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The mote in god's eye has a laser figure pretty prominently in the plot. the gleaming light in the nebula - the mote in god's eye of the title - is actually a big laser built by an alien civilization that never discovered FTL. the laser is pushing a solar sail-based craft toward a system that's inhabited by humans. Kind of a cool idea but then a niven/pournelle novel happens
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Dec 17, 2013 06:48
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andrew smash posted:The mote in god's eye has a laser figure pretty prominently in the plot. Yeah that's pretty much a good way to put it from what I've heard of the rest of their oeuvre
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Dec 17, 2013 06:56
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andrew smash posted:Kind of a cool idea but then a niven/pournelle novel happens This describes everything by Niven I've read. gatz posted:I finished Neuromancer and hated the ending, along with not liking William Gibson's writing style. I'm interested in cyberpunk, but I'm probably not going to pursue any more of Gibson's work. Any recommendations? I'm specifically interested in writers who speculate about the effects of combining technology with our own bodies. Gibson sort of touched on this in regards to identity, but his prose obscured it too much. Cyberpunky stuff - Bruce Sterling, Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany (in Nova at least). Pat Cadigan and Pynchon if you want to go into identity rather than just bodies.
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Dec 17, 2013 09:58
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House Louse posted:Cyberpunky stuff - Bruce Sterling, Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany (in Nova at least). Pat Cadigan and Pynchon if you want to go into identity rather than just bodies. Ian Mcdonald should be mentioned as well??
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Dec 17, 2013 10:07
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Radio! posted:I know it's kind of a long shot, but are there any Stanislaw Lem short stories that a little kid would understand? Like age 7-8. My mom is an elementary teacher doing a project on Poland and I thought it would be neat if she could find a story to read her class. Tales of Pirx the Pilot is his other big work for kids. Don't suggest reading them The Chains of Chance, that book is is not written with kids in mind. It is not for them. They do not deserve it.
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Dec 17, 2013 11:58
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muike posted:Yeah that's pretty much a good way to put it from what I've heard of the rest of their oeuvre Eh, Mote is tolerable if only for the fact that the alien species is nicely conceived, and truly alien. But yes, although it is the best of their books, that's a low bar to clear.
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Dec 17, 2013 15:45
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Clearly I'm in the minority, but I don't mind Niven so much. His Destroyer of Worlds series was pretty fun, and if he's not the greatest sci-fi author ever he is at least a step above the pulp sci fi like Honor Harrington, Lost Fleet, even Old Man's War. The Destroyer of Worlds series has surprising subtlety and awesome scenes, admittedly mixed in with somewhat lackluster plotting and characterization. I've never read anything of his with Pournelle, in fact Destroyer of Worlds is the only Niven series I have read.
Play fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Dec 17, 2013 |
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Dec 17, 2013 16:09
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andrew smash posted:The mote in god's eye has a laser figure pretty prominently in the plot. If it's pushing a solar sail, how can anyone see it?
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Dec 17, 2013 17:12
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Koryk posted:If it's pushing a solar sail, how can anyone see it? even lasers manufactured to extremely tight specifications have spread, presumably it just bled over the edges of the sail. anyway who cares
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Dec 17, 2013 17:20
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Play posted:Clearly I'm in the minority, but I don't mind Niven so much. His Destroyer of Worlds series was pretty fun, and if he's not the greatest sci-fi author ever he is at least a step above the pulp sci fi like Honor Harrington, Lost Fleet, even Old Man's War. The Destroyer of Worlds series has surprising subtlety and awesome scenes, admittedly mixed in with somewhat lackluster plotting and characterization. I'ver never read anything of his with Pournelle, in fact Destroyer of Worlds is the only one I have read. Go read the one about science fiction fans saving the day in a world where the new global ice age has begun b/c the us government got taken over by environmentals and they shut down all the pollution that was making it look like global warming.
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Dec 17, 2013 17:22
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fritz posted:Go read the one about science fiction fans saving the day in a world where the new global ice age has begun b/c the us government got taken over by environmentals and they shut down all the pollution that was making it look like global warming. You could try the one where jerry pournelle is a mouthbreathing reactionary, or the one where larry niven writes creepy sex romps for his self-insert character.
