|
Nuclear Tourist posted:Could anyone recommend me some space opera/hard sci-fi set entirely on a big spaceship/space station? Bonus points if it has horror elements. (I've read Blindsight and Hull Zero Three) Ship of fools !
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 13:47
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 17:50 |
|
|
Ship of Fools, by Richard Russo. It's actually sort of similar to Blindsight but different enough to be worth a read (not to mention being on a gigantic ship). And it's terrifying. Edit: gently caress, beaten.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 13:53
|
|
|
Nightingale is a pretty decent short story by Alastair Reynolds that takes place on a creepy-rear end ship. It's one of the stories in the Galactic North short story collection, all of which are good.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 14:00
|
|
|
Thanks a lot, I'll check them both out.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 15:31
|
|
|
Orphans of the Sky by Heinlein is maybe the first space opera book set entirely on a spaceship. One of my favorite Heinleins, also. As a kid I also really liked Ben Bova's Exiled from Earth trilogy, although the first book has a lot of scenes on Earth and the second book has some scenes on a planet around Alpha Centauri.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 19:02
|
|
|
Doniazade posted:Nightingale is a pretty decent short story by Alastair Reynolds that takes place on a creepy-rear end ship. It's one of the stories in the Galactic North short story collection, all of which are good. Just read Nightingale as I realized that I had Galactic North lying around here. That was a pretty loving awesome story, just the kind of space-horror stuff I was looking for. I think I'm going to read a few more in this collection.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 21:42
|
|
|
Nuclear Tourist posted:Could anyone recommend me some space opera/hard sci-fi set entirely on a big spaceship/space station? Bonus points if it has horror elements. (I've read Blindsight and Hull Zero Three) "Vast" by Linda Nagata is hard-ish sci-fi, and takes place almost entirely on a single spaceship. There is a little bit of body horror/gross-out in one or two spots, but the horror elements are definitely not the main focus. It's either the last or next-to-last book in a series, but I read it first and didn't have much trouble figuring out what was going on. The rest of the series I remember being pretty sub-par.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 22:07
|
|
|
Nuclear Tourist posted:Just read Nightingale as I realized that I had Galactic North lying around here. That was a pretty loving awesome story, just the kind of space-horror stuff I was looking for. I think I'm going to read a few more in this collection.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 22:21
|
|
|
Nuclear Tourist posted:Just read Nightingale as I realized that I had Galactic North lying around here. That was a pretty loving awesome story, just the kind of space-horror stuff I was looking for. I think I'm going to read a few more in this collection. You might like the novella Diamond Dogs, also set in the Revelation Space universe. Edit: ^^^Ha!
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 22:22
|
|
|
Less Fat Luke posted:Ship of Fools, by Richard Russo. It's actually sort of similar to Blindsight but different enough to be worth a read (not to mention being on a gigantic ship). And it's terrifying. Dunno about terrifying. It definitely had its moments but I thought some parts towards the end didn't really deliver a satisfying payoff. I think everything that followed Bartolomeo and that kid finding the skeletons on the ship was kind of a letdown. They space the alien-as-old-woman and then leave the ship without any significant obstacles or any direct encounter with the aliens in their natural form and without any explanation or exploration of just what the gently caress the aliens are or why they do what they do or what other atrocities they've committed. Having said that, I still enjoyed the book quite a bit and blasted through it in one or two sittings.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 01:22
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:Dunno about terrifying. It definitely had its moments but I thought some parts towards the end didn't really deliver a satisfying payoff. I think everything that followed Bartolomeo and that kid finding the skeletons on the ship was kind of a letdown. They space the alien-as-old-woman and then leave the ship without any significant obstacles or any direct encounter with the aliens in their natural form and without any explanation or exploration of just what the gently caress the aliens are or why they do what they do or what other atrocities they've committed.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 03:08
|
|
|
