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Omegauo posted: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 Whoa, that sounds awesome! I'll try and find this. In the mean time, anyone have a choice-few really good books from the Baen Free library or the like I can load up on my phone while I'm out of town for a few days? I'm about halfway through Basilisk Station and enjoying it despite the eyerolling Monarchist overtones. My top sci-fi/space opera authors are definitely Reynolds, Banks, Stephen Baxter, Hamilton (to a lesser extent), some Niven and KS Robinson's Mars books.
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Sep 21, 2012 08:44
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Moist von Lipwig posted:Whoa, that sounds awesome! I'll try and find this. Load up on Lois McMaster Bujold, Cordwainer Smith and Keith Laumer for the trip. Be warned, The Honor Harrington series goes beyond eyrolling and will pop your eyes out and do John Ringo-protagonist stuff to them. Do read at least the first three books. The third book is when you're cleared to thrown them at the wall.
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Sep 21, 2012 09:40
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I could get through the first one, but the second? Nope.
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Sep 21, 2012 22:21
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Moist von Lipwig posted:In the mean time, anyone have a choice-few really good books from the Baen Free library I would second mllaneza's recommendation of Laumer. Personally I don't think you can go wrong picking up almost anything by David Drake. If you like Basilisk Station you would probably enjoy some of the other Weber books like The Apocalypse Troll, Mutineer's Moon and the March Upcountry series. There's also BaenCDs at the Fifth Imperium for other free books that aren't all in the Free Library.
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Sep 22, 2012 06:57
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Be warned that March Upcountry contains John Ringo which may be toxic in even small quantities.
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Sep 22, 2012 19:32
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For the Baen Free Library, I'd recommend any of the 1632 series there (even if it's not space opera) or Seas of Venus. The latter is a throwback to the pre-space age concept of Venus as a planetary sea (although it's explained as being set in the future after Venus is terraformed), and is populated by a collection of warring city-states in a setting inspired by the mercenary wars of Renaissance Italy. It's a really fun read in a Golden Age pulp mold. (Although it also helps that I really like modern sci-fi works that are throwbacks to those earlier planetary adventure settings - SM Stirling's The Sky People/In the Court of the Crimson King, Kage Baker's Empress of Mars, and Chris Roberson's Paragaea are also good examples.) But anyway, also from the Baen Free Library is Fallen Angels, a book that I really enjoyed when I first read it when I was a teen because it valorizes the sci-fi fandom, but when I reread it a few years later after becoming more politically aware I found it impossible to like because it's a typical Jerry Pournelle ode to ultra-loopy libertarian bullshit. But if you're better than I am at separating political slant from entertaining light reading, I'd suggest it.
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Sep 22, 2012 21:23
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David Drake's RCN series is pretty good too. Drake is one of the few Baen authors I actually respect. With the Lightnings and Lt. Leary Commanding are both in the free library. http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/15-WhentheTideRisesCD/WhentheTideRisesCD/ Humbug Scoolbus fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Sep 23, 2012 |
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Sep 23, 2012 03:59
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Chairman Capone posted:For the Baen Free Library, I'd recommend any of the 1632 series there (even if it's not space opera) or Seas of Venus. The latter is a throwback to the pre-space age concept of Venus as a planetary sea (although it's explained as being set in the future after Venus is terraformed), and is populated by a collection of warring city-states in a setting inspired by the mercenary wars of Renaissance Italy. It's a really fun read in a Golden Age pulp mold. Seas of Venus is pretty awesome. I wouldn't recommend the 1632 series because while the setting and idea were pretty cool, the characters were all one-dimensional cardboard cutouts (maybe this is a result of having such a huge cast of POV characters, but other authors like GRRM manage to make it work so thats a poor excuse in my opinion).
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Sep 23, 2012 05:05
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Moist von Lipwig posted:Whoa, that sounds awesome! I'll try and find this. You might try The Creatures of Man (Howard L. Myers). Collection of short stories, nice and pulpy. Just finished it yesterday, overall it was a fun read. The econowar is a really interesting concept.
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Sep 23, 2012 17:22
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John Ringo is the Best Ringo. It is like a bad popcorn flick directed and acted out inside my brain. Things go boom, people die, its over the top, and the main characters are super duper mega conservative. The March Up Country is also way to fun because of 4 armed barbarian aliens and reminds me of mortal combat. Also Troy Rising series having GIANT MEGA MINING LASERS IN SPACE. He is not a good writer and it is probably bad for me but I enjoy it way to much.
