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I'm reading Neal Asher's The Departure, or, as I call it The Ravings of a UKIP Lunatic. I find the action scenes enjoyable and some of the ideas not without merit, but his politics are totally crazy. Someone in this thread called him a literal fascist, but I think he's much worse than that. The entire book feels like a revenge fantasy aimed at Brussels and the EU. The Departure is the anti-1984 of our time.
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Aug 16, 2012 14:27
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mcustic posted:I'm reading Neal Asher's The Departure, or, as I call it The Ravings of a UKIP Lunatic. ...which is apparently still not on Kindle, damnit.
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Aug 16, 2012 16:55
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ulmont posted:...which is apparently still not on Kindle, damnit. Can't you get it from .co.uk? Not sure how that works, I'm neither in the US nor in the UK, but I can shop from both sites.
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Aug 16, 2012 18:18
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mcustic posted:Can't you get it from .co.uk? Not sure how that works, I'm neither in the US nor in the UK, but I can shop from both sites. Not for Kindle. I could order a physical copy from co.uk, but not the digital version, at least not without some sort of hoops I don't know how to deal with.
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Aug 16, 2012 19:48
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mcustic posted:I'm reading Neal Asher's The Departure, or, as I call it The Ravings of a UKIP Lunatic. I find the action scenes enjoyable and some of the ideas not without merit, but his politics are totally crazy. Someone in this thread called him a literal fascist, but I think he's much worse than that. The entire book feels like a revenge fantasy aimed at Brussels and the EU. The Departure is the anti-1984 of our time. It's weird he turned out to be such a reactionary. You can read the Cormac novels without really noticing it (any such opinions are attributable to the characters and are do not obviously cry "this is the author surrogate and thus has the correct opinion"). I'd swear Cowl had a fairly progressive tone (for instance the thinly-veiled Ian Fleming was not portrayed as particularly sympathetic). However it's not a good book and I haven't read it recently, so maybe I missed something. Peter F. Hamilton is also fairly right-wing, which is obvious in the Mindstar/Greg Mandel books, but not particularly noticeable in his later stuff.
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Aug 16, 2012 20:09
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I was really sad to hear that Harry Harrison died. I thought he had a really unique voice, not to mention take on the genre. As much as I liked the Stainless Steel Rat and Bill the Galactic Hero, my favorite of his will always be Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers. What an incredibly brilliant and bizarre sendup of pulp scifi.
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Aug 17, 2012 02:16
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Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers  Cheese powered 747s to the stars!
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Aug 17, 2012 02:51
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers If you're saying there are literally spaceships that are powered by cheese in this book I am suddenly glad Harry Harrison is dead.
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Aug 17, 2012 03:07
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Hey man cheddite is a wonder fuel and the whole book is an over the top parody of E.E. Doc Smith, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers. It's not just cheese, it's irradiated cheese.
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Aug 17, 2012 03:19
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Chairman Capone posted:I was really sad to hear that Harry Harrison died. I thought he had a really unique voice, not to mention take on the genre. As much as I liked the Stainless Steel Rat and Bill the Galactic Hero, my favorite of his will always be Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers. What an incredibly brilliant and bizarre sendup of pulp scifi. The Eden series was pretty great high concept alterna history and I really enjoyee the Hammer and Cross series, one of the few done well norse mythology books. His older pulp stuff like the Transatlantic tunnel or Deathworld or To The Stars! were alway readable and free of the weird 70s sex stuff that showed up in the work of many of his contemporaries
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Aug 17, 2012 13:22
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branedotorg posted:The Eden series was pretty great high concept alterna history and I really enjoyee the Hammer and Cross series, one of the few done well norse mythology books. His older pulp stuff like the Transatlantic tunnel or Deathworld or To The Stars! were alway readable and free of the weird 70s sex stuff that showed up in the work of many of his contemporaries Deathworld was a classic. When the Traveller RPG got a few characters from SF literature started out, the man character was included.
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Aug 18, 2012 03:51
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Jason Dinalt is a serious badass, and Pyrrans are the go to 'heavy worlders/our planet hates us' archetype.
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Aug 18, 2012 15:03
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This is real nerdy, too nerdy for the music subforum, but does anyone know of some awesome music to listen to while reading futuristic sci-fi books and/or thinking up stuff for things I may want to write myself? I want music that sounds like I am in the future :B Here's some futuristic-sounding stuff that I really like already: Faunts - Lights Are Always On https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bShslKmOkfY Miike Snow - In Search Of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt7oAWzNSiA Solar Fields - Cobalt 2.5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCGqqPaR6LY Delphic - Acolyte https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6lzgY57s38 Daft Punk's Tron soundtrack is also in this category. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Aug 18, 2012 |
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Aug 18, 2012 15:47
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2112 is the only appropriate answer.
