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I loved Consider Phlebas but it wasn't my first Culture book; I don't think I'd have enjoyed it nearly as much if it had been.
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Dec 28, 2013 15:49
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I think it's fine for people to start with Consider Phlebas (I did) but if you must skip it and start somewhere, else The Player Of Games is where to go rather than Use Of Weapons. I think Use Of Weapons relies much more on you knowing at least a little about the Culture beforehand.
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Dec 28, 2013 17:17
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John Charity Spring posted:I think it's fine for people to start with Consider Phlebas (I did) but if you must skip it and start somewhere, else The Player Of Games is where to go rather than Use Of Weapons. I think Use Of Weapons relies much more on you knowing at least a little about the Culture beforehand. I read it first and it was the only one I really liked. Player of Games is more accessible, but I never felt like it went anywhere. It was on the cusp of saying something profound, but never got there. The characters weren't satisfying to me. Still, it's pretty good book.
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Dec 28, 2013 21:09
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Decius posted:That's why you should get the re-issue. Stross overhauled the whole series again for the re-release (in three books as originally intended) in preparation for a follow-up series somewhere in 2016. Does it get better? I read the first 3 original books and found the serie worse and worse. BananaNutkins posted:Consider Phlebias is like Ian m Banks' Colour of Magic. It's not very good and people who start there often write the series off. But read Use of Weapons. It's one of the best SF books ever written. gently caress that, Colour of Magic is still a very good book that I still enjoy. Neither Use of Weapons nor Consider Phlebas are good introductions to the Culture universe, even though they are good books. Player of Games is a good introduction.
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Dec 28, 2013 22:53
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All these years later consider phlebas is the only culture novel I've reread more than twice. It's just a ludicrously fun book to read.
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Dec 29, 2013 00:03
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andrew smash posted:All these years later consider phlebas is the only culture novel I've reread more than twice. It's just a ludicrously fun book to read. It does have some great setpieces. I particularly like the chase scene through the GSV.
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Dec 29, 2013 00:06
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Please recommend to me huge robot fiction. I don't even know what I'm looking for specifically, just .. looking for what exists in the world of huge robot fiction. Mechas welcome, too. Ah, one specification: FIGHTY huge robots. I also welcome suggestions for fighty medium-sized robot fiction.
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Dec 29, 2013 01:17
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Cingulate posted:Please recommend to me huge robot fiction. I don't even know what I'm looking for specifically, just .. looking for what exists in the world of huge robot fiction. Mechas welcome, too. That genre is pretty much exclusively comprised of Battletech and Robotech tie-in novels. The closest you're likely to get outside of that are things like The Amtrak Wars, so if you want robots punching each other you may be out of luck. You might want to look at Fred Saberhagen's Berserker novels, though, particularly Berserker Blue Death. Berserkers aren't strictly speaking robots and much of the fighting takes place on the human scale, but I think they may have the vibe you're looking for.
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Dec 29, 2013 01:32
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That's kind of what I had feared. Thank you still. Actually, the vibe I was expecting wasn't so much robots punching each other - I was expecting that to be the backdrop to some kind of human drama.
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Dec 29, 2013 01:43
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Cingulate posted:Please recommend to me huge robot fiction. I don't even know what I'm looking for specifically, just .. looking for what exists in the world of huge robot fiction. Mechas welcome, too. Well, there's Starship Troopers and _Armor_. Those are more power-suit fiction though.
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Dec 29, 2013 01:48
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:power-suit fiction I would have expected there to be thousands of books that basically amount to Neon Genesis Evangelion fan-fiction?
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Dec 29, 2013 01:54
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Generally the people who end up writing books like that are really really bad writers. Your best choices to check out are the aforementioned books and the Armored anthology, which varies between full sized mecha stuff and powered armor.
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Dec 29, 2013 02:00
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David Drake's Northworld has some power suit action, and while there were parts of it I didn't understand I would still recommend it.
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Dec 29, 2013 02:06
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The Mobile Suit Gundam novels were rereleased awhile back. It's not much but I'd certainly recommend it over Robotech tie-in novels 
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Dec 29, 2013 03:37
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I don't recommend the Gundam novels unless you're already a Gundam fan. They have a very very very dry and literal translation (as required by the licensor). In addition to that, there's some weird poo poo that only really makes sense if you're familiar with Tomino.
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Dec 29, 2013 03:40
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If Wh40k is acceptable, Titanicus is a rock solid Titan(Battlemech, basically) book. It's by Dan Abnett and his stuff is pretty solid science fiction, even if it is 40k.