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Sep 24, 2012 20:36
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Thanks for all the recommendations guys, I'll have enough reading material for a couple months 
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Sep 25, 2012 00:32
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Fallorn posted:John Ringo is the Best Ringo. It is like a bad popcorn flick directed and acted out inside my brain. Things go boom, people die, its over the top, and the main characters are super duper mega conservative. The March Up Country is also way to fun because of 4 armed barbarian aliens and reminds me of mortal combat. Also Troy Rising series having GIANT MEGA MINING LASERS IN SPACE. He is not a good writer and it is probably bad for me but I enjoy it way to much. Troy Rising is the best Ringo, followed by the March series with Weber, then the Legacy of the Aldenata (only the Ringo only books though).
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Sep 25, 2012 01:45
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Fallorn posted:John Ringo is the Best Ringo. It is like a bad popcorn flick directed and acted out inside my brain. Things go boom, people die, its over the top, and the main characters are super duper mega conservative. The March Up Country is also way to fun because of 4 armed barbarian aliens and reminds me of mortal combat. Also Troy Rising series having GIANT MEGA MINING LASERS IN SPACE. He is not a good writer and it is probably bad for me but I enjoy it way to much. And then children are raped by the protagonist.
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Sep 25, 2012 05:40
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No that's Ghost
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Sep 25, 2012 07:40
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SirViver posted:Seconding this recommendation, they're both fantastic. Definitely recommend The Expanse And yeah, my read was populated by Mal, Zoe, Jayne, a Texan and... Garrus. Does it ever explain why their ship is attacked at the beginning? They get lured there by the obviously-not-Martian (Holdennnnn  ) Martian beacon so Protogen can... blow them up and let the shuttle escape? It would make sense if they wanted more test subjects, but they just nuke everything.
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Sep 25, 2012 12:22
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Less Fat Luke posted:I recently read it based on his post - it was actually a really good short story. Not as cheesy as it sounds. I've read a bunch of your posts before, so I am going to trust this and track it down. If nothing else it is a original if zany sounding idea, but it doesn't set off my misc dragon bullshit alarm.
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Sep 26, 2012 14:11
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What's the consensus on the various Halo tie-in novels? Obviously they're not very high-caliber, being licensed novels about a video game series, but they're usually pretty fun reads, especially for a Halo fan who likes to nerd-out about the backstory and hand-waving justifications for the technology in the games. Plus they technically fit the "space opera" theme of the thread. I finished Ghosts Of Onyx by Eric Nylund, who I think wrote the other two Halo novels (one a prequel to the game and the other a novelization of the first game). Overall it was decent. I liked his other stuff so there wasn't anything out of the blue or shocking; I got what I expected. I'm just about to start the sequel Glasslands, which was written by Karen Traviss. I've heard lots of...let's say discouraging things about Traviss in the past. She apparently wrote some Star Ward EU books that were pretty polarizing because she has some personal moral problems with the Jedi, so in her books she wrote them all as jerks and hypocrites. Anyone familiar with her stuff? (sorry if this is a well-worn topic, I tried searching the previous five pages or so and didn't see it mentioned)
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Sep 26, 2012 17:02
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I liked Nylund's Halo novels, although like you I was already familiar with Nylund and that was the main reason I read them, beyond any devotion to the Halo series (I played the first game when it came out, and that's it). But I thought they were fine. I think his prequel one was probably the best, though I don't really remember a whole lot of any of them. As a Star Wars EU nerd I could go on for pages about Karen Traviss, but in the interest of not spamming the thread I'll try and keep it short. As you said, she hates the Jedi with a passion. You can read about it on her personal website, where she accuses anyone who's a fan of the Jedi of being racists and literal Nazis: http://www.karentraviss.com/page10/files/Is_it_true_you_hate_Jedi_.html You can also read more about her Star Wars related issues on this thread, if you dare: http://boards.theforce.net/threads/a-question-on-karen-traviss-and-her-work-s.31997188/ However, aside from her specific Star Wars related stuff, here are the more general problems I have with her: 1) All her characters speak with the exact same world-weary, cynical, sarcastic tone - which is also the same tone of voice she uses when writing personal things. 2) All her characters have the exact same viewpoint (which, again, is her own personal viewpoint) and any characters with differing views are strawmen who get easily converted or don't (or are unable) to defend their views when confronted by the main characters. 3) Her writing style is really rigid and formulaic - I remember her paragraph construction is almost completely uniform. A few sentences of description, punctuated by a final sentence consisting of a sarcastic comment. 4) The majority of her books are people sitting around talking about personal drama, reiterating what happened in the book so far, or repeating what they want to do for the next part of the plot. 5) She writes women really weird - they're all domesticated, beautiful but shy, just waiting for a handsome protagonist to sweep them up and so they fall instantly in love and stay devoted to their big strong men. It's honestly Twilight-level and it's really heavy, especially as her books went on. 6) This is a major problem for her tie-in writings: she doesn't really get the concept of working in a shared universe. For her Star Wars work, she said she never read anyone else's Star Wars work (even the books by other authors of the series she was working on) and just relied on summaries provided to her by Lucasfilm. She hadn't even seen a Star Wars movie when she started writing SW. She alters the details and characterizations established by other authors to fit what she wants to write, and she obsesses more about using the setting as a template to build up her own interests rather than writing something that actually fits in with the larger series. Basically I would never waste my money on her stuff.
