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I thought Hari was pretty much fine in Prelude, although that's probably a lot because Prelude was actually the first Foundation book I read. I haven't read those non-Asimov ones you mentioned yet. There's really not a whole lot that's vital and important about his pre-mythic characterization, though.
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Jul 20, 2013 01:37
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Hedrigall posted:I liked Sundiver (it's cheesy, basically "Agatha Christie does hard SF in the Mass Effect universe"), but Startide Rising is way cooler. Go straight to that if you want to read a book about the first dolphin-run space mission (with a few humans along but only as civilian observers) with tons of species-building (dolphin language, culture, etc etc). I read Sundiver after I read Startide Rising & Uplift War (thanks to the SF Book Club omnibus!), and I didn't find Sundiver very interesting; I've only read it once. I've reread Startide and Uplift multiple times, though; I love 'em. My omnibus is getting beat to hell. I even like the sequel trilogy, and plan on re-reading that in the near future. I wish Brin would go back to the universe; he really tears the
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Jul 21, 2013 09:42
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Thanks for the tips. Enjoyed reading "The Night's Dawn Trilogy" Over the course of a few flights. They where pretty fun but the authors was getting a little on the icky side with some of the sex scenes and there were a little too many of them for my liking. Any one else know of anything else for more in flight reading?
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Aug 9, 2013 08:12
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Speaking of weird gender poo poo I just finished reading the Edge of Infinity anthology and the last story in it was pretty, uh, "interesting"
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Aug 9, 2013 17:48
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muike posted:Speaking of weird gender poo poo I just finished reading the Edge of Infinity anthology and the last story in it was pretty, uh, "interesting" Which one was that? I read the book, but i can't remember which story was where.
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Aug 10, 2013 15:58
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It's the one set on Mercury and everyone is Indian as poo poo and the men and women live separately and there are honor duels and sick bike ridez and poo poo.
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Aug 10, 2013 17:55
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In Rendezvous with Rama weren't the Mercury colonists all Indian, also? Is that some kind of a trend? Of course there are a lot of Indians in Arthur C. Clarke's books for obvious reasons, and it's something I appreciate about his futures, they're not just populated by WASPs.
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Aug 10, 2013 19:23
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The problem is that they aren't so much Indian as they are white people wearing Indian costumes.
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Aug 11, 2013 16:28
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Anyone here taken a look at "Leviathan Wakes" by James S.A. Corey? I have just started reading it and I am getting a very Peter F. Hamilton-y vibe off of it. Has been pretty interesting so far.
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Aug 18, 2013 18:00
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Fenrra posted:Anyone here taken a look at "Leviathan Wakes" by James S.A. Corey? I have just started reading it and I am getting a very Peter F. Hamilton-y vibe off of it. Has been pretty interesting so far. I've finished the trilogy a couple of days ago. It was fun, although the quality starts dropping off towards the end. I would still recommend it, especially since it's relatively short compared to Hamilton and features no creepy underage sex at all. The ending was a horrible, horrible cliche - there's this galaxy-spanning network of portals, but the builders have died out billions of years ago. How original. Especially disappointing after all the cool protomolecule stuff. Since you mentioned Hamilton: I feel a need to plug his Great North Road once more in this thread. It's definitely his most mature work until now and it resolves within a single book! The rest is typical Hamilton. Seriously, just go read it.
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Aug 18, 2013 18:20
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It's not a trilogy, they extended it to six or seven books. This is why the third book is so bad, I guess.
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Aug 18, 2013 18:30
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The Expanse series really should have been just two books. It started off strong and could've wrapped things up with a sequel, but now we've got a hexology that the authors don't seem to know how to deal with.
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Aug 18, 2013 19:13
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Is the detective character still cool in the third book or did they gently caress him up too? edited for spoiler? savinhill fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Aug 19, 2013 |
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Aug 19, 2013 00:09
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You might want to spoil that, I think. And in answer: He's just the user interface/avatar for an alien AI.
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Aug 19, 2013 00:13
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They hosed him up by killing him off instead of Holden, so now he's just a voicepiece for the alien whatever and it's totally lame.
