|
Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:I read some books from a series about space marines (legionaries?) where they had brain in a jar style marine robots and I think ships as well. Sounds like William Dietz's Legion series.
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2013 05:11
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 03:31 |
|
|
One of my favourite authors, whose stuff could loosely be classed as Sci-Fi and/or Fantasy, (although he refers to it as Far-Fetched fiction) has two of his books for free on Amazon: Sprout Mask Replica and Armageddon: The Musical Until Sunday. Oh and also the other books in the trilogies from which those books come are half price allegedly, although I'm not finding that to be the case.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2013 11:29
|
|
|
Well with Elvis on the cover, how can it go wrong? Thanks for the heads up! 
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2013 06:13
|
|
|
Chairchucker posted:One of my favourite authors, whose stuff could loosely be classed as Sci-Fi and/or Fantasy, (although he refers to it as Far-Fetched fiction) has two of his books for free on Amazon: Sprout Mask Replica and Armageddon: The Musical I haven't read either of these two, but I'd also like to chime in and recommend Rankin to anyone who thinks they might like a very british and Douglas Adams like take on urban fantasy.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2013 17:57
|
|
|
Just read The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. I'd recommend it, had an interesting and unexpected social commentary on homosexuality in society. Maybe it's not so unexpected to anybody who knows anything about the book, but I went in blind. It wasn't a very action packed book, which you might think it would be because the word "war" is in the title, but regardless I enjoyed it thoroughly and flew through it. Anybody else read it and have similar/different thoughts on the Forever War?
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2013 04:17
|
|
|
It's an important book, but I think its treatment of homosexuality is probably the weakest part of the book.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2013 04:57
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:It's an important book, but I think its treatment of homosexuality is probably the weakest part of the book. What would you say is the strongest?
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2013 05:17
|
|
|
The book's use of relativity as an analogy for the alienation experienced by returning Vietnam vets.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2013 05:25
|
|
|
How is the formatting of the free version of Blindsight? I want to read it on kindle and want it to be readable, as in I don't want to read it on my lovely computer. Would it be better to just buy it, I don't really mind if it's as good as I hear.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2013 10:08
|
|
|
The free version should give you no problems at all, but it's definitely worth the money. The sequel/side-quel comes out next year.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2013 10:38
|
|
|
Forever War: The writing isn't stellar but the strong concept carries the book. I thought the take on sexuality was interesting, if not all that well-thought out. Can't remember if it was written directly in response to Starship Troopers or not, but it certainly feels that way. Supposedly Old Man's War is pretty similar, but I've never read that one.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2013 15:04
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:It's an important book, but I think its treatment of homosexuality is probably the weakest part of the book. In the sequel Mandella is still afraid that his wife will leave him for a woman because apparently women is more prone to homosexuality than men.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2013 20:23
|
|
|
I just finished Greg Bear's duology of The Forge of God and Anvil of Stars. Previously from Bear I've read Blood Music, the first three The Way books and Hull Zero Three, so I had mixed expectations. HZ3 was opaque until the very end where it almost clicked together brilliantly, Blood Music was amazing and The Way books were sometimes indecipherable because Bear brings a lot of hard science to the table in that series, but I still enjoyed them (the math and physics stuff was just over my head). Forge and Anvil are two really different novels so calling them a duology feels a bit strange, even though the latter picks up from where the former ends. It's just that the milieu changes dramatically because of what happens in the end of The Forge of God. Forge reminds me more of "old time" science fiction in the fashion of Clarke and Asimov where scientists discover something and that something turns out having immense consequences for the human race. It's written from several points of view and the main characters are scientists (and a scientist turned author/journalist). It's old but I'll spoiler tag anyway. Premise: The book deals with the apocalyptic cultural impact of first contact and the impending end of the world. First contact is made simultaneously in the US and Australia, by what appears to be two different sets of aliens. The US alien says the Earth is about to be destroyed, the Australian set promise the standard cornucopia of cooperation and technology. Everyone's confused. Chaos ensues. And one of Jupiter's moons just up and disappears without explanation. Discussion/ending stuff: Ultimately it turns out that it's all a big ruse by the aliens, who have arrived in the solar system to destroy the Earth for reasons that are never really explained - they are surmised to be machines so it may just be some incomprehensible replicating agenda. The ruse was, apparently, meant to confuse and befuddle the humans while the planet killers do their work, even though it's obvious the planet killer technology is centuries ahead of us and mankind could have done jack poo poo. The most interesting part of it all, I think, was how the President of the United States simply gives up. A superficial reading suggests it's because of religion, but it's made clear that the President was never very religious until first contact happened, and the religious authority who the President confers with turns out to be just as confused and baffled by the President just giving