Forgotten Realms/Dragonlance/etc, just an example), hell even the Riddle-master Trilogy was decent. Gene Wolfe's The Knight and The Wizard is a great coming of age story, along with The Book of the New Sun, which starts off with a young boy training to be a torturer. Neither of them get really in depth with magic, but it's good to try new things!
|
| # ¿ Jan 28, 2011 02:17 |
|
|
JD-Smith posted:2. "ghost ship" type stories like.. Aliens, or Dead Space, Event Horizon etc. Stories similar to isolation and unknown like "The Thing" doesn't necessarily have to be in space but just that kind of creepy exploration or unknown threat type of situation. Sorry for being so vague.. I'd like them for Kindle as well. Not a series, but here's one: Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Fools_(Russo_novel) Features a lot of exploration of an unknown alien ship bits, with some cosmic horror and the sense that the book was written by a suicidally-depressed nihilist.
|
| # ¿ Feb 5, 2011 23:57 |
|
|
I just finished reading the first book in Richard Paul Russo's Carlucci series, and it was fantastic. It's a really bleak portrayal of a mid 21st century San Francisco that reminded me a lot of Blade Runner. http://www.amazon.com/Carlucci-3-in...o/dp/0441010547 I enjoyed some of the reviews: quote:My major comment and the reason for my title is the really glum, despondent, morose . . .I think of run out of synonyms here. Ruso really paints a bleak and scary picture of the close future. I remember a article I think Ray Bradbury wrote years ago. He said that on days when he felt especially good, he'd write a quick dismal story just to get all traces of depression out of his system. Maybe that is what Ruso is doing here. If you read Russo's other books like Ship of Fools and his short stories, they all tend to be relentlessly depressing and nihilistic. I think that's fascinating, and it's a mood that's not too common in modern science fiction. Vertigus fucked around with this message at Feb 16, 2011 around 01:56 |
| # ¿ Feb 16, 2011 01:53 |
|
|
Neurosis posted:I didn't think this was that bad. There's some hope of a better future at the end, and of change, which is optimistic given their rather staid progress as a ship. What I really wanted out of this book, actually, was more elaboration on the aliens. I thought it could have been pushed much further in the horror department. What made the horror effective for me was the fact that the aliens never really were revealed, except for a tiny bit at the end of the book. And while the ship survives at the end, it survives in a kind of Lovecraftian universe where there are great forces at play that don't have a use for human life besides exploiting it.
|
| # ¿ Feb 16, 2011 21:10 |
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:It's really difficult for a book to be entertaining when then protagonist is a set-piece exercise "How to Create Antipathy in your Readers." The Covenant books are certainly interesting in a technical sense but it's hard for me to disagree with those who don't find them entertaining or pleasurable to read. I actually think Donaldson did a great job with this in his Gap Cycle series. I don't know if maybe he learned a lesson after the Thomas Covenant books or what, but the way you flip from loathing to sympathizing with the characters in the Gap Cycle is a fascinating experience and the narrative never seems to suffer. There's always someone you're rooting for, even if that guy turns out to be a sociopathic rapist later on. I really recommend the series, although the fact that it's science fiction rather than fantasy may turn some people off.
|
| # ¿ Feb 21, 2011 22:19 |
|
|
Hobnob posted:Alastair Reynolds' The House of Suns is a recent good novel on the theme. I'd say pretty much all of Alastair Reynolds' books have that theme to some degree. Pushing Ice, the stories in Galactic North, and all the Revelation Space books push it pretty hard. All the space travel is done at relativistic speeds*, so it makes the discussion of entropy and disassociation pretty organic. *House of Suns:I still have no idea why he spent so much energy making believable stories involving relativistic travel and then wrote FTL travel into House of Suns in a way that insufficiently/half-assedly covered the causality problem.
|
| # ¿ Mar 9, 2011 05:58 |
|
|
The Prince of Nothing series by R. Scott Bakker is really good and scratches that politics/skullduggery/apocalypse itch well enough that I've forgotten all about George R. R. Martin. The beginning is really, really slow, though. I think I was more than halfway through the first book before I started getting into it.
|
| # ¿ Mar 28, 2011 21:49 |
|
|
Habibi posted:I wanna say I tried starting the first book - are there a whole lot of nearly unpronounceable names and something about a plague breaking out at a fortified city? If so, I can see what you mean - I couldn't get more than 3 chapters in. If you think it pays off later, I can probably force my way through it. There's a pronunciation guide in the back of the book, fortunately. I was surprised to see that I had figured out most of them already. And yeah, the prologue about the fortress and the plague, then the fur trapper stuff in the beginning is why I dropped the book a couple times before committing to it. It reminded me a lot of the first book in the Malazan series, which suffered from the same problems. Once you get past the parts with Kellhus the super-aspie the book starts getting around to the plot.