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Aug 19, 2013 00:19
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Fenrra posted:Anyone here taken a look at "Leviathan Wakes" by James S.A. Corey? I have just started reading it and I am getting a very Peter F. Hamilton-y vibe off of it. Has been pretty interesting so far. I really liked it. Definitely reminded me of the 70's-era space opera I read growing up (Larry Niven, Ben Bova, some of the later Heinlein, Frederick Pohl, and Jack Williamson stuff). Incidentally James S. A. Corey (or rather the authors who use that as a pen name) was commissioned to write a Han Solo novel for Lucasfilm, which I think is coming out next year. Since Leviathan Wakes reminds me somewhat of Brian Daley's sci-fi, I'm hoping their Han book will be like Daley's trilogy from the 70s.
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Aug 19, 2013 00:51
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I was looking for some opinions on the "Shoal Sequence" trilogy (Stealing Light, Nova War, and Empire of Light) by Gary Gibson... I know I shouldn't judge books by their covers, blah, blah, blah, but they highly resemble the Expanse trilogy, and that kinda makes me want to read them. Anybody else check them out?
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Aug 19, 2013 01:57
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tonytheshoes posted:I was looking for some opinions on the "Shoal Sequence" trilogy (Stealing Light, Nova War, and Empire of Light) by Gary Gibson... I know I shouldn't judge books by their covers, blah, blah, blah, but they highly resemble the Expanse trilogy, and that kinda makes me want to read them. Anybody else check them out? I've read them and several other books by Gary Gibson. They remind me of Neal Asher's work, very far future, lots of tech, strange aliens, lost space ships etc. Further out than The Expanse. Great body count. I also liked his duology (?), Final Days and The Thousand Emperors.
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Aug 19, 2013 05:33
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specklebang posted:I've read them and several other books by Gary Gibson. They remind me of Neal Asher's work, very far future, lots of tech, strange aliens, lost space ships etc. Further out than The Expanse. Great body count. Cool--probably going to download a sample and see how it goes. I have to get through Gardens of the Moon first, though.
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Aug 19, 2013 15:32
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tonytheshoes posted:Cool--probably going to download a sample and see how it goes. I have to get through Gardens of the Moon first, though. Good luck. I really wanted to like that Malazan series. Dark, violent, high body count but for some reason it just got on my nerves and I gave up on it. I hope you have better luck.
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Aug 19, 2013 21:27
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specklebang posted:Good luck. I really wanted to like that Malazan series. Dark, violent, high body count but for some reason it just got on my nerves and I gave up on it. I hope you have better luck. Yeah, the Malazan books are a potpourri of good and bad. If his characters were better and his idea of personal relationships less toe-curling then the ultra-epic sweep of the books would be more enticing. I stalled out on about book 7. Still worth reading if you can make it through though, there's nothing else quite like it.
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Aug 19, 2013 23:31
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specklebang posted:Good luck. I really wanted to like that Malazan series. Dark, violent, high body count but for some reason it just got on my nerves and I gave up on it. I hope you have better luck. I can't lie, it's a bit of a slog, but so far it's JUUUUST interesting enough to keep me going. I'm definitely confused most of the time...
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Aug 20, 2013 01:42
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tonytheshoes posted:I can't lie, it's a bit of a slog, but so far it's JUUUUST interesting enough to keep me going. I'm definitely confused most of the time...
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Aug 20, 2013 02:22
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coyo7e posted:That's because GotM is likely the worst book in the series. That's why I'm not gonna give up! I love challenging books anyway...
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Aug 20, 2013 03:02
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I prety much always recommend reading the first three Malazan books, the third (Memories of Ice) is my personal favorite, but following GotM up with another couple will quickly fill in a lot of those gaps, and at least let you feel comfortable that the rest will get dealt with and explained as well, eventually.
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Aug 20, 2013 18:21
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Fenrra posted:I am reading the Honor Harrington series at the moment and am wondering if any of you have any recommendations of books like it? If you haven't read it already, try the Horatio Hornblower series by CS Forester. It's sailing ships instead of space ships but it's frequently alluded to in the Honor Harrington series and in my opinion has far superior writing. Space related: The Doom Star series by Vaugn Heppner. Heppner's characters tend to be emotionally one dimensional but the action is decent and satisfying from an 'overcoming the odds' perspective. At $0.99 for the first book (Kindle) and $3.99 (each) for the other five you're not risking much. Comedy suggestion: Thomas DePrima's A Galaxy Unknown series. Use e-lending from your local library if you're inclined towards self punishment. This one is similar in nature to the Hornblower/Harrington series but far, far worse. As an example of the writing, here's a scene where our (nearly flawless) heroine has tears spring to her eyes when she is reminded of family: "Numerous items of limited pecuniary value stirred a vast reservoir of happy memories and stimulated her lachrymal glands beyond her control." For some reason the author felt it necessary to mention the height of nearly every character that is introduced in the book (using imperial units of measurement, while nearly everything else in the book uses the metric system.) The military also uses old wet navy terminology ("fo'c'sle") with some regularity. Bonus points for the author arguing with Amazon reviewers.
