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Hedrigall posted:Read The Icarus Hunt instead, which is a standalone and totally awesome. This book was fun as hell. Zahn writes some good one-offs.
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Mar 5, 2014 02:11
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I enjoyed Zahn's Spinerret, although it definitely comes off as an 80's pulp sci-fi in a way that I feel is a very definite genre, even if I don't know how I would really define them.
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Mar 5, 2014 03:13
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Psykmoe posted:Has anyone here read the Quadrail books? I was talking about Timothy Zahn the other day (well, listening to my brother how everyone in the Thrawn trilogy purses their lips all the time) and I looked up what else the guy wrote. I read it and if you can accept the rather ridiculous concept of the FTL-train network I found it a very charming series. Hedrigall is right when he says that the direct sequel was a bit too much by-the-numbers, but the next two books take it in a very different direction (while still being basically "Murder on the Orient Express"). I liked the series a lot overall, very pulpy style, some good ideas and I liked the main characters.
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Mar 5, 2014 07:17
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Hamilton's Commonwealth saga had something similar. All FTL travel was done through wormholes, so humanity's interstellar commonwealth was supported by a series of trains (that simply left a station on one planet, went through a wormhole, then arrived at a station on another planet). Parts of the story were rather interesting as the characters talk about commute times between planets, factoring in changing trains at various stations/planets. EDIT: Now that I think about it, that series was pretty unique (well, the first part of it at least) because it involved very little spaceflight. If you can travel directly from planet to planet without going into space, what's the point in doing so? syphon fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Mar 5, 2014 |
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Mar 5, 2014 21:40
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Well, if you want to attack an out-of-system neighbour you need ships, especially since the Quadrail network is extremely regulated in what military equipment can be transported. There is no other FTL system in the books, which makes it a very interesting concept. The universe portrayed in the series is one of only very small engagements and lots of cloak-and-dagger stuff instead of outright warfare because of this. Hostile parties being forced to take the same train (supposedly unarmed), which is more or less neutral ground it, if they want to travel between systems, makes it feel very much like a cold war/spy vs. spy thing, which I liked a lot. As said, as long as you can accept the concept of a train tube system built throughout the galaxy, built in just a few centuries (and new lines in years and decades) instead of millions and billions of years and without any concerns about the needed matter involved in that process. Very pulpy/Golden Age-type of concept again, and fun.
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Mar 6, 2014 06:59
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Decius posted:Well, if you want to attack an out-of-system neighbour you need ships, especially since the Quadrail network is extremely regulated in what military equipment can be transported. There is no other FTL system in the books, which makes it a very interesting concept. The universe portrayed in the series is one of only very small engagements and lots of cloak-and-dagger stuff instead of outright warfare because of this. Hostile parties being forced to take the same train (supposedly unarmed), which is more or less neutral ground it, if they want to travel between systems, makes it feel very much like a cold war/spy vs. spy thing, which I liked a lot. What I liked about the Commonwealth-Saga was how Hamilton even showed the weakness of such a wormhole-network: If you fight someone with an actual FTL-fleet, while you yourself have none, you're suddenly neck-deep in poo poo. Reinforcing/evacuating planets with wormholes doesn't do much if the enemy can just bombard everything from orbit.
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Mar 6, 2014 08:41
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syphon posted:Hamilton's Commonwealth saga had something similar. All FTL travel was done through wormholes, so humanity's interstellar commonwealth was supported by a series of trains (that simply left a station on one planet, went through a wormhole, then arrived at a station on another planet). Parts of the story were rather interesting as the characters talk about commute times between planets, factoring in changing trains at various stations/planets. For all his failings in plots and characters, Hamilton is at least good at world building and introducing cool concepts.
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Mar 6, 2014 12:30
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My reaction to leviathan wakes (expanse #1) was that it was profoundly okay. Reading it was sort of enjoyable... I guess. A few months later I can barely remember what it was even about. I think there was a magic space virus.
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Mar 7, 2014 14:12
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Cardiac posted:For all his failings in plots and characters, Hamilton is at least good at world building and introducing cool concepts. This is exactly why he should collaborate with people. Let Hamilton flesh out the universe and make it interesting, but have someone else write the ending and veto any particularly egregious sex scenes.