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Dec 17, 2013 17:25
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andrew smash posted:You could try the one where jerry pournelle is a mouthbreathing reactionary, or the one where larry niven writes creepy sex romps for his self-insert character. Totally unfair to Niven, who is also a mouth breathing reactionary. Don't miss the one where Noble White Men save civilization and black people revert to cannibalism within approximately a month of an asteroid strike.
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Dec 17, 2013 17:40
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Reposting from the recommendation thread because I didn't get much there:Fremry posted:Are there any good books out there (sci-fi or thriller maybe) with an ocean setting? I just saw a book called The Atlantis Gene on Amazon Kindle Prime and it sounds like a cool concept, but Good Reads has a bunch of reviews that are basically "Good idea, poorly written".
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Dec 17, 2013 17:44
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Fremry posted:Reposting from the recommendation thread because I didn't get much there: Try The Door into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski and Starfish by Peter Watts (available free on his website.) Starfish is the first of a trilogy that gets worse as it goes on. Maybe Neal Stephenson's Zodiac, which is almost all above-water but might scratch that itch? I don't remember how bad the ending is though.
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Dec 17, 2013 23:42
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House Louse posted:Try The Door into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski and Starfish by Peter Watts (available free on his website.) Starfish is the first of a trilogy that gets worse as it goes on. Maybe Neal Stephenson's Zodiac, which is almost all above-water but might scratch that itch? I don't remember how bad the ending is though. It's mainly hippy kids doing whippets, stressing about toxins from day to day life, and driving around the Mystery Machine, but the ending wraps up fairly cleanly. It's one of Stephenson's least tangent-filled and least nerdporn novels, and only a slightly longer read than Snow Crash. I did like the reason the bad guys in the cigarette boat showed up: they mistook the enviro-hippies' talking about "PCBs" as them talking about "PCP" and thought that the kids had found their stash/lab/whatever. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Dec 17, 2013 |
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Dec 17, 2013 23:49
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Actual reason I recommended it: I can see my copy from where I'm typing.Cardiac posted:Ian Mcdonald should be mentioned as well?? I'm not leaving him out for any good reason, I know how big a noise he is these days, it's just that I've only read Desolation Road and that didn't really seem to fit the bill.
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Dec 17, 2013 23:54
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House Louse posted:Actual reason I recommended it: I can see my copy from where I'm typing. I just like to summarize movies and novels with extreme reductiveness and dismissiveness. Like saying about the movie Dragonheart - "it's E.T., except ET is a dragon, and talks like Sean Connery." 
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Dec 18, 2013 00:38
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House Louse posted:Try The Door into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski and Starfish by Peter Watts (available free on his website.) Starfish is the first of a trilogy that gets worse as it goes on. Maybe Neal Stephenson's Zodiac, which is almost all above-water but might scratch that itch? I don't remember how bad the ending is though. In addition to the above, Jack Vance's The Blue World takes place on a marine planet. It's about humans who crash on the planet and over several generations adapt to live on the planet, but are oppressed by the giant squid dudes that live there. Arthur C. Clarke's The Deep Range is about a former space engineer who becomes a submarine whale farmer. Others are Frank Herbert's The Dragon in the Sea (aka Under Pressure and Allen Steele's Oceanspace. Also, apologies for both Orson Scott Card and a movie tie-in, but there is always The Abyss. It's not exactly literature but I read it as a teenager and found it entertaining. Lowly fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Dec 18, 2013 |
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Dec 18, 2013 01:23
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Fremry posted:Reposting from the recommendation thread because I didn't get much there: Check out Seas of Venus by David Drake. Its a collection of 2 novellas with a military sci-fi theme, set on a partially-terraformed Venus. They're pretty well written and have lots of pulpy ocean-shenanigans.
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Dec 18, 2013 02:33
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Fremry posted:Are there any good books out there (sci-fi or thriller maybe) with an ocean setting?
