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two fish posted:Looking for hard sci-fi where a prominent theme is making first contact with a non-humanoid species. Especially if a complex language needs to be deciphered, or if the aliens think strangely. Dragon’s Egg is about life that evolved on the surface of a neutron star, it’s great Edit: just remembered the name. A Fire Upon the Deep features a very unique alien race with multiple heads and such. tuyop fucked around with this message at 03:22 on May 11, 2024 |
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May 11, 2024 02:04
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two fish posted:Looking for hard sci-fi where a prominent theme is making first contact with a non-humanoid species. Especially if a complex language needs to be deciphered, or if the aliens think strangely. Three Body Problem
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May 11, 2024 03:07
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two fish posted:Looking for hard sci-fi where a prominent theme is making first contact with a non-humanoid species. Especially if a complex language needs to be deciphered, or if the aliens think strangely.
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May 11, 2024 03:57
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I just went through a spree of hype scifi novels from the past few years. Didn't really care for Dark Matter, Blindsight was cool but not enough for me to want to read the sequel. Few more big names until I decided to finally crack Hyperion and this is what I was looking for the whole time. Halfway through The Fall of Hyperion. What do you recommend for my next space opera? And I was under the impression the Cantos was only 2 books, but I'm seeing it was expanded to 4? Are they all worth? Love every page I've read so far.
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May 17, 2024 21:53
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96 spacejam posted:I just went through a spree of hype scifi novels from the past few years. Didn't really care for Dark Matter, Blindsight was cool but not enough for me to want to read the sequel. Few more big names until I decided to finally crack Hyperion and this is what I was looking for the whole time. Halfway through The Fall of Hyperion. What do you recommend for my next space opera? And I was under the impression the Cantos was only 2 books, but I'm seeing it was expanded to 4? Are they all worth? Love every page I've read so far. hype sci-fi and you're reading Dark Matter? From the last few years and you're reading Hyperion (1989)? Anyway, the consensus is that Hyperion falls off hard from the second book onwards, but if you're enjoying it, continue until you don't want to read more. Dan Simmons has some political problems (doesn't like muslims) in his later books but plenty of people like The Terror and the mini-series based off it is widely said to be superior. Anyway, given the broad timeline you've established here's some Space Opera to read: Neverness by David Zindell House of Suns by Alistair Reynolds The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi Diaspora by Greg Egan Ninefox Gambit by Yun Ha Lee The Greatship by Robert Reed
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May 18, 2024 01:36
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I read Hench while I was getting a tattoo and really liked it. I'm looking for something not necessarily environmentally similar/superhero and villain related, but more "mood" similar for my next session. Decent action and/or revenge, well-written women character(s), can have an element of romance but it's not a huge part of the plot, digestible while you're getting stabbed with needles for 6 hours. I read Best Served Cold a few years back and also liked that but the "oh and now she's having a baby yay" turn at the end was lovely and jarring so I'd like to avoid that. I've read and enjoyed the Locked Tomb books and the Wayfarers Trilogy.
13Pandora13 fucked around with this message at 04:18 on May 19, 2024 |
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May 19, 2024 04:15
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96 spacejam posted:I just went through a spree of hype scifi novels from the past few years. Didn't really care for Dark Matter, Blindsight was cool but not enough for me to want to read the sequel. Few more big names until I decided to finally crack Hyperion and this is what I was looking for the whole time. Halfway through The Fall of Hyperion. What do you recommend for my next space opera? And I was under the impression the Cantos was only 2 books, but I'm seeing it was expanded to 4? Are they all worth? Love every page I've read so far. The entire Horus Heresy series 13Pandora13 posted:I read Hench while I was getting a tattoo and really liked it. I'm looking for something not necessarily environmentally similar/superhero and villain related, but more "mood" similar for my next session. Decent action and/or revenge, well-written women character(s), can have an element of romance but it's not a huge part of the plot, digestible while you're getting stabbed with needles for 6 hours. I read Best Served Cold a few years back and also liked that but the "oh and now she's having a baby yay" turn at the end was lovely and jarring so I'd like to avoid that. I've read and enjoyed the Locked Tomb books and the Wayfarers Trilogy. The Horus Heresy novels that involve Lotara Sarrin
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May 19, 2024 14:46
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Gripweed posted:
This seems to just be Legion based on a cursory Google, is this correct? More importantly, my Warhammer lore knowledge is limited - where am I going to need to start to not be completely lost?