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Aug 20, 2013 18:38
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I've tried reading Gardens of the Moon three times. Every time I give up about 1/4 of the way through because I don't give a poo poo about any of the characters and I find some of the dialogue stupid. I'll probably try Deadhouse Gates at some point, but only when I have nothing else in my queue to read. I feel like recent fantasy has raised the bar in what I expect out of my writers. Richard K Morgan's Land Fit for Heroes, Abercrombie's books, and GRRM have set a pretty high standard in that they're able to write engaging, interesting characters and settings, with solid prose. Although I did manage to get through a few Wheel of Time books recently and didn't find them as bad as I remembered.
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Aug 21, 2013 03:32
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Neurosis posted:I've tried reading Gardens of the Moon three times. Every time I give up about 1/4 of the way through because I don't give a poo poo about any of the characters and I find some of the dialogue stupid. I'll probably try Deadhouse Gates at some point, but only when I have nothing else in my queue to read. I feel like recent fantasy has raised the bar in what I expect out of my writers. Richard K Morgan's Land Fit for Heroes, Abercrombie's books, and GRRM have set a pretty high standard in that they're able to write engaging, interesting characters and settings, with solid prose. If you read one of the new ones, it maybe feel this way because the old author died and the newer books are written by a different guy/guys.
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Aug 21, 2013 09:18
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Neurosis posted:I've tried reading Gardens of the Moon three times. Every time I give up about 1/4 of the way through because I don't give a poo poo about any of the characters and I find some of the dialogue stupid. I'll probably try Deadhouse Gates at some point, but only when I have nothing else in my queue to read. I feel like recent fantasy has raised the bar in what I expect out of my writers. Richard K Morgan's Land Fit for Heroes, Abercrombie's books, and GRRM have set a pretty high standard in that they're able to write engaging, interesting characters and settings, with solid prose. According to my Kindle, I'm now at about 65%, and the story really does start to come together. I'm glad I stuck with it. I don't know if I have all 10 books (or whatever it is) in me, but I've definitely signed on for at least the next two.
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Aug 21, 2013 14:51
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The thing to remember about GotM is that Erikson wasn't really sure where he wanted to go with the series yet, and he was kind of just trying out a bunch of different things. And in this day and age of Big Fat Fantasy, they just had him publish EVERYTHING instead of editing out the stuff that didn't matter.
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Aug 24, 2013 16:46
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snooman posted:If you haven't read it already, try the Horatio Hornblower series by CS Forester. It's sailing ships instead of space ships but it's frequently alluded to in the Honor Harrington series and in my opinion has far superior writing. I have to confess that I'm one of those awful people who actually sort of likes the Honor Harrington books, all the awful things about them notwithstanding, but A Galaxy Unknown was significantly too much even for me. I read the first 3 because they are so easy to read, and I still want to know "what happens" to the insipid vaguely Mary-Sue main character in the following six more loving books, but I'm not going to read 6 more books of, well, this quality of writing: "Thomas DePrima, Master Author posted:Doctor Peterson slowed his pace dramatically and cast an appraising eye towards Priestly . "Hours ago? What is it? Another underground tunnel?" Also, his idea of supreme genius spaceship military tactics is to, erm, circle the wagons. I'm neither joking nor exaggerating - his God-mode half-self-insert and half-disturbing-masturbatory-fantasy main character (pet lions, genetically engineered to be both super hot and a super fast healer, radically poor grades in school but magically wonderful real world performance) is heralded as a tactical genius for circling some other ships with hers. I know I am a bad writer. I am reading the post above to proofread it and cringing at how bad I am at expressing just how truly awful these books are. Maybe, like DePrima, I should buy all the thesauruses. But either way they are bad, oh so bad.