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Dec 18, 2013 02:35
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Another Frank Herbert recommendation: The Destination: Void series. The first one is about clones building an AI out of analog parts ripped out of their ship's systems. Unfortunately for them, they succeed. The next three books take place on a waterworld named Pandora. Forget Dune, this is Herbert's good stuff; as well as the Pansentiency series (Whipping Star and the Dosadi Experiment). Dragon in the Deep is a good novel and you should read it. It's the most psychological submarine novel you'll ever read.
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Dec 18, 2013 02:43
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Thanks, everyone! So glad I posted in here as well.
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Dec 18, 2013 02:56
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Lowly posted:In addition to the above, Jack Vance's The Blue World takes place on a marine planet. It's about humans who crash on the planet and over several generations adapt to live on the planet, but are oppressed by the giant squid dudes that live there. Arthur C. Clarke's The Deep Range is about a former space engineer who becomes a submarine whale farmer. Others are Frank Herbert's The Dragon in the Sea (aka Under Pressure and Allen Steele's Oceanspace. Also, apologies for both Orson Scott Card and a movie tie-in, but there is always The Abyss. It's not exactly literature but I read it as a teenager and found it entertaining. On those lines, how about Surface Tension by James Blish? http://www.scribd.com/doc/23396343/Blish-James-Surface-Tension
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Dec 18, 2013 02:58
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:On those lines, how about Surface Tension by James Blish? The most  story about aquatic microorganisms you will ever read.
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Dec 18, 2013 03:19
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I decided to finally address the gaping hole in my literary knowledge and read some Ursula Le Guin at long last - bought The Dispossessed and The Left Hand Of Darkness. I've only read The Dispossessed so far but I loved it. I devoured it in a day or so as it just grabbed me and wouldn't let go. Le Guin's prose style is efficient and beautiful and while the setup of the book seems absolutely focused on allegory and thematic discourse - anarchist planet compared to archist planet (with specific analogues of the USA, USSR, and Vietnam/other proxy war states as nations on the latter planet) - it's the very human story that arises from it which is the most compelling thing about it. I can't praise it enough, really. There's an emotional subtlety to it and the world created is utterly convincing. I've now just started on The Left Hand Of Darkness and have very high hopes for it on the basis of this one, so thanks to everyone in these threads who's banged on about Le Guin for so long. Especially General Battuta - I really do need to read more female SF authors (up to now it was basically just Atwood).
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Dec 18, 2013 14:03
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Fremry posted:Reposting from the recommendation thread because I didn't get much there: Frack Schatzing's The Swarm is a decent popcorn thriller. Basically the ocean turns against humanity. All of the ocean. The creatures, the water, everything. Death ensues, dashing scientists save the day. It's like Crichton but not as science-phobic, and The Abyss but not as happy-clappy. Edit: oh and let me second the recommendation for The Scar by Mieville. Fantasy, but one of the most imaginative and scariest books about the ocean you'll read. One of my all time favorites 
Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 14:36 on Dec 18, 2013 |
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Dec 18, 2013 14:34
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The second Locke Lamora book, Red Seas Under Red Skies (or something) has a lot of nautical mayhem and awesomeness and, being a Locke Lamora book, is pretty excellent. The Scar is also fantastic, thirding that.
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Dec 18, 2013 17:09
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John Charity Spring posted:I really do need to read more female SF authors (up to now it was basically just Atwood). Octavia Butler is my favorite. Try Wildseed. To get a quick taste, google Bloodchild and listen to the free audio of it that was recently done on escapepod.
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Dec 18, 2013 17:28
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John Charity Spring posted:I really do need to read more female SF authors (up to now it was basically just Atwood). Obligatory plugs for Elizabeth Moon and Lois McMaster Bujold here. Both write pretty good space opera stuff.
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Dec 18, 2013 18:36
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John Charity Spring posted:I really do need to read more female SF authors (up to now it was basically just Atwood). I quite enjoyed Connie Willis' "To Say Nothing of the Dog". It's half time travel, half comedy of manners. Nancy Kress writes truly excellent short fiction, though I personally find her novels to be a bit boring.