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Mar 7, 2014 17:15
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Tanith posted:This is exactly why he should collaborate with people. Let Hamilton flesh out the universe and make it interesting, but have someone else write the ending and veto any particularly egregious sex scenes. I have this weird idea that Hamilton should start writing WH40k literature. God knows BL could use better authors. He is pretty good at writing action scenes with augmented characters and high tech weaponry. Bonus point of this: Space Marines are basically neutered so no awkward sex scenes, and everything in WH40k is solved by Deus Ex Machina anyways.
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Mar 10, 2014 10:20
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Cardiac posted:I have this weird idea that Hamilton should start writing WH40k literature. God knows BL could use better authors. And then Games Workshop only lets him write books about Slaanesh-cultists.
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Mar 10, 2014 16:56
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Decius posted:I read it and if you can accept the rather ridiculous concept of the FTL-train network I found it a very charming series. Hedrigall is right when he says that the direct sequel was a bit too much by-the-numbers, but the next two books take it in a very different direction (while still being basically "Murder on the Orient Express"). I liked the series a lot overall, very pulpy style, some good ideas and I liked the main characters. IIRC there is a way to do a FTL network like that that does not violate causality. So it isn't the worst idea in the world.
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Mar 11, 2014 02:28
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Libluini posted:And then Games Workshop only lets him write books about Slaanesh-cultists. Oh, yeah, there is that little problem.
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Mar 11, 2014 15:25
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Chairman Capone posted:So anyone here read Proxima by Stephen Baxter? I think he's one of the absolute best sci-fi authors currently but I didn't even realize he had done another book until I just read about it on io9. From what I read about it there it kind of sounds like a conceptual successor to the Manifold trilogy, which is fine with me. I just finished Proxima yesterday. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it felt unfinished and the ending was disappointing. I felt like there was a lot left unresolved, and I'm guessing you're supposed to fill in the blanks yourself if you've read the Manifold trilogy. the far far future descendants of mankind / crazy super beings that live at the end times of the universe reach back into the past to encourage mind / humans to spread across the galaxy. They alter space-time to essentially duplicate a person to play two separate roles in mans expansion into space and also. leave behind two separate methods of space travel for humans to use. If you like the Manifold series you will definitely like Proxima.
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Mar 12, 2014 19:48
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Chairman Capone posted:So anyone here read Proxima by Stephen Baxter? I think he's one of the absolute best sci-fi authors currently but I didn't even realize he had done another book until I just read about it on io9. From what I read about it there it kind of sounds like a conceptual successor to the Manifold trilogy, which is fine with me.
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Mar 13, 2014 09:34
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Spug posted:Haven't read it, but my Kindle keeps suggesting it to me. I also haven't read the Manifold trilogy or anything else by Baxter, where should I start? Baxter's Vacuum Diagrams is a really good primer on his Xeelee timeline that I've always enjoyed. Can't speak for his Manifold Trilogy though.
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Mar 13, 2014 10:12
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Decius posted:Well, if you want to attack an out-of-system neighbour you need ships, especially since the Quadrail network is extremely regulated in what military equipment can be transported. There is no other FTL system in the books, which makes it a very interesting concept. The universe portrayed in the series is one of only very small engagements and lots of cloak-and-dagger stuff instead of outright warfare because of this. Hostile parties being forced to take the same train (supposedly unarmed), which is more or less neutral ground it, if they want to travel between systems, makes it feel very much like a cold war/spy vs. spy thing, which I liked a lot. This is basically Dune, it's been done before. How well it is this time, is yet unknown to me.
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Mar 13, 2014 10:38
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Spug posted:Haven't read it, but my Kindle keeps suggesting it to me. I also haven't read the Manifold trilogy or anything else by Baxter, where should I start? Vacuum Diagrams is a good starter for the Xeelee Sequence, but Ring, Raft, and Flux could work also, since they're the earlier novels in the series. But really you can start anywhere and read in generally any order. For his Manifold Trilogy, the same - it's a trilogy in that same characters are in each book, but they're each individual plots set in separate universes. If you're into more contemporary-type settings, I'd suggest his "NASA Trilogy" - Voyage, Titan, and Moonseed. Again, this is even less of a trilogy than the Manifold works, since they're not even connected, other than the fact they focus on different outcomes of the NASA manned spaceflight program. Finally, if you like the classics, then Anti-Ice and The Time Ships are his homages to Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, respectively. So really, I think any of those would be good intros to Baxter, but for the purposes of this thread (as well as it being his best-known series) I might suggest starting with the Xeelee Sequence books, since those are definitely his most space operatic.
