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Hedrigall posted:Area X is specifically in northern Florida. Man even in fiction all kinds of messed up poo poo happens in Florida.
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May 24, 2014 15:30
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Kraps posted:Does The Magicians by Lev Grossman ever get good? I bought the audiobook thanks to the Harry Potter reminisce thread being all "it's like Harry Potter but for adults!" before a bunch of "uhhh it's not really like Harry Potter" post showed up, and I have to agree. There's no one likable and too freaking weird, and not in a good way. If you've ever watched Born Rich or The 1%, it's basically that, except all of those neurotic rich kids can fly and turn invisible and poo poo. And they have a not-Narnia, I really don't get why people keep comparing it to Narnia outside of the main conceit being that a not-Narnia exists, along with magic.
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May 24, 2014 16:17
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Sekret posted:I would like to read about humans on an alien planet that have to establish settlements and deal with the native flora and fauna. Bonus points for abandoned ruins and/or alien technology. Can anyone recommend anything like that? Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is an old as hell video game but it's straight up good science fiction and it's exactly, precisely what you want.
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May 24, 2014 17:11
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I'm not interested in MilSF or noirish urban fantasy, I deal with its presence in this thread by skimming those posts until I come across one on a topic that interests me, or making one myself, because this is the thread for general SFF discussion, not some specific interesting-to-me subclass of SFF discussion.
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May 24, 2014 17:18
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Peel posted:I'm not interested in MilSF or noirish urban fantasy, I deal with its presence in this thread by skimming those posts until I come across one on a topic that interests me, or making one myself, because this is the thread for general SFF discussion, not some specific interesting-to-me subclass of SFF discussion. Have you read The Left Hand of Darkness? I've only gotten about a third of the way through it so far, but it's an interesting mix of sci-fi/fantasy. Depending on how the book ends I might pick up the rest of Le Guin's novels (even though I have quite a few SF/F series to finish off). 
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May 24, 2014 17:29
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Thanks for all the recommendations. I think you guys are getting much closer to what I'm looking for than my facebook friends are.
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May 24, 2014 17:46
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Sekret posted:I would like to read about humans on an alien planet that have to establish settlements and deal with the native flora and fauna. Bonus points for abandoned ruins and/or alien technology. Can anyone recommend anything like that? Coyote series by Allen Steele, The Disestablishment of Paradise by Phillip Mann.
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May 24, 2014 17:48
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Sekret posted:I would like to read about humans on an alien planet that have to establish settlements and deal with the native flora and fauna. Bonus points for abandoned ruins and/or alien technology. Can anyone recommend anything like that? Forty Thousand in Gehenna by CH Cherryh could fit in that description, without the bonus points. Plus it is part of the Alliance/Union series, one of the best world-building sagas imho.
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May 24, 2014 18:10
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General Battuta posted:Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is an old as hell video game but it's straight up good science fiction and it's exactly, precisely what you want. It also had a tie-in novel trilogy, as I recall. I dimly remember reading the first one and it wasn't terrible. (Or was that the prologue that came with the game?)
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May 24, 2014 19:20
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Can anyone recommend some good science fiction set within the solar system? Preferably more on the hard sci-fi end of the scale. I've read the Expanse series, and enjoyed it, for a recent reference point, and I also remember really liking Arthur C. Clarke, for a more classic one.
Lord Hydronium fucked around with this message at 19:58 on May 24, 2014 |
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May 24, 2014 19:47
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Srice posted:Huh, I didn't even know it was going to have a third book, but I guess that was silly of me. It's fantasy, after all. I thought it was fine and didn't cheapen the first book. The ending was depressing, but it wasn't out of character for the universe. Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Man even in fiction all kinds of messed up poo poo happens in Florida. When you're a continent-sized phallus you're bound to get a little dirty  coyo7e posted:It's totally comparable to Harry Potter if you wanted Harry Potter to be about entitled (I think they're also all) white kids with magic powers, who mostly just do a lot of blow and gently caress and then complain about how lame life is. Because not-Narnia is used specifically to convey the opposite message that CoN did, which is the lion's not coming to save you, you entitled gently caress, and he's in fact useless, so go figure it out for yourself. Really it's an amalgam of all of the teen/children's fantasy that I presume Grossman finds morally objectionable and he's deliberately attacking the archetypes that were propagated by them.