|
| # ¿ Mar 28, 2011 22:26 |
|
|
fritz posted:I read all three of those books and regret it. I was looking for verification that I remembered some stuff correctly--and I did--and this is a good summary: Well, I did compare it to A Song of Ice and Fire. It even has a barbarian rapist!
|
| # ¿ Mar 29, 2011 12:11 |
|
|
Argali posted:I just started on Reynolds' Revelation Space and I'm wondering, does the pace start to kick up a notch at all? I'm like 75 pages in and starting to get bored. From what I remember, the pace really starts to kick in at the 2nd book, maybe by the end of the 1st.
|
| # ¿ Apr 11, 2011 19:07 |
|
|
Hedrigall posted:I'm collecting lots of good recommendations from this thread and the Space Opera thread and adding them to my BookDepository wishlist Terminal Visions by Richard Paul Russo. Several very interesting science fiction stories ranging from the far-out to the near future and dystopian.
|
| # ¿ May 11, 2011 04:27 |
|
|
I wanna recommend the Spinward Fringe series, which I've been reading for the past few weeks: http://www.amazon.com/Origins-Spinw...07234015&sr=8-6 The author self-publishes through Amazon, and the first two books are free while the rest are $2.99 each. The writing is a little rocky at first, but it quickly improves and I think the books are better than a lot of more popular military sci-fi/space opera series. Plus, if you buy them you're supporting the future of eBook publishing. Vertigus fucked around with this message at Jun 5, 2011 around 00:38 |
| # ¿ Jun 5, 2011 00:36 |
|
|
uberkeyzer posted:Quoting this so that its saved if I ever need an example of "damning with faint praise" (better than the fascist delusions of John Ringo?! I can't imagine!). Yikes. Haha, I didn't mean it that way. For example, if you wanted to read some military sci-fi that focuses on how a ship is run, you might read the Vatta's War series - and Spinward Fringe is leaps and bounds better than that. I think it also takes a lot of inspiration from the Lost Fleet series without being nearly as pulpy.
|
| # ¿ Jun 5, 2011 03:29 |
|
|
fritz posted:Brin had a couple good books in the early 80s, and a lot of lovely ones since. I don't know if I'd call Greg Bear a hack, but despite the critical acclaim he has yet to write a novel I actually enjoy.
|
| # ¿ Jun 7, 2011 06:30 |
|
|
Talas posted:I found that weird too. I mean, are they really sure the person is the same? Not the memories, not the personality, are they sure the continuity of the person stays the same? That's basically my problem with Peter F. Hamilton's books, too. The characters routinely say "Oh, he got killed? Well good thing he had a memory backup taken 2 months ago!" and that's that. I'll accept that the future society may have grown past worrying about continuity issues, but the author never even mentions it. I think Ken MacLeod covers the concept a lot better (and more realistically) in Newton's Wake. Randolph Lalonde's Spinward Fringe series does a good job discussing cloning and memory backups as well. Vertigus fucked around with this message at Jul 3, 2011 around 21:14 |
| # ¿ Jul 3, 2011 21:09 |
|
|
Shakugan posted:It's dealt with quite often, I thought. He makes a point of describing how people who grew up with it accept it as a continuity, whereas everyone born in the 20th or 21st century doesn't see it that way. A character in Pandora's Star spends a good part of the book freaking out about how he is a copy. Maybe it's just been too long since I read that book, since he's made quite a few in that series and probably got the issue out of the way immediately.
|
| # ¿ Jul 4, 2011 06:49 |
|
|
Deargodalion posted:Hey, guys. The Entire and the Rose series by Kay Kenyon reminded me a lot of Otherland. The digital version of the first book is free. It doesn't take place in virtual reality, though, if that's what you want.
|
| # ¿ Jul 12, 2011 23:15 |
|
|
shrike82 posted:Review of Dan Simmons' latest book "Flashback" - sounds like he's gone full-blown crazy. Man, I loved the Hyperion books so it's really sad seeing Dan Simmons writing books about his crazy right-wing fantasies/nightmares. Has anyone here read Gene Wolfe's "Home Fires"? I'm about 3/4 finished, and I still can't wrap my head around what Wolfe is going for with the writing. The conversations the characters have are surreal, but I'm not picking up on many allusions like you'd find in some of his other works; it's like reading a David Lynch movie. Also, the man is 80 years old and still writing novels. God drat.
|
| # ¿ Jul 22, 2011 06:11 |
|
|
I liked Phlebas more than Player of Games, and I haven't read much of Use of Weapons yet. I don't really think I like the whole post-scarcity, post-humanity setting - it makes it hard for me to give a poo poo about the characters because I imagine they're just going through "First world problems!!!" times a billion.