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Dec 29, 2013 04:18
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Those are more power-suit fiction though.
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Dec 29, 2013 04:23
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Ringo's early Aldenata books have some good powered suit action. In general his SF books are decent pulp airport fiction. Stay far away from his admittedly terrible Kildar pedo poo poo. Also, John Steakley's Armor is a real classic.
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Dec 30, 2013 02:05
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I'd say that the first Aldenata book isn't that bad, and everything goes downhill from there immediately and fast.
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Dec 30, 2013 02:10
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Has anyone read the Ex-Heroes series? I recently read the first three books and found them to be fun. They are zombie apocalypse books, except on this Earth there are superheroes. I wouldn't really compare it to Marvel Zombies as there are not many zombie heroes/villains. They are quick reads and the writing is nothing amazing but I found them enjoyable and perfect for a plane ride or a lazy day. I also just finished Promise of Blood which is described as "flintlock fantasy". I've avoided epic, save-the-world, political intrigue fantasy for almost ten years because I was burned out and tired of reading the same thing over and over but I look forward to continuing this trilogy. The author draws on history but avoids simply copy-pasting countries and historical figures as I've seen others do trying to write this type of fantasy.
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Dec 30, 2013 15:34
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The Forever War doesn't have huge mechs but it follows the development of power suit warfare over the course of 1000 years and really explores not only the cool aspects but also the terrifying parts of being a soldier in a future war. I would recommend it to anyone.
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Dec 30, 2013 18:40
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FastestGunAlive posted:Has anyone read the Ex-Heroes series? I recently read the first three books and found them to be fun. They are zombie apocalypse books, except on this Earth there are superheroes. I wouldn't really compare it to Marvel Zombies as there are not many zombie heroes/villains. They are quick reads and the writing is nothing amazing but I found them enjoyable and perfect for a plane ride or a lazy day. That's about as far as I got before I asked audible to return my credits, sorry.  If you want to read a book about superheroes and spandex, the Blackjack series is okay. At least it doesn't have its entire premise built upon zombie apocalypse, and it's an interesting and fun story perspective despite being otherwise pretty cheesy and clichéed - I especially enjoy the protagonist's progression as he starts off trying to be Evil Batman/Green-Arrow before realizing that it's not really entirely his forté. It does get ridiculously gory at spots in the later novels, if I recall. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 00:28 on Dec 31, 2013 |
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Dec 31, 2013 00:26
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Only one character still wears a costume and hides her true identity after the apocalypse. I'm not a fan of the zombie fad but as a fan of comic books and b-movie cheese I had fun with the books. To each his own though.
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Dec 31, 2013 01:12
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So how was Abaddon's Gate? I enjoyed the other expanse books, even the stuff about cleaning spaceships (I'm in the navy so verisimilitude).
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Dec 31, 2013 01:21
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gender illusionist posted:So how was Abaddon's Gate? I enjoyed the other expanse books, even the stuff about cleaning spaceships (I'm in the navy so verisimilitude). Just finished it, I liked it, although my favourite characters from the second book were not/barely in it. I think many people were pretty disappointed because it isn't providing a real ending, as the series got extended to six books.
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Dec 31, 2013 06:57
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gender illusionist posted:So how was Abaddon's Gate? I enjoyed the other expanse books, even the stuff about cleaning spaceships (I'm in the navy so verisimilitude). They extended the series, so the PoV characters have to spend 80% of Gate not doing anything. Character thoughts: I stopped giving a poo poo about Sociopath Mao about halfway through her arc. Her particular blend of naive, stupid, and crazy put me off, and other 'good guy' characters just seemed to get dumber in her presence. Lesbian Rabbi could have been interesting - the place of faith when everything is changing - but was entirely wasted because her sole bearing on the plot was to be misunderstood by, and then partially redeem, Sociopath Mao, whom i had stopped caring about 300 pages ago. Holden and Co barely show up. Go through Gate, press a button, have holo-Miller assisted revelation, get captured. We learned nothing new about any of them, and they were just there to touch the macguffin and be there in the finale. Cranky Diplomat Grandma (Avasarala) didn't show up at all, which is unacceptable  As you can see, i can't even remember the names of the few new characters i had even a passing interest in. There were no real space battles, the whole problem underpinning the climactic finale was foreseeable and avoidable, and 90% of the book could have been cut with no real loss. I really think they have a problem with their plot structure when there's no main threat to polarize the plot, and the result is pretty disappointing. Ceebees fucked around with this message at 11:04 on Jan 2, 2014 |
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Jan 1, 2014 05:10
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Ceebees posted:
This was how I felt about Daniel Abraham's recent 3rd book (now out of five!) in the Dagger and the Coin series. He's half of The Expanse (Abaddon's Gate) writers if I recall correctly.
