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coolusername posted:Does anyone have recs for fantasy or sci-fi books in the flavour of “two bitter enemies grow to like each other very reluctantly” where there’s a lot of tension for a solid chunk of the book and it doesn’t resolve very quickly? This Is How You Lose the Time War, Shards of Honor or The Locked Tomb trilogy for examples, tho it doesn’t have to end explicitly romantically. Just remembered that Tim Powers does this a lot as well
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Sep 23, 2024 22:18
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I've got one or two spare credits on Audible, so I was looking for a good sci-fi audiobook or two. Feeling something a little pulpy, I've been listening to most of the Star Wars High Republic audiobooks, so maybe even a standout standalone Starred War. Hell, I've finally been getting into Star Trek a bit with DS9, so maybe some of that flavor too.
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Sep 24, 2024 01:56
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Waffleman_ posted:I've got one or two spare credits on Audible, so I was looking for a good sci-fi audiobook or two. Feeling something a little pulpy, I've been listening to most of the Star Wars High Republic audiobooks, so maybe even a standout standalone Starred War. Hell, I've finally been getting into Star Trek a bit with DS9, so maybe some of that flavor too. Monday Starts on Saturday by the Strugatsky brothers is like DS9 if the station was a governmental department of wizards in a near future socialist country. The first forty pages are a bit tricky as the magical realism kicks off but it becomes an episodic romp through contradictions in magic and technology that’s essentially Star Trek. The audiobook has an outstanding performance of the different wizards, particularly a like, continental philosopher scoundrel wizard. Gideon the Ninth is also a pulpy breeze and a great time. The audiobook is excellent and the narrator nails Gideon’s tone without sounding overly obnoxious.
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Sep 26, 2024 01:29
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Looking for books like The Book of the New Sun or the movie The Green Knight, where myth and dream are part and parcel of existence. Not surrealism or magical realism exactly, and while I like House of Leaves a lot it's not the right flavor. Piranesi is closer to the vibe. Related question, is Ouroboros in that vein? Or A Maggot by John Fowles?
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Sep 26, 2024 04:33
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I'm looking for a not modern day thriller. Could be sci-fi, fantasy, or historical (say end of the Vietnam War at the latest), but with a more cerebral hero. Three Miles Down by Harry Turtledove sort of fit what I'm looking for.
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Sep 26, 2024 05:36
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regulargonzalez posted:Looking for books like The Book of the New Sun or the movie The Green Knight, where myth and dream are part and parcel of existence. Not surrealism or magical realism exactly, and while I like House of Leaves a lot it's not the right flavor. Piranesi is closer to the vibe. Mythago Wood might be what you're looking for.
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Sep 26, 2024 06:13
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Selachian posted:Mythago Wood might be what you're looking for. Seconding Mythago Wood, it's a great book, the sequels less so.
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Sep 26, 2024 06:44
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Thirding Mythago Wood. A very unique book.
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Sep 26, 2024 09:56
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I asked something similar a year or so ago but don't think I got any responses so trying again. I'm looking for books about late 19th/early 20th century innovation. If it's about World's Fairs that's a bonus. One already read Devil in the White City, Bill Bryson's One Summer: America 1927 and At Home.
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Sep 26, 2024 12:12
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Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes (Also maybe consider her other books, which I haven't read) The Path Between the Seas and The Great Bridge by David McCullough
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Sep 26, 2024 12:36
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Tea Bone posted:I asked something similar a year or so ago but don't think I got any responses so trying again. It's only a B- read, but Erik Larson's Thunderstruck is also in this wheelhouse.
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Sep 26, 2024 13:19
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regulargonzalez posted:Looking for books like The Book of the New Sun or the movie The Green Knight, where myth and dream are part and parcel of existence. Not surrealism or magical realism exactly, and while I like House of Leaves a lot it's not the right flavor. Piranesi is closer to the vibe. This is exactly the kind of person who should read The Night-Bird's Feather.
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Sep 26, 2024 14:32
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regulargonzalez posted:Looking for books like The Book of the New Sun or the movie The Green Knight, where myth and dream are part and parcel of existence. Not surrealism or magical realism exactly, and while I like House of Leaves a lot it's not the right flavor. Piranesi is closer to the vibe.
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Sep 26, 2024 14:49
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tuyop posted:Monday Starts on Saturday by the Strugatsky brothers is like DS9 if the station was a governmental department of wizards in a near future socialist country. The first forty pages are a bit tricky as the magical realism kicks off but it becomes an episodic romp through contradictions in magic and technology that’s essentially Star Trek. The audiobook has an outstanding performance of the different wizards, particularly a like, continental philosopher scoundrel wizard. Turns out Gideon is just free with Audible Plus, so I can check that one out in the about month or so I've got left in my 3 month 99 cent each promo. Which version of Monday Starts on Saturday do you rec, the one with Ramiz Monsef or Nathaniel Priestley?