Vertigus fucked around with this message at Jul 25, 2011 around 22:01 |
| # ¿ Jul 25, 2011 21:58 |
|
|
Please do not introduce children to Hubbard You should also have them read something by Stanislaw Lem, like Solaris, if you want to blow their minds.
|
| # ¿ Jul 28, 2011 03:45 |
|
|
Neurosis posted:This is a solid book, but I thought he could've played up the horror a little more. It's also a little light on science. Still overall a good book. It was kind of an existential horror rather than an in-your-face sort of thing. I found the whole novel pretty creepy and sad.
|
| # ¿ Jul 29, 2011 03:22 |
|
|
Clinton1011 posted:Has anyone else read this that can comment on it? A thriller / Noir / Horror book in a sci-fi or fantasy setting sounds like something I would like. I really liked it. The noir aspect isn't as pronounced as it is in something like the Carlucci novels, but I'm glad it was there and I definitely considered the detective to be the most interesting character. The corporatism/government/conspiratorial plot resembles The Gap Cycle a lot, which is a huge plus.
|
| # ¿ Aug 15, 2011 18:30 |
|
|
Evfedu posted:Actually, HZ3 has left me hungry for more generation ship stuff, especially as it was received rather snootily as something that "added nothing new". "The Dark Beyond the Stars" is pretty good: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...r-20/ref=nosim/ I read it and "Ship of Fools" back to back and thought it was a pretty solid combination.
|
| # ¿ Aug 22, 2011 01:55 |
|
|
The Deadly Hume posted:Wasn't there some kerfuffle about the Polish guy who wrote those ripping off quite a bit from Michael Moorcock? Moorcock is just really pissed that they call Geralt the "White Wolf" I think that's about the extent of it.
|
| # ¿ Aug 22, 2011 05:37 |
|
|
Rough Lobster posted:Can anyone else recommend some more good Sci Fi Noir? Or hell, Fantasy Noir? Carlucci by Richard Paul Russo. Excellent noir-style trilogy that that resembles Blade Runner. It's really, really depressing and cynical, which I'd like to see more of in sci-fi books. Vertigus fucked around with this message at Sep 26, 2011 around 18:37 |
| # ¿ Sep 26, 2011 18:35 |
|
|
Nuclear Tourist posted:I thought Leviathan Wakes was a really entertaining read, but I'm also a huge sucker for pulpy sci-fi/noir mashups. Yeah Leviathan Wakes is great and I can't wait for the sequel. I love that more authors are getting into the serious-yet-pulpy space opera genre, and the pre-galactic first encounter stuff is my favorite kind of entry into a lengthy series. Also I just want to mention that Alastair Reynolds gave a thoughtful and timely answer to a dumb question I emailed him about House of Suns so I count him as a great dude.
|
| # ¿ Oct 27, 2011 03:21 |
|
|
LukeyBoy posted:So? Don't keep us in suspense - what was the question and answer? Here it is: quote:Hi ------ I didn't mean to imply that he had literally come up with a solution for FTL travel, and I'm a little embarrassed that he thought so. I think everyone should try to communicate with their favorite sci-fi authors. The new breed of authors, like Alastair Reynolds, Peter Watts, John Scalzi and Allen Steele are all pretty rad dudes and don't mind answering any questions you have about their work.
|
| # ¿ Oct 28, 2011 00:46 |
|
|
Neurosis posted:So, I've just started House of Suns and am about ten percent in and I have one comment: the scale of everything in this book is absurd. Millions of years pass, the average ship is several km long, Dyson spheres/swarms are not uncommon, solar systems are moved. I find this a bit overawing as a reader. Also, one random comment but, I wonder if the growth/immortality thing is a nod to Gene Wolfe's Baldanders and the undines. If you like that, check out Pushing Ice and some of Reynolds' short story compilations. The author is really good at literally going to the ends of the universe in his stories without making it feel like he's leaving all of his characters behind.
|
| # ¿ Nov 2, 2011 22:44 |
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:You might want to look at Scalzi's Old Man's War series. It's very heinleinesque sci-fi. The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell is pulpy to the point of self parody with amazing space combat scenes. The author does a really good job making Newtonian and relativistic space combat seem terrifying and realistic (i.e., two spacecraft heading towards each other at 0.98c exchanging broadsides inside a window of a millisecond). The Gap Cycle by Stephen R. Donaldson is also one of my favorite sci-fi series that includes some really well-done space combat scenes, but, uh, the other bits aren't for the faint of heart. Vertigus fucked around with this message at Nov 28, 2011 around 21:29 |
| # ¿ Nov 28, 2011 21:24 |
|
|
TOOT BOOT posted:Is science fiction mostly a western thing? I haven't encountered too many authors that aren't from the US/UK. I think the issue is that eastern stuff just doesn't get translated.