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May 24, 2014 19:48
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Sekret posted:I would like to read about humans on an alien planet that have to establish settlements and deal with the native flora and fauna. Bonus points for abandoned ruins and/or alien technology. Can anyone recommend anything like that? I suggest you take a look at this series. Although these are considered Science Fiction Police Procedurals, they have some very creative aliens, their laws and their societies. They definitely deal with settlements, both human and alien. There are cases of abandoned ruins (Buried Deep in particular) and alien technology and the complexities of a intra-galactic legal system. I've read all of them and hope there will be more forthcoming. http://www.retrievalartist.com/?page_id=8 or https://www.goodreads.com/series/42246-retrieval-artist or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristine_Kathryn_Rusch#Retrieval_Artist. It is helpful to read them in order because while they can stand alone for the most part, they do reference each other. Retrieval Artist Vol. 1: The Disappeared, 2002 Vol. 2: Extremes, 2003 Vol. 3: Consequences, 2004 Vol. 4: Buried Deep, 2005 Vol. 5: Paloma, 2006 Vol. 6: Recovery Man, 2007 Vol. 7: Duplicate Effort, 2009 Vol. 8: Anniversary Day, 2011 Vol. 9: Blowback, 2012
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May 24, 2014 21:11
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To follow on from the Lev Grossman talk I have to recommend checking out his brother, Austin Grossman's book Soon I Will Be Invincible. It's about the fallout from the disappearance of Superman-esque figure from the world and if you're at all interested in Superhero fiction I'd highly recommend it.
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May 24, 2014 22:32
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Lord Hydronium posted:Can anyone recommend some good science fiction set within the solar system? Preferably more on the hard sci-fi end of the scale. I've read the Expanse series, and enjoyed it, for a recent reference point, and I also remember really liking Arthur C. Clarke, for a more classic one. Ursus Veritas posted:To follow on from the Lev Grossman talk I have to recommend checking out his brother, Austin Grossman's book Soon I Will Be Invincible. It's about the fallout from the disappearance of Superman-esque figure from the world and if you're at all interested in Superhero fiction I'd highly recommend it.
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May 24, 2014 22:45
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Lord Hydronium posted:Can anyone recommend some good science fiction set within the solar system? Preferably more on the hard sci-fi end of the scale. I've read the Expanse series, and enjoyed it, for a recent reference point, and I also remember really liking Arthur C. Clarke, for a more classic one. Take a look at Steel Beach, by John Varley.
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May 24, 2014 23:06
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Sekret posted:I would like to read about humans on an alien planet that have to establish settlements and deal with the native flora and fauna. Bonus points for abandoned ruins and/or alien technology. Can anyone recommend anything like that? Zelazny's Lord of Light is not like that, but you might like it anyway based on what you're looking for.
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May 24, 2014 23:27
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Amberskin posted:Take a look at Steel Beach, by John Varley. Is this where Futurama cribbed the famous heads in jars thing from?
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May 24, 2014 23:31
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Ursus Veritas posted:To follow on from the Lev Grossman talk I have to recommend checking out his brother, Austin Grossman's book Soon I Will Be Invincible. It's about the fallout from the disappearance of Superman-esque figure from the world and if you're at all interested in Superhero fiction I'd highly recommend it. Can recommend this one if you like superhero books. I liked it, anyway.
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May 25, 2014 00:43
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Sekret posted:I would like to read about humans on an alien planet that have to establish settlements and deal with the native flora and fauna. Bonus points for abandoned ruins and/or alien technology. Can anyone recommend anything like that? Some of Sherri Tepper's earlier stuff, like "Northshore/Southshore" and the "True Game" series, fits and is definitely recommended.