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Sep 27, 2024 01:51
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Waffleman_ posted:Turns out Gideon is just free with Audible Plus, so I can check that one out in the about month or so I've got left in my 3 month 99 cent each promo. Which version of Monday Starts on Saturday do you rec, the one with Ramiz Monsef or Nathaniel Priestley? Nathaniel Priestley
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Sep 27, 2024 02:23
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coolusername posted:Does anyone have recs for fantasy or sci-fi books in the flavour of “two bitter enemies grow to like each other very reluctantly” where there’s a lot of tension for a solid chunk of the book and it doesn’t resolve very quickly? This Is How You Lose the Time War, Shards of Honor or The Locked Tomb trilogy for examples, tho it doesn’t have to end explicitly romantically. The first fifteen lives of Harry August, great book anyways.
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Sep 30, 2024 15:32
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Ooh, yeah, Claire North is good times and that book is particularly good.
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Oct 1, 2024 04:30
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Anyone got recommendations for stuff like there is no Antimemetics division? I've read a few things along these lines, and I guess what I like is the idea of a bureucracy/organistion trying to understand/control something otherworldly/lovecraftian. Other stuff that seemed to have the same vibe to me: laundry files by charles stross - looking for a bit less comedy though second book of the southern reach trilogy by jeff vandermeer blind lake - robert charles wilson x-files/fringe control video game
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Oct 7, 2024 19:37
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Any Rome-heads here? I’m reading Augustus by John Williams. Both Cicero and Livy are characters in it and I’ve never read any of them. Can you link them to a specific edition you’d recommend? Amazon or other easy buy appreciated.
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Oct 8, 2024 03:48
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Mr. Nemo posted:Any Rome-heads here? I've always been partial to Penguin editions for this kind of thing -- lots of notes for context and good scholarly intros. Livy is fascinating to read, since he starts with the earliest history of Rome, and is in fact basically our only literary source for a lot of it. Important to remember that he didn't really know what he was talking about, since the details were already vague by his time, so you're learning as much about what Rome at his time thought about their origins as you are about the actual origins. Cicero of course is writing about things closer to his own time but with a massive political agenda, which again is part of the interest in reading him. On a different note, if you like the genre of fictional Roman emperor's memoir, try Memoirs of Hadrian by Yourcenar.
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Oct 8, 2024 12:43
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fatelvis posted:Anyone got recommendations for stuff like there is no Antimemetics division? I've read a few things along these lines, and I guess what I like is the idea of a bureucracy/organistion trying to understand/control something otherworldly/lovecraftian. Kind of cosmic police procedurals: Kraken by China Mieville is about a London cult policing unit investigating the theft of a giant squid. Gets weird! The City and the City by Mieville again is about a murder investigation in a city that’s actually two cities but the residents aren’t allowed to acknowledge each other. Quarantine by Greg Egan is about a detective investigating the disappearance of a disabled woman in a cyberpunk future where the planet has been isolated from the universe strangely. Maybe: Heads by Greg Bear is about a scientist on the moon trying to create absolute zero. Some frozen heads get put in his test chamber to keep them frozen and make the experiment less costly. Turns out things get weird when you play with absolute zero!
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Oct 9, 2024 11:42
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fatelvis posted:Anyone got recommendations for stuff like there is no Antimemetics division? I've read a few things along these lines, and I guess what I like is the idea of a bureucracy/organistion trying to understand/control something otherworldly/lovecraftian. You might like The Tomorrow World, by Tom Sweterlitsch Basic idea is X-Files meets Sliders, but at the same time something unstoppable is drawing closer.
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Oct 9, 2024 11:58
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fatelvis posted:a bureucracy/organistion trying to understand/control something otherworldly/lovecraftian. Declare by Tim Powers
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Oct 9, 2024 16:38
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Call-out to poetry nerds. Recently started to get interested in John Donne. While it's easy to find most of his poems online for free, I'd like to find a decent collection I can read in book form, and preferably with some commentary if possible. I poked around online already but, as expected, there are so many anthologies out there it's hard to say if one is better than the others. I also worry about accidentally ordering some garbage copy/pasted public domain plundering trash from Amazon. If you have any recommendations, I'd appreciate it. I also came across Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell, which was an accalimed biography that came out a couple of years ago--I'm thinking of ordering it from my bookstore, so any thoughts on that or other biographies of Donne would be helpful.