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Aug 18, 2012 16:16
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Pale Blue Dot by Benn Jordan, an ambient tribute to Carl Sagan. http://bennjordan.bandcamp.com/album/pale-blue-dot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaENN285XSw
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Aug 18, 2012 16:51
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http://vimeo.com/m/36662755 Yamantaka // Sonic Titan - it's contemporary prog rock sung in bad Japanese. Sounds like the future to me.
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Aug 18, 2012 23:00
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Hedrigall posted:This is real nerdy, too nerdy for the music subforum, but does anyone know of some awesome music to listen to while reading futuristic sci-fi books and/or thinking up stuff for things I may want to write myself? I want music that sounds like I am in the future :B Immunity by Rupert Hine is a pretty awesome album of futuristic synth pop
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Aug 19, 2012 09:01
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branedotorg posted:I really enjoyee the Hammer and Cross series, one of the few done well norse mythology books. Really? I found it was an incredible blend of pseudo-Norse D&D mythology (priests of particular gods all lined up with their different holy symbols and whatnot) with impossibly modern ways of thought among the good guys (20th century rationalist atheism WITH sexual liberation and equal rights for the women) on one hand, and "all monotheism is completely stupid and evil and Christianity especially so" on the other. And I AM a rationalist atheist who has played a lot of D&D and favours sexual liberation and equal rights and doesn't much care for monotheism so you'd think I'd be right there in the choir being preached to, but Harrison was just laying it on much too thick. I've read and liked a lot of Harrison, mind you, and even this series would have been quite enjoyable if I could have ignored the stuff I just complained about, but meh.
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Aug 21, 2012 09:52
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Groke posted:Really? I found it was an incredible blend of pseudo-Norse D&D mythology (priests of particular gods all lined up with their different holy symbols and whatnot) with impossibly modern ways of thought among the good guys (20th century rationalist atheism WITH sexual liberation and equal rights for the women) on one hand, and "all monotheism is completely stupid and evil and Christianity especially so" on the other. And I AM a rationalist atheist who has played a lot of D&D and favours sexual liberation and equal rights and doesn't much care for monotheism so you'd think I'd be right there in the choir being preached to, but Harrison was just laying it on much too thick. I've read and liked a lot of Harrison, mind you, and even this series would have been quite enjoyable if I could have ignored the stuff I just complained about, but meh. Hey, I'm a tolerant, agnostic Australian ... I just enjoyed the story for what it was. FWIW I thought it wasn't it wasn't monotheism or Christianity under attack but the Catholic Church, I don't think many people would defend the dark ages church for spreading tolerance and free thought.
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Aug 21, 2012 14:28
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sebmojo posted:Has anyone done a TBB post on CJ Cherryh? You should definitely do this. Cherryh takes a lot of effort to get into, but she was ahead of the curve in terms of writing political conflicts with no clear good or bad guys. Reading Downbelow Station recently it really struck me how well it predicted some of the current trends in media SF while executing them a lot better. She also did a really striking job of making life on a space station feel incredibly fragile and ephemeral.
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Aug 21, 2012 15:30
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and do an overview.
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General Battuta posted:You should definitely do this. Cherryh takes a lot of effort to get into, but she was ahead of the curve in terms of writing political conflicts with no clear good or bad guys. Reading Downbelow Station recently it really struck me how well it predicted some of the current trends in media SF while executing them a lot better. She also did a really striking job of making life on a space station feel incredibly fragile and ephemeral. I would gladly participate in such a thread, I love Cherryh. I also like that she can do a series without having later books lose a significant amount of quality.
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Aug 22, 2012 02:59
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General Battuta posted:You should definitely do this. Cherryh takes a lot of effort to get into, but she was ahead of the curve in terms of writing political conflicts with no clear good or bad guys. Yeah, Cherryh should be counted among the greats, IMO. Even if she has a tendency to write books centered around protagonists who are stressed-out, tired, beat up and way the hell over their heads in a pile of poo poo where they don't even know what's going on (seriously, there's a limit to how many books like that I can read in a row).
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Aug 23, 2012 06:17
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Hedrigall posted:This is real nerdy, too nerdy for the music subforum, but does anyone know of some awesome music to listen to while reading futuristic sci-fi books and/or thinking up stuff for things I may want to write myself? I want music that sounds like I am in the future :B Anything by Murcof, especially The Versailles Sessions and Cosmos.
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Aug 23, 2012 07:27
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Having limited time I wanted to ask this thread which of these books I should start with (I'm a compulsive buyer and have more books than I think I'll even read in the next year). I loved Seeker but would like to switch it up, especially after reading the boring yet highly detailed Feersum Endjinn. Leviathan Wakes - James Corey Polaris or Firebird - Jack McDevitt Old Man's War - John Scalzi Any suggestions?