up. This leads to widespread fracturing in American society since most of the population refuses to just lie down and die. In the end, the entirety of Earth is destroyed into a cloud of debris and energy, while a remnant of mankind bears witness, rescued by a secretive alien coalition called the Benefactors who have taken up the destruction of the Killers. I actually thought the destruction of the Earth was the most intriguing part of the story because of how the aliens go about it. It's not exactly easy to bring an entire planet down to smithereens. On the other hand, it felt like it could have tightened up considerably. There's an entire subplot with a geologist (who discovered one of the decoy aliens) going on a road trip and arriving in Yellowstone to watch the world end. It doesn't really go anywhere, though it does give a fairly rosy image of an end of the world that goes against the grain: people helping each other, firemen responding to fires because in the end, that's what they would want to be doing when they die, and so on. I just don't think it deserved all the pages it got. This segues us into Anvil. Talking about it is difficult without ruining Forge so I'm just gonna put more black bars here. But it's a very different novel. It's about an isolated society of young adults, the development of that kind of society, the kind of turmoil it faces, the politics (especially sexual politics) of such a society. The premise: Earth has been wiped out, the Benefactors help humans colonize and terraform Mars, but there's a price: the children who bore witness to Earth's destruction are dispatched to hunt down and destroy the Killers, watched over by "moms", artificial intelligences manufactured by the Benefactors. So you have a ship with a hundred or so young adults who are kept perpetually healthy and sterile by the ship's technology. Who has sex with whom takes on a pretty important role in that kind of society. Bear handles it with... care, I suppose, it never goes into outright creepy territory, which is more than I can say about a lot of authors. There's no rape, but there are hints at sexual manipulation. Anyway, these kids are being raised and taught to be warriors. They are basically gonna be like Killers themselves which ultimately is not lost on them and which is the primary theme at play here. And then what happens, and thoughts on the theme (don't read this if you plan to read the book at this point): After many travails they wind up faced with a solar system that looks to be the origin of the Killers. However, the system is also inhabited by trillions of other beings, essentially a vast and rich multi-species culture that the Killers appear to have cultivated and which by all rights has the right to exist on its own. This causes a severe fracture in the society (with the added complication of one of my favourite parts of this story, the Brothers, a snake-like race of aliens who feel more human than the actual humans), because they have to decide between destroying the system with all its innocent sentient beings on scant evidence, or let the Killers get away with it. Their leader, elected before but who has now assumed the airs of a tyrant, orders the destruction of the system and enough people follow him for it to happen. In the end, once the system has been wiped out, they do find conclusive proof that they were in fact the Killers, and they have carried out the job they were sent out to do. But they are left a mentally and socially broken people, although slowly on the mend, because of what they went through to accomplish it. And, poignantly, they got really, really lucky. I don't really know what to think about this novel. It started slow but the exploration of the society involved, the alien race and the philosophical dilemma in the end was engaging, and even though the running theme was "vengeance makes people commit that which called for vengeance in the first place," it didn't feel hackneyed like it should at face value. It's more layered and nuanced than that. I think I recommend them, but not strongly. If you've enjoyed Bear's work, it's not as good as Blood Music, but I think I'd rank Anvil higher than The Way books. Can you read Anvil without reading Forge? I think you can. Should you? If it sounds more interesting, then sure. They are very different stories.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2013 15:26
|
|
|
I'm currently reading 2010, and enjoying it a lot, my question is, should I keep going in the series or stop? I think all the sequels are on Prime lending for Kindle so it won't cost me anything but I also have Rendezvous With Rama waiting and I've heard it's really good (but have read it's not worth reading past it). I've never read Clarke before and I'm enjoying his writing style.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 04:55
|
|
|
Anyone know any good sci-fi books that involve archaeologists studying or exploring the ruins of an alien civilization? I've started the Hutch series by Jack McDevitt and I liked the first one, The Engines of God but the second One, Deep Six, was pretty boring.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 07:24
|
|
|
Mustang posted:Anyone know any good sci-fi books that involve archaeologists studying or exploring the ruins of an alien civilization? Revelation Space features xenoarchaeology driving its main mystery. It's mysterious and spooky and brilliant.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 07:34
|
|
|
LmaoTheKid posted:I'm currently reading 2010, and enjoying it a lot, my question is, should I keep going in the series or stop? I think all the sequels are on Prime lending for Kindle so it won't cost me anything but I also have Rendezvous With Rama waiting and I've heard it's really good (but have read it's not worth reading past it). I've never read Clarke before and I'm enjoying his writing style. I don't think that the later 2000 series books are all that bad but they're definitely a waste of time compared to Rendezvous or Fountains of Paradise.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 14:33
|
|
|
I read the later 2000 books and would most definitely not recommend them. Compare the cool reveals at the end of 2001 and 2010. In 2001 Bowman turns into some kind of god, and in 2010 he turns Jupiter into a second sun. What happens in 2061? There is a mountain that springs up on Europa, and the reveal is that the mountain is of SOLID DIAMOND!!!