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Sep 26, 2012 17:51
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Chairman Capone posted:I liked Nylund's Halo novels, although like you I was already familiar with Nylund and that was the main reason I read them, beyond any devotion to the Halo series (I played the first game when it came out, and that's it). But I thought they were fine. I think his prequel one was probably the best, though I don't really remember a whole lot of any of them. Yeah, personally I liked the prequel one (The Fall Of Reach, I believe) better, since it was mostly original material, as opposed to the novelization of the game. That one (titled The Flood for some reason, but it's pretty much a straight re-telling of the first Halo games's plot) was kind of stilted in places since he had to follow the game. The best parts of it were actually the non-game sections, where he'd follow the perspective of some character who'd been off-screen in the game. quote:As a Star Wars EU nerd I could go on for pages about Karen Traviss, but in the interest of not spamming the thread I'll try and keep it short. Good thing I picked up the book from Half-Price books! Hopefuly it's not too terrible then...yeah, I've read the first couple pages and I noticed the whole "weary sarcasm" thing but didn't think anything of it since it wasn't out-of-character for that particular character. I guess I'll see as the novel progresses.
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Sep 26, 2012 18:03
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Mr.Drf posted:I've read a bunch of your posts before, so I am going to trust this and track it down. If nothing else it is a original if zany sounding idea, but it doesn't set off my misc dragon bullshit alarm.
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Sep 26, 2012 22:36
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So I'm reading Great North Road by Peter Hamilton at the moment. I was pleasantly surprised for the first 100 pages or so, since there was not much sex at all, and then boom, he starts up again with a vengeance. I wonder if he can write a novel that doesn't have a blond, perfect girl screwing anything that moves? Both the Reality Dysfunction series and Pandora star/Void series are overly concerned with sex. Typically I don't mind it, but Peter Hamilton sort of writes the sex scenes like he was a porn producer. Misspent Youth is probably the worst one of the lot.
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Oct 1, 2012 11:09
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Cardiac posted:So I'm reading Great North Road by Peter Hamilton at the moment. That said, the flesh suit (military gear, not a sex toy) technology and fighting scenes were pretty rad - Hamilton's definitely good at writing "bunch of grunts stuck in a hosed-up alien jungle" combat scenes. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Oct 1, 2012 |
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Oct 1, 2012 17:25
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Oh come on, it was about regaining lost youth and getting a second chance to right all the wrongs in life, starting with his (perceived) biggest. Who wouldn't want to go back and do it all again? There weren't any weird awkward sex scenes with him pretending to be a young kid, the story just ends. That's a far cry from the poo poo in the other books.
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Oct 2, 2012 04:48
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Bhodi posted:Oh come on, it was about regaining lost youth and getting a second chance to right all the wrongs in life, starting with his (perceived) biggest. Who wouldn't want to go back and do it all again? There weren't any weird awkward sex scenes with him pretending to be a young kid, the story just ends. That's a far cry from the poo poo in the other books. 
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Oct 2, 2012 04:57
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coyo7e posted:Haha, I dare you to read Fallen Dragon. Its protagonist spends the entire story trying desperately to make up for the girlfriend he dumped in high school, and then he goes back in time and has his body reverted to high school age by an alien and so, finally, he gets to spend all his days loving a girl who's like, 30 years younger than he is, and pretending to be a kid. I actually liked Fallen Dragon, well apart from the teenage drama and the deus ex machina in the end. Well written high-tech warfare is the poo poo, if I'd wanted to read teenage angst I'd read Twilight. Hamilton definitively has some issues about loving teenagers....