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Aug 27, 2012 16:17
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Old Man's War is pretty awesome in a very classic-sf, heinleinesque sort of way. It starts a series which gradually deconstructs a lot of mil-sf preconceptions, too.
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Aug 27, 2012 16:37
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A lot of people here enjoyed Leviathan Wakes and its sequel Caliban's War. Leviathan Wakes is a bit of a mix of detective/scifi horror and very enjoyable, you won't get bored a bit. Well not more than a bit; one of the main character's idealism can be cringe-inducing in his stupidity but it's a minor complaint for me. Old Man's War is on my list to read as well, heard a lot of recommendations for it.
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Aug 27, 2012 18:21
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Old Man's War is awesome John Scalzi is awesome. It is also darker than you would think.
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Aug 27, 2012 20:51
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Hondo82 posted:A lot of people here enjoyed Leviathan Wakes and its sequel Caliban's War. Hondo82 posted:one of the main character's idealism can be cringe-inducing in his stupidity but it's a minor complaint for me.
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Aug 28, 2012 18:44
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Hondo82 posted:A lot of people here enjoyed Leviathan Wakes and its sequel Caliban's War. Leviathan Wakes is a bit of a mix of detective/scifi horror and very enjoyable, you won't get bored a bit. Well not more than a bit; one of the main character's idealism can be cringe-inducing in his stupidity but it's a minor complaint for me. Yeah, these are way cool, I'm about 2/3 of the way through the second book now and am pretty sure I'll be picking up the third as soon as it's published. quote:Old Man's War is on my list to read as well, heard a lot of recommendations for it. It's neat and the sequels are even neater. It goes places you might not think it would go.
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Aug 28, 2012 18:52
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I started reading Forever Peace thinking it was a sequel to Old Man's War. That was a most puzzling afternoon.
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Aug 31, 2012 08:37
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Seconding Leviathan Wakes for a great read. I'm just wrapping it up now and have the sequel on hand ready to plug into. It has all of the best elements of sci-fi without any of the bad pacing you can sometimes run into. I think one of the most important abilities of a sci-fi author is the ability to hint at or describe the technological/philosophical ideas they want to get across without hindering the narrative at all. This book was perfect for it! Also if you want to talk about accidental reads - when I was 12 I read Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and 3/4 through the book I was getting pissed that there hadn't been an accident yet to turn the man invisible. Incredulous Dylan fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Sep 4, 2012 |
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Sep 4, 2012 16:24
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Incredulous Dylan posted:
You aren't alone in this, though in my case it was excitement at seeing the title on my assigned high-school reading and immense disappointment when I realized it wasn't what I'd been hoping.
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Sep 4, 2012 16:56
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Incredulous Dylan posted:Also if you want to talk about accidental reads - when I was 12 I read Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and 3/4 through the book I was getting pissed that there hadn't been an accident yet to turn the man invisible. I haven't even read it and now I'm pissed off.
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Sep 5, 2012 05:00
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Leviathan Wakes was definitely a good read. I must say, though, that Gilman's The Half Made World was an absolute banger and Blood Song by Anthony Ryan was even better. Read them!
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Sep 5, 2012 08:27
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Forgive me is there is a particular thread for this, but I'm trying to remember the name of this short story after reading Reynold's "Scales" and I'm pretty sure it was from a short story collection I found out about in here. The very short summary of the plot is that the very small remaining human population of earth (maybe 40,000?) lives in and out of cryosleep on oil derricks in the middle of the ocean. Inter-dimensional 'gates' open on occasion and 'dragons' come out and attack. the reason for this is that a vast war is being fought against AI on the substrate of the universe, and since human beings use SO MUCH of the processing power of this substance, they run substantially slower than their AI enemies, so a majority of humanity had to be allowed to die out, and the rest need to be in cryosleep so that we (and our AI allies) have even the slightest chance to win any help would be greatly appreciated
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Sep 6, 2012 03:34
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Omegauo posted:Forgive me is there is a particular thread for this, but I'm trying to remember the name of this short story... Sorry, I haven't heard of it, but that sounds really interesting and now I want to read it to.
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Sep 6, 2012 15:03
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Well that was pretty dumb, Scales reminded me of it because the story is also by Reynolds. It's in year's best sci-fi 28, "Sleepover"
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Sep 10, 2012 03:26
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shrughes posted:I haven't even read it and now I'm pissed off. You do know what the Ellison novel is about, right?
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Sep 10, 2012 03:31
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Omegauo posted:Forgive me is there is a particular thread for this, but I'm trying to remember the name of this short story after reading Reynold's "Scales" and I'm pretty sure it was from a short story collection I found out about in here. I know you used words, but I can't understand what any of them mean in the order you put them in.
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Sep 11, 2012 11:10
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Mr.Drf posted:I know you used words, but I can't understand what any of them mean in the order you put them in.
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Sep 16, 2012 00:10
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