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May 25, 2014 00:43
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rchandra posted:. It might seem a little tired and too self-aware at times. Must be hereditary. (For real though thanks for the recommendation, I have a 13-hr flight coming up)
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May 25, 2014 00:55
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Ursus Veritas posted:To follow on from the Lev Grossman talk I have to recommend checking out his brother, Austin Grossman's book Soon I Will Be Invincible. It's about the fallout from the disappearance of Superman-esque figure from the world and if you're at all interested in Superhero fiction I'd highly recommend it. Sounds similar to the web serial Worm, which I loved.
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May 25, 2014 02:56
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BadOptics posted:Have you read The Left Hand of Darkness? I've only gotten about a third of the way through it so far, but it's an interesting mix of sci-fi/fantasy. Depending on how the book ends I might pick up the rest of Le Guin's novels (even though I have quite a few SF/F series to finish off). I have, but I don't have much intelligent to say about it. I'm inclined to agree with the sentiment I've often seen that the play with gender ultimately failed in that the characters mostly just read as men, but it's entirely possible that's a consequence of my perspective. As a story and world-description exercise I found it effective, especially the trek across the ice.
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May 25, 2014 03:07
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fritz posted:Some of Sherri Tepper's earlier stuff, like "Northshore/Southshore" and the "True Game" series, fits and is definitely recommended. Had the insanity set in by that point, though? Because the lady be really, really crazy.
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May 26, 2014 18:33
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Ursus Veritas posted:To follow on from the Lev Grossman talk I have to recommend checking out his brother, Austin Grossman's book Soon I Will Be Invincible. It's about the fallout from the disappearance of Superman-esque figure from the world and if you're at all interested in Superhero fiction I'd highly recommend it. This was a fun audiobook I picked up randomly. It's written from the perspective of the Mad Scientist villain and the Bionic Woman hero.
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May 27, 2014 05:22
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The female cyborg bits weren't as good as the mad scientist parts. Good book overall, although it felt like it was 10 years behind where comics are at right now, so I always wince when it gets praise for being original, when it's really not.
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May 27, 2014 05:49
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Neurosis posted:The female cyborg bits weren't as good as the mad scientist parts. Good book overall, although it felt like it was 10 years behind where comics are at right now, so I always wince when it gets praise for being original, when it's really not. I spent a lot of time wondering if the creators of Megaman mined this book for ideas, or if it's just kind of similar by following the same zeitgeist or whatever. I enjoyed the book for the most part. It was badly edited though, full of the kind of tiny continuity errors I don't blame an author for missing, but I do blame a professional editor for not catching.
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May 27, 2014 06:13
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Just to give the weakest dissenting opinion in history, I read the book a couple of years back and I don't remember anything about it other than that I thought it was extremely mediocre. Maybe I'll give it another try.
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May 27, 2014 08:18
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rchandra posted:Have you read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy? Those are really good (though I hated the extra book, The Martians). Seconding this recommendation. If you want hard scifi set within the solar system, it doesn't get much better than this.
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May 27, 2014 16:30
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I was going through my amazon wish list last night and realized that The Severed Streets, sequel to Paul Cornell's London Falling, just got published. It's an incredibly dark supernatural police procedural; the first one was about catching a 400 year old witch that was stealing children and boiling them alive. I bought it and am now rushing through Authority so I can get started on it.
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May 27, 2014 16:57
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Authority was great and I'm a huge baby and I was reading late at night by myself and I felt super scared 
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May 27, 2014 20:55
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regularizer posted:I was going through my amazon wish list last night and realized that The Severed Streets, sequel to Paul Cornell's London Falling, just got published. It's an incredibly dark supernatural police procedural; the first one was about catching a 400 year old witch that was stealing children and boiling them alive. I bought it and am now rushing through Authority so I can get started on it. Oh crap, I need to get my hands on that, I loved London Falling (though I like to point out it was very English what with football fanaticism being a key plot device). I just finished Dervish House by Ian McDonald. I really liked it, it dealt with the prospects of nanotechnology in an intelligent way and portrayed a plausible 2020s Istanbul in a Turkey that has just joined the EU. Okay, that last part is probably less plausible, the way things have been moving lately, but who knows. I always enjoy a fresh setting, since usually a story with themes such as these is set in, say, Tokyo or New York or Los Angeles instead of Istanbul.