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 15:57
|
|
|
Hahaha, thanks guys. Rama it is.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 18:02
|
|
|
LmaoTheKid posted:Hahaha, thanks guys. Rama it is. Whatever you do, don't read anything but the first book.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 18:44
|
|
|
uXs posted:Whatever you do, don't read anything but the first book. This is what I've been told and what I was planning to do. I don't know how Amazon doe sit but my backlog of SciFi is ridiculous because of all the cheap ebook emails I get from them. when that PKD sale happened a while ago I bought every book. But I got a bit burned out on him so I'll be revisiting them sometime in the spring.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 19:33
|
|
|
Mustang posted:Anyone know any good sci-fi books that involve archaeologists studying or exploring the ruins of an alien civilization? I've started the Hutch series by Jack McDevitt and I liked the first one, The Engines of God but the second One, Deep Six, was pretty boring. Ryk Spoor's Boundary, Threshold, and Portal trilogy (although it will be expanding) involve discovery and exploration of 65 million year old ruins right in our own solar system. Most of it is politics/action and racing to the next ruin to stake a claim, not specifically the archeology, but it does have some of that.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 21:32
|
|
|
Hey, over in Trad Games we're reading Conan for our book club. We're focusing on how it influenced our nerdgames, which is why we're doing it over there, of course, but who cares, it's an excuse to read Conan. Figured there must be some people over here who might be interested.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2013 07:52
|
|
|
I've come to the conclusion that I read too much SciFi/Fantasy. The big flowchart in the OP? The only two books on it I haven't read are The Road and The Time Traveler's Wife. The latter doesn't interest me and the former sounds a bit too bleak for me at the time. I'm left in a place where I want to buy something new, but I'm to the point where all I can find is no-name authors in the Kindle store of dubious quality. I've been tricked into buying a handful of books/series from self-published authors who only excel at mediocrity. I'm in the mood for something like the following: Not depressing Sci-fi would be better than fantasy, but either is fine, and the subgenre doesn't matter. Not complex for the sake of complexity (So not The Quantum Thief, which I'll read someday, but not today) I'm currently re-reading the Hyperion series, but I want something new.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 05:23
|
|
|
TQT is not complex for the sake of complexity, it is idea-dense and awesome. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 05:44
|
|
|
Yeah, The Quantum Thief didn't really work for me, but I don't think it's a particularly complex book. The plot's straightforward, the science is pretty simple.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 06:13
|
|
|
Read The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch by Phillip K. Dick. It might amaze you or it might piss you off, but it'll definitely something you.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 12:22
|
|
|
Antti posted:I just finished Greg Bear's duology of The Forge of God and Anvil of Stars. Great write up. I loved forge when I read it years ago and from what you say I think I'll give anvil a go soon.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 13:53
|
|
|
Staying in the PKD vein, Ubik was kind of mind bending but in a good way I thought.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 15:25
|
|
|
ConfusedUs posted:I've come to the conclusion that I read too much SciFi/Fantasy. Felix Gilman's The Half Made World is complex in terms of theme, but the plot is straightforward. The prose is also better than average.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 15:37
|
|
|
ConfusedUs posted:I've come to the conclusion that I read too much SciFi/Fantasy. How about older stuff? Have you read Larry Niven's Known Space stories? What about L. Sprague De Camp? Keith Laumer? The Liaden Universe? CJ Cherryh? Do you like non-softcore vampire tales? Barbara Hambly has a great series that got resurrected when vampires got popular again. In fact, speaking of Barbara Hambly, I've enjoyed all of her fantasy offerings (scroll down a bit for the fantasy). What about Melissa Scott? While she is sometimes categorized as an LGBT author, believe me, she really isn't. She's an author whose characters have a wide variety of sexual preferences, some of which are LGBT. I particularly recommend The Silence Leigh Trilogy. What are you in the mood for?