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May 20, 2024 02:53
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13Pandora13 posted:This seems to just be Legion based on a cursory Google, is this correct? More importantly, my Warhammer lore knowledge is limited - where am I going to need to start to not be completely lost? She’s not in Legion, that’s about the Alpha Legion and Sarrin is the ship mistress of the World Eaters’ flagship. She gets the most screen time in Betrayer, which is also one of the best books in the whole series. She gets small appearances scattered around afterwards. Betrayer is set in the later stages of the Word Bearer’s war in Ultramar, so you’d probably want to read The First Heretic, which explains who the Word Bearers are and what their grudge is against the Ultramarines and how they fell to Chaos, and then Know No Fear which shows the opening of the war in Ultramar, and then Betrayer. Really I was just making a joke about how in all 54 novels of the Horus Heresy series there’s exactly one memorable, plot-important, well-written female character. But actually all three of those books are good and you should read them. Edit: oh I see the confusion. Lotara Sarrin is in the mobile game Horus Heresy: Legions but not the Horus Heresy novel Legion. Gripweed fucked around with this message at 03:49 on May 20, 2024 |
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May 20, 2024 03:41
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tuyop posted:Yeah if you’re going for that particular tone, Doggerland by Ben Smith is probably my favourite book about despair in the collapse. Took this recommendation and immediately searched for and bought Doggerland. Went in without reading a thing about it because I like going in blind. Halfway through I'm confused as all gently caress and wondering how the hell this got compared to Oryx and Crake when what Doggerland is, is a light and frothy Miss Marple style mystery about a murdered turkey. Turns out there is more then one book with the title Doggerland.
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May 24, 2024 15:42
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What do people use for book tracking? I don't want to use Goodreads so I've been looking at alternatives; for the last few years I've used Library Thing but the app has always been pretty busted. I'm just looking for something that tracks what I read and maybe has an easy share function, don't need any other features
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May 24, 2024 15:48
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regulargonzalez posted:
Lol. Two things. One, I picked up three veg boxes of books yesterday from a house clearance auction. Paid under £50 for the lot, and spent a happy hour today sorting through them all. Of course, one third of the books are of no interest to me (F1 driver bios? Mike Oldfield on the making of Tubular Bells?) But the rest is interesting - lots of good fiction.  Never read any China Miéville, looking forward to that. (There was also October, by the same author - his history of the Russian Revolution.) About 1/3rd of the books had some kind of bookmark in them - train tickets, mostly, but often things relevant to the book. There were two music bios - one of the Manic Street Preachers, and one of Scott Ian of Anthrax.  Plus some good veggie cookbooks, and some nice bits on gardening that my partner will love. OK second thing - question time. I've just read a comment about bell hooks that made me want to read something by/about her. The line was about "love as a driving force for politics". I know nothing about bell hooks - is there a good place to start?
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May 24, 2024 15:58
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Opopanax posted:What do people use for book tracking? I don't want to use Goodreads so I've been looking at alternatives; for the last few years I've used Library Thing but the app has always been pretty busted. StoryGraph
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May 24, 2024 16:12
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Teach posted:But the rest is interesting - lots of good fiction.
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May 24, 2024 16:23
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Good question - I'll tell you in six months. I read Grey Area - a short story collection - years ago, and liked it. I think I've read How The Dead Live, too. He's a bit up himself, but Umbrella here got good reviews, as did Shark. He's a very clever man, but let's see how that entertains on the page. Fake edit - he did get called out on Twitter by his own son, which was funny.  
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May 24, 2024 16:35
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Franchescanado posted:StoryGraph Thanks for the recommendation!
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May 24, 2024 17:11
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Franchescanado posted:StoryGraph That looks like what I want, cheers E: or not, actually. Doesn't seem to be any option for collections or groups, and I like to seperate them out by year I read it. I found one called Handy Library that looks pretty good. You do have to pay for it but it's $15 lifetime so that's not too bad. Going to see if I can find anything else first Opopanax fucked around with this message at 05:25 on May 25, 2024 |
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May 25, 2024 04:47
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Railsea is a YA book, yet it’s my favorite of the Mieville you’ve got.
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May 25, 2024 05:41
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two fish posted:Looking for hard sci-fi where a prominent theme is making first contact with a non-humanoid species. Especially if a complex language needs to be deciphered, or if the aliens think strangely. Neptune's brood by Charles across fits this description a bit if I'm remembering correctly
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May 25, 2024 07:38
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Opopanax posted:That looks like what I want, cheers If you go to stats it automatically separates your books by year.
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May 25, 2024 13:20
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malnourish posted:If you go to stats it automatically separates your books by year. I want by year I read it, not year published. Looks like I can kind of do that with tags at least. Might have to play around more
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May 25, 2024 15:45
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Opopanax posted:I want by year I read it, not year published. Looks like I can kind of do that with tags at least. Might have to play around more It does by year read. You can even change it by hand if something weird happens and the day is wrong.