Less Fat Luke posted:Hmm, been a while but I thought they had massive issues detaching the alien ship after spacing her. To the point of actually self destructing the vessel in a collision course with either a sun or planet. I could be misremembering though! Anyways, in the build up to that they were trying all kinds of conventional means such as explosives to detach the alien vessel, and things literally mysteriously wouldn't work (implying that the aliens technology was incredibly advanced). That's the area I thought was scary conceptually. You're right, but that had been an issue prior to then and it wasn't anything new... If I'm remembering the timeline right. Aliens being real advanced in itself doesn't do much for me in itself - what was more worrying was the fact they were so advanced and seemed to enjoy the pass-time of murdering another species. I would've liked to know what the gently caress was up with that.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 03:29
|
|
|
Nuclear Tourist posted:Could anyone recommend me some space opera/hard sci-fi set entirely on a big spaceship/space station? Bonus points if it has horror elements. (I've read Blindsight and Hull Zero Three) Ethan of Athos is 90% on a space station with a number of space-station specific bits. Specifically how you get rid of a body in a space station, and how to mis-use space station infrastructure to gently caress with your enemies.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 03:36
|
|
|
I've seen Ian Douglas' name mentioned here a few times. While in a thrift shop over the weekend, I found parts one and two of The Inheritance Trilogy for 50 cents each. Do I need to read his previous trilogies before tackling these?
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 04:09
|
|
|
"The City Who Fought" is about a sentient space station. Although it's Anne McCaffery, who...had her moments.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 04:36
|
|
|
Nuclear Tourist posted:Could anyone recommend me some space opera/hard sci-fi set entirely on a big spaceship/space station? Bonus points if it has horror elements. (I've read Blindsight and Hull Zero Three) A lot of Poul Anderson's books take place entirely on spaceships too, and are hard SF. Not horror at all, though. Tau Zero is the first that comes to mind, but I know he's written more.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 15:52
|
|
|
ed balls balls man posted:Not for my region on both sites unfortunately. I guess I could use a VPN though. If you have kindle all you have to do is switch your Kindle region to (wherever) in your Manage My Kindle page, buy the book, then switch it back. It's trivial to evade amazon's region protection.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 21:41
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:If you have kindle all you have to do is switch your Kindle region to (wherever) in your Manage My Kindle page, buy the book, then switch it back. It's trivial to evade amazon's region protection. I have heard they disable your account if they catch you doing this.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 22:26
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:I have heard they disable your account if they catch you doing this. I haven't seen or read any warnings about that anywhere? Given how incredibly easy Amazon's made it to evade region restrictions, I suspect they don't really care -- they probably have to impose the region restrictions due to publisher's contracts, but I don't see why Amazon (as opposed to a publisher) would honestly care if you evaded them. The only way I could see Amazon getting upset would be if you were shifting between regions to avoid the markup on international orders. But if you're just buying books that aren't otherwise available, not sure what the problem would be.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 22:40
|
|
|
Halfway through The Risen Empire, and I am loving it, although I wouldn't really describe it in the terms originally used. It's extremely entertaining and has a very high "cool poo poo" factor; a lot of a sort of hyper-technological porn where the author e.g. describes in detail how a microscopic rail gun slug fired from a spaceship in orbit enters a building and punches a fist-sized hole in the chest of a cyborg soldier. Reminiscent of technothrillers, really. It also hasn't made me roll my eyes at anything yet which is pretty good for a book in this genre. The lovely/wicked gravity thing was very close though. As a political scientist by trade I found the way the political system works in the Empire extremely interesting and even thought-provoking. This is something a lot of space opera puts aside and instead presents a depoliticized (by way of ideology or "because mankind will be too advanced for politics" or whatever) society so it's nice.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 00:34
|
|
|
Less Fat Luke posted:Ship of Fools, by Richard Russo. It's actually sort of similar to Blindsight but different enough to be worth a read (not to mention being on a gigantic ship). And it's terrifying. Also read his Carlucci books if you feel like an awesome Blade Runner-esque noir story that'll make you want to kill yourself