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Oct 2, 2012 07:35
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Cardiac posted:I actually liked Fallen Dragon, well apart from the teenage drama and the deus ex machina in the end. Well written high-tech warfare is the poo poo, if I'd wanted to read teenage angst I'd read Twilight. Hamilton definitively has some issues about loving teenagers.... Peter Hamilton writing Deux Ex Machina I never would have guessed. Isn't that how he finishes every one of his stories.
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Oct 2, 2012 16:21
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I really like Hamilton, I just wish his endings were stronger. His Greg Mandel-trilogy I like very much, except for how the third one suddenly goes on a ALIEN FLOWERS AND CLONES or something. The first one was the best one, I felt, the second one was also good, though the whole psychic time travel was odd and then... Yeah. Naked God was the worst one, though. But then again, I don't know how I would end a series of books with possessed space ships and a demon Al Capone.
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Oct 2, 2012 21:03
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Chairman Capone posted:As a Star Wars EU nerd I could go on for pages about Karen Traviss, but in the interest of not spamming the thread I'll try and keep it short.
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Oct 3, 2012 05:55
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Miss-Bomarc posted:What I thought was most amusing was how her "Republic Commando" series turned into a lengthy apologia for Jedi going over to the Dark Side of the Force, and yet somehow she never seemed to recognize this. Slight derail: did she write the plot for the Republic Commando video game? That game was amazing, even though it was really short.
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Oct 4, 2012 17:04
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Nuclear Tourist posted:Slight derail: did she write the plot for the Republic Commando video game? That game was amazing, even though it was really short. No.
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Oct 5, 2012 01:40
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To continue the slight derail: One of her novels actually alters the end of the Republic Commando game, just so she can pin the blame on a Jedi.
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Oct 5, 2012 04:04
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A reading group I'm a part of just did Redshirts. It's the first John Scalzi book I've read and I enjoyed it a lot. The rest of the group did also, even though surprisingly few of them had actually seen Star Trek, which I would have thought to be a big factor in how much a reader would enjoy it. Anyway for the next month we decided to do Old Man's War. I'm about a third through it and enjoying it even more than Redshirts. I've always heard of it being a modern version of Starship Troopers, but so far at least it reminds me more of The Forever War. Which is a good thing, in my view.
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Dec 10, 2012 17:34
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I think my favorite part of Old Man's War was all of the dad jokes that Scalzi managed to work in to the book. I'm working my way through Forever War now, and it is really interesting how both books sort of revolve around the huge disconnect between those actually fighting and those back home.
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Dec 10, 2012 20:40
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Internet Wizard posted:I think my favorite part of Old Man's War was all of the dad jokes that Scalzi managed to work in to the book. Was Scalzi a vet? Haldeman was and that strongly informed Forever War. Great book.
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Dec 26, 2012 19:44
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sebmojo posted:Was Scalzi a vet? Haldeman was and that strongly informed Forever War. Great book. AFAIK, no, he's not. He's just a regular guy...well, a writer.
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Dec 27, 2012 00:24
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sebmojo posted:Was Scalzi a vet? Haldeman was and that strongly informed Forever War. Great book. no, but he grew up on army bases.
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Dec 27, 2012 04:32
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Chairman Capone posted:I've always heard of it being a modern version of Starship Troopers, but so far at least it reminds me more of The Forever War. Which is a good thing, in my view.
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Dec 30, 2012 02:24
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Yeah, I suppose that makes sense. Like how it seems any space opera now is "Game of Thrones in space". Speaking of which I got both GRRM's Dying of the Light and Book of the New Sun for Christmas, and are very eager to finally reading both of them.
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Dec 30, 2012 03:31
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I started reading Revelation Space, but could only get about halfway through before the terrible in-depth descriptions of the technology/weapons and the conversations between characters and computuers started to get in the way. Honestly parts of it felt like I was reading something from a NaNoWriMo forum. It's a shame because I really liked the whole mystery surrounding the Amarantins. Is there anything else I should try if I like the contact with alien species, extinct or otherwise? I also really liked the Commonwealth saga by Hamilton, particularly the bits about the High Angel.
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Dec 31, 2012 04:07
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If you don't like Revelation Space I'm not quite sure what to say, it's one of the best in the genre. I guess it's kind of a slow burn in the first half though so I can see getting bored if you don't dig the technobabble. If you're willing to give Reynolds another shot then House of Suns is amazing and his style had matured a little more, I'd actually say it's the better novel because it's self-contained.
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Dec 31, 2012 04:29
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