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Mar 13, 2014 14:30
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I love me some Stephen Baxter, but one thing you should know going in is that he tends to stick multi-paragraph lectures on all sorts of hard science topics in most chapters. It's one of the things I like about reading his stuff, but if you don't want to read a lot of  about quantum mechanics, them you may not like the xeelee or manifold books. I don't remember it being as egregious in his nasa ones, but I haven't read them in years.
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Mar 13, 2014 14:40
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Also, it should be noted that a lot of his books have pretty bleak endings. A lot of them end with the human race dying off, usually by our own stupidity.
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Mar 13, 2014 16:01
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Sometimes not even stupidity at all, it's more just in the last chapter ten billion years pass and the human race just kinda disappears.
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Mar 14, 2014 03:12
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syphon posted:I just finished Abaddon's Gate. While it's a decent enough little series, one thing really stood out to me. Marines in essentially ironman suites, hauling ice from Saturn's rings to the belt when the astroid belt and Jovian moons are mostly ice, spinning large asteroids and planetoids like Ceres to produce centripital force without breaking apart, drugs and therapies that allow children to successfully develop in low G, alien bacterium that can alter enertia of the exterior of ships yet allow the exterior to remain constant, bend space/time. Nope 3/4 forths through Abaddon's Gate (SG:U) and what a lovely book. I havent been this let down by a fantastic series sense Blue Mars or Endymion. gohmak fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Mar 17, 2014 |
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Mar 17, 2014 18:07
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Psykmoe posted:Has anyone here read the Quadrail books? I was talking about Timothy Zahn the other day (well, listening to my brother how everyone in the Thrawn trilogy purses their lips all the time) and I looked up what else the guy wrote.
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Mar 17, 2014 19:07
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gohmak posted:Endymion Federico de Soya was the only good part of this and its sequel.
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Mar 18, 2014 02:52
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Tanith posted:Federico de Soya was the only good part of this and its sequel. And the unfinished Dyson Sphere was an interesting concept but i didn't enjoy how they turned the complexity of Hyperion into mustache twirling baddies and the sin of making the terror that is the Shrike into a bodyguard. Just finished Abaddon's Gate and I stand by what i said. What a lovely novel. The characters where either carbon copies of previous ones or completely one dimensional and uninteresting. The whole religion thing was a complete turn off for me as well. Plus they killed off Samara so gently caress that book.
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Mar 18, 2014 18:51
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I've just gotten a kindle for my birthday. i have two questions. 1) What is the best place to get books for free in kindle format? 2) What are the books I have to have as a newbie to the genre?
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Mar 20, 2014 07:17
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Sneaky Fast posted:I've just gotten a kindle for my birthday. i have two questions. I started with all the Culture Series and the Expanse trilogy. The Culture is a bit complicated for a newbie but hey, I loved it.
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Mar 20, 2014 21:28
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Sneaky Fast posted:I've just gotten a kindle for my birthday. i have two questions. Search "free" on Kindle for one thing, sometimes authors will make a book free for a few days, although you may well end up sorting through a lot of dreck. Project Gutenberg is great for public domain books, they have all formats including Kindle Baen Free Library has quite a few freebies Also sign up for the Kindle Daily Deal and watch this forum because often people will post if something is free or greatly reduced in price.
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Mar 20, 2014 22:41
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Sneaky Fast posted:I've just gotten a kindle for my birthday. i have two questions. Here's a site with a bunch of freebies.
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Mar 21, 2014 01:56
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Sneaky Fast posted:So after talking a long break from reading, I'm looking for some of the best books in the genre to start in on. Any suggestions? General Battuta posted:If you're looking for Real Literary Quality try Iain Banks (Player of Games is a great place to start with the Culture). Alternatively, though I still haven't read it, everyone in the SF/F community is agog over Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice. Quoting from December; I'm assuming that this is a still valid advise. The Leckie book. Haven't read sci fi since House of Suns a long while back.
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Mar 21, 2014 12:33
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Sneaky Fast posted:I've just gotten a kindle for my birthday. i have two questions.