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May 27, 2014 21:02
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rchandra posted:Have you read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy? Those are really good (though I hated the extra book, The Martians). I'm still poking at his 2312 which is also in the solar system with some common elements but not actually the same fictional universe.
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May 27, 2014 22:10
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Lord Hydronium posted:I read about half of Red Mars before getting sidetracked, but I did enjoy it, and it's a series I'd like to try again. How is 2312, for anyone who's read it? I enjoyed it, personally, but more for the world-building than the characterization. I didn't much care for the protagonist, but the potential future was amazing.
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May 27, 2014 22:53
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Lord Hydronium posted:I read about half of Red Mars before getting sidetracked, but I did enjoy it, and it's a series I'd like to try again. Red Mars I liked, but I got about halfway through Green Mars and kept saying, "Get on with it!". I may go back to it later.
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May 27, 2014 23:13
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fookolt posted:Authority was great and I'm a huge baby and I was reading late at night by myself and I felt super scared It was real good. I read the last ~20% in one sitting starting a bit before he goes to confront Whitby and finds that the door to the science department has been replaced by the kind of wall from the Tower, and VanderMeer is able to perfectly get across the sheer terror and franticness of Control as he tries to get away. I also like how the weirdness of the pile of notebooks in the lighthouse is built on in this book super subtly, when Control reads a little note from the previous director that says the number of notebooks far exceeds what could reasonably have been produced by the members of the 30-some-odd expeditions. Everyone who gave this series a neutral or bad review is objectively wrong and I can't wait for the next one.
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May 27, 2014 23:44
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regularizer posted:Everyone who gave this series a neutral or bad review is objectively wrong and I can't wait for the next one. I feel like the problem most people have is that they equate weird fiction with horror and while there is a great deal of overlap, especially in the last decade or so, they are still two distinct genres. Vandermeer is writing a weird fiction trilogy, not a horror trilogy; there are certainly parts that are horrifying, because what we find find weird we may also find scary, but his goal is to be weird and I think he's knocking it out of the park.
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May 27, 2014 23:54
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Ornamented Death posted:I feel like the problem most people have is that they equate weird fiction with horror and while there is a great deal of overlap, especially in the last decade or so, they are still two distinct genres. Vandermeer is writing a weird fiction trilogy, not a horror trilogy; there are certainly parts that are horrifying, because what we find find weird we may also find scary, but his goal is to be weird and I think he's knocking it out of the park. I know this is just adolescent dreaming, but it would be amazing to see a collaboration with Mieville. VanderMeer's atmosphere combined with Mieville's worldbuilding...
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May 28, 2014 00:10
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Just a reminder for PC Hodgell fans old and new--her short story is up on the Baen website Although it is a stand-alone story, you will probably enjoy it most if you have gotten to the third book in the Kencyrath series, Seeker's Mask.
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May 28, 2014 02:02
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Hey everyone. I had read when I was younger but stopped for a time until Game of Thrones on HBO made me read the books. It really brought back my love of reading and after I finished Dance I picked up World War Z yesterday and have started reading that. Verdict's out but it's a short book so I want to have something lined up for when I am finished reading it. Although Game of Thrones gets some hate from people I personally love it and, although I'm not looking for a similar story, I am looking for something with similar themes. What I mean is a darker fantasy novel that's also grounded in reality somewhat. I haven't read much but GoT and just now World War Z since I got back into reading but hopefully this could give a rough outline of what I'm looking for.
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May 28, 2014 02:44
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Darth Walrus posted:Had the insanity set in by that point, though? Because the lady be really, really crazy. No, it's early stuff and sane.
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May 28, 2014 05:13
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