|
Ender's Game When I told my friends I was reading this for the very first time, they couldn't believe it ("what?! You didn't read that when you were a kid?") I have to say though, I was hooked pretty quickly. It's an amazing book if you can make yourself forget what a phenomenal shitbag Orson Scott Card is. I feel so sorry for Ender -- he just wanted to be left alone.  (Also: Card has an unhealthy fascination with naked young boys).
|
#
¿
Sep 13, 2011 20:52
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 10:48 |
|
|
China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh. Awhile back I was idly browsing for sci-fi that dealt with LGBT topics, and picked this one up after seeing that it appeared on like every top 10 list I found. I have a lot of things to say about this novel, but I'll sum it up by saying that I absolutely loved it. Though it was written nearly 30 years ago, it felt much more modern than I expected it would. To boil down the setting to a one-sentence summary (it's a somewhat dystopian hypothetical 22nd century where the People's Republic of China is the dominating force, the USA is a post-socialist revolution state, Mars is colonized and is a hybrid of communal settlers/outcasts/exiles from Earth). does it a bit of injustice, because the sci-fi aspect of the story takes kindof a muted back seat to the actual storytelling. The worldbuilding is great and believable, and it avoids a lot of blatant yellow-scare "ASIA BAD" mentality that I feel might come around if the book were written today. McHugh's characters are all flawed and fundamentally broken, partially because of the circumstances of this future world. I found a lot to identify with in a couple of them, and I can probably safely say that this is the only time I can remember ever being emotionally affected by a work of science fiction. Multiple times I had to put the book down, go for a walk, go to bed early etc. because of something I had just read, and the ending made me a little bit emotional -- because I know it's over and I won't get to read any more about these characters. Either way, a solid recommendation from my end, especially for gay readers. I'm not sure how poignant some of the major plot elements would be for someone who can't personally identify with them, but for me (a gay dude) it really struck home.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 7, 2020 07:20
|
|
|
The Stars My Destination I've been meaning to go back and fill in a lot of gaps in my "classic" sci-fi library, and this was the latest. I knew going into it just how lauded this book apparently is, but I gotta say it wasn't until I was around 2/3rds of the way through it that it finally clicked for me. Very much enjoyed it in the end, but Bester's style kinda threw me for a loop for most of the story. That, and Gully Foyle doesn't really come across as a character that is enjoyable to read about until Fourmyle of Ceres is introduced.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 19, 2020 21:38
|
|
|
Classic sci-fi novel round two. Foundation by Isaac Asimov. I had a really rough time figuring out what rating to give this on Goodreads because... I sorta liked it sometimes? But in other respects I really didn't. First, it has aged very poorly imo. I haven't read any of Asimov's stuff since I was literally in middle school, and even then it was only his short stories. This novel (and I can only assume the rest of the series, honestly) is pretty much just summed up as: very clever men (and it's only men) who are smarter than everyone else show how smart and convincing they are by being smarter than everyone around them and doing so smartly. Dialogue is stilted and artificial, and despite argumentation and persuasive speech being a sorta key element of each of the individual vignette stories in the novel, none of the arguments are substantial and the convincing itself is just not very... well, convincing. I can't think of a single scene involving two people arguing a point that didn't end with one of the parties (the non-viewpoint character, obviously) going "huh, I guess you're right" about halfway through the protagonist's devastating arguments (which are all pretty much universally anti-democratic, incidentally). Asimov seems to love him an enlightened, clever, scientific autocrat. I get that it's a product of its time. I get that Asimov isn't really known for writing humans well. But it was often a real slog to get through, and I don't think I'm going to continue with the series... or if I do, not for quite some time. On the positives: I at least see why the novel is so influential in terms of worldbuilding and whatnot. I couldn't shake the connection to the lore of the tabletop RPG Traveller through the whole thing, the default setting of which seems to be just kinda a copy-paste of the Empire in Foundation.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 27, 2020 09:08
|
|
|
A Wizard of Earthsea by Le Guin. I really, really liked it. I don't really get so much why this was traditionally classified as "children's literature" though... YA seems much more appropriate. Still trying to collect my thoughts a little bit about it right now, suffice it to say I thought it was fantastic. I assume the rest of the series is good too? Otherwise I'm fine leaving it as a self-contained experience.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 3, 2020 11:55
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 10:48 |
|
|
Children of Dune I feel weird in that I don't really have much to say about this, other than that I liked it. It was definitely better than Dune Messiah in my opinion, but that's probably got less to do with the writing and the plot (though there was more plot to this than there was Messiah by a country mile, so there's that), and more to do with the fact that there are just more characters that I like reading. I totally understand and get the reasoning for Paul's arc, but his POV chapters in Messiah were just such a sloooog because he (understandably) became so unlikeable as a character. Children of Dune redeemed that a bit -- The Preacher is an interesting take on the evolution of Paul as a character. Anyway, I guess I cared more about Children of Dune because there were just more characters that I actively enjoyed reading - more Jessica, some insane Alia, the twins (particularly Ghanima), Farad'n, Duncan. So much more enjoyable than Messiah, which really only gave me... Haytslash Duncan. Anyway, the rule I've heard with Dune is to stop reading when you're no longer enjoying it because it won't get better. I enjoyed Children of Dune enough to definitely want to continue, but I'm very aware that the series apparently takes a nosedive very soon. Gonna need a palate cleanser first before I start in on God-Emperor of Dune though... there's only so much of Herbert's writing that I can stomach over long periods of time. Fake edit: also coming to the realization that I almost like Dune not for its whole mystical "what is a human?" bent or the superhuman concept of the Kwisatz Haderach, but as a story that is ultimately all about a young man who goes insane after his father is assassinated and starts to have narcodelusions about being a god or some poo poo. And then it turns out his insanity is hereditary. Drone fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Mar 5, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2021 21:34
|
|