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Oct 10, 2024 14:38
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tuyop posted:Kind of cosmic police procedurals: Cheers - cosmic police procedural is a solid description of what I'm looking for! City and the city was pretty cool, I forgot I had read that as well. I'm gonna check out your other recommendations. Take the plunge! Okay! posted:Declare by Tim Powers Also a solid recommendation for what I'm looking for... that I've already read  I should have put it on the list.BioTech posted:You might like The Tomorrow World, by Tom Sweterlitsch Do you mean The Gone World? I really liked that one as well.
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Oct 10, 2024 15:21
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They just confused the title with Sweterlitsch other solid novel, Tomorrow and Tomorrow
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Oct 10, 2024 15:44
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After looking at books by Michael Crichton, Neal Stephenson, Arthur Hailey, James Clavell, James Michener, and Tom Clancy, what would be some other novelists where a big deal is made of the amount of research that went into composing the books in the same way?
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Oct 13, 2024 10:52
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FPyat posted:After looking at books by Michael Crichton, Neal Stephenson, Arthur Hailey, James Clavell, James Michener, and Tom Clancy, what would be some other novelists where a big deal is made of the amount of research that went into composing the books in the same way? Umberto Eco comes to mind
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Oct 13, 2024 11:02
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FPyat posted:After looking at books by Michael Crichton, Neal Stephenson, Arthur Hailey, James Clavell, James Michener, and Tom Clancy, what would be some other novelists where a big deal is made of the amount of research that went into composing the books in the same way? Thomas Pynchon Mary Renault Patrick O'Brien
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Oct 13, 2024 12:15
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Edward Rutherfurd.
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Oct 13, 2024 16:17
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FPyat posted:After looking at books by Michael Crichton, Neal Stephenson, Arthur Hailey, James Clavell, James Michener, and Tom Clancy, what would be some other novelists where a big deal is made of the amount of research that went into composing the books in the same way? Ready Player One.
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Oct 13, 2024 16:23
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FPyat posted:After looking at books by Michael Crichton, Neal Stephenson, Arthur Hailey, James Clavell, James Michener, and Tom Clancy, what would be some other novelists where a big deal is made of the amount of research that went into composing the books in the same way? Maybe Andy Weir? I remember all the promos for the Martian highlighting his research (despite the fact that the original windstorm premise was completely impossible).
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Oct 13, 2024 16:35
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3D Megadoodoo posted:Ready Player One. mods????
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Oct 13, 2024 16:49
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FPyat posted:After looking at books by Michael Crichton, Neal Stephenson, Arthur Hailey, James Clavell, James Michener, and Tom Clancy, what would be some other novelists where a big deal is made of the amount of research that went into composing the books in the same way? Dan Brown
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Oct 13, 2024 17:03
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wheatpuppy posted:Maybe Andy Weir? I remember all the promos for the Martian highlighting his research (despite the fact that the original windstorm premise was completely impossible). Project Hail Mary has a lot of fun science in it too
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Oct 13, 2024 17:04
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Opopanax posted:Project Hail Mary has a lot of fun science in it too Parts of it also feel like reading a screenplay to a Roland Emmerich film. I like the first contact stuff.
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Oct 13, 2024 18:00
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Dan Simmons is who I was trying to remember before. The Terror is loaded with some painstakingly researched stuff and it's actually presented in an interesting way.
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Oct 14, 2024 02:04
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Rieux posted:Call-out to poetry nerds. Recently started to get interested in John Donne. While it's easy to find most of his poems online for free, I'd like to find a decent collection I can read in book form, and preferably with some commentary if possible. I'm fond of the Everyman's Library one (complete poems) because it retains the original spellings. Their hardcovers are also great quality for the same price as most new paperbacks. Penguin and Oxford paperbacks always have lots of notes too, I'm sure their Donne selections are good. (Oxford doesn't number their endnotes in the main text, which can be annoying.)
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Oct 15, 2024 00:57
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Can anyone recommend some excellent books on either Antarctic exploration especially if it’s people surviving some really hosed up situations, massive historical weather events, or mountain climbing? I’m trying to figure out a gift for Xmas and have no clue what is actually good.
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Oct 21, 2024 04:15
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mrfreeze posted:Can anyone recommend some excellent books on either Antarctic exploration especially if it’s people surviving some really hosed up situations, massive historical weather events, or mountain climbing? I’m trying to figure out a gift for Xmas and have no clue what is actually good. "Eiger Dreams" by John Krakaur - A collection of short essays about mountain climbing "Touching the Void" by Joe Simpson - mountain climbing goes very wrong "Into the Heart of Borneo" by Redmond O'Hanlon - A fat English academic tries to find the Bornean Rhino using books from the 19th century as a guide, eats worms.
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Oct 21, 2024 07:39
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