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 00:45
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:I haven't seen or read any warnings about that anywhere? I switch back and forth all the time because the UK Kindle store has a lot of books that aren't on the US Kindle store for some reason. I hope I never get caught in the act. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 00:49
|
|
|
Scanned the entire thread: am I correct in believing that there has been no mention of C.J. Cherryh? Her work can be uneven, but Downbelow Station, Cyteen, and The Pride of Chanur were some of the best science fiction written in the 80s.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 01:04
|
|
|
Vertigus posted:Also read his Carlucci books if you feel like an awesome Blade Runner-esque noir story that'll make you want to kill yourself
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 01:06
|
|
|
Vertigus posted:Also read his Carlucci books if you feel like an awesome Blade Runner-esque noir story that'll make you want to kill yourself These are really hard to find in a digital format if you live outside the US. I cannot find them Australia which is a pity because Unto Leviathan (the much cooler title) was pretty well-written and never boring.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 01:07
|
|
|
Neurosis posted:These are really hard to find in a digital format if you live outside the US. I cannot find them Australia which is a pity because Unto Leviathan (the much cooler title) was pretty well-written and never boring. I couldn't find a digital version in the US, I just got a used copy of the omnibus version (http://www.amazon.com/Carlucci-3-in1-Richard-Paul-Russo/dp/0441010547/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326846888&sr=8-1) since all the dude's books are out of print. It's definitely worth tracking down if you can find a copy for a sane price. Really rubs it in when the books are both out of print and unavailable digitally. Less Fat Luke posted:Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for them (don't see them as ebooks off-hand). Anyone read The Rosetta Codex, same author? It's not Russo's usual style, and I didn't like it a whole lot. I'd say it kind of plods along for a while and never gets anywhere interesting. Vertigus fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Jan 18, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 01:33
|
|
|
E. Nesbit posted:Scanned the entire thread: am I correct in believing that there has been no mention of C.J. Cherryh? She's been mentioned a couple of times, but I am definitely surprised by how looked-over she seems to be in this thread. Maybe because the thread seems to have more of a military/hard sci-fi bent and she doesn't really have any military novels, and some of her older sci-fi can get pretty  at times, like Voyager in Night or Port Eternity. But yeah, CJ Cherryh is awesome and at the very least the Pride of Chanur series has got to be as definitive a work of space opera as just about anything else I can think of.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 03:07
|
|
|
Antti posted:Halfway through The Risen Empire, and I am loving it, although I wouldn't really describe it in the terms originally used. It's extremely entertaining and has a very high "cool poo poo" factor; a lot of a sort of hyper-technological porn where the author e.g. describes in detail how a microscopic rail gun slug fired from a spaceship in orbit enters a building and punches a fist-sized hole in the chest of a cyborg soldier. Reminiscent of technothrillers, really. It also hasn't made me roll my eyes at anything yet which is pretty good for a book in this genre. The lovely/wicked gravity thing was very close though. I'm really glad! You're right about the other thing Westerfeld's great at that slipped my mind earlier -- he has a pretty great imagination with regards to new technologies and a way of describing them that makes you go  at how cool they are. I have to dig up my own copy, but if I remember everything right it only gets better as the plot goes on.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 03:10
|
|
|
RoboCicero posted:I'm really glad! You're right about the other thing Westerfeld's great at that slipped my mind earlier -- he has a pretty great imagination with regards to new technologies and a way of describing them that makes you go Another Risen Empire fan checking in. I was choking my way through Alistair Reynolds' catalogue last year and dumb lucked into reading Risen Empire. Refreshing and effortlessly cool, unlike Reynolds' often forced-sounding chique. Westerfeld needs to finish that series like, NOW. (h_rd is awesome)
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 16:07
|
|
|
Just a quick update to anyone interested on the Risen Empire from the UK like me, Kindle version is being released on March 1st. Woo.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2012 11:10