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Sep 10, 2013 00:36
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Fenrra posted:I am reading the Honor Harrington series at the moment and am wondering if any of you have any recommendations of books like it?
There are a number of other books if your only requirement is "Ship to ship combat in spaaaaace", honestly too many to list, since it's basically the entire thread. Bhodi fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Sep 10, 2013 |
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Sep 10, 2013 03:36
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Bhodi posted:[*]David Drake's RCN series - the best and most blatant re-skin of Aubrey–Maturin ever. Also the most "realistic" physics-wise, just don't do the math on the accell/time/percentage of c figures.
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Sep 10, 2013 05:53
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This talk about gardens of the moon is making me want to continue the series... I read gardens of the moon on a whim about 2 years ago. Absolutely loved it though I can't what the plot was about. I guess I'll go pick up deadhouse gates.
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Sep 10, 2013 06:09
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Legacyspy posted:This talk about gardens of the moon is making me want to continue the series... Gardens of the Moon was written years before it was published and the sequel written, and he went to writing workshops/schools/whatever in the interim and it really shows - if you can finish Gardens of the Moon, and enjoy it enough at the end to check out the next novel, you'll probably be set for the rest of the series. May want to check out http://www.tor.com/features/series/malazan-reread-of-the-fallen and remind yourself about Gardens of the Moon. Back to space opera, I finished Ian Bank's Surface Detail. Enjoyable, Banks can make me laugh out loud, and later sad and horrified - the sections on the Hell(s) was like when you're watching a horror film and are scared and worked up but can't look away. Yime's whole subplot seemed extraneous and unnecessary, I don't think it was tied in well, but it's a minor complaint. Edit: Oh and Falling Outside the Normal Moral Contraints' battle, "My favorite part is coming up" "this is a recording?!" was great. I'll probably read another Patrick O'Brien Aubrey/Maturin novel before I go for another Culture novel. I stick to ebooks and it's a mess, Look to Windward has a different publisher than the others and it's half-again as expensive 
PlushCow fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Sep 10, 2013 |
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Sep 10, 2013 06:45
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Bhodi posted:This question comes up every 10 pages or so. If you want sailing ships in space with at least a passing nod to lightspeed delay, clear delineated sides and a splash of politics/navy life, set in a multi-book pulp series format, you've got: How bad/good/goodbad/badgood is Drake? If David Weber's Honor Harrington is a 1 and Patrick O'Brian is a 10, and if reading about "Rob S. Pierre" gave me a physical headache, should I read Drake? I liked Lost Fleet and Star Carrier for what they were, and I'm on my fifth re-read of the Aubrey/Maturin books right now, but the Honor Harrington books were like Halloween candy -- I read them at all at a rush and then got physically ill. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Sep 11, 2013 |
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Sep 11, 2013 16:41
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We're talking about Hornblower/Age of Sail IN SPACE and nobody mentions David Feintuch's Seafort Saga? For shame. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seafort_Saga Set in a future where society has somehow reverted to 18th century codes of life, religion, and military, the hero is a conflicted young man who starts off as a midshipman and through an accident of circumstances finds himself in very reluctant command of a starship on a months long voyage. Following that, he progresses through the ranks. In later books, the author goes back to Earth and actually explains, quite reasonably, how it is that society got that way, going all the way back to our present. It's almost a 1:1 conversion of Hornblower, with the exception that the hero is even MORE angsty and self doubting.
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Sep 11, 2013 16:59
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:How bad/good/goodbad/badgood is Drake? If David Weber's Honor Harrington is a 1 and Patrick O'Brian is a 10, and if reading about "Rob S. Pierre" gave me a physical headache, should I read Drake? Drake doesn't write characters that are anything but archetypes - this guy is the corrupt politician, this guy is the hardass NCO, etc - but he's really good at setting up battles/combat action scenes.
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Sep 11, 2013 22:30
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Drake also can write politics pretty well.
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Sep 12, 2013 04:05
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NotYella posted:Drake doesn't write characters that are anything but archetypes - this guy is the corrupt politician, this guy is the hardass NCO, etc To be fair, the same could be said about David Weber only there are two archetypes, author insert and strawman adversary.
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Sep 12, 2013 04:46
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