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Mar 21, 2014 15:49
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Hi there thread, I'm thinking about reading some more Alastair Reynolds, and am looking for recommendations. I've read Revelation Space, House of Suns and a lot of his short stories. I kinda hate it. The people are as emotionless as the machines they hang out with. The dialog is awful, and there's a ton of cheese on top. And yet I keep trying again, his stuff is really drat cool. I'll also say I'm reading short stories by Bruce Sterling and so far they're amazing. I seems like Reynolds took a lot of inspiration here, there is a similar sort of vibe of isolation, insanity, and death. All three of the stories have been space opera so far, his cyberpunk stuff is later.
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Apr 2, 2014 02:05
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Alastair Reynolds does suffer from 'big ideas, autistic characters' syndrome, like a lot of other sci-fi writers. Chasm City and The Prefect are slightly better in that respect, IMO, since they're smaller scale, though still not great. For what it's worth, I think The Prefect is the best book in the Revelation Space series. Standard recommendations: have you read the Culture series by Iain M. Banks? Because that's pretty much the best space opera with decently written charactes there is. Also, I really enjoyed A Fire In The Deep by Vernor Vinge. It's got some mindbending concepts and setpieces, and its characters are interesting if archetypal.
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Apr 2, 2014 07:29
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One thing I'll say in Reynolds' defense is that the mechanistic coldness of his characters fits his setting and his prose style to a T. There's a certain consonance there I don't mind.
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Apr 2, 2014 07:51
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Barry Foster posted:Alastair Reynolds does suffer from 'big ideas, autistic characters' syndrome, like a lot of other sci-fi writers. Chasm City and The Prefect are slightly better in that respect, IMO, since they're smaller scale, though still not great. For what it's worth, I think The Prefect is the best book in the Revelation Space series. Neal Asher is also to be recommended. Universe is conceptually similar to Banks in using AI ships, but with more detailed action. One of Ashers forte is describing horrific alien ecological systems. Character wise, maybe not so great where interestingly his AIs have more character than the humans.
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Apr 2, 2014 07:57
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Barry Foster posted:Alastair Reynolds does suffer from 'big ideas, autistic characters' syndrome, like a lot of other sci-fi writers. Chasm City and The Prefect are slightly better in that respect, IMO, since they're smaller scale, though still not great. For what it's worth, I think The Prefect is the best book in the Revelation Space series. Thanks. And yeah, I'm all over Banks for years now. Really my space opera, and indeed sci-fi taste are starting to leave me; I've read a lot of the genre over the years and am now branching out into more "literate" reading. I've read A Deepness in the Sky by Vinge and it was pretty decent, I probably should check out the other one. Me craving Reynolds is a bit of a nostalgic thing, delving back into pulpy reading that I've kinda left behind. I'll pick up the Prefect, probably, and love/hate all the way through. What about Redshirts by Scalzi? Is that in the space opera genre? I've heard some good things about it in any case.
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Apr 2, 2014 16:26
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I finished the Campbellian Anthology recently, and ended up getting Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos. So far so good. It seems to be similar in military detail to the Honor Harrington series but without the Mary Sue aspects that made me grind my teeth. Has anyone else read this? I can lend it on my Kindle if you haven't and want to check it out.
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Apr 2, 2014 16:45
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Count Roland posted:Thanks. Redshirts is not really space opera so much as "the world works like it does in Star Trek, but from the PoV of one of the guys in red shirts". It's more of a comedy I guess? Zola posted:I finished the Campbellian Anthology recently, and ended up getting Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos. So far so good. It seems to be similar in military detail to the Honor Harrington series but without the Mary Sue aspects that made me grind my teeth. I read it and thought it was pretty good. It never really gets great, but like you said it doesn't have any major flaws. A solid 7/10.
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Apr 2, 2014 17:34
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Piell posted:I read it and thought it was pretty good. It never really gets great, but like you said it doesn't have any major flaws. A solid 7/10. It's Kloo's first novel, so I was willing to be a bit more forgiving. I really, really liked the lack of Mary-Sue-itis. It looks like the next book in the series, Lines of Departure, is on special at Amazon for 4.99 so I'm going to check it out
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Apr 2, 2014 23:02
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Count Roland posted:Thanks. Have you tried out Gary Gibson's Shoal books? He reminds me of Reynolds in some ways, and while Reynolds is generally a better writer, Gibson's characters are better imo.
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Apr 2, 2014 23:49
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