|
| # ¿ Dec 23, 2011 03:31 |
|
|
feraltennisprodigy posted:Just finished Hyperion (Dan Simmons) earlier, drat solid novel. I really liked the Canterbury Tales style frame narrative, it kind of made me want to drag that old rear end book out again. Don't read any of the other books in the series if the narrative structure was important to you. Fall of Hyperion was pretty good, the other ones demonstrate Dan Simmons' descent into crazyville.
|
| # ¿ Dec 27, 2011 02:37 |
|
|
Bizob posted:Dan-Simmons-bigotry-chat is by far my favorite part of this thread's cycle. Every time I see those quotes my mind is blown. Can't stop laughing at how angry he sounds over some poor Hispanic kids seeing Mayan/Aztec song and dance. Hyperion is still a great book to me, so I'll just pretend he wrote it before suffering from some stroke-induced mental illness.
|
| # ¿ Jan 20, 2012 01:04 |
|
|
priznat posted:I get the feeling he's just not keen on major organized religions (especially fanatical) in general. Or Latinos?
|
| # ¿ Jan 20, 2012 01:12 |
|
|
priznat posted:I didn't really see anything saying he had a problem with Latinos? Yeah, just their culture.
|
| # ¿ Jan 20, 2012 01:28 |
|
|
The Deadly Hume posted:Finished Al Reynolds' Blue Remembered Earth just now, I thought it was pretty good. It's not quite as heavy-duty as the Absolution Gap stuff, in fact it's probably not even in that timeline, since the action is strictly within the solar system, although there is possibly a connection with greenfly. Did this get released in the EU or something? Amazon US is still showing a 5 June release date.
|
| # ¿ Jan 22, 2012 17:07 |
|
|
Conduit for Sale! posted:Other than Consider Phlebas, which is the worst of the Culture novels in my opinion, the order in which they were published pretty much indicates their quality as far as I'm concerned. So Player of Games ≥ Use of Weapons > Excession ≥ Look to Windward > Matter. I haven't read the latest Culture novel yet though. Maybe the Culture novels aren't for me, but I liked Consider Phlebas a lot, liked Player of Games a little bit, and couldn't stand Use of Weapons enough to make it past the first few chapters. I couldn't help but agree with the character that hated everything the Culture stood for. I guess the issue for me was that the post-scarcity Culture seemed utterly hedonistic, huge and pointless and the only impetus for conflict was when somebody gets bored and sloppy when meddling with a "lesser" society. It's been a while since I read those books, though, so maybe I got the wrong idea and should give it another shot, but then again lots of people say Consider Phlebas is nothing like the other books and that's the one I really liked 
|
| # ¿ Jan 28, 2012 05:48 |
|
|
Conduit for Sale! posted:Well yes that's exactly it. Why is that bad? You don't think you'd rather not have to worry about money and survival and instead just do whatever the gently caress you want, within reason? I guess it's enough to say that ennui has a big role in setting up the conflict in Player of Games? This one may be a little petty, but it's also a society that gives its warships names like "All Through With This Niceness And Negotiation Stuff" which I find a little horrifying. Vertigus fucked around with this message at Jan 28, 2012 around 06:32 |
| # ¿ Jan 28, 2012 06:16 |
|
|
Conduit for Sale! posted:The Culture does not give the ships their names. The ships name themselves. Seems like an irrelevant distinction to me. What the ship names itself is indicative of the attitudes of its society. I certainly don't feel like I can criticize the novels, but you didn't seem to understand why I would be against the idea of the utopian society they present. It's more than ending hunger and poverty, it's about reducing existence for the vast majority of humanity to, as the wikipedia article on The Culture puts it, "having fun". As an engineer, it's problem solving that satisfies me, and I'm reminded of when scientists say that they sometimes prefer it when their hypotheses are disproved, and when cosmologists worry about having no more questions to ask. The irony is that these people are working towards a (far) future they wouldn't want to live in. I'd be pissed if some clumsy god showed up and brought me that kind of paradise. Admittedly my reasons are different than Horza's in Consider Phlebas, but I can empathize with him. This also leads directly into me saying I'll try reading Look to Windward. Vertigus fucked around with this message at Jan 28, 2012 around 07:10 |
| # ¿ Jan 28, 2012 07:08 |
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 24, 2013 22:21 |
|
|
Conduit for Sale! posted:That's silly, just because they live in a post-scarcity world doesn't mean they have every problem solved and everything figured out. The point of a lot of the Culture novels is precisely that they don't have everything figured out, despite being a utopia. I got the impression that the main problem they haven't figured out is how to make everyone else exactly like them.
|
| # ¿ Jan 28, 2012 07:36 |
|