|
|
|
The Risen Empire sounds awesome, I just bought the UK paperback (both books in 1) on Book Depository.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2012 12:08
|
|
|
I just received Alastair Reynolds new book Blue Remembered Earth, anyone else pick this up? It's the first in a trilogy that's supposed to follow mans evolution over the next 10,000 years or something. I've only ready 90 pages so far but it seems interesting and I have already read all of his other books so I know I like his style.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2012 15:27
|
|
|
I started Ship of Fools based on some of the recommendations in this thread, and drat, Russo is not a good writer. It probably didn't help that I just finished Canticle for Leibowitz, which is amazingly well-written, but I just find Russo to be incredibly clumsy and heavy-handed. The main story still hasn't really kicked up yet, though, so I guess it may prove worth the trip anyway.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2012 16:15
|
|
|
TjyvTompa posted:I just received Alastair Reynolds new book Blue Remembered Earth, anyone else pick this up? Decent book although the big reveal at the end of the book was pretty anticlimactic.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2012 21:50
|
|
|
TjyvTompa posted:I just received Alastair Reynolds new book Blue Remembered Earth, anyone else pick this up? I Just read it and I consider it at least as good as House of suns. That 10000 year trilogy idea sounds intriguing. That would certainly change my expectations for the following books. I was sure that the next book would be about exploring distant waterworld with the potential alien artefacts, but they might skip way past that phase of interstellar exploration. Lei wing might be a returning character for later books thanks to hints that She'll keep growing and growing. I didn't have a preknowledge of the book other than this trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIbf2RcSgDA
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2012 21:54
|
|
|
paberu posted:Hi, I'm looking at picking up Vernor Vinge to get my space opera fix, which book would be recommended to start with? Zone of thought series: A Fire Upon the Deep A Deepness in the Sky Children Of The Sky I'm just now finishing Children of the Sky. Relatively good imo though the Culture novels are still by far my favorite space opera books. I gave my cousin a copy of The State of the Art and literally changed his world outlook via discussion of the book.
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2012 22:29
|
|
|
Nuclearmonkee posted:Zone of thought series: This post made me realize that Vinge's new book has already come out. Unfortunately, most reviews seem really, really unimpressed. And I really enjoyed "A Fire Upon the Deep" and "A Deepness in the Sky", too. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2012 13:29
|
|
|
y_y posted:This post made me realize that Vinge's new book has already come out. Unfortunately, most reviews seem really, really unimpressed. And I really enjoyed "A Fire Upon the Deep" and "A Deepness in the Sky", too. It's not terrible, it's just not as good as the first two. It seemed to me like Vinge mainly just wanted to spend more time exploring Tines World, and playing with what that sort of society would look like. As such, the plot is pretty much just a contrivance to scatter several of the main characters around the globe and make them walk back home. If you go into it with that knowledge, it's still fun. Just don't expect it to advance the main storyline much, because it doesn't.
|
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2012 14:47
|
|
|
Mister Kingdom posted:I've seen Ian Douglas' name mentioned here a few times. While in a thrift shop over the weekend, I found parts one and two of The Inheritance Trilogy for 50 cents each. Do I need to read his previous trilogies before tackling these? I would definitely read that series in order. The reveals from the earlier trilogies are the premises for the later ones.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2012 03:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 17:50 |
|
|
I was wondering... anyone know a book like this? I would like to read a scifi novel about a realistic "what if". What if aliens visit Earth in present times?" Realistic in the sense of the consequences in politics, diplomacy, technology, repercussion in the society, power struggles in nations and UN, etc. It doesn't have to be uber hard sci-fi (FTL is ok in my book), but i like stories with good internal consistency/grounded on realism. For example there could be problems because the different psychology/culture of the aliens. I am talking about pacific aliens interested in contact with a new civilization, not just another silly war between human and invaders from space. It doesn't have to be exactly in 2012, I say 'present times' in the sense of around 1970-2030.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2012 11:47
|
|