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May 25, 2024 15:59
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FPyat posted:Railsea is a YA book, yet it’s my favorite of the Mieville you’ve got. Then I'll put it at the top of the pile, thank you!
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May 25, 2024 19:24
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Teach posted:OK second thing - question time. I've just read a comment about bell hooks that made me want to read something by/about her. The line was about "love as a driving force for politics". I know nothing about bell hooks - is there a good place to start? I have only read Talking Back but that seems good enough as any place to start as it introduces you to her intersection of race, gender, and class very well. She writes very accessibly, which was her intention as so much philosophy is walled off from working class readers behind an inscrutable code you need degrees in disciplines in order to understand.
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May 26, 2024 05:36
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Thank you - will check it out!
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May 28, 2024 16:32
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Opopanax posted:I want by year I read it, not year published. Looks like I can kind of do that with tags at least. Might have to play around more You can see that the stats page defaults to showing you stats by year read, it is able to break things down for you by year published, too. Case in point, this "Publication Year vs Read Date" scatter plot. 
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May 28, 2024 18:09
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I have no intentions of signing up for Audible, but I have two free credits and there's an "Audible Original" I do want, looking for suggestions on what to use the other for. I mostly stick to horror or SciFi, but open to other stuff. I'm not a big audiobook guy and won't have a lot of opportunity to listen to it, so preferbly not something really long, and another audible original probably makes the most sense
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May 30, 2024 17:12
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Opopanax posted:I have no intentions of signing up for Audible, but I have two free credits and there's an "Audible Original" I do want, looking for suggestions on what to use the other for. I mostly stick to horror or SciFi, but open to other stuff. I'm not a big audiobook guy and won't have a lot of opportunity to listen to it, so preferbly not something really long, and another audible original probably makes the most sense Michael McDowell’s books are exclusive to Auduble.
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May 30, 2024 17:29
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Opopanax posted:I have no intentions of signing up for Audible, but I have two free credits and there's an "Audible Original" I do want, looking for suggestions on what to use the other for. I mostly stick to horror or SciFi, but open to other stuff. I'm not a big audiobook guy and won't have a lot of opportunity to listen to it, so preferbly not something really long, and another audible original probably makes the most sense I mean, if you've read Gideon the Ninth, or want to, Moira Quirk narrates it amazingly.
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May 30, 2024 20:30
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Franchescanado posted:Michael McDowell’s books are exclusive to Auduble. Fuuuuuuuuck
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May 30, 2024 22:38
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Franchescanado posted:Michael McDowell’s books are exclusive to Auduble. The audiobook of Blackwater is just excellent.
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May 31, 2024 01:23
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I thought about Blackwater but a 30 hour audiobook will take me a few months
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May 31, 2024 01:28
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Opopanax posted:I thought about Blackwater but a 30 hour audiobook will take me a few months Oh man, it was such an absolute page turner that I listened to it all in fifteen days. I went for extra walks and did many menial tasks to get more listening in. 😳
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May 31, 2024 02:07
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same
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May 31, 2024 03:04
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What other good books are there somewhat similar to Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber?
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Jun 3, 2024 19:41
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On a recent flight home I watched Argo and now I need to read a book about the Shah or Iran what drove his downfall. Recomendations?
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Jun 4, 2024 03:34
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Off the top of my head (toilet-posting) try Legacy of Ashes - it's an oral history of the CIA, and there's a chapter on Iran and the Shah. It will be a good primer, and the rest of the book is fascinating (i.e. horrifying) too.
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Jun 4, 2024 14:24
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Minotaurus Rex posted:What other good books are there somewhat similar to Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber? As a next read you could take your pick of Graeber books. I think Debt: The First 5000 Years is a great follow up to Bullshit Jobs. The Democracy Project is probably his weakest book. Otherwise, what did you like about Bullshit Jobs?
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Jun 4, 2024 14:28
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Teach posted:Off the top of my head (toilet-posting) try Legacy of Ashes - it's an oral history of the CIA, and there's a chapter on Iran and the Shah. It will be a good primer, and the rest of the book is fascinating (i.e. horrifying) too. Thank you!
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Jun 4, 2024 15:41
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tuyop posted:As a next read you could take your pick of Graeber books. I think Debt: The First 5000 Years is a great follow up to Bullshit Jobs. The Democracy Project is probably his weakest book. ^This if you're looking for more Graeber. If you're looking for more about the subject of bullshit jobs I'd recommend "Futilitarianism: Neoliberalism and the Production of Uselessness"
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Jun 4, 2024 15:45
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