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Dec 18, 2013 18:50
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If we're going short fiction there are a billion billion really good women SF writers right now. Yoon Ha Lee's stories are gorgeous, Benjanun Sriduangkaew has similarly excellent prose ('The knife of her consciousness peeling off death in layers: this is how she wakes.'  ). I'm glad my recommendations were useful. As someone in the genre, I feel we've been really effective at erasing and sidelining really good and enjoyably mediocre women, so it's great to hear banging the drum does some good.
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Dec 18, 2013 18:53
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Fremry posted:Reposting from the recommendation thread because I didn't get much there: Robert Silverberg's The Face of the Waters fits the bill pretty much exactly.
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Dec 18, 2013 20:23
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C.S. Friedman is probably my favorite female SF writer. Her Coldfire trilogy was probably the most perfect blend of SF and fantasy since Zelazny's Lord of Light. She also has a bunch of space-operas that are pretty great.
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Dec 18, 2013 20:30
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Mr.48 posted:C.S. Friedman is probably my favorite female SF writer. Her Coldfire trilogy was probably the most perfect blend of SF and fantasy since Zelazny's Lord of Light. She also has a bunch of space-operas that are pretty great. In Conquest Born is pretty intense.
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Dec 18, 2013 20:33
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I couldn't stand Coldfire, personally. The prose was so purple I got stains on my fingers. Plus it has a picture-perfect Brooding Protagonist With A Dark And Troubled Past. You know, the kind you want to die after two chapters for being such a huge rear end in a top hat, but who ends up getting away with everything at the end.
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Dec 18, 2013 21:01
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If we're talking about women writers I'd also suggest Elizabeth Bear. I've only read a short story collection by her (Shoggoths In Bloom), but it was a pretty nice collection of urban fantasy and sci-fi. The Death of Terrestrial Radio in particular is fantastic.
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Dec 18, 2013 21:02
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Cardiovorax posted:I couldn't stand Coldfire, personally. The prose was so purple I got stains on my fingers. Plus it has a picture-perfect Brooding Protagonist With A Dark And Troubled Past. You know, the kind you want to die after two chapters for being such a huge rear end in a top hat, but who ends up getting away with everything at the end.
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Dec 18, 2013 21:10
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coyo7e posted:Coldfire was interesting however it was pretty far from what I'd consider to be really great writing. The vampire guy was pretty much Sparkly Vampire long before Twilight was a thing, although the backstory on his genesis was darker than I'd expected and the worldbuilding as a whole was pretty interesting. The ending was dumb, too. Dude murdered his whole family to turn into a vampire, then reigns in terror for god only knows how long on the planet, then when things change he gets reborn as a human who looks nothing like he did, so he's free to live a normal life. I did not have much of a problem with Coldfire, though it didn't exactly grab me. I still need to read that fourth Coldfire book released last year. My personal preference is her Magister trilogy, though I did read that before Coldfire, so that may have colored my opinions somewhat. I haven't read any of her other stuff though, though I really should.
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Dec 18, 2013 22:40
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coyo7e posted:Coldfire was interesting however it was pretty far from what I'd consider to be really great writing. The vampire guy was pretty much Sparkly Vampire long before Twilight was a thing, although the backstory on his genesis was darker than I'd expected and the worldbuilding as a whole was pretty interesting. The ending was dumb, too. Dude murdered his whole family to turn into a vampire, then reigns in terror for god only knows how long on the planet, then when things change he gets reborn as a human who looks nothing like he did, so he's free to live a normal life. This post is not very accurate. As far as Tarrant goes, comparing him to vampires in Twilight is pretty unfair; I don't recall Edward making a deal with a woman to feed off of her over the course of a several-months-long journey, and in the process causing enough emotional and psychological trauma that she kills herself literally as freedom is in sight. Regarding the ending, Tarrant is being hunted by that planet's version of Satan because he (Tarrant) broke one of the rules of the pact he made. He outsmarts the devil by letting Gerald Tarrant, the sorcerer, cease to exist and literally becoming someone else. It actually fits perfectly with the character.
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Dec 19, 2013 01:35
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FWIW I loved Coldfire and thought the ending was perfect, it really closed out the show for me and cemented the trilogy as one of my favorites. I liked it more than the Magister series and would definitely recommend that people check it out.
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Dec 19, 2013 01:45
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