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Jan 1, 2014 06:04
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Dryb posted:This was how I felt about Daniel Abraham's recent 3rd book (now out of five!) in the Dagger and the Coin series. He's half of The Expanse (Abaddon's Gate) writers if I recall correctly. He is half of James S.A. Corey, and that's a fair assessment of The Tyrant's Law, I think. I'll probably keep reading that series in the hopes that some cool stuff happens with Marcus Wester, but the third book was not very exciting. Having just started Abaddon's Gate, I'm disappointed about some of the character absences I know are in here. Leviathan Wakes is proof these guys can write a fun sci-fi novel -- I hope they get back to that in this series.
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Jan 1, 2014 23:18
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FastestGunAlive posted:Only one character still wears a costume and hides her true identity after the apocalypse. I'm not a fan of the zombie fad but as a fan of comic books and b-movie cheese I had fun with the books. To each his own though. Actually yeah I loved these books. Next one's due out soon right? It's nothing I've ever recommended, but they are great guilty pleasure books.
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Jan 2, 2014 00:10
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Any opinions on Heroes Die (and other books in the series) by Stover? Premise seems pretty interesting but I'm not sure if the execution is any good.
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Jan 2, 2014 04:32
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I liked Heroes Die quite a bit; I'd say the execution is about as good as could be hoped given the premise. Haven't picked up the next one yet although I keep meaning to.
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Jan 2, 2014 05:26
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The first three are all pretty good - the latest one gets confusing and weird.
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Jan 2, 2014 05:37
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Eh, I didn't dig em that much. Read the first one, and it took a while to get used to the moving from world to world, and having one of the antagonists be gay rapist superman was a bit weird. Tried the second book out, and it was just not my cup o tea. I can't honestly remember if I finished it or not. The story jumping from "AMAZING KID CAINE" to "poo poo just got real in fairyland" to "old pissed whiny caine" was just jarring. It's like, it wanted to be GRIMDARK but still be fantasy with elves and poo poo, and it didn't know how to really manage the crossover. I won't go out of my way to recommend em, but I won't say they are the best things ever committed to paper either. It's such a unique premise that it falls into the "Eh, ya gotta read em" trap.
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Jan 2, 2014 07:47
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Only the first Caine book is good. The second one is a fun read as long as you go into it knowing to expect Ayn Rand's version of the first book.
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Jan 2, 2014 13:28
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James Trickington posted:Actually yeah I loved these books. Next one's due out soon right? It's nothing I've ever recommended, but they are great guilty pleasure books. Amazon has it listed as Jan 16 2014. Third one was a much better improvement over the second one, hopefully the fourth is better yet
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Jan 2, 2014 15:57
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Cingulate posted:Please recommend to me huge robot fiction. I don't even know what I'm looking for specifically, just .. looking for what exists in the world of huge robot fiction. Mechas welcome, too. Bolos
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Jan 3, 2014 00:53
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FastestGunAlive posted:Amazon has it listed as Jan 16 2014. Third one was a much better improvement over the second one, hopefully the fourth is better yet Well poo poo, I guess its time to reread the series again for the second time, since so much crazy poo poo happens in Stover's world that its hard to even remember who did what during the wait for each book.
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Jan 3, 2014 07:23
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Cingulate posted:Please recommend to me huge robot fiction. I don't even know what I'm looking for specifically, just .. looking for what exists in the world of huge robot fiction. Mechas welcome, too. "All you need is kill" is pretty good.
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Jan 3, 2014 09:53
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fez_machine posted:"All you need is kill" is pretty good. I really like that book, It is such a shame that they took the plot and twisted it around for the Tom Cruise movie "Edge of Tomorrow" On another note does anyone have any recommendations on some good Military Sci-Fi books? Preferably Hard Sci-Fi (I have read and enjoyed, Starship Troopers, Armor, Forever War, Old man's war, Consider Phlebas, Player of Games, All you need is kill, and the BattleTech books.)
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Jan 3, 2014 12:09
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BananaNutkins posted:Only the first Caine book is good. The second one is a fun read as long as you go into it knowing to expect Ayn Rand's version of the first book. Oh dear. Bad philosophy or bad writing?
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Jan 3, 2014 12:22
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