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 15:49
|
|
|
ConfusedUs posted:I've come to the conclusion that I read too much SciFi/Fantasy. When I want a break from SF/F I read historical fiction instead. Try the Aubrey/Maturin series or Mary Renault's The King Must Die if you haven't. Maybe some of Arturo Perez-Reverte's stuff. Past that -- have you read Zelazny's more esoteric stuff, like Isle of the Dead or A Night in the Lonesome October? You've read the various urban fantasy authors beyond Jim Butcher, like Ben Aaronovitch or Paul Cornell? How about Jo Walton's Tooth and Claw? Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Nov 21, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 17:36
|
|
|
What is a good SF series along the lines of The Gap Cycle by Stephen Donaldson The War Against the Chtorr by David Gerrold The Seafort Saga by David Feintuch I liked those. Like, a space opera with weird aliens that is on the gritty and violent side. The Duck of Death fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Nov 21, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 18:45
|
|
|
ConfusedUs posted:I've come to the conclusion that I read too much SciFi/Fantasy. It might be a good idea to take a break from Sci-fi/Fantasy for a year or two and then see what well received titles were released during that time. It kinda sounds like you're in a position where you could very easily suffer from burnout with the genre.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 18:57
|
|
|
The Duck of Death posted:What is a good SF series along the lines of Space opera thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3149277
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 19:41
|
|
|
coyo7e posted:Maybe Donaldson's Gap Cycle?
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 19:52
|
|
|
The Duck of Death posted:What is a good SF series along the lines of I'm just finishing up The Shoal Sequence by Gary Gibson-it's a straight-up space opera with weird aliens and a fair amount of gritty violence. I'm digging it, at least... I feel it's about a half a point better than its collective Goodreads score. http://www.goodreads.com/series/67700-the-shoal-sequence
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 20:03
|
|
|
The Duck of Death posted:What is a good SF series along the lines of Dread Empire's Fall by Walter Jon Williams.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 21:11
|
|
|
I'm currently trying to read Christopher Stasheff's "Her Majesty's Wizard," and it might just be the worst thing I've ever laid eyes on. It's like reading Terry Goodkind, but instead of shoving Objectivism down your throat, it's medieval Catholicism. Imagine typical 80s fantasy writing, coupled with faux-Olde Englishe dialogue, in a setting that takes every bit medieval of sanctimonious European superstition and Catholic dogma that it can find, including all the classism, sexism, hypocrisy and corruption this implies, then plays it completely straight, all while trying its level best to convince you it's a good thing. Not some Ersatz religion, actual Christianity. It's called so in the book. Just some examples: Princess Alisandre, one of the main characters, is literally infallible because she has the Divine Right of Kings (always capitalized.) She is never wrong about anything and any army she leads in battle is literally invincible. The titular protagonist is given a hallucination of being dragged into Hell by some unknown wizard who's nominally on their side, instantly figures out that it must have been a hallucination, and then converts to Catholicism directly afterwards anyway. The first thing he does then is seek out a priest to confess all his sins ever to. A female side character is such a huge sex fiend that her sluttishness makes the devil himself grant her Evil Magical Slut Powers. Then she starts loving all teenagers in her vicinity to death in her magical castle of illusions. I'd think it was a parody, if all reviews of the author's other books did not confirm that he is, in fact, completely serious and genuinely trying to mentor his readers in Christian ethics. There are no words.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 21:51
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 03:31 |
|
|
Jedit posted:Dread Empire's Fall by Walter Jon Williams. Cool, thanks for the rec. I'm picking up House of Suns today and I'll add this to my list.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 23:41
|
|